2011-2012 Issue 3

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WEST SIDE

STORIES

November 2011

Exchange Students at West p. 7

• Wauwatosa West High School • 11400 W Center Street, Wauwatosa WI • Volume 16, Issue 3 www.wauwatosawest.com

SCHEDULE

TECHNOLOGY

New Hybrid iPads iPads put to use in several classrooms Classes Hit the Ground Running Students explore a new form of eduRyne Radske g Guest Writer

The 2011-2012 school year at Tosa West has undergone many changes, but the coolest might be the new iPads a select few are carrying around in their backpacks on a daily basis.

West’s 190 iPads have been distributed to four Algebra 1 classes taught by Amy Fetherston, Jill Schmid, Cathy Razner, and Michael Chay, as well as the AP Psychology classes taught by Andy Zietlow. There are three Algebra classes whose students have not received iPads.

The goal is to compare how people did with and without the iPad at the end of the year.

At Tosa East, all the iPads were issued to AP courses to determine the best use for the tool. Students in all grade levels have consumed much of their time tampering with the new iPads!

According to Fetherston, the iPads are useful because “students have access to a variety of apps to improve math skills and focus on their areas of weakness.” The iPads are also used heavily in Chay’s Algebra class. “The students use the synced email accounts to receive, modify, and turn in daily assignments,” he said.

Schmid agreed, adding, “I believe [an iPad] is as helpful as a student allows it to be. Many of the apps are designed for individual practice of math facts.”

The iPads are nice because they have everything in one place. They can be used to record assignments, write down events, check Facebook and Twitter, use the internet, take class notes, and plenty more. Ninth grader Regina Kautzer said, “The best part is I can keep everything organized and I don’t have to carry around my books because they’re online.”

The best part about having an iPad in Cathy Razner’s room is that, according to her, “I have everything at our fingertips (email, web, files, etc.) s o if I want or need to pull g Please see

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cation with online components Maddie Frank g Guest Writer

Students that have been in the library or Trojan Room during first hour this year may have noticed a change. There are more people in them than other years. Why? This year, Wauwatosa West High School is offering new “hybrid” courses. Two courses—Media Communications (taught by Carla Heller) and Global Studies (taught by Mary Johntime second hour ends). If they don’t feel like coming to school late or they have no way of getting there (not many sophomores drive), they can go into the Trojan Room for a study hall or hang out in the library to do homework or study, using the one pod of computers reserved for them.

With so many colleges offering hybrid classes, online classes, or both, these courses will help students transition from high school classes to

ston)—have been changed from a traditional, daily class, to a one day per week class in which most work is done online through Blackboard and deadlines fall once or twice per week.

That’s right, instead of having to wake up and go to class first hour every morning, students can sleep in four days of the week (as long as they arrive at school by the college courses. The students taking this class signed up for Global Studies as is required, but did not know that it would be taught in this format until a meeting was held last year explaining the change.

Media Communications was chosen by Heller to be a hybrid course because she was hoping the fact that students don’t have to come in first hour every day would motivate students to sign up for the class, which wasn’t

Mitch Stingl West Side Stories MAUREEN VENTO, a sophomore taking the hybrid form of Global Studies, works on Blackboard at a designated computer in the school library g

run last year due to a lack of interest. A few students agreed that this was part of their reasoning for signing up for the class. Heller also thought that it was an ideal course because “it’s very project-oriented… And I wanted to see what it would be like with an elective course rather than an academic course, and with juniors and seniors rather than underclassmen.”

Many students enrolled in these hybrid classes like hav-

ing first hour off. They see it as a time to relax in the morning and like that they can do their work at their own pace, rather than having to do the homework everyday. “I like that I can do my homework when I feel like it instead of having it due every week. It’s due before class on Thursdays so we have all week as long as it gets done”, says one sophomore in Johnston’s hybrid Global Studies. g Please see

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LUNCH

A Lunch Room Makeover

Students have mixed feelings about new lunchroom and learning center set-up Stephanie Eberleg Editor-in-Chief

For anyone who is not new to Wauwatosa West this year, it is blatantly obvious that there have been drastic changes in the lunchroom.

There are now two lines for purchasing food; one line feeds into a room containing the meal of the day, nachos, and a pasta/ stir fry bar.

From there the line leads to the new room containing a la carte, the grill, soup, and the sub station. The other line

leads directly to the second area. Both lines pay in the back of this second section at the three same registers.

Those are the facts. What is not so definite is what the students think of this change.

Erin Stapleton, a junior, said, “They were trying to get us our food quicker, but the lack of organization prolongs the process.” Several students have stated their frustration with the confusing organiza-

Elementary Holiday Level Spanish Recipes Classes to Try p. 4-5

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tion. The increased time it takes to get food could be due to several things. The first possibility is that, because the hot lunch and a la carte are combined, all the students are ending up going to the same cash registers unlike previous years. Another is that there are simply more students in one lunch since there are now two lunches instead of three. Many students seem to believe it is

a combination of the two.

Other students have no problem with the new system and said that they hardly even thought about the change.

Whatever the student’s opinion may be, this system does not seem to be changing any time soon. It was the plan thought best to deal with the great increase of students due to the two lunches, and we have no way to tell if leaving it would have been better.

Sibling Dynamics at West p. 8

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News

WEST SIDE STORIES

November, 2011

Hybrid Classes g Continued from p. 1

It’s not only students who like the different schedules.

Heller feels that “one nice thing that has been a result of the hybrid course is that the format does allow for a lot more of that individual one-on-one time with students,” because students are not always in class. It gives teachers more time to find and help students, and it gives extra freedom those who can handle it.

“I like being able to do my work without someone always looking over my shoulder telling me to get it done,” says Aaron Williamson, a senior taking Media Communications. “The only bad part is that sometimes I forget to do all the work without that.”

It’s true: teachers and students both agree that the hardest part of taking a hybrid course is having the selfdiscipline to do the work on time. Heller admitted that there are some students for who do well with the hybrid format, and others who don’t.

One difficulty in getting homework done is due in part to a lack of technology.

There is only one “pod” of four

computers reserved in the library for hybrid and CSP students. Because all work for the class is done online, students who choose to come into school first hour to complete their work often have a hard time getting computers.

There is supposed to be a cart of iPads available for checkout, but according to another sophomore in Global Studies, these are “usually checked out to another class so we don’t even get to use them.”

If the school doesn’t have the resources available to students, it makes it difficult to get work done, especially because, the software at school isn’t always compatible with their software at home. However, the ultimate responsibility for completing work rests with the students, some of whom did not expect the workload they are getting.

“When some students signed up for the hybrid, they thought it would be curriculum light,” says Heller. She says students should know that just because they don’t have as many days of class as other courses, it doesn’t make it any easier. In fact, it might

iPads g Continued fromp. 1

actually make it more difficult to master the concepts.

Global Studies’ students do the same amount of work as their peers, but at a different time and in a different way. Their tests and quizzes are taken online on Blackboard, and most homework is turned in electronically.

Media Communications still has to do the same projects as other years, students just don’t have class time (meaning they have to get together at other times) and the teacher may not be right next to them when needed. However, Heller has noticed that it’s not too much of a problem.

She even believes that not being in class everyday encourages students to get help when needed because there is no pressure of other kids being present when asking questions. She says that this year, she gets more emails than ever from students about homework questions.

In the future, Tosa West hopes to see more of these types of classes And with all the success of these classes so far, it will most likely become a reality.

something up for class I can.”

In addition to the 190 iPads that have been checked out to students, there’s acart of 35 iPads located in the library. Thirty of the iPad’s are for teachers to check out if needed and five for students to use if needed.

If you will sacrifice another 2 pounds in your backpack, try out the new iPads at

Tosa West.

Though their future use in the classroom is still rather uncertain, Principal Frank Claraco said, “it is too early to tell [what will happen in the future, students are more interested and are paying attention better, but academically were unsure”.

Above are the results of a random survey of iPad-using students. The majority of them expressed happines with the ways they have been able to utilize technology with-

in their daily schedules for schoolwork. Several others felt their were good and bad results from using an iPad for school, and some dislike using the iPads altogether.

Snapshot Saturday Come visit Mount Mary College!

We invite you to Snapshot Saturday, an event where you can tour campus, talk to an admission counselor and learn about financial aid.

December 3, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Register to attend at www.mtmary.edu/campusvisit.htm or by calling 800-321-6265.

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opinions WEST SIDE STORIES november 2011

POETRY

APOCALYPSE

A current student expresses her utmost dismay at Wauwatosa West’s lamentable lack of poetry, both in the classroom and on the school library shelves

Failed predictions cause skepticism about doomsday

More Poetry, Please The Final Prophecy Jordan Llanasg West Side Stories

Natalie Mullins g Staff Writer

Please listen, reader, to my plea, I speak in stead of poetry, Of beauty great, and pain acute, great authors past of ill repute.

I know too well your sad complaints: “What does this stanza illustrate? it’s much too long, the scheme obscene, I don’t know what the author means!”

Yes, poetry can be complex, its rhymes and riddles only vex, symbols large, and meanings tall, Can it make any sense at all?

O West, where is your poetry? without it words cannot be free.

You still are not convinced you say? rhymes confound each and every way? no joy is there, no joy to be found in a piece of poetry?

You cannot see beyond your eyes, the truth in every poet’s lies, the words of death, the words of life, the way to end all toil and strife?

It’s simple as a single rhyme, a line of free verse lost in time, a sonnet, Without it life is cruel and hard, or the dopest rap, words fade away, their beauty marred, Each feather in the poet’s cap. the meanings lost, the love is gone, O West where is your poetry? mad gibberish can pass for song.

Without it man cannot be free.

O west, where is your poetry? without it grace cannot be free Beauty lacks in every class, English mentions Poe, at best, The Raven, and Sweet Annabel Lee, are aphids on a larger tree

Mark Salamoneg Staff Writer

Just one last point for you, my friend, Please read each poem just once, again, If you hate rhymes, and poetry, you haven’t read enough—you’ll see.

Show me the greats of past renown, Yeats and Auden, Ezra Pound, Byron and Shelly, and miserable Keats All nourish the soul with lyrical treats

PBIS

More Than Just a Trojan Ticket

While many of West’s students follow the “Trojan Way” without receiving Trojan Tickets, others seem to receive these rewards for very arbitrary deeds

Harold Camping, the 90 year old failed doomsday predictor, is finally throwing in the towel after 3 failed predictions.

Camping is an ultra-conservative biblical apocalypticist who previously ran Family Radio, a religious radio station that has, with Camping’s leadership, declared three distinct dates for the apocalypse. For each of these dates, fire, brimstone and general damnation were all supposed to be bestowed upon the world’s unbelievers. In reality, apart from some acute disappointment for the congregants of Camping’s church, the failed prophecies amounted to nothing.

When his September 6, 1994 prediction turned out to be a dud, Camping reassured outsiders and his church community that all the fuss was the result of a mathematical error. The equations were still sitting in the Book of Daniel, after all, ready for a new calculation.

The next prediction was for May 21, 2011.

Harold enthralled his followers with a vision of rapture: all the world’s believers would be carried off into the heavens, to be spared the horrors of the end-time. For the rest of the world, there would be terrific earthquakes, followed by similarly cataclysmic events, leading up to the end of the world on October 21.

The only major event that occurred around the time of the May prophecy was Camping’s stroke on June 9th.

This failed prophecy may have seemed damning for his case, but Camping had a backup plan.

While the rapture never materialized, he was still able to fall back on the final apocalypse he had predicted in October. Camping recovered from his stroke and resumed the pulpit, warning listeners to heed his warnings.

But past the October 21st prophecy, the world appears to be well and whole. The attendance to the church Camping runs has dwindled to approximately 25 adults. And some who feel misled about the rapture and apocalypse not occurring are starting to look for their money back.

Family Radio raised over 80 million dollars between 2005 and 2009, and some on top of that since. Family Radio isn’t returning any of it, even to those who sold their homes and everything they had, to make an e s - pecially large donation to Camping’s billboard campaigns.

Camping, meanwhile, slunk into anonymity just before the prediction was set to occur. He announced his decision to retire on October 16, and stated that he is done with the business of prophesying.

Has this been the world’s last great prophecy?

Probably not; this is especially true when one takes into account the December 21st, 2012 doomsday that is supposedly predicted by the Mayan Calendar.

And this world is filled with religious nuts who need nothing more than a bible, a calculator and a radio station to incite hysteria in their small followings.

Regardless, the failure of this prediction is sure to cast doubts upon anyone else who tries to declare the end of the world.

really how this has been used at West?

When Trojan Tickets were introduced, I thought getting one would give you bragging rights and the title of good citizen. I picked up trash daily in the hallways in hopes of a teacher seeing me. It never happened. Weeks went by, and I had given up on Trojan Tickets, or didn’t care enough to try and earn one. Around the same time, teachers had started giving out Trojan Tickets at random, inside the classroom for odd reasons, like having your homework done or being on time. But no, they didn’t give them to everyone, just random students who were doing their jobs as students, not good citizens. This angered me to no end on this unjust system.

Students should really pride them-

selves when awarded with a Trojan Ticket and Trojan Tickets themselves should really tell a story, a story of how you helped someone out or how you made a difference at Tosa West that day. Doing your homework isn’t something you should really pride yourself with, but making someone’s day is. Trojan Tickets make a difference for everyone, teachers, and students. But they have to have meaning behind why they were awarded; otherwise they’re just another piece of paper for a school raffle.

I must admit though, that as I was writing this in the library, I saw a teacher carrying a heavy box. I helped her out and got my first two Trojan Tickets. The world is a very unpredictable and ironic place, isn’t it?

Christopher Trojan g Staff Writer

A few weeks ago, something odd happened to me. I had just set my things down in Global Studies, and I saw something glittering underneath the leg of the table. I picked it up to find out it was a pretty nice looking ring. I slipped it on and proceeded to show my teacher how nice it was. I told her, “If the person who lost this comes by, tell them I have it, or come find me.”

Sure enough, during lunch the person did come back, and my teacher remembered me. She came looking for me, found me in the library, and got the ring back to the owner. She proceeded to tell me that although it looked really cool on me, the original owner would be crushed if she didn’t get it back. I was stunned, this made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, but

the icing on the cake would be a Trojan Ticket to prove I did a good deed.

When I zoned back into reality, she had already turned her back and was leaving the library. This put me down a little, but I shook it off. Later that day though, several more people approached me in the hallways that had heard of this and had complimented me on how kind and generous it was.

After that, it was evident that I expected just one measly Trojan Ticket from somebody. What does it take to get one of those things anyway?

Principal Calarco defines the Trojan Ticket system as PBIS, or Positive Behavior Intervention and Support, a way to give positive reinforcement to students to be good citizens vs. a negative reinforcement system. But is that

Spanish Makes the Grade Last year, it was announced that the libraians in the Wauwatosa elementary schools would be replaced by Spanish teachers. This was very controversial, but it has now been in place for several months. This year, students are still able to check books out from their elementary school libraries with help from librarian aides.

Elizabeth Erenberger, Director of Student Learning for the Wauwatosa School District, confirms that the program has lived up to expectations. “I’ve had extremely positive feedback,” Erenberger states. She claims that the librarian aides carry out the library functions that were in place previously.

However, some still feel disgruntled that they had no input in the matter. “I just feel like the school district made a big decision without much forewarning,” a mother of children at McKinley, Whitman, and West explained.

Kathryn Hartung, the new Spanish teacher at Eisenhower Elementary School, is also in favor of learning a language from a young age. “One of the things about teaching [students] at a young age is that their brains are really primed for language learning. They’re still learning their first language, in some cases, and so their brains are really at a developmental stage where it’s the perfect time to teach them,” she said.

Hartung asserts that, in some ways, it is easier to teach elementary-aged students. “They don’t have any inhibitions, really,” she explains. “They aren’t looking at who’s watching, or thinking that they sound funny if they say a word . . . that’s not an English word. They’re just willing to do all kinds of language production, are willing to say all kinds of words, and I think that that really helps them learn it. Everybody says that elementary school students are like sponges . . . that they learn languages really quickly, and I really think that that is true,” she added.

The Thematic Units for the elementary school grades are: Getting to Know You, My Community, Responsibilities and Traditions, Healthy Choices, and Travel and Transportation.

Hartung utilizes methods that will keep the students more interested. The students seem to enjoy interactive SmartBoard activities and Spanish songs. She conducts most of the lesson in Spanish, but, when necessary, also uses English. These varied activities are to keep the students focused and enjoying themselves.

An anonymous fifth-grader from McKinley Elementary School says, “I look forward to Spanish classes.

There are fun games we play which help me learn the language.”

The shorter attention-spans of younger children are accounted for as well. First- and second-graders receive sixty minutes of instruction per week in two half-hour class periods. Third- and fourth-graders get seventy-five minutes per week, with three twenty-five minute class periods. Fifth-graders have three thirty minute classes for a total of ninety minutes per week. “It’s wonderful to be able to see them frequently, even though the time is kind of short,” Hartung reported. “The more frequency they have with the language, the better they’re able to acquire it.”

Another controversial element of this program was the choice of language. An anonymous fourth-grader at McKinley Elementary School says, “Well, I think that it’s a good program, I mean, I like the way they enforce the learning. I guess I just don’t like Spanish in general.” Hartung, however, says, “I don’t know that there’s necessarily an advantage to Spanish over other languages. I think language learning at the elementary level would be great in any language. I think kids learning German or any other language is also beneficial.”

There will be no direct translation of the elementary Spanish years to later ones via numbers. “The . . . Spanish programs will probably adapt over time,” said Hartung, adding, “It’s not going to be all at once . . . For example, the fifth graders this year will only have had one year of Spanish, and so that’ll be kind of a slow movement, but eventually, it’s going to give our high school students the aptitude to learn even more because they’re going to have a . . . solid foundation for language learning.” As to how future progress will translate to numbers, Hartung said, “Time will tell if that’s Spanish II, if that’s Spanish III, if the Spanish numbers end up meaning something different in the future.”

Victoria Franz, a Spanish teacher at Whitman and West, expressed hope for how this will impact the Spanish curriculum. “The Wisconsin teacher standards for foreign language are actually designed for a K-12 curriculum, and for years teachers at the middle/high school level have been trying to cram it all into a mere four to six years!” Franz states, adding, “I am excited that the students who will be entering my classroom as freshmen will already have prior knowledge in the basics of Spanish. This means that we won’t have to spend as much time on grammar/basic vocabulary. Instead, my students can focus on improving their conversational skills, and really exploring the cultures of Spanish-speaking countries. What’s more, they will be better prepared for college-level Spanish and to actually use their skills in the real world.”

Sabrina Black g Staff Writer Sarah Otto g West Side Stories

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FEATURES WEST SIDE STORIES

November, 2011

Thanksgiving Food To Gobble Up A cornucopia of recipes for a timeless fall holiday Katherine Janiszewskig Staff Writer

The traditional Thanksgiving meal consists of a turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, but teachers here at Wauwatosa West are putting their own spin on the holiday dinner. French teacher Amie Brooks really likes cranberry sauce. She makes her favorite recipe each year, and it is so good that she can just eat her cranberry sauce for her Thanksgiving meal. Having pie every year can be really boring, so why not mix it up with some of English teacher Christine Thoma’s cutout cookies for dessert? You can buy Thanksgiving themed cookie cutouts and frost them in honor of this great American holiday. Say goodbye to a boring pie!

If you are not a fan of cookies, you could make science teacher Mary Haasch’s sea foam salad, which has Jello and fruit and a lot of whipped cream. With these recipes, this will be the yummiest Thanksgiving ever.

FEATURES 7 WEST SIDE STORIES

November, 2011

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

From Around the World, to Wauwatosa

Living in a new place, surrounded by new faces, two girls left behind what they knew to study in Wisconsin Alec Kirtley g Guest Writer Caylin Rosene Photography Editor g

Sara Aiello: Italy Why did you want to be an exchange student?

Because I wanted to go out of Italy for a while; I thought I could just go out of Italy for one year.

What is different about living here as opposed to your home?

In school [at home], the days are shorter, you stay in the same class and the teachers move; we also go to school on Saturdays. And we don’t have quizzes. We have oral tests, oral questions. I know our important meal is lunch and yours is dinner.

What do you miss most about home?

I miss my brothers, not my sister and I miss going out in the center of the city, going out every Saturday.

What has been the best part about this experience so far?

[My host sister] Lydia. I like spending time with her. We went to the zoo together, and she has always been nice to me.

I feel at home here.

What are you looking forward to for the rest of your stay?

I just want to know myself better and what I want to do with my life and I can’t wait to celebrate Thanksgiving because I’ve never celebrated it before.

Natasha Camille de Asis: Philippines

Why did you want to be an exchange student?

Because I’m taking a gap year. I’m only sixteen, so I was thinking I was too young for college. I’m planning on going into pre-med so I took a gap year before all the obstacles of taking pre-med.

What is different about living here as opposed to your home?

The weather is different, the language is different, and the people are different, but it’s one way to really learn. Here, people are so polite—they say ‘bless you’ when you sneeze and we don’t do that in the Philippines.

What do you miss most about home?

My brothers and sisters and my family in general. And the weather. It never gets this cold in the Philippines.

What has been the best part about this experience so far?

Meeting other people, knowing their cultures, other cultures, and being on an amazing soccer team.

What are you looking forward to for the rest of your stay?

I’m looking forward to playing soccer in the spring, meeting new people, and having lots of fun.

Expand your Social Network Study abroad or host a student.

Call 1-800-AFS-INFO or visit afsusa.org.

Connecting Lives, Sharing Cultures

AFS-USA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. ©2011

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FEATURES WEST SIDE STORIES

November, 2011

Charlie Koeppg Staff Writer

As almost anyone attending Wauwatosa West will tell you, relationships are everything. How you interact with friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, teacher and even total strangers can all drastically add to or detract from your learning experience.

But one kind of relationship that seems to be less focused on is how siblings relate to each other.

With so many brothers and sisters attending West, surely there must be some sort of common theme in their relationships? Well, we at West Side Stories made it our goal to find out what these commonalities are, interviewing various couples of siblings.

Among freshmen, one of the most popular pairs of siblings is fraternal twins Nick and Alex

Stanisic. Because of their involvement in many of the same activities (both were involved in West’s varsity soccer program as well as playing on the same IBA team) and the fact that they’re always together, they’ve developed a close relationship.

However, that doesn’t mean they always get along.

There are plenty of times when they get annoyed with each other, and during fights for the remote, Alex always wins, Nick claiming he doesn’t care enough to fight back. And in some ways they’re polar opposites. For example, while Nick says that Alex “is occasionally really funny and has a very short temper,” Alex claims that Nick is “chill and never gets mad, but can be super boring and lazy a lot.”

On the opposite side of the spectrum, freshman Deanna Ross and her sister, senior Rachel Ross, are quite different in terms of interests.

“We aren’t in the same activities because Deanna likes sports and I don’t,” says Rachel. They possess a certain kind of teasing, sarcastic relationship as well. Rachel says “I think it’s pretty funny when my friends call Deanna me, but that’s the kind of relationship we have. Teasing.” She claims to hold infinite authority over Deanna, and when asked if she was close with Deanna she responded with “define close.”

Perhaps Deanna sums it up best: “we may look alike and have similar sarcastic views on stuff but we’re really different in the things we do. Rachel’s friends know me as R.J. or Rachel Junior. It’s a lot of teasing but it’s funny and I don’t mind it, that’s how our relationship is.”

The Rosses aren’t the only ones with a teasing relationship. Well known for their… unique relationship, freshman Devin Zanskas and his brother, senior Drew Zanskas, are both known in their respective grades, and even outside of them as some of the funniest people in the school. When they’re together, their interactions tend to be much less serious than your average pair of siblings.

“He [Devin] challenges my dominance in the family,” says Drew—“Which I win!”

Devin interjects. “No you don’t, you always lose! Remember when I threw that mouse at you yesterday? You went down like a sack of potatoes!” Their conversations consist of many back-and-forths like this one, never reaching the level of a serious argument. Among other things, they enjoy talking about superiority in the family.

“Sometimes [Drew] just accepts that I’m better than him,” says Devin.

“I’ve never accepted that he’s better than me—I’m better than him!”

“No you’re not!”

“Yes I am!”

“No!” “You’re better than me at video games—that’s about it!”

“And being taller!”

“That’s about it!”

However, their relationship isn’t without its soft sides.

Caylin Rosene Photograpy Editor ANNE AND CHARLIE KOEPP get along well... most of the time, that is g

Caylin Rosene Photography Editor DREW AND DEVIN ZANSKAS are one set of West siblings g

“I think it’s nice to have that sibling figure to look up to—or, I guess in this case, to look down to,” says Devin. And when asked about how it feels seeing Devin in the hallways of West for the first time, Drew said, “I compare it to a more magical wonderland where whenever I see Devin I get to say, ‘Hey, how ya doing little guy?’” “[Drew’s] my best friend, and he’s nice,” finishes Devin. So despite the lighthearted bickering, Devin and Drew still possess a quality relationship.

And finally, there’s my sister Anne and me.

Now, from my eyes, my sister and I possess a very serious, close relationship. I asked my sister to see if she agreed. “I feel that we have a pretty strong relationship. We have a lot in common, we like a lot of the same music, and have similar senses of humor. We just get along really well,” she says.

We both share the same goofy sense of humor and like classic and indie rock, and bond especially well when watching our favorite shows together. However, our stubbornness can lead to some extremely serious arguments over nothing.

“Little bickering can turn into arguments, and we argue over silly stuff that doesn’t really matter. We’re both so stubborn when we argue that sometimes it brings out the worst,” says Anne. To finish off, Anne describes me in one sentence: “For me, Charlie is someone who is hilarious, very loyal, very honest, and always there for me through pretty much anything.”

And thus concludes our West sibling investigation. One thing that really stood out as we were conducting these interviews was that no matter what kind of relationship seemed to be on the outside, whether it be one of similar interests, sarcasm, jokes, or seriousness, each sibling has a soft side for their brother or sister.