Recently, the AVID students have expressed themselves through mandalas and have displayed them for everyone to see in the attendance office. Before displaying their art, the AVID students came together to about share with their fellow classmates themselves.

“The mandala is a representation on the student,” Christina Moreau, AP Language teacher, said. “Through the mandala, they are completing the basis for the college  promt, which may ask them to talk about their background or a certain quality about themselves.”

On Tuesday, October 5th, AVID got together to bond and get acquainted with the tutors this year in. Playing music and talking about each other’s backgrounds, the AVID students were able to see similar qualities with students they never imagined meeting.

The carefully chosen symbols on the mandala all symbolize a part of each person’s personality.

“It’s a reflection of the student,” Xavier Buck (12) said. “It makes you understand.”

By displaying mandalas, it allows the AVID students to feel comfortable among their peers. As for other Glads, majority see this as a neat way to decorate the school.

“I think the mandalas make the school more colorful and show creativity through expression,” Selena Gonzalez (11) said.

These pieces of art can teach us a little bit about each other.

Ever since Halloween of 1973, Knott’s Halloween Haunt has been featuring zombies, vampires, aliens and other monsters that are guaranteed to emerge from the shadows when people least expect it.

“We kept walking and such, getting scared like every five minutes or so, especially me ‘cause they saw I was young,” Jonathan Moya (11) said.

Proving to their peers they could handle the horror is one of the most common reasons teens attend the event.

“My reaction was that they were really creepy and scary-looking,” Cristal Ascencio (10) said. “I did not want them near me at all!

Although countless teens enjoy the spontaneity, a number of them remember there are other ways to celebrate Halloween.

“I’d rather go trick-or-treating, get a bunch of candy, rent a bunch of scary movies, get into my comfy clothes, and have a scary movie marathon with my cousins while eating my candy for Halloween,” said Ascencio (10).

The Halloween haunt has been around for more than just our generation. Even some of our very own teachers have enjoyed he spooky celebration.

“I haven’t been there since I was a kid…but if it’s getting bloodier or more graphic, I would be concerned.” Michael Drago said.

Anyone may attend the event, but it is not recommended for children 12 and under.

Though Halloween Haunt only stays for a season, Knott’s Berry Farm will be there to stay for ages to come.

Johnson has important goals for his students in both his CP and AP Physics classes and hopes to use his knowledge as an astrophysics major at UCLA to achieve those goals.

“I want my students to become more comfortable with science and build a resilience to prevent giving up on new concepts,” Johnson said.

Physics founds its appeal in Johnson after taking a class in high school. Beforehand, Johnson’s interest was also in mathematics.

“I would have wanted to teach a math class before I found my interest in physics,” Johnson said.

Before beginning his new teaching career, Johnson was an industry director working primarily with artificial intelligence.        Although finding his job satisfying when completing a project or when he was able to help people, Johnson found the job lacking in human contact overall.

“My previous job had a lack of human interaction and I wanted to be able to help people on a daily basis,” Johnson said.

Teaching naturally appealed to Johnson as he wanted to help people understand and appreciate foreign ideas.

In his class he uses a mixture of traditional teaching style methods and also demonstrates how physics works in the real world using a variety of real life examples that students in his class can observe.

“I like mentoring and being able to guide people through a class and life in general,” Johnson said.

Outside of school, Johnson holds an interest in science fiction and music. In relation to his goals for his students, he finds that science fiction has a limited appeal due to the negative connotations it often holds.

Johnson has high goals set for his first year at Gahr and hopes to bring the subject of physics to a wider audience.