This cut means that some of our teachers, including some of our favorites, being laid off. This also means that the average class size of 27 students may be raised to 35 students per classroom. Imagine your classroom having 35 students. Can we really learn in this environment?

If you’re a freshmen or softmore sports-lover, be prepared for the worst. There are major cuts being made to non-varsity sports, and some sports all-together, like water-polo. This only gives students the chance to catch a college’s attention for a scholarship in two years. This is no time at all. Kids who can’t afford college and who were depending on a sports scholarship now may not be able to get their college education.

Many people state wide are calling for a tax increase to help gain revenue to help save our schools. Sure, we can’t personally vote in the state Senate or House of Reps, but we can make a difference. To draw attention to the issue, on May 5th, hundreds of students from six different schools marched to the Board of Education to protest. They even all took the consequences that came with it.

I’m not saying to go out and march during school, but you can help make a difference. To find your state representitives and senators and send a letter, go to http://www.noto37.org/. We can help to save our education. For once, us the students are affected, and so we need to help save our own schools.

The latest buzz in Chicago is surrounding the Auto Show.  What’s new?  What’s cool?  What’s really the BEST?  Really, all the companies are fighting tooth and nail to try and get our parents’ business.  With everything from bright, showy colors to unique designs, all dealers show off the best of their best.  But, they all seem focused now on one specific quality: green energy.

Walking into the Chicago Auto Show, I was shocked.  It was so big, wall to wall cars.  With bright, shiny lights on the polished cars, you wanted to go home behind the wheel of any one of the new models.  But, when you start to investigate, you see what’s really lying behind.

I started with Toyota.  I tried to talk to a representitive about the recent recalls, but they seemed very reluctant to answer questions.  (Maybe because I’m a kid?)  They sent me to another group of representives.  They said they were open to questions, but when I asked about how Toyota was planning to move forward after the recalls, they told me I should speak with regional.  At that point, it became too complicated.  I left but noted the display seemed pretty popular.  So maybe Toyota’s recalls haven’t affected their popularity.

The Ford exhibit caught my attention because it featured two robots from their factories.  They were picking things up and moving them.  I was drawn to Volkswagen by its virtual driving course.  To be honest, it was pretty hard.  I crashed in about 45 seconds!  But I think the most impressive display was by Jeep.  They had an entire, rugged course set up where you could take a ride and see what a Jeep could do (driven by professionals).  They even had mini Jeeps for the younger kids to drive around in an enclosed circle.

Althought Toyota wouldn’t even answer a few questions, I did talk to a few other representitives.  When speaking to a rep from Mini Cooper, he said that the cars you are able to sit in at the show are opened and closed roughly 200,000 times a day!  It all takes quite a toll on the vehicles (and there were A LOT of vehicles you could sit in, including a sports car and a concept car with seats like lawnchairs!).

Overall, the auto show was pretty impressive. The selection is very wide from a fancy $100,000 Lotus to a simple, green energy Chrysler.  But it also made me realize something I never thought of.  There is a car for every personality. With such a wide range of cars for a wide range of people, cars can reflect you and your perspective on life.  So, whether these car companies want to make you feel happy or  just want your money, it seems our cars will just keep getting better and better.

Everyone’s talking about one movie right now – James Cameron’s Avatar. It’s only been in theaters for a couple of months but it’s already broken the money-making record of Titanic, another Cameron film.

Avatar is a movie like nothing before it.  It’s already won Golden Globe awards for Best Director and Best Drama/Action.  People are still lining up at theaters everywhere to get tickets.  But why does everyone want to see it so badly?

Avatar is a movie with a plot that features both action and romance.  Taking place on the far off planet of Pandora, Cameron created an entirely new line of creatures, plants, and people.  The surprising part?  It’s not actors in makeup, but all animation.  There are only a select number of scenes that are shot with actual actors.

One of the most interesting things about Avatar is that it’s available in IMAX 3D.  Honestly, seeing the movie in 3D makes a huge difference.  It makes you feel like you are actually on the planet of Pandora, too.  At one point, I reached out towards the screen to make sure it was just a movie. But the truth is, for two and a half hours, you leave earth and join a place truly out of this world.

Avatar is setting a bar for all movies to follow.  In itself, it is different from anything anyone has ever seen.  These imaginary blue people could be the future for film everywhere.  Maybe someday there’ll be another Avatar-like movie or something like it.  But for now, we have a great movie to enjoy.

Snow is not fun at all when the temperatures are in the single digits and the wind chills are far below zero.  The other day, I went outside, tried to make a snowball, but just picked up a chunk of ice!  On top of this, thin layers of snow on the ground had become a sheet of ice, making it dangerous just to walk down the driveway.

With it being so crazy cold and icy outside, be careful!  Bundle up, watch your step and be sure to stay safe.

If your a Chicagoan, you’ve most likely gotten into a squabble about your favorite Windy City baseball team (unless you’re one of the smart people who say they’re a fan of both teams).  Insults get thrown at each other about players, team season performances, and of course, how long its been since certain teams have won certain championships.

I can’t lie.  I’m a pretty big Sox fan but that doesn’t mean I hate the Cubs.  If the Cubs ever make it to the World Series, I’d want them to win (unless they were playing the White Sox, of course).  It seems that if you’re on one side, you have to stick to that side and only that side, which can sometimes get you into squabbles about which team is better.

I’m pretty sure there will always be this city divide between the two baseball teams and their fans.  Even if there was a chance to settle the “dispute”, true fans will stick to their teams and keep fighting until they prove they reign champion (of Chicago, at least.)

But my room doesn’t always look organized, making things a lot more complicated.  I don’t always know where my things are.  To me, its a lot easier if all of my stuff is sprawled out across the floor. Though everything is a mess, I know where I can get any of my possessions at any given moment.  Sure, it may make me look slobby at times, but I think most people my age can agree with me.

Organization is hard in itself, but it can make life even more complicated.

Everyone knows the word “twilight”.  But to most girls that word doesn’t refer to the time of day when it’s light out and you can see the moon.  Twilight is a best-selling book series which has led to super-hyped movies!  But what IS all the hype about?  Sometimes even I, a faithful Twilight fan, cannot understand it all at once.

The Twilight saga actually is a great, romantic, adventurous, and mysterious series.  There are even some guys who have read the books and actually enjoyed it, like one of my friends at school.  Most guys write off the  phenomenon, including the novels, because the whole thing seems so ridiculous.  But, it’s just the movies that really are changing their minds, not the books.

Of course, for us a girls, a huge appeal to the movies is the eye candy.  All the guys of  Twilight are extremely hot, all of us know that.  Whether you’re loving Robert Pattinson’s famous “Edward” hair or Taylor Lautner showing off his rock hard six-pack abs, it’s pretty tempting.  Though, the story line isn’t as much concentrated on.

The movie follows the book for the most part.  But like any adaption, it skips scenes, it adds scenes, it shortens important scenes and changes others. Like, in the first Twilight movie, Bella admits she knows Edward is a vampire on a car ride home from Port Angeles.  In the movie, she tells Edward what she knows in a clearing in a dark forest, in a dramatic, intense scene.  Sure, it’s a good scene, but to faithful Twilight readers, it takes away from the true roots of the story.

The hype over “New Moon” is a combination of many things.  For readers, there are great expectations for it to live up to the book.  For the girls who are “gaga” over the guys, they’re hoping to see a lot of skin.  And for the people who saw the first movie and thought it was “just okay,” they’re hoping the second will be better.

I’m excited to see what the new director will bring to the table.  But I’m not expecting much more than the first movie.  I’m definintley going to see it, but I probably won’t stay up all night for the midnight showing.

Some critics who’ve already seen “New Moon” say it’s pretty bad.  But I don’t think that matters.  Most Twilight fans are pretty faithful and won’t care about the reviews.   I’m not surprised the critics don’t like it.  The people who love the movies aren’t the adults or the parents, but the screaming teenage girls.

So, maybe the hype over Twilight isn’t about how good the actual movie or plotline turn out to be.  Whether you love the books or love the guys, everyone will be drawn to “New Moon” differently.

I’m not sure how I’ll like it.  But I have new hope since a different director is shining a new light on the movie series.

Of course, the fact that we live in the absolutely wonderful city of Chicago, we usually have to change from tanktops to snowjackets in less than a month’s time – not just to protect our reputation but our freezing bodies!

Then as we work our way through the months, we have to buy new summer clothes we’ve grown out of over the winter or new winter clothes that we grew out of over the summer.  Sure, I love Chicago.  But when it comes to being stylish and being able to wear that favorite shirt, it seems like it’d be easier to live in Miami!