Eagles music program works, plays as a family
May 28, 2013
Participation in band, orchestra or choir doesn’t just mean practicing your instrument or working on your piece in class each day — it is also an after-school commitment.
Issaquah High School’s spirited band, directed by Patrick Holen, fired up fans and cheered on the football team at nearly every game this year. The band marched and played in the annual Salmon Days parade. In winter, there were basketball games, the Solo and Ensemble contest, concerts and “Swingin’ in Vienna.”
Sophie Mittelstaedt
Issaquah High School
In addition, the Greenwood Orchestra and the Evergreen Philharmonic Orchestra, both directed by Doug Longman, have become trademarks through the various concerts they perform each year. The choir, directed by Barbara Irish, is also a much-enjoyed and respected program. Each year, they perform in assemblies, musicals, the Candlelight Concert, the Choir Bash, the Solo and Ensemble contest, and deliver Sing-a-grams.
Students choose many classes for creativity
May 28, 2013
Art students at Issaquah High School express their creativity on a daily basis.
With a wide array of art classes, including “Studio Graphic Arts,” “Ceramics,” “Photography,” “Visual Art,” “Advanced Art” and, starting next year, “AP Studio Art,” students have many opportunities to engage creative outlets.
Madeline Wells
Issaquah High School
Photography classes utilize technology with digital cameras and editing, as well as darkroom techniques with film. Visual art focuses on various forms of painting and drawing, and ceramics involves learning the clay-working process and design and glaze techniques.
Sophomore Hannah Balducci, a student who takes photography, filmmaking, drawing, printmaking and painting, enjoys taking advanced photography at IHS. She also plans to take “AP Studio Art” next year, and said she is looking forward to a challenge.
Drama programs teach practical skills
May 28, 2013
Fine arts credits make up merely 3.5 percent of the total required credits to graduate at Liberty High School and 4.5 percent at Issaquah and Skyline high schools.
While algebraic ability and an understanding of American government are certainly invaluable, skills gleaned from involvement in the arts, particularly drama classes and productions, are equally applicable to the world outside high school.
Veronica Austin
Liberty High School
“I would like to see the arts integrated more into the core curriculum,” Liberty drama teacher and director Katherine Klekas said. “When I taught for a couple of years in Germany, I noticed that every student was automatically signed up for music and art classes… They weren’t ‘electives.’ The ability to read music and sketch things were considered part of a basic education.”
Teen Talk
May 28, 2013
What symptoms of spring fever do you have?
Eastside Catholic High School
“I guess it’s more a symptom of senioritis, but I really hate being in school when the weather is so nice out! I have no motivation to do homework or study for tests when I know I could be out enjoying the sun.”
Katie Martin, senior
“Literally or figuratively? Because I have really, really bad allergies in the spring. On a serious level, I’m just itching to get out of school and enjoy my last summer before I go off to college.”
Madison Blackburn, senior
The surprising benefits of senioritis
May 28, 2013
Every year, second semester seniors bond over, well, not doing anything at all. The feeling of anticipation to get to college and the lack of motivation to do any work when one reaches the home stretch of one’s high school career has been given the moniker “senioritis,” a “disease” that is both contagious and deadly.
Usually, a student catches senioritis after committing to college. With the future secure and bright and the school workload finally lessening after four years of long, hard work, students begin taking early summer vacations. Among my peers, I have already seen the symptoms blow up into full-fledged attacks on the immune system: students skipping class, students sleeping in class, students skipping school altogether. Thankfully, I myself have not fallen victim to the disease.
Lee Xie
Skyline High School
In fact, it seems as if senioritis has made senior year the least stressful and most well-rested period of time in all my years of high school. I’ve discovered that the seemingly crippling infection brings a few beneficial side effects.
How to avoid spring fever
May 28, 2013
It’s sunny out now! [Editor's note: This was a lie.] And the sun means that a whole lot of high-schoolers will forget to pay attention in class, do their homework or graduate And that means that a whole lot of high-schoolers will fail to learn stuff at school, learn stuff at home, or graduate! One of those is relatively important! But, you don’t have to be one of those people. Just follow these simple steps.
1. Close the shades! If you can’t see the sun [Editor: still nonexistent at this point in time], you’ll have nothing to distract you from the joys of homework. Besides, who cares about being the palest person in school? (You might, but we’ll pretend that you don’t for the purposes of this article.)
Leadership turnover needs tailored approach
April 23, 2013
Every year, high school seniors graduate, and every year, people need to step up to fill the shoes that these seniors leave behind.
Iman Baghai
Issaquah High School
In many high school programs, students spend their entire high school careers pouring their hearts and souls into their activities and often rising as student leaders. But, more often than not, their zeniths at these positions are short-lived, as these leaders move onto college and beyond. Once they leave, others come in and these transitions can be graceful or ugly.
New leaders, same goal
April 23, 2013
I founded Engineering Club last March with a different vision for science and engineering clubs at school. The Skyline Engineering Club would teach engineering concepts that underlie the physical experimentation present in other clubs.
These concepts, not detailed in school, would then be incorporated into regular projects. Yet, the club did not begin this way; it was rooted in lecture-based discussion. Despite suggestions for improvement from general members through a Google survey, it was leadership initiative that resulted in more interactive projects.
Nitin Shyamkumar
Skyline High School
How does JSA manage changing leadership through elections?
April 23, 2013
It’s that time of year again. Ah, spring: the season in which seniors decide where to spend the next four years of their lives, while juniors and underclassmen scramble, asking questions like, “What classes should I take next year?” or “What colleges should I apply to?”
This can only mean one thing for the myriad high school clubs stimulating the social scene at Skyline High School — election season. One club that has blossomed considerably over the years is the Junior State of America, or JSA for short. Though its large growth at Skyline is impressive, it makes elections difficult due to the cutthroat level of competition that shows up conspicuously at this time. Though no talk of elections has been explicitly brought up by the executive cabinet, various contenders have already risen to the plate and advertised their qualifications for leading the chapter next year.
Salma Mahmoud
Skyline High School
Searching for the silver lining in college rejection
April 23, 2013
As a high school senior, hardly a day goes by without someone — my dentist, my coworkers, my friends or my teachers — asking me where I’ll be attending college in the fall. While most of my peers have started visiting campuses and choosing dorms, I’m forced to admit that, frankly, I just don’t know yet.
Had you asked that same question about a year ago, I could have told you boldly and confidently, “The University of Oxford.” I spent most of high school working toward this singular goal; I took and retook SATs, tailored my schedule to meet the required Advanced Placement classes and scrambled my way through finals weeks to achieve what I thought were ideal scores, more than adequate to get me into the school of my dreams.
Veronica Austin
Liberty High School
I was wrong.
