Happy Holidays everyone! Winter break has started, and everyone can start celebrating the winter solstice in his or her own way!
Here at Carlé we celebrated this most ancient of festivals by holding a gift exchange that we like to call White Elephant. This is a game of greed and giving, in which all students bring a gift to school. When the game starts, each student gets to take the gift they wish from another student. No one knows who will have each gift in the end.
The earliest human civilizations on earth first created celebrations such as the ones we have today as a way to keep people's spirits up during the darkest and coldest time of the year. This can be a dark time of year for some of the students that attend here, so like our ancestors before us, we use the exchange of gifts to bring joy to them.
Our teacher, Verna, has organized the White Elephant gift exchange every year, for the past five years. She thought it was the most fun way to exchange gifts among students. Verna said this about the White Elephant: “It's lots of fun! It gets everybody in the Christmas spirit before Break.”
Sustainability awards have been given out, and with them free certificates for products from our own in house design business Pegasus Promotional Products. Some students use these certificates to make Christmas presents for their family and friends.
We have been doing community service for the Lake County Land Trust. Students have been helping to fill and address many envelopes, and they have been doing an exceptional job, too.
Nick Perry has now presented his portfolio, meaning that he is now all set to graduate. Congratulations Nick!
The student of the week was Jamila Parker. She has always been a great student, as well as a wonderful designer in our business. She recently took over the directorial duties during our morning bulletin. She also is very willing to volunteer whenever help is needed.
All of the designers here are working on a Plaque for the State Teacher of the Year award ceremony in
February. The student who makes the plaque chosen by the foundation will be able to put it on their resume that they were the designer of the Teacher of the Year plaque. This is a great opportunity for our designers.
That is all for the last Carlé Chronicle of the year! Have a very happy and politically correct Winter Solstice!
Carlé Chronicle: Groups highlight students' creativity
Written by Atlee Erickson
Sunday, 09 December 2007
Here at Carlé we are proud of all of the talent and creativity we have gathered here, and we love to share this talent with our community. The several groups we have here that I will detail on are drama, choir, music, culinary, art and media arts.
We have now started our new drama group, headed by our principal, Bill MacDougall. This group makes short skits related to issues and problems facing much of the youth in Clearlake, today. The best part of these skits is that the audience gets to interact with the characters in these skits, and ask them questions about their actions. They will begin touring around February or March. The group can be requested to perform if you call Carlé High School at (707) 994-1033.
For the holiday season, we have formed a choir. We would like to thank Dr. Heidi Morgan for leading the choir. They will be singing a combination of classic Christmas carols and new material, beginning Dec. 7 for audiences such as the Yuba College faculty.
Our culinary class, taught by Lauren Schneider, is now working on making holiday delights. They will be holding a holiday tea party here at Carlé High School on Friday, Dec. 14, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. This event will help raise money for buying new equipment for the culinary class. Tea, sandwiches, cookies, and holiday breads will be served at this tea party, so if you wish to attend, please come by! A $10 donation is suggested.
Our art class, taught by Patty Jahsmine, is working on many interesting and creative projects. They have been studying the basics of tie-dye with tie-dye artist, William Schlick, who we would like to greatly
thank for the generous donation of his time and talent. They are also doing woodworking and painting, as well as making collages.
The media class at Carlé is full of many great students. Alan Siegel, the head of the media class, says himself that the students are the experts at what they do in this class, and they teach each other. There are students who do work with making short films, graphic designs, making products for our business,
computer assembly, and many other fields.
A group of students are now starting work with Elizabeth Larson for a new Web site in association with Lake County News online. Named Lake County Live, this new site will include many features that will be more appealing to the less targeted youth of Lake County. It will be mainly based around the local musical community, but will include many interesting things such as a web-comic, created by our own Paige Salvante, articles on local concerts and events that our writers have attended, and profiles of the people of our community.
We are proud of our students who have achieved gold level during the second grading period. These exceptional students are Andre Ari, Sam Ayala, Wes Besgrove, Anthony Boylen, Kelly Campo, Justin Duncan, Atlee Erickson, Janiel Hubert-Bendefiel, Dre'shon Hunter, Katherine Ledesma, Amanda Long, Daniel Miller, Courtney Montiel, Steven Negrete, David Ochoa, Jamila Parker, Sarah Roath and Kelly Trask.
All of the hardworking, creative and gifted students of Carlé are the reason we can produce such wonderful things here. If you are in need of some talent, you needn't look any further.
Safe and Sober Grad committee sells Christmas wreaths
Written by Roberta Lyons
Saturday, 08 December 2007
LOWER LAKE – The Lower Lake High School Safe and Sober Grad Night Committee is selling decorated Christmas wreaths as a fundraiser for the 2008 graduation night party for LLHS graduating seniors.
The wreaths are fresh, lovely and decorated, and can be purchased for just $25. They feature different types of greenery and pine cones.
If you would like to purchase a wreath, contact Jan Fiedler at 707-994-8181.
If you would like to donate to the committee, send donations to Elma Freeman at P.O. Box 1892, Clearlake, CA 95422.
Middletown Adventist School students sing during Christmas in Middletown. Courtesy photo.
MIDDLETOWN – Middletown Adventist School sang several songs from this year's Christmas play, "The Little Christmas Lamb," at Christmas in Middletown on Dec. 1.
The students had a successful bake sale in the Middletown Plaza parking lot and had lots of fun as they helped to spread their ever-infectious Christmas spirit!
The school also had a booth at Christmas in Middletown. Courtesy photo.
Carlé Chronicle: High praise for Barbara, tough grading period ahead
Written by Atlee Erickson
Friday, 30 November 2007
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and everyone enjoyed their break. Even though having a break from school was great, we are all glad to be back here at Carlé again!
Some new students have joined Carlé since the beginning of October. We would like to welcome Sam Ayala, Peter Bennett, Justin Duncan, Michelle Hayes, Mary Snyder and Kayla Ward.
A few of our current students are now nearing graduation, and all will be presenting their portfolios on Nov. 29. They are Crystal Engelking, Wes Besgrove and Amy Jones. They each have been great students, and will be missed when they leave.
The staff members at Carlé always do their best so that the students here can get the most out of their school. Everyone here would like to thank one of our most valued staff members: Barbara Dye. We want our appreciation of her to be known. She worked on her own time in order to get all the student's report cards out for the second grading period. She is loved by all of the students and the staff.
Our principle, Bill MacDougall says, “She is one of the most intelligent, efficient and pleasant people I have ever met.”
Our student body president Lavonne Pattee also said, “Barbara is what keeps Carlé High running; she is what keeps everything running smoothly, and she also happens to one of the kindest people that has ever walked the face of the Earth.”
Our teacher, Alan Siegel, had this to say: “Barbara is probably the most competent person I have ever had the pleasure of working with. She is our secretary, counselor, advisor, troubleshooter, English corrector and so much more. She is the single most important person to the success of this school.”
The third grading period is under way and it is going to be a strange one. This is because of the winter vacation taking away most of our school days, making it harder to get a good amount of credits. It will be impossible for students to achieve gold level unless they do a good amount of extra credit. We are confident, though, that everyone here will do just fine.
Congratulations to this week's student of the week, Courtney Montiel. She was chosen as student of the week for helping other students, doing a lot of community service, and always being a very pleasant person.
