Dixie is out with the old and

in with the new! Our school

has improved greatly since

this past year. We now have a

brand new front office; a new

announcement system; a re-

painted lunchroom; along with

big, white umbrellas to shade

us while we eat in the court-

yard. To top it all off, the fin-

ishing touches are being add-

ed to the new front entrance.

New and Improved Dixie.

Welcome Back! Welcome back students and

staff! We hope everyone’s

summer was great, but sor-

ry, summer 2013 is officially

over, and it is time to get

back into the swing of things

here at Dixie. No more stay-

ing up late, spending count-

less hours at the lake, or all

night parties with your

friends. It’s time for class,

limitless hours of homework,

and numerous hours of stud-

ying. This year may already

seem boring and full of hard

work, but we plan to make

this school year, 2013-2014,

the best year yet! The teach-

ers and staff plan to make

this a good year for all stu-

dents. Hornet football and

volleyball have already kicked

off; they have plenty more in

store. We hope everyone is

looking forward to all that is

to come in this school year

and that your first few weeks

of school were wonderful!

September 2013 Volume XIV Issue 1

The HORNET News

Inside this issue:

Exchange Students 2

New Family 2

Movie Review 2

VMAs & Sports 3

Texting & Driving 4

Savannah Spearin

(above), the new Hornet

mascot, cheers on the

Hornets at the pep rally

before they take on

Southside Christian.

This previous year, Mrs. Var-

nish talked about inviting two

foreign exchange students into

her home. The time has finally

arrived! Amy Chen and Lee

YouJeong are now a part of the

Dixie High School family for a

year. Let’s welcome them with

open arms! Amy is from Taiwan.

She is in the 10th grade. Lee is

from South Korea. She is in the

9th grade. Amy and Lee are

both fifteen years old. These

girls both participate in the

band. Amy plays the trumpet

and Lee plays the marimba,

bells, and symbols. Mrs. Varnish

says that both of the girls are

exceptionally smart in math.

Just like we have to take Span-

ish as a foreign language, Amy

and Lee have taken nine years

of English. Amy and Lee both

brought a little bit of their cul-

ture with them when they

came to the U.S. Amy, being

from Taiwan, participates in the

Moon Festival. During the festi-

val, a person eats moon cakes.

It was normal for Amy, but

Mrs. Varnish said it was some-

thing new to her, and that

those cakes were delicious! Lee

brought over a Korean cook-

book for Mrs. Varnish, along

with spoons and chopsticks.

Mrs. Varnish tried some of

their foods, but they also tried

Mexican food and grits for the

first time.

Mrs. Varnish is glad

to have them in her home and

we are even more excited to

have them in the Hornet family.

If you see them around, make

sure to say hello!

Exchange Students Come To Dixie! By: Caitlan Brady

Elysium: What happens when you put The Terminator in District 9? By: Luke Adams

New Members Added to the Dixie Family! John C. Calhoun Elemen-tary School. Mrs Sears enjoys working with stu-dents and is very happy to be back in the class-room teaching math. About teaching at Dixie, Mrs Sears says, “Dixie is a great school with awesome students and staff! I am glad to be a part of Dixie High School...Go Hornets!”

Samantha Cann is anoth-er new face in the math department, and she is also a Dixie Alumnus. About her new job at Dix-ie, Mrs. Cann said, “ I am very excited to be teach-ing at Dixie. Dixie is a very special school that offers a unique high school experience. I am looking forward to chal-lenging my students to

Brandi Sears is a new teacher in the math de-partment. She is married with 2 daughters, Sara Beth (10th grade) and Victoria (7th grade). Mrs Sears taught math and was an assistant principal at Abbeville High School for many years. For the past 3 years, she was Curriculum Coordinator at Wright Middle School and

“I am glad to

be a part of

Dixie High

School...Go

Hornets!”

-Mrs. Sears

Page 2 The HORNET News

Sci-Fi. What a strange genre. What was once movies of space ships and aliens has become post-apocalyptic, revolutionary mov-

ies. Sci-Fi has always been about showing us a worst case scenario of our future, but it seems that all of our Sci-Fi flicks these days are

either about Earth being too populated and polluted, or Star Trek. Elysium is no exception to the former.

Matt Damon plays Max, an orphan on Earth. He meets a fellow orphan named Fray, and they quickly become friends. Cut for-

ward about 15 years, and Max has grown. Fray is seen later, and it is revealed her daughter is dying.

Elysium, meanwhile, is a world above our world. It is safe haven for the rich to escape from the dirty and infected Earth. It

really is like a second Earth, including a corrupt leader and strict 'No outsiders unless they have money.' policy. So there's no way some-

one like Max is going to get there. To go with their man-made lake-front property and forest homes, they have healing machines that can

cure any injury, disease, or aging in about 2 minutes. You can bet that everyone wants to get on Elysium.

I know what you may be thinking: “But what about that awesome cyborg suit he had!” Well that's the thing... While at work,

Max suffers extreme radiation poisoning and is told he is going to die in 5 days. Just like everyone else on Earth, Max decides he wants to

go to Elysium. Lucky for him, he is close friends with the leader of the revolutionaries, Spider. So Spider basically trusts Max because

he's a friend and dying. But Max is too weak to do this on his own, so Spider gives him the exoskeleton for strength.

So all in all, Elysium is actually a really good movie. While the advertisements suggested more action, the drama we were given

makes up for it. The story is actually very good, despite the rather cliché and overdone base plot. In the end, I'd suggest it to any Sci-Fi

fan.

Exchange student, Lee,

playing in the DHS band.

Cont. Pg. 3

The 2013 VMAs were very enthusiastic. Lots of interest-ing events took place such as; the very short heartfelt reuniting of N-Sync, Mack-lemore’s performance sup-porting the LGBT communi-ty, Katy Perry’s first perfor-mance of what critics say may be her biggest hit, and Miley Cyrus’ jaw dropping performance. Justin Timberlake performed many of his top hits as a solo artist then brought out all the members of his boy band N-Sync, and

they relived their glory days when groups were very pop-ular. Macklemore preformed his current hit “Same Love,” in which he openly supports the homosexual community. Katy Perry closed the 2013 VMAs with her new song “Roar,” which is constantly played on the radio and as predicted becoming one of her biggest hits. Last but not least

was the Miley Cyrus’ horrific

performance. Now, everyone

can clearly see that Hannah

Montana has left the build-

ing. Miley started her perfor-

mance solo with her song

“We Can’t Stop;” then, Robin

Thicke came out to perform

his hit “Blurred Lines,” and

things went downhill from

there. Miley assisted Robin

by singing the chorus of the

song while twerking on him;

which many viewers found

very inappropriate. Overall

the 2013 VMAs were quite

memorable and will go down

in VMA history!

girls took on Calhoun falls

on September 17th, win-

ning 3-0. On September

19th, the girls beat

Whitmire with a score of 3

-0 as well. The Alumni

game is Saturday, Octo-

ber 26th, 2013. This is the

Cancer Awareness game

and will be held in honor

of Mary Winn. We hope to

see you there!

The JV volleyball team

started their season with

a win against

Abbeville and defeated

BHP in a tournament.

The varsity volleyball

team has begun their sea-

son with a 2-1 record.

They lost their opening

game to Abbeville, but

defeated BHP both home

and away. The varsity

2013 MTV: Video Music Awards By: Yolanda Mullins

Hornet Volleyball!

Hornet Football! By: Kala Collins

on September 27th against

Whitmire. Good luck Hor-

nets. In previous weeks, the

guys lost to Palmetto on

August 23. On August 30,

Dixie played Crescent and

lost. Then they went on to

play Ridge-Spring Monetta

on September 6th, again

losing, 24-0.

Friday, the 13th, is consid-

ered an unlucky day for

most people, but for the

Hornets, it was a very lucky

day! Congratulations to the

varsity football team on their

win Friday, September 13.

This 27-22 win against

South Side Christian im-

proved the team's

record to 1 and 3. After four

weeks of games, the team

had a by week

and will resume play

“I see great

things ahead for

football.”

-Coach T. Brown

Page 3 Volume XIV Issue 1

Cont. from page 2. help them

reach their highest potential”.

Mrs. Cann graduated from

Lander University in 2012

with a degree in Mathematics

and a Secondary Education

Certificate. She taught at

Abbeville High school for a

year before she came to Dix-

ie. Mrs. Cann has been mar-

ried for a little over a year

now and is enjoying her new

roles in life as a wife and a

teacher and is looking forward

to many great years ahead.

Mrs. Knepper joined the Eng-

lish Department. Mrs. Knep-

per moved to Due West this

summer with her husband,

who will be teaching English

at Erskine, and their eight-

month-old daughter. Mrs.

Knepper holds degrees from

the College of William & Mary

and the University of Virginia,

and she began teaching in

2007. She was born and

raised in Virginia. Her favorite

thing about teaching at Dixie

is the students!

“The team is

working hard

and playing

hard as they

prepare for the

playoffs.”

-Mrs. Ellis

All Beta Club members need to have their twenty dollar dues in to Mrs.

Duncan by the end of September! If a you do not pay these dues, you will

no longer be considered a member of the Dixie High School Beta Club

for the 2013-2014 school year.

Is answering a text

while driving dangerous?

Yes, it is very dangerous.

Would you risk your life by

texting and driving? How

about a friend’s life or

someone you have never

even met? Ask yourself, is

it worth it? The answer to

these questions should be a

big fat NO! Yet many

young teens and adults still

put their lives and others at

risk everyday by texting and

driving. Texting and driving

may be fun, but it is ex-

tremely dangerous, and eve-

ryone should encourage oth-

ers not to do it! So many

people think it could never

happen to them. Well, I am

here to tell you that if you

text and drive, the conse-

quences are much worse

than waiting to answer that

text. If that text is so im-

portant it cannot wait, pull

over. Do not be stupid and

text and drive. It is not

Texting and Driving: Is It Worth It?

By: Jenea Bowen

Beta Club!

The Dixie High School Newspaper is a medium of

student expression.

Dixie Newpaper Staff FCCLA

Mrs. Varnish not only has

new blinds, painted cabi-

nets, and a new blog on

Google called Small

World, but she also has big

plans for FCCLA. The

meetings will be held on

Thursday mornings at 7:30.

There are 15 members

total and 8 new members.

FCCLA participated in the

McCormick Gold Rush on

September 21, 2013. They

are always looking for new

members so if anyone is

interested, come to one of

the meetings! Anyone is

welcome!

DHS Yearbook on Twitter!

In FBLA news, members are taking orders for Thirty One Gifts

to help raise money for their district and state competitions and

hopefully Nationals. If you would like to order online, go to

www.mythirtyone.com/bspivey, click on My Parties and then

click on Dixie FBLA to shop. This sale ends September 28th.

FBLA!

Editor: Caitlan Brady

Writers:

Kala Collins

Yolanda Mullins

Jenea Bowen

Luke Adams

Jasmine Tate

Kamilla Boyd

Katie Turner

Advisor: Mrs. Valkenburg

The newspa-

per staff needs

more writers!

If you are in-

terested,

please see

Mrs. Valken-

burg or Caitlan

Brady!