Author: adviser

  • Freshman Blues

    The first week as a freshman was terrible. I dislike it…very much. I had so much expectations for high school and maybe it’s too early in the school year to judge, but for now, it sucks. I had so many family members that said “High school will be the highlight of your life,” but it doesn’t seem that way. And I’ll admit, the first day of school was fun, but honestly it was the same as middle school for me. I was lost multiple times, looked for my friends at lunch, went over syllabi and finally, I went home. I mean yeah, it’s exciting, more people, more classes, and a bigger school. But school is school. Nothing has changed.

    Maybe I just had too high of expectations that high school would be more like the movies and I know it sounds silly, but it’s true. In real life, Troy Bolton doesn’t burst out singing unfortunately. But school isn’t meant for fun in my opinion. School is meant for learning. And I AM learning. But that’s all I’m doing IS learning. And people who have already attended Poly said that “If school is so basic, join a club or a sport because it will make your years here more fun.” But honestly, I joined a sport and my feelings about it is “it’s cool and all but whatever” (not to sound unappreciative or anything) and who has time for a club? Not me.

    Not to mention, my close friends don’t attend Poly high school so so there goes another con. Not to diss on Poly or anything, it’s a great school, but maybe not for me. Or maybe I am just thinking more about the cons than pros because I miss summer and I miss being lazy. Yeah that’s most likely it. I would much rather stay home and sleep in than wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning and attend school for eight hours. But who doesn’t? And at the same time, I want to have a stable job and a stable family in the future so I guess sleeping in all day  isn’t an option.

    And it’s not like I’ll stop going to school or ditch just because I don’t like it. High school is still important if you want to go to college and get that dream job. That’s one pro I guess, but currently, high school still sucks.

  • Jonathan Virak

    Jonathan Virak is Poly’s newest computer science teacher. Students in his class, which is the first in a 4 year pathway, learn industry-level computer concepts. The next classes in the pathway are computer science principles, computer science A, and then cybersecurity. Mr. Virak was born and raised in Long Beach, attended high school here at Poly, and went to college at Long Beach State University. Before coming to teach here, he taught robotics, computer science, and drafting in Downey for 20 years. He is an outdoorsman and likes to stay fit, his hobbies including working out, surfing, biking, and wood-working.

  • Gwen Larsen

    Polytechnic High School is proud to announce that there is a new teacher for CIC AP Literature and English 1-2. Gwen Larsen went to Yale studied English and drama and became a teacher. She is also a Poly alumna. While a student at Poly, she participated in student commission and vocal jazz, but now she only sings in the car – and only to Taylor Swift. Larsen is able to give her students solid advice about what they need to know for college because her husband used to teach freshman English at Harvard. One of her goals is to make sure her seniors are well-prepared to take the AP literature test in May. Before coming to Poly this year, Larsen held a variety of teaching positions in and out of LBUSD: she worked for Green Dot and LBUSD working in curriculum development and teacher coaching, but was most recently teaching at Rogers Middle School. Although she’s taught at other schools, according to Larsen, “Once a Jackrabbit always a jackrabbit!” When she isn’t at school, she’s busy with her family, which includes two sons and one daughter.

  • Michael Shenkelberg

    Michael Shenkelberg is our new auto shop teacher at Poly. He went to Fountain Valley high school, then attended Golden West College in Santa Ana. After he finished school he worked as a technician for the car brand, Cadillac, for 25 years. However, his first job was at the age of 15 where he worked at a toy store stocking shelves. He’s been in the automobile business his whole life and majored in being an automotive technician in 1983. Now, he has his very own auto shop class at Poly, his class offers two beginner courses which focus on book work,  getting to know the car and an advance course in which the students get the hands on experience and become familiar with the car parts.

  • Eugenia Elgorria

    For many years, our high school has had a solid French program. This year Eugenia Elgorria plans to continue with the tradition by providing students with vast opportunities to keep growing their interest for the french language and culture. This is her 18th year teaching with a Master’s degree in marketing, international business, spanish literature and linguistics with two credentials for French and Spanish. From biking to attending family events Ms. Elgorria plans to have a great time teaching the french language and culture. The Poly pride has surprised Ms. Elgorria by sharing positive attitude, respect and lots of kindness.

  • Just Do It.

    By: Jeremiah Jones

    My opinion on the Nike commercial starring Colin Kaepernick was dope, especially with everything that happened with Kaepernick when he protested. Him doing the Nike commercial was a good look on Nike as well as Kaepernick. If you haven’t seen the commercial it is about never giving up & just doin’ it.  It started off with a skateboarder falling off a rail, then a child with no legs on a wrestling mat, to a black boy who couldn’t be older than 10 years old running down a dirt road with a young shadowboxing woman wearing hijab, and lastly a Pop Warner football game and a blond girl playing high school football against boys.

    Everything they showed in the commercial symbolizes “don’t give up” , don’t worry about what people think. This commercial in my opinion, represents a lot of people that have opinions like Kaepernick and give praise to Nike for giving him this spotlight to speak his mind. However, some people didn’t like what Nike did.  They started to burn their merchandise and stop supporting them just because of this commercial. Long story short, he wanted to make a powerful point and message, and he did. The video ended with him saying, “It’s only crazy until you do it. Just do it.” So the message of today is “JUST DO IT”.

     

    By: John Dy

    The Nike product-burning is moronic for a number of reasons.

    People can feel how they want to feel about the ad and Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem. Some feel it’s disrespectful to the country or to the troops, sure. Whatever. People care about their country and don’t want it to be disrespected; alright, that’s fair. Be upset about it and voice your opinion; that’s what the first amendment is for. But burning Nike’s products and putting the videos up on the internet is just idiotic. The controversy they’re stirring up is just giving Nike more publicity, free advertising. Their sales have gone up 31% since the Kaepernick ad aired, despite all the outrage and protesters. The shoe-burning ain’t doing squat to stop Nike. And why now do they wanna protest Nike? They could tolerate the 5 year old Chinese kids working the sweatshops, but now that Nike puts some football player in an ad, this is the time to protest? Inconceivable. And burning the shoes can’t be good for their air. Burning all that rubber and other toxic materials is spitting in the face of Mother Earth, slowly killing our home, their home.

  • Margo Adkins-Jackson

    After traveling around the world from home town San Diego to South Korea, Australia, England, Thailand, Singapore, and over 38 States in the United States Dr. Margo Adkins-Jackson has made a stop at Long Beach Polytechnic High School this year as an Assistant Principal. The USC alumni, previously was at Wilson High School counseling and supporting students academically, emotionally, and socially as an Assistant Principal. As the new school year begins Dr. Jackson is here to help students attain,decide, and achieve their future goals like entering the workforce, the military, or going to college. To the Poly family, she is here to help anyone in anything.

  • Jason West

    This year Poly High School has hired Jason West as the Advanced Placement coordinator to aid teachers and students on their AP journey. Jason West has opened his room,132, for all AP students who are in need of guidance, those who wish to sign up for tutoring sessions, or need help organizing study groups. West has an entire cart full of supplies available to help AP students during the entire AP process from homework to getting the results back. Previously, he was a T.V. comedian writer for famous shows such as Family Guy and American Dad, until twelve years ago when he discovered a passion for teaching students. If you ever need a helpful hand or a nice cup of tea, bring a mug and come talk to the new AP Coordinator.

  • The “Dedicated to You” Dance Show a Success!

    The Dedicated to You spring dance show took place on both the 19th and 20th of April 2018. The show was in the Poly High School Auditorium and lasted for two hours. This spring show consisted of all dance levels and classes.

     

    “The Dedicated to You spring dance show was a really fun experience.” Said proud PACE junior and dance team member, Sandra Rosas “Each dance was choreographed in a special way for a special someone. Before certain dances, the choreographers explained to the audience who their dance was dedicated to,” Sandra, personally took part in several of the choreographed dances.

     

    “I’m in tech, which is dance 7-8 and we performed about 4 songs. We also  performed Snap your fingers, which is a jazz song. It was a lot of fun, it took all of us about a month and two weeks to practice and perfect it.” Said junior Jessica Perez ”It was my first time ever performing so I was a little nervous, but practice makes perfect! I was a little sad when it was over, because it was a lot of fun performing with the other girls. Since I’m taking more AP classes, I unfortunately, won’t take dance again next year, but it was super fun,” She broke down the process of the dance and show as a whole as well as sharing her thoughts on dance class in general.

     

    “By the end, everyone was happy the show was such a success! I was so happy to dance alongside my friends, especially my senior friends. It was sort of a way to say goodbye before they graduate. It was also a great way to end off the year before the senior show,” said Sandra for the end of the dance show. The next upcoming show will be the Senior show with open auditions in about six weeks.

  • Is A Rivalry Blooming?

     

    Long Beach Poly’s softball team faces the Millikan Ram on May 3. Poly’s team lost against the Millikan Rams by a score of 15-3 on April 10. Last year, the Jackrabbits were able to defeat the Rams once and the Rams were also able to take a victory as well. These back and forth victories have created a potential rivalry between both teams, making this upcoming game very interesting for the Jackrabbits.

    This season has been very tumultuous for Jackrabbits, but Coach Elizabeth Sanches is both proud of and thankful for all of her athletes. Coach Sanches says, “I have a great group of girls, they have an accumulative GPA of over 3.5, they get their job done both in the classroom and on the field, and work very hard.” Coach Sanches is also very cognizant of her team’s needs. With 19 players of the roster she makes sure to, “manipulate the line up to get as many girls in as I can each game.”

    Coach Sanches is also bringing a new culture to the team. She wants to team to have a strong “fellowship”. “To celebrate the seniors on the team and the sport they all love to play.”

  • Moore League More Streaks

    On Friday, April 20th our girls swim team won against one of our biggest rivals; Wilson High School. Fernanda Garcia said, “Going into the meet it was super intense. Me being a freshman and all you hear the stories of the rival between Poly and Wilson.” Fernanda explains that she was scared but overcame her fears because her team’s goal was to do their best.

    They started off the meet with an amazing fr/soph medley relay. Freshman Aaron P. started the meet off with an impressive time of 26 seconds on the first event (Medley Relay).

    Anja Oca said, “I was so happy for our fr/soph team, I want all our girls to do great, but there was this one freshman, they call her ‘Aaron P.’ she really pulled ahead at the last second and was able to out touch the Wilson girl.” She explains that this was a great start and it really helped pump all the girls up and “raise the hype” of the crowd.

    Poly ended up taking the lead and won 105-51. Georgia Buffington said, “I was really proud of us, our girls for having an awesome meet. We put our all into it, won by a lot, and we kept our sportsmanship, so did Wilson.” This was the first year Poly’s girls JV team has ever beat Wilson making it another memorable meet.

    Moore League will be on Thursday, May 3 and our scholars and champions seemed to be ready. “I’m really excited for Moore League, I think we are going to do really great with our strong team. The good thing is we have wiggle room for the different events. Hopefully I reach my goal of winning the 100 free.”

    Tides are running high as Poly Swim approaches the Moore League Championship. Yesterday the girls held their own in prelims against a “very determined Wilson team,” said Kalani Caldwell, head coach of girls swim. They are “sitting in a good spot to win Moore League,” which would make it the “first time in history that Poly has won 3 years in a row.” All-star swimmers like senior Anja Oca are hoping to break Moore League records this year. Yesterday she broke the meet record with a 100 Fly time of 56.42. For non-swimmers, that means that she swam 100 meters in well under a minute. She is hoping to cut that time by more than a second for the finals. Other swimmers, like sophomore Erin Babbit, have shown amazing improvement on the road to Moore League. In prelims she dropped a whopping 7 seconds in her 200 IM and 5 seconds in the 500 Free to place in finals for both events. Quoting Kalani, “Those are the hardest events to swim!”. Boys Swim is not doing too shabby either. Swimmers like Christopher Correa, with a 50 Free time on a mere 21.91 seconds, show that there is a lot of potential for Poly to reel in a historic Moore League victory. Last year Poly Swim was the first Moore League boys team to beat Wilson in a dual meet since 1972, but were unable to secure the Moore League victory. WIth the progress our boys team has been making over the past few years, it is a definite possibility that they will be able to defeat Wilson and end their 44 year winning streak!Isabel 

  • The Signs as Flowers

    Aries: Ivy

    Taurus: Orchid

    Gemini: Roses

    Cancer: Hibiscus

    Leo: Sunflower

    Virgo: Violets

    Libra: Marigold

    Scorpio: Poppies

    Sagittarius: Dandelion

    Capricorn: Lotus flower

    Aquarius: Water Lilies

    Pisces: Hydrangea