When you’re figuring out your schedule for next year, consider tak-ing Spanish.
“‘Oh the places you’ll go!’ if you choose to learn Spanish or any oth-er language,” said Span-ish teacher Señora Vik. “...I believe the im-portance [of knowing Spanish] lays with a per-son to be better able to engage in our world,” added fellow Spanish teacher Señora Pflug. Learning another lan-guage will make
learn-ing additional languages easier, increase your chances of being hired, and enhance your travel-ing experiences. Learn-ing another language also improves your un-derstanding of your pri-mary language. Believe it or not, Spanish can improve your English grammar. How is that so?
English and Spanish both originated from Latin and have Indo-European roots. As such, their grammar rules and idiosyncrasies are quite similar, and the two
share many cognates. Since many other lan-guages are also similarly based, knowing Spanish can help you learn more languages by providing you with a point of refer-ence.
Junior Trenton Colby remarked that Spanish helped him communi-cate while visiting a Por-tuguese-speaking coun-try. He said knowing Spanish can “be handy...some of the School, in the eyes of
most students, sucks. There are so many flaws, and so many things overlooked when it comes to the American education system. How-ever, that doesn’t mean that those who work in the building are awful. I’d like to highlight the staff in our building who do all that they can for our benefit.
1. The janitors. Most of the time they remain unseen, yet these people save us from our messes. They clean the class-rooms, gymnasiums, sweep the cafeteria floors we leave littered with remnants of food and wrappers, make re-pairs, deliver various items, and (one thing I highly appreciate) make our public bathrooms less disgusting. Most of us would pass at the op-portunity to scrub toilets
and unclog toilets, but these remarkable people do this for us, with less recognition and pay that they deserve.
2. The cooks and kitchen staff. School food is highly debateable as a good food source, but our kitchen staff doesn’t have much say in what they prepare. They make hundreds of
portions and serve it to resentful, hungry (and therefore often crabby) teenagers. Without them, we wouldn’t have waffle Wednesday, nor chicken nugget day, so next time they serve you your least favorite lunch, keep that
Online@ www.nw-tigers.org/the-octagon
Volume 66, Issue 30 May 8, 2015
By Jay Gaare
Today:
Golf: Boys’
Varsity Match @ Bloomer
Choir Pops
Concert
Tomorrow:
Prom
Monday:
Golf: Boys’
Varsity Match @ Cumber-land
Senior Honor Banquet
Tuesday:
Track: Varsity Invitational @ Rice Lake
Baseball:
JV&V @ Cum-berland
Thursday:
Track: Varsity Meet @
Spooner
Baseball: JV&V @ Iron River vs. Bar-ron
Softball: JV&V
@ Barron
To those planning on attending the Senior Honor banquet, please note that the Chicken Kiev, if in-correctly treated, will spray butter on eve-rything and everyone in the immediate vi-cinity. The proper technique is to poke a small hole on the side opposite you and/or anything you do not wish to be covered in butter.
Pg. 6 Films of 2015
By Mikayla Maijala
‘Unsung Heroes’
Continued Pg. 2
‘Español’
Continued Pg. 5
When was the last time you checked your various social media ac-counts? A few days back, last night, or perhaps even a few minutes ago? According to the PewResearch Center, 56% of teenagers go online multiple times per day, and 92% go online daily.
A quick survey of 20 random students here at NHS displayed similar results, with 70% admit-ting to checking their social media more than twice a day.
What does this mean? Well, teenagers are in-credibly connected to technology: they depend on it for many reasons, such as doing their homework or
communi-cating with friends and family.
According to our school survey, 35% of students spend 5-9 hours each day on their phones, while 30% spend over 10 hours. When you com-pute the time into a 24 hour time frame, subtract the hours in school (7) and hours of sleep (8), that potentially means one-third of our student body spends their re-maining awake time on their phones.
Without a doubt, tech-nology has made our lives easier and more en-joyable, but can using too much technology be bad for us? Yes. An arti-cle in the New York Times claims that over-use of technology can cause people to become “more impatient,
impul-sive, forgetful, and even more narcissistic.”
As a society, we’re so used to immediately get-ting what we want and getting answers very quickly. According to an online survey by the PewResearch Center, 76% of over 2,000 Ad-vanced Placement and Writing Teachers believe that technology has ac-customed students to ex-pect that they will “be able to find information quickly and easi-ly.” Consequently, peo-ple are more rude and impatient than ever, of-ten unwilling to spend time figuring things out or researching more deeply.
Furthermore, the con-stant use of technology has resulted in people demonstrating less
re-spect for others. This be-havior is seen when peo-ple use the phone while at the movie theatre, text while at the dinner table, and drive dangerously while on the phone. In addition, it’s disput-ed that technology is making us antisocial. Some teenagers spend more time texting their friends than talking to them in person. Accord-ing to our brief school survey, 35% of NHS stu-dents send over 100 text messages a day.
Unsure if you are
ad-dicted? Google
“technology addiction quiz” to take an online assessment test to see if you have an addiction to technology. How’s that for irony?
By Mikayla Maijala
Senior Editor/ Formatter:
Nik Sauer
Text Editor Brooklyn Smith
Staff Members: Katie Johnson
Jay Gaare Richard Schiff
Luke Rutten Evan Simmons Mikayla Maijala
Cassie Harvey Alissa Ormond Chaede Vig
Advisor: Mrs. Thompson
in mind. It’s not their fault, and they still de-serve a smile and a “thank you.”
3. Paraeducators. These people are, in my opinion, akin to teachers and in some aspects, go beyond. Paraeducators are those who help those with learning impair-ments complete their as-signments, help them focus, offer alternatives, and cope with the stress-ful setting of school. It’d be nice to stop in to their room some time and thank them, whether or not you personally work with them.
4. The Secretaries. Mrs. Wise, Mrs. Priem, and Mrs. Moen-Kienzle are some of the most helpful people I have met. They are always
willing to help, so kind, and even if they can’t get you the exact infor-mation you were looking for, they can point us in the right direction. Deal-ing with announcements, documents, papers, forms, notes, emails, mail -- they are the beat-ing heart to our school. Mrs. Wise, I feel, de-serves a special shout-out for all the students she’s talked to simply to make conversation, said good morning, good af-ternoon, good night, just to make you feel includ-ed. And even though she insists her singing is ter-rible, most of us love it. I know I’ll miss all of these ladies when I grad-uate.
5. Our Nurse’s Aide. Need a band-aid? Got a headache? Ice for that ankle, wrist, head? Mrs. Haworth supplies this and so much more. She
deals with many sick teenagers every day, as well as many complaints that may not turn out to be completely true. (She's also helped a con-siderable amount with musical) You can count on her to help your ail-ment with a great attitude and kindness.
6. The Teachers Who Go Above and Beyond. All teachers deserve thanks, yes, but I feel it is necessary to highlight those who bring a little more. I want to thank each teacher who has taught more than what is on the curriculum, who has taught us about life outside of school. Extra thanks go to those who teach about finances, jobs, purchasing essen-tials, etc. whilst making a teacher’s salary. Also, a small shoutout to the teachers (Mrs. Lahti, Mr. Letko, and Mr. Hessel)
who lend their supplies and advice to countless students and staff; we're all sorry for bothering you, but know that we really appreciate it.
If you could do one thing without failing, what would it be?
Conquer the world and use my power to cure cancer, end all wars (more realistically, reduce death and de-struction caused by wars), find a
so-lution to the hunger epidemic, and make progress to-wards solving various other problems. Then I’d prob-ably go mad with power and that’d suck
for y’all. MWUHAHAHAHAHA! What would be the first thing you would buy if you were a billionaire? What do you mean, “if”? I would likely make smart investments, like a sweatshirt company, and then buy some sweatshirts from it. Nothing better than investing in yourself.
Who are your favorite teachers?
All of the teachers I had on the first floor, except one; don’t worry though, he/she no longer teaches here. The remaining teach-ers are all excellent.
Do you have advice for underclassmen? Where do I begin?!? First of all, join sports/clubs, or more specifically Cross Country and FFA. Secondly, be friends with the people whom you hate. It seems counterintuitive, but it is a great way to avoid drama and awkward situations. Thirdly, don’t be a chronic complainer. If you don’t like something, fix it. If you
“can’t do anything about it,” then stop complaining. It’s important to note that, most of the time, you are the only person that cares about what you’re com-plaining about, so just stop. Lastly, and most im-portantly, don’t herniate a disc. It gives a whole new meaning to back-breaking work, and I am not fond of it.
Advice for teachers?
Don’t pass your students if they deserve to fail. I spe-cifically tried to fail a class, and I was talked to at the end of the final day and told I had to finish an essay or I would fail. To continue my experiment, I turned in a subpar essay that should have inevitably failed me, but I just happened to get a 60% on it and passed the class. I’m aware that you don’t want to tarnish Northwestern’s golden statistical perfection, but by avoiding doing so, you’re turning your classes into a joke, and they will not be taken as seriously in the future.
Would you rather be a dragon or a unicorn? Unicorns are cool and all, but I’m assuming this is a fire-breathing dragon, which, combined with formi-dable looks and the ability to ferociously soar through the skies, makes for an unstoppable force. Unless, of course, humans developed an immovable object in which case we would just have a paradox. Now that I think about it, this should really be the first step in my plan to take over the world without failing.
What are your plans after high school?
It took me seven semesters to figure out what I wanted to do in high school. My plans for after high school are currently the equivalent of that rough draft that you haven’t started yet and will eventually turn in as the final product.
What are your plans after high school?
Going to CVTC for auto mechanics, getting a busi-ness degree, and becoming rich.
What’s your favorite hobby?
Going to the races, or just watching cars turn left. What’s your favorite high school memory? It’s all a blur to me, but probably the Monday after the quarter was done and I found out I passed English 12.
What was the hardest year in high school for you? Sophomore year. English 10… the first time I took it. What is the number one played song on your iPod?
“Play That Funky Music,” by Wild Cherry. Advice for underclassmen?
Be respectful towards our school, staff. and other stu-dents. And don’t be stupid.
Would you rather have a pet dragon or dinosaur? Dragon. I would fly around and shoot fire at stuff. What would a dinosaur be good for?
What is your second favorite color, and why isn’t it your first?
I’d have to say blue, because its too common, and I like orange too much.
Nick
Korhonen
Brandon Copp
A former NSA official has stat-ed that the NSA has become so overwhelmed with data that it
is no longer effective. By Nik Sauer
Australian space scientists have discovered that the microwave radiation they’ve been
in-vestigating for 17 years came not from space, but from their own kitchen microwaves.
More than 12 million of California's trees have been
killed as a result of the state’s extreme drought. $16.7 million of cocaine was
accidently delivered to Ger-man grocery stores-for the
second time.
The UK held elections for its 650 members of parliament yesterday. New technology has been
developed that uses Ultra-sonic waves to create “feeling without touching.”
A NASA-designed heart-beat sensing radar helped to find four Nepalese men
buried under rubble. Have you ever had
one of those school days where it seems that you just cannot concentrate? At all? I realize that for some people this is an everyday thing, but I am specifically referring to when it seems that eve-rything around you is too distracting. I recently read an article that was discussing how our sens-es can affect our learn-ing, and thought that such an article would be worth sharing with the masses here.
So, how much does our environment affect our learning processes? Surprisingly, a lot. The British government has been doing a surprising number of studies on environmental influ-ences, with a special em-phasis on noise and how it can hinder learning. A recent study looked at standardized tests tak-en by studtak-ents who had
their school situated right next to an airport, and compared them to student results when their school was in a more audibly tranquil
setting.
As any student could most likely predict, the students next to the air-port lagged considerably behind the other stu-dents. While other varia-bles are being eliminated in further studies, and so forth, this result does bring up questions to ponder. Are some stu-dents at a disadvantage, simply because they are in a noisy environment? And if so, how can we stop this problem?
There are other ways
that our senses can affect our learning and ability to complete tasks and assignments. Many peo-ple have heard of the “Mozart Effect.” This is
the idea that listening to classical music, such as Mozart’s works, can boost the listener’s Intel-ligence Quotient.
While this is a stretch, studies on this matter have shown that listening to pleasant sounds, which for some people could be Mozart, can make the listener become a lot more fo-cused at specific tasks at hand.
I, myself, will sometimes listen to Hans Zimmer
soundtracks when work-ing on assignments (if you do not know who Hans is, shame befall upon you and your pets). However, sounds of acoustic pleasantry is not always helpful. In tasks of serial recall (no, that is not the sequel to the movie Total Recall), such as mental arithme-tic, sounds of varying pitches (most music) can interfere and become quite a hinderance.
Finally, there is one final measure that can help or hinder with one’s learning capabilities: the scents in an environ-ment. Easily the most overlooked and underap-preciated sense, smell has been proven to be a powerful trigger for spe-cific memories. Certain smells can also invoke certain states of con-scious. It has been prov-By Evan Simmons
“...this result does bring up questions to
ponder. Are some students at a
disad-vantage, simply because they are in a
noisy environment? And if so, how can
we stop this problem?”
en, for example, that lav-ender is a scent that can make subjects feel quite drowsy and have issues focusing or remembering things.
Spearmint, on the other hand, is a scent that can instill alertness and focus one’s attention a lot bet-ter than without. Here at the Octagon, we have conducted a study of our own on this idea. Our
results are that there are many smells present in the school that hamper us from focusing on tasks at hand.
These hindering scents include, but are not lim-ited to, intense smells of body odor, raw sewage/ sulphur, and especially highly concentrated body spray, which is typically on only one or two per-sons. These results have not been obtained scien-tifically, but rather prov-en through multiple
trau-matic life experiences. So, what can we take away from all this? Well, in a sense (pun not in-tended), be aware of your surroundings.
Maybe look into ob-taining some classical music or something audi-ble that soothes you, and buy some Ice Breakers or Altoids. Also, work on maintaining a pleasant smell about you, not only for your sake, but for your fellow students. A girl in Paraguay has
become impregnated (allegedly) by her stepfa-ther; there is currently a warrant out for his arrest. Her mother is also im-prisoned because she has “breached her duty of care.”
This girl is ten years old, and is 22 weeks along with her pregnan-cy. Her condition was discovered when she went in to the emergency room for abdominal pain. Her mother and a group called Amnesty Interna-tional want the ten-year-old to get an abortion, citing her age.
In Paraguay, there is a
law against abortion -- they’re banned unless the mother is in danger of possibly losing her life. An Amnesty Internation-al officiInternation-al, GuadInternation-alupe Marengo, said, “The physical and psychologi-cal impact of forcing this young girl to continue with an unwanted preg-nancy is tantamount to torture. The Paraguayan authorities cannot sit idly by while this young rape survivor is forced to en-dure more agony and tor-ment.”
The group’s argument is that the law currently in place is too strict for these situations, since the law doesn’t address rape victims. It gives no
ex-ceptions for anyone who has an unwanted preg-nancy that they could not prevent, or a pregnancy or a child who has been a sexual assault victim, such as in this case. A minister of health in Paraguay, Antonio Bar-rios, does not agree with this assessment. He counters, “There is no indication that the health of the [girl] is at risk… therefore we are not, from any view, in favor of the termination of the pregnancy.”
The girl is currently in the process of being tak-en to a shelter (where the state will watch her and oversee the pregnancy) from a children’s
hospi-tal. After the birth Bar-rios says that they will determine who will get custody of both the child and her child.
To sum up, a ten-year-old has been refused an abortion from a pregnan-cy that she did not want and could not do any-thing to prevent. An in-ternational group at-tempting to get her the help she wants, and that her mother wants for her, to make sure she doesn’t have any permanent damage from the situa-tion. The government is not negotiating, so it does not seem likely, but the Amnesty Internation-al group is not giving up. By Katie Johnson
tuguese language is the same as Spanish.”
According to Señora Vik, another bonus is that “being bilingual in our world today can be an asset in the job mar-ket, and it makes you more marketable.” The ability to speak Spanish often gives an edge over the other applicants. To-day, many businesses are
looking to hire bilingual individuals who can communicate with Span-ish-speaking employees and customers.
Señora Pflug agrees, remarking that “knowing Spanish opens up oppor-tunities of communica-tion and employ-ment...one is much more valuable if you know more than one lan-guage.”
Lastly, knowing Span-ish makes traveling more fun! Rather than relying
on a tour guide, you can explore and talk with locals. Moreover, as Se-ñora Vik pointed out, an understanding of Span-ish “will make your ex-perience much more en-joyable because you will understand the culture as well.”
Junior Lexi Janigo, who is taking Spanish so she can travel, said, “You become a more rounded person knowing a foreign language.” Senior Samm Gann
agrees that Spanish is “always a useful tool to
have in your
belt.”
According to Señora Vik, “You have many opportunities right here at NHS as we have Spanish I, II, III, and IV.”
In the words of Lexi, “I encourage people to take Spanish-it’s totally worth it....¡muy diver-tida!”
‘Español’
From Pg. 1
‘Learning Environment’
From Pg. 4
5/12
Luke Jarman
5/13
Lance Kimmes
5/14
Monica Schnepper Carmen Sclavi
Happy
As we near the end of spring, our commercials are filling with ads for the newest movies, but which flicks are worth paying to see?
Avengers: Age of Ul-tron- Although this mov-ie was released a little early to be considered a summer show, it will probably be one of the biggest films of the year. Its opening box office sales, at $193 million, have surpassed all but one: The Avengers.
Jurassic World- It’s been fourteen years since the last Jurassic Park was released and now the
dangerous dinosaur-filled park is opening once again. It’s sure to be filled with epic CGI di-nosaurs tearing each oth-er limb from limb just like the first three.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens- If any movie can take down The Avengers this year it’s definitely Star Wars VII. The next installment in one of the biggest film franchises ever is sure to be huge, but not neces-sarily good. Disney has taken over production of the Star Wars movies now, and it is yet to be seen if they can deliver. Pitch Perfect 2- It’s barely been three years
since the release of PP1, and the sequel is already here. The story follows an a cappella group as they struggle through the many challenges of na-tional and internana-tional singing contests.
Pan-Pan is a remake of the origin story of Pe-ter Pan, the adventurous hero from Neverland. An orphan is abducted by pirates and taken to a magical new world filled with adventure and dan-ger. While there he dis-covers his destiny to be-come the Peter Pan we know today.
Inside Out- Have you ever wondered what goes on in your head? Disney
and Pixar have teamed up to make a movie an-swering just that ques-tion. When a young girl moves to a new city, the different voices in her head compete for con-trol, making a both amusing and emotional movie.
Minions- Despicable Me’s most beloved char-acters, the minions, are getting their own spin-off movie. Before they met Gru, the minions searched the world for a new supervillain to serve, but the one they find might just be their doom.
By Luke Rutten
It has been thought for years that stress and obe-sity are linked. Many people alleviate their an-ger/unsavory feelings by eating.
We Americans are known for our fatty foods, large portion siz-es, and obese population. Obesity is a current prob-lem worldwide, with our country leading the way. Stress also manifests itself through emotional eating; new scientific research has found evi-dence to prove the con-nection.
When you are stressed, you probably crave comfort foods, such as chocolate, chips, and ice cream. Most of the foods you crave are usually high in sugars and fats.
Specific hormones play an important role in these cravings, one being cortisol, a hormone that your body releases when you’re under chronic stress.
It is also a hormone that is critical in manag-ing fat storage and ener-gy usage in the body. Cortisol is known to in-crease appetite and
en-courage cravings for sug-ary and fatty foods. So how do we avoid these cravings when un-der stress? When you get hungry, and go too long without eating, your blood sugar takes a drop. It’s difficult to think ra-tionally when your blood sugar is low; consequent-ly, you’ll eat almost any-thing.
Try this: keep portion sizes in mind; when you’re stressed you tend not to think about what it is you’re eating, or how much. Instead of eating junk food, replace it with healthy snacks. If you eat
snacks high in protein it takes your body longer to digest it, causing you to feel fuller longer.
If you think paying attention to your diet when stressed will cause more stress, you’re prob-ably wrong. In actuality, the converse is true: food is fuel for your body and mind, when you eat properly you’re fueling your body to fight stress. So find ways to man-age your stress; try yoga, exercising with friends, or meditation, as finding ways to cope with stress is beneficial for your overall health.
By Cassie Harvey
