#1StudentNWI: Highland Brings Debate Back

#1StudentNWI: Highland Brings Debate Back

New Teacher and Sponsor

Eve Polivka is a new teacher at Highland High School. She teaches world history and government. However at other schools she has taught U.S history and economics.

Other than being a teacher she is also the new sponsor of the Debate Team. The team was run for more than eight years by Mrs. Molly Arroyo, but for the past several years the team hasn’t had a sponsor. Polivka was not able to be a part of debate in high school because is was not offered at Andrean. However, she does have her students participate in a debate for her government class. She was offered to opportunity to be the sponsor because of this.

Polivka has been in the education department for ten years and has been teaching in the classroom for five years. After graduating from Andrean High School she attended IU Bloomington. There she majored in secondary education and social studies.

Polivka thinks that this year’s team is set up for success.

“Based on the students, they have a great chance to be successful, seeing as they are highly motivated,” Polivka said. "They also care about the issues that are being debated.”

All topics are chosen in advance by the IHSFA before debates occur so all of the teams know what is being debated. This keeps everything objective for all teams.

Polivka’s favorite subject to teach is her government class.

“I enjoy talking about current events,” she said.

She likes to show her students what’s going on in the world so they can discuss it. Polivka is excited for this debate season and is ready to see how far the kids go.

Adding to New Extracurriculars

Brianna Dewey is a junior at Highland High School. She is involved in many different extracurricular activities such as Girl Scouts, Science Olympiad, the Best Buddies program, Key Club, Student Council, soccer, and she is also a mentor for a young child who is a soccer player.

“I enjoy being involved in the community as well as learning about new things,” said Dewey.

This year she added another activity to the list: the Speech and Debate team. Dewey has been hoping since she was a freshman to have a team, but there wasn’t a sponsor to have one. Her friends from other schools who had teams would tell her how much fun they were having, so she thought that it would be an interesting team to be a part of. She wants to become a better writer and public speaker. She also hopes to be more confident and composed in these settings. Dewey said that she thinks a good, well-rounded member of the debate team should be willing to help others write and form their arguments. She also thinks they shouldn’t “let their emotions get the best of them during the debates.”

Even though she participates in many different extracurricular activities her favorites are Girl Scouts and Science Olympiad. The reason why these two activities are her favorites is because of the lessons she has learned over the years. She has also had a lot of great opportunities to help in the community and the people in it.

What’s happened recently: End of a Senior Season

On Friday October 5th, the 25th annual Tailgate Party was held. The party was rescheduled from the August date due to rain. On the day of, though, the rain had started again. It stopped just in time for the party to still be held on the baseball field. The party lasted from 4:30 to 6:30 just before the football team's last home game of the season.

There were performances from the Sapphire Dance team and the Highland Cheerleaders during Tailgate and halftime for the game. The band performed their songs with color guard during halftime also. Children also were allowed to play games and jump in the bounce house that was there for them.

Many people went before the game to have fun and donate to the Highland Athletic Booster Club for all of the sports at the high school. After the party was over party-goers went to the nail-biting football game. This game was also a celebration for the seniors that are on the cheer, dance, and football team. The seniors in Band and Colorguard were also mentioned. The football team played Kankakee Valley High School for a close game. Highland was winning in the fourth quarter 17-16, but Kankakee scored a field goal to push ahead 19-17. The football team preserved, scored with .8 seconds left on the clock. The final score was 20-19. The score was fitting for the senior night game seeing as this is their graduating year. The team celebrated as they sang the Highland fight song.

Whats coming up: Technology Advances

On November 6th, Election Day, all schools in Highland will have the first E-learning day of the year. Election Day is the scheduled day because the elementary schools are usually voting poll station areas. To keep students safe, the elementary schools decided that an E-learning day was appropriate. The high school and middle school then followed so all students in the district were on the same schedule.

The Indiana Department of Education requires one practice day to be administered for E-learning days to test what needs to be fixed before there is an actual E-learning day needed. This is the only scheduled day of the year, but it is expected that there will be some in the future due to bad weather. This will count as a regular day of school for students. Teachers still have to come into school to administer the students assignments and partake in professional development. Students will have to check into “school” through their IPads in the morning by a certain time. Sophomore English teacher Ms. Ashley Sudar said, “For the most part I think it will go smoothly.” This is because last school year the high school had an in school practice E-learning day to see what some problems may be. Sudar also thinks that there will be a positive outcome for the day of. If there is a snow day and an E-learning day is administered, no schools will have to make up the day at the end of the year.