The Go Green club is trying to raise money by collecting bottles and find new ways to recycle and save energy. Its ultimate goal is to save the planet.
Every Friday the Go Green club goes to every class and picks up bottles during lunch and roundtable. This helps with recycling and raising money.
Members of the Go Green Club talk about fund-raising, projects to help the environment, and how to use their revenue for those projects. The meetings usually run for about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how many kids show up, how many bottles have been collected, and how many ideas the kids have.
The Go Green Club needs your ideas. This is a great place to share your ideas and thoughts about how you can make the school a lot more “green.” If you would like to get involved with the program so you can help too, you can start by helping the Go Green Club collecting bottles on Fridays. You could be saving the environment, and just you and a few of your friends could be a big part in saving the world. See Ms. Smith in teacher pod D204 for details.
Right now the club is still in the brainstorming stages. Last year they recycled bottles and decorated a Christmas tree with helpful tips on how to save the environment.
Go Green is a start for tackling some really important environmental issues in the world such as global warming and lack of public transportation.
This club is a great way to get together with some of your peers and talk about better ways to save our planet, and other ways to save energy. If you just want to help out a little you cans start small by recycling papers that you don’t need anymore, or just putting your used bottle in recycle bin. Just by doing that you can help out a great amount with saving the Earth. If you think these simple acts can change the world, then the Go Green Club is right for you. If you're into more talk than action, then show up for Go Green Club meetings and share.
Check out http://www.worldwatch.org/resources/go_green_save_green if you want to get some great ideas about how to go green. Get a bunch of friends together and you could be a huge part in saving your school, neighborhood, and even the world!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Living the Big Dream: A rocker’s journal By Grahm Kwasnick (Photo credit to Lauren Harris)
Friday 2:05pm. I walk amongst the many students toward the student parking lot, easily spotting my vehicle. A 1993 red and white suburban, or “Burb” as we call it. For my band members, that suburban is much more than some ancient piece of metal and wheels. It’s our band vehicle. That suburban’s job is to lug a drum set, cymbals, cymbal stands, amplifiers, guitars, bass guitars and of course the band itself. That suburban has a history to us, and is much more than some vehicle. It is practically a member of the band. Sure it might reek of fast food and sweat, but it’s a smell we know to be one unlike any other.
2:10pm. Buckling into the suburban, turning on music and setting aside our bags is something we do reflexively. It’s us removing the school side of us for the day. We’ll talk about our day at school, but then we move onto The Show. Where it is, what time “load-in” is at. When we’re going on. What we need to get. All of this consumes us as we make our way to our guitarist’s house to start packing up our gear.
2:30pm. Arriving at guitarist Shawn Verrill’s house is a routine thing also. We enter with a direct path to food. Going a whole day without junk food is pretty hard for three teenagers with high metabolisms. After grabbing what we can, we make our way up to Shawn’s room and grab guitar chords, guitar pedals, his amplifier head and cab and, most importantly, his guitars. Trying to be as efficient as possible, we load in all the equipment into the suburban. Knowing Shawn as long as I have, I have observed some things he does before shows. Shawn will apply his Bose over-ear headphones and listen to his iPod as he gets dressed. Pumping himself up for the night is his main goal. Making sure that when his feet hit that stage he will be ready to perform at his fullest.
3:30pm. Once we’ve told Shawn’s parents where we’re playing and what time we hope to be back, we’re off to our second destination, Richard’s house. Richard is the drummer in our band and the frequent driver of the suburban. Once at Richard’s house we all begin the procedure of putting all the drums into cases and into the suburban. But you cannot just throw the drum set into the suburban and call it alright. Richard won’t let that happen. Richard treats his drum set much like he would a mother caring for her child. Richard, and only Richard, puts the drums into the suburban. Shawn and myself simply help if he asks for it. Once the drums are in place, Richard gets his last minute things together and we move to our third destination, my house.
3:55pm. At about this time, we’re at my house. Shawn and Richard stay in my driveway in the suburban while I take care of my equipment and myself. This is one moment during the evening where I can get myself into the mindset I want to be in. But I don’t fully get into it just yet. Instead I focus on making sure I have all the cords I will need, my basses are in playable condition and most importantly, I make sure that I am. During this time I pace around my room countless times. Saying out loud all the things I have and all the things I will need for the night. “Okay got my bass cords, bass one, bass two, clothes for Shawn’s house after the show, my wallet, picks, toothbrush..” The list goes on for at least five minutes. But once I have checked off everything in my mental “Bring To Show” list, I load in my amps and guitars, and we begin the long drive to our show.
4:00pm. Load-in is at six a’clock. The show is in Kennebunk. We’ve never played at this venue before. But we don’t really worry about it. We don’t worry about much of anything on that ride to the venue. Except our performance. This is when I enter my most focussed mind set. I don’t block myself from the world with music, I don’t close my eyes and try to relax. Nothing like that. I simply look out the window and think of my dream. The dream that has gotten me through two years in this band, over fifteen shows and countless hours of practice. The dream that one day soon, my band will be famous. I try to envision it the best I can. Picturing huge shows, thousands of people, everything you can imagine a famous rock star has and experiences. As I look out the window, that’s what I think about. And then once I have told myself that one day soon it will come true, I am back in the suburban. On the highway heading to our show.
6:00pm. After the usual, “Dude where is this venue” fiasco, we arrive at the venue. Once we’re at the venue the three of us all head inside and we do the same thing we do at every show. We stand in the middle of the floor, looking up at the stage where we will be playing in a few hours. Then, the load in process begins.
7:00pm. We’ve brought in all our gear, one of us manages to have stubbed their toe or banged their leg on something in the process. It always happens. Lugging around forty pound amps isn’t safe, you know. But by this time the show has started, the first band starts their first song. And we arrive back at the middle of the floor, watching the band play. Richard always focuses on the drummer, making sure their drummer keeps proper time. When it comes to other drums, Richard critiques them no matter what band they’re in. He checks if they have any style when they drum, if their drum set is adequate or if the drummer does anything funny when he plays. Richard usually catches it before any of us. Shawn always pays attention to the overall song the band plays. Catching key parts where the band did well and didn’t do so well. As for me, I focus on the bass player. I have always believed that the bass player should be just as important as the guitar player. Bass players should just stand still. They’re the segway between the drums and the guitar. They’re the piece of the puzzle every band needs. I always make sure that I am the bass player that moves around the most by the end of the night. And from my perspective, I usually am.
8:30pm. The moment that I have been awaiting since 2:05 today finally presents itself. We’re on. I tune my bass. Make sure my shoes are tied and I make my way up to the stage. Once my feet have made contact to the floor, it’s near impossible to take them off. A lot of people would be really uncomfortable being up in front of fifty to a hundred people they have never seen before. But to me it’s just a challenge for me to obtain new fans. I make sure my bass is on, I make sure it’s loud and I make sure Shawn and Richard are all ready to begin. Once I get confirmation from the two. I command the audience to move around to our music, I tell a few lame jokes that are usually inappropriate and mostly make fun of Shawn or Richard. We laugh about it in that brief moment. And then we begin our first song in our set list.
9:00pm. I don’t ever fully remember a show. I will have jumped around so much that I somehow how scrambled my own brain into only remembering bits and pieces of shows. Once we’re off stage we begin the rat race going back and forth from the stage to get our equipment off and lug it all the way back to our vehicle. Among these frequent trips is when we get a chance to talk with our fans and other bands. Richard always hears about his fast, obnoxious drumming by other drummers. Shawn and I mingle with fans, sell merchandise and talk about the evening. We don’t like be boring. So we do our best to make sure we’re as amusing on stage as we are off the stage. As all this happens, in my head I slowly start to think less about the rest of the show and more about getting something to eat. But we need money to get food. So then I start to think about money. And once my mind sprouts the question, Shawn and Richard subconsciously wonder it also. “When are we getting paid?”
10:30pm. The final band has just played, and other bands are starting to wonder the same question. Among the three of us, Richard is usually the one to go and ask the question that’s on everyone’s mind. He tends to be good at cutting right to the point of things. With Shawn and I however, we feel a little rude asking for money. But driving from Poland to Topsham and playing half an hour should be rewarded with a little money. But we all enjoy playing the show more than we do getting the money for it.
10:45pm. This is usually one of my favorite times of the evening. We got paid, all our gear is loaded into the suburban and we’ve said goodbye to our fans. We go to the nearest fast food restaurant and we talk among ourselves about the show. This is when we reflect, when we say what was good and was was bad. We play every show as if it’s our last. And we always want to make sure we’re satisfied with our performance.
11:30pm. Being back in Poland the only thing on our minds is going to sleep. Nothing else seems to concern us at that moment. All we want is sleep. By the time we arrive at Shawn’s we simply don’t have the energy to bring all our gear back inside. So we leave the suburban in the garage, lug ourselves up the stairs to his room and fall down wherever is comfiest.
11:35pm. After a few minutes of laughing about the tiniest of things that would be tasteless in the daytime, we all return to the place where we started our day in. Fast asleep, dreaming about our next show. We’ll shift into high gear on a Friday afternoon, when most of our classmates are winding down.
PRHS Civil Rights Team working hard on school culture By Jacob MacDonald
The people are worried. Hate and violence are on the rise.
Slowly, but unmistakably, a shining beacon of hope and kindness shine upon the land, causing the dark sewage of hate to regress back from where it came.
A super hero did not accomplish this.
Kids from Poland Regional High School did it.
The PRHS Civil Rights Team noticed a disturbing trend of fights and racism in the school and worked hard on ways to prevent it. One factor they identified was that many kids did not know how to report civil rights violations, or did not even know when their rights were being broken.
To tackle this issue, the Civil Rights team created a billboard and placed it in a widely visible area. The team also approached teachers, clarifying complex rules and procedures, and urged them to make more of a difference in the classroom. To their credit, our teachers decided to pursue additional civil rights training to become more informed and more sensitive to the students’ needs.
Additionally, the Civil Rights team decided to continue the tradition that Sophie Geelhoed (Class of 2010) started last year, to take the pledge to Stop the R-word. The team has invited the Middle School and Poland Community School to join their efforts. Pledge Day was March 22.
For all their hard work and accomplishments, the Poland Regional High School Civil Rights team was mentioned in The Torch, the State of Maine Civil Rights Team newspaper. Congratulations, team!
Our Civil Rights team has another goal: To submit a proposal for a Civil Rights Day which to explore student ethnic backgrounds and encourage acceptance of all people and cultures.
Do you have an idea to help the school? Do you want to make a difference in peoples lives?Join the Civil Rights team. Contact Ms. Hall at: nhall@rsu16.org or Mrs. Manchester at hmanchester@rsu16.org.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Guys and dolls: A Great Show! By Nicky Landry (Photo credits to Amanda Lilley)
Guys And Dolls finally made its way to Poland Regional High School after a 55 years on Broadway. It was worth the wait, thanks to the hard work and creativity of the kids and adults who performed on stage and worked behind the scenes.
The play, based on the book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, with music and lyrics were Frank Loesser, ran from Wednesday March 16 to Saturday March 19.
The amazing cast included: JJ Power, Nigel Williams, Joshua Morgan, Mary McKellick, Bruce Gerry, Caitlyn Currie, Vicki Hirsch, Irina Butina, Tricia Marvin, Tony Whalen, Jeremy Guerrette, Eli Murphy, Ensign Gerry, Sam Larrivee, Trey Rogers, Shawn Bang, Amanda Lilley, Tyler Myers, Brooklyn Cunningham, Ranissa Berry, Jackie Joncas, Maggie Whitemore, Katie Poor, Elijah Breton, Elesha Prat, Katriana Pratt.
D’Arcy Robinson was the Master of Ceremonies, the Waiter, and, of course, the director of the play.
The music was awesome, thanks to a band that included Vickie Stubbs on piano, Mark Fredricks on the drums, and John Lawson on the bass.
The scenery was great, painted and drawn by Lindsay Barriault and Emily Summers. Props were by Dan Burgess and Zach Walker.
Many members of the cast and crew worked on this play in their Intro to Theatre class, in addition to committing hours after school in into the evenings on their lines spacing and stage preparation.
Guys and Dolls featured two acts. The first act had nine scenes which basically introduced the conflict and what everyone’s roles were. After a 15-minute intermission, the second act had seven scenes, fixing the overall problem and concluding things with a very happy ending where everyone gets the girl.
If you missed this show, you missed a lot of laughs and an opportunity to see some of our most talented performing artists here at PRHS. Be on the alert for the next show by the Poland Players. Admission is inexpensive. It's a great night out.
PRHS Track Stars Shine In Boston Competition By Grahm Kwasnick
Competition is something that we all face on a daily basis, whether it be something related to school like challenging yourself to write the best essay in the class, or something at home like becoming the best in the family at Wii Tennis. But the most common place we see competition is in sports.
Cameron Woodford and Eli Murphy, two very talented athletes in the senior class, took competition to another level with “the most intense experience we’ve faced,” a regional track meet in Boston, Massachusetts.
Being an ex-athlete myself, I have a pretty good idea of what competition is like. The atmosphere changes completely from your daily life; your mind set is completely different and you are more focussed than you ever have been. This makes change at Poland Regional High School interesting. If you haven’t noticed, indoor and outdoor track have become quite popular here at PRHS. More and more students join the team every year. This means more people competing, and it means more opportunities for us to see our peers become athletic stars.
Cameron Woodford and Eli Murphy are both are decorated athletes who have competed at very high levels of competition for their specific events in track. Cam specializes in shot-put and Eli in hurdles. Hearing of their recent experience at regionals, I interviewed them both to ask how this competition was different from all the rest they’ve faced before.
I first asked Eli what the experience was like.
“Very competitive” Murphy said. “So much more lively than the Maine meets.” Being in such a big competition, Eli told me that, “Everyone wanted to do their absolute best. It was very … intense. Everyone was better, everyone knew what they were doing. It was all very controlled.”
Being around hundreds of other extraordinary athletes who have trained months for this competition, you can imagine that a lot of pressure was on Eli and Cam. But before the competition began, there was some fun on the road. Our boys were able to relax with some quality bonding time in Massachusetts rush-hour traffic. Cam told me that the traffic wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for an accident. “We were stuck in a traffic jam for three of four hours,” he said. “We moved so slow. At one point we stopped at a Mexican restaurant and talked with some of the locals.”
The big question I had for them was how they performed. Eli admitted that he did not do his best. “It wasn’t the best I had, but the atmosphere that I experienced on that level was a really good thing to have. A really good experience for college.”
Cam’s experience of the competition was very similar to Eli’s.
“There was a very historic feel to it,” Woodford said. “There were professionals all around us, a real eye opener. Way more intense than regular meets for sure.”
Cam also told me that when he was throwing in his event, he was surrounded by a big cage. On the outside of the cage fans would cheer the thrower on.
“In no way was it like normal meets, normal meets are so much more relaxed,” he said. “This was just … intense.” Cam ended up doing very well in his competition.
Both Murphy and Woodford want to recruit you, reader, for the track team so that you can be part of a very successful, award-winning team that they have spent years on. Be sure to congratulate Cam and Eli if you see them for their incredible athleticism.
In the end it is never really about who ran the fastest, who threw the farthest or who succeeded the most. It’s about being part of the competitive atmosphere and enjoying yourself. Because if you finish dead last in a competition like the one Eli and Cam participated in, and still manage walk away with a smile on your face, you’ve won the big challenge. Not only for your team, but for yourself as an athlete and a person.
Paul LePage's Two-Month Sprint By Matthew Principe
Even if you haven’t been watching the news lately (or even if you live under a rock in New Hampshire) it's hard to avoid Governor Paul LePage.
People are talking about Maine's new governor. He's upsetting some people while uplifting others, and he's not even close to finishing his first 100 days in office. The first 100 days are sort of a benchmark for governors and presidents. LePage looks like he's doing a 100-yard dash instead of a mile.
Our new governor is outgoing. He's not media-friendly, but he's not media-shy, either. He has spoken on many controversial issues already.
The fun began during LePage's campaign for governor. (He ran under the Republican Party ticket against Libby Mitchell, a Democrat, and Eliot Cutler, an Independent; LePage won with 38 percent of the vote.) Maine newspapers had fun with headlines such as “LePage tells Obama to go to hell.” Also during the campaign, LePage said he does not object to requiring the teaching of creationism in public schools.
Early into his term LePage said he refused to be “held hostage” by special interest groups. He refused to take part in Martin Luther King Day events or meet with the Maine representatives of the NAACP. He told newspapers to “Tell them they can kiss my butt.” He was referring to the NAACP. His comments sparked outrage, with civil rights leaders calling his remarks “astonishing and troubling.” The governor said he can prove he's not a racist because he has an “adopted” son who is not white. Unfortunately, the adoption paperwork has never been filled out. Fortunately, the young man is still considered part of LePage's family. LePage eventually met with NAACP representatives and tried to “make nice.”
Another hot issue was the hiring of LePage's daughter, Lauren LePage. Paul made her an assistant chief of staff with a pay of about $41,000 despite limited experience. State laws applying to nepotism did not apply to this matter. Critics of the hiring noted that Lauren LePage is earning a salary higher than trained many police officers and teachers.
Governor LePage has made some his biggest media splashes on health care issues.
He called for a repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is the bedrock of the federal health care reform laws passed by Congress a year ago. Among the law's many features is that it helps patients with pre-existing conditions get health insurance coverage. LePage called for a repeal of the act and called it “unconstitutional.” He has asked Maine’s attorney’s general to back him up and challenge the law. He also does not believe in MaineCare (Maine's Medicaid program, which helps low-income people with health insurance) because, he says, it can be too easy to join or qualify for.
LePage opposes same-sex marriage. He says civil union couples get the same legal standing.
Very recently a study has found that in baby bottles there are organic compounds, called Bisphenol A (BPA), which contain toxins. These hormone-disrupting compounds have been found in everyday items such cash register receipts, canned food and baby bottles. Expressing his skepticism, LePage joked that “the only bad thing about BPA is that it might give women little beards.” This did not go over well.
Seems like it's only a matter of time before the governor says something that upsets a lot of people. It would be foolish to dismiss him, however, because of one important issue that he is staking his reputation on: Maine's business climate. LePage wants to make Maine a more business-friendly state so that we can have more jobs and more opportunity for young people. Who can argue with that?
A spokesman for LePage has said this about the governor: "He's got a directness about him that a lot of people find appealing." If Maine's economy improves dramatically on LePage's watch, it may not matter how many people find the governor's comments unappealing.
*Photo credits to http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Maine/photos*
Monday, March 7, 2011
Life As We Know It on Facebook by Eric Bell
Who doesn't love Facebook?
"I only go on when I need to talk to someone or when I'm really bored or I need to share something with the world,” says Cameron Morrell. “Or when I'm sad or angry."
"I go on because I am addicted,” says Aliyah Gregory. “I don't really know why, but I feel the need to get on every night and check the latest news feed."
Facebook, the familiar social networking site that most of us know, was launched in February 2004, and now has about five hundred million users. Co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook has grown a lot in seven years. Zuckerberg was only nineteen, and a sophomore at Harvard when he launched the original site, “thefacebook.com”. After the creation of the world's most used and visited social network, controversy never ended. Facebook has evolved throughout the years, and nobody knows what it will look like in a year or two or ten.
Facebook seems to be a word that most teenagers and adults know. People use it when they have nothing else to do except stick their noses in other peoples business, play Farmville, or play the other various games on the site. People can “facebook” (a verb) rather than speak face to face; this causes variety of problems. Students may even be two-faced, expressing their emotions better through FB. This can cause anger and frustration among students on Facebook. But on the bright side, Facebook has helped some people re-connect with long lost friends, or family.
At home, at their friends' homes, at work, even at school, Facebook is everywhere. Yes, school, where it isn’t permitted, but somehow students find the need to go on it anyway. And of course they have the techno-savvy to do it. Why work on homework when we can just go on Facebook? What is so addicting about Facebook that students have a need to go on it during school hours? Is it just the fascination of posting what exactly they are doing every ten minutes? Going on Facebook during school may even affect some students' grades, depending on how frequent they go on. Some students even lie about being on Facebook, despite the evidence that shows they're violating school policy.
Myspace is also a popular social networking site, up in the rankings, right below Facebook. Yet Facebook has twice as many users. There was a time when Myspace dominated over Facebook, but nowadays, Facebook is number one. It seems Myspace won’t be able to catch up to Facebook. But now, Facebook has become so popular that there is a major Hollywood film, “The Social Network” that grabbed Oscar nominations. In upcoming years, who knows, there might just be another social networking site that will skyrocket above Facebook, and there might be yet another movie about the certain site.
Students can go on Facebook through portable devices such as cell phones or even iPods. School may be boring at times, but is it so boring that students must consume time on this site, rather than getting schoolwork done? I could see where students would use this popular site after school, but during school hours is a little crazy. Facebook has gotten just a little out of hand these days.
Adults complain about the instant messaging, how it needs fixing, or how it affects kids. Seven years from the time it was founded, Facebook is still going under changes. Is it too much to say that Facebook's impact on society is overrated? Some say so, but most Facebook fanatics just love the site. Facebook still needs to undergo changes, but meanwhile, most teenagers and adults are happy with the site just the way it is.
For some, such as Lauren Harris, Facebook fulfills simple needs. She says she goes on FB “so I can play the games available, like Penguin Toss.”
Who knows, there could be as many as eight hundred million users in the upcoming years.
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