The videos were typically pointed out as what to have been said by girls, Arab parents, Indians, what people don’t say, and so forth. They originated from the twitter account called Sh*t Girls Say and other identity stealers. In my opinion, the ideas of these videos were pretty original and creative.

 Girls and guys would dress up imitating and mocking one another in reference to their cultures, their parents, the way they talk, portray themselves and much more. Some would even alter their appearance to the max to represent who or what they were making fun of.

I wouldn’t say most of them were stereotypical or offensive, but more of a down to earth aspect to them. It was definitely a hilarious reality check and it’s always good to get a good laugh.

However, after a couple of days of a few of these videos coming out, people started going overboard with them. They desensitized people’s emotions when watching their poorly homemade videos. You couldn’t even get a laugh at it either, except fearing that these videos would lose their sense of ideal and originality.

Over hundreds of these videos have been uploaded onto YouTube and most of them have already been filmed with the same ideology. Apparently, this great idea has been pushed too far and the public needs to know when to limit things. It’s not McDonalds where you supersize things by adding more to the amount you already have and leaving you satisfied. It’s not like that at all, not with these videos at least.

If you seem to think that uploading your video on YouTube will make you a YouTube star or YouTube famous, think again. It’s really tough at attempting to do things you haven’t done before and it’s especially challenging in getting the amount of views and ‘likes’ you want.

I say leave it be. Stop continuing with these Sh*t ______ say unless it’s going to make anyone laugh including me. It takes quite the immensity of comical sayings to crack someone out of their shell.

Every year, people who don’t enjoy sports sit down and watch the Super Bowl only to enjoy the outrageously funny commercials. This year, I will be one of those people. I am a sports fanatic myself, but this rematch of the 2008 Super Bowl does not appeal to me.

To start it off, I dislike both teams. Their rivalry somewhat compares to the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees rivalry, meaning it could turn ugly real quick. I believe that this Super Bowl will be pretty boring because not many people I know are fans of the New England Patriots or the New York Giants.

Originally, I was pulling for the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl, because of the battle of the brothers between John and Jim Harbaugh. Also, both teams have not had many trips to the Super Bowl. In my opinion, this years Super Bowl won’t be a very entertaining one. Looks like I’ll be watching it for the commercials.

He can see the value of video games and the potential of them being used as a tool of education. Most people, when they see video games just see mind-numbing violence and fantasy.

Sure, there is violence in most games there is no denying that but, there are also ethics, business principles and practices, social skills developed thanks to games that is commonly viewed by society as detrimental to students and the next generation.  Just as evolution made us into the present epitome of intellect, society as a whole must adapt and acknowledge new methods that can teach what is necessary for the next generation. People must move forward and progress with flexible opinions to create a better future and leave a better legacy for the next generation to supersede.

Although many students are unaware, the school board for BV West has strict rules about religious expression during the holidays.  Religious expression is most prominent during the winter because multiple holidays fall within these months.  In order to feel the “holiday spirits,” students enjoy decorating hallways and lockers, giving presents, and shopping for others.

 Mondays are awful. If there was a poll for which day of the week is the worst, Monday would be in for the win. After a relaxing weekend of sleeping in and having fun, the alarm buzzes early in the morning. The snooze button can only be hit so many times before reality sets in and its time to wake up.

Coming to school on Mondays is enough of a struggle. The only thing that makes them worse is tests. The Friday before, teachers inform the class that they have a test Monday. Most students remember, but they don’t pick up their homework until Sunday afternoon. When it comes to that afternoon, study guides are pulled out and stared at blankly. No notes, or homework can jog their memories about how to do the problems. So, they do their best to study but eventually just give up and say that they will go talk to their teachers in the morning.

This creates another problem, because usually the teachers are not there or 20 other students stand in the room waiting for help. With our crazy schedule at BV West, it is unfair for tests to be given on a Monday. The students that have class Monday are not given the extra time to get help, like those that have class Tuesday and have multiple extra chances to go in to see teachers.

According to district policy, tests may not be given on Friday. Teachers may call them quizzes and give them on Fridays, but they may not be called tests. It seems better to have 7 quizzes on Friday than 3 or 4 big tests on a Monday. Tests should at least be saved for Wednesdays or Thursdays. These days allow more time to get the help that is needed to be successful on the test.

The school district wants to see better grades and higher tests scores. Therefore, they would get more results by only giving tests midweek. Tests are designed to show what has been learned, but with the pressure on students to be outstanding, that extra time can be tons of help.

]]> http://bvwnews.com/opinion/2011/11/07/monday-tests-affect-students/feed/ 0 http://bvwnews.com/opinion/2011/11/02/twilight-series-end-of-an-error/ http://bvwnews.com/opinion/2011/11/02/twilight-series-end-of-an-error/#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:49:27 +0000 adviser http://bvwnews.com/?p=1577 On November 18^th, we will finally see the end of an error. Others would say era, I say error. The Twilight movies were never an era. Harry Potter, yes, but Twilight? Not really. The way I understand it, there will be two kinds of people at the theater. One is a full on Twilight Fan, AKA a Twihard but the second is the person who was dragged there by the Twihard. Now I have to say, I’ll be the second kind, not to offend anyone who likes the series and the movies. Before I explain why, you should know something.

In 8^th grade, I was a twihard. I was Team Edward, I had read all the books multiple times, and knew everything about the story, up to what Bella wore for their first date to officially meeting the Cullens. I even had a Twilight Birthday party in which we watched twilight and I made my guests take the trivia quiz. Unfortunately when the first two movies came out, I started disliking it. They were getting all the details wrong and left out too much information. By the third movie, I wasn’t Team Edward or Team Jacob. I was Team “The-guy-who-almost-hit-Bella-with-a-car.” I felt Kirsten Stewarts acting ranged from breathing and raising her eyebrow, and then biting her lip. It sucked, as for Robert Pattinson I could understand why he liked being Cedric Diggory [In HP: GoF] rather than a 107-year-old creeper who watches his 17-year-old girlfriend sleep. Pattinson isn’t that bad of an actor but Edward is a hard character to work with. He doesn’t do much but brood and try to keep Bella from jumping off cliffs and freezing herself every time she hugs him.

So when I found out my guy friend was planning on dragging me to see “Breaking Dawn,” I was not happy. For one thing, it bugged me that Breaking Dawn decided to be split into two movies right after Harry Potter did. On another note, “Breaking Dawn” is supposed to be the most…intimate of all the series. The movie was almost going to be rated R for the sexual scenes, so that just foreshadows some awkwardness with my friend and I. And lastly, I was really hoping I wouldn’t get dragged to the second part.

Overall, the movies should just skip the theaters and go straight to DVD so people can watch them in the privacy of their own homes. Since that won’t happen, I’m going to wear a Harry Potter T-Shirt and hope that no Twihards try to suck my blood.

When comparing Blue Valley West to other Blue Valley District high schools, it seems to be that the others are a lot more lenient with students and their traditions. The question is why?

Because BV West has been running for only 10 years, it is known as the “baby” of all schools, besides BV South West. The staff here at BV West is a lot more likely to be stricter with the new schools rather than with the older sister schools. Maybe because they haven’t seen it all, or simply because its morally correct to appear to be conservative.

Whenever seniors want to join in doing those “classical senior pranks”, BV West tries their best to either limit it or just quickly end it. Unlike here, seniors at BV North for instance can prank to some degree without it being a big deal, except with their everyday-senior-spirit-days. That was not acceptable according to the district. But it is acceptable to design their hallways, with a 50 foot limit, like Candy Land for their homecoming theme. And it did look pretty sweet.

After running for 10 years, BV West looks to find more values in respect and accommodation from the district. What really boggles our minds is why we, as a school, are penalized for our youth? Although we are not looking for BV West to completely eliminate all of its rules on the students, we do want BV West to reconsider some of its restrictions on the student body.

Determining the right number of rules and the severity of these rules on students is a difficult task for a school to undergo. At BV West, we are filled with sportsmanship and pride; who said we couldn’t achieve the mere chances of gaining responsibility with a little freedom…

Teachers have it drilled into their minds that using Sparknotes is cheating. Yes, this is true, but only if you haven’t read the book. When students are forced to do a task, they are more likely not to do it. Some teachers read out loud to the class, which makes it harder to get behind, but others just give a set time to read the book by. I’m not saying you should just throw the book aside, but I know there are kids out there that would rather ignore the required reading. The word “required” scares people.  If you really don’t want to read the book, skim through it. You may fall in love with it and end up reading the whole thing.

Obviously, not everyone is a strong reader. Good readers need a little push sometimes, too. However, almost anything can be abused, and, unfortunately, Sparknotes is abused often. When used correctly, this website can be a great study tool to help kids succeed. It provides study tools and discussion questions, as well as quizzes you can take over the plot and characters. In addition to all of this, it also has in depth character analyses and information over other literary elements represented throughout the book.

Sparknotes is not cheating if you have read, or at least attempted to read the book first. Read the book, grasp the concept, then get on Sparknotes and use it as a tool to catch things you may have missed while reading the book. Some students read the book, some don’t. Either way, millions log on to Sparknotes each week. If we start promoting this as a skill, it can be used for the greater good of education.