Crimson And Black Choir Goes To State

By Nayeli Anahi Ruiz

On Wednesday April 26 2017, it was announced by Mrs. Cunnington that our Crimson and Black Choir had been accepted to go to the OSAA choir competition in Newburg. The choir is set to hit the road the morning of Thursday, May 4th and return to Milton-Freewater Friday night. During their trip, they are scheduled to have a choir exchange with Hood River High School. A choir exchange is when two choirs (usually from different school districts) get together and sing for each other without the pressures of being adjudicated. They are also possibly performing at the Oregon State Capitol Building located in Salem. Wish our choir good luck!

Seniors Learning For a ‘Sustainable’ 21st Century

By Mckenna Stallings and Jessica Burks

The senior English teachers Mr.Lynn and Ms.Ashland have decided to change things up this semester by having the seniors do a sustainability project. The teachers want to help seniors in the 21st century learn and enjoy by incorporating documentary movies and independent research.

The video section of this project features documentaries where seniors will have to identify how they would help in that situation and what's wrong in that situation. One of the documentaries is called Blackfish, which specifically concerns Tilikum an Orca and the death of three individuals at SeaWorld.

After the video portion, they have started to research anything they want that has to do with environmental or social sustainability, such as how to reduce poverty, and how the idea of sustainability connects with career interests.  

Ms. Ashland wants to give seniors the freedom to learn on their own. “It will help students learn and enjoy what they are learning about,” Ms. Ashland claims. This project will help seniors learn how to make relationships and help them learn how to better understand problems in the community like interviewing some people in the community. This, she believes, will help them better their lives.  

Mr. Lynn says that the whole point of this is for students to learn how to research, which is very essential for their lives whether they go to college or straight to work. He believes that “ students should be filled with curiosity and know how to find reliable sources to answer what they are curious about.” This is the first time that they have tried this idea, and they plan on doing this again in the future with a few minor changes.

Mac-Hi teachers have mixed feelings on 8th period advisory

By Joally Vasquez

This school year, Mrs. Vaughn, the principal, thought of the idea of having an 8th period for students to get caught up with their work. I have surveyed 8 teachers from Mac-hi and they all had different opinions about how they felt about the new period that was made.

100% of teachers agreed that if we didn’t have advisory class our grades would be affected.However, they all didn’t agree if it should be graded.25% of the teachers said they that advisory shouldn’t be graded, but 75% of the teachers said that they would want advisory to be graded.

Teachers have listed numbers of reasons why they think it should be graded.One of the teachers , for example, Mrs.Burnham said “Students are required to complete assignments. Also,in my opinion,it’s an easy class and helps their GPA”. Another teacher anonymously said “I have found that students are more invested in doing the work at a higher level when it is graded. “ This teacher believed that most students knew that if it was a pass/fail class they wouldn’t put much effort.

         

          Although, most teachers agreed that we should have advisory, not all agree that students should get graded. 2 out of 6 teachers say that they don’t think that advisory should be graded. For example, a teacher said anonymously “Students are expected to finish full assignments, as long as you see and know that they're working hard than it shouldn’t be graded”.

Most teachers feel the need that since its high school and we have more homework , students need a class to get their work done. Teachers know that most students have sports to attend after school, which doesn’t give them the proper time to do their work. This is what most teachers feel about having the new advisory class, thanks to the principal, Mrs Vaughn, all students have enough time to get some work done.

Two Mac-Hi Students Chosen for Northwest Choir

By JASMINE SEARS

Two very talented students, Kyle Dygert and Matthew Cunnington, were selected to perform with the Northwest Choir in Seattle.This group is a large mixed choir that has 500 of the best singers selected from Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Alaska.  

In the audition for the choir, they sang  The Star Spangled Banner and some scales testing their range. Matthew said when they all sang together, “the sound was so large and full.” He continued, “It was the best sounding thing I’ve ever been a part of.” Kyle also said that the Northwest Choir was the best thing he had partaken in. “Our instructor was Dr. Anton Armstrong, one of the best conductors in the US, maybe even the world. He was incredibly harsh, but amazing and inspirational,” Kyle said.

Matthew claimed he didn’t have much worry; however, Kyle admitted he was terrified. In spite of their emotions, the experience was so great since it was something they have both wanted to do for a long time. Kyle has been wanting to sing in the Northwest Choir since he heard about it last year, but in Matthew’s case, he had wanted to do this since middle school when his brothers did it. They both said that they had a great time in Seattle. Matthew said that “even if you are just thinking about auditioning just do it,” and he also emphasized that it’s essential to also practice all materials provided beforehand.

Mac-Hi Students Honored at Tamastslikt Cultural Institute’s Artworkz Show

By Jazmyn Schmaltz

Students were able to enter their own artwork for the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute’s Artworkz show held January 28 through March 17 this year.

The art show had a few of our own enter and received awards: Sierra Breeding, Carson Chester, Paige Jones, and Nancy Hernandez.  Sierra took home first prize, which was a $50.00 gift card to their gift shop. She said she doesn't know how she is going to be spending it yet. She entered a painting of Indian tribal horses.

I asked her how she created the beautiful art. She said,  “I used acrylic paint, but I sketched it out in pencil first.” She went on to say, “ It took me about 45 minutes, which is a short time for me. I usually spend 4 hours plus on a painting.”

The Tamastslikt Cultural Institute is a museum and research institute, and you can find it on the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton, Oregon. It’s the only Native American museum along the Oregon Trail. So that explains her painting. The institute is focused on the cultures of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla tribes. The main exhibit of the museum features a history of the cultures of the three tribes and of the reservation itself. The museum also has another wing for temporary exhibitions of specific types of Native American art, craftwork, history, and folklore related to the tribes.

This was not the first time Sierra has been awarded for her art. Last year, she entered at the 4-H fair and won a blue ribbon. In 4-H there are 5 main placings for ribbons: dark purple is grand champion, light purple is reserve champion, blue is first, red is second, and white is third. She said, “It was a very good feeling knowing that people who have jobs in the art world liked what I had done.” She  does some great art, as do Paige, Carson and Nancy. Great Job Guys.

Heritage Club: Helping The Community

By Nayeli Anahi Ruiz and Aiden Lozano

Valentine’s day is a fun holiday, and whether you’re in a relationship or not, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you stuffed your face with chocolate. Heritage Club, however, decided to sell $5 Valentines Grams (little gifts with a note) to students as a fundraiser to get money for their Thanksgiving Dinner, where they give ten different families a nice meal every year.

Heritage club doesn’t only make grams for Valentine's Day; they have also done this for Christmas and Halloween. The club had a recent event where eight students went to Grove Elementary School to help translate for Spanish-speaking parents at Family Game Night on March 16 from 5:30-7:00.  There were 4 stations with different crafts like making collage papers. “There was so much stuff to do, and so many people. It was chaotic- but the good kind; it was the best time!” said member Jenny Alva.

The Heritage Club is always putting their minds together to come up with new ways to help the community. Thinking of as many ideas as they can, and deciding which would be more fun and helpful is the way they decided to do this. They’ve helped by painting buildings, helping with school events and other tasks.

“If we see someone or something in need of help, we will come together and help out. Anything big or small, we will take on.” said club member Joulin Pureco. Whatever puts a smile on people’s faces is what heritage club loves doing.  

Heritage Club is a great club to be in, “It’s a place where you can be who you are. It’s a place about heritage and the community. How much better can it get?” said club member Tehya Clark.

School district announces plans for making up snow days

By Suely Ramos

Over the last three months, we have had seven school cancellations and three late starts due to bad weather. At the school board meeting on February 13th, they decided on the dates that we would have to make up the time we missed.

It was decided that they would eliminate spring conferences on March 6 and 7. Friday, April 14, which was previously a teacher work day will be a school day with an early release.

We also will have school Friday, May 12,  which was previously scheduled as a day off for Junior Show. June 1st will be the last day for seniors, and the last day for students K-11 will now be June 13th, which will be a half day.

June 14th is on the calendar as a teacher workday, and students will not have school. When interviewed, most of the students I asked said that they agreed with the dates chosen to make up the snow days. Some said that it would have been better if we would’ve had Fridays be full days and just made up the days that way instead of adding extra days and having the last day be on June 13th.

With the addition to those days, the district will meet the requirements of the Oregon Department of Education, and it will provide the educational opportunities to the students of Milton-Freewater.