Physical Education: Ups and Downs - isb.be · ISB, if she would truly missed, Ms. Corcoran claimed...

June 2006 The Crusader

Physical Education: Ups and DownsBy Mai Kusayangi

“GET YOU BUMS MOVING!AND GO RUN TWO LAPS!” Anotherexciting P.E. class has just begun. P.E.,which stands for Physical Education, isALL about mov-ing your body andstaying healthilyfit. That doesn’tnecessarily meanwe have to bemuscular, it justmeans we haveP.E. to stayhealthy. An excit-ing class of P.E.usually starts withwarming up. Typi-cally, jogging, butsmall games like“capture the flag”or “dodge ball” arecertainly betterpreferred. Thencomes the specificsport or activitythat you will play throughoutthe unit. If you like to play dif-ferent sports, P.E. is most likely yourfavorite subject. As Physical Educationis probably the most interactive subjectin school, many people say that it istheir favorite subject.

“P.E. is so much fun. We get toplay lots of sports, and I enjoy it a lot”says a seventh grade student, whowishes to remain anonymous. “It mustbe so hard for the teachers. We’re soloud in P.E.”.

Indeed, it is quite challenging for theP.E. teachers to keep all the studentsfocused and quiet as Miss Sue Tingley,a P.E. teacher here at ISB says. She ex-plains that the students usually get alittle chaotic when they are involved inan energizing activity. So yes, maybe

we should take it a little easy in P.E.class… at least for the teachers.

Some typical games played inP.E. are soccer, basketball, volleyball

and fitness. You will most likely playthese sports in any school that hasteaches physical education. Severalother sports that might be played areAmerican football, ping pong, gymnas-tics, hockey… the list can go on and on.In ISB, the most popular sport seems tobe soccer.

“Yea soccer is one of my favoritesports. It’s really fun and I like how weget to kick and chase after the ball.”Said a seventh grader, Lisi Haberbauer.Many people seem to enjoy team sportsmore than individual sports like crosscountry.

“There is more strategy involved inteam sports; when a whole teamsucceeds it feels cool, rather than just

you celebrating by urself. You learn towork with other people and you canmake new friends.” Dominic Ferrissays, “I just like working and

a c c o m p l i s h i n gsomething with agroup of people Ican work with”.

In P. E. ,there are generallytwo types of warm-ups. One, is justrunning one or twolaps, and thenstratching yourmuscles. The secondtype is playing asmall game ofdodgeball or somekind of runninggame, like tag.“I prefer jogginga n d s t r e t ch in gbecause it’s simple,short and effective.

The other games we playtend to be strange and

require more than necessary energy.” JoOgunleye said.

Melis Ataol, having a similaropinion, says

“I prefer the jogging and stretchingbecause it’s usually just like running forabout a minute which is nothing; andthen it’s over. But with dodgeball andother games, it takes too long”.

Physical Education is animportant part of children’s education.But the actual way that the children arebeing educated, can never satisfy everychildren. People always seem to find away to insult many things, but maybeit’s time to consider the trouble theteachers go through to make the lessonsas good and fun as possible.

Another PE class kicks off in fine stylePhoto: file

Farewell to all the teachers leaving!Ms. Thomas, Ms. Strucchelli, Mr. Bell, Mr.Ruskay, Ms. MacIsaac, Mr. Morandi and Ms.Farris, we’ll miss you SOOO much!!! Good

luck!The Crusader staff

3

June 2006 The Crusader 4

NEWSA Farewell and Salute to the Leader of TheCrusaderby Youri Smouter

It’s a major loss to both Journalism,Student Council, and The English De-partment, and its one in which a lot of usin Middle School can’t help but feel sadfor. And that is that The Leader of theCrusader, English Teacher Ms. SarahThomas, is moving to Massachusetts inthe US to explore other interests. TheCrusader wanted to knowmore details and so an inter-view with Ms. Thomas wentunderway.

She explained in briefdetail why she was moving.“I’m going back to school, toget a PhD in curriculum andteaching at Boston Univer-sity.” When asked on herfeelings in moving back tothe US and her views on thefuture she described it as“it’s bittersweet, I’m excitedto go back to school, and becloser to my family, but it’sdifficult because I enjoyedmy time in Brussels”. Ms. Tho-mas was later asked on heroutlook getting here in Bel-gium and again having to leave. “It wasfun while I was here, it will be a diffi-cult move because I’ve been here forabout six years now” she replied.

Ms. Thomas’s greatest memoriesconsisted of “the first field trip with 8th

Grade (Normandy). I had no clue what Iwas doing and was amazed with thehundred plus kids.” Another memorablemoment revealed was “the girls soccerteam taking 2nd Place at ISST in 2004and the teacher retreat in Malmady.”

Of the Middle School she said, “Ithink it’s a great place to work. It has agreat faculty, everyone is very suppor-tive, and the kids are very curious andfun to work with.”

Another person very close to Ms.Thomas was none other than Dr. Crow-ley. Crowley who retired as an English/Journalism teacher was replaced by Ms.Thomas when she arrived, and he sharedsome thoughts about Ms. Thomas.

“I think she was always really fo-cused on students, always has been posi-

tive and cheerful. I think she’s done anawful lot of good for people at MiddleSchool, teachers and students, and shebrought The Crusader to a higher levelmore than I did”.

Dr. Crowley was later asked his ownthought about Ms. Thomas leaving andhe had some nice things to say.

“ O b v i o u s l yI am very sorry to see her go, but verypleased to see her continue further edu-cation. I encourage her, and I don’tthink we will completely lose her. Helater finished with some final words“thank you, good luck, and see youwhen you return to ISB as a professorwith a big consulting firm. And remem-

ber me, before you were famous.” During Ms. Thomas’s stay here at

ISB and Belgium, she truly made quite aremarkable mark. From an Englishteacher, to The Crusader, to this year’sStudent Council, as well as a soccercoach, it is hard to forget, let alone notmiss her. For two years she was Master

of Ceremonies at the 7th GradePoetry Celebration and advisorfor Kattenberg Papers for fiveyears. A final word of thought wasgiven to Ms. Thomas, whenfriend of hers Ms. Corcoranmade time for an interview. Shesaid when asked what she’llremember most about Ms. Tho-mas that “I will remember herpositive attitude, I will keep intouch with her, and I will see heragain”. When asked on behalf ofISB, if she would truly missed,Ms. Corcoran claimed “She isalways there for her students,

and is so involved in ISB life fromJournalism, Student Council, and soc-cer, so she will be missed”. Ms. Cor-

coran later gave a final thought on Ms.Thomas the person, not the teacher.“She is kind and funny, very adventur-ous, optimistic, open minded, and she isthere for her students and teachers whenthey need her”.

And so there you go. A wonderful,inspiring, bright and yet another teacherwill be leaving ISB/Middle School. Wehope and know she will be remem-bered.Her memory and work has donemore for ISB/Middle School than manywell know. For someone who’s beenhere six years, it’s all gone by so fast.Now going on to further interests, wegive a final farewell and salute to theLeader of the Crusader.

Ms. Thomas and her class give the camera a final salutePhoto: James Duguid

THE CRUSADER STAFF WISHES EVERY-ONE A HAPPY AND ENJOYABLE

BREAK!!!


The Story of 36 Wonderful YearsBy Émilie Couture

Everyone knows this tall man whoappears to live on the English floor ofthe Middle School building. After beingat ISB for 36years, Mr. Bell isfinally retiringafter a great careeras a Middle SchoolEnglish teacher.Mr. Bell is nowpart of the MS andfits in along withevery other personpresent in thisbuilding.

Mr. Bell firstcame to ISB inSeptember 1970,36 years ago, afterstudying in manyplaces such asMichigan StateUniversity. He hasalways been an Englishteacher though when he firstcame to ISB he was also offered thepossibility to teach Social Studies aswell, but settled for English. Since then,Mr. Bell has been a teacher to manystudents in the Middle School and isnow retiring.

This retirement came for the simplereason that Mr. Bell received a letterabout his pension, which made him real-

ize that it might be time for him to retiredue also to his age. Mr. Bell will remainin Belgium after his retirement and will

try to enjoy him-self as much aspossible now thathe doesn’t have toworry about grad-ing all sorts ofassignments forhis students ormaking sure hehas all his lessonsplanned everydayand every week.Since coming toISB Mr. Bell, hasmet all sorts ofstudents. Whenasked if he washappy with whathe has achievedduring the 36

years he spent at ISB, Mr.Bell simply replied in a hu-

morous way “Have I achieved any-thing?” From what past students say,Mr. Bell should feel like he achievedsomething with all the crazy teenagershe met. He has also received apprecia-tion awards from students which goes toshow that maybe he did achieve some-thing in the end.

After asking a few of Mr. Bell’s

current and past students what how theyfeel about Mr. Bell leaving and if theyenjoyed having him as a teacher themost common answer was that Mr. Bellwas an inspiration for many it might feelweird walking around the MiddleSchool and not seeing Mr. Bell some-where on the English floor, if not any-where else. Mr. Bell was an importantpart of the Middle School and there willbe a feeling of emptiness on the Englishfloor.

Mr. Bell has many memories fromthe 36 years he spent at ISB. “I don’thave any specific memories. What itmainly is is a mix of many things andalso of the combination of all the stu-dents I met over the years,” said Mr.Bell. “The one thing I will remember isthat ISB is a happy place to be andwork.” It looks like Mr. Bell will beleaving this school with many wonder-ful memories.

At the end of this school year, theMiddle School will be losing a greatteacher amongst many others. Whatthing for is for sure though many stu-dents and teachers will miss having Mr.Bell around. All we can do is wish himgood luck and to enjoy his retirement.Mr. Bell has been at ISB for so long anddone such a great job teaching the Eng-lish language that he is getting a welldeserved retirement.

Interview With an Ex-Student of Mr. BellBy Harry Cross

Mr. Bell is retiring from ISB at theend of this year after his 36th year work-ing in this school. He has been servingus so long that his former student Deb-bie Barter, who was in his class from1972 – 1974, is now a teacher in theSpecial Ed. Department.

I asked her a series of questions onwhat ISB and Mr. Bell’s classes werelike when he first came. I was told thathe had taught a joint class with Ms. Pur-cell.

“I recall this exceptional duo as be-ing dynamic, enthusiastic, committed totheir principles and values, as well asbeing entertaining and inspiring,” saysMs. Barter.

The English class of that time con-sisted of reading novels, writing poetryand studying grammar, along with re-flecting upon how one could make the

world a better placeto live in by recog-nizing, acceptingand celebrating dif-ferences.

Ms. Barter says:“I believe that a seedwas sown then,which was to deter-mine my choice ofstudies and career. Ibecame fascinatedwith the understand-ing of language ac-quisition and devel-opment, and thuspursued to do mymasters in Speechand Language Pa-thology.”

After working for 8

years in the Europeanschool of Uccle withchildren who had ar-ticulation problemsand/or language delay,Ms. Barter came towork here and hasdone so for twelveyears. Her childrenEliot and Alexina arenow both students inthe MS.She finishes by say-ing: “…I had neverimagined I would beworking alongside theteachers which I ad-mired so much. Mr.Bell will always stay

in my memory as beingone of the best.”

Mr. Bell in 1970Source: Mr. Bell

Mr Bell in 1980Source: Mr. Bell


The eighth grade Fieldtrip to NormandyBy Erika Wingerter

The eighth graders that partook inthe Normandy field trip were filledwith mixed feelings throughout theweek. The happiness of starting a brandnew year as a ninth grader but the sad-ness of the realization that another yearof middle school had flown right by.The despondency that comes with thefarewell of goodfriends and teach-ers but the contentrecognition thatthere will be nu-merous new peo-ple to befriendnext year but ofcourse the maintopic on every-one’s mind wasthe fact that wewere missing fivedays of school.Yes, by the end ofthe week peoplewere running outof toothpaste andclean socks butemotions were theone thing that werenot in short sup-ply.

The trip began, as anyother trip would, with anearly departure at eight thirty and thestudents waved goodbye to an emptymiddle school. After two and a halfhours of seemingly endless driving andnonstop talking we took a break fromthe bus and went to the Somme Valleyin France for visits to Thiepal Monu-ment and Beaumont-Hamel. The Thi-epal Monument had a huge arch in-scribed with names of missing soldiersfrom WWI as its center memorial andtoward the back of the monument was acluster of graves of both British andFrench. Following the stop at ThiepalMonument we made our way to Beau-mont-Hamel Newfoundland memorial.We took a tour of the trenches that hadbeen preserved and saw the statue ofthe caribou, the symbol of Newfound-land, to commemorate the Newfound-landers that gave their lives there. Weproceeded to pile back on to the bus foranother long ride. We then arrived atthe hostel and waited nervously asrooms were assigned and we finallylearned who our roommates would befor the next five days. Whether the

room assignments were exactly whatyou wanted or you were extremely up-set with the outcome, everyone washappy to have a pillow to rest their tiredheads on. The worry about roommatesseemed to vanish from every person’sattention; everyone rushed to theirrooms because their minds had been

consumed of thoughts of fatigue andthe need for a shower. Finally the lastand possibly the most awaited for eventof the day, dinner. After everyone feltmore than full people casually madetheir way to their rooms and preparedfor the next day of activities.

Bright and early was the beginningof the second day at Normandy.Though the wakeup called was muchless than needed to get people up andout to breakfast, most 8th graders madebreakfast on time or early. The Frenchand English busses were separated forthat day but were reunited for free timeand dinner. The English busses left thehostel and made their way to OmahaBeach and its memorial. We not onlygot to learn about the history but we gotto see exactly where it happened so asto better visualize the horrific eventsthat were gripping the world in WWII.Following the Omaha beach visit westopped at Pointe du Hoc and glimpsedthe destroyed battlefield that was punc-tured with craters made by devastatingbombs and unbearable artillery. After

being joining up with our other bilin-gual half, the French group, we filled inthe last hours of the day at the beach infront of the hostel.

Wednesday was filled with unan-swered questions about a mysteriousevent that the teacher’s planned for thestudents every year after the scheduled

proceedings ofthe day. Theday was set inmotion by avisit to theBayeux tapes-try and thecathedral nearby. We weregiven freetime for luncha n d som elucky studentsmanaged tolocate a res-taurant sellingB e n a n dJerry’s icecream. Need-less to say Iam almostpositive that

that particular caféhad no ice cream leftby the end of the day.

We left for St. Marie-Eglise, where aparatrooper accidentally got caught onthe church but survived. There now is amannequin in his place to represent theparatroopers’ valor and how gratefulthe people in the town are to them. Wesaw the museum across from thechurch and then we made our last stopof the day at a German cemetery. Then,finally the surprise group activity wasbeing announced we were taken ontothe beach and because there were al-ready shovels and buckets laid outmany kids guessed before they weretold. Sandcastle building! Everyonewas putting in their best effort to win.The castles were varied in theme, sizeand sometimes even in the materials.Of course sand was used, rocks andshells and occasionally we saw someseaweed. The day had ended and noone went back to their room withoutunintentionally bringing some sandwith them.

Day four and not only were theFrench and English busses separated

(Continued on page 7)

Eighth graders investigating part of the destroyed portable harbor of ArromanchesSource: Erika Wingerter


once again but the English busses weresplit into bus one and bus two, depart-ing at different times from the hostel.“Don’t wear flip-flops” was the numberone rule because we were walking toArromanches on the beach. It was apleasant thirty-minute walk and waspreceded by a guided visit of the Arro-manches museum that was devoted tothe artificial harbor built there inWWII. We were then reunited with thesecond English bus, and they both de-parted for a visit of Calvados. We wereallowed to taste some of the alcoholmade by Calvados and then we werepermitted to buy a bottle for our par-ents. Then we drove back to the hostel

for what would be our last night in Nor-mandy.

No one could believe the trip hadgone by so fast. It seemed we werewaving goodbye to our parents a sec-ond ago and now we were headingback! Despite the fact if we wanted toor not we loaded the busses and beganour long trip back. Four hours hadpassed and we stopped for a visit of thecathedral at Amiens. Then our last stop,before our arrival at the school, a breakfor lunch. Then three and a half morehours and we had arrived to the famil-iar school we see everyday. Our parentsand siblings all waiting for us to pileoff the bus and retrieve our bag whichis exactly what we did. Our trip had

come to an end.The trip to Normandy was not only

educational but was fun as well. It flewright by which adds even more evi-dence to the assumption that “time flieswhen you’re having fun.” At school weread and learn from textbooks about theconflicts between countries and how itcan lead to violence but throughout thistrip we were given the opportunity tounderstand more in-depth the eventsthroughout the World Wars and see theplaces that were so essential during thebattles. I found the trip to be a reward-ing experience and I can’t wait to seethose of you who are staying for theLoire Valley field trip in ninth grade.

(Continued from page 6)

A bon voyage in BrittanyBy Johanne Arnet

The school trips, probably one ofthe most enjoying school events of theyear. Getting to travel, see new things,learn new things, and best of all, spendtime with your friends in the sun (ifthere happens to be any).

These trips were organized sowe can seeand learn newthings aboutother areasand culturesother thanBelgium. See-ing the sitesand adaptingto the differ-ent life stylesteaches uss o m e t h i n gnew and excit-ing.

On the 15th

of May 07:45am, the sev-enth gradepiled onto ourbusses at thechâteau to beon our way toSt. Malo,France. Wetraveled bythree busses, one Frenchbus and two English busses.

May 16th, after getting up at 7:15am, weleft for our first adventurous day. Wespent our day touring Les Sable D’ordes Pins to do some beach study. Forlunch, we picnicked at the beach beforedeparting for the Grand Aquarium. At

the aquarium, we learnt a lot about thedifferent species of fish and sea inhabi-tants. After an exhausting day, we de-parted for the hostel.

May 17th, up and ready at 8:00, we leftfor our second day in Brittany. On oursecond day we jumped onto the busses

and drove to the Pointe de Grouin for agroup challenge. The challenge was thefirst chaperone group to build and suc-cessfully fly a kite, the first one to ac-complish this would win. After lower-ing our kites and having an hour offree-time in Cancale, we left for the

Marine Farm. At the Marine Farm wetried the famous oyster. When everyonehad finished their oyster, we left for thehostel once again.

May 18th, on our third day we went toMont St. Michel to tour the castle. Wespent an hour for lunch and shopping in

St. Malo, afterwe had gatheredtogether as agroup we weregiven our mapsand answersheets for ourRoad Rally. Weall separatedinto our chaper-one groups andstar ted ourscavenger hunt.When we weredone with run-ning aroundtown lookingfor the answersto the questions,we had half anhour more freetime before wetook a very longbut enjoyingwalk on thebeach back to

the hostel.May 19th, after a superb voyage in

St. Malo, and learning lots about theculture and history of Brittany, wepiled onto our busses and journeyedback to Brussels.

The seventh grade says goodbye to St. Malo


History + Fun Activities = The Loire ValleyBy Émilie Couture

8

Monday, May 15 2006. The entireninth grade is gathered at the Châteauparking lot at 7:30 am. We are waitingfor instructions as to when and how toboard the buses that will lead us to theLoire Valley in France. First, the divi-sion between who is going on theFrench bus and who is going on theEnglish bus. Then comes the suppos-edly organized boarding of the buses.And off we go.

The first stopafter about three hoursof traveling: the well-known Château deVersailles. After aquick lunch we headedtowards the gardens ofthis wonderful château.We are shown the mostimportant and interest-ing characteristics ofthis park. About twohours later we are backon the busses andheaded towards Che-digny in the Loire Val-ley, where will be stay-ing for the week tocome. Following thefirst day comes the in-tense chateau visiting, gastronomytours and enjoyable activities. Through-out the week we had the chance to visitthe Clos-Lucé where Leonardo daVinci resided during the years of hislife, the Chenonceau château that ispartly built over the Cher River, theCheverny château that is well-knownfor its hunting dogs and for being thecastle known as Moulinsart in Tintin,and the impressive Chambord château

known for its many towers and impres-sive two-way winding staircase. Lastbut not least we were able to enjoy anighttime light and sound show pro-jected on the Blois château. But visitingchateaus wasn’t all we did. OnWednesday we were treated with aminature gastronomic tour completewith goat cheese tasting, wine cellarvisiting and mushroom caves. The trip

wasn’t all about working hard. Theninth graders got the opportunity to do17 km of kayaking on the Loire Riverand to go biking and boat rowing in thepark of Chambord.

“We chose the Loire Valley be-cause that is where the Renaissancestarted in France because of Françoisthe First who asked Leonardo da Vincito come to France for the last years ofhis life,” Said assistant head Mme

Frankard. “We have now been going tothe Loire Valley for 17 years and it willcontinue to be that way for a while.”

Most of the students enjoyedthis trip but as usual there are the fewwho just don’t like anything that has todo with school. However, most every-one had their favorite activities duringand shared their thoughts. “I enjoyedkayaking the most. It was fun to see the

different people trying torace each other,” said Cris-tina Wingerter.While some people en-joyed activities that every-one did, others had memo-ries not related to the cha-teaus. “One night at din-ner, we decided to gothrough without cursing.We had just started whenall of a sudden I say some-thing and a curse wordcomes out. We all startlaughing and my friendalmost spits out the mouth-ful of food he had justtaken. In a way it was dis-gusting but it was sofunny,” said Guillermo

Dochao-Naveira.Overall the trip went well.

Though everything was fun, we allwere eager to go home, relax and tofinally get enough sleep after the crazyweek we had just lived. For the ninthgraders this was the last week-long tripat ISB and the teachers in charge of thistrip made sure we would enjoy it asmuch as possible.

The French group in front of Chambord after their boating trip

Eggs with Green HamBy Sam de Ferranti

Most people have heard of thechild’s book Green Eggs and Ham buthave you ever heard of Eggs and GreenHam. When the lights dim, the scien-tists wait one second for their eyes toadjust to the light. Yes, what they areseeing is green. They are green all theway through green heart, green lungsand green snouts. These were thethoughts of scientists from a geneticengineering laboratory in Taiwan. Theyhave genetically engineered three pigsthat glow in the dark.

Taiwan University's Department ofAnimal Science and Technology hascreated these green pigs by injectedfluorescent green protein from jelly fishinto pigs during the embryonic stage.These pigs glow green in the dark andduring the daytime have green tingedeyes, skin, trotters, teeth and snout.These pigs are not the world’s firstglowing pigs but the previous glowingpigs had a mere partial glow to themwhile these Taiwanese pigs are green tothe core. So far the pigs are no different

to any other pig and other pigs seemnot to notice any difference in thetransgenic pigs.

The proteins were added into 265embryos and implanted in 8 femalepigs, 4 of these pigs became pregnantand 3 male green pigs were born 3months ago. According to http://news.bbc.co.uk under a blue light thesepiglets “glow torch-light bright”.

Upon being asked the question doyou think pigs can fly, can talk or can



glow in the dark Brad Wilkinson from9th grade said “Yes they can fly theyjust need to be thrown out of an aero-plane and yes, they can glow in thedark”. It seems obvious that the newsof these green pigs have spread to somepeople. But not all people have heardthe news. The reply to the same ques-tion as above “No of course not are youstupid or something” a 7th grader whowished to remain anonymous said.

Technology like this can help scien-tist research diseases. Because of thegreen proteins in the pig’s body theyshow up more easily under observationthan other proteins. This eliminates theneed for invasive testing on pigs or,when it gets to that stage, other more

sophisticated animals. The researchused to create these green pigs shall beused for stem cell research to try andcure human diseases.

On the negative side these greenpigs have not developed easily. Many

of the original embryos did not de-velop. Only 3 out of the initial 265 em-bryos with green genetic material wereborn for reasons unknown.

Other glowing animals have beencreated using the same technique as theone used to create the three pigs. Alba,a green rabbit was created in Franceabout 5 years ago. Now scientists aretrying to create glow in the dark cakefrosting, ink, hair mousse, champagneand beer.

Scientists are hoping that the greenspigs shall mate with other normal pigsto create a new generation green pigs.Some scientists are coining this newoutburst of genetically engineered ani-mals and objects as the “Green Genera-tion”.


Source: http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/

Extreme rightsBy: Aoife Daly

Extreme rights. What does thatmean to you? Probably the subject of afew newspaper articles, or a couple oftelevision programs. But to some peo-ple, extreme rights are a matter of lifeand death.

A few weeks ago, a young man inAntwerp shot three people. He was theson of two members of the VlaamsBelang. The Vlaams Belang is an ex-treme rights group. Extreme rights arethe belief that your country should kickout all the foreigners, and only have thenatives. For instance, the VlaamsBelang (a Belgian extreme rights party)believes that there should only be Bel-gians in Belgium. All three people that

were shot in Antwerp were foreigners.“I have the impression that xeno-

phobia is getting more and more wide-spread,” said ninth grader Erik Enberg.

The Vlaams Belang, formerlycalled the Vlaams Blok, is a politicalparty of extreme rights activists. Whenit was called the Vlaams Blok, the gov-ernment made sure it had no power torun for elections. But then the VlaamsBlok changed its name to VlaamsBelang and it’s now back in the run-ning. Extreme rights have never beenthat much of a problem in Belgium,until the shooting in Antwerp wastraced back to the Vlaams Belang influ-ence.

The shooting in Antwerp is the firstbig example of extreme rights violence.But will it get worse? Many people arenow afraid that the extreme rights vio-lence in Antwerp will provoke bothextreme rights and anti-extreme rightsviolence in the cities of Belgium.Many people are also worried about itsacceptance as a political party. It supportsFlemish independence, restricted immi-gration, and free market economics. Theparty characterizes its current party poli-cies as those of a traditional conservativeparty, but opponents see it as the extremerights party that it truly is.

Hay Fever at ISBBy Einar Stefansson and Emilia Hull

ATCHOO!!! It is hay fever season atISB and many of the students are sneezingin the corridors. All across the campus, stu-dents, as well as teachers and parents, arecrying and coughing due to the pollen in theair.

Many people don’t know what hay feveris and wonder why everyone seems to becrying. Well hay fever is “allergic rhinitis,”in other word an allergic reaction to pollenor dust and during this time of year the treesand flowers are blooming filling the air withpollen.

Hay fever can cause coughing,headaches, itching nose, mouth, eyes,throat and skin, runny nose, impairedsmell, sneezing, stuffy nose, teary eyes, sore throat andwheezing. Symptoms vary according to during certain timesof the day or season it is; exposure to pets or other allergens

and diet changes.Mrs. Linda Tylke, one of the school nurses esti-mated that around 30% of the students at ISB havehay fever, or some sort of other allergy to pollen.She also said that she gets many complaints aboutitchy, runny noses, watery eyes… but not recentlybecause of all the rainy days we’ve been having. Ifyou didn’t know, rain keeps pollen out of the air andkeeps it on the ground. At least one teacher in eachdivision has hay fever according to Mrs. Tylke. Sheadded that hay fever sufferers can react to the pollenpractically everywhere at any time, but there mightbe delays.

“Different places have different plantsand flowers. When people from theU.S., for example, come to Belgium, it

sometimes takes them time to develop allergies for the pollenhere,” she said.


A famous sneezer you may knowSource: http://www.disney2go.disneyfansites.com/

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/

http://www.disney2go.disneyfansites.com/


Natasha McMillan is one eighth grader who suffers fromhay fever. She says, “It’s like having a cold in summer. It’salways there and it’s very annoying. Sometimes you can’tbreathe properly and you grasp for air while you’re trying toblow your nose.”

How do you get rid of getting the symptoms of hay fe-ver? You can remain indoors in the morning when the pollen

in the air is the most, wear face masks, keep windows closedand use air conditioning, don’t dry clothes outside, avoidunnecessary exposure to other environmental irritants(bugspray…) and avoid doing yard work. You can also takemedicine such as Claritin, Zirtek and Benadryl like manyother hay fever sufferers which help a lot. If you’re one ofthe sufferers that have to live with this allergy remember thatwe feel your pain and we hope you’ll get rid of it!


Kids-don’t try this at home!By Sophie Earl

It was the big day. I could feel the sun blazing down onmy back I could feel my legs shaking. I put my board on theground, stepped on and then I was off, plummeting downthen lifted in the air, seeing the world spin as I did my 360’. Ifelt the violent landing, and struggled to keep my balance.

Extreme sports is more than bungee jumping and snow-boarding. Imagine yourself flying over The Great Wall ofChina about 120 feet high with a skateboard below your feet,turning in numerous rotations then struggling to keep bal-ance as you land. Well, Danny Way set a new world record,jumping over the wall of China, and he did it five times, infront of the crowd. Extreme sports is taking a sport to theabsolute limit. BASE-jumping involves parachuting offbuildings and cliffs. There is a day called bride day held inFayetteville, West Virginia, where 450 BASE jumpers andhundreds of rappellers jump off the bridge. Phil Shaw ofLeicester created the sport “extreme ironing” which he says"combines the thrill of an extreme sport with the satisfactionof a well-pressed shirt". The sport can be done up a mountainor under water or in the most bizarre places. Hang-glidingand skydiving have given future ideas of heli-bungee jump-ing and sky-flying. Skateboarding has lead to street luge,going down a hill as fast as you can on a skateboard.Buildering is free climbing up skyscrapers! Who would want

to do half of these things? In 2000 there was a four-year oldboy in Paris who tried to bungee jump for the record but gotstopped by the French authorities. But other then that theclosest an ISB teacher has got to an extreme sport was doneby Mr. Gramolini, who went ice abseiling in Mexico city. Hehiked 15 thousand feet and ice-repelled down 10 water falls.He also scuba-dived in the crater of the Novadodetolua vol-cano in Mexico City.

There are new extreme sports born every week, every-one seeming more dangerous than the last.

But are these extreme sports really that dangerous? Sur-prisingly, statistically, horse riding is the most dangeroussport you can practice. Everyone believes that extreme sportsimply great danger whereas usually this is not the case. Thedangers of these sports have been exaggerated. Many of themisunderstandings are from the publicity that surroundsthese sports. In fact, the publicity can be bigger than the ac-tual sports - from designer drinks, to graffiti, to clothing andTV programmes. In reality, many extreme sports have safetyequipment and sometimes a backup safety team in case ofaccidents. The Extreme Sports Channel has a huge audienceof 20 million across Europe most of whom have never gonenear a half pipe.

Family Sports Dayby Will VanKoughnett

Sunday, May 21. Noon. The sun is just starting torise over the clouds and, for the first time, the Belgian sky isblue. Today is perfect day for sports. It’s a good thing thatit’s Family Sports Day at ISB. Sports, games, and junk food.Four hours of enjoying yourself on a Sunday afternoon is aperfect way to spend the first sunny day in the year.

There were many fun activities to participate in on SportsDay. Intramural soccer, human foosball, and the bouncyslide were some of the main attractions. Many people agreedthat it was well planned, but remarked that there was a widervariety in last year’s Sports Day. “Tickets were cheaper thanlast year, but there weren’t as many things to do,” one eighthgrader commented. One site often visited was the popcornstand. Free popcorn and cotton candy was given out here.The Raiders Boosters Club was selling clothes to support theRaiders sports teams, and the MS Student Council was tryingto get rid of, I mean, sell, the rest of their large hoard ofRaiders wristbands.

Meanwhile, the FA had devised an ingenious system tosell concessions and games. If someone wanted to buy foodor drink, all they had to do was to buy an amount of tickets,based on what they wanted to get. This was all written outfor them on a handy list. Then, they could go to the conces-

sions stand or eitherof the synthetic fieldsto give in their ticketsin exchange for asoda, a game of soc-cer, or a turn on thebouncy castle (for theyounger kids). If thishypothetical, nonde-s c r i p t , a s e x u a l[human?] being changed their mind or had leftover tickets,they didn’t have to go back to buy more; they could justspend them in a different outlet. Isn’t technology great?

But, let’s not forget all of our sports teams that got upbefore one o’clock on a Sunday to go play their hearts out.No, I’m just kidding, but seriously, they did deserve to win,if they did, and, if they lost, well, nice try? Forget everythingthat I just said. This article is about the upcoming fundraiser.No, I didn’t think you’d fall for that. Anyway, I’d just like tosay, thanks to all of the people who put the fabulous eventtogether, thanks to all of the people that came and had a goodtime, and to the people that didn’t come, there’s always nextyear.


The Kinshasa project comes to an endBy Erik Engberg

What is the Kinshasa Project? No doubt most MS stu-dents have heard of this project but have, like myself untilnow, known little more thanwhat its name omits.

The idea of the KinshasaProject is that ISB, in coopera-tion with the commune of Wa-termael-Boitsfort was to help setup an IT centre on the campusof the Université CardinalMalula (UCM) in Kinshasa, thecapital of the Democratic Re-public of the Congo (DRC). Theproject began three years ago –and is now finally drawing to aclose. As the centre is now moreand more able to stand on itsown feet, ISB’s involvement willend at the end of 2006.

The centre, dubbed the Kinshasa Technology Centre,is split in two parts. One is used as an IT classroom, includ-ing 20 of the computers, and the other is an internet caféwhich employs the other 15 – all of course with wireless

broadband connection. The internet café is open for everyoneseven days a week from nine to nine and the exceptionally

low prices makes it available to avery wide public. All the computerswere donated and set up by the ISBIT Department. The centre offers free technologycourses for schoolchildren attendingthe surrounding schools and at a sub-sidised rate for the local communityof Kingabwa; it employs eight peo-ple including four teachers. The Kinshasa Technology Centreis the only one of its kind in the com-munity, and has proven a uniqueresource for the local population. The success of this project clearly

demonstrates the extent to which wecan support those living in less privi-

leged parts of the world if we make an effort, how the labourreally does pay off. With the Kinshasa Project, ISB hasbrought great opportunity in education, an invaluable re-source, to an entire community.

Courtesy of Ms Flynn

New Sevvies: Will the Veterans be naughty orniceBy Matthew Finney

When seventh grader Garrett Welcharrived at the ISB Middle School thispast trimester he felt lost in a vastworld of lockers, corridors, and door-ways. The immense hallways and myr-iad of staircases, secret passageways,and shortcuts didn’t help either; theyjust made him feel like a grain of sandon the beach. Luckily, Garrett was ableto find help because a veteran of theMiddle School was always around thecorner to offer assistance.

Veteran Middle Schoolers (peoplewho are currently in grade 8 or 9) who have

already mastered this labyrinth we callthe Middle School were always there tohelp people find their way to room 304English or room 107 Chemistry. SixthGrader Zach Simons said, “I believethat some current seventh graders willbe nice enough to help me if I’m reallylost, but, I’d rather explore the MiddleSchool on my own. I think it would befun.”

“I would definitely treat the newstudents politely.” said Hugo Petitjean,“If I was in their position, I would defi-nitely like to be shown around.” Wecan all see why, because with all of thehidden passageways of the Middle

School just making it to your classesbefore they are over can be hard onyour first days. But when the ninthgraders leave, who will show the newgrade sevens around?

Seventh and eighth graders willhave to show new students around nextyear when they become eighth graders.Seventh grader Shamil Norshidi thinks,“They [seventh graders] should exploreto find their way around, that was funfor me last year.” He added some ad-vice for all of the new seventh graders,“Don’t carry all of your stuff in yourbag when walking to your classes. Itwas really hard for me to do.” AndShamil gave some good advice, be-cause sometimes, as we all know, goingup four flights of stairs to your Frenchor ESL class can be a pain, and evenmore so with a bag full of books.

Antonia Coenen will, “…try tomake them feel comfortable [in theMiddle School]” next year. It will takea lot of work and effort to do this, withthe gigantic hallways, wide staircases,multiple levels, and the added responsi-bility of having multiple teachers andall types of homework. Not to mentiontraveling to classes on opposite ends of

the campus.Another problem facing new sev-

enth graders is the fact that most ofthem classes with other new seventhgraders who can’t help them find theirway. They will have refuge in advisorythough, because they can share theirnewfound knowledge of Middle Schoolclasses and customs with others likethem, and they will be able to talkabout their problems with their peersand advisor.

The incoming seventh graders aregoing to be a lucky batch because ofthe current seventh (and eighth) grad-ers’ empathy and their respect for thegolden rule, “Treat others as you wantto be treated”. Because the current sev-enth graders agree on one thing, thenew seventh graders will get the sametreatment that the current seventh grad-ers received. As the eighth graders didto them earlier, the seventh graders willtreat the new sevvies with dignity andrespect. If they are called upon for di-rections they will give them in a heart-beat.

11


Mr. Morandi: Bye ByeBy Lorenzo Cioni

His name is Frank Morandi and heis a teacher at ISB. What does heteach? Mathematics! Seeingthat he has been here for 11years most people know whohe is, (so why am I sayingthis?). Many people mightnot know that he coaches ateam, no, actually two teams.He is the coach of the varsitygirls basketball team and thevarsity boys baseball team.Unfortunately, he will beleaving this school in Juneand nobody knows to whereor why! Joking! He is return-ing to his home country theUnited States because of hisdaughter’s graduation.

Students will certainly miss him. Aseventh grader who wishes to remain

anonymous said,” Mr. Morandi was anawesome teacher. I will definitely miss

him.”He is going to go to the live in Jack-

sonville, Florida. He will not be comingback to ISB and strangely he will not

even change job! Yes, he is going toteach in another school called BollesSchool. This school is about the samesize as ISB and he is probably goingto teach mathematics again.

“I am definitely not happy to leaveISB and will miss this place a lot!”says Mr. Morandi.

“He was one of my favorite teach-ers” said an eighth grader who wishesto remain anonymous.

Mr. Morandi said he will miss thestudents and his faculty friends themost. We all wish him a terrific timein Florida and wish him good luck!

“For me, the Middle School was agreat place to work,” he said.

Farewell and good luck Ms. FarrisBy Sara Altaei

After four years of working at ISB,the time has come to say farewell Ms.Farris and good luck. Ms. Farris theMiddle school’s technology facilitatoris moving to Beirut, Lebanon at theend of the school year. Good luck Ms.Farris you will be missed.

When Ms. Farris was askedthe reason for the move she said thatshe wants to try living in a differentcountry with more sun. She also wantsto experience how life is in Beirut.The school that she will be working inis the “American Community School”and there she will be the technologycoordinator. She will be leaving onAugust to depart for Beirut.

When asked what she will miss

about ISB she said “The great faculty,the students and the undergroundCafé”. She is looking forward to going

to the “American community school”because it will be challenging and itwill provide her with a new adventure.

When asked if she had a greatest mo-ment at ISB, she couldn’t decide andinstead said, “Everyday contains agreat moment at ISB.”

A student who would like to remainanonyms said “I would really miss,Ms. Farris because she has taught mea lot of things about technology that Ididn’t know before”.

Everyone is going to Miss Ms. Far-ris who was always very helpful toothers when in need and we everyone

just would like to say good luck in Bei-rut and have fun.

Ms. Farris gets busy in her officePhoto courtesy of Ms. Farris

Mrs. Stephens and sabbaticalBy Erum Khalid

ESL teacher Ms. Karen Stephenswon’t be seen around school next yearbecause she will be taking a sabbatical.Erum Khalid spoke to her to find outmore information on her new adventure.

What is a sabbatical?A sabbatical is when school allows a

teacher to take six months or a year offto study something that will help theirwork as a teacher and benefit school.

Why did you decide to take a sab-batical?

I think reading and writing are themost important skills at school becausethey help you with all of your subject’snot just English and ESL.

What have you planned to do inyour sabbatical?

Well I am going to research difficul-ties that some students have with liter-

(Continued on page 13)Ms. Stevens and her class say goodbye to the

cameraPhoto: Erum Khalid

12

Mr. Morandi taking a break from correcting math tests.Photo: Lorenzo Cioni


acy devilment.Why did you choose this year to

leave? There are several reasons; first itis the best time for my family becausemy children are not yet at school and itwill be more difficult when they cometo ISB. It is also because it is some-thing I am coming more and more in-terested in. I think now is the time forme to follow up the interest.

When you come back are you

going to teach the same subject?Yes, I will teach the same subject

when I come back.What is the greatest moment you

had at ISB?I would say there have been great

moments with every class I taught, butI don’t have one great moment whichwas better than the other one.

When did you arrive at ISB?I came to ISB seven years ago.

What did you achieve fromworking at ISB?

I have been able to develop myskills as a teacher and I hope I havehelped a lot of students to learn to useand love the English language.

Good luck Ms. Stephens and wewill see you in the 2007-2008 schoolyear!


Goodbye Mr. Ruskay, so long Ms. MacIsaacBy: Matthew Finney

In the long list of teachers leavingthe school are Mr. Christopher Ruskayand Ms. Cherylee MacIsaac. This re-porter decided to interview them for thefull scoop.

This summer they will bemoving to Calgary Canada. Afterteaching at ISB for seven years, they

will be sad to be leaving.Mr. Ruskay and Ms. MacIsaac

have been teaching at ISB since 1999.In his first year here, Mr. Ruskaytaught PE. Coincidentally, his wife,Ms. MacIsaac,taught SocialStudies in her firstyears, and thenswitched to PE.

Also on hislong resume, Mr.Ruskay coachedthe Americanfootball team from1999-2002. Since2001 he and Ms.MacIsaac havebeen coaching theRugby team. Mr.Ruskay reallyenjoys playing sports.

Under her façade of a PE teacherand sports coach, Ms. MacIsaac enjoysspending time with her daughter andmaking jewelry. If you look closelyyou can see many teachers wearing her

designs.After missing most of this year and

parts of last year due to a complicatedpregnancy, Ms.MacIsaac ishappy to beteaching againat ISB. How-ever she is sadto be leavingthis year, andwill rememberher fun times atthe school.Mr. Ruskayenjoys teach-ing social stud-ies, and wouldteach it again

if he returned to ISB. When asked if hewould return to ISB if he had thechan ce, Mr. Ruska y r epl ied ,“Anything’s Possible!”

A shot of Ms. MacIsaac and Mr. RuskaySource; Ms. Thomas

Some of Ms. MacIsaac’s jewelrySource: Ms. Thomas

The little coffee shop that couldBy Joanne Arnet

“May I have a medium, chocolatefrappachino please?” I ask the clerk atthe desk in Starbucks. All thedrinks and snacks to choose frommake me dizzy. There’s everythingfrom muffins to lattes.

Have you ever been a part of astampede running toward a Star-bucks for a creaming quality bever-age? I have. Although I do not livein a place where I can regularly geta Starbucks treat, whenever I can Iwill and it tastes like a piece ofheaven.

The story of the little coffeeshop that made it big and how it be-came a worldwide coffee company

one cup at a time is one of great inter-est. Starbucks has always been one of

our favor-ite placesto grab adeliciouscoffee orone of theother tastyd r i n k s ,and sitdown inthe comfysofas andr e l a x .W h a twould you

say if you had to travel all the way toSeattle to get a Starbucks coffee? In1971, this was the case. Before HowardSchulz joined the team that is.

The story begins with a poor boyliving in the projects, New York, a boywho was very talented in sports andearned his scholarship for college. Withthis scholarship he wanted to fulfill hisdreams and began working in a littlecoffee shop in Seattle.

In 1971 the first Starbucks wasopened at Pike Place Market in Seattle.The name comes from Herman Mel-ville’s Moby Dick, a classical Ameri-can novel about the 19th century whal-


Source: http://www.jstart.org

13

http://www.jstart.org


ing industry. This ties in well with theicon of Starbucks, a mermaid. Thecolor green in the Starbucks logocomes from the coffee bean itselfwhich is green before it is roasted whenit turns brown.

In 1982, that little boy, HowardSchultz joined the company. He wasthe new marketing executive and beganstraight away to convince more localcafes, restaurants and hotels to buytheir coffee. Their coffee was after all,very high in quality. Schultz was look-ing for a new direction for their com-pany. In those times coffee was sold ina sweet coffee-smelling shop in bags.He did not want the coffee to be sold inbags. He wanted to be able to purchasetheir cups of coffee at a desk and enjoy

them there or on the way to work.While on a business trip to Italy, he

visited Milan’s famous espresso bars.He was so impressed with their popu-larity and culture, that he introducedthe idea to Starbucks. He was right, andafter trying mochas and lattes, Seattlequickly became coffee crazy. After awhile they expanded to places like Chi-cago and New York.

Even after his success, Schultzaimed higher. He bought Starbucks in1987. That same year, and the demandfor great coffee allowed Starbucks toexpand beyond Seattle. First, it ex-panded to the rest of the United Statesthen to places like Vancouver, Canada.Then finally Starbucks became a pub-licly traded company, and stocks werebeing publicly traded at NASDAQ.

Approximately 165 cafes were estab-lished.

In the years of 2000, Starbucks phe-nomenon continues. Today the com-pany has more than 8,000 cafes in morethan 30 countries. Most of the successis held in Asia in places like, Thailand,Beijing, Tokyo, etc. There are sadlyless Starbucks coffee shops in Europe;the places coffee is most common.

To make these coffee shops morecomfortable for customers, they playmostly jazz music to bring up people’smoods on a Monday morning beforework. Starbucks coffee might be a bitexpensive because of the quality buttrust me, it’s better than buying it in abag!


As we all know, or maybe not all of us, Ms. Alison Struc-chelli is leaving us here at ISB, we are all sad to see theteacher who slaved away, testing us and making sure that weunderstood the concepts in physics and Algebra, leave.

Well some may wonder where Ms. Strucchelli is going,but it is no longer a mystery.

Ms. Strucchelli will be leaving us this year to go back toOttawa, in Ontario Canada, to teach High School math andscience.

When asked if she will miss ISB, Ms. Strucchelli said shewill miss it a great deal. “The Middle School has an atmos-phere of positive energy, enthusiasm and faculty and studentsare enthusiastic and have a genuine interest in learning.

“I will miss ISB, I have made some great friends here thatI will remember forever,” she said.

Though she will miss ISB, Ms. Strucchelli said she islooking forward to participating in some of the things shecouldn’t do while living in Brussels.

“Going back to Canada I’m looking forward to skating onthe Rideau canal, camping and spending time in the out-doors,” she said.

Ms. Strucchelli has been working at ISB for 2 years, al-though it has been a short time here, everyone will remember

Ms. Strucchelli for a long time.We all wish Ms. Strucchelli good luck back in Canada,

and hope that she can fill several other students’ minds withthe wonders of math and science.

Another Canadian leaves her mark on ISBBy Caroline McKissock

Ms. Strucchelli and Ms. Thomas share a laugh.Photo courtesy of Ms. Thomas

14

It is World Cup fever! Whowill take home the covetedtrophy? Log onto fifa.com

for updated scores andstandings.


Crude oil by-products underneath ISB found to bethe cause of toxic drinking water and penguinsBy Will VanKoughnett

NOTE: This story was originally intended to run in the Spoof Issue, so don’t worry, you’re not gonna die

Late this February, ateam of sixth graders tryingto find buried treasure oncampus mysteriously disap-peared. Investigations by thelocal police led to an inter-esting dilemma. Underneaththe grounds of ISB, a largereserve of oil waste wasdiscovered untouched. Thiswas the breakthrough in theISB funding. Plus, it wouldfollow the ISB missionstatement: (1) independentlearner- learn how greedysome people can be and (2)international citizen- goingabroad with the new [non-profit?] gasoline business.Unfortunately, no one suc-ceeded in realizing that by-products of a natural re-source can be anything butuntouched. So much for all the [non-profit??] money.

But that wasn’t the onlyproblem. Recent complaintsto the Student Council aboutalmost toxic water coming outof the drinking fountains inthe hallways forced a blindsurvey to be taken by the[non-profit???] eighth grade.About two-thirds of the stu-dents said they didn’t like thefountain water. Strangely, thepopulation in the middleschool dropped 60% over theweekend. Many assumptionscan be made between the twofacts, but then again, let’s notleap to conclusions.

Inquiries have been madeon the subject of the white mark-ings in the outline of a humanbody around the vicinity of the waterfountains. Inquiries have been stoppedquickly. Very quickly. Why thesestrange things have been happening, wedidn’t know. At least not until we metthe guy, who likes to be called Mr.Tiki. Mr. Tiki is somewhat difficult tocapture and put in a cage, let alone in-terview him. We were in for a roughday. Then some guy came up to us andasked why we wanted to interview Mr.

Tiki.We didn’t know.We returned to ISB, only to find

glowing green students trampingaround in the rain, like zombies. A nor-mal day. No, wait. The Middle Schoolwas in ruins! It’s totally collapsed!

Oh, sorry, the Middle School isover there. I was looking at the ICC.That was close! Then someone askedme about the zombies. Oh, yeah. We

quickly contactedthe Antarctic armyand they came anddestroyed half ofthe campus in theprocess of defeat-ing the zombies.This was odd be-cause the Antarcticarmy was 250,000penguins. We tried,but never suc-ceeded in, gettingthe penguins off ofthe campus. Theyeventually becametrampled so muchthat their whitefloated up to thesky and every win-ter, which is pen-guin season, someof their remains

float back down to earth. Their blackturned into little blubbery pellets that

cover both syn-thetic fields. Sotake off yourshoes and shakethem out. There isprobably somepenguin inside.Yum! So that’show penguinswere created. Imean, that’s whathappened to pen-guins. I mean,that’s how snowand rubber bitsthat get in yourshoes and get allover the floor of

the locker roomswhere you dump them

out and drive the cleaners crazy be-cause they don’t sweep but bounceaway because they are trying to escapeback to Antarctica were made. I mean,that’s what happened with penguins. Imean, PENGUINS!

And they all lived happily ever af-ter. Until they died. The end.

To be continued…

The future of ISB?Source: http://www.lastrefuge.co.uk

Yeowch! Brussels is covered in PENGUIN!!!Source: http://www.viking.be/

15

http://www.lastrefuge.co.uk

http://www.viking.be/


FeaturesAnd Tibet’s Plight Drags OnBy Hannah Brown

Do you know what is happening inthe world as you sit comfortably read-ing the Crusader? None of the people Iinterviewed for this article knew any-thing about any situation in Tibet.Some of them didn’t even know whereTibet was. What’s happening in Tibetis a serious world issue that ISB stu-dents should be concerned about.

“What is going on in Tibet?” askeda seventh grader who wishes to remainanonymous. “I’ve heard it mentioned inthe news before, but Idon’t know what actuallyhappened.”

What is happeningtoday is the result of along chain of events thatbegan after World WarII. In September 1949,Communist China in-vaded Eastern Tibet andcaptured Chamdo, theheadquarters of the Gov-ernor of Eastern Tibet.On November 17, 1950,His Holiness the Four-teenth Dalai Lama as-sumed full spiritual andearthly powers as theHead of State because ofthe severe crisis facing his coun-try, although he was hardly sixteenyears old.

On September 9, 1951, thousandsof Chinese troops marched into Lhasa,the capital of Tibet. The violent occu-pation of Tibet was marked by theregular demolition of monasteries, con-tainment of religion, denial of politicalfreedom, widespread arrests and captiv-ity, and slaughter of innocent men,women and children. This went on formany years.

In mid-March 1959, the nation-wide Tibetan resistance resulted in theTibetan National Uprising against theChinese in Lhasa. The Chinese foughtback with ruthlessness unknown to theTibetans. Thousands of men, womenand children were massacred in thestreets and many more imprisoned anddeported. Monks and nuns were pri-mary targets, and monasteries and tem-ples were shelled.

Soon after, the Dalai Lama leftLhasa and escaped from the pursuingChinese to seek political refuge in In-dia. He was followed by an extraordi-nary mass departure of Tibetans intoexile. Never before in their history hadso many Tibetans been forced to leavetheir homeland under such difficultcircumstances. There are now morethan one hundred thousand Tibetanrefugees all over the world.

Since 1950, about 1.2 million Tibet-

ans have been killed by the Chinese,many of them tortured to death. Chinahas ratified several UN conventions,including those associated with tortureand racial intolerance, and yet has re-petitively violated these in China andTibet.

Specific Tibetan issues that peopleall over the world are trying to addressinclude genocide and human rights, thelack of religious freedom, the exploita-tion of natural resources, and educa-tion. For example, the 1982 Constitu-tion of the People's Republic of Chinaguarantees freedom of religious belief,but China is trying to restrict the num-bers of monks and nuns entering mon-asteries and to damage the reputation ofthe religious authority of the DalaiLama, even thought there are manyChinese Buddhists who also look tohim as their religious leader. Mining

and mineral extraction is the largesteconomic activity in some of the largestTibetan cites, and at least one-half ofTibet's natural forest has gone sinceChinese occupation.

Education is yet another issue. Chi-nese has replaced Tibetan as the officiallanguage, and young Tibetans are beingtaught a re-written history of theircountry with all references to a freeTibet omitted. The education given toChinese children in Tibet is of much

better quality then that avail-able to Tibetans, and fewTibetan children graduate tosecondary school. Even thosethat do graduate have littlehope of employment unlessthey speak fluent Chinese.It is overwhelming to eventhink of the trials that thisunique culture is goingthough. So how can ISB stu-dents help? Maybe the Stu-dent Council could set up afund raiser next year to sup-port the Stop the Torture inTibet Campaign, or donatemoney to the Students for aFree Tibet. Individually, youcan write letters to the Chi-

nese administration, or to your homecountry’s Chinese ambassador. Tips

for writing letters to them are availableat http://www.freetibet.org/info/action/action2.html. Letters are very effective,because international public opiniondoes matter to the Chinese Govern-ment, who wishes to seem fair. Writingto the Chinese administration and urg-ing the immediate and absolute releaseof Tibetan political prisoners, andpointing out that they have done nomore than peacefully apply their basichuman rights, is effective. The morepublicity prisoners receive, the morelikely they are to be freed. By doingsomething as simple as writing a letter,you could make a difference in theworld, and if everyone who has readthis article wrote a letter, we could helpmake a big difference in the lives ofthese people. Don’t you think it’s wortha try?

TibetSource: http://www.freetibet.org/info/key_issues.html

http://www.freetibet.org/info/action/

http://www.freetibet.org/info/key_issues.html


Boiling hot days spent supposedly“running” around in PE (when actu-ally sunbathing on the field). Jumpingup and down in math after seeing thefirst flake of snow. Ms. Thomasscreaming at you for not handing inyour project. The great memories wepassed; new faces, saying goodbye,field trips and just those ordinarydays spent hanging around the corri-dors with your friends. This year hasbeen crazy, awesome, terrible, cool,dramatic, and important, but defi-nitely not uneventful. Welcome to theISB year of 2005-2006!

Field trips are definitely some ofthe best times of the school year. LiorMeshula confidently said the seventhgrade trip to Brittany was his high-light of the year with the world cupnight and evenings spent shootinghoops on the hostel campus. The oys-ters were weird, the shops were good,and the caramel was even better.Whether it was pouring with rain andall the guys were running around get-ting their butts kicked by French teen-agers, or freaking out all the residentsof St. Malo by screaming to each otherduring the scavenger hunt, Brittany wasseriously a fun time for all.

Eighth grade trip was also a greatsuccess. The free time was fun after along day at work, and most 8th graders

that most of their memorable momentswere made during those hours. “We gottwo hours free time at lunch!” said GuyAzran. Also, apparently the novelty ofhaving the beach so close was great. Sothat’s even more favorite moments foreveryone.

Eighth grader, Amanda Bifani said

the first spirit week was her high-light of the school year. With allthe wacky outfits and colorfulclothes it was like carnival all weekduring spirit week! Although someof the weird days the student coun-cil picked out weren’t really as funfilled as they could’ve been, it wasstill a lot of fun. Whether it wasmasked Zorro’s, or heavily paddedfootball players, it was one crazyawesome, memory making week!

Of course, we’re not goingto leave out those precious ninthgraders. However it’s the same oldstory as their field trip seemed tohighlight their year. With the longwalks through ancient buildings,and fun times spent on the long busride it was another memory suc-cess. Apparently, the canoeing wasa lot of fun also, although perhaps abit wet…Overall, this year was great fun for

all, with loads of astounding memoriesto go with it. I’m sure all who are leav-ing this year will be able to rememberall the memories they had at ISB, andkeep them close to them. For all return-ing students, we hope to see you foranother fun-filled memory makingyear! See ya next year!

Best moments of the ISB school yearBy Sophie Earll and Joanne Harrower

A smiley

Alexandra Helmer-Jensen grade: 7

To all my friends, you guys have madethis year so awesome! Thank you! To eve-ryone who’s moving, I’m going to missyou tons! Especially Claire, have fun inyour new school! Klara, enjoy Sweden,you have to come and visit! Harrison, youbetter visit from Holland! Thomas, I’mgoing to miss your sense of humor.Brooke, thanks for all the laughs! The nextperson is not moving but she means theworld to me. Johanne, after being friendsfor four amazing fun years we are still bestfriends and we will stay that way forever! Ilove you so much! Thanks!

To everyone (you know who are!),you’ve made this year the most incredibleyear ever! Thank you so much! I love youguys tons!

Xoxo times infinity!

Alex.

Claire Dufounier grade: 7

I will miss everyone in this school so in-credibly much when I change schools. Iwill miss Alex Helmer- Jenson, and all heradvice and our memories together. I willJohanne Arnet, Antje Shwartz, ClaireDuguid, Brooke Hamilton, Bailey Sem-kuly, Vanessa Demoulas, Henna PoikelaKillian…and all the other guys. But mostof all I’ll Miss Klara Kwangach, have funin Sweden hommie! Xoxox to you all loveI will also miss all the wonderful teachers(Mme.Frankard Francais 6 + Mrs. Hoag +Mrs. Van Ginhinhoven) thank you!Xoxoxox Claire

Drew Zaremba- 9th Grade

The MS play, Alice and wonderland, I hada blast. Sound effects, singing for the firsttime, but the best part was the sword fightwith capon. Remember when I actuallywounded myself while rolling that onerehearsal? It got even better when we got

lightsabers. Yes, Ms play06 was awesome,Thanks you Kristen, and all the cast andcrew.

Josh Weiner’s- 8th Grade

- We were facing off ISB (InternationalSchool of Bangkok) on this year’s ski trip.I had been elected captain to the team;only I didn’t have a clue about what to do.Suddenly, the DJ happened to put on“Hollaback Girl”, and so I danced freestyleto it, mouthing the lines as I went along. Ialmost fell over and thought I’d made atotal idiot out of myself. Instead, bothsides were roaring with laughter and ap-plause, and when it was all over, I earnedour team an extra half point. My subse-quent performance of “Candy Shop” inFrench was less than impressive though,but we ended up crushing Bangkok undermy leadership- one of two reasons whyeveryone started applauding when I camedown to breakfast the next day.

Memories…


Ideas on where to go and what to do during thesummer vacationBy: Antje Schwarz and Bengi Öztürk

Everyone always looks forward tothe summer. They thinkabout swimming, surf-ing, water fights, tan-ning, beach volleyball,popsicles, and icecream. They can’t waitto sit around, watchingmovies all day, not hav-ing any homework tolook forward to andtests to learn for. Beloware some people’s ideasor just thoughts on how and where tospend the summer vacation.

“I think the best way to spend yoursummer vacation would be in southernFrance in Club Med where it’s nice andsunny,” said Klara Kvarnback

“I can just imagine myself in Ha-waii, sitting by the pool, tanning, andeating ice cream. That would be the

best summer vacation,” said CazzieRees.“It would be nice if Icould spend a summervisiting all the conti-nents for about a weekat a time. It would becool to learn about allthe languages and cul-tures…If only it didn’tcost so much…L,” saidJohanne Arnet.“Going to California,

Beverly Hills, and staying in the Bev-erly hills hotel. I’d go to the San DiegoZoo and Laguna beach, where they filmthe O.C. sometimes,” said VanessaDemoulas.

There’s lots of other thing too. Youcould go to Australia, pick up the ac-cent and go surfing. Or say, to The Ba-hamas or the Caribbean Islands. Just

imagine all the fun you’d have not tomention the tan. But it doesn’t meanthat if you don’t go to these places, youwon’t have an awesome time.

You could go to the movies for ex-ample. Let’s see, what’s new this sum-mer? If you haven’t seen the Da VinciCode or there’s Poseidon, Scary Movie4, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and thereare tons more. You could go to one ofthe “Alibi”s either Aqualibi or Walibi.There are lots of attractions, rides andwaterslides to pass time with. If youdon’t like these ideas, you could alwaysget into the “summer mood!” Youcould have a water fight with yourneighbors without warning them or youcould pretend you’re at the beach withyour biggest sunglasses and bikini. Or,you could just sleep. That works too.Where ever you go, we hope you havethe best summer vacation ever!

Summer MishapsBy Jasmine White

Over the summer everyone has funand does things that end up being prettyfunny like getting a massive sunburn, orwearing a new summer outfit to a dinnerparty to find out that the restaurant hassuper air-conditioning and end up shiv-ering the whole night! Embarrassingsummer moments happen to everybodyincluding myself…

A couple of summers ago I was va-cationing in Florida and while I waslying by the pool, my mom told me thatshe and my dad were going up to theroom. I told them I wanted to get somesun so I could have a tan before I gotback to school. I was lying in the sunand I fell asleep. When I woke up I hadbeen sleeping for over three hours. I wasso sunburned that I could barely evenopen my eyes. I was bright red fromhead to toe. I had to stay in the room forthree days before going outside again.Luckily my sunburn cleared up beforeschool had started but whenever wewent out to dinner or a movie peoplewould look at me and point and laugh.Embarrassing Rating: 7/10

Last summer, eighth grader SophiaLewis was at a hotel with her parents inCalifornia. When she had to go to thetoilet in the middle of the night she

couldn’t find it in the dark because itwas her first time in that hotel. Shebumped into about a dozen things in-clude a few walls. She woke up her par-ents, and probably her neighbors, whenshe knocked over a glass of water. Thatsounded like an interesting night. Em-barrassing Rating: 6/10

Also, a long time ago, a girl whowishes to remain anonymous, was play-ing in the ocean with two of her guyfriends and one girl friend. After theyfinished swimming and were about toget out of the water, one of her guyfriends undid her bikini top. She didn’tnotice but when she got out the wholebeach was staring at her and some of theyounger kids were giggling. She says itwas the most embarrassing thing thatever happened to me. EmbarrassingRating 10/10

Another person who also wishes toremain anonymous was playing soccerin the park when he kicked the ball wayover the hill far away and it hit a girlthat he didn’t know on the head. Thegirl came over with the ball in her handsand a forgiving expression on her faceand gave him the ball. The next thing heknew, she was giving him a friendlyhug. The poor guy turned fire-engine

red as he was not use to expressions likethis as he was so young. He looks backon the moment and laughs but is stillembarrassed. Embarrassing rating6/10

Last summer, a girl who wishes toremain anonymous, was sitting by thepool at a resort she was staying at, sip-ping lemonade and reading a magazine.She saw that some of the other kidswere having a diving contest and shedecided to participate. She got up andput her magazine and lemonade downand joined. After the kids had named herthe diving queen and not to mentionextremely coordinated, she got out ofthe pool and grabbed her towel. Whilewalking over to her chair she trippedover her towel and sent her drink flying.It landed in the pool! They had to filterand drain the pool and everyone knew itwas her. So much for coordinated. Em-barrassing Rating 8/10

Just remember to stay away fromfalling asleep in the sun, not to walkaround in the dark, watch out for losingyour bikini top, not to kick soccer ballsat people’s heads and don’t trip overyour towel. By considering these kids’situation, you could save yourself a lotof embarrassment.


Music of the SummerBy Josh Weiner

Summer is an awesome time formusic. No work, nothing to do, relaxa-tion. It’ll be a music fan’s dream. Buttwo months is a long time to listen tothe same old stuff over and over!Thankfully, there are plenty of artistswho will be dropping new tracks overthis time. Here’s the news on some ofthe highlights.

THE NEW KID: Pharrell In My Mind OUT JULY

25 After a seven month delay

(hopefully all for the better), PharrellWilliam’s debut should finally reachstores in the midst of this year’s sum-mer heat. In My Mind will feature thehit singles “Can I Have It Like That”and “Angel”, along with what promisesto be a very cool mixture of hip-hopand R&B. With so much extra waitingwe’ve done, it BETTER be.

SECOND-ROUNDERS:Lloyd Banks Rotten Apple OUT

JULY 18 No rap businessmen had any

“Hunger for More” after G-Unit’syoungest and most lyrically talentedmember reached double platinum onhis solo debut. Few worries about asophomore slump should circle aroundhis second LP, Rotten Apple (originallytitled Gang Green). Banks already hasplans to release the album’s first single,“My House”

(which will feature 50 Cent), and itleaves one curious about what morethere is. Will his new songs deliverlyrics like “Don't confuse me withthese suckas/ When I spit, you hearmore 'oohs' than a Skip to My Loumove at the Rucker”? [!]. That will beconfirmed in little more than a month.

Beyonce B’Day OUT SEPTEM-BER 5

On Beyonce Knowles’ 25th birth-day, the multi-talented performer willrelease her appropriately title sopho-more effort. She will team up with boy-

friend Jay-Z again in a song calledDéjà Vu, one of two confirmed tracksthus far. Her debut Dangerously InLove brought in huge sales and criticalacclaim in 2004, thanks to her publicappeal and distinct voice, as well assome solid guest spots. Same story,same result this time around.

The Game The Doctor’s AdvocateOUT AUGUST (tentative)

The Game received a solid mixtureof critical and public success in his ‘05debut, The Documentary. But he’llhave less help this time around, espe-cially since 50 Cent won’t even speakto him now, let alone be featured inthree of the album’s biggest singles andwork as the Game’s executive pro-

ducer. Yet the west coast rapper hassaid to be aiming for greater independ-ence and rawer, more N.W.A.-likesounds in his sophomore effort, TheDoctor’s Advocate (named for hip-hoppioneer Dr. Dre, who essentially“found” the Game in bringing him tostardom). He will bring on heavy-weights such as Snoop Dogg, Mary J.Blige, Mariah Carey, and Nas, but evenso, Game’s distinct talent as a rapperwill have to come up big for The Doc-

tor’s Advocate to succeed.

Crazy Frog More Crazy Hits OUTJUNE 15

After driving people of the worldinsane since his 2004 album came out,the world’s most annoying amphibianis back! This album will contain tedi-ous but hilarious parodies of songs like“I Will Survive”, “I’m Too Sexy”, and“We Are The Champions” (just in timefor the World Cup). Every pesky littlebrother’s dream!

THE OLD-TIMERS:Bust Rhymes The Big Bang OUT

JUNE 13 The title is probably the only thing

about the album that hasn’t been seenbefore. Busta’s been busy on over 170titles with nearly twenty different art-ists while working for The Big Bang,and only the best can be included in thefinal product. Propelled by the hugenew single “Touch It” and this guy’sreputation as a master of rap, expectThe Big Bang to make some noise onthe Billboard chart.

Ice Cube Laugh Now, Cry LaterOUT June 6

The man who spent five straightyears as unarguably the best rapper onearth has finally left dumb-headedmovies and will return with his firstalbum in five years. It looks like IceCube is headed more towards old-school sounds, as he delivered soprominently in the early 90’s, bringingback memories of a time where he hasalmost absolute power over this genre.Indeed, Laugh Now, Cry Later is al-most completely devoid of guest spots,and the few featured artists have beenin the game as long as he has. I sense afeeling of self-confidence here.

These are just some of what awaitsus after the final bell rings. Don’t returnto school without them!

A bang from Bust: Rhymes new LP: TheBig Bang

Source: www.interscope.com

The Crusader Staff wishes everyone asafe and exciting summer.

For those of you moving, good luck, and thosestaying, we will see you in September.

http://www.interscope.com


Your Worst Nightmare…Embarrassing Moments!By Ana Fitzpatrick

Everyone has them and sooner orlater you will have one, you can’t avoidthem….yes I am talking about embar-rassing moments!! Scary aren’t they?These “embarrassing moments” canhappen at any time and any where, butusually occur at school so that everyonecan point and laugh. Whether it’s fal-ling down the stairs, saying somethingREALLY stupid, making milk comeout of your nose, disturbing the silencewith an awkward sound or anythingelse you can think of you can alwayslook back and laugh about it….in somecases cry. Either way people love hear-ing about embarrassing moments andknowing that they are not the only one.

It took awhile to find people thatwere willing to share their embarrass-ing stories, but of course there is al-ways someone. Eighth grader EinarStefansson said, “I got sick drinkingenergy drinks at my friend’s house andthrew up all over his balcony!” That isalmost as good as what happened to

ninth grader Trevor Bweta …. “I sleptover at a friend’s house and we drankTONS of soda all night. We all finallyfell asleep and when I woke up I real-ized that I had urinated in my pants!! Itwas so embarrassing!” he said.

That must have been traumatizing,but at least it didn’t hurt unlike ninthgrader Brad Wilkinson’s embarrassingmoment. “I was at a party and therewas a trampoline, so I tried to do a coolflip, but instead my whole upper torsolanded on the metal part of the trampo-line! Yeah that hurt…” People couldlaugh at that, but hopefully you wouldfeel a little bit of pity.

An eighth grader who wished tostay anymous said “One time I walkedup to a stranger and grabbed their handbecause I thought it was my mom!”Well since so many did not want to tellthere embarrassing moments, I havetaken it upon myself, Ana Fitzpatrick,to tell one of mine embarrassing mo-ments. “I was running down the stairs

trying to catch my friend, but I missedthe last step and flat on my face. I havebraces so my whole mouth was filledwith blood. I tried to keep my compo-sure in front of a bunch of ninth grad-ers. Pretty embarrassing….

So no matter how horrible or stupidyour embarrassing moments are there isalways someone who’s worse! (Doesn’tthat make you feel so much better?!)After reading these stories of embar-rassment I hope you have learned thatdrinking too many energy drinks willeventually lead to someone getting sickor wetting your pants. Make sure whenyou grab someone’s hand that it issomeone that you ACTUALLY know,and don’t try to an impressive flip ifyou’re not even sure how to land. Lastbut not least DON’T run down thestairs; you’ll feel stupid once you fallon your face. I guess the moral of this“article” is that Friday the 13th can hap-pen any day….so watch out!

Special Olympians Bring Home the MedalsBy Sophia E. Lewis

Every year our friends in Special Edparticipate in a grueling test of physicalendurance- training themselves for theBelgian Special Olympics! These arethe Olympics for everyone whohas special needs in Belgium.Our friends compete againstadults, children and everyone!They compete in events such asthe 50m run, softball throw,long jump, unified run andgymkhana. The ISB communitysends them off for a weekend ofcompetition and fun. Thisyear’s Special Olympics werein Antwerp, and although itrained, all the participants hadgreat fun.

The nine participantswere:

Helena Baker, tenth grade:horseback riding (gymkhana

and dressage trot) Jennifer Light, eighth grade:

50m run, softball throw andunified run

C l oda gh Cr om bi e , e i gh thgrade:50m run, softball throw and uni-fied run

Eleni Milissis, eighth grade:

long jump, softball throw and uni-fied run

Deirdre Nevin, seventh grade:50mrun, softball throw, unified run

Ysaline Pillet, seventh grade:50m run, softball throw and

unified run M i c h a e l H e n s t r o m , E S :

long jump, softball throw and50m run

S a u l e M a r t i k on yk e , E S :long jump, softballs throw and

50m run

Max Scheepstra, ES:horseback riding (gymkhana

and dressage walk)Mr Graf, one of the Special Edteachers said this about the SpecialOlympics,“Loved it, absolutely loved it. As ateacher, it was just the best timeI’ve ever had with these students. Itwas just so enjoyable, even thoughthe weather was bad, the weatherjust didn’t matter.”

The weather was especiallybad, raining all the time, but theathletes battled through, not com-plaining at all. All of the partici-pants did very well winning a totalof nine medals. There were twogold, three silver and four bronze.But how did the athletes enjoy theOlympics? “It was really fun, even though it

rained a lot. It was just nice to be withmy friends.” says one eighth grader,Jennifer Light.

The athletes did extremely well andI’m sure we all are very proud of them.Well done, Special Olympians!

Photo courtesy of Mr. Graf


Surfs up!By: Alexandra helmer-jensen

The summers coming up! Get readyfor a blast! Everyone’s doing their ownthing, enjoy it. It’s also a sad time ofthe year. Many people leaving, goingto, maybe even, different continents.The end of the year is filled with tonsof mixed emotions. Happiness, sadnessand tons of excitement! I mean, for the9th graders it must be filled with tons ofstress, considering they have to finishtheir exams. And get ready for threemore years in high school, a completelynew environment.

I’m going to check out the“streets” (A.K.A hallways) and asksome people about their holidays. “I am really looking forward to goingsailing with my best friend Alex, to thefantastic land of Norway” says JohanneArnet.

There are plenty of spicyplaces to go, many places that are siz-zling over the summer. “If I could go anywhere forsummer I would go to either the Italian

coast, or Hawaii. Equally hot!” saysClaire Dufournier. So many places to go, so littletime. How do you decide? Do you pre-fer nice hot places…or cold areas? Me,I’m more of a person who loves hotplaces. To me that’s more fun. Lyingon the beach all day, getting a tan, go-ing for swims, nice hotels the wholeshabang.A couple of hot places to go, and a lit-tle information on each of them:

Spain, Mallorca:great, hot place, but then again, that’sjust one city in Spain. Pick whicheverone you like! You don’t even have topick Spain, just one spicy place!

Greece, Athens:lovely place, filled with culture! Notjust culture, but fabulous shopping! It’sdefinitely on my top 5 list of hot coun-tries! Over there it’s at least, a mini-mum of 25 degrees at daytime. A placeto shop till you drop!

Italy, Rome:

again with the culture! And again withthe shops! But its filled with touristsattractions, and a wonderful cuisine.

Zagreb, Croatia, :you don’t have to pick Zagreb, its justthe capital. Any city will do! Croatiahas gorgeous water, which is sur-rounded by glistening blistering sand!While you’re over there, don’t forget tocheck out the food. YUM!

Portugal, Lisbon:great place to just relax and bathe, andtan! Learn the language, try the greatfood! Wear the fashion, shop till youdrop!

France, Nice:gorgeous weather, and lovely fashion!Lovely beaches that stretch out formiles. Definitely a zesty place to go! J

Plenty more places to go! Pack yourbags for a hot trip! I’m really lookingforward to the vacation, even thoughmany people are leaving. Good luck toeveryone in the future!

The Bad, the Ugly and the Incredibly Stupid: Alist of the worst 2005-2006 school year injuriesBy Sam de Ferranti

Throughout the year there havebeen injuries galore at ISB. There havebeen the bad, the ugly and the incredi-bly stupid. From injuries to the head, toinjuries to the toe, there have beenmany. From sport related to slipping onthe stairs, here is a wrap up of some ofthe worst ones.

Ninth grader Vincent Cohen missedschool for a couple weeks after an in-jury playing soccer in P.E. when AmitElimelech tackled the ball from him.He landed on his back awkwardly andwent to hospital. That’s the story manypeople know but there is more to it. OnNovember 9, 2005 Vincent’s neck wasinjured and his back and right arm werealso severely damaged. He missed onemonth of school. After getting out ofhospital Vincent said, “I could only eatand sleep... now, I can do almost any-thing, except put pressure on my neck”.He says that his left hand is 50% betterthan his right because of the incident.He does not blame anyone for the in-jury and said, “It just happened” but hestills jokes around with Amit about it.

There is also myself, Sam de Fer-

ranti. I was skiing in Switzerland on theMS field trip, when, with very littleskiing experience (mistake numberone), I went down a jump that was big-ger than me. Then when I realised that Ihad gone down toofast, I freaked (mistakenumber two) and twoseconds later I landedon the ground andbroke my arm. I lay inthe snow for an hourbefore being lifted by ahelicopter out to a hos-pital. I had broken myshoulder and elbow. Ihave had 2 operationsand I might have onemore on June 24. Oneday after school ends,wonderful. It was doneon 24 February, 2006and to this day I cannotbend my arm to 135 degrees.

The injuries of the year have comethick and fast, so broken bones, tornligaments and sprained joints have beenpretty much standard. Pain, discomfort

and weeks in a cast always vary. Forthis reason I cannot come up with agrading scale (although I would liketo). Now to pay tribute to many peoplewho have suffered this year.

List of Injuries this Year:(Due to limited sources this listmay not be complete.)

Arm Injuries:Sam de Ferranti (9)Jimmy de Jonge (9)James Duguid (9)Alex Fekete (8)Joanne Harrower (7)Tyler Rosen (7)Jasmine White (7)

Leg Injuries:Yara Jalal (8)Daniel Olofsson (8)

Other Injuries:Vincent Cohen (9) Neck

These people agreed to have theirstory told and no one was injured in theprocess.

Source:www.portlandchurch.org

http://www.portlandchurch.org


“I’ve had it with these snakes”By James Duguid

“It’s a title. It’s a concept. It’s aposter and a logline and whatever elseyou need it to be. It’s perfect. Perfect.It’s the Everlasting Gobstopper ofmovie titles.” This comment was madeon a blog by a screenwriter about themovie, Snakes on a Plane. It doesn’ttake the sharpest mind to figure out thatthis movie is about, namely snakes onwell, a plane. This however is not whatmakes this movie so special.

Snakes on a Plane, or SoaP, as it’scalled by its hardcorefans, is getting moun-tains of surprise pub-licity heaped on it. Ithas gotten to the levelwhere it is getting thesame buzz as summerblockbusters like TheBreakup, Click, andMiami Vice. Newsstations and maga-zines looking for lightand humorous newsare going crazy overthe way it is growingin cult popularitywhich also contrib-utes to its exposure.All this and the movie has not evenbeen released.

It all started with a college studentwho heard about SoaP. He sent anemail to his friends to ask if they knowanyone with connections in Hollywoodthat could get him a ticket to the pre-mier. He also started a blog on whichpeople could sign a petition to get NewLine to grant him attendance to thepremier in Hollywood. The websitenow has thousands of people visitingdaily, posting comments of their own,writing poems, songs, creating anima-

tions, and using various other mediumsto express their fascination with thismovie.

This is just the latest example abouthow the internet is affecting pop cul-ture. Another perfect example is thewhite hot run of British band, the Arc-tic Monkeys. Their career had beenpractically nonexistent and they hadstopped putting a lot of effort into theirmusic. However, they gained a hugeaudience on the internet, creating a

loyal fan-base thatwon them publicitywith record compa-nies. They shunnedthese, and have keptmany of their songsa v a i l a b l e f o rdownload on theirwebsite. Another ex-ample that many peo-ple here at ISB will befamiliar with is theInternet show, PurePwnage.

Who knowswhat people willcome up next to hawkentertainment over the

net; all we know, is it’ll be bizarre.Source: www.cinematical.com

Brooke and Johanne’s Puzzle Challenge!

4 2 7 52 4 8

6 3 8 2 13 5 2

9 12 9 58 5 4 9 3

2 8 54 3 6 2

Good Luck!

http://www.cinematical.com


An Ocean of Wisdom: The Dalai LamaBy Hannah Brown

23

Gentle Glory, Holy Lord, Eloquent,Compassionate, Ocean of Wisdom,Pure in Mind, Learned Defender ofFaith was a long and unusual name fora three year old boy. Then again, hewasn’t your usual three year old Ti-betan boy. He was the 14th DalaiLama.

The 13th Dalai Lama had beendead for two years when monks,or lamas, found Tenzin Gyatso.Who, or what is the Dalai Lama?In Buddhist culture, the DalaiLama isn’t just a king. He is also agod on earth. He is believed to bethe current incarnation of Buddha,who was a reincarnation of Chen-rezig, a bodhisattva of compas-sion. Bodhisattvas are enlightenedbeings who have postponed theirown nirvana and chosen to takerebirth in order to serve humanity.Chenrezig was also the patronsaint of Tibet. That is one reasonwhy the Dalai Lama is so impor-tant to them.

There were many signs thatTenzin Gyatso was the true god-king of Tibet. When Number 13died, his body was found facingthe north-east. The lamas took thisas a sign as to where his reincar-nation would be found. After twoyears of searching, they had heardseveral tales of a young boy whoseemed special. Kwetsang Rinpocheand his companions went to investi-gate, disguised as merchants whoseeked lodging for the night at thehome of a certain Lhamo Dhondrub.

They sat by the fire, sipping theirtea, when the boy toddled in. He imme-diately climbed onto Kwetsang Rin-poche’s lap and began playing with theman’s rosary, while insisting that itbelonged to him. The lama’ hopes wereimmediately raised, since the rosaryhad actually belonged to the 13th DalaiLama. Kwetsang Rinpoche told youngLhamo that he could have it, but only ifhe knew who Kwetsang Rinpoche was.The lamas listened is astonishment asLhamo quickly identified him as a lamaof Sera, and then went on to name theother three. However, the travelersgave no indication of their amazement,but thanked their host for the tea andmounted their horses. They would re-turn.

A few days later, the party came

back with more monks to perform anofficial examination of the boy. As hisfirst test, Lhamo was shown many ob-jects, some of which had belonged tothe 13th Dalai Lama. Lhamo picked outthe Dalai Lama’s possessions one by

one. No more. No less. The lamas stillweren’t convinced. They gave the boytwo walking sticks. One had been theDalai Lama’s, and the other had beenused by him, but had later been givenaway as a gift. Lhamo picked the cor-rect stick in both hands after lookingclosely at both. His examiners stillweren’t convinced. They proceeded toinspect him for a number of bodilymarks that were traditionally associatedwith the Dalai Lamas. Lhamo had themall: the large ears, eyebrows that curvedup at the end, streaks like tiger skin onthe legs, moles in certain locations onthe torso, and a palm print like a conchshell. That was enough evidence forthem. They were satisfied that theytruly were in the presence of the 14th

Dalai Lama.By his third birthday, Lhamo Dhon-

drub was installed in Lhasa, the capitalof Tibet, as Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai

Lama. He began his monastic educationat the age of six. The major subjectswere logic, Tibetan art and culture,Sanskrit, medicine, and Buddhist phi-losophy. The five minor subjects werepoetry, music and drama, astrology,

phrasing, and synonyms. At age 23he sat for his final examination in theJokhang Temple, Lhasa, during theannual Monlam (prayer) Festival in1959. He passed with honors andwas awarded the Geshe Lharampadegree, the highest-level degree, andthe equivalent of a doctorate of Bud-dhist philosophy.In 1950 His Holiness was called

upon to assume complete politicalpower after China's invasion of Tibetin 1949. In 1954, he went to Beijingfor peace talks with Mao Zedong andother Chinese leaders. But finally, in1959 after his final examination,with the brutal suppression of theTibetan national rebellion in Lhasaby Chinese troops, the Dalai Lamawas forced to flee into exile. Sincethen, he has been living in Dharam-sala, in northern India, as head of theTibetan government in exile. Since the Chinese invasion, His

Holiness has appealed to the UnitedNations on the question of Tibetmany times, and made several propo-sitions for peace. Tenzin Gyatso is aman of peace. In 1989 he was

awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for hisnon-violent struggle for the liberation

of Tibet. He has time and time againsupported policies of non-violence,even in the face of intense hostility. Healso became the first Nobel Laureate tobe recognized for his concern for globalenvironmental problems.

The 14th Dalai Lama has traveledto more than 62 countries, on 6 conti-nents. He has met with presidents,prime ministers and sovereigns of ma-jor nations. He has conversed with theheads of different religions and manywell-known scientists. Since 1959, hehas received over 84 awards, honorarydoctorates, prizes, etc., in recognitionof his messages of peace, non-violence,inter-religious understanding, universalresponsibility, and compassion. He hasalso written more than 72 books.

Tenzin Gyatso describes himself as“a simple Buddhist monk”.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama.Source: www.dalailama.com

http://www.dalailama.com


Rock around the clockBy Mai Kusayanagi & Jenny Mouyon

After many weeks of hard work andpreparation from the Prom Committee,the night has finally arrived; the prom(now known as the ninth grade gradua-tion dance), Sunday, June 4th wasprobably the night that all the girls haddreamt about for the previous month

and that all the guys thought of as an-other Sunday to lie in and spend thenight playing videogames. This year’stheme was “Rock around the clock”.Songs from all the way back to the 50’sto modern music were played through-out the night. As a fundraiser for theMakhaputu orphanage in Africa, some

of the vintage songs were put on auc-tion to give a chance for families tosponsor songs and dedicate them totheir beloved children

The girls, all dressed up in their

gorgeous outfits seemed rather inter-ested in their classmates’ dresses, andkicked off this night with compliments,chatter and judgment. Meanwhile theboys, decked out in their suits, didn’tcompliment each other once and spenttheir time talking, eating and enjoying

the atmosphere ofthe very differentlooking Chateau.Eighth grader,Billy Muirheadthat was invited tothe event compli-mented the deco-rations, “The Cha-teau looked reallydifferent, in agood way. I wassurprised.”Some of the clas-sic songs whichwere played were

“ Y M C A” ,“I Will Sur-vive” and “ILove Rockn’ Roll”. Itseemed like“ Y M C A ”was theonly songwhich allstudents feltlike dancingto, whileonly about athird of thewhole gradeseemed tobe on thedance floor for the rest of the night.Many people seemed to be enjoying“deep talks” with each other rather thandancing, and posing forphotos on the staircasewith friends or dates.Ninth grader, DiogoGuia said “There weresome good songs andsome bad ones, thewhole thing was enjoy-able and the food was-n’t bad either.”

One of the manymemories people willkeep about the Dancewas their personalizedCD to take home aftertrying to find it among the 90 others

placed around the rooms. The CD’swere placed in each of the three roomson a banner for decoration. It might bea good idea to burn some songs on it tomake it a super duper uber cool person-alized CD! Nicole Reichert, a ninthgrader said, “It was fun to see everyonedressed up and the CDs were cool.”

Most of the students that attendedseemed to enjoy the night and wereable to make them forget about thestress of exams and finishing the schoolyear.

Victoria Dewavrin, a ninth graderthought that “the graduation dance wasa good way to end the year and it wasgreat to see most of the grade gatheredtogether.”

Have a great summer.

-All Graduation Dance photostaken my Mr. Bocken.


More digital photographyThanks to Mr. Bocken for organizing this.


SportsThe World Cup: Who will win?By Jimmy de Jonge

Brazil. Argentina. Germany. TheNetherlands. All names of countrieswho have won the FIFA World Cupmany times in the past, but who willwin now? Will Brazil live up to expec-tations? Will England settle the scorewith France? Which teams will face offfor the ultimate title? And which playerwill be hoisted onto his teammates’shoulders after the most watched gameof all, the FIFA 2006 final?

The qualifications mostly wentwithout surprise, the favourites all stillpressing ahead. Brazil went throughalmost without fault,their only defeat 3-1 totheir archrivals, Argen-tina. England pressedahead as well, althoughonly narrowly, with aone point lead overPoland. Portugal andFrance both pressedahead in their respec-tive groups, the formerwith a seven-point winover the runner-up, thelatter needing to waituntil their final matchagainst Cyprus to se-cure their ticket to Ger-many. In Group one,the Czech Republicsuccumbed to theNetherlands in a 2-0home defeat, but be-cause their two 1-0victories over Norway,still qualified.

In the group stages, it will mostlikely be a breeze for the big contend-ers, although some might find them-selves unpleasantly surprised. In groupA, Germany will most likely chargestraight through, but the second placewill not be determined too easily. Po-land, Costa Rica and Ecuador all standa fair chance of making it through.Group B is similar, England probablyconquering all in their path, but an in-teresting game occurring between Swe-den, Paraguay, and Trinidad & Tobago.

Group C will most likely be an easygroup, Argentina and the Netherlandssmashing straight through the Coted’Ivoire and Serbia and Montenegro.

Despite this, expect football fansaround the globe to watch the Nether-lands-Argentina game, as it will meas-ure the chances of both against themight of Brazil. The games in Group Dwill be more interesting, although it issafe to say in advance that Portugal willmost likely win the group, followed byMexico.

Expect the might of the UnitedStates to be humbled by their perform-ance in Group E, where Italy and theCzech Republic will most likely makeshort work of them and

Ghana. It will be a field dayfor the papers if Brazil losesout in Group F, but mostlikely, they will go throughwithout fault, leaving Japan,Australia and Croatia tosquabble over second place.A similar game will mostlikely take place in group G, Francewinning and leaving Togo, Korea,and Switzerland to fight it our for sec-ond place. Group H, though, will proveinteresting, with a final showdown be-tween the Ukraine, who made historyduring the qualifications, and Spain.Tunisia and Saudi Arabia will fightheroically, but will probably bite the

dust.Past the group stages, it will be an

uneasy race for the finish, for both fa-vorites and outsiders. Brazil will almostdefinitely make it to the finals, wherethey will probably face Argentina,France, England, Germany, the Nether-lands, or Portugal. A wide range ofopponents, but then again, the WorldCup has always been full of surprises(In the last world cup, neither Brazilnor Germany arrived as favorites due tobad qualifications). Some see it as a

d u e lb e -

tween titans, some simply as a gamedesigned to create a feeling of teamspirit and unity. Whatever the views,though, there will be plenty of footballto keep everyone happy during themost watched sports tournament of all.

The most coveted trophy of allSource:www.elvenkids.com

Source: www.expertfootball.com

http://www.expertfootball.com


World (good) sports round upsPeter Collins

This sports season, everything hasbeen very exiting; Barcelona won theChampions League trophy versus Arse-nal after an amazingcomeback and addedthe trophy to the LaLiga trophy theywon back home inSpain. Chelsea wonthe premiership forthe second time run-ning with a worseseason than the onebefore but with 5losses, 4 draws and29 wins they still gotthrough the seasontop of the table.Lyon won the LigueOrange 1 with a 29-9-4 run, whilst Italiangiants Juventus won theItalian league.

Munster won the Heineken cupafter an intense match against Biarritz.They finished the match 23-19 and theyscraped through after a 3rd minute tryby Biarritz. Ulster won the CelticLeague after beating the Ospreys and itwas the first time they had won it. SaleSharks sailed to the title in the Guin-

ness Premiership.The Pittsburg Steelers won the Su-

perbowl after beating the Seahawks 21-

10. They won it for the first time andgot a Superbowl ring on their thumb.The Miami Dolphins won the NationalLeague with a brilliant 12-0 run; theyonly accomplished this many yearsbefore in 1972.

The Hockey Western Conferencewas won by Ottawa with 52 wins and21 losses. Whilst in the Eastern Confer-

ence, Detroit pulled off the gold with58 wins and 16 losses. Both were excit-ing competitions but it was disappoint-

ment for Pittsburghand Saint Louiswho finished lastin there competi-tions.Sweden beat de-fending championsCzech Republic 4-0 in the hockeyworld cup to winit. It was the eightworld title for theSwedes who had 8Olympic champi-ons on there roster.In the winter, Swe-den also beat

Finland in the finals.No team had man-

aged an international hockey doublebefore. Italian Giordi Di Centa won thecross country skiing for the first timeand only beat Eugeni Dementiev by 0.8seconds.

Those were the highlights of thesports season and they made the seasonwas very exciting but now the new sea-sons will start.

Steelers wining Superbowlwww. NFL.com

A hit to the pyramidsBy Caroline McKissock

“In the words of Coach Hesse, wehad three goals this year; to win theconference, towin ISSCs, and towin ISSTs. Andguess what, wegot em all baby!”

This year’svarsity softballteam was a hugesuccess, winningthe Triple Crown( w i n n i n g :c o n f e r e n c e ,ISSCs and ISSTs)for the first inRaiders history, only one other teamhas accomplished this since thebeginning of these competitions. Thecompetition was fierce at moments, nailbiting times and some not so great callsby the umpires but overall the wholecompetition was a victory. Each teamshowed great levels of sportsmanship

and came out and played a grand game.Conquering Cairo was more than

anybody could ask for.Whipping the Cobham team’sbutt and using Cairo the wipethe floor, our ISB raidersrocked. The whole experiencewas surreal, just being in Cairowas a mind boggling time, butto win the ISSTs was out ofthis world. But of course itwasn’t all about the fun; thegirls had to work hard and longin the boiling sun, to win theglory.Being chatted up at the

pyramids by old Egyptian men (indesperate need of an orthodontist),tanning by the pool and being spat at bya camel were all part of experience ofCairo.

Ending the season on with theTriple Crown was the perfect finish tothe perfect season.

Congratulations

to thesoftballteam forwinning

the triplecrown!


Lacrosse…The end of the lineBy Guy Azran

The lacrosse spring season is finallyover. The team had a number of gamesthis season, winning a great deal ofthem. The last too games were a com-plete waste of the other team, with ISBwinning eight to one, with Thomas“Trip” Adams scoring seven of Brus-sels’ goals.

The season is finished at last andmany boys and girls from eights totwelfth grade and Coach Greg Mu-rawsky seem very happy with theirresults. No matter how early the prac-tice was not how wet the field was,everyone showed up if they could. Hereis what some people have to say aboutthis year’s lacrosse season.

James (Jamie) Pinnington, theteam’s goalie, says, “This year’s seasonwas awesome. I really enjoyed it.” Ja-mie has been the team’s goalie sincethe beginning of the season. According

to Jamie, he has enjoyed the wholetime, even with lacrosse balls flying athim at 100mph. The team would nothave survived the season without him.

James Brenner, attackman/middiefor the team, was very happy with thisyear’s season although he did have afew negative comments. “It was tooshort,” he said, and then concludedsarcastically, “We got a lot of new tal-ented players.” It is James’s opinionthat many of the new players made theseason more of a challenge to the otherplayers. He also has his remarks on theearly morning practices. “Everyone istired,” he said “so we never have a fullteam.”

It appears that there were somecomplaints. However, every player wasnew sometime. Overall, James had agreat time, no matter the obstacles. Allthe numerous games won made up for

any inconvenience. We had a greatseason… Thank you Coach Greg Mu-rawsky for coaching the season, andthank you Ed Grody for keeping theteam organized. The year wouldn’thave been the same without you.

Summer is taking over: spring sports seasonround-upBy Brooke Hamilton

As summer rolled along and theschool year started tocome to an end, wefinished up our springs p o r t s s e a s o n .Whether it was thatswing and homerunor that dive over thefinish line, or maybethat graceful kick,this season was amaz-ing and full of somany victories.

S o f t b a l lswung into action onMarch 13th as theyhad their first prac-tice, directed by headcoach Hesse andcoach Gramolini. Forthe whole season,they were practicallyundefeated, resulting to a victoriouswin during the ISSC’s TournamentChampionship beating FrankfurtInternational School 10 to 3 in the fi-nals. Travelling to Cairo, Egypt for theISSTs (International Schools SportsTournament), they returned with smileson their faces and gold medals aroundtheir necks.

As the warm weather swept in,

so did the tennis team, with both boysand girls. Travelling frequently, theywent to many places, including Lon-don, Frankfurt, Antwerp and TheHague. The boys coach, Claudine De-Cock, and the girls coach, Bernard

deConinck, helped the team workon their skills, leadingup to ISSTS, which washosted here at ISB.There, they tried theirhardest, ending the sea-son with many memoriesto keep.Running hard, the trackteam had a great season.The team was full of brightnew seventh graders, aswell as the old timers com-ing back for a great newseason. With CoachVandewalle as head coach/spr inters coach, MsStromeyer and Ms. Haw-kins as mid/long distancecoach, Madeleine as jumpcoach and Coach Gil asthrowing coach, the team

worked four times a week, attendingmeets on Saturdays. As the end of theseason crept up, the coaches made cutsfor the upcoming ISSTs, which werelocated this year in Paris. There, theJunior Varsity boys came in secondplace out of thirteen teams, taking sec-


All the way to the finish!Courtesy of Claire Duguid


ond in both of thei r r elays(4x100meters and 4x400meters). JuniorVarsity girls were also doing well, but,partly due to different conflicts, theytook 8th.

Soccer scored a great season, start-ing with the tryouts on March 13 asthey waited nervously on the lowerfield. Working hard as a team, theyentered into their first match on March18 on the Thompson field and playedtheir best all the way up to the DODDStournament. There, the girls came allthe way up to the match for bronze,where they remained tied with K-town

until the penalty shots, where they were barely beaten. Yet, with all of theirhard work and determination it defi-nitely was a season to be proud of.

“I am so proud,” said Ms. Thomas,the head coach of girls’ soccer, “aboutthe 1-0 tie to Heidelberg in the semi-finals at the DODDS tournament.”

It was an awesome season; fun,exciting and full of thousands ofmemories. Yes, at times those practicesmight have hurt and yes, sometimes wecould hardly walk because of fatigueand pain, but with every smile, victoryand every single clang of our medals,this was a season that will not be for-gotten.


On your mark, get set, GO!!!Courtesy of Claire Duguid

The attraction of violence in sportsBy: Danny Vargas and Guy Azran

Some of the most famours sports inworld history have been associatedwith violence and the general injury ofthe opposition. Some people some callthem sadists; others call it a clean hit.Would some people join these sportsjust to hurt other people or get intofights with them? In sports like hockey,lacrosse, American Football and rugbycontact is allowed, though some hitscome with a price to pay.

In hockey if someone hits someoneelse with their stick or trips them orslashes them a minor penalty will becalled. The penalty may last 2 minutes,5 minutes, 10 minutes or even a gamebecause of misconduct for a fight. Inlacrosse if there is unnecessary rough-ness, spearing, cross checking, late hits,on the back, holding, slashing and head

checks will give you a penalty. InAmerican Football there are many pen-alties such as holding, face mask andothers.

We asked an eighth graderabout the subject, “They are probablyviolent themselves and need to find abetter outlet for their anger,” says theanonymous one. “I think that they areviolence-seekers and get pleasure frompain.” This outlook is a negative onebut to those who enjoy pain-distribution this may be positive. Thosewho play sports where contact is neces-sary to the game may not love to hitpeople but feel that it is essential to thedefence and offence of the game. Whenplaying sports some enjoy the sportmore than the contact.

Finally, as far as fights are con-cerned those who play to fight don’tplay at all, and when people fight to gethurt many people will not play any-more due to the fact they will be hurt.

Total OwnageHockeyfights.com

Congratulations to all membersof Spring sports teams. It was a

memorable season.

29


It was January 22, 2001 and I was exceptionally anxious.As I greeted the students at the door, I thought, this isn’t go-ing to be too bad. It’s only middle school. But then, the bigguy with the red hair raised his hand.

“Umm, where is Doctor Crowley,” he asked when I en-tered the room.

“He won’t be teaching the course this semester as he ispreparing for his role as headmaster,” I said.

“You mean he won’t be teaching journalism at all?” Adeafening silence invaded the room.

“Yes, that’s right,” I said. “But I am sure this will be agreat semester.”

He raised his hand yet again. “Can I go see the counselor?I want to change my elective.” And so began the great exodusfrom journalism. The students weren’t prepared for a newteacher, and I certainly was not prepared for the strong reac-tion. But things got remarkably better as the semester (years,really) moved on and I think the journalism course became aplace where students who enjoyed writing and publishingfound a niche.

Through the time I have been here, I have seen numerouschanges in the journalism course. From the layout to the var-ied styles of writing, to the inclusion of digital photographyphotos and the use of excel to create surveys, the course hasdeveloped and changed with the times.

When I first began teaching the course at ISB Ipods didn’texist, online journalism was just reaching mainstream audi-ences and The Crusader was not printed in color. Studentsweren’t accustomed to reaching their teachers via e-mail andthe course was offered during alternate lunch periods, as werethe other electives. Only a handful of students knew how touse Publisher, and the majority of the layout was done after

school and late into the night. One thing that hasn’t changed,though, has been the commitment of the students.

The innovative ideas have always come from the studentsand it is their enthusiasm that make the course such fun. Iremember doing a school wide survey on mad cow diseaseand the frantic conversations between students. “How do youwork excel?” “Why did we decide to do this?” “Ms. Thomas,I don’t want to do this. It is too much work!” However, thestaff overcame that obstacle, only to be faced with numerousprinting delays, typographical errors and misquotes. But wewon’t talk about those minor problems, just what we havelearned.

We learned how to work as a team and the importance ofmeeting deadlines. Many students fostered an interest in jour-nalism and now read the newspaper everyday! The list is end-less.

Finally, I can’t express my gratitude to all of the studentswho have made this teaching this course a fantastic experi-ence. The energy that fills the room during each class issomething that stays with me throughout the day. I am con-stantly amazed by the critical thinking that takes place duringthe class. The discussions about current events assure me thatthe world will be in good hands, when this generation movesinto positions of power. I am so fortunate to have been able towork with these students and learn with, and from, them.

I will miss ISB, especially the Middle School and thejournalism class, but I know the students will continue tokeep The Crusader going. After all, it is the students whomake the class.

All the best for now and the future. Thank you for givingme the opportunity to share my knowledge and learn fromyou. I am sure we will cross paths again.

NEVER GIVE UP ONWHAT YOU REALLY

WANT TO DO. THE PER-SON WITH BIG DREAMS

IS MORE POWERFULTHAN ONE WITH ALL

THE FACTS.

It’s not goodbye, it’s farewell for nowBy Sarah Thomas

30

Physical Education: Ups and Downs - isb.be · ISB, if she would truly missed, Ms. Corcoran claimed...

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