Blog

Born to be a Teacher

Born to be a Teacher

Spontaneous, kind and friendly. These are three words that would describe the best geography teacher, Lindsay Abdul-Karim. She was born in Long Island, New York on October 2, 2002. She went to school at Oceanside High School. She has been on the soccer team since she was five years old, but stopped after high school. She was part of Sports Night at her school. There were two teams in the school that are called the “White” team and the “Blue” team. Karim was part of the white team. The “Blue” team was mainly made of the popular girls and the…
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YES on Issue 1 – Here is Why

YES on Issue 1 – Here is Why

By: Darius Pierce The perception of societal change is a sensitive topic for many Ohioans, especially when it feels as if your concerns are being ignored. We can change that. Issue 1, Citizens Not Politicians, is a proposed constitutional amendment that is widely supported by many nonpartisan groups and organizations to end gerrymandering in Ohio. It aims to introduce an independent and bi-partisan organization that draws up the political districts of the state because our current system has been corruptly drawn up. According to the Ohio Supreme Court itself, the maps are deemed unconstitutional. However, due to deadlines with elections,…
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The Secret Life of Our AD

The Secret Life of Our AD

By:  FH Journalism Students Adventurous, smart, and caring; these are three words to describe Federal Hocking Local School’s Athletic Director. Stephanie Evans was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia in 1981. However, she grew up in Southeastern Ohio, where she graduated from Eastern High School. “It’s one of those small schools where everyone knows everyone”. Becoming an athletic director was nothing surprising for Evans. She was involved in administration and she has always been involved with sports. Evans loved going to watch games and playing in them. Her father, being an official, was a great influence. Her father made sure she…
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Ukraine pen-pals

At Federal Hocking Middle and High school this half of the school year, Renee Ripple’s eighth grade class paired up with another eighth grade class at Lycee Anne de Kiev.  I was paired up with Kyrylo. I think it was a great experience. We get to learn so much about each other and how we are different and alike at the same time. We had a presentation on Ukrainian folk music. Brett Hill from Dayton Ohio is a musician who travels back and forth from Ukraine to the U.S. He came with Amedee Royer, a music teacher, to show us…
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Ukraine Partnership

Ukraine Partnership

I've learned a great deal about Ukraine and their culture, and I learned about professional music artists and about painters. My Journalism class and I have been writing pen pals back and forth to a class in Kyiv. The school is called Lycée Anne de Kiev. I learned about different aspects of their culture, like their types of food and drinks.  We met a musician named Brett Hill from Dayton and he has a friend named Amedee Royer, and he talked to us about his music, Ukrainian culture, and the war. He sang us a few songs and we took…
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Traveling Abroad Through Letters

Traveling Abroad Through Letters

In middle school Journalism class with Ms. Ripple, we have learned many things and have made new connections with others. Something we have been working on for a long time is our Ukrainian pen pals.  There are seven people in their class and each of us has one pen pal. Their students' names are Valeria, Anastasia, Andre, Maxym, Ivan, Maria, and Kyrylo. Every week we exchange letters with them. We mostly ask questions and answer them. We talk about food, family, culture, and much more.  Earlier in the year we wrote to them and we made presentations about our school…
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Connections from Hours Away

Connections from Hours Away

Since January, the students of Ms. Ripples' journalism class has been writing to students in Ukraine. Sounds crazy, right? While there are frequent air raids, they will write to us in bomb shelters. And we will make new connections, and learn what life is like across an ocean.  “I’ve learned to have a lot of sympathy for our friends. It makes us realize how lucky we have it,”  King said. When they have shared information about the war, they talk about how it is always scary during air raids. Even one of the student’s dad is 3-D printing missiles to…
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Not So Foreign-Foreigners

Not So Foreign-Foreigners

In a war torn and foreign country, you’d expect everything to be different, but some things in Ukraine are more similar to here than you’d think.  Federal Hocking’s MS Journalism class has been writing back and forth with students in Kyiv, which is Ukraine’s capitol.  “This experience has been really eye-opening,”  Sebastian, who is a pen-pal of Maksym and Andrey, said.   Beginning in January 2024, Ms. Ripple’s MS Journalism class began writing back and forth with an English class in the Lycée Français Anne de Kiev, a French language school in Kyiv. Students have exchanged both written and typed letters,…
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