Prizes were given to students who brought canned goods. Sports created unique skits and performed them in the gym. Skits include the Salsa boys, Miss LHS, multiple performances by Pom and dancing by all the winter sports teams.

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.

When you were in third grade, you probably didn’t worry about your weight or going on a diet. But today, the average age for a girl to start a diet is third grade.

This statistic compelled junior Grace Morgan to contact prevention specialist Diane Ash and start a leadership panel about health and fitness. Ash added Morgan’s ideas to an ongoing project of intern Kate Melton.

Why was FEEL created?

“The objective of it is to teach elementary school kids the importance about being confident in themselves…To let people be more aware of themselves and comfortable.”

What inspired you to start FEEL?

“I kept hearing stuff on the news, Ms. (Diane) Ash told me the average start of a girl starting on a diet is third grade. I felt like it was an important thing, that people were missing out on…that people weren’t talking about that needed to be talked about.”

What are your goals for FEEL?

“For it to be common knowledge to be healthy.”

Why are the issues of fitness and healthy living important to you?

“Me personally, I feel better and more confident about myself when I’m eating healthier and exercising. I felt like all my friends felt the same way.”

How did you go about starting FEEL?

“I emailed Ms. Ash and we had a meeting about it. We decided to just kind of let it marinate over the summer.”

So it’s been a work in progress?

“Yeah, we’ve been talking about it. Right now, I’m just trying to get people together. I really need guys.”

What else are you involved in at LHS?

“I run for cross country and track. I’m in choir and orchestra. As of this year I’m a part of environmental club and FYI club.”

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Video by Lily Abromeit and Mallory Thompson

   Forget lifting weights. For great exercise, try keeping up with the Pom Squad.
To get the full experience, I tried pom for a day. As I walked into practice, the squad quickly welcomed me and continued with their routines.
Previously involved in dance, I thought bringing back my groove would be easy. I was embarrassingly wrong.
Luckily, sophomore Katie Lomshek precisely knew the choreography. I knew because my eyes were glued to her every step.
Although I was studying her moves and attempting to engrave them into my thoughts, it seemed to make no difference. My reflexes were shot. All my steps were at least three seconds too late and dull to the max. To some, my movements gave the impression of a lack of effort, but panting and dripping beads of sweat on my forehead proved otherwise.
Along with the inconsistent steps, my body chose to be as flexible as a wooden pencil. The girls on the team hit every move sharply and their kicks appeared to be dead-on. Mimicking Lomshek, I began kicking my legs up in hopes of perfection but unsuccessfully danced with ants in my pants.
If I honestly wanted to contribute in practice with pom, I would have to step up my game. Hours of training is put into this competitive sport, and the squad works with determination, compassion and dedication.
Most of our student body doesn’t understand how much effort these girls put into their sport.
“It’s the time commitment,” pom coach Marja Edwardson said. “People don’t realize how much it takes to be good at dance.”
The girls practice everyday during their seventh hour; Tuesdays after school until 5 p.m. and then, that same day, from 6:30-8:30 with the band. After school on Wednesdays, they practice until 4:30. On average, pom trains for about nine hours during the week.
With all of that practice, these ladies pump up LHS students at our football and basketball games when they perform. Their great enthusiasm definitely boosts my spirit and support for our team.

The Lion King was even more magical and fun on the big screen. It was so tempting to sing along with the songs and quote my favorite characters.

The film is still the original Lion King, but it seems to come more to life in theaters. The surround sound, the audience and the big screen made it a fun movie experience. I personally greatly enjoyed this film.

The 3D was not as great as I had hoped though. There were scenes where the 3D effects were definitely noticeable. The “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” scene has some impressive 3D effects.

But in general, the 3D did not have much of an impact on the movie.

Despite the lack of 3D effects, this movie can be enjoyed by all age groups. Especially our generation, which grew up with the Lion King but never got to experience it in the theater.

I would recommend this movie for a family night, a night out with friends, or for younger kids. Especially if they have never seen the Lion King.

Even though the 3D effects were not too great, the experience of this movie is definitely worth the money. Lion King in 3D leaves theaters Sept. 30. Do not miss this amazing experience.

But what about the students who walk the hallways without a single hello? To special education teacher Jake Thibodeau, these students mean the world. These are the students he helps through every day, goes to movies with on the weekends and loves with all his heart.

“I always say I can’t believe I get paid to do what I do because I get to hang out and have fun with some of the most extraordinary kids in the world,” Thibodeau said.

Thibodeau teaches in the autism program at Lawrence High. Students enter the program when they first start school and stay with it throughout their education.

Thibodeau’s job helps students get through obstacles in life. As a great metaphor for his job, Thibodeau breaks barriers every day – but not in a common form.

When Thibodeau was 11, he started taking Tae Kwon Do lessons to release anxiety he had as a young child. He now teaches martial arts students how to overcome challenges, such as breaking boards or cement blocks.

At school, he teaches students to take down their challenges, whether they are academic, vocational, social or emotional.

“I’m working with them to help them be successful in all areas of life, and I’m trying to get them to be as independent as possible,” Thibodeau said.

Every student is different, so Thibodeau works to make a program that is perfect for each one. His goal everyday is to help students be successful. When he sees his students in five years – out of high school and experiencing life in the real world — he hopes they will be fulfilling their potential.

“Sometimes it’s so overwhelming because I would be devastated if I see them in a few years and they’ve regressed a lot or they’re not in a job that stimulates them and they’re not in an environment that pushes them mentally and physically,” Thibodeau said.

Part of Thibodeau’s desire for success comes from his past. He wishes he’d embraced a different outlook as an LHS student. For Thibodeau, school wasn’t a big deal. Without the expectation of college laid out for him, he didn’t see the need to go.

After high school, he took after his father and earned certificates for firefighting.

But Thibodeau was never certain that was the right path for him. If it weren’t for a special student, Thibodeau might have stayed where he was. While working toward his firefighting certificates, Thibodeau was a personal paraprofessional for a student at Free State High School. During their years together, Thibodeau and this student became close friends and would talk about life. One of those talks happened to be about Thibodeau’s future.

“I was thinking about fire fighting, and he just told me flat out, ‘Jake, you need to be a teacher,’ and when he told me that, it just really changed my perspective,” Thibodeau said. “It was his upbeat attitude and the way he tackled life [that made me believe I could do it].”

Today, this experience is still the core of what keeps Thibodeau strong.

“He’s always going to motivate me when times are tough,” Thibodeau said.

For his students to thrive, Thibodeau knows it will take more than the small team in the Autism Program. It will take

everyone at LHS.

That is one of the reasons Thibodeau became a Link Coordinator, in addition to wanting to do something positive for the school that he didn’t do when he was a student. While making connections with Link leaders, Thibodeau hoped to create opportunities for students with autism and expose the Autism Program.

“If I’ve made a connection with some of the Link leaders, when they see me in the hallways, when they see me with my kids, they’ll say hi to me, they’ll say hi to my kids,” Thibodeau said.

And really, he said, that’s what his students want — a simple “Hey” or “How was your weekend.” For Thibodeau, it’s all about compassion.

“I know they have busy days but maybe think outside of themselves a little, say hi to kids with special needs and really appreciate what they have been given in life,” he said. “Know that other people are less fortunate and then make a concerted effort to really give back and help people that are less fortunate.”

Thibodeau also hopes this will carry through to the future.

“Maybe they’ll think back to this high school experience and [think] ‘you know there’s these kids that I saw, and I would really like them to have a good future so I’m gonna vote or I’m gonna put my money toward some of these programs,’” Thibodeau said.

All it takes, he said, is just one tiny gesture.

Junior Royce Harrison travelled with Kenyan Educational Service Trips along with three other girls and group leader Jennifer Geilings. The goal of the organization is to educate American teenagers and adults to be responsible and effective global citizens, and to show that one person can make a difference only by taking action.

“It is enormously satisfying to help people,” Harrison said.

Harrison left July 12 and returned Aug. 13. Group members focused on volunteering, not engaging in any sort of tourism while they were there. They created camps for Kenyan school children and helped out doing farm work.

The volunteer program in Kenya was called Nyumbani, and it contained three parts. The first was an orphanage in Karen called the Nyumbani Children’s Home. The orphanage is home to more than 100 HIV positive children who were either abandoned or had lost their parents. Harrison and his group were at the orphanage for one week.

“Not all of the younger kids were used to seeing white people,” Harrison said. “A kid rubbed one of the girls arms and then checked his hand to see if the white would come off her skin.”

The second part of the Nyumbani program took the volunteers to Kitui, a village of about 700 people plagued by the AIDS epidemic. In the village, about 10 children are grouped with grandparents to form families. The goal is to have 1,000 people living in the village. Harrison spent the majority of his trip there, a total of 3 weeks.

The third part is called Lea Toto, which means “to raise the child” in Swahili. Lea Toto is a slums outreach program where the volunteers helped provide medical assistance and counseling. Harrison was only in Lea Toto for one day of his trip.

In order to prepare for the trip, Harrison had to take Doxycycline, an anti-malarial drug. He had to take this medicine every day months in advance of going to Kenya, and has to continue taking the drug even after he has returned. Harrison said the drug has unpleasant side effects, such as stomach pains and vivid, intense dreams.

The flight to Kenya took 21 hours, plus around 10 hours of layovers. Once they landed, Harrison recalled seeing a random pile of burning tires along the tarmac. A typical meal consisted of beans and rice, “plus the occasional rock mixed in,” Harrison said. Everything was relatively cheap, too. An avocado cost Harrison a mere 15 cents, and “it was the size of my face,” Harrison said.

The volunteers also visited a Masai village, where Harrison went goat herding with one of the Masai warriors. “That was probably the coolest part of my trip,” Harrison said. They had to watch out for snakes and be on the lookout for unexploded ordinance such as land mines, artillery shells, and other explosives.

For Harrison, finding the words that best describe the experience is difficult, but he left Kenya inspired to volunteer again in the future. He hopes to return to Kenya. “It is really difficult to describe because it was such an amazing experience.”

Harrison was forever impacted by the people he met and the friends he made.

“It’s definitely something I’m never going to forget,” Harrison said.

By MacKenzie Breithaupt

“Get set!” band director Mike Jones shouts to the marching band.

Many students at LHS don’t know exactly what our marching band members do or how hard they work. Sure, they play instruments and march on our football field to catchy tunes, but many students don’t realize the time and effort band members contribute.

As someone who has never been a part of band, I went through an adventure. On Aug. 30, band held its regular 6:30 p.m. Tuesday practice on the LHS football field, and I was there to march.

Walking through the gate, I received strange stares and awkward smirks. Fellow flute player junior Lily Abromeit placed me in a line of flutes diagonal from where she was standing. Before I began marching, one of the two objectives Abromeit instructed was to “follow me.”

Easy enough – until she added to never “get directly behind” her.

I nodded, sure of my knowledge of what to do. But as soon as I heard the words “Get set” from Jones, everything Abromeit just plastered in my brain shattered. Thereafter, I was smack dab behind my partner in crime.

Not 10 minutes into practice, I was sweating. Wearing a T-shirt and shorts, I couldn’t imagine memorizing and marching these steps in the LHS band uniform — unless the temperature outside was negative five.

As I began marching, it was strangely difficult to keep up with everyone around me. Not only was it difficult to remain in the correct position with the other flutes, but I had absolutely no idea where they were going or what I was supposed to be doing. With a less-than-three second lesson with Abromeit about how many steps to take left, backward and then right, I ultimately absorbed nothing but which way my feet were instructed to face.

Even Jones noticed me sticking out.

“Everybody knows where to go and you had no idea,” Jones said later, “and when you don’t have any idea, you stick out. You were in such a place where you were getting in people’s way because you were so close.”

I pity flute player and sophomore Elsa Regan for any confusion I caused while marching. It seemed as though every step I took was in the wrong direction and in place of another band member.

Thankfully Jones sympathized with me.

“We’re going from the normal person who doesn’t know how to march to someone we ask to memorize about eight minutes worth of music and memorize probably about 60 formations in between those,” Jones said.

Being previously involved with dance, I imagine marching band is similar to a dance routine — only double time. The students must learn and memorize the music along with all of the formations. Band members spend about five and half hours practicing every week. I give props to them for all the effort they put toward musically supporting LHS.

“What kind of day is it?” It’s a great day to be a lion.