31 JANUARY 2024
LUNAR NEW YEAR KEXIN CAI
The Lunar New Year is a significant annual event in many Asian countries. In China, people eagerly anticipate the Spring Festival, marking off the days on their calendars. They look forward to lanterns hanging from their houses, the fireworks lighting up the night sky, and the sound of firecrackers bidding farewell to the old year. Most importantly, they cherish the reunion with their families. Even though the Lunar New Year is one of the coldest times of the year, that does put a damper on people’s enthusiasm to welcome spring with the Festival. Early in the morning, the eaves of the house in front have been hung with orange or red rows of lanterns, a little yellow and mild light fluttering in the still-not-dissipated, hazy light. Then the elders get busy, cleaning the house and preparing for the evening meal. The children, with nothing else to do, would go out to the streets to see the special stalls set up for New Year’s Eve, which were often filled with a wide array of things like small Chinese knots, and beautifully embroidered animal dolls. My clearest memory of the entire New Year is actually the fireworks. When the ink-like color of the night came over the sky and the boundary between heaven and earth was no longer clear, it was time for the fireworks. As the fuse of the fireworks was slowly ignited, a beam of firelight ran up to the sky at great speed, and then exploded in the night sky, like various colors of paint splashed on the black curtain, or the stars in the night sky instantly falling. The colorful sparks scattered in all directions and were then swallowed up by the thick night. I vaguely
New Year New You
No Wardrobe Waste JAMES THORNBURG
We all aspire to a style that looks good and feels good but is simultaneously good enough to be featured on a Pinterest board or style inspiration Instagram. But style often comes at a cost. In America alone, an estimated 17 million tons of textile waste - equivalent to 66% of all textiles - end up in landfills every year and only about 15% are recycled while the rest are burned. Beyond the waste clothing generates after being produced, there is an off-product of creating the clothing to consider. The process of the color and chemicals imbued in fabrics is responsible for well over 20% of global water pollution. Shipping the textiles also creates waste with the textile industry generating 42 million tons of plastic waste per year making the textile industry the second-highest industrial sector after packaging. Maybe like many reading this you’re thinking to yourself, “I donate my items after to Goodwill.” While donating your clothes to a thrift store like Goodwill or Salvation may give some of your clothes a good life, the majority will end up in the landfills and incinerators. Maybe you’re even more responsible and take your gently used items to a take-back program. Retailers including H&M, GAP, Patagonia, Levi’s, Madewell, and others have announced in-store programs allowing customers to bring in worn garments. These are sorted to be donated or recycled—turned into insulation, rags, or, more misleadingly, recycled into textile for new garments—sometimes in exchange for a discount voucher. While this program is a great idea, recycling old items into new ones weakens the fibers and cloth made from mixed fibers making it tough to separate thin fibers from their native components. Even the companies who champion these programs admit it with H&M’s 2016 sustainability Continued to page 2
Volume 2 - EDITION 4 JANUARY 31
LUNAR NEW YEAR - Continued from page 1
remember clearly hearing the fireworks again and again in the air, scattered, falling sound. People’s faces are illuminated by the flickering light of fireworks, and they close their eyes to make the purest, most beautiful wish for the new year. After the fireworks, it’s time for the “red envelope”, which is the favorite part of most children. Red envelopes were originally meant to be a blessing. Usually there is money in the red envelope, which in folk culture means to ward off evil spirits, blessing peace. Because people believe that children are vulnerable to ghosts and spirits, they use New Year’s money to suppress evil spirits and drive away evil spirits. The Lunar New Year is the end and the
beginning, the warmth of family reunion and the hope for the future. Lunar New Year is very important not only in China but also in other Asian countries like South Korea, Vietnam, North Korea, and so on. Each country has similar but different cultures and customs. •
THE HOWLER
PAGE NUMBER 2
NEW YEAR NEW YOU - Continued from page 1
report admitting that only .7 percent of the material used in new clothing is recycled. While the information above should be dire there are still ways to shop and donate that decrease waste. Wear what you have While I know this might sound simple, the average American buys 64 items of clothing and 7.5 pairs of shoes per year, most of which are made on foreign continents. As discussed before the process of dying fabric, making clothing, and shipping it all creates CO2 emissions, so wearing what you already have is the best way to reduce your impact on the environment. If you’re struggling to figure out how to wear or style a piece try Pinterest or the internet for inspiration before deciding to donate it. Repair what you own I understand that not everyone owns a sewing machine but everyone can sew with a needle. If you have a hole in your pants or the strap of your dress breaks, try to fix it. Tons of websites and YouTube videos have directions on fixing clothing and general sewing tips. After all, if you donate a piece of clothing broken you’re just creating a middleman in the items transition to the dump. Swap your clothing Clothing swaps can be a great way to get rid of clothing while receiving something else in return. I recently attended a clothing swap at the Hive where each participant donated at least five pieces of clothing, in exchange for light refreshments and appetizers, as well as the ability to pick out five pieces of clothing. However, like most clothing swaps this was a one-time event. NTY clothing exchange has a sort of standing clothing swap. The store will pay people in cash for gently used, on-trend fashions and accessories. Or you can get store credit for your items. For a list of the brands they commonly buy you can check out their website. Donate specifically When cleaning out your closet there are many options besides your local Goodwill or Salvation Army. As you go through your closet the first thing you should do is create different piles for formal clothing, bras, and everyday wear. Often things like bras, pants, and items for colder weather (sweaters or coats) can go to homeless shelters or domestic violence shelters
to provide a wardrobe for those who are not fortunate enough to have one. Before donating you should check the shelter’s wish list and their policy on used bras. Moving on to formal clothing. Formal clothing is often something domestic abuse survivors and homeless people lack, but it is often necessary for job interviews or going to work. To combat this barrier many organizations will accept gently used formal clothing (though some have a limit on how old it can be) and shoes. In Rochester, several organizations do this, including Dress for Success and the Career Clothing Closet (though his one is solely for U of R students). Finally, organizations like For Days and thredUP will take the last of your gently used items. The reason that these organizations are better than Goodwill or Salvation Army is quite simple: less of what they take in goes to landfills. According to stats from For Days, 74% of items donated are stored and graded for reuse, 15-22% of what they take in goes into fiber recycling, and only 5% is sent to the landfill. ThredUP sells all its items online so they have no inventory limitations. Additionally, with your donation, thredUP will send a five-dollar donation to a charity of your choice. In summary Wear the clothing you already own, repair it, swap it, and if necessary donate it responsibly. If you do these things you can reduce your impact and the overall amount of clothing that is thrown away every year. • WORKS CITED Besser, Linton. “Dead white man’s clothes: How fast fashion is turning parts of Ghana into toxic landfill.” ABC News, 11 Aug. 2021, www.abc.net.au/news/202108-12/fast-fashion-turning-parts-ghana-into-toxiclandfill/100358702. Accessed 6 Jan. 2024. Earth.Org. “10 Concerning Fast Fashion Waste Statistics.” Earth.Org, 21 Aug. 2023, earth.org/statistics-about-fastfashion-waste/#:~:text=The%20average%20US%20 consumer%20throws,landfills%20on%20a%20yearly%20 basis. Accessed 6 Jan. 2024. Ruiz, Arabella. “17 Most Worrying Textile Waste Statistics & Facts.” TheRoundup.org, 11 Apr. 2023, theroundup.org/ textile-waste-statistics/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2024. “This Is What Really Happens to Your Used Clothing Donations.” Reader’s Digest, 28 Nov. 2022, www.rd.com/ article/what-happens-used-clothing-donations/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2024.
Volume 2 - EDITION 4 JANUARY 31
THE HOWLER
PAGE NUMBER 3
GERMAN SCHOOL LISA SCHWARZ
You may have met our German exchange student Lisa who spent two and a half weeks visiting Evelyn Kacprzynski in the US this past January. We asked Lisa to share a little bit about her school. First of all, I would like to introduce myself. I am Lisa, 17 years old and live in Germany near Frankfurt. I just spent the last two weeks at AC visiting with Evelyn Kacprzynski. I’m in 11th grade and still have two years of school left. My subjects at the Georg-Christoph-LichtenbergSchool are German, English, history, politics, art, biology, physics, chemistry, religion, math, Latin and sport. Outside of school I play tennis five times a week and have a foster horse. I have ridden horses for eleven years. That’s me. I will show you my school system compared to yours. Here is my school schedule. On Mondays and Wednesdays I am out of school at 1:00pm, but I still have afternoon classes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Many of you will now think that my day at school is terrible and yes, you are right. After the first day at your school, the first thing I said to Evelyn and her family was how relaxing a school day was here. Before I got to know this school system, my school system was something completely normal for me that everyone had to go through. But it is not like that. I would be so grateful if the school system in Germany were structured like this.
Another question that many of you have asked yourself would have to be “What about after-school sports!?” We don’t have anything like that. When we’re out of school we can do whatever we want. Studying, doing homework, meeting up with friends, enjoying family time... whatever you want. For me, the time after school starts with lunch because there is only one kiosk at school where you can buy snacks. These include bars, salads, and pretzels and what Greg (Evelyn’s father) really likes is that there are wienerschitzel and bratwurst. Everything is really delicious but at home there is always something warm after school, which I prefer. After lunch, I go do my homework or study for an exam. I assume that every student does that at first. To clear my head afterwards, I have tennis training and then go to my horse or go to the gym. Unfortunately, afterwards, I often have to go back to my school supplies. Which is very annoying. The next point I want to talk about is the exam phase. As far as I know, you don’t have anything like that. You will be told a week in advance that you will be writing a test. Right? So in Germany, we have exam phases. To illustrate it better, I’ll jump back in time and show you my exam schedule. This time began at the beginning of November. I wrote at least one exam every week until December 22nd. That was really the most stressful time in my life so far.
I would like to give my opinion about the different school systems. For two weeks I was able to find out how school in America works and what kind of school material is covered. I would say that even though I still have two years left, my level of knowledge is almost as high as your level of knowledge in the final year. I can explain this by the different degree options in Germany. We can leave school after the 9th grade with a secondary school diploma, after the 10th with a secondary school diploma or after the 13th grade with a high school diploma. If you leave school with a secondary school diploma, you will have the necessary level of knowledge that I think you have achieved here after the 12th grade. In Germany, after the 10th grade, you move on to high school where you are no longer required to attend school. I hope that makes sense to you. I hope you enjoyed this little insight into my school system. It was a very nice time with you and I felt very This was my exam schedule welcome. Thanks, your Lisa. • 11/8 English 12/5 Math 11/16 History 12/8 Latin 11/21 Politics 12/12 Sport 11/24 Chemistry 12/14 German 11/27 Religion 12/20 English 11/29 Biology 12/21 Physics 12/4 Art 12/22 Latin
Volume 2 - EDITION 4 JANUARY 31
THE HOWLER
PAGE NUMBER 4
M E N TA L W E L L N E S S a n d D I G N I T Y f o r A C ANGELICA DAVIS-BERNARD
community-building circles in our practice along with the goal of cultivating a culture of inclusivity, equity, and justice through restorative practices is our shared responsibility. This practice takes commitment, consistency, and time! Restorative practices have the potential to positively influence students to build caring relationships with faculty, staff, and their peers. As we all commit to AC’s mission and equity statements we can strive for respectful interactions, justice, and an inclusive culture that benefits everyone. From your perspective, how can you contribute to a positive school climate? Our dignity and mental wellness depend on it! • Students spend the majority of their time at school, therefore their experiences in school can have a major impact on their overall health and wellness. January is recognized as the National Mental Wellness Awareness Month. This is a time when we can reflect on our collective mental wellness while improving the quality of our relationships. According to the World Health Organization, mental wellness is defined as “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes their own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to [their] community” (WHO, 2024). Promoting mental wellness for every AC student, parent/caregiver, staff, and faculty is our collective responsibility to honor everyone’s dignity. According to Soken-Huberty, E. (2024), “the concept of human dignity is the belief that all people hold a special value that’s tied solely to their humanity”. Your actions and words can impact your peer’s dignity and mental wellness. Dignity is something we all deserve. Everyday acts of intolerance can manifest themselves in many ways including but not limited to, “name-calling, slurs, sexual harassment, casual putdowns regarding race, ethnicity, gender, size, abilities, perceived sexual orientation or gender identification,” and microaggressions (Learning for Justice, 2022). Too many students are hurt by harassment and intolerance in our schools across the nation (Learning for Justice,
2022; Humans Rights Campaign, 2018; Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crime: A Guide for Schools, 1999). Harm can be unwanted, aggressive behavior that “involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior can be repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time” (American Mental Wellness). Intolerance can cause a lack of trust and lowered self-esteem. It is important to note that having positive relationships and healthy self-esteem can improve one’s mental wellness and health. Essentially, causing psychological harm to a community member is unacceptable. That’s a value we must all share and agree to. But have we? According to Learning for Justice (2022), a school climate that encourages inclusion and promotes tolerance creates an atmosphere in which acts of intolerance and harm are less likely to be acceptable and more likely to be widely rejected. Positive school climates have the potential to improve everyone’s mental wellness (Brennan, 2023). “The climate of a school has a direct impact on both how well students learn and how well they interact with their peers” (Learning for Justice, 2022). When a school invests time, resources, and attention in building positive relationships among students and staff, then the rates of harm/intolerance decrease (Learning for Justice, 2022). Allendale Columbia (AC) is embarking on our journey to improve relationships. Embedding
WORKS CITED American Mental Wellness. https://www. americanmentalwellness.org/prevention/mental-healthproblems/ Ashley Treatment accessed by https://www. ashleytreatment.org/rehab-blog/honoring-mentalwellness-month/#:~:text=Honoring%20January%20 as%20National%20Mental,how%20we%20can%20 do%20that. Brennan, M. (2023). How Does Bullying Affect Mental Health? https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/how-doesbullying-affect-mental-health Soken-Huberty, E. (2024). Human Rights Careers. https:// www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/definitions-what-ishuman-dignity/ Learning for Justice. (2022). Responding to Hate and Bias at School. https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/ publications/responding-to-hate-and-bias-at-school/ section-one-before-a-crisis-occurs-1 LGBTQ Youth Report Humans Rights Centers (2018). https://assets2.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/2018YouthReport-NoVid.pdf Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crime: A Guide for Schools (1999). Accessed at https://www2. ed.gov/offices/OCR/archives/Harassment/harass_intro. html World Health Organization (WHO, 2024). Health and Well-Being. https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/majorthemes/health-and-well-being#:~:text=Mental%20 health%20is%20a%20state,to%20his%20or%20her%20 community.
THE HOWLER
Volume 2 - EDITION 4 JANUARY 31
PAGE NUMBER 5
HOWLARIOUS L O G I C PUZZLE JAMES THORNBURG
CRYPTOGRAM AMY OLIVERI
Each letter in the phrase has been replaced with a random letter or number. Try to decode the message.
Volume 2 - EDITION 4 JANUARY 31
THE HOWLER
PAGE NUMBER 6
B A M ! BA o Certain ok Hunger
CHELSEA G. SUMMERS GENRE: HORROR RATING: 5/5
“A Certain Hunger” by Chelsea G. Summers is a novel that follows the life of Dorothy Daniels, a successful food critic with a taste for the unusual: specifically human flesh. I immensely enjoyed this book and read it over just five days. Beyond the exquisite diction and sentence structure used throughout the novel, the main character (but by no means the protagonist), Dorothy Daniel is a deliciously well-written female psychopath. Dorothy narrates the story of her life from the interior of Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, where she is currently imprisoned for murder, cannibalism, and assault. Dorothy’s narration throughout the novel is peppered with food descriptors and culinary metaphors, breathing life into her character. For instance, a court witness as “cool as bisque and twice as sane” or a love affair as “innocent as milk.” Looking past the surface-level details one can see a feminist argument. Why are women being kept out of so many industries, even Hannibal Lecter-style serial murders? For Dorothy, the answer is pure and simple sexism. “Feminism comes to all things,” she says, “but it comes to recognizing homicidal rage the slowest.” •
Album Mania FALLOUT BOY GENRE: POP PUNK RATING: 2.5/5
-
Mania by Fallout Boy is an interesting mix of sounds. While some songs seem to stick to the band’s pop-punk roots, others songs completely diverge into more electronic or rap sounds. It is clear from a preliminary listen that this was an experimental album for the band. The fact that Mania was experimental is also evident from the fact that three songs were scraped from the album which diverges even further from Fallout Boy’s poppunk sound. Overall the album shows Fallout Boy’s transition from a pop-punk band to a purely pop band. While the opener to this album, “Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea”, is very energetic and poporiented, the ending song (“Bishops Knife Trick”) is quite disappointing with a lack of clear sound and very little lyrically to tie it all together. Overall the album feels disjointed, never quite coalescing together. Stand-out tracks for this album are “Hold Me Tight or Don’t,” “ W i l s o n (Expensive Mistakes),” and “Church.” The album is very middle of the road, as it does not pick a musical genre or general theme. I wouldn’t recommend this album to anyone and would recommend any other Fallout Boy album in their discography. •
Movie Five Nights -
at Freddy’s GENRE: HORROR RATING: 4.8/5
I only saw one movie in theaters in 2023: Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF). I have only been a casual FNAF viewer, watching a couple of Markilpier and some Game Theory videos on the game occasionally. Despite being only a casual viewer of FNAF content I loved the movie. The movie follows Mike Schmidt (played by Josh Hutcherson), who is the legal guardian of his younger sister, and a man who cannot hold down a job. After losing his job as a mall security guard he is given a job as a night security guard at a rundown Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza location. Animatronic jumpscares and plot twists ensue, cleverly setting up the franchise for a sequel. Additionally, the movie has numerous cameos from various youtubers who make FNAF content. The most prominently featured youtubers are MatPat and CoryxKenshin, as the waiter and the cab driver respectively. The entirety of the employee of the month of the board was also populated with youtubers. While critic reviews call the movie “confusing,” “decidedly unscary,” and “simply absurd”, fans champion the film for callbacks to iconic lines present in the video game and book franchise. I enjoyed the film for its callbacks, YouTuber cameos, and overall (a bit absurd) storytelling. I would recommend that any, even casual, FNAF viewers watch this film simply for the goofs. •
THE HOWLER
Volume 2 - EDITION 4 JANUARY 31
PAGE NUMBER 7
CALC IS COOL KEXIN CAI
Calculus is the mathematical study of continuous change. It’s used in many areas like physics, engineering, economics, biology, medicine, computer science, and more. Allendale Columbia offers two courses in Calculus, Mr. Neeley teaches Calculus AB and Ms. Benchik-Watson teaches Calculus BC. Below are the responses and explanations they gave to some questions about calculus, which we hope will help more students understand and be interested in taking calculus.
concepts from a more abstract perspective. We do look at some of the less complex problems such as Newton’s Law of Cooling, motion problems, and using differential equations to describe exponential growth and decay. The funny thing about Calculus is that it can be used for so many different things! Connections to real-world problems often come up naturally as we talk about a concept. One student told Mr. Neely and I, that after learning about derivatives, he started seeing tangent lines everywhere!
FOR YOU, WHAT IS THE MOST INTERESTING PART ABOUT CALCULUS? CAN YOU TELL ME SOMETHING ABOUT IT?
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT ANY UNIQUE TEACHING METHODS YOU USE TO MAKE CALCULUS CONCEPTS MORE UNDERSTANDABLE TO
Mr.Neeley: Calculus is incredibly versatile and applicable to so many different areas - physics, business, and so many more. Ms.BW: Calculus is fascinating. It takes really hard, complicated problems, cuts them into lots and lots of smaller, easier problems, and then glues them all back together again. It’s a form of mental gymnastics and I love it!
STUDENTS?
Mr.Neeley: I use a lot of color coding for complicated expressions. I relate abstract concepts to real life. I sometimes do exploratory lessons so students can determine the concepts. Ms.BW: I like my students to be active learners. Whenever possible, I want students to play around with the math first. I find that the formal concepts and formulas make more sense after they’ve experienced the messy bits. That can look like them working on dry-erase boards in small groups, interacting with animated graphs in Desmos, building models to demonstrate integration techniques, or wading into a creek to collect data.
exponent rules makes nearly every concept you study in Calculus easier! WHEN DID YOU START STUDYING CALCULUS? WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO STUDY CALCULUS AND CHOOSE TO TEACH CALCULUS AB(BC)?
Mr.Neeley: I first took Calculus as a senior in high school. It was the first math course where I really had to think slowly and carefully. I actually didn’t choose to teach Calculus. It was assigned to me in my 11th year of teaching and I have taught it every year since! Ms.BW: I started studying Calculus when I was in high school. I loved math and it was the highest-level math class that my school offered at the time. (AP Stats didn’t even exist when I was in high school!) I’ve taught a lot of different math classes to students from middle school to college. When I first started teaching at AC, Mr. Neeley was teaching both Calculus AB and BC. He asked me if I would like to teach the Calc BC course. (He doesn’t enjoy teaching all the series tests.) I was
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO STUDENTS WHO ARE PREPARING TO TAKE CALCULUS, OR ARE ALREADY TAKING CALCULUS? CAN YOU SHARE SOME REAL-WORLD APPLICATIONS OF CALCULUS THAT YOU DISCUSS IN YOUR CLASSES TO HELP STUDENTS UNDERSTAND ITS RELEVANCE?
Mr.Neeley: Position, velocity, and acceleration. Ms.BW: Calculus’s job is to help simplify and understand some really messy, difficult realworld problems. For example, it was essential in developing CAT scans so doctors could see into a patient’s brain. Because the real-world problems that Calculus tackles are so complicated, we actually spend a lot of time in class learning the
Mr.Neeley: Be prepared to put in the time needed. Don’t try to rush to get to calculus you need a strong foundation with Algebra 2, Trigonometry, and Precalculus. I might also suggest taking the new AP Precalculus course as I am realizing in this first year of the course how many calculus concepts are being presented throughout that course, which will make calculus easier to understand. Ms.BW: Learn your exponent rules! Being able to easily and quickly rewrite and simplify expressions in different forms using the
happy to teach it! I had taught Calculus classes at MCC and St. John Fisher and had really enjoyed it. While I enjoy all the topics of Calculus, I confess that I prefer teaching BC to AB. I think that Mr. Neeley has the hard course, and I have the fun one. (Shhhh! Don’t tell him!) •
Volume 2 - EDITION 4 JANUARY 31
THE HOWLER
PAGE NUMBER 8
INSIDE THE DEN Congratulations to our Girls Indoor Track Team for winning the WFL Division 2 Championship! Also congratulations to our boys team for finishing 2nd!!! Both teams are gearing up to make a big sectional run!
Congrats to both the Girls and Boys teams for placing 3rd overall. The Boys had 17 best times with one additional qualifier for sectionals. The 17 best times works out to 1.7 best times per boys swimmer at this meet. The girls had 21 best times and 1.75 best times per swimmer at this meet. Both teams will gear up for the upcoming Sectional Championships!