Features

Staff Feature : Mrs. Campos

Caylee Myers

April 26, 2021

Forsan has had several new additions to the staff this year, one of which is Mrs. Christina Campos. Mrs. Campos is from Corpus Cristi, Texas. She went to school and lived in Robstown, home of the Cottonpickers. She was a part of a child care program in high school, and works as a Special Education aide at Forsan. Before Covid-19, Mrs. Campos enjoyed traveling internationally. She has been to Japan, Costa Rica and Mexico. Mrs. Campos said she has enjoyed working at Forsan so far. “It is a very interesting job, I like it a lot here,” Mrs. Campos replied when asked how she liked it at Forsan. She is 36 years wise and gets along with those around her well.

Mrs. Coach Shelton

Addie Beall and Jayden Tollison

April 1, 2021

One of our newest teachers/coaches is Mrs. Coach Shelton. She has been teaching for a total of 22 years. Before coming to Forsan she taught in Ozona for 2 years. This is her first year teaching at Forsan High School. Shelton says, “My Favorite thing about Forsan is my new position. I absolutely love it, and I love the kids.” Mrs. Coach Shelton is the English Specialist In Special Education. She is also the Coach for Cross Country, Volleyball, Basketball, and Track, although her favorite is Cross Country. Mrs. Coach Shelton plans on staying at Forsan until she retires.

Outside of school she is the mother of six boys and a grandmother of five new children. Mrs. Coach Shelton is motivated to get out of bed every morning by her alarm clock. One of her goals in life is to make a positive impact. Her favorite hobby, although she spends most of her time at school, is gardening, and her life motto is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Mrs. Coach became a teacher because of her experience in Jr high and high school athletics. A fun fact about her is that she loves oysters, and her favorite color is purple. All in all, Mrs. Coach Shelton is an amazing asset to the Forsan Independent School District, and we are incredibly lucky to have her in our school.

Expand Your Vocabulary

Ayannia Anchondo

March 29, 2021

People only know so much about words. On average, men say about 7,000 words a day and women say 20,000. But how many words do all of us really know? Here are some words that people may or may not know exist:

Dysania: The state of finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning.

“Some students find it difficult to wake up for school

They have dysania.”

Griffonage: Careless or illegible handwriting.

“when kids start writing they have griffonage writing”

Paresthesia: The prickly feeling when your limb “falls asleep”.

“My leg seems to have paresthesia when I was sitting on it.”

Phosphene: The stars and dots you see when you rub your eyes.

“My eyes were feeling a bit itchy so I rubbed them but then I started seeing all the phosphene.”

Nibling: The gender-neutral term for nieces and nephews

“I got to see my nibling today!”

Snollygoster: An unscrupulous, untrustworthy person.

“That girl is a snollygoster!”

Hullabaloo: a commotion or a fuss.

“WHAT IS ALL THIS HULLABALOO!?!”

Whippersnapper: A young and inexperienced person considered to be overconfident.

“That young man is definitely a whippersnapper.”

Discombobulate: Synonym for confused.

“I’m a little discombobulated.”

Ailurophile: a cat lover

“My grandmother is an ailurophile.”

Band Solo and Ensemble Contest

Blake Barclay

February 10, 2021

On February 6th, the Forsan High School Brass ensembles and soloists competed at the South Zone UIL Solo and Ensemble contest held at Monahans High School. “It's a competition where the students can perform in either an ensemble or a solo for a judge for a rating and a chance to advance to the state round,” said Ms. Tagle, the Forsan High School and Junior High band director. “There are a lot of different types of ensembles that you can perform in, and we happened to have two brass quintets and a saxophone quartet. We also had a clarinet solo.” The ensembles and soloists each performed a piece of music allowed on the UIL’s Prescribed Music List. Each piece is divided into different categories based on their difficulty on a scale of 1 through 3, with a 1 being the most difficult. “To advance to the state level a Level 1 piece must be performed, and if it's a solo, it must be played by memory,” said Ms. Tagle. Despite this seemingly impossible and demanding task, each ensemble and soloist did exceptionally well at the competition. Every contestant received a division 1 rank, which is the very best ranking someone can receive. “We were given a first division, which means we were in the top of the performers,” said Caylor Averette, a Junior tuba player in one of the brass ensembles. “I was honestly surprised because my group went through a lot of obstacles at the competition.” Even though his group was faced with many challenges, Caylor still managed to appreciate his experience with ensemble this year. “I enjoyed them this year, and I plan on trying them again next year,” he said. Another participant in solo and ensemble this year was Oscar Lin. As a senior clarinet soloist, Oscar not only had to undertake the task of learning three pages of music, but the pressure to memorize and perform them with little time to familiarize himself with the piece. “Normally, someone would ask for their pieces in November or December, but I got my solo piece in early January, giving me just under one month to fully memorize three pages of music,” he said. “It was tough at first, but once you get absorbed into the music and really become one with the song, you get motivated to keep moving forward.” Even though the odds were not in his favor, Oscar still found much success and got the opportunity to advance to the state level. “I had practiced this piece for a long time and was pretty confident in my ability to play the song,” he said. “I was a bit nervous in front of the judge, causing me to miss a few notes, but I was really relieved to find out that my hard work and passion had paid off.” However, many details over this year’s state solo and ensemble competition are not finalized yet. “Because of all of the COVID restrictions, UIL is still working out all of the details, but the state round is usually held at the end of May in Austin.” In addition, anyone who is interested in participating in this event can talk to one of the directors. “Anyone in the band can get involved in Solo and Ensemble. They just need to let a director know that they are interested and we can get music to them to get started,” said Ms. Tagle.

More than Skin Deep

Ashlee Moore

January 30, 2021

Have you ever heard of the term “EDS”? Chances are you haven’t. It stands for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a very rare case (1 out of 10,000 people are born with it) that affects the connective tissues of the human body. This syndrome includes many different branches but mostly all result in elastic-like skin and hypermobile joints; although, some other symptoms of other types may include easily bruised skin and ruptured blood vessels. One of our most profound students at Forsan has it.

Charlie Huff, a sophomore, was born with EDS and has been dealing with it since birth. And after recently discovering his syndrome, he found out why many things in his life have been hard. Charlie explained, “Writing definitely is difficult for me. It makes my fingers hurt, and my handwriting is extremely hard to read. Typing fast for long periods of time don't do me particularly well either.” With Ehlers-Danos syndrome making the joints loose and weak, Charlie also has a hard time with athletics. He frequently deals with leg and back problems every day, especially after a run. Although, before being diagnosed with EDS, Charlie always thought these things were normal. He brushed his problems to the side because it was “all that I’ve ever known.” As life goes on, Charlie is determined to not let these symptoms falter his day-to-day life. He states, “It won’t stop me from doing what I love.”

The Big Snow

Addie Beall

January 15, 2021

Staff Spotlight: Coach Strickland

Jayden Tollison

November 11, 2020

Coach Strickland is a teacher and a coach at Forsan High School. Strickland has been working here at Forsan for 4 years. Overall, Strickland had been teaching for 17 years. Before she came to Forsan, she worked at Big Spring High School. When asked, Coach Strickland said that she enjoys working with the student here the most. Outside of school, Strickland is a mom of two daughters, a seven year old, and a ten year old. She is also a wife and a pet owner, as well as a mom outside of school. During school, Strickland coaches volleyball, track and powerlifting. In addition to coaching, Strickland teaches biology and physics. Strickland loves to travel, and she lived in Houston before coming to West Texas. So far, Forsan is the smallest school she has ever taught at. Strickland is a regional director for the Texas Girls Coaches Association, and she believes that girls athletics should be represented in our state. She volunteers at the state volleyball tournament, cross country meet, and track meets whenever possible. Strickland believes high school sports are an important part of the youth today.

Staff Spotlight: Mrs. Myers

Jeremiah Rivera

November 5, 2020

Mrs. Myers is a very familiar face here in Forsan. She worked at the elementary campus for six years and has been at the high school for approximately seven years. That makes up for a total of 11 years! She is an instructional aide at the high school campus. Her inspiration for working with kids is “They all need a little Mrs. Myers in their life.” When asked what her favorite part of working with kids is, she said “They make me laugh everyday.” In her life outside of school she enjoys watching TV and working out. Meanwhile, at home she is a wife, a mom, a crazy band sponsor, and “a dad when Chad (her husband) is gone.” Her message for students of Forsan is “listen to the teachers.”

Mrs. Stone Pushes Students During Off Year

Jeremiah Rivera

October 16, 2020

Mrs. Erin Stone has been coaching junior high UIL for over twenty years. The events she has coached include modern oratory, editorial writing, ready writing, literary criticism, maps graphs and charts, social studies, and journalism events. Mrs. Stone also did UIL herself; she mostly did writing events during her eighth grade year and she absolutely loved it. She has very big plans for her participants this year, she plans to go to district, regionals, and state. She feels that UIL is a chance for students to compete outside of school academically. When her students come together she thinks it is a way to encourage them to come together as a team. She strongly encourages her students to join her teams because she believes it creates a good sense of time management and competition.