By Jacy Chittenden

NeSA Testing has been going on for about seven days now. NeSA is the Nebraska state test. All students across Nebraska take this test. I interviewed numerous students and teachers at Dawes to see what they thought of the test.

Some of the teachers I interviewed were Mrs. Newby, Mr. N. Miller, and Mrs. Vandarwarka. They all had many different opinions. Mrs. Newby thought, overall,  the school was very successful with NeSA testing. She also thought that it went smoothly and productively and it was well organized. She also talked about the block scheduling and she said that it was a tough transition, but it was great to have the extended time for a variety of activities and instruction. Mr. N. Miller said that we did very well with testing and he thought that many students kind of like the NeSA Testing, because of the break from regular classes. He also thinks that block scheduling helps and alleviates behavior problems because of less transition times. And finally, Mrs. Vandarwarka thinks that NeSA went well and that block scheduling helped a lot with the students. But she also thought that block scheduling would be more beneficial to the teachers if we could work out a better way for teaching for the longer periods. So overall, she thought that the students were prepared for the NeSA and did pretty well for the most part because the teachers, as she says, “taught explicitly.”

I also interviewed some students around the school. They were Ashley Alvarado, Hailey Condreay, and Natalie Huffman. Ashley thought that overall, she did very well on her NeSA and she thought that it was pretty simple. She also thinks that the school was very successful with the testing and that she likes the five minute passing periods that are included in the block scheduling. Hailey thinks that the school, and herself did good on the NeSA and that it was very easy, so they should make it harder. But, Hailey did not like the block scheduling because of the fact that classes are longer and teachers don’t have a lot of things to do for all of that time, so it was boring. And Natalie thought that the block scheduling was pretty cool and we got to miss out on a few classes every day. She also thought the school was successful with NeSA.

The entire school did well in many people’s opinion. Great job students, and teachers, for AWESOME NeSA Testing.

On Friday, March 6, Dawes Student Council held their annual dance with the theme, red carpet event. This dance was held in the gym right after school and had many decorations to help emphasize the theme. But the dance would not have been successful without the student council advisor, Ms. Essex, IPOD, and the Dawes CLC staff.

When I interviewed Kate Tadesse, the vice-president, she said that the dance was a ‘major success’ resulting with $957.40 in student council’s account. Kate also said that the theme could have been executed more or we could have chosen a theme that would have been more to the ‘student body’s liking.’ She wrapped up by saying it was a great dance, that sold all the concessions, and the students looked as if they had a blast.

I also took the time to interview Shaleija Hunter, an eighth grader. She says it was ‘okay’ because it was to spaced out and hot. But, she also thought it was fun and enjoyable besides the fact. ‘Overall, it was a great dance.’

So, according to some other sources and these, the dance was a success with only minor flaws that student council is sure to work on for next year.