I was walking into my first period class. As we entered, Mr. Howes and Mr. Zimmerman were having a conversation… which confused me. Mr. Howes kept telling me all these random things about Mr. Zimmerman... I don’t know if these things are true or not, so I set up an interview. 

First of all, I did more than just ask him if the things Mr. Howes said were true or not. I asked Mr. Z what he did before he came here: “After high school, I had a variety of positions with a traveling circus.  During this period of my life, I juggled fire, dressed as a clown, and performed as a trapeze artist.  After losing my partner’s grip and dropping her, I was fired.  That was the end of my circus career.  After that, I taught English in Japan for two years." This answer is interesting because I did not know Mr. Zimmerman worked in a circus and I guess that explains a lot about him. He's so enthusiastic in class. Mr. Howes told me, “Yeah… but Mr. Zimmerman had two jobs in the circus. He didn’t tell you about eating the chicken heads.” 

Mr. Howes told me that he and Mr. Zimmerman were friends at one point, but that Mr. Z’s daughter, Audrey, ruined all of that. “ZimZam used to be so cool. Riding bikes, backpacking… you know, cool bro stuff, but then Audrey showed up, and he was all like, ‘I gotta change a diaper or something. I can’t ride bikes any more because I’m a big stinky pants’.” When I asked Mr. Zimmerman if he and Mr. Howes were still friends? “The word ‘friends’ is a complicated term.  It can mean many different things to many different people.” I guess that makes sense, friends can mean a lot of different things, and he never said they weren’t friends…

Mr. Z did have this to say: “Listen, one can love their country, but still recognize that not everything is perfect.  It is the same with Mr. Howes. There is ‘friendship,’ but also there is imperfection.” 

Mr. Howes replied to this idea of imperfection: “Everything is more perfect on a bike.” I mean this kinda makes sense, but are they friends or what? 

Mr. Howes claims to have tried to salvage the friendship, but he says that Mr. Zimmerman is just too selfish to take a little bike ride. Mr. Zimmerman responded with this, “I plead the 5th! I do not recall. I have nothing to say on this matter.” 

Mr. Howes pursued the topic, and one could see a little tear start to form in the corner of his eye: “Just last Friday, I asked Mr. Zimmerman to go bike riding, and he laughed right in my face. I mean, he doesn’t care about me or himself, and I just want him to feel the breeze in his hair again… before it’s too late…” 

Mr. Zimmerman repeated himself: “I plead the 5th! I do not recall.  I have nothing to say on this matter.”  Saying nothing about that is smart, as proven by many corrupt politicians and crime bosses. Mr. Howes claims that one must ride a bike to be cool, and Mr. Zimmerman replied with this: “The question is more like ‘Is coolness something people are born with, or does it develop over one’s lifetime?’  I believe I was born cool, so really it’s not a choice for me.” I definitely agree Mr. Zimmerman is pretty cool… and Mr. Howes called me a crazy duck lady once…

Next thing we are going to talk about is how Mr. Zimmerman began his teaching degree. I asked what made him want to be a teacher since he got fired from the circus.  “The circus experience taught me a lot about performing in front of an audience.  Unfortunately, the audience kept leaving when I performed.  I had to think of a career where the audience is forced to stay in their seats.  That’s when I knew I wanted to be a teacher!” Makes sense. It’s not as if we students can just walk out of class (sadly). I asked him how long he had been teaching, and I expected something crazy. He answered something reasonable: “Twenty-one years at FRHS, two years in Japan, and two years as a substitute teacher.” It seems that all of that teaching made him good at making learning fun! A final question about his favorite part of being a teacher: “It’s all about making connections and helping students better understand the world we live in, and why things are the way they are.  It’s also about the captive audience.” As I said, we can’t just walk out of the classroom, but at least I actually enjoy third period. 

-Mackenzie Dykes

This profile is about my duck obsession. I’ve honestly never actually not liked ducks, so it was kind of always there, but I used to like chickens more, but that’s when I was an annoying five-year-old who cried over chickens because… you know… you know what we do to them… now I own sixty-three rubber ducks, a duck keychain, a duck pencil sharpener, a Dawn dish soap sticker duck, a duck feeding bag, and a duck hoodie, which is not an unhealthy obsession… quack… it's just a hobby, a very duck-centered hobby. Quack. I personally would love to tell people a bunch of duck facts or sit down with an illustrated duck book for story time. Ducks are like my comfort; without them, I don’t think I would be me. Honestly, ducks are always so comforting, and they helped me throughout my school life. Before a presentation, I think about ducks running everywhere, committing cannibalism. I think about a large duck with teeth eating other ducks. Liking my ducks IS NOT AN OBSESSION. It's more of a hobby; I just adore and love them very, very, very, very much.

Another thing is I honestly don’t mind having the name “Duck Lady” because I want someone to look at me and think “Wow she really loves ducks” and buy every single duck in the country and put them in a box and give them ALL to me. I can read multiple duck facts and books to little children AND FORCE THEM ALL TO CALL ME THEIR DUCK QUEEN. Anyway fun fact: Ducks sleep with one eye open while half of their brain is awake watching out for predators. I’m like little kids seeing an ice cream truck then fiending so badly; but for me, if I see a lonely rubber duck calling my name? I count my money, and if I don’t have enough, I hyper-fixate and start a savings fund in a book cut out with a secret hiding place. The book is not about ducks, but that’s just to fool my sticky-fingered cousins. I’m not above begging my parents when I’m a bit short on cash. Honestly, if I had to choose between 100 puppies or 100 ducklings? Darling, give me all of the ducklings in the entire world.

After I outgrew my chicken obsession, I just saw ducks as the most adorable feathered creature in the universe. Then it became a collectibles issue, and I got to the point where it became this obsession. Well, not an obsession… a hobby… and my parents became concerned because I stole the Dawn dishwashing duck and taped it to my closet. Nineteen of my ducks have names, but the rest of them? There are too many. My first one was small and plastic, and I named it Quackathy, and then I got a pink one and named it Quackathina, but my friend Tayza (check out her article on road kill) bit Quackathina’s head off in sixth grade. Since then, I’ve adopted three more Quackathinas and many of her cousins. Such is how I became Duck Lady. I’m so glad I didn’t get into lady bugs. I watch ducks eat lady bugs.

 - Mackenzie D(uckling)ykes

I feel that Ms. Nygren is the type of person to be calm but enthusiastic. I also feel that Ms. Nygren would have lots of pets and is usually happy and never really angry. Ms. Nygren seems to welcome everyone and anyone. The first day of school, she gave us a smile, and we could tell she wanted us to be there. I also wonder if she likes dogs more than cats, or if she prefers chipmunks. She actually has a chipmunk that she found on the road. She raised him, so she couldn’t release him into the wild, and she’s working on finishing the paperwork to legally adopt Mischief. She told us about her adopted mammal, and I asked her if it is legal to have a chipmunk for a pet because I know a little bit about the legality of keeping wild animals because when I was younger I tried to keep a wild blue jay as a pet… anyhow, I’ve got some history with wild animals, and I was happy to get a teacher as crazy as I am to keep wild animals in bedrooms and classrooms. The thing that I do know about Ms. Nygren is that her favorite animal is a cow.  

If she could pick her favorite ag class, she said it would be animal science because she is really interested in animals. Ms. Nygren fell in love with the dairy industry because it's more than cows on a farm; it is nutrition and how good milk is for the body and mind. She also came to admire farmers within the dairy industry because every Christmas she wakes up and while her family is enjoying the bounty of Christmas, the dairy farmers are ankle deep in cow waste and providing the milk that runs the country. 

Ms. Nygren enjoys not only her students but her job as well.  Ms. Nygren likes the fact that she gets to jump deeper into science than she gets to do in some of her Ag classes. Ms. Nygren is primarily an ag teacher who gets to talk about the same thing but more deeply. She also enjoys teaching animal science and forestry as well with anything that can help her students. I admire her discipline because she gives one warning, and then gives a lecture that shoves it into the student’s mind instead of shoving the student into detention.

She also thinks if science were a color, it would be green. I agree because green is the color of life, so that's very understandable. Ms. Nygren’s word of advice would be to listen to the advice of helpful adults because a teacher once told her to do public speaking, but Ms. Nygren felt too shy; however, she took the advice, and now she enjoys public speaking and speaking to her students and random chipmunks.

-Mackenzie Dykes