“The graduates were very inspirational in delivering key messages about the diploma preparing them for college and how it empowered them,” Shirley Campbell IB Diploma coordinator said.

The IB candidates of 2012 and 2013 listened attentively to the 2011 graduates in order to receive advice about the IB program.

“The IB Diploma is worth it. It teaches you great skills like time management and it gives you lots of credits for college,” Gessica Azzam, freshman at George Mason University, said.

“The candidates saw how the benefits extended into college; they got to see the end results of their hard work and how it is all going to be worth it,” Campbell said.

Though many underclassmen are still debating about whether or not they should take the IB route, it is crucial that the decision is made early on so that they may choose their classes properly.

“It is difficult, but doable, and what you get out of it is more than what you could imagine right now,” Centellas said.

Although most of the returning recipients saw the IB program as valuable, some AHS students had contrasting feelings toward the IB program. The A-Blast conducted an activity where students were asked to write down the first word that came to mind on an index card when given the word “IB.” Students gave various replies including “challenging” and “overrated.”

Most teachers are continually striving to find creative methods to help their students learn; Brian Dunnell uses Play-Doh in his history classes during lessons on Greek art and architecture and in his psychology classes for art therapy.

“Art and Play-Doh have very therapeutic values,” Dunnell said. “I use Play-Doh as an example of art therapy to illustrate how a trained psychologist might draw out a patient who is reluctant to talk or has difficult expressing complex emotions.”

Dunnell noted the prominence of artwork in classical societies such as mandalas, which means circle in Sanskrit.  Mandalas were introduced into Western society by the psychiatrist Carl Jung and are used today to therapeutically examine oneself.

Psychology teacher Katie Gould uses Play-Doh to display various theories in psychology and to help students understand and explore the material. She had students create their families with Play-Doh during one class. Gould pointed out that students who had made themselves far away from the rest of the Play-Doh family were not close to their immediate family in real life.

“[Play-Doh] helps me learn because it allows me to be more creative. It makes it easier for me to remember the material and it keeps me awake in class,” junior Nisha Sarath said.

In another lesson, Gould taught the workings of a neuron through a “dance party.” Students were split into two groups: one potassium and one sodium and acted out the process of a firing neuron.

“Everybody has different preferences on how they want to learn. I’m a guy who falls asleep in lectures, but if I sit down with a book, I would retain the information from it easily. Not every kid enjoys taking notes or looking at a PowerPoint,” Dunnell said.

The use of alternative teaching methods like Play-Doh and acting has been noted by various teachers and studies to enhance education and help  students retain information.

“The human mind craves experience and loses interest with repetition,” Dunnell said. “If a kid enjoys a lesson, they’ll think your class is fun and you can convince them it’s easy.”

Dunnell elaborated with an example of an athlete and an avid reader. The athlete might find making lay-ups in gym class enjoyable, and in turn, excel at them through enjoyable practice. Conversely, the avid reader might find making lay-ups difficult because he does not find it enjoyable, but would excel at reading in English class because he enjoys reading books often.

“Usually in class teachers just talk to students about the subject and what they are going to learn. Most students will be bored, inattentive and sometimes even fall asleep,” junior Laila Sayed said. “Giving students Play-Doh in class helps spark their interest. They could get creative and actually participate in class, so that the next time they will look forward to coming.”

In most classes where large amounts of information have to be given to students during a single class period, many students become tired and fall asleep easily. In Gould’s classroom, students are free to play with “fidgets,” or small toys including balls and the odd foam nose, along with Play-Doh. Having something to interact with elevates students’ attention and allows them to retain what they are being told in class. After an all-nighter, a class period with Gould and her fidgets would be welcome as relaxing stimulants.

If using creative learning activities like Play-Doh is beneficial to education, how come all teachers don’t use them?

“Most people repeat their learning experiences as a kid. [Additionally] SOLs force [teachers] to cover material quickly. Creative stuff takes time,” Dunnell said. “Although having standards is good, the amount of information that the SOLs require is impediment to good teaching.”

Standardized tests like the SOLs require information to be given to students objectively and teachers can struggle in trying to make lessons more creative. Gould dresses up as a robed wizard with a hat and long white beard on SOL review days to help maintain her students’ attention.

“I firmly believe education is an art, not a science. As a society we want every child to be educated. We are always struggling to find the best ways to teach people. No two students are the same, no two teachers are the same,” Dunnell said. “Standards are created to find the ‘right’ way to teach everybody; there really is no right way.”

Play-Doh allows students to experience and recreate what the people they learn about created and thought.

“[Play-Doh] puts you closer to the experience,” Dunnell said. “Education is a complicated thing. Teaching is an exceptionally challenging job. At the end of the day, most teachers want to do right by their students.”

A graph displays what AHS students think about homework

As you watch the last of your relatives leave after the Thanksgiving holiday, you are suddenly hit by the dark and scary thought of homework. With school reopening the next day, you rush through homework by doing problems without reading them, filling in the blanks without looking at the word bank and answering questions with one-word answers.

This raises the question about the effectiveness of homework; does it have a positive effect on your knowledge and understanding of the subject or is it just busy work?

“Homework is [used] for a learning purpose, I don’t think you have to give homework every night just to say that you gave homework,” history teacher Jonathan York said.

According to the Center of Public Education (CPE), studies throughout the years have shown that the effect of homework ranges from positive to negative, depending on the student.

The results of the national studies are supported by the variety of opinions that AHS students have about homework. Some students agree that it is beneficial while others believe that homework isn’t beneficial to their learning.

Positive effects of homework

“I think homework has a positive effect because it gives us practice on what we learn,” junior Rachel Teixeira said.

Sixty-one percent of AHS students believe that they learn from doing homework and 75 percent do the majority of their homework.

The studies conducted by the CPE state that higher income student’s benefit more from homework than lower income students do. Students with higher incomes have more tools and resources to use in order to complete their assignments.

“Students who have more resources available do better in school,” junior Patricia Webb said.

According to the studies, Asian-Americans are shown to benefit from homework more than any racial group.

“I don’t think it’s the homework — it’s our parents,” junior Christine Lee said. “They bother us until we finish our homework and they consistently question us about our homework. We also have the tendency to learn on our own.”

Students show the most improvement in grades when they complete their math assignments than in any other subject.

“I believe that [completing math assignments leads to the most grade improvements out of all the subjects] because with math a lot of what you learn is through practice and repetition,” Math teacher Jennifer Redding said.

Upperclassmen benefit from homework more than students in lower-grade levels.

“They [upperclassmen] are more serious,” York said.

Regardless of the advantages noted by some students and teachers, the detrimental effects of homework can be observed as well. Fifty-nine percent of students believe that homework should not be mandatory.

Negative effects of homework

“Homework has a negative effect, with the amount of homework that we get, we have to start deciding which classes are more important, and when we choose not to do homework for a class, our grades will definitely suffer,” Webb said.

When too much homework is given, it becomes less effective. The appropriate amount of homework that should be given to a high school student is between 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours.

“Less is more,” York said.

“I think there really need to be a limit on the amount of homework kids receive because there are a lot of other things kids are involved in,” Redding said.

The effectiveness of homework with lower income students is less than those with higher incomes.

“I think it has nothing to do with the physical homework, it has more to do with the amount of time dedicated towards doing homework. Most likely students with low income have part time jobs so they have less time to do their homework,” Redding said.

Many AHS students are involved in after school activities, which makes homework harder to complete.

“Its hard to balance homework with extracurricular activities,” Webb said.

Also underclassmen don’t absorb as much from homework than student in higher grade levels.

“It’s because they don’t do their homework,” Teixeira said.

Although many students in AHS get loads of homework, some believe that the amount of homework they receive is adequate for their classes. Most students in IB and honors classes receive more homework than students in regular classes.

“My homework load is a lot but I think it’s appropriate for the classes I’m taking,” Teixeira said.

“The amount of homework that I get is fine because I barely get any homework,” freshman Nazila Fakhra said.

By Brekhnaa Gull

By: Haben Berihun, Alex Davalos, Bellal Hussain, and Elvis Condezo

A student looks at his first quarter grades

It’s the moment of truth: report cards are here. It’s every student’s nightmare to receive a poor grade on their report card. This results in the wild and imaginative schemes that unfold for hiding any evidence of the dreaded piece of paper.

“If it’s good, then I show my parents right away. If it’s bad, I try to hide it as long as possible and I take the punishment when it comes,” junior Shanze Faisal said.
Some students take the easy route and never show their parents, and that leaves the parents at a loss concerning their student’s progress.
“I think part of the responsibility should come from the parents. Students get their report cards eight times a year; their interim and their final grades. Parents should notice that they aren’t getting anything and tell their child ‘show me your report card,“ English teacher Niki Holmes said.

On the other hand, some students truly do not mind showing their parents their report cards due to the excessive amount of emails that teachers send parents, they are actively aware.
“I just go ‘here you go’ and give them my report card because they basically already know my grades because of the crazy amount of emails they get from my teachers,” junior Patricia Webb said.
Some students may moan and groan about grades, but others actually believe it helps with their studies and success in their classes.

“I think report cards are a good way for students to know how they are doing in school,” sophomore Faith Paletti said.

Some teachers remember how their own report cards turned out.

“My report cards were always sent home, and my parents would get it in the mail, so I had no way of controlling that,” science teacher Thomas Chorman said. “They would be upset if I got a B, so I wasn’t always excited about report cards.”

Teachers know that it is hard, but only want the best for their students. They have been in the same situations and encourage their students to succeed.

“It’s better to be honest and just deal with it,” Chorman said.

“It takes less time to do things right than it does to explain why you did it wrong.”

No matter the situation, just know this: report cards are here to stay, so : “Do things right.”

By Andrea Melendez