The fall is a gorgeous season, in my opinion. I think that the fall is my favorite transition of the year. I think there is something beautiful about all the colors of the leaves and the temperature cooling down; however, it can be somewhat of a depressing season because it signals that winter is coming.

Lana Del Rey does a beautiful job of capturing the feelings of fall in some of her albums. The first album that comes to mind is Norman F******* Rockwell.

This album is one of the most beautiful ways to poetically describe the sadness of fall. While it’s one of my favorite seasons, I always seem to go through the most challenging moments during the fall. This album has really helped me get through it all.

I can cry for the whole hour and seven minutes of this album, and it never fails to make me feel better. No matter what I’m going through, I can just always relate to the lyrics in this album.

Some of my favorite songs on this album are “Venice B****,” “Love song,” and “The greatest.” I just think that these songs beautifully showcase Lana’s poetry.

Two of the most popular songs on this album are “Norman F******* Rockwell” and Cinnamon Girl.” I usually don’t like the songs that are popular because I feel like they are overplayed. However, I love every song on this album.

I think this album perfectly captures the impending doom that fall can bring but shows how beautiful that impending doom can look and sound.

The LPHS Choirs performed for the ISSMA (Indiana State School Music Association) Organizational Contest in Concord on April 23rd.

Each of the choirs each performed three songs and performed sight reading. All the choirs that performed received Gold, and two choirs received Gold with Distinction.

Gold with Distinction is where the choir scores perfect or almost perfect on their performance and sight reading.

Sight reading is where the choirs are given three different pieces of 16 measures of music to sing. The three different pieces of music were rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic. The choirs are given a certain amount of time to practice the music, then they perform it for the judge.

The choirs are given one minute to practice the rhythmic sight reading. Rhythmic is just a rhythm that the choirs perform in unison. Then, the choirs are given two minutes to practice the melodic sight reading. Melodic is where the choirs all sing in unison. After that, the choirs are given three minutes to practice the harmonic sight reading. Harmonic is when the choirs are divided into their vocal parts.

The Beginning Treble Choir performed “Homeward Bound”, “Adieu Said the Rose”, and “Three Little Maids”. They scored a Gold for their performance and received a perfect score in sight reading. They were one of the choirs that scored a gold with distinction.

The next choir that performed was the Treble Chorale. They performed “Nigra Sum,” “Warrior,” and “Worthy to be Praised.” They scored Gold on their performance and in sight reading.

The last choir that performed was the Chorale Choir. They performed “All Too Soon,” “I Am Not Yours,” and “Daemon Irrepit Callidus.” They scored Gold in their performance and almost perfect in their sight-reading. They were the other choir to score a Gold with Distinction.

If you’re interested in seeing the LPHS choirs, their next concert is May 13th at 7:00 p.m. in the PAC.

Daniel Olson has been a significant member of the La Porte High School staff since he started teaching here in 1994.

Olson went to college for his undergraduate degree in math at Purdue University and his master's degree in business at Indiana University.

He decided to go into math because he loves logic and deductive reasoning, which he displays daily in his teaching.

Olson has taught AP Calculus, AP PreCalculus, Probability and Statistics, Algebra 2, Algebra 1, and Geometry throughout his years at LPHS.

“I am very passionate about teaching! I mean, I'm not in it for the money!” Olson said.

He is dedicated to ensuring students learn and take away all that they can from his class.

“I hope that students learn how to learn. And by that, I mean they discover that "blue cow" is not learning at all!” Olson said.

The phrase “blue cow” is something that Olson uses frequently in his class to describe situations that his students may have been taught in math without any reasoning behind it. An example of this would be the area of a circle is r2. Students are just told this and never get explained why, but Olson likes to inform his students of the reasoning behind the formulas that they use.

Olson has been able to find a special connection between himself and his students through teaching.

“The fact that I haven't been fired for about 45% of my jokes is a testament to a special connection I have with students. We laugh all hour, and I sneak in some math too,” Olson said.

In Olson’s free time, he likes to golf, fish, walk, eat, and binge TV shows.

Every day that Olson teaches, he makes an impact on at least one of his students by making his classroom a fun but also enriching environment. He will definitely have a lasting impact on LPHS students.

LPHS is happy to welcome back Ms. Jennifer Mount after she took the first semester off this year due to a cancerous mass in her eye, but she is thankfully cancer free now.

Mount started teaching at LPHS in 1986, making this her 41st year teaching.

Mount graduated from Portage High School and then went to Ball State originally majoring in Music Therapy in Psychology. She changed her major five more times before deciding on mathematics education.

“The whole time from freshman to junior year, I was tutoring people in math, sometimes two-three people at a time, and enjoyed it. One semester I had no math class and felt lost. It was like God slapping upside the head telling me that's what I am supposed to due. I did have to go one extra semester to do my student teaching. Changing your major six times kind of puts you behind,” Mount said.

Mount still has a love for teaching, and she wants her students to learn the best they can from her class. Mount believes that everyone is capable of learning math as long as they decide to do it.

“I feel it is important to learn how to reason, think, and work through problems whether we are talking about math or not. I try to get kids not to memorize math but remember the process to get solutions,” Mount said.

In Mount’s free time she likes to hike, workout, play disc golf, spend time with her dogs, and play her viola in the La Porte County Symphony.

The halls of LPHS feel a bit more familiar and happier with this LPHS staple back in the classroom. Mount's resilience and impact cannot be understated.

Summer to most people is the happiest time of the year. The weather is hot, there’s no school, and the sun is always shining.

However, for Lana Del Rey, I’m not sure if she has a happy time of year. She somehow has made me learn that summer can be sad, too.

In her music, there are definitely songs where she showcases the happier sides of summer, but most of them show that the summer brings her a sense of longing for what she wishes she could have.

The first album that I associate with summer by Lana Del Rey is Lust for Life. This album is a very hopeful one. It talks about being young and in love when the world is in a crisis.

This is considered one of Lana Del Rey’s most political albums. Where she mentions some of the political struggles in the world in songs like “When the World was at War Before We Just Kept Dancing”.

My favorite songs in this album are “Lust for Life” and “Love”. Both of these songs talk about being young and in love and just enjoying life. I think that these are my favorite because they showcase the happy parts of summer.

There are also songs on this album that showcase the melancholy and longing that can also be felt in the summer like “13 Beaches” or “Heroin.”

The next album that I associate with the summer is Chemtrails over the Country Club. This is definitely a sadder summer album, which glamorizes the original American landscape that she referenced in some of her earlier albums.

My favorite songs from this album are “Chemtrails over the Country Club,” “Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost,” and “Tulsa Jesus Freak.” The most popular song on this album is “Chemtrails over the Country Club.”

I think that both of these albums capture all of the emotions that can be felt during the summer time. I also think that they give the audience a glimpse of what the summer months mean to Lana Del Rey.

Spring is a more hopeful time of the year. The snow is melting, and nature starts to come alive again. I hear the birds, the leaves come back to the trees, and flowers start to bloom.

Spring can also be even more of a depressing time of year than winter though. Some days I think it’s almost summer, and then the next day it’s snowing. It’s almost a false sense of hope.

I think that Lana Del Rey perfectly captures the feeling of spring in a few of her albums.

The first album that I think of when it comes to spring is Blue Banisters. This album to me is the depressing parts of Spring.

Blue Banisters is considered by some to be one of Lana Del Rey’s saddest albums. The album showcases the hardship of the contrast between promise and reality, and there is also several mentions of spring in the album.

My favorite songs on this album are “Beautiful”, “Nectar of the Gods”, and “Thunder.” One of the more popular songs on this album is “Living Legend.”

Another album that I think could be associated with spring is Honeymoon. This album shows an exploration of doomed romance, and it also mentions a yearning for California.

My favorite songs on this album are “Honeymoon” and “Swan Song.” I don’t really think that any of the songs on this album are well known.

I think that melancholy style of Lana Del Rey’s music captures the sadder parts of spring that are hopeful but deceiving.

Lana Del Rey is an American singer and songwriter who started releasing music in 2010 but has become more popular in recent years.

Lana Del Rey’s songs are written in melancholic style. She glamorizes the experiences written in her songs with an old soul type of feel to them.

I think that Lana Del Rey’s music can be associated with different seasons. Each of her albums has a different type of story being told, but the overall style of her music remains the same.

Since it is the winter, I’ll start with the albums that resonate with me more in the winter. The first album I associate with the winter would be Ultraviolence. This album is heavily centered around a relationship that Del Rey was in where she felt that the man she was with wasn’t good for her, but she couldn’t leave him.

My favorite songs on this album are “Ultraviolence” and “Cruel World,” but a more popular well known song is “West Coast”.

The next album I associate with the winter but mostly around Christmas time is Born to Die: Paradise Edition. This album combines her Born to Die album and Paradise album.

These albums are two of her earlier albums. They include some of her first popular songs like Video Games and Summertime Sadness.

The association that I have with these albums in the winter may just be a personal one because when I first listened to them it was in the winter. My favorite songs from these albums are “Off to the Races”, “Blue Jeans”, “Carmen”, and “Gods and Monsters”.

This album has more of an old soul type of feel than her other albums. The sounds and styles that she uses in these albums mimics an early Americana type of feel. The vibe of this album almost reminds me of Frank Sinatra. I think that’s why it mostly reminds me of winter.

These are all the albums that I think could be associated with winter from Lana Del Rey.

LPHS Choir performed their annual winter concert on December 10th.

The Choirs that performed in the concert were the Beginning Treble Choir, Beginning Men's Choir, Treble Chorale, Chorale, and Show Choir.

The concert began with the choirs entering the PAC to a processional song, “O Come, O Come, Emanuel.”

Then the Beginning Men’s Choir and the guys from Chorale sang “Shepard’s Awake.” This is a song that the men in choir sing every year.

Next, the choirs started performing one by one. Each choir sang two songs. The Beginning Men’s Choir was first. Then, they were followed by Treble Chorale, who were followed by Chorale. Afterwards, Beginning Treble and Show Choir performed.

After all the choirs performed individually, everyone came back up to the stage to perform “Sleigh Ride.” This is another song that Tom Coe, the LPHS Choir Director, has the choirs sing annually.

“It’s very bittersweet that this was my last winter concert. This was definitely one of the best winter concerts that we’ve had since I’ve been in high school, but I will miss seeing all of the choirs improve,” Layna Hannon, senior LPHS choir student, said.

The LPHS Choir will perform again on February 11, 2026.