Overloading Stress: Are Teachers Being Overbearing?

Opinion

By Thomas Saura 

Husky Herald Reporter   

   

   As I go from class to class, taking in my daily lessons, I pick up every assignment only to be put on a stack as high as the Empire State Building. Assignment after assignment, building up to hours’ worth of homework.

   And the sad part is I don’t have any after-school responsibilities to fulfill. I do not have a part time job to go to, or college classes to attend. So I have no right to complain about the overload of teachers work, I have all the time in the world to do it.

   So what about the kids who don’t? The students that are dual-enrolled or have crazy manager at their dead end job who gives them insane hours working for little to nothing?

   I have the belief that teachers are giving students too much work and not taking the fact that there are other responsibilities to becoming a young adult. Many teachers forget to overlook the fact that we’re not little kids who go home and watch SpongeBob until Mommy gets home to make dinner.

   A large majority of my friends have part-time jobs that they can barely balance with their schooling, and a decent number of them NEED these jobs. Not all of them can leave school and go home to their parents’ house and make a nice snack, many of them have to run to work just so they can come home at 10 o’clock to a 1 bed room apartment with no furniture or trimmings.

   That is not even mentioning the days they do not work and have to attend 4 different college classes before the days even finished.

   I am not saying all teachers are unconcerned with student’s personal life, and it is not an easy task to just change their schedule for individuals. What I am asking for is for more teachers to be more relaxing on deadlines for their students’ assignments.

   For the students who have such cramped and busy schedules due to uncontrollable circumstances, better deadlines is a necessity to avoid stress overload. Not everyone is super-human; everyone needs breaks at some point. 

Northern Boys Basketball Making A Rebound

Sports

By Dallas Chicone

Husky Herald Reporter

The boys’ varsity basketball team started off the season in a positive way. The Huskies started the season 2-0 beating L’Anse Creuse (57-54) and Lakeview (47-44).

   The first game of the year the boys’ basketball team won 57-54. The Huskies were led offensively by sophomore Geryd Welsh with 27 and Lucas Oppliger added 12 points. The second game of the season the Huskies won 47-44. 

  “Our goal this year is to play one game at a time” Jack Trimble (’14) says. “We need to play the game we know how and not take our opponents lightly” says Trimble.

Husky boy's basketball team in the midst of a game
Photo By: Taylor Humphrey

   The Huskies have run into a bit of bad luck lately. They have lost their last 5 games but the team looks to rebound. “We are capable of playing better” says Jacob Williams (’15). “If we play like we know how then we will win a lot more games” Williams says.

   “Right now the season has not been going as planned but alright” says Trimble. “Were not playing too bad, we just aren’t doing enough little things to finish and win games.” Lucas Oppliger (’14) says “The season is not going to well so far. We plan on turning it around” Oppliger says.

   The Huskies are staying positive and not worrying about the rest of the season. “If we do what we are supposed to do and play as a team I think the rest of the season will be great” says Williams.

   Jack Trimble and Lucas Oppliger are not worried about the rest of the season. “We have the talent to win the games and we will work the little things out in practice” Trimble says. “I think we’re going to turn the season around and finish strong going into districts” says Oppliger.

   The Huskies look to improve their season this month as they take on Anchor Bay, home against Fraser, at Port Huron High, and at Grosse Pointe South, all important games because all the teams are in their league.

   “There is nothing like a home game” says Trimble “The fans are great.”
Don’t forget to come and watch your Huskies in action and root them on.

Xbox One vs. PS4

Feature

By Jon May

Husky Herald Reporter 

   Every decade, brings new inventions to the world before us. Two inventions this year would include the Xbox One and the PS4, the new generation of gaming consoles; the 8^th generation to be exact. Although there is a third console in this race, it will not be included in this article.

   The PlayStation 4, or PS4 for short, was released on November 15^th 2013 by a foreign company under the name of Sony. Microsoft, an American company, released the other console of the 8^th gen, the Xbox One.

   The PS4 has 3 predecessors’ the PS3 released in 2006, the PlayStation 2 released in 2000 and the PlayStation released in 1994. Its competitor also belongs to its own family of pre-2013 consoles including the Xbox 360 released in 2005 and the Xbox released in 2001.

   Both companies have competed back and forth to determine which company truly runs the console wars of 2013. As of Jan 8^th 2014 the PS4 has sold approximately 1.4 million more units than the Xbox One.

   Both consoles have many differences but one thing that remains the same is how they are put together. The technical properties between both are closely related.

    The PS4 costs $399.99 and the Xbox One is $499.99 and includes a Kinect camera. Each has their own brand of games, including major franchises like Halo (Xbox exclusive) and a new independent game Watchdogs (PS4 exclusive).

    What does the general public think about these two consoles? Brian Tomiuk (’14) recently got a PS4 for Christmas. “My favorite thing about the PS4 is how amazing it looks”.  “It looks like real life” said Tomiuk.

“My mom actually thought it was a TV show when she saw it”

    Tom Coop (’14) chose the other console, the Xbox One.  His decision towards getting one was very unique.

“My Xbox broke right before the new consoles were released, so I got extra money towards a new Xbox One.” I asked him what he treasured most about his new console and he said “I enjoy the Xbox exclusive games and the multitasking function.”

    So what does this mean? Should one get the Xbox One or the PS4, well that would depend on what a person enjoys the most, if they enjoy to be social and American-made projects then they are leaning towards the Xbox One. However, the PS4 also has its own brand of very unique game and is less expensive.

   To see an exact specification comparison of both consoles look at the chart below. 

Feature	PlayStation 4	Xbox One
Price	$399.99 [1]	$499.99 [2]
Release Date	US: 11.15.2013 EU: 11.29.2013 [3]	11.22.2013 [4]
Optical Drive	Blu-ray/DVD [5]	Blu-ray/DVD [6]
Game DVR	Yes, PS+ subscription not required [7]	Yes, with subscription to Xbox Live Gold [8]
RAM	8GB GDDR5 [9]	8GB DDR3 [10]
CPU	Single-chip x86 AMD "Jaguar" processor, 8 cores[12]	8 Core Microsoft custom CPU[13]
GPU	AMD Radeon Graphics Core Next engine w/ 1152 shaders [15]	853 MHz AMD Radeon GPU w/ 768 shaders[16]

Live Streaming	Yes	Yes
Reputation Preservation	Trophies will be ported	Achievements will be ported[54]
Web Connection	Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi [55]	Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 & 5Ghz)[56]
BlueTooth	Bluetooth 2.1 (EDR)[57]	No*
Wi-Fi Direct (for Device Connection)	No	Yes
A/V Hookups	HDMI output (4K Support [59]) Optical output [60]	HDMI input and output (4K support), Optical output[61]
IR	No	IR out, IR Blaster (Kinect)
Power Supply (PSU)	Internal	External (power brick)
Near Field Communication (NFC)	No	No
Region Locked	No	No [62]

GPU	AMD Radeon Graphics Core Next engine w/ 1152 shaders [15]	853 MHz AMD Radeon GPU w/ 768 shaders[16]
Peak GPU Shader Throughput	1.84 TeraFLOPS/s[18]	1.31 TeraFLOPS/s (estimate)[19]
Storage	500 GB 5400 RPM SATA II hard drive [21]	500 GB Hard Drive [22]
External Storage	No [23]	Yes, USB [24]
Removable Hard Drive	Yes, must be at least 160 GB, thinner than 9.5mm [25]	No [26]
Cloud Storage	Yes [27]	Yes [28]
Play As You Download	Yes [29]	Yes [30]
Remote Download	Yes	Yes
Account Access from Multiple Consoles	Yes	Yes
Mandatory Game Installs	No	Yes
Required Internet Connection	No	No, but required for mandatory day one update.
Used Game Fee	No	No
Digital game sharing or gifting	No	No
Feature	PlayStation 4	Xbox One
Backwards Compatibility	None	None
Cross Game Chat	Yes	Yes
Controllers	DualShock 4 (included)	Xbox One Wireless Controller(included)
Controller Batteries	Rechargable (built-in)	AA (2). Rechargable battery packs (sold separately)
Motion Control	DualShock 4, PlayStation 4 Eye (not included), PlayStation Move (not included)	Kinect 2
Second Screen	Vita (not included) [45] Playstation App[46]	SmartGlass (devices not included) [47]
Voice Commands	Yes (scope, TBA)[48]	Yes [49]
Subscription Service	PlayStation Plus[50]	Xbox Live [51]
USB	USB 3.0 (2 ports)[52]	USB 3.0 (3 ports)[53]

What is your New Year's resolution?

Chatbox

By Alyissa Schweihofer

Husky Herald Reporter 

Serenate Searles:

"Preparing to move into my own apartment." 

Senior

Garrett Corry:

"To start finishing my homework."

Junior

Ray Jokie:

"To get a 4.0 GPA."

Sophomore

Andrea Johnson:

"Keep up my grades!"

Freshman

 

Port Huron Northern Art Program Sharing Smiles

Feature

By Alex Budd

Husky Herald Reporter   

   

 Many people have no idea that we have an art program at Port Huron Northern. Attempting to resolve this issue, Mrs. Hussy decided to create Smiles. Smiles first started because Mrs. Hussy thought it would be great to make a small piece of art that could be shared with others outside the students’ normal circle of friends and family. The Smiles have traveled all over the state of Michigan, and as far away as Toronto, Canada and Antigua, Guatemala.
   Recently something amazing has happened with Smiles, “somebody from a hotel out of town found a smile and liked the idea of it so they want to buy some from us so that they can send them around their hotel to brighten people’s day” said Elise Gallagher (’16), “this is a great opportunity to not only get our art program noticed but to raise money to create more art.”
   Attached to the smile there is a piece of paper that has the name of the website, on the website it calculates where you’re from to show where they have traveled and tells you about our program. “If you have found the site it’s because you've found a smile and it’s talking about either passing the smile on for more publicity or keeping it,” said Gallagher (’16).
   The smiles are simple to make but have a big impact. “All you have to do is take a tiny piece of clay, make a sphere, customize a unique face, fire it and then glaze it” said Alron Marrogy (’16).
   The exciting part about Smiles is that everyone has different places they passed them out and that will attract a variety of people. “I passed them out at Kroger, the Kraft 8 movie theater, the gym locker room and Wal-Mart,” said Lacey Harris (’15). “I passed them out on the counter at my dad’s store” said Marrogy (’16).
   All in all, the smiles are getting more attention than anticipated. The smiles were originally only supposed to be for one school year but due to the interest, it has become a yearly project. “This program is very important because it draws attention to Port Huron Northern’s art program” said Marrogy (’16).