Posts by bhince:
Photo of the Day: Mar. 14
March 15th, 2011
Daniel Flinders attempts to clear the bar
Grizzlies beat Tigers, 65-38
February 12th, 2011
Jon Davis takes the ball in the game against Roseville High School on Feb. 11
On Friday, February 11, the Granite Bay Grizzlies faced off against the Roseville Tigers at Roseville High School. The Grizzlies left with an expected victory, moving the team up to 7-1 in league and moving the Tigers down to 1-7. The final score was 65-38 — a more-than-solid victory for the Grizzlies. Read the rest of this entry “
Flowers are for gardens, not wrists
November 18th, 2010 Sometimes when I’m dancing, I think to myself: “Dang, I wish I had a flower on my wrist.”
Am I right or am I right?
When Winter Ball comes around, I could care less about the dress, the shoes, the hair, the makeup or even the date –I just want that corsage.
The deep-rooted tradition of the corsage exchange is of such immense importance that no one can remember
either where the tradition came from or why it is important.
Each and every year we continue the dogmatic tradition for some unknown reason – unknown, yet undoubtedly, indisputably significant in some way or other.
The corsage is the one item on the long list of Winter Ball necessities that never seems to go out of style – in part because no one seems to care enough to change the style.
The corsage itself was evidently developed by experts in female fashion.
It’s a matter of logical thinking.
1. Girls love to accessorize.
2. Girls also love flowers.
3. Therefore, girls love to accessorize with flowers.
Descartes clearly foresaw this application of deductive reasoning.
Who needs a flower that you can put in a vase and admire from afar, when you can have a conveniently portable flower to take with you everywhere you go: to your friend’s house, to dinner, to pictures and even to the bathroom. One of the greatest Winter Ball moments that I can attest to is the moment when I hit the dance floor with that nifty flower-bracelet; the flower petals fly away one by one, flickering in the strobe lights; a rosebud falls off and flattens beneath the foot of someone being taught how to jerk; the corsage begins to weigh down my wrist as I fist-pump the night away.
But I don’t mind – I have the esteemed privilege of wearing a pretty little flower from Raley’s.
The average corsage costs $15, and dies the next day. But fellas, if you really want to make a statement,
buy one of those fancy corsages for your date. It will set you back 40 bucks, and the flowers will still
die the next day, but man, will she be impressed.
Thousands of dollars will be netted by flower shops during the season of date-dances, all thanks to a tradition
that is as stubborn to remove as a spaghetti stain on a Betsey Johnson dress.
It’s as if high schools within the district and across the nation are caught in a scene from Fiddler on
the Roof; everybody secretly wants to abandon the custom, but everywhere you turn there are people dancing and singing about tradition!
OK, maybe it’s not quite like Fiddler on the Roof. But you get the picture.
In conclusion, (and if the Corsage Loyalists could please excuse me for sounding rash,) I believe that it is entirely possible to enjoy Winter Ball without a wearable, portable, expensive, unnecessary, disposable flower.
GBTV Take 3
September 14th, 2010
“Goooooodmorning Granite Bay!”
“This is your Team Green bulletin…”
For those of us who are going on our second, third or fourth year at Granite Bay High School, these phrases have become all too familiar. Read the rest of this entry “
What’s In A Name? – Students share stories behind their unique names
May 9th, 2010
GBHS students like Chiyoh and Koki share significance of their unique names.
Despite the classic names we hear on a daily basis in our American culture, there are always those names that stick out from the rest in one way or another.
Whether a person is introducing himself for the first time, or you happen to hear an unusual name during roll call (usually accompanied by a substitute teacher stumbling through the different syllables), there is something about a unique name that intrigues us, even if it is nothing more than spoken phonemes or letters on a piece of paper.
We decided to seek out some of Granite Bay High School’s most uncommon names. Read the rest of this entry “
Recipe of the Month: Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
April 19th, 2010
Banana chocolate chip muffins
Do you like bananas? Do you like chocolate chips? Do you like muffins?
Well, chances are you like at least one of the three. So here is a recipe for all of you banana/chocolate chip/ muffin lovers out there. Read the rest of this entry “
The Morning Benders – Big Echo
April 19th, 2010The Morning Benders released its latest album entitled Big Echo in early March 2010. The Morning Benders have been in the music business since 2007 and are relative newcomers to the indie scene.
The band is originally from Berkeley, California, and it began building its fan base around the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
The Morning Benders has toured in support of bands such as Grizzly Bear, The Kooks, Death Cab for Cutie, and Ra Ra Riot, as well as played with Yo La Tengo, MGMT and others. Read the rest of this entry “
Blast From The Past – Pajama Sam
March 16th, 2010Remember the good old days? Back when point-and-click children’s computer games on clunky PC’s could entertain us for hours?
Many of us have moved on to ‘bigger and better’ things such as Wii and Call of Duty, but let’s take a moment and journey back to the beginnings of our gaming entertainment, one of the greatest being Pajama Sam.
The adventures of the weird little greenish guy with the red cape and footy-pajamas, better know as Pajama Sam, are legendary in the realm of late 90’s computer games.
The most popular Pajama Sam games include Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It’s Dark Outside, Pajama Sam 2: Thunder and Lightning Aren’t So Frightening and Pajama Sam 3: You Are What You Eat From Your Head to Your Feet.
The Pajama Sam computer games offered kids an array of activities to play when cooped up indoors on a rainy day.
Some of these memorable pastimes included picking up Pajama Sam’s socks, playing cheese and crackers with the Darkness, finding cookie box tops and visiting the World Wide Weather station in the clouds.
It seemed as if the rambunctious Pajama Sam was always losing his things and being whisked away to magical words via his closet, or his attic.
Being the wise six-year-olds that we were, it was our job to help Pajama Sam find his missing things and overcome his fears.
As Pajama Sam drew inspiration from his comic book hero Pajama Man, we drew inspiration from him.
Pajama Sam helped us realize that ‘the dark’ wasn’t something to be feared, but rather a lonely anamorphic figure that just wanted a friend.
The little super hero also taught us that thunder and lightening weren’t as bad as they seemed and were, in fact, quite nice.
For those of us who spent our childhood journeying through the topsy-turvy worlds of Pajama Sam, brings back nostalgic childhood memories even to this day.
Common assessment tests under scrutiny
March 15th, 2010
Teachers use common assessments to gauge what their students have learned and see how much their students know compared to others across the district.
Granite Bay High School students and teachers groan in despair when they think about the common assessment tests.
Nevertheless, teachers use them so that there is a standard by which they can measure the progress of their students.�
“If we don’t have a way to universally assess (our students)…we’ll never know exactly how we’re doing,” GBHS English teacher Judy Daniels. “Before we started targets, I could be teaching one thing in English 9 and someone else could be teaching another, and (the subject matter being taught) may or may not ever cross.”
“What I am most passionate about with the assessments…is what we do with them. I think what’s critical here is that we use these assessments to tell us what we’re doing well and what we’re not doing well.”
However, GBHS students do not appear to share the same enthusiasm for common assessments as expressed by Daniels.
“I think common assessments are pointless, and I think they’re pretty easy generally,” GBHS junior Anne Barton said. “I don’t (study for them) at all.”
GBHS junior Hayden Parker commented on what he sees as a weak link in the common assessment, and what is the pivotal reason for mandating common assessments: grade subjectivity.
“(Common assessments) are a good idea,” Parker said, “but a lot of times the teachers don’t teach the same way and some students will do better on some tests at different schools.”
According to John Montgomery, the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, different teaching styles may not be as much of a problem as they are an asset.
“The common assessments provide the guaranteed and viable curriculum for what every student should know and be able to do while maintaining the individuality of a teacher’s instruction… I prefer the common assessments to the more prescriptive pacing guides used by some districts.”
Although teacher individuality may result in varying test scores, the differences in teaching that are not confined to a set curriculum are often those from which students benefit most.
“I want (my students) to be able to see what kind of country we are, the great things we’ve done, the great things we haven’t done, and why you should be proud to be an American…but everything I just said can’t be measured by a test,” GBHS history teacher Mike Valentine said.
What other important material is left out of the common assessment’s narrow spectrum? It all comes down to how well teachers district-wide can agree with one another.
“I know firsthand how difficult it is to come up with an assessment that hits all the areas,” Daniels said. “We look through the state standards and decide what is important to teach. When we first started (common assessments) several years ago, all of the teachers in (the department) would go from each school…and we’re all trying to decide what’s important here… (Eventually) we have to agree to disagree.”
These department head meetings occur periodically throughout the school year.
However, Valentine said he feels this is not the right economic climate for these common assessment-associated department meetings to be taking place.
“I wouldn’t object to (common assessments) if it wasn’t for the money, time and energy we’re putting into it at a time when we don’t have the money,” Valentine said. “I (like to use) the analogy that I need to replace windows on my house, but wait, fiscally I’m in no position to fork out $6,000 dollars…We’re going to go ahead and fix the windows anyway, which in this case (could cost us) teachers.”
So are common assessments “just another test”?
Or can they be genuinely helpful in the long-run?
“They’re just looking for test scores to prove that we’re teaching,” Valentine said. “It is a thing to use, but it is not the only tool to use to see whether or not a student is learning.”
Teacher Trinket – Valentine’s Golf Club
March 15th, 2010
Mike Valentine’s golf club has become an element of the classroom– students have come to embrace his mock symbol of a threat and see it as a part of Valentine’s teaching methods.
In the Teacher Trinket feature, The Gazette seeks out the often overlooked keepsakes, such as stuffed animals, gadgets, snow globes and action figures, that teachers often keep on their classroom desks.
However, this issue’s “trinket” falls a little outside the norm for desktop knick-knacks.
If you walk into room 810, Mike Valentine’s golf club can usually be found in the front right corner of the classroom, for easy access.
All of those who have taken Advanced Placement European History are familiar with Valentine’s legendary golf club. Valentine is well-known for his enthused history lectures that often result in colorful demonstrations; many of which involve the use of his golf club.
But how did this odd teaching instrument come to be?
“I used to have a yard rule,” Valentine said. “I would use my yard rule to walk around (and) to (jokingly) threaten people …but then I broke it slapping it on the table, (and) I needed something different. I thought about a golf club.”
Since the swap out, Valentine’s golf club has become infamous at GBHS. Not only does it prove to be an interesting classroom prop, but it also has multiple classroom uses as well.
“During tests I could practice… my swing.” Valentine said.
Valentine teasingly says that he keeps the golf club around for disciplinary purposes.
“No one believes I’m going to hit them,” he said. It was “a combination of necessity and practice– I have a golf club that can do both.”
Valentine prefers to keep a one wood club on hand. Why this specific club?
“That’s where you can hit the farthest. (The one wood) also carries more weight…it also happened to be the first one that was in the bag so I grabbed it, if you want to know the real reason.”
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