It’s difficult to live in a world where at a very young age one starts to translate language services for the parents to be able to operate in society. Once the child begins learning how to speak, write and read English the parents depend on their children to translate conversations, letters, visits to the doctor, and parent phone calls.

“Ring, ring, ring, ring!” Mom or dad answer the phone, at the very moment that they hear the other person on the other line speaking English, they hand the phone over to you. You’re going back and forth translating the conversation.

When letters come in the mail from insurance companies they ask their child to read it to them and translate what they’re saying. Sometimes it’s hard because the child isn’t able to read that high level of writing, but the kid needs to try their best to translate it.

It is said that these type of students’ brain develops faster than regular students because they have to learn the two types of cultures at the same time. They are very flexible in the sense that they go back and forth from the American culture to their native culture.

What would parents do without these kids? They would have to struggle to figure it out on their own. To be able to maneuver in society they would have no other choice but to learn English.

This type of growth makes the child a better and enhanced person because he/she is not only bilingual, but they also have a clear idea of both cultures.

Many students think that the Benchmarks given to us aren’t accurate measures of student learning because for most subjects they test us on concepts we haven’t even learned. When I asked Libertad Carlos, a senior at LPS San Jose, what she thought about benchmarks she politely responded, “I don’t see the point of taking the benchmarks if most of the time our classes aren’t ready for them.” Many students that I asked seemed to agree with her response. Although, when asking them what subject they thought was the easiest, almost all of them said English. I think it’s because the English benchmark tests us on Language Arts, and all of the grades are being tested on the same concepts; it’s just that it’s by grade level.

As a senior, I can say this quarter we were somewhat prepared to take the American Government Benchmark. There were concepts on the test that we had been learning. For Physics, many of us didn’t feel prepared at all because the concepts we were being tested on we hadn’t covered in class. Sophomore Angelica Solis said she doesn’t feel like it is fair for us to take benchmarks when we haven’t even touched the topics being tested, which is why I think it’s a waste of time.

I’m aware of the fact that Benchmarks are given to the students because it’s a way of preparing for the STAR test, and see where the Leadership Public Schools are at. From my Journalism advisor, Devin, I know that the reason why every child gets tested by the STAR test is because of the federal law called NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND. Basically, it states that by about the late 2010’s all students should achieve proficiency. If they don’t, then there’s a problem with the school. And, it could be penalized through sanctions or state takeover. Others also argue that you can’t really measure the knowledge of the students by having them take standardized, multiple choice tests.

The LPS network decided to create these benchmarks so that the students can get better at test taking skills, but this is a minor reason why we have them. Most schools don’t have this system, so when STAR tests come some don’t have the test skills. The big reason is because they want to know how much we’ve learned. Benchmarks also help teachers see how well students understood the material they taught. It’s just the lack of information provided to students on what the purpose of the benchmarks is.

I think that many students feel confused about the benchmarks and don’t think they’re useful because nobody has actually sat there and tried to explain it to them. After writing this article I feel like I know more than I use to about the purpose of the benchmarks. Hopefully students will be able to understand a little bit about the purpose of benchmarks.

Many teachers around the school have been absent for more than one day. This means that the school will need more and more substitute. On Dec. 3, 2007 the following teachers were absent here at LPS: Ms. McCarty, Mr. Garcia, Ms. Davis, and Ms. Stevens. Due to their absences, we did not have any substitute teachers. The teachers who were on preparation periods had to sub for those classes. Many of them were in the cafeteria during this time. On Dec. 4, 2007, Mr. Sanda, Ms. Stevens, Ms. McCarty, Mr. Garcia, Mr. Gonzalez, Mr. Poo, and Ms. Tarumoto were out. On Dec. 5, 2007, Mr. Sanda and Mr. Poo were out. And on, Dec. 6, 2007, Mr. Sanda, Ms. Kimble, and Ms. Wynn were out.

Recently at Fair Middle School, an incident occurred in which a student was assaulted by another classmate. The substitute who witnessed the fight took no action in solving the situation, nor did he report it to the principal that day. This substitute has a reputation of letting kids do whatever they want. The principal at the school, Beverly Hill, knows that the substitutes can’t control a class but continues to hire him.

In my opinion, poor schools don’t have substitutes because they can’t afford them. I interviewed a friend, who goes to West Mont High School in Campbell, and asked her the following questions about the situation:
Is your school rich or well-off?

We can afford supplies without needing to fundraise

Does your school have shortages on substitutes?
NO!

What is the quality of the substitutes?
Many of the students still learn while the subs are at school.

In conclusion, all across the state we have had a shortage of teachers. If there is a shortage of teachers this means that there are even less substitutes. When teachers don’t come to school then students don’t get the education that they deserve. Something needs to be done about this. In my opinion the substitutes should be sort of interviewed in order to see if they can handle a class full of students. Maybe it’s better to be picky about subs then to have people getting hurt.

On Monday December 3, Sergio the leader from a famous Mexican group called K-Paz De La Sierra was killed. His body was found in Morelia, Michoacan. When they found him they said that his body had big signs of torture. Later on they found out that they had burned parts of his body, they beat and strangled him to death. The General of Justice from the state of Michoacan, Juan Antonio Magana de la Mora denied that Sergio’s body was torture like they said it was. He said that the scars that Sergio had could have been taken care of.

Sergio had already been receiving calls for about a year when his group was going to have a concert in Michoacan, but he canceled that concert because they had told him that they were going to kill him. Unfortunately, he denied to cancel the concert this time and he just took a group of security to take care of him. Even though they were with him all night they couldn’t stop this incident from happening. On their way out from the show and in the middle of the street, they were surrounded by fifteen black Suburban’s. The men were armed and the securities couldn’t defend Sergio since they didn’t have any weapons.

I think that Sergio should of taken the phone call seriously and not as a joke. They still haven’t found out who killed him, and why did they kill him. Sergio is not the first person to get killed in Michoacan. I suggest that the artist that go to Michoacan to give their concerts should take care because they don’t know if they are next.

This season, our basketball team started it with a bang. They have a new coach, Jake, which is our principal’s son. He has been working with them and preparing them for future games for the past couple of weeks. The Phoenix boy’s basketball team has eight players. The team players are: Jon Vu, Alex Alexander, Jeo Bautista, Chris Rotan-Smith, Hakeem Oladunjoye, Christian Diaz, David Batista, and Nick Sidhu. They have been practicing as much as possible every single day of the week to ensure that they do the best they can.

Though they lost their first four games, they have really improved. Their first game they lost 64-39 against Saint Francis, their next game they lost 66-11 against Homestead, and lastly their third game they lost 78-37 at Gonzalez High school. So you can see that although they had a rocky start, they are improving. Hakeem Oladunjoye a basketball player on the team stated, “We are starting to get used to each player.” Jon Vu, another player on the team, stated, “We communicate more, and we play good defense.” The boy’s basketball team is finally starting to work as a team and trying to cooperate during the game. So, we are hoping that our basketball team in their next game can win it for us.

We have 8 players on our team, and they all have a lot of talent. Jon, a senior, is the point guard; Jeo, a junior, on the team is a point guard as well; Alex, a junior, is the center; Chris, a junior, is a shooting guard; Hakeem, a senior, is a small forward; Christian, a senior, is a power forward; David, a junior, is a center; and last but not least is Nick, the only freshman on the team. Not only do we have good players but we also have a great coach named Jake. Jake has been working really hard with the boys and is starting to get this team together. Oladunjoye gave his opinion of Jake, “He’s cool, he’s more relaxed, and he wants to be more of a team than just having wins.” Both our new coach and the team have done their best and are really trying to make this season a success for us.

Although our team is getting better, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Oladunjoye stated, “We need to work greatly on our teamwork. I think we all know it, but don’t know what to do about it.” So, we can see that our team does not have a lack of skills but of teamwork. Vu had a different opinion, “We need to win. We are doing everything right but we are not scoring.” So, maybe it’s a lack of confidence. No matter the reason our basketball team is doing their best.

We are hoping that our team can bring home some wins and break the losing record that we have here at LPS. The whole school should give support to our basketball team and go to the games. An upcoming game that they will be playing is against Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto on December 18th and they will. We know that they will be prepared for these games and that though they may not win they will still have their pride because they did the best they could. Phoenix Rocks!

The Alien Minors Act (also called “The DREAM Act”) is a bill that has been introduced several times in the United States. This bill grants a citizenship for immigrant students and those wishing to join the US military. Basically, the Dream Act is a solution for someone looking for a legal status. It will allow immigrants live legally, obtain driver’s licenses, attend college, work legally, and apply for short traveling.

Qualifications
• Proof of arrival in the US at an age 15 or younger
• Proof of residence in the US for at least five consecutive years since their date of arrival
• Must be 30 or younger
• Graduated from high school, be in good standing, and agree to attend college or join the military for at least two years
• Good moral character (clean profile)

The problem is that immigrant students are being denied their hard work. They can’t graduate high school. Not to mention it takes around $20,000 to go to The College of New Jersey or Temple. Even if you don’t choose to go to that college, about any college takes a load of cash. If the young teens don’t have any money, they would go to the military, but immigrants aren’t allowed in, so what happens to them? Some very educated students are found washing dishes for money, and cleaning houses.

A teacher here at LPS named Devin has had a student named “Susana” that was an outstanding student that did all of her work, and the quality of it was surely exceeding the limit of a high school senior. Sadly, “Susana” was not a legal student. She moved to the U.S from Mexico five years earlier. Because of her efforts, she became a person who couldn’t speak much English, to a person who mastered it in only five years! “Susana” applied to the top universities, and was hoping for scholarships to pay for it, but no scholarships came knocking at her door since she wasn’t a legal citizen. After all of her hard work, this kind of news made her feel sad and down. Like a miracle though, she was lifted by a university that assisted her on her way to victory.

Although she received help from a university, how many students get that lucky? Also, out of all the people in the United States, for sure there is a lot more students that have worked hard to only find out that it was for nothing when their education was denied. Since not all students are lucky enough to receive help from a university, the Dream Act would allow them to be open to all the choices a legal student would have.

There are illegal students that have done everything that a legal student has done, and still become denied entry to a college. A student named Denise has done this, and she was an honor student for more than twice. She knew that she was undocumented, and she feared it. The thoughts that ran through Denise’s mind were “When I am finished with high school, then what?” She eventually got a fake social security card to make money so that she can support herself financially. She was accepted into Baruch College in New York City, and started her first job, which she was very proud of. Even though she gained employment and education through misguided means, she says that she had no choice. She still doesn’t regret what she has done because she has received her well deserved education.

The things that students do just to have an education are unremarkable. It seems like life is harder, much harder for students that have this issue, but this can be helped if the Dream Act was passed.

Sharon Osbourne and Dr. Edward Phillips, co-founders of the
Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute.

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