At Highland Park Senior High, there are two immersion language programs. One is Spanish Immersion, another is Chinese Immersion. The Spanish Immersion leader this year is Ms. Boe and the Chinese Immersion leader this year is Ms. Miao.
The Spanish Immersion program is a program at the high school level for students who have gone through other immersion programs. The students are required to speak a high level of Spanish. The program has been with Highland for quite a long time now, 15 years or so.
The Spanish Immersion students came from different places. Some of the students are from Highland Middle, others are from Adam’s Spanish Immersion. There are also a few students from Cesar Chavez, River View, and Mexico.
There are 3 Freshmen classes, 3 Sophomore classes, 2 Junior classes, and 1 Senior class for Spanish Immersion learning. There are two other classes that are involved with the Spanish Immersion program, they are World History for Freshmen in the program, and Human Geography for Sophomores.
During in the interview, I asked Ms. Boe how the year has been going so far. She replied that the year has been going really well; the students and staff are great.
I also asked her if she had any exciting plans for her students. Ms. Boe replied that she really wants to travel with them. She also had other fun plans such as Spanish speaking debates and family nights in the Spring.
The Chinese Immersion program is a program offered to students who took Immersion Chinese before high school. The class is entirely taught in Mandarin Chinese. This year, there are 9 students in the program; 8 of them came from Ying Hua Academy which is a K-8 Chinese Immersion School. There are a few upperclassmen at Highland who went to Ying Hua Academy before and are now enrolled in Chinese 5 and 6.
This year is a year that is stretching the Chinese program with a lot of adjusting for Ms. Miao and her immersion students. The school culture and dynamics are different from their previous school, the approach to learning is also different to the students. Therefore, it is a process of adjusting for the teacher and students.
In the Chinese Immersion class, they are currently reading a contemporary literature piece, and are also working on a Chinese history project learning about different Chinese historical figures. The class will take a visit to St. Paul’s Jie Ming Chinese Immersion School to present their presentation in Chinese to the elementary students.
Ms. Lin who is currently teaching Chinese 1 and 2 will also be teaching science to Chinese Immersion students who come from Jie Ming the next year at the Middle School.
These are the two Immersion Languages at Highland Park Senior High.
This year’s NHS Scot’s Stroll will be on October 13th from 1:12pm to 2:00pm. NHS Scot’s Stroll is where HPSH students, staff, and parents walk around the school’s athletic fields. The reason for the stroll this year is to raise money to donate to a local women’s shelter. The stroll is sponsored by Highland Park Senior High School’s National Honor Society.
The participants will have to go one lap around the track then walk around baseball fields/soccer fields and then another lap around the track. Participants can be anyone from Highland Park: students, staff, and/or parents.
Why should you join the stroll? Well, this is a healthy exercise that will help donate money to a local women’s shelter. The stroll requires a $15 pledge, but you will also be given a t-shirt.
If anyone wants to join, the dead line for the pledges to be turned in is on Wednesday, October 12th. Pledges should be turned in to Stacy Hanson in the Main Office.
To those who can’t pledge $15, but still want to participate, you should see Ms. Landreau in room 1312 or Ms. Hanson in the Main Office.
Contacts for any further questions:
Stacy Hanson at stacy.hanson@spps.org or 651-744-3804
Charlotte Landreau at charlotte.landreau@spps.org or 651-744-3887
This year at Highland Park Senior High, there is a new Chinese teacher known as Patty Lin. Ms. Lin was born on May 10th, and she is teaching Chinese 1 and 2. Ms. Miao, Highland’s veteran Chinese Teacher, will be teaching the higher levels of Chinese, and Chinese Immersion, this year.
I first asked how Ms. Lin felt about Highland, to which her reply was, “I felt very welcomed and I also enjoy being here.”
Then I asked about her favorite part of Highland, and she replied, “I like the IB School. They foster the environment of thinking beyond yourself and the subject you’re taking.”
My next question was asking her why she decided to teach. “I grew up with good teachers who foster teaching and discovery. I want to be a similar spark for students.”
After that, I asked her about her favorite and least favorite parts of teaching. Her favorite part of teaching, she replied was, “Getting to know students and learning more about teaching with students.” Her least favorite part, she said was, “It’s challenging to balance what I’m going to do each day.”
The last question related to school was what hour did she like to teach best to which she replied,” My sixth hour because I like my Freshman.”
I asked her about her hobbies and what she likes outside of school. Ms. Lin likes to play music, photography, and also Scuba dive even though she doesn’t really have time for it. Her favorite color is purple, and her favorite movie is The Incredibles.
Ms. Lin is a really nice teacher, she’s funny and she makes sure her students understand the context. Hopefully, this first year at Highland will go great for her.
This week was iPad handout week where students got their iPads during their Social Studies class. Since the district is controlling the iPads this year, some things were changed.
If a student wanted their iPad, their parents had to go on Parent Portal and fill out the form (iUpdate) online. Last year, students were given printed forms to sign which made things easier for those who had no access to Internet.
There were a few complaints about going on Parent Portal. One thing, is that people say the form was hard to find. At max, it took them about 10 minutes to find the form. Another complaint was that the access to Parent Portal was sent in the mail to the person’s residence during the summer. The complaint was that some people didn’t keep their mailing, or that the parents didn’t know they were supposed to keep it for future use.
For those students who didn’t get their iPads, there was a mailing sent to everyone about the iPad makeup day. Students would get another chance to get their iPad once their parents filled out the iUpdate form.
This year’s iPad handout went by surprisingly fast. Hopefully, everyone uses their iPads appropriately.
This year’s HPSH lunch schedule changed to first lunch being after 3rd hour and second lunch being after 4th hour, whereas the last school year had first lunch after 4th hour and second lunch after 5th hour. Since I had first lunch last year, I was interested in seeing what they do the same and what is different between the two lunches, and I also wanted to see what impact the change in time had on people.
I went to visit first lunch and talked to my friends asking them how they felt about the new schedule. One of them didn’t mind at all about the schedule. The other said that you get used to it pretty quickly, but added on that they do feel hungry later on.
The lunch room didn’t seem as crowded during first lunch, but there were still a lot of people. People who bring their own lunch can go and eat outside near the link.
Something different about first lunch from second lunch is that in second lunch, we have to wait until 11:19 to be able to leave and wait down by the Link, whereas for first lunch, they can leave to wait at the Link whenever they finish their food.
I soon found out later that the reason why the lunch schedule was changed is because the Junior High’s schedule didn’t fit at all, because they moved back to a six period day, so they decided to change the lunch schedule instead of classes.
I think this year’s lunch will be just fine, hopefully everyone thinks so too. Even though a lot of people started off the year complaining about how early lunch was, they quickly became used to it.
Below are copies of the old lunch schedule and the new schedule for comparison.
Newspaper will be a class run by Ms. Lingofelt during the next school year. Newspaper is a class where students get to write articles to put on the Highland Park Senior High ThePlaid Line website. For those students who love to write, this class would be a good class to take.
Students are responsible for writing an original article every other week. The first week is pitch week: pitch week is when students come up with article ideas to write about. The second week is article week: final articles need to be submitted by the end of article week. Newspaper is a pretty chill class where students just write. Articles can be about school, world issues or just anything.
Students here are nice and open, they are very funny people. If students choose to write an article where they can interview someone in the school, they will be given a pass to go interview the person only if that person is free during the hour.
Newspaper would love to have more students, hopefully, in the next school year there will be more students. Hopefully, in the next school year, there will be many different articles published.
Walking out into the hallway from my classroom, someone always has to spray a ton of perfume into the air. I get that people want to smell good but they should be more considerate of other people around them.
People can get headaches, asthma or even allergic reactions to the smell of perfume. For the safety of students, the school should do something to control the use of perfumes. If not banning them, then limit the amount that a student can use.
On November 19, 2010, an article was posted about a mother wanting a school to ban perfume because her son had had several severe allergic reactions. Her son even needed an ambulance to get to the nearest hospital.
To avoid situations like these, people should not spray perfume into the air in the middle of the hallway. Do it in the bathroom, or where people aren’t, so no one gets affected by the smell. People don’t even need that much perfume that is sprayed in the air.
For people who don’t know where you’re supposed to spray your perfume, spray where your pulse points are. Most people spray perfume on their wrists, behind their ears, and behind their knees. Hopefully, people become more considerate and stop spraying perfume into mid air.
This school year marks the end of teaching for three familiar faces at Highland Park Senior High. Kathy Sabota, Beverly Lambert, and Nancy Galligan will be leaving Highland Park Senior High. Ms. Sabota is our wonderful librarian, Ms. Lambert is one of our wonderful math teachers, and Ms. Galligan is our wonderful athletic director.
photo taken by Audrey Dahl
Kathy Sabota has been working as a librarian for about 15 years, and this is her 5th year at Highland Park Senior High. Ms. Sabota started up the street at Highland Elementary where she worked part time in the library, while she also taught at Inver Hills Community College and McNally Smith Music College (she taught writing and literature, not music). We went to interview her on her retirement.
Ms. Sabota decided to go back to college to become a school librarian because it seemed like a perfect fit for her. Teaching English, she was very familiar with research, and absolutely loved to read anything she could get her hands on. Ms. Sabota’s very first library class in grad school was on iMovie. When she first started, technology was more of an “add on” to the school library program.
In the 15 years that Ms. Sabota has worked as a librarian, libraries have made a rapid transition from being largely book-centric to being digital, technological spaces. Ms. Sabota said that, “Many libraries today are called “Learning Commons,” and they have coffee shops and make spaces where people can “make” many different things (3D printing, etc.) and collaborate on projects, in addition to doing research and reading.”
Ms. Sabota’s reply to “What is your favorite memory at HPSH?” is, “I think, it isn’t any one thing. I boast about this school to anyone who will listen. And that doesn’t mean the physical ‘school’ – it means I boast about the wonderful students and competent teachers and staff who work here. That is what a ‘school’ is, not a building.”
We asked Ms. Sabota what she will miss about working at HPSH with which she replied, “I miss a lot about working at Highland! You guys are the nicest students I have ever worked with (and I’ve been around a long time!). I will miss the students and the adults more than anything. I will also miss our teen book club!”
Even though Ms. Sabota really loves her job, she wants to retire while she still is excited about doing some new and different things. She also spends a lot of time caring for her elderly mother.
We asked Ms. Sabota what her plans were after retiring and Ms. Sabota said there were many things she still wants to try. She would like to write, paint, and play piano. Ms. Sabota wants to bike and paddleboard and also camp in the summer, whereas in the winter, she wants to ski and snowshoe. Ms. Sabota wants to take classes in cooking, Spanish, and world religions. Not only does she want to learn new things, Ms. Sabota also wants to volunteer in areas that she’s passionate about. But, she said that at the top of her list would be traveling because, it’s such a big world.
“But, still, I am grateful that I got to give what I had to offer to students all the years of my career. It’s a good feeling.” This was the last thing Ms. Sabota said about working at HPSH.
Next, we went to interview some math teachers who have collaborated with our another staff member who is retiring, Beverly Lambert.
image taken from the Highland Park Senior High website
According to her website, Beverly Lambert has been working as a geometry teacher in the Saint Paul Public School district for 27 years now. Before working as a math teacher, Ms. Lambert spent a short time working for Home Stake Mining Company, and later the Internal Revenue Service.
Ms. Lambert began teaching at Ramsey Junior High in 1989, and she eventually moved to Cleveland Middle School. Ms. Lambert came to Highland Park Senior High in 1997, and has been a geometry teacher here ever since.
We asked some of Ms. Lambert’s colleagues to share some of their experiences of teaching with her.
Ms. Schleper, a math teacher who has worked in the same department as Ms. Lambert for about 4 years, recalls her first impression of Ms. Lambert as “being someone who is very knowledgeable”. Reflecting on her teaching time with Ms. Lambert, Ms. Schleper said, “I’ve really enjoyed being able to ask her questions and go to her for advice about everything from rubrics, to MYP grading. She is very good at teaching students the importance of self study habits, and also at collaborating with other teachers. Overall, she has been very helpful.”
Another math teacher who has worked with Ms. Lambert, is Mr. McKay. Mr. McKay has worked with her for over 11 years, and still remembers his first time meeting Ms. Lambert. “When I came to Highland Park, it was Ms. Lambert who interviewed me,” he said, “she was very professional with high expectations, yet she was very sincere.” When he was asked about how his overall teaching with her was, he replied, “I really enjoyed teaching with her, it has been very beneficial to me. I will miss her, and I hope she enjoys whatever comes her way.”
image taken from the Highland Park Senior High website
Nancy Galligan is Highland Park Senior High’s athletic director. Ms. Galligan has worked in Saint Paul Public Schools for 32 and a half years. She has worked as an athletic director, health teacher, and as a physical education teacher. She has worked at Highland Park Senior High for 8 nonconsecutive years, and also at Highland Middle School for 2 years.
Ms. Galligan started off her career by working at Arlington High School in January of 1984. She worked there for 14 years until the school closed. Ms. Galligan says that Arlington was a memorable experience in her career. “Opening Arlington was a very unique opportunity,” she stated, “because I was with the school before it opened, and I was with it when it closed.”
After switching schools every now and then, Ms. Galligan returned to Highland Park Senior High in 2012. Reflecting on her time at Highland, she told us “Highland has been nothing but wonderful. The parents, athletes, students, coaches, colleagues, and administration. They all have been amazing.”
We asked some of Ms. Galligan’s colleagues at Highland to share their overall experience working with her.
First we talked to Mr. Lang, a gym teacher and coach at Highland who has worked with Ms. Galligan for 19 years. “She’s friendly, she’s upbeat, and she’s all about the kids,” he reflected, “She is very devoted to the students… It really goes to show what kind of a person she is.”
We also talked to Mr. Ferraro, another gym teacher and coach at Highland. “She is positive.” He said, “And fun and energetic. She is also very welcoming and a friend to everyone.”
When we asked Ms. Galligan about what she was going to do after retiring, she told us, “I am going to spend time with family and friends. I am going to get involved in other interests of mine, such as horseback riding. I am going to partake in other endeavors.”
Hopefully, we can send these teachers away happily and that whatever they plan to do after retirement is done. They have been great people to have at Highland and we are proud to have them. Even so, people always retire, so we hope they will enjoy their retirement.
On the 15th of April, HPSH had their Day of Silence. The Day of Silence is for supporting the LGBTQ+ community. To participate in the Day of Silence, you either need a button or a laminated card saying you’re participating in the Day of Silence. About 175 people at HPSH participated in the Day of Silence. I interviewed some of my friends and teachers about the Day of Silence.
Why did you participate in the Day of Silence?
Grace Sheehan: I wanted to bring awareness for LGBTQ+ and bullying, also wanted to support those who are struggling.
Lucy Minner: I have some friends in the LGBTQ+ community and also, it’s for a good cause and everybody deserves equal rights.
Beth Kallestad (World History Teacher): I think it’s powerful that as a teacher I didn’t speak because, it made awareness of LGBTQ+ people that were bullied, harassed, or have been called names.
Clare Barownlee: I’m an alli of the LGBTQ+ community. I have friends that are LGBTQ+. The way LGBTQ+ impacted and affected my friends became really apparent to me. I think it is important to recognize in the places that affect them most.
Berit Depies: I’m in the HPSH Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA). I know many who are in the LGBTQ+ community. I participated because the Day of Silence is important. It shows that other people care about those who are struggling. Hopefully, those who don’t know what people in the LGBTQ+ community are going through can learn.
How do you feel about the Day of Silence?
Grace Sheehan: I support the Day of Silence and the LBGTQ+ community but, maybe not in the exact way the community would support everyone.
Lucy Minner: I feel like it went well for everyone who did participate in it.
Beth Kallestad: It is important that our school participate in the Day of Silence to make student and staff aware. Also, it shows students and staffs of the LGBTQ+ community know that there are people who support them.
Clare Barownlee: I used to think “Why stay silent and not speak put about the issue?”. Over time, I realized that the Day of Silence was really powerful. It was really powerful to see my friends staying silent. Then, I realized that the Day of Silence was really important.
Berit Depies: I think the Day of Silence is great even though I did’t know about it until this year. The Day of Silence is really meaningful because the quietness shows and stands out.
Do you feel like the Day of Silence was good way to support everyone?
Grace Sheehan: Yes, it is an easy thing for everyone to do. It also brings awareness because those people who talk everyday are now being silent.
Lucy Minner: Yes, even though I slipped up four or five times but if I just kept my head down then it wasn’t that bad.
Beth Kallestad: For beginning steps, yes. For a group that has about 20 people, there were more that actually supported than just the 175 that participated.
Clare Brownlee: Yes, the Day of Silence is very inclusive. Like, it’s not just the Day of Silence for lesbians or just for gays, but for everyone in the LGBTQ+ community, it doesn’t specify. It’s for everyone who was discriminated against their gender or sexual orientation.
Berit Depies: Yes, a lot of people supporting for you is good.
What do you like about the Day of Silence?
Grace Sheehan: I like what the Day of Silence represents. It shows how many people actually care about the LGBTQ+ community. I just like what it stands for.
Lucy Minner: It’s for a good cause as I said earlier. People can realize that there are people out there who are struggling.
Beth Kallestad: It is a good opportunity to participate on a social justice and human rights issue. Even if they are not in the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), it allows students to participate and show support to the LGBTQ+ community.
Clare Barownlee: The Day of Silence to me is a way to physically see the silence. Real people are choosing to stay silent and that really stands out. The Day of Silence is a good way to represent that people out there are struggling. It is also a physical way of symbolizing against discrimination.
Berit Depies: It is powerful when a lot of people choose to stay silent. Everyone can participate and it also brings a lot of people together.
Personally for me, I think that the Day of Silence went well. If we had more people participating, it would stand out more. Back in middle school I was able to participate in the Day of Silence but as of this year, I couldn’t. Hopefully, next year I can also participate to show my support for those who are and aren’t struggling. As someone who identifies as bisexual, it was like those who I interviewed said before, it was very powerful to see. Hopefully, more people will become more aware and can show that they support LGBTQ+.
Remember your recess days back in elementary school? Recess was a time for fun, and hanging out with your friends without having to worry. Well, in high school, you don’t get recess. Everyday is just going from class to class learning without a break, with kids rushing in the hallways trying to get to their next class before the bell rings.
Depending on the classes you take, you get a certain amount of work and assignments. With many assignments, you don’t have time for doing other stuff, which can lead to stress. Everyday is just going home and then starting homework.
Since high schools are giving students a ton of work, don’t you think recess is a good thing to add to high schools? Students could have the time to hang out with their friends and play games. Hanging out with friends can be a distraction from stress or worries.
Students could just have fun for 15 minutes and then it’s back to learning. They could get a break from learning and they might just enjoy school a bit more. Back in elementary school, during recess, everyone would run and play with their friends. Either playing tag or staying inside and playing card games or board games.
Recess would be nice to have in high school to help students get the stress off their shoulders. Students could work on their assignments with no distractions, a bit like study hall but with more freedom.
Sometimes students can feel restless and they want to go for a little run in the field. Recess would be giving them the freedom to do what they need to do for themselves that they can’t do in a classroom. Recess would be a good idea to add into high schools.
The Official Online Newspaper, Literary Magazine, and Video News of the Highland Park Scots
The Spanish Immersion program is a program at the high school level for students who have gone through other immersion programs. The students are required to speak a high level of Spanish. The program has been with Highland for quite a long time now, 15 years or so.
The Chinese Immersion program is a program offered to students who took Immersion Chinese before high school. The class is entirely taught in Mandarin Chinese. This year, there are 9 students in the program; 8 of them came from Ying Hua Academy which is a K-8 Chinese Immersion School. There are a few upperclassmen at Highland who went to Ying Hua Academy before and are now enrolled in Chinese 5 and 6.
Plaid Line + PRIZM + Scottie News 