BLHS freshman Madison Howard competed at the State Piano Festival in Hillsboro, where she received a state medal and “1″ rating. Her piece was “Two Ladies Gossiping” by Aram Khachaturian.

In sports, senior Antonio Ferro and sophomore Cory McCleary qualified for the 4A State Wrestling Tournament, which will take place this weekend in Salina.

Congratulate these Bobcats when you see them! They are making our school proud!

Their campaign? The Bobcat Way.

Check out the series of PSA’s they have posted on their YouTube site.

The following students were elected to the Courtwarming court by their peers.

9th Grade:
Cody Waterman & Sierra Smith

10th Grade:
Talia Armstrong & Chase Younger

11th Grade:
Paul Rehm & Lauren Leiker

12th Grade King Candidates
Colin Murphy
Ryan Murphy
Colten Stevens
Brad Waterman

12th Grade Queen Candidates:
Alex Bright
Allison Magana
Cara McCarty
Alyssa Rucker

To get into that top 1% of earners research says that the best majors to focus on are pre-medicine, economics, biochemistry, zoology or biology. There majors show the greatest chance of security in another economic down turn.

But at the same time the research shows that the real goal for most college students is to do something they love rather than one that earns them the most.

I agree with what the research says, you should focus on a major that you like and that you know you will like for the years to come. I suppose that if you all about money, you would run for those particular majors, but think about how you may feel in five years. I just wouldn’t want to regret my decision in the long run. Definitely shoot for the major that you are interested in.

The PIPA act was first introduced in May 2011. PIPA, if passed, gives the government the right to seek out illegal use of copyrighted material on any website whether of US origin or not. They can block access to the websites and can sue search engines, blogs, directories and any site that has mentioned the copyrighted material.

If people make new websites after the bill is passed, the government can and most likely will sue the creator of the website.

Along with PIPA, SOPA is designed to fix the problems with foreign-based websites that sell pirated movies, music and other products.

Knowing that, it means that the government could shut down websites like YouTube due to copyright on their videos or even Google for their images.  Blogs could be shut down if the writer referred to any copyrighted material.

Now don’t get me wrong, it is important to give people credit for the work they have done, but the Internet is one of our most flexible freedoms. Without the Internet we would not have even heard about SOPA and PIPA. Taking away the Internet, I think, would leave the world in the dark, we wouldn’t have to communication that we have today. Why would we limit or even take away one of the greatest advancements in technology?

It’s 7:55 am at Linwood Elementary School–the quiet before the storm. Michelle Riffel prepares her room for her 4th grade students. She’s been teaching at Linwood for 26 years so she knows her way around. Riffel projects a few morning math problems on the wall and makes sure she has all the assignments she needs. They’re probably some of the same assignments I did as a fourth grader six years ago.

Stepping into her cozy room at the very end of the building brings me back to when 9-year-old me flounced in every day with my Kim Possible backpack, filled to the brim with several books I was reading all at the same time.  Cubbies still occupy the corner with hooks underneath them waiting for backpacks and lunch bags.
Of course some things have changed a little since I was there. A new smart board hangs on the south wall and the room divider is drawn to make room for fifth graders. The bulky Apple desktops have disappeared from the teachers’ desks to make room for new laptops. Even the students have a mobile cart and computer lab to themselves.
The students in question bang at the closed door and Riffel rushes to open it. She stands outside and tells the waiting fourth graders that they have a new student. They’re excited. I’m almost sad when they walk in, see me, and realize their teacher has played a joke on them. Riffel explains that I am not, in fact, an actual fourth grader, just masquerading as one for the morning.
“There’s an open seat there,” Riffel points me over to a large table in the middle of the room.
I’m a source of awe for my tablemates. “Are you really a fourth grader?”  A girl next to me asks, “Because it would be cool if you were.” I smile and tell her that I’m really a junior in high school. I can tell she doesn’t understand how the hierarchy of high school works.
None of them do, and it’s endearing.
My new classmates line up beside me and, one by one, tell me their siblings are in their “first year” or “last year” of high school and ask if I know them. Mrs. Riffel has to explain that “first years” are called ‘freshmen’ and “last years” are called ‘seniors’.
With the question and answer session of the day over, Mrs. Riffel tells them to work on their assigned math problems.
One by one, they get out dry erase boards and begin working the problems (67 X 34 and 97 divided by 3). I remember using the dry erase boards, too. Technology, though, has changed the morning math problem for fourth graders. When I was in fourth grade (2005), our math problems were projected–just like theirs–but from an overhead. One of my two fourth grade teachers–Mrs. Riffel or Miss Cole–would have to hand write every problem, then go through the trouble of erasing it. That, if I remember correctly, is how we learned everything in fourth grade.
These fourth graders get the privilege of a smart board hooked up to a laptop.
Riffel says that technology has changed fourth grade. She says the technology is more available to work with. It’s affected her teaching, too. Riffel says that now that there are firmer state standards in place, she has to plan her curriculum more carefully. Thanks to technology, she can find lessons online that meet the state requirements.
Riffel compares fourth grade today with her fourth grade experience–her classroom didn’t even have calculators! Because of this lack of technology, Riffel learned other things, such as knitting. One of her favorite times of the day was when she learned certain crafty things. Another favorite was, of course, recess.
Though the structure of the days is different, fourth graders are still learning some of the same things they were years ago.
After the math problems are completed, Riffel begins a lesson with her students about figurative language. This, she says, is something that’s a little harder for fourth graders to grasp. The literal 9-year-olds are surprised to discover that having eyes in the back of your head doesn’t mean you’re a mutant and that you can live through something that blew your mind.
The students gather around to listen to a book and hear her explain what different idioms mean.
Mrs. Riffel hopes to expand books into her favorite subject to teach–math. Fourth graders learn a lot of math. In a single year they cover double digit multiplication, long division, and basic geometry concepts.
Both fourth graders I talked to, Tara and LJ, listed math as one of their favorite subjects. Tara says that the best things she’s learned this year are multiplication and division because they’re a continuation of things she learned in third grade.
Both kids admitted to being nervous for fourth grade but, with Mrs. Riffel’s help, they ended up liking it. That’s now, though.
I asked them where they saw themselves when they’re juniors in high school. “I don’t know,” Tara says, “there are so many things I can do.”
That’s understandable, for a 9-year-old. Seeing eight years into the future is a big stretch.
LJ, though, has it down. “I want to get a job as a video game designer,” he says, then tells me  about his favorite game, Modern Warfare 3.
His determination reminds me of myself when I was a fourth grader. I thought I was going to do everything: be an astronaut, be president of the United States or a cat lady. This determination is something not often seen in BLHS, and maybe it’s time to recapture it. Mrs. Riffel, from years of experience, has learned how to do this, “They are so eager to learn and try at everything they do.”
It’s very apparent from how hard they work that what she says is true. Don’t go back to fourth grade just to learn life lessons . Go back so you can see how simple life is when you don’t know what a ‘sophomore’ is and have never heard of the quadratic formula.