Not only are the seniors anxious to graduate, but so is every other student yearning for the summer and getting ready for next year.  Students prepare for finals as the teachers dread inventory.

“I’m Preparing for football next year.” says, soon to be sophomore, Kevin Eli.

Next year’s junior, Taylor Bair, says, “Prom, and I’m preparing for college.”

Lani Mataia, who is going to be a senior next year, says, ” I am preparing for awesomeness, senoritas, senior prank and college.”

Graduating senior Sawyer Bivens says, “Other than college, I prepare for making money and not getting killed.”

There you have it, from all sides, what students prepare for as the school year is coming to the end.

Wednesday April 27th the Rio Blanco Masonic Temple is providing lunch for all of the community. They will serve a loaded baked potato, salad, dessert and drink all for only $8.00. The lunch will be from 11:00-1:30 at 7th and Park Street. All proceeds will go to the Meeker FFA Chapter so come up and support your FFA chapter and get an amazing lunch!

Many students sat down in the computer lab awaiting to take the Accuplacer test. This is a nationally known test to place each student in the classes that are the best for them. The test consists of reading, writing, language skills, and mathematics. All of the questions were multiple choice, besides the essay question.

Depending on what classes students are going to take, they either took reading and writing, math, or both. Starting with twenty sentence skills questions. Knowing how to correct sentences and construction shift. Also reading comprehension had twenty questions. Students had to read the sentence paragraph, or story then answer questions and compare sentence relationships. The math or arithmetic test contained seventeen questions about: operations with whole numbers and fractions, operations with decimals and percents and applications and problem solving. The twenty questions of college level math were about algebraic operations, solutions of equations, and inequalities, coordinates geometry, and functions and trigonometry. The last part of the test was the written essay. It is graded on focus, organization, development and support, sentence structure and mechanical conventions.

The first part, the multiple choice, is not timed; you can take all the time needed. The essay may be timed or not timed, depending on what the school decides.

The students that took this test had to remember these things: relax, get plenty of rest and eat properly before testing, pay attention to directions, understand that it is an adaptive test, if you don’t know the answer, try to eliminate 1 or 2 of the choices, bring your photo identification.

What is senioritis.  Senioritis is the the word senior plus the prefix itis, meaning illness. But what are the symptoms?

Symptoms of senioritis include, but are not limited too:  Procrastination, lack of motivation, drop in academic performance, desire to drop out of school, and coasting.  Senioritis is usually at its peak when the person is finishing their last year in high school, but side affects are often seen toward the end of junior year, and sometimes (in the most extreme cases) at the end of sophomore year.

There is really no way to overcome the sickness that is senioritis, other then kicking your own butt into gear, but many times the disease is too powerful and the student can not pull himself out of the undercurrent of procrastination.

The last day of school for Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors is May 26th!

Not counting today, April 5th, there are 36 days left of the 2010-2011 school year! This means that we have 36 days to make our grades as awesome as possible!!!

Monday, April 4th, marked the first day of the fourth quarter. Third and fourth quarter grades are combined at the end of the year to form the grades that will go on your transcripts.

Let’s all make sure that we’re in school, on time, and ready to finish out this year strong!

There will be a dinner hosted by the Meeker Student Travel Club going to Europe, before the Harlem Ambassadors game later that evening at the high school. The dinner and game are on March 10th. The dinner begins at 5:30 until 7 p.m. . Dinner is held at the meeker high school cafeteria. Costs for adults $12.50 and children under ten are $10.

The menu for that evening is english roast beef with horseradish sauce, french garlic bread, herded steamed potatoes, italian anipasto salad, and assorted desserts.  Please help support the Meeker Student Travel Club.

Many people complain about how small our school is,  but where else do you get the chance to talk one-on-one with teachers, and instead of being teacher and student, be friends. One person that many of the students have be-friended, is the alternative school, physical education, and health teacher,  Mr. Jason Browning.

Mr. Browning graduated from Chatfield High School in Littleton, Colorado where his graduating class was over 400 kids. After high school, he went on to Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado, and majored in history with a secondary education license.

He loves to hunt, fish, and play co-ed softball in the summer, but his life has changed drastically since October 4.  He just had a newborn son named Troy to add on to his family of three.

When asked what his inspiration was to become a teacher, he said that he disliked many of his high school teachers and thought that he could do better.  ”I like being around kids and having summers off was not too bad, and I just couldn’t give up summer vacation,” said Browning.

It seems that he is not only a hit with the kids, but also the teachers.  ”He acts as resources for other teachers,” said fellow teacher Cheri Robinson.  We also found out that he brings food from home, and cooks for his students. Also, a lot of the time, the food is made from scratch, not premade or out of the box.  Most students would agree that he gives amazing advice, and has a very open heart when you talk to him.   He listens, thinks, and then gives wise counsel. He also spends a lot of time working on real-world job skills with his students.

Having said all of these things, it is very easy to see why the students look up to him as a role model, and why they chose him as the teacher of the month for December.

“I call to this meeting to begin, at 8:05″ said Charley Adams.

Conflict was in the air as STUCO meeting began on Tuesday, December 7, 2010.  As the secretary, Amanda Kendal, went through role,  some of the members were anxious to get the meeting started.

As the discussion began, the usual active members began to talk while others just zoned out. When the topic about buying the “school spirit” items came up it struck a nerve within the STUCO sponsors, Mrs. Kelley and Mr. Snell.

The Cowboy Shootout committee had purchased pom poms, cow bells, foam fingers, etc. to raise school spirit for around $285.  Most of these items purchased, according to CHSAA rules, are not allowed to be used.

Mrs. Kelley expressed her disappointment in the lack of knowledge of these rules in which the items were not allowed.  She went on to say that $285 dollars is a lot of money for the economy in which we are in, and wanted a resolution as to how we would get the money back.

The Cowboy Shootout committee came up with ideas and the problem is still under discussion.

ANNOUNCEMENTS/REMINDERS

STUCO would like to THANK ALL THOSE WHO DONATED TO THE COAT DRIVE. The coat will be donated today ,to the Lift Up in Rifle, CO.

Prom date has been set-    April 30, 2011

Seniors have their Song, Flower, Colors and Motto-    So Close Now by Eli Young Band,  Tiger Lilly,  Aqua Blue & White,  Only As Much by Karen Ravn

Candy Grams are coming. So, don’t forget to buy them.

Boy’s Cowboy Shootout is this weekend. Don’t forget to come and show your support.