Valor Dictus May 4, 2010 Volume 39 Issue 9 Bravely speaking to the Robinson Community 9

FeaturesSofia Herrera - Features Editor Blaire Tillman - Features Editor

Robinson preschool shows and tells

Colorful shapes and letters. Pop-up books and story books. Well-loved stuffed animals scattered across the floor. The faint scent of glue, crayons and Play-Doh. Children laughing as they paint with their fingers. Wel-come to preschool, or as it is called at Robinson, Head Start. Head Start is a program at our school that operates similarly to a preschool but also includes advan-tages, like one-on-one teaching. Ac-cording to the Head Start website, Head Start was founded by direc-tors of community action agencies in 1973. It was created to provide free early education for low-income families, and has locations all across the United States. Usually Head Start is located in elementary schools, but there are select high schools that have a Head Start program, including ours. One of the unique things about Head Start being here is that the kids, who are ages three to five, are taught by

high school students. The students are able to have a hands-on experi-ence in teaching preschool. Ave Maria Collins, who is the ECC/Teacher Cadet instructor said, “The students get to apply what they learned in class in a practical envi-ronment.” Collins has two classes a day, in which groups of six students at a time interact with and teach the kids. She has one class in the morn-ing and one in the afternoon. “The morning class is more of a morning meeting, getting the kids warmed up. The afternoon class is a small group session, where two high school students interact with five kids at a time, a one-on-one session,” Collins said. The students go to teach the pre-schoolers with their own prepared lesson plans as a part of the curricu-lum. ECC student junior Calle Paige said this is the hardest part of this class. “Lesson plans are for the mate-rial that you would be teaching that week. Though they are hard, they

help you when you are teaching,” Paige said. But teaching the kids is rewarding itself, according to Paige. “My favorite part of the preschool is working with the kids. They really do grow on you; they even ask if you can go to their house to play with them,” she said. Some of the families who are in-volved in Head Start are immigrants from foreign countries. Head Start provides translators so that the parents can communicate with the teachers, such as Jennifer Stokes, who is the adult teacher of Head Start here. Head Start does not pro-vide English classes for the kids or their parents. “We encourage the home language to be learned first by the children, before moving on to English. Learn-ing two languages at once can slow the developmental process. But the children who come here often pick up English as they go,” Stokes said. This preschool is not just a fun time for the kids, but a chance for them to have a head start on education.

Chatroulette’s dangers outweigh its amusement

Students are constantly look-ing for new and exciting websites on which to spend their time. Many sites have taken off, such as MySpace and Facebook, but one site that has sparked a lot of ques-tionable responses is Charoulette. Charoulette has gained popular-ity since its launch in November 2009. After being featured on Good Morning America, in the New York Times and other similar forms of media, the number of daily users has increased. The website allows users to con-nect with strangers who can be anywhere in the world, and engage in webcam chats similar to Skype. If users would like to stay and chat

with the other person that appears on the screen, the screen will not change unless the other user clicks “next.” The reason why the site is so pop-ular is still a mystery. Some believe it provides a good laugh as opposed boredom, while others find the site is like a modern version of a pen pal. That is not the only opinion though. Many others see the web-site to be dangerous, and that stu-dents should not be on Chatrou-lette. Counselor Tami Marcheski thinks the website has a cool concept, but is just too dangerous for students. “You never know who is on the other side of the computer,” Marcheski said. Counselor Kirsten Wiley had the

same opinion. “I can see how it could be fun and exciting, and I’m sure parents don’t know their children are using it.” Wiley said Senior Kevin Sunga used to use the site once a day and said he likes to get on it in order to meet new friends. “I use it to meet new people, and eventually make new friends,” Sun-ga said. Sunga had the same outlook on the website as Wiley and Marches-ki when it cames to internet safety. He said the site was safe as long as users knew what they were getting into. The website has received mixed reviews from everyone, but some-how received a similar agreement in the end.

In the above photos, Junior Calle Paige and Seniors Melissa Men-dez and Emily Eaton teach children how to connect straight lines together to make shapes by using paint.

BY BLAIRE TILLMANFeatures Editor

BY LAUREN TYREEStaff Writer

Websites change roommate search

In past years when picking a roommate for college, a student ei-ther requested a friend or got a random person they would meet on moving day. But recently, new websites have been created where students can meet and search for their future roommates. Uroomsurf.com is a new Website created by college graduates to help mostly upcoming freshmen find their right roommate. The pur-pose of the site is to give students a chance to find their roommate. Senior Ryan Holleran took advantage of uroomsurf.com to find his roommate for college. “I heard about this site through a friend, so I decided to take a look at it and use, I found it to be very useful actually and I got a chance to meet some new people before actually going.” Holleran, said. When first going on the site, students are asked to make a pro-file which includes the college they will attend. After being put in a college network like Facebook, students are asked to fill out room-mate surveys asking about their likes and dislikes. Participants in the survey are shown matches with people of the same sex in their network. “When I first heard about it, it sounded like a dating site because of what you have to do to but I guess it would be good in finding a roommate. I just asked a friend”, senior Devin Richardson said. But some seniors took a different approach to finding a roommate, instead of going to a website to be matched up, many just added the Facebook group and looked for people who were seeking a room-mate as well. According to counselor Mitch Aydlette, finding a roommate before actually going to college can either be a good or bad thing. “Finding a roommate online can be a good thing because you get to learn about the other persons interests while meeting a roommate on move in day can be a lot of fun. ,” Aydlette said. Both students and counselors agree that picking and getting a roommate is an important part of going to college and it can be a very fun experience.

BY JESSICA HORNEStaff Writer

Blaire Tillman

Jacob Beil