Blackford High School - Reflections Yearbook (Hartford City, IN)

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A bullseye scored by John Faas shows bis physical education practice has paid off by developing more coordination in archery. Swing Choir members are being entertained by Bry- an Maddox as he adds a new twist in teaching them a new dance step in a most unusual way. For added interest, Mrs. Gabbard ' s art students. De- anna Slusher and Nancy Smith, take class outside for a more relaxing fall atmosphere to sketch. 46 Developing By Practice J

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Probably the most frequent communicators arc re- porters. Robin Haines, journalism, interviews Dave Reidy, athlete, for a personality sketch. Communicating to learn Communicating refers to more than just conversation. Students in class must learn to communicate in many other ways. For example, ideas are transferred through books, particularly in Social Stud- ies, Literature, Psychology, and Mass Communications. They are also exposed to many ideas and thoughts in using the li- brary. They can look in newspapers, pam- phlets, and magazines to establish commu- nications with the past. The Publications Department commu- nicates with every student who reads the BruINformer or Reflections. The depart- ment reports and publishes the news bi- weekly. Other than the usual activities, journalism students report and interview outside celebrities as well as school per- sonnel. The yearbook staff also communi- cates a complete record of the year ' s ac- tivities and happenings by publishing the Reflections. It is a year-long process and becomes a reference book to students and staff. Music is another way in which people communicate. It is often called the uni- versal language to express feelings. No vocabulary is necessary. Students sing out their emotions and, in some cases, add spe- cial meanings. Announcements read over both the P.A. system and TV is the way the student body learned what was going on in the school. Information on the TV Blackford To- day Show, included the weather, sports, and special interviews. Open House also gave teachers a way of communicating with parents. They dis- cussed how their children were doing in class, and suggested methods of improve- ment. BruINformer ' s sports page is Joe Leeth ' s medium for communicating sports information to the student body while working in Publications. Sending his homing pigeon, as a way of communicat- ing on a science class mission is David Martin. Dave raised birds as profitable hobby. Developing By Comnmnicaring 45

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Practice makes perfect, as Robin Ely Hndi out she really can ' I look at the typewriter keys during Mr. Ross ' s Typing I class. That lantali .ing fourth-hour aroma from Room 130 was from the tasty final product of Lance Deffen- baugb ' s Brcwin ' Singles baking project. Perfection took practice Practice doesn ' t always make perfect, but students in classes such as typing were exposed to hours of practice to acquire that improvement in skill that comes only with drill. Whether it was cooking in Brewin ' Sin- gles, typing with a little something extra, or just drawing your own thing, mistakes became fewer along the way. When times got rough, such as when the whole line of bookkeeping figures was wrong, the old saying, Try, try again, was shoved into students ' heads. Even though some would rather have changed the phrase to If at first you don ' t succeed, forget it, they learned quickly that this could not be. Amazingly enough, just by watching someone else playing a drum or a flute and practicing what one saw, the results paid off for the effort put forth. Swing Choir, for example, had to learn the steps to perform while singing. Phys- ical Education required practice in run- ning and archery. Practice was a definite must in Eng- lish classes, where commas and capitiliza- tion were used correctly only after drill followed drill. Likewise in the use of tools in shops, gauges were read accurately and machines operated correctly only after the task was done several times. Practice was required for the goal of perfection whether it was .-Vlgebra. T p- ing, or Shorthand. Algebra took on a trial and error method which meant doing the problem and. in many cases, erasing and doing them over. EverNthing done had to be practiced before it was done as teachers wanted it. Blackford students showed e i- dence of such im provement by the end of school. Developing By I ctice 47