![]() By: Isaac Amparan The purpose of spirit week is to get the students to be supportive and excited about the school and its sports teams.There are multiple ways to show school spirit whether it is to wear school colors, go to the rally, or wear the certain attire for the day. However not everyone enjoys spirit week because of the things like the rally and what else?,certain days of the week, or the activities that are played during the week. Many people would like to change the days on spirit week because they are the same things over and over again. They would also like to change/add new activities so we can make spirit week better. The first person that I talked to about spirit week was Fabian Gonzales, who is a sophomore at KSJC. Fabian said, “spirit week is ok and it has good things and bad things”. One of the things that Fabian said was good was the fact that we get to wear things besides the uniform. Another thing that he said that was good was the activities that we do during the spirit week. The one thing that he said was bad was the rally because we have to sit on the floor for a period of time which is mostly boring,and because there aren't many posters on the wall to get us hyped. The second person that I talked to about this subject was Cristo Rafael who is also a sophomore at KSJC. Cristo said that he really enjoys the spirit week but there is one thing in particular that makes it less fun than its supposed to. The thing that ruins spirit week is the fact that the days are not that creative. This is important to the students because if the day is not that creative then it would make students wear their uniform or the usual things that they wear to school. Cristo said that “his favorite thing about spirit week is the fact that you get to show your creative side and be different from everyone else”. The third person that I talked to is Roman Sahagun who is also a sophomore at KSJC. Roman said that spirit week is ok but could be better. He said that one of the ways that it could be better is that we add new days in and take out the ones that have been repeated.One of the days that you could take out is twin day and you could replace it with favorite movie day. He said that it starts getting boring after you know what days are happening and it makes you feel like wearing the uniform would be the same thing because that same day already happened. Another thing that Roman does not like about spirit week is wearing the grade level color because sometimes the colors are not that great and it causes many people to not participate in that day. Roman said “you could improve grade level day by adding in some new colors or taking it out completely”. In conclusion, spirit week is important because it gets students to be able to have a good time and make fun of each other without it being taken seriously. It would also get both the staff and students the chance to loosen up a bit and have a good time before testing and essays are given again. The staff also gets the chance to be goofy and fun without having the worry of getting to out of context with the topic that they are teaching. Since spirit week is very important to the students we need to change it up so it becomes exiting and gets more people involved.
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![]() By: Jeanne Huynh From swimming to basketball to volleyball, I have played sports my whole life, and I still do to this day. Through personal experience, I know that there is a plethora of health benefits of being physically active, not to mention the impacts it has on mental ability, mood, etc. However, I can say without a doubt that a large part of the reason why I am still active today is because I have been given the freedom to switch between different sports. I am not confined to just one, and the privilege to choose from a variety maintains my interest in playing sports. Although KSJC does offer a variety, the options that are given are far lacking in comparison to the sports of other schools. Due to KSJC’s small campus, its sports department does not have access to the facilities and provisions that other schools have at their disposal, such as its own gym, swimming pool, football field, etc. Even though these complications limit KSJC to having just a few sports, the myriad of benefits that will ensue is worth the cost of developing more. Here are four reasons why KSJC should invest in more sports teams. 1. It will promote student involvement and physical activity. Being fit is a quality that most people strive to achieve in their lives, but many of the students at KIPP do not join its sports teams – and therefore do not maintain their physical health – because they feel as if sports is not for them or none of the sports offered are of any interest to them. By creating additional sports teams, the school is opening up a wider selection that will cater to the interests of a larger pool of students, thus encouraging more students to be physically active. Introducing a greater amount of sports, especially sports that are not common, serves the interests of students who specialize in a particular sport, not to mention that it also increases the chances of piquing more students’ interest, even if some students do not have prior sports experience or are currently not physically active. Below are the responses of some students who either do not currently play any school sports or only athletically involved in school sports for one season out of three during the school year because none or a limited amount of the sports they are willing to join are unavailable for them.
* Some responses have been altered for clarity. Judging by the amount of students willing to join a sports team if only it was available at KSJC, it is safe to say that, with its current sports program, KSJC is losing many prospective student-athletes. 2. It will increase school spirit. As a student, I know for a fact that my schoolmates have less pride in KSJC than students of other schools, mostly because of what the school calls its campus. The sense of pride in KSJC is fleeting, only rekindled during the occasional rally, Pack Night, or when news spreads of one of its sports team’s victory over another school’s. If KSJC wants to address the issue of its low student morale, the solution is straightforward: increase opportunities for greater student involvement in the school and allow students to feel as if their school is better than other schools. The more sports teams KSJC has, the more victories it will bring home. As a result, students will gain a sense that their school is just as competent – maybe even more so – than other schools in the area, making them feel proud to be a part of KSJC. Potentially, this will bring a realization of the benefits of representing a community on the court or field, inspiring more students to join sports teams and be involved. 3. It provides more opportunities for students who cannot afford extracurriculars. Most of KSJC’s students come from low-income families; compared to many of the students that attend larger public or private high schools, a lot of KSJC students were or are not able to afford the same privileges, including tutoring in a specific school subject, music lessons outside of school, club sports, etc. To address the issue of underserved students, one of KIPP’s policies is to educationally accommodate students regardless of their backgrounds or financial situations. The same policy should be addressed with KSJC’s sports program. Increasing the amount of sports offered also creates more openings for KSJC’s students to gain the athletic experience that many students outside of the KIPP system have automatically. 4. Being involved in sports improves academics and teaches life lessons. Countless studies have shown that student athletes perform better in core subjects, miss less school, and have higher average GPAs than their non-athlete counterparts. The reason behind this may lie not in the lessons taught in school, but the life skills learned through sports. Students who play sports acquire valuable leadership skills and learn how to cooperate with a team, how to maintain social relationships, and how to manage time, to name a few. Because having a greater variety of sports teams will spur more students to be athletically involved, KSJC’s student population will show signs of improvement not only in academics, but also in themselves. At the moment, creating a larger sports program may not be possible for KSJC, considering the limits of its location. Nonetheless, introducing additional sports is still possible if KSJC gains permission to utilize more of the facilities on its host school’s campus. However, in the case that KSJC is permitted to build its own campus in the future, it should prioritize its needs and design a campus that may accommodate the athletic aspirations of its students. ![]() By: Sebastian Martinez School rallies are one of the best ways to raise the spirit in one’s school. These rallies for the most part done in an open area or in the school gym. At these school rallies, the students are able to play games while representing their grade level. This is also a time where the teachers and coaches take some time to make announcements about the sports teams and school. No matter how the current school rallies here at KSJC are planned, there are always ways to implement new ways to raise spirit and make the rallies more fun. Here are five ways to help any school raise their school spirit and improve their rallies. #1: Host Face paint stations A cheap and sure way to help get people get pumped for a school rally is face paint. It’s an awesome and easy way to get students decorated with the school colors and event the school mascot. With approval from the school, the students in charge of planning the rallies could easily hold a station before school, during lunch or an open time period before the rally to allow the students to easily stop by and get ready for the event. #2: Hold a t-shirt decorating contest With blank white t-shirts being easily available at stores like the dollar tree, you can invite student to make a unique t-shirts in spirit of the school. This could easily be done with paint or even markers. All that you would need to do is find an appropriate time (lunch time for example), set up a table and invited people over to grab a t-shirt that they could wear for the day and the rally. #3: Host a cookout/ barbecue By asking teachers and parents who are active in school planning and see which of them are willing to cook and sell food, you can pump people up for the rally while fundraising for the school. Here parents can mingle with one another and with the school teachers about anything and everything. Like this, the parents feel more connected to the teachers, the school and each other. All while enjoying delicious food and helping out the school. #4: Have a poster making contest among the grade levels Many and most schools can be quite competitive between grade levels. The students, especially at their rallies are always attempting to one up each other. This sense of competition is always a fun way to show their pride. An awesome way to portray a class’ pride is to make a unique poster for their designated grade level. This way the rest of the school can see who they’re up against. Important to remember that this is meant to be in good taste and just for fun. #5: Make spirit bracelets A final way to raise school spirit is to make spirit bracelets. These bracelets can easily be make with string and colored beads. These can be made with the school colors and if you choose to spice things up, you can add beads with letters to spell out the school’s name. These would be great to be passed out to the student during lunch time ahead of the rally. These would also make awesome souvenirs to remember the awesome rally you hosted by using these tips. School rallies should be a time where the students and teachers of a school can hang out and play games while having fun. These are some of the events that should raise the school spirit the most. I believe that for a school rally to be successful, they should have been planned with plenty of time and maybe even get suggestions by the student body. All in all, school rallies are a time where students and teachers gather together in a small gym, compete in games, and the seniors always win. ![]() By: Khoi Le Trying to figure out what is the best way to spend your spring break? But you don't want to burn a hole in your pocket by traveling to some tropical place? Here are a few fun and cheap things to do that won't break the bank. 1. Spend a day exploring a nearby city The West Coast has a lot of cities that are famous among the country. Pack up and walk outside, adventure awaits you in every corner that you see. You could go to Silicon Valley, a tech town where famous corporation HQ located. You could enjoy the rich culture of many cities and it beauty so get your butt up and start walking. 2. Go to the beach The most frequent thing to do in a break, but the beach still a hold one of the top spot all over the world. It offers a place to relax, enjoy family time and eat a different type of food that has to offer. The water is very cold so I suggest that you bring towels to cover yourself. 3. Go hiking/ on a long bike ride Spring is the season of life, it marks a time where flowers start blooming, birds flying, and the weather became beautiful, fitting for a walk. San Jose has many beautiful streets and special tourist visit for you to enjoy like Municipal Rose garden, Willow Glen, Happy Hollow Park and zoo,... It certainly sounds promising and better than sitting in your room all day long, isn’t it? 4. Take pictures Pictures are not just photos that we keep, it is more than an image that we have on photos. It is a memory, something that would remind us of that time that we have passed. Our mind may give us the best image of our memory but like many others, it does fade over time, then when that time comes, pictures are things that could remind us of that particular memory. 5. Read a book Time change, I remember a few years ago, before phones become popular, all I have is my computer, which I don’t have any game to play on, and my collection of books. Every page of a book tells a story when you get into one that you like it is hard to get out of it. Books are knowledge, but seriously, don’t take those textbooks that you have to use whole year, those are boring as hell. I would recommend the Sherlock Holmes series, Ender games, Heroes, … We all have different taste so you should look up some that you want. 6. Google “Top Things to Do in (Your State)” and do them Back then, to do something you have to ask around. But now, with the internet became so famous and popular, you could access at any time, you have the whole network of information on the tip of your finger. Go online and search for some good thing to do, maybe you find something you like. 7. Take a road trip with no planned destination If you just want to go out, pack thing ups and wander like a gypsy would, they wander the world all the time but remember the time to come back though, you only have one week and wander around with no destination could be lost easily 8. Visit your middle school Even if you wanted or not, middle school is a part of our lives. The time that you are just little kids trying to grow up or the Eminem phase that you try to rap. The middle school contain many memories of friendship you have, had and will have. Go back there and visit it, who know, maybe you see your old teacher again 9. Spend quality time with your family A family is important, they will be there for you when everyone left so if you have one, treasure it in your hand. Timea you always have to spend it with family, it will warm your heart up to know someone is there for you. 10. Sleep Because as students, we know that we never, ever can get enough of this. Sleep is the essential things in life. I sleep in class and I acknowledge it, as a student we need more sleep and every day I pray that someday I could sleep all I wants and never have to go to school. ![]() By: Juan Martinez Fortnite is one of the most popular games right now. On July 25, 2017 a game called Fortnite was released. The game started getting popular on September because they were excited about the October update. They started coming out with new items every week which brought more people to play. They started having an item shop where they got even more money because they kept adding skins every week. Now because of all that hard work, 3.4 million people have joined the game. There are more people playing Fortnite than PUBG. PUBG is a more real life version of Fortnite, but you can't build, instead you can drive cars. PUBG means PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds PUBG has 3.2 million people while Fortnite has 3.4 million people. On March 15, 2018 they started coming out on mobile. IOS people are able to play, but android users have to wait longer. You can't just download it, you have to put your gmail and wait until they invite you to play. It would take approximately 2-5 days to get the invite. There are a lot of Fortnite streamers. Fortnite streamers means that they record what they are playing live. You can make money out of that. A guy named, Tyler Belvin, also known as NinjasHyper, makes half a million dollars a month by streaming on twitch. Tyler has 5 mil subscribers on Youtube, 1m followers on Twitter/Instagram, and 3.7 million followers on twitch. Tyler has been on twitch since 2011. He still had a lot of twitch followers before Fortnite. When he started playing Fortnite people were confused on what he is playing until they tried it and liked it. More and more people started trying it and out of nowhere it became popular. Tyler is a really important part of this community. Him and a lot of youtubers are sponsored by Fortnite. Just by tyler playing that game he became rich. He isn't just using the money to buy whatever, in fact he raised over $100,000 for Suicide Preventions. The goal was $25,000, but 8 hours later they raised $100,000 because of Tylers community. I asked some fellow students what are their opinions on Fortnite and here was their response. First I interviewed a freshman that comes to KSJC and here was his response. What are your opinions on Fortnite? “It is fun and entertaining.” Have you ever played Fortnite, If so how many hours? “Yes and probably 60 hours.” Do you have any friends or family members that play fortnite? If so do you notice a change in their lifestyle ever since they started playing it? “Yes,my friend, because they get addicted to game and they stop talking to them.” How do you think fortnite has affected our society? “They have a lot of people playing it because of a famous streamer called Ninja.” Then I interviewed another freshman named Joshua and they had different answers. What are your opinions on Fortnite? “It is a fun and entertaining game.” Have you ever played Fortnite, If so how many hours? “Yes and probably 168 hours played” Do you have any friend or family members that play fortnite? If so do you notice a change in their lifestyle ever since they started playing it? “Yes my brother because before he wouldn’t be late, but now he is.” How do you think fortnite has affected our society? “It has made mostly everyone more addicted to video games.” My opinions on the game Fortnite are that I think the game is fun and makes us more aware because in the game you have to be aware of the direction they are coming from. I also think that the game really addicting because they add skins every week and it makes you want to buy them if they look cool and use them in game. Also I think it is addicting because people like me have stayed up until 2-3 am in a school day or non school day. The game has really affected different people because some people are angry all the time and other people stop going outside to be the best in the game. After all of this, it shows how Fortnite has become really popular. ![]() By Travis Nguyen Boys’ Junior Varsity: Head coach of the KSJC Boys Junior Varsity Basketball team, Bre Lockett, and assistant coach, Jack Monagle, have brought their team to an overall record of 2-11 at the end of the season. The team consists of a total of eleven players with seven freshmen, two sophomores, and two juniors. These seven freshmen have made a big impact on the Junior Varsity team. The team’s last game was against Crystal Springs Uplands on February 12, and the team had lost. Crystal Springs had beat the KSJC boys by just under ten points. The boys had lost many games, so they were not able to make playoffs. “It’s okay, we’ll make playoffs next year” freshman guard Isaiah Aguirre said. It was still an amazing season. The juniors and sophomores had a chance to work with the freshmen. The freshmen had experienced how high school basketball really was and can be ready for next season. Assistant coach, Jack Monagle, had said that the team’s star player was Isaiah Aguirre. “When we gave him a set of goals, he would intentionally change his play style to meet those specific goals” Coach Monagle had said. Coach Monagle had also said that Aguirre was a consistent scorer and he wasn’t so confident running the offense in the beginning of the season. He was then told that he needed to call the plays and slowly learned that he needed to step up. His leadership skills had grown overtime and he has made a big impact on this team. Boys’ Varsity: Head coach of the KSJC Boys Varsity Basketball team, Sunny Singh, and assistant coach, Kenneth Thomas, have brought the team to a 7-9 league record. The team consists of a total of nine players with three freshmen, four sophomores, one junior, and one senior. Although it’s a very small team compared to those of other schools, they work harder. Even though the Boys’ Varsity team didn’t play as good to make a spot in playoffs, they still made it, but was unseated. Everyone thought that this team was one of the worst teams in the entire league. Their first playoff game in CCS was on February 20th against Kehillah Jewish High School, and sadly, they did not win. They lost by nine points with a score of 45-54. KSJC had the league in the first half, but somehow they just lost it. “They weren’t even good!” Sophomore guard, Thomas Ramirez, furiously said after the game. The team’s star players are #5, Kyle Depadua, and #24, Thomas Ramirez. Both made top ten of most averaged points in the whole league. Depadua is ranked third and Ramirez is ranked fourth in the entire league for most points averaged. Depadua averages 16.6 points, 6.4 steals, and 4.4 assists per game. Ramirez averages 14.6 points, 1.5 steals, and 3.1 assists per game. The only senior on the team is Joey Tran. Sadly, he’s leaving for college and will no longer be with the boys next year. He has made a big impact on the boys and has helped this year’s team out a ton. On senior night, the boys decided to buy him a basketball and they all signed it. Each player on Varsity and Junior Varsity, including the coaches, wrote a little message on the ball. During halftime, they surprised Joey with the ball and he was extremely surprised. Girls’ Junior Varsity: Head coach of the KSJC Girls Junior Varsity Basketball Team, Tiffany Le, and assistant coach, Isis Diaz, have brought their team to a 1-7 record. The team consists of ten players with seven freshman and three sophomores. Everyone on this team is pretty young, so they have time to adapt to playing high school basketball. They all have at least another two years to play and can get some experience. The team’s last game was against Mountain View Academy on Tuesday, February 6th, and the team had lost. Mountain View had beat the KSJC girls by no more than ten points. The girls had lost many games, so they were not able to make playoffs. “I felt like we could've had more team bonding to create better chemistry on the court,” freshman guard, Vivian Ha, had said after being asked what her team could’ve done better to win more games. Assistant coach, Isis Diaz, had said that her team’s star player was Jade Le. She is one of the three captains on this team. Coach Diaz had said that Le had more experience than others on the team because she was on the varsity team last year. She is the point guard on the team so she is responsible for moving the ball. She scores most of the points and she is the leader on the team. She and another teammate was moved up to varsity to play in CCS which shows her ability to play with higher-skilled players from other schools. Her coaches have asked her to work on improving her ball handling and she has a done a great job with that. They have seen improvement in the games. Jade Le has made a big impact on this girl’s basketball team. Girls Varsity: Head coach of the KSJC Girls Varsity Basketball Team, Christine Dela Rosa, and assistant coach, Chrizia Dela Rosa, have brought their team to a 18-5 record. The team consists of ten players with four freshmen, one sophomore, one junior, and four seniors. Although there aren’t many players, the girls seem to be able to work through it and they work just as hard as other schools, maybe even harder. This team finished the season with a 18-5 record. They made playoffs and were able to exceed to the third round. Their first playoff game was on February 20th against Kehillah Jewish High School, and they beat that team by 40 points with a score of 64-24. Their second game was on February 22nd against University Prep Academy with a score of 70-48. The team’s star player is #11, freshman guard Shelley Ly. Ly has made top three of the most points averaged in the entire league. She is number #2 in the league, averaging 15.7 points per game. She also averages 2.7 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 2.7 rebounds per game. “I will do whatever I can to help my teammates win,” she said after the last playoff game. She has tremendously helped out this varsity team and will hopefully continue to play for them in the following years. ![]() Fortnite is an open-world survival game published July 27th, 2017. It features a variety of game-modes, however, it’s the multiplayer mode that everyone cares about. The multiplayer mode is essentially a huge 100-player free-for-all. Players drop from a bus in the sky and deploy a parachute right before they land. When they land, they have to search around the map for weapons and items to survive and kill each other, as being the last one standing means you win. As time passes, a storm comes in over the island and deals steady damage to those caught in it. There is a safe zone where they can avoid the storm, the safe zone gets smaller and smaller as the game progresses. This tightens up the playing area, forcing fights between players. When the storm reaches the edge of the safe zone, a new one is formed inside, and the timer until it moves again restarts. Soon, there will be two players left, and the one who gets the kill wins the game. The game, visually, is a breath of fresh air. Recently, games have had a grimy, realistic, look that got old quick. The new game COD: WW2 is set in the WWII era and understandably has this aesthetic. A strong competitor of Fortnite: BR, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds(PUBG), also has a strong sense of realism in its graphics and gameplay. Fortnite, on the other hand, displays bright colors and a wacky sense of realism that is different from the norm. There is no extreme violence, like blood or dead bodies, present. The developers say they took inspiration from Tim Burton and Walt Disney when designing their characters and map. The names of specific locations on the map are really silly as well, like Shifty Shafts and Moisty Mire. The character models you play as are a bit exaggerated, with females having large rear ends and males being perfectly muscular. The game also has different mechanics than other third or first-person shooters. For starters, it is possible to build walls with different materials you collect. The three materials are wood, stone, and metal. Materials can be found lying around, collected with the pickaxe by hitting trees and other objects, or taken from a killed player. With these, you can build structures, bases, and cover from incoming fire. There is also no way to fully prone, which discourages camping. When firing, with most weapons, there is no option to go into first-person nor aim down sights like other shooting games. Instead, there is a feature called “Bloom”, which means that there is a box in the middle of the screen where bullets are dispersed randomly. The rifles have the tightest hitbox, but at long range you could get unlucky with this system and miss your shots. This is a major complaint in the community because it adds an element of luck that allows less skilled players to luck out and beat better ones. Positive things aside, the game is not incredibly balanced. There are a few quirky weapons, items, and tactics that are either completely useless or way overpowered. For example, there was a tactic called the Double Pump, where players picked up two pump-action shotguns to eliminate the pump action in between shots by switching to the other Pump Action Shotgun after each shot. The way the game is supposed to work is that there are two shotguns that compete with each other: the Pump and the Tactical Shotgun. The Pump is slower but deals more damage. It only spawns in two rarities, uncommon and common. Meanwhile, the Tactical Shotgun is semi-automatic, deals less damage, and spawns in 3 rarities: uncommon, rare, and epic. The dealbreaker is damage and range. A full 100 shield and 100 health player will be killed by a clean headshot from any Pump Shotgun at a respectable range, and that is what makes it viable. The best tier Tactical Shotgun will deal 180 damage at best, not instantly killing the target, but its fire rate is what makes it viable. Using the Double Pump Tactic had no drawbacks other than one less slot and is basically an improved Tactical Shotgun. Items like the Chug Jug, which gives full health and shield after 15 seconds, make decision making harder and the game a lot less fun due to all these choices. Weapons like the minigun are fun but are literally beaten out by every single gun in terms of killing potential. Fortnite is an extremely fun game at its core with the potential to have a long lifespan. It appeals to most ages with little violence and moderate difficulty. The developers release new content every week and the micro-transactions available are all cosmetic only, meaning they only affect appearance and don’t provide any advantage or disadvantage. Though, it is clear the game-mode was created after the success of PUBG was made apparent. That’s why the Bloom mechanic exists but is unreliable. That is why, though the game is praised, it needs a bit more work to be truly remembered as a masterpiece. The game will fade into obscurity because there is no real heart put into the game. The game-play is wonky and the story to explain the main game is weak. Overall, it is an enjoyable game but not a memorable one. Stephen Reos |
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