T h e

Tiger Hi-LineVolume 48 Edition 30 http://hi-lineonline.shorturl.com 1015 Division Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613

Kellie PetersenNews Editor

“Well, the Core Curriculum is kind of revolutionary for Iowa,” English teacher Jennifer Paulsen said when asked what she thought of the recent passage of the Iowa Core Curriculum.

Paulsen teaches the reading en-hancement class at CFHS, which aims to provide students with developing improved fluency in reading, vocabu-lary development, comprehension and independent reading skills.

As a teacher of this specific class, Paulsen can provide some insight into the Iowa Core Curriculum, since class-es like reading enhancement contain similar objectives for improvement.

“It’s definitely going to reinforce this class. The class is designed to build strategic readers and the state is now establishing reading curriculum at the secondary level,” Paulsen said.

The Iowa Core Curriculum, formal-ly known as the Model Core Curricu-lum, became official after being passed by the Iowa legislature on April 25, the last day of the legislative session. The Iowa Core Curriculum was then signed by Gov. Chet Culver May 1 in Indepen-dence.

According to the Iowa Department of Education website, the Iowa Core

Curriculum will provide “a guide to delivering instructional content that is challenging and meaningful to stu-dents.” The Iowa Core Curriculum aims to provide this content in five main areas of literacy, mathematics, science, social studies and 21st century skills, which include civic literacy, fi-nancial literacy, technology literacy, health literacy and employability.

Dan Conrad, the Director of Second-ary Education for Cedar Falls schools, said that the new Iowa Core Curricu-lum would require a “reshaping of our K-12 curriculum.”

“There will be some things included in English, math, science or social stud-ies that we may not already be includ-ing in our 7th grade, 6th grade, 4th grade, 3rd grade curriculum,” Conrad said.

Conrad elaborated on how the Iowa Core Curriculum may change Cedar Falls, as well as other, schools.

“Ultimately, we will probably need to revise graduation requirements to meet the Iowa Core. Over the next couple of years, we will be reviewing and learning more about the Core and the gaps in what we are currently re-quiring all students to demonstrate and what will be required when the Core is implemented,” Conrad said.

Conrad said that the Cedar Falls school district would need to re-ex-

amine the “structure” of its schools, including schedule and course require-ments, in order to make revisions that will meet the Iowa Core Curriculum.

Although the Iowa Core Curriculum may ask some school districts to make changes to what they teach, it is all a part of a larger goal to better prepare students for life after school by provid-ing a more rigorous and relevant educa-tion. Judy Jeffery, Director of the Iowa Department of Education, described the Iowa Core Curriculum as providing the “essential concepts and skills” nec-essary for students to achieve a more rigorous and relevant education.

Rigor and relevance may seem like familiar phrases to any students in Iowa, and they are an important part of the Iowa Core Curriculum.

William Callahan, the Dean of the College of Education at the University of Northern Iowa, helped develop the Iowa Core Curriculum as a member of the Leadership Team. “Rigor means that it challenges the students and delves deep into content setting high expectations for student performance. Relevant means that the activities are relevant to the content and to real life,” Callahan said.

The concepts of rigor and relevance are one way that Cedar Falls schools have utilized concepts of the Iowa Core

Curriculum prior to its implementa-tion.

“For the past three years, the high school and both junior high schools have been working with the Depart-ment of Education and AEA267 on the Rigor, Relevance, Relationships Framework. Especially at the high school, this has been a major focus of our professional development for teachers,” Conrad said.

Although the concepts of rigor and relevance are important to the Iowa Core Curriculum they are certainly not the only key components. The addition of what are being called 21st century skills, or literacy in the areas of civics, health, financial situations and technol-ogy as well as employability skills, are also very important to the Iowa Core Curriculum.

Jeffery explained why the addition of 21st century skills were made to the Iowa Core Curriculum, citing that it was noticeable that students were not as prepared as they could be in these important areas.

“Whenever we have those high concerns, schools need to take a good look at what they’re teaching and how they’re teaching,” Jeffery said.

In addition to giving students more of a foundation in 21st century skills, the Iowa Core Curriculum also aims to

help students in Iowa compete better on a global scale. The ability of Iowa’s and America’s students to be on the same educational level students in oth-er countries is an issue that has become increasingly important.

“It’s really happening across the nation…states are really taking a look at what students need to compete in a global way,” Jeffery said of he initia-tive to better prepare both Iowan and American students to compete with their foreign counterparts.

Regarding global competition, Cal-lahan also noted that as of now there is no way the United States could com-pete with a country like China.

“The future workers have to be smart, creative and well-educated,” Callahan said.

Whether or not it is working to cre-ate students and future workers that are better able to compete on a global scale, the Iowa Core Curriculum aims to help students be better prepared for their futures, whatever they may hold.

Not only does the Iowa Core Cur-riculum students by preparing them for their futures and helping them to com-pete with students in foreign countries, but it also helps teachers by creating more clear, concise and uniform educa-tional standards.

Continued on Feature page

Changes in curriculum aim to increase rigor of Iowa schools, better preparing students for future skills, global competition

Season OpenerWith a double header against Dubuque Senior on Thursday, May 22, the Tigers and junior Jillian Zaputil opened the softball season. Check out more pictures of the action on the Sports page.

How do you think the Iowa Core Curriculum will affect you department?

“We have already begun

to compare our present

standards and benchmarks to the Iowa Core

Curriculum, but the intended

changes seem to be more minor than

major.”

“Well, I think basically we’re in pretty good

shape. It will just be a matter of going through

and seeing how our math

curriculum meshes with the

Iowa Core Curriculum.”

“I just think it’s going to make

each of us evaluate our core

objectives and look at the gaps. It’s also going

to make us look at if we need to

add any courses or realign any

courses”Judy TimminsEnglish Department Head

David KoefedMathmatics Department Head

Lynn GriffinScience Department Head

It’s that time of year when the deadlines just pile up on top of each other and the things that I’ve been putting off all se-mester come back to haunt me. One thing that propels me on is thinking about how this summer I’m going to backpack part of the Superior Hiking Trail.

The Superior Hiking Trail is a 205-mile long footpath that follows the rocky ridge-line above Lake Superior in northeastern Minnesota from Two Harbors to the Canadian border. There are 275 total miles in the trail system. The trail has 81 backcountry campsites. There are no fees, reservations, or permits required to hike or backpack on the trail.

My parents took my sister, Willa, and I

I bet at least once a day you are found riding your bike, relaxing at home or even sitting in class with little white ear buds that are blasting over 80Db of loud screaming music into your eardrums, but although most drums are meant to take a beating, these little guys have taken a little too much in the past few years.

Your ipod or mp3 can generate a pretty loud noise when the headphones are within millimeters of your eardrum. It should be clear to all consumers that turning up the volume of these players will eventu-ally cause injury to your ears and possibly result in one long term effect, hearing loss.

Those with good hearing have tiny hair cells that line the inside of your ear. They transmit signals to the brain and then inter-pret it as a sound. When your ears are re-peatedly feeling worn out or uncomfortable due to headphones or loud music at concerts, these hair cells require a rush of blood or oxygen resulting in “death.”

Although these little cells are not actu-ally dead, they are trying there hardest to recover, resulting in temporary hearing loss or ringing of your ears. But time after time if you blast your music into your ears, recov-ery becomes nearly impossible and hearing

our viewour view

Tiger Hi-Line

T h e OPInIOnOPInIOn

Write the Tiger Hi-LineThe Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism

classes of Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division St., Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Each edition is published on Wednesdays during the school year in The Insider and Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier, 501 Commercial St., Waterloo, Iowa 50701.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Hi-Line or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial staff view is presented weekly in the editorial labeled as Our View.

Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to the Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed. Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Thursday for publication the following Wednesday. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Include address and phone number for verification.

Editorial StaffEditor-in-Chief: Briana McGeough

News Editors: Olivia Schares and Kellie PetersenOpinion Editor: Torie Jochims and Jacqueline Jordan

Sports Editor: Jakob ZiererFeature Editors: Honor Heindl and Briana McGeough

On-Line Editor: Ellen WredeEntertainment Editor: Kristen Hammer

Donnie SimmetStaff Writer

Katie DexterStaff Writer

MP3 player misuse threatens teen hearing

camping at least three times along Lake Superior over the years. Split Rock Lighthouse, Gooseberry Falls, Palisade Head, Britten Peak and Tettegouche are all places we explored.

One time we followed the north shore of Lake Superior to a place called Sleeping Giant Provicincial Park in On-tario. It seemed at the time to be in the middle of nowhere.

I remember my parents tak-ing us on an eight-mile hike.

There were abandoned towns, mines and at one point after driving down a rock laden road, we came to a rocky overlook where we actually walked out over the lake which was 100s of feet below.

Several times we’ve camped at Tette-

gouche State Park. We left our car in a park-ing lot and then carted our gear a mile down a path to a secluded campsite. It was quiet and at night it got quite dark. We always had a campfire. At night we could hear the waves lapping at the rocks.

It seems like everywhere you go along the Lake Superior shore there’s a wonder-land of rocks for climbing on and over. This year, I’m going into the Lake Superior wilderness with all I need to live for a few days packed on my back.

I’ll just see where it takes me. I am hop-ing to interest a few friends. We’ll hike all day, eat when we’re hungry and sleep when we’re tired.

As I worry about getting everything done in these remaining days of school, wonder-ing if it will ever end, I keep thinking about the Superior Hiking Trail and the adventures that lie ahead.

Take a hike from end of year anxieties

is permanently impaired.Researchers have studied this particular

situation numerous times and have found that hearing loss in teens from 13 to 18 has risen nearly 30 percent over the decade. They also recommend to limit the exposure your ears have to your headphones. They recommend the louder your play your music the shorter amount of time you should be listening to your music player. For example, if you have your volume at about 60 percent, you should be listening for no longer than an hour. Another rule of thumb: If you have to remove your headphones from your ears to hear people talking to you, the volume is too loud.

Because of the injuries teens and many others are obtaining, many have attempted suing Apple for their product by saying there

was no warning that these conse-quences would occur. These problems shouldn’t be put on the shoulders of the company but those of the consum-er, but other than just turning down the volume on your player, many compa-nies have came up with solutions to this growing issue.

There are two popular headphone styles that are fairly different that mini-mize background noise so you will not have to turn up the volume as loud as your normally would. Sony, Panasonic and Bose sell more of the expensive brand “no noise” headphones while brands like Shure and Etymotic are the

cheaper ones. Sony’s battery-powered ear buds have

tiny microphones in each bud that detect am-bient noise. They then generate sound waves that cancel out the ambient noise before it reaches your ears.

The cheaper option is simply “sound-iso-lating.” These are by far less expensive that are made of sound proof material that helps block out background noise.

In the end, Apple and other MP3 manu-facturers could help listeners by turning down the volume levels they sell in their products, but ultimately it is still up to the users.

Ipod and MP3 listeners need to make their own decisions on whether or not to avoid hearing loss in the future.

Katie Dexter Cartoon

Sounding Off

Senior editors served with vision, empathy

As the senior’s last day came and passed, the staff at the Tiger Hi-Line said goodbye to two of our favorite editors—Olivia Schares of the news page and Briana McGeough, feature editor and editor-in-chief.

They served the paper loyally for three years, and finally we have to say goodbye to them. This year, the advanced news class had a chance to get to know these two veterans very well, and we’ve come to find that they are two of the hardest working, most enthusiastic and fun people to be around.

Briana has saved us on deadline day countless times with her calm collectedness, and Olivia is always there with the right thing to say, the best advice to help you with your situation. Throughout the year, they have pro-duced excellent news and feature pages as well as having been responsible for a lot of editor bonding. Between Briana’s ever-positive attitude and Olivia’s deep passion for the things she believes in, this paper would truly not have been the same without their presence.

Though we must wish them the best of luck with their futures, there is a sadness within the staff as we send them off. Their hard work and dedication have only been outmatched by their fun-loving, free spirits. Next year, Olivia will be heading off to St. Olaf to study environ-mental issues, and Briana will be headed to Brown to study psychology.

Our greatest tribute to these two will undoubtedly be the memories shared, but we at the Hi-Line felt that they deserved something more. Good luck, Briana and Olivia. You will always be appreciated and certainly missed!

When it comes to the fall athletic season, the Tigers have traditions like its perennially dominant football team, but one sport at the high school that has gone under the radar has also had tremendous success: CF men’s cross country.

Since 1995, when current coach Troy Becker started his tenure, the men’s cross country team has made it to the state cross country meet every year.

The team has had top-10 finishes at State since 2003, with two titles in 2004 and 2005 being the highest points.

Now, though, the team needs help. After a somewhat disappointing 8th place finish at State last year, the Tigers are looking for fresh legs and ready hearts.

The varsity team is losing five of its seven runners due to graduation, and these five spots—well, to be honest, all seven spots, are up for grabs.

There will be no Alex Mark, who took 1st Team All-State honors last year, or Drew Poland, who won the MVC Athlete of the Year award in 2006. There are some big shoes to fill, to say the least.

What does it take to be a varsity runner? Well, all it takes is running. That’s the simple truth. There is a catch, though; the running has to take place over the summer.

For the lazy, this is just too much to handle, so the diligent workers will get the spots.

Get out and run! There are so many opportuni-ties during the summer, like Hilltoppers Running Club, that people can join and run quality work-outs with friends and friendly competition.

If that is not your cup of tea, then just run with a friend or by yourself. It has been proven that running with others improves your performance, though, so group running is always encouraged. No excuses exist that can pardon someone from running.

Cross country is fun. The group dynamic of cross country is like no other sport because every day people come to practice to push each other. The group is just a big group of friends. It may be a little dysfunctional, but a group of friends nonetheless.

The Tiger cross country team is a tradition, and to keep the tradition going a revival of work ethic needs to be installed. Running over the summer is such an easy and addicting thing to do because of the opportunities and also the friend-ships that can be created. With group work ethic, the cross country team will once again find itself on the podium in Fort Dodge.

Tiger Hi-Line SPORTSSPORTST h e

Jacqueline JordanOpinion Editor

The world stood in amazement of Marion Jones and her three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. It was equally in awe after the revelations of what Jones did to win her medals.

Former CF student Sarah Gall, who is now the owner of the Run-ner’s Flat in downtown Cedar Falls, said, “After hearing about Marion Jones this past year, I was truly disappointed as most people were.”

This upsetting news brought many people to wonder whether taking growth hormones was now the most common way to earn gold in sports, but the evidence against steroids is still strong.

“It doesn’t look like it helps, and there’s a hint of evidence it may worsen athletic performance,” said Dr. Hau Liu of the Santa Clara Valley Medical center in San Jose, Calif., in a NY Daily News story.

According to Liu, taking growth hormones doesn’t help create lean body mass; instead, it worsens ex-ercising ability and strength, which is the whole point of taking growth hormones in the first place.

“I do think it’s OK to take sup-

plements to enhance performance and recovery as long as they don’t contain illegal substances,” Gall said. This includes natural growth hormones that aren’t synthetic but natural. One product that is natural and is a growth stimulant has a main ingredient known as colos-trums.

Dona Jordan, a distributor for Total Wellness International pro-gram in the Cedar Falls area, said, “Growth hormones in colostrum helps with many things such as: helps aging men and women main-tain a more youthful vitality, trim the body, boost immune system and cardiovascular function.”

Colostrum contains over 95 im-mune factors to provide protection against bacteria, toxins, viruses and disease.

But that’s for aging athletes, and just taking supplements isn’t the only answer to avoiding the factor

of having to go to synthetic growth hormones. Basic hard training and eating healthy can give the same results to become in shape.

“It goes back to a common sense balanced diet. Eating a clean diet, meaning lots of fruits and veg-etables,” CF’s athletic trainer Pete Watters said.

Having this in mind, staying shape in the best shape you can be in is really not that mysterious. Gall goes back to her CFHS days for insight.

“My senior year in high school I earned a trip out to the Olympic Training Center in San Diego. Out there I met a nutritionist that changed my life at that point in my life. I had started eating more and running faster than ever. I credit fantastic nutrition, rest and training to this success.”

Basics such as getting enough rest plays can play a bigger role in

performance than taking a supple-ment would.

Steroids and other synthetic growth hormones have been looked upon as the key to success for the big time pros, but Watters said, “I feel that the media has made it seem that using steroids is the only way to compete at the next level—from high school to college follow-ing the professional sports.”

He emphasized that the media presses the idea of steroids and has given professional athletics their success. “Athletes need to realize that there is no short cut. You can’t replace hard work with stimulants that set aside real talent,” he said.

The pressures to perform have led to calls for more testing even at the high school level. Regard-ing testing, Watters said, “Because of the prevalence of steroid use in sports, we may get to a point where drug tests may be needed.”

There would be problems with adding testing, though. “One large problem is the cost. Who is going to pay for the testing?” Watters asked. “I really don’t feel like it is a major problem in our area. Performance enhancing drugs are everywhere, but I really don’t think it is as common in our area.”

Paul StrikeSports Opinion

Athletes rely on natural paths to successDespite mistakes of high profile sports stars,

“Athletes need to realize that there is no short cut. You can’t replace hard work

with stimulants that set aside real talent.” —Pete Watters

CF athletic trainer

With summer effort, cross country’s tradition will persist

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In a split decision double header on Thursday, May 22, junior Alison Jaynes and junior Shyann Beach were just part of the efforts vs. Dubuque Senior.

OPInIOn Tiger Hi-Line FEATUREFEATURET h e

Ellen WredeOnline Editor

“Do you have school in your paja-mas?”

Socially inept“Do you have any friends?”These are just some of the stereo-

types homeschooled kids are used to hearing on a daily basis from people everywhere.

“My favorite one is that all home-schooled children are sheltered. I would watch Monty Python’s Flying Circus and read Agatha Christie novels when I was 10,” Monica Reida, now a junior at CFHS said. She was homeschooled until she joined the CF district in 8th grade

“Homeschooling” is really quite self explanatory. Students are taught at home by their parents, by other stu-dents’ parents (as in a co-op) or are taught by a tutor.

The reasons for homeschooling are many and varied. Anna Danforth, a CFHS world language teacher, was ho-meschooled because she lived in a vil-lage in Africa.

“We had a little room where we

were set up, with my myself and my older brother and my little brother. My parents tried to make it interesting. They would have reading competitions to see who could read the most books and things like that, to keep us moti-vated. A lot of it was also cultural stud-ies because we were living in a village. They would send us out and have us do case studies on our friends’ homes,” Danforth said.

One of the perks of being home-schooled is the ability to work at your own pace.

“That is a big one really,” Reida said. “If you understand a concept, you can move on. That’s my biggest problem with education in general is that the kids who understand ideas and concepts have to wait for the rest of the class to catch up,”

Daniel Veenstra, a CFHS junior, is currently homeschooled during the af-ternoons. Diagnosed with turrets syn-drome in elementary school, Veenstra he has had his own struggles with peo-ple who stereotype homeschooling.

“People occasionally think that ho-meschooling is a lot easier. I do have a more flexible schedule, but my school

work keeps me busy most of the time. The curriculum I use is quite challeng-ing.”

Veenstra is enrolled in an on-line course, where he emails his assign-ments to his teachers and can chat online with students taking the same course.

Students who have been home-schooled but have made the leap to public school are often regarded as quiet and studious by their teachers.

“Usually they’re more motivated. They take school a little more serious-ly. It comes after social life,” Danforth said.

Homeschooled students do tend to miss out on a few things that public school offers. Veenstra, for instance, came to the public school for chorus, and Reida missed having art and writ-ing classes.

Homeschooling comes under fire from various sources about a wide range of topics. Whether homeschool-ers should have to take standardized tests is among the most vehement.

Homeschoolers in Iowa are not re-quired to take the ITBS or any other sort of standardized test. Instead they

Homebodiessubmit a portfolio review by a licensed Iowa teacher or have a supervising teacher during the school year.

Ann Wrede, a certified teacher who has been supervising homeschooling families for 16 years, mentioned anoth-er conflict: “People wonder if the kids are really learning,” Wrede said. “They definitely are, just maybe not at the ex-act same speed as kids in public school. This is true with all kids. You just tend to notice it more in homeschooled set-ting.”

Wrede also homeschooled her own children for seven years. “I think home-schooling in elementary school is a good thing. You can protect them a little more, while still giving them a very solid foundation in the basics of school. Once you know your kids can read, write and do math, ev-erything else will fall into place,” Wrede said.

Chi ldren

As for all teens, homeschoolers defy stereotype

“What this is going to do is equalize teaching across the state,” Schoenjahn said.

As a former teacher he said he would welcome the Iowa Core Curriculum.

Although many praise the Iowa Core Cur-riculum, it is not without its share of opposition. “Any education research you’re going to have people on both sides,” Conrad said.

Among the criticisms for the Iowa Core Cur-riculum are that it does not provide rigorous enough standards and was not supported strongly enough by experts.

State senator Paul McKinley has been an out-spoken opponent of the Iowa Core Curriculum for these two reasons.

“What we need to be dealing with is rigorous standards. This is curriculum and what is needed is world-class standards,” McKinley said.

McKinley cited examples of other states,

specifically Massachusetts, that had the types of standards he believed would have been more of a benefit to Iowa students. He said that many edu-cational experts acknowledge the Massachusetts standards as the best.

“Their students perform a very high level and that’s what we should aspire to,” McKinley said.

Another aspect of the Iowa Core Curriculum that McKinley disagrees with is its support and approval by educational experts.

“We had it independently reviewed, and it came up short, “ said McKinley of the Iowa Core Curriculum.

Another topic of concern that has gained the attention of many people in addition to McKinley is the influence of the educational consultant Wil-lard Daggett on the Iowa Core Curriculum. Re-cently, many of Daggett’s concepts and examples he uses to back up these concepts have been pub-licly criticized.

“The curriculum is based on a faulty theory of learning in my opinion and many others,” McKin-

ley said. However, the influence of Daggett on the

Iowa Curriculum and the effect his influence had remains an issue of disagreement. Callahan ex-plained how much Daggett actually influenced the Iowa Core Curriculum, specifically through the concepts of rigor and relevance.

“Many of Daggett’s concepts were reviewed, but many were not included, this one was. This sort of thinking had a lot of influence into what we wanted the Iowa Core Curriculum to do, so in that sense Daggett had a lot of influence, but the way in which things were done was not how Daggett would have done it,” Callahan said of the concepts of rigor and relevance.

In spite of how little Daggett may have actu-ally influenced the Iowa Core Curriculum, its ef-fectiveness remains a divided issue.

“Our kids are better than that. They deserve better,” McKinley said of the Iowa Core Curricu-lum.

Although there may be some disagreement

over the Iowa Core Curriculum, the reality is that with its passage by the Iowa legislature it will be-come a state mandated educational policy.

Currently, the Iowa Core Curriculum is set to be full implemented in grades nine-12 by 2012 and grades kindergarten-eight by 2014. However, individual school districts will be allowed plenty of time to implement the changes brought about by the Iowa Core Curriculum, as well as flexibil-ity in how they chose to implement changes.

“The state gave the school districts time to ad-just to this new core,” Jeffery said.

Conrad also acknowledged that with an imple-mentation deadline of 2012 Cedar Falls would have time for planning.

Jeffery described how the Iowa Core Curricu-lum would implement changes without creating strict requirements as to how the changes should be implemented by individual school districts.

“It’s more of an explanation of what students need to have in order to obtain state standards,” Jeffery said.

Curriculum Changescontinued from News page

of missionaries in foreign countries, like Anna Danforth, often find home-schooling to suit their family better than a public school. “There’s so much curriculum out there, and you can do so much with it. You can tailor it to your own family and your own lifestyle to make it work,” Wrede said.

Homeschoolers are often given a bad rap that, but just like public school students there is no such thing as a “ste-reotypical homeschooler.”