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2 News Coral Reef Sr. High May 2012 Senior Activities Not without cost and deadlines, Seniors work to meet their obligations Staff Writer Iti Mehta Paying for senior activities has started. It started with paying for the senior breakfast, which was $35. Other senior activities, such as grad bash, are also right around the corner and they are expensive. It is a hassle to come up with the money to attend senior breakfast, grad bash, prom, and graduation and it is a hassle to be eligible to go to all these events. Eligibility requirements: pay all obligations, complete the minimum required 75 hours of community service, and not be over the absence limit, especially the unexcused absences. The hours requirement should be done by now, since the last day to turn in hours was Friday January 20, 2012 for seniors. Obligations should also be paid by now, since students with obligations were not allowed to buy senior breakfast tickets. As for the absences, senioritis should be on a hold right now, since those who are close to the maximum absences allowed should not be absent anymore if they plan on attending senior activities. For those seniors who already have senioritis, complying with all the eligibility rules is hard. After all the eligibility criteria are matched, the next thing to worry about is money. After all, senior activities do cost a lot. As a help to seniors, this year the school made it mandatory for all seniors to sell at least one magazine subscription. A lot of students ended up buying that one magazine subscription themselves. The more they sell the better. For example, selling three subscriptions gets a senior an extra graduation ticket, which is another thing Teacher pay tied to student performance Teachers whose students do not take FCAT will be evaluated on the school’s overall reading scores a lot of the graduating students want. Depending on the amount of subscriptions sold, a senior can get tickets to prom, grad bash, and other senior activities for free. Not only this, but the magazine initiative is also supposed to make the senior activities better, such as the decorations, etc. Tickets to the graduation ceremony. Students are given only five tickets for the event. Those who want more have to find their own way, such as through friends. While the senior’s plan how they are going to get the money, such as through parents, here is the cost: $35 for senior breakfast, $135 for grad bash, and $75 for prom. The grand total is $245. After the money for tickets, there is money for clothes. The cost of just the tickets does not seem to be a hassle. It is the addition of dresses, shoes, tuxedos, hair, nails, and makeup that makes the total amount huge. Business senior Courtney Taylor says senior year is “the year to live life and be broke.” In the end, it is all about the excitement, the fun. It is the last year of high school for seniors. It is the first and last time they will be going to grad bash or to senior breakfast. Prom is their last memory of high school. “Enjoy life! It doesn’t come twice,” says VPA senior Alejandro Alvarado. Staff Writer Kassandra Marin Recently in the state of Florida, Governor Rick Scott, signed a bill that would implement the policy of merit pay in the state of Florida. Merit pay is basically performance-related pay, teachers who “perform their jobs effectively” will be provided bonuses. Most of their performances will be based on the performance on the students, for example how well the students perform in the classroom as well as how they perform on standardized tests such as Advanced Placement tests, International Baccalaureate tests and the FCAT. There has been a lot of controversy amongst the teachers as to how this will affect them. Some pros of merit pay are that it might be able to lead to better educational outcomes, apparently 50% of the schools with such reforms outperformed the other schools in math and 47% outperformed in reading. Another pro is that it contributes toward the student’s achievement; schools that used merit pay were better able to attract teachers than schools with no merit pay system. Another pro of merit pay is argued that it can alleviate teacher retention rate. However even though the system argues that there are pros, with pros there comes cons, there are various disadvantages to this new program. For example, according to critics it will create a low teacher morale and increased competition between teachers. Also, it has been said that the system will waste time and money while trying to administrate the merit play plans. And finally, there is little to no evidence from research that this new merit pay program will even lead to student achievement. According to TOK teacher, Mrs. Scott, the system itself is faulty, for teachers who’s course of study or curriculum has irrelevant to a standardized test or does not culminate in a standardized test, their pay is determined automatically by the FCAT, this is not fair since they Mrs. Kirchner works closely with her class for the FCAT review. Among other teachers, her pay will be tied to the results of her students. do not teach core subjects that relate to the FCAT. According to her, it has been shown that in other states who have already started to implement merit pay, it has in no way improved the system of education. She states that in order for the system of education to be improved, instead of using money to conduct these standardized tests and administrating the merit play plans, the money should be used to offer a higher pay to new teachers, this will give them a higher incentive to climb the ladder, knowing that they have the opportunity to make more money in the long run, much comparable to that of lawyers and doctors.
News It’s a Virtual World More and more students are hopping on computers and entering a virtual environment to learn Staff Writer Eric Miranda The environment around us is becoming more and more advanced with technology as the years progress. Schools are becoming more virtual; children are being made to learn through a computer rather than a classroom like we are accustomed to. The question is: How do students feel about this situation? Senior Carlos Nicado says “Although it is not as interactive as your regular class, it is not challenging. The student just needs to stay on task rather than procrastinate.” Unlike the traditional classes, students taking a Students use computers in the virtual lab to take classes. virtual class have the choice of the pace they wish to complete a course. Two choices the So what if you finish a virtual class early? student can decide from are “Traditional Pace” Well freshman Kayla Lusk replies, “You can which is estimated to take about the same time always choose another course and work ahead. as classes not virtual; also “Accelerated Pace,” Meaning that in the span of one school year, in which they are working on these tasks faster, you have the ability to finish two virtual classes, resulting in finishing the class sooner than kids depending on the dedication of the student.” who take regular pace. Although it may seem like a beneficial Instead of the teacher choosing the overall opportunity, some students may beg to differ. pace for the class, the student has the freedom to Sophomore Sophia Shoulson says, “You’re not choose how fast or slow they learn. The dreaded X-BLOCK Staff Writer Rhea Cassimire There is nothing more irritating than jumping on to a computer at school to quickly cram in some last minute touches to a project and running into the Dade-County Public Schools logo in the top left corner and pretty much everywhere else all over the page. The fact that MDCPS took it upon themselves to choose what is “appropriate” and “inappropriate” for high school students to view is completely ridiculous! Is high school not the place where students mature and become more aware of the outside world? Then why is it that every time we try to do a research project, look for lyrics, or try to find pictures, that we run into this problem of being “X-blocked.” However, X-block does come in handy and should be used in some cases I must admit. For example, it would be necessary to have a fool proof X-block in middle and elementary schools because the children in those age groups The dreaded X-stop symbol hinders the process of information acquisition at every turn generally aren’t as mature as high school students and can’t handle such media and information. Putting X-block on computers in schools actually is pretty pointless now because just as the advancement of technology grows, so does the knowledge of hacking. There are many ways to get around X-block, and although not all of them are always 100% effective, most of them get the job done. If the little codes don’t work, most phones are now 3G or 4G capable which means that if kids really wanted to they can find and Coral Reef Sr. High May 2012 3 actually learning, rather than the whole thing being a review.” So for incoming freshman and other students who may not have had this experience, should it be avoided, or should they enroll in a virtual class? Carlos replies, “At least take one, everyone feels different, each have their own opinion in which we cannot decide for them.” Along with the students, teachers may have a few things to say about the new way to educate us students, for many, they worry that technology may overtake their positions of the educational community in the future years. Who knows how we will respond to this new way of learning? Junior Angelo Pavon says, “Even though the whole class is facing the screen, it is actually really fun; the teachers are not as strict because it is all depending on the student. So we can talk and communicate with each other. Also, if we are behind in another class, we can “play catch-up” because of the pace we have.” So if you want a opportunity to excel in various classes, or you just want to say you have done a virtual course and have knowledge or experience, may I suggest you enroll in Virtual School? spread whatever they wanted even with X-block on the computers. But what is MDCPS going to do, X- block our phones too? In all honesty, what we’re not exposed to at school we’re exposed to at home and bring back into the school environment. There really is no way for the school system to completely shield our virgin eyes from the dangers of the outside world. Many students agree with the removal of X-Block, like Business senior, Miguel Amion. “I’m devastated,” says Miguel. “I’m devastated because I came to school to use a computer. A computer of which I can search things on for a classes. Suppose I have to go to a movie review website for Language Arts, and suddenly I come face to face with every student’s internet nightmare! The deadly, mortifying, inescapable, limiting, demeaning…. X-block. How about, instead of blocking websites, teachers should monitor students at all times while on computers. There aren’t that many computers in the class anyway. I mean, kids are going to get on bad websites with or without X-block right?” Miguel has a point, wasn’t the class size reduced so that students could have a better one on one experience? Then why is it that teachers can’t monitor their students while on computers? The task sounds tedious and unnecessary because we’re high school students, but we’ll take the babysitting over the X-block. What is the real reason behind X-block? Is it to stop kids from seeing and downloading things they aren’t supposed to,
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