Lifestyle

BY ASHLEY VANDERHOFF

Editor

No one enjoys a frantic morning, especially when many of us are not accustomed to waking up early every day after a year where we could sleep in more often. The mad rush between waking up and leaving the door can be stressful. Still, a morning routine does not need to be a dreaded part of your day; it can be a motivational jump start. A morning routine can be most effective when you start the night before. Many students tend to wait until the morning to organize their thoughts and prepare for the day, a trend that typically results in an uncharged Chromebook, forgotten work or not making it to class on time. To help avoid these issues, junior Sandra Bach always makes sure to do her homework the night before it is due. “Sometimes I would not do homework the night before, but then I would be like, ‘Oh, I really do need to do it.’ So then I would set my alarm for four in the morning to do homework for 40 [minutes] and then go back to bed,” Bach said. Bach quit this unhelpful habit after her freshman year, which significantly improved her mornings. One of the most effective ways to ensure you avoid rushing around in the morning is to pack your bag the night before. Social studies teacher Javier Martinez’s advice for high

I try not to be rushed so that I have a routine. I set an alarm. I know I’m [going to] be getting up. I mentally prepare. Social studies teacher Javier Martinez “

Photo by Ashley Vanderhoff Getting your backpack ready the night before is a quick and simple task that prepares you for the morning. Ensuring your Chromebook is charged can make the morning less stressful. A quick and easy breakfast is a great way to provide a stress-free morning. One example is making a piece of toast with the toppings of your choosing.

schoolers revolves around their sleeping habits. “Get to bed at a decent time. Don’t stay up until 1 a.m. playing video games. A good night’s sleep means you’ll get up in the morning refreshed. And have a routine before you go to bed,” Martinez said. One of the best things we can do to benefit our mornings is start getting ready for the next day during the night before. Students not waking up when they’re supposed to seems to be the common factor of a crazy morning rush. But when a student prepares their bag, outfit and schoolwork, they do not need to worry about forgetting something and can even wake up later. Oftentimes, as a result of not waking up early enough, students do not eat breakfast. According to healthychildren.

Photo by Kyra Motyka

The sun rises over Elburn as a new school day starts. Most Kaneland students are typically on their way to school as the sun finishes rising. org, kids who eat breakfast perform better in school and function better overall. Whether you decide to wake up early in the morning or later, breakfast should not be something that is overlooked. “Everyone needs to eat breakfast. I cook a full meal; I cook eggs and bacon and pancakes. And [students] can also eat healthy food, but it’s just important to eat in general,” Bach said. However, not everyone needs to plan 30 minutes in the morning to eat breakfast. For some, breakfast was never high on the list of priorities to begin with, so spending more time than you need in the morning can demotivate you from sticking to a schedule. There are plenty of easy and quick meals, though, that you can eat for breakfast or on the way to school. If leaving enough time for a full meal for breakfast does not work for you, you can try preparing nutritional snacks in the morning, such as hard boiled eggs or yogurt parfaits. An example of a quick breakfast that is easy to eat in the car

Photo by Ashley Vanderhoff

could be blending assorted fruits to make a delicious smoothie. A simple breakfast such as toast with creative toppings like avocado or fruit can provide plenty of nutrition, while taking minimal time to eat. Martinez also stresses the importance of waking up early to accomplish everything you need to do before school. “Things need to get done, and that begins by getting up on time... and not being rushed, because when you’re rushed, you don’t do a good job. You forget things like not bringing your Chromebook to school, forgetting your lunch or forgetting your homework,” Martinez said. Preparing the night before and giving yourself plenty of time to wake up should be a priority for everyone. Motivating yourself for the rest of your day can be as simple as setting aside some time for yourself. This may not seem like a priority in the morning while trying to head to school, but successful people agree that it is an essential step. According to the academic website lifehack.org, not having to rush is the key to a stress-free morning. Additionally, lifehack.org reports that with 90% of illnesses related to stress, taking a moment to sit and relax can help keep you calm. While advice from someone else can help you plan a motivational morning routine, in the end, it is best to do what works for you. Some people work better with a simple outline, while others do better with a scheduled itinerary. No matter what works for you, make sure to include breakfast, prepare the night before and try not to rush yourself. “I try not to be rushed so that I have a routine. I set an alarm. I know I’m [going to] be getting up. I mentally prepare. ‘Hey, that alarm is going to go off at 5:45, so you need to get up when the alarm goes off.’ [It’s] the practice of knowing I need to be responsible,” Martinez said. Lifestyle 3

BY KEVIN SIGRIST

Sophomore Benjamin Broz stands with a Chromebook displaying his converter. Broz coded an app that converts standards-based scores to a letter grade using a coding platform called Scratch.

During the past several years at Kaneland High School, courses have been switching from the well-known traditional grading method to a different, standards-based grading scale. Students’ opinions vary regarding the new approach, and it has become a common point of conflict amongst the students and staff. Sophomore Benjamin Broz found the standards-based scale confusing, so to help those in similar positions, he created an app that converts standards-based scores to a letter grade to enable students to have a clearer idea of their current standing. Broz created the app a few days before the start of the 2021-22 school year, and it only took him an hour and a half to make. It was not made to create a new and improved conversion scale, but to be an easier way to understand the current conversion process. Standards-based grading is based on a student’s ability to demonstrate proficiency in relation to various content-area standards, and students’ grades are derived from how they performed under the criteria of the standards given to them. However, rather than traditional grading where a teacher would average the point values for a final grade, or other variations of standards-based grading where a student’s grades are reported using the language of standards rather than converted to letter grades, Kaneland’s standards-based grading uses a four-point scale that is ultimately converted into a letter grade. Broz created his app after realizing some of the disadvantages that students associate with moving away from a traditional grading system. “[Standards-based grading] has its perks, but I also feel like it has some big downsides. If you had 19 fours and a singular one, according to the chart, you would get a D+. With traditional grading, if you had 19 100% grades and a single 50%, that wouldn’t get you nearly as close to a D+ as [standards-based grading] would,” Broz said. “I think most students find that quite confusing, and there wasn’t really a way for students to check their grade or what their approximate grade should be.” Broz took the conversion chart that students can access on the Kaneland website or in some teachers’ syllabi and plugged it into a coding software known as Scratch. Broz’s app runs on the Scratch website and works as a way to convert several standards-based grading scores into a letter grade. This way, a student can plug in their current combination of scores, regardless of how many standards have been summatively assessed, to determine a letter grade that reflects current progress. Teachers often say that a student does not have a grade until the end of the semester when all the standards have been assessed, and while that is true in a standards-based class, Broz recognized that students want some sense of their current standing in a class before that time comes. The standards-based approach at Kaneland began in the English department, but after some time, it spread to several of the other courses. Despite its increasingly frequent use, however, there are some students who think a standards-based method is not the best fit for their classes. “Every teacher has to use the same scale, even if it doesn’t fit their course’s needs. I don’t really think standards-based fits well for any class, but it certainly does not fit classes like math that obviously work fine with traditional grading,” sophomore Nicklas Stefanik said. There are teachers, though, like English teacher Kimberly Reese, who advocate for standards-based grading because of the philosophy towards learning that it promotes. To proponents of standards-based grading, it is important to remember that the standards-based approach is different than traditional grading, and drawing parallels between them is not necessary. “Standards-based grading and the traditional kind of grading are very different, and I think what happens is that students, parents and teachers kind of try to make them mirror images of one another and try to find as much in common so they can make that adjustment,” Reese said. “[They think] a four is an A and a three is a B, and I don’t think that is exactly the correct way to do it. Right now with the scale we are using, to truly get an A you have to be in the distinguished category, and I think that’s very different from what students and teachers are used to.” Reese assisted Broz in making the app by checking to ensure that the grading scale was correct, and she commented on the kind of approach she believes students should apply to standards-based assessments. “Students’ reactions are appropriate because it is a huge change. What I like about it, and what I think is a strength of standards-based grading, is that it really puts the focus on what you’re learning, rather than just chasing after a grade,” Reese said. “I was a very high achieving student, and I would have been a student who would have been frustrated by this, but I think it’s making that shift so the focus is really on what you are learning, not what you are memorizing for a test or what you are doing to get that score, but what you are learning that you can incorporate into who you are.” While opinions on standards-based grading vary from student to student and even amongst the teachers, the Kaneland district appears ready to use standards-based grading for the foreseeable future, and one way to make further sense of the change is to utilize Broz’s app.

Photo by Kevin Sigrist

Photo courtesy of Benjamin Broz Scan the above QR code, then click the green flag to use the app. Using the plus and minus buttons, adjust the amount of each number, and press the reset button to move everything back to zero.