Chenery Middle School Belmont, Massachusetts Presidential Election Technology: Spreading the Word By: Rebecca Powers In the past, people relied upon news stations and newspapers to get the latest updates on presidential elections. Today, information is as close as a click away thanks to the Internet, and candidates and voters are using this technology to their advantage. Volume 2007-08, Issue 1, December 2007 Table of Contents Environmental Issues p. 2 Chocolate in Belmont p. 2 Officer Mike Horan p. 2 Til the Cows Come Home p. 3 Comic Strip p. 4 The Chicken or the Egg p. 4 Gold Rush p. 4 Presidential candidates are using technology to create websites, videos, and Word Search p. 4 blogs with information about their campaign. Candidates make their own websites Book Review p. 4 to promote themselves. On these websites, the candidates will talk about their The Pencil p. 5 past, the issues they are addressing in their campaign, how they intend on taking Thailand p. 5 action, and reasons why you should support them. Words for Search p. 5 Along with making their own websites, candidates (and their supporters) start Ms. McFarland p. 6 blogs throughout the internet. These blogs are made for the same purpose as the websites; getting people to start talking and thinking about the different candidates, and ultimately, choosing one to support. The presidential blogs address many of the same topics and ideas that the websites do, but on a smaller scale. The blogs are strategically placed throughout the web to target voters that normally wouldn t visit a candidate s website. But wait, there s more. Not only are the candidates getting into the technology, but the voters are too. Voters are now busy posting their ideas, questions, and comments on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/) for the candidates to watch, ponder, and discuss at debates. It s a quick, easy, and effective way to get your questions answered and ideas out to the candidates. Who knew YouTube would come in handy? Journey to Iceland By Julia Regier When you hear the name Iceland, what do you think? Have you heard of this country before, or do you simply think of a land covered in ice? Many people do not know about Iceland, a geologically active island located in the Atlantic Ocean, between North America and Europe. Iceland became a free country in 1945. Possession passed from Norway to Denmark and, for a short time, to the United States, until Iceland declared independence. Lutheran was and remains today Iceland s major religion. This became popularized when it was imposed on Icelandic people under the Danish crown. The language spoken in Iceland is Icelandic. This language resembles Norwegian and Danish in some areas, but some parts are even like Old English. One thing, though, that makes the Icelandic language unique is the naming process. When an Icelandic baby is born, his/her last name is not the same as his/her parents. However, the baby gets his/her father s first name, and then daughter or son at the end. For example: if the father s name was Phil, and he had a son, the son s last name would be Philson, combining Phil and son. The Icelandic diet consists mainly of fish and lamb. People will eat all parts of a sheep, except its brain and the lenses of its eyes. Can you believe it? In Iceland there is also a yogurt-like food called skyr, which, according to three Icelandic sources, is really good! The best thing about Iceland, though, says Prof. Elfar Adeilsteinson, is the beautiful nature that can be found there. Besides the breathtaking waterfalls, geysers, and volcanoes, the whole country is environmentally-friendly. The houses are heated by natural water from underground. In some cases, the water bubbles up naturally, but in other areas drilling is used Continued on page 6
Page 2 Volume 2007-08, Issue 1 We are constantly hearing about Global Warming, and it is easy for us to forget about all of the other environmental issues- like the decline in population of many of the worlds most exotic, interesting, and now endangered species. To date, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the world s top ten most endangered species are: 1. Black Rhino 2. Giant Panda 3. Tiger 4. Beluga Sturgeon 5. Goldenseal How to Shop for Chocolate in Belmont By: Elizabeth Ferrante Environmental Issues By: Michelle Berger 6. Alligator snapping turtle 7. Hawksbill turtle 8. Big Leaf Mahogany 9. Green-Cheeked Parrot 10. Mako shark Some leading reasons that animals become extinct are: Global warming, habitat destruction, and poaching. All of these factors are making the planet a tough place for these and other animals to survive. Global warming is a leading reason because it totally changes the climate that an animal is so well adapted to living in. In many cases, the animal can t cope with this change and will begin to die out. Habitat destruction is a leading reason because, for example, when human development extends into the bamboo forests that the Giant Panda relies on, the bamboo must be knocked down. The panda cannot survive for long without Do you like chocolate but don t know where to buy it? Well, if you do, we have the answer! There are at least two specialty chocolate shops in Belmont to choose from. The well-known A Chocolate Dream and Ooh La La Fudge and Candy. A Chocolate Dream not only has chocolate, but also offers different types of candy, gift baskets, and stuffed animals. Ooh La La Fudge is one of the best fudge shops that I ve ever been to! They offer other treats as well. Their chocolate is absolutely delicious! It s smooth and made to your liking. We are so lucky to have chocolate that is so deliciously made. Some countries can t afford to have chocolate like the U.S.A makes. What if you couldn t have chocolate like you usually do? Don t forget, if you re happy with regular chocolate or candy you can always go to your local supermarket or convenience store. this highly important resource. Last, many endangered animals become endangered because they are being constantly hunted. In the case of the black rhino, their horns are extremely valuable. In the case of the Mako shark, the fins are used in certain medicines. So, hunters illegally kill these and other animals for profit, causing a population decline for some species. Humans are extremely capable of helping this situation take a turn for the better. After all, it is humans that are causing all these problems in the first place. By carpooling and therefore helping to decrease levels of greenhouse gases, you are fighting global warming. By planting trees, you are protecting important ecosystems. By donating money to breeding programs for endangered species and helping out at local reserve, you are helping to replace what poachers have taken away. Contact the Massachusetts Audubon Society, to help preserve our conservation land. The extinction of any of these animals would be very, very sad. It is the job of humankind to help these creatures. For ways to help, check out the website: www.worldwildlife.org/endangered/ A Word with Officer Mike Horan By: Andrei Tong and Thomas Zembowicz Mike Horan is Chenery s new D.A.R.E. teacher. To find out more about him, we decided to interview him and ask a few questions about his new job. Q. What does D.A.R.E. stand for? A. Drug Abuse Resistance Education. Q. Why is teaching D.A.R.E. so important? A. I want to keep you safe, and I want you to know what drugs can do to you. I also want to teach you about general safety. Q. This your first year teaching D.A.R.E. What was your previous job? A. I was a police officer on night patrol. I worked on the night shift. Q. How did you become a D.A.R.E. teacher? A. I requested this position, and the Chief appointed me. Then I became certified to teach at an academy in New Hampshire. Q. Do you enjoy working with students? A. I absolutely love it. I feel so lucky to work with such wonderful students. Q. What did you want to become when you were growing up? A. A police officer, like my father.
Volume 2007-08, Issue 1, December 2007 Page 3 Yours Until the Cows Come Home By: Gracie C. Mason The cold air nipped at my nose and cheeks. I smelled the November air all around me. I skated back and forth in figure eights, feeling the smoothness of my shiny, sharp blades, cutting through the silky ice. I loved the feeling of the crisp wind blew my dark, blonde hair around my face. Lyra! Dinner time! Come in now! Alright, I m coming. I took one more spin around the pond, then ran up to my house. Mmmmmm! That smells great! My little sister Gwen exclaimed. Yeah, I know! What s for dinner mom? asked Lucas, my 15-year-old brother. Barbequed chicken and mashed potatoes. And apple crisp for dessert, she answered. By the way, did you know that the Penningtons are moving to Seattle? They just put their house out, for sale. What? No! They can t! Why didn t you tell me sooner, Mom? Well, Hilary and I wanted to keep it a secret from the kids for a while. So you thought you could just tell me casually, that my best friend since like forever, was moving across the country? I yelled. Darling, calm down! Hilary got a job in Seattle, from Bill Gates. She is going to decide what organizations and charities he should give his money to in America. It s a big deal! So Hilary and Brian just decided to move without even telling Justine? They didn t think she d care? At this point in the conversation, I burst into tears. Oh, sweetheart, Hilary and Brian gave this a lot of thought. And they re probably going to come back in 4 to 5 years. My mom said soothingly. But mom, 5 years is way too long! She s been my best friend since birth! Since forever! How can they just leave? It ll be okay sweetheart, I promise. Hilary and I decided that every other month or so, we ll get together. I just cried in her lap for 15 minutes. My very, very best friend ever was leaving me! How would I get through middle school without her? Finally I got up and wiped my eyes. My mom went over to the oven and took the dinner out. Everyone sat down and ate. But I suddenly didn t have an appetite. The whole evening dragged on until bedtime. Usually, since Justine and I live right next door, we would look into our windows, and see each other, before going to bed. Tonight I just flopped down in bed. Justine was leaving. I just had to deal with it. The next day when I got on the bus, Justine was there. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were red and puffy, and wet tears stained her pale skin. She was looking out the window, looking hurt and angry. I slowly eased into the seat next to her. Don t worry, I m running away. It won t happen. Never. I won t let them. She said stubbornly. I burst into tears, How could our parents have kept this from us? I know. I know Six weeks later, on Friday, the 6 th of January, I watched as the movers packed up the three humongous green moving trucks. I started silently weeping as four of them came out with Justine s pink and orange canopy bed. Justine came out, followed by their two white and brown cats, Koko and Kreem. She dumped her backpack in the trunk and slammed it shut. Hilary and Brian came out of my house chatting and saying goodbye to my parents. I glared at them before walking as slowly as possible towards Justine. Maybe if I stalled they would miss their flight. Justine had the same idea. I could see her dragging her feet and packing her stuff twenty times slower than she would if she was packing for her summer house in Wisconsin, or going to her sleep away camp in Maine. Sweetheart! We re going to be late for our plane! Hilary shouted to Sarah. Good, she responded. Okay honey, if you want to say goodbye to Lyra, you better do it now. We re leaving in 2 minutes, no matter what. Hearing that, she ran towards me. I m going to miss you so much! Justine said. I know, but I ll email you every day, I assured her. And I ll call you every single second, she told me. I hugged her one last time. I didn t want to let go and let her leave. Come on sweetie, Brian called. I m sorry, Justine said. She let go. Bye!!!! I waved and stood there until their car was just a tiny grey dot on the horizon. Then I dropped to my knees and cried. A week and half later, a blue minivan drove into the Pennington s driveway. I didn t come out of the house the entire day. I watched as a boy who looked my age got out of the car. He had brown hair, and light brown eyes. I already hated him. To be continued
Page 4 Sixth Sense by Drake Teller Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? A Fictional Debate By Reda Fayad Volume 2007-08, Issue 1 Gold Rush By David Barrell About a week after school started, a mysterious person figured out how to get golden dollars out of the vending machines in the cafeteria. Even though that person is still unknown, others have been collecting them by the pound. I myself have more than enough. The way I was taught to get a golden dollar out of the machine was to put a dollar bill or a golden dollar into the vending machine; press coin reject, and out pops a golden dollar or a golden coin picturing Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, or George Washington. All of the presidential coins have the Statue of Liberty on the back. Word Search By Hannah Pelofsky Chicken Egg Chicken Egg Which is it? Here are the voices from both sides of this almost eternal debate. Pro-Egg: The final moments of the dinosaur era. A large comet or volcano or whatever slaughters all the dinosaurs. In the midst of the post-apocalyptic nightmare a lone egg survives. However, the destruction of this species alters the dino, and makes it a CHICKEN! Pro-Chicken: Oh, please. Altered dino! Who are you--stan Lee or something? You read too many comics. What happened was two animals mated and made a chicken. Pro-Egg: Maybe, but the baby was in an egg then. Pro-Chicken: No! It came like we did! They didn t do eggs til 1970 or something. Pro-Egg: Liar! Chickens always came from eggs. You re wrong. Pro-Chicken: No, you are! Everyone knows the chicken came first. Look at this chart. Pro-Egg: You made up this chart! Pro-Chicken: Prove it! Pro-Egg: It s on the back of a restaurant napkin, and there are references to the Simpson's! You re wrong! Pro-Chicken: You are! As you can see, we aren t done yet. What do YOU think? Photo Essay By: Brenna Sorkin and Annierose Kingbeil From a distance the tree looks like any other tree but when you get up closer you notice things you never noticed before. When you move in closer you begin to see the details in the branches and you can begin to see the shape and size of the leaves. When you focus on one single leaf the ridges and details start to really show. Each leaf has its own unique qualities. A Preview of Eragon 3 By Daniel Quinn Want to know the scoop on the new Eragon book? Sources say the title is unreleased. Christopher Paolini is leaning toward the title Empire. The cover will be an emerald green dragon looking to the right. I hear that the rider of the dragon will be magically attached to the dragon. Both Eragon books are about dragons. There are two books that you can buy now, they are Eragon and Eldest. Eragon is about a man that finds an egg in the wild. He does not know that the egg is a dragon egg. The man keeps the dragon and fights other dragon riders, and lives in the forest. Eldest, the second Eragon book is about the same person, and dragon. In Eldest there is a new dragon that Eragon fights. I can t wait to read the new book!!
Page 5 The Pencil By: Kimberly Paquette Volume 2007-08, Issue 1 Ana walked confidently, her pride showing with every step. Her elation could be explained with something surprisingly small: the pencil. For those who didn t know its secret, it was just like any other pencil, but if you looked closer, you would realize that its point was just too sharp for an ordinary pencil, and normal pencils don t glow The day she found it was a normal day. She had fallen asleep in math (again), and had been jerked awake by Mr. Z (again), and had tromped off to lunch in a grumpy mood (again). And then she found it. There on the ground was a pencil. Ana sighed and was about to kick it down the hall when she decided against it. I don t want to get yelled at for not having a pencil with me. She picked it up and sat down to eat her bland lunch. Her next class was English, her favorite class because she could draw while her teacher droned on and on (and on) while reading their work aloud. She listened for a minute while Ms. Lia announced the name of the person whose writing she would be reading. Then she pulled out her slim sketchbook (slim so she could hide it in a folder when teachers passed by), pulled out her new pencil, and sketched. At first, it was just a circle, and she drew more and more until it became a bubble. She really was a great artist. The bubble looked like it might pop out of the page at any moment. And that s what it did a second later. Ana shrieked! A bubble, exactly like the one she had drawn, was floating in front of her! Ana, Ms. Lia said coldly, I have seen you misbehave before, but blowing bubbles in class is an all time first. Ana was about t o sigh, when she realized it. If her pencil could make a bubble she drew appear, could it make other things that she drew come to life? She decided to find out. The next day, Ana pushed away her disgusting lunch. On her blank paper, she drew a huge piece of pizza, complete with bacon and mushrooms. She closed her eyes and willed it to appear. When she opened them, she saw the pizza. It was leaking grease all over her paper. She almost cried with happiness. Ana never had to worry about anything again. She had the pencil. Thailand: A Distant Country By: Tess Smichenko Thailand is not a country that rings a bell to most people. In fact, it is so far away that we often forget it exists. It is in Southeast Asia, and it is very small. Though it has always had tourists, it has become a more popular destination in recent years. It is a little bigger than the state of California and is bordered by Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. The people there speak Thai and English. Let s pretend that you were really going to Thailand. You pack you bags and start to wonder if the 19 hour plane ride is really worth it. You arrive in the historical country and see yellow flags with the king s picture on them. Floods of people are wearing yellow to support their king. Yellow shirts, yellow plastic bracelets, pants, almost everything is yellow. You are experiencing culture shock. You walk out of the airport and you witness a poor place where many of the citizens are homeless, or live in shacks. Though it is not all bad, you see lots of cute shops, smell yummy foods, and hear people bargaining. You go to night markets, palaces, museums, and fancy restaurants. Everything seems very inexpensive. All too soon you are going home to a place that you will appreciate more than ever. You say goodbye and board the plane knowing that you will never forget this place. Words for Search Chen Chinese Eighth Fifth French Grub Janulewicz Johnson Latin Ling Manca Math Science Seventh Sierota Sixth Social Spanish Studies Trabucco Cheetahzine Online Click on News/Calendars and Cheetahzine News Magazine From: www.belmont.k12.ma.us/chenery/
Page 6 Volume 2007-08, Issue 1 Interview with Ms. McFarland By: Courtney Malcolm This year at the W.L. Chenery Middle School we have quite a few new staff. We spoke with Amy McFarland. Ms. McFarland is a seventh grade teacher for science. Q: Did you ever work at a different school before? If yes what grade? A: I taught in Michigan for 5 th grade Language Arts and English. Q: How did you get to Belmont? A: My fiancé got a job here which brought me to Belmont. Q: Do you live in Belmont? A: No. I live in Watertown. Q: Are you enjoying Chenery? A: I love it! Besides it s nice to have young staff! Q: What is your favorite thing to do outside of school? A: Shopping, playing with my puppy, Ella, exercising, and singing. Q: Tell us about your favorite food. A: My favorite food is pizza. I like deep dish pizza the best. Q: Where were you born? Do you have family nearby? A: Bay City, Michigan. I have no family nearby, except my fiancé. Q: Did you ever do another job before? If so, what kind? How did you become a teacher? A: I worked for a chemical company, Dow Chemical. I worked there for 6 years. Ever since 3 rd grade I wanted to be a teacher, so I went to college and got an education to be a teacher. Q: Do any of your friends work at the Chenery Middle School? A: I have made a lot of friends, but I didn t know anybody when I first got here. Q: What s your favorite part about teaching? A: When you re teaching and someone finally understands the concept. Q: Who was your 7 th grade science teacher? A: My 7 th grade science teacher was Mrs. Linten. My favorite memory was making Silly Putty. Q: Any other important information? A: I am getting married on July 12 th, in Midland, Michigan. CheetahZine Cheetahzine, a CMS student publication, is a mix of news and features about the school community. Staff Members: David Barrell, Michelle Berger, Sarah Bernt, Reda Fayad, Elizabeth Ferrante, Annierose Kingbeil, Courtney Malcolm, Grace Mason- Brown, Maya Nagashima, Kim Paquette, Hannah Pelofsky, Rebecca Powers, Daniel Quinn, Julia Regier, Ben Schmelzer, Tess Smichenko, Brenna Sorkin, Winter Teller, Andrei Tong, Thomas Zembowicz Advisors: Mrs. Musacchio and Ms. Fetter Number of Fans Journey to Iceland (cont d from p. 1) to get large quantities of water to heat up houses and swimming pools, Prof. Adalsteinsson says. Get your plane ticket today! It is only a 4 hour direct flight from Boston. While there, you can swim in great swimming pools and big hot tubs, or go in steam baths and water slides, see geysers, and enjoy picturesque nature. Eat fish and lamb and try new foods, like skyr. See you there! For more information, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Iceland Many thanks to Prof. Adalsteinsson, who is a true Icelander and helped me a lot with this article! Sources: wikipedia.org, Prof. Adalsteinsson. What s Your Favorite Sports Team? By: Maya Nagashima and Ben Schmelzer This fall we surveyed the 5 th grade students. We asked them what their favorite sport s team was. We asked them to choose from these five teams; Red Sox, Patriot s, Revolution, Celtics, and Bruins. The results show that the most popular team is the Red Sox with 95 votes!! GO SOX!! 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Sports Survey Red Sox Patriots Revolution Celtics Bruins Teams