The Rampage

Sammi Springer  Staff Reporter  With the holiday season coming around the corner fast, it’s important to remember those less fortunate than you. A good way to keep things in perspective while helping those less fortunate this December is the Toys for Tots drive that the club SkillsUSA is sponsoring through December 18.             “The toys go into a big organization and they split it between less fortunate kids. I think it’s more so not sick kids and more so the less fortunate,” said Jessica Wheeler, senior and member of SkillsUSA.             “It’s good to help less fortunate kids who don’t get the same gifts that everyone else does during the holidays and give them a good Christmas they might not always get every year,” said Wheeler.             Students have until Friday to continue bringing in presents or money donations to the stations set up near the doors by SkillsUSA, which will then be picked up by the organization Toys for Tots and given to kids all around the co

Pat Owens Guest Reporter  Language arts teacher Pat Owens, Carson Owens, sophomore Cutler Owens, and senior Cordell  Parks at the premiere of The Force Awakens at Copper Creek theater Thursday night. Pat Owens photo. SPOILER ALERT—I am a big fan of the Star Wars Saga, especially the original trilogy, so this will be a favorable review. Thirty-eight-and-a-half years ago, I fell in love for the first time. Okay, maybe I had loved a pet or two before, but all that was cast aside when my dad took me to see the original Star Wars (before the subtitle Episode IV—A New Hope was added to the 1981 re-release). “I saw the most unbelievable movie,” he said. “I have to take you to see it.” Being an excited seven-year-old, I don’t remember much, but what I do remember is the feeling I had afterwards and how that carried on through my childhood and adolescence, even into adulthood, as Star Wars became one of the most iconic series in popular culture. Fast-forwa

Carrie McGrean  Staff Reporter  Students who are graduating early this year need need to attend the meeting in the auditorium. Photo credit Carrie McGrean. Many seniors will be graduating early this year. There will be a meeting for early graduates in the auditorium Friday December 18 during advisement period. Seniors were informed last Friday in advisement about the meeting. Early graduating senior Emma Larson doesn’t know exactly what the meeting will be about, but she has an idea.             “ I think it will be about papers to get signed and make sure we are all still on track,” said Larson.             Some seniors have had it in mind to graduate ahead of their class for a while now, while others just decided this year.             “ I decided to graduate early a couple weeks into this semester,” said Larson.             Seniors that made this choice all probably had different reasons for doing so. Larson said she wants to get away from the drama of high school a

Kayla Sunderland  Staff Reporter  People gathered with the Altoona cops to help raise money for kids Christmas presents. Photo credit Kayla Sunderland.  The Altoona Walmart store hosted their annual Shop with a Cop on Tuesday, December 8th. The store has been hosting the event at the Altoona Walmart for over ten years now.             “Shop with a Cop” allows families who cannot afford to buy gifts for themselves come in and shop for their families. Altoona and Pleasant Hill cops gather to help families have a great Christmas.             The kids were the ones who got to choose what to get for themselves and their family. Many kids chose to buy gifts for their siblings, parents, and grandparents. Gifts ranged from toys, clothing, candy, video games or movies, and accessories.             Volunteers were able to come in and wrap the gifts right after they checked out so the families could bring home the gifts and not have to worry about wrapping them.             Appro

Lexi Burrows Convergence Editor  Students have to draw a "Little Buddy" for their Spanish II speech. Photo credit Lexi Burrows.  Spanish II classes have to present about their “little buddy’s” daily routine. Students have to draw a small person and color it. They have to glue it to a pencil or a stick, and then label ten different body parts.             Once students have finished drawing and coloring their little buddy, they have to either make a video or just present in front of the class. Many students are creating videos rather than presenting it in person. “I don’t like speaking in Spanish because I feel like I am going to mess up. It gets confusing,” said Spanish II student, Ryan Hermes. Students must show their buddy to six different daily routine activities and they must be reflexive verbs. They have to use the reflexives verbs in three different tenses. They also have to have two past tense verbs in the preterit form. Multiple students talk about ho

Jessica Rish  News Editor  Students can learn more information about Hour of code on https://hourofcode.com/us        On December 9, 2015 Southeast Polk will be hosting their first Hour of Code after school.             The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event. One-hour tutorials are available in over 40 languages. No experience needed. Ages 4 to 104 according to the Southeast Polk website. Junior Maya Barker is taking part in the hour of code. “I wanted to do hour of code because it seems like something cool I would like,” said Barker. “I don’t know what I want to do with my life when I graduate, so this a good opportunity to see if I like computer technology.”             The Hour of Code promotes students to get involved in computer sciences. Computer science is every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving

Pete Ruden  Sports Editor  Chris Henderson protects the hoop against an Indianola player. Photo credit Pete Ruden.   The boys basketball team took care of business in their first game, as they handily beat Indianola on the road on Friday, December 4 by a score of 55-38.             Senior Chris Henderson led the Rams with a double-double, in which he scored 14 points, shooting 62.5 percent from the field, along with 10 rebounds.             “I felt I did a pretty good job and I contributed well to the team and the win,” Henderson said.             Along with Henderson’s performance, senior Keegan Van Kooten put up some solid stats, dropping in 14 points, with seven rebounds and two assists. Junior Jackson Cole also performed well, putting up 10 points, grabbing seven rebounds on the glass and dishing out two assists.             For any team, a 17 point road win on opening night is a good performance. The same can be said for the Rams, as they began their season on a h

Sammi Springer Staff Reporter  Students can speed and agility on Tuesday and Friday mornings. Photo credit Sammi Springer.  Speed and Agility training that is held in the morning on Tuesdays and Fridays helps athletes and otherwise improve their, well, speed and agility. One of the common participates in the before-school workouts is sophomore Maddy Kelly, who was encouraged to go to the tryouts by her softball coach Stiles. “Speed has a lot to do with strength, so we do a lot of ladder exercises that have to do with coordination and power stuff, that has a lot to do with legs,” said Kelly. According to her, many of the crowd of students that go are football players, who are obligated to go to make sure they improve and impress their coaches so they can play first string. “If you don't go to them, it’s like you’re not committed,” she said. “It’s like showing your coach that you don't really care and you don't want to improve.” For all athletes who want to go

Kaelee Keesee Editor-and-Cheif  It’s time for the start of Odyssey of the Mind! The club’s first meeting will be tonight after school in the Tag Room.             Odyssey of the Mind is a group that competes in problem solving competition with teams of five to seven people. They are given a problem with a certain set of rules and guidelines to solve them by. There are five types of problems with some requiring a skit to tell a story of a problem that gets solved in at least eight minutes. Another type of problem is building some sort of vehicle or structure to serve a special function. The props and anything used in the process are completely made by the members of the team from anything they desire.             “It’s not something that’s offered in other activities here,” said senior Paige Prichard. This will be her fourth year on the Odyssey team. “I can be creative and kind of silly and the fact that it’s a competition as well makes it that much better.             Pricha

Dressing pets up for holidays makes spirits bright! Photo credit Tori Hennick.  Tori Hennick Arts & Culture Editor  Pets are already cute. Want to make them even cuter? Dress them up for the holidays! People everywhere around the world spend tons of money not only on clothes for themselves, but also for their precious pets.             According to petmd.com, there are ten reasons why people should dress up their pets.  Number ten: clothes can show off your pet’s personality. Whether your pet is tough or flirty, clothes can show their traits off to others.             Number nine: if you wear clothes, there’s a chance your pet wants to as well. If your pet follows you around the house or sits on the couch when you do, try dressing them up like you. Number eight: it’s cold outside. In December and January it gets extremely cold outside. By dressing your pet up, you are protecting them from the harsh weather. Number seven: who doesn’t want their pet to be the cente

Kayla Sunderland  Staff Reporter  Sophomore English students started a new unit about a Greek tragedy. Photo credit Kayla Sunderland.     Mrs. Zelenovich’s Sophomore English II classes have started to talk the play Antigone on Monday, November 30.             Sophomore Cassie Link is in Mrs. Zelenovich’s fifth hour class. The lesson for that day was about the history of the playwright Sophocles and the other two parts of the trilogy that Antigone is in. Antigone is the third part to the trilogy. The first two parts of the trilogy are Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus.             “The play seems to have a lot of psychology behind it behind it and a wide range of literacy to be learned,” said Link.             Antigone is a Greek play written by Sophocles sometime around 441 B.C. and takes place in ancient Greece. The play is based on the myth of Oedipus.             Students will be reading the play aloud to each other in class and will then will give a speech af

Brooklyn Draisey  Columnist  Southeast Polk will have their first ever "Ugly sweater contest". The contest winners will be announced on December 20,2015. Photo credit Brooklyn Draisey.   The ugly  sweater contest was announced during the assembly on Tuesday, November 24. At the end of the assembly music started to play over the speakers and teachers ran around the gym in ugly sweaters. Then Heather Goodrich, a special education teacher, announced the contest. Ashley Van Ryswyk , another special education teacher, is also involved. Either can be contacted with any questions.             To enter the contest, fill out the registration form that was sent to every student’s infinite campus email. Once the form has been filled out, take a photo and submit it to #seprocktheugly2015 by December 16. Name and grade must be included. There will be an overall-class winner and individual finalists. The individual finalists will be announced on December 18 via social media and