By Kim DeGuzman
Research Editor

At A-TECH, National Honor Society (NHS) and many other students participate in the Junior League of Las Vegas Birthday Closet at Martinez Elementary School.  Imagine getting community service hours for helping children who for some have never had a birthday party.  For NHS students, participating in the Birthday Closet counts as a form of community service. Community service is one of the reasons most students from A-TECH attend the Birthday Closet.

“Making a child smile is totally worth it,” says Senior Ashley Huddleston who is not in NHS and does not need the service hours.  She just likes to make a difference in the community.

The Junior League of Las Vegas has adopted Martinez Elementary for these monthly parties. League Members like Mrs. Guild in turn, approach local businesses and schools for monetary and volunteer support. “I think it is great the students at A-Tech are helping us with this worthwhile project every month,” said Mrs. Guild.  Every month, the students who have a birthday get a half hour of face painting, cupcakes, and games.  The highlight of the event is the closet, where they get to select a present.

Currently, the Birthday Closet is held at Martinez Elementary School in North Las Vegas the last Friday of each month. NHS students must provide their own transportation to the elementary school and all supplies are supplied by the elementary school; students are responsible for supplying the fun.

The next Birthday Closet is Thursday December 11 from 2 PM to 4 PM.  To volunteer at the party, please see Mrs. Guild in room 321.

By Iun Chen
Junior Staff Writer

Exercising benefits everyone. According to the American Heart Association, students who exercise do much better in school. Not only does exercise benefit a student’s health, but it makes him or her feel better as well. Increased exercise improves schoolwork and minimizes social issues. Students who exercise focus on schoolwork instead of social problems, since there is not time to worry about anything besides school.

There are many benefits and rewards for students who exercise. “Exercise benefits schoolwork because it’s a stress reliever,” explains Ms. Johnson, one of A-TECH’s physical education teacher.

Exercise helps a person feel better because when a person exercises, his or her body produces endorphins. Endorphins are hormones that help a person reduce the sensation of pain and they also affect emotions. Exercise can help people who feel depressed, unhappy, or angry. When a person exercises, it takes his or her mind off problems. Exercise gives people a sense of accomplishment and pride, when done right.

A-TECH freshmen Alan Aquino said, “Exercise will benefit schoolwork because it boosts your self-esteem.”

Exercise also helps the body stay in shape and maintain good, clean skin. Exercise burns calories. According to the New York Times, burning calories diminishes body fat, making people thinner. At A-TECH, people who exercise can walk up and down the stairs faster than people who do not exercise. Exercising also makes the skin clear. By exercising, the body delivers nutrients to the skin cells, which destroy the damaging toxins in the cells that can make the skin break out.

By Brianna Vargas
Assistant Editor

From November 5 to November 20, National Honor Society is hosting a school wide food drive. The club is collecting canned goods to give to unfortunate families during the Thanksgiving holiday. Students should bring canned foods to their English classes.

All A-TECH’s English classes are competing to win a party for their period. The winner will be the class period that brings in the most canned goods.

“I love doing the competition,” says English teacher Ms. Lowe. “Its great to see all the food stacking up in the classroom. The students really get into it. My class has a competition with Ms. Norby’s class. The more the competition the more canned food students bring in.”

HELP of Southern Nevada is playing a large role in the conclusion of the food drive. HELP is a volunteer society created to provide “help” to Las Vegans in need. Throughout the year, they provide volunteer opportunities for every corner of southern Nevada, raising much needed money and food.

In the morning of Saturday, November 22, HELP invites all residents of southern Nevada to come participate in making Thanksgiving baskets. Each basket will have a Thanksgiving feast for a family, large or small, which came up short around this holiday season. NHS will be participating at this event taking it upon itself to give back to the community.

“Its great to see that everyone will have a thanksgiving dinner,” says NHS president senior Karissa Dold.

By Alexis Hanselman
Advertising Editor

While many Las Vegans were out trick-or-treating on Halloween night, a fair share of them could be found at Jillian’s listening to Cobra Starship, Forever the Sickest Kids, Hit the Lights, and Sing it Loud, bands who were all playing that night.

Of these bands, Cobra Starship is the most well known, with one or two popular songs, “Guilty Pleasure” and “The City is at War”.

The sad truth is that even though Cobra Starship was headlining, and therefore highly anticipated, they were the worst of the four bands. Not only did Cobra Starship sound terrible, they also spent ten minutes in between songs to get ready. They had a whole hour to play and only completed five songs. All the other bands had less time to play and still preformed more songs than Cobra Starship.

Basically, the most anticipated band of the night wasn’t good enough for anyone to want to go and see them again.

Forever the Sickest Kids was by far the best band at the concert. They managed to play at least seven songs. They not only played many songs but they played them well. They got the whole audience to jump, clap, and dance with them as they sang.

Hit the Lights and Sing it Loud were the two least known bands there, but they still pulled in a good crowd of people. Only about half the people who were there to see Cobra Starship showed up early enough for Sing it Loud and Hit the Lights.

After the bands were done playing, the audience could catch some band members, from all of the bands, by the merchandise table taking pictures, signing shirts, and talking with their fans. If they weren’t over by the merchandise table, then they could be found walking around Jillian’s.

Since it was Halloween, all of the band members dressed up for the occasion. Sing it Loud was the only band where all of the band members dressed up as the same thing. They were “bananas in pajamas”. Other costumes for the bands varied from robots to black eyed peas. The bands weren’t the only ones to dress up. Many audience members decided to dress up as well. There was even a solved Rubik’s cube in the crowd.

In general, the show had its ups and downs but it was a great way to spend Halloween night.

By Kristiana Trinidad
Junior Staff Writer

Most A-TECH students have never heard of College Prep Club (CPC). CPC meets after school and prepares its members for anything unexpected when dealing with college application process.

The advisor of the organization is Ms. Bouchard.

“There are exactly 42 students who registered for College Prep Club at the beginning of the year,” Ms. Bouchard explains, “however, we currently have 53 students attending the meetings, so we’re actually growing.”

The club is full of students from every grade who plan on going to college. About twenty of the members are freshmen and sophomores, and the rest of the fifty-three are juniors and seniors.

Despite its popularity, the club was only created last year. Ms. Bouchard never planned on forming the club, but a chain of events led to it.

“Two years ago, I was having a discussion with my business communications class. It was surprising to find out that a great majority was worried about what they would need to do for college. Afterwards, a girl named Brittany Coleman asked me if I could form a club to help other students get ready for college. I thought it was perfect. Now, she’s the president of the club,” explained Ms. Bouchard.

Last year, College Prep Club started out strong with about forty students, but it dwindled down to an amount close to fifteen due to scheduling conflicts with other activities.

Different topics are covered in every meeting. The officers organize all the information, and Ms. Bouchard provides the reading material. The club even helps juniors and seniors with the college process.

“Everything is done in a timeline, so all the deadlines won’t jump on you at the same time,” Ms. Bouchard commented.

Freshman Jessica Pererez is a member of CPC.

“College Prep Club is awesome,” said Pererez, “It’s preparing us for the PSAT, SAT, and ACT.”

For those wishing to join, College Prep Club meets in Ms. Bouchard’s classroom, room 616, after school every first and third Thursday of the month.

By Allison Neighbors
Editor-in-Chief

The Halloween Carnival at Mirabelli Community Center this year was a success. This is the second year that NHS participated in the carnival, which was held on Friday, October 24 from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Twenty-five A-TECH students who were either in AVID or NHS participated in the event and helped to set up booths, run booths, decorate, and provide entertainment for the kids who attended. Students from a nearby middle school volunteered at the carnival in larger numbers than last year, according to Karissa Dold, president of NHS. The theme for this year’s carnival was Monsters, Inc., so students who helped with the event either wore pajamas or dressed up like monsters.

The carnival allows children to have fun and celebrate Halloween safely. The sister of A-TECH’s dean, Ms. Price, was in charge of the carnival. “Ms. Price and her two daughters were at the carnival and they were having fun playing the games, and they looked so cute in their costumes,” said Dold.

“Volunteers had a lot of fun and it was really rewarding to see the kids having fun and participating in Halloween, in a safe environment,” said Dold. “Some of the games were really hard to work, we did, however, encourage the kids to win the games even though it meant more work for us, because then we got to see them run off and smile with their candy.”

Photo Courtesy of http://www.ccsd.net/schools/snyder/ The logo for Snyder Elementary School, an unrelated school already in Las Vegas.

By Alyssa Hahn
Junior Staff Writer

Mr. John Snyder, a former A-TECH teacher, was nominated to have a school named after him. A computer science and multimedia teacher, Mr. Snyder was loved by students and faculty alike and taught at A-TECH for many years. Mr. Snyder retired at the end of the 2007-2008 school year.

There are many reasons for Mr. Snyder’s nomination. “I don’t want to speak for Mr. Lamping, our former principal who nominated Mr. Snyder,” says Mrs. Diamond, “but he was an original here at A-TECH and an innovator in his teaching skills and styles. He also has a long list of awards and a good person in general.”

He also meets the requirements to be nominated. Last school year, a petition went around the school to be signed by everyone who believed Mr. Snyder deserved this nomination and enough students signed. After the petition had the required number of signatures, Mrs. Diamond appeared before a naming committee where she argued her position against hundreds of other nominations. With hundreds of nominations and only three open slots for new school names, acquiring a spot was difficult and Mr. Snyder was not one of the nominees to make it.

By Alexis Hanselman
Advertising Editor

Many students do not have the time in their schedules to take all the classes they might need. For example, a senior may have not taken Spanish yet and needs it to graduate. Simultaneously, a student can take Spanish I at school, and Spanish II from Virtual High School. Virtual High School is an online high school that any CCSD student can partake in. Students can either go part-time or full-time. Part-time students can take up to three classes online.  Currently 3,000 students across CCSD partake in Virtual High School, and 140 of them are full-time.

At the moment, Virtual High School is located in A-TECH. The entrance can be found by the bus loading area.

On January 1, though, Virtual High school will move to the Educational Technology campus. They will be sharing the building with Vegas PBS and Homeland Security.

Students learn the same way in Virtual High School, as they would while learning in a building. One advantage is that 98 percent of the Virtual High School textbooks are e-texts, meaning that students do not have to worry about lugging around a textbook. The only thing that they have to do is come in for their tests.

“It is so much easier taking classes online. I had to take health last year and Virtual High School made it very easy to do,” said sophomore Michelia Perry.

Virtual High School offers honors and AP classes. It also has Driver’s Education for $65 and summer school for the normal price. Part-time students may have to pay $25 for their virtual classes if they don’t go through their counselor.

“The best part of Virtual High School is that you get to choose what you want to learn and get to pick and choose when to study,” says Wade Essington, the principal of Virtual High School.

Photo courtesy of www.nintendo.comWii Music was released on October 20

By Vincent Martinez
Senior Staff Writer

On October 20, Wii released its own version of “Rock Band” called “Wii Music.” “Wii Music” is like playing air guitar for all instruments. “Wii Music” uses songs from some of Nintendo’s classic games such as “Zelda Ocarina of Time,” the classic Mario games, and the songs on “DDR Mario Mix.”

“Wii Music” uses a player’s Mii for his or her character. In “Wii Music” you can play songs with your friends

“Wii Music” is a basic game that allows the player to play over 60 different instruments in the air. Some of the instruments include trumpet, drums, violin, piano, guitar, and base guitar. Each instrument is based on the buttons and the motion activated by the Wii remote and Wii nunchuk.

Sophomore Jake Hay enjoys the idea of “Wii Music” and likes to play the violin because he can’t really play the violin in real life. He also is thrilled to make his own tunes in the game because he believes that his songs are way better, but listening to the conductor isn’t fun.

By Allison Neighbors
Editor-in-Chief

Stop stressing and start eating well. A new study has proven that less stress and better health will lead to better grades in school. The biggest factor in maintaining good grades is minimal stress, according to a Minnesota research study that looked at 10,000 Minnesota college students. The students who reported having eight or more stressful situations in their lives had a GPA of 2.72, while students who experienced minimal stress had a higher GPA of 3.3.

The ability to handle stress is as important as the ability to limit the amount of stress, and students who can cope with stress perform much better in school.

Stress and health are not the only factors involved in getting good grades. The study also showed that watching television and playing video games could lead to eating worse, which in turn can lead to poor grades. Students who spent four or more hours a day watching television and playing video games had an average GPA of 3.04. Students who played games or watched television for less than four hours averaged a 3.3 GPA.

The study also that showed students with jobs have the same average GPA as those who do not, according to Dr. Ed Ehlinger, one of the lead authors of the study and director of Boynton Health Services at the University of Minnesota. Working had no effect on students’ grades.

“There must be something else going on that is protective of folks that are working,” Ehlinger said. “It might be a matter of time management.”

“I have a job and to tell you the truth, my grades have actually gone up since I have had my job. I think that it is interesting that the study showed exactly what I am experiencing,” said senior Tenaya Bunch.