BY MONIQUE GOMEZ Balancing school, sports, homework, studying, and most importantly sleep can be difficult for most high school students. As many people know, know, it is healthy for teens to get nine hours of sleep; some lucky young people can run on only 5-6 hours of sleep. But, if you cannot, keep reading. “[Do some] bedtime yoga” suggested junior Hailey Boisvert. Bedtime yoga is very beneficial, according to Boisvert. It is very relaxing and you can do in the comfort of your own bed. It is not only enjoyable, but it will assist you to have a better night of sleep. Make time to do bedtime yoga each night as a destresser and overall relaxer. All you need to do is sit in your bed and do easy stretches like the butterfly or child’s pose while breathing slowly in and out. “If you can’t sleep, don’t go on your phone,” said sophomore Carly Stodghill.“Do something more relaxing so you don’t wake yourself up more.” Most students will go on their phones, watch T., or watch something on the computer. The bright lights and infatuation with what is on will most likely wake you up more than you want if you are trying to get to sleep. “Sometimes I’m guilty of going on my phone at night, but it wakes me up more every time…” said Stodghill. Doing more relaxing things like keeping it dark when you are trying to fall asleep, listen to soft music or the sound of rain, and truly just get in a comfortable position in your bed and sheets with your pillows, and get yourself in a comfortable state of mind. Try not to end the night stressed. Senior Ally Pancoast sticks to a strict schedule. “Every morning I sit in my bed after I wake up and I mentally plan out my day. Typically I go to school from 8-3:10, go take a nap from 3:30-4:30, do homework from 4:45-6, eat from 6-6:30, do homework again from 6:45-10, then I go to bed at 10:00,” she explained. Having a set schedule is important and beneficial because it leaves no time to procrastinate. Procrastinating your homework until after practice, or later at night, is a bad habit. You may push it off too late and you may end up sacrificing sleep because of this. Also, waking up and going to sleep at the same time will regulate your body clock and you will fall asleep faster and not wake up as much throughout the night. In all, following these three tips and tricks will insure that you will feel a difference in your body. Bedtime yoga will aid you in destressing, doing relaxing things will help you fall asleep faster, and setting a tight schedule will set your body to a timetable.
Halloween Activities in Bigfork BY MONIQUE GOMEZ You may think this is an awkward stage in your life for many reasons, and Halloween can be an awkward holiday for high schoolers. Are you too old to go trick-or-treating? How are you supposed to get into the new rated R scary movie? Here are three exciting activities you can do this holiday season. Go to Fritz Corn Maze. A fun and frightening maze and haunted barn, located on the airport road, is a favorite for many. “I went last year and I had a great time.” said Sophomore, Maggie Piazzola. If you go to Fritz this Halloween you can count being spooked all night. You can keep an eye out for a crazy man with a chainsaw, a fast, crawling gorilla, and most likely a witch, a clown, and a zombie. Who said you are too old to go a pumpkin patch? Newsflash, you not too old to go to a pumpkin patch. It is a wonderful activity to do with you friends or your family. All you need to do is search for the perfect pumpkin, then go home with your perfect company to carve your perfect pumpkin. Get together with your best friends and have a scary movie marathon. You will be able to find great, classic scary movies at Vessel, which was previously a rental movie store. Some awesome new spooky movies came out this month, like, “Death Day”, about a girl is reliving her birthday (also they day she got murdered) over and over again until she finds out who her killer is. Another great movie to watch this Halloween is “Jigsaw”, a sequel to the classics, “Saw”. In this horror, bodies are turning up dead, murdered in a way that police recognize as the work of a man by the name of Jigsaw, but how could it be? He had been dead for over 10 years. Also, perhaps the most exciting was you may spend Halloween this year is binge watching season 2 of Stranger Things. So, what are you going to do on Halloween? Whether you are going to go home, plop down on the couch and watch Stranger Things on Netflix alone, or get all your close friends together and go see the new scary movie at the cinema, be safe in all you do this holiday. And remember, you never know what kind of eerie creatures are lurking on this night.
Social Media: The Absence At School
BY: MONIQUE GOMEZ
The District had decided to crack down on social media use in school, “With free speech comes a whole gambit of opinions and content. There doesn't currently exist any PG or PG-13 social media filters, so as a result, the District made the choice to block content that doesn't meet the guidelines.” Beau Wielkoszewski (Bigfork Schools I.T. guy) stated. We live in a generation where everyone has social media. Our grandparents, parents, great aunts, everyone has it! But is that a good thing? In reality, social media is not appropriate to be using at school. School, as you know, school is meant for students to learn, not to: post selfies, update statues, take twitter poles, etc. “Although everyone does it and our lives may be boring without it, it is a good idea to learn at a place of learning and post selfies on your own time.” said Isabella Santistevan. Wielkoszewski said, “Bigfork School District has been able to have some awesome technology. The technology, however, has come with a huge responsibility for educators to protect students, parents and other school attendants from exposure to objectionable content, malicious viruses and breaches of data. The internet is essentially a war zone and the community entrusts the district to physically protect their kids during school hours, as well as, digitally.” There is one downside of the new restriction, updating social media is a crucial part of journalism. It is important to the staff/ students and teacher of journalism at Bigfork High. The staff tweets to remind students when we do not have school, what the theme for the upcoming football games, and to simply update the school on what the journalism class is up to. This restriction makes it a little bit harder than it was in previous years, but nothing can stop the Norse Code reporters and it’s not the end of the world when they have to pull out their phones at school to make an update or post an awesome picture and resources to using their own LTE data.
A Sad Goodbye
BY: MONIQUE GOMEZ Susan Loeffler is in the midst of her 37th year of teaching at Bigfork Schools. She started as a physical education teacher for the elementary and middle school, as they were without a physical education program before Loeffler. Over the years, Loeffler has coached basketball, volleyball, and still coaches track and cross country here in Bigfork. Loeffler loved playing softball, but she never was able to coach it, as Bigfork does offer it. Sadly the woman you all know and love is planning to retire at the end of this year, 2017-2018. “It’s been a long, fun ride,” Loeffler said. She has thoroughly enjoyed teaching at Bigfork. “I truly do think Bigfork has some of the best kids out here,” Loeffler said about her students over the years. “I have been teaching for 37 years and I think it’s time to spend more time with my family.” Loeffler is married to the local Fire Chief and former Biology teacher. She also has two sons, Cole and Ross. “I really want to spend more time with my grandson and grandkids.”
Wake N’ Bree
BY MONIQUE GOMEZ Last June, Bree Nissen opened Wake N’ Brew soon after moving back to Bigfork from working as a barista for six years in North Dakota. In fact, she opened her very first coffee shop in North Dakota. “Bigfork is such a great community.” Nissen loves having constant and local customers, and enjoys the feeling when they walk through the door, knowing exactly what they want. Nissen sure does believes her coffee shop is the very best in Bigfork.“I make it [drinks] how everyone wants it.” “I was voted ‘Best coffee shop in Bigfork’ by the Flathead Beacon,” Nissen said proudly. The top five most popular drinks at Wake N’ Brew are: Espresso Milkshake (summer special), A Caramel Macchiato, Any kind of Frappuccino, A Red Bull Zinger, and An Iced Mocha. With drinks like “Red Bull Zinger,” and “Gingerbread Chai Latte,” Nissen says, “I like to be like big coffee shops like Starbucks, places like that, to learn and make new, unique drinks.” Nissen loves working for herself, even though it is a tremendous amount of work. She spends roughly 17-19 hours a day at the shop. That leaves a harsh four to seven hours for sleep each night. “I’m not the kind of person that doesn’t needs eight to twelve hours of sleep, fortunately,” Nissen said. It was certainly not easy starting a coffee shop. “It was hard, hard work. My sisters helped me get started this summer,” she said. Believe it or not the neat shop only opened just nine months ago. “I always wanted to work for myself,” she said. Nissen would describe her job as, “Absolutely time consuming honestly, but I love it.”
Turning A New Leaf
BY MONIQUE GOMEZ Finals are over. You survived finals and it is a new semester. If your favorite sport is over, or you feel that you did not do the best on your final projects last semester, do not fret. Starting a new semester is a great opportunity to start over the right way. If you are the sporty type you can be looking forward to golf, tennis, and track coming up. If your favorite sport is or sports are over (swim, speech, basketball, cheer or wrestling), you should go to the gym and get better for next year. However, you also have a lot more time, so study and focus on schoolwork for the last semester of the year. If you strive to be organized, you should get rid of all the old work from the previous two quarters. Cleaning out your folder, binder, backpack, and locker are good ways to have a structured and tidy rest of the year. To insure that you will do the best on finals this semester, gain a few studying tips. Rewrite vocabulary words, important steps or rules that you will need to remember. After reading a book, read the summaries of each chapter to insure that you will do great on the final test. Make sure you aim for the best grades that you can get on worksheets, so if you do not do the best on the final, you will still pass, because you had a substantial grade prior to the big test. Carly Stodghill (freshman) thinks it is important to start out the second semester out on the right foot. “I make notecards to study my vocabulary words and I keep my binders in order, I am extremely organized.” She is participating in golf this spring, “I’ll always put homework first,” she stated. She keeps her grades up now because it will really count in the long run. “I am keeping my grades up now because it will really matter in the future.”
Freshmen Against The Big Men
BY MONIQUE GOMEZ Hattie Emslie is a freshman here at Bigfork high and she previously from Swan River school. She received first place at divisionals for her Humorous Duo with her , sophomore, KC Isaman. Emslie was one of the two freshmen who earned herself a place at state for Speech, Debate, and Drama. Emslie’s quirky, friendly, and witty personality led her straight to state this year. She decided to join the activity because she was feeling spontaneous. “I was like, you know what? I’ll give it a go,” Leading up to Divisionals, Emslie said that she had a great experience. “It was great getting to know the team,” she stated. Josephine Howlett was the other freshman who went on the adventure with Emslie. “Josie and I became better friends since speech, we bonded over mac and cheese, and sloth stickers,” Emslie said. Howlett and Emslie both described meets as intense and tiring. “The meets are really fun, but very tiring, and made me very worn out.” Emslie added. She also said the season was overall “marvelous.” Josephine Howlett has been going to Bigfork Schools since she was in kindergarten. She participated in volleyball earlier this year, but Howlett wanted to try something new. “I knew Mr. Appleby was the coach [her favorite teacher] and I just thought I’d try it,” Howlett said. She competed in pantomime, which may seem odd because she has such a spunky, but outgoing personality. Howlett earned second place to Bigfork junior, Kim McDonald. “It is all so intense,” she said about the meets and the activity in general. Howlett would describe her experience as “just the best.”
What Do You Want To Be
BY MONIQUE GOMEZ Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? Some people know by the time they are five, some know by high school, and some still do not know halfway through life. It can be hard to choose your career path, and it can be hard to choose the right college, unless you are BHS math teacher, James Kelley, “I chose Carroll (college) because it looked like Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry”. If you feel like life after high school is a lost cause, just keep reading and take note from these teachers. Kelly liked his high school experience but says, “I have done far more amazing things upon graduation”. He was excited to talk about his teacher that influenced him the most “I actually ran into him in Polebridge on New Years’ Eve and was delighted to see him! He always told stories about his travels in foreign countries and how he spends his money on running shoes to stop him from going into a retirement home. He fully succeeded in the latter of life as he runs Ultra Marathons and lives off the grid at the ripe age of 72. He is in better shape than majority of the student population at Bigfork”. Kelly doesn’t teach the subject he liked in school, he said if he liked the teacher then he would end up enjoying the subject. Going into college he wanted to be a Tenenbaum. He would explain his college experience as “Enigmatic”. Amber Britt (middle school and high school art teacher) went to MSU Bozeman. She picked Bozeman because “they have a good nursing program and that’s what I wanted at first.” Britt went into college to be a nurse but changed to become a teacher. But she knew all along what she wanted. As a child Britt knew she wanted to be either a nurse or a teacher. She loved her high school experience. “I went to a small school and loved having more one on one time with teachers”. She was highly influenced by her science teacher because she was positive and happy to teach. She also challenged her students in creative ways. Britt’s favorite subject is science, she doesn’t teach it but she did at one time. Going into college Randi Tunnel (band teacher) knew she wanted to be a Music Educator. However, as a child she wanted to be a backup singer. A teacher that influenced her most was her mom, who was also her music teacher from second grade, “She was who I looked up to”. Tunnel attended MSU Billings for two years then got help from a professor to get an audition at the University of Akron. She would explain her college experience as “Worth it”.
Christmas Shopping Hacks Guide to Christmas shop efficiently. BY: MONIQUE GOMEZ Christmas shopping can be overwhelming or stressful especially if you have not been Christmas shopping efficiently, or if you never been before. So, here are some tips on how to shop for Christmas stress free. Librarian, Scarlet Sherman, said Christmas shopping is honestly hard. “I keep a list of gifts I have gotten people and also a list of gifts I have already wrapped.” With this said, it is a good idea to keep lists. Just to be a Good Samaritan, Sherman and her family get gifts for the less fortunate, as well as for each other. Geometry teacher Jodie said online shopping is key. “Why pay for shipping twice just have Amazon Prime deliver it to the invalusual’s house.” Freshman, Scout Jessop, buys her parents thoughtful, under ten dollar gifts from an antique shop, something that they had been talking about, or had mentioned for a couple. She would get them something meaningful to her friend, of course she would include a card. “For Abby, I got her a small clipboard with cute sayings and inside jokes.” For a teacher she would make them food, a homemade treat, “maybe a card. If I really like them I would make them a card and if not I would just buy them a funny card.” So remember. Keeping lists and being a good person, online shopping, Amazon Prime shopping, and thoughtful, homemade, or under ten dollar gifts are the was to successfully shop this year at Christmas.