Viking Corner: This Week at South Tahoe High

In School

This week started out great at South Tahoe High School with another snow day on Monday, making it three days for the year so far. With a week-long Presidents’ Day break coming up, here are what some STHS students plan to do:

Anthony LoRe, a junior, who also plays for Tahoe Prep Hockey Academy, is traveling to the Bahamas with his family for some fun on the beach.

Senior Jordyn Yochheim said she’s going to go sledding, work on her senior project, and spend time vacationing in San Diego.

Sophomore Beverly Warden said she is staying in town for the snowy weather.

New School Blog

After years in print, the STHS school paper, The Viking Longship, is about to relaunch as a blog on March 8. Wes Berkshire, an English teacher at the school, manages the newspaper with a skeleton crew of reporters.

Here’s an excerpt from a recent interview:

How long have you been teaching at STHS?

This is either my ninth or tenth year, I’m pretty sure it’s my ninth. I have to do math to figure it out, and I don’t like math. Math hurts me.

Where did you study before teaching?

I have a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder. I have a master’s degree in teaching from Sierra Nevada college just up the road in Incline. I did study abroad in Sweden for six months, and I’ve taken courses from random colleges here and there, but that’s about it.

What is your favorite part about teaching?

The kids, as crazy and hard to believe as that sounds, you guys make every day different and unique. Even when you’re a pain in the butt, it adds a little bit of a challenge.

What is your favorite grade to teach?

I want to say I don’t have a favorite grade to teach. If I had a class full of freshmen, I’d probably tell you differently. I teach a lot of juniors, so I feel like I’m inclined to say juniors, but I also like teaching seniors because it’s like their last big thing, so it’s fun to be a part of that.

What do you want to improve in the English department at STHS?

I want to improve students passing classes, that’s what I want to improve. It really bums me out to see so many students fail very passable classes. If it’s super hard and they fail, I get it. But it’s not super hard – and that’s a bummer to me. I try to get students who struggle in English classes, or chose to struggle, to pass because you’ve got to pass to graduate and go out into the world and be amazing.

In Sports

Walls and floors were filled with posters and flowers, as the boys' and girls' varsity basketball teams played their final home game on Friday. Boys lost 63-42, while the girls were defeated 64-40.

On the road, the boys' team (9-10, 9-7 3A Northern) beat Fernley on Tuesday 56-43. The girls lost 69-36 (7-15, 6-10 3A Northern).

At the Nevada state wrestling championships in Winnemucca last weekend, Nate Singelyn, junior, came fourth, while Gavin Breen, junior, didn’t place.

As for me, I am off to Hawaii for some fun in the sun. See you again February 28.

Ruby Abuhajleh, a South Tahoe High junior, writes a weekly column, The Viking Corner, on activities at STHS each week when the school is open.