What’s recently happened?
The week of April 22 to April 26 has been Spirit Week for the 2024 Prom at Wheeler High School (WHS).
The spirit days included Celebrity Day, Mathletes versus Athletes, Western Wednesday, Throwback Thursday, and Dress Down Day.
On Celebrity Day many people dressed up as their favorite celebrity and had lots of fun. Freshman Ethan Dozois dressed up as JoJo Siwa, who sings one of his favorite songs, “Karma.”
“I felt like karma was going to come and get me,” Dozois said.
For Mathletes versus Athletes, many people dressed up by wearing their favorite team jersey, or their own jersey, while others wore vests and sweaters to mimic a mathlete. Junior Louan Marmeth wore his track uniform for this spirit day.
“I felt very cool walking around in my uniform,” Marmeth said.
Western Wednesday was when most people dressed up. An English teacher additionally played country music in the hallways during passing periods.
Throwback Thursday had some people dress up, and Friday was Dress Down Day, or pajama day, because most students leave at lunch time to prepare for Prom.
It has been an exciting week for WHS students, and Prom will finish it off.
What’s coming up?
On May 2, the new annual Senior Night track meet will be held at WHS.
This meet is a dual meet between Andrean High School (AHS) and WHS.
The relays are mixed with WHS Boys and Girls Track members and with students from opposing schools on the same team.
There is even a coaches, siblings, and parents relay. This includes siblings or parents of athletes from both schools competing with both AHS and WHS coaches in 4x100 relays.
This tradition was started last year and went very well.
After the fun meet, athletes from both teams join together to have a big dinner with lots of food and drinks.
Staff spotlight:
One of the Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) teachers, Tasha Woods, started off heading into a business career but decided to go back to school to teach and is now a well-loved teacher at WHS.
Woods originally began teaching middle schoolers but soon realized she wanted to teach students at a higher grade level.
The classes Woods has taught this year include Child Development, Human Development, Personal Finance, and the Bearcat Cafe, or Basic Skills.
Her favorite class to teach is Child Development. In this class, high school students are taught how to take care of and teach young children. The first trimester is book work and learning the basic skills, but the second trimester is when the fun begins. The class runs a small preschool where the high school students are the teachers. The preschoolers come in twice a week, and the students set up the lesson plans and activities for the day.
“My favorite part of this class is being able to watch students grow in the ability to teach the preschoolers and see how they use what I’ve taught them during preschool,” Woods said.
Not only does Woods teach at WHS, she is also the Class of 2026 co-sponsor. An English and Digital Media teacher, Natalie Mills, was the original class sponsor, but after discussing with Woods, the two of them decided it would be best to come together.
Woods has a daughter who is a sophomore at WHS. This allows Woods to be closer to the Class of 2026 and helps events run smoothly.
Woods wants all upcoming high school students to know that their grades will matter once they reach high school and it is important for them to stay focused and organized.
“Organization is key,” Woods said.
Student spotlight:
A transfer student from France, Louan Marmeth has been enjoying being in America.
“I will be sad to go back to France; I’ll miss my friends here,” Marmeth said.
While in America, Marmeth has participated in both football and track and field. In football, he was the safety and kicker. In track and field, he is currently a long jumper and sprinter.
Back in France, Marmeth’s main sport is roller soccer. Roller soccer is soccer with roller skates on. He has been playing roller soccer for 12 years.
“I miss playing actual roller soccer games instead of just practicing here,” Marmeth said.
The main part of France Marmeth misses is the food. Specifically, he wishes he had the bread and cheese from France.
“Some people might say, ‘Oh not your parents?’ and to that I say no! The bread! Also the cheese, but mainly the bread,” Marmeth said.
One thing Marmeth didn’t expect when coming to the United States was how much hugging there is, a practice not very common in his home country. He was also surprised by how friendly everyone is.
“When walking down the street in France, and you like someone’s jacket, you say nothing,” Marmeth said. “Here, if someone sees your jacket and likes it, they say, ‘Oh I like your jacket!’”
The most helpful people to Marmeth have been WHS Spanish Teacher Shyloh “Profe” DeYoung and Science Teacher Dan Kenning as well as Students Justin Nunez and Zoie Barns.
Marmeth says that Kenning lets him tell stories of his life back in France and DeYoung helps Marmeth with English, even though she is the Spanish teacher.
Nunez and Barns were the first students to introduce themselves and begin hanging out with Marmeth, and that made a huge impact on Marmeth.
