MANAGING SCHOOL STRESS WITH JOURNALING
By Ruanne Brinker-Owens, senior, staff writer
I am not the first to say it, nor am I the last: School is stressful. Most every high school student knows the feeling of staying up late to cram in a project due at midnight, dreading waking up in the morning and repeating the process again. Anxiety is abundant and an all too familiar feeling for many teenagers. Between deadlines, grades, GPA, colleges, acceptance rates, jobs, navigating relationships, and so much more, we find ourselves as students having many different things to worry about.
How do you stop worrying about these trying topics? Do you lay in bed at night, feeling as if you’re a soda can that’s been shaken, fizzling on the inside, the pressure building up? Do you project these demanding emotions onto others — your friends and family caught in the crossfire of the internal conflict you find yourself facing? Maybe you bury these stressors deep down inside of you, distracting yourself with electronics such as social media, video games, or TV.
I’ve found myself in all three of these situations, choosing to either sulk, avoid or be controlled by the feeling of being overwhelmed. What else are you supposed to do?
There are many methods of coping with anxiety and stress, but I’ll be focusing on one today: journaling.
We feel such complex and intense emotions as humans, and it can be incredibly difficult to communicate exactly what we’re feeling to others. It can be ambitious to even try to understand the tangled mess of emotions we find ourselves experiencing. To overcome the feeling of stress, we must unravel these intricate feelings and communicate them, either to ourselves or others. I like to view journaling as a way to have a conversation with yourself. It presents one with the opportunity to ask questions to oneself, respond to oneself, and learn about oneself, and, in this case, inquire about, learn about and respond to what is stressing us out in school.
I’ve been feeling very overwhelmed with school starting. I feel like there are so many moving parts in my life right now, and I have no control over any of them. Without recognizing what is causing me to feel overwhelmed, how am I supposed to overcome it? A good way to point out these stressors is by journaling. You could journal about how your day was, processing any stressful or unexpected moments that went awry. You can write down what is making you feel stressed and what control you have over limiting them. The less weight you have on your shoulders, the taller you can stand and continue to make this school year a successful one. There are so many different intentions you can have when journaling that can allow you to process what is currently happening in your life. There is no wrong answer as to what to journal about.
Did you have an awesome time hanging out with a friend? Write it down. Are you stressed about what grade you got on a math test today? Write it down. Write down whatever you feel like you need to share, good or bad.
Guiding a pen across a piece of paper as you allow your inner thoughts to come pouring out is such a cathartic feeling that I encourage everyone to try. I challenge you to just sit down for five minutes and fill a page of paper with your feelings about today. It can be as surface-level or as deep as you desire. The point is that you are establishing a healthy line of communication with yourself and promoting the idea that we must recognize our own struggles in order to combat them, including all the obstacles we encounter in school. As we move further into the school year, it is so incredibly important that students deal with their stress appropriately and, despite all the obstacles, learn to thrive within their academic environment.
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NEW TEACHER FEATURE: MRS. KATIE BOLDY
By Leah Kastner, freshman, staff writer
Mrs. Katie Boldy is the new middle school math teacher. She has been teaching for two years, although her former job was at Green State Credit Union. Mrs. Boldy choose to come to Panorama because her husband graduated from here, and she had also recently moved here. Mrs. Boldy has one child named Tyson; he is 6 months old, and she is currently pregnant and due in November. Mrs. Boldy’s favorite part of teaching is getting to know the students and having fun with them. She was asked how her first day of teaching at Panorama went, and she replied, “So good. All the kids and the rest of the district were so welcoming.” Lately, she was asked if she had any goals for the 2024-2025 school year. She answered, “Yes, to have a real fun-filled school year.”
We are glad to have you here, Mrs. Boldy.
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TRANSFER TEACHER FEATURE: MRS. CARLA CHURCH
By Savannah Matthias, junior, staff writer
The high school’s new special ed teacher’s first day of the 2024-2025 school year was great. Mrs. Church retired last year after teaching TAG students. She has come back to teach special education after realizing that if she taught for three more years she would be able to retire with better IPERS benefits. Mrs. Church is excited to learn something different and to build relationships with high school students. She went to Simpson College and earned a bachelor of arts degree in international management and French. She also received an MAE in elementary education. Mrs. Church has taught for 17 years including positions at Diagonal, Fairfield, Wisconsin, and Panorama. She was a stay-at-home mom before she became a teacher. She has three children and five siblings.
Mrs. Church says her main goal this year is to enrich the lives of others around her. She also advises the National Honor Society. Mrs. Church no longer has any pets. Her favorite part of her job is seeing students excited to learn new things.
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EARLY OUT FRIDAYS
By Nerea Gimeno-Perez, sophomore, staff writer
We expect teachers to accomplish so much in so little time. In addition to teaching, they communicate with parents, organize class events and build relationships with their students. Students must engage in high-quality, hands-on lessons for multiple hours each day. This means that teachers need enough time to plan for those lessons. That’s why the early dismissals on Fridays are helpful for teachers.
Teachers and staff have the opportunity to have dedicated working time to themselves to get their work done. This collaboration can help teachers improve their skills and provide better support for students. Additionally, early release days allow teachers to attend professional development workshops and training sessions, helping them to stay up to date on the latest teaching practices and improve their ability to provide quality education to their students.
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THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR
By Henry Kalloff, sophomore, staff writer
For most people, high school is essentially their make or break in terms of meeting the criteria for credits to graduate high school. For someone like me, it’s been far from easy, but I’m willing to keep at it. It hasn’t been a bad start to 10th grade by any means, more so just trying to acclimate to a new sleep schedule and to the new eight-period schedule rather than the traditional six periods. While, yes, it does help that there isn’t that much homework, it requires a person to move around a lot, and it is sometimes difficult to switch from one subject to another in the span of about 40 minutes.
The classes I consider to be easy include world history, biology, study hall, journalism and P.E. World history has been easy so far, mostly just learning about types of ideologies in countries, which is definitely a great tool for learning about the history of Earth. As long as I’m able to focus on what I need to do, it’ll be very easy, for sure. Biology is my third class of the day following geometry, to which biology has been quite fun because it’s mostly studying about the characteristics of life. The atmosphere of the class is very similar to the physical science class from last year, with the rooms being identical but also a quiet environment and everyone just doing their work. Finally, journalism is similar to last year’s class, except I’m not in the class every day because it is alternative to P.E. for seventh period. Not too big of a deal, but it does make things more difficult to get accomplished in a short time. When the class helps out with NewsFlash, in particular, it makes the process quicker.
On the flip side of the so called easy classes are those that I am somewhat struggling in so far. The second class I go to is geometry. In terms of that class, it’s probably the weirdest of all seven that I’m in so far. I was told that it would be more different from algebra, but it does seem in a sense that geometry is basically a carbon copy of algebra but with shapes, although I think I’m starting to figure it out, but we’ll see. Both the fourth and fifth period classes for me are carpentry. It hasn’t been that easy but not too complex either. We’re going to be working on making a 4-inch by 40-inch cube made out of wood. I think it will decide whether I really want to go to trade school or not when I graduate from high school in a couple years. I do enjoy working on projects that involve machinery, but sometimes I do overthink it when reading all the safety information and thinking about what may happen if I’m not careful. The final class I will touch on is English. It’s not as difficult as geometry and carpentry, but it’s not as easy as world history, biology and journalism. The only reason I consider English to be difficult is some of the stories we read about, mainly those written by authors hundreds of years ago where the language is completely different from now. Some of the wording definitely throws me for a loop, but we are reading a story that seems more modern, which makes it easy for someone like me to understand.
It is early into the year still, and things can definitely change for better or for worse. I’m looking forward to continuing these classes for the year and hoping for great grades and a better chance to graduate from high school.
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FALL ACTIVITIES
By Holliday Mertens, sophomore, staff writer
When school starts, so do school activities. They are usually split into fall activities, winter activities, and spring/summer activities. Fall activities start at or around the beginning of the year, as that’s when fall starts. Because these sports start at the beginning of the year, you need to sign up the previous year or in the summer to compete. There are three main fall activities to be in.
Football is the one of the main sports that is played in fall. Although the game is played in fall, practice/weight lifting and conditioning start just after school ends and continue until the season is over. Cross country is another sport that happens in fall. Unlike track and field, which happens in the spring, cross country is running on natural land on a golf-course-like field. Many of our runners ran throughout the summer. Finally, volleyball is played in the fall. Volleyball is the only main fall sport that is played indoors on a court.
We have a good number of student-athletes involved in fall activities. Good luck to all our Panthers this season.
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TRANSFER TEACHER FEATURE: MR. CHARLIE LAKE
By Nerea Gimeno-Perez
Mr. Charlie Lake is the new high school P.E. teacher and head high school football coach. Not only was he an elementary school P.E. teacher, but he was also the health teacher at the high school. He graduated from Iowa State University with a major in kinesiology. His clear passion for making a positive impact on students’ lives is inspiring, and he wants to connect with all his students. It’s also interesting to note that Mr. Lake has an older brother and a dog named Bean, and he had a variety of work experiences before pursuing his career as a teacher. His dedication to his role is obvious as he hops on his second year at Panorama Schools. Overall, we wish Mr. Lake a great year and a wonderful football season.
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WHY GRADES ARE SO IMPORTANT
By Berkley Schwartz, freshman, staff writer
Grades are important for many reasons. First of all, grades are thought to capture both a students’ academic performance and effective factors that play a role in academic achievement. Another reason why grades are so important is because they help hold students accountable for their academic performances.
Third, grades are key because they could help you earn scholarships to get into good colleges. Lastly, good grades can help you get into colleges to help you get the job you so desire for your future. Keep your grades up, Panthers.
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NEW TEACHER FEATURE: MR. BRYCE OLIVE
By Emma Walker, freshman, staff writer
This week we interview Mr. Bryce Olive as one of the new teachers at Panorama High School. Mr. Olive is a father of two girls and has two dogs named Ollie and Mona. He has one sibling and is from Texas. Mr. Olive decided to work at Panorama High School to be closer to home. He went to Arlington Baptist College and majored in Bible theology and student ministry. Before coming to Panora, he taught in Dallas, Texas, and in Des Moines at Hiatt Middle school, where he was an eighth grade American history teacher. Mr. Olive was also a student pastor before becoming a teacher. He is a teacher in the special needs department and an assistant football coach. His favorite part of his job is seeing the students and helping them actually learn and understand what they are being taught. Mr. Olive’s first day at his new school went very well, and he’s excited for the year.