Smart Lunch

There has been a lot of debate on whether smart lunch is really helpful or not. Some think it is a complete waste of time but majority find it very awarding towards their education. Smart lunch is a 60 minute period split into two tutorials; tutorial A and tutorial B. Smart lunch is meant to allow students to study, work on homework, get help from teachers, and eat with the remaining time. Kennedy High School is the only school in Iowa that has smart lunch but is having much discussion on whether to keep it or not due to some students not using it to their full advantage and taking it as a joke. Some people at the school find it completely useless and others find it extremely helpful.

“Smart lunch is a necessary and vital tool in my school life. I have many activities and obligations outside of school and without smart lunch, I wouldn’t be able to get half of my homework done. Although I understand why it isn’t fair to provide smart lunch to everyone as some students view the period as a long break, it wouldn’t be any fairer to take it away from students who need and use smart lunch every day.”, said Tasneem Sadok.

“I think it’s definitely helpful but not just in the sense that it helps you do homework; it’s nice having that destressing period with friends. It’s like that little push that gets you through the day.”, said Gaige Wessling.

“I think it’s helpful because for people with extra-curricular activities we don’t really have time outside of school to do our homework and it helps us get our work done on time.”, Kirsten Wenclawski said.

“I think it is helpful because I am in sports and smart lunch gives me the extra time I don’t have at home to study and get homework done.”, said Nate Sternat. 

As you can see the students' response, smart lunch is very beneficial to lots of people. It should be kept around for the future students to experience. 

Longer Winter Break

This year during 2015-16, Kennedy High School along with the whole Cedar Rapids district had an extra-long winter break and has students feeling all types of different emotions.

              The Cedar Rapids district has decided to divide the 2015-16 school year into semesters and with this occurring it also includes two weeks off of school for their winter break. Students are usually used to trimesters and having finals right before thanksgiving break but with this change, the breaks are much different.

              This year’s winter break started on December 19, 2015 until January 4, 2016 and finals are on January 14 and 15.

              Now with the semesters, students leave for two weeks and come back with less than two weeks to prepare for finals. The real question is “Was it worth having this super long break when you have to come back and work extra hard for the semester tests?” and “How did kids really use their extra time during break?”

              “I thought the break was just right and super fun! I got to hang out with friends and travel when usually I don’t have any time for friends.”, said Kirsten Wenclawski so. “Even though I had to come back and study extra time, it was worth it because I never get the free time to do whatever.”

              It is clear that many students enjoyed their fun over break but others thought it was very effective for their classes.

“I liked the longer break and I think that a lot of other people did too. There was definitely more time to do homework and I know that helped me because I had to make a spaghetti bridge along with many other students for a physics project over break.”, said Madison Palmer jr.

As the break was effective to some students, a couple still didn’t enjoy having to study so hard after the long break. Some thought it was difficult to remember everything after not having that daily learning with their teachers. Also, a couple of students felt rushed into learning the material all over again.

“I didn’t like having finals after break because I felt like we had a break from everything and if you didn’t study you probably forgot some things, then had to get right back into it. When I came back we had to do a lot of review with teachers.”, said Palmer jr.

Instead of having finals after two weeks of fun, it is clear that students would much rather them be before break. “It puts a weight off of a shoulder and gives them time to relax just a little bit more than this year”, said Wenclawski.

              

New Semesters, New Breaks

This school year the district decided to go by "semesters" this year. It's not an easy transition due to having trimesters for so long, but I would say the students here at Kennedy High School are doing the best they can.

With a new semester being, the finals are filled with a lot more information that us students need to remember. Our daily routine is the same as they have always been, it's just that we don't get fresh start with a new term three times, now we only get two.

Along with the changes of having our school year be spilt up into semesters, our breaks during the year change as well.

Our Thanksgiving break is only 5 days long this year. We get three days of school off along with a two day weekend. We used to get a whole week off with finals being right before. It was our break along with a new start to school and we didn't have to worry about any homework.

Another break that has changed is our Christmas break. Christmas is now exactly two weeks long, but we still have to worry about homework and finals since they are two weeks after we get back. It's nice getting that much time off, but with all that time off tends students to forget more of what they have been learning before.

The last break that is changed is Spring break. It doesn't change much just that it is a week earlier this year. Spring break is now during March 12 to March 20.

There are clearly ups and downs to this new semester thing and to the breaks but as the years go by they will hopefully be able to tweak it to everyone's liking for the future high school students.

How to keep your energy up

There are many different things you can do to keep your energy up. Keeping your energy up is very important because of many reasons. It keeps you motivated, concentrated, and helps with a positive attitude.

One way to improve your energy is sleep. Make sure you always get a good sleep during the night. Sometimes it can be difficult to get the full amount of hours of sleep every single night, but if you train yourself to get in bed at a certain time it will help a lot.

Another way to keep your energy up is your eating habits. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and you should never miss it. Getting the rights nutrients in your body can start you day off great by feeling full and refreshed.

Stress causes a lot of low energy. Try to eliminate some of the stressful things in your life. I know it can be difficult but try talking to someone who can help you with the thing that is causing you to have anxiety. Anxiety has been shown to take up almost all of your energy so if there is anyway you can take that away you would feel a whole lot positive.

Drinking lots of water is another way of keeping your energy. Instead of drinking really sugary juices or pop, drink water. It fills you up more and doesn't slow you down. Also, when eating, don't eat lots of sugary foods or unhealthy foods. Keep it very nutritious.

Like I said before, keeping your energy up can be very difficult, but with these extra tips you will be more positive and energetic in no time!

How Hip Hop is different than any other dance

People take hip hop for many different reasons. It is completely different than any other dances. Hip hop the dance started as "street dancing" and originated from the South Bronx in New York City. There are many moves you can do with this style of dance such as; breaking, locking, and popping.

Hip hop is a very difficult dance to do, you have to be able to move your body a way that no other dance shows. For some people, it comes natural to and others it does the complete opposite. Some dancers don't know how to pop their bodies like natural hip hoppers do. But then again some dancers don't enjoy super graceful movement such as ballet, etc. which is one reason hip hop became so popular.

This style of dance has become very popular over the years. the most popular hip hop dancing that people nowadays know more would be the line dances such as; "The Cha Cha Slide", "The Cupid Shuffle", etc.

Hip hop is also the only dance that doesn't require you to take ballet along with it. Due to the different technique between ballet and hip hop, dance studios don't require dancers to take both.

Because of how different hip hop is from other dances most people decide to just take it considering it is much faster than others.

Dance is harder on your body than you think

Dance is a very physical and active sport. Just like any other sport you have to be mentally and physically prepared for everything that is about to come.

Depending on the type of dance you are doing you could be moving fast or slow, but it all takes a lot out of you. When dancing you have to have strong legs and a good core.

As you get older, your body gets weaker there's no question about that. Dance is very hard on you joints when dong it for so long. Instead of strengthening it as it does when you are younger it starts to hurt you more and more as you get old.

Dance is a very good exercise and does great things for your body when you are young; it is god aerobics, stretches your body, give you the energy you need, and it gets you going for the day. Although these things are very good for you it only does it for so long.

Like I said before, your body gets weaker as you get older and your muscles and joints can't take as much as you used to be able to. You also can't move as fast as you used to.

So, when dancing make sure to prepare yourself as best you can. Stretch all the time!! Also, make sure to eat healthy and keep your energy up.

Dance vs. Cheer

People who are not in dance or cheer get confused on the difference. They just refer them two completely different sports as the same.

Dance is a little bit more graceful. It has more of a flow type of movement. There isn't usually a whole lot of tumbling and stunting unless you are doing acrobat. In dance, if you jump it usually leaps, you don't really jump in one place the whole time. Another thing that is different is the music. With dance you usually do one song. There are also different types of dancing that you can choose to do.

Cheer is more robotic. It is very stiff and sharp the whole time. Although some types of dances are also this way not all are. Cheer is filled with stunts and tumbling. It involves a lot of jumps as well such as; toe touches, pikes, hurdlers, etc. Again, even though dance does this occasionally, they don't do all the time like cheer does. With cheer's music it is usually a remix verses one song the whole way through with dance.

Yes, cheer is a form of dance in some way but the differences are clear to some and not to others. It can be difficult to tell the differences because they are both filled with spirit and have dance sort of movements.