You really don’t understand what it’s like to be a senior on the last day of high school unless you are that person. For a quick second you recap all of your laughs, memories and stories. To some its sad, but to me its a big step into my future that will hopefully bring success.

If You Believe

Your diploma means a future without boundaries,
A world that’s full of energy and fun.
So as you reach for all life has to offer,
Remember that you’re second to no one.

Pursue your goals, yet keep your loved ones close,
As you utilize your talent and ambition.
Let your friends and family give you their support,
And you’ll master every challenging transition.

And always, (graduate’s name), know you can achieve
The things you really want, if you believe.

By Joanna Fuchs

Graduation Poems

This year was the first year that the rule of no eating in classrooms was applied to Fort Morgan High School. This rule pertains to ALL food. That means no snacks like fruit, a granola bar, or even a great tasting three musketeer candy bar. If you have any evidence of ingesting food while in class, you are asking for a referral. Now who would want to risk eating food that needs to including in your daily calorie intake for a referral gets you a talk with the principal?…. (Not me)

A lot of complaints have been made by the students regarding this rule. Liz Dill commented, “What are we, three years old?! Why don’t they just give us bibs?” Alan Mason also stated, “If I’m hungry, I’m going to eat anyways.”

However, there are many other privileges that FMHS students receive that contradict this new rule. At FMHS there are 8 vending machines, 2 of which are accessible for all students at any time of the day.  It would be easy for a student to get their passbook signed by a teacher and go to the vending machines to get a snack. As far as most students are concerned, snacking can be very helpful in to give a boost of energy to keep going through the day or to keep them awake during certain classes.

Another privilege is open campus during lunch. Students are allowed to purchase food at fast food restaurants however, if they don’t have to time to finish their meals in the 30 minutes time frame they can’t bring it on campus and have to throw it away.

One solution to this problem is to take away all of those privileges however, that would cause a lot of chaos among students. Another solution is to ignore the new rule and just let students eat during classes.

From a distance you can always hear students in the lunch room say “Ick, this lunch is nasty.”  Four out of five kids stated that they think school lunch is not very appetizing. However, do you think students could taste the difference of a school lunch menu item and a similar store bought item in a blindfold test? Two students were taken aside and were given a grilled cheese made from Fort Morgan’s local Dairy Queen Restaurant and a grilled cheese made from the high school cafeteria.

Five out of the five cafeteria cooks agreed that most of the kids that think school lunch isn’t too mouth watering because of the reputation that students have already put on it. However, Verline Mann, a cook at FMHS, added that sometimes, very rarely, do kids actually say they enjoy eating school lunch. “Andrea Gill loves out school lunch,” exclaimed Gail Windsheimer, another cook at FMHS! Now whether they are just ashamed to admit that it doesn’t that horrible or they really do think it is sickening would be hard to prove, but we can get some idea through the blindfold test.

When interviewed, Alicia Harman, a junior, had a lot to say about our school lunch. Although she rarely eats the school lunch, when she does its only the very few dishes that she enjoys. “I hardly ever eat school lunch because I only like a couple dishes.” She also added, “It’s gross and it looks like fake food.” Over hearing the conversation, Madison Northrup also added that she thinks the food isn’t too tasty either. Another question asked was “Do you really think the food tastes bad or do you think it’s just the reputation students put on it?” Harman replied, “Both, because sometimes the food really is nasty while others just don’t eat it because other people don’t like it.”

School Lunch Menu for Friday February 19th:
Toasted Cheese Sandwich
Mixed Vegetables
Baby Carrots
Apricot Halves
Garden Salad
Milk-Variety
Fudge Brownies
Milk-Variety

Emily Goggins was more than happy to volunteer her lunch time to participate in the experiment. A grilled cheese sandwich was purchased from Dairy Queen and put beside grilled cheese made by the school. Windshiemer was more than happy to help with the experiment. She helped feed each sandwich to Goggins so she couldn’t feel the texture of each sandwich and realize which was which.

Sandwich A was made by the School. Goggins made some comments on the taste.
“There is a little too much butter on the bread. It has a good amount of cheese in it and the bread is perfectly toasted. Overall it’s a pretty good grilled cheese sandwich!”

Sandwich B was made by Dairy Queen. Goggins had quite a bit to say about this one.
“Aghh! It’s really chewy and tough. It doesn’t taste like bread and there is an overload on cheese. I don’t know if I like this one.”

Then Goggins was asked which sandwich she would prefer to eat and she said definitely sandwich A! However, the real question is whether it was good in general. “I love these grilled cheese sandwiches,” Goggins stated. So is all school food really that bad? I, along with Emily and the Cooks, would have to disagree.

“OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW!…Hopefully ”

The FMHS Tennis Team has a shortage of money in their account and one solution to raise money is to fund raise candles and chocolate. One of the main items the girls would like to purchase with the money they raise is a decent set of warm ups to practice in through the cold, spring weather. Unfortunately, the warm ups they currently have are ill  fitted and poorly designed.  Last year the team bought unfiorms for the first time in efgjasdfgkl years and would certainly love to have a nice pair of warm ups to go along with them to keep them warm through the constantly changing weather. “The team has no money in their account because they did no fundraising last year,” stated Tennis Coach, Ms. Bauman.

To contact a Tennis player or Bauman to help out contact Ms. Bauman at (970)-867-5648 Ext. 146

For some people Valentines Day is just an ordinary day that is wasted to show love for somebody that should be shown regularly everyday. However, for the people that do believe in taking that extra day to express their love for that special someone there are an unlimited amount of ideas to come up with.

The most often seen thing are boys stumbbling over what to get for a girl. So, here are some cute ideas that would make a girls heart thump. : )

• Photo Book Memory: Gather some pictures and item that rekindle the memories once shared and take the chance to create a  new one. Girls would love to see that special guy take some time and effort out of their day to make something that the both of you can look back and smile at.
• Blow up of a picture: Take one of the best photos of you two and blow it up the size of a canvas and put a decorative frame around it to add that little touch to a room.
• Personalized M&M’s: The company that makes those delicious choclate covered choclate has set up a way to personalize those yummy treats. You can add words, phrases and even pictures!
• Give her her own star: Give her a little piece of the universe and register her a star in the sky to calls hers so the both of you can gaze under and admire it.

Advice 101: NO chocolates, teddy bears or red roses….sorry boys

However, in most womens eyes choosing  an item for a guy can be 10 times more difficult. So here are some thoughtful ideas:

• GPS System: Men always think they know their directions are right so get them a handy dandy GPS system for a “back up plan”. : )
• Surround Sound System: To make them feel like their at the actual game put one of these bad boys in your house and he wont ever leave the room.
• Personalized Boxers: Let your special someone wear boxer that you created! How thoughtful!

To register a star or look at more ideas visit Romance Stuck.

Only three more months until the senior class of 09′-10′ will be done with high school. Here are some good ol’ roses and thorns for the seniors by the seniors.

To learn more about some seniors visit FMHS’s Student Projects Tab.

Emily Goggins, a senior at Fort Morgan High School, turned 18 on January 6th of 2009. The day of her birthday she made a big decision of getting her first tattoo. When asked why she had the thought of getting a tattoo she replied “because it symbolizes something I have a passion for, represents who I am, and shows what makes me, me. She had really put a lot of thought into what she wanted to get because it would be permanent.

After discussing with friends and family she came to a conclusion to get a treble clef and a bass clef in the shape of a heart on her upper right shoulder. She thought that would be the perfect place to get a tattoo for being a first timer because, according to the tattoo artist, it is the least painful part of the body when getting a tattoo.

Emily had thoughts about getting a tattoo before she turned 18, however, usually people under the age of 18 need to have a consent form signed by a parent or legal guardian. Most parents don’t allow their child to get one because they are so young and have a lot of time to get a tattoo.

Having a meaningful tattoo is also a big role when putting something permanent on your body. Emily put a lot of thought and meaning into hers. “It has the treble clef because I have been playing the violin for ten years. The bass clef symbolizes how I play the bass guitar which I taught myself and have been playing for six years. Together they make my love for music,” stated Emily.

A common fear before getting a tattoo is the pain of the needle. Emily stated, “It felt like someone was writing on my shoulder with a pen that didn’t work so they kept going over it to try to get it to work.” She then added that it hurt more the day after because it was really tender which wasn’t what she expected. To learn to pro’s and con’s about getting a tattoo when you’re young visit Professors House: Teenagers and Tattoos

Photography was first thought of and created in the middle 1800’s.  As time progressed, the technological replacement of the first “camera” skyrocketed. When working with photos for a 35 mm camera, there are many steps that need to be followed to get a final product that is presentable.
The first step is taking a fine quality picture. To ensure that, there are guidelines that needs to carefully be followed. Before you snap the picture, make sure you can in vision what the picture will look like through the lens. Crop out things that are unnecessary and make sure you are really capturing the essence of the picture.  By following these simple steps, it will save you more time that you could be using to finish the rest of the photography process instead of having to go reshoot an entire product.  
The next step that comes in involves heading into the dark room which is a completely pitch black room. You must be very cautious and make sure you block out any light. You must pop off the top and bottom to the canister and unravel the film, also called the negative, from the real and cut off a straight edge. You must then wind it up on a plastic reel. You must then place it into a developing tank and secure the lid.
 When using chemicals to develop, you must also follow specific instructions to ensure that your final product will turn out great. You must then put 8 oz. of developer into the tank and shake gently for an average of 10 minutes. Discard the developer into a sink and then pour the stop bath, which stops chemicals from continuing to develop, and swish around for 1 minute. Pour bake to reuse and pour in fixer. Shake gently once more for 4 minutes. Replace in storage container for reuse. You must now remove the film reel from the tank and place in water for 4 minutes. After finishing those steps you can now put photo flow onto the reels to remove any water spots that may appear later. You must now remove the negative from the reel and hang to dry in a dust-free area to dry. After drying, place the negatives in a negative holder.
After that process you are almost half way done until you can create an 8 by 10. After inserting the negatives into a negative holder you must now place it under an enlarger to make a contact sheet that is more visible so you can chose which picture you would like to prepare. You must correctly choose an F stop and the amount of light you need so the contact sheet isn’t too dark but also isn’t too light. After choosing a time and F stop you can correctly make a contact sheet. To develop a contact sheet you simply follow the same steps and chemicals you used to develop the black and white film.
 The next step is to pick a picture that has a lot of contrast to make an 8 by 10 print. You simply have to remove the negative from the negative holder and place it in the enlarger. Dusting it off with a photo brush will remove any particles that can damage your final print. And again, all you must do is choose the right lighting and F stop. You must next follow the chemical instructions once again and hang the final print to dry.
 It is very time consuming process that definitely takes a lot of patience and motivation. However, photography is an excellent hobby to practice and can really impress a lot of people if the picture is inspiring. Most people look at a picture and can easily think it was easy to take. However, there is a lot of work that goes into taking a picture. Especially if using a 35mm slr camera, it can take days just to make that one picture a perfect picture.

To print out a copy of the chemical process please visit eHow.com.

Home Made Snow Globes

Christmas is just around the corner and how lovely would it be to give loved ones something from your heart made at home? Everybody loves homemade gifts just for that reason, they are made with care and love. Homemade snow globes are a nice way to show those feelings with out cleaning out your wallet. Here are the steps to making an amazing snow globe.

Materials Needed:
 

A clean jar with a water tight lid
A festive, waterproof figurine or holiday ordament that will fit inside the jar
A cork
A knife
Water proof glue (such as super glue)
Water
Course Glitter
Ribbon
Optional: Glycerin (Available at drug stores)

1. Trim the cork so one piece is just taller than the jar lid. Discard extra cork. 
2. Remove lid from jar and set aside.
3. Put the lid upside down and affix the cork piece to the center with a dab of waterproof glue.
4. Glue the figurine, bottom down, to the cork (if you’re using a little person as the figure, glue the feet to the cork). The cork is a platform that will allow the figurine to show above the rim of the lid, and the lid will eventually be the bottom of the snowglobe.
5. Let cork and figure dry completely.
6. Have your child add a few dashes of glitter to the jar, along with a few drops of glycerin if you’d like the glitter to fall slowly.
7. Help your child fill the jar almost to the top with water.
8. Screw lid back on jar, so the figure is pointing down. Reverse the jar so the figurine is right side up.
9. Tie a ribbon around the jar lid and knot decoratively.
10. Have your child shake gently and watch the glitter fly! Watch carefully for leaks and store on a waterproof saucer, just in case.

Visit Education.com to print a copy of the instructions to make your own. Enjoy!

Natasha Windsheimer, 17, is currently a junior at Fort Morgan High School. She is very involved in the school by being in FBLA and Spirit Club. She also plays basketball and volleyball and loves the sports dearly.
Natasha says she likes to spend her free time….”chillin”. She is a farm girl and loves raising her five cows on her family’s cattle farm. “I like cows,” she also added. However, despite her passion for farming, when she graduates high school she wants to attend college to be a radiologist. To add onto her dreams she would also like to marry the country singer Jason Aldean. She is currently working at Arby’s Fast Food Restaurant to earn some bucks.
Natasha would describe herself as a “hardworking dirty women.”

Here are a few of her favorites:
Color- Orange
Hobby- Working on trucks with her dad
Sport- Basketball
T.V. Show- none, they are stupid
Class- Foods with TORRIE!
Candy Bar- Kit-Kat
Food- Steak

An interesting fact about Natasha is she wakes up every morning at 5 A.M. to go for a fresh jog. : )

To get to know more about FMHS students, visit their desktop publishing websites that they personally designed all about them.