College prep > west test & portfolio fair

                Here at Poca High School, I sometimes feel we do some things that aren’t needed.  Many teachers and staff members feel we need some of these things, but some of them aren’t really needed for our future.

The big thing at Poca High is the portfolio fair.  You start this your freshman year and you present it when you’re a senior.  The semester you have your 12^th grade English class determines which semester you present our portfolio.  The portfolio has the categories of academic achievements, educational career interests, hobbies & interests, positive work habits, and work & community service.  You fill your portfolio with awards, certificates, metals, pictures, school papers, report cards, and much more.  I think the portfolio fair is helpful in some ways but Poca High School’s staff member stress about it too much and blow it out of proportion.  I’m not saying we should completely get rid of it, it is a good tool to help us get ready for future job interviews and presentations, but we need to start worrying more about other things like the ACT, SAT, and college prep.  Many teachers focus on our college education and financial aid but they forget to prepare us for the test we actually need to get in to college.  The staff says well you need to study and do this for your ACT, but they are so worried about the portfolio fair, west test, and school duties they don’t prepare us enough for the tests. 

Another thing we focus too much on is the west test.  I understand that it is a bigger deal than what I think, and it shows our progress along with our teachers’ progress but we focus too much on it.  We do practice tests of the west test and we prepare for the west test so why don’t we do the same thing for the ACT, SAT, and college material?  This is something I hope we can fix here at Poca High School.

I’m not trying to down Poca High at all.  We have many great teachers and facility members here that always try to help us succeed.  I just think they focus a little too much on the portfolio fair and west test when we should be getting us ready for college and the tests we have to take to get there.   

Proving Them Wrong

               The Lady Dots soccer team of 2011-2012 is having the best season Poca High School’s soccer program has ever had.  Not only have the lady dots had an outstanding record; they have also broken the school record for most wins.  They are now in sectional play and one game away from the Sectional Championship. 

                The lady dots have not only won games many people thought little Poca could never do, they have earned respect from other teams and soccer fans through West Virginia.  The Lady Dots now have a school record of 17-4-1.  They are also 4^th in the state and have the leading defense in all of double A.  The defense has an average of 1.1 goals scored on them per game.  They also won their first sectional game 3 to 0 against Hoover and then went on to play the sectional championship game.  This was a huge game because they played Charleston Catholic, the three time state champions who hadn’t lost a post season game in three years.  The dots came away with a great victory over Charleston Catholic with the score of 1 to 0.  The dots scored their goal in the first half of the match and managed to hold Catholic scoreless for the rest of the game.  The Dots are now sectional champs and headed to Regional’s.  For the first time ever at Poca High School, the lady dots soccer team won a sectional championship and is going to the regionals.  The regional game will be played at Point Pleasant Thursday October 27, 2011.  The dots will face their biggest rivals, the Sissonville Indians.  Even though Sissonville is #1 in the state it should be a hard fought game.  The winner of the game will advance to states and have a shot for the state title.  Two of the dots four losses have came from Sissonville, but if the soccer team can play a hard aggressive game, they most definitely can come out on top.  Hopefully everyone will go out and cheer on the soccer team.  The support has been great this year, and hopefully there will be a large crowd at the regional game.  This has been an outstanding year for the dot’s soccer team and they are not ready to quit yet; ladies just play hard and you can kill the ville! (:

Poca needs some new activities!

Poca High School is definite need of some new activities or extra curricular activities.  Considering we are a very small AA high school, I know it isn't real easy for us to just start new activities at any time like other large schools, but I feel we could have a few more things to offer at Poca High School.  
    Poca definitely has quite a few extra curricular activities, but there is a few more I believe we could add.  I think a boy’s soccer team, a dance team, and possibly a swimming team could be added here at Poca High School.  Many people say all the time, “Oh we don’t have enough kids here to have a boy’s soccer team, and it would just take away from our football team!” I really beg to differ.  Many high school boys and students at Poca High also think there would be enough boys interested in playing.  I also think it’s not fair to the boys here that want to play soccer because almost every other school has a boy’s soccer team.  I really don’t think that it would take very many football players away from the football team.  I mean, it’s not like we have a state champion football team anyways.  I think they should start a sign up sheet in the office just to see who is interested and if there would be enough boys to play soccer.  If there would not be enough interested I would understand but if there is enough wanting to play we NEED to get a boys soccer team.  It really just isn’t fair for the ones that want to play.
   Another activity Poca should consider is having a dance team.  I kow we had one at one point, but it had more to do with flag core.  We have many successful dancers at Poca High and some even compete competitively. I truly believe we could start an awesome dance team here, and it doesn’t only have to be cheerleaders and actual dancers.  I think it should be anyone that wants to work and have fun while dancing.
   The last thing I think Poca High should consider is a swim team.  This is another thing I think several kids would be interested in.  I know we don’t have a school pool but practices could be held in Charleston or anywhere close that has an indoor pool.  This another thing that many schools offer that we don’t.   We should just have a sign up sheet in the office just to see who is interested and if we could start a swim team here at Poca.