The Reporter • October 201110 (entertainment)

As juniors Christine Bessey and Joe Pomatto said they have learned that homework can’t always be com-pleted, and at that point another plan must be used.

A lot of us have heard them. The good ones are semi-believable. The horrible one’s only a half-witted armadillo would believe and the funny ones deserve props for being a poor excuse for a poor excuse.

“[The best excuse I have ever heard is that] you shouldn’t give homework over a long weekend, because we forget to do it,” Kelly Fields, English teacher, said.

Christine Bessey has to finish her home-work at the last minute about once a week.

“I usually just put down random answers if it’s graded for completion,” Bessey said.

Joe Pomatto occasionally doesn’t get his homework done for his fourth block classes because of football practice.

“I try to do as much as I can, but if I don’t get it done, I will use my resources,” Pomatto said with a grin.

Fields estimated that about 40 percent of her students don’t get their homework done on a daily basis. Karl Schmidt, biology teach-er, said only about 10 percent of his students don’t get their homework done.

“If they didn’t finish their homework they usually give an excuse,” Fields said. “Usu-ally they just say they didn’t understand.”

While excuses can become a nuisance and annoying to teachers, both teachers agreed they enjoy classes that have personality.

“I’d rather have a class with personality,” Schmidt said. “This whole thing is just about working with people, not science.”

The worst experience Schmidt had with excuses was when a student told him that he didn’t have his homework because his house burned down.

“I chewed him out,” Schmidt said. “Then the class said his house really did burn down.”

Schmidt and Fields said they would rather have a student tell them “straight up” that they didn’t have time, rather than make something up. Fields said that under certain circumstances appreciates the creativity that goes into making a good excuse.

“Bland days would get monotonous as well,” Fields said.

Excuses can spark humor in some teach-ers. Pomatto told BriAnne Chayer, English teacher, that his dog ate his novel response book.

“I showed Mrs. Chayer my book and she started laughing,” Pomatto said.

Thirty- seven new faces have joined the Panther family since Aug. 17.

These faces are those of new students that come to Paola from all over Kansas.

Students come to Paola for several dif-ferent reasons.

Samantha Dennigan, sophomore, came to Paola for the benefit of her family.

“My parents work closer to Paola,” Dennigan said. “So it’s more gas savvy.”

Other students come to Paola for the benefit of their future.

Josh Newberry, senior said he is at-tending Paola just for sports, including soccer, track, and wrestling.

While some students are new to the district, others are returning.

Elijah Short, sophomore, previously attended Paola and transferred to Spring hill over the summer.

Short returned to Paola the second week of the 2011-2012 school year for the student atmosphere, he said

“My friends stayed up until midnight and it made me feel really warm and fuzzy,” Short said. “I just felt a lot more accepted here, because the people are just more open and accepting.”

Adjusting to a new school isn’t always easy for new students.

Debbie Baldwin, counselor, helps new students to adjust by setting up times to meet with them.

“We like to call all new students and just let them know what we’re here for,”

Baldwin said. “We look at grade reports and we’ll go into the classroom and just observe to see how the new students are getting along.

We have about two students out of 40 that have noticed issues to report but most of them are already having a good experi-ence.” she said.

Adjusting to a new school can be challenging for several reasons, from not knowing anyone, moving into new houses and having to re adjust your men-tal time clock to a new schedule.

Dennigan is used to a late start every Wednesday at Louisburg.

On Wednesdays school in Louisburg starts at 8:35.

Newberry is becoming familiar with the different lunch schedules.

“Paola has four lunches instead of just one big one and that’s pretty cool,” New-berry said.

New students and entering freshmen don’t have to enter high school complete-ly unprepared,

Justin Elliott, counselor, goes to Holy Trinity and to the middle schools eighth grade to talk to the students about mov-ing up.

“The students get onto Kansas Career Pipeline to get a look at their career and the courses that are offered at Paola,” Baldwin said. “They talk about the sched-ule changes, and when Student council hosts the first day, we always receive re-ally positive feedback.”

Students entering Paola High School don’t have to worry about the mass changes, because the school works to make incoming students well prepared, she said.

Who’s that kid? New students

from all over come for different reasons

hali wimbush reporter

Excuses gone badStudents make up excuses to get out of doing homework

kali blanc reporter

Photo illustration by Kali Blanc