BECKERAssociate Principal Troy

“Usually people who live a long happy life know their purpose. They understand the importance of slowing down and enjoying life”

CUNHA By Staff Writer Ana

Changes in study hall options hope to help raise CF students’ grades

The

HI-LINETiger

Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012 Volume 53 Edition 12

Placing first at stateFor the first time in CF history the pom routine received first/page 3

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While students enjoy sleep-ing in on Tuesday mornings and sipping at their warm Starbucks lattes, teachers and administra-tors have been working to try to increase the rate of student success.

A dramatic problem teach-ers and administrators have taken notice of at Cedar Falls High School is the growing amount of students on failing lists. The root of this problem lies not with students being in-capable or lacking the skills to pass, but in students neglect-ing their work.

Associate Principal Dana Deines has been working to help solve this problem by finding a way to get students to complete work during the day to achieve the goal of see-ing more students pass. “As you may be aware from our late start Tuesdays, our school has taken on a professional de-

velopment initiative to create a PLC ( Professional Learning Communities) at CFHS. With this initiative we have a fo-cus on learning, collaboration and results. Our overall goal is to help all students learn at high levels. It would be disin-genuous for us to set this goal without creating a system of interventions to give struggling learners additional time and support for learning during the school day,”

Deines said. “We have been looking to find additional inter-vention time during the school day to help all our students be successful. Each grading pe-riod we see many students fail-ing to complete assignments and as a result under perform and/or fail classes.”

To solve this problem, stu-dents will be placed in larger study halls during the school day and only students failing a

class with teacher recommen-dation will be required to do their work in smaller study halls with more individualized atten-tion until they receive passing grades. “Teachers will use this support time to assist students with their academic require-ments. Our idea is to have small study halls available each period to focus our academic support with students that may be failing class(es) due to incomplete assignments. We have set a goal to decrease the number of failing grades at our school,” Deines said.

Susan Langan, department head of guidance at Cedar Falls High School expects positive results from this new interven-tion program. “I think it’ll be re-ally good for the kids once they realize they can get the extra help and we have really great teachers to work with them,” Langan said. “We’re just trying

to get students extra support and more motivation to get some of their work done to in-crease their achievement.”

Math teacher Ron Hoof-nagle said he believes the new study halls will benefit many students, including the ones that are already passing who take the initiative to get extra help. “This change is being done because many students within the school who are in trouble academically are hav-ing that trouble due to not do-ing their school or homework. We are trying to give them ad-ditional assistance and atten-tion to help them get that work done. Rather than the penalty for skipping your homework being a zero, the penalty will be that you do your home-work,” Hoofnagle said.

He doesn’t see a prob-lem with the new study hall arrangements.“Students who

Cedar Falls High School hosted Cedar Falls Blue Zones community kick off on Wednesday, Nov. 28. About 450 people were at the event. It featured music, food and a lecture to introduce the project and its goals to the city.

The Blue Zones Project is a world-wide intention to im-prove the quality of life through stimulating healthy ways of life.The collaboration between the sponsors Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shields and Health-way is an attempt to make Iowa the most healthy state in the country.

National Geographic au-thor and researcher, Dan Buett-ner, who came to talk about it last Wednesday, studied the longest-lived cultures in the world and brought together all the aspects that make such dif-ference in those communities, trying to apply it to daily life.

According to Blues Zones

effort for Cedar Falls Commu-nity Schools coordinator Troy Becker, who had been involved with physical activities before, the goals to the community are very broad. The intention “is to get several different areas like schools, work places and grocery stores to help improving the wellness and well being of the communi-ty.” To achieve those goals he said he believes that nine things should help. They in-clude being physically ac-tive and having the right out look. “Usually people who live a long happy life know their purpose. They understand the importance of slowing down and en-joying life” he said. Other things include eating wisely. For example, when older people drink a glass of red wine each day, it brings a lot of benefits like reducing risks of cancer. Building strong rela-

tionships and prioritizing family are also very important.

A short term goal for the project in the community is to get the city certified in differ-ent areas. To be certified, each

area establishment needs to go through a check list that adds points for each term accom-plished. When those points

have a sum that shows healthy impacts in the community, then the place that applied gets cer-tified.

So far Lincoln Elementary and North Cedar have become

certified, and other elementaries are on the way. He said the real key to the Blue Zones being success-ful is to not approach it as a timeline. “It is our new way of life; it is long term. If we want long term im-pacts what we are doing here has to be sustainable. We don’t want to do it for a year, become certified and stop. We want to make sure that this is not

something that is not going away,” Becker said.

Everybody working on the project is a volunteer. The

sponsors picked six communi-ties in Iowa to be their test cit-ies, including Cedar Falls and Waterloo. With success, it will be possible to start Blue Zones in another communities.

Becker said he believes that the biggest challenge for Cedar Falls is “to get the word out to the entire community. The people that are involved know about Blue Zones, but we need to get other people [involvement], and have them start to live the Blue Zones style of life.”

He added that the kick off was a good opportunity to bring the Project out and have the community start to know about it and sign up. The com-mittee intends to get more establishments and people in the community as members of the Blue Zone work.

Blue Zone Project hits Cedar FallsHARWOOD

By Staff Writer Amanda

need extra help will still be able to get it. I do think we need to ensure it’s clear for these stu-dents how to get help during their study halls, and that it’s simple, so they’re not likely to get frustrated and skip the help,” Hoofnagle said.

Starting this week, the new study hall program will begin. This innovative change may seem sudden to students, but the idea has been in the mak-ing for the past year. “We have been looking to pilot this large /small study hall process for the past year. Our building leader-ship team has worked to move this concept forward. We are now ready to try this interven-tion and to see if there are ben-efits to continue and/or expand this intervention in the future,” Deines said.

Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012 HI-LINETiger

The

OPINION2Our View

The Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism classes at Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Our website is www.hiline.cfschools.org. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Tuesdays to read during their RCTs fourth period.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hi-Line staff or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial is presented weekly in the editorial labeled Our View, and it is the view of the major-ity of the editors listed below.

Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to The Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed. Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Thursday for publi-cation in the following Tuesday edition. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Writers should include their contact information for verification.

Editor-in-Chief: Maya AmjadiNews Editor: Katherine MayhewOpinion Editor: Maya AmjadiSports Editor: Jared HyltonFeature Editor: Sandra Omari-BoatengEntertainment Editor: Lindsey DavisHi-Line Online Editor: Martha HallStaff Writers: Ana Cunha, Amanda Harwood, Linne Hoofnagle, Karley Izer, Alyssa Jensen, Maddie Kemp, Lauren Nickerson, Quinn Stabenow, Liam Tate

Contact Us

‘White Christmas’ draws out a crowd

In a busy, stressful world of essay writing, scholarship applying, homework completion and AP studying, time seems to slip by unnoticed (until that college application deadline arrives). Being so caught up in the worries of a teenage student, it can be easy to miss the things going on all around and the beauties our small town of Cedar Falls has to offer.

On Friday night, downtown was sparkling. The brightly lit store fronts and Christmas displays captured the attention of the many passersby. Restaurants and the lovely Cup of Joe coffee shop were busy warming their customers with good food and drink. The deco-rated trees, light displays and holiday music added to the cheering atmosphere. However, the best treat of all was to be found after stumbling into the Oster Regent Theatre on Main Street for the showing of “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.”

The cast included former CFHS student Falken Ja-ramillo and current English teacher Michelle Rathe. Ja-ramillo performed without missing a step as he danced and sang in a small ensemble of actors. Rathe sparkled on stage, making her experience evident as she cap-tured the audience’s attention and had them laughing out loud. The musical’s visual appearance was enticing, with brightly colored costumes and changing scenery.

The sounds coming from the orchestra pit were just as magical as the performances on stage. Senior Ben-nett Ford played the drums and band instructors Gerald Ramsey (playing the clarinet, saxophone and flute) and Kyle Engelhardt (lead trumpet) also contributed to the merry sounds.

There is still a chance to catch this highly recom-mended live entertainment. Get tickets at the Oster Re-gent box office or call 277-5283. The last showings are Dec. 7, 8 and 9.

Across the nation, schools both public and private have been debat-ing implementing school uniforms. Administrators and parents believe that school uniforms will elimi-nate discrimination and bul-lying in the school environ-ment. This and other perks that are said to come with school uniforms are false, and other problems arise from the idea.

First of all, the most obvious point against uniforms is that they restrict self-expression. We live in a dynamic society, full of unique characters that make our world a spontane-ous one. Cutting that off at a young age only stifles creativ-ity and encourages conformity. We want to encourage our chil-dren to be expressive and to think outside the box. Forc-ing them to wear ugly gray sweat-er vests and s t a r c h e d white shirts is not the way to do that.

T h e g e n d e r -s p e c i f i c u n i f o r m guidelines often rein-force the gender binary in the school environment. The sepa-ration between females and males will only increase. If uni-forms were all-encompassing and non-gender specific, this problem would not exist. How-ever, uniforms are not all-en-compassing. There are limited choices for males and limited choices for females. Though females can wear uniform pants, men are not allowed to wear uniform jumpers. Conflict would arise if a male attempted to wear the specified “female” attire. This poses problems to LGBT progress in school envi-ronments.

Another strike against this trend is that uniforms are un-

necessarily costly and useless. No kid wants to wear a uniform on the weekend, to the mov-ies or out with friends, which leaves parents no choice but to purchase clothing besides uniforms for their kids to wear outside of school. Uniform clothing is also expensive. Monogrammed school-specific polos, jumpers and ties all must be custom-ordered to fit the

uniform code. These are often expensive and, considering the fact that they cannot be used all year, a strict uniform code would be wasteful.

What is the message we are trying to send children? I’ll tell you; we’re proposing that everyone can only get along if everyone conforms to the same standards. It’s not a healthy les-son. The message should be conflict resolution no matter the physical appearance. In the real world, people do not all look the same.

That brings us to one of the most troubling points; does teaching children that everyone should look the same harm their outside social life?

Uniforms restrict a vital part of social interac-tion: communicating by outer appearance. Though people often say that being judged on your appearance is a negative thing, I would argue that it can be a positive thing. Clothing is an important part of culture; removing that from developing chil-

dren and teenageers will ef-fectively create a generation of unsatisfied drones.

Lastly, where did we get the idea that bullying and stereo-types would magically disap-pear if we implemented a strict uniform? People will not stop bullying each other based on appearance, which manifests itself in ways besides cloth-

ing. If we convince ourselves that placing limits on clothing choices will eliminate school bullying, we are kidding our-selves.

Statistics collected by David L. Brunsma from the University of Alabama and Kerry A. Rockquemore of Notre Dame for The Journal of Education Research show that there’s nearly no change in student behavior after the implementation of school uniforms. The conclusion of the study reads, “Based upon this analysis, the authors were forced to reject the ideas that uniforms improved atten-dance rates, decreased be-

havioral problems, decreased drug use or improved academ-ic achievement.”

The only real solution to bullying and other problems in the elementary and high school environment is encour-aging and teaching open-mindedness in students. Mes-sages that circulate throughout the high school that exacer-bate stereotypes and bullying are often ignored. Want to end bullying? Address the root of the problem, cutting off a few of the branches will not do any real good.

We live in a dynamic society, full of unique

characters that make our world a spontaneous one. Cutting that off at a young age only stifles creativity and encourages conformity.

“

“

HoofnagleStaff Writer Linne

Uniforms limit number of outlets for creativity and self-expression Dulling out individuality isn’t the way to stop bullying

Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012 HI-LINETiger

The

SPORTS3Athlete

Weekofthe

What are your goals for this season?

I want to keep improving every meet and win a couple meets.

What did you do to pre-pare in the off season?

Every once in awhile I go bowling by myself so my muscles keep the memory.

What are this year’s team’s strengths?

Our six varsity members from last year are all back, so we don’t have any new peo-ple, so the team chemistry is still there.

How long have you bowled?

I’ve been competitively bowling for three years, but I’ve been around bowling my whole life.

What do you think about Valley Park closing?

We weren’t necessarily happy about it, but it was un-derstandable. The lanes were really bad. It’s inconvenient.

TigersActionin

Men’s Basketball (1-0)Next up: Iowa City High on

Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m. at home Women’s Basketball

(2-1)Next up: Waterloo East on

Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m. at homeWrestling

Next up: CR Washington and CR Jefferson on Dec. 6 at 5:30

p.m. at homeBowling (1-3)

Next up: Dubuque Senior on Dec. 7 at 3:45 p.m. at Maple

LanesMen’s Swimming (0-0)

Next up: Linn-Mar on Dec. 4 at home

Women’s BowlingEllen Jones

HYLTONSports Editor Jared

STATE CHAMPSPom and All-Male routines bringing home the ‘shipThe CFHS dance teams

performed at the State Com-petition last Friday, and let’s just say, “They didn’t even have to try. It’s always a good time.” Pom and All-Male took first place in their classes.

The girls Pom routine, choreographed by Shannon Chrusciel, marks the first time Cedar Falls has ever won a state championship in the Pom Division. The Tigers finished with an average judges score of 66.38 (70 points possible) in Class XIII, finishing .75 points ahead of second place Sioux City North. Next season the dance team loses five seniors off of the State Champion-win-ning Pom routine.

“It feels amazing,” senior dancer Halle Benson said. “I think it feels even better that we made history. We went out there, and we knew we did amazing as a team. One thing we didn’t have that other teams did was technique as a team, and I think we went out and did it sharper and had more energy than any other team. We just worked our butts off, and we knew we did our absolute best.”

The boys All-Male routine won the Large School All-Male category for the third

straight year, completing “The Dynasty.” The dance was cho-reographed by Coach Alyssa Nolte and Leah Mills.

Not only did they bring home the title, they were also selected as one of three Judges Choice Awards which are given by the judges to the three best routines. This is the first time Cedar Falls has ever won a Judges Choice Award in any category.

“I feel like I’ve been through it all with the whole All-Male team. I was on it the first year, and we got third. We’ve just gotten better every year after that. After State this year, I was speechless because I didn’t know how to express how much I love the All-Male guys and how proud I am of the girls Pom Routine. I’m going to miss it a ton,” senior captain Raud Kashef said.

By winning this, they are now elgible to dance at the State Basketball Championship game at Wells Fargo Arena in March. “The Males” also walked to Zombie Burger for lunch where they performed their entire routine outside the front window while waiting to be seated. They played a piv-otal role in earning the Sports-manship Award back-to-back

years.The Hip-Hop routine, which

also featured all-male dancer and state soloist Richard Lam, earned a Division I rating but placed seventh out of 11 teams, not earning a trophy. They scored an average 63.25 points, just one point behind fifth place Davenport West.

The Coed routine took fourth place but didn’t receive a trophy because only the top three teams in Large School Coed received trophies. The routine was choreographed by coach Alyssa Nolte and fea-tured a “Wild” theme. Most of the routine was performed to the song “Born to be Wild” by Steppenwolf. The routine received an average score of 60.5, barely making the cut for a Division 1 rating. They fell just 2.33 points short of third place Ames. “Even though we didn’t place and did the best we could, we had Richard [Lam], which made it really fun too,” senior captain Allie Arm-strong said.

The Kick Routine failed to earn a Division I rating, with an average score of 58.5. Teams must have a minimum average score of 60 points to earn a Division I rating, and to place, teams must have a Division I

rating.Cedar Falls wasn’t done

bringing home trophies yet though. For the second straight year the Tiger dance team was awarded the Sportsmanship Award. A large part of that award goes to Lam who printed off slips of paper with a poem he had written wishing other teams luck and encouraging them on their upcoming rou-tines. The All-Male and Coed guys then handed the poems out to girls teams and used them as conversation starters. Junior Timmy Sevcik proved to be the ladies man at State; he could frequently be found with other teams.

All State Routines can be found online; they will also each be performing at halftime of home basketball games throughout the season. To learn which days each routine is performing, visit the dance team’s webpage at www.cf-schools.org/dance-team/per-formances.

This Friday at halftime of the men’s basketball game, the fans can watch both of the winning routines — Pom and All-Male.

Pom All-Male Coed Hip-HopAllie Armstrong & Conner CalhounJessica McMurrin Ted Tilahun Halle Benson

Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2012 HI-LINETiger

The

CAPTURED4

From top left, going clockwise. Kick shows off their flexibility. Josh Ochoa strikes a pose. The boys of all male make a state-ment. Molly Juhlin gives a little something to the audience. The co-ed group finish off their routine. Lisa Schreck performs dur-ing pom. Hip-hop girls synchronize their moves. More pom girls smile for the crowd. Raud Kashef pumps up the audience. The pom squad moves to the beat. Richard Lam and Sam Jamison get cheeky.

Shake Yo Groove Thang

Anna Love Photos