High School Playbook

Cumberland Valley's Capital Blue Cross Brain Busters Championship victory over Lancaster Country Day may be history, but the team's classmates are still reaping the benefits.

Capital Blue Cross gave out some pretty cool prizes to students during a lunch time raffle. Prizes included computers, TV's Wii video game systems, and gift certificates.

11^th grader Max Shoop won a 22" flat screen TV!

"I was just thinking how my TV went out," said Shoop. "As they called out the numbers, I looked at my ticket and thought 'I won't win.' Then I did."

It also happened to be Max's birthday.

Another big prize that was given out later in the day was a mountain bike.

It’s time to honor the best and the brightest of the Susquehanna Valley!

Valedictorians from across the area are honored with the title of Best of the Class 2009. This is the second group of many students honored.

Check out the first group of Best Of The Class here!

The West Shore Elks Group Number 22-57 honored students for their academic achievements at “Youth Appreciation Day” this weekend in Camp Hill, Cumberland County.

The top female and male in 10^th, 11^th and 12^th grades from the seven surrounding school districts were awarded.  Local boy scouts who achieved the Eagle Scout level and local girl scouts who reached the Gold Scout award were also honored.

Senator Pat Vanice, of the 31^st district, was the guest speaker.  She said she believes that the awarded students are tomorrow’s leaders.

“We have a lot of kids that are volunteering.  I think it’s a very good sign,” Vanice said.

"9 hours of sleep is unheard of unless it's the weekend and you get to sleep in 'till 10 or something."

6:30 a.m. – WAKE UP!

1. School
2. After school sports
3. Evening activities
4. HOME
5. Dinner
6. Homework
7. Chat with a friend
8. Television
9. Spend some time surfing the web

12 a.m. – SLEEP!

It all adds up to far less than the 9 hours of sleep doctors recommend. And guess what: sleepless nights can affect your grades!

Studies show that the average teenage sleeps approximately 7-hours a night. That's 2-hours less than the 9-hours doctors recommend.

According to a new study from the University of Pennsylvania, that lack of sleep can affect your memory and hinder your performance in school.

"What we do know is the more you continue to sleep deprive someone, their neurocognitive abilities – perform tasks, use your memory – go down," said sleep specialist Jeffrey Dumer, M.D.

One student admitted that his grades have dropped, while another said he sometimes falls asleep in class because of always being tired.

Experts say that one way to get to bed earlier is to avoid the bright lights of television and computer screens close to the time you go to bed. Also, sort out what's important and what should come first.

"Try not to push things into the middle of the night," added Dumer.

If you need to catch up on sleep, dosing extra on weekends won't solve the problem. By the second or third day of the school week, you're likely to find yourselves sleep deprived once again.

How do you make sure you get enough sleep? Or do you fall victim to snoozing extra hours on the weekend? Leave your comments below!

sign up | log in | upload pics | upload videos | contact us | find your school

Valedictorians from across the area will be featured on-air and on WGAL's High School Playbook.com in the coming weeks.

In addition to the photo ops, Head of the State System of Higher Education John Cavanaugh had a special message for students:

"Be happy being yourself. Don't try to be what everyone else wants you to be. Second, be proud of what you've accomplished. It's not easy being really smart. It's really tough. If you are who you are, you can be content in life."

News 8's Joe Calhoun was live at the luncheon and got a chance to talk to a few students being honored.

Cuts in the state budget for university funding could make college tuition a lot more costly in Pennsylvania.

Graham Panier, President of Penn State University, said tuition could increase about 10% this year.
  

If Governor Ed Rendell’s latest proposal is approved, Pennsylvania residents attending the main campus would face a $640 per-semester tuition increase.

The University’s trustees are scheduled to vote on the increase later today. 

It’s time to honor the best and the brightest of the Susquehanna Valley!

Valedictorians from across the area are honored with the title of Best of the Class 2009. This is the first group of many students honored.  

Will Obama’s Speech Make A Difference?  by Alex Anstett, Hempfield

Tuesday, September 8th, Obama gave his much anticipated address to students all across the country.

It seemed the President had good intentions in trying to motivate students. But when you’re the resident of the United States of America, and even further, when you’re Barack Obama, a very popular man in the world, you can barely drink a cup of coffee without the whole world offering criticism or praise.

So if Barack Obama, considered an educated man, did not know that addressing the nation’s students would cause an uproar, it was a fatal error on his part. The problem with this speech was not the message. In watching the speech or reading the transcript, it is clear that the President was simply trying to get students to try harder in school and seek higher education. The true problem is the chaos that occurred in almost every household because of the content of the speech.

Newscasters and political correspondents reported Obama of trying to “brainwash” the nation’s youth by talking to all of them at once. Shouldn’t Obama have known this would happen? He probably expected the buzz around this topic in both the media and in the homes of just about every American family, and decided to change his content to get his message across.

In Hempfield High School, students were given a choice to stay in class and watch it during fourth period or opt out to the auditorium for a study hall while it played. Mr. Stout, the school principal, explained how he handled the letter from the White House.

“I knew it would have ramifications for everyone, so I sent it to the central office superintendents, who told us as a district how to proceed with it since it impacted all of the schools.”

Hempfield School District was not unlike every other district in the country, with calls from concerned parents ringing in often.

“I received calls from both sides of the fence,” says Mr. Stout. “To show or not show the speech by the teacher’s discretion and allowing students to opt out was the right approach.”

If this is the way our school handled Obama’s speech, and since many other schools all over the country used similar methods, then why all the noise? Teachers and administrators in this school don’t seem to mind.

“I think it’s good that the President of the United States takes an interest in education,” says Mr. Stout.

While Obama had good intentions, the outcry from his critics was great. Even if you completely disagree with Obama’s policies, you have to admit the guy has guts. Nine months into his already controversial presidency, he addresses the entire nation’s youth, a choice he must have known would raise more than a few voices.

Featured Article #4: Dance, A Universal Language, by Alisha Ring, Lampeter-Strasburg start reading >>

Dance, A Universal Language, by Alisha Ring, Lampeter-Strasburg

When I thought about my going to Slovakia, I had a lot of unanswered questions floating about in my mind, waiting to be answered by what I was about to experience. One of the things I wondered about was what I would do every day, after I arrived home from school. I wondered if there were extra curriculars I could get involved with, whether or not I would be able to find someone to ask about it.

My first host sister was a dancer, although not very serious about it, and was part of a Slovak folkdance troupe called Slne?nica (translated as Sunflower). I decided, upon very little consideration, to try out a few classes and see how I liked the dancing. ME, the girl who had never taken a dance class in her life, whose only experience with movement was tennis and moving her mouth to sing. But I was game, as was I somewhat forced to be when all that was around me was completely foreign.

I just watched the dancing during the first class and went home to “try out” some of the steps they had been doing. I fell a few times and looked up goofily at my host sister when she came in the room to find out what all the noise was about. Over time though, I grew more adept with my dancing and picked up some of the dances rather quickly (thank you, fourth grade gym teacher who liked to make us learn every game on earth in two class periods!). I came to love the interesting tidbits I noticed about Slovak folk dancing; the different steps for each little region of the small country, the elaborate and detailed costumes, the beautiful way that the dancers looked, as if they were playing a game.

The music was one of my favorite parts of the whole arrangement. Fiddles, a viola, a bass, a harpsichord and usually an accordion made up the band, each person playing away to his heart’s content, just barely keeping rhythm and always really feeling the music. And there was the unusual instrument I witnessed being played only twice: a bassoon-like reed instrument consisting of one large, long hollow pipe, making a sound like the whistle of someone blowing suddenly over an empty bottleneck. What fun it was to dance to such beautiful, lively, fun-loving music! When all of the dancers and musicians were enjoying the dance, I felt so lost in contentment.

I spent nine hours a week at dance classes, which cost me less than sixty dollars for an entire year, with some of the best trainers the country could offer. I went to each performance, danced in many, and became part of a group of closely-knit peers. It was one big family at the dance studio, and I formed rather close friendships with many of my fellow dancers. For me it was one of the best ways to experience the country in which I was spending a year of my life.

This dancing opened the door for many opportunities for me not only to see what the Slovak people are like, but also to witness other countries. However, I did not merely experience these things from the perspective of an American tourist, but rather from the viewpoint of a Slovak high school girl going on a dancing trip to another European country to perform with her troupe in a folklore dance festival.

The Artist in Us All, by Miles Trout, Dallastown

By definition, to doodle is “to draw or scribble idly” according to dictionary.com.

Students who doodle don’t realize that what they scribble on the backs of tests and in the margins of notes tell a lot about them.

“I used to fill the margins of my school notebooks with caricatures of my friends and teachers,” said art teacher Mrs. Bell “I still managed to take notes, participate in class discussions, and get good grades.”

Most shapes are not difficult to interpret in a doodle.

Drawsketch.about.com says hearts, for instance, represent either love, or a lack of it. Houses represent homesickness, or a will to belong. Guns or swords often represent aggression. Those motivated by self-growth or future fame typically draw tiny stars or moons.

However, not all doodles are so easily interpreted.

Bright things such as suns or light bulbs often represent happiness or a child-like disposition in the artist. 

Truly idle students often think of far away places. If the waves of an ocean slide from a pencil tip as a doodle, the artist is probably mentally relaxing on a far away beach with the sand and sun according to ehow.com.

“We are just not meant to sit for long periods of inactivity,” Bell continued, “Doodling is often perceived as a person not paying attention… in my opinion, doodling keeps us focused, grounded, and alert.”

Male doodlers don’t often find themselves shimmying flowers onto their tests or textbooks. Flowers are interpreted as very feminine symbols, often representing learning or spiritual enlightenment.

Less artistic students often go with the classic Stick Figures. Deep thoughts often go towards the actions of stick figures-therefore, they are usually considered art.

“I doodle things like big battles with photon cannons and stick people,” said senior Kyle Strous.

The actions of the stick figures speak for themselves: fighting stick figures represent anger; talking stick figures represent impatience, that sort of thing.

Simple dots or lines are doodles in their own right. Zigzags tell the viewer that the artist needs help, or that they have just learned a harsh reality. Sporadic dots obviously represent chaos or lack of focus.

None of these doodles represent what appears on your test? Abstract shapes or squiggly lines often are simply distractions where ones mind is taking a break.

“I doodle abstract numbers and letters. They usually turn out pretty cool,” said senior Julia Jackson.

The placement of doodles on a page plays a part in the absence of one’s thoughts.

Doodling to the left means nostalgia or regret; to the right lays the need to communicate, though few people start with their doodles there. Independent thinkers often start at the top, while the “sheep” stick their doodles towards the bottom. Central doodles in the spot light love their attention.

“I have got some students who doodle on everything,” said English teacher Miss Gable. “Some of them are really good! I am always surprised by some of the crazy things they come up with when they are finished their tests”

Celebrities and average people alike all doodle from time to time.

Doodles from celebrities like Chef Ainsley Harriott and talk show host Ellen Degeneres are just a few that have been auctioned off on National Doodle Day each March.

Each year celebrities donate their doodles to help people with Epilepsy and Neurofibromatosis. To see some of these doodles, check out nationaldoodleday.org

Featured Article #3: Will Obama’s Speech Make A Difference? By Alex Anstett, Hempfield start reading >>