Category Archives: School Life

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

Personal Project stress

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By: Merob Geleto

The Personal Project is a semester-long project completed by 10th graders for IB schools like Highland Park. Students have to choose a topic, create a product, and submit a paper about the process.

The Personal Project is stressful for students due to it usually overlapping with other academic pressures, being more of a self-directed project, and being long-term. The project spans over several months meaning students have to manage their time wisely so they can submit the project on time. Some students have a lot on their plate with school work or extracurricular activities so students usually push off doing their project which leads to extreme procrastination.

Managing your time and doing the project is a challenge but picking a topic is usually what is most stressful and hardest for students. From what I’ve seen from my peers, many students don’t know their topic until December or even January. There are a lot of topics to pick from, too many in fact, which makes it harder for students to choose. A common issue when picking a topic is picking one and it being too broad and actually being three projects. This usually leads to a burnout.

Usually students find a way to deal with the stress and submit their Personal Project finished. Many students, including me, broke down the project into smaller pieces. Some made a schedule to make sure they were on track.

I interviewed a sophomore who had just done their Personal Project and asked how stressful the Personal Project was and how he dealt with it. The interviewee replied with “It was extremely stressful because I procrastinated a lot”. He then said that when the stress was too overwhelming, he went to his PP advisor. His advisor gave him a layout and some advice which helped him a lot. The interviewee ended up finishing his project on time.

No matter what method, most students doing the Personal Project managed themselves well enough to prevent burnout and to pass.

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

Highland’s new cafeteria

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By: Weston Halgunseth

A new era for dining

For years Highland’s cafeteria was known for its shift between the middle school’s dark, gloomy side and the overly bright high school side, however after the remodeling of the cafeteria last year, the space has been completely transformed. The revamp hasn’t changed the menu much but it did change the vibe of the lunch room for the better.

A modern aesthetic

The first thing students notice when walking in is that the room simply looks better. Gone are the crazy shifts in lighting between sides. The big wall blocking each side making parts get crowded is also gone. In is new modern furniture that reminds you of what colleges have. The new lunch lines and the overall vibe of it is better. This aesthetic shift makes the lunch room become a highlight of many student days.

Comfort & space

The renovation also has improved the comfort of the lunch room. By introducing more space, the new modern seats, and the link that connects the two floors. The school has created an environment where students can take a break and have it feel like a break. The new layout provides more space to move around, effectively eliminating the crowded feeling during lunch.

This extra room allows for people to become more social and overall become more of a relaxed area.

New options

Perhaps the most noticeable change was the new food lines that were made, one of them having salads and yogurt and the other having stuff you can buy like sandwiches, drinks, etc. For me, I see a lot of people going to these lines instead of the normal 2 options they usually have.

A schoolroom is the heart of student life, and this revamp of the lunchroom has given that heart a much needed boost. By creating a space that is spacious and comfortable, Highland has provided us with a good revamped lunchroom.

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

Pros and cons of standardized testing

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By: Siri David

Photo by Andy Barbour on Pexels.com

Standardized testing is a type of testing that happens throughout all school programs. It is a test that is set up where every student answers questions from the same pool. The goal is to see where students are at in their learning process and it helps create a benchmark to compare students and their average scores. This also helps show how successful teachers are with their lesson plans and learning process.

Standardized testing can have a lot of benefits. It helps lower the chances with bias because it has a more consistent scoring process. In the tests, if the questions are multiple choice or true or false this can lead to more accurate results for the education system.

Another pro to the testing process is that the results can help show teachers what certain areas the students need more time on. Along with that, it can help show if certain teachers need more professional development. Overall, standardized testing is one of the main things that helps maintain the education system.

Standardized testing does have downsides. The lead up to testing oftentimes causes a lot more stress for students than the average test. A very important con is that all students learn and process things in a different way, so everyone taking the same test can affect students who might struggle more to understand the material because of the layout.

Another downside is that most tests are around the core subjects, so more art and physical based classes don’t get as much attention which can then make it harder for those subjects to grow and change.

Normally large standardized tests happen once a year, like the MCA’s for example. Since these happen once a year if a student has a bad test taking day it can throw off their score for the whole year.

Overall, there are a lot of pros and cons for standardized testing. In the larger perspective there’s a lot of pros but closer up there are also a lot of flaws within the process. The pros tend to affect the education system well, the cons affect each student.

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

Pros and cons of working as a student

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By: Demarcus Simmons

Senior year of high school is one of the most exciting yet challenging times in a student’s life. Senior year comes with opportunities to grow, and prep you for life after graduation. On the other hand, seniors can face difficult obstacles that can get in the way of graduating. This year I know I will face challenges, such as staying motivated while balancing a job, and managing stress that comes from preparing for life after high school. These obstacles may seem challenging at times, but I plan to overcome them with these steps: having better time management, staying focused on my long term goals, and reminding myself life is more than high school.

One of my biggest challenges I expect to face is maintaining good grades while working a job. Working at a Chipotle or any job teaches responsibility and gives independence, but it also takes away important time that could be used to catch up on school work. On days when I close late, and when I get home I sometimes push off assignments or rush through them. To overcome this, I can do a few things. Using the planner function in my calendar app on my phone can help me stay organized and make sure I leave time to catch up on other school work before I prioritize anything else. I can also use my study hall, lunch breaks, advisory, or classes I’m already passing to catch up on other classes. By planning my time carefully, I can succeed in both work and school without letting one take away from the other.

Another major challenge I constantly face is staying motivated throughout the whole school year, especially when senioritis begins to set in. It’s very easy for me to get distracted or lose my focus due to graduation being so far yet so close, and when stress from future decisions is on my mind, it makes it harder for me to stay motivated. However, I know staying motivated earlier in the year will have a direct impact on my future, and graduation. To counter this challenge, I will arrange one-on-one time with my teachers to have more insight on work I need help with. By doing this it’ll help me graduate on time, and help me be able to ask for help when needed. Even on days when I feel unmotivated, I can set small goals for myself, like finishing one assignment at a time to keep me motivated, and moving forward.

Senior year will come with both excitement and challenges that we sooner or later will face. Balancing your school life with a job and overcoming stress and senioritis will not be an easy obstacle, but I believe the plan I’ve set in place will help me handle it with good time management, self discipline, positive influences, and determination. If I stay focused on my goals, and stay dedicated to my plans I will not only graduate senior year, but also finish it with pride. These challenges are nothing other than a test for the real world; they prepare me for the responsibilities of adulthood and the next chapter of my life.