J A N U A R Y I S S U E V O L U M E 1 4 , I S S U E 5

Editors:

Ashtyn Brinker

Caleb Matz

Jennifer Swedlund

Contributors:

Jensen Block

Connor Edge

Noah White

Sadie Mowery

Maggie Johnson

Marissa Jones

Jack Setterstrom

Carter Burke

Natalee Hayes

Daniel Oxley

Braden Baldauf

Makenzie Whitmer

Adviser:

Mrs. Fry

I had the honor to interview the track star Jennifer Elaine

Swedlund. Jennifer was born on January 4th in Madi-

son, Wisconsin. She lives with her mom Linda, her step-

dad Rick, her amazing brother Nick, and her other

brother Trenton. Jennifer's hobbies consist of reading,

playing Assassins Creed, and attempting to beat Nick

when running. Her favorite color is blue and her favorite

food is strawberries. Jennifer lived in Monroe but moved

to Lena this year. Jennifer fell in love with her best

friends Hanna and Addie and really enjoys living in Le-

na. Jennifer Elaine Swedlund is a very interesting person

to be around and you never know what she's going to do

next.

By: Jensen Block

As most of you know, Mrs. Fry was pregnant for the

entire school year, and she finally had the baby! On

December 21, 2016 at precisely 12:54 a.m., Harlan

Sawyer Fry was born. He was a 7 pound, 8 ounce

baby. Mrs. Fry’s husband, Cale was there as well.

While Mrs. Fry was gone, Mr. Schneiderman long

term subbed and everybody loved him. He is a re-

tired math teacher, so he did a good job, but his ways

were a little different than Mrs. Fry’s so we were

glad when she came back. Harlan is doing well as a

new baby and I think Mrs. Fry is happy to be back.

By: Caleb Matz

P A G E 2

By: Noah White

P A G E 3

By: Conner Edge

P A G E 4

8th grade

Coach: Curt Ollerich

12 Casey Crain

13 Maya Curtis

15 Andrea Sutter

20 Sidney Weegens

21 Sadie Mowery

22 Ally Milder

23 Sage Huneke

24 Taylor Dawson

25 Kassidy Humphrey

31 Delanie Martin

32 Sarah Madigan

33 Jennifer Swedlund

35 Alyssa Williams

By: Sadie Mowery

7th & 6th grade

Coach: Dennis Hutterlocher

1 Camdyn Huttenlocher

2 Bryn Linden

3 Kansas White

4 Tianna Esser

5 Ava Randecker

10 Kalli Humphrey

11 Kieran Madigan

14 Autumn Bonebright

30 Belle Jordan

34 Kaitlyn Sweeney

40 Lizzie Bastendorff

41 Payton Scace

42 Emma Kemple

44 Grace Fox

45 Joselyn Harris

P A G E 5

What is your favorite breakfast food?

Hailee S.— Reese’s Puffs Maddie Y.— Bananas & Oranges Brynn L.— Eggs

James H.— Bacon Nyiona D.— Captain Crunch Tianna E.— Bacon

Liv E.— Omelet Hudson N.— Bacon Ali W.— Biscuits & Gravy

Olivia P.— Waffles Kai K.— Cinnamon Rolls Andrew K.— Sausage

By: Maggie Johnson

Would you eat a bowl of crickets for $40,000?

Owen S.— Yes Tess D.— No Mickey S.— No

Wyatt T.— Yes Juan S.— No Emma M.— No

John S.— No Jayden S.— Yes Connor K.— No

Abby C.—Yes Zoe B.— No Conner R.— No

By: Marissa Jones

Who is your favorite WWE Superstar?

Noah White-Randy Orton Braden Baldauf-Brock Lesnar Gennings Dunker– Big Show

Jensen Block-Mark Henry Connor Edge– Ray Mysterio Tristan Rood- Tanner Kalkbrenner

Daniel Oxley-Ron Simmons Sadie Mowery-Jack Setterstrom Cole Gerber- Jason March

Jennifer Swedlund-Jack Gallagher Kristin Molitor-Jack Setterstrom Tanner Kalkbrenner- The Undertaker

By: Jack Setterstrom

P A G E 6

Laughlynn Leamon is in 7th grade and is 13 years old. Her full name is

Laughlynn Ann-Marie Leamon. Her hobbies are art, running, reading, and ori-

gami. She was born January 17, 2004 in Freeport Illinois. One of her happiest

memories is when she lived in Texas and it randomly snowed during spring.

When she had lived down there she had a very strong accent. Nowadays, she

doesn't talk much, but she is very hyper. Some of her favorite things to do are

track, art, watching TV, and listening to music.

By: Natalee Hayes

I had the privilege to interview the one and only Jensen Lee Block. Jensen was

brought into this world on September 13, 2002. He currently lives with his

mom and dad, named Jodi and Matt, and his brother Jared is in and out every

now and then. One of his major hobbies is Skyrim, which he loves very much.

His friends consist of Braden Baldauf, Noah White, his Xbox, and his PS4. He

is also in a very serious relationship with Kenzie Lawson. Jensen also says that

he spends a lot of time snapping Sadie and Kassidy’s ankles in basketball. Jen-

sen is an interesting person.

By: Noah White

I had the breathtaking honor to interview Owen Tonus Gilbertson. His height is

a whopping 4’9 and one half. He especially enjoys math because his favorite

teacher is Mr. Benson. Owen plays many sports, but his favorite by far is bas-

ketball however he says he has no hops. You can catch him on the court wear-

ing size 5 and a half Kyrie's, his favorite kind of shoes. He always enjoys

watching Muggsy Bogues highlights because he is short and could dunk. Ow-

en’s best friend in the whole world is Alexander Joseph Daughenbaugh. I hope

everyone, will have the astonishing privilege to meet this great young man.

By: Carter Burke

P A G E 7

Hi, my name is Addie Roberts, an 8th grader at Lena-Winslow Jr. High. I would like to apply

for Student Leadership for the 2016-2017 school year. I have been a Student Leader the last 2 years,

and have proven myself as a very responsible and reliable student. I also think it is a great privilege to

be chosen as a Student Leader.

I believe I am responsible for many reasons. During the summer, I have helped my grandma

at her licensed day care for many years. This past summer, she relied on me a lot because she has twin

premature babies in her care. I learned a lot, and had a lot of fun helping out. I also started watching

my cousins on Wednesdays by myself, this summer. This included preparing lunch and playing with

them. This past school year, Mrs. Thill nominated me to the Junior National Young Leaders Confer-

ence. I was not able to attend, but I think that this was a great honor to be nominated. I also was a

teacher's helper for one week at our Church Bible School program. I helped with skits, serving snacks

and crafts. Additionally, the following week I volunteered to help out at our neighbors Church Bible

School. This bible school was a much larger scale than our church, and I had so much fun. I assisted

with the craft area for all ages and made new friends.

If I am chosen to be a Student Leader again, I will make the school a more positive place. We

have 4 new kids in our class, one of them being a girl that I have gotten to know already since she is

in some of my classes. I think it is important to get to know the new kids and help them become com-

fortable in our school.

Last year, I enjoyed many things about Student Leadership. I really enjoyed the many friend-

ships that I have made, and the positive impact I see the Student Leaders having. I volunteered and

worked many concession stands. We participated in many things including helping in the elementary

classrooms, organized and handed out candy grams and we made bullying skits for the elementary

students. We also volunteered to work at the Lena Thrift Shop. This past year we got to go to Rock-

ford to the Trampoline Park and Cherryvale Mall. I am very appreciative that our school offered this

trip to out Student Leaders.

Student Leadership has been such a great experience for me. I am excited to hopefully get the

opportunity to be a great role model to the 6th and 7th grade students. I really appreciated many of the

friendships that I made with older classmates in the past, and I would like to pass that experience on. I

think Student Leadership is a great way to bring students together.

I hope you consider me again for Student Leadership because I am a positive role model and

enjoy helping others.

P A G E 8

I am Lila Rudisill and I would like to try for this year’s student leadership. I

think I would be a great role model for everyone because I strive for A’s and am not

satisfied enough when I get even a B+. I love to help people out and help them figure

out problems that they might be concerned about. I also care about people, love to

help anyway I can, and just be the best I always can. And even if I am having a bad

day I try to be the most positive I can be.

I would make the school a more positive environment by if I were to see any

bullying tell them to stop. Or even tell someone like a teacher or just any adult that if I

think there is an issue that could affect everyone. The school property should be a

place where kids can know they will be safe and not have to worry about any danger.

Now ideas for this school year, we could maybe have a drawing for a prize, not

too big or expensive but just enough, so that when anybody says or does something

good to somebody their name will be written down and at end of each quarter, have a

drawing and they could have a chance to win that prize. I would accomplish this by

first asking permission to do this first and if allowed, create a box with pieces of paper

you would put in the box to draw. The reason why I would do this is because if we can

create rewards for everybody being nice it might just make a positive difference in the

school. Now another idea could be donating money or items to people that might have

Alzheimer, cancer, etc. because I remember having a great- grandfather who had Alz-

heimer and was just very sad to me and everyone. I would love to see if there is a cure

to any diseases that we could maybe donate money or items too. Now first of all to ac-

complish this, first of all I would ask for permission to do this, I would set a few bins

in the main hallway area and have everyone donate something and put it in those bins.

Past experiences I have had that was really helpful was my grandfather and I

went along the road side and picked up trash, I always volunteered to help with some-

thing, I competed in Winslow Jr. Miss Riverdays which if I had won I would have

been able to help the town out more so.

These are all reasons and ways why I would want to be and try for the student

leadership. I would love to get in student leadership just because I get to help people

and just do something that I naturally love to do.

P A G E 9

My experience as a sixth grader has turned out to be very fun and very exciting

so far, but I would love to become a student leader and I think it would make my sixth

grade experience fantastic. I think that I would be a good student leader because I am

very responsible and very organized. I also love to help the community and I would

love to help out our school.

Community service has been very important to me. Some community service

opportunities that I have had so far include helping make food for the St. Joseph Cath-

olic Church annual Strawberry Social. I am also an alter server for my church, and

then sometimes I am an usher with my family. I walked in the Winslow River Days

Parade for the Community Bank, and I helped out at the Lena Public Library Carnival

instead of playing the games. During my fifth grade year I assisted in Mrs. Raab’s pre-

school class instead of going outside to recess with my friends, I would love to do it

again. I also was a babysitter for her son Landen Raab. It was a great experience.

I have many ideas to bring our Jr. High closer together. These are a couple of

those ideas. First, every holiday/season we could host an activity or game to bring all

of our Jr. High students closer together. For example at Christmas time we could make

a paper tree and hang it on a wall so students are able to post an ornament that they

have decorated. Or they can bring in canned food to be like the presents so we can

give it to the food pantry in Lena.

My Second idea to make our school a more positive environment is that we

make a buddy system. For example pair a responsible eighth grader up with a sixth

grader who wants help for the first week of school or until the sixth grader feels more

comfortable with the switch from the elementary school to the Jr. High. I was very

nervous to come to the Jr. High because of the big switch; an eighth grader would

have helped me to get to the right classroom and to feel more comfortable with the Jr.

High.

It would be a great privilege to be in student leadership because student leaders

should always have the best character in the school. I personally think having the best

character is very important for a person in Jr. High. I think my character is student

leadership worthy.

P A G E 1 0

Negative Impacts of Social Media

Buzz! Look at text. Open Snapchat. Check in on Facebook. These are things that a teen that is addict-

ed to social media hears all the time. Social media had both positive and negative sides to it. Even though so-

cial media may strengthen connections with others, it may also lead to the fear of missing out and poor aca-

demics.

One of the biggest reasons why social media is bad for teens is that it will lower a person’s ability to

do well in school. If someone were to text too much, they may begin to transfer their bad grammar skills in

their formal writing (Gregory). For example, instead of writing out “you,” people will write it out as “u” or

might write “r” instead of are (Gregory). A survey showed that in a group of 3,000 college students, 2 in 5

students said that they would rather be internet surfing or being on social networking sites rather than going

out with friends or dating (Gregory). Another survey showed that the majority of 483 college students spend

around 12 hours using social media, and most of them have had their academic GPA’s drop (Social Media

Linked 34). In support of this, there was also research done to prove that people who don’t spend as much

time on social media, don’t have an academic downfall (Social Media Linked 34). The most common use of

social media resulting negatively is texting, movie/TV watching, social networking, and magazine reading

(Social Media Linked 34). Teachers have stated that students are constantly checking their phones and not

paying attention in class (Gregory). Unfortunately, this is not the only negative effect of social media.

Teens also have an issue with the fear of missing out. An example of this is when a person doesn’t get

invited to a party and will stay home and check Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook to see what people at the

party are posting. While people are constantly checking up on what that person missed out on (Thomson) In

addition, the people who weren’t invited may be thinking that the person who threw the party hates them.

There are at least 24% of teens that are online or checking their phone almost constantly (Thompson). When

teens are on their phones, they might be checking in on what a celebrity, or model, or even a classmate is do-

ing at the moment. Most of the time, people will compare their life with someone else’s and judge themselves

based off how somebody else looks (Thompson). Part of the fear of missing out is social anxiety. Social anxie-

ty is when a person feels afraid of what others will say (Thompson). If someone posts a picture on their social

media accounts, there could be negative comments and sometimes that makes people take an antidepressant,

but one too many of those anti-depressants can lead to suicide (Thompson). The fear of missing out is more

common in boys rather than in girls, but it is unclear why (White). It can also range from middle schoolers to

adults (White). The fear of missing out isn’t as simple to detect as poor academics, because with poor academ-

ics any person can go into the school system and see that someone isn’t doing well in their schoolwork. Unlike

poor academics, a person needs to talk to someone about what is going on in their life.

Even though there are many reasons to support why social media had a negative impact, there are also

some to support that social media had a positive impact. Social media can lead to people meeting online and

finding a new friend. Little did they know that the person they met online may be an online predator pretend-

ing to be someone else (White). When people comment something on Facebook, someone could take it the

wrong way and lead to rumors and an ended relationship (Gregory). Also, texting on their phone may also

take away someone’s ability to talk face-to-face and make them socially awkward (Gregory).

This shows that social media can lead to fear of missing out and poor academics. A suggestion is to limit the

time a person is on their phone. Clearly, social media has more negative effects on teens than positive ones.

By: Ally Milder

P A G E 1 1

Social Media’s Negative Impacts

By Alysse Potter

If you are like most people, you use social media nearly every day, but you may be unaware of the negative impacts

social media can have on teens and adults. Social media is used by millions and is often thought of as a way to connect with

others and share pieces of people’s life, but social media is destroying lives by negatively impacting student’s academic perfor-

mance, ruining their self-esteem, and creating mental health issues.

There have been multiple studies that have proved that social media has a negative effect on student’s academic per-

formance by lowering their grade point average and effecting their sleep. Students are spending less time studying and doing

their homework because they are so focused on their phones. Students are also forming bad grammar habits. Teens use short-

hand typing wile texting their friends, or posting on social media. They get used to typing like this and may accidentally use this

grammar while typing a formal essay (Gregory 1). Students may also find it hard to focus in class because of a lack of sleep.

Researchers found that people who spend more time on social media suffer from lack of sleep, which is connected to poor aca-

demic performance (Social Media Linked to… 34). Many schools across the globe do allow phones in class, which can be a

huge disruption. Instead of listening to the lesson, students are on their phones, or they may hear a notification from their phone,

causing them to worry about that instead of school. Counselor Lisa Dorsey says that her students are oblivious to what is hap-

pening in the classroom because they are so focused on their phones (Gregory 1). This proves that students are caring less about

their education, and more about what is happening on social media.

These students who are on their phones constantly in class, may be experiencing FOMO, or fear of missing out. If

someone cannot sit through a meal, movie, or special event without checking their phone, then they are probably suffering from

FOMO. Darlene McLaughlin, an assistant professor and behavior health specialist, stated that about 13 percent of the popula-

tion has social anxiety, and experiencing FOMO could worsen their anxiety by creating a lack of self-confidence (“FOMO: It’s

Your Life You’re Missing Out On”). This shows how damaging social media can become, by worsening mental health issues,

or even creating them. According to Texas A&M University, the average college student spends ten hours on their phone and

scrolling through social media every day (“FOMO: It’s Your Life You’re Missing Out On”). These students may see pictures of

their friends having fun while they were not there. This can lead to a feeling of missing out, which in extreme cases can lead to

anxiety and depression (“FOMO: It’s Your Life You’re Missing Out On”). Studies have shown that a fear of missing out is

connected to dissatisfaction. If one does not get out of their home often, and see pictures of friends and family vacationing, they

may become dissatisfied with themselves, which may lead to FOMO.

Social media introduces young girls and boys to images of models with perfect bodies, hair, and airbrushed skin. This

may seem innocent enough, but many young people will see these images and begin to compare themselves to the models. Ac-

cording to the University of Texas, the average American woman is 5’4 and 166 pounds, while most models are about 5’11 and

weigh 107 pounds (Crain 2). This proves that social media is pushing unrealistic body standards onto today’s youth. A study

entitled “Body Image Issues Among Girls and Women” revealed that 20 percent of nine–year-old girls and 40 percent of four-

teen-year-old girls wanted to lose weight. Another study done by Dove showed that more than 90 percent of girls age fifteen to

seventeen wanted to change at least one of their physical characteristics (Murphy-Gill 5). Because girls are introduced to these

images of “perfect” models, they begin to become dissatisfied with themselves. Teens who are active social media users tend to

worry more about how they are perceived, and tend to have body dissatisfaction (Knorr 2).

Many people believe that social media can be a positive thing, but they do not have persuasive evidence to support

their claim. Some may say that social media can improve relationships, but studies from Pew Research Center say that 20% of

couples reported that social media impacted their relationship in a negative way (Harmon 3). Others may argue that social me-

dia helps people stay connected, but it can lower ones social skills, making it harder to participate in face-to-face conversations

(Harmon 3). This shows that social media does not have a large amount of positive effects on its users.

Social media has a great amount of negative impacts on its users by lowering their academic performance, decreasing

their self-esteem, and creating mental health issues. Because social media has negative impacts, parents should take charge and

limit their child’s daily social media use, and adults must learn to restrict themselves from the dangers of social media.

P A G E 1 2

By: Braden Baldauf, Dnniel Oxley, and Makenzie Whitmer