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Terrific Teacher Appreciation
April 26th, 2011Kristen Camara
Staff Writer
Although many students will not admit it, teachers do take a lot of time out of their lives in order to help students. They stay after school for extra help or correct papers as quickly as possible, which is time consuming when they have their own commitments outside of working.
The week before April vacation, Student Council members gave back to the teachers at Westford Academy during Teacher Appreciation Week. Teacher Appreciation is a week that the Westford Academy student council, which represents the student body, gave back to the teachers of Westford Academy for all their hard work during the year. The student council came come to school at 6:45am that Monday through Wednesday morning to set up food in the teacher’s lounge for Teacher Appreciation.
The committee chairs for student council, Allie LeBlanc, Katie Huber, and Thomas Yorke, made up a list of all needed supplies and they divided them among the student council members, who bring in the supplies. Each day has a different theme. Monday was breakfast day, Tuesday was cookie day, Wednesday was snack day, Thursday was an after school raffle, and Friday was an after school ice cream social.
“I think it’s a nice way to show our school’s appreciation for everything the teachers do for us” says student council member, Abby Cianciolo.
The student council members did an excellent job conducting the week. Teachers were constantly complimenting the student council and commenting on how they always do a nice job with Teacher Appreciation.
Freshman Melissa Madsen says, ” I thought Teachers Appreciation was just a day at Westford Academy not a week, but from what I hear teachers were happy with the outcome of the week. I wish students could have been more involved, not just student council members.”
Cianciolo responds, “I think teachers responded realy well. There’s no better way to get into teachers’ hearts than with food!”
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Girls’ Lacrosse Starting Their Season
April 6th, 2011Kristen Camara
Staff Writer
Spring sports are off to a great start as most tryouts have wrapped up and teams are set. Westford Academy Girls’ Lacrosse tryouts were held two weeks ago and now the freshman, junior varsity, and varsity teams are set. Last year the varsity girls’ lacrosse team had 10 wins 11 losses, coached by Shaun Hart.
This year there is a new varsity coach, Julie Olivier for the 2011 season. Olivier is a level 1 and 2 U.S. certified lacrosse coach who has coached and directed the Westford Youth Lacrosse Girls’ Division for 7 years.
Amy Moran, the girls’ freshman lacrosse coach, was here for the start of the girls’ lacrosse program back in the 2001-2002 school year. When Moran came to WA, she started a lacrosse club because lacrosse needed to be a club before it could be entered into the dual county league as a sport.
“There was only one team with about 20 girls and it has now evolved to three teams with about 60 girls trying out,” Moran said.
Moran plans to teach her freshmen team skills, sportsmanship, and hard work while developing friendships and having fun.
“My goals for the team are good chemistry as well as being open to new things with a new coaching staff that looks very promising. So far we look strong and I think we will be at least 500 which all teams hope for or maybe even better,” said varsity captain, Molly Klinka.
The first varsity game versus North Andover was supposed to be on Monday, April 4, but because of the weather, the game is now postponed until May 20. The next varsity lacrosse girls game is on Thursday, April 7 away at Acton-Boxborough. Come support the team as they start off their season against a tough competitor.
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Limitless Less Than Its Limit
March 29th, 2011Kristen Camara
Staff Writer
Limitless opened March 18 surprisingly taking the number one spot at the box office this past “March Madness” weekend. Limitless, a science fiction film blended with thriller and suspense, features Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, and Abbie Cornish.
Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper), is a writer suffering tremendously from writer’s block in Manhattan after his girlfriend, Lindy (Abbie Cornish) leaves him. Soon Eddie is face to face with his ex-brother in law, Vernon (Johnny Whitsworth), who offers Eddie a secret drug, NZT. This drug changes Eddie and lets him use one hundred percent of his brain, making him feel motivated and powerful.
Limitless opened March 18th.
Although NZT has positives, such as Eddie being able to finish his novel and figure out tough situations that most humans would not be able to understand, Eddie becomes addicted to the drug, along with having many side effects. When going back to Vernon for more of NZT, Eddie becomes involved in a huge mess involving criminals and consequences.
Cooper, seen in Valentines Day (2010) and The Hangover (2009), portrays Eddie well at the beginning of the movie, but towards the end the script makes Cooper’s character seem like he doesn’t know whether he is supposed to be funny or serious, which causes confusion among viewers. The filmmakers make Cooper’s character seem “dumb” at times, which is disappointing, since I am a fan of Cooper’s other films.
Robert De Niro, seen in Little Fockers (2010) and Shark Tale (2004), plays Carl Van Loon and does a convincing job playing the Eddie’s co-worker and business man. De Niro completely takes on the role of Carl Van Loon full force and no one could have played his role better in the film.
Limitless’ plot becomes hard to follow especially in the last half an hour of the film, as most of the twists and conflicts become resolved in a short period of time. I felt in order for viewers to comprehend the end of the film, the film should have allowed more time for the resolutions and less time on Eddie becoming addicted to the drug.
Overall I thought the movie was interesting, but mediocre. It was entertaining at most times, but I feel that the movie could have been much better. Limitless’ plot contains a brilliant and entertaining idea for a movie, but I feel that the plot could have been taken to the next level.
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