8th grader Lauren Iosue at HMS says, “A downside to being involved in so many extra curricular activities is that I sometimes don't get as much sleep and I lose time to spend with friends.” Although there are some struggles, she continues to do what she loves to do and stays active. According to the Association for Mid- dle Level Education, some of the benefits of being involved in school sports include im- provement of physical fitness, enhancement of social growth and maturation, improvement of socialization, self-esteem, self-perception, and psycho- logical well being. It is also a task for students to get their homework done in addition to all of their other activities. Keegan Farrell, eighth grader at HMS says, “ I nor- mally set aside 2 hours every night to do homework when I have school sports.” Randi Saito says, “I try to do my homework late at night when all of my activities are done for the day.” Although it may seem as if extracurricular activities af- fect academics negatively, but there are many benefits that these activities give to aca- demics. By: Marissa Pannett Balancing extra curricular activities and academics is a struggle for many kids across the world. How do these kids do it all? Balancing homework, hanging out with friends, and being involved in ex- tracurricular activities is a big task, but it can be beneficial. How can having a packed schedule be benefi- cial? According to the Livestrong Foundation’s arti- cle, “The Impact of Sports on Middle School Students”, students who participate in one or more school sports have a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.151 while stu- dents who don’t participate in sports had an average GPA of 2.4. This article also states that middle school sports al- low students to work as a team. Randi Saito, an eighth grader from Heritage Mid- dle School (HMS) says, “I like to be involved in so many extra- curricular activities, such as sports, be- cause I get to meet and work with a lot of new people.” Another article by Laura Altobelli, “Does Participation in Sports Negatively Affect Academics”, says that some student athletes do well under pressure, that is caused by academics, due to their tightly packed schedules. The article also states that research shows that children who are in- volved in sports have better concentration skills than those who aren’t involved. There are also requirements to go along with playing sports. The Ohio School Ath- letic Association has a GPA requirement of 1.5 in order to be eligible to participate in school sports. Having this require- ment makes students put aca- demics before athletics as the schools promote students to do. There is no doubt that bal- ancing schools and extracur- ricular activities is a struggle for many. Students who participate in one or more school sports have a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.151 while students who don’t par- ticipate in sports had an average GPA of 2.4. Having no free time; can it be beneficial? INSIDE THIS ISSUE: HILLIARD CITY SCHOOLS THE PAW PRINT MARCH 21, 2013 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Eighth grader Randi Saito studying. Photo Taken by: Marissa Pannett President Obama’s second term 2 What are Ren- aissance cards? 3 New Innovative Learning Center 4 Snapchat trou- bles 5 Wacky Scholar- ships 6 Spring Sports at Heritage 7 What's New in 2013 10 High School courses 10 Social Network- ing 12 Texting and Driving 13 Volunteering 14 New PARCC test 14 Alice in Won- derland 16 School Uniforms 18 Spring break plans 19
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8th grader Lauren Iosue at
HMS says, “A downside to
being involved in so many
extra curricular activities is
that I sometimes don't get as
much sleep and I lose time to
spend with friends.” Although there are
some struggles, she
continues to do what
she loves to do and
stays active. According to the
Association for Mid-
dle Level Education, some of
the benefits of being involved
in school sports include im-
provement of physical fitness,
enhancement of social growth
and maturation, improvement
of socialization, self-esteem,
self-perception, and psycho-
logical well being. It is also a task for students to get their homework done in
addition to all of their other
activities. Keegan Farrell, eighth
grader at HMS says, “ I nor-
mally set aside 2 hours every
night to do homework when I
have school sports.” Randi Saito says, “I try to
do my homework late at night
when all of my activities are
done for the day.” Although it may seem as if
extracurricular activities af-
fect academics negatively, but
there are many benefits that
these activities give to aca-demics.
By: Marissa Pannett
Balancing extra curricular
activities and academics is a
struggle for many kids across
the world. How do these kids
do it all? Balancing homework, hanging
out with friends, and
being involved in ex-
tracurricular activities
is a big task, but it can
be beneficial. How can having a
packed schedule be benefi-
cial? According to the
Livestrong Foundation’s arti-
cle, “The Impact of Sports on
Middle School Students”,
students who participate in
one or more school sports
have a Grade Point Average
(GPA) of 3.151 while stu-
dents who don’t participate in sports had an average GPA of
2.4. This article also states
that middle school sports al-
low students
to work as a
team. Randi Saito,
an eighth
grader from
Heritage Mid-
dle School
(HMS) says,
“I like to be
involved in so
many extra-
curricular
activities, such as sports, be-cause I get to meet and work
with a lot of new people.” Another article by Laura
Altobelli, “Does Participation
in Sports Negatively Affect
Academics”, says that some
student athletes do well under
pressure, that is caused by
academics, due to their tightly
packed schedules. The article
also states that research shows
that children who are in-
volved in sports have better
concentration skills than those
who aren’t involved.
There are also requirements
to go along with playing
sports. The Ohio School Ath-
letic Association has a GPA requirement of 1.5 in order to
be eligible to participate in
school sports. Having this
require-
ment
makes
students
put aca-
demics
before
athletics
as the
schools
promote
students
to do. There is no doubt that bal-ancing schools and extracur-
ricular activities is a struggle
for many.
Students who participate in one or more
school sports have a Grade Point Average
(GPA) of 3.151 while students who don’t par-
ticipate in sports had an average GPA of 2.4.
Having no free time; can it be beneficial?
I N S I D E T H I S
I S S U E :
H I L L I A R D C I T Y
S C H O O L S
THE PAW PRINT M A R C H 2 1 , 2 0 1 3 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1
Eighth grader Randi Saito studying.
Photo Taken by: Marissa Pannett
President
Obama’s second
term
2
What are Ren-
aissance cards?
3
New Innovative
Learning Center
4
Snapchat trou-
bles
5
Wacky Scholar-
ships
6
Spring Sports at
Heritage
7
What's New in
2013
10
High School
courses
10
Social Network-
ing
12
Texting and
Driving
13
Volunteering 14
New PARCC
test
14
Alice in Won-
derland
16
School Uniforms 18
Spring break
plans
19
P A G E 2
By Janaki Nair The United States, also known as “the greatest nation on Earth”, is in the midst of problems. The country is
buried in a growing debt and at a risk of nuclear attacks. After the presiden-tial election of No-vember of 2012, President Barack Obama encourages
Americans to look forward to the good changes that will be happening soon. As millions of citi-zens turned on their televisions for the State of the Union
address on February 12th, 2013, they ex-pected some explanation for what the President’s next step was. President Obama proposed his plan for the next four years.One of the most im-portant and highly anticipated topics
mentioned was gun control. After the Sandy Hook shooting back in December of 2012, the nation was swept with overwhelming grief. The issue is that many citizens strongly believe in the Second Amendment, so the government has to make laws
which balances out the safety of the people and the belief in the Second Amendment. Prakash Balakrishnan, one of the many people who were shocked by the recent shooting, suggests, “Make background checks mandatory, so guns won’t fall into the wrong hands.
Also, ban access to military style gun for ordinary people, which can cause a lot of damage in a short amount of time.” President Obama says in his address, “Senators -- senators of both parties are working together on tough new
laws to prevent anyone from buying
guns for resale to criminals. Police chiefs are asking our help to get weap-ons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because
these police chiefs, they're tired of see-ing their guys and gals being outgunned. Each of these pro-posals deserves a vote in Con-gress.” However, eighth grader, Amna Tahir obliges, “guns don't kill
people, people kill people.” America is also at the threat of the spread of nuclear weapons. “Provocations of the sort we saw last night will only further iso-late them, as we stand by our allies,“ The President’s solution is to, “strengthen our own mis-
sile defense, and lead the world in taking firm action in response
to these threats.” The United States is asking Russia to reduce the nuclear arsenal and to help prevent these dan-gerous weapons from falling in the wrong hands. As a strong country, it is
possible to have a positive influence on other countries from using these weap-ons. Cyberattacks are another issue that needs to be addressed. There is po-tential for hackers from
foreign countries to “sabotage our power grid, our financial insti-tutions, our air traffic control systems”. Presi-dent Obama recently signed a new order to protect the national secu-
rity. President Obama advises, “We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy.” While gun control, nuclear weapons
and cyber attacks are all matters of na-
tional security and extremely impor-tant, another issue facing our current administration is the looming budget. President Obama said, “Congress
passed a law saying that if both par-ties couldn't agree on a plan to reach our deficit goal, about a trillion dol-lars' worth of budget cuts would automatically go into effect this year.” The problem is that the cuts could possibly affect military per-
formance and the funds for scientific research. Furthermore, education reform is another important topic being dis-cussed. The President proposes to work with the states and help make high-quality education to every child in America. The government has al-
ready made college more affordable for students, but the costs are still high. Shruthi Kandalai, an eighth grader at Heritage Middle School, “Instead of paying fees for textbooks, they could lend out Kindles or other e-readers
with our textbooks and we could download them, instead of carrying
five pound books up and down the stairs between
periods. Anyways if we lose the textbook it’s like $50 to $150, so why not put it into e-
readers where you can’t lose the text-
books. Or, they could maybe just have them as online,” Also, Adun Obisesan says, “Adding a study hall would be very helpful,
(Continued on page 3)
President Obama Courtesy of albhert-mohler.com
The American Flag
Courtesy of imageenvision.com
New term, new changes
P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1
By Audrey Cowen The Renaissance program is a na-tionwide program to help encourage students to increase academic per-
formance. Those who meet the re-quirements receive coupons, free or dis-counted admission to dances and ath-letic events, and
even are allowed to skip an exam! At Heritage, stu-dents with a 3.5-3.99 GPA, no un-excused absences and no disciplinary referrals receive a blue card. A gold card is awarded to students who meet
the same criteria, except with a 4.0 GPA. These cards provide many benefits
for the students who earn them. Stu-dents who hold either card receive a front of the line pass on Fridays (and on Wednesdays for those with
gold cards) and a home-work pass (two for gold card holders)
each grad-ing period, along with
dis-counts
and coupons when available. Michael Daubenmier, the 8th grade guidance counselor, hopes
that the Renaissance cards encour-age students to “try a little bit harder,” because they “reward the
and I’d also like there to be online and physical textbooks for every class.” The President says, “Tonight, I ask Congress to change the
Higher Education Act, so that affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid. And tomorrow, my Administration will release a new "College Scorecard" that parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple criteria: where you can get the most bang for your educational buck.” A good education is the foundation of a strong de-
mocracy. Kaitlynne Chapman, a student at the same middle school, says, “I personally think that having a 30 minute study hall would help a lot.” Another eighth grader, Lily He claims, “The school board should try to improve their communication with the teach-ers and parents” Many families wait anxiously at home while American
troops fight in Afghanistan. The President plans to bring back all troops by 2014. Different extremist groups, such as Al Qaeda, are beginning to grow in the Middle East. Amer-ica’s plan is to help developing countries, like Somalia and Libya, to have their own security. “I will continue to engage Congress to ensure not only that
(Continued from page 2)
Renaissance program rewards students’ academic achievement
our targeting, detention and prosecution of terrorists re-mains consistent with our laws and system of checks and balances, but that our efforts are even more transparent to
the American people and to the world.” In addition, America’s borders in the south are becoming more protected as the number illegal immigrants decrease. “Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship – a path that includes passing a back-ground check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English, and going to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally.” The President is
also attempting to cut the waiting period and to make im-migration more efficient. President Obama is also trying to lower energy costs and to encourage research for technology to help fuels burn cleaner. “So tonight, I propose we use some of our oil and gas revenues to fund an Energy Security Trust that will drive new research and technology to shift our cars and
trucks off oil for good. I'm also issuing a new goal for America: Let's cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next 20 years.” The President is getting ready to take on another term and to fulfill the needs of the American citizens. “Our govern-ment shouldn't make promises we cannot keep, but we must keep the promises we've already made.”
kids who are doing well.” Darby also has a Renaissance pro-gram, though it is slightly different. The gold cards are called white cards,
and to be eligible for a blue card, the GPA requirement is lowered to 3.25-3.99. As students transition to high school, the rewards get bigger, and students get better incentives, accord-ing to Mr. Daubenmier.
Some of the advantages gained by cardholders include discounts or free admission to dances, admission to home athletic events, and parking privileges. They also are allowed to exempt one exam (two for those who receive white cards). For more information on benefits of
the Renaissance programs, visit Darby’s Renaissance site or Heri-tage’s Renaissance website.