We report with PRIDE!
OWEN J. ROBERTS SCHOOL DISTRICT
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Headline Story
1
YA Visit
1
Fall Fun
2
Student of the Month
2
Riddle Me This
3
Phantom Teacher
3
The Big Dig
3
Eye of the Wildcat OJRMS Newspaper Returns Ok, we hate to make ourselves the headlining story for the first edition. However, in order to ensure that this paper remains helpful, useful, and interesting for all students, we need to get a few messages out to the building.
First, all students should know that we will try and represent as many OJR voices in the paper as we can. All students are encouraged to try writing pieces for the paper. If you are an aspiring columnist, cartoonist, puzzle maker, interviewer, survey maker, or hard hitting reporter, we are excited to read and include your work. You do not have to be in the newspaper club
nor stay after school with the newspaper staff to have features and pieces in the paper. Please send your work to Mr. Moran at mmoran@ojrsd.com or to Mrs. Bickell at sbickell@ojrsd.com.
Eye on the Pride Second, if you aren’t a writer or newspaper contributing type, we’d still love your opinion. Please do not hesitate to share with us your ideas about how to
make the paper better and/or about what you do not need to see again in future issues. We are totally committed to adapting the paper all year in order to get the right “recipe” for our specific school needs. In order to make that happen, we need your input.
Finally, if you are simply a reader of the paper, we truly hope that each edition has at least a little something to inform, persuade, entertain, or instruct. Happy Reading! The Staff
Young Americans Come to Middle School
Biographies
4
Puzzles and Comics
4
On November 3rd, 4th , and 5th , the Young Americans Musical Outreach Program came to our middle school. The Young Americans are a group of talented college students who are going to school to learn the skills to be on Broadway. This program was created to help get kids excited about music, performing, and self-esteem. Their performances were on the 5th at 2:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
There were about one hundred and thirty kids from the middle school, high school, and Chester County Dance Academy. Our well-known receptionist, Mrs. O’Connor, arranged the entire visit. Her daughter, Emily O’Connor, is a member of the Young Americans and, after one of their other programs was canceled, requested that they come to our school. Mrs. Markofski, our middle school chorus instructor,
F A L L
went to the performance and said that she loved it. It was one of the best things brought to the school and everyone should participate. Ciera McFarland
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Fall Fun with Mrs. Jones
“Art takes nature as its model” (Aristotle).
Time to get some fresh air! If you think you’re bored, then go outside. If you go outside, you can take a good run or walk and from Mrs. Jones’ point of view, go apple picking or hiking. One fun game you can play is football. When Mrs. Jones played
football, she broke her pinkie and she had to go to the hospital. They said they had to move her pinkie back in place. SO BE CAREFUL. In the fall, you are bound to get hungry for food so let’s do some baking! Some fun things to bake include pumpkin
seeds, apple pie, and pumpkin pie. Ok, so we know that leaves fall in autumn so let’s help by raking!
Amber Dunn
Students of the Month Who are the Wildcats? In the month of the October, 13 students were recognized for being wildcat winners. Sydney Baker, Grace Chamberlain, Branden Gould, Samantha Kress, Joseph Mace, and Justin Torbet were all chosen for 7th grade. In the 8th grade, Genevieve Donahue, Dallas Fleck, Aubrey Rose
WHO DID THAT ?! 8th Graders Dayton Young, Kennedy Wilkinson, and Kaleena Sweinhart “created value changes by using texture and collage techniques” in Ms. Mussari’s Art Class.
King, Edwin Perez, Annie Reisenwitz, Erica Weber, and Harold Williford. These students were chosen because they followed the criteria for OJR P.R.I.D.E. The acronym is P for Promoting a caring environment, R for Responsible for our learning, I for Interacting collaboratively, D for Devoted to challenging our
minds, and E Excellence in all that we do. This is the criteria that form OJR Middle School. Each student should demonstrate one or more of these criteria. Congratulations to all of our winners for demonstrating this!
Darcy Harris
FALL
2011
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Phantom Teacher Feature Hi! I am the Phantom Teacher. Here are five facts about me. See if you can guess who I am! I love Cool Ranch Doritos. I have read How to Kill A Mockingbird. A teacher that inspired me was Mrs. Unger. The farthest I have ever been from O.J.R. Middle School was Calcutta, India. The man that was running for presidential office when I was born was Ronald Reagan. Who am I? Find out next issue!
- David Gottshall
Mrs. Fake’s Art Classes Explores Nature. See these and other fine works by our OJR Artists framed around the building all year.
The Big Dig To those of you who do not already know, one of our fantastic Owen J Roberts Middle School teachers, Mr. Yoder, was recently featured on the show Mysteries at the Museum. In this episode, he played a bank robber named Willie Sutten. This premiered on October 18 and will be expected to be on the History Channel for the remainder of the show’s season. Mr. Yoder is also on America’s Top 13 Haunts. Mr. Yoder works with the Eastern State Penitentiary’s historic society. This prison is two hundred years old; the oldest in the entire United States! He played a zombie on Halloween at their Annual Haunted House. All the money made at that performance went to supporting the prison’s future attractions. Mr. Yoder also volunteers at the National Park Service in Philadelphia. He has done archeology digs in several different countries including England, Greece, and Poland. In England, he visited Leicester. Here, he saw Nottingham, which inspired the classic town in the story Robin Hood. Here he found Roman and medieval ruins. In Greece and Poland, he searched for World War II artifacts. Two years ago, Mr. Yoder, along with the National Park Service began a dig in what is now the location of the Constitution Center in Philadelphia. When the Constitution Center was ready to be built, the National Park Service began searching through the area for artifacts. What they found were many ancient relics that are at least one hundred fifty years old. That goes all the way back to the time of the founding fathers. Mr. Yoder claims that one of the most interesting things they found was an old bowl filled with beard hair. They also found window glass that someone had carved their name and the date into. The window glass was dated all the way back to the 1800’s. Mr. Yoder estimates that it will take fifteen years to sort through all of the artifacts. This is one of the largest colonial digs in history. As you can tell, that is quite a big dig. Ciera McFarland
OJRMS 2011-12 Newspaper Staff Mrs. Bickell-the ruler
Ciera McFarland-the Countess
Mr. Moran-the Squire
Alex Mento-the Apprentice
Darcy Harris-the Knight
Karis King-the Court Jester
Emma Russek-the Royal Painter
Amber Dunn-the Scribe David Gottshall-the Page
Riddle Me This
This is where we will
This thing all things devour: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel: Grounds hard stone into meal; Slays kings, ruins town, And beats high mountains down.
cut and paste the word search called Popular Books
A riddle from Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” - Karis King
Comics by Emma Russek