During a class game, photojournalism teacher Dave Winter’s students frantically searched issues of The Shield to find the right page before anyone else in the room beats them to the punch. The page had to match the newspaper design module that Winter had just called out. Before the game, he had gone over different types of newspaper layouts, and at this moment the students’ knowledge was being put to the test. 

In the game, five stools were spaced evenly around the room and were each labeled with the name of a One Direction member. Each stool had its own corner of the room, except for the “Harry” one, which was placed squarely in the middle of the room.  

For freshman Anais Long, the game was a fun distraction from the stressful environment of the end of the year. 

“It was so fun running around chasing each other, and I got to work with my best friends,” she said. “My team and I all just grabbed a newspaper and were kind of screaming at each other.”

To play, Winter would call out a newspaper layout and a stool name, and each team would have to bring the correct design to the stool to be checked for points. For example, one round could be “Find ‘L-shaped’ and ‘U-shape’ text-formatted pages on Zayn!” 

In sixth period, the team of Kaylee Breecker, Edie Davidson, Mercury Estabrook and Vera Petrowsky earned a decisive victory by developing a winning strategy. 

“After the lesson we got into the game where he described that there was five stools with the One Direction members placed on it around the room,” she said. “Before the game started each person on our team found one or two layouts so we had it when he called it out and then we would run to the stool so we could get it first.”

Winter observed their preparation before the game started and was impressed.

“Something happened where I couldn’t start the first category right away, and I looked over and saw that [Kaylee Edie, Vera and Mercury] were sorting the papers that they had into the various modules,” Winter said. “That was when I knew they were going to win.”

Breecker’s team ended up winning by several points due to their strategy and hustle, and they all thoroughly enjoyed the game.

“I thought that it was really entertaining and a really good way to get people engaged in learning this stuff, but also just in class and participating.”

Breecker plans on doing newspaper next year, so learning this is important for her to know. Throughout the entire year, she has learned many different things about journalism and is very excited for next year.

“It was super fun to collaborate with people while still understanding what we were learning.”

Although Long’s team didn’t finish in first, she still had an amazing time.

“I feel like we played pretty well, we definitely put our all in there,” she said. “We would all run around and scream ‘Who has this page design?’ until we found it, and honestly it worked out pretty well!”

Long’s team ended the game with 10 points, having won one round. Despite the low score, Long still learned a ton and thought the game was a really good way to hammer the concepts in.

“It was to test our knowledge on newspaper design,” Long said. “I really liked it because it was a fun and easy game but also practiced things related to the class.”

While sixth period played the came in the congestion of Room 134 on May 2, the A-Day classes played the following Friday on May 9. The second period class asked if they could play the game outside because it was a nice day and because Room 134 was the temperature of a meat locker. After some initial trepidation, Winter agreed the game was moved to the grassy area between the left field fence of the baseball field and the back exit to the school by Ms. Richter’s history class. The stools were more spread out, and the teams all agreed to start from a home base before Winter called out the design and the One Direction member.

Let the record show that the second-period gold medalists were Piper Adair, Olivia Hernandez-Eeds, Lucy Tepera and Will Swan.

After lunch, the third period class followed suit with their outdoor version of the game. 

The team of Zanna Allen, John Crouch and Ryan Latsha ended up winning a very close game in third period, the closest  contest in all three classes. 

“It was a really fun and intense game.” Allen said. ““I get really competitive sometimes in games like this. Most of the game though was us running around trying to catch newspapers flying around everywhere.”

Allen said that she and Crouch emerged from the game proud of their achievement. 

Winter said that he was proud as a teacher because he took a risk that his students would buy into the game and the risk paid off with a successful learning experience. One thing that he isn’t so sure on however, is his favorite One Direction member.

“I want to say Louis because he was my daughter’s favorite when she was younger,” Winter said, “but then I want to say Harry because he’s the most talented and most popular, but then I also want to say Liam because I always thought he was talented, and he passed away recently, so I want to say that because he’s no longer with us.”

Winter decided it couldn’t be beloved singer Zayn Malik despite him and Winter’s daughter having the same birthday because he left the band first and helped cause its disbanding. 

Ultimately, he landed on Niall Horan due to his stage presence at the concert Winter went to with his children.

“When we saw the concert, [Niall Horan] was the one who connected with the audience most,” Winter said. “I think he had the best love of the fans during the live performance we saw, so I am going to say Niall.”

—with additional reporting by Jasmine Aung