Classes like AP US History and CIS Literature require summer work so that they are able to cover all the necessary material in a condensed amount of time. Students taking these classes are given textbooks, worksheets, readings and other materials and assignments the week before school gets out to prepare them for their summer work.

“We had to do five chapters on our own time so that’s about 100 textbook pages of reading,” Said Sophmore Taylor McNitt, “Then we had to fill out about 30 notecards for each chapter and then fill out a worksheet. I procrastinated until the second to last week of summer. “

In these classes, the purpose of summer homework is to save you from stress during the school year. The class would be much too stressful if you had to pack any more work in. Although the summer work is necessary, that doesn’t mean all the students like it.

“[When] a lot of kids [find out about the summer homework they] are just like ‘Nope, I’m not taking this class.’” Said McNitt.

Some students are very against summer work while other don’t mind, and understand the importance of getting it done.

“I really don’t care, it’s summer homework and I’m supposed to do it to take the class. And it’ll give me something to do over the summer when I’m bored. So, I’m actually alright with it” says Freshman Kris Hamann.

While the initial idea of homework in the summer sounds unappealing, once finished with the class, students understand the utility of summer homework and the reward of finishing the class makes it worth it.

“I think it’s worth taking it because you’re learning college material and getting college credits, if you can pass the test, for free as long as you’re willing to put the time into it.” Said McNitt

On Student Appreciation Day, students got their first looks at the book. For many freshmen, this was the first time they had seen a high school yearbook.

“It was really big. I think it’s always really big and fancy but I was surprised.” said Freshman Lindsay Decker

Freshman, Laura Hillukka, was surprised by how impressive it was as she said “I really wish I would have bought one”

However, upperclassmen have seen BHS yearbooks before, so they had past books to compare this years to.

“My favorite yearbook so far was my ninth grade one. It was really cool.” says Junior Parker Peterson.

There were so many new things added to this yearbook, that have never been there before. The staff worked hard to make it new and original.

“I thought it was really good, I liked all the pictures at the bottom of each page.” says Junior Julia Huston.
There are still a handful of yearbooks left, so get yours now!

At Westerns this year, Amanda earned scores between 8.5 and 9.5 out of 10 on every event, placing her at 11th out of 28 overall. She placed 5th place on Bars (9.375) and 2nd on Beam (9.525). She has been working toward achieving this for years and is very proud of what she has done.

“[My best accomplishments were] making it to Westerns for my second time this year and winning 2nd place on beam at Westerns this year,” said Montplaisir.

Amanda has been in gymnastics for most of her life. She started at Gymnation in Buffalo, but has since switched gyms. 5 years ago, she switched to the North Shore gym in Maple Plain and has been working with that team ever since.

“I started gymnastics when I was 3 years old because one of my friends invited me to a gymnastics class with her,” said Montplaisir.

Gymnastics meets consist of four events, Vault, Bars, Beam, and Floor. Amanda competes in all four, but likes some more than others.

“My favorite event is beam because there is a lot of variety of skills to learn and it has a lot of challenges to overcome.”

Amanda Montplaisir has accomplished so much in a short time and she’s constantly searching for more opportunities. She plans to continue doing gymnastics through high school and is undecided about college gymnastics.

Freshman Ben Kiernan said the word, “Eggplant. I picked the word eggplant because after school yesterday, on April 7 2015, I had a dream. I had a dream that I was in this pitch black room with this illuminated picture of an eggplant just floating in the middle of the room. I was very inspired by this picture, so when I woke up around midnight, I put it on Snapchat and I was a very happy person.”

“Decapitation. I was trying to find for a weird word,” said Sophomore Joey Patterson.

Senior Megan Veeder thought of the word, “Tigers. Because in Biology we were learning about animals.”

“Chickenpuffs. I don’t actually know why I thought of that, it just kind of popped into my head.  It’s my favorite food,” said Freshman Archie Bralllier.

Other students thought of single words without any explanation:

• Vladimir-Putin

• Cat

• Giraffe

• Viagra

• Carpet

• Clash

• Cucumber

• Sausage

• Cory

• Blubber

• Chinese

• Chicken

• Orange

• Mud

• Air-Jordans

• Sex

• Hola

“We’re lucky that we get a lot more [freedom] that most schools. We are luckier than we think we are and sometimes we don’t appreciate that.” ~Junior Issac Noble

Most students don’t know what it would be like to not have these privileges, because they have never experienced a high school without them. It would definitely be very different, and harder to be as prepared.

“It makes it easier because you have all your stuff in one place and I don’t have to keep going back to my locker between each class.” ~ Freshman Lauren Cypress

Walking through the halls of BHS on Monday morning, you can see the tired eyes of hundreds of students. How much does daylight savings really affect a students education, especially in that first week?

Teachers and students alike have to deal with the effects of daylight savings. Teachers have to worry about getting themselves adjusted to the new time, and they have to help their students too. It can be difficult for teachers to get students to focus long enough to be able to teach them properly around daylight savings.

“Theres a couple [students] that were kinda complaining today… they claimed they were having a hard time adjusting [to the time change].” –Science teacher Greg Hygrell

There are numerous dangerous factors that can come from setting our clocks forward. Studies from a researcher at the University of Alabama show that there is a 10 percent increase in heart attacks in the days following daylight savings. There was also a study at Penn State that showed that it take a person 20% more time to do any task when there are disturbances in your sleep patterns.

It is much harder to get a normal nights sleep after daylight savings because of the nature of your biological clock. This lack of sleep can also contribute to more dangerous problems. There is an average of a 17% increase in traffic accidents on the day after daylight savings time. Most of these are caused by drowsy drivers on darker roads in the morning.

No matter where you are, you have probably felt the effects of the daylights savings time. Moving our clocks back help us move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening, which is very efficient. It is an important thing to do, so a couple of days of adjustment may be worth the end results.

53% of Buffalo High School students surveyed do not get the minimum number of hours of sleep a person of their age needs. When surveying students, we found that on average students get anywhere from 5-10 hours of sleep per night.

“If you get a good sleep, then you can be more successful.” says freshman Lauren Cypress.

Students stay up late for many reasons. Sometimes it’s because of extreme amounts of homework, or saving homework until last minute, late at night. Other times,  it’s just because of choice, either on technology or something else recreational.

High school students are supposed to have 8-10 hours of sleep every night, however teenagers’ changing sleeping patterns make it so that it’s natural for them to not feel tired until 11:00pm. So, is it realistic to expect students to sleep for 8-10 hours? Lots of students have homework and after school activities that take up time in their days, and cause them to stay up later.

“I know students have a lot of other things to worry about like sports after school, or working jobs.” says Chemistry teacher James Didier.

Most kids also need at least an hour to get ready in the morning. This makes it nearly impossible for them to get their minimum of 8 hours every night.

“Nobody gets ten hours of sleep, you can imagine how many students aren’t getting the recommended amount and I think it does affect their academics.” Says Didier.

Not getting the recommended hours of sleep can lead to problems at home and at school. Being tired makes it more difficult to learn. Lack of sleep can make it much harder to problem solve, comprehend, and pay attention in class. This makes it more difficult to go about your day normally, especially if you have school work.

“I don’t think learning can happen even half as well when you are completely exhausted.” says Math teacher Emily Haugh.

Situations where kids are not getting enough sleep can range from just annoying to more serious. It can get to the point where kids are falling asleep in class, which happens more commonly than you might think.

“I’ve had students that are falling asleep daily” says Haugh.

Lack of sleep can also affect your attitude and personality. It causes you to act more moody and irritable. More dangerously, being sleepy while driving can lead to car crashes.

“When you are tired, you just don’t respond to the best of your abilities in any situation.” says English teacher Sandra Goers.

Currently, our district is debating if the Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose school starting and ending times should be changed for the 2015-16 school year. This would mean that the elementary schools would start school at 7:45 and the middle school and high school would start at 8:50, opposite to the current system. There are very mixed opinions on this concerning students, parents, and staff.

“[For] the people who are trying to get the [right amount of] sleep, it will be beneficial for them, and that’s what we should base our decisions on.” says Haugh.

Some people think that moving the start time back will give the students another hour of sleep, while others say that students will just stay up later, and not take advantage of the time.

Later start time or not, there are still other ways to improve your sleep schedule. Experts suggest turning off all electronics at least 3 hours before bed. They also say to try and keep a consistent sleep schedule. This includes not sleeping in late on the weekends.

Not getting enough sleep can majorly affect your life, relationships, and attitude. A lack of sleep can hurt your health in many ways, but can be improved with the correct amount of sleep each night.

Many students, such as Freshman Amanda Montplasir, have acclimated well to high school and don’t feel much stress at this point in their education.

“High school hasn’t been too stressful yet…I think [my stress] will get worse because my classes will get harder,” said Montplasir.

Other students think that the beginning is the rough part, and things get less stressful as an upperclassman.

“Freshmen year was not too stressful for me because I didn’t try very hard, but once Sophomore year came I started taking harder classes, like AVID, and it really kicked my butt,” said Junior Julia Huston. “Now, in Junior year, stress doesn’t really affect me much because I got a job and learned how to not procrastinate.”

In a survey of all four grades at BHS there were a few different patterns. Of all freshmen and sophomores surveyed, the average stress level this year was a 6/10. However, for juniors and seniors, this number increased by 10% and is a 7/10 on average.

Every single student surveyed wrote down school as one of the major causes of stress in their lives. Quite a few students wrote down sports and families as big causes of stress as well.

Stress can affect different people in different ways and it really just depends on how people adjust to the pressures that come along in high school.