What’s recently happened?
Crown Point High School (CPHS) recently held its annual Turnabout Winter Formal. The dance was held at Avalon Manor.
“It was so much fun. I got to spend time with my friends, and I had so much fun getting ready. There were less people, and it was in a fancier place with a lot more room to dance,” sophomore Mckenzie Poer said.
The dance was held on Saturday, January 24. Turnabout doesn’t usually have as many attendees as Homecoming, but that didn’t stop it from being a memorable experience for students.
“I think Turnabout is important for a lot of couples to spend time together and for sophomore and freshman students who don’t get to go to prom,” Poer said.
What’s coming up?
CPHS’s Journalism Department gets ready to go on its annual trip to Indiana University and Franklin College. The trip includes a tour of both universities as well as multiple class sessions students can visit to help further their journalism skills.
“Despite this being my fourth year on the 'Excalibur' staff, this is my first year actually going on this particular trip. I’ve always heard about how exciting the trip is not only for the yearbook but also for the staff,” said senior Isabella Robles, co-editor in chief of the yearbook.
During the trip, students on the yearbook staff will find out if last year’s book won State or not, as well as other awards.
“We’re going to see the achievements that the previous yearbook attained on a state level. For those of us who have been on staff since at least last year, it’s going to be really rewarding to see what our book might get in competitions being that we put forth so much time and effort,” Robles said.
CPHS is excited to see what the yearbook has accomplished and what more they have in store for the future.
Staff spotlight:
Courtney Krsteski is CPHS’s newest algebra teacher, and she originally taught at Taft Middle School.
“I loved teaching at the middle school. It was my first job as a teacher, so it was a lot of new things. I think that age group is a really fun age group because they’re still kind of younger and they’re growing, so I thought that was cool,” Krsteski said.
When COVID-19 hit, a lot of things changed. Learning math from home proved to be a challenge for a lot of kids.
“COVID was crazy; it was a lot of change and trying to figure out how to still teach the skills even though the students weren’t in school half of the time. It was also hard to get to know the kids because of the masks,” Krsteski said.
After the pandemic, Krsteski continued teaching at the middle school for another year.
“I student-taught at the high school with Amanda Stillman, so I had already worked at the high school, but that was always where I wanted to end up. I really like algebra. Seventh grade math is kind of everything, but algebra is more focused, and I think that, because they have grades that count, people take it more seriously,” Krsteski said
More than half of the school year has passed, and Krsteski finds herself adjusting well and bonding with her students.
For a lot of students, math is a hard concept to grasp, so CPHS thanks Krsteski for helping aid students on their academic journey.
Student spotlight:
Ana Baron is a sophomore at CPHS, and she plays for the varsity tennis team.
“My dad’s the tennis coach, and he would always be coaching his high school’s teams and then afterwards ask me if I wanted to play,” Baron said.
Baron has been watching the varsity team play since she was in middle school. When she joined her freshman year, she was put on varsity.
“I had been practicing with varsity for a while in middle school, and then I would win some challenge matches,” Baron said.
Being on varsity, Baron had to compete in a lot more matches and put in a lot more time.
“Being the only freshman on varsity was really scary during the first matches, but after that I was used to it,” Baron said,
This year, conditioning started earlier than past years. The season starts early spring, and the team is excited to start competing.
“I’ve definitely gotten better, and I’m really excited for Regionals this year. We lost a lot of seniors, so it is going to be a lot more intense, but I think we have a fair chance,” Baron said.