The Spectacle NEWS INSERT page 1 April 4, 2012

Have you purchased your 2011-2012 yearbook yet?

If you wait until August,it will cost $45.

Don’t wait until the last minute!

Buy now for $35

Grades 7-12

All sports, prom, and graduation!

To Buy:Bring your cash or check made out to “Mesa

Vista Yearbook” to the school library

SBA’s Crucial for C/O 2013By Kylie CoutuRepoRteR

Last month (March 26-29) the middle school and all sophomores and juniors took

the New Mexico Standard Based Assessment tests (S.B.A.). The juniors need to pass math and reading to graduate next year, Computer Apps teacher Bernadette Galvez said. They are the first grade group in New Mexico to go through this new testing to graduate process. The juniors took math, reading, social studies and science tests. The eighth graders took math and reading, and the seventh grade took reading, math, writing and science. “I was most confident with math because math is pretty easy and I know all the key terms, but in English I still get confused,” seventh grader Marisol Archuleta said. The scores do not go on students’

transcripts because the SBAs are meant to be a measure of student academic achievement and are currently used to measure Adequately Yearly Progress (A.Y.P.) which the state uses to rate public schools in New Mexico. “We reviewed basic concepts, building scientific literacy through reading problems, graphs and data,” science teacher Sabrina Maxwell said. Test results additionally go to Santa Fe where they process them to see if the students meet proficiency. If they don’t pass it, they will have to take it again in January of 2013. Those who still don’t meet proficiency are automatically signed up for the Alternate Demonstration of Competency (ADC), guidance counselor Pete Bustamante said. “The scores don’t come out until next year, but we don’t know exactly when,” Bustamante said.

By laura Guzman

RepoRteR

On March 1 and 22, students with a 2.5 gpa or higher and a signed permission form could have attended the School Ski Program at the Sipapu Ski Resort with

teacher Victor Jaramillo. For the last eight years, Jaramillo has hosted a snowboard-ing club as a reward for good grades and good behavior, he said, which means any stu-dent with a referral was not allowed to go. Last year, 40 students went and this year 38 student went on the first trip and 28 on the second trip (about 35 had signed up to go). If students didn’t have their own equipment, they could rent equipment ($25 for skiing or $37 for snowboarding). The school paid the cost of transportation (about $300) and students only had to pay for lunch and equipment. “I like snowboarding because you make good memories that you never forget. I had more fun this year and there were more slopes this year,” freshman Marcus Martinez said.

Ski Trip is Snow Fun, Reward

I had more fun this year and there were more slopes.“ ”— freshman

Marcus Martinez

full color

Muy Elegantephoto by Alicia Dominguez // Interim Superintendent Tracie Phillips poses with the middle school Spanish Spelling Bee winners in the library loft on Tuesday, April 3. From left to right: Seventh graders Lawrence Holterman: 1st place and Tomas Delgado: 2nd place, with eighth grader Mireya Perez: 3rd place. Perez will represent Mesa Vista in the state Spanish Bee on April 14 at Albuquerque. Holterman and Delgado cannot participate in the Bee as they will be with teacher Connie Lujan at the State FFA competition, April 10-14 in Las Cruces during the next Spanish Bee.

‘New’ English Teacher Joins MVMHS Staff

The Spectacle FEATURES INSERT page 2 April 4, 2012

ACT Deadlines

•April 14: Test at MVMHS•May 4: Deadline to register for the June 9 ACTMVHS students get two waivers max. to take the ACT for free. Counselor Pete Bustamante recom-mends juniors take it second semester or the summer before their se-nior year.

The Spectacle staff is committed to accuracy and responsible reporting, however, we do make mistakes and would like to publicly correct those mistakes here:

Error in “FFA Preps”We incorrectly stated on p. 2 that the FFA State Competition is June 3-6 in Las Cruces. The June competition is the FFA Convention, where FFA members compete in marketing

and Agri-science fair, however, FFA will compete at the overall State competition on April 10-14 in Las Cruces.

Although errors are inevitable, it doesn’t make them acceptable, and the goal of the Spectacle is continuous improvement in accuracy. We apologize for these errors and promise to continue to uphold our commitment to excellence.

CORRECTION(S)

By ashtyn meGarizRepoRteR

Following teacher Susanna De La Peña’s resignation in January, high school students took English with

retired science teacher and long-term substitute Eddie Campos. On Feb. 20, however, new teacher, Tè Zins stepped in. “Mr. Tè is an amazing teacher ‘cause he treats us right and actually teaches us in a way we understand,” junior Jeremy Broyles said. Zins, who goes by “Mr. Tè” has been an educator for 12 years. He taught pre-viously at Mesa Vista as a high school Health and Theater teacher and for the Moriarty School District as a Language Arts teacher and reading coach. He also

taught at Ojo Caliente Elementary as a reading coach. With this background, Mr. Tè is no stranger to most of the student body. Mr. Tè enjoys teaching high school students because he said they can step up and understand the beauty of learn-ing once the educator provides the guidance and direction. “This challenge excites me…I want to be able to make the classroom “our” classroom and not “mine”… I hope to bring consistency to the language arts department and see the seniors walk away with a sense of comple-tion. That will give the underclassmen the opportunity to have something to look forward to,” Mr. Tè said.

photo by Chastidy Trujillo // Mr. Té instructs the fifth period senior class as to how the class will be run for the remainder of the year. The “Mind Gem Board” is new to all students who take this class, and represents which side of the brain is used for specfic subjects.

“I feel that it is good that we got a new English teacher to end our year, but it’s dissapointing that we had to wait so long,” senior Samantha Terrazas said.

Fill-in-the-blank: April Showers, Bring ___________

Freshman Marcus Martinez

Sophomore Angel Archuleta

Junior Jeremy Broyles

Senior Emma Hardison

“Rainbows and happiness” “Flowers and Sunshine” “Smashing” “May Flowers”