Posts in Popular
Looking for a Laptop Part 2

*DISCLAIMER* The information presented in this article is aimed at residents in the United States, but it can still provide helpful information to residents in other countries.

While there are many technical aspects to consider when you are purchasing a laptop, there are also many personal things to consider when purchasing a laptop.  Some of these things include the purpose, personalization, ports, and purchase of your laptop.

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The ​​Inside Scoop on Your Teachers, As Told by Your Teachers

My finger hovered over the Submit Work button on my laptop, hesitation freezing my hand. It was the first time I would ever submit an assignment to a NorthStar teacher, one I had never met at that, on my first day of online school. I took a deep breath and clicked, immediately checking the activity stream to see if I had gotten a response. A few minutes later, the feedback was updated. The teacher had left an encouraging grade, and a welcoming recording, calming my frantic nerves. For online students, it can be seemingly impossible to know teachers. However, a few of the incredible staff at NorthStar agreed to be interviewed to give students a better glimpse of what it means to be an educator. 

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NSA’s Courses: Serving Up Staff Insights

Here at the Navigator, we work to create enjoyable publications full of a wide variety of articles, from the informative to the humorous. But, we are still students, so we have other classes we must work on as well. Let us get a glimpse of the school lives of the Navigator staff by investigating their favorite high school courses, which are as diverse as toppings on a pizza.

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Tears of the Kingdom: Is Nintendo's Latest Legend of Zelda Game All It's Cracked Up to Be?

2023 has been an excellent year for video games. With many extremely popular and well-made releases such as Lethal Company by Zeekers, Spider Man 2 by Insomniac, or Baldur’s Gate 3 by Larian, gamers have been spoiled by the wide variety of high-quality video games that have been coming out this year. However, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (or TOTK for short) has been hailed by some as the best game of the year. But what makes the game so good, and does it have any flaws? 

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Diving Into the Navigator Classroom

While most people may see the Navigator as simply a school newspaper, it is also an official elective class at NorthStar Academy.  Inside the Navigator class, there are a variety of assignments and learning opportunities for students to learn about journalism and professional writing.  From learning core principles of journalism to the specific layout of a newspaper, students can learn a variety of helpful skills that can benefit them in their future careers inside the NAVI280e class.  Through completing the various activities in the Navigator class, students are able to learn a variety of valuable skills for their future endeavors.

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Living Secure: How to Have Peace In Times of Chaos

Waves cascaded over the small cracked wooden boat, which keeled under the weight of the breakers. Salt water filled the men’s nostrils, and heavy rain splattered onto their already soaked tunics. “Turn the boat!” screamed a man with brown curly hair and flashing eyes. Although he had screamed with all his strength, his voice was picked up by the wind and carried far away, tossed on the waves and drowned in the sound of cracking thunder. A huge lightning bolt raced across the sky, followed by a split of thunder that seemed to come from the heavens themselves.

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The Mind Games

Sports are often affiliated with the physical aspects of it. For example, the strength of football players, the agility of soccer players, and the precision of basketball players are commonly attributed aspects inside of the competitive world. With the rise of eSports however, many people feared this would take away from the definition of Sports. People might think that eliminating the physical aspects of sports would be like taking the pumpkin out of a Jack-o-lantern. It just would not work! But the one thing not often considered was the mental attributes of sports. 

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Preparing for the SAT

The Scholastic Assessment Test, SAT for short, is one of the most important tests for college applicants to take.  However, some students have trouble on the SAT because they do not prepare for it.  This article will go over how a student would prepare for the online format of the SAT, which will be used from the spring of 2024 onward.  The SAT is split into four main sections with two going over reading and English concepts, while the other two handle math concepts.  This test can be extremely daunting to students since it lasts two hours and 15 minutes (College Board).  However, with the correct preparation a student can go into the SAT well-equipped.

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Mercy Ships: Hope On the Horizon

This year, two Northstar students are living onboard one of the Mercy Ships. You might be asking, “What is a Mercy Ship?” Mercy Ships is a Christian charity that was established by Don and Deyon Stephens. Currently, there are two Mercy Ships known as the Global Mercy (GLM) and the Africa Mercy (AFM). Zara explains, “Mercy Ships provides free surgery to people in Africa. They do surgeries for people with tumors, bowlegs, cleft palates, and other diseases.” Zara also mentioned, “The organization aims to 'Follow the 2,000-year-old model of Jesus to bring hope and healing to the forgotten poor.’”

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Christmas Around the World

Do you and your family have specific traditions you do every year around Christmas? For me, my family and I always go to the tree lighting on our square and go look at Christmas lights. Just like this tradition is unique to my family, so are other traditions to other countries. For example, France, Germany, and Australia all have different practices. Those countries will be our main focus. All of these countries have unique customs surrounding Christmas. Some of these practices are unique to one country or shared by many.

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The Culture of Communication

In ancient Egypt, Egyptians used a form of writing known as hieroglyphics - carved pictures and images that represented things or ideas. In the Western world, we do not often think of pictures as a form of writing. While some Eastern languages use symbols to indicate words, Western languages use a series of letters to make words, each of which has a unique meaning. But, as technology has continued to develop, we can now communicate with people worldwide electronically. With the rise of texting, instant messaging, and social media, it seems that a new form of modern hieroglyphics has surfaced - emojis!

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Star Life: How NorthStar's Minecraft Survival Multi Player Server Works

Have you ever been curious as to how you start a Minecraft server or ever wanted to know more about maintaining one? This article contains the answers to both questions. The owner and manager of NorthStar's very own Minecraft SMP (Survival Multi Player) Server, Alexander M., has advice and information regarding his server and the skills and resources needed to create and maintain it. 

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