Category: School Happenings

By Abby Talbot –

It’s the month of March, which means Music in our Schools month!

Music is always appreciated in the month of March every year. This year Penn Manor’s High School’s Tri-M music honor society organized a music spirit week to raise awareness about the importance of music in our lives. Tri-M is a group that resembles NHS (national honors society) except Tri-M revolves around music.

The second week of March is dedicated to the music spirit week Tri-M put together for Penn Manor. The music spirit week consists of a different genre of music playing through the intercoms and an option to dress appropriately for the genre of music that day.

Sara Ricciardi, music teacher at Penn Manor, Haley Blazer, Tim Duebler junior, and Becca Eckman senior, along with the rest of the members of Tri-M helped put music spirit week together.

Blazer put together a CD March 7 to play over the intercom representing a Disney theme. Then Tuesday Kelly Lenahan made the 80s-themed CD. Wednesday Elsie Huber put a CD together for the country theme. Allison Herr made a Jazz CD for Thursday, and Tim Deubler made a rock and roll CD for Friday.

“The idea for a music spirit week came from my close friend that teaches at Marion Center,” Ricciardi said.  “Marion Center believes in having a music spirit week because it brings awareness to the music in schools.”

Not only does this week make everyone aware of how important music is but on Friday, Tri-M made pins to offer teachers, along with a dress down day that costs $5. The money earned from Friday will go to the “Music for Everyone Organization.”  MFE is a non-profit organization that gives out grants to school districts that are in need of new music equipment.

McCaskey received 50 new electronic pianos and guitars from the MFE organization with a $32,000 grant.

To donate to the Music for Everyone Organization,  visit the website http://www.musicforeveryone.net/

“People like the music playing in the halls. It’s different then the usual music that occasionally plays,” said Deubler.

Many Penn Manor students agree.

The idea to dress up in bright colors for the 80’s themed day, and dress country for Wednesday and dress in “jazz” attire for Thursday brings fun and excitement into the halls of Penn Manor.

Regardless if you participate in this music week or not now most of Penn Manor is aware of music.

By Evan Shertzer – February 21 – 25

Awards, interviews, homemade ice cream, socializing and dancing.

That’s how Penn Manor’s Agricultural Department celebrated National FFA Week.

The week consisted of three events. Tuesday night FFA members were interviewed for awards and money they could win during the FFA Banquet. On Wednesday after school, the FFA members made homemade ice cream for all the staff and teachers in room 342 as a thank you for letting them out of class for all the activities they have to attend to for the FFA. Friday night the County line dance was held at Pequea Elementary School.

The awards night interview was a big night for a lot of FFA members. It was a night with activities to decide what awards they will win during the FFA Banquet and also what money they could win to put toward their SAE projects for the next year.

Amanda Stoltzfus, an ag teacher at Penn Manor, interviewed students for awards.

“There were approximately 25 students interviewed,” Stoltzfus said. “There are seven main awards categories with multiple awards within those categories.”

Amber Williams, a senior and reporter for the FFA at Penn Manor, was at the awards night being interviewed.

“I got interviewed for the specialty award which was an award open to juniors and seniors,” Williams said. “I was also interviewed for the IHCC award, which was for money to better your SAE project. IHCC was sponsored by the International Harvestors Club.”

“I am hoping that I get some money toward my SAE project so that I can grow my project even bigger than last. I also hope that I am chosen for an award in the specialty category,” Williams also said.

The next day was the ice cream social for the teachers and staff at Penn Manor. FFA members made homemade ice cream during fourth block and also set up room 342 for teachers to sit down, enjoy their ice cream, and socialize.

“At the ice cream social, we make homemade ice cream for all the school teachers and provide all the toppings,” Stoltzfus said.

Tyler Bauman, a junior, was at the ice cream social and was helping make the ice cream.

“I made the freshman make most of the ice cream, but it was fun,” Bauman said.

The final night of National FFA Week was celebrated by the county line dance at Pequea Elementary School. FFA members and teachers went to the line dance that started at 6:00 p.m. and lasted until 8:30 p.m.

“It was a great time,” Stoltzfus said. “The DJ taught lessons, so those who didn’t know how to dance learned. Even the guys were dancing.”

After that, the National FFA Week for Penn Manor came to an end.

“It was a very successful week and it went smoothly,” said Stoltzfus. “The kids and teachers enjoyed it.”

By Connor Hughes –

“Am I preparing for the SAT’s?  No.  Are they important?  Yes.”

This statement from Penn Manor junior Alex Cummins may be shocking and may be a concern to SAT specialists at Penn Manor.

The Scholastic Aptitude Test is the most widely used standardized test for college admissions. The exam is created and administered by CollegeBoard. It covers three subject areas: critical reading, mathematics and writing. Students have 3 hours and 45 minutes to complete the exam. Each section is worth 800 points, so the highest possible score is 2400 according to collegeapps.about.com.

The SAT’s are being administered at Penn Manor, March 12.

James Yearsley, a counselor at Penn Manor who does a lot of  promoting for the SAT’s, says the main complaint from students is ignorance about the test and when the test is being administered.

“There are announcements throughout the entire school.  To this day I still do not understand how kids don’t know when the test is.  There are announcements, posters, fliers you name it,” explained Yearsley.

Once a student overcomes the ‘obstacle’ of finding out when the test is being administered in their school, the next step is signing up.  Sat.collegeboard.com is the only place to sign up for the test.  It costs $47 to sign up before the deadline. If you sign up after the given deadline, it will cost a student $71.

Whether this is the first time you’ll take the test, or the fourth, Yearsley says studying is essential.  The SAT scores were down last year, but were up the year before and fluctuations are normal, according to Yearsley.  He believes this is because kids are relying more on their natural intelligence then going to sat.collegeboard.com to study and answer practice questions.

“According to CollegeBoard, scores are based on studying and coursing. You can’t expect a good score without putting in some effort,” said Yearsley.

Gary Luft, the SAT Prep math teacher at Penn Manor, says students who take the course seriously improve their scores every time.

“Reports are, students study less than 10 hours.  SAT prep (math portion) is half a semester long,” explained Luft.  “The SAT is not a test you can just walk in and take.  It requires some sort of preperation. ”

Andrew Herr, a junior who has taken the SAT twice and also took SAT Prep, didn’t take advice from Yearsley but agrees with Luft.

“I didn’t study at all, although SAT Prep helped me a lot.  And I got lots of sleep.”

He also mentioned that you need to get excited for the test.

“Make sure you have solid pump-up music in the car ride there.”

Robert Warfel, a junior at Penn Manor, isn’t really nervous about the test.

“I did well on the PSAT’s,” said Warfel.

A pretest, a good luck sweatshirt or a favorite song could be just enough to give you the confidence boost you need to take the test and own it.

By Faith Walauskas

The gift of life is significantly easier to give than most people think.

Penn Manor and Lancaster General Hospital held a blood drive in the school’s band room Feb. 24.

“You fill out a form, and the nurse checks you for your iron count and blood pressure,” says blood drive organizer Jenn Rote, “You can’t have any recent piercings or tattoos, you can’t be sick, you must be over 110 pounds and you can’t have been out of the country for the past year.”

The drive was a great success according to Serteen adviser and Penn Manor Science teacher Barb Rathbone-Frank.

“Over 50 pints of blood were donated by students and teachers to LGH today,” said Rathbone Frank in an e-mail following the event.  “Each pint is worth $160 to $300 depending upon the type (O- is the most expensive and hard to find).  This equates to a donation of approximately $8,000 to $15,000 worth of blood.  In human terms, each pint saves three lives.”

Prospective donors who were out of the country recently could not give blood because of the quality of water abroad and the chance of passing water-born illnesses.

Students could voluntarily donate one pint of their blood to help in the effort to save the lives of people in need of the life saving liquid.

“If you don’t know what blood type you are, they run tests and send the information to you later on.” Rote said.

The all day event is held once every year usually in late winter.

Penn Manor senior Joe Gordon said “It’s a really great experience, it helps save lives and it only takes about 15 to 20 minutes.”

This is Gordon’s second time donating blood.

The event gives incentives for students to donate by offering food and snacks to eat after donating and by offering door prizes.

“They (the nurses) ask you questions and they take your blood,” said Penn Manor Senior Morgan Moses. “It’s really great because you get all this free food.”

This year was Moses’ first time donating.

“The event is organized by the Serteen Blood Drive Chairman – this year it was Jenn Rote.  She is also the club’s President Elect, so this means that she will be our Club President next year,” said Rathbone-Frank.

“In the past we recruited by holding (with the Principal’s help) special homeroom sessions for seniors and juniors,” said Rathbone-Frank.  There, the homeroom teachers gave out information and the TV studio showed a brief film.  With all the snow disruptions this year, we decided to recruit students at lunches so had a table there with information.”