The Worthington ALC Insider
Volume 1, Issue 20 April 23, 2004
Open house at the ALC Students, parents and other family members are invited to come to the ALC next Thursday, April 29^th, for an open house/parent-teacher conference. Teachers will be available from 11:45 am until 3:30 pm to discuss the academic progress of their students. Appointments are not necessary. However, ALC Dean of Students Paul Langseth suggests that parents make an appointment if their time schedules are tight. Students are encouraged to accompany their parents and show them around the school. The ALC will not have regular afternoon classes on conference day so that teachers will be free to have discussions with parents. Classes will end at 11:15, though students may remain at the school to eat lunch from 11:15 to 11:45. Students are free to remain at school and play some hoops while their parents visit with teachers. Students may also give parents a tour of the school to include Da Store. Refreshments will be served in the cafeteria.	Daily Globe Photo/Brian Korthals An apple for a #518 Principal By Virginia Cerda Worthington High School Principal Bruce Blatti was the surprise recipient of the Principal of the Year Award. Given by the Southwest Division of the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP). He received the award in New Ulm earlier this week. Mr. Blatti has been Principal of Worthington High School since 1985, the year before I was born. Eight similar awards were given to principals in different regions of the state. One of the eight – it could be Mr. Blatti – will eventually represent Minnesota in a nationwide conference in Washington, DC. Students at the ALC join Worthington High School students in offering our congratulations to Mr. Blatti.

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By Steven Blue Arm LIVE EVIL. I’ll bet your wondering what that means. To tell you the truth it doesn’t mean anything at all. What is interesting about the title is that it’s a palindrome. Palindromes are a form of word-play that have been created for centuries. You can read a palindrome forward or backwards and it says the same thing. An early palindrome is the phrase ancient Greeks often inscribed on fountains. The phrase said Nipson anomemata me monan opsin, which translates as wash the hands as well as the face. In ancient Greek it’s a palindrome but in modern English it is not. Another old palindrome says in girum imus nocte et consumimu rigni, an ancient Roman phrase that means we enter the circle after dark and are consumed by fire. This phrase was a reference to the movements of moths. To this day palindromes continue to intrigue people. Some examples of modern-day palindromes are listed to the right and come from Jim Kalb’s Palindrome Connection which can be found at http://www.palindromes.org/

The ALC’s own Mr. Palindromo Ø Lisa Bonet ate no basil. Ø Madam, I’m Adam. Ø Mr. Owl ate a metal worm. Ø Murder for a jar of red rum. Ø Lewd I did live, evil did I dwell. Ø No sir, panic is a basic in prison. Ø Tulsa night life filth gin a slut. Ø Party boobytrap. Ø Pull up if I pull up. Ø Star comedy by democrats. Ø Was it Eliot’s toilet I saw? Ø Lived on decaf, faced no devil. Ø Doc, note. I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod.

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Napping during the day. By: Patty V. William A. Anthony made a survey about how many people nap during the workday. Out of 1,000 randomly chosen Americans, 70% sleep on the job. It turns out that people perform better in their work or in school if they take a nap during the day. Some American companies are even changing the rules to allow napping during the workday. The US trucking and rail industries have studied napping. In one study, people did repetitive tasks four times a day at 9am, noon, 4pm, and 7pm. Performance became worse and worse as the day went on. When those studied took a 90-minute nap, it created a huge improvement. They performed like new because they got their sleep. In the work area, workers are allowed smoke breaks and lunch breaks. Why not allow a nap time if it’s going to improve the work that is being done? Maybe even at school we should take a nap. Napping would make us want to do our schoolwork. We would do our work better. We could take a nap like we did in kindergarten. It might make us less cranky and it might help us get back our energy and get back into the flow of school. Anigif © by Kitty Roach

By Angela Ruiz Do you smoke or know someone who smokes? Well adolescents who have ADHD have a higher chance of becoming smokers or use tobacco on a usual basis. A study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Georgetown University found that people who have ADHD use cigarettes to ease their stress. While research has yet to prove why ADHD is so strongly associated with smoking, one of the studies states, "stimulation derived from nicotine may help some smokers with ADHD compensate for their difficulties sustaining attention and concentration." In other words, some people with ADHD may be trying to “treat themselves” by smoking cigarettes. ADHD affects 3-5 percent of children in America. A study done in five schools with 1,066 tenth graders found that students with some symptoms of ADHD were three times more likely to smoke cigarettes. Will a time come when students with ADHD are sent to the nurse to smoke a Marlboro rather than take a Ritalin tablet? I’d say it’s unlikely.

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America’s Dumbest Criminals By Liz De Leon It seems as though a high school student in Stamford, Connecticut, didn't notice the word police written in capital letters across the jackets of two officers when he tried to sell them drugs. The 17-year-old student – who should have been in school at the time – was charged with criminal attempt to sell narcotics. The Drug Agents were on patrol in an unmarked vehicle when the student waved them down. The boy opened the back door of the police car, got in the car and asked the officers what kind of drugs they wanted and how much. The boy told police to drive to another location, telling them that the area is "too hot." The agents asked for "two pieces," meaning two pieces of crack cocaine. The boy then mentioned how the officers looked like cops. Maybe the police jackets they were wearing with POLICE written in big letters on the back, on the sleeves and on the front was the give-away. The police then told the boy they were wearing the jackets because they were looking for fugitives and didn't want to be mistaken for anything but police officers! The officers turned around and grabbed the student's arm and told him he was under arrest. At that moment, the boy appeared to swallow the drugs. No drugs were recovered. The suspect was held on a $2,500 bond, and was booked for an appearance in state Superior Court.

Animationfactory.com It’s time to get fit By Angela Ruiz Now that summer is just around the corner, people are starting to come out of their caves. The bad news is that they don’t look good. So in order to get looking-good for the summer you have to exercise. Losing weight isn’t always the best thing to do to look good. Just firming up your body for the summer can do the trick. Do some basic stretching and exercises for about 30 minutes a day and your body will look much better. Before a person ever starts to exercise, they should always warm up and stretch for 10 minutes prior. One way of doing this is to sit on the floor with your legs spread apart and try to touch your toes on one leg for 30 seconds and then do the same to the other. If you’re really up to a challenge, then reach for the middle. After that do 20 arm circles back and forth. So if you want to look good for this summer go to the gym or something. Or just work out at home Good luck!!!

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The Passion A Movie Review By: Alesha Seifert Mel Gibson presents the final days in the life of Jesus Christ in the movie The Passion of the Christ. Overall the movie wasn’t about much of Jesus’ life – it was more about how he died. Throughout the film, Jesus was endlessly beaten with very horrific whips. One of the beating whips was known as the flagrum, or the “cat o’ nine tails”. This was a whip designed with multiple straps and embedded with many barbed metal tips designed to tear and shred the skin, causing a lot of blood loss. Jesus was beaten 80 times, slowly, while people just stared and watched. Many of the people were laughing and shouting horrible things. A few of Jesus’ family members and people from the town felt sorry, but couldn’t do or say anything. After the beating, Jesus had to carry a 300 pound cross up to Golgatha, while he was beaten and bleeding from every spot on his body. When they reached the top, they made him lay on the cross while they (Continued à)

nailed his hands and feet to the cross. They stood him up in the air and watched him die. I liked the movie, but the violence was too intense in my opinion. I give The Passion of the Christ a rating of *** 1/2 The Passion Trivia Ø James Caviezel, the actor who portrayed Jesus, was accidentally whipped twice during filming. He was left with a 14 inch-long scar as a result. Ø Caviezel was originally told the film would be a surfing movie. It wasn’t until he met with director Mel Gibson that he learned it was about Jesus. Ø Maia Morgenstern, the actress who played Jesus’ mother Mary, was pregnant during the shooting of the film.

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What’s up with the BLC, anyway?

One of the differences between the Area Learning Center (ALC) and Worthington High School (WHS) is that the ALC has a BLC. What is the BLC? Well, if you are a student at WHS, you would refer to the BLC as ISS.

So what is this thing that is considered ISS at WHS but would be known as the BLC at the ALC. The “BLC” at the ALC stands for “Behavior Learning Center” whereas “ISS” at WHS stands for “In School Suspension.” Now that we’re straight on ISS, WHS, BLC and ALC we can move on…

Let us describe the BLC. A small, dark box of a place. It is stuffy and hot. They chain you to the wall. You are fed bread and water when you’re in the BLC. Torture is part of the routine. It’s like the “hot box” they put Paul Newman into in that old prison movie Cool Hand Luke. All things considered, ISS at WHS is preferable to the BLC at the ALC.

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Another major difference between the BLC at the ALC and ISS at WHS is that The ALC has a “virtual BLC” whereas WHS has no “virtual ISS.”

What is a “Virtual BLC’ you might ask? Well, it is a computer simulation of the BLC at the ALC. There is no computer simulation of ISS at WHS.

If you want to experience a simulation of the ALC’s BLC, you must go to the ISD website and click your way to ALC. You cannot experience the simulated BLC on the WHS website. You must go to ISD and link to ALC. You can enter WHS via ISD, too, but as we said, there is no simulated ISS at WHS. Nor is there a simulated BLC at WHS. You must go from ISD to ALC, not to WHS.

Now that we are clear on everything, if you want to enter the ALC’s “Virtual BLC,” click on the picture below.

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