Final Draft of PEO212

Slug:PEO212-11/16/07
By Kelsey Hansen

When water boils, it produces steam which can power a locomotive, or in this case, Edina High School. A new leadership program called 212 was started in August. The name is derived from 212 degrees: the boiling point of water.
"I hear students are more engaged in the school than ever before," said Dr. Bruce Locklear, EHS' new principal who started the 212 leadership team. "Students are excited about school events. It's very exciting to experience this as a high school principal."
Locklear said he started 212 this past summer because he wanted to establish a connection with the students. He also said he wanted a way to get the students of EHS positively involved in the school.
Junior Mikey Spencer, an active member of 212, also witnessed the positive effects of the program.
"I have definitely seen a positive effect," Spencer said. "For spirit team, the overall spirit of our school has gone up and the cleanliness, I can tell, has gotten better at Edina High School."
Though 212 was created to improve the overall environment of EHS, many issues have been brought to the group's attention. 212 has several teams within it. The teams are the traffic committee, the community service team and the cleanliness team. One issue the 212 traffic committee is tackling is the parking lot.
"Instead of having the parking lot be one lane going out, which is what the situation is right now, we are planning on having two lanes going out after school for a quicker exit," Spencer said.
Junior Joe Wagner is on the community service team of 212 and thinks 212 is making a positive difference in the school. He also loves beinga part of the program.
"I enjoy being in 212," Wagner said. "212 gives students a voice. It unifies us and our causes as a school."
This summer, 212 had about 60 students involved in the program. Now there are over 100 students involved. Locklear said anyone who wants to join 212 is more than welcome to and his ultimate goal is to have every student in Edina High School in the program. He said that he is definitely planning on keeping 212 at EHS for years to come.
"212 gives me and other leaders in the school a chance to talk to the administrators and get things done," Wagner said.

Zephyrus

I should start off by saying that I really enjoy reading Zephyrus every month. Although, after analyzing some of the articles I realized some errors, I don't mean any harm to anyone who happens to work on Zephyrus. First I chose to look at the article title 'Newport Harbor: the new Laguna?' by Lauren Herreid. After reading this article the main thing that stuck out to me was, the "Who Cares?" method. Honestly this article was just outlining how a new show on MTV compares to an older show, Laguna Beach. I actually love watching both those shows and I found even I didn't care about this article. What also made me mad was the fact that they based their whole article on a POLL. The poll asked students at EHS if they preferred 'Newport Harbor' to 'Laguna Beach' and the author just went from there. From what I've learned in class this year I know that polls aren't a credible source of news and should not be used for journalistic purposes.
I also read the article 'Movie Watching for Less' by Stephanie Chen. I was impressed that this article passed the "Who Cares?" method and had the element of proximity. This article talked about the Hopkins movie theatre. Now, most things in Hopkins wouldn't have much to do with kids in Edina, but the movie theatre does because many Edina students have been there. Hopkins movie theatre features $2.50 tickets and you also don't have to drive very far. I really liked that she also added the downfalls too, like that you have to wait in a long line on weekends and also that the food was expensive. Students need all the facts before they make a decision. The only thing I didn't like about Chen's article was that after all her facts, she put her opinion which was "The price of the tickets definitely canceled out the crowdedness and the film quality." This was not an opinion piece and putting her own opinion there was unacceptable for a news story.
The last story I read was 'Camel ads promote unhealthy values'by Kristin Groth. I found a couple things wrong with this article. In the 8th paragraph she quotes an anonymous sophomore. We just finished learning about how quoting anonymous sources can ruin your credibility as a writer. Also, I don't think this article passes the "Who Cares?" method. It also seems pretty self-explanatory, like cigarette companies put demeaning pictures of women on their ads which is so '50s. Also it seems obvious that cigarettes are harmful no matter what the packaging is. I don't think the students of Edina High School are being informed by this article in any way.
Overall though, I really liked this issue of Zephyrus. I thought they did a great job of informing their fellow students while still adding their own flair to it. One thing is for sure, Zephyrus is definitely not boring :)