Photo by Monica Real I was doing just fine. I was goal-driven, motivated and determined to get straight A’s throughout high school. However, something got in the way. I couldn’t pin-point what was wrong with me. I limited all distractions by deleting TikTok and Instagram, meditated and set up a neat space to study. Everytime I did that, random thoughts would appear and I’d spend time researching random things. I would also get distracted by the things in my room, suddenly fi

Crunch nibble chomp gulp… these are all sounds that you would hear in a class where students are allowed to eat in. Some teachers allow students to eat during class while others don’t allow it at all. Many students often think that they should be allowed to eat during class for many reasons. There have been many debates over whether students should eat during class. According to the article, Education Week, it states, “Eating is allowed as long as it’s not overly messy, nois

Beauty standards have been around since the ancient civilizations and have changed a lot since social media became a thing. Beauty standards defy if you’re attractive or not, based on society’s expectations of appearance. Every society and culture has beauty standards. Beauty standards exist to show what everyone all around the world thinks is considered attractive. The main question is if beauty standards are getting too hard to achieve and if they are getting worse. Evely

At many concerts, there have been people complaining about others around them causing a disruptance to their concert experience. In current concert culture, it is very common for people to sing loudly and dance during the concert. Whenever I go to a concert, I go with the intention of screaming all of the words to the songs. While I love screaming lyrics loudly during a concert, there is a certain point where it goes from enjoying yourself to disrupting those around you. Scr

Halloween does not necessarily have an age limit, but people often debate the age at which you start handing out candy instead of going door-to-door getting candy. Nationwide, about a quarter of Americans think that there is no age limit for trick-or-treating, while others say that around 16 to 18 years old is the right time to stop. Some even say that kids should stop at an even earlier age such as 14 years old. What realistically do you think is the cutoff for being “too ol

With college application season in full swing, seniors are rushing to get their college lists finalized. However, creating a well balanced list is quite the challenge and many students don’t have the resources they need. College applications can be tricky, but here are five factors to consider when making the perfect college list. Factor 1: Distance The first thing to solidify is whether one would rather live at home with family and commute or live away from home. The benefi

For over two decades, John F. Kennedy has followed a four block schedule. This makes it so that students take four classes each term as opposed to six to eight classes year round. The system has a large impact on the way that teachers are able to run their class and how students learn. The students and faculty at JFK have many differing opinions on this type of schedule. Some teachers prefer the four block system because they are able to cover more material per day and they

Let's talk about 5-Star. It's a new program that was introduced to John F. Kennedy High School at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year that allows students to use digital hall passes rather than signing out on a sheet of paper and bringing a physical hall pass with them whenever they leave class. Each student gets two bathroom passes per day and a seven minute timer for each pass they use. 5-Star also grants us other useful features such as the new tardy procedure where s

AI can offer many benefits to a student's learning, including idea generation, personalized learning and faster research. When students are stuck on something, AI can help brainstorm ideas and give starting points for projects. AI adjusts explanations or examples to match students' learning style and their pace. AI quickly gathers information, which saves students time when working on assignments. As stated by Harvard Graduate School of Education, “But while academic integr

Charlie Kirk, a conservative political activist, and social media personality, was assassinated. On the afternoon of September 10th, Kirk was shot and killed while debating a student about mass shootings at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Kirk, co-founder of conservative organization Turning Point USA (TPUSA), was at the university on his first stop of his American Comeback Tour with TPUSA, a speech and debate tour aimed at discussing and debating politics. The assailan