At the convention the students, including seniors Sierra Fender, Melissa White, Katie Miller, Shannon Miller, Suzanne English, Andrew Murray, Sarah Littauer and Lara Bannister and juniors Graham Galloway, Haley Staton, Austin Woodard and Maggie King, attended a variety of newspaper and yearbook classes and competed in several events.

On Nov. 16 more than 2,000 high school students from across the nation competed for a superior, excellent or honorable mention rating in the national write-off competition. Superior awards were presented to White for yearbook cover/endsheets, Galloway for yearbook sports copy/captions and Fender for graphic design/photo illustration.

Excellent awards were presented to King for yearbook clubs copy/captions,  Katie Miller for review writing and Shannon Miller for news writing.

Honorable mention awards were presented to English for feature writing, Murray for sports writing, Staton for yearbook student life copy/captions and Littauer for yearbook student life photography.

In addition to the individual awards, the Westwind yearbook received a Best in Show Award in the 225-274 page yearbook category and the Wingspan Online received a Best in Show in the small school website publication category.

King, Katie Miller, Murray and Woodard made up the journalism quiz bowl team that earned the third seed and made it to the quarterfinals. The quiz bowl championship trophy went to Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Penn.

“Quiz bowl was a good experience, and as a team with two members new to quiz bowl I think we did well,” King said. “In the future we will study more and hopefully we’ll win next year.”

While in Boston the students visited Harvard University, took a Freedom Tour and visited the Boston Marathon bombing site.

“Boston was a great experience,” King said. “Not only did I learn a lot about journalism, but I got to travel to a place I had never been before.”

By Katie Miller

“Parent Assistant and the parent portal are very similar,” Kathy Johnson, PowerSchool data manager, said. “In the new system called Parent Portal students actually have their own login to view their grades without their parents, and parents still can access a student’s grades and attendance.”

The reason for the change was a combination of the need for NCWise updates and to be more consistent with other states, Johnson said.

“They are through two completely different companies. N.C. Public Schools decided to buy a new program, PowerSchools, and the old program NCWise is now gone. Power school is in many states across the country, while NCWise was specific to North Carolina,” Johnson said. “I think the main reason they switched from NCWise to PowerSchool is that PowerSchool still provides technical support for the program; they have technicians that are constantly updating the program while NCWise was a Canadian-based company, and when their contract ran out, they could not provide any more support.”

The new software has other new features available to both students and faculty including smartphone and tablet applications.

“I like the PowerSchool grade portal better than the Parent Assistant program, because it has an app, and it is easier to access,” junior Sam Polovina said.
Johnson said she and the faculty have also been pleased with the change.

“One of the things teachers are really enjoying is that they can access PowerTeacher, which is their gradebook and attendance from their iPads and smartphones. Parents can also access their account from their mobile device as well,” Johnson said.

The only major drawback is the system initially had errors in student information, including gender, birthdates and other information, Johnson said, but these errors are being identified and corrected.

By Austin Woodard

Many people say that to truly appreciate something you must work for it. This may be true, but studies show that students who work during the school year may have adverse effects on their grades, and the jobs would be counter-productive in benefiting student workers. Also, there may be a link between disobedient behavior and employment during high school. Additionally, it helps form a cycle of a low-income but high-labor life for many generations.

A study that monitored youth workers from 1979-2000 called National Student Labor Year suggests that students who work for more than 20 hours a week are less than half as likely to move on to further education past high school as those who work fewer than 20 hours. Additionally, by lowering their academic aspirations, they are much more likely to remain in a low paying job with large numbers of hours.

Then when the students become adults and have their own families, if they still have a low-paying job, then their children are more likely to dropout, have poor grades and work more hours. The co-author and Boston University professor Lisa Dodsen states the effects of this cycle:  “When parents have to accommodate whatever demands employers make, it means their children do, too. Millions of working parents have job schedules that keep them from being home for homework, dinner-time talk and bed-time rituals.”

When the child is raised in such an environment, he or she is  more likely to work large hours while in school and the cycle continues.

Counselor Lea Putnam has seen the effects of an overworked student firsthand. “When I have had meetings with parents about their student’s grades falling in a class, I often find out that the student is working more than 20 hours,” Putnam said.  “I believe that a balance of work and school can help to teach responsibility and time management, but too much can have negative consequences.”

Additionally, the students who work more than 20 hours are more likely to have disobedient behavior and to exhibit deviant tendencies. Researchers believe that stress and sleep deprivation largely contribute to this problem. The combination of eight hours of school, work and homework are simply too much in too little time.

Even if the student manages to juggle these commitments it leaves virtually no time for extracurricular activities, which help students with college admission, scholarships and leadership skills.

By Austin Woodard, Feature Writer