The Rampage

Sammi Springer  Staff Reporter   Students compete in intense band competitions, hoping to come out on top. Photo Credit Sammi Springer.   A large group of students gathered at the high school to travel to Johnston high school, where the marching band’s first competition was held on Saturday morning. One of the many performers from Southeast Polk was sophomore flute player Katie Krob, who explained how the competition worked. “We performed and then had a clinic where a guy watched and recorded our show. This one wasn't a ranked competition so mostly they looked at what we had done so far this season and then critiqued us on it,” said Krob. There was a lot of stress put on all the players. “There were judges on the field with us that would watch the marching aspect and then there were others on the bleachers in the box who kind of judged the music part,” said Krob. Even though the band wasn't given a place or score in comparison to the other teams, Krob thinks

Tori Hennick Arts and Culture Editor  Mix tapes are easy and fun to make if you just take the time. Photo credit Tori Hennick.  When people have so many options for listening to music such as Spotify, Pandora and iTunes, not many people realize that it’s still cool to make mix tapes.  Mix tapes  became popular in the 1980’s, all that was required to make one was previously recorded music such as an LP. Eight tracks were the most common type of music recording during that time because cassettes were intended for vocal recordings only.             Making a mix tape yourself is actually pretty easy. All you have to do is figure out what songs you would like to put on your CD, get onto YouTube, download the songs onto your computer and then use a converter such as media.io to convert your songs from an MP3 file to a wma file. Once you have converted those to the right format, you can then burn them from your computer library onto a blank CD.             There is only one sma

            Jessica Rish             News Editor  The blank park zoo has many butterfly gardens located throughout the park.  You can learn more about butterfly gardens on the Blank Park Zoo website. Photo credit Jessica Rish.  On Sunday September 20th Blank Park Zoo held their first ever monarch festival. The festival included Mexican dancing and music, puppet shows and monarch tagging.             The festival's main goal was to highlight the miraculous migration of the monarch butterfly.             Monarch butterflies are important pollinators. Without the help of butterflies we wouldn’t have as many choices of produce at groceries stores. The festival wanted to make sure that people are aware of this.             The overall main goal of the whole festival was encourage people to start their own butterfly gardens. You can learn more about butterfly gardens at http://www.blankparkzoo.com/index.cfm?nodeID=72081&audienceid=1&preview=1. .

Kayla Sunderland Staff Reporter  Teachers surprise students with flash mob. Photo credit Kayla Sunderland.   Students attended the pep assembly to get ready and fired up for the homecoming game on Friday, September 18.             The assembly took place in between second and third period. Students were on advisement schedule and second and third period were shortened by nine minutes each.             The band and cheerleaders started off the assembly by playing and singing the school song. Students were instructed by the cheerleaders to stand up and sing along.             Homecoming king and queen were announced at the end of the assembly. There was a tie for king between Tyler Evans and Eric Pingel. Sydney Albertson was crowned queen.             Students were surprised when music started playing during Principal Steve Pettit’s speech and teachers and other staff members ran to the middle of the gym and started dancing. Over 70 staff members were involved in it incl

Ashley Vannoy Staff Reporter  The homecoming parade was held, and families from all over came and collected candy. Photo credit Ashley Vannoy.   The homecoming parade was Thursday, September 17 at six o’clock in the evening. The parade began right around the Sam Wise Youth Complex, passed straight across 8th Street and right by Centennial Elementary. There were many organizations in the community who walked the parade along with the cheerleaders, RythAMetteS, marching band and various fall athletics in the high school and junior high. The homecoming court rode through along with various elementary school floats. There were many concerns as to what the weather would turn out like and if the parade would be cancelled. Earlier in the day it had poured down rain and was cloudy, hot and humid.  By the afternoon the weather calmed down and the sky became visible. By five o’clock, the beginning of the parade line-up, there was no one concerned about the weather. It turned out to be ok

During today's Homecoming assembly, teachers and staff surprised students with a flash mob.  Preparations for the performance began during staff meetings in August.  The crowd went crazy when staff members showcased their best "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)".  Watch them in action!

After a week of online voting, Eric Pingel, Tyler Evans, and Sydney Albertson were crowned as the 2015-16 queen and kings. All students were sent the link to the online ballot through Infinite Campus on Monday the 14. On it they were asked how they would like to cast their vote for future reference, which was a choice between electronic ballots through Infinite Campus or paper ballots given to them in advisory. They were also asked how they accessed the link and who they wanted for the king and queen. However, far from everyone votes, whether it is out of choice, forgetting or not being able to find the link. Some students who are not familiar with Infinite Campus or electronics in general find it hard to locate the link and would prefer traditional paper ballots. There are also people on the opposite side of the spectrum. “I think doing it electronically is easier,” says sophomore Alexis Po. A lot of students today are very familiar with electronics and would prefer it if most

Anna Zelenovich  Columnist  Tonight  Students start new traditon called the Ram Games. Photo credit Anna Zelenovich   At 7:15, Southeast Polk Student Council is hosting the first ever Ram Games on the football field. The Ram Games will be a series of various activities including tug-of-war and three-legged races that teams of around 10 students will take part in.  Korte Christensen, student body president, and the rest of student council have been planning this “field night” for weeks. “The Ram Games were started because our goal this year is to get students more excited about being part of this school,” said Christensen. Student Council has done a lot more this school year and they are working hard to get kids more involved. “The purpose of the games is to get students involved in something different than they normally do and with kids they normally don’t normally associate with,” Christensen said. The Ram Games are open to anyone and there is no cost to participate

Kailee Ammons  Feature Editor  Brianna Hersom smiles with her younger sister. Photo credit Brianna Hersom.   This week in Spanish III, students have been asked to create a presentation about their daily routine, or “rutina diaria.”             Students must use at least seventeen verbs in the present tense and a picture for each sentence. Six of these verbs must be reflexive verbs and eleven must be regular verbs. Some common verbs being used are to eat, to fall asleep, and to brush one’s teeth. Students are given a list with over one hundred verbs to choose from. They are also given the option to use vocabulary that is not on the list.             Students also have the opportunity to earn extra credit with this project. They must use two verbs that are not in the “yo” form. This means that they cannot use the verb while talking about themselves. They must be referring to a different person or a group of people.             Most students see this as an easy way to recei

Claire Strickland  Managing/Design Editor  Junior girls getting ready for the powderpuff game against the seniors  Monday, September 14 was the annual junior’s vs senior’s powderpuff game to kick off homecoming week. Junior Caitlin Braafhart participated in the event. “I had a great first time playing powder puff,” Braafhart said. “It was a lot of fun!” Every year, homecoming week begins with a girl’s football game, causing a large rivalry between the junior and the senior class. The game began at six pm, and teams had a practice and pictures before the game began. “The best part of the game was seeing how all us juniors really bond together,” Braafhart said. The game consisted of four 12 minute quarters, with the clock continuously running. There is no tackling or foul play, and players can only grab flags. “One difficulty was that I didn’t really know what I was doing, and that made it a little bit harder,” Braafhart said. Seniors ultimately won the game, but no

             Jessica Rish                New Editor  Jenna Phothiboupha dress as the Statue  of Liberty. Photo credit Jenna Phothiboupha.    Fall comes with many festivities and Friday night football games are one of the biggest one and Southeast Polk does Fridays like no other. Southeast Polk has had three football games this season and on September 11th we played Valley.             At the game on Friday the theme was “USA Out.” Junior, Jenna Phothiboupha, goes all out on Fridays.             “I like to follow the themes of the game because it’s fun and it shows I have school spirit,” said Phothiboupha  The past themes for games have been beach out and USA Out. “America out has been my favorite theme so far because a little boy came up to me and tugged on my dress of lady liberty and said “I like your outfit lady” and I said replied with thank you kind fellow,” said Phothiboupha. Phothiboupha is not the only one who likes to go all out for football games.        

Pete Ruden  Sports Editor  Boys basketball has open gyms to prepare them for games later in the year. Photo credit Pete Ruden   Basketball never stops. That is a popular phrase among basketball players, originating from Nike shirts with the same motto on them. For the boys’ basketball team, that well-known tagline holds true. With the season not starting until December 4 at Indianola, the Rams are already preparing for that matchup.             Along with playing about 100 games this past summer, the team has been attending team camps, which will help them get ready for the season.             “We went to about six team camps, so with that we all found our roles,” said senior Chris Henderson. “Once the season starts, it will be real easy to come together, which we already have.”             The basketball program also started open gyms on September 1, available to players and people planning to play basketball for the upcoming year. At open gyms, the team does about 45

Demi Muchmore Editor-in-Chief  Homecoming dress up days are posted all  over the school. Photo credit Demi Muchmore    We’ve made it to yet another year of homecoming week. One of student’s favorite part of homecoming is the week of homecoming where we all get to dress up and no one judges us. The dress up days for this year’s Homecoming week are: ·          Marvel Monday ·          Tropical Safari Tuesday ·          What Not To Wear Wednesday ·          Throw On Your Denim Thursday ·          Spirit Day Friday Incoming freshman are not exactly new to this but they are new to some of the dress up ideas that we might do.  “I like to participate in the dress up days so I don’t look stupid and out of place”, Freshman Josh Walton said. That’s right, if you don’t dress up you will look out of place and stupid.  So dig through your closet and dress your best!             

Sydney Sears  Staff Reporter  High School band room.  Photo credit Sydney Sears. Band lessons will be picking up this week for the band kids at the high school.             Lessons are something every band kid has to go through. Most of the time, except for kids doing private lessons, students in band will be pulled from class to either see Mrs. Meunier or Mr. Gerth for a quick playing of something in the student’s lesson book.             “There’s stuff on rhythms, articulations… Or there’s a section where you have to play an actual song,” said flute player Katie Krob. She went on to say that lessons can really vary to what instrument they’re for, but lessons start off fairly easy and tend to get harder.               Another common difficulty band student’s face is actually making it to their lessons.             “I forget about them a lot… I forgot- Oh, this is the week I have my lesson,” Krob said. With her full schedule, it’s often easy to forget something that is

Kaelee Keesee Editor-in-Chief 2015-16 homecoming court. Photo credit Kaelee Keesee              On Friday, August 29, the school gathered in the gym to celebrate the kickoff of the fall sports season. Included in the pep assembly was the announcing of this year’s homecoming court.             The senior class spent their Tuesday advisor last week voting for their top five picks for the boys and girls they wanted to represent their class on the court. The ballots were then counted by student council advisers Marci Keesee and Deb Starcevich, ready to be announced Friday at the assembly.             This year, the senior boys selected for the court include: Michael Altes, Korte Christensen, Tyler Evans, Cole Hauser, Sam Hermes, Solomon Jones and Eric Pingel. The senior girls selected include: Sydney Albertson, Mariah Armstrong, Grace Betz, Brooke Chesmore, Jenna Cole, Kaitlynn Lucy and Sydney Rosenboom.             “I think that being on court means that you have a lot of

Kaelee Keesee Editor-in-Cheif This year, the Harbor made the decision to change their graduation ceremony from a traditional formal ceremony to more of a celebration. Due to the increasing amount of harbor students that choose to walk in the traditional ceremony, assistant principal Joel Schutte and other members of the Harbor community decided to change their commencement ceremony to a more informal celebration.             The celebration will consist of cake a punch that can be enjoyed with close family and friends, a digital yearbook that will consist of photos of everything the students took part in throughout the year and speeches given by select seniors.             “We haven’t got much reaction yet since it’s still pretty recent news,” said Schutte. “I’ve sent a couple phone calls to people in our community and they get it. It’s really hard to do a formal ceremony for those twelve kids that don’t choose to walk in the traditional ceremony with the rest of the senior cl

Carrie McGrean Staff Reporter   The words to the school fight song are printed in the student handbook It has been brought to the attention of Jennifer Crawford that several teachers do not know the words to the school song. She sent out an email to the all the teachers that included the school song lyrics. This song is played by the band at every home sports event; it sets everyone at attention and brings fans to their feet to clap along. The atmosphere in the stands of a Friday night football game would make anyone loud and proud to be a Ram. Most students know the chant like the back of their hand, but is it all that important for everyone to know it?             Jesse Smith is in his second year of teaching at the high school and not only does he coach football, but he attended high school at Southeast Polk. He is present at every football game and knows the words to the school song. When asked if he thinks it is important to know the school song Smith replied, “I

Tori Hennick  Arts and Culture Editor  Travel improves educational purposes. Photo credit Tori Hennick. Stressful school days call for vacations. Some may think that taking a vacation during the school year is bad news, but according to www.familyvacationcritic.com , taking a couple of days off to do something with your friends or family is actually just what someone needs to distress.             Travel Improves Educational Attainment & Future Success conducted a survey to determine whether traveling during the school year had a positive effect on students or not. The results showed that those who went on trips that had an educational purpose between the ages of 12 and 18 had higher grades, and travel helped 59 percent of participants achieve success in school. Eighty percent of those who traveled also had a greater interest in school.             The results may have been because they got a few days to have fun and not be stressed out about what was going on at schoo

Sammi Springer Staff Reporter  Over 275,000 studnets are enrolled in at least 1 online course In the past few years, the amount of high school students taking at least one online course has shot up, with over 275,000 students taking all classes online in 2013. Since then, numbers have only continued to grow, and students all over America are logging into sites such as Edgenuity to take courses over the summer, some even choosing to take all their classes online and opting out of public school altogether.             Since the end of freshman year, sophomore Hannah Waskel had been looking for alternatives to public school. She knew about e2020 from her friends who had taken some courses before.             “I went to a meeting during the first week of school with my counselor and she listed out the options I could. We decided that online schooling would be the best way to stay in touch with Southeast Polk and still stay active and connected.” said Waskel.             Worr

Kayla Sunderland Staff Reporter  JV football faces off against   Waukee on September 4,2015 Staff Reporter The JV football team plays Waukee at Waukee High School Stadium at 4:45pm on Friday, September 4th. This will be the second game of the season for the team. Freshman Jessica Gruber will be cheering at the game with rest of the JV football cheer squad, and gives her opinion on how well the football team will do and her favorite thing about cheer leading. “I’d say my favorite thing is the reaction of the crowd when you finish a cheer.” said Gruber. Many students attend the games and help cheer on the team along with the cheerleaders. The cheerleaders often get the crowd pumped up and loud. The JV team had recently won their last game against Johnston on Thursday, August 27th, but that win had left many wondering how the rest of their season will lay out. “Yeah, I think we will have a good season because they started out well last week and we got some good players.

Brooklyn Draisey  Columnist  Columnist Class Group Photograph. Brooklyn Draisey Photo.   Seniors got their senior photo taken during the special advisory on Thursday, September 3. The photo will take place in the gym and include the entirety of the class of 2016. The photo could be bought if students brought a photo envelope that they filled out. Senior Jared Harrington got his photo taken with the rest of the seniors on Thursday, and has some ideas on why the photo gets taken year after year. “I think we have to do it because it shows how big the school is growing, and it can be nice for us to look back on,” said Harrington. Senior year is often the most memorable for students, and there aren’t many chances to get a picture of almost every kid in the class. The senior photo is a way for both the school, family and students to remember their last year in high school. It is also seen as a very important tradition. “I think it’s just one more tradition to do as a senior,

 Ashley Vannoy    Staff Reporter  To Kill A Mocking Bird.  Ashley Vannoy Photo Sophomores are beginning to read the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee in English II this week.             This has been a tradition for all students who have gone through English II for years. It is required for all sophomores and is one of the first things they do in English II.             Students read the book in class together, are assigned parts to read at home and do tests and quizzes throughout the novel. Some classes started the book last week others will start next week. Sophomore Felicia Jordan’s class began reading the novel yesterday.               “At first I thought it was kind of hard to get into, but the farther we have gotten I have become more intrigued,” said Jordan.             To Kill A Mockingbird is about Scout, her brother Jem, their father, Atticus, their friend, Dill, and their mysterious neighbor. It takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s, during

Kailee Ammons Feature Editor            The Chemistry classes took a safety quiz this past Monday, August 31. The quiz was over the basic safety instructions, such as wearing safety goggles, handling broken glass, and what to do when a fire starts or a chemical reaction goes wrong. Junior Victoria Purcell answers safety  quiz questions. Kailee Ammons photo.                 Mark Busch, chemistry teacher, let his students keep their safety contracts over the weekend to read and study them. Busch’s plan was to have his students take their quizzes online, but ran into issues during his first hour class when the laptops were denying login access to half of the students.             “When my laptop would not work, I was starting to panic a little,” said junior Victoria Purcell. “I did not know if I would be able to take the quiz.”             Because of the many students who were in Purcell’s situation, Busch decided to read the twenty-four questions out loud to the class, and

  Anna Zelenovich Staff Reporter              Southeast Polk student council is planning on doing everything they can to improve the school. With the new idea of “Pep Club” many students have been trying to get more involved and show support of all the activities offered at Southeast Polk. Junior Holly Dannen was one of the student council members responsible for starting Pep Club. “We are trying to branch off from the usual things we’ve done in the past to bring the school closer and get more kids involved,” Dannen said. The beauty of the club is it turns no one away. Unlike Student Council where members are voted on, Pep Club is for anyone. “Student Council is trying to allow everyone a chance to support all SEP activities and Pep Club doesn’t turn anyone away,” Dannen said. At the end of last school year, students and staff tried to create a more positive culture and environment. Dannen and her friends were very passionate about drawing attention to all the positive