Horoscopes 4

Our Staff 4

Andeisha Farid and Ian Pounds speak to MMS

7th grade students on Thursday September 24,

2009.

On Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009, MMS 7th graders

had two guest speakers visit from the Afghan Child Edu-

cation and Care Organization (AFCECO), which raises

money and creates orphanages in Afghanistan. These

speakers were Andeisha Farid, who is an Afghanistan

citizen, and Ian Pounds, who visited Afghanistan for five

months to help with the orphanage.

When people think of orphanages, they often

think of a “hard knock life,” like in Annie, right? Not at

this orphanage! Andeisha began the speech by talking

about the happy and hopeful atmosphere in the orphan-

age. In Afghanistan, the women have to cover their

heads and children run to and from school, and never be

outside if they can help it. Inside the orphanage, though,

there are courtyards, and the children can go outside to

play with much less worry than the average person in

Afghanistan. The orphanage is a safe place, partially due

to the fact that there are two guards at each orphanage

– one for young boys and girls, one for older boys, and

one for older girls. There is also a set of “parents” at

each orphanage, so it feels more like a home. Not so

hard, now, is it?

Then Ian, who had taught photography at the or-

phanage to five students, spoke. He didn’t really talk

much, but rather showed us the pictures his students

had taken. He first showed the many pictures of the

orphanage. All of the pictures with people in them

showed smiles, and other pictures showed beautiful

flowers in the front and in the courtyards. The children

here had good-fitting, comfortable-looking clothes.

When there was food involved, it was in large quantities

and quite delicious looking. Some of the pictures showed

the children in their rooms, which were spacious and

had two bunk-beds each.

The other pictures showed the refugee

camps. The children here wore loose, baggy clothes and sad

faces, unlike the children in the orphanage. The food looked like

a small slice of bread with a little water. One picture had a child

looking out from the edge of camp, which seemed to be sur-

rounded by either barbed wire or electric fence. The tents the

children lived in were small and cramped, with hardly any living

space. If it were me, I would much rather live in the orphanage

than in a refugee camp. After that he told the students about the

refugee camps, and how it is very hard for them there. He also

compared them to the orphanages, which are so much nicer.

Our school is currently helping to raise money for the

orphanages. We raised $1,000 at the Halloween party on Friday,

November 6th, and will raise more and more money whenever

we can. If you hear of anything that is supporting AFCECO, we

at the newspaper urge you to participate.♦

~ Ellen W.

MMS Students Connect With Afghan Orphanage

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Afghan

Visitors

1

Coliform

Bacteria

2

Halloween

Party

2

Mrs. Scruggs 3

German

Exchange

3

Entrepreneurial

Skills

4

Comic 4

M A N S F I E L D , C T

0 6 2 6 8

MMS Times N O V E M B E R 2 3 , 2 0 0 9 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

S P E C I A L

P O I N T S O F

I N T E R E S T :

MMS Students

Connect with

Afghan

Orphanage

by raising

money.

Finally,

Coliform

Bacteria is out

of our school!

Our

Halloween

party was a

HUGE

success!!

We will miss

Mrs. Scruggs

so much!

Veterans

Day 5

Andeisha Farid and Ian Pounds speak to

MMS 7th grade students on Thursday,

September 24, 2009.

Our Staff

Horoscopes 6

6

P A G E 2

“Now I know what

you’re thinking:

Waste in our

water? Gross!”

This is what our school’s

water fountain looked like

when it was covered be-

cause we couldn’t drink it.

Halloween Party

Coliform Bacteria

On Sunday, Septem-

ber 20th, our principal Mr.

Cryan sent a notice to our par-

ents that there was a problem

with our water. He informed

everyone that we had bacteria

in our water and that we

wouldn’t be able to drink the

fountain water for awhile. So what exactly was in our water

anyway? It’s called coliform

bacteria.

Coliform is a bacteria

that is normally found in waste.

Somehow, a very small amount

of it got into our water. Now I

know what you’re thinking:

Waste in our water? Gross! But

there was a very, very small

amount that got in, and it was-

n’t really the waste that got

into the water, it was the bac-

teria.

This affected our

school in many ways. For one

thing, our cafeteria. The cafe-

teria employees use water

every day as they cook and

wash vegetables and fruits.

So how did the cafeteria

workers wash vegetables and

fruits and cook foods when

the tap water wasn’t avail-

able? According to our Assis-

tant Principal Mrs. Morell,

the cafeteria employees

had to, “… wash all fruits

and vegetables with bottled water, which is a day-to-day

difficulty for them.” She also

said that the cafeteria em-

ployees needed to “…cook

with bottled water.” This

may or may not have been

necessary. The heat of the

cooking might have been hot

enough to kill the bacteria,

but just to be safe, the cafe-

teria employees used bottled

water during that time pe-

riod.

Our school took

every attempt necessary to

get rid of this bacteria prob-

lem. They treated it with

chlorine, flushed the pipes,

retested the water, and

made progress. They just needed

a little more time than originally

expected to be sure we received

good test results. Until then, we

had to use the bottled water at

the dispensers.

We have been told that

the district had taken three

tests. Two came back positive

and indicated that we still had coliform in our system. The third

was taken on October 21, and

we found out on October 28 that

we had no more coliform in our

pipes. On Thursday, October 29,

the water fountains were back

up and running. “We will con-

tinue to monitor coliform levels

regularly throughout the year,”

Mr. Cryan wrote in an email to

MMS staff and parents. We are

very excited to have this prob-

lem solved, and we are finally

back to regular fountains.

Not bottles and cups. ♦

~ Beth C.

Afghanistan. (The MMS

Student Council donated

money to this orphanage

two years ago to help them

build a library.) Altogether,

they raised $1,000 and one-

third of the 5th and 7th

grades and more than one-

half of the 6th grade at-

tended. Thanks to all who

came to the Halloween

party on November 6th for

helping these children’s

lives. And stay tuned for the

news of the school’s 40th

birthday party coming from

the Student Council in the

spring. ♦

~ Owen E.

The Student Council’s

huge Halloween party was an

enormous success. The fun event

was complete with Guitar Hero,

Dance Dance Revolution (DDR),

food, music, dodge ball and its

own Haunted House, a spooky

building made from the portables

with ghosts, witches, mummies,

vampires, screaming figures, and

complicated math problems. The

party was after school, 2:45-5:00,

on Friday, November 6th and tick-

ets cost $3.00 or $2.00 with a

canned good. Permission slips

were handed out in homerooms,

and tickets were sold the week of

November 2nd. All the money the

Student Council made from the

Halloween party will be donated

to an orphanage in Kabul, M M S T I M E S

A group of MMS students play

DDR at the school Halloween

party.

Mrs. Scruggs Moves To Southeast

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

Mrs. Scruggs taught at MMS for a few years, and

before that she had taught at different schools. Mrs.

Scruggs recently moved to a new school, South-

east Elementary, where she teaches second grade. I

had a chance to interview her and got these results:

Q: What do you miss the most about MMS?

A: I miss seeing my former students and fellow

teachers the most! However, with my son now in

the sixth grade, I do get by now and then and see

people.

Q: What do you like the best about Southeast?

A: Again, I love the kids and the other teachers I

work with at Southeast. I had not realized how

much I missed being with second graders and be-

lieve it or not, teaching math!

Q: Do you prefer teaching 2nd or 6th grade?

A: Wow, that's a tough one. I like both ages for

different reasons. I do miss the books we read

together in 6th grade.

Q: Who’s better behaved? Last year’s 6th graders or

this year’s 2nd graders? (We won’t be offended.)

A: Who behaves better? That depends on the day

you ask me! Second graders generally do not follow

directions as well, though. Yet another reason to

miss you all at MMS!

Q: If you had a choice, would you stay at South-

east with 2nd graders, come back to MMS, or go

teach at a different school? (Goodwin, Vinton,

etc)

A: If I had a choice I would probably stay at

Southeast where I am. I enjoy being just a parent

at Goodwin and MMS!

Q: What new and exciting things are you looking

forward to? (Fun in Your Own Backyard, etc.)

A: The Enrichment Clusters sound like a lot of

fun!

Q: Are you excited to have one class?

A: I do like having only one class a lot. It's a joy

as a teacher to see learning and that's easier

when you only have 14 kids instead of five classes

of 20!

Q: Do you look forward to teaching new sub-

jects? (Science, Math, etc.)

A: Yes, I do enjoy teaching everything

again. However, 2nd grade math is a lot easier

than 6th grade math! I never was very confident

with decimals, but don't tell Ms. Dunnack

or Ms. Hart that...

So, in closing, Mrs. Scruggs was a great

teacher whom we will miss a lot here at

MMS, but hopefully we will see her

sometime! ♦

~ Beth C.

Facebook. “I know some kids who are in high

school and they still exchange email with their

students,” Mrs. Andrews said.

Another reason I think it is worthwhile is

for the learning that is done. There are three levels

of learning that occur in German Exchange, as far

as I can see. There is the obvious learning and im-

provement of foreign language from the student

who is in the foreign country. Also there is the

obvious learning of that country’s history.

I also think there is a third level of learn-

ing that is not so obvious. This level of learning is

what American culture or German culture is

learned when the student gets the chance to live

temporarily in a new country. All the things that

the students learn are nowhere near what they

would learn from a book, because they get the

experience to live that life and not only learn about

it. Also you can never really learn what a chilly-

cheese-dog is like until you try it!

This German exchange program creates

everlasting friendships, teaches students things

there are just no way to learn from a textbook, and

truly lives up to its name, not only by exchanging

German students but by exchanging German and

American, cultures as well. For all of these rea-

sons and many more, I feel that the German

Exchange is a program that truly meets, passes,

and far exceeds its own worthiness. This ex-

plains its long extended life across the entire

course of both schools’ lives.

~ Chris B. German Exchange is one of the school’s old-

est traditions, but is it worth the amount of

effort that must be used to house and entertain

the German students? I think it is. Despite the

fact that I, a home host, constantly had to en-

tertain a German guest, I believe that the Ger-

man exchange is very important for many rea-

sons like the friendships, the learning, and the

exchange of culture.

This is an important program because, in

Mrs. Andrews’ words, “The kids in this pro-

gram form everlasting friendships that, I believe,

they will keep forever.” I know from my own

and my friends’ experiences that even after the

German students leave, the students still keep

email contact and contact on websites like

German

Exchange

A group of MMS students take the

German students for an outing on the

Brooklyn Bridge in NYC.

Mrs. Scruggs in her new room

at Southeast

P A G E 4

“Young

entrepreneurs

need to be

realistic; no

business will

succeed in a

month.”

-Danny Briere

Entrepreneurs Have you ever wanted to be a billionaire?

Entrepreneurs -- businessmen and women who

work on their own -- are all around us. Some

give up after the first month; others go on to

be the legends we know today as Bill Gates,

Larry Page, and Sergey Brin.

In 2009 entrepreneurs are all around

us as they try to change the world, and maybe

make a little money in the process. Mansfield,

Connecticut, is no exception. People like

Danny Briere (Founder and CEO of Telechoice

and Mblast), Jean Phillips (an attorney in a

Hartford law firm), Ralph Phillips (expert

accountant), and Jojo Phillips (a filmmaker,

producer, and CEO of Jojo Orientations), are

keeping the business spirit alive. However, it’s

not an easy path to glory. There are many rules

and suggestions a young person or

entrepreneur must follow to be successful.

The world of business is a harsh one

and includes many challenges to face as they

hope to cash in that million dollar paycheck.

“Entrepreneurs must remember, no matter

what, that not every one will like their ideas,”

says Jojo Phillips. Entrepreneurs, in

Danny Briere’s words, “...just have to

keep going no matter what problems

they face.” These are only a few

suggestions out of the lake of them,

but even a few can save you.

To be a successful

entrepreneur you will face many

problems, especially if you’re young.

Even though Jojo Phillips believes, “All

entrepreneurs, no matter what their

age, deserve respect.” His mother

agrees: “Young entrepreneurs should

be mentored and encouraged to

continue to be young entrepreneurs.”

Danny Briere states, “Young

entrepreneurs need to be realistic; no

business will succeed in a month.”

Entrepreneurs face many

challenges. One is, in Jojo’s words,

“Learning to manage profit.” Another

challenge, in Danny’s words, is “…to

constantly be making money and

constantly making your deadlines, and

you have to have a different product

than everyone else.”

There are also some small

things entrepreneurs can do to be

successful. You can take Jean Phillips’

advice: “Keep your eye on the ball and

remember what you define as success

and your steps to get there. Do not be

greedy, and be nice,” (as suggested in

The Power of Nice). You can also follow

Danny Briere’s advice and “…talk to

potential customers, Make sure you

have enough money, and make sure you

have support from family or friends.”

No matter who you follow their advice

is vital.

Entrepreneurs are among the

leading designers and producers of the

products that make our lives easier and

better, not to mention a large lifeline of

the country’s economy. Without them

we may have a hard life ahead of us.

~ Chris B.

M M S T I M E S

Swine Flu

Beth C.

P A G E 5

Veterans Day Veterans Day is a

holiday to honor the men and

women who have served in the

United States armed services. It

is celebrated on November 11,

the same day the Armistice was

signed in 1918, which ended the

fighting in World War I.

World War 1 took

place between July 28, 1914, and

November 11, 1918.

It ended on the eleventh hour,

of the eleventh day, of the elev-

enth month. Every November

eleventh, there is a ceremony

held at Arlington national Ceme-

tery. At 11 AM, a guard with

soldiers from every part of the

military services gives honor to

the dead soldiers at the Tomb of

the Unknown Soldier. Parades,

military exhibits, ceremonies and

tributes to war heroes take

place through the day.

From Mansfield, it

would be hard to get to Arling-

ton National Cemetery. But, you

can honor the veterans in many

other ways. There are many war

veterans in Mansfield alone. All

over town, veterans sat outside

stores, giving away white poppy

flowers for a one dollar dona-

tion. All of the money went to

support veterans, some of

whose families are dead or gone

and who have trouble support-

ing themselves.

~ Lisa W.

M M S T I M E S

Horoscopes

P A G E 6 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

Aries: March 21-April 19 ~ You will find your hidden talent today!

Taurus: April 20-May 20 ~ Stay on your toes. Trust no one.

Gemini: May 21-June 20 ~ Be careful what you say to people; it will come back to bite you.

Cancer: June 21-July22 ~ People will make your wishes come true!

Leo: July 23-August 22 ~ You will lose a friend today; it is not going to be one who is close to you, though.

Virgo: August 23-September 22 ~ This is not a good day for you; something bad will happen. It may be something small, but it will

affect you in a big way.

Libra: September 23-October 22 ~ Today, you will overcome a fear that has been bothering you for years.

Scorpio: October 23-November 21 ~ Your enemies will soon see the good in you.

Sagittarius: November 22-December 21 ~ Meditating will help you calm down.

Capricorn: December 22- January 19 ~ You will be moody and irritable.

Aquarius: January 20-February 18 ~ You will get emotionally hurt today.

Pisces: February 19-March 20 ~ You will get closer to a cousin you never see.

~ Erin M. & Hunter M.

(From Left To Right)

Ellen W., Beth C., Lisa W., Chris B.

(From Left To Right)

Erin M. & Hunter M.

Owen E.

With Our Adult Helpers:

Mrs. Hodgson

Ms. McCormick

Ms. Young

Thank you!