A Student's Perspective of Online Learning

By Avery O'Flannigan

Since not everyone has entirely figured out online learning I figured I would put out some tips from a student's perspective.

Teachers, we know that just because school is online it does not mean the semester's over, but it is still a little bit odd not doing our work in a classroom. Some of us have little siblings to babysit if our parents are still working or just siblings being annoying in general. In addition to siblings, we also have our parents, who if they’re not working, may take our time at home as almost a signal to hang out all the time when we are trying to work. Now, it’s not entirely our family’s fault if we get a little distracted at times or turn things in late. Personally, having to manage myself is a little bit overwhelming and having work for each class without a section of time where we absolutely have to be working on only that subject can be stressful. Additionally, we don’t have the time to where we can just come in before or after school to get help or catch up, and some students really rely on that just to pass the class. Lastly, some of us were already in a bad place with our mental health and now that we can’t see our friends at school or go hang out with them some things have just gotten worse. Sometimes, we will need to put our mental health first which might mean turning something in late or getting kind of behind. Whether it’s siblings or parents or just being trapped in our own heads, just please, please be patient with us. We’re all struggling to adjust and I’m sure it’s still a little weird for you guys too.

Parents, we know that you want to be involved now that we’re home all the time; however, just because we’re home does not mean that we need more help or attention to keep us on track. Now don’t get me wrong sometimes we do need to be told to stop scrolling through TikTok, but just because we’re texting someone back does not mean that we’re not working. In addition to this, if we get a little bit frustrated with science or English it doesn’t mean that we need immediate support or help from a teacher or from you. We might text or call one of our friends who can explain it in “our language” or just to get their input on what we wrote for a discussion post. We understand that it’s not just us who were affected by the new plague - Coronavirus, and that you might still be struggling to get used to this as well. However, we do still need some space as well as time to hang out together, so just check in every once in a while.

Now fellow students, I know you’re probably sitting in your bed scrolling through TikTok or tapping rapidly through everyone’s snapchat stories, because let’s be honest here, you don’t really care about who Samantha decided to break social distancing rules with today, you just want the little purple dot to go away. But here’s the thing: you need to do your work; I know it sucks but the semester isn’t over, this isn’t just an extended spring break. You need to plan out your week on Monday and be at least a little bit organized so that by Friday you aren’t stressing over the seven English assignments you have to do along with the science quiz and the history discussion post. Use a planner, set reminders on your phone, or maybe just turn it off for a little bit so that you can get some work done. With the stress, it’s OK to take breaks when you get overwhelmed, your mental health is unarguably more important than your grades, and just because they slip a little bit does not mean you're going to fail the 8th grade (or any other grade). It’s going to be okay.

In the Gallery

Featured Art by LMS Art Students

MATHCOUNTS

By Gabriel Armstrong

MATHCOUNTS is an after-school program that is spread all over the nation, from New York to California. MATHCOUNTS is where you can do math and then be rewarded for the correct answer. You have four types of math you can do in MATHCOUNTS competitions. First, the sprint round, which is a silent, series of 30 problems that you must finish in 40 minutes. In this part of the competition you cannot use a calculator or any other aids (i.e. fraction calculator, algebra calculator, list of powers of two, list of primes, etc...). The sprint round is an individual test that all the competitors take. Next is the target round which has eight questions that are given to two competitors at a time. The competitors, who must stay silent, get six minutes for each set of problems for a total 24 minutes, using only a calculator. After that is the team round where teams get 30 minutes to complete 10 problems. Competitors can talk and use calculators, but no other resources. There is a “captain” whose paper is the one where all the final answers written down. It does not matter what the other teammates have on their paper, it only matters what is on the captain’s paper. The next and final round is the countdown round, where there is a timer job, an answer checker, and two competitors. In a competition the top eight individual scores are the eight people that compete. There is a list of problems from top to bottom, with a piece of paper which is used to block the problems below to prevent working ahead. Each competitor has one minute, done simultaneously, to complete the problem. The first person to answer the problem correctly three times wins the entire round.

Now, while we’re talking about the competitions, let's talk about the two competitions that the Laramie Middle School competitors participated in. There was the regionals and the state. At both the Regionals, in Cheyenne, and at State, held at the University of Wyoming, teams followed similar schedules: the teams arrived, participated in the sprint round, took a break, did the target round, had a break, competed in the team round, had a final break before participating in the countdown round, and then they ate lunch. Following lunch, the winners were announced and prizes awarded (at State) and the teams left.

At the regionals, the LMS Team did great! The MATHCOUNTS LMS Team is composed of 9 people (seen in the picture at the beginning of this article). They won 1st place team at Regionals and 3rd place team at State. Jonathan Oler took 1st place Individual at both Regionals and State. Jonathan Oler would have gone to Nationals but was unable to go due to COVID-19. Way to represent LMS, congratulations to all the students who practiced so hard and competed so well!

A Short Season

By Kate Lewis

Due to covid-19 sports were canceled for the remainder of the school year. Although this is a shame, teachers have been doing everything in their power to post videos on how to stay active in this crisis. The short sport season has still shown what our teams can do. The swim team had one swim meet and it brought great success. Another sport that was sadly cancelled was track and field, it was unable to start. Spring sports were all cancelled and that devastated many students, but we all must remember that this is for the better. However, we are hopeful that we will be able to do sports next year. We all need to thank our coaches, principals, and teachers for trying to better our lives in this crisis. If sports continued, then we all might have been at a higher risk. Although this decision may have been disappointing, this sacrifice might be the reason that we move out of the pandemic. We need to help our community to move into the future.

Mental Health Awareness

By Hollie Nelson

As most of you know we have been in a quarantine. Which means no social interaction, online school, and a down for anyone that struggles with mental illness of any kind. The feeling of anxiety is well known; however, some suffer from it more than others. This whole quarantine is definitely not helping anyone at all (well other than helping slow the spread of the corona virus). As everyone knows the schoolwork has changed drastically these past few weeks. For some this is great news, but for others it's horrible. Some teachers are assigning more work than some students can take. Everyone seems to be stressing now, which is not new for some, and still happens to the best of us.

In an interview with a student, who would like to remain anonymous, I asked how online schooling made them feel. They said “It’s like majorly stressing me out 'cause like I can see all the work that I have for the week. Which is, like, both a good and bad thing I guess because I like being able to plan everything out, but hate knowing I have like 700 assignments to do that week.” Then I asked “On a scale from 1-10 how bad was your anxiety during school and how it is now?” They replied “During school, depending on the day, it would be like a 3 or 4. Now it's like a 7 or an 8.” I also asked them which of the subjects has been the hardest to which they said, “English, by far English.” When asked about the learning platform they said “I like using Canvas, it’s nice, but I wish all the teachers would use it and not just some. It's just annoying to have to go to Schoology just for math.” I also asked “Do you have anything you want to tell teachers anything about your mental health?" To which they responded “Probably just that all the work is stressing me out. That, and we can't even say goodbye to any of the teachers we had all year. Especially knowing I'm not going to sit in the band room ever again.” I asked about not being able to see anyone the response they gave is one I'm sure a lot of people can relate to. “It straight up sucks! My friends are like the main reason my anxiety isn't as bad during school.” When asked what they would like teachers to do instead of what they are doing now they stated “Stop making us write about being in quarantine. Because I don’t have anything to write about, thank you very much! Like what do they want us to say? I stayed up till 3 am, then went to sleep, then woke up, got stressed about school and cried, then gave up and watched Netflix, only to realize I still hadn't done my work. Then I do all my work super late because its stressful.”

Overall, this is a very stressful time for everyone, including the teachers. Even though we complain, it is still sad to know most of us (well the 8th graders for sure) won't be seeing a lot of our LMS staff again. The only thing I personally would say, is that not a lot of us know how to handle this stress. And just pilling up work isn't helping anyone. Overall, this is just a hard time for everyone, myself included. The newspaper staff hopes everyone can get through, and to know it's all going to be OK.

Editor's Note: Please know that help is available! The school counselors are available via email or through the Canvas Student Support Services page. There is also homework help available here - Homework Help Form or here Homework Hotline (password - parent). The hours for drop in Zoom meetings on the Homework Hotline are Monday - Thursday from 7am - 8pm and on Fridays from 7am - 5pm. These services are available to any ACSD#1 student, so please get the help you need.

Did You Know?

A column about things we may or may not have known about LMS staff.

Wolf Hollow

A Book Review by Gabriel Armstrong

Spoiler Alert! If you don't want to read it, skip the italicized part.

The book I have chosen to review is called Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk. In the book, a girl named Annabelle McBride, is living in a Pennsylvanian town called Wolf Hollow. She lives with her parents, grandparents, her Aunt Lily, and her two brothers named Henry and James in the year of 1943. One day, a kid named Betty Glengarry moves into Wolf Hollow and changes everything. She is a bully! She torments Annabelle and her brothers, Toby, the World War I veteran, Annabelle's best friend Ruth, and so many others.

(SPOILER ALERT) Later, Betty goes missing and Toby is blamed. After that, Betty is found inside an old well near Toby’s home, and Toby is named a hero. After that, Betty dies from infection, and Toby is shot. The book ends with their funerals. (END OF SPOILER)

This is a sad, interesting, exciting, and mysterious story. Annabelle is a bold girl; she stands up for somebody that no one agrees with, she defends herself against Betty and Andy, and when all odds are against her, still prevails. A quote that proves this is one that Annabelle says, “I decided that there might be things I would never understand, no matter how hard I tried. Though try I would.” Toby is an interesting man; he has fought in a war and still has the calmness to approach a deer without startling it. He is gentle and rough at the same time. Betty is a bully; she is a pain in the side, she is an itch you cannot reach, she is a liar, she is not a good person. A quote to support this is said by Annabelle, “Betty picked up a stick from along the path. It was dead wood, but I could tell from how she held it that it was still heavy. ‘Tomorrow you bring me something or I’m going to beat you with this stick.’”

I thought that this book was a very interesting book. I couldn’t put it down. I would rate it a 4.5/5 stars. It did get a little boring at places but was good overall. If you like this book you should also read, The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, and The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz.

Tell Me Something Good

A place to celebrate people doing good things or things going well!

A column inspired and promoted by Gabriel Armstrong

These are the awesome things happening for folks at LMS, tell us your good things too! This is open to students, parents, staff, and other folks just wanting to share good things with us! Here is the link - https://forms.gle/tTZNkkU1A2dmFRMRA.

or follow this link - https://forms.gle/tTZNkkU1A2dmFRMRA

Keep your head up! We are almost there.

The staff of the Scout Shout have one more special edition coming to celebrate the end of the year!!!

Thanks to all the hard work by Scout Shout staff Kate Lewis, Sophia Huntington, Gabriel Armstrong, Hollie Nelson, and Avery O'Flannigan for coming up with such awesome content and doing so much writing. Edited and compiled by staff sponsor - Abi Paytoe Gbayee

Published the week of May 11th, 2020