Wildcat Roar The Paws of Century Junior High Writing to You.

First Edition 2017-2018

Back 2 School Bash By: Lylah Ibrahim

7th Grade

Students hanging out with Mrs. DeBasio and Mrs. Marquardt at the Back to School Bash!

Above:

Students enjoy playing basketball in the gym at the Back 2 School Bash (B2SB)..

Left: Students

playing corn hole at the B2SB.

Below: Students

play football at the B2SB.

Pack the House The Fall and Winter sport seasons were

full of excitement for the Century Wildcats! And the Winter and Spring seasons are sure to be the same. Come support our

Wildcats by wearing purple and coming to the next gripping Pack the House games!

Girls Volleyball Pack the House:

Tuesday, January 16th vs Orland Junior High

Boys Basketball Pack the House:

Tuesday, February 20th vs. Grissom

Teachers vs Students Volleyball Game

By: Dean Bruton 7th Grade

The students took on the teachers on the volleyball court the day before Winter

Break! Students enjoyed spiking it down against their teachers. Participants faced a variety of teachers, most of whom were vigorous opponents. I played for a round,

taking the libero position, which is situated in the center of the court. All the

students, at least in my round, got a chance to make contact with the ball. All

in all it was just an enjoyable, while competitive, time.

Sandburg Band Visit

Food Drive to Benefit Orland Community Members

Student Council collected nonperishable food items to benefit the Orland Township

Food Pantry during the month of November. Students from each grade

level brought in food to share with those in need within our community. The Food

Pantry came to Century to pick up all of our donations on November 13th just in

time for Thanksgiving!

Above: Ms. Hallman’s 6th Grade Homeroom

choose kindness by donating to the food drive.

Left: A picture of all of the canned

goods collected to be given to the

Orland Park Food Pantry.

Below: 7th Grade

students help carry the

donations to the Orland Township

truck.

State Representative McDermed Visits CJH

Meet the Assistant Principal: Mrs. Cunningham

Questions by: Eman Quasimeh 8th Grade Interview by: Dean Bruton 7th Grade

What do you enjoy doing during your free

time? Traveling is one of her passions. She took

a vacation to Peru last summer. In addition to traveling, she also enjoys to

read and spend time with family. When did you decide to go into the

education field? Since Mrs. Cunningham was a little kid, she enjoyed babysitting, and spending

time with kids. So, when she grew up, she always knew her profession would deal

with spending time with kids. How have you enjoyed your time at

Century so far? Mrs. Cunningham has enjoyed her time at Century, and she loves working with the

students, teachers, and staff. What’s a skill that you would like to master

in the near future? Mrs. Cunningham took 8 years of French,

but since she hasn’t used her French-speaking skills, she isn’t able to speak as well. Her wish is to regain that

skill, as it may come in handy when traveling to French-speaking nations. How do you relax after a hard day at

work? Mrs. Cunningham winds down by reading,

watching TV, and especially going for walks. She has even started doing yoga.

Door Decorations

By: Lylah Ibrahim 7th Grade

Students decorated their homeroom door to demonstrate how their homeroom chooses to celebrate and promote kindness at CJH and in our community!

Teamwork Color Assembly By: Lylah Ibrahim

7th Grade Students participated in the annual

Teamwork Color Assembly. Some of the events were trivia, relay races, human

knot, and the creative design of a t-shirt. All of these events were worth points that

went toward each homeroom. In sixth grade, Mrs. Hallman’s homeroom won. In

seventh grade, Mr. Degen’s homeroom won. And in 8th grade, Mrs. Malinowski’s

homeroom won. Everyone who participated had a great time and the

competition.

Cross Country

Boys XC: The boys cross country team had a excellent season and came in 4th place in conference meet. The boys look forward to next season in the fall.

Girls XC: The girls cross country team had a great season, coming in the top half of every meet. In the conference meet, we also came in the top half. Claire Callaghan, Josie Canellis, Lily Faulds, Charlotte Durkin, Karina May, Lily Molloy, and Emily Enright were our Conference runners. We hope for a great season next year!

Softball

Boys Softball: The boys softball team had a 9-3 record this season and took second in the conference tournament.

Girls Softball: Lylah Ibrahim interviewed Dana Eid about her experience playing for the CJH softball team. What position do you play? “Second base” What is your favorite part of softball? “Catching” Have you become close with your teammates, and how ? “Yes, I didn't really know some people especially the seventh and sixth graders, but then we started talking more and got to start playing together which helped.”

CJH Sports Update

Volleyball

6th & 7th Grade Boys: By Owen Duffy The 6th & 7th grade volleyball team ended their season with an 11-3 record. The team lost to the Prairie View Eagles, Grissom Patriots, and the Tinley-Central Twisters. In the beginning of the season are team wasn't doing so good, then we got all our positions down and started communicating and then we started to play better. One problem the team had through most of the season was our serving, we couldn't get them over the net and that is what lost us are games in the beginning. During the tournament we won our first game against Palos South and then we lost to Tinley Central. For the consolation game we played Prairie View and lost so we ended up getting 4th in the SWIC Tournament after a close third match. The season was very good and a lot of fun. 8th Grade Boys: Coach Ripoli shared that the team had a record of 13-1 and placed 2nd in the Conference during the regular season. They also took 1st Place in SWIC Tournament taking down undefeated Palos South. Brendan Hornick was the MVP of Tournament. Sanad Alshubbak and Brendan Hornick made the All Tournament 8th grade Team. They were Century's guardians of net play and dominated the middle with blocking and power. Josh Aquino made his mark as an outside hitter with an arsenal of hits. Spring-loaded, Josh leaps above the net and strikes the ball from over the larger blocks! Drew Snaidauf was a natural leader on the court. The combinations of Ben Schieber's passing and Drew's sets sparked many power plays. Our stealth "ninja" was Luke Doll. Unexpected power, vertical jumps, speed and placement of his attacks were modestly hidden talents. Danny Donlevy balanced the team with chemistry and steady right side play. Along with Andrew Messineo who produced clutch serving and passing as both of these guys were our glue to solidify any cracks in the team game. The depth of this talented team came from the hard working teammates who were always ready for the court. This included our outside hitters: Gavin Kissane & Costas Kalogris. Our middle hitters of Abdallah Hamad & Calvin Rebollido. Rightside Hitters of Christian Haddad & Ryan Truong, and Defensive Specialist: Marco Cannici

Basketball

6th & 7th Grade Girls: By Claire Callaghan: The girls basketball team has had an amazing season winning the SWIC Tournament and regular season conference games, with a record of 14-0. Claire Callaghan and Josie Canellis were the team’s All-Conference Players, and 7th grader Josie Canellis was named the championship MVP. All of the girls did outstanding job this season and contributed so much to the teams standings. We hope we have just as great a season next year. Let's go Wildcats!

8th Grade Girls: The 8th grade girls finished their season with an 11-3 record which led them to second place in the SWIC Conference. The girls took 4th place in the SWIC Tournament. Great season ladies!

Spirit Week at CJH

Wildcats celebrated how we choose kindness by having a special spirit week!

Halloween Costumes

Pajama Day

Sports & Hat Day

Red, White, and Blue Day for the Veteran’s Breakfast

6th Grade Mr. Freeze Assembly

Senator Michael Hastings Visits

8th Grade Goes to D.C.

8th Grade Communications Editorials

Electronic Use By: John Durkin

Phones, tablets, computers, and video game consoles. These are all huge gifts to humanity, but do we use them properly and do we spend too much time on them? I have loved video games my entire life, and my parents and I always do our best to limit the amount of time we get so that we physical and mental exercise. But some don't have that knowledge or self discipline to know when to stop. Electronics are being used to frequently and we need to be able to have face to face conversations then sending another streak on snapchat. The American Academy of Pediatrics has estimated that the average child spends upwards of seven hours watching television, browsing the Internet and playing video games each day. Kids in the range of 2-19 are gaining weight by the hour because of that. ⅓ of American kids are obese or overweight partly because of unhealthy habits like staying inside on electronics. To add on top of that, social media, like Snapchat and Facebook, are made so that you get addicted to them. Staring at your screen of your phone all day is changing the way we talk, and act around people. You might not see it, but people are having less “casual conversations” and more time sending streaks on Snapchat to other people and our grades are being affected by it. Most of us are looking under our desks at our phones trying to hide it from the teachers when really we need to pay attention to the teacher that is teaching us. Some kids would rather stay at home on their devices then go to an actually party, like who would do that? It’s not bad if you play video games daily for a controlled amount of time, it’s even healthy for you! But when played for 4 hours or more a day, that can lead to many problems. The reason video games are so addicting is because we want to have that satisfaction of beating that level or to reach a specific level or rank. Because of that user can get carpal tunnel syndrome when played too much. A numbness and tingling in the hand and arm caused by a pinched nerve in the wrist. They can also Can get migraines due to the intense concentration or eye strain. Kids are spending too much time on their electronics and they are paying for it physically and mentally. ⅓ of kids in America are becoming obese mainly because they don’t know how to limit their time and go out and get some physical exercise. Electronics are also affecting kids mentally, with phones they are not

having face to face conversations which could ruin their social skills in the future. Kids need to limit their time on electronics and get outside and play with friends. Go on a bike ride or play some basketball because then you are getting physical and mental exercise.

Money Buying Happiness By: Cindy Lim

Yes, money can increase one’s happiness. Warren Buffett donated a majority of his wealth to charity, he said, “I couldn’t be happier with that decision.” Money is capable of buying happiness. How people spend money is important, it can create delight from investing money into others or spending money on activities or services. If you spend money on items that attracts you, you’re likely to experience an increase in happiness. People who believe money can’t buy happiness are gullible. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology discovered spending money on intriguing activities that create memories increase overall happiness. Money is valued in society. Money doesn’t have to be spent primarily on taxes or bills, remember to use any spare cash on items that intrigues you! Also, researchers from Cambridge University discovered people who spent money on items that correlated with their personality were more content. Many universities support the idea that money can buy happiness such as Harvard Business School. For instance, University of British Columbia conducted an experiment that reveals people can achieve satisfaction by spending money on others. University of British Columbia conducted an experiment, more than 6,000 people in four countries received an additional $40 a week for the next two weeks. As a result, participants stated they were more content when they were given more time by paying someone else to do their chores. Consider the cliche quote, “money can’t buy happiness.” Now, report about how you feel after spending money on a relative or an item that intrigued you.

Too Much Testing By:Bianca May

Standardized testing doesn’t measure students to their full abilities and hasn’t for the 100 years these tests has been around. Standardized testing is the main factor that goes into placing students in certain learning environments and just isn’t accurate enough to complete such a difficult task. There are many different conditions students can be in while while taking a test such as being tired, feeling

sick, or stressing out about their future scores, which can negatively affect how even the brightest students perform. 20% of students in the United States are placed in the wrong classes annually based on test scores that “did not meet standard requirements”, meaning that 20% of the students in the United States were placed in lower classrooms instead of the classrooms that they could excel in. These tests only test small portions of information that children have learned but, they can automatically state “how smart students are” as well as determine their future classes instead of testing their overall knowledge. Does that seem fair and accurate of students’ abilities? Tests, quizzes, participation, and overall grades only go into a small percentage of what class a students get placed into. These are the grades that matter, they reflect how well a student is doing, and how much they really do know about each topic that they have learned. Instead, children’s futures are dependent on one, single test. Be heard. Write to your state expressing how you feel about standardized tests being a determining factor in your child’s future, but not actually testing everything that they are capable of.

Don’t Pay College Athletes By: Savannah Berner

College athletes get so much for free, so they shouldn’t be paid to play. According to the NCAA, athletic scholarships cover a median of $27,923. But, that doesn’t include all of the complimentary tickets, apparel, equipment and most importantly, the best academic support the university can offer. If you play a sport you are being scouted by college coaches as early as seventh grade. Which means you could get a bigger scholarship if they keep watching you, as you advance. In the end, everything adds up, but college athletes don’t even realize it.

Animal Care in Shelters By: Calvin Rebollido

Each year 2.7 million pets are put down in kill shelters, which is around 37% of the pets that are sent to the shelters. There is also the animals that die from neglect and cruelty, which is about 30 million of them. In an overcrowded shelter about 600 puppies, kittens, dogs, and cats are euthanized each hour in the U.S. This means that rescue and non-kill shelters will to take care of any animals that they take in. They will take care of the animal no matter what happens to them. Raise awareness for the animals in need.

8th Grade Communications Editorials

Appropriate Gaming By: Arvind Sandhu

Did you know only 4% of video games contain absolutely no violence at all? Over 91% of people in the U.S. alone, ages 2-17 play video games and young adolescents can become more aggressive and violent due to the graphic content and strong language in games. Children that are immature shouldn’t play adult rated games and should stick to more child friendly games. Multiple studies show that there is a negative impact on gamers’ behavior when they play violent games. One case was when Anders Behring Breivik shot 68 people at a youth camp in the Norwegian Labor party, another nine in a bombing of government buildings. This proves that a gamer’s mindset can change and become more aggressive if they are exposed to violence. Before it’s too late, reach out to an adolescent that you know who plays video games, and tell them to stop. Keeping Performance Enhancing

Drugs Out of Sports By: Omar Abdallah

20% of high school students said that their decision to use anabolic steroids was influenced by professional athletes and nearly 50% said that professional athletes influenced their friends' decisions to use anabolic steroids. I feel that athletes who Dope should have their titles and medals taken away. This is because athletes that have used steroids or doped have strong competitive advantages. For instance Barry Bonds own the home run record and has been long alleged to have taken steroids. Also Lance Armstrong was stripped of 7 tour de France wins due to evidence of performance-enhancing drug. These athletes all had a competitive advantage like Ben Johnson held a 1988 world record time 9.79 at the end he was found using steroid stanozolol. To stop these athletes from doing steroids and doping, they should have everything taken away if they are found out to using drugs.

Students Need More Sleep By: Ameer Asmar

Everyone is different when it comes to sleep. Students should get more sleep because it helps them work at their best and get higher grades. According to a study released by UCLA, researchers conducted a study and found that most teens that had depression or anxiety actually are low on sleep. They are trying to prove that sleep causes these states. For example some adults need 6 hours of sleep and some adults need 9 hours.

Pay for Play? By: Sean Marquardt

I strongly believe that college athletes should not get paid because if the athlete gets a scholarship for playing sports, then they are already getting paid from the free college tuition. The free tuition isn’t just good for the students themselves but also for the families. Families are saving at least 50,000 dollars a year. In total about 200,000 dollars for all four years. These free tuitions can mean a lot to poor families. College sports could be the only hope for these families. Also, it would be expensive for the Colleges to pay for 100s of student tuitions and pay the athletes too. That would be really expensive for the colleges. All of the athletes would probably have to pay all the athletes the same amount of money. On average every year division 1 and 2 colleges spend 2 billion dollars on scholarships for 126,000 students every year. Colleges would have to double that number if they were to pay the students yearly.

Pros to GMOs By: Sanad Alshubbak

GMOs will help solve the crisis that is world hunger. GMOs are genetically modified organisms, they are just plants or animals with altered genes. The majority of countries that are hungry do not have fertile land or their land had disease or has harsh weather. Or Simply they don’t have enough money to grow crops. GMOs cost less and have much better crop yield. Also, their genes are altered to me more disease resistant and more weather resistant. Thus making GMOs ideal for poor countries. Poor countries need these because usually they have bad soil, bad weather or just not enough money to grow. GMOs can make a huge difference in this world. Go out and promote GMOs, they will help this world.

Gun Control Needed By: Ryan Bottini

The U.S. government should ban civilians from owning guns in the U.S. because thousands of Americans die or get injured every year from civilian guns in the United States. 36,000 Americans die to civilian guns each year, that is ninety-nine people a day. Those people could have been saved, if the civilians who killed them didn’t have their gun. 100,000 Americans are injured to civilian guns each year, that is two hundred to three hundred people a day. Families shouldn’t have to worry that a family member might not live because they got shot by a civilian. Civilian guns kill way more Americans than terrorism. Something that

is affecting so many people in the world, harms the United States less than civilian gun violence. To help the United States, don’t buy guns and spread the knowledge you learned to others.

Fear of Concussions Changes Youth Soccer Rules

By: Luke Doll In 2015, the American Youth Soccer Association (AYSO) decided to make heading illegal for U-11 players and younger, and only allowing 30 minutes of practice a week for heading for U-14 and less. Performing headers is a technique used when a player deliberately hits the soccer ball using their head. The AYSO believes that performing headers will make a large difference on concussions, but some facts say otherwise. Headers in soccer should not be banned for younger players. Kicking it off, heading is a very important skill in the game and leaving it changes the game as a whole. First of all, there is another way on how people get concussions in the sport, and that is player contact. In an article, it states that “...62% of concussions in soccer are from player contact for both boy and girl leagues,” (Seaman, 2017). That shows that player contact overruns the number of concussions received from headers, nearly doubling the chance of receiving concussions by headers. In the same article, it explains how 32% of the concussions in soccer are from headers (Seaman, 2017). That is low compared to the percentage of receiving concussions from player contact. A way less and insignificant way is from unintentionally heading the ball. Lastly, in the same article, it states that “Overall, between 2005 and 2014, 627 concussions occurred during 1,393,753 soccer practices or competitions,” (Seaman, 9/21/17). That is very low compared to how many practices and competitions there are. Overall, concussions and concussions caused by headers are a low chance of being injured, so why ban them? Using this information, we can prove that banning headers is not worth removing an important skill. We can now understand that concussions are not that common as we think. Overall, banning headers should not have happened.

8th Grade Communications Editorials

Concussions in Football By: Joe Haddad

Teens should not play football because of the damage it could do to your body. Concussions are horrible because when another player bumps into your head it can cause brain damage and memory loss. 11.6 to 3.8 million concussions in the U.S. every year from professional and recreational sports. High school football players suffered 11.2 concussions for every 10,000 games and practices. High School football players suffer 2 million injuries a year.

Put an End to Puppy Mills By: Emily Jankowski

It’s horrible that so many bad things are happening to dogs in kill shelters. This involves dogs getting killed everyday in this world just because they don’t have a home to go to. I bet it never even crossed your mind. If you haven’t heard about kill shelters and how so many dogs are being affected by this then, you really need to hear me out. Do you think kill shelters should be outlawed? Kill shelters should indeed be outlawed. Puppy mills are responsible for the majority of this horrible cycle of killing dogs because they don’t have a home. If it weren’t for puppy mills then the percent of dogs getting killed would go down so much. What you can do to help is adopt a dog, tell your friends and family to adopt. Stand up for the dogs in any way. You can make a change for these dogs in such simple ways. Make sure to always keep dogs in your mind because they are important too.

Perks to Smaller Classes By: Keely Doyle

Smaller class sizes benefit teachers and students with their interaction and their achievement levels. Smaller classes can benefit students with interaction and achievement levels. Students are more likely to participate in class and become more involved. Students will interact and participate with their teacher and other students more in their classes. Students achievement levels rise when they’re in smaller classes. Sometimes, my achievement levels rise when my teachers give me test and quizzes because of smaller classes./ Fewer students are less distracting to each other than a large group of children. Smaller classes benefit the way kids my age learn when we’re in smaller classes.

Smaller class sizes benefit teachers and students with interaction and their achievement levels. Achievement levels rise and interaction between teachers and students improve when

smaller class sizes rise. Smaller class sizes should benefit you and if it you don’t have small class sizes you should talk to your school. interact with my teachers more because I am in smaller classes. You should talk to your school about trying an experiment by having smaller classes to see if your achievement levels will rise and to see if your interaction with teachers improves.

College and Career Readiness By: Lola Karambenis

Our society needs jobs that do not require a degree, therefore parents and teachers should not force students to go to college each year. Every year, millions of students say their tearful goodbyes and head off to their new lives as a college freshman. Only for 43% of them to drop-out the following year. The amount of stress they have on themselves is unbelievable! Some people would rather use the time to move along with their life's’ passion whether it's joining the military, traveling the world, starting a business, working or volunteering for a charity. Which could be just as good as going to college. There are many jobs we need that don’t require a degree like plumbers, taxi/uber drivers, web developers, postmasters, etc. Imagine a world without these jobs. As us students, we need to realize that we have the choice to choose what we want to do for the rest of our lives, and parents may have an opinion but, in the end it's our decision.

College Athletes are Student Athletes

By: Danny Donlevy College athletes should not get paid as they are student athletes who are playing for the fun of the game, and many are already receiving many clothes, gadgets, and other perks for being on the team. These college athletes are playing because they are in love with the sport, not because they are looking to get money out of it. College athletes are people trying to make it to the professionals, and therefore are not paid because they have not yet made it there. Money is a bog reward that they should work for to try to get to the professionals. I believe that these athletes are playing because they love it, if they are looking for money, than there are many other people who would be more than happy to play a college sport. College sports is similar to a class, students are picking a major that they want to start a career, in just as these athletes want to start their career in sports. The harder and more you work, the farther they will get in a career, being rewarded

as a student is not right. College athletes go to school for an education, not for athletics, many of them are already receiving money off to go to school. They are playing for the fun of the game, not for money, and should not be getting paid.

Dynamics of a Healthy Lifestyle By:Jenna Maali

Long term lifestyle modifications and short term diets are both ways to lose weight, but which way is more effective in getting long lasting results? Studies show that when people are trying to lose weight, they automatically try to find the diets that give desired results in a short amount of time. These are called short term diets, or fad diets, promising quick weight loss. But losing weight too quickly could be hurting your body in the process. Usually these diets can become very strict, meaning you may be restricting yourself to the point where it becomes unhealthy to you mentally and physically. Eating too few calories a day could actually make you gain weight. Cutting back on calories more and more you’ll burn fewer calories over time. Once you get your desired weight results and go back to your regular eating there is a very good chance you’ll gain most of the weight back. You can’t expect to just go from over restricting yourself to going back to your old eating habit and not gain weight. This is why adjusting a long term diet and modifying it into your lifestyle is more healthy and beneficial to a person trying to lose weight. A long term lifestyle modification diet helps you shed weight and keep it off. Healthy foods and nutrients are incorporated into these diets without having to restrict yourself so much. Since these diets take a lot longer, overtime you get used to eating more healthy foods and having them adjusted into your lifestyle. Good eating habits are set in place when following a long term lifestyle modification diet. Even though it may take more time to get your dream body, all it takes is some hard work and dedication and you can achieve anything you set your mind to!

Interested in joining Newspaper Club?

Come and See Mr. McNicholas in

Room 105 for more details.

Meeting dates are posted on his school webpage.