It was conveniently announced on the very week of midterms, teaching positions would be cut. These cuts have revealed a cold, yet pressing, policy. Seniority takes priority over quality of teaching, no matter how dear the teacher may be.

Many students have been saddened and upset by the loss of some of their favorite teachers. However, it would be imprudent to accuse the authority of Woodstock Union High School of negligence; they were partially put up to this by the teaching contract.

It also seems to be the orientation of a new wave of education pushed by Governor Peter Shumlin since he filled his seat in 2010. This includes a variety of technological apparatuses holding precedence over genuine teaching, such as NetBook use, iPad use, Smart Boards, and libraries filled with seemingly more computers than actual literature. This takes away from traditional handwriting and reading. The new wave of technology, understandably, is the way of our future as students, so it is to be expected that traditional teaching methods will diminish.

It’s a hard choice, especially when the number one reason for teacher cuts (not quite budget cuts) is the decrease in student body of nearly 15 percent in the past decade. It’s upsetting, but it must be known that with the decrease in student population, that will directly coincide with staff reduction, or at least in a salary split forcing a staff member to quit.

“It’s a shame that we’ve been put in the position in which we must make decisions like this,” says senior Dylan Stuntz.

There have been many individuals who have displayed a degree of anger by this ordeal. Many have questioned the care of the administration in the formulation of the budget cuts. “I don’t think they’re looking at every option,” Hannah Epworth, a senior, says. “I thought our administration would do better.”

Woodstock has two more award winning authors amongst its student body with juniors Finn McFarland and Annie Arthur both being finalists in Senator Bernie Sanders’s “Vermont’s Students Consider the State of the Union” Contest.

Twenty-one total essays were selected as finalists out of over 300 submissions discussing topics ranging from the economy to climate change, health care and education. Finn discussed the impacts of climate change on the nation and Annie called for improved legislation to help encourage more of the population to vote.

Four Vermont teachers were on the panel that selected the 21 finalists with one overall winner. The finalists, including Annie and Finn, have the opportunity to discuss the issues they wrote about in their essays with Senator Sanders in a roundtable discussion in March.

I walk through the side door, passing by the mounds of boots, mittens and snow pants that are piled up by the cubbies. Walking into the next room,  I’m greeted by a circle of smiling faces, and I wave and say hello.

I am at Zack’s Place- a sacred place to me, where special needs kids can be themselves, and be with those who are anxious to play, and have fun with them. This is a beautiful thing, you see. All of the volunteers are all here by choice- wanting to help,  wanting to make sure that the members of Zack’s Place are having fun and are comfortable.

I am a volunteer for the snowshoeing event of the 2013 Special Olympics, and every volunteer like me has a partner from Zack’s Place. My partner is Suzanna- one of the most bubbly spirits that I have ever met. Her smile lights up a room, and the more time I spend with her, the more time I spend telling myself how happy I am that I signed up to help with the Special Olympics.

All of the athletes, volunteers, and aides sit down in a big circle, as we listen to Kitty King- one of the coordinators speak. Kitty is one of my favorite parts of volunteering, because she brings such a light to every aspect of our practices. She announces that it is time to sing our theme song,  a classic- Marvin Gaye’s version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Everyone in the room gets up and dances while I stand for a moment, smiling at everyone as they show off their best moves.

Walking outside, I grab a pair of snowshoes from the bin and proceed to look for Suzanna. We practice on the Green, where the athletes and volunteers take turns showing off their snowshoeing skills. “I’m so excited that we’re partners,” says Suzanna as she looks at me, smiling with all of her might. “Me too,” I say and squeeze her hand as we make our long, cold journey to the Green.

Once we arrive, I help Suzanna put her snowshoes on as I struggle with my own. Winter sports have never been my forte, but with the help of my partner we are able to succeed the more we try. The group splits in two, and separates on either sides of the Green. One set of partners run to the other side of the Green, and tag the waiting pair so that they can continue to do the same thing. This is the way that we practice- and I can’t help but grin from ear-to-ear as I watch the athletes run like the wild, their partners trailing behind.

That’s one of the challenging parts of being partnered with Suzanna- she’s just too fast. Most of the volunteers face the same problem that I do, because all of the athletes are so skilled in snowshoeing that it is almost impossible to keep up with them.

In the 21st Century the most common way to talk is not even audible. Instead the social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram) rule many people’s lives.

The majority of students completing a recent survey admitted that they go on social media sites during school hours. In fact, it appears to be an addiction for some. One student described social media as, “Drama, knowledge, annoying, inspiring, interesting, hate, love, and addicting as hell.”

Seventy-eight-percent of the 102 respondents said they spend one-two hours on social media sites. Many spoke of how distracted they become within that span of time.

“Social media gets me connected to the world, but sometimes it also gets me distracted. Whenever I’m not doing my homework I’m usually on the internet doing nothing,” says Buzz Editor Lauren Mayer.

The most popular sites for the student body at Woodstock are: Facebook (95% of students have one), Tumblr (48%), and Instagram (45%).

These sites were created for people to connect with each other, especially for those who live far away. While these sites are second nature to some people, to others- they’re just confusing. “The reality is I’ve never taken any time to use them, I really don’t know it and I don’t have any time or interest,” says Mrs. Fields.

The survey results showed a lot of different opinions on social media- from “they allow me to keep in touch with friends who live far away” to “I avoid sites that would steal any more of my time than my life already does as much as possible.”

The drama that occurs on social media sites can be overwhelming and stimulating at the same time. “Some people choose to get involved in conflicts, and bicker back and forth despite knowing that they will never change each other’s minds- but I steer clear of these situations,” says a responder to the survey.

Young poet Molly Jacobs lifts her hand and points a fake gun to the audience, as she reads a line from her poem during the Poetry Out Loud (POL) competition on Wednesday, February 13th. Molly was just one of 17 competitors at the first annual WUHS Poetry Out Loud Competition.

“I shot at him as he at me,” says Molly as she smiles at the audience during her serious poem, reciting a line from The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy.

For the competition, students had to memorize a poem and recite it with feeling for the judges and audience members.

The competitors were scored based on the accuracy of their poem, marked by Mr. Reid, and were also judged entirely by Mrs. Beda, Mr. Henderson, and Mr. Brennan. Mrs. Fields acted as a prompter, in case the poet needed a line, but that would cause a three point reduction from their overall score. The accuracy rate, and their score from the judges was then tallied up by Ms. Perkins and Mr. Tindall.

The final results were announced at the Valentine’s Day Best Thursday, and the top five were called up on stage by Oliver Kaija as he announced the places one by one. Carmen Bango in fifth place, Alyssa Rivera in fourth, Maya Gonzalez-Carter in third, Alex King in second, and Dylan Stuntz, the ultimate victor.

Dylan will move on to the statewide competition in Barre this March  to compete and represent WUHS.

“I have smiled on the platform without shame,” recites Dylan from the poem Hero by Paul Engle at the competition.

Dylan captured the attention of all of the audience members with his change of tones and dramatic story-like telling of the poem. He made the audience feel as if they were with him, feeling every triumph that he told throughout his poem.

“I was captivated in, not a daydream, but was imagining the essence of the poem. I saw what he was describing and it was beautiful,” says Claire Spangler, a spectator at the competition.

Dylan was not the only poet who used different tones to relay his poem to the audience. Alex King, runner up, recited Acting by R.S Thomas, using different tones of voices.

“I love you,” says Alex in a high pitched voice. “I hate you!” he says in a lower voice. The audience laughed as they watched Alex in complete awe as he portrayed a conversation between husband and wife.

Poetry is coming to Woodstock in a multitude of new ways thanks to the English Department and the Vermont Humanities Council.

The Poetry Out Loud Competition is part of a national organization that emphasises the memorization and performance of poetry. Each year the organization provides students with a selection of poems to choose from and students present their poems in classroom, school, state and national competitions.

The school competition was on February 13th in library with Dylan Stuntz as the winner

At the classroom and school level, only one poem needs to be performed but as the competition gets tougher, the students need to recite three poems that they have memorized.

English teachers Mrs. Perkins and Mr. Reid have been working in their own classes to encourage poetry as a part of the curriculum and on the AP English midterm, one option for students is to recite a poem as part of their presentation.

“I thought it was interesting how the teachers were able to tie in the poem to the presentations and the projects,” says Dylan Stuntz who recited From the Towers during his midterm presentation about Hamlet.

Mrs. Fields has also been working to bring poetry into her classroom through the Vermont Humanities Council’s Vermont Reads program.

Every year the council encourages one book to be read throughout the state and this year that book is a book of poetry called Poetry 180 which is a modern poetry anthology put together by former U.S Poet Laureate Billy Collins.

Collins created the book to be geared to high school students and since most high schools have 180 days of school, his advice is for students to read one poem a day so students are exposed to poetry every day.

“I’m trying to follow his advice, I’m reading two poems [in class] a day, once read outloud to my students and once in a different way such as backwards,” says English teacher Mrs. Fields.

Mrs. Fields worked on the grant to provide the school with the Vermont Reads book for this year and received sixty copies of Poetry 180 which she plans to distribute to the community as well as within the school.

“This book is meant to be a collective experience,” she says.

Copies of the book are being sent to town libraries from the WUHS’s sending towns as well as being given to assisted living homes within the Woodstock community. There is also a poetry appreciation night planned for April 26 at 6:30pm at the Norman Williams Public Library which will give both students and community members alike the opportunity to share some of their favorite poems, poems from Poetry 180 or poetry from their own writings.

When the students from Project Panama were asked what their favorite memory on the trip was, the answers were endless. Put on the spot, junior Hannah Tobey said, “Ahhh umm too many thoughts! Definitely the orphanage, the waterfall, meeting local girls, and being a part of the Kuna Independence Day Celebration.”

Our large group of 29 students and 9 chaperones experienced many adventures throughout this trip from making our way through the jungles of Panama via machete, to a beautiful waterfall, to participating in a lively “social-drama” during the Kuna Independence Day Celebrations.

We started our journey at an orphanage in Panama City, Panama. Upon our arrival, we were greeted with warm smiles and many “Holas”! We spent a day there playing with all the children and each of us was particularly impacted by one or more orphan.

We continued to the mountains to do some service work at an elementary school in Santa Fe. “We quickly got used to our new chicken, beans and rice diet, seeing as that’s what we had at most every meal during the trip,” Junior Annie Arthur stated.

And it’s true; we had fried chicken, grilled chicken, chicken with sauce and even our pasta had a chicken sauce on it. However, no one complained because it was those meals that got us through out service work. At the school we mixed cement, painted rooms and railings, created a garden and much more. Our group of 20 or so completed the work estimated for two groups to do in ten days, in just two. As a whole, we were a motivated, hard-working group.

In Santa Fe we also acquired a new friend, “I didn’t care for Ephram at first, but once he got a flea bath he grew on me,” Senior Edward Doton said of the mangy mutt that wouldn’t leave our side after Mrs. Bristow happily fed him her leftovers. I think everyone could agree with Edward’s statement, with the exception of Annie and Mrs. Bristow, who loved Ephram from the beginning.

After Santa Fe we traveled to the San Blas Islands, this is where our trip theme song came in. We loaded the bus one day to the song “ Limbo” by Daddy-Yankee blasting, and Mrs. Bristow couldn’t help but stand up in the aisle and “rock out” like the “cool hip teacher” she is. We made sure to download the song so we were still able to listen to it when we got to our own private island called White Dove Island. It was like our own little paradise. We snorkeled, played volleyball, and some of us even slept in hammocks all four nights.

Once again the Mr. WUHS contest is back in Woodstock, as the 12 contestants get ready to strut their stuff across the stage to earn the title of Mr. WUHS.

This year seven seniors will take the stage, with the first ever returning champion Edward Doton. With a lineup larger than normal, this promises to be an exciting year. “This competition is full of vets and new people so it should be a good show, “ says senior Reid Langona.

Reid says we should expect a fierce competition because there are so many seniors, some of whom have been in the competition since freshman year. As practice starts, he and the other competitors will be sizing up the competition to get a leg up on the other participants.

When the participants look their finest during the Formal Wear, the judges should have a difficult time crowning a winner.

With the talents in the past ranging from lifting ladies to throwing a party, this year will also have intriguing talents that should satisfy the judges. “This year should be something special,” says competing senior Dylan Stuntz although he did not reveal why. Dylan has been in many school plays and has been known for his acting prowess, he says he feels very comfortable in preparing for this competition.

“Edward is the reigning champion but he will have to defend his crown,” Dylan warns.

“Gonna be the best yet,” says returning champion Edward Doton. Last year Edward won the title of Mr. WUHS by squatting the weight of two people, this year he prepares to bring his “A” game for the second time.

“I mean, where to begin...the looks,the charisma, face recognition, I’m the complete package,” Edward says. As a figure around the school who is known for always providing a show, this year will be no different. “There will be some competition for once,” he taunts.