The Mariner Compass

By: Megan Gee
   

Peer mentoring took off this year to help freshmen transition from middle school to high school. Homer High School started peer mentoring to also make sure the freshmen earned all their credits to help them graduate when they are seniors.

Many universities all over the United States are using peer mentoring to help first-year college students transition from high school to college. The mentors at the universities are expected to be caring, thoughtful, and knowledgeable. Here at Homer High School the expectations are the same; the expectations may even be higher.

There were a total of 40 freshmen targeted for peer mentoring. Most of the targeted students were either failing classes or barely passing. Homer Middle School sent the list of 40 students to Mr. Gutzler and Mr. Story, and they narrowed down the list to 15-20 based on who really needed mentoring, and the amount of seniors willing to mentor. “This was a plan to help targeted freshmen transition,” said Mr. Gutzler.

The foremost goal for peer mentoring was to assist the transitioning students in earning their credits for graduation. They achieved this goal and more. The students who were given mentoring improved their GPA by 146% according to Mr. Gutzler. Mr. Gutzler and Mr. Story looked at 3 different groups of freshmen: ones with peers, ones who were on the targeted list without peers, and random students. The ones who were targeted, but did not have mentoring improved their GPA by about 30%. The random students did not achieve much improvement.

The reward for reaching their goals is a trip to visit University of Alaska Anchorage for the university’s preview day, and going to Alyeska to ski for another day. While at UAA’s preview day, they will be visiting classes ranging from geology to vocational classes. This will help the students choose whether or not they would like to attend college, and show them opportunities they may have never been able to see on their own. Then after all of that work they are going to have some fun, and play in the snow.

By Akane Fujimura

Eligibility at Homer High School is an issue that many students, parents, and faculty seem to not fully understand. Many people think if they don’t have passing grades, above 70 percent in all classes, on that particular day then they can’t practice that afternoon in sports.

This rule is not in the Homer High School handbook, and according to Dr. Gee this is up to the coaches to reinforce.

“Wait. The coaches can’t make decisions about the eligible students participate in sports, can they?” Casey Farrell, a junior, said. Like Casey, many students don’t know that coaches make these decisions.

“I knew that the coaches can make decisions, but actually they really can’t,” Mr. Welch, the girls basketball coach, said. “I receive the list of eligible students on the team from Mr. Etzwiler, and all I can do is to talk to them, encourage them to get caught up that day.”

As Dr. Gee opposes, “It’s coaches’ responsibility, and they can decide if they want the student to be there at practice that day, or tell them not to go to the practice and just try to encourage them to get caught up.”

However, as Mr. Etzwiler says that the daily grade checks are important because if a student can’t pass the grade check, they can’t participate in any activities for four weeks and some sports will be over by then. “We want every student to play, but we also want to make sure that they’ll have above 70% when the next grade check comes. It’s case by case if the students can play that day, and we just want every student to be fair as much as possible.”

Homer High School was going to host a transportation meeting this Thursday, January 26, to discuss rescheduling school hours to meet transportation budget cuts. While the meeting has been rescheduled due to poor weather, the material that will be discussed remains the same.

One solution to the funding problem that has been presented, which seems to be both the most plausible and the most controversial, is to move the school day from its current start time at 8:30 am to 7:40 am. This solution has many benefits and setbacks; while athletes would arrive home an hour early under the new schedule, it also means that members of the Early Bird classes, which take place before school, will have to arrive at 6:40am.

High School students are not the only ones affected by this change; the most prevalent issue is that the children attending McNeil Canyon Elementary will also have to consider changing their schedule. These students already attend school at 7:20 am and the schedule change could create an issue with transporting the students to and from town.

Dr. Gee said that while he suggested that the start time should remain at 8:30 am, the School District is in charge of making the final decision. One of the major things that they are considering is the supervision of younger children in the afternoons. If they were to let out the Elementary students an hour earlier rather than the High School then there could potentially be an “hour of time in which the younger children would be at home, completely unsupervised.” Dr. Gee said.

Dr. Gee said that he will work with the counselors at our school to try and schedule junior and senior classes later in the day to offset the early start time, and he is going to re-suggest keeping the 8:30 start time to the district.

The rescheduled time for this meeting is currently Wednesday, February 1, at 5:30 pm. Anyone with concerns about the transportation changes should consider attending the meeting.

(Photo by:Mallory Drover)

Article By: Tabitha Drover

Homer High School hosted the Winter Ball on January 20, 2012. Ever since the snow started to fall kids talked in anticipation about the Winter Ball and how much fun it was going to be. During the dance teenagers that attended grabbed their dates and went to the dance floor. Even if the teenagers didn’t have a date they grabbed their best friends to dance. Although most people seemed to be having fun, did the dance live up to the teenagers expectations?

Emily Schmidt, senior, said “I thought it was pretty fun. It was nice to hang out with my friends.”

However Tiyana Hill, junior, said “I really like dances but this one wasn’t that good. The music wasn’t played that the council selected.” For junior Keoni Alfiche he thinks the music is what a dance good.

The major consensus was that the dance needed new music because most high schoolers’ did not enjoy dancing to Dubstep and wanted more familiar songs. But what kind of music would they choose if given the choice?

Keoni added, “I would want more rave type music.”  Tiyana would have liked music she could actually dance too while David Ware would have preferred Likin Park. 

BY Aurora Roderick

The only male cheerleaders on the Homer high School team are Travis Smith and Tyler Wolfe. The winter of 2012 is the first time Homer High School has had any male cheerleaders in a long while. The two boys have very different reasons for joining. Travis says his motivation for trying out for the cheer team was Mrs. Fisher. Tyler said at first he joined for the girls, but he stayed because it was fun. These boys cheer at all the basketball games with their fellow cheerleaders.

When asked how it felt being the only two male cheerleaders they both were very positive. They agreed that the stunting was the most enjoyable part. They claim that at practice and at games they are no different than the girls, except they do the stunting and try to stay away from the dancing. They all do their part for the team.

“It’s nice having Tyler on the team instead of being the only guy. Since Tyler is there we can do harder stunts and it evens out the team,” stated Travis.  

Mr. Etzwiler also complimented the boys, “It’s fantastic having those boys as male cheerleaders. It allows the team to do stunts that they maybe weren’t capable of doing before. Also both Travis and Tyler have this personality that can excite a crowd.”

Lastly when asked if it was like just another sport both guys said no. Tyler ended his interview with an interesting quip.

“Athletes lift weights, Cheerleaders lift athletes.”

By Cayenna Anderson

The Barren Senior Hallway

Living in a small town like Homer, most kids at one point in time before they graduate will utter the inevitable words, “I’m sick of school! I just want to get out of this town!” This is what the experts refer to as “senioritis.”

Most are diagnosed after college applications and mid-year reports have been sent in. This entails that a student doesn’t complete their work, procrastinates, skips class, acts very apathetic, and just doesn’t want to have to spend any more time at school. Some cases are mild; however, some have been building since the end of their junior year.

“It’s a very real disease that no one can possibly understand until the second semester of their senior year,” said Casey Parrett, a senior infected by this epidemic.

Many think senioritis is either an urban myth or that it isn’t that big of a deal. Apparently, it’s one of those emotions that you have to experience firsthand to truly understand.

“Words cannot express how badly I wish to escape. I want to leave so bad! I have seriously considered [finishing] my classes online just so that I don’t have to spend another day in this school,” Parrett added.

Though senioritis spreads throughout the class of 2012, teachers are not known to ease up on them; no matter how much begging or pleading.

The only known cure for senioritis is sticking it out until the happiest day of them all: graduation.

By Isabelle DeArmoun                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Many students have wondered, even questioned why their class was not going to the movies last Wednesday while the freshman class was. It was not because the freshmen class is more superior or because other classes merit punishment. It was actually because of a grant of $6,000 dollars targeted at freshman classes to help smooth the transition from middle school to high school, because recently, freshman class failure rates has increased compared to other high school classes, according to Dr. Gee,

One of the first ways the money was put to use was by giving the freshmen who had C’s or higher the opportunity to miss a half day of school to go to the Homer Family Movie Theater and watch The Adventures of Tin Tin in 3D.Sounds awesome, right? 70 of the 88 students who qualified sure thought so…

On Wednesday afternoon lockers slammed as freshman grabbed their jackets to pile into the Commons, anxiously talking among themselves as they waited to board the bus. Not only did the classes miss a half day of school, but they also received a free ticket to a movie, proving to be an incentive. “The turnout has been very positive and successful, and we would like to see it again in the future,” said Dr. Gee. Mr. Story, the school’s counselor and interventionist, added, “It’s nice to offer incentives and rewards beyond a report card.”

Photo By http://www.mtishows.com/

Article by Tabitha Drover

Every year at Homer High School a school musical is preformed. This year they are preforming a fairytale style musical called “Into the Woods.” The play takes the stories every teenager knows and love, such as “Rapunzel” and “Cinderella” and combines them to create a whole new lovely fairytale of its own.

Students all over Homer High School are excited for the play. Sydney Paulino, sophomore choir member, said, “It’s really cool and it’s got a lot of diverse characters. The music’s great because it’s catchy.”

Last year the school put on the musical “Rent.” Everyone who watched it loved it. Students are excited to see if this musical turns out as good or if it’s a disappointment. While choir members are excited to participate in it.
   
Megan Garoutte, sophomore, said “I’m interested to see how it turns out. And who turns out. I’m definitely going to try to see it.”

Matthew Meyer, Sophomore choir member, said “Every year Mr. Robinson makes a really good musical. He takes musicals that have very small singing parts and turns it into a musical that can have a whole choir in it. This musical is a lot funnier then last years so I think it will turn out really well.”

By Mallory Drover

The Homer Volunteer Fire Department is currently training new volunteers to be EMT-1’s (Emergency Medical Technician level 1) for the city of Homer. There is a wide variety of civilian volunteers taking the class, including high school students. In the class, students learn skills such as patient assessment, splinting, hemorrhage control, oxygen therapy, suctioning, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in order to respond to medical emergencies.

“I got recruited,” said Johnny Doan, an EMT-1 and Homer High student who just finished the firefighter course as well. “I had a chimney fire last year and Dan came up and he talked to me about the firefighter class.”

The recruiting process of finding volunteers is primarily word of mouth, though the department also runs an ad in the local newspaper and hangs a banner outside the fire station. On January the 4th, an EMT-3 recruiter hosted an FOL at Homer High and gave students a tour of an ambulance, including a demonstration in which he gave Johnny Doan an IV drip. Among the students in the FOL was Benjamin Lowe.

“I want to help people. I want to get experience. It’d be fun to just have medical knowledge a lot of times,” Ben said, explaining why he’s taking the EMT-1 class.

The Homer Volunteer Fire Department is 90% run by volunteers, with only five paid positions in the department. Therefore, community volunteers are the primary responders to fire fighting and emergency medical services. According to Fire Chief Bob Painter, the volunteers over the years have been fishermen, contractors, veterinarians, pharmacists, and even professionals who live in Homer.