Security at Crane High School is good and bad for several reasons. It is good because they do the best they can when they are in an unsafe environment, and they like to help respectful students. But sometimes security guards do not have student’s best interests at heart.
What many students do not like about Crane security is that they always take the teachers’ side and never want to listen to what the students have to say. They always believe the students are causing the problems. One Crane student stated that ”security always assumes the worst in students”. It would seem that Crane security has a lot of room for improvement.
But some good things about Crane security are that they offer good advice to students that are willing to listen. Also, they do their best when they feel it is an unsafe environment inside the school. They try to show respect to everyone and lend a helping hand to students in need. Overall, Crane security is good but they have many things to work on.
Crane High School…. what can you says about Crane High School? Crane High School is well-known around the community and it does a lot for the community. The principle of Crane High School is Richard T. Smith, and he is in his second term as principle. There are over 1,038 students at Crane and approximately 100 staff here. Crane High School has so many qualities and things to offer to students and these assets benefit us in the long run and give us what we need after high school. ”Crane over the years has been in the top [upper] bottom in ranking with low scores on testing and is lacking of teaching”. Crane is a school made up of different races, and the ratio between blacks, white, Hispanic is changing to be more diverse.
Crane High School has access to resources that help the students and staff with any possible information that they may need or can use. Crane has many different books in the library that will give you the information you need. The students are able to use the resources at Crane for projects, homework, assignments, and your own personal research.
Crane has a big influence on the community because it “gives this the kids around West Side a better education” in general. This is represented by Rockwell Gardens, the Village, and Saint Stephens. Crane students have volunteered over the years in the community to help rebuild it and it has come a long way to what it is now. There are more properties and homes being built. Crane students give back to the community by volunteering to pass out food, helping older people, and by doing other things for service learning hours that help in any way we can. Crane has much more work to do before we can say we have accomplished anything. We still have negatives that surround us, such as gangs and violence. We have more work to do as a whole, but we are off to a very good
Honors is a special rank in school given to a student for success in a particular subject. Students are placed into an honors program based upon the grades they receive and G.P.A rank. A great thing about being in honors is that it looks good on your transcript for college. Another benefit of honors is that if you are a freshman you will be doing sophomore level work. Whatever your grade level is, you would be a rank higher. If you receive mainly A’s, B’S, or at least one C, you could be placed in an advanced class. Even if you have a 2.9 or higher you would also be admitted. The significance of being in honors is that at the end of each semester you get an extra credit for each class.
Students placed in honors feel that it was a good idea because they are more advanced and know what is being taught. When your G.P.A. raises to at least a 3.0, you would be allowed into the National Honor Society. The National Honor Society is one of the most prestigious national organizations for high school students. Since 1921, millions of students have been selected to participate in the National Honor Society program for their academic success and excellent behavior.
Students feel as if those who are in honors think that they are better than others. Sometimes other students feel as if they are not being treated the same. They have the understanding that if your grades or G.P.A. are not as high as others you would not get accepted into events such as college tours and internship opportunities, which is true. If you are not taking grades into consideration or participating in class, opportunities would be less likely to come your way. That is why Honors should be a goal students should strive for.
Honor students and others should be placed within the same classes in order to mentor each other”, one student says. Combining students together would allow them to help each other out and exchange ideas. However, honor students believe that being with other students on another level slows them down. Honor students work at different paces which allows them to complete work earlier. Honor classes are not mandatory courses. Honors is for students’ benefit. If the program applies to you and your willing to meet requirements and keep good grades, then being placed in honors is a great opportunity.
The teachers at Crane Tech Prep are doing a good job at teaching the students. However, they are not pushing as hard as the students are. It seems as if the teachers are giving up on the students that need the extra help. I see most of the kids that are really “calling out for help” are not getting the support they need. Either they are receiving the incorrect information or don’t feel that the help is there when they need it most. They some how have it in their minds that students can not change. They are wrong! The students may not be getting the proper attention or help at home. So it is the teachers job to give them that extra push. Even though it is not in their job description, they should feel the need to give them that extra help. A teachers job is not just to teach but to empower the students minds and give them challenges.
I interviewed a couple students at Crane. Most of them stated that the reason teachers act like they don’t care, is because the students act that way! This is a high statement that lots of other teachers can agree with. How can the teachers provide support when students throw it in their faces? Its impossible! You cant teach someone if they aren’t willing to be taught. Cooperation is needed with both parties. One needs to feed off the other. Many of the students stated that some other students aggravate the teachers deliberately and that it makes them evil. I think teachers should have a certain level of maturity that they can look past the ignorance and act like a adult. On the other hand some teachers are having a bad day so they figure they can take it out on the students. Again this goes to the sense of maturity level. What ever the case is, it is not totally the students fault teachers act this way.
I think that schools, city schools in general, do not allow their students much freedom. I have been in schools located in the suburbs and in the city. When I went to Hoffman Estates High School, I did not have to walk through metal detectors and present an I.D. on demand to security. I was able to come and go to school freely. It was so open that you could leave the school almost whenever and get back in just as easily as you left. They even left the doors unlocked. We could leave for lunch and we would just have to make it back in time for our next class. I only had four classes for the whole day and was picked up and dropped off by a school bus. Also, cell phones were allowed, but you just could not walk around with the phone to your ear. If you had an I pod or MP3 player, the teachers were flexible with allowing students to listen to them during classroom downtime. Some students who came from other schools also said that they were able to have cell phones; they were not allowed text or answer them in class.
But now I am enrolled in a public school in the city and it is the opposite. I do not have a school bus coming to pick me up; I have to get on the bus or the train. This can hurt your pockets if you have to pay for your own things. At the door upon entrance, I have to empty all metal or magnetic objects from my pockets and turn in my electronics. Also, I have to show my I.D. to get in. I personally think that it’s stupid to take a student’s cell phone and bipod from them because the principal thinks it is unnecessary and will interfere with the teacher teaching. If the teacher is good, then they would not have to compete with an bipod for the student’s attention. I can leave the school, but if I get caught they want to send me to the disciplinary office where they write you up and SEND YOU HOME!!! I just feel that the schools in the city take unnecessary approaches to problems that have simple solutions.
Some of the other students I interviewed said they did not like the policy about cell phones. They felt that it was necessary for the
students to have some sort of communication device in case of emergency. They follow must of the policies, but they only get in trouble for sneaking their cell phones in. When asked what school policy she would change, Latah Farley replied, “I would change the cell phone policy to where they would allow them in school. It would prohibit the students to have them, but they could not sit in class testing and making calls during the time they have to sit and learn.” If the school board changed the policy, at least for having cell phones, then I think the students would be more willing to follow the rules. It’s a lot easier to have the cooperation of the students when you show that as principal, you’ll grant them rights and rewards for following your rules and regulations.
School may sound like something that may not always be proven as fun, but Crane Tech Prep has never lived up to ‘boring’. The students have tried their best to make sure there was a lot of laughter up and down the halls. Laughter ranged, from tripping people to cracking jokes about the students, and laughing at people’s grammar. But the funniest thing is students would never stop avoiding the principal. There was always at least one thing the students would say every time the principal walks by. The principal always makes us feel good even though we’re in the wrong. He just has to crack a joke to make the matter seem a little bit better.
Laughing with the principal was not always the main focus, there was many other things we considered fun. The grammar you hear around Crane is something funny you just can’t resist. Everyone has their own way of speaking and always telling you to say the word like this. Overall, their was always two words the school will never stop saying lil boy! But no one could ever say those words like Mr.Goffrey. He has many ways of speaking that was always the funniest. In addition, it was one event that was always making the school excited—The pep rally. Yelling your class in which you graduate seems the coolest. Jumping, clapping, and watching the other student enjoy themselves. You might be a quiet person, but you should be ready to yell out your class. This day was always about which graduating class will be the loudest. In the end the loudest classes will receive the most recognition. As you could see this event was the event that everyone was waiting for.All these actions were fun but we can’t leave out the sports. Everyone was prepared to find out which sport was doing the best. Going out to the games seem to be the one of the funniest reasons students may want to come to school. Most students don’t get a chance to really express how to have fun. Most students play sports to show excitement and prove that you could have fun by playing sports for your school, instead of always going outside or going out somewhere. In football watching someone slip or watching the players look salty from the way Crane scored a touchdown was hilarious. When the students scored a touchdown, they will do a Prince mixed with Michael Jackson dance. Doing the dance fast was the best part of the game. Everyone was always waiting for the dance. When you think of fun you think of people playing a lot and you enjoying yourself. Well, playing cards was the smoothest way to kick it during lunch. Students couldn’t wait until their lunch period so they could see who the best players were. Whoever were the best players continued to beat whoever thought they were the best. Every time the player who was last partners was mentioned, the school would congratulate them up and down the hall. ~Written By: Amerelle
Since I been in high school there was a lot of drop outs. I feel that people shouldn’t drop out, because there is no point of it. You only have a little time to graduate. And it’s not that hard. All you have to do is just come to school everyday and go to all of your classes. Why wait all the way until you are like 30 year old and then go back to school. When all you could have done is just stayed in school and learned something new and tries to do something with your life. Now you are sitting at home trying to figure out what you are going to be in life. And how you’re going to survive in this world? I know it’s a lot of people that like to look good and eat well. And you can’t do that without a good education you really can’t look good or eat well with these jobs out here. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice amount of money to be made. You want to be able to get or buy what ever you like. The only ways you can do that is by staying in school and going to college. Dropping out is not the answer to success.
Have you ever participated in any After School Matters Programs? Well, there are many programs you might want to be involved in. I was in the life guarding program. I learned many rescue procedures and many ways to swim. The program helps people who don’t know how to swim become a whole lot better in the water. You will also work on becoming a skilled lifeguard. If you never swam before, this program can help you out a lot. In summary, life guarding is a program to help kids become better swimmers and get their license to become a professional lifeguard. It also helps you get recommended for summer jobs. If you haven’t considered being part of a program, this would be a good one to consider.
Digital Media is an After School Matters program here at Crane. This is the second year that Digital Media has been at Crane and they created a lot of movies. They also work on filming people and making movies of people in the program. I have a friend that is in Digital Media and he said that they work on computers and film people. Austin Small, a current apprentice in the program said “We shot movie scenes, produced movies, and made movies with the videos.
At the end of last year’s program, I remember watching many of the movies that Digital Media filmed. One of their movies was about people in the program, pretending like they are on the street selling drugs and having guns. It was a good movie and also looked it looked real because there are actually people on the street doing those things in reality. Then in the movie they had a boy named J.C. selling drugs in reality and a boy came up and bought drugs from him, and there was another boy robbed him. The movies that this program makes are an opportunity to think about different issues like violence here at Crane.
