High school students live busy lives. With school, work, and social lives, it can be hard for a teenager to find free time during the school year. One of the leading thieves of high schooler’s time is homework. Here are a few reasons as to how homework has an impact of high school students.

Having too much homework can affect the social lives of high school students. Students need time in their day to socialize with others and connect with one another. Having too much homework can result in a lack of a social life, and therefore can lead to difficulty paying attention during classes.

Homework can affect the mental health of high school students. According to a study done at Stanford University, 56% of students said that homework is a primary source of stress in their lives. Having too much homework can lead to stress, lack of sleep, poor eating habits, headaches, and exhaustion. Having less homework has also been proven to relax their brain and help them focus more when it’s actually time to work. 

Homework can also affect the grades of a high school student. Some teachers believe that if they assign more work, the grades of students will be better because they have more opportunities to turn in assignments, but this is not true. Having a lot of homework can stress out students, which leads to them being unable to turn them in. This in turn can lower their grades.

One reason students face a lot of homework during the school year is because it comes from many different classes. Most schools have six or seven class periods in a school day, and while teachers may think that they are not giving much homework, the work is coming from multiple sources. This can add up to become a lot of work for students. This problem can be solved simply by having teachers discuss with each other about the amount of work they hand out to students, and creating a schedule where their homework doesn’t overlap with each other to the point where it’s a ton of work.

Homework affects high school students every day, leading them to make decisions about how to spend their time and to stay organized. With the busy lives of high school students, having too much homework to do should not one be of the things stressing them out.

By Charlotte Lane

There is no denying the current data reflects that girls are out-performing boys at all levels in school.  According to the New York Times, boys score equal to girls on standardized tests, however they are receiving lower grades and fewer boys are completing college than girls. 

What is the Personal Project?  The 10th-grade Personal Project is something you do, as an individual, on a topic that interests you. It’s to show the skills you have developed over the years through the MYP Approaches to Learning, and applying them to one of the MYP Global Contexts.

To do your project, you need to complete a process journal. The journal helps to record your information while you’re working on your project. You should use the journal regularly for recording your quotes, pictures, and ideas. This journal will help you to write your final Personal Project paper.

The paper is a report in which you demonstrate your involvement with the project by summarizing the skills and experiences recorded in the process journal. Your paper should have between 1,500-3,500 words.

During the journaling and paper processes, you will be assigned an advisor to guide you on the timelines and requirements. You will meet with your advisor three times: when you start your project, halfway through your project, and at the conclusion of your project.

It is also helpful to find a mentor to guide your process, this person could be a teacher, a parent, or a community expert.

When you finish your project, there will be a Showcase, it is where you share your projects with your schoolmates along with your paper and journals.

Upon completing the project you will be honored at a recognition celebration.

For any questions or help, you can ask Ms. Bonk the MYP Coordinator.

So, as we all know, the St. Paul Public School’s start and end times have changed for all elementary, middle, and high schoolers. Some people believe it’s for the better and some do not. Let us see… 

The reason St. Paul Public Schools are changing times is because they have to maintain their three different bus systems and since they lost some buses, they have to have the buses leave all at different times. 

Some parents are concerned for after school, and their children getting home later, and not having time for homework, and after school activities. I spoke with a few students about how they feel and many students agree it’s for the better.

I met with one student in 10th grade, and they said that it’s nice to have an extra hour of sleep and getting home one hour later was not an issue. The sleep cycle is very important for us and really makes the difference but others don’t agree. 

Another student says that waking up earlier is more refreshing and helps with the rest of the day. They also say the time change interferes with outside of school activities. 

Now, we all know that Highland Park Senior High still has its fun clubs and activities, so at least it doesn’t change that, but we still have to deal with what seems to be an extra hour of our day, and that can make us very slow paced and tired if we don’t get enough sleep. 

The district had been talking about changing the times, so they could eliminate busing costs, so they could move the money to something more practical. 

Instead of being upset about the change we should embrace it. So, remember to get some good rest every night and manage your time well. Best of luck!

I attended Central High School the year of 2017-2018. Like all incoming high school freshman, I was confused and nervous. I attended Highland Park Middle School and really enjoyed it. There, I made a lot of friends and we were all planning on going to Highland Park High School together.

My first memorable experience as a new student was the Central vs. Highland football game. Being a Central student I sat at the Central student section at the game.

So what’s the difference? 

Central is a French immersion school compared to Highland, which is a Spanish immersion school.

Families pain-stakingly choose their child’s high school for lots of different reasons. Some parents are looking for a challenging curriculum, others are interested in extracurricular activities.