We got to speak with Ms. McGill, the senior class adviser. Between being an APEX teacher and senior class adviser, McGill has quite a bit on her plate. She tells us, “Any task put in front of me, I always think ‘how do I put this so the kids understand?’ and ‘how would I see this as a kid?’ I always try to get them to see the importance of it.” With all the hard work she puts into one day, Ms. McGill relieves her stress by playing her Facebook games and watching television with with her three lovely kids. She offered some advice to students for this last few weeks of school, “For everything, just slow down and take your time. Take pride in everything you put your name on. When your name’s on it, you own it; people will associate it with you. Kids really need to slow down on everything, they go way too fast.” Thank you, that’s some really helpful advice, Ms. McGill! Beachcomber hopes you aren’t too overwhelmed with all the work you’ve had to do, stay relaxed!

Next up, we got to interview ASB President, Flavi Orcione. Orcione has many different work strategies, but a few that work really well for her include tuning out people and other possible distractions. She constantly reminds herself why she has to do things and that she must do it. When asked how she prepares for testing, Orcione responds with “I try and get a good night’s sleep, eat a healthy breakfast, and keep my mind on what’s important.” She says she does remind herself that she has to take a break every once in a while, “taking breaks is a good thing.” Shopping is one way Orcione relieves her stresses. Good luck on testing and the rest of your senior year, Flavi. Thanks for taking your time to speak with us.

Last but not least, we interviewed Varavit Chinnapong, a junior Buccaneer. “I approach my tasks with an ‘I can do it’ mindset. I always try to be as confident as possible, and make sure I do my best job,” says Chinnapong. He tells Beachcomber that talking to friends, eating snacks, and napping help him stay relaxed, even through the busiest of times. Chinnapong was more than willing to tell us, “I wish I could improve my study habits. My iPod and Facebook kill me! It would be so much better if I was able to sit down in a quiet environment and just study.” Thank you for your time Varavit; hope you’re staying relaxed and keep up your hard work in school!

Take these hard workers’ advice! Keep determined and set a goal, but always remember to stay calm and relaxed. Good luck on this last month, Bucs. Don’t slack off now, you’re almost there!

Lucky for Sea World, it will get many more visitors from everywhere: Los Angeles, Tijuana, and other places where this park does not exist. On May 26, 2012, Sea World will launch their new ride, Manta. This is the brand new rollercoaster that was being planned for quite some time. In October of 2007, there were rumors going around San Diego about this idea. It was declined in mid-2012 but luckily they found the plans for $10 million for a manta ray exhibit and in February 9, 2011 Sea World announced that the new ride Manta would open in 2012. It is currently testing, but there are only a few days left for this baby to launch.

There exist videos on the Internet that show the ride from Sea World in Orlando, Florida. The ride here in San Diego is going to be different. The ride was manufactured by Mack Rides, which is a German company that makes roller coasters. The owner of this company is also the owner of Europa Park, the largest theme park in Germany. The ride will consist of two launchers that go up to 43 mph lasting a total of two minutes. It is 30 feet tall and has a drop of that goes under ground 54 feet. You must be at least 4 feet tall to be able to ride it. Manta has four trains that have the front shaped like a manta ray. The train has five cars that seat with four passengers, two across in two rows, which make a total of 20 passengers per train. The second row of each car has elevated seating.

An awesome part about this is that for the people who don’t want to or can’t get on the ride, they can experience a wonderful animal life exhibit. The name of the exhibit is Forbidden Reef; It is also included in the ride. It is a 100,000 gallon exhibit that includes 65 bat rays, 10 guitar fish and 400 more different species of fish. There is an upper and lower level of the exhibit. The upper level allows people to touch and feed the bat rays, the lower level will consist of eight acrylic windows and a reef design.

SeaWorld is definitely the place to be at this coming up summer. Our families and their children will love looking at all the marine life exhibits. If it’s a hot day then you can ride Journey To Atlantis and the rest of the rides. Take our advice and visit Sea World .

So why are these classes being removed? IB support teacher Mrs. Christman says “There’s not enough teachers, they have cut off teachers.” This is how some student’s feel about IB support classes. When asked how they believed they would be affected by the removal of IB support, junior, Stphanie Balderas said, “What I’m going miss is I won’t have time to take a break from my other classes or get help from other peers. The removal of this class will affect me a lot!”

Additionally, when asked how the removal of IB support would affect her, junior Emily Newell commented, “It will affect me because it’s where I get my work done and even with IB Support, I spent about 2 more hours at home doing homework and with the removal I will have to get more done at home.”

IB support classes are used for many reasons. “I do all my homework in IB Support. If they take that class away I won’t be able to finish all my homework because I have to work and have soccer practice. I don’t have time at home to finish it all. I’m going to miss being able to finish homework and having people help me if I don’t understand my homework,” said Junior, Annalise Eisenhardt.

These students try to manage all the extra-curricular activities and excel in the academic aspects of full IB. The answer to this question ties right back to the budget cuts, once again. Athletes would be affected by the removal of this class because many of them use this class to do homework. After a long practice or a tough game, all they’d want to do is rest, not think about having to get home and do homework. That’s what they will have to do next year when IB support is no longer available.

However, there are some students who use IB support as a class to just mess around and not do anything, distracting other students who actually want to get some work done. Teachers should be allowed to kick people out of class if they’re not taking advantage of the time they have to do work because all they do is distract others.

Overall, IB support classes are greatly needed by most students going for the International Baccalaureate diploma. It’s obvious that those students would be greatly affected but the removal of this class. But, is there something we could do to save this class?

When asked about this, junior Omar Covarrubias said “Underground has better lyrics because mainstream raps sometimes have no meaning, and are meant to only make people dance. Underground tells stories about peoples’ lives, politics, and world-wide events. Most mainstream songs talk about women, drugs, and sex.”
Most young adults may focus on the rhythm and the beat of the song rather than the lyrics. For example, senior Omar Celestino said “Mainstream music is better in the beats because we can dance to it, while underground doesn’t focus that much on the rhythm, but on the lyrics. What only sucks about mainstream is that radios repeat songs over and over.”

We can all hear this on the radio and sometimes we can get bored of hearing the same song over and over again. “Young, wild and free” by Wiz Khalifa is a great example. It talks about teens getting high and drinking. Furthermore, the lyrics say that it’s okay for us young adults to do all this. What’s the point? Where is the meaning of the song? Getting high and drunk? Yeah, great way to improve the minds of our generation. But underground music also has these types of songs where it was just rapped to be rapped and not understood. Raps exist where drugs and alcohol are the topic instead of life problems. This is the case in some mainstream rap, as underground artists do talk about problems our generation faces. Problems abound like depression, abusive parents, and many times love-related topics.

A reason why underground artists aren’t known is because they want to keep control over their lyrics and rap about whatever they want to. They don’t have to worry if people are going to like it or if the song is going to be a hit. Underground artists rap to get a message across to their listeners. Mainstream is mostly about who can make a great song and make it a hit on the radio. There are many other differences between these two styles, and many debates can be started by one simple question: Which is better, underground? Or mainstream?

A common workplace for Mission Bay students is Mr. Frostie’s located on the corner of Garnett and Haines this small ice cream shop currently has five Mission Bay students employed. “Frostie’s is a fun place to work, it can be hard to manage late shifts with school and soccer but I enjoy being independent and making my own money,” says Janae Lopez. Lauren Boulger said, ”I started working at Frostie’s at the end of senior year, as IB wasn’t as hard as it was in the beginning of the year, but it still taught me how to manage my time really well, which is a skill that not many kids have.”
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 50 percent of American teenagers have small, informal jobs, such as babysitting or yard work, by age 12. By age 15, nearly two-thirds of American teens have had some kind of employment. 80% of students before graduation will have had some sort of part-time job during the school year.

Time management and having a balanced lifestyle are desirable qualities in IB students. As most of Mission Bay’s students know, IB is a lot of work; it’s practically a job in itself. It’s hard to imagine that our hardest working students are not only consumed with school but also with real work. “It’s never easy to do IB, and having a job adds a lot of extra stress, but working while being in school is a great preparation for the real world,” says Mac Meara.

Working, in combination with hard IB classes, is yet another impressive skill that our students here at Mission Bay have. It shows that we’re ready for responsibilities that will allow us to be even more successful in the future.

The relationships between people vary from strong to light and can be a direct reflection with the type of person someone is. The Beachcomber is going to explore the different types of friendships and how they affect people. The first relationship we are going to analyze is the close knit acquaintances that we see around our school that are most commonly known as best friends. When talking to fellow student, Chohee Park, she explained how the best friends are of great importance to her by saying, “For me, I think it is best friends, because I can go to them about anything and they will not judge me regardless and support me. Also, they guide me through my indecisive moments. They also are there through the tears and the smiles.” This is just one example of the importance of friends and the relief friend’s offer from high pressure situations.

You may be wondering why people put so much importance on friendship and what the benefits of having these interconnections are the benefits change with the strength of the relationship and the type of people who make up the relationship. When discussing friendship with Madison Sweet she explained, “My best-friend is someone I laugh and tell everything to knowing that she will except me and be there for me regardless.” This one example of how friendships reap benefits, but there is a down side to these acquaintances. The stress of being a good friend and being well liked effects many people and sometimes out weighs the benefits of friendship.

A true friend is someone you can rely on no matter the situation and you can be yourself around and they will always be there to support you regardless of the situation you’re in. These friends are often hard to find because the truth behind it is something unusual. True friends can come when you are only an infant or they enter your life at a later time, but the fact is that everyone will have at least one true friend and the qualifications of a true friends depends on the person in the relationship. According to Emily Newell, “The relationship between true friends is something to be cherished and even though it may take time to find your true friends it’s worth it.” This is just one explanation of how students and people place true friends in their life.

In every relationship there are problems that occur between people, whether it is life altering or just a simple fight they do happen. In rare cases a fight with a friend escalates into a person losing all their ties with other friends and even with people who weren’t their friends prior to the fight. Friendships carry many benefits and can lead to a lot of destruction. Anonyms stated, “When I was younger my best friend and I had a problem and it escalated into everyone taking her side and everyone made fun of me and I spent lunches in the counselors because of her.” That is a demonstration of how student end up being black balled from what used to be a good friendship.

So what it is the big deal about friendship and why is it important to have friends maybe may be things you have been asking yourself recently. Well, as you read so far it’s a support system like no other and they offer an occasional smile to the daily monotony. Friendships should only be kept if it is a healthy, you are happy, and it is not hazardous to health or well-being. Friends are critical to life and making it through school because they’re somebody to vent to, turn to in times of crisis, or just someone to laugh with.

Both seniors and juniors have to take these tests. Juniors who are taking an SL (standard level, 1 year) course will take their IB tests this year. Also seniors in HL (high level, 2 years) and SL courses will take all of their IB tests this year. Students in both SL and HL classes can elect to not take their IB tests however, on their transcripts they will not receive IB credit from the San Diego Unified School District, and seniors who reported these IB classes on their college applications would need to email all of the colleges they applied to explaining why they are no longer getting the IB credit.

Besides the challenge of preparation, a new thing that IB students faced this year was paying for their own tests. Students on free or reduced lunch needed to pay $15 per test, and students who are not applicable to receive free or reduced lunch are required to pay $100 per test. Many students were upset about these requirements and some even decided not to take the tests and forfeit their IB credit because they did not want to pay. However, most students, even those that did not want to pay, ended up taking the tests. When asked why most students said that their college acceptance was based upon their submission of IB courses. Yet, even with this obstacle, students still prepared and took their tests. Let’s see how some students are handling their exams.

Senior, Emily Martinet, had an overall positive experience with her IB tests. Martinet did do herself a favor by studying and preparing a lot, but also stated that, “These tests are somewhat stressful. It puts some pressure on you knowing that if you don’t pass the tests, you won’t get the IB credit.” Many students have similar thoughts; that if they don’t pass the test, the past years have been a waste of time, and they will not be receiving the IB credit. However Martinet also said, “Now that the tests are over I can say that IB has helped better my high school experience.”

Another senior IB student, Michael McClelland, when asked to reflect on the tests and his preparation, stated, “No prep. Not important.” Many students have this attitude towards the tests. They don’t care about their scores. Students are either burnt out with senioritis and do not want to trouble themselves with preparing for the tests, or their college decisions are not affected by the scores of these tests. Also, students may feel that they have learned all they are going to learn and that reviewing won’t help them. These are problems that teachers face every year when preparing students for the tests. Almost all of the students taking these tests are more than able to pass, however they lack the motive or initiative to push themselves when the time comes.

Senior, Brendan Daly, when asked about his experience with IB testing said, “We all found out that SL classes and tests are pointless with regard to college credit unless you are a diploma student. Even then, the only way you get college credit is if you actually get the diploma. The only benefit of taking these tests if you aren’t full diploma is for the credits on your high school transcript. But you still have to pay to take the test or you will get dropped from the IB courses, and will have to notify your college.” He then said his biggest frustration was that, “We weren’t told any of this.”

As the IB tests draw to a close, seniors are relieved to have this pressure lifted off of them. They have finally completed this last hurtle of academic rigor. Sadly, next year’s seniors face an even more challenging IB testing process. We can only wish them luck and hope they begin preparing now.

That means each person could be responsible for about 6 feet of coastline. Now I know this is not realistic to have each person on Earth take care of part of the coastline, but what if a 100th of 7 billion wanted to help, or fewer. This would work with each person who takes responsibility, and starts beach clean-ups or starts organizations to take care of our ocean. If we keep treating the ocean like we are doing, then the ocean will never be as clear as it once was, or even as it is now. One organization that is doing their part in keeping the beaches all over the world clean, from places like San Diego to Australia to all along the coasts of many other countries, is Surfrider Foundation. They have been protecting our beaches and oceans since 1984. They have many projects that normal people can be a part of and help in any way they can afford. One program that they have is called Rise Above Plastics. They give reasons why plastics are a problem, such as, “Bottom line: with the exception of the small amount that has been incinerated, virtually every piece of plastic that was ever made still exists in some shape or form (http://www.surfrider.org/programs/entry/rise-above-plastics).” On their website they explain all the steps it would take, and what the main goal is. The goal is to get people aware of the problem, and get them to dispose of plastics properly.

One event that people abused until it got banned along with everything else is floatopia; it was where people go out to the bay and have a party on floaties and boats to drink on the water. This, along with drinking on the beach, got out of hand and was banned by the police. They took advantage of the loophole they found, and then they lost it. Ever since alcohol got banned from the beach, I have noticed a huge change in how clean the beaches are.

Brian Martinet, former lifeguard/surfboard-shaper, “As a lifelong PB local, I have seen how dirty the beaches can get, but 20 years ago we were at the bottom of the list, for the dirtiest beaches. Then, Dona Frye made cleaning the beaches a priority for her, and now we are getting stellar marks on how clean the beach is.”

Another thing that Brian had said was that he stand-up paddleboards down where floatopia had taken place and there is a solid layer of tin on the bottom of the bay, and it is just embarrassing. When he has friends come in and takes them paddleboarding, he purposely will not go that way because of how much trash is on the bottom right there.
There are 2 sides to this spectrum, Hawaii or Mexico. In Hawaii the locals absolutely will not put up with that, they will pick up all the trash and give it right back to the people before they leave. That is why Hawaii has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Now Mexico on the other hand is the exact opposite. There is broken glass, tires and just pounds of trash all along Mexico’s beaches. Mexico has the potential to have some of the most beautiful beaches, but they don’t have the money to clean them, and the people don’t care enough to clean it themselves. We are neither Hawaii nor Mexico, we still have trash and garbage on our beaches, but that is because most of the people that use these beaches don’t live in the area. They just drive down for the day and then leave all their trash behind when they go back home 20-45 minutes away from the beach that they are destroying.

Another thing to think about is that the ocean has always been, and will always be a huge source for food. All the trash is harming the fish. The big fish, that people used to catch and would make a lot of money on, aren’t being caught anymore, because they have absorbed more mercury than the smaller fish that they used to throw back in the ocean. So the price of fish is changing to accommodate this problem.
To get rid of this overwhelming problem we have to get the majority of the people on board, and get everyone to do their part. This problem will never go away if we don’t deal with it head on. Although there has been a huge amount of progress, there is still more to be done. Hopefully people will start to understand that sooner rather than later.

Music has always been a big part of the life of our youth. It expresses feelings better than anything else and in today’s society; it is often used as explanation of a person’s personality too, depending on how passionate a person is about a certain music genre or group. In essence, music is all about personal thoughts, feelings and opinions and it seems to be good “ingredients” for a talent. Napolean writes his lyrics and creates music in a genre that in this century is common blasting out of iPods, Radio, Internet, etc. This genre is rap, and even one who does not listen to this genre a lot, can tell a talent while listening carefully to the lyrics, because rap is not all about swear words, rage or inappropriate subjects as some might think, but is as deep as any other music genre. “Rap is about getting a message out to people. Letting people know about something that’s important to you,” Napolean tells the Beachcomber. But if it’s like any other music genre, it is about letting people know about something that for the artist is important to share through music, then why rap instead of rock’n roll, jazz or pop? According to Napolean, rap is what the majority of people find popular today. “It’s a newer genre, it’s still fresh and people want to listen to it. Once it was jazz, then rock and today it is rap,” he states.

Napolean started rapping in his freshman year inspired by professional rapper, “The Game.” He has been rapping since; he has already been working in a recording studio and also he now believes that “if you have a dream it is not something that can’t be done, but an achievable goal of what you want to do.” In fact, those goals seem to have given Napolean a lot of confidence and hope, not only because Napolean is hoping to go somewhere bigger with rapping, but also you might have seen him representing Mission Bay High with the football and wrestling team, where another passion of his is shown. He explains, “I always wanted to be a rapper, or else I wanted to play football and if that didn’t work out, wrestling would be it. Well, actually I wished to do all of them.” And so Napolean did. “If I can achieve in wrestling and football, then I can achieve in rap and it’s not important what people think, cause I do it because I like it and whatever I do, I don’t give you anything fake,” he added.

Self-confidence, or at least confidence in what you do, is important to achieve any goals, or perform something in life that might be challenging. This tells us, that if you, like Napolean, have a dream or something that you are really passionate about, it is not something to give up on. And as long as it is important to you, it does not matter what people think about your dream or your talent. What matters is if you believe in the dream; if you believe in your talent. That’s where dreams come true and big talents are created.

    APEX credit recovery is used by students to either bring up prior grades or to make up a failed class completely. According to Clairemont High School’s counselor, Nella Landau, APEX is a, “…last resort if it’s looking like they’re not going to graduate…” APEX is available to any student who has received D’s or F’s and wishes to replace the course to earn a higher grade. For some, it is an option to help boost their overall GPA by retaking a course to try to earn higher than a D or F. Some students have a harder time understanding the concepts. With today’s overcrowded classes, APEX offers students one-on-one teacher attention that is not always available in other settings.

APEX credits aren’t accepted by NCAA colleges, UC Schools, and a few private colleges. However, APEX credits are accepted by California State Universities, most private universities, and all community colleges. One of the reasons certain colleges don’t accept APEX credits is because the colleges haven’t taken the time to research the program. Each APEX course is designed to meet each state’s standards and exit exams. A student who takes an APEX course isn’t exactly, “…waving goodbye to a four-year university,” the student is simply taking another path to get to where they want to be. Also, the high school diplomas with APEX credits on them are definitely not, “…less meaningful than one without them.” An alternative to taking an APEX credit recovery is by doing iHigh, a virtual school for students who cannot attend regular school (actors, gymnasts, etc.). iHigh is accepted by all of the colleges throughout America. APEX credit recovery is mastery-based, meaning it expects the students to know some of the information because they already took the course.

APEX is a class not only for bettering a student’s grades, but a place where they can feel comfortable and equal to their peers. Mrs. McGill, the Grad Coach here at Mission Bay High, says, “Students can get one on one attention from the teacher. They can get help on other classes and feel successful by learning what they failed at…it can also be an intervention for struggling students, English Language Learners, and other at risk students.” These students are in a safe environment, not a place where, “…students are isolated from other students and other teachers.”

Another benefit with APEX is a student can work from anywhere they have Internet access. APEX classes are also the same amount of difficulty as a normal class, and many say APEX is even harder. Some believe that, “…APEX classes are easier than regular classes…students who feel these classes are easier purposely fail their regular classes.” There have been students who have felt the need to purposely fail their class to get into APEX only because that is where they feel more comfortable. Some students actually need the extra attention and help they normally wouldn’t get from an overcrowded, ‘normal’ classroom.

Though some students at Clairemont High School believe that APEX, “…take(s) jobs from teachers who need them during these hard budgetary times.” The district pays for Grad Coach positions at all schools for the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school year. In this time of budget concern, this basically gives the schools a free teacher, to be used as an interventionist for at-risk students. Teachers do not lose their jobs because of a Graduation Coach. The purpose is for the teachers to instruct students with first time information, while a Grad Coach is a remediation after the student is failed. Mrs. McGill, the Grad Coach here at Mission Bay, says, “I don’t count as a teacher in a particular department. They can use me to help reduce class size by taking kids out of full classes who have failed.” Nobody’s jobs are being taken away from them because of APEX.

Due to the district’s budget cuts, summer school is no longer an option. APEX is the only way to help students get to where they need to be and give them the second chance that everyone deserves. Stripping the only option students have at bettering themselves is absolutely absurd. Every student deserves a second chance at their education. Accusing all APEX students of abusing and taking advantage of the help that some students honestly need, is insulting. APEX is a place for assistance, guidance, and support. It is a program which should not be discontinued, but further advertised. Students should know that it shouldn’t be a stigma to take an APEX course, rather it’s another opportunity to work for what they deserve. What else are the students who have failed courses supposed to do when there is no more APEX or summer school?