Students share their favorite courses so you know what to schedule
Maggie Pasztor
Staff Writer
January 24, 2024
Creating a show to remember - Rock TV Producers Noah Morgan and Jeremy Smits film this week’s show, ensuring all Rocks stay up to date with the school’s weekly news.
When faced with the stress of determining your upcoming classes, we aid you with classes to consider that you may not know WHS even offered.
WHS offers a wide range of classes that grab the attention of many students. While scheduling for your next classes in the upcoming years, the question may arise; what unfamiliar classes are you interested in?
AP World History
Covering topics unknown to most, this history course takes into consideration places that typically would be looked over in other history-related courses, and serves as a great opportunity to bond with fellow history fanatics.
“It is great for building writing, reading, document analysis skills, and social skills because you are in the room with other people who chose to be there so there is that commonality which really brings a lot of people together,” Junior Addy Stoughton said. “There was a lot of independence associated with the class, so for me personally so I really enjoyed that aspect of it.”
Mass Media Productions (Rock TV)
This broadcast journalism-esque class tackles the behind-the-scenes of the school’s iconic news show Rock TV.
“You get to experience a huge pool of different people who all have their own different skills and come together to make this one incredible show,” Senior Kenny Myers said. “It’s really satisfying putting all of that work in. Yes, it’s on the grind and nonstop, but at the end of the day that helps you learn a lot of skills. You get to express yourself and do things you thought you could never do.”
Health Science Ed II. Nursing
An amazing way to get experience in the medical and nursing field, this nursing course offers an opportunity to become accustomed to the inner workings of being a nurse in exchange for your 4th and 5th periods.
“It involves a lot of hands-on training, we travel and you bond a lot with the people around you,” Junior Sarah Stone said. “Basically what we have been doing over the first few weeks is going through multiple lessons of skills and training. After that, we go into clinicals, which we do hands-on in a nursing home near the school. The ultimate goal is to take a state test to be a certified nursing assistant.”
PLTW Medical Interventions Honors
Unleash your inner investigator with this in-depth medical class that takes on solving the cases of patients with different types of diseases and ways to stop or prevent them from spreading.
"My favorite part of the class is all of the investigative things that we learn. Right now we are doing a case study for a college student who gets a disease at her college, and it’s a matter of trying to figure out what she has, detecting where the disease originated from, and how to stop it,” Junior Haleigh McDole said.
Rock Band Ensemble
Rock-star wannabes make your move. Ranging from guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, and even singers- this class is a great opportunity for anyone who may be interested in being involved in the music industry.
“We would get in groups, learn songs, perform in front of the class a couple of times, and compose our own music for the final,” Junior Cooper Gilliatt said. “It wasn't a very teacher-oriented class; you got to teach yourself and play music with other people.”
Drawing II
Post Drawing I, Drawing II is a great class to envelop yourself in your painting piece and create something that you are proud of.
“In Painting II you get a lot more freedom,” Junior Kaylee Clark said. “A lot of the time you are given little assignments that are up to interpretation and the colors and idea overall is up to you. It’s so refreshing to have an art class in your schedule to just listen and recuperate.”
Musical Theatre
Just one of the theater classes that WHS offers, Musical Theatre teaches the importance of stage presence, how to portray a character, and how to have a strong voice while doing so.
“Musical Theatre applied more to what I was going to do in the actual theater program and it taught me a lot of good skills, especially with auditioning,” Senior Olivia Horner said. “One of my favorite parts was that we had to pick a song in a certain genre, and we learned that song and sang it for the class. It wasn't necessarily about the singing, more about acting and facial expressions; it was really helpful to learn that singing isn't the most important part of Musical Theatre, you have to work on your acting and interactions with other people too.”
Intro to Engineering and Design (IED)
Design your future with this engineering-based class that encourages one to create drawings and pieces that serve as valuable experience to this pathway.
“My favorite class I’ve taken at WHS is IED, or Intro to Engineering and Design because I’m really interested in engineering and that is the field that I want to go into; I want to be an Aerospace Engineer,” Sophomore Aydah Leising said. “Right now we are making parts and Isometric drawings. If you’re interested in engineering, it’s helping you get ready for college and the degrees you're going to want to get. It's a really good pathway to take because then you can get different experiences.”
Culinary Arts II (Baking Pastry Arts)
If baking plastic cookies in your tiny toy kitchens was a passion that hasn’t left, consider taking Baking Pastry Arts- A class that shows the interesting background of your favorite recipes and their components.
“We go through the science behind the recipes and dig into things like temperatures and ingredient qualities,” Sophomore Tilly Fricker said. “It is really interesting to see all of the different factors that work into how successful your pastries are. There are so many incredible recipes that we've tried, and we handle the pastries for our catering events through Foodies Rock too.”
Intro to Architecture
In this course, you have the opportunity to build a structure from the ground up with total creative liberty and observe as you and your peer’s projects grow.
“The class has been really fun because you get to design a big commercial building of your choice that you can build from the ground up.” Senior Joshua Santiago said. “This class is more project-based, there is only one quiz of the whole trimester, the rest is literally just building and designing the commercial building. We go through multiple programs that professionals even use and this class definitely helps me know what is the basis of architecture, how buildings should be created, how to solve the problems of constraints for a building, and how to make it reality.”
AP Spanish Literature
Originally planned to be taken away as a class option, AP Spanish Literature was able to continue running after Senior Tyler Michelstetter took the initiative to convince the School Board otherwise and save this brilliantly structured language class.
“We read things that are famous, like Don Quixote, a letter called “A Roosevelt”, a letter from Hernán Cortés, and other really old texts. I like the challenge, it puts me in a spot where I'm reading things that I normally wouldn't read. At one point we learn that there's a different structure to poetry, called the décima, a structure that only exists in Spanish. You wouldn't really realize things like that exist if you didn't follow through in a class like this. It's a tough class and if you're willing to step up to the plate, willing to take the challenge and the risk, to take something that's really difficult and I think it will pay off.”