Once a teacher gives you a due date of a project, set your own due dates earlier. For example, if you have three weeks to read a book, write in your planner that its due in two weeks. This will give you more time to embellish the analysis, decorate a poster board, etc.

On days where you have no homework, use your free time to get ahead. It may not be possible in all classes to get assignment ahead of time, but in the classes where you do have this luxury, use it to your advantage. For some classes you can know the next chapter you must read and take notes on, or you can work on a long-term project.

Make flashcards to memorize important terms as you learn them. If the lessson is divided into sections, utilize this, and quiz yourself at the end of each one. By the time you have to study for the test, you will already have an outline of all the material before you begin intensely studying.

A way to simply avoid procrastinating is to begin with the largest element of the project. If you are assigned a two-part project, start with the part that you find most challenging.This will allow you to work on your favorite part as the due date approaches.

For midterms and finals, you can avoid stress by staying organized by following the schedule either you or your teacher created. If you keep all of your notes and terms throughout the entire semester studying for these can be made simple by reviewing the essentials you had previously conducted.

The audience never gets to meet the character Matthew Shepherd, the boy who was killed. This seems to allow the viewers to form their own image and opinion of Shepherd.

The play was performed three nights: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Each performance started at 7:30 in the evening.
Lawrence High junior Tessa Lieber attended the play on Saturday night.
“It was very heart wrenching,” Lieber said.
On the back of the program handed out to each member of the audience as they entered the auditorium was a note from the director, Shannon Draper. Included in her statement was the following sentence.
“It strikes me that all art and all artists seek to accomplish this singular goal: to give an identity to that which already exists, to somehow add our own color or feel to events that need further understanding. That is what we have tried to do with our production.”

Cucumber Face Mask
½ a cucumber
1 tbsp yogurt

For this skin-brightening, moisturizing face mash, mix ½ a cucumber and 1 tablespoon of yogurt in a blender and apply it on the face evenly. Leave it on the face for 10-15 minutes and then wash it off with cold water. The lactic acid in the yogurt gently softens skin and helps it decongest.

Honey Face Wash
1 tsp raw, unfiltered honey
½ tsp baking soda

For a simple, inexpensive face wash mix a tablespoon of raw, unfiltered honey with a half tablespoon of baking soda and apply it to damp skin. The antibacterial honey soothes dry skin, and the baking soda exfoliates your face without irritating it.

Body Scrub
¼ cup olive oil
⅛ cup brown sugar
⅛ cup salt
essential oil

To make simple, yet efficient, body scrub, Combine a quarter cup olive oil, an eighth cup
of brown sugar, an eighth cup of salt, and an essential oil (for scent). If you have especially dry skin or sunburn, leave out the salt and double the sugar.

Bronzer
1 empty makeup case
cinnamon
powdered sugar
small paintbrush
essential oil

Find an empty makeup case (from an old powder foundation or bronzer) and add cinnamon and powdered sugar (the ratio will be altered depending on how dark you want it). Mix the powders together using a small paintbrush, or something of the type. To bond the powders, add a bit of essential oil. Apply like a store-bought bronzer.

Lawrence High is known for having excellent teachers that year after year meet and exceed all the standards set by the state. So anytime that one of these teachers is lost by terms not of their own it is very disappointing. It is no secret that the salaries for Lawrence teachers fall way short of salaries for surrounding districts within a 30 mile radius of the same class. This is causing some of Lawrence’s best teachers, some who have been teaching in Lawrence for a really long time, to pack up and go to schools in Olathe, Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission for higher salaries.

When talking with a few other people about this issue to try and draw a comparison of some sort we came up with the baseball farm system example. Since baseball is without a salary cap, every team has a different payroll. This throws off the competitive balance in baseball as it does in teaching. The best example I could come up with for Lawrence High was the Atlanta Braves. The Atlanta Braves have been consistent winners for the past two decades while having a payroll in the bottom half of the league. The Braves develop their players through the draft, scouting and developement to make a winner which is completely opposite from the teams with some of the top payrolls like the New York Yankees.

The Yankees compare to the Blue Valley’s of the world, they can occasionally draft and develop a player for the long run but ussually let the lower payroll teams do it for them and then sign them to huge contracts while they are on the back half of their careers.

I’m sure you can see the point here.

Lawrence is getting young teachers and developing them to win awards and do great things. While they may do just that for the beginning of their careers eventually their contracts run out and they become free agents. While it is disappointing, no blame should be placed on the teachers. They are only doing what is best for them and their careers. The other schools offer them better facilities, higher salaries and the resources to play for a championship (or whatever it is that teachers teach for).

Since I am into sports this was the most natural comparison that I could come up with. If anyone has any other comparisons that they would like to share, write them in the comments below.

Joe-College has offered Lawrence residents with cheaper, humorous KU shirts for many years now and will finally be shuting down.  The blame for this falls no farther than the University of Kansas Athletic Department and Lew Perkins. The discrepancy started approximately four years ago when owner Larry Sinks received a letter from Lew Perkins telling him to close down his store or he would take action.

Even though Sinks doesn’t use any form of a university logo on any of his shirts Perkins felt that the colors, designs, and slogans were disgracing the university. When Sinks refused to close his store Lew Perkins was true to his word and filed a lawsuit against the store.

After a long drawn out process it was ruled that 53 of the shirts infringed upon trademarks and copyright and that Sinks owed more than $500,000 to the university in penalties and legal fees. Eventually causing the shutdown of the business.

The obvious reasons for Perkins to file this claim was that for every Joe-College shirt sold, that was one less official KU shirt sold, and some think he did the right thing, but for most this will put a huge mark on his resume at the university.

Personally, Joe-College was one of my favorite stores downtown, and it won’t be the same without it. Every time I would go in I would come out with a smile on my face from all the clever shirts and slogans. I will never be able to experience that feeling again. I don’t know about the rest of the Joe-College fans out there, but for me every time I see Lew Perkins face flashed on TV during a game I will immediately think of what he did to Joe-College and the city of Lawrence; and next time you are out buying your ugly, overpriced, licensed KU shirt, you probably will too. 

If you have a favorite Joe-College memory or t-shirt let me know down below in the comments.

After an experience earlier this month it really hit me that this would be a long month. It started during the confrence championships, KU was playing their first game against Texas Tech and a group of people were talking about stats and how far they thought KU would get in the tournament when someone in the group said, “This is why I don’t like March, I always feel so left out.” This really hit me deep down. Even though our means of thinking were totally different, we were both feeling the same way.

This person was reffering to their knowledge about basketball and the way they feel when they are watching the game with a group of people who know what is going on. However for me it was completely opposite. I am a huge fan of the game and consider myself knowing a lot about the game, but I was also feeling left out. For my purposes it was a team that was getting left out. 

It is no secret that I am a huge North Carolina fan, and it is also no secret how bad they have played this year. Knowing this you might say things like, “They have been bad all year, you should have known they weren’t going to make the tournament,” or “They won it last year, they can’t be good every year.” Both of these are true, yes I knew they had no shot at making the tournament halfway through January and yes they did win the championship last year, but it is still North Carolina. It is expected to make the tournament every year and when they don’t and you see all the other teams playing it doesn’t feel good and the sadness you thought was over in January when you relize your team is no longer in contention comes back to haunt you. It also doesn’t help seeing Duke in the Final Four.

One thing that I have taken away from all of this though is that North Carolina did recieve an invitation to the NIT and have made it to the Final Four. They will be playing their first game tommorow against Rhode Island on ESPN. While this isn’t the real tournament and I may catch more greif from the NIT bid than I would had they not went anywhere, I am still glad to see them play and improve as they move towards next year’s goal.

I walked into Children’s Learning Center last Wednesday (St. Pattie’s Day) with my friend Krista not knowing what to expect. We knew we were supposed to work with children, but that was about it.

The manager told us we’d been working in different rooms. The first room was full of 1 and 2-year-olds.  I breathed a sigh of relief when Krista volunteered to stay in that room. I can’t change a diaper to save my life, and I definitely prefer little kids who already have learned to talk.

The manager dropped me off in a room with 4-year-olds and with in 30 seconds, someone was crying. Their pre-school teacher was getting the kids, all decked out in St. Pattie’s gear, lined up to go to breakfast.  A boy in a green stripped shirt (who I later found out is named Nick) cut the only girl in purple (Lakea) in line because she wasn’t wearing green. Lakea’s teacher had offered her a different shirt, but Lakea was adamant about staying in her purple outfit.

Lakea cried all the way down the hall and was still pouting when I kneeled next to her at the kids’ table. I figured the best way to make her happy was just to distract her.

“I like your hair!” I said to her.

She peered out at me behind a mop of golden brown ringlets. “Thanks.” She paused, trying to decide whether she should talk to me. “My mommy did my hair today! She doesn’t do my brothers’ hair because he’s a boy. My brother is eight. He plays baseball…”

From then on, she could not stop talking to me. When we got back to the classroom, she asked me to play with her, and she got mad at me when I left her to go watch other kids. She wanted to hold my hand wherever I went, and she tried to sit on my lap during circle time.

Inexperienced with kids, I was a little baffled. This girl barely knew me, yet she was already attached to me like a little barnacle.  My best friend Martha calls it ignorant affection. And it’s true; little kids don’t know that you’re supposed to take the time to get to know someone before you act affectionate.

But there’s something so refreshing about the way Lakea acted. She wasn’t careful or standoffish. She met me, she liked me, and that was all there was to it.

I think we can all learn something from Lakea’s friendliness.

After wallowing in self-pity and frustration at my lack of success for over 48 hours, my dad finally sat me down for a talk.

I was expecting an inspirational pep talk. Usually my dad’s pep talks are really sweet and full of praise. This was no pep talk. This was a get-it-together talk.

Here’s what stuck with me. He said “you treat every grade and competition as a referendum on who you are.”

I’ve been told my whole life not to judge myself on my accomplishments, but rather who I am and what I fight for. I guess I’ve always pretended to hear the message, but never really took it to heart. I guess I have never really been challenged enough to see how I handled failure. When I didn’t fail, it was easy to build my self-esteem on things I had accomplished. If I won a writing contest, I could consider myself a great writer. If I won a citzenship award, I could consider myself a good person.

As it turns out, when you fail, you have to rethink things. You have to rebuild your self-esteem based on different qualifications. It’s really challenging, and I consider it a ongoing goal for my life.

How do you react when you fail at something? Please leave a comment.

[For those of you who don't know, Showtime is Lawrence High's variety show where students audition songs in various groups.]

Every year when the list is posted, cacophony ensues. First come grunts and shuffling feet, pushing to see the list first, and then comes wave of elated screams, barely audible whispers, and silent tears.

Inside this cornocopia of emotions, it’s hard to know how to behave. Is it okay to express happiness when people around you are upset? Is it okay to feel frustrated when others are elated?

The answer is yes…sort of.

It’s always been my rule to allow myself an intial reaction, but afterword, control my emotions in front of people. Of course, once I’m in the car, I can groan and tear-up to my heart’s desire. But while I’m in a room with other people, I make it a point to give congratulations where they are due. After all, we all worked really hard to get to this point, and from there on, it was subjective.

Graciousness is a challenging virtue to upkeep, especially when you’re angry, but it’s probably one of the most important. How we behave in adversity tells a lot about who we are.