Author: adviser

  • Long Beach Jazz Festival

    Long Beach Jazz Festival

    Poly students performed at the Mayfair Jazz Festival on February 24 at Mayfair High School, where Poly’s Jazz C ensemble came in first place. They also played at  the Western States Jazz Festival on February 25 at Upland High School where Poly’s Jazz A2 ensemble came in third place and Jazz A came in fifth place in their own divisions.

    Those festivals are the oldest and most famous jazz festival in Southern California. Most of the best schools were there, as jazz teacher Chris Stevens said, “The Poly musicians played great!”

    For the first festival, the following four songs were played; “Sack O’Woe” by Cannolbal Addrley, “It’s Alright With Me” by Cole Porter, “Breathing” by Fred Sturm, and “Backjump” by Troy Andrews and Mike Ballard. For the second festival, the following four songs were played: “Low -Down” by Thad Jones, “Blue Skies” by Irving Berlin, “ Here’s Looking at You” by Charlie Haden, and “One Sided Coin” by Dan Radluaer.

    There were many solos at both festivals, each involving about two or more soloists per song.

    Freshman Alex Reams, one of the soloists at the Mayfair Festival, said, “There were about three judges there and I was nervous, but overall I think I did pretty good.”

    Senior Madison Alexander, another soloist, did not have that much time to prepare for the festival because one of the other piano players from Jazz A2 wasn’t able to make it. However, according to the judges, Alexander was still part of one of the “tightest rhythm sections” and that her solo had good licks. Alexander claimed that hearing that was “unimaginable and pretty elating to hear.”

  • The Serialized Adventures of John P. Chandatlantic, Part 2

    Part 1 of the “John P. Chandatlantic” was published in the High Life on February 23

    I heard a senior call the area between the 200 Building and the 300 Building as “The Meadow.” I like that. It’s cute. A good place for flowers and bunnies and—crap, Dad has me making Jackrabbit puns.
    Everyday when he drops me off he always says, “All right, hop along now, have a good day.” Every. Single. Day. Hop along.

    Oh, who am I kidding, I love puns. Last Thursday in math, the girl who sits behind me was talking to her friend and her friend says, “Dude, my sister literally locked me out. I had to climb the tree up to my window!” The other girl goes, “Wow, you’re really branching out.” So I turned around and was like, “I cannot be-leaf you just said that.” She laughed and then I didn’t really know what to say so I just turned back around. Nobody said anything for a little while so I kinda half-turned around; then realized I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t. Then I turned around and asked if she would be interested in Batman Club.

    She was kinda cute actually…

    I still haven’t really found a lunch group yet. Most days I just chill in Mr. A’s room during lunch. My friend Evan and I play Speed. Sometimes when the computers are open we’ll find some stupid browser game to play together, so that’s fun. And there’s Batman Club once a week. We just get together and Mr. Maddison plays episodes of the Batman Cartoon. Evan comes with me, when he remembers. There are usually one or two other kids, and sometimes we chat.
    I still haven’t really found my niche though.

    But the other day I was looking out of Mr. Maddison’s window— that one that can’t close because it’s broken— and down into the Meadow and I noticed that she was sitting there, laughing and chatting with some of my classmates. There were little white flowers in the grass and a couple of her friends were making dandelion-bracelets for each other. I knew everyone she was with; most of them I talk to in class.

    On screen, Batman punched the crook off a dock and the end of lunch bell rang. Evan threw his arm around my shoulder and dragged me off to my next class.

  • Mathletes Take the Pi(e)

    Mathletes Take the Pi(e)

    On Wednesday, March 1, Poly’s cafeteria hosted the Bay Math League’s first of four annual competitions.
    “It’s a big deal,” says calculus teacher and coach of the Poly Math Team, Pam Amici. “There are schools from all over California coming here.” There are twelve schools with teams in the Bay Math League. Poly is the only school from Long Beach Unified District. All others came from schools farther north.
    These schools crowded into the cafeteria, filling it with pink “I’m sec C and I know it” jackets and several variations of the Pi symbol made up of various other numbers or mathematical constructs. Poly’s team claimed the largest swath of the cafeteria and, though they had the home field advantage, they did seem to be lacking something the other schools were not: snacks. But, unlike most of the other teams, Poly’s team is not funded by the school.
    Most of the schools there had one or two teams of roughly a dozen people each. Poly on the other hand has sixty students on its team. “I believe that I let everyone who wants to participate participate,” says Amici. The only reason she caps the volunteers at sixty is that the bus to the other venues can only hold that many.
    According to a handful of the seniors on the team, the main motivator for joining is the extra credit, though there are a handful of underclassmen on math team for the pure love of math. One such mathlete is sophomore William Terlinden, who says math team has given him “perspective on [his] study methods.” He says, “It’s been a way to evaluate my actual skill in math instead of how much I can cram.”
    Senior Mani Vu has a different reason for joining Poly’s math team. “On math team,” says Vu, “I attracted so many girls it was ridiculous. I was like a chick magnet.” He then got serious and reflected on how math team has allowed him to embrace his “inner nerd.” He believes that the Math Team is one of those communities that makes Poly such a special place.

  • Student Art Show

    The JCC Art Show ended on Friday, March 3. The art show went on for four weeks and took place at the Jewish Community Center. The exhibit included 97 different works of art from 20 different schools. Ten middle schools and ten high schools participated in the event. The categories consisted of the following; high school art, high school digital art, and middle school art.
    Six Poly students submitted their work into the show, five of whom won an award or prize. Senior April Ray won third place in high school art. Ray stated, “My piece was a water piece called ‘Still Life’ and it took months to put together.”
    For the same category, Emma Hastie, Enrique Martinez, and Andreana Santos-How won honorable mentions. Elizabeth Sandoval won first place for high school digital art. This category was new as of this year, created for all the digital/photography submissions received.
    There is another upcoming art show for the students who didn’t get a chance to submit work into the JCC art show.  The theme will be the role of gender in today’s society.
    Artists are asked specific questions to consider in preparation: What is the relationship between gender and society? How does culture shape one’s gender identity? What does it mean in a given culture to be masculine or feminine? How is society’s view of gender changing? Thoughts can be represented through a drawing, painting, photograph, collage, or a three dimensional sculpture.
    Everyone’s artwork will be judged by the Long Beach Art Museum in conjunction with the Millikan High School Museum Studies Exhibitions Department. The art will be judged based on the its visual depiction of theme, artistic merit, and meeting all of the stated requirements. Students interested have the choice of digital media, drawing, watercolor, acrylic, photograph, oil painting, ceramic, print, or collage.
    Two dimensional work should be at least 8”×10” but no larger than 16”×20”. Three dimensional work should be no larger than 16”×16”×20”. Art works can’t depict obscenities or weapons. Any Poly student is allowed to enter their piece, the deadline is still to be announced.

  • Nasty Couples are Nasty

    Nasty Couples are Nasty

    Let’s get one thing straight. When I’m walking to class, the last thing I want to see is some nasty couple making out in the hallway. I’m not one to shy away from PDA, but when I can see your tongue in someone else’s mouth, you have taken it too far. Have some self-respect. You want to to be cute and disgusting with your dearest? Save it for a place that’s not around other people.
    If I can hear you kissing from the other end of the hallway, please re-evaluate your life choices.
    There was this especially gross couple two years ago on the third floor of the science building. Everyday during lunch they would be jumping all over each other, and grinding, and just generally being nasty. No offense, but I don’t need to see that when I’m trying to eat. I’m tempted to go full Dolores Umbridge and say “Boys and girls are not to be within eight inches of each other.” I’m not that cruel, but still. There is no need to be kissing each other in front of other people.
    This is not only uncomfortable for me, but also for the couple. Being seen by others while you’re kissing your partner must not be fun. If I were the girlfriend, I would be uncomfortable when everyone passed me with a disgusted look on their face. And not only do people have a habit of looking, they also have a habit of talking, and you might get a lot of unwanted “publicity”. If you’re into that sort of thing.

  • Swim Starts Off Strong

    Poly’s swimming season has started. There was a girls swim meet against Los Alamitos and Marina,  which in they lost by a small margin. The thing with those swim meets is that they were D1 teams which made it harder because they were faster. This made good turnouts to the girls swim team with the fact that they can get an idea of the future of the season.
    The biggest competition so far is with Wilson High School since the Bruins have been maintained a 44 year winning streak in the boys swim meets. Boys varsity swim team is hopefully going to kill it this season because the boys have the capability of beating Wilson from all their hard work and effort.

    Most of the good swimmers have gotten a head start on this sport, having played five years old, such as Isabella Magalong a senior student member in the girls swim team, and Leilani Davila, a former member of the swim team. Many think that swim should actually be considered an individual sport but our swim team has a different opinion about that. As Magalong states, ”Before high school swim I would participate in club swimming, which in the time I saw it as an individual sport, but now I see it as a group sport,and as a team everyone has an aspect and each get points and have it as an accumulative effort.”

  • Track Goes to New York

    Poly’s boys and girls track and field athletes are heading to New Balance Indoor Nationals at the Armory Track in New York this weekend, March 10-12. The athletes will compete in a variety of events against schools from other states. Junior Ariyonna Augustine will be competing in the 60 meter dash and 200 meter dash. Last year Augustine won CIF-SS Division 1 championship in the 100 and the 200 meter dash.

    Augustine said she is scared of the competition but “confident” and wanting to “out everything on the track.” Her goal is to get a personal record, faster than 6.4 seconds in the 60 meter dash.

    When asked about their upcoming meet in New York, sophomore Jaelyn Predium felt “very excited” and glad to go somewhere she has never been before. Jaelyn will be competing in the 60 meter dash emerging elite.     The other track and field athletes that will be attending this New Balance indoor meeting will be Zhane Smith in the girls long jump and triple jump, Zion Bowens and Aaron Shampklin in the 60 meter championship series, De’Varriea Oleas in the 60 meter hurdles, and Tariq Harness and DeAngelo Chester in the 60 meter emerging elite. Poly will be also represented by girls 4×800 and distance medley relay teams.

  • Baseball Takes Tough Loss

    Poly baseball played an away tournament March 3 hosted by Los Alamitos. They lost 8-7, but it was an overall good game.
    Junior Mike Mauai was selected Player of the Game. When asked about his thoughts on the game, junior outfielder Nolan Brown said, “It’s a good game to see where we are as a team.”
    Players were prepared for the game but did not come out with the win. Junior center fielder EJ Andrews said he prepared for the game by, “taking practice very seriously, working on my defense, and hitting.”
    The coach was preparing the team by working a lot on defense.
    Brown said coach was preparing them by “working on a lot of drills, and defense. Defense has been a big emphasis throughout the season.”
    Their defensive practice is showing in the games but their offense is not quite good enough.
    Andrews’ thoughts on the coach are that “he brings a lot of enthusiasm to the sport, he gets us pumped up for the game. His favorite saying is ‘practice makes perfect.’”
    All of the players practice every day. Senior catcher AJ Renteria said he prepares for games by “hitting every day, working out everyday, practicing hard everyday, [and] no days off.”
    The Poly Jackrabbits also played a home neutral tournament game against the Loara Saxons. Unfortunately, the Jackrabbits lost by a score of 2-1, but their good defense showed. Senior Jake Creamer was selected Player of the Game. The Jackrabbits have only played a few games, and now hold a 2-2 record. Poly is now third in the Moore League.

  • Softball Starts Off Rough

    Softball Starts Off Rough

     

    The Long Beach Poly softball team has started their season with a rough stretch with a 2-4 record. Against Tustin High School Poly won 8-2 and unfortunately St. Anthonys beat us in a 7-1 loss this past weekend.
    3 year varsity player and returning shortstop  Evelyn Sablan said, “our defense did a good job, we hit the ball hard but it wasn’t the outcome we were looking for.” The girls have been playing well but some teams are better than others, but that’s not a problem for our Lady Jackrabbits they are ready to face the Moore League teams and hope to win Moore League.
    Their next game is not until March 25 which gives the team time to practice harder and improve on their communication skills. Returning catcher, senior Crystal Cepeda says, “I’m looking forward to playing with the team after taking a year off and enjoying my last year playing softball as a senior.”
    Another key point is that the team needs to work together as two year returning varsity catcher Alexis Durand said “I’m looking forward to everyone playing together as a team, I think we can be better than last year if we put in enough hard work we can succeed.” The team has a lot of potential this upcoming season after moving players up from junior varsity. “There is a lot more talent on the team, which should lead to a Moore League title,” said senior Jaclyn Pangelinan.

  • Pennies for Patients Providing Incentive for Students

    Cancer is one of the most common diseases and comes in many forms. Leukemia is a cancer of
    blood-forming tissues, hindering the body’s ability to fight infection. Lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system. Myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells. All of these require medical diagnoses, and are only treatable by medical professionals. These expensive, torturous treatments include medications, chemotherapy, corticosteroids, radiation, or a stem-cell transplant.
    Each year, 12.7 million people discover they have cancer and 7.6 million people die from the malady; on average, cancer treatments can cost a whopping $30,000 a month. In order to help alleviate some of the financial burden, Poly has decided to participate in the Pennies for Patients campaign.
    “I love giving back as much possible to the society,” answered Kayla Van, a junior at Poly, when she was asked why she enjoyed being a leader in the campaign. Pennies for Patients is a nationwide project to help fund the world’s largest non-profit voluntary organization, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which provides funding for education and research on blood-related cancers including Lymphoma, Leukemia, and Multiple Myeloma.
    Millions of dollars have been raised in pennies and other spare change by more than ten million
    elementary, middle, and high school students throughout of the country. This spring semester, Poly students get to collect pennies during the campaign benefiting the society. However, they are welcome to donate nickels, dimes, and quarters as well.
    On March 14, a rally supporting the funding of the campaign will take place on the rally stage. In a three-week period, from March 6 through March 20, Poly’s goal is to raise up to $3,500 in change.
    Collecting boxes are in every classroom for students and teachers to donate. This year, every period four and nine will be competing. The class to collect the most money will win a pizza party, second place will get donuts, and third place will receive cookies.

  • Wellness Week at Poly

    Khmer Girls in Action is sponsoring Poly’s fourth annual Wellness Week from February 27 to March 3. On Monday, February 27, the Wellness Week starts off with the Women’s Self Defense at the teacher’s’ lounge from 3 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. Tuesday will be featuring a de-stress and healing also at the teacher’s’ lounge from 3 P.M to 4:30 P.M. At the library on Wednesday there will be a Soul Session from 3 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. On Thursday there will be a Healthy Cooking presentation in room 514 in Mrs. Sawyer’s class from 3 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. The final day will be the Health and Wellness Resource Fair at the quad from 11:30 A.M. to 12:30 P.M.

  • Cool Kids at Poly

    On Saturday, February 11, ABC7 held a luncheon honoring about twenty-seven students for its Cool Kids segment. They were gathered together to be awarded for being helpful and inspirational in their communities. Among these students was Poly sophomore Heinglee Va, who was nominated by his aunt.

    For the past year and a half, Va spent every other weekend avidly taking part in making the beach a safer place for the community and, more importantly, for the marine life. He volunteers with the Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit environmental organization that gets students of various ages together to clean the beach. Va says that when he moved to Long Beach three years ago he had a rather inactive social life and joining the Foundation is one of the things that has helped him fit in. He joined when his uncle introduced the idea and he figured that “it beats sitting at home watching TV.

    Va’s English teacher, Daryl Holmlund, said, “Heinglee always has a positive attitude, works hard, and is a deserving recipient.”