DCDS welcomes three new faculty to Upper School family Tune in

D E T R O I T
C O U N T R Y
D A Y
S C H O O L
The Day Times
2 2 3 0 5 We s t T h i r t e e n M i l e B e v e r l y H i l l s , M I 4 8 0 2 5
Vo l u m e L XXX I s s u e N u m b e r 7 S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 3
DCDS welcomes three new faculty to Upper School family
by Lakshmi Guduguntla
Content Editor
Courtesy of Ali Hakim
MR. MICHAEL CAPPELLETTI
“I feel privileged to work at such an exceptional
independent school with a rich tradition of excellence in all
areas of student life,” Mr. Cappelletti said.
Mr. Cappelletti, bringing 11 years of educational
experience to DCDS, will be teaching freshman level Literature, Speech, and Composition and the junior level class, The
American Dream in 20th Century Literature. He will also be
serving as head coach of the Men’s Varsity lacrosse team for
the upcoming spring season. He attended Denison University in Granville Ohio, where he played lacrosse, earned a
Bachelor’s of Arts degree. After graduating from Denison, he
earned his secondary English and Education degree at North
Carolina State University. Cappelletti went on to serve as
an assistant coach for several schools in North Carolina and
help lead the East Chapel Hill High School lacrosse team to
a state title. He then became an assistant coach and teacher
at LaSalle Academy in Rhode Island for a year before being
named head coach at Rocky Hill School, where he taught for
the past two years. Cappelletti is certainly at the right school,
and DCDS is very happy to have him.
MR. ANDREW YANG
“I'm nervous because I have never been outside of
Virginia this long before and do not know much about private
schools. But I'm super excited about teaching in a school like
Country Day because I have heard amazing things about the
place,” Mr. Yang said.
Mr. Andrew Yang recently graduated from the
University of Virginia, where he studied math and education.
After graduating, he worked at a tutoring institution called
Georgetown Learning Center. There, as Associate Director, he
prepared lesson plans for math topics ranging from arithmetic
to higher level calculus. After working at the institution for
a year and taking classes on weekends to receive teaching
certification, he was hired to teach math and coach Women's
tennis at Monticello High School in Virginia. Mr. Yang has
lived in Virginia for most of his life and only moved to Michigan about two months ago. He will be teaching Algebra II,
Pre-Calculus, and Statistics. Mr. Yang, teaching out of math
department chair Mr. John Williams' former classroom, has
big shoes to fill. But if his credentials accurately indicate his
merit, he is sure to become a respected teacher at DCDS.
DCDS introduces new Bring
Your Own Device Initiative
by Saher Siddiqui
Layout Editor
Mr. Mark Bray, who has nine years of teaching experience and 13 years of coaching experience,
will be teaching freshman Ancient and non-Western
World History and senior U.S. Government. He will
also succeed beloved coach Kurt Keener as head of
the Men’s Varsity basketball team. Mr. Bray graduated
from Hope College with a degree in political science
and a double major in history. He initially planned to
attend law school but then realized his passion lay in
teaching and coaching. So Mr. Bray decided to attend
Wayne State University, where he earned his Master’s
in kinesiology. He has taught at various schools in
Macomb County and has coached at Bluffton University in Ohio. Hopefully, Mr. Bray can lead his students
to success in the classroom and his players to victory on
the court for many years at DCDS.
Tune in: music for the A.M.
by Abigail Jackman Online Editor
Wave goodbye to the days
of waking up past two in the afternoon; to lounging around your kitchen
while watching Netflix for hours
at a time; and most importantly, to doing
absolutely nothing productive (except for
choreographing major song and dance numbers to “We Can’t Stop” by our girl, Miley
Cyrus. Hey, we’ve all been there, right?).
Summer has gone by in the blink
of an eye, and although sulking the next few
months away may be the most appealing
option, studies have shown that it may in fact
not be the most effective (shocking). No matter what grade you are entering, the transition
from summer vacation to school is never
easy, but the first step to having a successful
school year is starting the day off with a positive attitude.
For example, when you roll over in
bed to chuck your alarm clock out the window, do it with a smile. Furthermore, if your
teacher hands you a worksheet that seems
impossible to comprehend, at least thank him
or her for creating it before politely throwing
it into the trash (kidding).
The best way to make sure your
morning is filled with laughter instead of
tears is to create a playlist that will pump you
up for your car ride to school. If you begin
to panic because you find yourself unable to
think of which songs to choose, have no fear.
Below is a playlist filled with back
to school classics. After listening to these
songs, you will temporarily forget about the
fact that you are waking up at 6:30 A.M. on a
Friday. Enjoy!
Brave
Zombie
Sara Barelleis
The Cranberries
Courtesy of Apple Inc
Traditionally, DCDS has been
known as “laptop school.” However, starting
this year, that definition might be too narrow.
The new Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
initiative will give students the freedom to
use a wider variety of machines, including
tablets and smartphones. The BYOD program will also give members of the DCDS
community easier access to the software they
need for classes.
The DCDS technology committee sought to develop a system
that would be efficient, cost effective, flexible, and easily accessible
to students and faculty. They
agreed upon the idea of a virtual
desktop, which allows any device
that can access the Internet
(including tablets and
smartphones) to
have the full functionality of a PC.
"I think that
it is great that we're no longer restricted
to laptops," senior Akash Rachmale said.
"Ever since freshman year, I've wanted to
bring my iPad to school, and now I can."
Students can either bring their compatible device to the Helpdesk for configuration or install the virtual desktop application
themselves using
instructions available on the school
website.
When
students and faculty
log into the system, they
are given full access to a
variety of programs, including the full Microsoft
Office suite. Therefore,
if a student purchases
a new laptop or tablet,
he or she doesn’t need
to install any programs
directly onto it.
Additionally, any device with access to the virtual desktop will now be able
to print directly from the school printers.
Previously, students with Macintosh laptops
or computers not configured by the Helpdesk
were unable to connect to the printers.
However, most students aren’t yet
ready to give up their laptops. “Typing on a tablet or phone is incredibly inconvenient compared to just using
a laptop, and everything else we would want
to do, such as checking grades and using the
Internet, can already be done without this
new virtual desktop,” senior Brian Xu said.
Even so, there are many who will
take advantage of
BYOD to enhance
both their academic
and extracurricular
experiences at DCDS.
“I will be using an iPad next year
for multiple reasons.”
junior Mohib Siddiqui
said. “It’s lighter to
carry than a bulky laptop,
which ultimately lightens
the daily load to school; it
runs almost as great as a laptop;
and it’s much more portable.”
For families wondering which
devices will be most compatible with the
virtual system, the Helpdesk has suggested
a few options: the HP ProBook, HP EliteBook Foilo, HP Envy Pro, HP Pavilion
Chromebook, and HP Elite.
Students can purchase
care packages with their
laptops or tablets to insure
damages.
It will surely take some
time for the DCDS community to adjust to the
Bring Your Own Device
initiative and virtual
desktop, but the school’s
administration and technology committee hope the
improvements will provide a
more wholesome educational
experience for students and faculty alike.
MR. MARK BRAY
“I am excited to be a Yellow Jacket, and I
look forward to becoming the best teacher and coach I
can be,” Mr. Bray said.
Wrecking Ball
Miley Cyrus
You Make My
Dreams Come true
Hall & Oates
Figure 8
Ellie Goulding
Applause
Lady Gaga
Courtesy of Christa Felton
2
The Day Times
BACK TO SCHOOL ISSUE
Upper School administration
adjusts student dress code
An Op-Ed by Ali Hakim
Editor-in-Chief
September: a month marked by
change for DCDS students. Summer is shifting toward autumn, and long weekends up
north are becoming sleepless nights spent on
procrastinated essays. However, the most visible adjustments the DCDS student body will
have to make this fall regard decisions made
by the Upper School administration about
dress code.
The good: DCDS monogrammed
shirts and pants are no longer required.
Students can finally buy shirts and slacks from
somewhere other than the Hive.
This change will make Upper
School students look sharper than ever before.
Frankly, the clothing from Land’s End (the
school’s new uniform supplier) doesn’t measure up in either quality or design to similarlypriced options available at department stores
and boutiques.
Moreover, faculty and administration weren’t able to enforce the requirement
of monogrammed uniforms when it existed.
Many students regularly wore non-DCDS
slacks to school last year, but repercussions for
this violation were rare.
Now the bad: blazers are still
required five days a week for boys. Students
issued a proposal to the Upper School administration last year to remove the requirement,
and many students were treating the potential
revision like a forgone conclusion. Therefore,
Mr. Bearden’s July email announcing more of
the same was a letdown.
Blazers are undoubtedly a strong
tradition at DCDS, so it's unrealistic to think
that they would be removed from the daily
dress code.
However, one major issue with the
navy blue jackets still persists: students wear
them as little as possible. The only times when
blazers are actually required are in the hallways and in the lunch line.
It seems excessive to spend more
than a hundred dollars on a piece of clothing
that one can only wear at school and hardly
ever even puts on there. The best solution
would be to adopt a blazer without the school
crest, which could therefore be worn anywhere. Then, students would probably have
less about which to complain.
And finally, the plainly unnecessary: DCDS has a new official tie. The new tie
features thicker gold stripes and a wider body
than its predecessor.
Some people will prefer the traditional tie while many others will welcome
the new installation to the DCDS uniform. In
either case, however, there was nothing wrong
with the old tie that would warrant replacement. The change seems needless at best.
But whether the decisions made by
the Upper School administration in regards to
dress code are good or bad, students will have
to live with them for at least the next year.
Courtesy of Akamai.net
DCDS Varsity football kicks off
season with high expectations
With three seniors already committed to Division I colleges, there is
Fall has just begun, and that can significant upperclassmen talent and leaderonly mean one thing – it’s football season. ship. Quarterback Wiegers has committed to
The DCDS Varsity football team is working Rutgers University in New Jersey.
hard and expecting great things this year. “I’m very happy with my college
After being just one win away from the State decision to play at Rutgers,” Wiegers said.
Championship title last year, the team is ready “There’s huge opportunity and great coaching
to come back stronger than ever. Senior there.”
captains Derrick Coleman, Danny Pohl, Tyler Running back Richard Wilson will
Weigers, and Richard Wilson are
continue his football career at Boston College.
excited about leading the team to
“I’m definitely looking forward to
a victory at Ford Field.
being an Eagle next year,” Wilson said. “I’m
“I’m super excited for
blessed to have an opportunity like this, and I
this season,” Wiegers said. “We
can’t wait for what the future has in store.”
have a lot of talent and we’re
Wide receiver Maurice Ways has
all looking forward to a great
committed to play at the University of
season with some very good
Michigan.
opponents throughout.”
“Playing at U of M will be an
The team has been training and
amazing experience,” Ways said. “I’m
working hard all summer, and some
definitely excited for Big Ten competiof the most ambitious players have
tion, and I’m up for the challenge.”
been in the weight room since last
The players say the recruiting TYLER
WIEGERS process is stressful, but all three are
winter.
During the month of AVOIDS defenders very excited about their decisions
August, they all traveled up to to make a big play. and the athletic opportunities that
northern Michigan for the infaawait them after their time at DCDS.
mous Camp Happy. Camp is the kick-off to
The team suffered a loss in its first game
the season: it’s four days of intense practice, last week against Zeeland West High School,
and according to the captains, this year’s trip but the captains are maintaining their high
was highly productive. The first day of prac- expectations.
tice with pads is the day immediately follow- “We plan to make it back to the state
ing Camp Happy.
championship; nothing less,” Coleman said.
by Madeline Weiner
Managing Editor
The Day Times reviews the best and worst films of the summer
Courtesy of Darrell Davison
by Peggy Yu
Opinion Editor
White House Down, directed
by Roland Emmerich, attracted an audience eager to see the federal government
survive its greatest threat – a direct
attack on the president's home. The
movie welcomes Channing Tatum and
Jamie Foxx to play the starring roles,
but their good looks aren't enough to
keep the film from plummeting. The
movie fails mainly because it lacks
a specific target audience and doesn't
into production design and overbearing music but seemingly little work
into the actual dialogue and plot development. Indeed, the film is visually
striking, but the cliché father-son conversations are repetitive and broken,
with obvious awkward silences. USA
Today deemed the letdown of a movie
a “lethargic slog.”
devote enough money to production.
To be fair, the movie's weak opening
weekend was in part due to the release
of Olympus Has Fallen less than a week
earlier. The two movies share similar
plots, but obviously Olympus simply did
a better job telling the story. The Media
Research Center also critiques that the
picture doesn’t bring itself to acknowledge America’s real enemies. Instead it
creates a “fictional monster."
The latest installment of
the Star Trek series, directed by J.J.
Abrams, is a sequel to the 2009 revival
of the classic science fiction films. In
the movie, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock,
and the rest of the crew from the U.S.S.
Enterprise are sent to capture terrorist
John Harrison, a former Starfleet
member. The movie was a stunning
commercial success, grossing more
than $458 million worldwide. What
makes Into Darkness stand out from
the older Star Trek films is the intricate and dramatic comedy between the
characters. Abrams keeps the drama in
perfect balance with intense action. If
you missed this flick in the theaters, be
sure to check it out on DVD.
The zombie thriller World War
Z is an apocalyptic film directed by
Marc Foster with a cast led by Brad Pitt.
Pitt plays Gerry Lane, a former United
Nation investigator who is assigned to
travel around the world to find a cure for
a horrific zombie pandemic. In addition
to Pitt’s predictably solid performance,
the movie offers a refreshing change
from the traditional horror flick with its
fast-moving plot and cohesive, largescale production. Also, for the first time,
the zombie movie delves into something
deeper than a raw sense of fear; it
explores how humans interact with duty,
self-sacrifice, and the unexplainable. As
many critics have said, it’s a real movie
before it’s a zombie movie.
Courtesy of Colourbox.com
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Tips from
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Courtesy of Moviefone.com
Will Smith’s latest postapocalyptic film, After Earth, was
highly anticipated by casual fans and
movie buffs alike before its early summer release. But pulling in only $70
million at the domestic box office, the
film had trouble turning a profit with
its $130 million budget. Director M.
Night Shyamalan puts excessive effort