TODAY6560 Braddock Rd., Alexandria, VA 22312

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014 VOLUME 30, ISSUE 1

T H O M A S J E F F E R S O N H I G H S C H O O L F O R S C I E N C E A N D T E C H N O L O G Y

tj

FCPS explores goals for graduatesby Ellen KanPrint Editor-in-Chief

As the school year begins, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) looks forward to implementing the Por-trait of a Graduate, an innovative collection of educational qualities that the county hopes every high school senior will internalize by the time they graduate.

FCPS Superintendent Karen Garza introduced the Por-trait of a Graduate soon after she was appointed to her position in July 2013. The initiative serves as an extension of the School Board’s three student achievement goals: to pursue academic excellence, to develop essential life skills and to demonstrate responsibility to the community and the world.

“We’re beginning to craft the future of our school sys-tem,” Garza said in a March 5 video interview. “We ulti-mately believe that the Portrait of a Graduate will drive how we need to redesign ourselves into the future through strategic planning.”

Garza formed a task force in Fall 2013 to convert the idea into reality. Approximately 70 parents, teachers, ad-ministrators and business leaders were invited to partici-pate. With the help of EdLeader21, an education network headed by CEO Ken Kay, the task force pinpointed five essential qualities for student growth, which include be-ing a communicator, collaborator, global citizen, creative and critical thinker and self-directed and responsible in-dividual.

Jefferson is already working the Portrait of a Graduate into the school’s goals. According to Principal Evan Glazer, the staff collectively chose to focus on a single area: aiding students in becoming better communicators.

“When the staff met for an in-service day late last spring, teachers in collaborative teams drafted what they wanted our students to learn and be able to do next year,” Glazer said. “When the administration reviewed all of those goals,

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New eighth period policy set in placeby Stav NachumNews Editor

After a hectic year for eighth period absences, the administration has created a new set of guidelines for the 2014-2015 school year. With these new rules in place, the administration hopes that students will be able to manage their eighth period attendance more wisely.

“We noticed something was wrong with the old system when students didn’t mind showing up for Lost

and Found,” Principal Evan Glazer said. “We thought it was time for a change.”

As with previous years, students must sign up for eighth period by 12:30 p.m. Those who do not sign up will be placed in a mandatory administrative study hall. This eighth period study hall is not detention, but allows the school to keep track of where students are.

The rule that bans call-ins will also be carried over from

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Research options open for underclassmenby Esther KimOpinion Editor

Traditionally, the major-ity of in-school indepen-dent research projects take place in senior research labs, where the student research-ers apply their four years of accumulated knowledge to a specific project of their in-terests.

Starting this school year, underclassmen will also have the opportunity to pur-sue research.

By joining the new Un-derclassmen Independent Research Laboratory and its affiliated eighth period club, Jefferson Research Initiative Program (JRIP), underclass-men will conduct their own research projects during first and eighth period. This of-fers them an opportunity to engage in a laboratory envi-ronment before senior year.

“JRIP will give under-classmen the opportunity to pursue their own research and to understand what they are going into when they go to the science and tech labs as seniors,” Dan Burden, the faculty sponsor of JRIP, said.

The laboratory will pro-vide students with resources after the opening of the reno-vated research wing this fall.

Projects will focus on one of three categories: computer science, experimental re-search and development and engineering.

Over the summer, in-terested students drafted proposals, which explained their motivation and the procedure for their research projects. They sent their proposals to Burden for ap-proval when the school year began. As of Sept. 10, Burden has received between 10 and 20 proposals.

By participating in the program, the underclassmen will gain exposure to the re-search environment of senior labs. At the end of the year, students will conclude the program by presenting their projects at the science fair.

In conjunction with the Underclassmen Indepen-dent Research Laboratory, JRIP will provide students with additional information sessions about professional research, in which the mem-bers will discuss scientific literature, train for oral pre-sentations and learn about safety and scientific writing.

The club will also present relevant topics such as ethics

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Staff holds inaugural summer photo contest

New teachers share literary favorites P4-5P3 P8Jefferson welcomes

new administratorsP7Golf prepares for post-season

Marching Band P3

photo by Stav Nachum

Freshman Mei Baek signs up for eighth period through Intranet.

photo illustration by Stav Nachum

PORTRAIT OF A

GRADUATE

COMMUNICATORCOLLABORATOR GLOBAL CITIZEN CRITICAL THINKER

RESPONSIBLE INDIVIDUALCREATIVE

SELF-DIRECTED

september 17, 2014news2Volume 30 Issue 1

2013 Pacemaker - NSPA2013 Trophy Class - VHSL2013 All-American - NSPA2013 Gold Medalist - CSPA

Editorial Board

Print Editor-in-Chief

Ellen Kan

Online Editors-in-Chief

Sandy ChoLindsay Williams

Design Editor

Alexis Williams

News Editor

Stav Nachum

Opinion Editor

Esther Kim

Features Editor

Anjali Khanna

Sports Editor

Akhil Waghmare

Entertainment Editor

Kate Deng

Business Manager

Esther Kim

Adviser

Erinn Harris

Printer

Silver Communications

TjTODAY is the official newspaper of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology published monthly by the journalism staff. It serves as a vehicle for student expression and is an open forum of issues of interest and concern to the school community.

The staff is deeply committed to a code of journalistic ethics that demands the exercise of accuracy, good judgment and impartiality. The content of tjTODAY is determined by the editorial board.

Web site: www.tjtoday.orgEmail: tjtoday.tjhsst@gmail.com

TODAYtj

Research options open for underclassmenand opportunities for intern-ships. Although the two pro-grams are affiliated with one another, they function as two separate organizations.

“The JRIP program aims to set the fundamentals and equipment that will support TJ students with what they need, unlike ever before,” se-nior Matt Park, the founder of JRIP and the managing director of the club, said. “It’s a chance for student research-ers like me to venture out into self-driven re-search.”

T h r o u g h their partner-ship, the Un-derc lassmen Independent Research Labo-ratory and JRIP will enhance students’ prior k n o w l e d g e about science, t e c h n o l o g y , e n g i n e e r i n g and mathemat-ics (STEM) re-search, pro-viding more

opportunities for advanced studies and gaining hands-on experience in a laboratory.

“I believe that the earlier and more involved you get into understanding the re-search world, the better off you are,” Burden said. “Just the experience itself can real-ly help you understand how to think critically and like a researcher. The earlier you start, the better.”

last year. However, the eighth period office recognizes that there will be cases in which a student must meet with their teacher at the last minute. In these situations, teachers are expected to communicate di-rectly with the eighth period office.

"I didn't find the policy confusing, but I was just for-getful when it came to eighth periods," senior Ruhee Shah said. "Hopefully this new sys-tem works."

This year, the eighth pe-riod office will use a new quarter policy to determine placement in Administrative Detention (AD), the dou-ble-block activity formerly known as Lost and Found that prohibits sleeping, talk-ing or eating.

While students still have two weeks to clear an absence with the eighth period office, they will be assigned to AD if they accumulate two or more absences in any quarter. If students receive another ab-sence before the quarter is over, they will be assigned to a second AD session as well.

Students will not be ex-cused from AD for any rea-son, and failure to show up will result in a referral to the grade level administrator. Students will continue to

receive an email before AD informing them of their situ-ation, giving them a deadline to clear any incorrect absenc-es.

“The goal for this new policy is to deter students from showing up to admin-istrative detention. We would rather they sign up for eighth period activities and have them attend without break-ing rules,” Glazer said. “We want students to enjoy their eighth period experience, but we also need them to follow through with the expecta-tions we have set in place.”

Yearly totals will influence referrals and affect privileges such as leadership, parking and mentorship. Students will get referrals if they fail to show up to an assigned AD session; get assigned to three ADs in one year; get five or more absences in any quarter; or get 10 or more absences in one year.

"Our hope is that the sys-tem is easier to understand, and that with a better under-standing, far fewer students get assigned to detention," Eighth Period Coordinator Joan Burch said. "We would like to see no one assigned to detention—there are much better uses for your time and ours."

by Anjali KhannaFeatures Editor

In past years, the One Question program has worked to engage students in discussion about some of the issues Jefferson students face every day through the One Book. This reading requirement ac-companied a thought-provoking question voted on by a committee of students and teachers. This year, however, the One Question committee has decided to make some changes to the One Question program, including the removal of the One Book portion of the traditional summer assignment.

The committee, led by Russian teacher Betsy Sandstrom and Assistant Principal Scott Campbell, is comprised of a group of students who have an inter-est in increasing school-wide discussion of relevant issues in the Jefferson community. These students, who helped facilitate the school-wide voting on this year’s One Question, will be in charge of coordinat-ing eighth period activities which support the themes embedded within the question. Most recently, the student steering committee designed an “I Am” post-er activity which required students to write about re-defining stereotypes based on their interpretation of this year’s question.

“The idea behind the ‘I Am’ activity we did in

homeroom, which was created by one of the students on our student steering committee, was to encourage students to start a discussion on stereotypes,” Sand-strom said. “Even if they decided not to turn their response into the One Question committee, the act of completing the activity and putting the stereotype on paper made it more real and powerful.”

The “I Am” activity proved to be more than a success, as the committee received hundreds of re-sponses from students of all grade levels, which are now posted around the school. “Don’t be alarmed if you don’t see your response up on the wall just yet,” Sandstrom said. “We plan to cycle out the responses every few days until everyone’s poster has been put on display.”

In addition, the student steering committee, which will meet during eighth-period, plans on hosting a school-wide, all-day One Question event similar to “Flow Day” of last year. Although there will no longer be a keynote speaker from the One Book, the committee plans on choosing prominent speakers based on how they relate to this year’s theme, chosen by senior Brandon Kim.

“I chose the question because I have kind of strug-gled in the past, and still do, with trying to find my passions and how I could pursue them in an envi-

ronment like TJ, and how our current society might inhibit me from doing so,” Kim said. “I have also ob-served this in many people in the TJ community, and I was hoping I could challenge the people at TJ to be happy with what they are doing.”

wThis year's One Question bring a host of new changes

photo by Sandy Cho

Senior Matt Park, founder of JRIP, conducts research for Neuroscience Research Lab.

New eighth period policy set in place

FCPS explores goals for graduatesthe pattern that resonated in approximately 40 percent of the teams was associated with the Portrait of a Grad-uate goal tied to communi-cation.”

Some collaborative teams have goals that align with Jefferson’s empha-sis on the communication aspect of the Portrait of a Graduate.

“As an administrator, my job is to help us, as a school, think about the larger vision of how to improve students’ abilities to communicate,” Assistant Principal Scott Campbell said. “All of our teachers are content area specialists, but this doesn’t necessarily make one a spe-cialist in evaluating good communication. My goal is to support teacher efforts and give them access to resources they need to im-prove this skill in students.”

The Portrait of a Gradu-ate is on the agenda for the School Board meeting on Sept. 18. FCPS will not move forward as a system until the initiative is endorsed, but many schools outside of Jefferson have already be-gun to incorporate aspects of the Portrait of a Graduate into their own plans.

“We have a very strong education system in Fair-fax County, so the Portrait of a Graduate did not have to address any problems,” FCPS Chief of Staff Marty Smith said. “Instead, it’s a way for us to help the com-munity understand that in our schools, we have al-ways been focused on more than just students walking away with facts and figures. The Portrait of a Graduate is just a way to codify this as the world of education evolves.”

RENOVATIONCORNER

• New ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES located behind the dome in front of the building are almost ready for move-in.

• An EXTRA LABORATORY opens for independent student research in the left wing of the building.

• Cubbies surround what is planned to become the NEW SOPHOMORE LOUNGE behind the new eighth-period lab in the left wing.

• The NEW STUDENT SERVICES OFFICE SUITES move directly above the new administrative offices, on the right side of the second story.

• NEW PROTOTYPING AND ROBOTICS LABORATORIES are nearly ready for use, complete with garage-style doors for transportation of lab creations.

graphic by Anjali Khanna and Stav Nachum

Asked to reflect on this year's One Question, students completed the "I Am" poster activity during homeroom, and their work is currently displayed around the school.

photo by Kate Deng

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sportsseptember 17, 2014 3DANCE vs CHEER

Photos, graphics and reporting by Kenney Chen, Emma Gee, Anjali Khanna, Bailey

Knight, Susie Lee, Alvin Shi, Alexis Williams and Lindsay Williams

Dance has several uniforms to match the style of dance. Cheer has two different uniforms, but they are similar styles.

Dance is ballet-based with a focus on leaps and turns. Cheer is gymnastics-based with a focus on stunts and jumps.

Dance Team only does home games but does both fall and winter. Cheer only does football games, but they do both home and away.

Dance peforms at half-time before marching band. Cheer leads cheers on sidelines during games.

CoEd golf prepares forConference 13 Tournament

TJMC looks forward toupcoming competitions

by Sandy ChoOnline Editor-in-Chief

After concluding the regular season with a record of four wins, one loss and one tie, the Jefferson CoEd golf team is gearing up for Districts, also known as the Conference 13 Tournament. This year, the tournament began Sept. 16 and continues today at the Greendale Golf Course in Alexandria, Va.

Since the fall of 2013, athletes have been training at various golf courses and updating their clubs to stay at the top of their game.

“Players from last year have really worked hard to practice over last school year and the summer, so we have some really good players this year,” senior and captain Julie Luo said.

Though the team needed to replace the five seniors who graduated, juniors Albert Zeng and Millen Anand, sophomore Christine Wang and freshman Min Kang joined Luo and junior Nathan Chuwait to form the top six golfers.

“Nathan and Julie have always been leading the team, but we’ve also had some new players, such as Min and Christine, who

are up there and posting great scores,” junior Peter Andringa, an alternate, said.

Head Coach John Myers believes that success from last year’s post-season inspired players, especially as they face new rivals after Jefferson’s move to a different district.

“Since we no longer compete with Langley and Madison, now we must face Stone Bridge and Briar Woods in regional play,” Myers said. “Since we don’t see them often, we really do not know what to expect, except they know that TJ is no longer the pushover that did not do well in the post-season. Stone Bridge, in particular, will be ready for us since we defeated them on Senior Day last week.”

The team hopes to continue this success by placing high enough at the tournament to advance to Regionals.

“The team is doing better due to the continued success of Julie and Nathan. They have really inspired the team to work harder in the off-season and on their own,” Myers said. “I think we are prepared for the next couple of weeks with a squad that has a good mix of players from freshmen to seniors.”

by Akhil WaghmareSports Editor

On Sept. 20, the Thomas Jefferson Marching Colonials (TJMC) will compete at a USBands competition, part of a national chain of competitions that encompasses over 700 high school marching bands. The group, which contains almost 100 members, is the six-time defending USBands State Champion and has been recognized on the national level.

This year, TJMC’s show is titled “The Transcontinental Railroad” and consists of music from “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” (Patrick Gilmore), “Fanfare for the Common Man” (Aaron Copland), “Billy the Kid Ballet Suite” (Aaron Copland) and “Rodeo, Four Dance Episodes” (Aaron Copland). At such competitions, the show is judged on various aspects including the music, visual appeal and audience reaction.

TJMC started practicing the show in early June. Mandatory practices called “home camp” started three weeks before school began and lasted nine hours per day. The

highlight of summer practices takes place in early August at a camp in Orkney Springs, Va.

“The best thing about being in marching band is certainly our August away camp in Orkney Springs,” junior Bradford Case, a field drum major, said.

At Orkney, TJMC members get to practice for the show and get to know other members of the band, an experience everyone enjoys.

“The number one reason to join marching band is the people,” senior and head drum major Maya Chung said. “Music and hard work bring us all together, but it’s fun to work hard with 100 of your closest friends.”

Students in TJMC are confident they can do very well with this year’s show and are setting high goals.

“Our biggest goal is to qualify for the finals at Bands of America Regionals hosted at the University of Delaware in October,” senior Sage Teasley, a section leader for low brass, said. “We always try to perform and practice at as high of a level as possible and lay down solid shows everywhere we go.”

Cheer and Dance Team seem similar, but in fact are very different and distinct teams that value different skills.

Uniforms

Skills

Season

Performances

We accept: poetry, prose, music and art

Submission details coming soon!

spread4 september 17, 2014

Rocio Rayas-AbundisSpanish“The House of the Spirits” by Isabel Allende is an ex-traordinary narra-tion of the complex political situation that Chileans ex-perienced when the country went from a democracy to a dictatorship in 1973.

Autobiography of a TeacherOther favorites:

“Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck

“East of Eden” by John Steinbeck

New teachers discuss their favorite reads

Other favorites:

“Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett

“The Storyteller” by Jodie Picoult

“Sarah’s Key” by Tatiana De Rosnay

“Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad

“Brave New World” by George Orwell

Nancy GloverEnglish“‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote is suspenseful. It was the first crime book I ever read, and it was the first book that ever hooked me in. For the first time ever I paid attention to the elements that make a good story. ”

Other favorites:

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

“Harry Potter” by J.K. Rowling

Karilee SchmittMath“I like ‘Gone with the Wind’ because since I am a math teacher, I like to have the answer to a problem, but for enjoyment I like having the story with more personal rela-tionships.”

Other favorites:

“I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala” by Rigoberta Menchu

“I Hate English” by Ellen Levine and Steve Bjorkman

“The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Other favorites:

“All the King’s Men” by

Robert Penn Warren

“The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss

Jay WickliffSocial Studies“‘Shogun’ by James Clavell is my favorite book because I am fasci-nated by international relations in history and the interplay of different cultures.”

Kurt WatersSocial Studies“‘Siddhartha’ by Herman

Hesse is a book about an individual’s jour-ney but also life’s journey. As teachers and students we are

in the process of finding out who we are and how we can contrib-ute a verse to the poetry of life. We are all on journeys and it is a story abbout a journey.”

Other favorites:

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

“Owl at Home” by Arnold Lobel

“A Wrinkle in Time” by Madleine L’Engle

“Harry Potter” series by J.K.Rowling

Amy LampazziMath“I like ‘Un-known Quan-tity’ by John Debyshire be-cause it tells a lot about the human side of mathemat-ics, and it ties mathematics with the rest of history.”

Other favorites:

“Rabbit Run” by John Updike

“A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini

“Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling

“A Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams

Thomas RudwickComputer Science“‘City of Thieves’ by David Benioff is my favorite because it’s very action-packed and historical, and also has great prose.”

“The Good Earth” by Pearl Buck

“Mud, Sweat, and Tears” by Bear Grylls

september 17, 2014 5spread

Autobiography of a TeacherOther favorites:

“The Sandman” by Neil Gaiman

“A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking

“Freakonomics” by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt

“Moneyball” by Michael Lewis

Isaac CareyMath“‘The Millennium Problems’ by Keith J. Devlin is my favorite math book because it is a very approach-able overview of the great unsolved

problems in mathematics. It is the next generation’s outlook on math and where it’s heading.”

Other favorites:

“Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling

“Hunger Games” series by Suzanne Collins

“Chronicles of Narnia” series by C.S. Lewis

Josephine RomeoSocial Studies

“‘Trouble in Mind’ by Leon

Litwack is my favorite history book because it

is really beau-tiful to read,

which isn’t com-mon in history, and the author

takes an approach of discussing ev-

erything from reli-gion to economics

in that life.”

Other favorites:

“Influence: The Psychology of

Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini

“Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (And How to Take

Advantage of It)” by William Poundstone

Dennis LooMath

“‘How to Solve It’ by George Polya is a classic. While

it’s primarily aimed at solving math problems and uses math problems as

its examples, many of its techniques can be applied to the process of prob-

lem solving in general. I reread it periodically to think about how I can

teach people to think.”

Other favorites:

“Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy by Stieg

Larsson

“Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling

“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty

Smith

“The Beak of the Finch” by Jonathan

Weiner

“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen

Jennifer LoweryMusic/Drama“‘Music, the Brain, and

Ecstasy’ by Robert Journain is my favorite music

book be-cause it discusses the psy-chology of music, how we listen to it and why, and how it makes us feel a cer-tain way.”

Other favorites:

“Room” by Emma Donoghue

Mian ChenChinese“‘Unbroken’ by Laura Hillenbrand is my favorite because

its a biography and what hap-pens sounds like a fictional movie but it’s real.”

Other favorites:

“Every Since Darwin” by Stephen Jay Gould

“Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy by Stieg Larsson

“Lord of the Rings” series by J.R.R. Tolkien

“2312” by Kim Stanley Robinson

Bruce AverillMentorship DirectorMy favorite book is “Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the

Nature of History” by Stephen Jay Gould because Gould’s fascinat-ing thesis is that life evolved by

chance. Most of the animals that are found in groups of shale never made it beyond the pre-Cambrian period. The question is, why? If we were to do it all over again, would life today be the same as it is?”

Other favorites:

“Shogun” by James Clavell

“A Soldier of the Great War” by Mark Helprin

“Longitude” by Dava Sobel

Brian GrzelkowskiSocial Studies“‘The Three Mus-keteers’ by Al-exandre Dumas really ignited my passions for his-tory and other cultures as a child. It caught my sense of ad-

venture and his-tory and foreign worlds.”

photos, graphics, and reporting by Alexis Williams and Ellen Kan

features september 17, 20146

Jefferson reacts to new freshmen math classes

by Kate DengEntertainment Editor

Every year, Jefferson tweaks classes, student course loads and curricular

concepts. This school year is no different.

Along with the new and renamed core se-

mester math classes, the course selection has been enriched

with more classes in a wide variety of subjects.

Web and Mobile Application De-velopment classes are new post-Ad-

vanced Placement (AP) semester courses offered to former AP Computer Science students.

The classes are taught by Peter Gabor (web), Ria Galanos (mobile) and

Paul Kosek (web and mobile). Students in Web and Mo-

bile App Development use an abundance of different computer languages to de-velop software solutions.

Students find themselves in real-life situations where they

must collaborate with other stu-

dents in order to design working applications. “I decided to sign up for Mobile and Web App

Development because I feel that applications are becoming increasingly important in our daily lives,” junior Sahaj Sharda said.

Another new programming-related course is Concrete Math, taught by Peter Gabor. The course teaches the unique intertwining of com-puters and coding from a math perspective rather than a programming perspective.

Probability Theory, a new replacement for the old Numerical Analysis class taught by Phil Ero, is one that is typical of any university. It teaches the fundamentals of probability and is an impor-tant foundational class for taking any advanced class that uses randomness such as advanced eco-nomics and financial modeling.

“Probability Theory is something exciting. There are people in the class who are smarter than me - I’m just more educated - and are truly interested in the class. It adds a new dynamic,” Ero said.

AP Art History, taught by Jill Zupancic, pro-vides a solid foundation and knowledge of all types of art such as architecture, painting and sculpture.

“I’m looking forward to getting out of the classroom together and into museums to see tan-

gible pieces that previously only existed on a screen or in a ridiculously heavy textbook,” Zupancic said.

Additionally, An-cient Civilizations is a new full-year history course taught by Haywon Yi that offers insight into the his-tory of the ancient world’s major cultures. This course is only offered underclassmen and can be used to ful-fill history credits.

The course is different from normal history classes because it only focuses on a relatively short time period, from pre-classical through post-classical era Afro-Eurasia, cover-ing a plethora of ancient civilizations, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome and China.

“I think the students at TJ can benefit from the new courses because it has more of a variety of subjects to fit everyone’s interests,” freshman Uzma Rentia said. “I am interested in Computer Science, so I may look into taking Web and Mo-bile Application Development in the future.”

by Akhil WaghmareSports Editor

For the Class of 2018 and beyond, Jefferson has introduced a new math class progress structure, in which freshmen take an introductory statistics class, followed by a semester class determined by previous experience and teacher recommenda-tion.

Some students used the summer to finish the introductory statistics class, which allowed them to jump straight into the other new classes. Those who have completed Algebra 1 will place into Math 1, those who completed Geometry can take either Math 2 or Math 3, and those with Algebra 2 credit choose between Math 4 and Math 5.

There are two major reasons for the change.“All students previously were not given a foun-

dation in research statistics,” Principal Evan Glaz-er said. “Students who were not taking Algebra 2 did not receive the background unless by chance it was introduced in biology, and that might have been in various levels of depth.”

Many students in the Class of 2017 faced this challenge.

“I believe that an introduction to statistics from the math department could improve the quality of

statistical analysis conducted,” sophomore Amit Gupta, who took Advanced Placement (AP) Cal-culus BC as a freshman, said.

Even the students who had the statistics sup-plement in their math class last year are excited about the new changes.

“I’m a big fan of these changes,” sophomore Devan Kowdley said. “We did a unit in Algebra 2 around statistics, but I think going in depth with these topics gives a good foundation for students.”

Concepts such as variability and statistical tests are an integral part of the various research projects at Jefferson, including freshmen Integrated Biol-ogy, English and Technology (IBET) projects. The new statistics class should give all incoming stu-dents a chance to learn these fundamental skills.

In the past, many students had trouble adjust-ing to the rigor of math classes at Jefferson, which also prompted the change.

“We identified that students have varying lev-els of readiness when they begin at our school,” Glazer said. “For example, in Algebra 2/Trig, 15 percent of the students had a lot of difficulty keep-ing up, and they would have been better served starting in a class that was beyond Geometry but not yet Algebra 2. They were not quite ready for

the pacing of our curriculum.” The new semester classes are designed to give

freshmen the opportunity to find a class that al-lows them to be successful from the very begin-ning. Some incoming freshmen, however, still do not grasp the importance of the new change.

“It was kind of confusing to know which math you were in,” freshman Kashyap Addanki said. “I feel that the transition is sort of unnecessary, but I understand that they did it to make them all into semester classes to accommodate Research Stat 1.”

Although the new structure has just been intro-duced into the curriculum this year, the idea has been around for 10 years.

“When the new courses were first proposed years ago, the change wasn’t implemented be-cause the need for consistent statistics was im-portant but the amount of work, time and money involved to develop the courses and make the change was too much,” math teacher and divi-sion manager Marianne Razzino said. “However, with the desire to make the math sequence more flexible in the past few years, the semester course sequence was brought up again and this time it was implemented.”

by Esther KimOpinion Editor

As students scurry through their four years of high school, they live under the constant pressure of academic success as they challenge themselves to keep up with Jefferson’s rigorous academic standards. In the stressful process, students may face the ethical dilemma of weigh-ing their academic performance with the preservation of their integrity.

In order to prevent such instances from occurring, the administration is promoting Student Advocacy Guide-lines. These recommendations outline the specific meth-

ods students may employ to effectively balance their coursework while abiding by their personal ethics and the Jefferson Honor Code. As an extension of the school’s continuing efforts to instill academic and personal in-tegrity in students, the advocacy guidelines list multiple student rights that attempt to provide more flexibility in their academic lives at Jefferson.

“As a deterrent from dishonest behavior, advocacy is the important first step in managing ethical conflicts as-sociated with integrity,” Principal Evan Glazer said.

First introduced last year and promoted extensively since, strategies to raise awareness range from distribut-ing brochures to publishing the guidelines on student agendas. In addition, Student Government Association (SGA) and Class Council officers have publicized student advocacy to increase student awareness in the school community.

“The big issue that the Student Advocacy Guidelines tackle is dismissing the myth that teachers at TJ are un-approachable,” senior Anant Das, SGA president, said. “I can say with utmost confidence that faculty members are not only approachable, but also have the students’ interests in mind and are here to help them solve their problems.”

The advocacy guidelines specify the methods students may take in times of critical academic assistance or when they are in an urgent need to modify their exam sched-ules. For example, students have the right to request for a test date change if they have more than two major exams or projects due on the same day, although honoring the request is at the discretion of the individual teacher.

Furthermore, all students are encouraged to collabo-rate responsibly for group assignments, and they are al-

lowed to ask questions and consult past assignments for future reference. The guidelines also emphasize the right to review assignments and exams, and they recommend that teachers return tests and quizzes within one week of test date, and essays and lab reports within two weeks of due date.

“I think these guidelines will help students better manage their time and feel more prepared for class,” ju-nior Sophia Moses, a member of the Honor Council, said. “The guidelines stress self-advocating and proactively working with teachers, which I think will be great for students.”

In addition to the implementation of Student Advo-cacy Guidelines, the administration will also be expand-ing its effort to aid students’ education through a “Less is More” philosophy, which gives students the option to drop an elective in order to focus on another class in which they may be struggling. “For any student who per-forms below a C in their classes, we will set up a meeting with them and recommend they reduce a class in their schedules so they can improve their chances at being suc-cessful,” Glazer said.

With their heavy workloads, students will inevitably run into situations of high stress during their four years at Jefferson. The administration hopes that, with the options outlined in the Student Advocacy Guidelines and a “Less is More” initiative, students will be able to succeed at Jef-ferson while still following ethical tenets and integrity.

“I hope that the Student Advocacy Guidelines will help move the TJ culture to one consisting of high aca-demic integrity,” Das said. “They will help students re-alize that there are healthy option for them in stressful situations.”

Making the Right Decisions: Academic policies promote integrity

Students collaborate to conduct a chemistry experiment during class. Student Advocacy Guidelines encourage students to ac-tively participate and work responsibly in group assignments.

photo by Esther Kim

graphics by

New courses bring diversity:Advanced classes offer academic opportunities

Esther Kim

september 17, 2014 features7piloting

Faculty members answer questions about new roles for the school year

by Stav NachumNews Editor

By the time renovation is completed, the improved building won’t be the only new addition to Jefferson. The administration and fac-ulty are also working to enhance the Jefferson experience through the Jef-ferson Collaborative Inquiry Research Network (JCIRN), an electronic plat-form that supports collaborative efforts for research and outreach.

The Jefferson administration has two main goals for JCIRN. First, JCIRN aims to increase Jefferson’s positive influence on elementary and middle schools in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), the Northern Virginia region, and be-yond. This collaboration will focus on inspiring a love for research; science, technology, engineering and math-ematics (STEM); and learning in all stu-dents in the community.

The second goal is to provide Jeffer-son students with access to cutting-edge global research opportunities through partnerships with international univer-sities, labs and other secondary learn-ing institutions.

“Through JCIRN, we want to create a vehicle to support students’ research with collaborators from anywhere around the world, such as schools like TJ around the country,” Principal Evan Glazer said. “We also want to support collaboration in an outreach prospec-tion to schools around the country. Students in our school come from five counties yet currently we only foster relationships with schools nearby, but JCIRN will allow us to expand.”

The initiative allows students to work with research institutions and mentors through using new network tools, connecting students to remote databases and providing new instru-mentation.

This program also expands storage

for proj-e c t s ; allows for remote access to network software; stored files, and video communications; provides an additional tool for research on devic-es, systems and software; and contains a secure digital conference room that students can use from home on their own private computers.

The administration hopes to get stu-dents involved in using and develop-ing JCIRN, and also begin building the capability to match the student needs with teleconferencing, project space, mentorship help and a database of re-sources.

“This school year, our intent is to have a working prototype of JCIRN by having students create collaboration in research projects and clubs establish collaboration for research projects,” Glazer said. “By 2016, we want to build a capacity so that anyone interested in outreach or collaborating with a TJ student can log on, fill in a profile and be able to identify who they could be matched with at our school for poten-tial collaboration.”

In addition to helping students im-prove their educational and research experience, JCIRN also provides many perks for the faculty. New network tools such as virtual classrooms for video conferencing and remote access to high-performance computing can be used to record virtual classrooms or teleconferences for student use.

Most i m p o r -

tantly, how-ever, JCIRN can

help promote and create meaningful relation-

ships between high school students, teachers, researchers and younger stu-dents. In addition, JCIRN will facilitate the establishment of tutoring and men-toring programs for geographically remote schools in an effort to increase learning not only at Jefferson, but in the rest of the world.

“I truly believe we can create a tool that works for students and teachers at our school, helps us to reach out to schools around our region, and honest-ly start to shift the paradigm about how education is done in high schools,” As-sistant Principal Scott Campbell said. “We are the first to try this and we have more resources and ability to pull this off than anyone else in the country, so I am excited to see what we create.”

Overall, JCIRN is a one-of-a-kind engine that connects students, teach-ers, administrators, alumni, parents, community partners, research partners and the business community into an in-tegrated and secure platform centered upon a goal of learning.

“We need you to be a part of JCIRN so that we can support your work, but also so that we can learn what works and doesn’t work and what it is that you really want and need out of an electronic platform like this,” Campbell said. “We are creating this for you, so we need you to guide our efforts.”

JCIRNTJ Partnership Fund starts new research assistant program for students doing research in the upcoming year.

Classes begin Homecoming preparation

Juniors

Seniors

Freshmen

photos and reporting by Ellen Kan and Lindsay Williams photos and reporting by Anjali Khanna and Esther Kim

Sophomores

“As seniors, everyone is willing to put time towards the various events, which makes planning much eas-ier. But in the end, it comes

down to bugging people on Facebook to make sure things

get done.”

- senior Danial Hussain2015 Class President

- junior Kunal Naik2016 Class President

- sophomore Laura Chu2017 Class President

- freshman Lilian Wang2018 FroshComm member

“Although I’m not in charge of it this year, I am really excited for float be-cause we come to-gether as a class and make some-thing bigger than ourselves.”

“If we can get everyone together and keep

working, we’ll do great in this year’s Homecoming.”

“We have so many enthusiastic and talented students who give countless ideas, suggestions and input into our planning.”

Scott Campbell - Assistant Principal

photos courtesy of tjpartnershipfund.orggraphic by Anjali Khanna

Valerie Palmer - CounselorShawn Frank - Assistant Principal

Monica Meeks - SRO

Q. What are your goals for your new position as assistant principal?A. I want to make the student experience better at TJ and support our teachers so they have an experience that makes them want to come back each day.

Q. Press shuffle on your phone and tell us what the first song is.

A. “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash.Q. What is your Myers-Briggs personality?A. ENFJ.Q. One thing you want the TJ community to know?A. I’m still Mr. Campbell. You can put a different title

behind me, but I’m not letting that change who I am as a person.

Q. What are your goals at TJ?A. I know that college is a big deal especially at TJ. I’m going

to make sure that all my students are well prepared so that they can get into the colleges of their choice.

Q. What is your favorite part of being a guidance counselor?A. I love seeing students succeed in the academic

environment as well as in their personal lives. There are personal goals that you all have for yourselves that we like to help foster.Q. If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you want to play you?A. Probably Anne Hathaway. She has a lot of the characteristics that I think would portray me pretty well.

Q. What is your favorite part of being an SRO?

A. I’m brand new to being an SRO, but my favorite part so far is the social aspect of it. I like to engage with people and in my last position, there was a lot of negative engagement. This has seemed to be a really positive experience for me so far.

Q. What’s your guilty pleasure?A. I have coffee every single day with cream in the morning

and a glass of wine almost every day when I get off work. Q. What is one thing you want the TJ community to know

about you?A. I’m a big football fan. I love sports and football is my

favorite, so I’m a chick who loves football.

Q. What are your goals at TJ?A. My goals are to just experience the whole TJ culture, to

learn from the teachers, the students, the parents, the whole TJ community, to gain experience doing a bunch of new cool things that you can probably only do here.

Q. Why did you decide to switch from Chantilly to TJ?A. I’d been at Chantilly for several years, I think that you

really evolve and grow from change, and that was really it.

Q. What’s one other thing you want the TJ Community to know about you?

A. I’m a man of many interests, so you can talk to me about Star Wars and Star Trek. I do both.

8 summer september 17, 2014

photo illustration and reporting by Sandy Cho and Lindsay Williams

summer snapshotswinner!

“My picture was actually taken on New Year’s Eve, so I was

celebrating at home. My dad set up fireworks and I let my

camera fire away in order to capture the perfect moment.”

weeks 5&6: senior helen zhang

“It was a crazy extended family trip to the beach, but even

among the hullaballoo, there were still some diamond

moments, such as when my cousin discovered the water.”

week 4: senior anant das

“I took the picture from a boat on an alpine lake

called Königssee. This was during my visit to

Germany with the exchange program at TJ.”

week

2: se

nior p

eter g

unna

rson

week 1: senior chris kang

week

7: s

opho

more

amrith

a just

in

week 3: junior will ryu

“I was actually walking to my family friend’s

house to return his camera, but I saw the little

cutie swinging, so I snapped a shot.”

“I was getting on the high chairs ride at an amusement park

and just happened to look up. I loved the contrast of the

electric blue sky against the rainbow colors of the ride, so I

grabbed my phone to take the photo when I was in the air.”

senior sanjoli agarwal

“I was out walking when this caught my

eye. I thought I’d just snap a photo of it,

despite my general dislike of fungus.”

“Whenever I see something that inspires me, I

know I have to take the shot, and this

was one of those things.”

freshman alexa nguonly

“In rural Cambodia, I found out how lucky I am to be able to ask ‘What are we eating tonight?,’ instead of ‘Are we eating tonight?’”

“I was in the center of Salvador, Brazil, visiting the Bonfim

Church, which is famous for its colorful wish ribbons.

Thousands of those ribbons are tied to the fence. According to

legend, your wishes are only granted once the ribbon

week 8: senior hugo kessler

naturally falls off of the fence. This can

frequently take a year or longer to happen.”

week 9weeks 5

&6

This summer, the staff

of tjTODAY held the inaugural summer photo contest, offering

an opportunity for photographers in the school to showcase their skills.

From adorable little girls to breathtaking landscapes, students in the community did

not fail to show off the beauty of their summers. Many photos were taken in exotic locations, but some of the best came from students finding inspiration from local

surroundings. The contest opened June 28 and ended Aug. 30 for final judging. Photos could be submitted through the website,

tagged on Facebook and hashtagged with the tag “#tjtoday” on social media websites Instagram and Twitter. Seniors and Online Editors-in-Chief Sandy Cho and Lindsay Williams judged all of the photographs without a filter based on several criteria, including overall aesthetics,

color, subject and composition. Winners were announced weekly on tjtoday.org and of these, one grand prize winner, freshman

Alexa Nguonly, received a free publications package, which includes a copy of Jefferson’s yearbook, literary magazine and science magazine. Nguonly’s powerful photo was selected as the final winner because of the expressive

human subject who portrayed the poverty of rural Cambodia. Approximately 100 photos were

submitted for consideration.