On December 10, CIC seniors went to UC Irvine for a campus tour and a demonstration of the Shakespeare production, Macbeth.
CIC AP English Literature and Composition teachers Gwendolyn Larsen and James Cooperider organized the event, encouraged all of their students to attend, and chaperoned at the university.
While there, the students were split into three groups to rotate between a tour of the campus, a presentation of different adaptations of the play, and a chance to see and handle old copies of Shakespearean scripts at the school’s library archive. Among these rare books in the archive was a copy of the First Folio, the first official written source for the scripts for Shakespeare’s plays averaging about $3-7 million US dollars in value.
“The First Folio was probably the coolest thing I saw that day,” said Amber Payan. “I have a big appreciation for theater, so it [made] me feel more immersed in the world; it really makes me feel like this is my spot. It’s where I want to be.”
After lunch, the students gathered again in the presentation room to sit in on an acting theory lecture from one of the college professors, as well as witness a sample of an acted scene from two of UCI’s acting majors. One Poly student, Isaac Absalom stepped up at the end and got to act as Macbeth with one of the college students. “It was fun! I like doing fun stuff,” he said. “I feel like that’s my character – extroverted.”
Absalom was happy he was able to see the campus and get a glimpse of what college life may be like for him in the near future: “I think to pay attention to more things than just the teaching and the campus – like seeing who goes there and what the vibe is like – that and a lot of things go into choosing a college.”
Category: News
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A Shakespearean Experience at UCI
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Holly Jolly Poly Christmas: Holiday Project
LB Poly began the holiday season with its annual Holiday Project on December 7. The ASB sponsored event also featured student volunteers from Female Leadership Academy, Model UN, and LEIA club. Families from the community surrounding Poly were able to enjoy Christmas music and refreshments as well as partake in workshops such as choosing their own books to take home and making reindeer antlers headbands. Each child was given a “passport” to get stamped at each workshop which would later be exchanged for a toy at Santa’s Workshop. Performances by Poly’s cheer team and choir helped get attendees in the Christmas spirit and children and adults alike were able to enjoy a holly jolly Saturday.
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Poly Gives Back With Thanksgiving Drive
With Thanksgiving coming up, family, friends, and neighbors are ready to show gratitude and thankfulness by giving back. Poly also celebrates the season of thankfulness every year by giving back to the community with the canned food drive.
Every year clubs are able to participate in this tradition by informing their members about the opportunity to give back to the community. The canned food drive allow members to bring in canned food and from there all the work is handled. The canned food then circulates back to the Long Beach Community to those in need.
Many are more than enthusiastic to be able to give their members an open resource to actively be involved in. Which creates a more festive vibe during the holiday season. This year clubs got together to donate boxes of mashed potatoes, stuffing mix, instant potatoes, canned vegetables, cranberry sauce, gravy and more.
The amount of time put into the Thanksgiving drive is also substantial. Audrey Deth from ASB stated that the “time we take for a drive, that involves student, takes a while because we need to make sure there is enough time for students to get the items they are donating and to have time to organize.”
Other clubs hosted their own events for the holiday food drive. For example, Reviver, an environmentalist club at Poly hosted their own Canned Food Drive. Wendy Ngau, the Vice President of Reviver, stated that they “have reached out to around 15 teachers that are willing to participate by encouraging students to donate canned or imperishable food. Which they will collect and give to Long Beach Rescue Missions.” Reviver makes sure that members of their club are able to participate as well by allowing them to go to the Long Beach Rescue Mission during Sunday Kiss to organize and serve food.
During this holiday season remember to be to give back to your community. Sitting down and enjoying a Thanksgiving meal will be more fulfilling knowing that you provided a warm meal to others! With the completion of another year of the food drive, hopefully the canned food drive is one tradition that will never fade. With the end of the food drive, the thankfulness of the holiday season isn’t yet over; the Christmas toy drive is on its way and clubs are eager to bring toys that will be distributed to children in need during the Holiday Project on December 7th. -
700 Mystery
On November 5th during 4th period, teachers throughout campus received an ambiguous email stating to not allow students to leave class.
Jackie Lazatin, health care analysis teacher, said students who were on their way to her class were told to go to the nearest open classroom which was the College and Career, until further instructions were given.
After a few minutes, an all clear was sent and students were allowed to return to class. No further details were disclosed.
While there are rumors of what occurred to prompt those emails, no one knows for sure what happened.
Rob Shock, boys athletic director, said he was unable to provide any information as it was a police issue not a school issue.
Principal William Salas said in an email, “We are keeping our students safe and we can’t comment about other students.” -
Poly’s Choir Winter Concert
Pictures from the 4th period Holiday Vocal Assembly show a sneak peak of the Poly Choir Holiday Concert that happened yesterday, Thursday, December 5. Every year, these singers express their love for the holidays as they dress up with reindeer ears and Santa hats. During this concert only, all of the choirs come together on stage to sing “Samba Santa” and “Peace Peace”,0 a tradition carried on by choral director Brian Dokko. “Peace Peace” features the Jazz 2 choir on the bells as the remaining choirs sing their parts on stage. The holiday concert is always a fun one, as the choirs sing jazzy Christmas carols and traditional holiday favorites.
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Doin’ it all for the (Kindness) Gram
What can make your day better than a written card from your friend addressing how thankful they are for you? Of course, money and materialistic items might cause a feeling of happiness, short term, but a personal letter written to someone you admire can leave a mark on that person’s heart.
Long Beach Polytechnic High School this year provided the opportunity for students to send kindness grams to their friends. In addition, there was a Kindness Week starting from November 12th to the15th. Each day represented a way to be kind to your friends, students, teachers, and yourself. Audrey Deth from ASB stated the purpose of Kindness Week was to get kids mood and overall vibe uplifted. However, according to Deth it does “take a lot of dedication because we represent the student body so we try our best for any even that’s also not the Thanksgiving Drive or Kindness Week.”
Teachers were more than grateful to take time out of class to pass out the grams to students. This year, English teachers were given the role to pass out and return the kindness grams, but the students themselves had to know what period and English teacher their friend has in order to deliver it to them.
Karen Ferrer, an 11th grade student received cards and wrote cards to friends. She thought it would be a great time to draw images and write witty comments to her friends to uplift their day.
Most people were shocked when they received a gram. The shock of receiving a kindness gram demonstrates how we tend to forget to remind those we love how much we appreciate them. Not only do we forget to love others, but we also forget that we are loved, which is something everyone deserves to know. We often are so focused on our day to day, trying to go down a set schedule, that we forget to take a moment, step back, and just appreciate what we have.
Make sure to remind someone how thankful you are for them, even if it isn’t even a holiday. It may seem silly or outright useless to you to even take time from their day to tell them such plain words! However, you never know what someone is going through and just the two words of thank you can say more words then its composed of. If you’re looking where to start, send a handwritten letter– if you’re feeling extra thankful draw a heart or a picture along with it. -
Awareness Month
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month in many parts of the world. Breast cancer awareness is an effort to increase recognition of the disease and reduce the shame brought on to one by education on symptoms and treatment. Greater knowledge of this disease can increase early detection and survival rates amongst those who might be living with it. Money that is raised for breast cancer goes toward a reliable permanent cure.
Breast cancer awareness advocates raise funds and provide needed knowledge and patient empowerment. Educational campaigns are held along with free or low cost services. We all associate breast cancer with the prominent symbol of the Pink Ribbon.
October is also Red Ribbon Week, which is an alcohol, tobacco, and other drug and violence prevention awareness campaign observed annually in October in the United States. It began as a tribute to fallen DEA special agent Enrique Camerena in 1985. -
Book Review: The History of Long Beach Poly: Scholars and Champions
Although it is not on the New York Times Best Sellers list, the new book The History of Long Beach Poly: Scholars and Champions is getting a lot of attention these days in not only Poly, but the whole city of Long Beach. The authors, Mike Guardabascio, a Poly alumni, and Tyler Hendrickson, explore the unique aspects of our historic school from the beginning in 1895 through present day Poly. The book includes sections of early Poly days, how the World Wars affected life at Poly, celebrity alumni features, original traditions created by the school, and more information about Poly I don’t even think our principals know about.
Overall, there is a ton of intriguing information, but I’m not quite sure if ALL of Poly can fit into 191 pages only. Each chapter has small sections like “Football” in the chapter “Poly’s Sports Programs” where it only covers a page and a half. For a high school that is known for our football team with the most drafted NFL players, the section could’ve been a bit longer, more in depth. Perhaps it was a style decision, they want to keep it short and prompt, but it feels to me that the authors just gathered “cool” information and slapped it together to form this book. Now, the grammar errors are even less forgivable.
The book wasn’t all just sloppy facts, I did feel as if the book was a good overview of our school. As they said in an interview on The 562.org, “somebody’s gonna find this and fall in love with Long Beach.” I agree with this, I do believe this book was aimed for an audience that is not familiar with Long Beach or Poly itself, which could have been the whole point of writing it. Furthermore, the interview also made the authors’ love for Poly apparent and a strong inspiration for the production of this book. However, the lack of depth and careless errors made me feel this book did not fully express or reflect their love for Long Beach Poly High School. -
SAT/PSAT Study-a-Thon at the College and Career Center
October, characterized notoriously for the horrors and goosebumps, took another form of scary on October 15; this time in the form of a test. A test that lasted for a treacherous five hours.
The Scholastic Aptitude Test (most commonly known as the SAT) was administered to seniors while the PSAT was administered to freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. This year, all Poly students were confronted by a gloomy, foggy morning as they trudged to their assigned classroom, wishing that the grim morning would not foreshadow the day. However, despite the dreary environment, there was hope: this year, many students took advantage of the Study-A-Thon at the College and Career Center.
The coordinators of the SAT Study-A-Thon were Alaa Shhub and Roc’Kale Bowman. They described the “Study-A-Thon [as] an event and place for students to study for the SAT using Khan Academy…in order to improve their scores.” They stated that an astounding amount of students showed up: approximately 100. With the success of the Study-A-Thon this year, they will be hosting it again during the spring semester.
Students who took advantage of the College and Career Center were ecstatic. They were lured in by the advertisement of an increase of 90 points, and of course, pepperoni and cheese pizza.
Leann Namuco, an 11th grader in the PACE program, said, “This was a welcoming experience and comfortable. Yet although it was pretty loud and was sometimes a little difficult to study, it is still beneficial and would recommend suggesting to other people because it was more fun to study in groups. Not only that, you will learn better than being alone. Plus there was pizza.” -
What’s New with the CARE Center
High school is stressful for even the most successful of students. Whether because of the schoolwork itself or something else happening at home or between relationships, the CARE Center in Room 205 provides a safe place for students to talk with a counselor (Michael Gray) when they are stressed, overworked, or struggling. Gray aims to help students develop good habits along a healthier mindset to face and work out problems in their life.
This year, the CARE Center is working on a project to “elevate the importance of mental wellness skills equal to Algebra and essay writing,” Gray said. Academic topics are held at the highest standard on terms of importance, where “mental wellness is barely existent in terms of what percentage of students feel strong in their mental wellness skills. We don’t even teach mental wellness skills.”
Daily emails have been sent out to students via Schoolloop, called “Stronger 2gether,” to help students learn these skills, such as planning your day, keeping a “gratitude journal,” and self-reflection exercises.
“Developing Future Mental and Behavioral Health” is a class offered periods 1-6 as a capstone of the MEDS pathway. Students are able to help and talk to other students, similar to how Gray does.
“We basically talk a lot about how to solve conflicts,” Laura Clemons, a junior in the fifth period class, said. “We talk about what we can do to help better ourselves.” An example of this is how Gray has been teaching her is that we need to stop “should-ing” ourselves: when we tell ourselves we “should” do something instead of how we are going to do something, we tend to procrastinate more often.
Gray is also requesting video ideas/concepts from students for Stronger 2gether. For anyone interested, talk to Mr. Gray in Room 805 before school, at nutrition, and at lunch. -
fUN with Model UN
Model United Nations, also known as Model UN, is an elective class here at Poly run by sophomore PACE teacher Patrick Gillogly. In class, students role play as delegates to the United Nations and simulate UN committees.
The team had their first conference of the year October 12 at Cerritos High School. Over half of the individuals on the team received awards for excellence.
October 26, the team also participated in an event at UC San Diego.
Poly will host a Model UN conference that is a one day simulation on May 16, 2020. Students will play the role of delegates from different countries and attempt to solve real world issues with policies, keeping in mind the perspective of their countries. -
Spilling the Tea on the AP Cafe
The AP Cafe is now open for business periods 7 and 8 and after school until 4 p.m. on the second floor of the 100 building.
The AP Cafe first opened last school year as a safe place for AP students to relieve stress, get tutoring, or work with partners for homework or group projects. Last year was a bit of a “beta test,” as AP coordinator Jason West, seen on the right, called it, but this year it has returned with a larger variety of supplies, resources, and treats for AP students (including West’s famous assortment of tea).
One student told West that she really liked the space because it made her feel like she was cared about. The atmosphere and decor of the room have been specifically designed for this effect, and West is happy that students have taken a liking to it. He aims to maintain a space where students that are challenging themselves can relax and have a comfortable place to go for help. “You can’t just make the assumption that the kid is eating or taking care of themselves,” he said, hence the supply of refreshments available for the students.
“We’re very down to business here, and they give you help straight on,” CIC student Marco Menes said. “They actually helped me get my grade up in physics. I had a D originally, and I got it up to an A-.” Thanks to one of the tutors, Vasil “Vasco” Gucev, Menes was also able to raise a failing grade in geometry to a B.
The Cafe is a lot busier this year than it was previously, but that means that more tutors are needed to help out. West is specifically interested in hiring students with unscheduled periods 1 and 2 so he can make the Cafe available during those times, as well.
Gucev said that the desire to help others is what makes a good tutor. There are other more efficient ways to make money or improve a college resume, he says, but one of the greatest feelings in the world to him is when a struggling student leaves with a clearer understanding because of what he was able to help them with. “That’s what a tutor does: he reiterates something again and again and again in multiple different ways…they change the way you look at the picture until it makes sense.”
This year, West has started the AP Cafe Club to organize fundraisers for future resources and treats. He would also like to see systems set in place for the Cafe to continue over the years. “Beyond your years at this school, beyond my years at this school, I want this place to last,” he said.
While the Cafe is mainly targeted as an aid for AP students, West would describe it as a club rather than a VIP lounge. Students are welcome to invite friends outside of AP courses, as well.
West would also like to remind students that rules for the AP tests have changed from last year. AP students should have been registered for the exam in class, but there will be no penalty if they do not pay and do not want to take it. Once the test is paid for, students will be charged $40 if they do not attend. Many resources and practice tests are available on the College Board website for studying purposes.