Volume 15, Issue 7

The Common GroundVolume 15 , Issue 7Tuesday, November 225, 2008

Burris Laboratory School2201 W. University Ave. Muncie, IN 47306-1062765-285-1131

2 The Common Ground Issue 6

Volleyball team takes state title... againCharles Wolfe Staff Writer

The volleyball team won its 12th consecutive state champion-ship on Saturday, Nov. 8, adding yet another extraordinary chapter to its most prestigious tradition of winning. Not even John Wooden could do that, as he couldn’t get past seven with the UCLA men’s basketball team. 12 straight is a number only bested by the Carmel girl’s swim team, which won its 21st consecutive state title this year.

For high school volleyball how-ever, Marquette Catholic, a high school in Michigan City, won its fifth straight state title this year. That makes Marquette Catholic volleyball the closest competi-tion to our seemingly unbreak-able record. Despite winning 12 straight, no one in the organiza-tion is by any means blasé. “It never gets old,” said junior Arin Phillips. “I feel relieved to carry on the tradition.”

Head coach Steve Shondell

has similar thoughts. “The first time you win something big, it is always extra special, but this year was no different because we had to rebuild our team,” Shon-dell said. “It was just great to see so many new faces on the court, and the fact that we were still able to pull through is special. The streak may be in danger of ending, however, due to modifications in the class sys-tem, which will likely take place at the start of next year. What would happen is our current

system would change to a three-class system, increasing the number of teams in each class. Burris would be in the middle class, and their new tough op-ponents would consist of India-napolis Catholic schools, Bishop Chatard being one of them. “I am never afraid of playing the best,” said Shondell. Phillips agrees. ‘You can change the system all you want, but we still [are] gonna kick butt.”

Team Sport LevelofCompetition RecordL.A. Lakers Basketball NBA 3N.Y. Yankees Baseball MLB 5Marquette Catholic Volleyball high school 5*UCLA Bruins Basketball NCAA 7Boston Celtics Basketball NBA 8Burris Volleyball high school 12*Honolulu St. Louis Football high school 14Sioux Falls Wash. Football high school 14Carmel Swimming high school 21*

*active streak http://bleacherreport.com/articles/7837-top-five-sports-streaks

Greatest All-Time Championship Streaks

CGPhotos/Phipps

Junior Taylor Unroe and sophomore Kelsey Carr celebrate a point in the state championship match against Brownstown. (Middle) Freshman Taylor Morey spikes the ball. “That was our night,” said Morey. Senior Mia Tabberson reacts after gainging a point along with Taylor and Al-lyson Morey. “Burris volleyball has been a great four-year experience for me, and everyone,” said Tabberson.


Student parking problems solved

1. The permits allow for parking in blue permit zones only.2. The permits must be placed on the lower left side of the

rear bumper to be deemed valid.3. Permits may no be transferred to another vehicle without

express permission of the City of Muncie Street Department.

4. Permit holders are allowed to be park along Nichols Ave., Washington St. and Main St. (Ms. Berry requests holders park along street sides closest to the school.

5. Permit trial period expires Feb. 1, 2009.

Amos ShrollStaff Writer

Vehicle parking for both Bur-ris students and faculty hopes to be a problem of the past for the first time in years.

After much deliberation be-tween the Burris student coun-cil, faculty and the City of Mun-cie Street Department, students who drive to school now have the option to use special passes allowing them to park along city streets without being ticketed.

“Students were angry the last time when they were ticketed. The student council created a group of students to go with Dr. McGee and I to a public works meeting downtown,” said Asst. Principal Lisa Berry. “The stu-dents, Drew Coelho, David Morgan and Bryce Rector, and I went to the meeting and eventu-ally met with Code Enforcement Officer Ron Ball. We were able to request the parking passes for Burrs students only in two hour parking to prevent Ball State stu-

dents from parking there,” said Berry.

The permit allows students to park along Nichols Ave., Wash-ington St. and Main St., all streets with two hour parking. Previ-ously, students have either had to purchase commuter passes from Ball State Parking Services, or park in the two-hour parking streets in front of the school.

“After we work the permits out with the city, we received 35 passes for students,” said Berry. “I went around with a survey for students who drive to determine who would get the passes. Some students had already paid for commuter passes, so we need to find out which students needed a parking pass.”

The permits will expire after Feb. 1, 2009 after a trial period. If the period goes without any major problems, the city will renew the permit for upcoming school years.

There is no charge for permits this year, but that may change for the 2009-2010 school year.

CG Photo/ Amos Shroll

Tickets given to students along Nichols prompted faculty action in providing another option for student parking.

The hit series Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer, is a huge phe-nomenon with teens around not only the country, but in our school.

The movie was released out on November 20. The people who have read the book are also excited for the movie. Bur-ris sophomore Jen Watkins said, “The movie should be good, but I can already tell it’s going to be a huge disappointment to all of the readers.”

Burris sophomore Hannah

Badger says, “The casting crew did a descent job picking whom should be in the movie, but I think that they didn’t choose a good person for Alice. They should have stuck more to the book on that.”

The first night’s midnight screenings generated “north of $7 million.” Fandango has been selling 5 Twilight tickets per second as of early Friday morning and sold out more than 1,000 midnight show times on Thursday night, in advance and

online. 34% of moviegoers in a Fandango.com poll said they took off a few hours from school or the office to see the movie. Twilight takes the #3 spot on Fan-dango’s list of Top Advance Tick-et-Sellers, surpassing the “Harry Potter”, “Pirates” and “Lord of the Rings” movies. “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” and “The Dark Knight” remain in the #1 and #2 spots, respectively. From younger children to adults, Stephanie Meyer has attracted audiences of all ages.

‘Twilight’ takes Box Office by storm

Parking Guidelines


Erica ZookStaff Writer

The High School Nutrition and Wellness class has recently been assigned a 400-point project in relation to their knowledge of eggs.

The project was assigned with the motive of responsibility. Stu-dents were given an informational sheet of “pick and choose” proj-ect ideas in which each project was given a set amount of points in relation to level of difficulty. The tasks range from but were not limited to; writing an aca-demic three-page research paper, watching an informational video on eggs, and setting up individual or group labs with Carie Mott-weiler. Students were able to sign-up for cooking-labs a day in advance and were responsible for planning each recipe in addition to following general lab-conduct.

Junior Allyson Morey, paired

up with Seniors Johanna Hill-grove and Erica Zook to prepare a ham and cheese quiche.

“I really enjoyed learning the effects eggs have in recipes and actually applying my knowledge hands-on. It’s not something you get to experience in other class-rooms very often, Mott’s a great teacher and I appreciate the op-portunity,” said Morey.

Mottweiler is a new teacher this year yet has won the hearts of many of her students.

“Mott made a lot of effort dur-ing this project really trying to make sure anyone who was moti-vated got to experience the proj-ect and cooking individually,” said Senior Kiley Jones.

“When I was student-teach-ing I got the idea for this project, however, I modified it so every-thing I would normally teach in a lesson applied. Altogether, I think the students who were involved did really well, which I was excit-

ed about. I think the biggest prob-lem for some students was need-ing more direction but I wanted

to create variations of making it individual,” said Mottweiler.

Eggs-cellent expectations in nutrition

Jase Crehanstaff writer

Sandra Murray’s class will be attending their first Little Hoosier meeting, dressing up for Hal-loween, participating in parent-teacher conferences and learn-ing about geometry within this month.

The first official Little Hoosier meeting that the elected leaders will run will be held on October 24. The topic will be James Whit-comb Riley. The meeting will in-clude a medicine show, similar to that of the 1800 and 1900’s. This was like a modern day vari-ety show, but at the end people would try to sell medicine or home remedies.

Murray’s class is starting a ge-ometry project where they will be learning about geometric shapes, patterns and symmetry. Fourth grader Hannah Fluhler said, “Somebody made up a website that pretended a person found

the last page in Betsy Ross’s jour-nal that said she wanted to make a quilt having three geometric shapes, had symmetrical design (the whole quilt doesn’t have to be symmetrical), and has a pat-tern.”

Connor Ku-rek, fourth grad-er, then went on to add, “Mrs. Murray split the class up into groups of three and each person within the group researched what made a geomet-ric shape, what a pattern is, and what symmetry is.”

For Halloween, Murray said, “The fourth and fifth graders were asked to dress as a famous

historical American for the first time, instead of something like a werewolf. A couple of fourth graders plan on being Laura In-

galls Wilder, the writer of “Little House on the Prairie”, while others want to be Teddy Roos-evelt.”

The plan is that researching and dressing as historical Ameri-cans will help lead the fourth and fifth grad-ers into their re-search on Amer-ican history.

As a class, the fourth grade just finished

reading “My Side of the Moun-tain.” Murray said the book was “about a boy who runs away

from a New York City home to the mountains and lives off the land.” Murray added, “The boy lives in a tree and trains a falcon to help him hunt his food.”

Murray’s fourth graders are starting to work on fractions in math. Murray said, “They have not learned to add, subtract, multiply, or divide fractions yet, but are still trying to learn what a fraction is.” Much work still needs to be completed in this area.

Students and teachers are pre-paring for parent-teacher confer-ences at the end of the month. Students usually lead the confer-ences at this grade level as they explain to their parents what has been happening in school and how well they are understanding and progressing in each subject area.

Murray’s fourth graders face a busy month

“Mrs. Murray split the class up

into groups of three and each

person within the group researched what made a geo-metric shape, what

a pattern is, and what symmetry is.”

-Fourth grader, Connor KureK

Picture: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1368/1156412600_5ce6f9646d.jpg


Giving a helping hand to those in needKelli Anderson Staff Writer

The annual Feed My Sheep Thanksgiving dinner is now in it’s 13th year is serving a free Thanksgiving dinner for those in need. This years dinner will be serve 1-3 p.m. Nov. 27 in the Central High School Cafeteria. Meal delivery will be available, and MITS busses will provide free transportation within the city.

Over the years that this pro-gram has been provided more than 8,200 people thanks to do-nations and volunteers within

the city. They have reported that despite the help they have been given they still are facing chal-lenges and shortfalls and even a bigger shortfall this year in the midst of growing need and a struggling economy, according to George Huggins, event director. Feed My Sheep Thanksgiving is also having a canned food drive and items can be dropped off at any Muncie community schools by Nov. 24 or delivered directly to Muncie Central after Nov. 24. They also will need volunteers help for the dinner at Muncie Central and for more information

contact Feed My Sheep at (765) 405-1291.

The Muncie mission is also collecting food for Thanksgiving. Items needed include turkeys, #10 cans of green beans and sweet potatoes, fresh vegetables (carrots, celery and radishes), fresh fruit (apples, oranges and bananas), rolls, pumpkin pies and whipped topping. Donors should call the mission (765) 288-9122.

The Salvation Army is in des-perate need of volunteers for this holiday season. While the Salva-tion Army has hired, unemployed

workers for this season, (because the lack of volunteers) the longer they use the hired help the more it will take away from the organi-zations funds for next year. The Salvation Army hopes to raise $230,000 to fund its operations next year. That goal is $10,000 more than last year’s goal of $220,000. They fell short of the goal last year, however, bringing in around $200,000. They are really counting on having a suc-cessful campaign this year and would really like some help with volunteers taking over the shifts of the paid employers.

CG Photo

Students collect canned goods for the annual Feed My Sheep Thanks-giving dinner that will take place November 27 from 1-3 p.m.

Rule YardleyReporter

The history of Indiana Native Ameri-cans is being taught in Christy Wauzzin-ski’s fourth grade class.

Wauzzinki’s class is learning about the Native Americans who once lived in this state by the ball state student teach-ers.

Some of the Native Americans that the fourth grade is learning about are the Fort Indiana, Kikapu, and Potowatomi Native Americans. They are learning about the traditions, games, and what daily life was like for boys and girls liv-

ing in these tribes.Her class is also researching and

communicating with living Miami tribe members to find out what life is like for them, which is the only tribe that still remains in Indiana. Wauzzinki said that this is because the other tribes got forced out of the state.

Her class is also reading books about Native Americans, one is called “Morn-ing Girl” By Micheal Dorris.

“A great writer” Wauzzinki said. The other book is called “Malus Wolf.“

A less known book but contains good writing” Wauzzinski said.

Students learn the history of Native American culture

The Native American Potowatomi tribe logo


Brainstorming for the Holiday SeasonJillian MiersStaff writer

With all the websites and guides to gift shopping available, one would think thinking of gifts for the special people in our lives would be easy, but most find that it is not.

In a world full of material “stuff,” every thing to do anything is in reach. However, many students find it hard to think of gifts to give to friends and family. Often times, students are low on cash to spend on every special person in their life. Looking for gifts, they look for the inexpensive but personal things which could be useful to give.

One particular day in the year allows for gift shoppers to have an opportunity to shop for the latest technology, clothing, or other items to be priced relatively low, especially for the Christmas season. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the biggest shopping day in the year.

With the economic crisis at hand, peo-ple have begun spending less on unneces-sary things; and since the holiday season is coming up, they’re looking for less ex-pensive but still touching items to buy for each other.

Simple things can make another person

feel special even without it costing a ton of money. When looking for gifts, things that remind the person of an event they spent time with you during or an inside joke can be the best type of gift.

For a family member, such as a mother or a sister, the smaller scrapbook (8 1/2” by 11” or 8” by 8”) could be a great gift if they enjoy taking pictures. Scrapboooking is a great way to preserve memories.

For male family members or friends, supplies to aid in their hobbies could be a personal gift, which is also useful. For example, if said person is interested in fishing, buying bait or new hooks for them would be useful.

Gifts cards are also an inexpensive way of giving the “perfect gift” to someone. With a gift card, the receiver has the choice of picking out what they would like. Some would say this is impersonal but for a last-minute item, it’s a decent gift.

Another way to save money is to get a group of friends together and do a Se-cret Santa. This way you don’t have to buy many gifts but you can still make your present special and meaninful. It also adds an element of surprise.

Gift IdeasFOR GIRLS/WOMENScrapbookaccessoriespurse homemade items (scarf, hat, wallet, etc)CDS/movies/books

FOR BOYS/MENSupplies for hobbies (fishing, sports, ganes, etc.)car wash ticketshomemade items (scarf, hat, wallet, etc)CDS/movies/books

Tyler BauchertStaff Writer

The Burris student lounge has recently gained new additions of artwork. There are three new paintings in the student lounge one was created by Mari Tornizawn, one by Mac Trechsel, and the creator of the third piece of art work is unknown.

“The paintings have calming effects on the students due to the cool colors and the soothing textures, I believe the paintings help students relax and feel at home during their lunch period,” said Burris senior Art Nancarrow. Artist and Burris senior Mac Trechsel also believes the artwork is a positive addition to the student lounge. “The artwork is really a great addition to the student lounge, and I noticed it really brings the

room together,” said Trechsel.Recently there has been

turmoil over messes created within the student lounge. Due to the messes created the 12:00 lunch period was banned from the student lounge on the 14th of this November.

“I think that sometimes in our busy day it is hard to remember to clean up after ourselves, but were all responsible for the upkeep of our school,” Burris math teacher Mrs. Shepherd. Members of the 12:00 lunch period did extra organization within the student lounge on the 20th and now can eat within the lounge again. “I believe locking the kids out of the lounge was a bad decision, it only created more mess within the hallways,” said Burris senior Art Nancarrow.

Student Lounge changes affect students’ lunch times

Ethan LeachReporter

“My level threes [students] are making Spanish lessons for the elementary students,” said Judith Sponseller, commenting on the proj-ect that her high school Spanish class is currently working on.

In Sponseller’s third level Spanish class, her students are making lessons to teach to various elementary classes. These classes include the kindergarten class, both first grade classes, one-third grade class, and both fourth grade classes. “Each group (of students) are creat-ing four twenty-minute lessons that will be taught over a four-day period,” explained Sponseller.

The most advanced lesson will be teaching the numbers one through forty and the months of the year. To accurately assess what they have learned, their question will be “When is your birthday.” The students will also be graded on how well they taught the lessons. “When one group is teaching, other groups will sit in and evaluate them.”

Two groups of students will be teaching the colors, then accessing their learning by asking them “What is their favorite color?” Two other groups will be teaching numbers one through fifty. Another two will be teaching fruits, asking, “What is this?” Two other groups will be teaching animal identification, asking the students whether they like that animal or not.

The students will be teach the younger students simple Spanish lessons the same way Sponseller teaches them, the natural approach. “One of the best ways to learn it is to teach it,” said Sponseller.

¿Hablan ustedes español? Third year Spanish students teach elementary children the basics


On any given day, one-third of teenagers skip breakfast; however, Burris students don’t struggle.

“I eat breakfast everyday because I get hungry every morning, and it makes me stay focused,” said junior Joel Williamson.

“I eat breakfast everyday because I am less distracted and it keeps me going until lunch,” said junior Arika Armstrong.

Although about 30 percent of teenagers

fail to realize the importance of breakfast, according to a number of national studies, Burris students seem to understand.

“Breakfast is important for two main rea-sons. First of all, the root words of breakfast are breaking fast. When you sleep, you are fasting because you do not eat for eight to 10 hours. Breakfast, therefore, replenishes your body after the fast. Second, breakfast, which includes a sugar that provides energy for

your brain called glucose, causes your brain to speed up, or wake up, and function prop-erly, “ said Christina Ricafort, a nutritionist in Muncie.

Studies across the United States have shown that eating breakfast improves stu-dents’ performance in schools. Perhaps this knowledge contributes to Burris’s above av-erage test scores and overall performance of students.

Everyone has mornings where they wake up, see the clock read 7:35 a.m., scramble to get ready, and then decide to skip breakfast to get to school on time.

This simple decision of skip-ping breakfast could affect the rest of the day. In fact, studies across the United States show that students are more distracted and have a harder time focusing on their schoolwork when they skip breakfast. In addition, stud-ies show those students who do not eat breakfast tend to over-eat throughout the rest of the day.

Therefore, students need quick and easy breakfast ideas

for those hectic days when they are scrambling to get out the door.

“I usually just eat bagged dry cereal on those days,” said fresh-man Katie Armstrong.

Amelia Heitzelman, a sopho-more, said, “ I usually just find some candy at school or some-thing.”

“I usually just grab a granola bar or something,” said freshman Peter Moskalew.

Sophomore Kelsey Carr said, “ I do what I usually do and just grab a pop tart or whatever I can find.”

Students need quick, easy breakfast ideas

An idea for a quick and easy breakfast was suggested by Mark Kramer, a dedicated Burris par-ent. “These granola bars make an easy, quick, delicious, and healthy breakfast on mornings when you are running late,” said Kramer.

Easy Granola BarsIngredients:3 cups quick-cooking oats1 (14 ounces) can sweetened

condensed milk2 tablespoons butter, melted1 cup faked coconut 1 cup sliced almonds1 cup miniature semisweet

chocolate chips½ cup sweetened dried cran-

berries

Directions:Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Fahrenheit. Grease a 9 by 13 inch pan.

In a large owl, mix together the oats, sweetened condensed milk, butter, coconut, almonds, chocolate chips and cranber-ries with your hands until well blended. Press lat into the pre-pared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

CG photo/allrecipes.com

Easy Granola Bars make for a quick and easy breakfast. “ I love mak-ing these for my kids. They love them,” said Mark Kramer.

CGPhoto/ Audrey Kramer

The graph compares SAT critical reading scores to the state average.Perhaps Burris’s high scores is related to the large number of students eating breakfast.

Easy Granola Bars for breakfast

Burris students eat breakfast

The Common Ground Staff

Staff WritersKelli AndersonTyler BauchertBrittany DavisJohanna HillgroveJillian MiersJohn PhippsEmma ReichleTed ShidelerJoseph ZeilerErica Zook

Business ManagerDaniel Cheesman

AdviserBetsy Ahlersmeyer

Contact us at:[email protected] orin Burris room 123

Purpose of the NewspaperThe Common Ground began publication in 1994 as an open forum for students, staff, parents and other interested readers. The Common Ground is designed to provide both a source of information as well as an academic tool by which student staff members explore journalistic skills and cooperation. Its duty is to inform students about events, and ideas that are pertinent to them, their school and their community. The content of the Common Ground will inform, entertain, persuade, and analyze. The Common Ground will strive for accuracy and responsibility in this endeavor, as well as fairness and impartiality.


Emma Reichlestaff writer

The annual sports banquet was held on Sunday the 16th to honor all of the athletes and coaching staff that participated in Fall sports this year.

The volleyball team was ab-sent from the banquet due to multiple scheduling conflicts with tryouts and other simi-lar events. They were excused from the Fall banquet but will still hold a personal banquet to honor another victory at the state level. Students missed vol-leyball coach, Steve Shondel’s usual speech but were not upset to cut down on time spent at the banquet.

“I wanted to hear his goofy team nick names but I had a ton of homework so I didn’t mind a shorter banquet,” said Academy senior Samantha Kimsey.

More time than usual was spend honoring and appreciat-ing the coaches, as both soccer

coaches are leaving the program this year. The boys honored their coach Srinicasam Sundaram with a speech given by Burris se-nior Drew Coelho and a gift pre-sented to him by the team. Many players have expressed that they will miss the soccer coach and enjoyed the season.

“He has coached me for ten years and has impacted me and my family enormously,” said Coelho.

Although focus was shifted to honoring the coaches this year, time spent honoring the players still held a majority of the time. Coaches summarized their sea-sons and awarded their players for their strong individual sea-sons. Athletes and coaches alike reflect that they enjoyed this years Fall sports banquet.

“I think it was a good banquet to have for my senior year,” said Academy senior Brooke Kimsey.

Fall athletes attendsports banquet

School band raises money for spring tripJoseph ZeilerStaff Writer

The University Schools Band held a spaghetti dinner On No-vember 11, 2008 to raise money for their trip in the spring.

The high school band worked by setting up, cooking the food, serving the food, cleaning the dishes, and taking all the chairs and tables down. Derrick Da-vis, a Burris senior, explained, “I worked in the kitchen cooking and getting to know the Acad-emy students.”

The bands also performed to entertain the guests while they ate. The food consisted of spa-ghetti, served with either meat or non-meat sauce, salad, bread, a variety of sodas, and a wide se-lection of deserts provided by the middle school band members.

The entertainment started with the High School Jazz Band, they performed numbers such as Smooth by Santana and In the

Stone by Earth, Wind, and Fire. “We did a great job taking ‘What is Hip’ at twice the speed we normally take it,” commented

Davis. The middle school then performed, followed by the ele-mentary. The Elementary perfor-mance included both ensemble

performances, and solos by cer-tain talented student in the band. Finally, two high school instru-ment quartets performed to fin-ish the show.

“I think it was pretty suc-cessful,” said Seth Micheal, and Academy Junior, “A lot of people showed up, and not many left, so it couldn’t have been that bad.”

At the end, the High School quickly cleaned everything up and put away all the chairs and tables, and transported all the band’s equipment back to Burris. “Overall, I was very pleased,” explained the Band Director, Bradford Meyerdierks, “Every-thing went very smoothly.” There was, however, a little scare. “Not everyone showed up on time,” explained Micheal. Overall, the reaction was positive. Davis explains, “We did a good job, although we did do better last year.”

CG photo/ Zeiler

The University Schools High School Band performs Birdland at the Spaghetti Dinner under the direction of Bradford Meyerdierks.

Volume 15, Issue 7

Documents

Transcript of Volume 15, Issue 7