PLHS Bowling team takes home state title By

Ripples
L AKE SI DE
V O L U M E
1
I S S U E
2
MARCH
2013
PLHS Bowling team takes home state title
By: Kyle Shafer
INSIDE THIS
ISSUE:
Student
2
Teacher
Anne Frank
3
Holocaust
3
Locks of Love
4
SOS Night
6
Citizenship
7
Breakfast
Creative
Waves
This year, the Pompton
Lakes High School Bowling
team, led by Lakeside’s
very own Mr. Batsch, has
won everywhere from Parkway Lanes in Elmwood
Park, their home grounds,
to the state championships.
The team ended their regular season in second place
with an outstanding thirteen, and three record in
their league as every Varsity bowler made the AllLeague team. Next, they
won the county tournament
for the first time in school
history. Once again, every
Varsity bowler made the AllCounty team. The Cardinals
then moved on to the state
sectional tournament where
they again unbelievably won
for the second time in school
history. One individual qualified
for the individuals, and the entire team qualified for the state
finals, where they finished an
exceptional season with a third
place finish. This tournament
was against the top ten Group
One schools in New Jersey.
The championship Cardinals
team had four members who
all averaged over a 190, an
amazing statistic at this level.
Congratulations to Mr. Batsch
and the entire Pompton Lakes
bowling team on their prestigious accomplishments!
Brian accepted into Regional Band By: Izzy Ambrogio
8
The Regional band holds a
yearly audition to music students from middle schools,
mostly from the North Jersey
counties. This year, there
were around 60-70 students
who auditioned for a much
coveted position with the
band. Brian Kachur, an
eighth grader from Lakeside,
auditioned and came out with
the second highest score.
According to Mr. Stier, a very
talented and dedicated music
Brian plays the Alto
Saxophone, and for the
first time performed with
the Regional band at
Maplewood Middle
School. It is a great honor to belong to the Reteacher at Lakeside, Brian gional band because
is one of the most selfthey only grant very limmotivated students he ever ited positions with the
met during the span of his group. Congratulations
eleven years of teaching at Brian and more power to
Lakeside.
Mr. Stier for a job well
done.
PAGE
2
Ms. Centrilli By: Isabella Ambrogio
Miss Centrilli
surely fits at Lakeside.
She is Mr. McCleery’s
student teacher until
May 2nd. Miss C is
currently a senior at
William Paterson
University studying
history for middle
school and elementary school-aged kids.
She also went to college at the University
of Connecticut for two
years. She stated that
her favorite grade to
teach is eighth grade,
but don’t worry sixth
and seventh she likes
you guys too! So far, her
experience her at
Lakeside has been great.
She wrote, “I love it. The
staff has been so welcoming and the students
make teaching fun.“ She
is in favor of student
teaching , She thinks it
is the perfect way to
gain experience. Ms. C
grew up in West Milford and wants to
teach in New Jersey.
Best wishes to Mrs.
Nicol and Mrs. Moyle!
Congratulations to Paige Santers –
Rotary Club of Pompton Lakes
Student Achievement Award (Lakeside)!
RIPPLES
VOLUME
1
ISSUE
2
PAGE
3
Holocaust By: Allie Gundlah
As 8th graders it has been a
blast learning and reading
about the Diary of Anne
Frank. But, before we could
begin anything we needed to
understand background information on the Holocaust and
the time period we were about
to learn about. Fortunately, our
principal, Mr. Herninko is a
former history teacher. He took
the time out of his busy
schedule to make a presentation on everything we needed
to know about the Holocaust.
The 8th grade Reading, Language Arts, and English teachers did a wonderful job
scheduling this amazing and
informative presentation. Mr.
Herninko’s presentation allowed all of the 8th graders
to see him as more than a
principal; we got to enjoy
his unique way of teaching. Mr. Herninko taught
an excellent lesson that
helped inform everyone on
all the information that we
needed to know. I would
like to thank Mr. Herninko
and all of the teachers that
helped organize this amazing presentation.
Anne Frank Valentine’s Day By: Erin Keating
Every year the
eighth grade class does
a Valentine's Day project. It's called Valentine's Day Anne Frank
style. This project ties
in with The Diary of
Anne Frank and the
play that we learned.
Anne Frank is a girl
who writes in a diary all
about her day during
the Holocaust. It helps
us learn about what it
was like to live like
Anne Frank did. This
project consists of each
student getting a secret
partner in their class
and they are responsible for making a poem
about the person and
have to make a gift that would
look like something Anne would
make. Students are always looking forward to this project every
year and it was a fun project to
do! Don't forget it has to be
kept a secret! HAPPY
VALENTINE'S DAY!!
PAGE
4
Locks of Love By: Nick Ambrogio
Shannon Wells, a
sixth grader in
Lakeside, recently
donated her hair to
Locks of Love after
learning about it
from her grandmother. Hearing all
about how Locks of
Love helps the children inspired Shannon to get involved
and want to help.
And help she did.
Shannon had ten
inches of her hair
cut off for the purpose of having a wig
made for a needy
child.
vantaged children in
the United States
and Canada under
21 suffering from
long term hair loss.
Most of the children helped by
Locks of Love have
What is Locks of
lost their hair due
Love you may ask?
Locks of Love is an to medical reasons. Thank you
organization that
provides hair pieces Shannon for such a
to financially disad- selfless act!
Battle of the Books By: Amanda Salameno
RIPPLES
The after school club and
academically talented
Battle of the Books teams
went to Lincoln Middle
School in Hawthorne to
compete. It took place in
the auditorium of the
school and students were
placed in groups forming
a circle around the outside. Questions about fifteen books were asked
from team to team. For
the answers to the questions, teams had to reply
by saying the title of the
book and the author’s
name. There were a total
of seventeen teams and
each team had five or less
team members. Each
team had ten questions
to answer and each question was worth eight
points. At the end of the
first five questions the club
team had 24 points and the
academically talented team
had a perfect score of 40.
Then in the next five questions the academically talented team missed two
questions, but they were
still in the lead. At the end
of the competition, the academically talented team
was tied for first place.
They had to go into a runoff tie breaker round
against Little Falls. During
the first run-off, both teams
answered all the questions
right and it was still a tie. In
the next run-off round, both
teams missed two questions and were still tied for
first place. During the third
run-off round, each team
had to answer another
three questions. At the end
of the final run-off battle,
Lakeside School won the
competition. Little Falls
Team One came in third
place, Little Falls Team
Two came in second place,
and the Pompton Lakes
Academically Talented
Teams won first place.
Congratulations to both of
the Battle of the Books
teams for a job well done.
VOLUME
1
ISSUE
2
PAGE
5
Look Both Ways! By: Josephine Ann Russo
Safety has become an important issue in the morning
when students are crossing
through the parking lot to
wait outside of Lakeside.
Mr. Herninko and Mrs.
Tanis are supervising the
“traffic” in the parking lot
every morning. Students
usually arrive at school between 7:50 and 8:10, and
around the same time teachers are pulling into the parking lot. Students need to be
more mindful of traffic especially when they cut through
the parking lot. Some parents drop their children off
in front of the school,
causing more chaos and creating more hazards for students to avoid. Parents are
therefore encouraged to
drop students off in the drop
-off zone in front of the
school by the trees to avoid
any close-calls or accidents.
In addition, students who
ride their bikes, skateboards,
etc. to school are also at risk
of being involved in an accident, especially if they are
not careful. Students who
walk to school also need to
be careful. There is a cross
walk in front of Lakeside
and in the parking lot, and
students are strongly en-
Patriot’s Pen
Lakeside AT students recently
submitted entries into an essay
contest called the VFW Patriot’s
Pen. The contest was open to all
the AT kids at Lakeside, all grade
levels. I gathered a lot of information from Mrs. Tanis during a
recent interview. Every year the
contest has a theme. This year’s
theme was “What would you tell
America’s founding fathers?” The
guidelines to this essay were, first,
you have to answer the question
and support it with examples,
couraged to use both of them
to ensure their safety and
well-being. These precautions are also being stressed
towards teachers who are
being instructed to pull into
the parking lot carefully and
slowly, so they can be wary
of students crossing to get
to the building. Lastly,
everyone needs to remember one very important
rule that we have been
taught since we were old
enough to walk: look both
ways before you cross the
street!
By: Jill Messineo
quotes, etc. Second, the essay had
to be well written, and lastly, it
should have the length requirement, which was 300-400 words.
The students had to answer the
questions effectively by using examples and quotes. They needed to be
clear on their ideas. The theme had
to be developed in the essay and
contestants had to have a great
knowledge of the theme. As always,
their essay had to be a well-written
work of art. After the articles were
submitted, the VFW finally selected
a winner. The winner was - 8th
grader Lauren Sanford! Our congratulations goes out to second
place winner, seventh grader Josephine Russo and third place winner,
seventh grader Emily Deyo.
PAGE
6
SOS Night By: Jill Messineo
On February 21st, the
seventh graders got to
experience S.O.S night
for the first time. S.O.S
in this case, stands for
Spotlight on Seventh.
This night was all
about the seventh
graders, who came
together on this night
and put their minds in
physical and mental
mode. For this special
night to happen, Mrs.
Nicol and Mr. Tanis
divided the seventh
grade into fourteen
different teams. The
teams were Polka Dot,
Checkered, Navy, TieDye, Lime Green,
Black, Cardinal, Gold,
Silver, Stripes, White,
Green, Purple and Orange. Each team had to
make a team shield
showing their color
and mascot. The Cardinal team ended up
winning first place for
their shield. There
were six different activities during the
night, they were volleyball, scooters, quiet
game, “garbage ball,”
obstacle course and
Win, Lose or Draw.
After the teams
played each activity,
the judges tallied up
the winners. The first
place winner of the
night was the Gold
Gladiators. Congratulations to all the members
of the gold team for being the overall winners.
That night was definitely
a night of memories for
the seventh graders, everyone’s faces were beaming with happiness as
they left the building.
Charity Essay Winner By: Diellza Kaba
Congratulations to
Lyndsey Dornich for
writing the winning essay for the charity, Autism Speaks. After a
three month long research project, in
which all of the 7th
grade students were
required to research a
children’s charity, each
student wrote a persuasive essay convinc-
ing Lakeside’s student
body to adopt the most
deserving children’s
charity. The essays that
were chosen to represent
the different charities
were -Autism Speaks,
The Dream Factory Foundation, Toys for Tots,
St. Jude’s, Adopt a Classroom, Operation Smile,
The Blind Children’s
Foundation, Big Brother
Big Sister, The Daniel
Galorenzo Foundation,
The V Foundation, and
The Polly Klaas Foundation. Again, congratulations to Lyndsey
and all of the other
Lakeside winners!
VOLUME
1,
ISSUE
1
PAGE
2013 Citizenship Award Recipients
We are proud to
announce the recipients of the Citizenship Award for
2013:
Ryan Janof
Josephine Russo
Diellza Kaba
Jason Salameno
Nick Kimberlin
Steven Sanders
Anna Moya
Patrick Shaw
Catherine Andrews
Jaylyn Ocasio
Tanner Tamayne
Adrienne Brown
Lauren O’Connell
Heather Titus
Miranda Deevy
Brianna Otto
Alyssa Townsend
Matthew Drexler
Henry Ramirez
Gjula Zekirovska
Mario Gatica
Ashleigh Rennar
Megan Gosiker
Jorge Rios
Citizenship Breakfast By: Jill Messineo
Lakeside hosted a breakfast to honor
the recipients of this year’s citizenship
award. A lot of people are not aware of
what this award is all about. I interviewed Mr. Herninko about the award
and what it really means. The Citizenship award is presented to the students
who are “model citizens “ of Lakeside,
and “model citizens” to the staff members. They follow all the codes of conduct and are very well behaved. They
also lend a hand to those who need it.
The students are chosen by the team
teachers. This is the second year that
Lakeside hosted a Citizenship Award
breakfast, Mr. Herninko plans on making it a yearly event, “I would like the
event to run in January,” he added. The
winners and their family members were
treated to a breakfast. During the breakfast, each student iwas recognized and
received an award certificate. “The
award started when I did a similar program at the last middle school I worked
at. “I borrowed the idea from Copeland
Middle School,” explained Mr. Herninko.
“The idea of the award and the breakfast
was mine, I wanted a formalized way to
recognize the excellent behavior that I
see at Lakeside every day. The breakfast
is a great way to bring members of the
community into our school to see the
excellent things that are happening.” Anyone at Lakeside can become a recipient,
they just have to show what a great citizen they are.
7
PAGE
8
Creative Waves
Dear Gram,
Thank you for all the fun
times we had, all the times we went on trips and adventures with each other, all the laughs we shared together
and most of all the times when you supported me most
for all the things I do. I appreciate that and I just want to
say thank you for everything you have done for me, my
brother and sister and for all of my family. I appreciate your kindness and generosity
for all the gifts you have given us and being the best grandparent ever.
-Joseph Giglio
A Tribute to a Wonderful Grandmother
When it rains
Great person to me
When it snows
Respectful to everyone
Whenever the wind blows,
Amazing caretaker
Nothing can stop her
I can turn around
And see you standing right there beside me
I love that you’re there
Delightful
I love that you care
Marvelous cook
I love that you love me
Always looking out for me
And I love you
Love, Jason Patino
Love, Rejhan
RIPPLES
VOLUME
1
ISSUE
PAGE
2
Grammy
You are the one that makes the stars shine bright,
The one that makes the moon light up the night.
You are the one that makes bad days ebb away,
You are the one who makes everything seem okay.
I know that I may not be the most stable,
But when I’m with you I feel the most able
To do whatever it is I set my mind to,
And I know that this is all due to you.
I love it when you smile because it makes my heart sing,
And when I hear you laugh, it pulls at my strings
For I know that your laughter is tinged with pain,
But you push on and your love will never wane.
Your life has had it struggles,
And yet I still come to you with all my troubles.
I wish I could erase all the tragedies you suffered,
But for now I will simply write how I wish to make you happy.
I wish to make your sorrow disappear
And make it so you never again shed a tear.
Your time on this Earth has never been easy,
But to say that you are the best thing in the world would be inadequate and cheesy.
You are so much more than that,
And you of all people should know,
That no matter what you say or do,
I will always love you.
Love, Josephine
9
Short Stories of a Scared 6th Grader
By: Josephine Ann Russo
Continued from the last issue
Miss Flagon's bright green hair was held back with a lime green, sequined headband that looked like
scales and her red eyes were fully exposed to everyone. They were round, wide, and when she blinked her
green eye shadow was shown and for some reason it gave Jodie more goose bumps. Miss Flagon’s dress was
to her shins, but it was puffy and went out a considerable distance from her waist. She also made sure she
never turned her back on the class, even when she walked up and down in front of the room and she seemed
to be side stepping almost. This odd behavior made Jodie wonder what her teacher could possibly be trying to
conceal behind her, and whether or not she should be concerned about it.
Leaning close to Duke, she whispered “She has to be wearing contacts. She’s not an albino and no one
else has red eyes like that. What do you think?”
Before he could answer, Miss Flagon had turned her head towards the two of them and hissed, “Misss
Ferrell and Mr. Wetherssson, I would appreciate it if you could wait to converssse until after I am done
sssspeaking.”
Looking her straight in the eye, Jodie replied, “Yessss Miss Flagon.” This caused the whole class to erupt
with laughter and Miss Flagon just stared at Jodie. Her nostrils flared slightly, and Jodie thought she saw a
little puff of smoke eke out of one of them, but she convinced herself she had imagined it. However, Miss Flagon regained her composure, quieted the class and continued on with her speech. By the time she was done,
the bell was about to ring for the next period and Jodie had already thoroughly scanned through her schedule.
She had specials next, and she had computers with Mrs. Renauld, then math with Mrs. W., then social studies
with Mr. Leprelf, then science with Miss Flagon. After that she had lunch and recess, and then she had reading
with Mrs. Vampira, then P.E. with Mr. Clops and Mrs. Wolf, then writing with Mrs. Ledusa, and finally quiet
study with Mrs. Vampira again. Suddenly, the bell rang for the next period, but this time it sounded as if a giant pair of wind chimes had been struck by a powerful gust of wind and Jodie became serene and almost
drowsy. She grabbed her binders for the morning and dreamily drifted over to the door of the science room.
Just as she was stepping out, Miss Flagon hissed quietly from her desk, “I would be careful if I were you, Misss
Ferrell. Teachersssss here at Fantasssy Middle Sssschool do not do well with trouble makersss.” This sent a
shiver up Jodie’s spine, but she kept walking and headed over to her next class.
Throughout the morning she had met some very interesting teachers. Mrs. Renauld was just an average
teacher, except she seemed a bit timid and jumpy every time a teacher walked past the classroom and eventually she had to shut the door to make her feel safe. In math, Jodie learned Mrs. W.’s actual last name, and it
was Witch.
It looked like Mrs. Witch on the board though, so that’s what Jodie called her at first. However, Mrs. W. stated firmly that it was pronounced with a long ‘i’ and that she was not an evil spell caster, to which Jodie giggled
since Mrs. W.’s screen saver on her computer was in fact a cartoon witch on a broomstick. In social studies,
Mr. Leprelf turned out to be a short little man with bright orange hair who liked to wear green suits. He started the class off asking people what their favorite color was. If they said anything other than green he would
frown and seem a little agitated. By the time he got to Jodie, she had caught on to his character a little bit and
cleverly said, “Oh, I could never pick any one color, I prefer the rainbow if anything.” To this Mr. Leprelf clicked
his heels together and patted Jodie on the head for “the best answer he had heard all day” and he gave her a
little fake piece of gold…..or at least, she thought it was fake. When she got to science however, Jodie knew
she would not have such an easy time getting to know Miss Flagon, since her little stunt that morning had not
put her on her good side.
Quietly, Jodie slid into her seat in class and unloaded her binders on her desk and waited for the rest of the
class to file in. Eventually they did, and the kid who sat next to her came in last. She was a bit strange though,
because she had ear muffs covering her ears and wouldn’t look anyone in the eye. Jodie attempted to introduce herself, but the girl just gave her a frightened look and gripped her binder, so Jodie thought it best to just
leave the poor girl alone. While she waited for the bell to ring, Jodie took out a pack of sticky notes and began
to draw little cartoons of Miss Flagon with wings, screaming at kids and she passed them around the room. As
everyone laughed as they saw the drawings, Jodie knew that she had probably just made things worse for herself in that class, but she didn’t care. After all, didn’t she tell Duke that she wanted to test the teachers that
day? Suddenly, the bell rang again, and Mrs. Flagon stepped into the room and began her lesson. She said,
“Boysss and girlssss, for thosssse of you who do not have me asss your homeroom teacher, I am Misss Flagon
and I will be your ssscience teacher thisss year. We will be learning a lot about the Earth, ssso for today’ssss
classss, you are going to get to go outssside to learn more about the Earth. Gather your belongings and head
outssssside where Misssss Ssssmith, my ssstudent teacher thisss year, will be waiting for you.”
Immediately, everyone scrambled excitedly out of their seats and headed for the door. However, just as
Jodie was about to leave her seat, Miss Flagon stood up and said, “Everyone but you, Missss Ferrell. You will
sssstay in here with me for the period.” Jodie nodded slowly, and sat back down in her chair, her heart in her
throat. It wasn’t that she was afraid that she was going to get a detention; she feared for her safety. By that
time she knew that Miss Flagon wasn’t just a mean teacher, but instead something far more deadly. No normal human being had red eyes, green hair and had a forked tongue, and this could only mean one thing; Miss
Flagon wasn’t human at all. It made sense, since every other teacher at Fantasy Middle School wasn’t normal
either, and Jodie had come to the conclusion that none of them were human. I don’t know what they are or
why they’re teaching in a middle school, she thought to herself, but I know for certain that I don’t want to be
stuck in a room alone with one of them, especially with this…..this……this dragon. Wait, that’s it! Miss Flagon is
a dragon lady! How did I not realize it before? The green hair and clothes, the red eyes, the forked tongue and
her lisp! Oh, and she probably has a tail too! That’s why she tried so hard not to turn around and that’s why
she wore that puffy dress, to hide her tail. Oh my God, my science teacher’s a dragon! I’m stuck alone in a
room with a dragon!......To be continued in the next issue!
Congratulations to the Cast, Crew, Advisors, and
Set Design Team of the Eighth Grade Play!
Thank you Meaghan McGill for the
Acting Workshop (6th grade Reading class)!