"30 Days of Night"

By Kisha Birmingham

Have you ever wondered why people are so creeped out by scary movies? Is it because of all of the blood and guts, the ugly faces, or the music in the background that makes your heart throb? In the movie “30 Days of Night”, it was all of the above.

A small town in Alaska, for 30 days and 30 nights of winter, has no sunlight whatsoever. For a whole month, the citizens have to prepare themselves for a plunge of darkness. So what is the worst that can happen? It’s a small friendly town with hardly any crime, and everyone gets along each other. Maybe a crew full of hungry vampires can go on a lunatic feeding fest perhaps?

At first, it was the usual preparation for the dark month to come. But suddenly, weird and mysterious things slowly start to occur. Evan, the Sheriff, played by Josh Hartnett, is informed by all of the complaining people. When he notices that it is more than just people playing mind games, he decides to take actions in his own hands.

After people start to brutally die, Evan knows that there is something else out there. When everyone notices that they’re some sort of blood sucking freaks, they hide. The townsfolk slowly start to disappear, since they are the most ripened of the harvest. As they last survivors struggle for their lives, they anxiously wait for the sun to come back up so it can demolish the vampires. Hopefully, they will be alive to see it.

March On Milwaukee

By Jerome Gee

Playing the role of Lawrence in the play March on Milwaukee made me feel good knowing that everyone in the play had someone’s life to portray who made it possible to live the life we do today. It was a very neat feeling to know that Messmer is the first high school to ever perform this.

I liked being around the other actors and actresses. We were not just cast members for the play - we had to bring the Commandos to life and their friendships so we all came closer together. If it weren’t for Ms. Wilkinson none it would have been possible. She kept us in order and made sure we were always on time. Also, we always had pizza waiting for us, which gave us a lot of motivation.

The cast is only half of the play: it wouldn’t have been a success without of Mr. Flattery and the Crew. They had to be right on time with the spotlights and the music. They also enjoyed the pizza. Overall the play was a success and I really enjoyed working with the cast, Ms. Wilkinson, Mr. Flattery, and the Crew.

GYLI

As one odyssey ended, another had just begun, but the long history of Messmer leadership now continues in a global fashion. This past summer marked the third year that Messmer High School students participated in the Global Youth Leadership Program. Arturo Maldonado, Gregory Bates and Isaiah Jordon explored leadership through their community while Lamel Adkins and Jasmine Porter examined their role in our ever-growing global community.

Arturo, Gregory and Isaiah, accompanied by Chad Griesel, started their odyssey in Boston as they learned to sail the freedom schooner Lettie G. All navigation, sailing, and other naval chores were executed by the these young gentlemen and the crew of other fourteen to fifteen year olds who had gathered from around our nation to participate in this experiential learning community.

These gentlemen will be continuing on to the Lama Center in New Mexico next summer where they will study the leadership within themselves from a Native American perspective with the guidance of Larry Littlebird. Other internal challenges that await these voyagers are mountain climbing, a five hour no technology solo reflection time, and building an authentic Native American lodge.

Lamel and Jasmine, who had attended the previous two institutes with DeOndrea Talley, completed their training in Costa Rica accompanied by Gail Burkel. There they worked in cooperation with the Earth University learning green methods of agriculture and ranching. The lessons on campus were then transferred to the community as each student was immersed in a home stay and participated in everyday rural life. In addition, the entire team of students completed service work at a local school helping them paint their facility, interacting with the students, and bringing much needed school supplies, books and pillows for their limited but growing library. Their final celebration was a day of white water rafting.

All GYLI programs are experiential, hands-on, and transformative. Participants are immersed—both students and adult—into experiences of pluralism based on religion, class, gender, age, cultural background, sexual orientation, and ability. Students and faculty then develop and revise their leader learning plans, plans that will be implemented in their home schools during the following school year. Such plans at Messmer High School have included student lead instructions of cultural acceptance at the annual MHS freshman retreat and Multicultural Assemblies complete with food tasting and dancing.

For more information on the Global Youth Leadership Institute, please visit www.gyli.org or see Ms. Burkel in room 101.

Creepy Crawly Critters!

Click on the pictures to see the full shot!

(Photos by Isaiah Jordan)

Ms. Abby Vogt

By Jerome Gee

Just in case you did not know, Theology teacher Ms. Abby Vogt used to entertain herself by shooting jellybeans out of her nose as a child! Bet you never knew that!

Vogt is from Appleton, WI and this is not just her first time teaching at Messmer -- this is her first year as a teacher. Before coming to Messmer Ms. Vogt worked at the YMCA during the summer with their camping program.

Do not plan on asking her age because she tells every student that she is old enough to be your teacher. In her spare time, Vogt likes running, reading, and enjoying herself by hanging with family and friends. Her favorite movie is “Home Alone”, and every night you can bet on her watching her favorite television shows, Scrubs and Friends.

A fan of all types of music, Vogt's favorite artist is Benfolds and her favorite song is fishing by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band In addition, if you want to try for some extra credit for Ms. Vogt’s Theology class, you bring her favorite dish shrimp and mashed potatoes.

Ms. Vogt has been all over the world especially in the continent of Europe. She has traveled to England, Germany, and The Netherlands. Ms. Vogt has also been to The Dominican Republic for a service trip and plans to go to Africa and Italy in the future.
She is a great addition to the Theology department and the whole Messmer faculty.

Biology Ecosystems

By Terrance Hankins

Unless you’re in Mr. Reiss’s Biology class, you probably didn’t know that the class is making it’s own ecosystems. Yeah, right!

No seriously, the class is using 2 liter soda bottles to create and hold miniature ecosystems. For those that don’t know, an ecosystem is a group of organisms that live together dependently (in one form or another) in a certain environment. The two kinds are aquatic (water based) and terrestrial (land based) each with the proper plants and animals. It would probably be awkward to walk outside and see the ground littered with fish.

The students themselves seemed to be into the project. There were no complaints in the room nor was anyone off task. Instead everyone was completely focused on their project. However, it was kind of obvious that the students were just beginning their work with ecosystems. When asked what an ecosystem was, only a few were able to give a logical answer without asking for help. Doesn’t matter though. This project is designed to help, so they’ll get it soon enough. Good luck!