www.chsstudentconnection.com

Jungle Beast JournalVolume 64 Edition 3 May 2013

Mr. O’Neil has said that it is “very likely” that the Corsicana High School schedule for the 13-14 school year will involve an 8-period day. Many students have expressed their concerns and ques-tion about this shift, and what it would mean for them. The reasons behind the shift are as numer-ous as the students it involves. To get a better understanding and address any concerns students may have concerning the new projected schedule, O’Neil met with several stu-dents to meet any concerns they may have. Stu-dents Caroline Means and Makenzie Lee spoke of how it may be difficult to have multiple AP classes with the new schedule, seeing as how testing during a 50 minute class would be hard to pull off, not to mention stressful. To calm these concerns, O’Neil spoke of this was a concern go-ing into the new schedule, but was being taken care of. Isaiah Flores, student council president spoke of the meeting, “O’Neil handled our concerns well, and because of this we, the student council, sup-port the new schedule. We understand the pros and cons of the situation and think that the good would outweigh the bad.” Research has shown that students with ADD and ADHD are better able to focus in shorter, 50-min-ute classes as there is less “down-time” for the students to have a chance to zone out and lose focus. For many students at CHS, this would be a vast improvement over the limits of a 4x4 period schedule (A-B days). The establishment of a pat-tern is important for many students with learning disabilities, and having a shorter class that meets every day would lead to a pattern much quicker than a class in the normal schedule would. Hav-ing a set “pattern” to each day of learning would make things more formulaic and easier to follow for students who struggle with reading or writing.

The eighT Period dayBy: Todd Warren

Having a set “pattern” to each day of learning would make things more formulaic and easier to follow for students who struggle with reading or writing. On the flip side of the coin, a concern many stu-dents have is that many AP classes are less able to function in a 50 minute day environment. Mr. O’Neil, however, has considered this and placed an hour and a half long class period in the 5th period slot. During this time, courses would still follow the A-B schedule. For example, a stu-dent taking AP Calculus and AP English would take AP Calculus on an A-day, and AP English on their B-day. In addition to having a slightly longer school day, 6th Period will be changed to an Advisory Period which will be used for UIL, Academic tutorials, STAAR help, or a study hall. This Ad-visory period will be with a set teacher which will meet every day and function the exact same as a normal class, but will be focused on spe-cific things each student needs. For this schedule to take place, adjustments must be made to the length of the school day. Each school day will start at 7:40 am and end at 3:15 pm.

Chief Editor- Sarah Dockery News Editor- Kansas Brunson

Copy Editor- Todd Warren Photographer- Damaris Ibanez

Carlos Perez

JBJ Staff- Viri Catalan Gaby Sanchez Travon Hood

Multimedia- Jamie Humann Juan Hernandez Austin Aldama Darance Dedmon Dzifa Mallet STaFF

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May 2013 Page 3Jungle Beast Journal

“My favorite memory of prom was seeing Claudia’s face when they announced she had won prom queen.”

“We ate at La Pradera and had a great time staying in

Corsicana.”

“The music was entertaining and kept everyone dancing.”

“If I could change anything, I would make it not so much

like a Quinceañera.”

“The photo booth was fun. Claudia talked me into using some props and now I have some memorable pictures

from prom.”

“I didn’t play any of the games.”

“Don’t laugh, but we arrived in my moms car. My moms car is the envy of all soccer

moms!”“I was more excited for

Claudia winning prom queen than winning king. It was fun

seeing her all happy, and shocked! Being selected as

prom king is something I will never forget.”

“I have a lot of memories from prom, like dancing with friends and Zack and winning

prom Queen.”

“We ate at La Pradera, I like it because it was quite and

calm.”“I loved the music, never a

dull moment!”

“I wouldn’t change anything. It was perfect and I had a

blast!”“It was fun taking pictures in the photo booth, especially

taking funny pictures.”

“After we ate we went to play mini golf, that was

extremely fun!”

“We arrived in a car.”

“I honestly was extremely surprised once they called

my name for prom queen. I didn’t expect to get it, but it

felt so good to get it.”

Technology- Dangerously

Convenient By: Kansas Brunson

It’s no secret every kid loves their phone and/or iPod, I love mine. But, that love fuels an obsession. People become too dependent on the device and without it they feel… well, ex-posed. Everyone loves how they can just look something up and it’s there. It’s convenient. People feel smart learning all this new infor-mation when in all actuality, they’re taking in more information than their brain can process. Attention spans are becoming shorter; people are becoming less and less observant of what’s going on around them. Can you imagine living in a world where every-one is continuously staring at their phone? It’s what is happening. People talk or text on their phones while driving, they run into things be-cause they’re more interested in their iPod than walking, it’s not a safe thing. According to the University of Utah, distraction from cell phone use while driving extends a driver’s reaction as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .80 percent. The NHTSA says that drivers distracted by cell phones are four times more likely to get in wrecks serious to harm or kill them and Carnegie Mellon ex-plains that driving with cell phones reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent. Is that really convenient?Parents of Alexander Heit shared his last text to reach out to others and let them know the dangers. Heit was texting and drifted into oncoming traffic and when he looked up, he over-corrected causing his car to roll. His cell phone was pulled from his car showing the last message he received was at 5:16 p.m. A partial response was typed, but never sent. AT&T has started a campaign to stop texting and driving saying that “it can wait.” This is what is happening around you. Perhaps with your focus on the phone in front of you, it’s hard to see the negatives of technology but they are there. It’s true that technology is help-ing us make advancements in certain fields but it’s also damaging our ability to be observant and fend for ourselves. Think about it, technol-ogy is so convenient it’s dangerous.

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Class of 2013Top 10 Students

Ben Goodrich

Rick Sauber-Cole

Nohemi Jimenez

Luis Torres

Maddie Andrews

Dean Fletes

Grant Robertstad

Reid Folmar

Michelle Rascon

Mason Montfort