GreatNews.Life Student Voices: A very engaged February at John Adams High School

What’s recently happened?

February has been quite busy for many students participating in extracurricular activities at John Adams High School. The John Adams’ Mock Trial team was working overtime all month. The team’s first competition happened on February 22, where they performed well enough to make it to state. 

Many other clubs and sports are making their way to the next phase of their seasons. The John Adams’ Robotics Team made their way to the first scrimmage of the year. The competition took place at Penn High School on February 28. Students were able to mingle with other schools and test run their robots to work out any issues beforehand. As the robots are up and running, the John Adams' Robotics team has been buzzing with excitement to compete this season. 

Science Olympiad had their last invitational at Northwestern University before state. The team members had a great time going to compete at a larger school. With about 40 participating schools, John Adams ended up receiving second place at the competition. 

What’s coming up?

With March underway, John Adams’ Music Department has been continuing their practice for the Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA). The competition starts on March 1 and runs until March 8. ISSMA will extend to a jazz ensemble for the orchestra. 

State is the last level of difficulty for ISSMA as a competition for schools throughout the state.

The John Adams’ Robotics Team is having their first competition in February. They will follow this up with a weekend competition in Lafayette. The students are looking forward to more opportunities for them to travel and compete with their robots.

Staff spotlight:

John Adams’ newspaper teacher, Katelyn Taylor, works very hard from all of the English classes she teaches to helping the newspaper edit and upload on a regular schedule. Outside of school, Taylor is quite crafty. She dabbles in many different hobbies including embroidery, sewing, dancing and lifting weights.

Taylor currently teaches English 12, Newspaper and Yearbook. She has taught English 10, English 10 Honors, and English 11 in previous years. This current lesson that Taylor is working on with her senior students has been one of her favorite parts of the year. The class is reading a book called “Enrique’s Journey.” The book tells a story about a young Honduran boy traveling on the top of trains to find and reunite with his mother.

“We've spent a lot of time just reading the story together. Watching every single student read along in such an engaged way and watching their reactions in real time has been so gratifying. It’s rewarding to hear students reflect on how reading the story has changed their perspective on immigration and helped them become more empathic,” Taylor said.

Taylor is very interactive and caring for her students. Her students and members of the newspaper team are always happy to come in and interact with her.

“My goals as an educator are to create an inclusive and equitable classroom where every single student feels safe, heard, and respected. I hold my students to a very high standard. I make sure we are engaged from bell to bell. I know that English doesn't come easy to a lot of students. As long as you show up and try in my classroom, you will always succeed,” Taylor said.

Taylor is really proud of how accepting and safe her classroom is. She tries her best to make it a safe environment for all of the students.

Student spotlight:

Roman Cox has been helping run the pride club for three years. As the club president, Cox works very hard to create a safe space for fellow queer students at John Adams High School. He believes that everyone should learn about the queer community and its history as there are a lot of stereotypes and stigmas behind it.

Cox is in both IB Environmental Systems Sciences and IB English 12, two topics that he is very passionate about.

“My love for ancient history is big and I’d love to dedicate my life to it,” Cox said.

Cox wants to go to college for two majors: psychology and classical studies. He loves the study of ancient Greece and Rome.

“Psychology is crucial to my favorite part of history. I like to understand why people feel the way they do and rationalize how they may have acted,” Cox said.

During his free time, Cox has a great gift of empathy and consumes media that have to do with his passions.