Volume 2, Issue 13
January 30, 2015
Crisis with Isis
Mark Your
Calendar
Girls BB VS NEFF–
February 4th
Boys BB VS NEFF–
February 5th
Early Release– February 6th
Food Bank–
February 7th
By Ailady
Isis is a terrorist group that has
taken over Mosul, Iraq’s greatest
city. Its “power base” is in Raqq,
eastern Syria which controls more
than 50% of Syria’s oil assets.
Controlling this great number of
oil fields causes Isis to be making
up to $3.0 million every day. It all
commenced as an “al Qaeda splinter group.” Their purpose was to
create an Islamic state across Syria
and to spread their religion. They
kill anyone who doesn’t agree with
their religion and beheads Christians.
Their leader is Abu BakraBaghdadi. Not much is known
about him but a biography was
made on a website in 2013 which
said he earned a doctorate in Islamic studies.
Isis is known for taking dozens of
lives at a time. On June 9, 2014
Isis released thousands of prisoners. Isis has taken over Mosul,
Tikrit,Al-Qaim and much more
territory. They don’t respect borders and have taken over mine
fields in which it gives them an
abundant supply of fuel for their
vehicles and an abundance of profit in black markets. On June,
2014, Isis took over lands and the
Iraq government restricted border
crossings and helped refugees
escape the fighting. On June, 30,
2014 the pentagon announced
sending additional 300 troops to
Iraq bringing a total of 800 troops
in Iraq already. In July, Isis took
over a gas field and killed about
270 troops in Iraq already. They
also destroyed a major religious
holy site in Mosul.
But what got the most attention
was what happened on August 19,
2014. A U.S. journalist named
James Foley was killed by Isis
militants; it was caught on camera
and posted on YouTube. They
threatened to kill another captured
U.S. journalist. On September, 2,
2014 Isis released another video of
the beheading of Steven Sotloff.
The executioner seems to be the
same person in the both videos
because of the same British accent.
On October, 3, 2014 Isis released a
third video killing another captive.
The United States carried out air
Strikes against Isis on September,
23, 2014. “The bombings are
focused on Isis, a city in Northern
Syria,” according to CNN news.
“Let’s be clear about Isis. They
have rampaged across cities and
villages, killing innocent, unarmed
civilians in cowardly acts of violence….No just God would stand
for what they did yesterday and
what they do every single day,”
said President Obama.
The terrorist group has also kidnapped and abused many women,
leaving them traumatized. They
killed innocents who don’t believe
their beliefs.
Isis commits cruel acts, they take
over land and they take lives of the
innocent. Isis is a cruel terrorist
group and they’re growing. Isis is
a crisis in which our own nation is
in danger.
Iraqi girl cries for her father while
she and some other people are
flown to safety on August
11,2014
http:www.cnn.com
Rebel Weekly
Looking up to Barbie?
However, she promotes an unhealthy life style.
By Joslynn and Alyssa
Girls, do you remember when
you were little and you would
play with the famous Barbie
doll? You may also remember
wishing you could be skinny and
beautiful like Barbie. Did you
ever realize the bad messages the
doll had sent?
Barbie is a highly popular doll.
In fact, the doll is the number one
best-selling toy in history, according to http://
www.barbiemedia.com, topping
Legos and Rubik’s Cube. She is
a role model and many girls who
wish to have a figure like her.
If Barbie was life size, she
would be 5’9” and would weigh
110 lbs. According to
www.cdc.gov, a healthy weight
range for a woman of that height
would be 125 lbs-168 lbs. As
you can see, Barbie is very underweight. She would have a
BMI of 16.24, under the healthy
range of 18.5-24.9. BMI or
Body Mass Index, is a weight-toheight ratio used as an indicator
of how obese or underweight a
person is. She would also fit the
weight criteria of anorexia. Anorexia is an emotional disorder,
affecting mostly females, where
they starve themselves in order to
lose weight, which is very unhealthy and dangerous.
In 1965, a slumber party Barbie
was sold. She had a scale and a
book titled “How to Lose Weight”.
This was disturbing because the
scale was at 110 lbs. and on the
book the words, “Don’t Eat” were
written. Barbie was supporting
anorexia, which claims the lives of
about 237,000 people per year.
You may remember looking up to
Barbie displaying an unrealBarbie and you may know younger istic body image
children that look up to her right
now. However, do you really want https://c2.staticflickr.com
them to look up to an anorexic,
plastic doll?
Advice Colum
Dear Mr. Green and Ms. Gold,
How can I improve my health. I’m a little overweight and I want to be
in better shape.
Signed,
Sluggish
Dear Sluggish, After a lively discussion, Mr. Green and I came up with
few things that are sure to help. Eating more fruits and vegetables is
one of the simplest things you can do to enhance your health. Also, cut
down on the junk food—chips, sweets, sodas, etc. Lastly, get out there
and exercise! Getting your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes a day
will help you burn calories and lose weight. Best of health to you, dear!
Menu Of The Week:
Monday:
Sweet & Sour
Chicken w/ Brown
Rice
Tuesday:
Lasagna w/ Garlic
Toast
Wednesday:
Cheese Enchiladas
w/ Cornbread
Thursday:
Chicken Tender
w/ Wheat Roll
Friday:
BBQ Chicken Leg
w/ Wheat Roll
DON’T FORGET TO SUBMIT WRITING PIECES AND ARTWORK TO POSSIBLY
BE FEATURED IN AN UPCOMING ISSUE!
Find us online on our campus webpage: http://nisd.net/schools/info/43
Page 2
Volume 2, Issue 13
Peer Pressure
By Jonathan and David
Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve been pressured into something? Of course
you have. At one point or another in our lives, we’ve all been
influenced. Influences can be
good or bad. In this article we
are going to focus on bad influences. Some types of influences
are drugs and bad/inappropriate
behavior. Most peer pressure
happens in middle school and
high school. It does happen in
elementary but you’re often too
young to do anything seriously
wrong.
In middle school though, you’re
trying to find yourself and in
doing so you cling to someone.
Even if they are a bad or good
influence you will cling to them.
Some people fall into peer pressure because they believe that
Student Art
Page 3
they will be cool and fit in.
There are thousands of kids that
get pressured to do drugs even
when they were not thinking
they would do it. But if you care
about yourself you will say no
when it happens to you.
What drugs do to your body is
extremely bad. Eighth graders,
do you remember back in December when we watched the
videos, “Choosing the best
path?” Most of the kids in the
video said they did what they did
because they were pressured into
it. For the most part, kids fell
into pressure because they wanted to be cool and fit in. If you’re
confronted by the people who do
stupid things will you join them
or will you make good and
thoughtful decisions? We hope
you make the right choice.
There are examples out there of kids being good influences.
“Teenagers can set positive examples for each other and are
drawn to other teens who have the same interests and similar academic standings,” according to the article
"Friendships, Peer Influence, and Peer Pressure During the
Teen Years,” which was published on the University of
Nebraska, Lincoln website. For example, a teenager who is
hesitant about joining the drama club might be more likely
to take a chance when pressured by peers. If friends say,
"Come on, we're all joining," or "You have natural talent. I
think you'd be perfect for that role," the teen's confidence
may increase. Remember that anything anybody tells you
to do is ultimately your choice. So keep your head up and
watch out for peer pressure. It is everywhere.
Writing Corner
The order of how
peer pressure begins
Flickr.com
Rebel Weekly
Embarrassing Moment
Quote Of The Week
Teacher Rips Pants
By anonymous
“I was teaching at Connelly Middle School and it was
my third year of teaching. I was floating that year so I
didn’t have my own classroom and I was in my friend’s
classroom. I was teaching my sixth graders and I always kind of squat down to talk to my students at their
desks when we are doing writing practice. I was sitting
next to this one kid and I heard a rip. And there was
cool air where there shouldn’t be. So I stood up and
told my kids, you guys are going to forever know me as
the teacher who ripped her pants.”
You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep
re-reading the last one. —Anonymous
Word Of The Week
Word: Assessment
Definition: The evaluation or estimation of the nature,
quality, or ability of someone or something.
Used in a sentence: You will now take an assessment in
math class to see how much you have learned.
Joke
A group of
crows is called
a murder.
http://uselessfacts.net/
Brain Teaser
One fine day in the middle of the night
Two dead men got up to fight
Back to back they faced each other
Drew their swords and shot each other!
What is wrong with this?
Educated Abuse
By Celeste
Imagine yourself in a classroom where you
are surrounded by classmates. The teacher
calls your name to answer a question. You
hesitate to think. You do not understand the
concept that is being taught. It has been too
long to answer the question. The teacher loses
her patience and calls you out in the front of
the room. You know what is coming; you
have seen kids getting beaten for punishment.
What happened afterwards left you traumatized for life.
It is very uncommon for a situation like this to
happen today. Teachers today will treat their
students as if they were their own. However
that has not always been the case. Children
were spanked and mocked in front of classrooms in former generations. In fact, there
are places that still enforce corporal punishment. Corporal punishment is a form of phys-
http://www.squiglysplayhouse.com
ical punishment that involves the deliberate
infliction of pain as retribution. Teachers either take an object (like a paddle) or use their
hand to smack their students.
Some parents discipline their children by
physical punishment but what exactly gave
them the idea that physical punishment is a
good choice of punishment rather than other
types of punishment?
Research by Gagne, Tourigny, Joly, and
Pauliot Lapointe, who studied corporal punishment’s effects, found that adults who received corporal punishment in their childhood
were very likely to use it on their own kids.
They found that 30% of parents believed that
spanking was not harmful to their children. Of
those same adults, some showed great mental
disorder of some sort that resulted from getting physical and or verbal punishment as a
kid.
Answer: Day
to night, dead
men cannot
fight. Back to
back, how
could they
face each other? Swords
don’t shoot.
Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what
was the highest mountain in the world?
Answer: Mt. Everest; it just
wasn‘t discovered yet.
Interesting Fact
If corporal punishment was banned there
would be less child abuse because people will
have the mentality to realize that people
should not inflict harm on one another. In
fact, there should not be exceptions to put
hands on one another in the first place.
In conclusion, banning corporal punishment
can prevent childhood mental and physical
abuse. Even though teachers who disagree
may say that physical punishment can help
them learn, the truth is, the only thing that the
children are learning is never ending pain.
The paddle was often used as a
form of corporal punishment.