on this edition of headlines we learn how peters township students make their voices heard what new creative clubs the school offers and an exclusive update on the graduation project all this and more on the upcoming edition of  seniors all students can enroll in the two d or courses upper level art classes include ceramics painting and electronic imagery cassie clark tells us more about a new art club that is being offered this year with so it gives you an outlet i know that school can be pretty tedious and tiresome and at the end of the day you just kind of want to relax with your friends and it gives you an artistic outlet freshmen are not allowed to take ceramics so our club is a great opportunity to learn more about the basics of ceramics and different types of art our club is not like a typical classroom set up everyone does their own thing the two dimensional art club meets every other monday meets once a week club is a place to by the art department next school year the course is no prerequisites and will be a non studio discussion based course to really created the national blue ribbon schools award in one thousand nine hundred two to bring public attention to the best schools in the united states he did this in order to facilitate the sharing of best practices within me among schools p t boats to national blue ribbon schools the u s department of education has named peter sonship middle school as a national blue ribbon school this year  two hundred eighty six schools were designated as two thousand and thirteen national blue ribbon schools based on their overall academic excellence or for their success include closing achievement gaps we recognize that great achievements such as this can only be achieved with the support from everyone in the school district community the department why on earth two hundred thirty six public schools and fifty private schools with their national blue ribbon school board at a conference and award pleasant valley elementary was also recognized as a national blue ribbon school back in two thousand and eleven the media department at p t h s offer several photography courses students can take the course as a level two three or four some of their work is displayed at the peter seventh and can be viewed at p g media done at the media department website the printed page has executive council is currently working in conjunction with the horses with hope a local organization that is in need of an indoor riding arena rob mckinney tells us how you too can help a discovery growth and learning center for children and adults with special needs this center has three phases of growth the first phase began in the summer of two thousand and thirteen with the introduction of therapeutic horseback riding face do is the introduction of wine assisted learning program a specializes in bowling and behavioral classes for youth at risk we feel that this center is something that is well needed in our community and it can be used as a resource both for individual families in schools  and as well as the universities in the medical fields and they could be able to utilize the center at its full potential offering research on the benefits echoing therapies phase three is the real  about horses with hope places at their website horses with hope dot org or is that really there have been changes to the graduation project a p t h s the presenting aspect of the project is no longer needed now here is more information with buy school graduation project has recently been adjusted previously students were required to complete a project focusing on a potential career and a speech course the speech course prepared students for the final graduation project presentation which students presented to four teachers for a final grade the decision to remove came when students found themselves a standardized testing the same time as a project presentations i think is going to give us more time to focus on eighty's and s a t s and easy to use and it will feel less stress better on this test which also effects the school students are still given the opportunity to present their projects if they would choose to the project has been removed the school has provided all resources to research careers including career books and career researching websites colleges and universities do not see the graduation project so acceptances will not be influenced by the removal the softwares are still required to turn in their reflection papers on a day that is to be announced this is preschoolers reporting from headlines although the graduation project is no longer required all students in the state of pennsylvania must pass the kingston's exams in the areas of algebra literature and biology that's eighteen is a standardized test for most called emissions in the united states over ninety percent of with a matched math teacher for two and an english teacher for the other two the total cost of the course is seventy five dollars this includes the classes and the s a t book which you can keep after the course is over the prep course offers kids a chance to practice the test learn some common tactics that will help raise their school hours and learn the directions of the test for going registration must be completed in person through the high school counseling office a free practice exam is periodically offered for students to headlines for information on special tech skills that are a necessity in college and to learn about the new and improved theater arts  card welcome back to headlines we interact club are groups of kids from p t a just helping put together fundraisers and collections for the less fortunate for they interact club clothing drives students put boxes around the school for kids to drop off their old clothes the club does many of these offerings for the less fortunate like r consists of a group of students making changes within the community this club sponsors numerous food drives clothing drives and other fundraisers to give back to the less fortunate this february the group is running a clothing drive for the shopper heart homeless veteran shelter well last year was our first year doing the clothing drive and we did a dress for success for men and the primary goal was to gather clothing that was gently used that some of these veterans could w to job interviews to employ him to maintain employment if they secure the employment this year we've kind of reached out a little bit further because we had such a great outpouring from our community last year that we're willing to take  awesome reporting for headlines they interact club as many upcoming events the next events are the american heart association hardball on march first and the autism walk for awareness on april nineteenth according to your demick dot com students can better prepare themselves for college as students at p t a h s prepare for their college and others they should keep in mind these five tech skills that the u s news and world report of education recommends one being able to type efficiently incorrectly is the number one skill student should develop for college being able to use e mail to communicate with professors and other students with correct grammar and punctuation is number two the third most important skill for students to have is to be able to use basic software suites like microsoft word and excel to effectively communicate at the collegiate level there are some tech skills that they need to take with them we want to make sure that they have the ability to properly communicate and do that in an efficient and educated man or the number five skill is to be able to keep yourself safe online and also to be able to keep your password secure as students are pair for life after high school they should keep in mind these five tech skills this is hannum arsenic reporting for headlines with digital textbooks costing significantly less than print more and more students are different pen and paper in favor of the keyboard teens are experiencing significant stress with school being the dominant cause a survey conducted by the washington post found that teenagers between the ages of thirteen and seventeen report that they are overwhelmed and depressed as a result from the stress of school testing side is a very real issue that hasn't been noticed until recently is a type of performance anxiety that crushes the student to succeed to maximum potential testing variety can bring on butterflies stomach aches and painful headaches students with this type of performance anxiety might feel or have a rapid heartbeat before taking an exam like other types of anxiety testing sidey can cause a vicious cycle which results in the student focusing on the negative outcomes making their feelings of anxiety stronger this causes even more distraction for the student resulting in a poor score students can reduce test anxiety by truly just being as prepared as they can and realizing that one test does not make or break anything in life as well as you can really helps reduce that stress once you walk into the exam room it really is just a way to find out how much you know in that particular subject and how much you have mastered at that point we all have positive and negatives in our life and tasks are just one small measure of how we use the knowledge in our everyday life this is an fitzgerald reporting from abundance a few tips for managing the stress are to exercise daily and maintain a healthy diet in addition students can practice breathing exercises as relaxation techniques they english department us offers many electives that explore the liberal arts two of which are theater arts one and two these classes are designed to refine the skills of aspiring actors and actresses for the past three years changing the curriculum for theater arts to in order to keep a variety of class for the past three years and seventy king of the class over and over again with hopes that more theater classes with her eyes some of the changes that we will be making to theatre arts i mean we have to do with the fact that it's changing from a year long course to a semester long course so we really had to look at what was essential and what was sort of  as important and i took a look at the curriculum and condensed more manageable units so basically the whole concept of theatre arts to you is to get the awards in the past taking with first and second place in multiple competitions the p t h s choir is constantly reaching new highs i made dirty reporting for headlines you can sign up for one of the choir classes at the beginning of the school year but our hello mentary has been hosting family fun and fitness that for over ten years this year over three hundred individuals attended the event high school were in tears were invited into our hill to help post and coordinate the night participate in many other activities we welcomed over three hundred participants so that was more than one hundred eighty two families which was amazing to see the parking lot full and the building full of just kids running everywhere participating in sports nutrition exercises and dance going on the mission of this night is to celebrate wellness and to teach families about leading a healthy lifestyle this event has been going on for over ten years and has been very successful at promoting health and fitness throughout the district this is definitely pointing to you for channel seven the goal of the family fun and fitness night is to promote health and nutrition within the district there are ten federal holidays designated by the u s congress presidents day or washington's birthday as some call it is in february president's day this year will fall on monday february seventeenth  was originally created to tell great george washington's birthday on the twenty second of february but was moved to the third monday in february in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight in order to give america's working class a long weekend and i think it's important to stop and pause because while a lot of people have done a lot for our country the president has a unique opportunity to be at the center of our country and really fight for a lot of change president's day is celebrated around the country with public ceremonies in washington d c speeches by the current president parades all over the country presents days day set aside to honor all presidents past and present and celebrate the hard work and devotion they put into this country reporting for headlines the next federal holiday to be observed as memorial day which falls on may twenty sixth this year thank you so much for joining us well same next time on headlines there we don't even