The dawn of the 21st centu-ry can be considered the Age of Computers. Technology is involved in almost every as-pect of life, from predicting the weather to making change at the lunch counter to do-ing research. The high school generation is particularly in-volved technologically because they can have the whole world literally at their fingertips be-hind the touch screens of their

s m a r t -phones. Despite this, not e v e r y student has the a b i l i t y to make use of t h i s

technology. In about a month, the district will launch a new web site for student’s use. It will be the first web site ever to give students their own e-mail accounts so that they can easi-ly communicate with teachers.

“Some students don’t have e-mail,” said Dr. Phil Ertl, superintendent of the Wau-watosa District. “And it’s an easy way for them to stay in touch with their teachers.”

The login information will be the same that stu-dents have to access the regular school network and will be available initially to all high school students.

“The system will use Cloud-based storage,” said Jaime Price, the technical coordinator of the district. “Each account will be able to hold about 25 gigabytes, which is about 25 times the capacity that the regu-lar student accounts have.”

This expanded amount of space makes the email ac-counts ideal for storage of school files, which is a much more efficient system than the NetStorage program stu-dents are used to. NetStor-age can only be accessed through a complicated series of windows on the district web site, but with the new e-mail accounts, students can punch the address directly

Goodbye, Dewey—hello, Se-ñora. Starting next year, there will be a new world language program in the elementary schools, but it comes at a high cost: eliminating elementary school librarians. Many West students probably remember having a day during the week for library time in elemen-tary school, but recently the school district is taking steps to make a very big change.

The Wauwatosa School Board voted 4 to 3 on Janu-ary 24 and has approved a proposal to eliminate full time library media specialists in or-der to implement a new world language program. What this means is that there will no longer be a lesson taught by a Library Media Specialist dur-

ing the library time of elemen-tary school classes. This was a difficult decision, as demon-strated by the close vote, and was the result of one condition: the proposed world language program could not affect the school district’s overall budget.

Once the new world lan-guage program is in place, students in grades 1 through 5 will begin learning Span-ish. Spanish teachers will work together with the regu-lar classroom teachers to in-tegrate Spanish into the daily curriculum. According to Hope Bautista, a Spanish teacher here at West, the social studies curriculum will be taught to el-ementary students in Spanish. That way, elementary school teachers will not have to find

a way to squeeze yet another subject into the day. “They’re going to learn [Spanish] in a more natural, communicative way—they’re not going to sit there and learn to conjugate verbs—they’ll learn it through the content,” said Bautista.

Advocates of the new lan-guage program being intro-duced to our school district praise the effects of learning a second language early in life. One Wauwatosa mom said, “Learning a second language has been shown to raise test scores. [It] enhances children’s cognitive development, includ-ing problem solving, criti-cal thinking and creativity. Children who study a second language also out perform-

History Deprivation

It’s a common fact that some of the most risky individuals in the world are teenagers. They just are; they do what they want, when they want, and often, they rarely think about the consequences. Now, as nor-mal as this behavior has come to be, parents and members of the community are still con-cerned about the dangerous activities teens participate in.

One program that evalu-ates those dangerous trends is a survey called the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YBRS). YRBS is used nationally, but is formatted to fit each indi-vidual area, and its questions are based on any issues the community feels are becom-ing a serious problem. The 120 question computer pro-gram covers a wide variety of topics including tobacco, alcohol, and substance use, mental health, physical ac-tivity, personal safety, and reproductive health. The sur-vey is taken on the computer and is completely random. In fact, the logins used on the computers are even general.

Wauwatosa East and West students took the YBRS sur-vey in late October of 2010 over a three day period. 391 students were picked ran-domly, resulting in 198 males being selected, along with 193 females. That total amount was split pretty evenly among grades, unlike the previous test in 2007. That test only featured freshman and juniors and asked different ques-tions. The survey is sponsored by the local program Tosa United, which is-a group of

concerned parents and administrators that look at harmful developing trends in today’s youth and stag-es interventions. East and West’s personal version of the survey included all the elements of the traditional test, but questions on the choking game were added.

One of the questions, “Have you ever tried

KAITLIN HEMBROOK g Staff Writer

Survey reveals trends in dangerous teenage activity

Health Survey

Re: School Email

g Please see p. 2

BREANNA SUBOTICH g Staff WriterELLYN KIRTLEY g Editor-in-Chief

School Board decision eliminates elementary school librarian positions in lieu of creation of new world language program

Librarians Eliminated

WEST SIDESTORIES

FEBRUARY 2011 • Wauwatosa West High School • 11400 W Center Street, Wauwatosa WI • Volume 15, Issue 4www.wauwatosawest.com

District plans to give students school ANGELA O’BRIEN g Editor-in-Chief

Patricia Miller, a Wauwatosa elementary school Library Media Specialist, shows an Eisenhower fifth-grader how to use Career Cruising during his library time. Librarians collaborate with students’ classroom teachers to plan their weekly lessons.

We want to break down boundaries so students can get what they need...

JAIME PRICE

“

”

g Please see p. 2 g Please see p. 2

TECHNOLOGY HEALTH

America, America!Test your knowledge of

US History!See Pages 4-5

LAURA SHIVELY g Guest Photographer

their monolingual peers on verbal and math sections of standardized tests.” She also feels “our children deserve to learn a second language in the elemen-tary schools because that is when a sec-ond language is most easily acquired.”

Bautista is also optimistic about the outcome of the implementation of the new language program. “If you think about Europe, [students] start learning another language early on there and by high school they’re tak-ing a second or a third one, so they’re way ahead of us on that. We’re so monolingual here” said Bautista. In addition to playing catch-up with Eu-rope, the program may have cultural benefits as well. “I think it will be really good. I hope too it helps kids to not have such a narrow world view. By starting earlier on I think that’ll maybe help to adopt a broader view of the world,” added Bautista.

However, introducing the program has come at the expense of the elemen-tary schools’ library program. When talking to Carol Surges, the Library Media Specialist (LMS) at McKinley Elementary School, she said, “The cur-rent library teachers are teachers of information, technology, and literacy (ITLs). They don’t just help students find the right books to read, but [also] help keep them up with technology.” The library teachers often have stu-dents working on the computers dur-ing their library time. They teach students how to do research and wade through the information they find. Li-brary Media Specialists also work with teachers, collaborating on projects for the students, and help them with resources they may not be aware of.

Beginning next year, instead of these library teachers, there will be 4 ½ full time aids that will travel to the differ-ent elementary schools. They won’t be able to provide instruction because they

aren’t certified teachers, so the aides’ main purpose will be to check the stu-dents’ books in and out. With this new change, students will only be check-ing out books rather than participat-ing in the activities they currently do.

Because of this, one fear is that fu-ture students may lack some of the skills current students are learning in the library. According to Surges, “these skills are embedded into the al-ready existing curriculum.” However, as Jane Storts, the LMS at Whitman, pointed out, it will up to the classroom teachers to reinforce these skills in the future. It may be hard for some teach-ers to find the time to teach these skills because they are already busy teach-ing the students the core curriculum.

Removing the Library Media Spe-cialists may cause students to lose some of the technological skills they were learning in elementary school. This will pass off additional work to middle school Library Media Specialists and classroom teachers. In regards to us-ing certain computer programs such as Powerpoint, Photostory and Publisher, Storts said, “We will no longer be able to make the assumption that [the stu-dents] know what we’re talking about.”

One of the strongest arguments against removing the current li-brary program is that it may lower standardized test scores. Accord-ing to a study of Wisconsin school library media programs, “evidence indicates that Wisconsin school li-braries contribute measurably to the academic achievement of students as reflected by their test scores.”

Only time will tell how success-ful the new language program will be. Though the community appears to be divided over this issue, hope-fully there will be positive benefits with this language program that will once again bring unity to Wauwatosa.

NEWSWEST SIDE STORIES2

February, 2011

New Student Email

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cigarette smoking, even 1 or 2 puffs?” showed some interesting data. About 32% of students in Wauwatosa admit to trying a cigarette, compared with the national average of about 46%.

Students were also asked, “Have you had at least one drink of alcohol more than one time during the past thirty days, excluding religious purposes?” About 32% of students had. Principal Frank Calarco expressed his concern after seeing the data, saying that a main goal for West is to, “discourage kids from coming to school under the influence.” After all, you can’t learn if you’re nursing a hangover.

One of the most shocking results came from the question, “Do you think most or all people your age would say it’s okay to smoke marijuana?” According to East and West, 46%, almost half of the students pooled, said yes, it’s okay to smoke an illegal drug. Removing drugs from school is being emphasized this year. In an effort to accomplish this, Of-ficer Braun has had the sniffing dogs brought in. “One difference [from the past] is that they’re searching the lock-ers, and in the parking lots, for drugs that are in cars,” reveals Calarco.

In response to the question, “Do you agree that harassment and bullying by other students is a problem at your school?” about 45% of students said agreed. Calarco commented that, “I’m deeply saddened that so many kids feel

that way. This is a problem that we’re really trying to improve here at West.”

The question, “Do you get more than or equal to 8 hours of sleep on an average school night?” revealed a drastic difference between Wauwatosa and the US. Only 27% of students at West and East get the recommended 8 hours, while 46% do nationally. “I think this just shows how involved and motivated our students here at West and in Wauwatosa are,” Calarco said.

Each year, the survey varies, in or-der to fit the problems that arise over

the two year difference. One question that will most likely be added next year will have to do with the sense of belonging students feel at both East and West. “Many student who don’t achieve here aren’t involved and don’t feel like they be-

long,” states Calarco. The administra-tion would also like to see a question added dealing with how comfortable students feel seeking out help from faculty about drugs and alcohol. “We’ve found that a lot of kids here have bad home lives and don’t have someone they can go to, to ask for help,” comments Calarco. The goal is that every student has someone in the building they can confide in if they’re having difficulties.

Although this year’s results didn’t provide much of a comparison to those of 2007, the hope is to con-tinue to indentify and stop danger-ous behavior in teenagers.

into their navigation bars and pull up the page. Additionally, students will be able to access and work on projects at home, save the new copy to their ac-counts and then access it at school all without having to worry about acci-dentally leaving flash drives at home.

The new email system will have more straightforward uses as well.

“We’re seeking to provide stu-dents with an extra communica-tion tool,” said Price. “They can use it for school business, emailing teachers, and emailing their peers.”

Contacting teachers becomes espe-cially important as students become more involved with their high school careers and projects become more and more complex. In addition, the accounts provide an option for students to con-tact their teachers without using their own personal email accounts. While this may be considered as protecting the privacy of their personal accounts, many wonder what level of privacy students can expect within the district accounts, especially when it comes to email conversations between peers.

“There’s no Big Brother compo-nent,” said Price. “No one is going to be sitting there reading every email that you send out; we just don’t have the re-sources or the capabilities to do that. If there is a problem, we will have the ability to look into it, but that’s not the purpose of what we are trying to do. We just want to give everyone an email account that they can use at school.”

Concerns of privacy are always an

issue when it comes to technology, like when the school district installed the Aristotle software on all school computers, giving administration the ability to moniter student activity.

“I don’t see there being a huge con-cern over privacy,” said Price. “Just like Aristotle, if we need to [look into some-thing] we have the ability to do so.”

Long term goals for the accounts include getting them to middle school students and possibly to elementary students as well. As of right now, the accounts will only be available to high school students within East and West.

“We want to increase the levels of abilities that students have with networks,” said Price. “We want to break down boundaries so students can get what they need, when they need it, and from wherever they are.”

While email accounts for elemen-tary students may seem a little su-perfluous, one must consider the val-ue of training children from an early age to use and adapt to technology.

“There’s an expectation [in the professional world] that you would be able to use email,” said price. “If early students can attain a level of familiarity with email-based stor-age and sharing, they’ll be better able to operate in the real world.”

The real world is a long way off for most elementary school students, but learning to use and operate email may give them the edge that this technol-ogy-based world will demand of them.

Library Program HOSA Survey Results

PATRICIA MILLER, Library Media Specialist, talks to Eisenhower fifth-graders about a project.

g Cont. from pg 1

g Cont. from pg 1g Cont. from pg 1

About 32% of students in Wau-watosa admit to trying a cigarette, compared with the national aver-age of about 46%.

LAURA SHIVELY Guest Photographer

February, 2011

opinionsWEST SIDE STORIES 3

West Side Stories (WSS) believes that it is essential to preserve the freedom of the press in order to preserve a free society. Therefore, WSS will resist all attempts at censorship and will serve the best interests of the students. WSS will be guided in publication by a concern for the truth, will strive to provide a comprehensive account of events in the school/community, will strive to be a leader of student opinion through its editorials, and will be an open forum of the exchange of com-ment and criticism. WSS’s editorial page will take stands on important issues, will help protect the rights of students, will support groups seeking

the betterment of the community, will support candidates for school office, and will serve as a constructive critic. Columns and reviews will be signed unless there is a consensus of opinion among the WSS editors. Copies of the complete WSS editorial policy are available in Room 267 at West High School.

Letters to the Editor: Letters are ac-cepted from all readers. Editors have the right to edit for length and ob-scenity, but will not alter the original meaning of the materials. All submit-ted letters must be signed.

Subscription information: For a sub-

scription, please send $20.00 payable to Wauwatosa West High School. Send to West Side Stories, c/o Wauwa-tosa West High School, 11400 W. Cen-ter St. Wauwaotsa, WI 53226

Awards: Wisconsin Newspaper Asso-ciations awarded West Side Stories a second place in 2007-2008, a first place 2008-2009 in the General Ex-cellence category. West Side Stories has also received a Bronze Medalist ranking from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. A number of stu-dents have also placed individually in state and national writing compe-titions.

Editors:Angela O’Brien- Editor-In-Chief

Ellyn Kirtley- Editor-In-Chief

Herschel Kissinger: Manag-ing Editor

Wajahat Mahmood Ali: Managing Editor

Emily Hoffman: Photogra-phy Editor

Staff Writers: Natalie MullinsLuke SalamoneKaitlyn HembrookBreanna SubotichStephanie Eberle

Designers: Andrew McOlashKou VangLuke Salamone

Photographers: Kou VangLaura Shively

STORIESWest Side

To commemorate the cen-tennial birthday of Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin was one of several speakers to speak at a banquet in California. Among other things, Palin complained the government is “spending too much” and “con-trolling too much”. She was presumably unaware of the irony within her statement, because capital punishment does both. The traditional conservative position on the subject of capital punishment is markedly

incongruous with finan-

cial con

servatism,____ so capital pun-ishment is hardly an activ-ity to be opposed exclusively by liberals.

It is a common mispercep-tion that the death penalty is less expensive than life imprisonment. However, according to the ACLU of Northern California, death penalty trials cost $1.1 mil-lion more than trials in which the prosecution seeks life im-prisonment. Housing is also far more expensive; it costs $90,000 more per person per year to incarcerate a person on death row than in a normal prison Overall, it is estimated that California would save $1 billion over the next five years,

including the cost of building a new death row facility, by abolishing the death penalty.

There are two fallacies which remain as roadblocks to abolition. The first of these, concerning the deterrent ef-fects of the death penalty, re-mains. If a deterring effect is provided by the death penalty, it comes only through igno-rance of facts. In 2008 alone, there were 2,142 murders re-ported in California, but only 18 convicted persons were sentenced to death. According to the California Department of Corrections, only 13 per-sons have been executed since 1978, but 52 died on death

row from natural causes, so an inmate on death row is unlikely to

be executed, and a murder-

er is even l e s s

likely to end up on death row. Sim-ply put, this means a citizen is more likely to die in a car accident than a convicted murderer is to be executed. As for the deterring effect, it is likely analogous to the dis-couragement from driving one feels after hearing about car crash fatalities: negligible.

An additional goal, one of moral “justice”, is said to be met by the killing of murder-

ers. Assuming this to be true, any justice served by this Ham-murabic barbarism is nullified by the existence of wrongful executions. Yes, Mrs. Palin, “death panels” do exist. They kill healthy, innocent people. However, there are two objec-tions to the premise that the killing of murderers consti-tutes justice. The irrational-ity of this line of reasoning is found simply by following it to its conclusion. Justice by this definition prescribes the tor-ture of torturers and the steal-ing of property from thieves, to say nothing of rapists. Such a system would not be justice; it would be absurd. The second objection is that those sup-porting the death penalty on the grounds of justice would be challenged to differentiate this “justice” from revenge.

Those in favor of limited government should question whether it is even the place of the government to deprive people of their ultimate pos-

session: life. Based on the fis-cal excesses involved, the

Tea Party, an organiza-tion devoted entirely

to fiscal moderation, should be the

great - est advocate for aboli- tion of the death pen- a l ty. Sarah Palin, a figurehead within the movement, thus has ample reason to op-pose the death penalty. Af-ter all, compared with a life, taxes are meaningless.

Another Program to CutHow the death penalty is inconsistent with fiscal conservatism

Cutting elementary librarians. Yes, we know that books are becoming less and less popular as technology improves. How-ever, elementary school is a critical time for

instructing students on how to properly and safely use new technology. Foreign language is

also important, but we doubt the effectiveness of teaching social studies curriculum in spanish.

Homeroom Valentines. We’re all for home-room bonding, but not when it is gushy and forced. The idea is cute enough, but the reality is that there are still many

strangers in homerooms who are alienated by the experience of promoting homeroom en-

gagement through the distribution of Valentines.

New AP additions. We appreciate be-ing on an even playing field with other schools, and are excited by the oppor-tunity. However, there can be too much

of a good thing, especially if students be-come weighed down by too many AP classes. They may look nice on a school profile, but there also needs to be quality behind the AP label, which we hope we find next year with the new AP Classes.

School E-mails. We like the idea of having a more accessible e-mail, but a district ac-count comes with a very limited expecta-tion of privacy. Because of this, the pos-

sibilites for these e-mail accounts could be very restricted. Plus, with the widespread use of Facebook and texting to communicate, many students may not use a school email very often.

Posting the Honor Roll on the windows outside the main office. We work hard for our grades, and the small gesture of posting the Honor Roll is appreciated. Negative behavior is often

recognized much more than positive, so this is a nice change for the students who do srtive to achieve.

Wearing black to support Wisconsin teach-ers. Wether or not you agree with Scott Walk-

er’s new legislation, it’s nice to thank the people who are the backbone of our educa-tion. Without that education, our futures

would be pretty bleak, seeing as more and more jobs are requiring college degrees. Teachers, some in particular, often go above and beyond their daily job requirements in order to help students.

Mini EditorialsYour staff’s opinion on some of Tosa West’s most prevalent issues LUKE SALAMONE g Staff Writer

Political views have been a driving force of American politics since the creation of this nation. Arguments arise over who is a democrat and who is a republican; who is liberal and who is conserva-tive; who is left-wing and who is right-wing. So many times, news stations and congressio-nal articles complain and talk about politicians who vote on the party line, but it is not just polititians who are guilty of

this. US citizens are as well. Elections revolve around

issues like health care and reform and it is always the Republican Plan and the Democratic Plan but what about the People’s Plan? What about a plan that best serves the people of this country? Political parties have histori-cally been opponents when it comes to public policy, but where is the harm in work-ing together? Where is the

harm in finding solutions that satisfy everyone instead of whoever holds the major-ity in Congress at the time?

This nation is one that is made up of many different people. It is all too easy to break into factions and not get along, but devotion is needed to find more solutions that en-compass everyone. It was the people who founded this na-tion; why don’t we make it one that everyone wants to live in?

A Plan for the PeopleANGELA O’BRIEN g Editor-in-Chief

IZZY FANGMAN g Guest Illustrator

“I didn’t know the answer to these ques-tions because we didn’t learn about it.”

The same answer appears again and again on the surveys passed out to se-lect social studies classes. The survey was seemingly simple: Sixteen multiple choice questions that cover the breadth of U.S history. Questions ranged from the Revolutionary War to current events and students from an AP U.S History, a Global Studies, and an American Public Policy class were given the ex-act same survey to see what they knew.

The theory was this: Wauwatosa Stu-dents who have been in the curriculum at least since middle school all took a US History course during eighth grade that covered roughly the first half of US History. As freshmen, all students are required to take a second US His-tory course that is designed to pick up where eighth grade history left off. How-ever, there is a distinctive mark in US History courses where students stop learning new information and begin pre-paring for the second semester exam, which is usually around the 1980’s.

The events of the 1990’s, the decade in which Tosa West students were born, usually remain untouched. One of the biggest events of the early 1990’s was the Persian Gulf War, which was the largest assembly of U.S troops since the Vietnam War. Despite its importance, only about half of the students within each class could identify it within one of the multiple choice questions. An-other significant event was the United States involvement in Kosovo to prevent the ethnic cleansing and genocide that was going on, but only eight percent of the APP students and 18 percent of the AP U.S History students could identify it. Not a single one of the Global Stud-ies students got that question right.

“The 1990’s are as important as any other time period in history,” said Dr. Phil Ertl, superintendent of the Wauwatosa School District.

As the results of the survey were being tabulated, a bigger problem began to sur-face. The hypothesis of the survey pre-dicted that students would do strongly on the U.S History portion of the survey and would be weak on the questions that targeted the 1990’s. But when less than half of the APP students and AP U.S His-tory students could identify which year the Declaration of Independence was signed, it became apparent that there was a problem within the fundamentals

of student’s knowledge of U.S History. “From a historical standpoint, you want

people to be able to recall dates,” said Ertl. “You want them to establish a relation-ship between understanding history and being able to apply that [to their lives].”

Interestingly enough, over eighty percent of all three classes were able to say that John Wilkes Booth assas-sinated Abraham Lincoln and that the Louisiana Purchase doubled the United States in size during the presi-dency of Thomas Jefferson, facts which are seemingly less important than the year that the United States was born.

“In more recent years, social studies classes have gotten away from dates,” said Adrienne Keppler, a U.S History teacher. “It was decided that the ideas and concepts are more important than memorizing years and facts. It is more important that students remember the importance and impact of the Louisiana Purchase than the year it was signed.”

Every student within the AP U.S His-tory class had been exposed to all of the answers on the survey through their eighth grade and freshman U.S History classes, yet only half of them could cor-rectly say that the Battle of the Bulge occurred during World War II. Through these surveys, one can see that there is a definite lack of knowledge by the participants when it comes to U.S His-tory. Part of that problem may be due to retention. Almost all of the AP U.S History students are seniors, mean-ing there is a two year gap between the years that they were enrolled in cours-es that specifically dealt with history.

“I remember some things but not a lot,” said senior Jessy Frenn. “[It’s] part-ly because of the time, but also because I don’t need history for what I want to do. It’s not that important to me.”

But perhaps the problem runs a little deeper than mere reten-tion over the course of a few years.

“When this survey was given out to my students, we were learning about the Revolutionary War and the Decla-ration of Independence,” said American Public Policy teacher, Chris Lazarski. “And the fact that some students could not say 1776 even after reviewing it a few days before really says something.”

Ultimately, the source for the lack of knowledge is one of two things. Either students just cannot retain the bulk of the history that they learn during their freshman years, or the curriculum does

not effectively teach it to them in a way that would cause them to remember it.

“I don’t know that it’s really either [the curriculum] or [the retention] that are the problem,” said Ertl. “I be-lieve that we need to present things in a way that makes students inter-ested. Critical thinking is more im-portant and those are the skills that we need to be teaching our students.” Some changes to the cur-riculum can already be seen to those students currently enrolled in the freshman U.S History course.

“The district has implemented more standard exams,” said Keppler. “Every student in U.S History now takes the same exam and this is a change that is district-wide as well. Because East has always been a little bit ahead of us, we have had to revise our pacing. For ex-ample, we usually wait until the start of the second semester to begin World War II, but this year we reached Pearl Har-bor even before first semester exams.”

But there are dangers with condensing the curriculum.

“We are not necessarily teaching stu-dents history,” said Ertl. “We are teach-ing them to go in depth so that the learning is deeper and more ingrained. There is an advantage in taking time to examine a few things in great detail rather than a lot of things in less detail.”

More detail would certainly reinforce the concepts of history that student should remember, which would solve the retention problem, but less time would be available to cover the breadth of histo-ry which leaves the 1990s just as obscure and dark as they were before. With re-visions to the curriculum underway, any solution would have to battle this bal-ance between time, retention and detail.

“Even with the slight changes in the U.S History curriculum pacing, there still might be that crunch at the end of the year,” said Keppler. “In keep-ing with the standardization of exams, the U.S History students will be do-ing a project that will require work over the course of the semester. Even if there would have been extra time at the end of the year to talk about the 1980s and 1990s, with the few days here and there set aside for exam work time that time might be used up quickly.”

Another significant aspect of the sur-vey involved questions centering on more current events that occurred in a period of time in which students had personal

memories of their own, such as Septem-ber, 11th, the Rwandan Genocide, Hur-ricane Katrina and the War on Terror. The reformulated hypothesis predicted that this was the area in which students should do the strongest because these events were both recent and garnered much media attention, therefore increas-ing the exposure. However, only 76 per-cent of the Global Studies students, 56 percent of the APP students and 31 per-cent of the AP U.S History students could identify Afghanistan as the country that the United States invaded in 2003. Fi-nally, only 9 percent of the Global Studies students, 25 percent of the APP students, and 56 percent of the AP U.S History students could identify the most current event on the survey: That it was Elena Ka-gen who had been most recently appoint-ed to the United States Supreme Court.

“I try and use my Bell Ringers at the beginning of the period to use a current event if it ties in with what I am teach-ing,” said Keppler. “I see the advantage in setting aside time for current events, but there are only so many days in the school year and U.S History is a survey class. We are required to cover a certain amount of breadth of history by the end of the year.”

That does not, however, diminish the importance of current events as a whole.

“[Students] need to know what is go-ing on in the world around [them],” said Ertl. “It’s our responsibility and parents’ responsibility [to make stu-dents aware of current events].”

Perhaps a solution to these prob-lems is a way for students to re-view the material outside of class.

“I have plans to start a Model UN,” said junior Waj Ali. “We basically take some leg-islation and discuss it with other schools.”

Whether a Model United Nations, a greater look at current events, or a re-vised social studies curriculum is the solution, one thing remains certain: There are several problems that the sur-vey has brought to light in regards to social studies education and steps need to be taken to correct those problems.

“We teach history because as a soci-ety, we benefit from it,” said Ertl. “After all, if you do not understand your his-tory, you are bound to repeat it.”

To take the survey and test your knowledge of U.S. history, visit www.wauwatosawest . com. Angela O’Brien g Editor-in-Chief

1607

What

2011

Know?You

Should

WEST SIDE STORIES6

A.P. testing began in 1956, in a time when it was not im-portant if U.S. History covered times past WWII. The test was created by the College Board, a group bringing joy to students through such tests as the SAT, PSAT, and CLEP (Col-lege Level Examination Pro-gram, which helps high school students get college credit).

Advanced Placement class-es were originally created for private schools, as a way to show colleges that students were ready for higher-level classes. Since this inception, A.P. has spread to over 17,000 schools in the U.S, giving a total of 3.2 million exams last year.

This entire system will soon be put to the test, as AP courses go through one of their biggest overhauls since 1956. These changes, en-acted over the next couple of

years, will affect subjects as diverse as Science, Spanish, and U.S. History. Hopefully, they will help to fix aspects of A.P. that have not been as successful as its adherents.

The current problem with the A.P. system lies with the inundation of information. An A.P. test (like for A.P. Biol-ogy) can have any number of subjects on it ranging from ge-netics, to cellular respiration, to anatomy. A teacher cannot know which ones will show up on a test, so is forced to cover them all. “No AP Bio teacher gets through in enough depth all the material,” said Ms. Haasch, AP bio teacher at West, “it just doesn’t happen.”

College professors, at least, have the ability to pick and choose what they want to cov-er, without totally overwhelm-ing their students. Kong Vang,

a former west AP student, no-ticed this difference when he went to college. “AP bio was more work than what I’m do-ing in college,” he related; “Back in high school I had to read a chapter every night.”

It is not always easy to translate a college course into the restrictions and limita-tions of high school. “They give you a 65 minute lab when you only have 50 min-utes to do it,” explained Mrs. Haasch. The longer class periods of college do not al-ways line up with a struc-tured, seven-period schedule. As Vang related, “there is a lot more time to learn things in college—the work load is still intense, but you have some time to get through it”.

In response to these prob-lems, the College Board is making AP courses more man-

ageable—and more firmly rooted in critical thinking. The next couple of years will bring sweeping changes to AP courses as varied as Span-ish, U.S. History, and Biology. These changes will empha-size critical thinking skills (and an actual understand-ing of the material) over rote memorization. For example, labs provided for AP Biology students will no longer sim-ply give students a hypoth-esis and a procedure. Instead, students will have to form their own hypothesis, and de-sign an experiment to test it.

The Board is also plan-ning to make clear what will not be on the exam. This way teachers do not have to spend time covering extemporane-ous information in depth. “Any changes they make to better prepare students for

college is good,” said Ms. Haasch. “The College Board is responding to what colleges want.” And colleges want stu-dents that can apply infor-mation, not just recollect it. Though the AP classes might need some tweaking, they are still worth-while. “AP helped me with study habits, and led me to improve the quality of my work” disclosed Kong. Be-sides these general skills, they can also benefit students with an active interest in a subject. “I didn’t know what I wanted to be—I thought maybe I could be a doctor,” said Kong. “After taking AP Bio, I know I want to be one.” Students taking A.P. classes face real challeng-es, but also real rewards. “Any AP course is worthwhile,” said Ms. Haasch, “if you’re tak-ing it for the right reasons.”

This past week, as students filed into the library to reg-ister for next year’s classes, there were some changes to the course catalogue. New of-ferings in mathematics--AP Statistics and AP Calculus BC--have been added to the Wauwatosa curriculum. Stu-dents in foreign languages will also be encouraged to take the AP test at the end of their senior year. Consider these changes in addition to the Dis-trict’s eleven current Advanced Placement offerings and a trend becomes apparent. Has Wauwatosa caught AP fever?

“We are encouraging stu-dents to take APs,” said Beth Erenberger, Director of Stu-dent Learning for the Wau-watosa School District. “I would like to think that any student who wants to chal-lenge themselves can find a safe place in our district to take an AP class.” According to Erenberger, the AP pro-gram aligns with the district goal of developing students’ critical learning skills, as well as a state-issued “core.”

The district is making oth-er changes besides adding AP classes. Erenberger explained that the district is creating “pathways from middle school to high school” so that students are more equipped to handle

AP courses. “Critical thinking can happen in kindergarten, in first grade,” said Erenberg-er, adding that she believes it to be the district’s respon-sibility to begin developing these critical thinking skills.

So why the changes? Each year, the district reviews a different content area and updates the curriculum ac-cordingly. Last year foreign languages were reviewed, and foreign language teach-ers were sent to an AP con-ference. Sixth-year students will now be encouraged to take the AP test, after re-viewers noticed that few stu-dents were already doing so.

But do teachers feel they have to alter their teaching style to accommodate the sub-ject matter of the AP exam? Jessica Belich, the only teach-er at West to teach two differ-ent AP classes (AP Art and AP Art History) said it sim-ply: “I don’t teach to the test.” Belich added, “If the AP pro-gram existed, and we didn’t participate, we would be do-ing a disservice to students.”

However, some teachers ex-press concern over the transi-tion into Advanced Placement courses. In response to the addition of Calculus BC, cur-rent AP Calculus AB teacher Tom Woodworth asks, “What’s

the rush in calculus? You have your whole life to take that second semester of Calculus.” Woodworth also questions how two accelerated pre-calculus classes can be split up into four different classes: Stats, AP Stats, AP Calc AB, and AP Calc BC. As Woodworth put it simply “the mathematics do not work out right.” If less than 15 students enroll in a course, it generally does not run the next year. Therefore, chances are good that one of the four aforementioned courses will not be offered in the 2011-2012 school year. Belich ex-presses similar concerns over enrollment in her courses.

“I would like to have AP Portfolio and AP Studio sepa-rated,” she said. However, these two AP concentrations are currently taught in the same hour because not enough students enroll in either course for them to run individually.

What is the next change for the school district? “Science is on the horizon,” Erenberger said. “Science curriculum has not been looked at in15 years.” Though AP classes may be controversial, Erenberger maintains that the District is doing its best to “prepare stu-dents for the future they are going to be in, not the present.”

District to Offer New AP Courses

CURRICULUM CHANGES

HERSCHEL KISSINGERg Managing Editor

A new approach to AP in Wauwatosa School District

A Nationwide AP Curriculum MakeoverNATALIE MULLINSg Staff Writer

AP classes’ curricula soon to focus more on critical thinking and concepts than on rote memorization

Exam Passing Rate

AP Enrollment

Breaking it Down: AP in Tosa School District

While AP enrollment has risen over the past few years, the rate of students getting scores of 3 or bet-ter on the exams (equivalent of passing) has taken a slight dip. Statistics were gathered from the 2009-10 District Development Plan Year-End Report.

FEATURESFebruary, 2011

FEATURESWEST SIDE STORIES 7

Today’s “young adult” au-thors seem to be captivated by a new romantic pattern. The girl of the book is dan-gerously in love with the boy, who she shyly stole a glance at. The girl then becomes obsessed with trying to fig-ure him out. There’s always that driving force that she and the mysterious boy have which by the end of the nov-el leaves her resting in his

arms helplessly in love with the undeniably beautiful boy.

Becca Fitzpatrick de-fies these limits in her pre-miere novel “HUSH, HUSH,” by adding a mystical fallen angel theme where hu-mans become pawns in the hand of a higher life form.

Protagonist Nora Grey is assigned a new biology partner in her sophomore level biology class. Patch, a dark haired-

mysterious bad boy pries his way in to Nora’s life, turning it completely upside down.

Nora also becomes ac-quainted with a good-looking transfer student who is the key suspect in a murder-ruled-sui-cide at his former prep school.

Using her sleuthing skills learned from journalism, she begins to research both boys. Because of them, Nora must suffer not only hallucinations,

but the life altering at-tack of her best friend, and the uncovering that Patch is a fallen angel who will take all measures necessary to get a human body.

HUSH, HUSH is filled with numerous twists, nephilm, and action, which makes it a must read. Check it out at the library today.

STEPHANIE EBERLE g Staff Writer

Wauwatosa’s Local Sweet Shops

Hush, Hush: A Refreshing Take on FictionZAKIYA ROBINSON g Guest Writer

Niemann’s

Ultimate Confections

Not Just Nuts

Becca Fitzpatrick’s novel defies the clichéd plotlines of young adult literature

One shop, Not Just Nuts, which can be found at 6538 W. North Ave, was founded in 1986 by Gary Garski. Gar-ski said, “I started the shop because my grandma was complaining that she couldn’t find any sugar free candy. I said, ‘I can take care of that.’”

Upon entering the shop, you see containers containing every color and type of candy lining the walls. Not Just Nuts contains over four hun-dred varieties of candy rang-ing from chocolate to hard candy to delicious candy that just happens to be sugar free.

A l t h o u g h Christmas is their busiest holiday, during the weeks lead-ing up to Valen-tine’s Day the shop gets very busy as well.

Niemann’s, 7475 Harwood Avenue, is a third generation run candy shop. The shop was started by the grandfather of the current owner, Jim Nie-mann, around 1919 after he had tried several different trades and had been appren-ticed by local German candy makers. Nienamm said, “We use the original recipes that my grandfather used.”

Niemann’s biggest year-round seller is their origi-nal almond butter crunch, known as colonial rock after the movie theater near their original location. The front

room of Niemann’s contains beautifully displayed candy as well as an old fashion scale to measure the candy, but in the back is where the creation of candy takes place. Nie-mann’s manufactures all of their own merchandise. This does not mean they make the chocolate itself, but that they work with the chocolate to create the final product.

Valentine’s Day is the third busiest season for Niemann’s, and during the holidays chocolate is by far their biggest crowd pleaser. .

Ultimate Confections, lo-cated at 820 North 68th Street, was started by Lori Murphy in her basement with a single recipe. Lori Flynn, who works at Ultimate Confections, said, “She started in her kitchen, moved to locations in Shore-wood and Brookfield, and fi-nally it grew into what you see here.” “Here” is a welcoming store front and candy counter

as well as a back section where the candy is made. They also have a drive through at State Fair Park. Like Niemann’s, Ultimate Confections buys their chocolate in bulk and forms it into their product. Their product includes many things from chocolate dipped marsh mellows to letters made out of choco-late. The

time right before Valen-tine’s Day becomes very busy for them every year.

All three businesses do more work than simply hav-ing a store front. They often have corporations buy gifts for employees or customers from these shops. They all had small beginning but are now here to provide you with the perfect Valentine’s Day gift.

NIEMANN’S CANDY STORE shows off a variety of sweets available during the Valentine’s Day season.

Though Valentine’s Day has come and gone, there is no reason to forsake the con-sumption of the delectable

treats the holiday is known for. Wauwatosa is home to a large variety of candy shops. Many of these are

family owned and have been around for years. Take a look at some of the finest candy stores the city has to offer.

BRIA JONES g West Side StoriesJIM NIEMANN points out some confections made at the Wauwatosa store

Skaters have been racing across the ice, armed with sticks, pucks and nets since the early 1800s when the Mic-mac Indians played something similar to ice hockey in Nova Scotia, Canada. Since then, it has evolved into a national sport both within Canada and the United States to the point where about 21 million people attend games annually within the two countries. Despite existing on the national and collegiate level, ice hockey ex-ists at the high school level as well – even within Tosa West.

“[Wild United] originally was comprised of five schools: Tosa East and Tosa West, New Berlin Eisenhower and New Berlin West, and Whitnall,” said team coach, Kurt An-dersson. “We exist as a co-op team. Unfortunately, due to low numbers, we were forced to drop our varsity team. However, the benefit of that is we can now open up to club teams and kids who don’t play within those schools and kids who don’t have teams to play on within their own schools.”

Not being on a team com-prised of the same people you see every day in school can be quite refreshing.

“You get to meet a lot of people,” said co-captain Kadin Pasley, a senior at New Berlin Eisenhower. “It’s nice being able to get around the area so that you’re not only friends w i t h a l l o f the same p e o p l e . ”

However, a team made up of kids from rival schools can get a little interesting.

“We have a strong rivalry with [Tosa] East,” said Brett Clarke, a freshman at Tosa West. “It makes things inter-esting [at practice], especially when we win and they lose.”

The Wild United Hockey team now contains a mix of

students from a variety of schools and a variety of ex-periences and backgrounds.

“I started playing when I was three years old,” said co-captain Stephen Dahl, a se-nior at Whitnall. “My cousins got me into it and so I just got out and started playing. I haven’t looked back since.”

This is a philosophy shared by many boys on the team. Many of them, like Dahl, have been skating since they learned to tie their laces.

“Most of them grew up playing for clubs,” said Coach Andersson. “But they re-alize that they need each other and it’s their love for hockey that unites them.”

Despite this, extensive e x p e r i e n c e is not necessary to p l a y and be suc-cessful on the team.

“This is only my second year, ” s a i d A u s -t i n Lynn, a ju-n i o r at South Milwau-k e e . “ M y

brother is a big Admirals fan

and I had been skating since I was 11 or 12. I just looked around one day and decided to join the team.”

In addition to a love for the game, Lynn loves the game for more personal reasons.

“It keeps me out of trouble,” he said. “It keeps me from getting involved in things I shouldn’t be involved with. It’s also a really good sport where you get let out your an-ger and frustration without really getting into trouble for

it, like you would if you did it at school. Also, practice usu-ally wipes you out so all you want to do when you go home is sleep.”

Each hockey team is made up of five players and one goal keeper as they try and out-score their opponents during a sixty min-ute game. Games are fast paced, exciting and sometimes even violent.

“I play defense,” said Clarke. “I like it because I get to play a lot and I get to start more.”

Team defense is usu-ally made up of two players, the right and left defenders, who defend the goal against the other team’s offense.

“I like protect-ing the goal and

knowing that you’re stop-ping the other team from scor-

ing,” said Dahl. “I like the fact that I’m giving my team the better op-portunity to win.”

The offense of a hockey team is made up of three people: the center, the left wing, and

the right wing. They work to-gether in order to manipulate themselves past

t h e other team’s d e - fense so that they put t h e m -selves in a better position to score.

“I play r i g h t wing,” said Kadin. “I like it because I get to handle the puck a lot and get a lot of opportunities to score.”

Scoring is something Wild

United has done somewhat consistently this sea-son as

their record cur-r e n t - l y

stands at eight wins, seven losses, and eight ties.

“I think we could work on our play stance,” said Coach Andersson about what the team could improve on. “We can work on individual skills like knowing where to be. I think we can achieve this through progression and dif-ferent drills so that we can gauge where they are at.”

Despite this, the team does have its specific strengths.

“We are pretty good at not giving up even when we’re down,” said Coach Andersson. “Because of that, we’ve been able to come away with wins in close games. We’ve always had a positive attitude and we try and have lots of fun.”

Hockey is a popular sport in the Milwaukee area be-cause of the popularity of the Admirals team, but neverthe-less, most of the high schools

that the players go to don’t even know that their school is part of a co-op hockey team.

“I try to spread the word, but it’s not a big thing,” said Dahl. “I think it might be dif-ferent if we weren’t a co-op team and the actual schools

themselves had teams the way soccer and football do. It would definitely be nice to get some exposure.”

Getting exposure is al-ways a problem for any or-

ganization, but Wild United does have a few strategies.

“We wear sweatshirts and things on club days,”

said Lynn. “But I don’t know if a lot of kids

know about us still. In my

o p i n i o n , t h e r e

j u s t aren’t

enough kids who

p l a y h o c k e y . ” S t u - dents usu-

ally fill the bleachers at foot-ball and basketball games, but the bleachers inside the ice rink remain usually empty of the player’s peers.

“I think people should come,” said Pasley. “Usu-ally it’s only our parents and that’s kind of disappointing. It’d be cool if we had a crowd like the football games.”

Lack of attendance cer-tainly is not linked to a lack of interest during the games.

“[Hockey] is a really fun sport, even to watch,” said Dahl. “It’s a quick, fast-paced game with lots of excitement.”

Whether it be watch-ing or playing, all students can enjoy this intense sport.

“It’s a great sport to watch and is probably the best spectator sport,” said Coach Andersson. “And you are never too old to start.”

February, 2011

SportsWEST SIDE STORIES8

ANGELA O’BRIEN g Editor-in-Chief

on

Think You Know Hockey? Take the Test!• How fast can a

hockey puck typi-cally travel?

• A. 100 MPH • B. 150 MPH • C. 175 MPH

• The most penalty minutes by one player was _____.

• A. 100• B. 500• C. 450

• Currently, the Stan-ley Cup stands at _____ inches tall.

• A. 12• B. 24• C. 35

• Milwaukee’s profes-sional team is called ______.

• A. The Mighty Ducks• B. The Admirals• C. The Whalers

• How are hockey games divided in terms of time?

• A. Periods• B. Quarters• C. Minutes

• Answers: B,C,A,B,C

LAURA SHIVELY g Guest Photographer