HAVING BALANCE

      For many people, balance can be difficult to achieve. Whether it's friends or your boyfriend/ girlfriend, work and at home life, or even diets, finding an equilibrium takes trial and error. With finals coming up, many students I know are extremely stressed, and some feel the only thing they can do is study all day. Don't get me wrong, I study a lot, because grades are important to me, but I've learned studying all day isn't always the best. With the amount of studying that I have to do, it can be a bit overwhelming. I want to be able to go home after school and let my mind rest up some, but I end up studying until I accidentally fall asleep. Personally, if I study and do homework after school all day, the next day at school, I just want to sleep. Everything, even small problems, pile up and make one big ball of stress. Lately balancing school and doing what I want has been a challenge, and I've noticed my friends feel that way too, so I decided to look more into their opinions.
      Amelia, one of my close friends says "most of my time during the week is spent studying." I invited her over after school the other day, she said she didn't want to because she wanted to study. I told Amelia that she would have the other days and over break, but she said that she wouldn't be able to have fun knowing that she had tons to do when she got back home. Over the week days she spends all day studying and stay up super late, so lately she has been tired and doesn't always work as efficiently at school. Another one of my friends, Sara said,"Its hard to balance school and life" She mentioned that she has to choose between friends and homework on a daily basis. She knows that if she spends time with her friends, her grades will be affected, but if she does the opposite, she might drift away from her friends.
     Balance is an important thing to have. Having balance organizes your life and helps you avoid problems. Don't wear yourself out everyday, take your time, but get things done. Balancing your time can be different for everyone because everyone has their own things to worry about, but there is one thing that goes for all. Don't invest all of your time into something all at once. It is important to give yourself time to relax.
   
*names in this article have been changed for their privacy*

MEDIA LAW

A new concept for me was libel. Libel is something that you can be arrested for, but still commonly occurs. To prove libel, you have to prove five things. The first one is defamation. Defamation is basically defaming someone by writing something that hurts someone’s reputation. This cannot be proved if the writing was written by someone in a government position and also can change with time. 

The second of the five is identification. When proving libel, the person you are accusing has to be able to be identified. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to include an exact name, and it doesn't mean it has to be a certain individual either. For example, you could say 'a sophomore cheerleader' or a basketball team.

Third is publication. To prove libel, the writing has to be public for people to see. The rules sort of fit together. You cannot defame someone if the writing isn't public to begin with, and you can't defame someone without saying who they are. 

Fourth is fault, this can be proven two ways. One, they had to have known that what they were writing was false or likely false. The other way would be to show that they didn't look into their claims or information well enough. 

Lastly is damage. The more damage that the piece caused/the more people who saw it is equal to the intensity or the punishment or consequences. Even though fake news is almost everywhere, this law helps keep the number lower. In law helps the world of journalism by providing the internet with quality news. This also helps bring attention to the real stories fake ones

FAKE NEWS

Fake news is all over the internet, but can often be hard to identify. For me especially, I am a bit gullible when it comes to fake news. On Instagram, my friend sent me a picture from a meme account. The picture said that Halloween would fall on Friday the 13th this year. This is an example of fake news and also shows that you can find it anything. I'm pretty sure most people would automatically know that it was fake, but that wasn't the case for me. I often believe everything that people tell me because I feel that I have no reason not to. 

Another thing that I often fall for is clickbait. I have always known what clickbait was an often able to identify it, but didn't know that it was considered fake news. Clickbait is when someone takes a small amount of the truth or what happened and over exaggerates it, sometimes to the point where it is completely untrue. 

Clickbait isn't only making something sound better than it really is, clickbait can also be just capitalizing words, using an excessive amount of exclamation marks, or even having a captivating thumbnail. I mostly see clickbait on YouTube, in fact many people that I watch use clickbait. People tend to use it to bring more attention to their video over another's. Even if you're just grocery shopping, you will see clickbait. When Waiting in line glancing at magazines, there are bolded words and dramatic expression trying to get you to buy the magazine, or to just simply read the article. You can find clickbait on products claiming that it is 'NEW' or the 'BEST PRODUCT'. You can even find it in coupon books, forcing you to come back for more. This is also commonly used in journalism. Some journalist stretches the truth for their headline. While some may call it strategy, it is actually just fake news and is everywhere. 

Climate Change

Climate change isn’t just a ‘so what?’ topic. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gases can cause more of a detrimental effect than most people seem to realize. Since the industrial revolution in 1760, the amount of carbon in the air has majorly increased. At the start of the revolution, the Carbon Dioxide levels in our atmosphere were at about 270 parts per million (ppm), and now they have reached a staggering 405.5 ppm. While it does seem difficult, we will need to reduce the carbon levels back down to 350 ppm to eschew from the effects of climate change.

Climate change is globally evident and is a great deal, but it is immensely ignored. Even though we are clearly being presented with key causes of climate change, and provided with evidence that shows it truly does exist, it’s still disregarded. Scientist are now trying to invent multiple tools and devices to help, but if we don’t take action soon, it will be too late.

Climate change is more than just hotter weather. It can cause droughts and prolonged periods of heat, resulting in decreased air quality and wildfires, which California and surrounding areas are already battling against. It can also cause quite the opposite for some regions. Heavy downpour and flooding can result in diminishing water quality. We have seen a concerning amount of heavy storm and hurricanes lately, like Hurricane Sandy, and it isn’t, just because.  

Part of climate change is actually just the Earth getting warmer, but it isn’t that simple. Because there is an extreme amount of carbon dioxide accumulated in our atmosphere, the heat from the sun’s rays are being absorbed by the surface and lower parts of the atmosphere. Although it is supposed to absorb some of the rays, the carbon allows it to store excessive amounts instead of reflecting it away from us. In general, this is warming our planet and causing many changes.

Firstly, ice is melting, and its melting rapidly. Since 1912, the famed snow of the Kilimanjaro has melted nearly 85% already and is highly expected to disappear before 2033. Kilimanjaro attracts many tourists to Tanzania, and if it’s glaciers and ice-fields are shrinking, the amount of tourists may too. This could archly affect Tanzania’s economy. In addition, larger tropical ice fields of the Andes Mountains are quickly fading away as well. Ohio State’s Lonnie Thompson states that within decades, tens of millions will deprived of drinking water in result to the melting of the ice.

Along with melting ice comes rising sea levels. Even just a 1 inch raise in sea level, could result in an 8 foot horizontal retire of shorelines. If the warming continues to increase, the west Atlantic alone has enough ice to raise sea levels by 20 feet. In the Netherlands nearly half of it’s landmass is already below or at sea level. Many big cities like New York, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Jakarta, where the centre is near the coast, are now at risk. If we lose some of our major cities where a large portion of that countries population lives, where do all those people go? Overpopulation is already an issue, but with disappearing cities it may become overwhelming.

There are many things we can do to help reduce climate change, but will people make an effort? Instead of burning tons of fossil fuels, we could instead turn to sources that don’t negatively affect our planet like wind and solar energy, Biomass, hydropower, geothermal, and hydrogen. I know that scientist are designing products like fans that take carbon out of the air, but even the slightest thing like recycling could make a difference. Something I learned was that if we collected all of the plastic out of the oceans, we would never have to make plastic again. This would significantly reduce the amount of carbon we put in the air. I think there are many things we can do, but people just need to step up and do something. One person can’t completely fix climate change, but many people can if they make an effort. As of now Earth is all we have, so we should try our best to keep it clean, not destroy it.  

GL profile

Growing up Gary Lindsay, often referred to as GL, was pretty average. He had average grades, average interests, and average dreams. Unlike most kids though, GL was able to work through the challenges that came across and decided to aim high. His passions he had since he was young, still followed him into his adult life. They may not relate to his career, a language arts teacher, but they did decide his life style.

When GL was in 5th grade, him and his family moved out to a very tight-knit community, Mason City, Iowa. He found it quite hard because he wasn’t able to make very many friends since everyone already had their clicks and friend groups before he came. Although GL was faced with a difficult circumstance, he never let it stop him from doing what he wanted.

In high school you could say that Gary was an average student, he played sports, instruments, and had his own separate hobbies as well. Although GL was a starter on the football team, football had never been his first choice. Basketball was actually the sport that he originally wanted to focus on. GL tried out for his school basketball team all four years but was never accepted, even though he was better than some of the players on the team. The kids who did get accepted already knew the coaches because they had been playing club and out of season basketball for the school since they were young. Because GL didn’t have the same advantage as the others, it might not seem fair, but he actually wasn’t upset. Some of the players on the team were his friends, and he would feel bad to take away someone's place. GL didn’t get onto the school basketball team, but he didn’t let him stop him from following his passions. So instead he decided to join a recreational basketball team, which he ended up playing with until he was in his mid-fifties.

Adding on to the sports part of his life, music was a big part too. Growing up GL was always involved in music. By the time he was in college he had already learned to play almost every brass instrument. Currently, Gary is president of a male acapella group, Harmony Hawks, where he sings bass. He also sings at his church. He enjoys listening to songs that re written and sang by the same person, which shows us a bigger part of GL’s positive mindset.

Although he tried his best to have a good mindset, he often doubted his career choice. He was enjoying his life as a LA teacher, he did struggle to make ends meet. Because he didn’t earn a lot money for teaching, he was struggling a little bit financially. In the end he stuck with it because he believed it is what God wanted him to do. In the end, Gary is happy with what his life is. He spends it well, and he spends it with passion.

Bell Schedule

HAILEY CUTTER

2 years ago, the Cedar Rapids School District changed school schedules and times to help benefit student’s school experience. Though they meant to change it for the better, some people within Kennedy oppose of the idea. This controversial topic has shown high prevalence throughout the halls and in classroom discussions.

Prior to the change, we had 6 periods, each about 55 minutes long, currently we have 7 that are now 48. It was changed so that more electives were available for students to take in one semester. However, those extra opportunities came with more work to complete, now in less time. Some people who experienced the change like Lily Hartney, who is currently a senior at Kennedy, said that the change only made things worse. As of now, there isn’t as much time in class to learn the material or to ask question needed to complete an assignment that may have an upcoming deadline.

Another issue with our current schedule is that teachers are not always available to help during smart time. During smart time you don’t necessarily even get to go where you need. With the old schedule, we had smart lunch which was a period that was one hour long. During this time, students had options. They could either have two lunches, two ‘Smart Times’ or one of each. A and B lunches were each 30 minutes long, and both were available everyday besides Wednesday. This offered way more time and opportunities for students to ask questions or get help on something they were struggling.

Besides the loss of an entire 30 minutes, Lily argued that “Nowadays, the communications between students and teachers is just not there” Now, you never know where you are headed, what teachers are available, even what rooms will already be filled up by the time you get there. The whole idea is just very hectic. If you want to go somewhere to get help and even if that teacher has tutorial, the room may already be full. You may have to just wait until the next week to get help, and by then it may already be pointless.  If a teacher you need help from has a full room, usually that student just ends up using that period as a study hall. And if that student already has a study hall, it’s just generally wasted time. Of course there is an option to come after school, but that defeats the entire purpose of smart time.

With extra periods available, it is very easy for the people who want to get ahead to do so, but for the people who aren't really wanting or needing to get ahead, it pointless, and that’s a lot of kids. With kids getting ahead, teacher are bound to get behind. They now have another entire class to look after and plan for, and with that, tons more paper to grade. Having just one extra class can become very time consuming, and just like us, teachers have lives outside of school too. Ms McConnell, a language arts teacher at Kennedy says that it “reduces the workload a little bit” since there are less papers to grade. She also mentioned that since she has less students to focus on, it is a lot easier to help them out individually which is very beneficial. Since teachers have an added class to worry about,“Teachers [during smart time] don’t really want to do anything, they would rather just have it be their free period” To me at least, it’s understandable, but it doesn’t benefit the students.

   

Another downfall of our current schedule is just our lunch in general. Students still need to be able to socialize. Basically lunch used to be one hour long, and everyone had it at the same time. If they didn’t have any work to do or questions to ask, students would meet up with their friends. Many students don’t have any classes or their lunch with some of their close friends, and it can often break friendship. It does give students a chance to make new friends, but we shouldn't force that upon them. Students used to be able to meet up with their friends during lunch, but now you can’t unless you have the same lunch, and that rarely happens.

Due to these factors, the old schedule was more beneficial to students and teachers lives. Students can focus on their academics more in depth and get special attention from teachers. Students will be able to socialize and enjoy their high school experience more, while teachers can have manageable workloads. Overall, before the new change kids were able to have a more positive school experience and positive outlook towards school.  

 North Korea and the US

Hailey cutter

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-korea-leader-offers-to-dismantle-nuclear-test-site--but-only-after-us-acts/2018/09/19/cbdd6a60-bb77-11e8-a8aa-860695e7f3fc_story.html?utm_term=.71a8dc881cdc

Recently, talk of North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, and President Donald Trump, has been quite big. Apparently, Kim and Trump have been discussing compromises about nuclear devices. On September 19^th Kim offered to permanently dismantle one of North Koreas main sites for nuclear weapons, but only if the US did so first. Trump admitted that the offer was quite encouraging, but he isn't making any finial decisions just yet. Trump also admitted that the interactions between the two of them were ‘calm’. In my opinion, the offer isn’t even related to and solving the problem, but I do think it can be considered a step forward. The problem is that they are testing nuclear weapons, not that they have nuclear sites just in general. Even if they were to dismantle it, we would have to do the same, so we would be right back where we started.

                  While talk of the dismantling in the US, South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, has been having meetings with Kim Jong Un about moving forward with peace between the two Koreas. Personally, I think peace is reasonable, but the thought of the two countries ever reuniting doesn’t seem realistic. They have been parted for 70 years now and are technically considered to be still at war. The way their governments run is very different from each other. Also, some of South Koreas language has evolved and changed, and is now a little different from North Koreas. In general, I don’t think it work out well.

                  While North Korea and the United States seem to be making more progress than first presumed, it seems that now the two countries have reached an impasse. Both countries expect each other to make the first move. The United States expects North Korea to take significant steps forward to their nuclear dismantling, while North Korea believes that the United States needs to declare the Korean War (1950-1953) formally over first. North Korea believes that Trump has already made a promise to that in Singapore, but Trump himself states differently.

                  The whole situation seems pretty chaotic and unorganized, in my opinion. Many people even believe that we shouldn’t be discussing any sorts of matters with North Korea. Many aren’t completely sure if we can trust them either. We barely know anything about them, and they don’t truly, fully show themselves to the world. In the past, they have shown us that they are very not willing to cooperate with us, so it just doesn’t doesn't make sense to me. We are definitely taking steps towards something, but I’m not sure if it’s the right thing.

 Experts believe that North Korea has continued to build a number of nuclear weapons this year, and even if they do end up dismantling their main nuclear site, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have other ones. It would of course slow down the process of their nuclear production, but it wouldn’t at all stop them. We aren't completely sure of what they are capable of doing and we aren't exactly what they are willing to do and what steps they will take towards what is convenient to them.

Can we trust them? That is a question even Trump’s own administration is asking, although they are known to be cautious with matters dealing with North Korea. Trump tweeted “While North Korea has stopped testing missiles and nuclear devices,” at the moment, “they have NOT moved toward denuclearization”.Although we are making decent progress, Trump’s overall administration isn’t satisfied with North Koreas efforts. They believe that North Korea needs to be a lot more cooperative with their plans. Meaning that they need to make more reasonable efforts instead of the piecemeal and solitary ‘compromises’ that they are currently making. But the entire situation is still in progress and nothing in yet official, hopefully we will eventually come to an equilibrium.