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History teacher Greg Anderson and former Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider smile for the camera at a VIP event during Snider’s solo show in Dallas. After Snider signed Anderson’s copies of the Twister Sister albums You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll and Stay Hungry, Anderson told Snider how much he admired him for his role fighting censorship in the Parents Music Resource Center U.S. Senate hearings. “He made a joke about how funny it would have been if Bob Denver had been at the hearings instead of John Denver,” Anderson said. “He asked if I wanted to make tough guy faces in the picture, and I asked him if we could smile instead. He was very nice and everyone was walking away very happy from the experience.” Anderson also told MacJournalism that he first became a fan of Twisted Sister after seeing the band’s appearance in the final chase scene in the 1985 movie Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and that he caught a guitar pick during Snider’s show.

Greg Anderson’s musical anthology includes Green Day, the Foo Fighters, Devo and the Ramones

Marley Angle, Anna McClellan, Grace Nugent, and Theo Roe
October 7, 2020
Anderson's Spotify metal playlist is 34 hours long, and his chart showing different metal genres and their relationship to each other looks like a constellation of stars.

Turns out you can judge a band by its album cover

Evelyn Griffin, Anna McClellan, Grace Nugent, and Theo Roe
September 28, 2020
Interim principal Nicole Griffith wasn't the only new voice in our first podcast of the year. The audio engineer and the hosts were also new. The episode allows listeners to travel from Texas to Chicago, to Australia, to Paris and back to Austin without leaving their homes. Graphic by Theo Roe.

Griffith: Authentic tasks create best student experience

Theo Roe, Alysa Spiro, and Elisha Scott
August 23, 2020
Meeting with the faculty before on the Friday before online classes were to begin the following Monday, Hosack wore a Boston Red Sox cap to observe the crazy hat day that the Maculty had devised to keep spirits high heading into the launch of online schooling. In Tuesday's podcast conversation, Hosack praised the faculty for how well it had approached online learning, saying that she was lucky to be at a school where the teachers cared so much about their students. Screenshot of Zoom April 3 faculty meeting captured by Dave Winter.

Mac principal shares rationale for new grading policy, steps to create equity in online learning

Stella Shenkman, Julia Kay Smith, and Bella Russo
April 10, 2020
The Maculty met in two sessions this morning because Zoom conferences only enable 100 visitors at a time. After the whole-faculty meetings, teachers met online to department to get on the same page about how online classes will operate starting April 6. In all the meetings, teachers stresses how much they miss students and need to support them socially and emotionally, not just academically.

Hosack: Mac to launch online classes April 6

Stella Shenkman and Julia Kay Smith
March 25, 2020
The custodial staff begins a deep clean of the Mac campus on Friday March 13, wiping down the tables in the cafeteria. Originally the deep clean was to take place during spring break, but because of the districtwide cancellation of school on March 13, administrators decided to start the deep clean early. Photo by Dave Winter.

Hosack discusses COVID-19 concerns, current plan for senior class events, rest of school year

Stella Shenkman and Julia Kay Smith
March 20, 2020
Henson (left) and Stauffer (center) team up during the Texas Junior Roller Derby's victory over Rolling Rebellion Roller Derby on May 5 at Skate Country in Bellemead, Texas. The victory helped TXJRD to a 14th place finish nationally last season. The team is playing a non-competitive season this fall.

Mac’s roller derby girls eye national prize

Stella Shenkman and Julia Kay Smith
October 28, 2019
THE GROUP GATHERS: Students of all ages skipped school on March 15 claiming the chance to teach others about climate change was a more pressing educational issue than attending their classes. Photo by Stella Shenkman.

Students join coalition to combat climate crisis

Stella Shenkman, Shield managing editor
September 16, 2019
Interim principal Brandi Hosack shared with seniors Stella Shenkman and JK Smith that relationship-building is the key to making a campus work and also the prime reason behind the new cell phone policy and the flexible instruction time initiative.

For Mac’s new principal, campus leadership starts and ends with building relationships

Stella Shenkman and Julia Kay Smith
September 9, 2019
Producer Stella Shenkman and guest hosts Gregory James and Bella Russo sit down with outgoing principal Mike Garrison in the lastest episode of The S Word, the Shield's exclusive podcast series.

In Episode 8 of ‘The S Word,’ Mike Garrison talks Mac past, present and future

Stella Shenkman, Gregory James, and Bella Russo
May 16, 2019
The conversation between Excalibur co-editor in chief Lillian Sease and our intrepid podcasters started out on topic but quickly got much deeper as Sease discussed the importance of finding creative outlets in her life or anyone's life.

In the seventh episode of ‘The S Word’, senior Excalibur co-editor in chief discusses her story

Stella Shenkman and Alex Dowd
April 23, 2019
Sophomores Quinn Lawrence-Sanderson, Alex Martinez, Ian Hackworth and Jude Gravoir converse about

In the sixth episode of ‘The S-Word,’ sophomore film students discuss their upcoming projects

Stella Shenkman, staff reporter
April 15, 2019
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