My Scariest Moments (Mini Autobiography)

My name is Peace and I am 12 years old. I was born in South Africa. I have two sisters and a brother, and a mother and father.When I was around 3 years old, my younger brother pushed me into a freezer, and I was temporarily paralyzed. People say that that’s the reason why I act the way I do, but that isn’t true.

When I got older, my parents let us go out more, and we would go into the woods. One day, we found an abandoned house. The door was open, so of course we went in. Inside, there were stairs, and we climbed up them to the top, where there were rooms. The stairs broke as my older sister was climbing up them; she couldn’t come up. So it was just my older brother, who was 9 then, and my 8-year-old-self. We were checking out the rooms but finding nothing. Until we got to a room with the door closed; we opened it and inside, there was a hairy bum! We ran as fast as we could, jumping over the broken stairs from the top to the bottom floor of the house. Out the door we blew, running as fast as we could until we reached home. We never told our parents. That was the scariest day of my life, which I will never forget.

The next January, when I was still the same age, we went to the mountains, as we do every year, and played in the snow. One year, my older cousin and I went deep into the woods. We found a cave, and went looking for bats; it never crossed our mind that the cave might be housing something bigger, and scarier. Once inside the cave, we saw a bear! It sat up, and my cousin yelled, “Bear!” We ran as fast as we could toward the cabin in which we were staying. On the way, I fell, and my cousin lifted me up with one hand and pulled me along with him as we kept running. When we reached our cabin, we told everyone about the bear; my dad was the only one who believed us. He went out looking for the bear, but he never found it.

Now, I’m twelve years old. Life is good. I have a lot of life left to live.. maybe I’ll write an autobiography.

By: Peace

William Sleator’s “The Elevator”…. continued

A continuation of William Sleator’s “The Elevator,” written by M.M.

How does she know my name? Martin thought. Why did she press the stop button? These were just a few of the questions going through Martin’s mind. He tried not to think that she might kill him but the thought continued to pop back up in his head.

“Don’t worry sweetie, your death will be quick and mostly painless,” the lady said. So now I know she’s definitely going to kill me,  Martin thought. Just then the doors to the elevator quickly opened, and the lady took Martin by the head, sticking his neck between the elevator doors. As the doors slowly closed, Martin’s last thought was, I should have taken the stairs. 

3 Minutes Before

I really don’t want to be on this elevator with my dad, Martin thought. A week before, he and his father had moved into an apartment building with a really old elevator. He hated elevators, and to make things worse, there was always a creepy fat lady on it, staring at him. His dad had decided to visit their neighbor on the third floor and bring Martin with him.  Now Martin was standing with his dad in the creaking elevator.

“I have to get off now,” said his dad just as the elevator came to a stop. “Can I come too? Martin asked.
“No, you sissy. You stay on and go to the lobby.”
“But-” His father cut him off. “No buts, you stay on the elevator,” Martin’s dad got off the elevator. The elevator went down to the second floor; and even though Martin willed it to continue, it stopped. The doors opened and the fat lady stepped onto the elevator.

 

Back on the third floor, unaware of his son’s murder Martin’s dad waited for the elevator. He saw red liquid like blood appear right before the elevator did. A fat lady came out, holding Martin’s dead body. Martin’s dad looked at his son’s  corpse and up at the fat lady, just as she pulled out a gun. He didn’t even have time to move or scream for help before he was shot in the heart.

 

 

Poem by M.D.

i am not strong
no, never have been
and yet, nothing can stop me
from taking what i want
what i deserve
your words
others’
nothing.
i ignore every susurrus
every whisper of doubt
in the back of my mind
every word of discouragement
though seldom do they come
because i am a rocket
and no matter what happens
no matter if i sail off course
or find myself apathetic to my cause
no longer bleeding with altruism
no longer weeping the tears of the people
no matter what
no matter how far i stray
best believe i land among the stars

Lucy the Australopithecus

BY M.C.

November 24th will be the 41st anniversary of the discovery of Lucy the Australopithecus. Lucy is an extinct species that came from the Australopithecus genus and was apart of the Hominini tribe. Lucy is believed to have lived in Ethiopia around 3.2 million years ago.

About 800,000  years after living in Ethiopia, her species evolved. Now, Lucy is held in the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, which is not far from where she was originally discovered.

The Emerald Society- Prologue

The Emerald Society: Prologue

By: Z.O.

     One night, in the middle of summer, Gemma woke with a start. She looked around, and everything was in its place. She laid, well, more like fell back onto her bed, causing her mum’s doll to fall, startling Gemma even more. She sat up and whispered to herself,“It was just a dream, nothing more.” She heard a SCREAAAK! Then she screamed. After that startle, she wondered where it may have come from. So, first putting on her owl goggles, which she always had on her nightstand, she looked out the window. What she saw, she thought was cool, but also a sort-of mistake on nature’s part. What she saw was in the myths, normally referred to as a Griffin. It was a big hawk, as big as two horses, with lion paws as the back legs, a lion tail, and big wings. She was amazed, yet frightened at the sight of it. But she wanted to get closer, which later, Gemma realized was a pretty bad idea. So Gemma, having read too many fiction books knew that it might snatch her, and fly away. So she took her robe and put her RAZOR-40, a steam powered ray gun, in one pocket, and 5 quid (the equivalent of 500 dollars) in the other.

She slowly crept downstairs, so as not to wake her mum and pop, and now, looking back on it, she knows she probably shouldn’t have screamed. She reached the ground, and walked towards the griffin. Then, something caught her eye, and she looked closer. It was a golden circlet on the bird’s right fore-leg. The circlet was gold, but there was a emerald on it, glinting in the moonlight. Gemma was compelled to touch it; but when she did, it fell to the ground, and disappeared into ashes. Then she heard someone clearing their throat. Gemma was frightened, but she managed to pull out her gun with trembling hands, saying, “Who’s there?! I’m armed!” But then a voice said,   “I’m already here, I’m the bird that you freed from that evil circlet of gold. Oh, and thank you for that.” Said the bird.

“I believe we haven’t formally introduced each other. I’m Mr. Today, but you can call me Today.” Said the bird as he bowed his head. “ I – I – I’m G-Gemma.” said Gemma, trembling a little less. “ Pleased to meet you.” Said Today.

“Hey, I have a bone to pick with whoever did this to me, but I’ll need help. Would you like to come?” He asked.  Gemma glanced back at her house, and then back at Mr. Today. “Yes.” She said, more confidently than before. “Good. now hop on my back, but be careful around my end, it has a cramp.” Said Today. So with a couple of tries, Gemma got on today’s back, and he flew off into the night.

                                  

   

 

 

 

 

 

If I Could Be President- By K.R.

If I Could Be President

BY: K.R. Grade 7

If I were president, I would make a change in the world by going out and helping people in need. I would go out and feed. clothe, and shelter the homeless. I would put shelters into place for the homeless. We would train them on how to set up job interviews to help them land a job. I would give them makeovers, tips to consistently keep themselves on track. Also, I would make sure that families are provided with things that they need.

I would bring peace to the entire nation and keep everyone safe. I would control gun violence, making sure that guns do not end up in the wrong hands. I would increase security by checking buyer’s background before guns could be purchased. There would also be an age restraint on guns so children wouldn’t be harmed by them.

As far as education, I would increase salaries for teachers, because without teachers, I wouldn’t be where I am now.  I would lower the price for students to get quality education. I would create more colleges so students would have more options of where to attend college. I would open recreation centers so kids will get out of the street and not join gangs.

For our veterans and their families I would make sure that they have all of the things that they need like food, clothes, and toys for their family and children. Also I would have a rewarding banquet for retired and deployed veterans as a way to thank them for their service to our nation.

Why We Need a Full Secondary Montessori Program- by J.P.

What is Montessori? I’m sure you’ve heard of many extraordinary people who have come from this style of education. If it’s clear that Montessori education is producing great students and doing big things for our world, why wouldn’t we want more? I believe that we should expand our Montessori Secondary program to include high schoolers because it will teach us skills that will help students become successful on a larger scale and to later do great things. I feel that students who have been Montessori trained our whole lives will continue to learn better in a Montessori- based environment.

Montessori students have been known to do great things. One example of this is computer scientists Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who were behind the creation of Google. Another example being Dakota Fanning, an actress who was the youngest ever nominee for the Screen Actors Guild Award. All three of these outstanding people have credited their Montessori education as an essential factor in their success. Page says he thinks it was part of the training of “being self motivated, questioning what’s going on in the world and doing things a little bit differently.”

Montessori teaches life skills. Not only do we learn our core subjects, we also learn skills that will aid our success on a larger scale; such as organization and planning. This year students in the Sedgefield Montessori program received planners made specifically for our schedule to help us keep ourselves organized and on-task. Another important life skill is community; we are taught to care for others and are met with a sense of community in the classroom.

One example of this is how we’re taught to deal with issues that might arise with our peers. In Sedgefield Montessori, we use a wheel that allows us to speak in statements that will express clearly how we’re feeling to the person or people we’re having the conflict with. These people skills will help us in the future with things like college or job interviews that could have an effect on our future. An additional way in which a full Secondary Montessori would be beneficial is that students who have been Montessori educated since Elementary school, some of us since we were 4 or 5 years old, have been trained to think and evaluate a certain way. In traditional school, things are done completely differently. While most kids can adjust to a traditional school setting quite easily, they may always learn better in a Montessori setting. It might be in their best interest to keep them on that path where they will embrace their learning and take it one step further.

In conclusion, I feel it would be a very constructive decision to continue our program for 9th grade students to continue their public Montessori education. Montessori teaches us life skills that may help us to succeed on a larger level, and do bigger, greater things that will change the world.

The World is Hungry- A Poem by Z.S.

The World is Hungry- Z.S. 

Do you remember?

Remember the little girl you read about online?

The girl who only get a bowl of rice each night, if she’s lucky.

Do you remember?

Remember the little boy you saw on TV?

The little boy who lost his entire family to a disease, nearly overnight?

Do you remember?

Remember when life was simple?

Love all,

Respect all,

Nothing to it.

Remember when everyone appreciated each other?

Remember when please and thank you came as easy as, easy as 1, 2, 3?

Remember when you learned?

Learned that the rest of the world doesn’t have it so easy.

That the world is hungry.

Hungry for people to realize the truth.

To realize, nobody’s perfect,

And that, that is amazing.

To realize that independently, we will not make a difference.

But together.

Together we have the power to make the world a better place.

The world is hungry.

Hungry for people to not just care,

But to care enough to change the world.

The world is hungry.

Z.S.

Q &A with Mr. Brian

This is a Q&A with our newest Montessori teacher, Mr. Brian. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.  He is currently taking Montessori training from CMStep in Cincinnati, Ohio and has a masters degree from Xavier University. We stopped to ask him a few questions about his Montessori experience so far.

Q: What is the difference between traditional and Montessori?

A: One difference between traditional and Montessori school is the class duration. In traditional school there is no time for  things like solo and community meeting. Another big difference is the class size. Traditional classes tend to be larger.

Q: What do you like about Montessori more than traditional?

A: I like solo, community meeting, lunch/HAC, classroom furniture/setup, longer daily class time, service work, and field studies such as camping/Erdkinder.

Q: How have you adjusted from teaching traditional to Montessori?

A: My adjustment from traditional to Montessori is still occurring. I am still in the training process and learning many new things from Ms. Mindy and Ms. Patti as well as my colleagues in the training program. After my most recent trip to Cincinnati for training I feel more confident in implementing the Montessori philosophy.

By: A.C.

What Does “Invest in Your Child” Mean to Students?

When you hear “Invest in Your Child”, what do you think of?

Whenever you make an investment, it is important to know what exactly you are investing in! We want you to hear from us, the students, so that you know how your investments impact us and our education. To us, “Invest in your Child” means to invest in knowing that your child is receiving a quality and challenging education that will lay a strong foundation for the future. Investing in Secondary Montessori benefits us by giving us the capacity to expand our education in different ways.

IYC funds us to participate in field experiences, such as Fall Camp and the 8th grade trip to Edisto Island in South Carolina. Just last year, families donated to help us to purchase new program tents. We were really grateful for this because we now have plenty of tents that are of great quality. In addition, the funds can also be used to help support our peers who may need financial assistance.  We believe in community and supporting each other no matter what.

Another thing that your investments go towards are science labs. In science, we love learning about different properties and rules by seeing them in action. We’ve done all sorts of labs, such as the Will You Catch It? which allowed us to see firsthand how rapidly diseases can spread and how hard it can be to trace it back to its source. Another was the Chicken Wing lab, which gave us a better understanding of bone structure and bodily functions; all of which allow us to see the science we’ve learned in action. We never know what kind of creative lab we might do next!

In addition, IYC  money may go towards new math materials. We recently purchased VersaTiles, which are a hands on way to solve math problems (and can be adapted for other subjects too!) VersaTiles are great in that they are self-checking and allow you to see exactly where you went wrong, so you can then go back and rework the question.

In Montessori, we are given many opportunities to learn in a unique way. These materials allow us to see what we’re learning and give us a better understanding of it. However, these things do cost money, and although we have fundraisers, IYC is a supplemental program, and we appreciate any help you can give us towards growing our Secondary Montessori program!

By: J.P. and A.L.Y.