ADVICE FROM A FORMER LANCER

Grange r High School

an open forum for student opinion and expression

Tri-Color Times

August 2009 Volume LII, Issue 1

On the Inside: Take a Look!02 Aldi jana explains the new hal l sweeps Sanja wants you to s tar t this year out r ight03 The SBOs have a message for the ent i re s tudent body04 Nichole proves electr ic i ty is a necessi ty Kariann gives advice for homecoming

NOW that I’m gone and graduated I decided, why not give some advice to the new sophomores or to the juniors and seniors who are falling behind. Being in high school was one of the toughest things that I had to deal with in my life. Many of you will find this to be your case in the coming years or many of you have already realized this. So here are some things to make high school a bit easier: Don’t go off sluffing or hanging out with your friends. It may seem fun, but it’s the consequences that come with your actions that hurt you. You may think, “Well, I heard packets are easy”, “I can always make it up in summer school”, or “I’ll just make it up in A+”. Truth is packets aren’t easy, they’re really hard; A+ is not even available anymore. Like I already said, some students are okay to take summer school. Summer time is our vacation from dreaded school that we desire all year long, so why would you want to waste summer making up for the things you knew better than to do? You’ll also lose citizenship credit, and you’ll have to make that up also before or after school, and from what I heard from my friends they didn’t enjoy making that up. Just think about the consequences. Find a teacher or anyone that can help you. In my case I had Mr. Carlisle and Ms. Oliver (before she became a counselor). They’re the reason I graduated. I’m sure any of the teachers are willing to help you out in any way you can, you just have to find the ones that understand you and click with you the most. When it comes to the counseling center and office, it can get ugly. I dreaded going to the counseling center because it’s almost impossible to get an appointment. It was always the same thing: “Come back before or after school.” Don’t go to the counseling center unless it’s something really important like missing credits, or personal issues, or anything else causing problems. Don’t get me wrong,

though, you should schedule appointments with your counselor to check up on your PTG (progress towards graduation) so that you know what you need to do before it’s too late. I hardly ever went into the office, but I do know that if you have fees you need to pay, or if you need to get your fee waiver card -- go in during lunches! It’s like a jungle when it comes to lunch time. Everyone is hungry and is in a hurry to get food, so they cut in line and what not. You need to get to the lunch room A.S.A.P! It’s difficult to get food when you arrive late because you’ll only get like 5 minutes to eat and that sucks. If you can’t make it to lunch early, then you should try the school breakfast; the doors usually open at 7 A.M. And it’s an easier way for you to not be so hungry once lunch time rolls around. “School lunch” is famous for being nasty but there are a couple of items I would recommend. The sandwiches they have are simple and very delicious. The enchiladas are also good but I don’t recommend eating the rice and beans (they have no flavor at all). The grilled cheese sandwich is up there, too. The final thing I recommend is the baked potato. It has cheese and cooked broccoli. It was by far the thing I looked forward to eat all the time. As you go through high school you’ll develop a like and dislike for certain lunch items, but take my advice, those are the best. Get involved! Don’t go all through high school without doing anything. The only thing I did was join yearbook. But it taught me to be responsible and what not. You can learn a lot from being involved and make new and lasting friends too. Not to mention how amazing being involved will look on your college applications. I wish I would’ve been more involved. So join as many things as you can or maybe one day you’ll regret it just like I do. This is all I can do to help you guys out. I wish I would’ve taken my own advice, but I learned a lot that will follow me into my future. Now it’s up to you to decide what you want to do with the rest of your years here at Granger or whatever school you may go to. Just remember you’re the only one that can make you succeed. Listen to yourself and follow your heart because it can get you far. Basically, don’t screw up or you’ll regret it.

SEVERAL reviews for the new school year most likely relate to the school’s dress code or regulations, however, my topic of interest comes from the highest percentage of dishonorable attendance—sluffing. There are numerous sensible reasons why a student, like you, may sluff. You consider it to be “hip” or even “cool”. I know, you forgot to study for your math test today and wanted a few extra days to learn the material. You could not stand one more second with that growling stomach of yours, McDonald’s was a must. You were wearing the same shirt as that girl you have always loathed entirely. Or maybe you just did not want to attend school that day. Whatever need be the reason, sluffing is absolutely overrated. Conversely, I completely understand that some of you must take what we like to call “personal days”. It seems impossible for one person to attend every single recorded

high school calendar day. On the contrary, I mean, come on people. If you are attempting to weasel your way out of class, at least consider producing good excuses. I am sick of hearing things such as, “I missed class today Mr. Fuller because I got a skin disease; it came out of nowhere!” I am tired of listening to stuff like: “I was in California for three days, that’s why I missed your class Dr. Miller,” or “My mother was deathly ill,” or “My dog died yesterday.” Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah! People please! Get creative. We did not receive imaginations so that they could turn to blobs and never be used. Consider using excuses such as, “I got locked into math office today,” or “someone threw a giant fountain drink at my head and it splattered all over my clothing. I had to go home to change,” or “Mr. Murdock and I were having tea together in his office.” Despite whether you can discover an ultimate excuse or not, I do not excuse sluffing at all. After my high school career, I have realized that sluffing does not get you anywhere good. When you choose to sluff, a) your parents usually, always catch you, b) you miss out on important lessons, c) school becomes very difficult because you often struggle to keep up with missing work, d) your attendance stoops into the underground and you have to spend extra time at school making up citizenship and e) it does not prepare you for college where nobody cares whether you attend or not. So students, take my advice as one of Granger’s well-known sluffers, it is simply not worth it. I understand that, in your opinion, you may have better things to do. Nonetheless, sluffing honestly sets you upon the path towards flipping burgers at an hourly rate of six dollars. Are you willing to give up your fortune and potential because you did not want to attend class everyday for four years in high school?

SLUFFINGOVERRATED

Follow this checklist to help yourself be prepared for the 2009-2010 Granger High

school year:

Proper School Supplies: Notebooks, pens, pencils, folders, etc. are must haves.

Class Schedule: Make sure you remember when and where all of your classes are so you are not marked tardy or absent.

Textbooks: It is really hard to read along with your teacher when you do not have something to read from, let alone do finish your work.

Designated Homework Time: Without the time to complete your home-work, how do you expect to pass your classes?

A Locker: Sometimes it gets really difficult hauling a giant backpack around. Instead, go to the front office and ask for a locker combination

and number to store your personal items.

With all of these items being put to good use, it will be really hard to fail even the hardest of classes. Be smart!

2S ta ff a n d Op iniOn Tri-Color-Times

Granger High School

August 2009

Lejla Becirevic Aldijana Bjelosevic

Chelsie Bolding Nichole Butters

Tri-Color Times Staff

< Granger High School 3690 South 3600 West Valley, UT 84119 > < 385-646-5320 >

The Tri-Color Times serves as a student forum for student opinion and student expression. The views expressed herein reflect neither the opinions of Advisor John Carlisle and Granger High School, nor those of Granite School District. The Tri-Color Times invites and publishes letters to its editorial board; all letters will be

edited for taste, length and content.

AdvisorJohn Carlisle

Journalists

Welcome to Granger High

Volume LII, Issue 1

Start Strong

WELCOME back to another year at Granger. Students and teachers will both have so much fun this year going to games, dances, and other activities. All these activities are fun and exciting, but the most important thing is to start the year out right. The way to start the school year out is to keep up with all your work and classes. Many students end up not graduating because they put everything off until the last minute. If you need to make up credits, Lancers, do it as soon as possible. It’s easy to take electronic high school, but you should go to class and do your work in the first

place. Taking those classes will be the fastest and easiest thing to do if you need a credit made up. Another thing that inspires students to care about their grades and try harder in class is joining a sport or club. When students have grade requirements for something they like to do they try harder to keep their grades up, therefore preventing any kind of issues a week before graduation. Teams and clubs also keep students out of trouble and make their time at Granger more enjoyable and memorable. Yearbook and Journalism is a great way to be involved in the amazing school activities. When students take classes like those they can see what activities are going on and how involved they can become. If you start the school year out right, it likely will not go wrong.

HAVE you missed out on your chance to play for the football team, girls soccer, volleyball or track? Don’t worry, there are plenty of other sports at Granger to try out for. Consider golf, cross-country, and several of our other sports. All of these sports did very well last year and the coaches

have been, not only helpful and supportive, but very impressed. Since there is already a chosen team for football, students are encouraged to try out for cross-country. It will start at the end of August through October. You will run in city parks, golf courses and a few other places. The races go on for about 3.1 miles. Coach Pace is the coach for track and cross-country, so ask him if you would like any information about either sport. The golf coach is Mr. Platero,

who also works in the front office. He is a friendly man who is will-ing to answer any questions you may have about golf. Coach Bullock works with the tennis team. The girls tennis team has already been chosen, but Coach Bullock will still be look-ing for new people to join. If you are thinking about joining these teams, talk to the coaches as soon as possible. It will be a great experience that shapes your year at Granger High School.

Tryout for Granger Sports

GRANGER High School will start hall sweeps this year. Mr. Nerdin, Granger’s new vice principal, and Mr. Murdock came up with the idea of hall sweeps to help stu-dents get to class on time. Mr. Nerdin explained that the

other schools he has worked at have all had hall sweeps and he thinks it works. During hall sweeps, all class-room doors will be shut and locked while administrators col-lect students and give out 5 dol-lar tardy tickets to anyone caught roaming the halls. In order to track how many tar-dies a student has, there will be a finger print scanner connected to a laptop that will hold all atten-

dance records. This will be used to verify each student’s identity. Mr. Nerdin says he will be very strict, but friendly. He thinks that the students will do a great job at being on time to classes. He also says that he will not be giving any freebies to any students -- so don’t ask. Make sure you get to class on time to avoid getting caught in a hall sweep. Consequences will range from fines to suspension.

Aldijana Bjelosevic

They’re Coming to Getcha!

Samantha Candland Louis CorderoMelissa Reed

Kariann Waldman

Vice Principal Nerdin is eager to work at GHS.

3Tri-Color-TimesGranger High School

Volume LII, Issue 1

S ta ff a n d O p inOn

Welcome to Granger High

August 2009

WELCOME to Granger High! At this school, there is an A and a B day. On those days you have four classes. Each class is an hour and a half long. The schedule may dif-fer depending on if there is an as-sembly or not. Assemblies usually last about an hour. Sometimes they may go over an hour. We mostly have A.M. as-semblies. Usually there is at least one P.M. assembly a year, though. There are a wide vari-ety of classes at Granger. The school offers auto body, physics, psychology, wood shop, welding, Rock school, and guitar. Depend-ing on your career path, there are also a variety of classes available to help you get there. Every teacher has their own method of teaching. Mr. Durfee, for example, writes all his notes

on the board and you copy them down in class all period for par-ticipation points, Mrs. Gaskins has a “Gaskins review” before her tests to help you study, and Mr. Johansson (if you have him for English) may have you read many novels throughout the year. Some will have movies, some may not. These are just a few examples of the teaching styles of Granger. Granger can be intimidating. For sophomores who just came

from a junior high, Granger can seem huge. Two floors of classes, a math and English building, a shop area, swimming pool, differ-ent relocatables, and a band room! It will take some getting used to. You could get lost with all the dif-ferent numbers of the rooms. Lunches are assigned accord-ing to those room numbers. De-

THE differences between high school and junior high may be frightening to some, but newcom-ers to high school soon realize they most definitely prefer it to junior high for several reasons: For starters, the food options are much better. Not only are there more options in the cafeteria (sal-ad bars, many main dishes, and several food items to purchase), but there are even better off cam-pus choices. Carl’s Jr, Taco Bell, Little Caesars, Subway, Beans & Brews, Albertsons, and the little gas station are all popular among the Granger population. Another plus to high school is there are fewer immature, point-less fights around campus. In ju-nior high there is a desperate at-tempt for random attention that is somehow satisfied by fighting. Students tend to grow out of that bad habit by high school, although

there are still some exceptions. Students will likely enjoy the new friends they make. Being nice is a neat little trick to having the power of friendship! Teens drift from small groups and meet new people, allowing a greater variety of company to be around. A lot of people enjoy more re-sponsibility in their rush to grow up, which is what high school provides people with. Graduation requirements, clubs, and sports are a few of the extra tasks stu-dents can take on, along with do-ing your regular school work. It is the teacher’s job to teach you, not to constantly harass you to turn in homework and be on time. It has already been mentioned, but there are a lot more sports, foreign languages, and super fun clubs to get involved with. The more you get involved, the more you will enjoy school! There are multiple informal and formal dances a student can at-tend, so be sure to go! The transition can be scary, but there are many things to look for-ward to in high school that you cannot get in junior high.

pending on what floor you’re on or if you’re in a relocatable or the swimming pool or math and Eng-lish building, will determine what lunch you take, first or second. If you have any questions feel free to ask your teacher. You have exactly five minutes to get to and from classes. It re-ally isn’t a lot of time, but if you don’t stop to talk to your friends then you will be able to make it to any class no matter the time dif-

ference. Lunch is a great time for socializing, so is before and after school. Socialize at those times instead of risking being tardy to a class. Granger is not hard to get used to. Once you get used to the classes and

your lunch everything will seem so simple. Pretty soon you will be able to figure out if you have time to talk and socialize before class without being late. Good luck here at Granger High and keep your eyes open for the school newspaper. Your experi-ence should most definitely be a good one.

The 411 on Granger High School Don’t be Scared

411

A Word From Granger’s SBOsthem last a lifetime, so when graduation rolls around, you can still Facebook your home boys. The career center is a great place for any of your college questions or concerns. Go for those scholar-ships and shoot for the stars! Ev-eryone will know the great people that influenced the world graduat-ed from Granger’s class of 2010! The SBOs are very excited to start off the year with wonderful opportunities to get involved in the school season. Our goal this year is to encourage other clubs and activities to voice their opin-ions and show school spirit to the community. The beginning of this year is packed with fun and exciting events. So get ready to mark them down! The homecoming game is a blackout – wear black to the game – and is anticipated to be the best ever. We encourage you to come Friday, September 25th wearing your black shirts and hats to sup-port our Granger football team. The homecoming dance is an amazing tradition at Granger High, along with all other high schools, -and if you are a senior and involved in any school club, you are eligible for homecom-ing royalty. So, guys get ask-ing, friends, get nominating, and Lancers, brace yourselves for a year that you’ll never forget here at Granger High School!

WHAT up G-house!?! Your SBOs just wanted to take this op-portunity to say a few words. Sophomores: the young pages of Granger, don’t stress. If you need any help, don’t be afraid to ask for it. We will be more than happy to show you how to find room 106. And if you’re in a hur-

ry, avoid that stairwell by the gym – it’s Granger’s way-too-small “commons area”. Also, we en-courage you to take charge – run for sophomore class officer later in the month. For details, see Ms. Moore in room 209. Juniors: the reliable squires of the school. Welcome back! Put

yourselves out there because this is your year! Join teams, make new friends, and get involved. Push yourselves in your classes and come to the school dances. Stay in your clubs and be good examples for the sophomores. Trust us, you’re seriously out-numbered…there’s 800 of ‘em.

Seniors: the knights of the school! We are going to rock this year! With college on its way and after school jobs to worry about, let’s not forget to make this year the best in Granger’s history! It’s our last year, so let’s live it up and have a blast! Keep your friendships and make

Granger SBOs worked all summer long to make this school year a blast.

4 Tri-Color-Times

Granger High School

August 2009 Volume LII, Issue 1

En t E rta inmEn t

Plug It In Entertainment

AS you walk down the halls, you hear a radio being played while students listen. You turn the cor-ner and see your buddy playing his electric guitar. You see your friends curling, straightening, and blow drying their hair for that perfect style. Sound familiar? If it does, then it is probably be-cause almost every student here at Granger High uses the electric-ity in the building for one reason or another. Some use it to charge their cell phones, or whatever they need to plug in. But should

students be allowed to use them to their every need? Here’s what some of your fellow students think. “I use the outlets sometimes like if my phone is dying, I’ll charge it or after gym after working out I will straighten my hair just to try and look better. I think kids should be able to use the electricity,” said Whitney Ackerman (-09). Cheerleaders, Drill Team, and Dance Company are some of the many girls who use the locker rooms in order to get ready for the day. Sometimes in the mornings, girls are just waiting for an outlet to be open. “After being on Drill, we have to get ready after practice so that we don’t look ugly and stupid. So the electricity goes off

a lot in the girl’s locker room or in my mom’s office. But a lot of people look at you like your crazy for doing our hair in the hallway,” said Kylee Meryhew (-09). Charging electronic devices is a popular use for the outlets among students. “I charged my phone during lunch one time in the hall by Mrs. Meryhew’s room. I think that it is good that students can use the electricity for whatever they need!” says Kelsie Wheeler (-09). As long as the students use the electricity safely and don’t abuse their rights to use it, then it won’t be a problem. After all, looking great for school and having a fully charged cell phone is a definitely a must for many teenagers.

OVER the years, technology has evolved from a few megabyte, gi-ant computer down to a 16 inch laptop with over 500 gigabytes of hard drive space. Eventually, electronics such as Walkmans transformed into iPods with 120 gig hard drives, complete with the ability to play music, games, and videos. With all this new technology, what happens to the old stuff? It simply begins to die away and disappear. Technology is getting better at a faster rate than ever before. Com-panies like Microsoft and Sony announce new breakthroughs constantly, causing giant tasks to simplify, but is it necessarily a good thing? With all this new technology coming out that can do pretty

much everything for anyone, ev-eryone’s starting to get lazy and think that they do not need to do anything anymore because they have technological advancements capable of doing it for them. Peo-ple will not even get up to change a channel by hand because they insist on having a remote to do it. Not only is laziness a threaten-ing factor to the human race, but nowadays people can easily mod-ify technology and format it how they like, whether it be good or bad. Computer hackers can break down software and rewrite it the way they would like, forcing it to do what they want it to do, not what the manufacturer made actually made it for. This causes things like computer viruses and cyber wars to begin showing up more frequently, endangering some forms of data vital to most people. These truths are things the en-tire world, including the Granger High community must face and either change or stagnate.

GET ready, Lancers! September 26 is coming up, which is the day of the infamous home coming. The Homecoming game (Sept. 25) and dance is a traditional event that takes place at the be-ginning of the school year. You get to see sexy, shirtless Granger men with the letters G R A N G E R on their chests. You get to meet new people and re-join with past friends. Oh, and a person also gets to ask a special someone to go with to the dance. Though there are many ways to prepare for the homecoming game and dance, here are some things most people put some thought into: Day Activities: A lot of people like to spread the whole dance thing into a whole day event. If you’re one of those people, think of something to do before the dance. Go do something fun like going to The Zoo, golf-ing, or bowling. “I’d rather go with a date, especially someone I don’t really know too well,” says Meggs Ekstrom (12), “it’s more fun ‘cause we get to know each other better”.

A little before heading out to the dance, grab a bite to eat. It’s tacky to stop a fast food place, un-less your date is completely con-tent with it. Night Activities: Maybe go to a movie with a group of people, play frisbee golf, stroll downtown while dressed like movie starts just hang out, OR, instead of the dinner before the dance, head off to Denny’s after, which is open 24/7. Attire: Don’t know what to wear? Well, you have plenty of options. Rent, buy, or borrow. It’s easy for the guys to put some-thing together, button shirt and formal pants, something to match the dress she’s wearing. Maybe wear a tux? Don’t forget to get the pretty lady a corsage. And for the ladies, do not wear anything extremely flashy, big or poofy. This isn’t prom. You don’t need to look like you’re about to get mar-ried to Prince Charming. “Don’t always think that your plan is going stick, because plans always change,” said Louis Cord-ero (-09). And do not forget to grab the tickets in advance, unless you’re fine with paying extra at the door. No matter what, the main thing to remember is to have fun and en-joy the new school year.

Be Prepared for Homecoming

Mr. Cordero’s Final Tech Rant