Spanish II Students Present Bullfighting Speeches

               For the past couple of weeks, students in Mr. Kristopher Walker’s and Mrs. Noemi Malagon’s Spanish II classes have worked on a bullfighting project.  This form of entertainment, which is popular in countries such as Spain and Mexico, has both positive and negative qualities.  Some may see it as the cruel torture and murder of a defenseless animal.  But, others believe that bullfighting is a major tourist attraction that shouldn’t be destroyed.  Spanish II students have taken their opinion, whether it be for or against bullfighting, and created a campaign project.

               As a part of Project Based Learning, the students were each assigned a specific task for the project.  The positions for the bullfighting project were:

Speaker/Candidate: presents opinion to the audience

Group Leader: supports speaker; keeps group on task

Speech Writer: creates speech for speaker 

Marketing Publisher: makes posters, announcements, etc. for speaker

        Each speaker presented their speech to an audience on February 19^th.  Then, all audience members were asked to vote for their three favorite speeches.  The votes were all tallied up, and the winners for each class period were as follows:

Period 1-Mr. Walker

1st Place:   Amber Mikel

2nd Place:  Katie Gunter

3rd Place: Whitney Haneline

Period 3-Mrs. Malagon

1st Place: John Salmon

2nd Place: Katherine Nolan

3rd Place: Harrison Sponseller

Period 3-Mr. Walker

1st Place: Kaitlyn Ott

2nd Place: Brandon Lozano

3rd Place: Rafael Jimenez

               All in all, the bullfighting project is one of Tippecanoe Valley High School’s biggest activities connected to PBL.  

Snow Hurts Valley School Schedule

                  Everyone in northern Indiana has suffered from the huge amounts of snow over the past two months.  Vehicles sliding off the roads and schools delaying due to cold temperatures are just some of the problems students at Tippecanoe Valley have dealt with.  In fact, most schools in the area have cancelled approximately seven days due to the weather.  With piles of snow invading parking lots, and students calling off work and being stuck inside, the winter weather has made the beginning of 2014 interesting.

               Since Tippecanoe Valley Schools have missed several days of school, there have been many rumors as to what will happen to the school schedule.  Will students have to go until the middle of June?  Will they have to attend school on Saturdays?  However, a new statement by Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz says that schools can re-schedule holidays; they can also have school on Saturdays, add days to the end of the school calendar, or add additional hours to the school day.  At the time of writing, the Tippecanoe Valley School Board has not decided on how students will have to make up snow days.

Unsung Heroes: A Gallery By TVHS Seniors

               Students at Tippecanoe Valley High School complete many projects as a part of PBL (Project Based Learning).  However, teachers and students alike are expanding these projects towards the community, whether it be completing service projects or presenting a topic to city council members.  One of the recent activities was the Hero Gallery.

               Mrs. Melanie Mason’s and Miss Katherine Wine’s English 12 classes presented the Hero Gallery to the community.  Both teachers came up with the idea after talking to their senior students about what it means to be a hero.  They also discussed how to recognize heroes within the community.  Seniors in both English classes planned out the project and created the final product.  The students chose a person that they wanted to recognize, such as a teacher, parent or law personnel.  They wrote essays about their hero and created posters about that person.  Students set up their hero displays; and, during halftime at the basketball game versus Rochester, the classes presented their project.  Community members were able to talk to the students.  Some of the students’ heroes even came to see the presentation.

               The Hero Gallery is just the beginning of PBL, community-based projects.  Many students enjoy this different learning process, and hope that these activities will grow in number.