February 2025

In an online school, live interactions between students and teachers occur less frequently than at a brick-and-mortar school, but they remain essential for building school culture and helping students learn. However, with threaded replies in the chatpod, many have found that it diminishes their learning experience when there are several conversations happening simultaneously.

"Threaded replies take up so much space,” says junior Jalecia R., “and inconveniently affect the chat when someone replies to previously sent messages."

Many students can relate to the frustration of trying to listen to the teacher, while the chatpod rapidly fills with irrelevant or inconsequential topics. With threaded replies added to the mix, students can all carry on with their own, off-topic conversations, even if teachers are trying to rein in the side chat.

“When there is a response to a threaded reply, it puts that conversation back at the bottom of the chat and I miss a lot of ‘on-topic’ conversations and questions that are happening above it,” explains Rachel Kazmierski, a HS math teacher. “I have to stop and ask students to stop replying to that thread and focus on the topic at hand. It's just distracting for me as a teacher to keep up with that along with class discussions.”

While there are a handful of students who do enjoy using threaded replies as a social tool – after all, it’s the fun, social aspect that gets in the way of learning – there are many who don’t appreciate seeing all of the different conversations in the chat. “I would say ‘distracting’ is what the majority of my students would say, too,” Ms. Kazmierski shares. “I've seen it said in the chat that they'd like the side conversations to stop.”

However, the idea of threaded replies isn’t the problem here. It is what they are being used for that can be detrimental to learning. If students were to try and use it more responsibly, it actually could, in fact, enhance class Zoom meetings. For example, when students have questions, or want to add on to what the teacher is saying, it opens up a forum for them to have conversations that are on-topic and relevant to class.

“I will say, if threaded replies were more respectfully used in live class, they could be beneficial,” says Ms. Kazmierski. “When students have a question related to the content of the lesson, replying to that question as a threaded reply would be helpful to the person asking and to others who may have the same question.”

“Threaded replies are really distracting when people are getting off-topic,” shares Payton Khoury, an eighth grade student at ORCA. “But when students are using them for questions about the lesson, it’s really helpful to see their conversations.”

Many students and teachers agree that it is not the threaded replies that are a distraction themselves, it’s the way that they are used that makes it harder for students to learn. 

ORCA social studies teacher Casey Comstock thinks the negatives of the threaded replies outweigh the positives. “They are the WORST!”

Music blared. Lights flashed. Brightly colored streamers hung from the ceiling. Games were laid out on tables, waiting to be played. Snacks and refreshments were at-the-ready.

This year’s neon-themed high school Winter Social was on Friday, January 10th, from 4-6 p.m. Attendees dressed accordingly, some in flashy or formal outfits and others dressed casually.

The event took place in two rooms, side by side. One room was for dancing and the other was for games. Games included Apples To Apples, What Do You Meme, and Clue.

“HS Social is turning into half dance, half hangout! It’s really fun, I hope more people come next time!” said ORCA teacher Paula Leifer.

On the other side of Winter Social, the dance was on. One student started breakdancing to “Low” by Flo Rida and another made the crowd go wild with a dance to “Cotton Eyed Joe” by Rednex. Some students took part in a round of the infamous Winter Social “YMCA” conga line, and on “I Knew You Were Trouble” by Taylor Swift, other students even made the floor shake.

“The dancing was splendid!” enthused ORCA freshman Audrey Peterson.

Over 50 students showed up to enjoy the event, from soon-to-be graduating winter semester seniors to ORCA's newest high schoolers.

“The Winter Social is a wonderful opportunity to socialize and have fun!” expressed freshman Sofia D.

“Just have fun!” sophomore Faith Yarbrough exclaimed.

“Yo!” ORCA junior Wesley Robbins explained.

As usual, the final song of the night was Neil Diamond’s classic “Sweet Caroline.” Attendees gathered and sang along to every “bum bum bum.” Students left with good memories, lemon-cucumber water and Doritos in their stomachs, and a handful of songs stuck in their heads.

“Winter social was such a fun event!” Student Government President Emily Pennington told The Current. “All of the dancing, games, and hanging out with friends made this event so special! I am so proud of my Student Government team for all of the planning and preparation that we all put into this event. It turned out amazing and I hope that more ORCA students will come to these events in the future!”

On March 13, ORCA students will get the chance to record questions for astronaut Don Pettit and have them answered live while Pettit is in outer space. ORCA is one of ten schools from around the country that was selected to take part in this program. 

“Every year NASA accepts applications for this program and 10 schools from around the country are chosen to participate,” shares Assistant Principal and NASA Club advisor Dan Vasen. “We've been applying to NASA to participate in this program for the past three years in a row and this year we were finally selected to do it.”

This 20 minute downlink will broadcast to the nationwide NASA+ audience and appear on NASA’s social media channels. ORCA will host an in-person event for students to attend at the Wilsonville facility, along with a virtual option for students at home.

While the group of participating students has already been chosen, students of all grades are encouraged to tune into the event if they have time. This is a helpful resource, even as an observer, if you are interested in being in the STEM field. 

“A goal of ORCA in offering these NASA programs to our students is to increase awareness about career opportunities in STEM fields (science, technology engineering and mathematics), to inspire curiosity in pursuing a career related to aerospace and exploration,” says Mr. Vasen, “and to connect professionals who work in these industries with students who seek to pursue their passions in this realm.”

As every self-respecting baker knows, baking, at its core, is just a chemistry experiment.

Take sourdough bread, for instance. You buy a sourdough starter from the store and let it sit for a while in order to activate it. After that, you take ground-up grain, a dry chemical leavening agent, dried ocean water, and a selection of wild yeasts (depending on the recipe you’re using), mix it into a bowl, and let it sit for a while. After you’ve waited for about two hours, the mixture expands. You then stick it into 450 degree temperatures and it comes out nice and warm.

The potential questions go on and on. How does the weird floury gluten rise? Why can’t you stick it in a 250 degree temperature oven? Why does it take so long to make?

This article will not explain. Ask your chemistry teacher.

But this article will offer some tips and tricks for experimenting with your concoction so you can customize your sourdough without ruining it. For example, don’t bake your bread in a 250-degree oven. It will not work out well.

#1: Refer to an existing recipe.

This one’s a hot take. What better way to make a completely new pastry than to follow an old set of instructions?

When you’re stooped over a bubbling green liquid, dressed in a lab coat and constantly under supervision by your maybe-evil CEO, it would end in disaster if you accidentally added three drops of mercury to your potion instead of two. One wrong move and boom — you’ve blown the laboratory sky-high. The same is true with baking.

If you add too much milk to your chocolate-chip cookie batter, the mixture will be too runny to spoon out. If you throw in an entire ounce of chocolate, the chocolate will melt into the batter and fall apart when you try to pick it up. Which is a waste of chocolate.

If you want to make your own chocolate-chip cookies, but also load them with Red No. 40 and peppermint stripes, open up your browser and look up a recipe! It will have your proportions, your bake time, and some helpful info on baking them. It’ll also sometimes have a few “what ifs” for you to refer to when broiling up a mess.

#2: Take a chance with spices.

Cocoa powder, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, clove, star anise, lavender…there are so many different tweaks you could make and unique flavors you could add. Have you ever tried a chocolate-nutmeg muffin with a ginger candy sunk inside? How about a cardamom apple-cake?

These days, we have restaurants and takeout and fast food joints - but before all of that convenient jazz, the spices made the meal. If you wanted to have a nip of spicy-sour goodness in your mango compote, you’d have to find yourself some chili seasoning to spike it with.

And here’s a small side-tip: don’t constrain yourself to a limited number of spices. Sure, nutmeg and cardamom are wonderful together, but why not throw some basil in your lemon meringue pie just to see how it works out? This is your world! Be weird!

#3: Learn the original before you make a spin-off.

This one is reasonably clear: just like you can’t figure out how to calculate the slope of a line before you learn to divide a fraction, you can’t make a lemon banana gooseberry chocolate basil tiramisu if you can’t even manage ladyfingers. If you want to put an original spin on a recipe, master a proven pastry recipe first!

#4: Don’t load your banana bread with melted milk chocolate and shredded zucchini, then take it out of the oven and remove it from the bread pan before it’s cooled fully.

Trust me on this one. 

#5: Be patient and try, try, try again.

If you let bread rise for three hours, the product is going to be much tastier than if you throw your batter in the oven immediately after preparing it. If you take your pineapple upside-down cake out of the heat after two minutes, it’ll be gloopy and inedible. Be patient! It’ll work out in the end.

And even if you do everything right, and it still comes out bad, keep calm and carry on! Not everything works according to plan (looking at you, zucchini-chocolate banana bread). No one invents something without a lot of trial and error. Heck, even the chocolate chip cookie was an accident. Keep baking, keep innovating! Failure is necessary. It’s just a new excuse to experiment.

So continue with your crazy concoctions– start with a pancake recipe and throw some raspberry compote into the mix. Get creative, add some star fruit. Find a way to take a completely normal, accepted-by-society pastry and twist it into an overseasoned monstrosity. Have your friends and family sample them. Write things down, so you can pass your inane, intrusive ‘what ifs’ to the next generation. And if you ever doubt your dish, throw it out and start anew. Happy baking!

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, many people are wondering where to go for the holiday this year. There are many interesting things that students can do for this special day. 

Eat at a local restaurant (Suggestions: The Old Spaghetti Factory, Five Guys)

This is a classic for a reason. There is nothing wrong with just going for a simple, yet fun outing, that your parents and grandparents likely did as well. You could do anything from a fancy Italian restaurant, to a little burger joint; the options are endless for this tried-and-true Valentine’s Day activity. The Old Spaghetti Factory is a great idea if you’re looking for a candlelight dinner, while Five Guys would be a wonderful option for a laid-back meal.

Go to a coffee shop (Suggestions: Starbucks, Dutch Bros.)

This affordable event would be a wonderful opportunity to hang out and get to know someone better, while sipping on coffee (or tea/juice if you do not drink coffee). It’s a laid-back way to spend your Valentine’s Day, with no pressure, and it’s very budget-friendly. Starbucks and Dutch Bros. both offer good options for coffee and non-coffee drinks as well. Additionally, they often have themed items available for each holiday.

Go to the movies (Suggestion: McMenamins Movie Theaters)

Yet another example of a timeless Valentine’s Day tradition. You could go and see an action film, a romantic comedy, or anything in between. The cinema offers many different options for you to go, eat candy and popcorn, and drink soda while watching the movie of your choice. For a unique spin, go to a McMenamins that has a built-in theater, and you can get some better quality food as well as the traditional movie theater snacks. 

Go for a hike (Suggestions: Smith Rock, King’s Mountain)

Perhaps not the most popular choice on what to do for Valentine’s Day, but if you like to be outside, this would be an opportunity to get some fresh air, exercise, and spend time with whoever you bring with you. If weather permits, Smith Rock is a wonderful hike in the Central Oregon Area–and King’s Mountain is a beautiful hike in the forest by the coast, a little outside of Tillamook.

No matter what you decide to do for Valentine’s Day, there are many different options that are suitable for everyone, and the holiday marks a great opportunity to get out of the house and hang out with someone special.

The answers to The Current’s Niche Colors Crossword will be published in March’s issue. 

The printable version of The Current’s Niche Colors Crossword can be found HERE. All clues are listed below.

ACROSS

1. A shade of orange. Also a stone fruit.

3. Latin for ‘water’. Also, blue.

5. Literally the best name for a color ever. Kinda blue-grey-greenish. Rhymes with  ‘swamp’.

6. A region in France. Reddish.

8. Third-most common eye color. A tree, but also a nut and a shade of brown.

10. How British people pronounce ‘marvelous’, and pink.

12. Shade of green, also a city from the Pokemon region of Kanto.

14. A tree nut, kind of tan. Smells like cyanide.

DOWN

2. Second color of the rainbow. A pre-sliced fruit. (Hint: This is not a niche color.)

4. The color between cyan and blue. Think ‘sky’.

7. The blue fabric jeans are usually made out of.

8. Bright green color. Name of a frog. Where the Joker’s girlfriend got the inspiration for her name.

9. Steel Magnolias: “My colors are blush and _______.”

11. Charli xcx, it’s a ____ summer. 

13. First color of the rainbow. Taylor Swift’s fourth studio album.

The answers to The Current’s Mythology Crossword are listed below.

ACROSS

1. Hephaestus = The Greek god of blacksmiths, volcanoes, and fire.

3. Osiris = The Egyptian god of fertility and the embodiment of death.

5. Diana = The Roman goddess of hunting, the moon, and wild animals.

6. Seth = An Egyptian sky god, lording over the desert, violence, storms, and disorder.

8. Anubis =The Egyptian god of cemeteries and embalming, usually considered the ‘god of the dead’.

9. Pomona = The Roman goddess of fruit and plenty.

11. Apollo = The Greek god of prophecy and music.

12. Eos = Greek goddess of the dawn.

13. Nemesis = The Greek goddess of revenge and divine retribution.

DOWN

2. Eris = Greek personification of strife and discord.

4. Dionysus = Greek god of wine and revelry.

7. Bacchus = Roman form of number four; meaning ‘the loud one’.

9. Persephone = Greek goddess of spring, daughter of Demeter and Zeus, bride of Hades.

10. Bellona = Roman goddess of war.

12. Eirene = A member of the three Horae; goddess and personification of peace.