COURSE SELECTION GUIDANCE: TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE?

Karen Cortes | Raider Staff

When it comes to choosing our classes, our school offers several resources.

Dan Croyle, the director of counseling, stated that the school used to print off a schedule sheet for every student, but not anymore. “Now that we’ve gone paperless with a lot of things, it’s online.” But as with a lot of things online, “people just don’t look for it or don’t know where it is,” Croyle said.

Croyle made it very clear where to find the program of studies: “If you go to Loudoun County High School, school counseling webpage, under academics, under P for program, it’s right there.”

But that requires students to actively search. And there’s little to no communication among teachers, counselors, and students that benefits students. While the program of studies is available, it provides a formal description of the course with little description to help students decide what is right for them. While teachers do show brief presentations about classes in their departments, they are broad and presented quickly.

Counselors do meet with students individually, but they are each assigned 300 students, so how can they be expected to know each student’s strengths and weaknesses, other than what they hear from teachers or see from transcripts?

And it’s really not their fault. When the time comes to choose classes and you know what you want to do, you might sit down at a counselor’s office and they might say you’re not fit for it, or they might let you try it.

When it comes down to it, students don’t know what they don’t know. Teachers don’t realize students need direct suggestions for next year’s classes. Our teachers aren’t really telling us what they think we should sign up for, and it really isn’t their fault.

Sometimes students don’t know what to ask when it comes to classes for next year; an informal poll showed that not many students know there is a program of studies available online, and those who were aware don’t really seem to take advantage of it.

To help students with a decision that impacts them significantly the following year, the school should allow a two-day window in which teachers use class time simply to meet with students one-on-one to discuss plans for next year’s classes.

Taking two full days for teachers to have a one-on-one conversation with each student for an average of 2-3 minutes before winter break would be useful, because the last thing on a student’s mind is work before Christmas break.

An A day and B day “meeting day” with teachers would limit teacher frustrations when students choose the wrong level class and find it either too easy or too hard. Two days of class is worth limiting that frustration.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH GOES UNAPPRECIATED (EDITORAL)

The armband that started the landmark Tinker case is on display at the Newseum in Washington, DC. The Tinker case is instrumental in establishing student freedom in a public school setting. Unfortunately, too many students take their rights for granted. Photo: Valerie Egger

This October, our staff had the chance to visit the Newseum in Washington, DC, just a few months before it closes its doors. With its closing came discussions of free speech and the importance of the press in this country.

Upon entry, we noticed a banner on the museum exterior with the hashtag #FreeAustinTice, “held captive for being a journalist since August 2012.” A former Marine, Tice went to Syria as a freelance journalist before his last year of law school. He never returned.

Tice wanted to report from inside Syria because of the lack of reliable sources—almost nothing being reported from on the ground—regarding the civil war there. He did, for several months, contributing helpful information that increased our awareness of the conflict there.

After he stopped tweeting and sending reports in August 2012, a brief video was released showing him bound and blindfolded, but no group has taken credit.

In 2018, the US State Department and FBI worked under the assumption that Tice is still alive and potentially held by Syrian government. This remains unconfirmed.

Sadly, Tice is not unique. As the Newseum showed us, journalists have been threatened and even killed for their work in uncovering the truth. But this is a true testament to human willpower: journalists are those willing to use their voice to uncover the truth, even at cost to themselves.

One of the startling displays in the Newseum was a map of free press in the world. The US, thankfully, was in the “green,” showing that we—like a few other nations—have the power to express the truth. Sadly, this power does not extend to much of the world.

Without a free press, there is no one to question the decisions of those in power. Without a free press, government is left unchecked, the oppressed have no voice, and change for the better is unlikely to occur.

We are fortunate to live in the nation with the most freedom of the press. We have access to all sorts of information. Too often, we see people our age—and even older—taking their freedoms for granted, distracted instead by Instagram or games and ignorant of the news. And we are always on our phones.

Our challenge to you is to spend some of your swiping time reading the news instead.

We are fortunate enough to live exposed to the free flow of news. It’s time we take advantage of that and help journalists, some of whom risk their lives, fulfill their purpose of informing the public.

Self checkouts: the venom infecting consumer America

Anna Claire Mitchum | Raider Staff

At the Target grocery store, regular cash register stands are steadily being replaced by self-checkout machines. These machines are slowly chipping away at the goodwill human beings possess. Raider Staff Photographer: Anna Claire Mitchum

It resides in stores such as Target, Walmart, Food Lion, and many others. It requires the consumer to perform manual labor that would have originally been done by the worker. It watches your every move. It enables the youth to commit crimes. I am talking about the poison slowly killing humanity: self-checkout.

Cashiers hold the most common job for people without a college degree, according to the Sacramento Bee. However, with the rise of self-checkout, the rate of cashiers employed has dropped and is projected to continue to drop, even though retail stores are on the rise.

The biggest percent of grocery store spending is to the wages of its workers. With one worker monitoring several self-checkouts, the store is able to cut down the number of workers it needs, saving money by having the consumers pay them to work.

A set of four self-checkout stations costs about $120,000 to install, but over time that cost is less than what the store would pay cashiers.

Since many students at Loudoun County High School work at stores, the self-checkout stations would take away jobs from students who need them to support their family and pay for college.

For many, self-checkout is a way to avoid the awkward interaction with a cashier when purchasing personal products. Still, according to Cardfellow, 43 percent of consumers still wanted a worker to be there to help with issues.

“I use self-checkout because sometimes I just don’t want to talk to the cashiers,” senior Kat Parker said.

With many people using their phone as a form of communication, Jessie Green, a school counselor, believes that some young people have become increasingly more uncomfortable in face to face interactions. Green says that the use of an electronic device to communicate has afforded students the time to think before providing a response. Unlike texting, conversations happen face to face, and you have to be able to think on your feet. Are these satanic machines enabling young people to further dehumanize the shopping experience?

However, others use self-checkout as a way to shoplift. If there is only one worker watching 15 self-checkouts, they cannot watch everyone scan everything. It is easier to steal from something that’s not human, than someone you talked with.

In Florida, a woman was caught putting clearance tags over the barcodes of expensive electronics. She paid $3.70 for what should have been $1,800 purchase. The theft rate has more than doubled for stores using self-checkout.

The future of humanity is changing. We will no longer be able to ask someone to direct us to the paper towels, no longer will we interact with human workers, no longer will we be able to enjoy the kindness that comes from humans. What will our future look like?

Flipped classrooms produce varying results

Sally Stimpson | Editor

Flipped classrooms: taking direct instruction and placing the responsibility on the individual learner rather than group instruction, then using classroom time to apply the content rather than doing direct instruction. This method has become increasingly popular in high schools across the country as evidence has shown that it can promote student engagement and enrich learning.

In fact, this approach has found its way into our own school with a variety of teachers using the process to teach their classes. In AP Government, teacher Monica Gill has adopted a flipped classroom every year for a number of different units.

“I use a flipped classroom in order to allow for more interactive classroom time. A flipped classroom sets up the opportunity to maximize time in covering content and allowing for richer class activities and simulation.”

Gill believes this setup has generally benefited her students. “I have mainly seen the flipped classroom help students. Students who engage in the flipped classroom tend to have a deeper connection with the material and are more invested in their learning.”

While from 2012 to 2014 there was a 30% increase in the number of teachers using a flipped classroom, some studies indicate that they may not be more effective than the traditional classroom. A 2013 study from Harvey Mudd found no statistically significant difference between the success of their flipped classroom versus the success of their traditional classroom.

Furthermore, it seems that the flipped classroom has created mixed results among students. Some complain that the flipped classroom creates a heavier workload as they are expected to do more outside of class while others enjoy the hands-on activities included in the flipped classroom.

Despite these mixed opinions, flipped classrooms have continued to gain popularity and produce impressive results. 71% of teachers indicated that grades improved while implementing a flipped classroom strategy and 96% who have flipped would recommend the method to others.

Although there are two distinct sides to the flipped classroom debate, the majority of studies lean in favor of the method. However, most people recognize that the flipped classroom is only effective when implemented correctly. This means instructors must be dedicated to creating a positive experience for students that valuably utilizes classroom time to build upon material.

If done right, the flipped classroom has the potential to benefit both students and teachers with engaged learning and increased participation in the classroom.