Braves Writeup

read left to rightA monthly blog trying to document stuff that goes on in El Cajon Valley High School. This blog will also be providing resources that can assist high school students, and providing general education advice.

A Look At ECVHS Multicultural Week:

Multicultural Week is a school event at El Cajon Valley that will run from February 27 to March 3. The event itself is dedicated to celebrating El Cajon’s ethnic diversity, rich culture, and of course, food and dance. The events themselves will occur during school hours, specifically during the lunch periods. They will include the following:

Monday (2/27) - A Flag Parade During Lunch With Multicultural Speeches:Student volunteers will carry flags of nations around the school campus in a procession. The procession tends to be led by the school band curriculum. This means that you will hear drums. Loud drums. From out of nowhere.

Tuesday (2/28) - Multicultural Foods:School clubs will set up tables during lunch with, as the name suggests multicultural foods. If you don’t know what multicultural means in this context, I highly suggest you reread the first paragraph.

Wednesday (3/1) - Multicultural Fashion Show:Students and staff will dress up in their cultural clothing, and walk up to a stage platform set up near the lunch tables. On the day this is supposed to occur, it may rain. If this happens, instead of dancing on stage, people will be encouraged to go to the gym.

Thursday (3/2) - Performances (Dances Primarily):Student groups who’ve signed up to do so beforehand will perform songs/dances which represent them and their culture.

Friday (3/3) - Multicultural Music:Music from (primarily) Latinx, Arabic, African, and American cultures will play as students are encouraged to dance.

In practice, Wednesday and Friday are the days when most people participate. You can see why. I also would like to bring awareness to a potential trigger on Monday. If you have sensory issues; the school band gets loud when they parade around.Thank you for your time.

2023 ECVHS Fantastics: What is it?

Fantastics is an afterschool event in which students from each year (ex/Class of 2023, Class of 2024) compete for the Fantastics Trophy, It serves simultaneously as a fundraising event so that students can pay for future events, such as Prom; but also as a day where all the established clubs and classes can have some fun.

From personal experience, preparations for the event happen at least a month in advance. Some clubs will fundraise for things like decoration supplies and costumes, while others wing it.

If you have not heard of the event, that is understandable. At the time of writing many of the students are just three years removed from times of online learning. Current Juniors and Sophmore students didn’t get the on-campus experience, as a result, some events were simply not talked about.So what are the games? How does a class win Fantastics? The order of the following events may be wrong. However, these are the events and games that occur during Fantastics. First are the introductions. The judges will introduce themselves, then the classes will via pre-rehearsed dances. Classes will then play roughly twelve to fourteen games such as tug of war, jump rope, and hula hoop pass. Then at the end, all students will gather around in a circle, while the judges tally the points given.

The event itself is fun.I have to specify though. The event was fun for a person like me, who was there to see friends have a good time. Being able to go “-hey there's this guy I know doing a funny dance,” is part of the appeal of Fantastics. If you are a person who doesn’t participate much in school events. If you don’t know anything about ASB, AME, Culinary, or any of the Class of [insert year] clubs, then this event probably isn’t as appealing as it was to me. That kind of student probably isn’t reading this kind of article, but regardless. Participating in this is fun.Due to (bias) the Class of 2023 won.

Hopefully next year, there will be more people participating.

Testing: General Advice From A Person Who's In Two AP Classes

As Advanced Placement and CAASPP testing draws nearer, it’s very easy to lose track of what to do. This is a list of some general things to remind yourself for the following weeks.Do not overblow tests, try to keep a Level HeadAn easy way to lose information or the ability to concentrate during testing in when a person is worrying. If a person focuses too much on the importance of a test, then it’s often hard to work on actually attempting to get better scores.Anxiety is an emotion, so it can’t be controlled, but it can be rationalised. I, the writer of this article don’t know what calms you, the reader down. The reader has to find ways to rationalise their thoughts.Focus on Trying to Recognise Specific IssuesIts easy to not know where to start when it comes to studying, especially for tests with large bodies of information. When in doubt try to focus on getting better at specific ideas. Your overtly complicated formulas, the concepts or topics which you struggle with most.How you actually work through them, kind of depends on what the topic is. What I recommend, in order is: Ask for help, look for help on the internet, just try to do it by yourself and have someone who’s good at what you’re struggling at check your work.

Please Remember to Drink Water, Eat Food, and go to the Bathroom Before TestingThese are long tests. Its very easy to just forget to go to the bathroom after a long study session. On the actual testing day, students tend to receive only a ten minute break for snacks and the restroom.Sometimes the proctors do provide food. Often the food provided, although appreciated, is not desired after sitting at a desk for what may be thirty minutes to an hour. In my experience, it was a very interesting turkey sandwich. The water is fine though… what I’m trying to say is that the can be icky. If you can, please bring your own snacks.Regardless of what grades you will receive, good luck in testing. I hope this helps in some way, for first time AP or CAASPP testers.

Drug Abuse & Realistic Approaches

Author's Note: There are some caveats which I must note. I am a person who has not had to deal with drug abuse in any form, for the most part I am very sheltered. I understand that my view on this topic does not hold the same weight in comparison to someone who has had to experience a loved one go through this kind of pain. In the future I would like to involve faculty who would be comfortable sharing their experiences in this topic, as their words would feel more insightful.Regardless, I hope I can provide a general synopsis of how drug abuse is present.

There is a difference between regulated medication, casual consumption of food items like edibles, and an unhealthy addiction.When a person is addicted to a substance, it’s connected to the idea of escaping or relieving pain. In very extreme cases the cause of pain is very literal, violent, in others it comes more from emotional pain, or feeling a lack of control.In El Cajon Valley High School drug abuse has a presence on campus. It’s not like the wild west, where every child has a cigar in their pocket or is selling drugs. Our school is very clearly diverse, and drugs shouldn’t be its sole defining trait. However, it’s not uncommon to see people vaping just outside the gates or smell alcohol. I can recall how in middle school, I’d been told that ECV was a bad school, because everyone there does or sells drugs.

Even if the school doesn’t want to be known in that way, this expectation plays a part in how the school is perceived. In my case, the perception of the school I had was that it was unsafe. That no one who’s any good would work there. When actually meeting faculty and most students, that’s clearly not the case.

An administration cannot change the culture or social norms of people, so what can be done realistically?To attempt to restrict drugs from entering a location is not practical.If enough people are desperate enough, they will find a way. The goal for this school shouldn’t be like it was in the 1980s, to completely stop anyone from potentially taking drugs. Instead the goal by legislatures should be to regulate their usage and provide ample ways for minors to reform unhealthy practices. Not restricting who can access drugs, but minimizing their usage and practicing regulation of their access.

Graduating Class Clubs: What are they?

In high school there are a lot of opportunities for students to participate in extracurriculars. There’s the obvious stuff, like sports or journalism. In our school we also have minority clubs like Hispanos Unidos, Black Student Union, or GSA. Many incoming students may notice that there are clubs dedicated to graduating classes. Stuff like, Class of 2024, 2025, etc. When I was a freshman, I had no idea what this kind of club really was, or did. Here’s a very short explanation of what these kinds of clubs do, and everything in between.

What do the graduating class clubs do?

Graduating class clubs are all dedicated to exactly two things. One, heightening school spirit. Two, planning out events and fundraisers. Members get to decide the location for major student events like prom, and have to raise money for these major events across four years.

How does someone become a member of this kind of club?

On a technical level, everyone on campus is a part of a graduating class club. Everyone is given the opportunity to participate in meetings so long as they are graduating in the same year that the club is named after. For example, if you are graduating in 2024, you are allowed into Class of 2024 meetings.

However in practice, in order to be an officer/established person running the club, you would have to come to meetings and participate consistently. This isn’t the type of club where people can come infrequently. It takes a lot of effort and planning to work out school events.

What do these clubs do with any funding left over by the end of the school year?

At the end of the year they also are able to leave mementos behind. For our school, we have walk stones dedicated to previous classes. Ideally, the class years after us are able to do the same.

Why are the clubs talking about this thing called Fantastics?

According to school lore, each of the four graduating class clubs are competing over the year to earn student points. That culminates at the end of the year, during Fantastics; a competition event where clubs will compete to win a trophy. From personal experience, Fantastics gets very competitive.Here are the rooms for the current classes.Class of 2027: (Undecided)
Class of 2026: Room 407
Class of 2025: Room 607
Class of 2024: Room 208