Singers Harrison Klaphake ’24, James Nelson ’24, Ellie Cassady ’25, Hope Schmitz ’24, and Xander Sabinash ’24; Flautists Malika Gallus ’24, Maggie Bertsch ’25, and Kiera Mcgorry ’25, along with clarinetists Lexi Zheng ’24, Oliver Holt ’24, and Anna Wuollet ’25, all submitted an All-State or MMEA (Minnesota Music Educators Association) audition last year. They were all accepted into the Minnesota All-State 2023. Each year hundreds of students around Minnesota submit their auditions hoping to be accepted. Having 11 students from the same school participate is an honor. 

Student musicians spend months preparing and practicing for their auditions. 

“I practiced almost every day or every other day, whenever I was free. Usually, I wanted to practice because I really wanted to get into the band and I knew I had to be really good at the music. It was never really a chore for me,” said Anna Wuollet.

Her hard work was rewarded when she and her musical peers were handed official-looking envelopes from band director Scott Rabehl and former choir director Zachariah Carlson.

“During band, Rabehl handed us each an envelope that had our names on it. Inside it said ‘Congratulations on getting into the MMEA Honor band!’ At first, I was shocked because I didn’t expect to be accepted, but then I was happy and really proud of myself and everyone else who got in, said Wuollet.

After being accepted, students pay a fee and mark off a week in August for the All-State camp. Students attend this camp for five days, where they learn their music, make connections with fellow players, and learn more about what it means to participate in All-State. 

“The camp was a lot of fun, it was my first sleep-away camp, you had to live in a dorm room for a week without air conditioning and it was a little hellish but fun. It was different to do band for eight hours a day with a huge band — our band here is pretty big, but the all-state band is about 100 kids,” said Lexi Zheng.

They’ve waited, practiced, and prepared for months for their concert at Orchestra Hall in February, but the idea of playing at Orchestra Hall still doesn’t feel real for some.

“I think it’s really crazy that we’re going to play in the same building that the pros play in. I’ve been there for field trips with Tri-M and it’s so cool to think that I’ll be on the same stage,” said Zheng. “I feel pretty ok about the concert. My technique has increased since the camp from playing, but I haven’t sat down and played the music in a while. I might be a little rusty but I think it’ll be fine.”

Orchestra Hall is one of the most prestigious performing art centers in the United States, and definitely in Minnesota. To play at Orchestra Hall is a huge honor and something most Minnesota musicians only dream of. This dream is coming true for these 11 students.

Security improvements will be the addition of secure entrances at the middle and high school, and an automated door system that will allow all exterior doors to be locked simultaneously at five schools, including both the middle school and high school. 

Facility improvements will include replacing steam systems with hot water systems, upgrading equipment, PAC equipment and various roof sections will be replaced, adding dehumidification

capabilities to various areas – including activity spaces; where necessary, classrooms in all buildings will be updated with appropriate acoustic walls and re-configured to allow for contemporary teaching methods emphasizing collaboration rather than lectures.  These upgrades will take place over the next three summers, from June 2024 – August 2026.

The new ceremony took place during BASE Thursday, May, 25th, and started with inductees standing in their places in the audience and reciting the Tri-M oath before being called by name across the stage to be given their pins and membership cards. Current members also walked across the stage to get a handshake and certificate from Chapter Co-sponsors Mike Knutson and Zachariah Carlson. It ended with a quick spring meeting for the new group of members.

Although most of the ceremony was similar to before, many students are wondering why it was changed from a traditional, formal event to a 30-minute abbreviated event during the school day.

“There are so many events throughout the years so the directors decided to move it to take one night off of everyone’s plates during the busy spring season,” said current Tri-M leader Elle Keranen ’23. “We are sad about the Solo and Ensemble performances not happening but it wasn’t up to the leadership team.”

Will this new shortened ceremony be the new tradition?

“Next year the concert schedule will be different with the new trimester schedule so it may go back to the original night with the Solo and Ensemble performances or it could stay a BASE time ceremony,” says Keranen.

“It’s really nice to have an enclosed space where it’s okay to make mistakes and work problems out yourself on your own time, without worrying about bothering your family with loud instrument playing,” says Lexi Zheng ‘24. “Personally, I don’t use practice rooms for practicing band music, because we rehearse 5 days a week. I practice for piano recitals and exams, and I get stressed about those. Usually, I spend 20 minutes one-three times a week in the practice rooms.”

All musicians, even professionals, have to practice. These rooms provide so many opportunities for all aspiring musicians of BHS. Students can practice independently or with others; a few simply sit outside and catch up on schoolwork while listening to the overlapping music around them.

“I do my homework outside the practice rooms because I like the environment in the band area. There’s always someone that can help me with my work if I get stuck, and someone to talk to when I’m done,” says Gaia Deyoung ‘25.

There is an overwhelming sense of community throughout the entire music department, the practice rooms play a very important role in creating that environment. Students from different musical backgrounds can get together and make music together even just for a base time.

“Normally in my practice room during base, there are 3-8 people playing trombones, clarinets, flutes saxophone, or even piano. Occasionally there are a few people doing homework in the corner and listening to us practice,” says Jayde Hallman ‘25.

As students get more involved with their instrument and become more serious about their playing, practicing plays a more prominent and important role. Practice rooms provide an easy opportunity for practicing without the hassle of fitting it into your life outside of school.

“I love the practice rooms, it’s where I spend the majority of my practice time,” says Ethan Jacobson ‘24. “I wish I could use them more, as I’ve been busy with school work lately, but last year I was in them most days after school.”

The BHS practice rooms connect everyone in the music department while providing a safe space for students to evolve their skills and improve as musicians. They are a home base for many music students. Even those who aren’t actively practicing can find a home in practice rooms where their friends are practicing, or just outside them.

“I don’t like things to be plain,” says language teacher Señora Nordmeyer. “I like to have things for students to look at because not all of my students pay attention 100% of the class. If there are things around that can help them absorb the language or more information about the countries we’re learning about, they’re still learning just in an indirect way. I also just like the look of color around the classroom, it looks like a welcoming place, and I want kids to feel comfortable.”

Biology teacher Mrs. Barth has similar reasoning behind her decore. “I wanted my classroom to be inviting, and I like to make my room an expression of who I am as a person and who I want my students to be able to see within themselves. I’ve been trying to put up famous scientists from diverse backgrounds to show that science is for everybody, no matter who you are or what you look like.”

Room decorations can help students get a better understanding of who their teacher is, it’s an easy way to learn about them without silly icebreakers and awkward small talk. Another reason teachers decorate their classroom is to help students feel more comfortable. Remembering that their teacher is also a person, one who has likes and dislikes, a sense of humor, and role models of their own can help students feel at ease.

“The first thing I do when I have a new class is look around the room to get a feel of the teacher and how the class will go. I like to read the posters to see what the teacher thinks is important or interesting, who they look up to, and what they think is funny. I make my first assumptions based on how it looks,” says an anonymous student.

Not all students thrive in a highly decorated classroom, some feel like the vibrant colors and assorted sayings can be distracting. They prefer rooms that feel calm and leave the focus on other things, like the curriculum itself. A study by Carnegie Mellon University found that students learn in both heavily decorated and sparse classrooms, but they learn more in classrooms with fewer decorations.

“I prefer classrooms with some decorations, I like it in between, if they’re too busy I don’t like it, but I don’t like it when they’re bare. I learn better when there are a few decorations so I have something pretty to pay attention to, like the decorations in the band room, there are a lot of funny quotes and random things that have meaning to me. It’s mostly inside jokes that help me feel like I’m a part of something bigger,” says Vivian Grambart ‘25.

Everyone learns differently, some people thrive in decorated classrooms, while others prefer the fewer distractions of a classroom with fewer decorations. Ultimately, it’s up to the teacher and what they think is best for their students and their room.

Want to see what students really think and share what you prefer?
Check out this link!

60 years is a long time and Urdahl could already be retired, so what made him stay? “Teaching AP Calculus has been my savior,” Urdahl said. “I just love teaching it. It’s an exciting class, AP students take the AP exam, and every year my goal is to be better than the year before. It’s been fun to try to do that and come up with ideas that would improve things. I also love doing problems. One of my things is at breakfast every morning I work on a couple of problems from this 800 calculus problems book. If I hadn’t taught AP I probably would have retired 20 years ago.”

Students also played a big role in Urdahl’s love for teaching, some even kept coming around after they graduated. “A very good friend of mine I met when he was a freshman, I still keep in touch with him and we’ve grown very close,” Urdahl said.

One student in particular permanently altered Urdahl’s life.

“I became sort of like a surrogate parent for a kid who was a foreign exchange student and needed a host home,” Urdahl said. “I attended his graduation, and a few years ago I was actually at his wedding.”

Another student that Urdahl vividly remembers ran into him at a restaurant.

“I had this little kid in eighth grade who was always antsy and did some pretty silly things…He was so short that when he sat at his desk his feet wouldn’t reach the floor and he would always cross his legs and swing them,” Urdahl said. “Many years later I was at a restaurant and he walked in; I didn’t recognize this guy at all, but he sat at a table not too far from me. As I looked over at him, he was talking to a friend and his legs were crossed. I thought ‘my gosh, that can’t be the same guy.’ So when I left I purposely walked by him, he said ‘Hi, Mr. Urdahl.’ He was in his 30s or 40s by then.”

Even his recent students notice how passionate he is about his work.

“You could tell that Mr. Urdahl was passionate about teaching, he would always give us challenges and was always so excited when he was solving problems and it seemed like he loved what he was doing,” said previous Algebra 2 student Mackenzie Koren ‘25.

He loves to teach all kinds of math, but especially Calculus.

“He would always have calculus problems on the board,” Koren said. “He would teach us how to solve them even though we weren’t supposed to learn it yet, so we learned more than other kids who were also in Algebra two.”

A few of the teachers at BHS had him as their teacher when they were in high school. English teacher Ryan McCallum recalls how Urdahl helped him become the teacher he is today.

“I ended with a D in the first quarter of calculus, but I eventually got it up to a B,” McCallum said. “One day when I was struggling he pulled me aside and said, ‘I think you should be a math teacher.’ He asked me if I was sure I wanted to be an English teacher. I thought he was joking. He said, ‘you know what it means to struggle with math, and you figured it out on your own. … I’ve never struggled with math so I don’t understand it the way you do.’ He wanted me to teach something I struggled with so I could connect with future struggling students. That left a huge impact on me, and even though I’m an English teacher, I know I have to work at understanding students who are struggling because I haven’t struggled myself.”

Mr. Urdahl influenced many students’ lives throughout the course of his career. BHS is forever grateful for all he has done and continues to do. In and out of school, teaching or not, he will definitely be remembered as an admirable teacher who cares about each and every student that crosses his path.

For more Urdahl stories check out this story from The Drummer.

The Varsity 2 team of sophomores Greta Winger, Daniel Jungwirth, Dexter Huss, Kumail Akram, and Lucas Lawrence took second place overall after a strong final round.  This year Buffalo has returned with an impressive start, with all four Varsity teams placing in the top seven teams at the meet.

Buffalo has the biggest Knowledge Bowl team in the region, consisting of seven smaller teams of 5 members: four Varsity and three JV. There are 33 Varsity and 27 JV teams competing in the area. Led by head coach Aldrich and assistant coach McCallum, the teams hope to continue to bring home trophies. 

While the majority of Buffalo High School’s bathrooms contain paper towel dispensers, the women’s music department bathroom now differs with the new addition of hand dryers. Students are left frustrated with this update.

One of the popular reasons students hesitate to use hand dryers is the question of if it’s sanitary. According to Healthline.com, people who use hand dryers have twenty-seven times more bacteria on their hands as compared to the use of paper towels. In addition to bacteria-filled hands, the germs can be transferred onto clothing. Many students are also displeased with the poor drying capabilities of the dryers.

“I don’t like the new hand dryers because they never fully dry your hands, they take forever, and they are more unhygienic. Paper towels should always be at least an option for people who don’t like the dryers,” says Vivian Grambart ‘25.

Paper towels are quicker for students to use. During passing time the bathrooms can get crowded and hand dryers would only add to the time spent in the bathroom. Paper towels allow multiple people to dry their hands at once, and eliminate wait time.

There are some good things about hand dryers. Hand dryers are much more cost-effective and better for the Earth. They can also decrease the resources needed to keep up with paper towel dispensers. “In general, air dryers use fewer resources than paper towels, since towels constantly need to be produced and transported to users, and eventually take up space in the landfill,” says stanfordmag.medium.com.

“[Along with the decreased waste,] there’s some cost efficiencies as well,” said Principal Mark Mischke. “Paper is more expensive than ever. Getting ahead of a renewable resource like an air dryer also creates some long term financial stability in that particular area.”

Despite the controversy, hand dryers have made their way to the music department’s bathroom and have now reached the lunchroom restrooms.

“We’re testing them out in the four bathrooms for exactly that purpose; to see their effectiveness, their pros and cons, and what [a paper towel-less bathroom] looks like,” Mischke said. “Most schools are switching to [hand dryers], and we see other schools that are changing over, but that doesn’t mean we have to [change as well]. Our buildings and grounds person was looking at what other schools are doing, and how to do it safely but also efficiently. We may [make a change school-wide], but we haven’t made the decision yet.”

Although the four bathrooms are currently hand dryer-exclusive, the decision could be made to provide both hand dryers and paper towels in BHS bathrooms to allow for student preferences.

“I saw the post on a friend’s phone, I thought “Yes! A winter formal!” Because I really like dances and I think we need more. I’m a sophomore so I don’t get to go to prom, so I only get one dance,” says Sophie Begin ‘25.

Last year, in 2021, Ellie Carrik ‘22 created a petition for a new dance, it got over 450 signatures in September. The matter was discussed in the senior class meeting last year with Principal Mischke. It seemed like a very real possibility and students were hopeful, but there still wasn’t a dance. There have been rumors that this is the year it’s finally happening, and this post confirms it.

Student council advisor Mrs. Schumacher says “Yes, the rumors about a winter dance are true. We’ve had a winter event in the works since the beginning of the school year. The student council partners with the Activities Department and NHS to carry out the dance. It will be a Winter/B1 theme. Details are in the works.”

This means that after 10 years, BHS will finally join other schools with three dances. Students have been trying to get the Snow Daze back for a long time, the last winter dance for BHS was in 2013, and after some students misbehaved at the dance, it was canceled for the 2014-15 school year and hasn’t been back since. Like Homecoming, there was a Snow Week of dress-up days and fun activities before the dance. It was a way to boost student morale during the longest and darkest part of the school year. This year the dance is returning as the Bison Ball.

Update:

A new post has some dos and don’ts suggestions for what to wear to the dance.

On their website, actionforhappiness.org, one can find a “Do Good December” calendar made up of an action to perform each day of December, available in 29 languages. The promotion posters also encourage students to tag an Instagram account, bhs action4happiness, after posting a picture showing their good deeds. Behind the account and posters are members of the NHS, the student council, and some staff.

Vanessa King, the head of psychologies for Action For Happiness, says the theme for December is all around kindness, she suggests three tips to celebrate Do Good December: perform no-cost acts of kindness, add meaning to your thank-yous, and don’t forget yourself to be kind to yourself. For more information on these tips check out her video at actionforhappiness.org/calendar.

These calendars and ideas are not specific to December; an updated version is available each month. Some past calendars were Self Care September, Optimistic October, and New Ways November.