What is your biggest fear?

“I’m not really afraid of anything…but I fear seeing my students, my kids, and young people in general suffer or experience pain.” – Mr. Beale

“My students thinking I don’t know anything.” – Mr. Smith

“Snails.” – Ms. Salle

“Drowning. It’s a deep fear.” – Ms. Norstad

“Zombie Apocalypse. It’s coming.” – Mr. Boaz

“The New York Giants winning the Superbowl and making it through the next six years to retirement.” – Rich

“Not overcoming all of my fears is my biggest fear.” – Tanya Jaspering

“Getting seriously ill.” – Ms. Boston

“Letting my kids down.” – Mr. Ayala

“Violent acts happening to one of my daughters.” – Ms. Oleson

“Spiders in my water shoes.” – Ms. Nash

“Running out of money when I retire.” – Ms. Bonura

“Nuclear annihilation.” – Jasper

“Living a boring life.” – Mr. Varvil

“Something bad happening to my daughter.” – Martha Cederstrom

“Not accomplishing my goals before I die.” – Beth Cederstrom

District Unblocks Social Media Websites for Students

By Samantha Gilbert and Nick Seminerio

It’s no secret that social media is ingrained in everyday life, but until now, this has not been the case at our school. At the start of the school year, administrators decided to unblock four major social media sites: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Until now, the Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) has been required to block these sites because of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). It was created to shelter students from inappropriate internet content. Our school district must meet CIPA standards because students are minors.

However, many districts have found a middle ground between honoring these restrictions and the use of social media sites for educational purposes. The TUHSD content filter committee, headed by Tara Taupier, senior director of instructional technology, met with several teachers and district level administrators early in the school year to discuss the proper balance between social media and education. This led to the decision to unblock the websites.

Assistant Principal Eric Saibel, an undercover Twitter lover, uses a proficiency scale found on educational specialist George Couros’ website to determine how well our school is incorporating social media and technology in the classroom.

Saibel’s goal is to take our school from a one—“blocking social media sites and not worrying about a digital citizenship program in school”—to a four—“opening up social media sites and teaching skills for our students to use these sites appropriately,” according to Couros’ website.

“We want to tap into the potential of expanding the physical boundaries of the campus so that our students can learn globally, not just inside the school,” Saibel said.

However, Paul Grifo, ROCK Social Studies teacher, believes there’s a risk factor. “I have a very big concern of how much screen time our young people are experiencing. It’s not that the time can’t be valuable,” Grifo said. “It’s a question of [whether] this choice is valuable for the kids.”

Grifo said that he would also like to see proof that social media is beneficial to students, before transitioning it into his classroom. “I’m a late adapter, I like to wait and see what works, I’m appreciative of the pioneers, but I want to see some data that shows me that this technology leads to better learning. If that happens, I’m much more willing to adapt,” he said.

Only time will tell whether or not the unblocking of these social media sites will benefit our students, but administrators have high hopes. Saibel believes social media is a powerful medium for learning.

The websites have been unblocked as of Monday, Sept. 16. We will continue to update this story as we receive more information.

Fire Burns Above Redhill, Cancels Varsity Soccer Game

Story by Nick Seminerio | Pictures by Liam Brooks

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A one acre vegetation fire on Redhill above Memorial Park in San Anselmo started at 4:15 p.m. and was contained by 6:00 p.m., according to a tweet from the Marin County Fire Department. The fire came within feet of the batting cages at the base of the hill.

On the other side, the fire burned on the hill above Red Hill Park, where Drake men’s varsity soccer had a game against Rancho Cotate. Drake Senior Richard Swigart, a member of the soccer team, shared his account with the Jolly Roger.

“We could see and smell smoke as we were warming up but didn’t think much of it. Just before we started the game, we could hear sirens and see flames on Redhill. The referees cancelled the game as soon as the smoke began to swirl around the pitch. Soon after, multiple fire trucks showed up and probably about 15-20 firefighters marched up the hill in a line. As we were leaving the field, they began dropping fire retardant from the planes,” he said.

UPDATE: Sept 13, 10:00 a.m.

A homeless man was arrested yesterday on suspicion of recklessly starting a fire on public land. According to a Marin Independent Journal interview with Central Marin Police Sgt. Julie Gorwood, Douglas Hall Shumate, 52, was living on the hill and disposed of a match improperly.

What’s been your most embarrassing moment at Drake?

“For two years I had to carry around a mini schedule in my pocket because I couldn’t remember the schedule. I was a part time teacher until this year and I taught in more than one classroom. I still have nightmares that I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time.” – Judy King

“One time I left a container of food on one of the shelves in my office. The next morning I had a parent meeting and my office smelled really bad. During the beginning of the meeting the parents thought I smelled bad and I thought the parents smelled bad until finally I remembered I had leftover food and we realized it was the food that smelled and not us. But it was definitely an awkward ten minutes.” – Kyle Kassenbaum

“This is back when I first started teaching. There were always two goofy guys that sat in the front of the class and one day when class started the two guys whispered to me that I had something in my nose. I considered believing them but then remembered that they were class clowns and told them to stop messing with me. After they whispered this two more times I decided to be cautious and check it out. I looked into the mirror I had in the cabinet and sure enough I had a dangler in my nose. By this time the whole class was staring at me so I quickly ran outside to get rid of it but the class thought it was hilarious and remembered it the whole year.” – Dan Freeman

“When I went to high school here I was crowned homecoming queen which was totally unexpected and embarrassing. I was not that kind of girl.” – Chizzie Brown

“It’s embarrassing when I’m teaching cheerleading practice and the football players come over and ask me for MY number. They should be embarrassed but they’re totally not.” – Laurie Hailer

“I was demonstrating buoyancy to my class with a helium balloon because we were studying physics. I was trying to figure out how I could get the balloon to sink so I tried throwing it hard to the ground but instead it just rose to the ceiling. The students really enjoyed watching their teacher do the experiment wrong.” – Brad Katuna

“Back when I taught chemistry, we were taking chunks of metal sodium and trying to burn it in water. It’s supposed to make a popping noise, but it wasn’t popping so I kept putting more sodium in. Finally, it exploded and sprayed molten sodium on all the desks and knocked down the covers of the hanging ceiling lights.” – Barton Clark

BREAKING: Missing Ninth Grader Home Safe

By Samantha Gilbert and Nick Seminerio

Missing Drake freshman Abigail Campana is home safe, according to a Facebook post from her mother Jennie Campana.

Jennie Campana thanked the community on Facebook for their concern and support early this morning. “Just wanted to thank everyone for their posts and support!” Campana posted.

Abigail was last seen at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6 and returned home late at night yesterday, Sept. 10.

BREAKING: Drake High School Freshman Reported Missing

by Nick Seminerio and Samantha Gilbert

The news about a missing Drake freshman spread quickly on Facebook Monday. A photo posted of the missing girl has been shared over 1,000 times.

Abbie Campana, 14, was last seen at her home at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6 by her mother and mother’s boyfriend, gave permission to the Jolly Roger for her name to be published.

Her parents say they have not seen or heard from her since.

According to the San Anselmo-Fairfax Patch, who interviewed Central Marin Police Authority (CMPA) Officer John Garretson, she is classified as voluntarily missing, or in other words, a runaway. Police think she could be in San Francisco, Marin, or Sonoma County.

Campana left on her own accord and is not believed to be in any imminent danger, according to the CMPA.
If you see Campana, police say to call the local police department. We are not able to post a photo because the CMPA isn’t able to release one at this time. EDIT: See update below

This story will be updated with more information as we receive it.

UPDATE 9/9/13 – 8:00 p.m.:

Courtesy of Jennie Campana via Facebook

What question do you want answered by your teachers?

Leave a comment if you have an idea for an interesting question to ask teachers!

If you were a student, whose class would you want to be in and why?

“There are so many good choices, but I would want to be in Madam Rosenthal Cox’s class because I just know I’d really learn French in there.” – Señora Bonura

“I’d want to be in my own class because Mr. Bodle is so awesome and funny. Or maybe Grifo’s class because I like his passion and enthusiasm.” – Señor Bodle

“Ceramics with Beth Cederstrom because I’ve gone in there a couple of times and thrown but I would love to have an hour and half in there twice a week. “ – Ms. Nash

“I would want to take yoga because it was recommended by Paul Cho.” – Ms. Martz

“I’d take Yoga to hang out with Ms. Martz.” – Ms. Lackney

“Ben Varvil’s engineering class because I was really impressed with the human powered vehicles and I want to learn to weld.” – Cooper Clark

“Mr. Martz’s photography class because I know nothing about photography and my wife would be happy if I knew more about it.” – Mr. Hayden

“Philosophy because why not?” – Señor Wilkerson

“My class because everything we learn applies to the whole world. Either that or Mr. Wilkerson’s class because he is very creative.” – Ms. Fox

“Jeff Martz’s Art History class because you can’t go wrong with his energy combined with a fascinating topic.” – Mr. Milstead

“Lori Martz’s math class because I’m really going to learn math in that class.” – Mr. Martz

“Martha Cederstrom’s AP Art class because she is a fabulous teacher and I would be able to explore two-dimensional art.” – Beth Cederstrom

“I’d take Milstead’s [computer] class because I want to learn web design and he’s funny.” – Ms. Sarkisian