Spring Track

The spring is coming up soon after the winter season, and a good way to get in shape after eating all those Christmas cookies is to join the spring Track and Field team coach by Mr. Adam Heath. If you enjoy running and are not aware of the sport of Track, then here are some running events for either short distance and long distance runners. In all of the short distance running events, you have the option of starting out on objects called Blocks which improve your start in the race. The Blocks have two incline planes that support your feet.

The one that is further up than the other is to be your dominant foot; the way of finding out your dominate foot is having a friend lightly push you and which ever foot you stop yourself with is your dominant foot and is to be placed in front. All of the short distance running events never complete a full lap around the track, and if you’re a person who likes quick running and short distance these running events are the events for you. Where if you like to run long distance and you’re the kind of person in gym who always does well in the mile then you should try long distance. The most grueling long distance run that I find to be my favorite running event is the 400; it is the shortest long distance running event. The race is only one lap; now that may not sound that far but to do the race well, you should, if you have the endurance, run the entire time around the track.

There are also relays where you complete the given distance and then pass the baton to the next runner. There, of course, is the most obvious long distance running event: the mile four laps around the track, this event unlike the 400 and the short distance events, don’t have a relay. The reason the sport is called Track and Field is that, there is more just running such as the field events like shot-put, which is where you stand inside the circle and heave the shot-put, an eight pound ball as far as you can; and the winner is determined by the furthest distance. There is also discuss which another field event is, this is where you throw basically a two sided disc. Discuss is not heavy like the shot-put, however both of the throwing techniques are not easy to learn but with practice and perseverance you can master these events.

Christmas Gift Miracles

Getting the gifts you ask for is great, but the saying “You don’t always get what you want, when you want” still stands true even during the Christmas season the season of miracles. Even when you don’t get what you ask for, you still appreciate the gifts. I experienced this personally when I asked for the book Blood and Chocolate for Christmas but didn’t receive the book until my parents went to Barnes and Noble three days after Christmas. A junior student at Worthington Christian had asked for a jacket that he had been wanting for a while, but the jacket he got on Christmas wasn’t the one he hoped to receive because the item had sold out at the store; but thankfully, later that week they went to Polaris Mall and the student had the chance to purchased the jacket he had desired.

Another student, Daniel Arsenalt, asked for the Xbox 360 game Bioshock, but to his disappointment didn’t receive the game until 3 days after Christmas, when he went to the Easton Mall and bought it. Derek Brown had asked for anything having to do with Japanese culture, sadly on Christmas day Derek didn’t receive any such gift but instead that Friday his friend Mike Queen gave Derek a display Japanese sword.

Worthington Christian student Dan Beale had asked for a Xbox 360 but didn’t actually get the Xbox on Christmas, giving Dan the impression that he would not get the gift but on the following Monday a package arrived containing the Xbox 360 which he had requested. I ask Alex Sheedy, an attendant at my youth group, if there was anything he wanted for Christmas but didn’t receive till after Christmas. His response was “I asked for a new bass and amp for Christmas, but I didn’t get it till my parents took me to Guitar Center to buy both of them myself with all my Christmas money.” Another high school student Trevor Askins asked for a new paintball gun since one of his old ones broke last summer at his friend’s birthday. Unfortunately Trevor didn’t get his paintball gun till the day after, not because of shipping not because the store was out of stock, but simple because his parents thought it would make a better surprise than if they would have given it to him on Christmas Day. Even though you don’t get what you ask for you may get it later or even something better.

High School Christmas Spirit

The Christmas season is here, and the teachers here at Worthington Christian High School have started wearing their own Christmas style. Also, they have decided to decorate their home rooms to share the Christmas spirit with the students, Even here in the Mac lab, Mrs. Wheat had her student decorate the Macs with red bows and ribbons. She even put up Christmas lights around the doorframe. The A and P room has Christmas tunes playing while the students are dissecting, on Friday they were enjoying the viewing of the movie Elf starring Will Ferrell as Buddy. Mr. Stoll, the librarian, has set up a tree in the library where the students can put up their own ornaments. Mrs. Kanzeg, the math teacher, has started to wear sweaters to class displaying Christmas scenery like a snowman or Poinsettias; also, when her students were hard at work on their homework she got out the CD player and played instrumental variations of her favorite Christmas carols.

Along with Mrs. Kanzeg, Miss Bell wore one of her Christmas outfits one day last week; but not only she has she worn her Christmas spirit she has taken a step up and started assigning speeches about Christmas fiascos, or the strangest gift received or given. Miss Bell told us that her most memorable Christmas fiasco was when she had to direct some kind of production. So she decided to help the younger children with prepare for their Christmas play about the birth of Jesus. She said that “when it came time for opening night, everything that could have gone wrong did. The little angels couldn’t find their halos.” She remembered that the shepherds, who were a little older than the rest of the other children, as she put it, “roughly rounded up the sheep.”

Mrs. Galbraith is getting into the giving spirit with what she calls the event Empty Bowl, which is where students can purchase a bowl made in the ceramics room, for five dollars and fill it with as much ice cream as the student wants. The funds from Empty Bowl go to charities for unfortunate children. Mrs. Montgomery, the Spanish teacher, is having her students write letters of encouragement to unfortunate children to cheer them up for the holidays by showing them the love of Jesus. Mrs. Heath the Photography teacher, has a mini silver Christmas tree. The bus driver for the high school shuttle bus has placed a wreath on the front of his bus. Also, the bus driver for the Olentangy bus hands out goody bags to the kids that ride the bus. As you can see, the Christmas spirit is something to be embraced: share the warmth of the Christmas spirit.

Winter Activities

The weather outside is frightful, which must mean the winter season is rolling around; time to break out those heavy coats, mittens and hats. Along with the cold weather comes snow and that can occasionally bring snow days. Some people, when their schools close for the day or when winter break comes around, call up their friends and have them come over and play outside in the snow sledging, having snowball fights or making snow forts. Around this time of year, families are closer together and are looking for every opportunity to spend extra time with each other. The most typical thing people think of is having neighborhood sledging or making a snowman. Others stay inside and drink hot chocolate and only outside for a short period of time. The most popular activity would most likely be snowboarding or skiing at Snow Trails or Mad River Mountain. I was talking to some students about what they were going to do after school ends for the Christmas break, other things that come with the winter snow and cheerful moods the snow covered drive ways. A student I talked had a story about his snow covered driveway “I remember two years ago that my Dad and my brothers spent 4 hours clearing the driveway of all the ice and snow.” A survey I did about the most popular winter activity I got three major answers. One was they were going straight outside to play in the snow with their friends. Other students said they were going to do homework they have fun. Also with the winter weather for those who like to stay inside there are the Christmas specials on TV like the classic Frosty the Snowman, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. On the side of sports the Winter Olympics are coming soon, this year the Olympics are being held in Torino, Italy. Other activities during the winter are making a snowman or making a snowman family and going to the mall with your family for gift shopping. Some families decorate their homes with Christmas lights inside and outside. Most people you say Christmas tree, to automatically imagine the traditional light and ornaments’. Some of the students I have talked to said their families often put ornaments on the tree together with the whole family. Also along with putting up the Christmas tree some families have ornaments for individual people in their family symbolizing certain things or even ornaments they made when the children were younger. Others families decorate their roofs outside with lights. Now there are the inflatable Christmas figures like Frosty and the Grinch which makes taking down the decorations after the winter season. Some families who enjoy just going out to see the lights people have on their homes. There are Christmas lights in Downtown Westerville; there is also the Nutcracker ballet you can go to see in the theater. The Columbus Zoo also puts up Christmas lights that decorate the whole Zoo. There are even things you can do after the Christmas season like visiting all the stores with Clearance sales getting great sales and on the gifts you didn’t get for Christmas.

Worthington Christian High School Art Class

Here at Worthington Christian High School there are many art classes taught by excellent teachers who love what they do. If you are a person who really enjoys art, then one of these many classes would be for you, whether you like get your hands messy in Ceramics or Drawing and Painting or if you have not decided yet upon an art class, then this might help. One of these classes is the Ceramics 1 class, who is taught by Mrs.Galbraith. Ceramics 1 class is where you begin to learn the basics of molding with clay. In Ceramics 1 is taught by Mrs.Galbraith who loves teaching students to work with clay and to start learning to use the potter’s wheel. A student in the Ceramics class, a Nathan Deskians finished making his first pot in his set on the Potter’s Wheel. Reily Means has completed making several pots on the wheel. Also the in Ceramics 1 class the students are working on a project of having pots in a set which is when all the pots have at least one thing in common. Others in Ceramics 1 are working on a drape pot, where you place a piece of clay over a pot and let it drape and take the texture of the bowl or plate. In Digital Art, they are working on digitally editing pictures relating to the Christian culture. The Digital Art class more recent project is where they define art: some people define art as beautiful as another person may view art as one’s life portrayed on paper. One student, Seth Jacobus, is working on an image of the band Slayer that he and Billy Gram edited together. In the Beginning Painting class their current project is a painting somehow relating to conflict. One particular student, Seth, who has completed the project painted a scene of a young girl in a gas mask, in the background is a yellow sunset. In the Beginning Drawing class, a project they had was to fill the fronts of a full deck of playing cards with images they printed of the computer. After they had finished, the students had to draw a series of pictures using all the images on the cards. The Ceramics 2 class is working on making a pot with some kind of texture. For the students who have finished that project started working on a drape pot like the Ceramics 1 students. Advanced Ceramics is the most relaxed of all the Ceramics classed where you make all kinds of different pot that you have learned about or seen in magazines. In Advanced Ceramics Ben Cronin is working making a ceramics tree which he saw in one of the ceramics magazines.

Music in Art

Scientists have said that music can affect how you feel and your mood, but does it affect your creations in art? I believe that it does because when writing poetry which comes from the same side of your brain which is the creative lobe. For example if you are in a depressed mood then you probably would like to draw or paint some thing that would have dark colors. I from personal experience have found it easy to paint and draw soothing artworks when in a calm mood. Music would have a greater affect if you listen to music while you draw. If you listen to heavy metal then your art would most likely be dark.

I asked a couple of students in the Worthington Christian High School art class if they think that music can affect your artwork and the students I interviewed said that music can affect your artwork especially if you are listening to music while you are working on art. I asked the art teacher Mrs.Heisey if she thought that music could affect your artwork and she believed it can. A test results showed that to confirm if music affected artist and their work had a group of teens listen to calm classical music and had them paint what they were feeling and most of the artworks were calming and peaceful. Then another test had the teens listen to fast beat music and their art had a somewhat edge to it, which was very different from having them listen to the classical. Also not listening to music can affect your art by preventing the creativity from flowing it’s like not being able to think of an answer to a problem in class.

I interview a college art student named Derek Brown who said “It is easier to think up art ideas when I hear music.” Another art student Seth Jacobus completely agreed with the fact that music helps think of ideas but thought that having silence and not listening to music also can benefit toward the artist work. I personally have found that listening to music has more offend than not been more beneficial toward the creativity of artwork. The majority of the people I asked the question if given the opportunity to listen to music during class would you? The majority said that they would and when I asked them why the reason they gave was because it helps them think of what they would like to draw or paint. People who said they would not listen to music said it would be more of distraction to them by causing them to forget about what they were doing.

This brings up a good point that if are distracted easily then you should just stick will peace and quite. Some of the students said that they would not add and it depends on the mood they were in. Being in a certain mood and the circumstances in your life can also help contribute to your artwork.