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May 21 marked the end of an era for students currently taking drama or band classes.

On that day, the auditorium and band classrooms began the process of a complete renovation. New seating, carpets and walls are just a few of the expected changes. The construction is tentatively slated to end in late November of this year, although all school activities that use the rooms will most likely need to use an alternative venue for the first half of next school year.

For now, the whole place is undergoing a process of being stripped “down to its bare bones,” band director Paul Vesilind said.
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A man in a leotard, a green monster, a Norse god and a Playboy made $642 million in a week. The Avengers broke records its opening weekend and outperformed both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II as well as The Dark Knight. Although the film’s publicity was years in the making, Marvel Studios has nonetheless succeeded in translating the entire Marvel universe to the big screen, and has made billions in the process.

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This article is in response to a video posted by a father of a boy who has Autism. In this video he explains why he is outraged that his son’s own teachers were verbally abusive to their students and did not treat his son with respect.

This video demonstrates a continuing societal problem: discrimination towards people with special needs. I personally find it astonishing that people can bully others solely because that the person was born with something that makes them physically or mentally different. People have no control over the way they are born, so why should they be punished?

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Sophomores Ann Bryan and Emily Casey received a bronze medal at the International Sustainable World Energy Engineering Environment Project Olympiad, which took place May 3 to 7.

“They had a great idea and they ran with it and they worked very hard to work together,” science teacher Joelle Lastica said.

Lastica added that Bryan and Casey’s project was an example of how far students can advance with their project.
The team’s project looked at how to purify water. It did so by evaporating water multiple times.

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The Virginia Department of Education has revised its standards for SOL testing to include free response questions.

According to the Virginia Department of Education website, the new questions require critical thinking designed to prepare students for the challenges they will face in the next grade.

The new questions will make up about 15 percent of the modified SOLs.

“I think it’s a good idea,” math department co-chair Judy Greenblum said. “It’s important for students to know how to problem-solve and to think critically, rather than just … drill and practice kinds of questions.”
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For some, the traditional school program just is not realistic. Maybe the hours conflict with a job, maybe the scheduling does not meet academic needs but, regardless of the reason, some students find that the mainstream school system does not meet their specific needs.

Senior Troy Phares is one such student.

Due to an illness in the family, Phares felt he needed to be home more than the regular school system would allow. Phares heard about Computer Enhanced Instruction, an alternative schooling program, from senior Tyler Morris and decided to enroll this year.

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“I want to deconstruct the Dewey Decimal System in the library,” librarian Alanna Graboyes stated. From someone else it would seem like a laughable notion, but from Graboyes the statement rang with conviction and a sense of possibility.

Installing a new organizational system for the books to encourage a more advanced “web thinking” method is just one of the changes Graboyes has planned for the new library.

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In what should have been a routine activity, the process of getting class schedules the week before the start of school had a foreign twist. The coordination with friends about which classes we shared included looking up which lunch blocks we had together due to the incorporation of a Learn block separate from Lunch.

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Wow—what does senior night mean to me—a parent? It is not me who is being celebrated and yet it feels as if it is my celebration. It is a celebration of all those years of carpooling to practice, nursing sports injuries, watching and guiding as my athlete made tough choices and many sacrifices for the sport he or she loved. As a parent it is a celebration of all that is right it sports, the teamwork, camaraderie, sportsmanship, perseverance, dedication and hard work.

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The dance team won two second place trophies with its hip-hop and pom routines at the national cheer and dance competition in Hershey, Pennsylvania on April 21.

“It was really great bonding time for all of us,” sophomore Annie Bryan said.

The team performed two routines at the competition. Pom routines include elements of jazz dance, with the addition of pom-poms.

“We were judged by a panel of about ten judges who based their scores on our moves, our technique, our facials, our energy and our cohesion as a team,” junior Lexie Tsantes said.

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Prom is over now and I hope everybody had a wonderful time. I have some retrospective advice I would like to offer to future prom attendees.

The first thing you need to do is to start planning early. Find a core group of people, talk to all of them and make sure everyone is on the same page. The page you all need to agree on is money.

Everybody has a different idea of prom in his or her head. Some people envision jewel-encrusted spoons whereas others want to bring a tablecloth to McDonalds. Both are fine.

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Bombing a test on a bad day should not be the factor to make or break your grade. Students can fail because they’re anxious and stressed since they have many other important assignments and tests going on the same week.

These feelings of stress can be a negative impact on a student’s grade, which continues to add stress if there is no remediation available for the student.

Without remediation some students who failed the first time will have no opportunity to bring up their grade or learn the material they misunderstood.

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A view from a car window. A bridge at sunrise. A ballerina dancing on a road in the woods.

So opens senior Madeleine Fleshman’s short film, “A Screaming Cry in a Silent Room,” which won first place in Video Fairfax’s annual film festival in the high school age category.

“I really enjoy writing but I haven’t taken the time to continue it recently,” Fleshman said, “so this was my chance to combine film with something that functioned more like a short story.”

Fleshman originally created this film to serve as both her final exam and IB exam in her IB Film Study HL II class.
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The Activities Office organized its second ever Signing Day for graduating seniors being accepted to colleges to play sports on April 26. At the event, students were acknowledged by school faculty and coaches for committing to play at their respective schools.

“I had been talking to a couple of schools that I liked academically but Delaware was beautiful and close to home and the head field hockey coach was really friendly and they asked me to play for them in November,” said senior Maddie O’Beirne, a center midfielder who signed to play field hockey.

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Over the years that Silversun Pickups have been recording music, they’ve been almost constantly compared to 90’s-era shoegaze, punk rock and psychedelic rock bands — think Smashing Pumpkins or My Bloody Valentine.

Their most recent release, Neck of the Woods, seems to actually try to embrace that association with the past. The resulting blend of ambience with grungy guitar hooks, ethereal vocals and thrumming bass is an homage to a time when rock was constantly being redefined. In doing so, Silversun Pickups have created one of the best albums of the year.

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In response to the multitude of ideas posed by freshmen, biology teachers created the Arabidopsis Fair, a science expo exclusively for Honors Biology students.

According to Biology and Environmental Systems teacher Barbara Brown, freshmen “just didn’t have the preparation” to participate in science fair, so the faculty decided to use the Arabidopsis Fair “so that it would be easier for us to help the kids.”

Every year Honors Biology freshmen cultivate mutant and wild type variations of Arabidopsis under different stressors.
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“I can’t believe Matt pulled this off,” sophomore Greer Gabor said as she mingled with students at the The Fresh Selection benefit concert at Jammin Java on May 5.

The concert, organized by sophomore Matt Colwell, featured the area’s most well-known rap artists such as Genie and Lyric as well as smaller acts such as DJ Ryan Feng from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

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The homework, the lectures, the rush of graduation: teachers are usually the guides, the instructors and the supporters as their students work their way through the year’s curriculum.

Some, however, have coursework of their own. From 7:20 until 2:10, these teachers may be instructing freshmen through seniors, but afterschool, on weekends or in the summer, they are taking graduate classes of their own, and pursuing advanced degrees.

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The Young Democrats and Young Republicans of Marshall will hold a presidential debate on June 1 in Michael Hall.

The Young Democrats and Republicans have been preparing for this debate with dedication and focus.

“We are going to be comparing the Republican Platform to the Democratic platform on the issues that matter most, like women’s rights and such,” founder of the Young Democrats Andrew Crider, junior, said.

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In a studio in downtown Herndon, an actor is delivering a monologue. Upstage, the rest of the ensemble sits in a circle, their backs to the audience. A low beat comes up behind her words. “There are so many people like me—sometimes I just have to wonder why?” she starts. “They all dance, why am I different? … Because the anger inside of me gets to be so possessive. I clear out the garage, lace up my hardshoes—tight. Turn on the music; let the noise flood through me. Drown out life. Drill and drill. Hammer and push. Push myself.” She continues, her words intertwining with the beat.

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Throughout the season, baseball’s batting lineup evolved so that the crowd saw the same starting four players lead the team during the first inning.

Beginning with three left-handed hitters, each player had been carefully selected by his abilities to play a specific role in the lineup.

Senior Michael Nassoiy, the starting center fielder, batted first in the lineup.

Nassoiy, a third year varsity player for Marshall, undoubtedly set the offensive tone for the rest of his team.

Recognizing this pressure, he took the outlook that “failure is not an option.”

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