Griffith High School - Reflector Yearbook (Griffith, IN)

Page 7 text:

New teachers and new students face new surroundings. Miss Kathryn Allen, chemistry teacher, and junior Bill Larson, both new to GHS this year, experiment in chem lab, aided by junior Debbie Van Horssen. With the addition of the $4.2 million gym complex the school had received a face lift. The gym includes a track, three basketball courts, weight rooms, locker rooms, and classrooms to serve the students. A change of pace is in order for senior Dave Teasdale as he becomes one of the new faces around school. Dave is originally from Bellaire High School, Ohio. He started at Griffith at the beginning of the year. A new face on 45th Street, the Sports Illustrated Court Club, offers students like junior Tim Wilkie a chance to use inexpensive courts to learn the game of racquetball and to exercise. 3

Page 6 text:

J ' JEW 1 FACE 5 The veteran teacher strides purposely into the sixth hour sophomore English class just as the high pitched bell stops ringing. Adjusting her bifocals, she focuses her eyes on the class list, names leaping out at her. She organizes her thoughts, and prepares to tackle the task of associating the new faces before her with the names on her class sheets. After calling roll, (mispronouncing several names) she arranges students in alphabetical order, calling different students Bob, Steve, Cindy, Mike or Carol, after older brothers and sisters. All the students forgive her except one; she doesn’t appreciate being called Mike. Many teachers face the dilemma of having to learn names for 125 or more students every changing nine weeks. But they aren’t the only ones adjusting. The sophomore moves into high school surrounded by upperclassmen and teachers whom he has never seen before. Most juniors and seniors don’t have this problem, having already recognized teachers from their previous high school years. Their only problems are new teachers, not to mention a few new students. Once the year draws to a close, everybody knows everybody in his class, and students know which teachers are nice and which ones are not. The aforementioned teacher recognized her students, having classified them by abilities, personalities and individual little quirks. She knows the girl who sits in the back row during fourth hour because she’s the one who keeps blowing bubbles and letting them pop in her face. Old face, new shape. Junior Dean Van Gorp shows that though muscle coordination is necessary for bench pressing, the face is free to release tension. Dean is working to improve skills for varsity football. 2

Page 8 text:

Quick mathematical figuring is no longer required for modern day cash registers. Senior Nancy Buikema puts in an average work day at Venture in the new Griffith Park Shopping Mall at Broad and Cline. PLACES With the beginning of each school year, changes are made. They may be in policy, procedures or even student attitude. But this year the most visible changes appear to be surrounding the students, around the school and in the community. Around school, the most notable change is the addition of the $4.2 million gym complex. Spurred by the critical lack of locker space for physical education classes and the growing varsity athletic programs, health classes held in the junior high and a storage room converted into a nurse’s office, the school board decided in 1970 that the complex was needed. The school is not the only growing part of the community; more businesses are pouring into the Griffith area. The Griffith Park Shopping Mall, itself only a year old, has recently been joined by two more businesses on Ridge Road which are trying to yank the dollars from the consumer’s pockets. Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers and a new Shell service station have opened their doors within a one-mile section of Ridge Road, ready crammed with food shops and gas stations. Stretching from Burger King to Obies there are now six gas stations within one-and-a-half blocks of each other. To burn off the extra burgers, Sports Illustrated Court Club was erected on 45th Street in Highland. All these business want to make sure the tummys, gas tanks and exercise quota of the community are full, as well as their cash registers. It’s these new places to go to meet friends, spend time, and to learn that symbolize community growth. IflfF With the opening of Griffith Park Shopping Mall, many new jobs were created for students. Junior Kay Nelson earns her money by collecting other people’s money at the new shoe store for Griffith, Fayva.