Bensen leads with four awards
The West Bend Current set a school record with 21 individual awards from the Northeastern Wisconsin Scholastic Press Association in a statewide contest for high school journalists. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Kara Conley
Tooting Our Own Horn: NEWSPA Awards 2017
Filed under School News and Features
The Music of “La La Land” Deserves Oscar Recognition
VIEWPOINT
The movie’s soundtrack is both contemporary and timeless
By Kara Conley, Current Staff
Winning seven Golden Globes is a miraculous feat in the film industry, but the success of “La La Land” doesn’t stop there.
Damien Chazelle’s modern-day musical continues to captivate audiences, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences took notice of its beauty, nominating “La La Land” for 12 Academy Awards. One of the awards “La La Land” is in contention for this weekend is Best Original Music Score. The film’s composer, Justin Hurwitz, has created musical mastery with a nostalgic sound that is refreshing to ears engulfed in a contemporary cacophony. Continue reading
Filed under Entertainment, Viewpoint
Let’s Get Technical
Should schools be more skeptical about integrating technology into the classroom?
By Kara Conley, Current Staff
In 2017, when people think of school they no longer think of books, but computers.
Technology in the classroom is changing the way teachers must educate their students and the way students learn. Some students have evolved in their academics due to the increased technological use, but not everyone feels it is for the best. Many teachers and students at the West Bend High Schools acknowledge the value of technology, but are also aware of its downsides.
Filed under School News and Features
Milwaukee Film Festival Review: Right Now, Wrong Then
By Kara Conley, Current Staff
There’s nothing like watching the same story become a completely different one in a matter of moments.
“Right Now, Wrong Then,” a South Korean film that played at this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival, differentiates itself from those in its genre with the original idea of blending the same story into two separate ones, transformed by adjustments in a few subtleties. Continue reading
Filed under Entertainment
Milwaukee Film Festival Review: Kaili Blues
By Kara Conley, Current Staff
Last week I was transported to a small town in China.
“Kaili Blues,” a movie playing at this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival, is a terrific work of art that evokes emotion and engulfs audiences with an emphasis on visualization. I was entranced by the images floating across the screen as a complicated story unfolded in front of my eyes. Continue reading
Filed under Entertainment
No Soup For You
Students with a negative balance in their lunch accounts are turned away
By Kara Conley, Current Staff
Rules are rules, even when it comes to lunch.
Lunch provides a small amount of time for students to enjoy food and conversation in the middle of the day. However, some students are unable to share in the food part due to the hot lunch policy regarding account balances. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Too Many Turnovers
The class of 2017 has witnessed a high rate of administrative change
By Maggie Kieser, Current Staff
Starting in the fall, current WBHS juniors will meet their third head principal.
Principal Bill Greymont announced his resignation on Jan. 22, effective at the end of the school year. Greymont became head principal just before the start of the 2014-15 school year, replacing Jim Curler, who left for an administrative position in Slinger. The West Bend School District will now begin searching for another head principal. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Walk This Way
VIEWPOINT
Hallway Etiquette: A Beginner’s Guide
By Maggie Kieser and Kara Conley, Current Staff
It is seventh hour on a Friday afternoon. It has been a long week and patience is non-existent. All you want to do is get to your last class, and you are so close, but an obstacle is lying ahead. You turn onto the X hallway, the most crowded hallway, and the slowest of walkers is in front of you. You begin to worry that you are never going to make it to your class a mere three doors down the hall. After what seems like hours, you arrive to your class just before the bell rings wondering how hallway walking became such an issue.
Is there no decency among the students of West Bend regarding hallway etiquette? Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features, Viewpoint
Students Lead the Way
Student leadership teams will start meeting during second quarter
Students’ voices are now making the choices.
With the new school year almost a quarter of the way in, the school wants feedback on the high school experience from those experiencing it firsthand. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Namaste During the Day
By Kara Conley, Current Staff
Tammy Lascelle, a special education teacher at East, has created a yoga corner where students can learn one or two poses before heading to class.
Lascelle offers students some yoga lessons in the U hallway between periods three and four during passing time, but only a few days each week. It’s a way for her to interact with students and create a more joyful environment. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Dreams Become Reality
Business students participated in Reality Day at WBHS
By Kara Conley, Current Staff
For four years, one teacher has been working to make her dream come true at the West Bend High Schools. Continue reading
Filed under Community, School News and Features
Greymont Explains What WBHS Hopes to “Gain” from Standardized Tests
For many students, high school seems like continuous standardized testing. But students have actually been assessed this way since elementary school.
“High school, for the first time, is really experiencing what elementary school has been doing for the past 20 years,” said Bill Greymont, WBHS principal.
The next set of Gains tests will be taken the week of April 6-10. Different subjects will be tested each day. Sophomores will take the Aspire test April 28-29; freshmen will take it April 30 and May 1.
Greymont addressed why students are taking multiple standardized tests each year in an early March interview with The Current. He explained the purpose of these tests so students can understand why they need to be taken, from the administration’s perspective. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Go Big or Go Home
By Kara Conley, Current Staff
A phy ed teacher at East has definitely made his “mark” on West Bend. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Don’t Believe Everything You Hear
The rumor mill was in full force following last week’s student-led protest march. The Current staff writers Kara Conley, Miranda Paikowski, and Mike Smale separate fact from fiction.
Rumor: The march was a success, as it led to the school returning to seniors the right to create a wall mural and attend the Every 15 Minutes program in spring.
Fact: The riot did not result in these decisions. The official decision to once again make both juniors and seniors the attending classes for the Every 15 Minutes program was made prior to the hall pass uproar. “I had been thinking of changing the participating grades from juniors and seniors to juniors and sophomores. This was simply a proposal, and I was already leaning towards keeping it the way it has been,” said Ralph Schlass, assistant principal, in an interview with Miranda Paikowski. According to Schlass, he had decided a few days before the riot to have seniors participate once again. This announcement, although made on Thursday, was not related to the march whatsoever. Continue reading
Filed under Community, School News and Features
A Shining Creation
By Kara Conley, Current Staff
Starting today, Erin Meyer can introduce herself as a published novelist. Continue reading
Filed under Entertainment, School News and Features
The Grade Divide
Students and teachers don’t always agree about the value of online quizzes
By Kara Conley, Current Staff
This fall WBHS students were introduced to a new district-wide online application called Canvas, where they can see upcoming assignments, tests, and quizzes for their current courses. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Remembering 1970
West graduate Mary Woldt was among the first students to attend the twin high schools
By Kara Conley, Current Staff
With all the talk of combining East and West High Schools, it is easy to forget that they used to be one.
Mary Woldt, a West Bend West alumnus, was part of the first class to experience the West Bend High School as two. In 1970, when the current design was implemented, she was an incoming junior who feared what this change would do to her and her friends. Continue reading
Filed under Community, School News and Features
The Ballot of the West Twins
By Alex Kopish, Editor in Chief
For Kara and Kieran Conley, the homecoming dance might be a little awkward.
The odds of being born twins is three in 100, but what are the odds that twins would be voted by their classmates as the male and female representatives for homecoming court? Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
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