MR. SABO / ART Change positions? After 20 years of teaching elementary art? After 15 years working with the staff at Grandview sharing my enthusiasm for art? After spending so much time and energy working with young students and their parents to develop positive relationships? After working with administration and secretaries to maintain building policies and routines? After all this, why would I choose to start over in a different school? Will they remember me? Understandably changing schools came with a lot of anxiety. What would the students be like? Will they remember me? Will I remember them? Will the high school staff welcome me? After some time to ponder the idea, I found myself happy about changing schools. I had often questioned how I could maintain the same energy level to work with young students for another 10 to 15 years until I could retire. A change in schools has certainly rejuvenated my motivation to teach art. The move to the high school has forced me to reconsider my policies and routines. Although I am still realizing these adjustments, it has been an exciting challenge. Now, I welcome the chance to work more closely with colleagues who, up until this year, I hardly knew by name. During the next few years it is my goal to work with these teachers to create a high school art program that will best meet the needs of all DAHS students. Implementing changes to the visual art program has generated some immediate results. However, to bring about meaningful program change, it will take a few years and perseverance. My long range plans from initiation to realization will extend beyond the confines of one year. I have sometimes wondered what effect it would have if all teachers would be made to change grades after several consecutive years in the same assignment. Like many other professionals, teachers can become too comfortable in their current teaching assignment and established routines. I have sometimes wondered what effect it would have if all teachers would be made to change grades after several consecutive years in the same assignment. During the course of this year, I have definitely been made to reflect on my teaching skills, my classroom management techniques, and abandon old lessons for anew. The future will decide whether I made the right move. MR. SABO / Art Teacher
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MRS. KEMMERER | Math Picture This: Music blasting, party lights lighting the room, and a “whoop whoop” being yelled from somewhere behind you. You can feel the music in your body and you just can’t stop moving. You start slowly, at first just moving your feet along to the beat. Next, your arms join in and begin to move too. Before you know it, you’re breaking a sweat, dancing like nobody’s watching, and smiling like a fool. This is not a dance or a party, it is Zumba! My first experience with Zumba was about eight years ago. My sister asked me if I wanted to try a new workout that she did with a friend and absolutely loved. I was hesitant at first; the class my sister wanted to do was a six -week commitment. Six weeks is a long time in “teacher years”. (Especially when you have no idea what you are walking into and you are already juggling a very busy schedule.) Also, I was looking for a “real” workout and I wasn’t sure that Zumba was it. I played soccer in high school and for two years in college. I was used to getting my butt kicked by running like a maniac or lifting weights. I was worried that Zumba wouldn’t be enough for me. This is not a dance or a party, it is Zumba! I was so very wrong. The very first Zumba Fitness class that I took was at the Latrobe Skating Center. The lights were turned down and the music was blasting. A smiling, welcoming instructor took her place on the stage and greeted all of her new students. She told us to not worry about getting all of the moves; just focus on the feet and the rest will come. That first song flew by and I looked at my sister and said, “That was only the warmup?! This is going to be a workout!” I’ve been hooked on Zumba ever since. I’ve always loved to dance and now I was dancing to choreography that was designed to target different muscle groups and to create a full body workout. I never expected to become a Zumba instructor. Going to Zumba was an hour of dancing, sweating and laughing with my sister and my friends; it was my “me” time. It was my time to get away from the stresses of life and to get in shape. Zumba helped to curb anxiety that developed when regular exercise got put on the back burner and I wasn’t taking enough time to take care of myself. However, an opportunity presented itself when my instructor announced that she was retiring. The Zumba class that I was attending started to feel like a family. I was one of “the regulars” who attended every class, had “my spot”, and knew the other students by name. I couldn’t bear the thought of breaking up our Zumba family and thankfully my sister and another student in that class felt the same way. I never expected to become a Zumba instructor. Being a Zumba instructor is a time commitment, but it is something that I look forward to every class. After hours of discussions, planning and ensuring this was possible; my sister (Kristy Shearman), another student from our class (Valerie Palko), and I created “Your Zumba Crew,” where our classes are all about ensuring our students enjoy themselves and get a fantastic workout. We attended a training last December to become certified Zumba instructions and began our Zumba business at A.V. Germano Hall in Derry immediately. Since that time, we have created our own, but always growing, Zumba family. This summer we were asked to offer additional classes at the Blairsville Armory, which we started in September. We are currently teaching classes three to four times a week and our students are achieving great success. In the past two weeks I have had a student tell me about how her health has improved drastically from the weight she has lost doing Zumba and another student tell me that she has lost forty pounds since the spring and that she has never felt better. Zumba is an interval workout; this means that after a proper warm-up, songs are selected to create intense and recovery periods throughout the workout. Our classes generally have around fifteen songs including merengue, salsa, cumbia, and reggaeton rhythms. We also kept the philosophy of our first instructor and that was to pick songs that are just fun. We have pop songs sprinkled throughout our playlists and are currently having fun with some Halloween songs leading up to the holiday. It is so important to find a way to stay healthy throughout your life. That includes eating right, getting proper sleep, and routinely working out. The physical and mental benefits of taking care of yourself are absolutely phenomenal. For me, Zumba is that workout. It is my hour where the stresses of the day no longer matter, I just dance with some amazing people, enjoy myself and laugh when I mess up. MRS. KEMMERER | Math
MR. CURCIO | Newspaper Advisor In 1958, Ella Fitzgerald released an album entitled, Ella Swings Lightly. On that album, there is a song entitled, “What’s Your Story, Morning Glory.” With this release, the phrase was born and subsequently copied for years to come by the likes of Oasis and The Beatles. The song is basically about Fitzgerald asking the morning from its “point of view” why her lover has not responded back to her message of “I love you.” Think a morning text message that never comes even though the text you sent last night says Read. Yes, even Ella Fitzgerald was left on Read. But besides in song, the phrase has been used as an allusion to ask people what their stories are, usually as a way of introduction. Joseph Kelly says it best in his Introduction to the Seagull Reader Stories: We can’t escape stories. We read them in the newspaper; we see them on television; and over lunch or coffee or on the phone we tell each other stories about ourselves, our friends, our enemies, our heroes. Stories keep us afloat. We need to both hear and tell stories to make sense of the world and our place in it. It doesn’t matter what age - as long as your long-term memory can remember, you will have a story. What’s unique about these stories is that the perspectives all depend on the point of view of the storyteller. We are all storytellers, and we all have stories - especially from high school. High school is where a lot of memories are made. According to memory researchers, we have something called, ‘the reminiscence bump,’ which proves that our “strongest memories come from things that happened to us between the ages of 10 and 30” (McAndrew). These memories are captured by the stories we tell our best friends, our future friends, and yes, even our own future families. The goal of The Station is to help get high school stories told and enjoyed. A few years ago, I came across The Players’ Tribune, which featured sports stories written by the athletes themselves instead of journalists. The first article that I came across was one written by Andrew McCutchen who wrote a first-person narrative about his experience in center field during the 2013 Wild Card game against the Reds. While reading, I was transported to that night and actually felt like I was playing center field for the Pirates (when they were actually good). It was after reading this article that I realized, this is what a high school newspaper should be - and so, The Station was born. What’s next? Well, there is no Station without stories. Your stories. I encourage you to write your own stories and submit them for publication: Students. Teachers. Administration. Alumni. Bottom Line: If you are currently a Trojan or once a Trojan - feel free to submit. We will edit them. We will revise them. We will make them look “good” aesthetically. All you have to do is write. So, what’s your story? MR. CURCIO / Newspaper Advisor Works Cited “Ella Fitzgerald – What's Your Story, Morning Glory?” Genius, genius.com/Ella-fitzgerald-whats-your-story-morning-glory-lyrics. Kelly, Joseph. The Seagull Reader. W.W. Norton, 2001. McAndrew, Frank T., and Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology. “Why High School Stays with Us Forever.” The Conversation, 25 Sept. 2019, theconversation.com/why-high-school-stays-with-us-forever-56538. MS. SMELTZER / Speech originally published April 30, 2018 My high school public speaking teacher told me that my problem would not be in figuring out what to do with my life, but what not to do. As I look back, I can honestly say, he knew me well. As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a teacher. What it was that I wanted to teach changed many times as I grew up. I wanted to teach physical education for a while. After falling in love with wood working, I wanted to be a woodshop teacher. I think somewhere along the way I may have thought about teaching English, but eventually, because of that same public speaking teacher I decided upon teaching communications. Why communications? The program meant I could teach a myriad of subjects, not just public speaking, but journalism, television, theater and film media. Much like my interests, it encompassed a lot of what I loved growing up. I graduated from California University of PA with a bachelor’s Degree in Secondary Education-Speech Communications. The problem was, there were no jobs in PA for someone like me at the time. So, much to my parents’ dismay, I applied to the University of Pittsburgh to get a Master’s Degree in School Library Science. Why? As a student in high school I found a home in the library, not because of my passion for reading, which surprises people, but because I am a researcher. I love to learn about new things. ... I myself had no idea how to operate one, let alone design anything to print, but that kid who wanted to teach woodshop became curious. That brings me to why I am writing this article. At the start of the 2017-2018 school year I received a phone call from Mr. Ferencak. He wanted to let me know that the high school library would be receiving a 3D printer as a part of a grant. I was familiar with what Mr. Vinopal was doing with his 3D printer, but I myself had no idea how to operate one, let alone design anything to print, but that kid who wanted to teach woodshop became curious. Mr. Vinopal was charged with teaching me and a few others in the district how to set up the BoXYZ 3D printer during an in-service day in the fall. I have to admit, at first I was a little intimidated. Later, I would go to WCCC with Mr. Vinopal to a workshop on 3D printing and got my first taste at designing with computer aided drafting (CAD) software. I was pretty proud of myself after designing a pawn during the workshop, but that thrill was short lived. When I returned and printed my creation, the top broke off as I was trying to peel away the supports needed in the printing process. That could have led to my throwing my hands up in defeat, but instead I became determined to use this new-found piece of technology in my freshmen block class. I enlisted my first semester students to invent something that they could print, and then write a commercial for it. I knew from Mr. Vinopal that a part of the learning process would have to be trial and error. Designs would fail, but that was okay, that led to problem-solving. It took us a while, but the classes came up with different items that were printed, but I felt like the project itself could be better designed by me. So I went back to the drawing board. I bounced a few ideas off Mr. Vinopal before I settled on “Operation Dog Biscuit.” I challenged my second semester classes to design dog biscuit cutters that we could print with BoXYZ. Initially, my intentions were to have them draw their designs, print the cutters, try them with Play Dough, and then make a few biscuits. It soon grew into a full-blown Career Pathways project using science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM). Once students designed their biscuit cutters on graph paper, each class selected those that would go into CAD and be designed for printing. Each group had to present a pitch to the class as to why their design should be chosen. We then broke each class down into four groups: CAD design, packaging, advertising, and sales. Students were permitted to select the group they felt they would contribute the most to. As they began putting their energy into the project I decided to ask for permission to market the biscuits to the faculty and staff in the high school for a donation that would be given to Action for Animals. When I shared this idea with my students they were excited, citing that it made it even “more real” if they were going to actually use the biscuit cutters to make biscuits and fulfill orders. I too was excited by the idea, but at the same time, I was a little nervous. “What if no one wants to buy the biscuits?” I thought. “The kids will be heart broken if no one supports them.” Then suddenly it hit me, what if the opposite happened... What if we got more orders than we could fulfill? Meanwhile, the designs began rolling off the printer. One-by-one, 12 different designs. Some large, some small, some, I thought would be problematic. The print advertisements were impressive, as were the packaging ideas. The letters to the faculty explaining the project along with the order forms were ready to go. Slowly but surely the orders began to flow in. Mrs. Myers was our first customer, and before I knew it we were up to 20 dozen orders. I was getting nervous. Another five, and then before we knew it 50 dozen biscuits had been ordered. 50 dozen sounds like a lot, but when I realized that meant baking 600 Pumpkin Delights (our product name), I began to fret. As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a teacher. Mrs. Hower graciously agreed to allow me to set up shop in the home ec kitchens for a day to bake our biscuits. What I had yet to mention, I DO NOT BAKE! Up until last spring I had not used my own oven for more than 20 years! When the day arrived, two students agreed to meet me first period and begin our first batches. Abbie Bolen and Tyler Seirka thankfully knew their way around a kitchen and they became my forepersons. They were two of almost 80 freshmen who worked on the project, followed the recipe, packaged and cleaned up the mess we made. Truthfully, although we did make a mess, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined it would be, and my students helped clean up without much complaining. Mrs. Markle, Broderick McIntosh, and Mary Trinclisti also helped clean up when we were finishing up, and I greatly appreciated the help. The results were one very tired teacher-librarian, and a donation to Action for Animals totaling $250. The Operation Dog Biscuit was a success. MS. SMELTZER / Speech
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