Texting in Class a Growing Problem

In a generation of technology and information, students have the ability to engage in constant communication with others at anytime of the day without making a phone call.

By Julian Izabal

There are many reasons for students to text during class. Some reasons might include students who help other students with their work. There is also a downside to texting because students may be just plain bored with the lesson or do not care about their grade. They might set up a place to meet with someone during class time, or just cheat on a test. Maria Gutierrez, a senior at South East High School, says, “Yes texting is a problem because students become distracted.” Gutierrez texts in class herself mainly “because I am bored” and talks about “random things, whatever pops into my head at the time.” Gutierrez believes “People do text in class but most likely for the same reasons as me.”

But how many people text in class? Ms. Perez, an art teacher at SEHS, believes, “about 30%” of her students text in her class. Of the 30% of students that text in her class she catches 15% and gives the phone to the Deans. Perez confiscates a phone if she sees a student using it, and believes “if I didn’t take away the phones they would do it more.” Once Perez has taken away the phone and gives it to the Deans it is the student’s responsibility to retrieve the phone. Perez believes the deans are “not consistent, because they give the phone back to some students and not to others. They should do the same to everybody.”

Danielle Rodriguez, a senior at SEHS, also believes “they [Deans] can be unfair sometimes, because they will take the phone away for an extended amount of time.” Even though Perez says “about 30% of student’s text in her class,” Rodriguez believes “the majority” of students text in class. Rodriguez said, “Texting in class is a distraction, because people pay more attention to their phone than the teacher.” The reason Rodriguez believes students text in class is because they are “bored, and they don’t care” about their education.

Stephanie Duran, a junior at SEHS, said “Yes I text in class sometimes to meet people somewhere.” Like many students Duran is responsible and does her work, but she also says “If a person is lazy then, yes, texting in class is a problem, but if the student is responsible then not at all.”

Some of the many reasons Duran might text in class are “To know what’s going on with people, sometimes to talk with my boyfriend, and sometimes to help people with their work.”

One problem Duran sees with the consequences of getting a phone taken away is that “If you have a lot of detentions” the student must serve them to get the phone back. Gutierrez believes, “Getting rid of all your detention hours to get your phone back is too much.”

Not all teachers take a phone away and give it to the Deans. Some have the student serve detention with them and then get the phone back. Fernando Grajeda, a senior at SEHS, had his phone taken away and had to stay an hour after school to get it back. Grajeda believes “it is fair, [to stay after school with a teacher and] better than getting it back from the Deans at the end of the year.”

To some students texting in class is not a problem if the student is responsible enough to get their work done.

Modern Warfare 2 Means New Game Craze

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 one of years most anticipated games.

 

            Activision and Infinity Ward gain massive reputation for their awesome games. According to developers at Infinity Ward wanted to stretch their creativity with an original, present-day game. The result, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare won numerous awards as 2007's best game and has sold more than 14 million units worldwide making Modern Warfare 2 one of the most anticipated games of the year.

Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer remains mostly the same as its predecessor titles at a basic level. The main activity in the multiplayer has not changed at all, but everything that surrounds the basic concepts of Modern Warfare has been modified and expanded to create intense, hardcore new levels.

One of the new changes is the selectable killstreak bonuses. For example, if the person could get three kills in a row before a person could call in UAV drones to give the players a better sense of where the enemies are currently located. People can also still call in airstrikes and helicopters. But now people can also call in supply drops, send up counter-UAVs that block enemy radar, send in a harrier jet that hovers above the battle and guns down the opposition, or even call in a Predator missile strike, which lets you control a missile as it drops from the sky.

Less successful elements from the original Modern Warfare have been modified or completely removed. Perks that had a lot of complaints in Call of Duty 4, like Martyrdom and Juggernaut, have been changed. For starters, Martyrdom is now a "deathstreak" bonus that if a person dies four times in a row without killing anyone, the persons’ next spawn will give them Martyrdom. This makes it rare, as opposed to COD4, where almost every player dropped a grenade every time they died. Juggernaut is gone completely, due to its complaints as being used as a “cheating way to last longer in game play,” says Antonio Palomera, a junior at South East High School.

Modern Warfare 2 does not have a co-op campaign mode but makes up for it in other ways. The campaign is around six to ten hours long. It also includes a level in Rio de Janeiro, a level in Siberia, a level on an oil tanker, and a stealth-based oil pipeline level where players will be undersea in scuba gear. Swimming will be a new gameplay mechanic (it might be a bit hard to do an underwater level without swimming, after all). Vehicles such as trucks, tanks, and helicopters will be featured and most are controllable.

The demo started on the level Cliffhanger, in which Captain Soap MacTavish and Sergeant Gary "Roach" Sanderson are somewhere in the Tian Shan Mountain range in extremely frigid conditions. The demo started off with Captain MacTavish and Roach climbing up the side of a mountain, but soon finding themselves blowing up a fuel depot and escaping from the base on snowmobiles while being chased by enemies. When people play the game this part of the demo is in the beginning of the game.

The majority of the people of the ages between 13 and 35p that were waiting for the Midnight release at the GameStop in South Gate had pre-ordered the game for the Playstation 3 and only few got the prestige version. This version includes collectible items such as night vision goggles but only for a higher price of $89.99 than the normal version, which normally costs $59.99. There are other places such as Fry’s Electronics, which sells the normal version for $55.99. Modern Warfare 2 has broken records for most sales in first few days of release.

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A farewell to summer

There are many ways to describe Elizabeth Robles, a junior at South East High School, but only a few tell you what she likes to do. One of the places she went to this summer was a lake, with her family and friends. There are two main things she did at the lake. One thing she did there was that she went bike riding in the mountains. The other thing was that her and her family had a small party by the lake; by the way this was on Labor Day weekend.