Some of the pros of playing a sport include: Getting into shape. Playing a sport will more times than not, get you into great shape. It gives you something to do. When you’re bored and don’t know what to do, go outside and just start practicing. It gives you an escape. When things are happening in life that you just want to sit down and cry about, you can go play your heart out and while you’re playing, you’ll forget about everything else. You form a bond with your team. After all the time you spend with your team, you will become pretty much family, and gain friends that will always have your back. It can force you into better nutrition. Sometimes, strict coaches will tell you what you can and can’t eat, and other times, when playing a sport, you just feel the need to eat healthy. It’s fun. If you play a sport that you truly love, then it will be a lot of fun! It can become a goal. If you’ve played a sport for a while, and you love it, chances are you’ll want to make it to the bug time games like the Olympics. This is a great thing to do if you aren’t sure what you’ll do in life.

Some of the cons include: Injuries can occur. Depending on what sport you play, injury can be very common. For example, playing soccer can cause you to get a concussion, torn ACL, sprained and broken ankles and many more and football can cause more serious injuries. Time away from family, friends, school and religion. Sports require a lot of hardcore dedication if you plan on succeeding, so that’s going to be a lot of time usually spent on things like friends, family, school and religion. Being over-worked. Sometimes, coaches don’t realize when you’re being worked too hard, so it’s your job to realize when you need a break and when you’ve pushed yourself too far. It costs a lot. If you play travel sports, it makes you better, but it’s not cheap at all. It can lead to drug use. Kids will want to be on the top of their game and so they will do it unnaturally by using steroids and other drugs. It’s hard to get into the big leagues. Although it’s a great goal to have, it’s a very hard one, and rarely people get in. Stress is out on the player and parents. Kids will be stressed that they aren’t playing good enough and parents will often stress out about having their child at games and practices on time, and they will sometimes worry about their child getting hurt, not doing well, or getting no playing time.

Playing sports, depending on a lot of personal health or mental factors, can be a great thing for you to do! You just have to see if the pros out-weigh the cons, and see which you would prefer, and if you can take a few risks. Just make sure when you’re playing, you’re playing it safe.

Some of the pros of playing a sport include: Getting into shape. Playing a sport will more times than not, get you into great shape. It gives you something to do. When you’re bored and don’t know what to do, go outside and just start practicing. It gives you an escape. When things are happening in life that you just want to sit down and cry about, you can go play your heart out and while you’re playing, you’ll forget about everything else. You form a bond with your team. After all the time you spend with your team, you will become pretty much family, and gain friends that will always have your back. It can force you into better nutrition. Sometimes, strict coaches will tell you what you can and can’t eat, and other times, when playing a sport, you just feel the need to eat healthy. It’s fun. If you play a sport that you truly love, then it will be a lot of fun! It can become a goal. If you’ve played a sport for a while, and you love it, chances are you’ll want to make it to the bug time games like the Olympics. This is a great thing to do if you aren’t sure what you’ll do in life.

Some of the cons include: Injuries can occur. Depending on what sport you play, injury can be very common. For example, playing soccer can cause you to get a concussion, torn ACL, sprained and broken ankles and many more and football can cause more serious injuries. Time away from family, friends, school and religion. Sports require a lot of hardcore dedication if you plan on succeeding, so that’s going to be a lot of time usually spent on things like friends, family, school and religion. Being over-worked. Sometimes, coaches don’t realize when you’re being worked too hard, so it’s your job to realize when you need a break and when you’ve pushed yourself too far. It costs a lot. If you play travel sports, it makes you better, but it’s not cheap at all. It can lead to drug use. Kids will want to be on the top of their game and so they will do it unnaturally by using steroids and other drugs. It’s hard to get into the big leagues. Although it’s a great goal to have, it’s a very hard one, and rarely people get in. Stress is out on the player and parents. Kids will be stressed that they aren’t playing good enough and parents will often stress out about having their child at games and practices on time, and they will sometimes worry about their child getting hurt, not doing well, or getting no playing time.

Playing sports, depending on a lot of personal health or mental factors, can be a great thing for you to do! You just have to see if the pros out-weigh the cons, and see which you would prefer, and if you can take a few risks. Just make sure when you’re playing, you’re playing it safe.

The first teacher I met with is Mr. Wirt. He has been working for twenty nine years.  He is not married and does not have any kids.  He loves to work but he also likes to go hiking and riding his motorcycle. He went hiking in the snow over the spring break.

The second teacher is Mr. Blankenship.  He is a seventh grade science teacher.  Mr. Blankenship chooses to be a science teacher because his mother was biology major and he wanted to do what his mother did.  He likes to do other things than teaching.  He used to like practicing football with his son but now he can’t because his son is going off to college.  His son’s name is Spencer and he is going off to college to James Madison University, but Spencer just wants to go to college as a regular student not a football player.  Mr. Blankenship likes to do other things to like working in yard, cutting wood, and playing with his chickens.

The third teacher I met with is Mrs. Brown.  She is a sixth grade language arts teacher.  Mrs. Brown has been working at Andrew Lewis for twelve years but she did work at West Salem for thirteen years.  All together she has been working for twenty five years.  She has two children, one girl and one boy.  Her daughter’s name is Heather and she graduated from Marine Henry.  Now Heather is married to Mr. Didirich.  Her second child is Josh Brown.  He is not married but he did graduate from Virginia Tech.  Mrs. Brown loves to exercise at the YMCA and sing in her church choir.

These students may have different teams, they all work as hard.  The students are very important to the school because without them the teachers would be teaching to a group of desks and that would be very weird.  Here are three students that I interviewed.

I met with Hannah Moran.  She is an eighth grader who is on the Andrew Lewis soccer team, was on the basketball team and the volleyball team.  Everyone calls her Mo.  Hannah said that she would like to go to the University of Carolina.  She said when she grows up she wants to be a pilot for the air force.  Hannah has four siblings, two brothers and two sisters.  Her brothers are Spencer who is in sixth grade and Timothy who is in tenth grade.   Her sisters are Jordan who is in twelfth grade and Makenzie who is in fourth grade.  Hannah loves to play soccer when she has free time.

The second student I met with is a seventh grader.  Makenzie Redding is a thirteen year old at Andrew Lewis.  She has two sisters, Kelsey and Juli.  Makenzie loves chocolate and pizza.  She also likes to play lacrosse with her friends and her team.  Makenzie said she has loved her sixth and seventh grade years at Andrew Lewis because she gets to see her friends Monday through Friday.

The last student I met with is a sixth grader.  Danielle Rich is eleven years old and loves to play soccer.  She hopes to make the Lewis soccer team next year and the basketball team.  Danielle has one sister, Hannah.  She loves chocolate and bacon.  Danielle hopes to go to the University of Virginia when she grows up.

These teachers and students work six hours a day.  Even though they work a lot, they have fun with what they do.  These are some of the Andrew Lewis teachers and students, but there are many more.

Since I am a girl, this movie is more of a romantic movie however it is also a suspenseful thriller. The movie I have chosen is Safe Haven. In this movie a young woman is struggling with her husband because he abuses her. In fear and pain she runs away to a small town where she meets a widower with two young children.  What will happen next?  Will they fall in love?  Will her husband find her?  I guess you will just have to see it yourself!

The book I have chosen is Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  This book is hard to put down. It is about a young girl who finds out that her family past was not what she thought! When her parents drop her off at an Aunt’s house of whom she has never met unexpectedly,  she goes through a lot to find out what the secret her parents have been keeping from her is. All I will say is it involves the twisting world of science cloning and a hunt to find out the deepest secrets!

To get some more feedback I sat down with  Miss. Ramsey, a student teacher for Mr. Simmons.

“A good author to read from, for girls is Sarah Dessen, some of her books are Lock and Key and Along for the Ride, ” said Ramsey.  For those of you who don’t like teen romance books, well I guess this is not your author! “Movie wise I would say any Disney animated movie like Wreck-it Ralph or The  Croods.”

Guys I know I have not helped you that much, but next I interviewed Brayden Overstreet.  I asked him to recommend some books and movies specifically for guys.  He replied, “ Personally I like the action packed Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, by Rick Riordan.”  “For  movies I like 42 Jackie Robinson, which as you can probably tell explains the story Jackie Robinson’s life, ” said Brayden. Guys I hope you can get some good out of this!

These are just a few of the many great books in our library and the movies are all fantastic. So I encourage you to check out some of these great recommendations or just explore, you never know you may just find a great book or movie. If you have any other books or movies you would like me to review write them down and bring them to me personally or to Mrs. Page! 

Sports are a big deal in Salem, VA. At Salem High School you can play a variety of different sports:

Fall Sports:

• Cheerleading
• Cross country
• Football (Varsity)
• Football (JV)
• Golf
• Volleyball (Varsity and JV)

Winter Sports:

• Academic Team
• Basketball – Boys (Varsity and JV)
• Basketball – Girls (Varsity and JV)
• Forensics
• Indoor Track
• Swimming
• Wrestling

Spring Sports:

• Baseball (Varsity)
• Baseball (JV)
• Lacrosse – Boys
• Lacrosse – Girls
• Outdoor Track
• Soccer – Boys
• Soccer – Girls
• Softball (Varsity)
• Softball (JV)
• Tennis – Boys
• Tennis – Girls

This year, Salem athletics have been very successful. They have won four state championships in AA Forensics, AA Golf, AA Division four Boys Basketball, and AA Division four Girls Basketball, and spring sports are just starting. Salem also became the first Virginia school since 2007 to have its boys and girls basketball teams win a state championship in the same season. Salem’s girls won the Division four title over Courtland two hours prior to the boys’ celebration.

Girl’s basketball played Courtland, a tough team to beat. In the girl’s game, they won with a score of  51-44. The Cougars didn’t hit 40 until there was 29.5 seconds left on the Siegel Center clock. It got a little dicey there after that with a stretch of three missed Kim Migliarese foul shots in a four attempts, but she eventually made up for by nailing a pair to push the lead to 51-42 and seal it with :06 left. Tay Taylor, Kim Migliarese, and Tessa Foley, the seniors, played a lot in the game. Taylor had 22 points, Migliarese had 7 points, and Foley added 8 points to the Spartan’s score. The other scores on the team: Dishaw had 4, Price had 5, M. Migliarese had 3, and Plympton had 2. The Spartans were 16-42 for field goals (they did not score any three-pointers) and 19-29 from the free-throw line. Three players scored for the Cougars (28-4), who thrashed the Spartans 70-30 in last year’s semifinals. Janae McNeal had more than half with 28 points to go with six steals in 32 minutes. Jessica Hairston added 13 points and 13 rebounds but shot just 3 for 12 from the floor. Courtland was 13 for 48 for the game. The girls played a phenomenal game against Courtland, and definitely deserve the win.

The guys played Grafton after the girls, and had a very suspenseful game. Grafton, who had an amazing record of 28-3 in the regular season, was definitely a tough team to play. However the Spartans, who had a record of 19-10, had prepared for this game, and were ready to beat Grafton. The win gave Salem its third state title since 1994 and sent Grafton back to Yorktown with its second Division 4 runner-up effort in the last two seasons. “I don’t think these guys know what has hit them yet,” Garst said. “This is something they will remember for the rest of their lives.” Matt Hill scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Alex Light had 14 points and 14 boards. Salem held a narrow 33-31 lead late in the third quarter before Hill completed a three-point play after an inbounds pass, and followed that with a low-post move on the first possession of the fourth quarter for a 38-31 Spartans lead. Troy Mann scored 11 points and played the entire 32 minutes along with Hill. Joyce played 21 minutes and had a team-high four assists without committing a turnover. Reserve Shawn McDaniel gave Salem its first lead of the game in the second quarter when Light sat down with two fouls. The guys played an outstanding game also.

The Spartans definitely played two amazing games, and they earned their state championships.

Fall Sports:

• Cheerleading
• Cross country
• Football (Varsity)
• Football (JV)
• Golf
• Volleyball (Varsity and JV)

Winter Sports:

• Academic Team
• Basketball – Boys (Varsity and JV)
• Basketball – Girls (Varsity and JV)
• Forensics
• Indoor Track
• Swimming
• Wrestling

Spring Sports:

• Baseball (Varsity)
• Baseball (JV)
• Lacrosse – Boys
• Lacrosse – Girls
• Outdoor Track
• Soccer – Boys
• Soccer – Girls
• Softball (Varsity)
• Softball (JV)
• Tennis – Boys
• Tennis – Girls

This year, Salem athletics have been very successful. They have won four state championships in AA Forensics, AA Golf, AA Division four Boys Basketball, and AA Division four Girls Basketball, and spring sports are just starting. Salem also became the first Virginia school since 2007 to have its boys and girls basketball teams win a state championship in the same season. Salem’s girls won the Division four title over Courtland two hours prior to the boys’ celebration.

Girl’s basketball played Courtland, a tough team to beat. In the girl’s game, they won with a score of  51-44. The Cougars didn’t hit 40 until there was 29.5 seconds left on the Siegel Center clock. It got a little dicey there after that with a stretch of three missed Kim Migliarese foul shots in a four attempts, but she eventually made up for by nailing a pair to push the lead to 51-42 and seal it with :06 left. Tay Taylor, Kim Migliarese, and Tessa Foley, the seniors, played a lot in the game. Taylor had 22 points, Migliarese had 7 points, and Foley added 8 points to the Spartan’s score. The other scores on the team: Dishaw had 4, Price had 5, M. Migliarese had 3, and Plympton had 2. The Spartans were 16-42 for field goals (they did not score any three-pointers) and 19-29 from the free-throw line. Three players scored for the Cougars (28-4), who thrashed the Spartans 70-30 in last year’s semifinals. Janae McNeal had more than half with 28 points to go with six steals in 32 minutes. Jessica Hairston added 13 points and 13 rebounds but shot just 3 for 12 from the floor. Courtland was 13 for 48 for the game. The girls played a phenomenal game against Courtland, and definitely deserve the win.

The guys played Grafton after the girls, and had a very suspenseful game. Grafton, who had an amazing record of 28-3 in the regular season, was definitely a tough team to play. However the Spartans, who had a record of 19-10, had prepared for this game, and were ready to beat Grafton. The win gave Salem its third state title since 1994 and sent Grafton back to Yorktown with its second Division 4 runner-up effort in the last two seasons. “I don’t think these guys know what has hit them yet,” Garst said. “This is something they will remember for the rest of their lives.” Matt Hill scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Alex Light had 14 points and 14 boards. Salem held a narrow 33-31 lead late in the third quarter before Hill completed a three-point play after an inbounds pass, and followed that with a low-post move on the first possession of the fourth quarter for a 38-31 Spartans lead. Troy Mann scored 11 points and played the entire 32 minutes along with Hill. Joyce played 21 minutes and had a team-high four assists without committing a turnover. Reserve Shawn McDaniel gave Salem its first lead of the game in the second quarter when Light sat down with two fouls. The guys played an outstanding game also.

The Spartans definitely played two amazing games, and they earned their state championships.

The future of a teenager is not usually planned for them and can be changed drastically by bad decisions, poor grades, and unfriendly behaviors. The lack of sleep can cause students to have poor grades which can, in turn, ruin their chances of going to a choice college or school. Their listening skills, schools work, and even verbal communication can be affected by the lack of sleep associated with most teens.

Not only does it affect their educational career but it can also affect their relationships. Sleep deprivation is known to lead to irritable and aggressive behavior which can lead to an outburst directed toward a friend or family member resulting in the termination of a friendship. This decreases our sociability and encourages solitariness in young adults. Along with this behavior it can also cause simple task like doing chores, going to the grocery store, and walking the family pet, feel like tremendously hard tasks.

Alertness and mobility can also be limited in our struggle to stay awake during the day. This immobilizes our creative skills and awareness of our surroundings, making us more susceptible to be in a situation were on is likely to meet harm. That in itself is a danger to anyone and can be easily avoided with a proper night’s sleep to rehydrate the body. You might, for example, be unable to participate in certain activities that require long amounts of sustained attention, like going to the movies, putting in good efforts on school projects, or watching a favorite TV show, which attributes to a poor quality of life.

One of the most noticeable and undesirable effects of sleep deprivation is the chance of obesity. When the body is deprived of the sleep it needs in which to process blood sugar and lepton, a protein hormone that regulates appetite and metabolism, which can, over time, make it very difficult to suppress food cravings, a leading cause to becoming overweight.

As you can see, the lack of sleep is never redistributed during the day and can cause major immediate and long-term effects on health, social capabilities, and life in general. The effects can be responsible for causing negative personal issues such as the inability to do simple house chores and tasks, along with negative long term effects such as career opportunities and health risks. Though amounts of sleep vary from person to person, an appropriate amount of sleep can be the difference between a successful life and an unsuccessful one.
Article(s) for information: http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/sleep/basics/5-effects-of-sleep-deprivation2.htm

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/important-sleep-habits

Many do not realize how stressful and how much work went into the making of this video. Mrs. Page and the photojournalism class have been working on this literally since August! After auditions for the new kid, all who participated in the video came to school at 7:30 and ran through the route multiple times, which was tiring. One day, when AnnElese was unable to attend practice, I personally had to fill in, which was exhausting. Skipping backwards throughout the school at a fast pace can really take your breath away. Also when the student body was informed of the song choice, many were not pleased. “Well, why don’t we do a song that’s popular and that everybody knows?” many asked. The answer was simple, copyright was a major issue. Mrs. Page had requested the rights to many “popular” songs and was turned down repeatedly. If our school were to have used a song we did not have the copyright for, there would have been a chance that we would be in a difficult legal situation. As it is, with “I Love This Town” the school had to pay for it’s copyright and was required to stop the song three different times throughout the video.

All and all the video was very successful and was actually quite fun when all was said and done. Mrs. Page has posted the video on YouTube so you can watch it anytime, anywhere. Students from different schools in the area have seen this video and said “That’s so cool! My school would never do that!” So, if you didn’t really enjoy the video just remember, many people worked so hard to make it happen and other schools haven’t gotten this fun opportunity.

There are so many types of different reality TV shows. Like Duck Dynasty, a family of a bunch of rednecks with a multi-million dollar business of making duck calls. The Bachelor or Bachelorette is another reality show where a man or woman tries to find love. But, are these shows scripted or not? Most reality TV shows are run by the producers, editors, and a host. One scene of a reality TV show is taken over a couple of days or even months and put together to look like it was filmed all at the same time. A lot of reality TV shows are scripted and filmed to look like it is their everyday lives. But they really aren’t. The people that play in these reality TV shows are given scripts to memorize that look like what would be their everyday life. The producers and editors do many “takes” to shoot one scene for the show. So while taking these shots at different times and days or even months, just shows how reality TV isn’t real.

I asked three students at Andrew Lewis the following questions: 1. Do you like to watch reality TV shows? If no, why? 2. Do you think that reality TV is true reality? If not, why? 3. What is your favorite reality TV show?  I first asked Katie Wright, an eighth grader, and she replied: “I love to watch reality TV!” ”I think that reality TV is true reality.” ” My favorite reality TV show is Duck Dynasty.” I then asked Morgan Sick, a seventh grader, and she replied: “I really like to watch reality TV.” “I think that reality TV is true.” “My favorite reality TV show would have to be Duck Dynasty.” I lastly asked Brianna Warme, a sixth grader, and she replied: “I really enjoy watching reality TV shows.”  “I kind of think that reality TV is true because they don’t have written scripts.” “My favorite reality TV show is also Duck Dynasty.”

As you can tell, reality TV is not real. Even though they are not real, everyone still likes to watch them.

A dog is always willing to help. A service dog is more of the type of dog to help people with mental and physical disabilities. These dogs will be your ears for you. If you are deaf or hearing impaired they will most likely be your best friend. They will alert their partners when they hear a sound such as a doorbell, smoke alarm, phones, etc. Then they will let their partners know by touching their hand with the dog’s nose.

They will also be a mobility assistant. They will most likely help you if you have a physical disability. One of their tasks would be to help their partner in and out of the wheelchair if they are paralyzed. They may even pull the wheelchair. They also can also be a mobile cane, balance assistant while performing tasks, help as their partner is getting dressed, bring medicines to them, etc.

These dogs can also be psychiatric service dogs. These dogs can do many amazing things to help people. By helping people with anxiety problems, depression, agoraphobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc. can help calm their partner down if needed. Sometimes, it just feels good to know that they understand your problem. They are willing to bring medicines and even the phone when in emergencies. They help calm them, get them focused, and they can break dissociation spells by touching or nuzzling their partners hand multiple times. They also help their partner get out of their house if they are afraid to go outside.

Therapy dogs are a little different than service dogs. These dogs are more of a great friend to cheer someone up. They are always supposed to be there for you. They are not required to know any fancy tricks, but there partner can teach them tricks if they like. Little children loves dogs and it makes their day if a therapy dog visited them if they were in the hospital. Also, they make very good friends with other animals such as cats and birds. These dogs must be on a leash, obedient, and have great behavior while remaining under control. Most people say that they are a joy to be around.

Having a dog just to be your companion is a great idea also. They will always bring a smile to your face. It is a great idea to adopt a dog from the pound. Those dogs will do anything to have a great home and for them to know that someone loves them. These dogs will help you get exercise, have protection, begin a new friendship, and if you are very shy maybe they will help you come out of your “shell”.
People do not realize that dogs provide so much for us. Whether they are our eyes and ears, mobile cane, or even just a best friend they will always be there for us. Now it is out turn to help them and give them all that we can offer.