The Mariner Compass

By Kikilia Kojin, Dylan Zharoff, Michael Demoura, and Mallory Drover

Whether or not teachers are stressed about their work, stressful atmospheres can rub off on others. “Friction builds up before finals” making every body’s day a bit less bearable, Mr. Putney commented at the start of finals week.

Math teacher Scott Akers explained, “Students are stressing maybe a little bit, but not too much, Just the right amount. It produces better results.”

Many students have several extra factors adding to their work load. “I’m working after school, so I only have a couple hours at home. I don’t have time to do anything, and so I get less sleep and pressure builds up,” said senior Rayaan Clutts. “Semester finals are the most stressful because you have to remember everything. Formulas from the beginning of the year are harder.”

Last week 61 students showed up for tutoring sessions, so far this week, 37 students have shown up. Mr. Etzwiler, “the graduation coach” as Dr. Gee calls him, said that “it’s the initiative… to get on top of things” that makes the entire boys basketball team eligible.

Dreading what’s in store for the week, students prepare, or don’t, for finals, some spending their nights studying for hours and others spending it just relaxing.

Sophomore Genevieve Tymrak reported, “Actually no, I’m not stressed. I’m home schooled and finals are easy. But with the science class here at school, I’m stressed. With APEX, you have a lot of notes. In science class, I don’t have much notes or homework to study with, just a study guide.”

Among students who are vigorously studying to get a good grade on their final some students, like Ben Lowe spend their time with more lax attitudes. “I’m pretty confident in my brains,” said Ben when asked about his lack of studying. Although he also said most people are concerned with finals, other students like Sterling Newson claim that “I’ve never studied before” but still expect to average B+ to A- grades.

“I usually don’t have to study. y’know” Joe Freeman said while shrugging at his answer. He stated he doesn’t want to do finals and is going to and is pushing for a so-so grade. In contrast to Joe’s short replies, Tyler Post said “I think teachers rush homework in the week of the finals.” among other things about finals. Even though he gave this long speech about finals, he remains referring to himself as a “here and there studier.”

Since so much hinges on midterms and finals testing, alleviating stress and pressure build-up is key. Hope Casseri, the culinary arts and study skills teacher, maintains that “A decent sense of humor really helps… even just smiling and being happy.”

Complied by: Sam Reinert, Kenley Kingrey, Akane Fujimura, Phillip Whitney

 The day of final exams. Everyone takes their finals for first, third, and fifth periods on the first day of exams, and has their finals for the even periods the next day. Everyone that is, except for athletes missing school for their respective games.

               Students who participate in sports take their final exams early if they are going to be missing the exam for a trip, like the boy’s varsity basketball team this Thursday as well as the hockey team, but they are the only ones who are allowed to. Students who are missing their finals due to vacation or personal trips will NOT be allowed to take their finals early, and must take them after the two week Christmas break, receiving an Incomplete on their report card until then.

               When asked why this double standard occurred Dr. Gee said, “If we let students take their finals early than half the school would be gone. Since it’s so close to break, giving them the option of doing their work early is like making the school day optional, and we can’t have any day at all be optional, let alone finals. We tried to change the game this weekend, so basketball could stay. But SOHI wouldn’t allow it because it wouldn’t be a money maker for them.”

               The teams can take their sixth period final early because they are school sponsored trips, and they otherwise would have to miss part of their season just because of a scheduling issue. Since the trip has to do with school an exception was made, but for any other absence, even if it is excused, the administration has decided that finals must be taken after the break in an effort to keep attendance up for the last few days of school.

               When asked how he felt about the exceptions in the early final policy Quinn Daugharty, one of the basketball team captains, said, “We are only missing sixth and I have choir that period, so it isn’t too bad because our final for that class was pretty much our concert. It makes sense that the principal wants to keep kids in school for finals, that’s his job, but I also think that students who are going on a trip with their family and can’t help missing school should be given the same chances the sports teams are.”

By Jacob Mayforth, Tabitha Drover, Megan Isaac, and Mathew Meyer

It’s finals week at Homer High, halfway through the year when students are tested on their cumulative knowledge the past semester, the difficult thing is no two finals are the same. Through interviews, teachers were found to have similarities and differences in the way they test and this often is the cause of stress and anxiety for students who are unaware of how to approach their finals.

                The biggest question faced when studying is, “What am I expected to know?” Five out of eight teachers from different class subjects responded. “I expect them to be able to give a good reflection of the material that we’ve discussed in class,” Noted Mrs. Borland, a Language Arts teacher for 9^th, 10^th 12^th grades.

                Amy Christianson, Homer High band teacher said, “The band final is essentially their concert, so I give a self reflective final because they’ve already demonstrated they know the material.”

 Marc Robinson, HHS choir conductor, had a similar perspective, “Although I do occasionally test them on music notation, basic rudimentary skills of reading music, the hard part is preparing for the concert.”

                Whether or not finals are about specific knowledge or general concept is so far undecided. Most teachers tried to balance between the two. However, in physics Mrs. Thompson decided, “I test on specific knowledge, science isn’t conceptual.” In the field of math, Mr. Akers split his credit, “Partial credit for the concept, probably more generously than I should, but mostly for specific knowledge.”

                This workload on students can easily cause stress, and teachers note the amount of anxiety that go into finals week. Mrs. Fisher, who has “…decided to change it up and do an essay final, with the big ideas over and over again. I think the kids feel a lot more confident going into that kind of final because they’re writing down what they know.”

                The teachers have a hard time with constructing the tests. Mrs. Fisher said, “The hardest part is finding the questions and the amount of time it takes. You have to look back over the whole semester and what you emphasized as a teacher, and what you feel they should know.” Mrs. Spence has decided to throw away the standard test format and, “give a project instead, because I think it’s asking too much to expect them to remember history facts.”

By Matthew Meyer

It’s the holiday season and Christmas is coming around the corner, and for Swing Choir that just means they have to work harder than ever.

Swing Choir practices at the school every day at 7:30 A.M, an hour earlier than most students, to practice 37 Christmas Carols, including well known carols, like “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” as well as some of the more obscure songs in different languages that you’d expect from any choir, like “O Magnum Mysterium.”

The shows themselves are taking time away from school, and it’s taking its toll on the students participating. With three gigs during school and two out of school in the time between the third and the eighth of December, it almost seems like they won’t be able to catch up.

Jacob Mayforth, a returning member of Swing Choir, said, “Last year we weren’t this busy, last year we had about two or three gigs a week, this year its more like every day. The only way that you can cope with it is too suck it up and do it.”

              This year’s 2011 winter concert for the choir and band is full of great performances. This concert will get folks into the holiday spirit. Tonight the swing choir will perform seven songs, while the concert choir performs six songs. Performing also with four songs each tonight, are the jazz and concert bands.
              Mr. Robinson looks forward to tonight’s concert. He said it will surely be an amazing night. The concert choir will be performing 6 songs, one of them being the classic, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.
               Ms. Christenson is equally enthusiastic. Under her direction the band will perform 4 songs; Imani is one of the songs being performed, which is written about the 7th day of Kwanza.
               This concert is the first of 3 that will be taking place at the high school this week. The middle school performs Tuesday night at 7. They have some fun selections picked out for the audience. West Homer will perform at the high school on Thursday at 7 p.m. These concerts will help people get into the holiday spirit. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

By: Tabitha Drover

Last spring the school talked about implementing a program called “Raising The Bar.” It makes it so that a D is no longer passing. This year the school is putting it in motion. But how are the kids liking it?

Some Kids feel that now they are pushed to work more and that their grades reflect that. Sydney Paulino, sophmore, said “Now that I know I can fail with just a C I’m trying harder. Not just to get B’s but straight A’s.”

Some, however, feel it’s effecting sports too much. Mr.Casseri, math teacher, said “It’s affecting the athletes greatly because instead of having a grade check every four and half weeks it’s almost a weekly grade check. We have kids missing practices so that they can stay in sports. It’s kind of a double jeopardy for those kids.”

Dr.Gee, principal, said “We’re providing credit recovery, more so then last year. For those students who didn’t pass with a C.”

So as the semester ends, students will seek to “Raise The Bar” and pass all of their classes with a C or higher.

By Jacob Mayforth

Immortals is not a movie about Greek mythology, although the trailer would have you believe otherwise. At first glance it will seem like the Greek story of Theseus and a war between Gods and Titans starring Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, and John Hurt…but it isn’t. The best way to see this movie is to forget everything you know about Greek mythology. So far as you know, the Greeks didn’t even exist. You can also forget about good acting, because while they try their hardest, the roles are never really pulled off well. There are moments of greatness, and then there are not-so-great moments.

This movie is an action movie, the action sequences are some of the best fighting I have seen this year, thrilling and every single fight feels epic and heavy, but the movie almost wants to be more than that. It wants to be adventure, and romance, and drama, but it can’t be those things because at its core it is pure, hot-headed action. This movie tries to be so many things at one time that they all get cluttered up. What they should’ve done was set their sights on a more specific goal, rather than shoot to hit every genre in the movie business.

If I was to describe Immortals in two words it would be “Dumb Fun”. This movie isn’t smart, there is no larger arc to the story line, the gods and source material are abandoned, and the acting is subpar. It’s fun because for those glimmering moments when someone’s war-hammer goes through a bad guy’s head and cleaves him in two. My advice is to see this movie when you have studied for finals for seven hours and you need something to clear your head. Final words: Its good if you don’t dig too deep.

Homer Mariners Boy’s Basketball shirts are most often emblazed with the “Team Me” basketball, but there is more to this symbol than first meets the eye. Most people interpret the logo, a basketball with the word “Team” printed on it above the word “Me”, to just say “Team Me” on a basketball background, and don’t understand what it really means. The basketball of course represents the sport, but there is a special significance to the placement of the words. “Team” is intentionally placed above “Me”, to give it the meaning “Team over Me”.

It’s a riddle of sorts that makes the audience use their mind as well as their eyes and at the same time represents one of the most important aspects about Homer basketball. That there are things in life more important than individual achievements, and that the team is one big family. Families support and look out for each other, helping each other through everything, and so does Mariner Basketball. Although it sometimes has its rough patches with injuries and disagreements, the team is always there for any one of its members, putting each other above themselves.

When asked what he thought about people not understand the logo, Coach Casseri simply said, “It doesn’t matter if other people don’t understand it. As long as we understand it and live by it, that’s what matters.”

By Phillip Whitney

                 Rob Way runs the Midtown Café. A year ago he started the Midtown Movie Nights on Fridays. He started this because he liked to watch movies, and he wanted to provide a safe place for adolescents to hang out. He stated, “It’s good to have something late night, on Friday night, for kids to do instead of get in trouble.”

He selects movies that have done well in the theaters, but are PG-13 or under, because most of the Midtown attendees are teenagers.

                Last week they showed Super 8, a film about aliens and the government, and this week they plan on showing Cowboys and Aliens, which is about aliens and cowboys… The attendance for this movie is expected to be the same people that have been to the Movie Night in the past. One of the regular attendees said that it was a good idea because it’s a fun, safe place to hang out until 11’o’ clock at night. When asked what kind of people went to the movie she said that it was mostly young religious people, some non-religious teens, and several little kids.

                The Midtown Movie Night is an enjoyable activity on Friday nights, it provides young people a place to hang out with a group that are relatively the same age, in a safe, teen centered environment, and the best part is it’s free to attend.

By Kikilia Kojin

            The end of the wrestling season is near. This Friday to Saturday at Nikiski the wrestling state championship will take place. “We are taking five wrestlers. If you look at how many are in the state, we have the potential to make top six,” Coach Chris Perk reported confidently.

            The five wrestlers that are going to state are seniors DJ Marsengill and Mick Wells, juniors Mark McGregor and Joe Resetarits, and sophomore Calvin Johnson. Coach Chris Perk and assistant coach Bubba Wells will be joining them as well.

            Marsengill commented “I’m hoping to place and get on the podium (top six places).  I’m excited. It my last year of wrestling and I got to do the best I possibly can. I don’t want the end to come yet. We’re going to do pretty good, at least fifteenth place. We’re a young team, but there’s been a lot of improvement.”

            “We’re excited. It’s the end of the season. It’s the time to collect some hardware and make some memories. It’s a cool time to see what we can do. We have a legitimate chance to sneak into finals,” added Perk.

            “It’s going to be intense. They are going to bring their A-game. There will be good and intense matchups. Everyone should come,” concluded David Woo, sophomore wrestler.