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Academics - MYP & IB

New Class: Newspaper Production

by Ady O'Grady
Newspaper Production is a new class that was established this school year. Students are writing a different news story each week on different topics. This class was established for a specific purpose.
Mr. Schidrich is the principal at Hilton Head Island High School. His main reason for starting this class is to show what goes on at HHIHS. He was a history teacher for a very long time at HHIHS before he became a principal. He says, “Having a school newspaper is important. I saw newspapers in the past at schools and I wanted to start one this year.” Mr. Schidrich wants to share with the community the great things we are doing and keep the community updated.
Mr. Schidrich also states that “I want to get the point across to the community that the school needs an updated building.” The news articles that are being written will show what goes on at the school and will show people why they should help support the project of renovating the current building, or building a new one. Mr. Schidrich says, “I want to get the community involved in redesigning a new school.” HHIHS is now the oldest school in Beaufort County at 37 years old. Originally, Newspaper Production was going to be a club, but the state supported it as a class.
This class is taught by Ms. Spisz, an English teacher at HHIHS. Ms. Spisz states, “I am enjoying teaching this class because it is different from what I normally teach. It is nice to start the day with something different”. Ms. Spisz’s favorite part about the class is reading all the different news stories and seeing the student’s ideas. She also enjoys seeing the students improve as writers each week. Ms. Spisz says that this class was not hard for her to start teaching, “I found out about this class around June 17, so I spent the summer researching and finding a curriculum for the class. I reached out to my old professor and got some resources from her.” Ms. Spisz likes a challenge and enjoys teaching something new. She says, "I love starting something new. I am excited to run with the vision Mr. Schidrich has given me.” Ms. Spisz has some goals for the class this school year, which are “have at least four published issues in print, have our website updated four times, build relationships with staff and students, and make everyone in the community aware of all the good things that happen here at school.”

How Newspaper Changes the IDEA OF AN eNGLISH cLASS

by Jake Huggins

Ms. Spisz teaches the Newspaper Production class at Hilton Head Island High School. She enjoys teaching the class because of the relationships that she builds with the students and the skills that the class gives students. The class is beneficial to both the teacher and the student because the student develops written and verbal communication skills and the teacher gets to work closely with the students and the community.
The class also teaches students how to improve their grammar skills and write in AP format.
After taking the “Writing for the Media” class in college, when the idea of a newspaper class was presented to Ms. Spisz, she knew it was for her. She spent a lot of time at first developing the idea and goals for the class, but eventually settled on the idea that informing the community about everything happening at the high school was the best option.
Being able to communicate things from HHIHS to the Hilton Head community is something that will improve a lot of the things happening on the island. Forming positive bonds and relationships between the community and the school will give the island something to talk about and look forward to.

nAVIgating Newspaper Production

by Laura Payne

Ms. Spisz, an English Teacher and Model UN advisor at Hilton Head Island High School, discusses how Newspaper Production is moving along during the semester.
Despite the circumstances of COVID-19, Ms. Spisz still enjoys teaching at Hilton Head Island High School. Ms. Spisz states, “Some of my favorite things about teaching at Hilton Head Island High School are getting to interact with the students. Each class is so different. Each group has different personalities. I also love my coworkers. We’ve got the best staff here at Hilton Head Island High School. We help each other out. They’re just great people to talk to and play ideas off of. ”
At Hilton Head Island High school, students and teachers can choose whether they want to remain virtual for school or return face-to-face. According to Ms. Spisz, “I prefer face-to-face learning because I get to interact with my students in a face-to-face environment, which is really difficult to do in a virtual setting. I definitely prefer face-to-face and it’s easier for me to sit down with students, and physically see if they’re struggling with something; whereas it’s harder to read the body language on the camera, so I definitely prefer face-to-face learning.”
Students who choose face-to-face learning are placed in two categories: students whose last names begin with A through L, and students whose last names begin with M through Z. A through L students are “A Day” students and go to school on Monday and Tuesday; M through Z students are “B Day” and go to school on Thursday and Friday. Everybody is virtual on Wednesday.
The hybrid schedule is an adjustment for everyone, but it is different than what students and faculty are used to. Ms. Spisz says, “For me, it really wasn’t that big of an adjustment because I’m used to adapting to technology, having grown up with its development. I think that the most difficult part about it is remembering what day of the week students are in, so you’re marking students present or absent accordingly, making sure that you start the Zoom session, making sure that your mic is unmuted, so it’s just a lot of these little extra things that we normally haven’t had to think about, but besides those little things, I definitely like the hybrid schedule.”
Some classes offered at Hilton Head Island High School are not meant to be taken online so they may be difficult to manage. For example, Newspaper Production is meant to be a face-to-face class. Fortunately, Ms. Spisz has things under control. She clarifies that Newspaper Production is easy to manage through virtual and hybrid learning. Ms. Spisz responded, “Surprisingly, yes it was not to hard to adjust the course to e-learning and hybrid learning. We were able to figure out a way to be able to conduct interviews online by using email, Zoom, and Google Classroom. I think what’s really going to be an interesting challenge is when we start building the actual newspaper. I’ve got an idea how that’s going to go but we’re going to have to wait and see if it goes as smoothly as I hope. Unfortunately due to the program that we are going to use, there is just no way for me to share the actual draft of the newspaper with students so they can work on it independently. It’s going to be me listening to what students have to say, projecting the newspaper on Zoom and on the board, and then working on it while students dictate to me what we are going to do, so it’s going to be a lot of back and forth. I hope it works well. So far with interviews and the background information, it’s been easy, but building the newspaper, I think is going to be the real test starting next week.”
Ms. Spisz loves teaching Newspaper Production. Ms. Spisz mentions her favorite parts of teaching the class, “Getting to see students grow as writers every week. In the typical English class, you only do 1 essay a unit, so I am only seeing students write maybe every 3 or 4 weeks, whereas with Newspaper I get to see them work and write every single week and see their growth as writers. I also enjoy building relationships with different students and faculty of Hilton Head Island High School, as well as administration, so being able to talk with students, teachers, and administrators that you would normally not have a conversation with on a daily basis is another perk of the class.”

The Effect on Human Geography Now & Then, & How it Affects Everyone in Their Own Righ

by Jake Huggins
Human Geography is how humans are affected by the surface of the earth. It affects everyone and will continue to be a topic discussed regardless of how the generation evolves. This is why teaching it is crucial, despite the obstacles faced including things like COVID-19. Understanding the topic is major in everyone's life moving forward. Mrs. Weitekamper, teaches the 9th Grade Human Geography Class.
As described by someone who has taught the subject for many years, she proves how much importance is on the subject in the following: “You know you’re impacting a knowledge base for that global citizen. It’s more real-world and you can use it in everyday life looking at other things.”
As COVID-19 has become an issue, so has teaching the subject. Though E-Learning has become more common, it is easy to understand how it would be harder to get the same message across to kids on a Zoom Meeting than in a classroom. As she states: “Putting it in text is much more critical.”
Even without the effects of the Coronavirus, the subject has changed in its own right. She emphasized the fact that the subject still focuses on the "why of where," but is now more vocal on the effect of the human. It is also affected by the maturity of the students. As one could imagine, 9th graders learning a college course would not do as well as the same group would do if they were older. It is a “different academic teaching level."
To conclude, the effect of human geography is much more vast than one would think. Understanding the cultural differences and landscape of the earth is something that needs to educate a younger generation. Though things are online on the current day, it is much harder to get a message across to people online than in school.

HHIHS Takes on Hospitality at Home

by Laura Payne
Coach Beachkofsky, the hospitality teacher and football manager at Hilton Head Island High School, describes how students manage to learn hospitality through virtual learning.
Hospitality is definitely different through virtual learning. According to Coach Beachkofsky, “We haven’t been able to participate in many of the activities that we would normally do – but we have found other unique and creative ways to deliver the material.”
For the field trips part of hospitality class, Coach Beachkofsky said, “We will be doing virtual field trips and guest speakers.” Hospitality is a community driven course, often bringing in guest speakers when instruction was face-to-face. These guest speakers are a vital part of the class, but Coach Beachkofsky found a way to include these guests during virtual instruction. Coach Beachkofsky states, “Yes – we will be doing that (having guest speakers) and they will be from all over the industry, country, and hopefully the world.”
Platforms and software are crucial to virtual learning, especially in hospitality.
There are many options when it comes to online platforms for hospitality. Coach Beachkofsky stated that her classes are using BCSD backed sites such as iCEV, Knowledge Matters, and Soft Skills High.
Presentations were used in face-to-face learning, which adds to the complication of teaching hospitality virtually. For presentations, Coach Beach states, “We are doing presentations. They are through the virtual platforms and as we return in the hybrid model there will be more face-to-face.”
Hospitality is typically meant to be a face-to-face learning experience, including field trips and in-person guest speakers, but it can also be taught through online resources as well.

Gaming Design at Hilton Head Island High School

by Brandon Rosas Pelaez
I bet half of our school does not know about one of our many classes named, Gaming Design. Luckily, I came in with the "win" and have a lot of information about the class and the teacher that teaches it.
Mr. Smith is the teacher of the class.
The most difficult part for him was finding the game software that he would be comfortable using to teach the class. The software the previous teacher used to teach the class was not satisfactory to him. The software he found has been a great tool for teaching the class and for his students learning the subject. He normally taught computer programming 1 and 2 and IB Computer Science in addition to Game Design.
He had the chance to put down the class he really wouldn’t, he likes teaching Gaming Design but some students sign up for the wrong reason though. They think they are going to play computer games all class, every day. But they’re wrong, they write and create computer games in Game Design. The students get to play the games they design. It is much harder than most students anticipate as the course is basically computer programming in a drag-and-drop environment. The class was brought to HHIHS in 2011. The course is offered through the SC state curriculum for information technology Only. Two high schools in our district offer it, Beaufort HS and HHIHS.
There you have it, Gaming Design. It’s seems like a nice and easy and fun class.

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