Chandal Geerdes Staff Writer

After winning a $1 million grant last year to improve health equipment and facili-ties, the district is now ready for another year of improve-ments to healthy education options.

This year there will be a few things happening such as a district-wide dance program, new weight and cardio equip-ment for Holmes Junior High and new equipment for the elementary schools.

From the original plan, year two spending is to be set at $270,000.

“The (district-wide dance) program will allow up to 32 mats at one time that are projected up on the wall. You will be able to see your prog-ress and others at the same time,” project director Troy Becker said.

The grant money will also add a variety of machines to the new cardio room. Last year, the grant also expanded

health class rooms.Although the weight room

has been a popular destination at the high school, the goals for the funds do not target any further developments there until year three.

Another opportunity the grant will provide is for K-12 teachers to attend the national conference in California to learn about the latest ideas for

physical education. They willl also be able to attend the state conference.

“I like to go because I learn a lot of new games, get to talk to equipment reps and network with a lot with other teachers,” physical education teacher Jamie Smith said.

The grant will also help provide fitness opportunities for low income students to

attend the rec center and The Falls swimming pool.

“The grant will benefit all of our 4,500 plus students in the district K - 12. Every school will receive items that all students will use in PE,” Becker said.

To carry out all these plans for the grant, a PEP com-mittee of physical education teachers, students, parents and

community members work together to decide the way the funds are spent from the PEP grant.

“I am able to network with community members and parents. It is also great having the students there and hearing their point of view on things,” Smith said.

Some topics for discussion at the meetings include decid-ing what equipment to order and brainstorming ways to best use the equipment, ideas on how to redevelop curricu-lum and ways to get students active outside of school

“I love being a part of this committee. It is hard work, but very much worth it,” Smith said.

Funds for year three of the PEP grant will be about $250,000.

“This grant has been very beneficial in many ways, and I am very excited about the changes it will continue to make to K-12 physical education at CF,” Smith said.

New changes expected from PEP grant

T H E

tiger hi-lineVOLUME 51 ISSUE 4

1015 Division St. Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613

The Cedar Valley Catholic School system (CVCS) is giving its sixth through 12th graders MacBookPros starting in the fall of next year. “Today’s students’ brains are wired for an interactive, engaging learning environ-ment. One-to-one technology will create this environment,” said Jeff Frost, the Director of Education for the Catho-lic Valley School System. According to Frost, studies have shown that schools using one-to-one technology have increased student engagement significantly. One-to-one technology proves to create an environ-ment that is not simply, “a teacher working and talking

to the class, but teachers and students using an extra tool that makes class more of a collabora-tion,” Frost said. The CVCS administra-tive team thoroughly investi-gated what was best for student engage-ment and learning and found that one-to-one technology is the most successful tool in schools and colleges tool. A lot had to happen for this

to be able to fall into place for these schools in Waterloo.

A lot of research was done and there were also profes-sional devel-opment with the teaching staff for close to two years, including summer technology institutes. “You can’t just jump in and expect

success without thorough professional development of your teachers to make sure they have buy-in and the tools

necessary to make sure it is successful in the classroom,” Frost said. This year’s professional development for teaching sixth through 12th grade is all geared towards one-to-one technology.” Forty one schools in Iowa are now using the one-to-one technology with laptops. Cedar Valley Catholic Schools will now be the 42nd. “It is not a trend but a necessity, in our mind, to take students to a higher order of learning and engagement,” Frost said. Although a good number of schools are making the technological advance, Cedar Falls High School seems to be in no hurry to join the number of one-to-one technology schools in Iowa.

“It has been discussed, but there are no plans at this point [to go one to one], although Netbooks have made it pos-sible because their price is so low,” Traw said. According to Traw, the CFHS student to technology ratio is about three to one but over 95 percent of students have Internet access at home. The district also has concerns about financing the laptops. “If you invest for 1,100 students, you’re talking $550,000. That’s a lot of money,” Traw said. According to Traw, that would force cuts in other places, although she said the computer labs are one thing that could go because students

“It is not a trend but a necessity, in our mind, to

take students to a higher order of learning and en-

gagement.

-Jeff Frost, Director of Education for CVCS

Cedar Valley Catholic School system purchases laptops for students

”

Maya AmjadiStaff Writer

Continued page 2

Seniors Bran-dan Leyh and Mason Meyer utilize the lifting equip-ment in the weight room. Additional equipment to the cardio room and dance mats are expected to be added this year.

Imonee Qualls Photo

Contact 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. Our website is www.hiline.co.nr. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Tuesdays to read in their DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) classes.

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 follow-ing Tuesday. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Include address and phone number for verification.

Editorial StaffEditors-in-Chief: Ellen Gustavson and Sara Gabriele

News Editor: Sara GabrieleOpinion Editor: Megan Lane and Kaylee MicuSports Editor: Allyson Vuong and Ali Miller

Feature Editors: Ellen Gustavson and Ali MillerEntertainment Editors: Meg Lane and Kaylee Micu

Photo Editor: Tracy Lukasiewicz

T H E

tiger hi-lineOct. 5, 2010

2 opinion

our view

CFHS packs in pink

FML Vs. MLIA

When browsing the Inter-net, immediate sites for many are fmylife.com or Mylifei-saverage.com. People usually choose one or the other.

I choose to go to fmylife.com because it gives me the enjoyment to read about other people’s misery, and it makes me feel like my life isn’t so bad. Although MLIA is a respectable website to go to when you’re happy, FML gives you that satisfaction people crave about drama.

FML was started on Jan. 13, 2008, by Maxime Valette, Guillaume Passaglia and Di-dier Guedj. FML is decribed as “a recollection of everyday anecdotes likely to happen to anyone.” People from around the world submit their stories and then have the opportunity to vote on the ones they want to see featured on the site. The site was originally in French but was translated into Eng-lish since it’s received over 1.7 million hits every day. Since it’s become so popular, the creators have added ap-plications to cell phones and iPods.

I think FML is better than similar websites because it has the topics of romance, family, work, stores and living — all the things we have in our lives, whereas MLIA gives us

fabricated stories. FML is like watching America’s Funniest Home Videos; we laugh when people get hurt.

An example of a FML is “Today, I took a cough drop to soothe my sore throat, only to choke, gag and spend the next 10 minutes at the point of vomiting because the bitter lozenge got stuck in my wind-pipe. FML”

The stories are so awful and true that it’s hilarious to read them. FML is better because it’s funny to read about other’s people lives and all the bad things that happen to them, even if it’s not right. I feel like I’m sneaking a peek where I normally should have covered my eyes.

MLIA on the other hand features stories of supposedly average people doing things that really don’t make sense. It’s a website where weird and

abnormal people are welcome and accepted; they repeatedly talk about Harry Potter, ninjas vs. pirates, dinosaurs and oh-so-epic sword fights. It’s almost like reading the same story over and over again.

An example of a MLIA is “The other day in my sociology class we were using markers. One girl raised her hand and told the teacher her marker was dead. The teacher then shouted ‘Oh no! We need to do marker CPR!’ The girl had a puzzled look on her face. The teacher then grabbed the marker, put it on the table pressing on it three times and shouted, ‘Live, damn it!’ After repeating this a couple of times, the marker worked. Best. Teacher. Ever. MLIA.”

Now, if you ask me, that is just a fabricated story that isn’t even that funny.

But, of course, people do have their personal preferenc-es. If you enjoy laughing at the raw, true stories of people and their lives, then FML is the site for you, and if you en-joy reading fabricated, wacky stories, then MLIA is the site for you, but, of course, you’ll have to do it outside of school because both of these fun sites are blocked at the high school. Maybe I should post this fact to either of these sites.

Writer feels FML reflects more of real world humor

would no longer have a need for them if they each had a personal laptop.

Meanwhile the ways the Cedar Valley Catholic Schools are looking to pay for the pur-chase of the laptop computers are through grants, corporate funding, donations from indi-viduals and other sources. The goal is to have a zero percent increase in tuition based on the laptop purchases.

Students are thrilled.“I have even had seniors

say they wish they had one more year of school so they

could come back for it,” Frost said.

Columbus sophomore Alex Bernt said he is looking forward to the new computers. “It will be easier to organize things, but I think it will be kind of hard getting used to.”

Sophomore Haley Franke said she thinks more schools should move toward getting laptops for students. “I think all schools in Iowa should do this because not every student has a computer at home that they can use to do school work, so having one of their own at school will really be beneficial to them,” Franke said.

The computers will be purely for the students’ uses; they can even download their music and have Facebook.

As seniors, the students will even get the opportunity to purchase the laptops from the school for use after high school. Every three years new laptop computers will be purchased and the old ones will be sold.

The students and faculty look forward to the fall when one-to-one technology will be practiced in every classroom. But as Traw pointed out, “Yes, technology is one way to en-gage students, but that alone will not make the difference.”

Almost everyone has known or experienced a battle of cancer with someone. Whether it’s a grandparent, father, mother, sibling, teacher, anyone; this disease has written itself into our lives.

In the United States this year over 1,529,560 people will have been diagnosed with some form of cancer, and Iowa alone will have ac-counted for 17, 260 of those diagnoses.

So to encourage hope and triumph over this disease, our high school will be sponsor-ing “Packed in Pink” nights. Each sports team through this year will be showing off its support by wearing pink on a special game night.

On Oct. 5 women’s swimming and volley-ball teams will host “Packed in Pink” nights, and if your looking for something pink, activity director secretary Jane Carter in the front office has T-shirts available for $10.

There are also plans for a “Packed in Pink” day during the year. The money will be given to the Cedar Valley Hospice center.

We at the Tiger Hi-Line feel this cause is one that should be highly regarded. This disease affects so many of us, and we want to inspire hope through our community by showing how much we care as Tigers. So pack it in pink!

Jessica DallyStaff Writer

LaptopsContinued from page 1

Football10/8, vs. Waterloo West, Home @ 7:45Volleyball 10/5, @ Waterloo West, 5:30Men’s/Women’s CC10/7, Super Meet @ C.R. Washington, @ 3:30Women’s Swimming10/5, vs. Waterloo West, Home, @ 6Men’s Golf10/8, State Meet, @ Rhodes

1. Do you plan to play in college? Where?“I plan to, but I don’t know where yet. I don’t think anybody does.”2.What do you hope to improve on?After the season’s over, I’ll try to put on some weight in the off season and get faster.3. Who are you most nervous about playing? Why?“Once we get into playoffs, because any team we play will be good. Whenever we get into playoffs, it gets intense.”

Tigersin

Action

Athleteof

the Week

T H E

tiger hi-lineOct. 5, 2010

3sports

Ben ChallgrenFootballJunior

Jordan BurtchStaff Writer

The Waterloo Warriors came up short last season, placing sixth in both the regu-lar season and state, but this year with a new coach and tons of talent, there is a great shot at winning State.

Doug Dietz is the new coach of the Waterloo War-riors as of this year, and he has been involved with hockey his entire life. He played college hockey as well as playing hockey in Europe.

He’s coaching the team in hopes to teach the team poise with the puck from his high level of hockey experience.

Senior Marshall Cook has been involved with the War-rior varsity hockey team for four years now. Marshall has the will to win and can give the spark a team needs to win games, whether it’s putting the puck in the back of the net or being a team leader.

Sophomore Jon Skarlis is in his second year of playing for the Warriors and has a pas-sion for hockey. He’s always

trying to improve his game and doesn’t mind getting his nose dirty for some goals. He’s going to be one of the key contributors to the team’s offense this year.

With Cook and Skarlis out there, they’ll really pack a punch on the scoreboard. “I think Dietz is going to get us heading in the right direction and wants to win it all just like us (the team),” Cook said.

“I feel good about having a new coach. I’ve known him for a long time. I think he’ll do a great job,” Skarlis said.

Warriors hockey has new coach, looking for return to State, Nationals

Skarlis lays good odds on the chance at winning State this year.

He said, “Yes, we have tal-ent and the will to work hard.”

Dietz is excited about coaching the team this year. He said, “The quality of the kids that are here brings some excitement to coaching this team, and I know the potential of the kids here.”

Skarlis is going to strive to be one of the top five scorers in the league this year and Marshall plans to win State and go to Nationals.

Jared HyltonStaff Writer

A football flies through the air and lands in the outstretched hands of senior student section leader Ross Heffner. It’s a typical Friday night before a home football game and many students are in the high school parking lot tailgating.

“Tailgating is basically just a big get together, and we grill,” Heffner said. The students then pack everything up and head to the UNI-Dome for the varsity game.

The student section stands throughout the varsity game and cheers. Some of the out-fits that the students come up with are pretty interesting — everything from headbands to wigs to an occasional morph suit.

Sophomore Walker Mar-tinson has a bright red morph suit that makes it to most Cedar Falls home events. “I was just looking online and saw it, so I decided to buy it,” Martinson said.

Besides dressing up in all kinds of crazy ways, the stu-dents are also in the running for winning the Cliff Brees Sportsmanship Award for the third consecutive season. “Well, as you know, last year we definitely didn’t win the

Sportsmanship Award. Our leaders last year had some creative minds, but [they] weren’t always too appropri-ate,” Heffner said. He has helped clean that up with some more appropriate chants. “Koenen is crackin’ down on

us making sure we keep it clean.”

The Cliff Brees Sports-manship Award is handed out for three different seasons: fall, winter and spring. The Award is based on officials’ feedback regarding athletes,

fans and coaches. According to Heffner, it would be quite an accomplishment for Cedar Falls to win the Cliff Brees Sportsmanship Award. The last time Cedar Falls won the fall sportsmanship award was in 2008.

Tigers seeking third season of sportsmanship award

Darby Sheehan Photo

Senior Jordan Smolt and the rest of the Tiger fans have a shot at winning three consecutive seasons of the Cliff Brees Sportsmanship Award.

T H E

tiger hi-lineOct 5, 2010

4feature

SupportStudent Press

The list of businesses and individuals included here are backers of the real world educational opportunities made possible by all the publication and broadcasting programs at Cedar Falls High School. Check out their links at our website: http://www.hiline.co.nr

Gold Star Sponsors ($250)•Sandee’s Silver Star Sponsors ($180)•Cedar Falls Community Credit Union

To find out how you can be a Journalism Backer, call 553-2590 or email hiline.winkel@gmail.com

Bronze Star Sponsors ($100)•Ruth N. DeHoff•Glass Tech•Larry and Judy Timmins

Innacurate.comCFHS student creates comic website:

Click here for hourly comics! Click here for hourly comics! Click here for hourly comics! Click here for hourly comics!

Kara StewartStaff Writer

The Cedar Falls Tiger marching band takes the field for State Marching Band Festival this Saturday, Oct. 9 at Dubuque Senior. The band is directed by Kyle Engelhardt and Gerald Ramsey. The theme for this year is “A Salute to the Greatest Genera-tion, World War II.”

Both directors selected this particular theme because they felt it was “a great way to perform music with lots of depth,” as Engelhardt said. “[It] gives the students a way to explore history.” He also added, “The kids have been working really hard and have really grasped the concept of

the show.” Ramsey said, “I’m excited

to hear the band play outside in the stadium at Dubuque. They sound so much better outside compared to playing at the Dome when the sound echos and it doesn’t sound as crisp.”

Along with the musical performance planned, they have also incorporated theatri-cal effects such as profession-ally printed backdrops, three drum sets, and 48 custom, hand-made flags for the color guard. In fact, all the flags for this performance were made by Engelhardt’s mother-in-law.

The final song, “Swing, Swing, Swing,” appropriately features swing dancing by

the color guard and theatrical boxes for dancing on. Senior drum major Louis Redfern said, “The end of ‘Swing, Swing, Swing’ is going to be incredible.”

Preparing for the show has been a fun experience for the band members. Sophomore Alex Redfern said, “I just love bonding with drum line and my snare section.”

The directors’ inspiration from the show came from drum corps shows and dif-ferent concert band arrange-ments. The 152-member band has worked extremely hard so far this season in preparation for State. Last year, the band earned a Division I perfor-mance as a 4A high school marching band at the Festival.

Marching band goes theatrical for upcoming contest

The band is polishing its routine each day during fourth period before the state championship this Sat-urday in Dubuque.

Claire Wilke Photo

The DealEveryone has a favorite pastime, whether it be scrapbooking, going for a late night run, or just reading the Sunday com-

ics. But senior Sam Mayer prefers not to just read the comics — he takes doodling to the next level by drawing his own comic every hour. Mayer displays his multitude of comics on his website, www.innacurate.com (spelled inaccurately on purpose).

The website features not only comics, but an “About Me” and a “Blogblogblog” section. Innacurate.com contains links to his comics for each day, with one per hour, but how does he find time to do this during

school?“I’m not really sure how I get the time to do all of the comics. I just keep a notebook and draw comics made out of stick

figures when I have the time,” Mayer said. “The website updates are on a one-week lag. I upload them to a server script, and then it goes from there for the hourly updates.”

Mayer also added that he updates his comics a week in advance to prevent interrupted service over holidays or anything else that might come up.

Creating and continually updating a website requires some knowledge about technology. Mayer learned most of the technology over the summer by opening up a text editor and starting with some basic coding and programming.

“I learned how to do most of this out of a textbook,” Mayer said.As for drawing comics, Mayer has pursued this hobby for many years, or as he put it, “since I stopped eating crayons.”But despite Mayer’s talent for drawing comics, the chances of Mayer pursuing a career in it are slim.“I got accepted into Iowa State University’s engineering program, so I will most likely be having a career as an engi-

neer, but I still want to continue writing and drawing comics on the side,” Mayer said. Throughout this school year, Mayer plans to continue his passion of drawing comics through his website.

Story by Aaron Parsons