“It’s nice to be recognized for what we do,” senior Jon Weldon said. “We’ve worked hard and I’m glad people will know it.”

The ceremony is open to everyone and is being held in the auditorium. Students being honored must arrive by 6:30 p.m. and wear business attire.

“It’s a great honor for these students to be recognized,” counselor Brad Posey said. “It shows that being in involved in your school really does help you succeed.”

“The most exciting thing is getting out into the world and showing your worth,” senior Tim McKenna said.

With only a few weeks left, seniors like Heather Woodworth have mixed emotions about leaving high school and moving on.

“I’m excited to finally start my life out and move on to a new chapter,” Woodworth said. “I will miss all of the people I know now and even people I got to never meet. It is the never-again part that gets me.”

Graduation will be held at the Cedar Park Center, Sunday June 3 at 1 p.m. That evening, seniors will have a chance to celebrate together at the Project Graduation party with check-in beginning at 10 p.m. The group will bus over to Main Event where graduates will have unlimited access to the games, bowling, miniature golf, rock climbing wall and laser tag. They will also have casino gambling games to play and a chance to win prizes at the end of the night. Students who register by Advocate of this week will receive an extra 10 tickets to play with.

“It keeps the seniors in a safe environment,” Project Grad coordinator Cherryll Price said. “Giving them a last time to see their friends, without any alcohol and drugs.”

For the seniors, this will be the final time to be with their friends and their whole class.

“There were many memorable memories,” senior Sabrina O’Lin said. “Experiences that you can take from high school and grow from.”

“I feel great,” Rutledge said. “It will look really good on my transcript and I’m happy to have the chance to do it. I’m excited to meet a lot of new people and hopefully represent our school the best I can.”

“My favorite part of our program is getting to meet so many special young ladies,” founder Keri Byer said. “Every girl that comes to us comes with her own story and own dreams.”

Austin Fairy Godmother began in 2006 when Byer’s friend said she couldn’t afford a dress for her daughter’s prom.  Many people said they would help and Byer collected about 20 dresses and various accessories, like jewelry and shoes. Before she knew it, she had a website up and a successful business running.

“I feel it’s beneficial to the community in so many ways,” Byer said. “We are doing more than just providing dresses to those in need, I feel we are providing them a place when they can feel secure and beautiful.”

For students like junior Brooke Hull, it was a way to get more for her money, rather than spending hundreds of dollars on everything she would only use for one night.

“They take so much time to make sure everything is right for your big night,” Hull said. “And they really do have very pretty stuff, like accessories and shoes.”

Austin Fairy Godmother
10303 Crystal Falls Pkwy
Leander, TX 78641
(512) 507-6364
info@austinfairygodmother.org

Prices:
$40 – for dress, shoes, jewelry, handbag and accessories rental
$50 – for free prom pictures, rental of dress, heels, jewelry and all accessories, $100 worth of Mary Kay and L.A. Girl Cosmetics make-up, gift certificate to have fingernails and toenails painted to match gown, coupon to get corsage for only $20 and boutonniere for only $10, and coupon for $40 off your date’s tuxedo rental from Men’s Wearhouse.

Hours:
Wednesdays 3:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Thursdays 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Fridays 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturdays 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

“In class it takes 45 minutes to an hour to get through a lesson, the videos take 10 minutes for the same concept,” Pre-AP Pre Calculus and Pre-AP Geometry teacher Joel Vandiver said. “It allows students to have class time to explore concepts in groups while I facilitate.”

After seeing videos of teachers in Colorado using a similar system during February Conference, Vandiver decided to bring the system to his advanced classes. It was shortly picked up by other teachers including Pre-AP Geometry teacher Kymberlen Portillo.

“It gives students the opportunity to help each other when they come across a difficult problem,” Portillo said. “Also, when I’m lecturing in class they don’t have the ability to rewind me, but in the videos they can make me repeat myself and work at their own pace.”

Flipped classrooms are effective because they allows students to target what they are struggling with at home and spend their class time working out the problems they are having. The system puts the responsibility for learning the material on the student.

“I like it a lot because it makes less work to do at home and it gets us the help and practice we really need while were in class,” sophomore Pre-AP Geometry student Dakota Unruh said. “I think it’s a good system to be considered in all math classes because then the students can get the help that they really need.”

This teaching style doesn’t always work though, as Vandiver found out. His students weren’t watching the videos and thus not mastering the objectives forcing him to revert back to traditional teaching methods.

“The biggest pitfall of the program is students waiting until last minute to watch the videos,” Vandiver said. “Life would be much easier for myself and students if they would watch the videos on time. That’s why I still answer questions and teach in class.”

Although there are shortfalls that prevent the system from being effective in some classes or with certain subjects and groups of students, Portillo believes if used right the system works.

“I think it is successful,” Portillo said. “I think that the students have grown in their learning. It has taught them responsibility as far as what they need to study on their own. The conversations in class about the math have risen to another level.”

Portillo is still going strong and suggests that any teacher who is thinking about switching to flipped classrooms should talk to a teacher who has already tried it, then alter the system according to the needs of their students.

“I’d like to continue having flipped classrooms, but with adjustments,” Portillo said. “I’ve gotten feedback from the students and with their feedback I can make adjustments to make it even better. One thing that could’ve made an adjustment is if I had known about this at the beginning of the year. It was a huge adjustment for my students, but they have stuck with me and I am proud of every one of them.”

The yearbook will arrive Thursday, May 17. This year’s theme, “It’s about Time,” was chosen because this is the first year to have seniors.

“Since this is our first group of seniors, we had to make it as perfect as possible,” sophomore yearbook staffer Julia Small said. “I think Rouse will like it. Hopefully, they understand that it is a student publication and that it’s near to impossible to make it 100 percent perfect, but we tried. I love it.”

Yearbooks are $62 through May 16 and can still be purchased by ordering online at www.balfour.com or by picking up an order form in the Commons, front office or outside 6203. All orders must be received by May 16 to receive the $62 price. Yearbooks go up to $68 starting on May 17.

Students can also add on a number of extras:  autograph pages for $2, a plastic cover for $3 and the end-of-year magazine for $5. The 12-page magazine includes events that happened after spring break that were too late for the yearbook, including One-Act Play, the Royals’ spring show, track district and prom.

“The staffers thought it was really important to get in those late events and the magazine is a great way to do it,” adviser Kel Lemons said. “It’s also one last chance for us to get more students in the books and that’s always one of our top goals.”

Students should come to 6203 to pick up their books on May 17. They will need to show their ID and sign for their book.

No excuses. This is Jan Carpenter’s mantra for life.

School nurse Jan Carpenter is a mother, a chef, a guide, and a healer, and she doesn’t believe in excuses. Carpenter says she has always used the obstacles she had to face as motivation for self improvement, not self-pity.

She became a school nurse when she was 38 but before that she had already been a registered nurse for 23 ½ years while working in home and health hospice. She makes an effort to remember the names of all the students she meets.

 “My goal is that when you go to college, or trade school, or whatever it is you’re doing after high school, is that you’ll be able to take care of yourself when you are sick,” Carpenter said. “And that you’ll know how to keep yourself healthy.”

 Carpenter has known the majority of seniors since they were in sixth grade at Henry Middle School, and will watch them take the stage this June.

“There is a part of me that can’t wait for them to go on stage,” Carpenter said. “But I am kind of melancholy. I have mixed emotions.”

The nurse has been there for students in more ways than one through the years.

“I’m not just there for when you’re sick, you can come to me if you have a problem,” Carpenter said. “I get it if you have one parent that works a lot. I used the adversity of my life to do better.”

As a child Carpenter was raised in Rhode Island. After losing her father at age 10 she lived there with only her siblings and her mother who worked long hours to help the family.

“Sometimes I see kids complain about how their parents are divorced, and I think that I would rather have my parents divorced, instead of my father dead,” Carpenter said. “Because then I would be able to at least see him every few weeks or so.”

Carpenter’s mother was forced to work extra shifts in order to support the family, often having to leave her kids alone.

“In general, it made me appreciate my family more,” Carpenter said. “Life is precarious, when you’re numbers are up, it’s gone. But I didn’t allow it to make me bitter.”

She moved on to attend a Catholic nursing school and never allowed excuses for herself or others. Her son, now in college, has ADD and is also held to this standard.

“My son struggled in school, but I told him he can’t use that as a crutch,” Carpenter said. “The world doesn’t adjust to you, you adjust to the world.”

“I feel like they‘re a great way to cap off the season,” senior Andrew Thomas said. “You get to together with your team and have a sort of a last hoorah before summer.”

Most sports team held banquets, celebrating the team’s accomplishments and giving out individual awards to players.

“The awards make banquets special because you can see how many amazing athletes are really on the team,” freshman Tanner Parker said. “It’s just a way to be with your teammates and have some needed bonding time.”

While preparing for a banquet, moms and helpful students will typically put together some creative ideas that make it an interesting way to look back at the events of the year, sometimes over multiple years if there are veterans on the squad.

“At the volleyball banquet this year we had a slideshow for all the seniors,” junior Caitlin Topham said. “It was fun seeing baby pictures of them, but it was also really bittersweet.”

But banquets are not limited to just athletic teams. Organizations like theatre and FFA also hold end of the year banquets to celebrate the year.

“At an academic banquet it is really nice because everyone gets a reward for what they have accomplished whereas, at an athletic banquet only a handful of people get recognized,” Topham said.  

For the seniors, though, this is one of their final high school memories with their sport or club.

“Having the seniors at the banquet makes it a more emotional experience because this is the last time we will all be together,” sophomore Lauren Baker said.

While banquets are a chance for seniors to say goodbye, it’s also an opportunity for the underclassmen to step up and start becoming leaders of the organization.

“I feel like it will be hard to fill the space that the seniors have left and knowing that this will be my last high school banquet makes me really sad because it means that it is a final closure to all the things I have accomplished and the fun times we’ve had,” senior Whitney Watson said. “But I think that the freshmen have the capability of making Rouse even better than what it has become over the last four years.”

In addition, the staff won 14 awards in the ILPC Newspaper Individual Achievement Awards. They include:

Editorial Writing Staff – Honorable Mention

Feature Writing Gloriana Stolle – Honorable Mention

Headlines Staff – Honorable Mention

Page One Design Rachel Sloan – Honorable Mention

Sports Design Rachel Sloan – 1st

Feature/Entertainment Page Rowan Armour – Honorable Mention

Double Truck Design Shelly Spencer – 1st, Jessica Garrison, Shelly Spencer & Rachel Sloan – Honorable Mention

Photo Story Kristina Jingling – 2nd, Nick Hage and Kyndall Ramirez –  3rd

Feature Photo Alex Kunert – Honorable Mention, Caitlin Topham –  Honorable Mention

Sports Feature Photo Briggs Schraeder – 2^nd

All first place winners’ entries were entered in a second contest against the other first place winners from the different UIL divisions. Rachel Sloan was the Tops in Texas winner for Sports Design. Her design of a baseball and softball page will now be featured in a Tops in Texas booklet with the other winners.

Schmidt visited ASL teacher Tricia Walker’s fifth period class, March 22, presenting an “All About Me” PowerPoint and activities to show the students what it is like to be visually impaired.

“[It was]to personally show and demonstrate the struggles someone with a disability has,” ASL teacher Tricia Walker said. “To help students become more comfortable around her.”

Schmidt showed different activities such as Goalball, cooking and what school supplies she uses. Goalball is a game designed for blind athletes that is played with two teams playing against each other. To make the game fair all members are blindfolded. The teams are on each side of a 60×40 foot court, with a goal of rolling the three pound goalball past the other team without them stopping it. The goalball itself is a ball with bells inside of it, so each team member can hear where it is, blocking it at any expense.

“All the kids were really quiet before when I first came in,” Schmidt said. “After a while they were more open. My favorite part was talking to people, getting to know all of their names.”

Schmidt brought her Braille machine, which is a device that resembles a typewriter, although it has only five keys and takes special paper. Even though it has only five keys, different combinations including the space key mean different letters.

“It is important to demystify blindness. There is such a stereotype for being blind, yet it gives life a different dimension,” vision impaired teacher Laura Hillard said. “If people learn more about it will make them feel more comfortable.”

Schmidt also showed the class her math TAKS practice book filled with Braille writing. The students had the chance to feel the pages to understand what Schmidt feels to read Braille.

“Actually experiencing what blind people experience every day was really interesting,” junior Genevieve Gerulis said.

The experience was useful to both the ASL audience and Schmidt.

“It helped her (Misty) presentation skills,” Walker said. “So the students could understand what Helen Keller had to overcome, and maybe even to sign to the deaf.”

Schmidt is the first vision impaired student to attend RHS.

“The most exciting thing is seeing her become more self-confident and learn more about technology,” Hillard said. “She can offer more that others cannot.”