Sat, 12 May 2012 19:18:10 -0800WeeblyWed, 25 Apr 2012 08:09:46 -0800http://www.ptmedia.net/19/post/2012/04/peters-township-high-school-searching-for-commencement-speaker.htmlGraduation—the only word that is a solace to students at Peters Township High School.

It’s the day you look and work toward your entire high school career. Have you ever thought that may be you one day, up there behind the podium, looking out at your entire graduating class and their families? Well, now is your chance.

To apply, seniors must be eligible academically.

Any senior with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, and has no disciplinary actions resulting in either in-school or out-of-school suspensions, may submit a speech for consideration.

To be considered, seniors must meet certain speech requirements and deadlines. The speech writing requires that the topics for the speech should be of interest to the graduating class and the general audience of three generations (grandparents, parents and students). Also, the speech must be typed double-spaced, 12-point font and approximately 3 to 5 minutes in length.

The speeches must be submitted to the high school office by the end of school on Wednesday, April 13.

The author’s name should NOT appear on the speech, but the student should place his/her name, student ID number, homeroom and telephone number on a separate piece of paper and attach it to the speech.

Speeches that do not conform to these guidelines will not be considered, so make sure to check your speech before turning it in.

Once you submit your paper, it will go through an evaluation process. The speeches will remain anonymous. Each speech will be assigned a number, duplicated and placed in a packet for evaluation by the Commencement Speech Selection Committee.

The committee members will read and rank each speech, and then the authors of the five speeches receiving the highest ratings will be asked to give an oral presentation to the committee. The students that receive the highest ranking from this presentation will address their class at commencements.  

The committee consists of a minimum of two high school administrators, two members of the high school English department, the speech teacher, at least three student leaders and up to five additional teacher representatives.

All students will be notified by Monday, May 14 via letter.

Questions? 

Contact Mrs. Sitler in room A114 or at sitlern@pt-sd.org.

Why not make your graduation what you want it to be?

]]>Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:09:20 -0800http://www.ptmedia.net/19/post/2012/04/a-year-of-cheer.htmlSome people do not consider cheerleading a sport. I feel that if everyone knew the amount of work all involved—on every squad—put in, they would feel differently.

Tryouts happened on a Friday, but the three days leading up to that were clinic days—where each cheerleader would learn a chant, dance and a cheer, along with jumps and teacher evaluations that they would be graded on by the hired UCA judges. We were divided by grade onto three squads: freshman, junior varsity and varsity.

Once we made the squad, the fun began.

Over the summer, we did multiple car washes at Bruster's Ice Cream to fundraise. During practices we would learn and review chants and cheers, and would condition to perfect ourselves for the seasons ahead.

Aside from practicing two to three times a week during the summer, a coaches camp was held for two weeks from 8-11 p.m. Monday through Friday to learn cheers and to teach us their home pom routines. During the coaches camp, an hour was spent on conditioning, an hour for stunting, and an hour for cheers, chants and dances. Every squad learned a home pom routine they would perform at camp for awards and trophies.

We were placed into “families” over the summer before camp. A family would consist of a senior “mom,” and freshman, sophomore and junior “daughters.” This helped everyone to get to know each other and make new friendships.

UCA Cheerleading camp was held at Slippery Rock University the past summer. We were always on the move while there learning new stunts, cheers and chants. At night, we would hang out and team-bond by performing skits for the seniors with our family. While at camp, the cheerleaders won top banana and multiple spirit days.

When we came back from camp, school was about to start so we made signs to decorate the school. All the squads became very close over the summer and formed a family. Throughout the school year, we'd have multiple football and boys and girls soccer games during the week as well as practices. It was very difficult to handle, but the memories and satisfaction of a happy crowd was worth it.

We got a bit of a break in between basketball and the fall sport season. But once basketball started, we were cheering at both girls and boys games, and had practice twice a week.

To celebrate the completion of a fantastic season, the cheerleaders, their families, coaches Chelsea Stockhausen, Emily Sasso and Alyssa Simmons—and administrators—attended Rolling Hills Country Club for a gathering and lunch. The seniors gave tearful speeches, the booster club and coaches both sent off everyone with encouraging words and a video including pictures, videos and interviews of the 2011-2012 cheerleading season.

I am sad to see the past season go, as it means leaving behind great memories, but I am excited to see what the new season brings as tryouts are in one month—the count down is on!

]]>Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:04:24 -0800http://www.ptmedia.net/19/post/2012/04/spring-snacks-that-will-make-you-smile.htmlAs the weather gets nicer, all anyone is worried about is getting outside and, come summer, into the pool. After swimming all day, your body needs fruit and nutrients to get back the energy it used so the snacks you choose should be healthy and nutritious.

Before heading out, prepare some yummy yogurt popsicles. They are great any time in the day. 

First, you need to get popsicle molds. These can be found anywhere such as Giant Eagle or Macy's. After you get out your molds, grab some granola and sprinkle granola into the bottom of each mold. Then, take your favorite flavor of yogurt and make it pourable by mixing it with milk and a little bit of honey. Then, pour the yogurt into each mold. After that, cut up bits and chunks of fruit and use toothpicks to put them in place in each mold, or you could just drop pieces of fruit into each one. When you are finished, stick a popsicle stick into each popsicle and place them in the freezer for about 10 minutes or until you are ready to eat them.

Be careful—they melt fast!

For those of you road tripping to a vacation spot this summer, snacks are always a must-have when traveling with small kids. Instead of the usual crackers and cookies, why not make their choices healthy?

First, take an almost empty jar of peanut butter then add multiple sticks of celery in it and place in a mini cooler. This treat will satisfy anyone of any age. You could also do this with apples too.

Another great road trip snack is to take a plastic tupperware container and fill it with hummus. Then, grab another container and fill it with whole grain pita bread or carrots.

During parties a great snack to have is fruit skewers. All you have to do is cut up different fruits such as apples, oranges, pineapples, grapes and strawberries. Any fruit will do. Then, take a wooden or metal skewer and slide each piece of fruit onto it.

Happy snacking!

]]>Mon, 26 Mar 2012 08:15:06 -0800http://www.ptmedia.net/19/post/2012/03/anti-kony-advocate-skypes-with-peters-township-high-school-students.html Kony 2012: Everyone recognizes those words and what they mean, but do they actually know about the Kony campaign?

Joseph Kony has been the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army since 1986. Approximately 66,000 children have become soldiers and sex slaves since then. That—in no country—should be OK.

I’m sure most people have seen the “Kony 2012” video on YouTube. The creator, Jason Russell, gives facts about what Kony is doing to the children in Uganda and—in a way—tears at your heartstrings in order to get your money for the campaign. However, he does not go on to say any more information about the campaign.

The Invisible Children organization wants you to click the share button, watch the videos, and order the bracelets and the T-Shirts to raise money to help save the kids in Uganda—but how much money is really going to that?

If you have seen on TV—or read online lately—Grant Oyston blogged about the Kony 2012 Invisible Children group.

Oyston is a college student at Acadia University in Novia Scotia, Canada. He became highly educated on the group and decided that the world should know where all the money is really going.

You can read his blog post here.

Oyston writes that he strongly opposes Invisible Children. He goes on to say that the organization is a nonprofit—meaning that the profits and expenses are public.

Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614.

Jedidiah Jenkins, Invisible Children's director of Ideology, spoke about the campaign.

“Thirty-seven percent of our budget goes directly to central African-related programs, about 20 percent goes to salaries and overhead, and the remaining 43 percent goes to our awareness programs," he said. "… But aside from that, the truth about Invisible Children is that we are not an aid organization, and we don’t intend to be. I think people think we’re over there delivering shoes or food. But we are an advocacy and awareness organization."

I had the chance to video chat via Skype with Grant Oyston on Monday at Peters Township High School. Lindsey Myers, the school librarian, knows Oyston through another organization in which she is involved.

He explained that he agrees Kony is “an evil man,” but he thinks that the message Invisible Children sends is that “anybody can change the world, and it's easy.” Oyston stressed that he believes otherwise.

“Anyone can change the world, and it’s difficult," he said. "But you should do it anyway." He answered questions from various students and talked about what he has gone through since his blog was posted.

Since his post, Oyston was offered to be flown to Uganda with Angelina Jolie to see what is happening—he declined in knowing that the money used to fly him out and pay for all of his expenses would be paid for by the organization—and that is not OK to him, he said

He was also recently interviewed by MTV.

Check out Grant’s blog for updates regarding Kony 2012.

This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar. ]]>Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:01:39 -0800http://www.ptmedia.net/19/post/2012/03/peters-township-takes-a-stand-against-discrimination.htmlWhen walking the halls of Peters Township High School, students may not think twice about the racial slurs and derogatory terms they hear being jokingly flung at other students. Well, some students and administrations have and are taking action against this nonchalant intolerance.

Assistant principal Christian Lesnett, along with a panel of seniors, presented an assembly to the freshman and sophomore classes on Wednesday. The assembly included a video made by the media department, a panel discussion and encouraging students to be aware that they are either part of the problem or part of the solution—there is no in between. Standing there and allowing bullying to happen is just as harmful as taking part in it. 

Since discrimination is a problem that every school faces, Lesnett feels a better way to solve this problem is by taking a proactive approach. Students need to feel what others feel when they receive comments of a discriminatory nature. 

“Empathy is what we need to encourage,” said Lesnett. "This requires a shift toward building more community within the school." 

Lesnett said he hoped the presentation will “springboard an initiative to encourage tolerance and empathy. Understanding someone prior to judging them is something that everyone should keep an open mind about."

However, Lesnett does not want the students of PTHS to think he is downgrading them in any way. He praises PTHS students for their behavior and admits that disciplinary referrals here compared to other schools are significantly less. 

“Sure, people make occasional mistakes, but we have a student population that I wouldn’t trade for the world,” he said. 

Just remember, the next time you see someone being bullied or looked down upon, don’t pretend you don’t see it. Take a step and help someone out—and remember, if you are not part of the problem, be part of the solution.

]]>Mon, 05 Mar 2012 07:27:33 -0800http://www.ptmedia.net/19/post/2012/03/leadership-academy-leads-students-to-a-brighter-future.html Students at Peters Township High School now have a new “club” available to them.

Organized by assistant principal Christian Lesnett, the Leadership Academy targets students that take on “leadership” roles in their organizations or sports teams.

Teachers, coaches and organization leaders were asked to recommend two or three students to Lesnett that they thought were well-rounded and leaders. The club gives them a chance to voice their opinions about things they would like to change or improve in their organization, and Lesnett helps them to make those changes.

The club meets once a month for an hour after school. The first meeting was held last Wednesday.

During the meeting, we started off with an "ice breaker” activity so students from different clubs and organizations could get to know each other.

After that, the students were talked to about goals and how statistics show that successful people set goals for themselves to get where they are.

Then, we were asked to write down three specific personal goals that can be achieved within the year—discussing them with peers soon after. 

Students met with other members of their organization and came up with three additional specific goals that could be achieved within the year—this time, the goals were about improving their club.

Lesnett helped with creating ways to achieve them. 

He created this club to help pave the way to a better school. The Leadership Academy is allowing students to get more out of their organization.

It is a great way to voice opinions, and it will continue to improve sports, clubs and activities offered to high school students.

]]>Thu, 23 Feb 2012 06:55:31 -0800http://www.ptmedia.net/19/post/2012/02/pretty-pretty-pinterest.html If you do not know what Pinterest is, you are missing out on one of the best social networking sites ever created. It is not like facebook in any way ,shape, or form; it is better. Pinterest is a way to share ideas and interests in the shape of pictures and videos. You can “Pin” pictures onto online photo boards and people can follow them. Then, you can follow other people and their boards. The idea of pinterest is so creative and allows people to share their passions through pictures.

                I personally love fashion and I follow almost all fashion pinboards on Pinterest. Everyone’s style is so unique and following other people’s pins can give you inspiration to add to your own style. Taking pieces from other people’s fashion boards on Pinterest and incorporating them in your own style can freshen up your outfits.

I have seen that lacey skirts are a major trend on Pinterest. The skirts have differed in color from hot pink and red to sparkley and gold. You can pair the skirts with a light sweater or tank and gladiators for the summer or wear them with a sweatshirt or oversized sweater and sperrys for the winter. The skirts can be versatile for any season.

Another trend I see is boyfriend cut capris with a tight tank top and a sweater. You can either pair that with TOMS, gladiators, or moccasins. To dress that look up, you can wear it with a chunky necklace or a summery scarf. You can add pops of color in the jewelry or scarf you wear if you choose to wear grey, brown, or black. To make this look work for summer, you can switch out the capris for white ripped jeans.

]]>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:58:20 -0800http://www.ptmedia.net/19/post/2012/02/behind-the-scene-at-snowball.htmlThe past weekend, the high school cheerleaders sponsored their annual "Snowball Dance." Starting on Friday right after school, the girls made signs to decorate the gym and the hallways for the special event. Since many of the seniors on the Varsity Squad are involved in art classes, the signs were painted and drawn magnificently with major detail. Not only did the girls help, but so did the parents. Mrs. Ansell was in charge of the entire dance and without her, it would have never happened. After the dance, the moms stayed after to help clean up. Since everyone volunteered, there were no expenses other than the DJ, which made this fundraiser for the cheerleaders a success. 
]]>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:03:11 -0800http://www.ptmedia.net/19/post/2012/01/out-shine-stvalentine-valentines-day-gift-giving-guide.htmlValentine’s Day is just about two weeks away and we all know what that means, chocolate, flowers, and candy hearts. Those are all nice things to give someone, but they are generic. Make your gift something from the heart and out of the ordinary. Below are some suggestions for girls and guys to make your Valentine’s Day memorable.

To surpise your loved one, you can take them to New York using the information in my last blog. To make it more interesting, do not tell them where there are going; simply tell them what to pack and leave it at that. If you want, you could leave hints around the house to let them figure out their Valentine’s Day getaway.

If you want to stay local to enjoy your night, you can take your date out to dinner to their favorite restaurant. You can surprise them with this as well. If you do not feel like going out and wish to stay in, you can cook dinner with your date at your house. There are recipes all over the web that you can cook that are perfect for Valentine’s Day. All you have to do is go out during the day and find everything you need to make the recipe. You can also buy Valentine’s Day themed aprons and cooking utensils to use while you are cooking dinner. Set the table with pink and red colors and in the middle, create a centerpiece with red roses.

If you are the type of person to enjoy a low key Valentine’s Day, take your sweetheart to see “The Vow.” “The Vow” is about a car accident that puts a newly married Paige (Rachel McAdams) in a coma. When she wakes up, her new husband, Leo (Channing Tatum) is by her bed side. However, she does not remember him or anything that they had together. The movie is about Leo trying to win back Paige. It is perfect for Valentine’s Day.

If you’re a sports fan, you can buy sports tickets to a Pen’s game. While you are there, you can take a picture together and later put it in a photo frame and give it to them. Also, if you are a crafty person, you can make a scrap book for them. Simply buy a scrap book, stickers, and things to decorate the pages with and gather photos from when you first met or the beginning of your relationship. From there, you can put everything together and type quotes and write captions for the photos. This will be a gift that will never be forgotten. You can also keep updating the scrap book by adding pictures and memorabilia in the future.

]]>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:31:25 -0800http://www.ptmedia.net/19/post/2012/01/snowball-style.html With February fourth quickly approaching, the students at Peters Township High School look forward to the snowball dance. This dance is a fundraiser for the Cheerleading Squads so they plan and decorate for it. However, unlike Homecoming, the snowball dance is not as formal so the fashion is simpler.

                  The dance will be held in the PTHS gymnasium from 7:00-10:30.

                  Most girls will be sporting little black dresses and darker colors because it is during the winter. However, you can add pops of color in your shoes, jewelry, and makeup to make your look come alive.

                  Sparkly heels can be paired with almost any color of dress, especially black. That adds just the right amount of “bling” to your look without being over the top. You can pair the sparkly heels with a pair of Sabika or Swarovski Crystal stud earrings and a colorful and sparkly ring or bracelet to tie everything together.

                  If you are going for a more colorful look, you can wear a black or dark colored dress and with that, wear bright colored shoes with black accents. You can match the color of the shoes with a headband for your hair. Pairing the headband with a silver or colorful ring will complete your look.

                  For your makeup, you can keep it simple or you can dramatize it.

A simple look can be accomplished by applying a base coat of foundation then, add bronzer to your check bones, temple, the bridge of your nose, and your hairline to appear bronzed and sun kissed. For your eyes, apply a primer to your lids and then apply a matte bronzy/ pinkish color. Then, add a darker brown to your crease and the outer part of your eye. Eyeliner and mascara should then be applied to finish your look.

To dramatize your look, you can apply the same foundation and bronzer as above, but for your eyes, apply primer and then do a smokey eye. To do this, apply silver to your entire eye lid. Then, add a matte black color to your outer eyelid and on the top of it. Blend the two colors together. After you do that, add a goldish/ white color to your brow bone and to the corner of your eyes. Adding black eyeliner and mascara will help bring out the silver and the color of your eyes.

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