Volume 34 Issue 3

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The Lion’s Tale

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Volume 34 Issue 3

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November 28, 2016

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CESJDS

the lion’s tale

Arabic students forge bond with Syrian refugee family pg. 06-07

STEM partnership with GW, pg. 02

New middle school Friday schedule, pg. 08

Upper School Krav Maga session, pg. 10

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News Briefs Dec. 13 7:30-9 p.m.

Homework stress speaker President and Founder of Educational Connections Tutoring Ann Dolin will speak to parents about the best ways to deal with the stresses of homework. The program is hosted by the Educational Supports Services and the CESJDS Parent Association.

Dec. 15 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 17 8 p.m.

Dec. 18 4 p.m.

High school musical "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" will have a different ending, based on audience participation, for each of its three performances. Tickets can be purchased at cesjds.org.

Dec. 18 1-3 p.m.

Summer camp fair Students will be able to explore different summer programs and get a sense of the Jewish summer camp experience. Programs range from the local to the international.

Dec. 20 5:30 p.m.

Hebrew Academy game The boys and girls varsity basketball teams will face their archrivals, the Hebrew Academy Cougars, at JDS, in the first of their two matchups this season. compiled by talia denicoff and isaac silber

Correction: Daniel Baumstein’s Oct. 10 column incorrectly cited a 2013 report by the U.S. Sentencing Project that one in three black males “can expect to spend a lifetime in prison.”

The report actually said that “if current trends continue, one of every three black American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime.”

The Lion’s Tale apologizes for the error. cover by ariella kulp

A new approach to STEM education

Lower School partners with George Washington University amelia davidson reporter As part of an initiative to rethink and improve the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program at the Lower School, CESJDS established a threeyear partnership with George Washington University (GW) this summer.

One Lower School faculty member from each grade will be mentored by a GW faculty member who specializes in STEM education.

These mentors will observe and aid JDS staff at the Lower School campus, and enrolled JDS teachers will receive a certification in STEM education.

The partnership was formed over the summer because the Lower School administration wanted GW to help them incorporate aspects of STEM learning into the general curriculum. Both teachers who teach STEM subjects and teachers who do not will take part in this program, as the goal is not just to improve STEM education, but to apply the concepts used in this type of education to all aspects of the general curriculum.

JDS came up with the idea of expanding STEM teaching techniques beyond the realm of traditional STEM classes before they contacted GW. The school received an anon-

ymous financial gift from a family ed by students that involve content looking to help further the Lower from many different classes, but School math and science program. have a STEM component to them. A After receiving the donation, Head of large portion of this mentoring proSchool Rabbi Mitchel Malkus invited gram will be geared toward educatfive groups to make a proposal for ing the JDS teachers on how to conhow to integrate STEM into Judaic duct these projects effectively. and humanities classes.

This partnership is unique to GW submitted a proposal be- JDS, as it is rare for an elementary cause the Dean of the GW School school to partner with a major uniof Education and Human Devel- versity for a curriculum redesign, opment, who Malkus knows, con- Soffler said. She added that the partnected Malkus to GW faculty who work in STEM. After review“It feels like this move into being ing each proposal and interviewing three on the cutting edge in STEM is a out of the five groups, very logical step.”

Malkus and the administration decided - director of instructional to partner with GW. technology ginger thornton Malkus said that the partnership is beneficial for both students and teachers. nership will be effective because “So the advantage for our teach- both GW and the Lower School beners is they’re getting this advanced efit from it and have the same goals level of training, and it’s being paid in mind. for through the school as opposed to “All the topics are coming tothem having to go to GW and pay for gether in fantastic ways here at the it themselves,” Malkus said.

Lower School,” Soffler said. “That’s According to Lower School Sci- also where us and George Washingence and STEM Coordinator Alexis ton University come together: we’re Soffler, certified teachers will bring working together to better under“kaleidoscope projects” to their stand STEM education.” classes. These are projects completSoffler said that the JDS admin-

istration hopes that when students are taught by teachers certified in applying STEM concepts to all aspects of education, and engage in the “kaleidoscope projects,” they will learn to think more critically and, through a more interactive style of learning, will become more engaged in all subjects.

“The way that students learn best is by having meaningful experiences and learning things that they want to learn about, so we knew that project-based learning and learning that covers a lot of different topics was the way we wanted to go,” Soffler said.

Director of Instructional Technology Ginger Thornton “would not be surprised” to see this new partnership extended to the Upper School, or at least the middle school, in coming years. Thornton also believes that this new mentoring program sets the Lower School apart from other elementary schools.

“I’m amazed at the opportunity,” Thornton said. “For quite some time I feel like we’ve been pushing ourselves to be on the cutting edge in a lot of areas, particularly in technology. So, it feels like this move into being on the cutting edge in STEM is a very logical step.”

Families celebrate Shabbat Across JDS isaac silber news editor This year, over 145 CESJDS families gathered together at each other’s homes Friday night, Nov. 18, for Shabbat dinner as part of Shabbat Across JDS. Shabbat Across JDS is a set Shabbat where JDS families are encouraged to invite new or old friends over for Shabbat dinner or lunch as a way to build a sense of community. All the hosts receive a bag with challah, grape juice, a list of the Shabbat blessings and a thank you letter from Head of School Rabbi Mitchel Malkus.

In the fall of 2014, JDS parents Jennifer Schwartz and Jennifer Sunshine approached Malkus with the idea of bringing Shabbat Across America to JDS. According to Sun-

shine, their inspiration for beginning a Shabbat Across JDS came from similar synagogue programs.

Malkus was supportive of the idea, so in the 2014-2015 school year there were three different Shabbat Across JDS events.

In 2015-2016, two Shabbat Across JDS events were held, and this year there will likely be a second Shabbat Across JDS in the spring.

“Shabbat is such an integral part of our heritage and an integral part of what so many of us do as Jewish families, so it seemed like the logical thing to build the program around,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz and Sunshine said that they have received only positive feedback after each event.

Schwartz believes that one of the best parts of the program is that

some families take the initiative to invite new JDS families and really make them feel like part of the school community. Additionally, many kindergarten families take part each year, which helps to bring the new JDS students together.

Junior Sophie Handloff and her family have hosted other JDS families each year for Shabbat Across JDS. While her family usually only has family friends over for Shabbat dinner, Shabbat Across JDS opens up the possibility for her to have new friends over.

“We have Shabbat [dinner] in my family every week, so incorporating school into Shabbat was a very good experience,” Handloff said. “It was fun to be with school friends on Shabbat.”

Similarly, English teacher Davida Yitzhaky organized and hosted

Shabbat Across JDS for faculty and their children.

“It creates a good bond outside of the classroom,” Yitzhaky said.

“Even if it’s not only students, it fosters a sense of community. It helps us feel more passionate about what we do.”

Yitzhaky said that Shabbat Across JDS is a very important event for her family and the guests that she has over.

“I like hosting, I like having a lot of people at my house, I like cooking,” Yitzhaky said. “I wanted to make sure people were able to celebrate Shabbat together, and I knew that by me hosting, it would allow that to happen.”

Junior Nicole Schwartz contributed to this article.

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November news through pictures

1. Fifteen students from Colegio Tarbut, a Jewish school

in Buenos Aires, Argentina, visited the Upper School Nov. 14 and 15 as part of a two-week tour of the United States. Students from the school stayed with CESJDS high school students taking Spanish. On Nov. 14, the students and their hosts went to the Montgomery Mall.

2. photo provided by ariella kulp

photo courtesy of talia shemony

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Eighth-grader Drew Sadikman (Marc Antony) and seventh-grader Avigayil Fischman-Charry (Octavius Caesar) share the stage during the middle school Shakespeare Club’s performance of “Julius Caesar” on Nov. 15 at the Upper School. The club also performed "Twelth Night."

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Junior Jonah Loshin learns about the Aardvark Israel gap year program. Alumni and representatives from 25 different gap year programs came to JDS on Nov. 15 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

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Construction on the Upper School's Innovation Center for Design and Robotics was recently completed. Two sets of middle school science classes, middle school electives and computer science classes will be held in the lab. In future years, publications and graphic design classes may take place in the lab, and a new broadcasting studio might also be added to the lab.

photo by noah green

photo by noy dahan

Administration surveys community about schedule changes addie bard reporter Drastic changes were made to the middle and high school schedules for the 2016-17 school year, and the administration recently began the process of receiving formal feedback from students and faculty.

A survey was sent out to middle school students and faculty on Oct. 31, while the high school received it a few days later on Nov. 3. The administration waited several weeks into the first quarter before asking students to assess the schedule because they thought it was important for students to pilot it first.

“We wanted to make sure we had enough time to think about and discuss what we had heard thus far, and we wanted to incorporate as much as we could that seemed like it was relevant and on the minds of people,” High School Principal and Associate Head of School Dr. Marc Lindner said.

The survey was compiled with the help of Dr. Meredith Woocher, an outside consultant. Woocher is a self-employed researcher and evaluator who works with Jewish organizations like schools, synagogues, federations and foundations. The scheduling committee at CESJDS, which is made up of different teachers in various departments, helped write the survey questions. The administration identified potential problems with the schedule and sent this information to Woocher, who compiled it into a formal survey. “[Woocher] has been a great, excellent resource,” Lindner said. “The content of the survey is coming from us here at JDS and [Woocher] has been a great resource as to how to conduct and design the survey.”

After the survey is completed, Woocher will be the first to see the results. She will then compile them into a report so that the administration can see the major strengths and weaknesses of the schedule accord-

ing to the school community.

“We will not be seeing names of the students or faculty because we wanted that to be confidential and we didn’t want people to feel uncomfortable sharing how they really are feeling about the schedule for any reason, either because other people complain and they are feeling good about something or vice versa,” Middle School Principal Rebecca Weisman said.

Both Lindner and Weisman agree that the results of the survey could lead to possible changes for the second semester and future school years.

Junior Brooke Cohen finds the new schedule to be highly inconvenient with sports, and hopes that the administration makes changes for next year. Because the same two periods are at the end of the day during the week, Cohen consistently misses the same classes for her sporting events.

“I have fallen so behind in those

two classes and it is really stressful having the same two [at the end of the day,]” Cohen said.

The changes to the schedule were created by a scheduling committee last school year. One of the goals of the new schedule was having shorter blocks for classes that benefit from meeting frequently, like languages and math, and longer blocks for more discussion-based classes.

English teacher Nancy Wassner, who was a member of the scheduling committee, feels that this goal has been difficult to carry out due to the size, schedule and the number of classes the school has.

“I teach two [junior] advanced English classes: one is in a shorter block and one is in a longer block.”

Wassner said. “That’s really hard, and we had really hoped to make it so that wouldn’t happen, so that students and teachers would have a much more streamlined experience.”

Though the shorter and longer

blocks have presented problems for Wassner, she loves the community time block of the day. She also appreciates having consistent class times all week long. Sophomore Liam Shemesh also likes the increased consistency.

“I like how the classes are at the same point every day,” Shemesh said. “It is very organized and I know what classes I have and when the breaks are.”

Lindner has also heard positive feedback about the increased consistency for students. On the other hand, he has also received feedback from students who dislike the schedule due to the rapid pace of the school day.

“Hopefully people have been putting into their surveys honest appraisals of what is working and what isn’t working," Weisman said.

"We will continue to work to figure out how to make this schedule really successful as much as we can for everybody."

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Staff editorial

lion’s tale Lessons learned from media’s flawed election coverage

editors-in-chief talia horowitz, miriam minsk managing editor, copy jonathan foldi design editor ariella kulp copy editor aliza rabinovitz opinion editor gabe krantz news talia denicoff, isaac silber features editors izzy friedland, aaron schonfeld & rina torchinsky style editors emily cohen, ari feuer in-depth editors dahlia lehman, arielle weinstein sports editors bennett bramson, joel vardon photo editor noy dahan social media, video editor noah green videographer lily daroff editorial cartoonists beyla bass, ben shrock photographers ilan cohen, caroline weinstein reporters josh abramowitz, addie bard, ilan cohen, amelia davidson, devira friedman, shira godin, danny ingber, jessie lehman, aaron robinson, ben savarick, kate sosland, sara sporkin staff adviser jessica nassau adviser emerita susan zuckerman

Editorial and Ethics Policy

In Journalism I, one of the first lessons we learned was about journalistic ethics. We were taught to cover all sides of every story, and to write balanced articles that accurately portray an event in its entirety. We learned to remove our personal biases from the articles we write by avoiding conflicts of interest.

These standards that formed the basis of our journalistic education, however, were disturbingly absent in the media’s coverage of the election. After newspapers predicted a likely Clinton victory, many Americans were in disbelief when at 3 a.m. on Nov. 9, Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump to concede the election. This was the final surprise in a presidential race filled with many instances of poor, as well as biased, reporting.

For the press, a good story has always meant good business.

Trump’s meteoric rise was prime material to draw readers and viewers, but the media didn’t believe that his ability to sustain this momentum was as feasible as Clinton easily winning the election. While these

The Lion’s Tale is funded by The Simon Hirshman Endowment for the Upper School Newspaper and The Kuttner-Levenson Endowment for the Upper School Cultural Arts and Student Publications, and community advertisements.

The Lion’s Tale reserves the right to refuse advertisement for any reason.

The staff will adhere to the ethics policies of The Society of Professional Journalists. The adviser will be held to the Journalism Education Association’s Adviser Code of Ethics. The Lion’s Tale belongs to the National Scholastic Press Association and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

The Lion’s Tale prints 800 copies of every issue, which is distributed to students and staff at the Upper Campus. PDFs of the paper are available at issuu.com/lionstale. The Lion’s Tale website is lionstale.org. All contents copyright of The Lions’ Tale. All rights reserved.

mission of guilt by major news organizations over their poor election reporting. Second, and more importantly, it is the direction in which we must move forward as a nation.

To put it simply, our country cannot function without the media. Whether it be reports on global news regarding international treaties, national headlines about the election or local coverage of the plentiful Metro mishaps, knowledge of current events is something upon which our lives are dependent.

It is with this relationship in mind that we must look to the future. We must take it upon ourselves as consumers of the media to not only hold the media up to these standards, but also to take the initiative to become better readers. This includes not restricting our news intake to clickbait articles, as well as reading from a wide variety of news outlets.

As the staff of The Lion’s Tale, we promise to hold up our end of this agreement by continuing to re-

cartoon by talia horowitz

port accurately, substantively and fairly on the events in our community. In the same regard, we hope that you, our readers, continue to demand quality stories and reporting, both from us and all other media outlets you read.

-The Lion’s Tale

Unscheduled problem: New schedule falls flat

As the student newspaper of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, The Lion’s Tale is a public forum for student opinion and expression. All content is determined by students. Its purpose is to inform the CESJDS community and to express the views of its staff and readers. The staff has made every effort to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of its news.

Signed columns reflect the opinion of the writer; staff editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of The Lion’s Tale editorial board. The Lion’s Tale staff welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns, all of which must be signed.

The staff reserves the right to refuse any material and may edit letters or columns for length, clarity, libel, obscenity and/or disruptiveness.

Submissions may be emailed to jdslionstale@ gmail.com, mailed to The Lion’s Tale at 11710 Hunters Lane, Rockville, Md., 20852.

decisions may have been what was best for ratings, at a certain point, the pursuit of economic success for journalism companies both overlooks and undermines our core journalistic values, something that a number of journalists seemed to realize only too late.

After the election, major news organizations including The New York Times, The Washington Post and CBS published columns admitting their faults in their coverage of the election. James Hohmann, national political correspondent of the Washington Post, wrote that the GOP elites, pollsters and the media all missed Trump’s base of voters even though “it was right in front of us the whole time.” Executive editor Dean Baquet and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. of The New York Times wrote that their paper will “aim to rededicate ourselves to the fundamental mission of Times journalism ... to understand and reflect all political perspectives and life experiences in the stories that we bring to you.”

The significance of these statements is twofold: first, it is an ad-

ilana kaplan guest columnist After 10 frustrating weeks of the new high school schedule, a survey came out asking for our opinions. Finally. Students have been complaining about the logistics and challenges that the schedule has brought for weeks and truthfully, the complaints have been warranted.

A significant change to the high school schedule is that, unlike in previous years, some classes meet every day at the same time.

As a result, students have to prepare homework for the same class almost every night. In my case,

these three classes happen to have the heaviest workload.

According to High School Principal and Associate Head of School Marc Lindner, a goal of classes meeting every day at the same time was to provide consistency for the students. While I am able to memorize class times better this year in comparison to other years, this consistency is possible without inserting the same classes into the schedule.

Not everyone is at their best first thing in the morning. The old schedule was accommodating because a class would only be first every three days, and students who weren’t as ready to function in the morning didn’t have to worry about not performing their best in the same class every day.

Having the same class at the same time also means periodically compromising time in one class.

Lindner says the schedule accommodates students on sports teams and ensures that they don’t miss the same class at the end of the day for each game. Sporting events

like cross country meets, however, occur each Wednesday, meaning students on the track team miss period nine weekly. While Lindner says this is currently being addressed, it is evidence of improper planning.

Doctor’s appointments occur in the morning before school, or during first period for the convenience of a parent who still has to get to work. This means that students who frequently have to visit a doctor regularly miss the same class. Moreover, students who unintentionally become victims of traffic receive multiple tardies from the same class, which is not always in their control and can lead to their grade being penalized.

With last year’s schedule, every class was about an hour, regardless of what subject was being taught. For someone who struggles with focusing on a lecture or a given assignment for a long period of time, an hour was an appropriate amount of time for a teacher to give an entire lesson without me having to leave the class in the

middle to regain my focus.

I know that my peers face similar problems because according to The National Resources on ADHD in 2013, 9.5 percent of youth ages four to 17 were diagnosed with ADHD between 2011 and 2013.

With the new schedule, 68-minute classes are truly an everyday battle. It’s hard enough that the classes I do not have every day happen to mostly be lecture-style classes, but having two 68-minute lectures in a row every day is the hardest way for me to learn.

I suggest that the school return to the ABC rotating block schedule from previous years. To provide the same consistency, start and end times of classes should be uniform throughout the week.

We’ve had 10 weeks to give the new schedule a try, but now it’s time to go back and make modifications to the ABC block schedule that are less drastic and have beneficial impacts on our days and experiences at school.

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Should parents restrict their children’s technology use?

Yes, screen time should be limited No

romi nachman guest columnist As teens, it is typical for us to want independence and to do what we think is best for ourselves. While we are growing and it is important for us to make our own decisions, we are still kids, and our parents are there to teach and guide us to become the best people we can be. Sometimes, this guidance can mean the unfortunate process of setting limits, specifically on technology.

Technology is an incredible resource, something that we use every day to work, communicate with others and stream shows and movies.

While all the information available to us through technology can be a great tool, it becomes very distracting. According to Common Sense Media, on average, teens in the U.S. spend around nine hours on entertainment media (games, videos and social media) every day. I admit that I often find myself watching shows or being on social media when I should be more productive.

I used to spend around an hour on my phone or computer before starting my homework, which was a problem because I didn’t get home until 7 p.m. after all my extracurriculars. When I finally finished my work, it would be very late and I wouldn’t be able to get enough sleep, let alone spend time with my family. Since I stayed up late, the next day I would be very tired and would have trouble focusing throughout the school day.

My parents, who did not approve of this behavior, decided to to limit the amount of time my sister and I use technology every day. My parents wanted to remove

all technology from my room, except for my computer to do homework.

In addition to this ban, my parents found a parental control device and app called Circle with Disney. The program helps to balance technology and family time by allowing parents to limit the amount of time their kids spend on technology.

The app allows my parents to see the websites I use and the amount of time I spend on technology in general. They have the option to block specific websites and apps at certain times, and to shut down the Wi-Fi when they think I should be going to sleep.

At first, I thought this decision was really annoying. I didn’t like my personal freedom being restricted, especially when it was something as simple as using technology.

But as time went on, I realized the change positively impacted my life. I am able to plan my day wisely, make goals and work on time management. Since the Internet gets turned off at 11 p.m., I know that I am on a time crunch to finish work. When I get home from school, instead of getting on my phone, I remove it from my room so I won’t get distracted.

Because of this simple change in my routine, I am able to get work done earlier and more efficiently, leading me to get better grades and have more free time to exercise, read or even be on my phone or computer before bed.

Overuse of technology restricts us from doing so many other valuable things like spending time with people in person, finding a new hobby and so much more.

These limits gave me a perspective on my goals and the way I spend my time.

Instead of binge watching a show, I study, catch up on sleep and spend time with family and friends. I may not be able to stay up late to Snapchat my friends or finish “Stranger Things,” but I have learned to set my priorities straight and not let technology control my life.

Yes No, screen time should not be limited

izzy friedland contributing editor While I’ll be the first to agree that people, especially teens, don’t always handle our screen time well, I think the answer is not parental control, but self-control.

I’ve never been a paragon of personal responsibility. I’ve turned in numerous assignments late. Like many teens, I often lose myself in my phone. I’m not a big social media guy, but you couldn’t drag me away from messing with my friends online if my life (or, more likely, grade) depended on it.

Nevertheless, I still rely on myself more than my parents to keep myself steady. I do this not because I’m scared of life without my phone, but because I’m scared of life with it.

Cell phones are becoming increasingly necessary and common in the workplace, as well as in school. Parental supervision and control may suffice for middle school and high school students, but these students will not remain middle-schoolers and high-schoolers forever.

According to a Pearson study, more than four-fifths of college students use a smartphone regularly. It is safe to assume that most of those students don’t have parents ensuring they don’t abuse their technology twenty-four hours a day.

When those college students start working in offices and going to meetings, their parents will not be able to tell them to stop playing Candy Crush and listen to their boss.

If the only thing stopping a teen from wasting their time online is their parents, then they will likely find themselves ill-

equipped to handle independent responsibilities like college and the workplace.

If a teen learns from a failed assignment that they aren’t using their time well, they have the opportunity to make a healthier choice in the future. Parents may be able to help with that decision, but ultimately the choice must come from the student if anything is really going to change.

There’s a case to be made for parents stepping in when teens misuse their technology, but I think that any support they provide has to be wanted by their child— otherwise, the support feels like an attack.

People learn by making their own mistakes. If we aren’t given the chance to see why our choices are poor ones, we will never learn to stop making them.

Many are the assignments and deadlines I have missed, but not so many are the ones I’ve missed after deciding I need to make better choices about how I spend my time. I still mess up sometimes, but at least the decision was my own. Because I made that decision, even fewer will be the assignments I miss in the future.

Our world is constantly evolving in new, sometimes terrifying ways. We can’t always control things like our Twitter feeds or the need for our technology in everyday life. Similarly, our parents can’t always control what we’re exposed to, and that’s not always a bad thing.

Ultimately, the only thing we can really try to control is ourselves. The only way to learn from our mistakes is to have the ability to make mistakes. It might be too early to tell, but I think that ability has done more for my life than any control exerted by my parents.

Have an opinion you want to share in the next Lion’s Tale?

Email jdslions@gmail.com or come talk to publications staff in room 328.

in-depth 06

the lion’s tale

miriam minsk editor-in-chief Some speak Arabic and the others speak English. Some are Syrian and the others are American. Twice a month, their lives intersect.

Every other Sunday, four CESJDS Arabic II students volunteer one-onone with four Syrian refugees and help them learn English, review their course material and complete their homework. In return, the JDS students have the opportunity to practice their conversational Arabic and gain exposure to the family’s Syrian dialect.

The four sophomores are part of a larger effort to help the al-Abadi* family. A year ago, Rabbi Michael Feshbach of Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, Md. *Names have been changed to protect the identity of the Syrian family.

proposed the idea to his congregation that, in light of the Syrian refugee crisis, they adopt a family of refugees and aid them in becoming self-sufficient American citizens. Last spring, the synagogue began working with Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, an organization that helps refugees resettle in America and helped to arrange the family’s arrival.

“We spent some time thinking about how much we could do, like what could we afford,” said Karen Green, coordinator of the Temple Shalom Refugee Response Team. “Did we want to help them pay for their rent for a year? Did we want to just set up their apartment? How much could we do?

What could we do? We decided that we wanted to be involved for at least six months.”

The al-Abadis are a family of six: two parents, Iman and Ameer, and four

children, Mariam, Sarah, Nancy and Omar. Four years ago, they left their home in Daraa, Syria due to the growing violence in the region. They then moved to Jordan, where they lived in an apartment and received support from family members who had already fled Syria. After living in Jordan without work or basic utilities, the family arrived in the United States on Aug. 25 and was welcomed by the members of Temple Shalom.

Around 45 congregants formed various committees to provide the family with clothing, furniture, food and other services that aided them in their transition. Volunteers from the congregation also helped expedite the paperwork process. “[The volunteers] are able to do things fast but they still have to all get their shots, get registered for school, get their social security numbers,”

Green said. “When you come as a refugee, you have no identity here, so you can’t get anything done until you establish your paperwork.”

The al-Abadis currently live in a Prince George’s County neighborhood with other international families. The children attend Templeton Elementary and William Wirt Middle School, and have spent the past few months acclimating to their new community.

Sarah, the oldest daughter, likes the “nice people and kind treatment” and aspires to become a doctor. Her sister, Mariam, wants to be an engineer when she grows up and was surprised by the woods and nature of the United States.

The al-Abadis spoke no English when they came to America, so Iman and Ameer take government-funded English classes at Prince George’s Community College. Ameer, who worked as a truck driver in Syria and was unem-

ployed in Jordan, found a job transporting furniture through Lutheran Social Services and is also a barber. Iman hopes to join her husband in the salon business.

Despite the fact that the al-Abadis are settled into their new home, they are still adjusting to life in the United States and the challenges that come with it, especially learning the English language.

“I was trying to help one of the middle-schoolers with her math and it was a word problem,” Green said. “This is somebody who has been in the country for six weeks and it was all of this language that, living where we live, you would totally never use. It was about, if there are 60 hay bales in the barn and 32 bales in the shed. And I’m like, ‘holy cow, she can’t solve this problem, because she doesn’t know what hay, bale, shed and barn [mean].’”

Bridging the gap

Sophomores Ari Gershengorn and Daniel Morgan study for a quiz in Arabic II. They, along with two of their classmates, tutor children of a Syrian refugee family twice a month.

photo by talia horowitz

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Alicia Sullivan, member of Temple Shalom and mother of senior Daniel Baumstein, has been working to break this language barrier. In addition to setting up the family’s apartment and taking the daughters to the College Park Aviation Museum, Sullivan brought Iman to Starbucks to welcome her to the community and practice her English skills.

Because of Iman’s difficulty with the language adjustment, Sullivan uses an application on her phone that translates what she says into Arabic text so that Iman can more easily understand her. According to Sullivan, she and Iman conversed like two regular mothers at Starbucks. They talked about baking, shopping and how the kids are adjusting to public school food. Iman loves “everything” about America and said that the people are so “warm and nice.”

Sullivan hopes to visit a library with Iman in the future to continue working on her English skills. She also created a plan to teach the Syrian kids English.

“This lightbulb went off in my head and I thought, you know, JDS teaches our kids Arabic,” Sullivan said.

“Wouldn’t it be kind of cool if our teenagers could work with these lovely young kids?”

In early October, Sullivan reached out to guidance counselor Rachel Soifer, who then spoke with Arabic teacher Hani Abo Awad, about finding four Arabic students to work with the Syrian family. Sophomores Ari Gershengorn and Daniel Morgan work the two oldest children, and sophomores Devira Friedman and Kate Sosland work with the youngest two. The JDS students use basic Arabic and English when they speak with the Syrians.

“I’ll try to explain prime factorization to her in mostly Arabic, but I try to include some English so that she starts learning,” Morgan said. “I try to use very simple words like ‘small’ and ‘big,’ and I know the words for numbers [in

Arabic.]”

Abo Awad gives his students time in class to prepare to meet with the al-Abadis, answers any questions that they have and finds that this experience has improved his students’ conversational Arabic. Morgan agrees that it is becoming gradually easier to communicate with the family.

“It’s definitely helping my Arabic,” Morgan said. “I think there’s a noticeable difference when I’m in class now, some things are easier now. I was definitely nervous the first time, but the more I go, the less I am nervous. I feel like my Arabic is improving and their English is improving. [The language gap] is coming closer together and it makes it easier for both of us.”

The students typically visit the family for two or two and a half hours and have even tried authentic Syrian food while at the family’s home. Iman once prepared a dish with potatoes, salt, water and flour, which Morgan enjoyed. Beyond the meals and the ability to practice his Arabic skills, Morgan appreciates the newfound bond with the al-Abadi children his tutoring experience has inspired.

“They’re really nice people, so I think I’ve learned valuable social skills from them, even though they’re still so young,” Morgan said.

The JDS students plan to work with the Syrian family throughout the rest of the year as long as the kids still need help with English. Ultimately, however, the objective is for the al-Abadi children to be able to speak English and complete their homework on their own.

“That’s the goal, that this family will have our help, and then will be self-sufficient,” Sullivan said. “Maybe friendships will develop and so forth, and certainly the Syrian-Jewish relationship, Arab-Jewish relationship, will be a special part of this whole interaction too.”

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the lion’s tale

I’ve met people from all over the world, but I had never really interacted with anybody who had come from a war-torn area and been through what they’ve been through.” alicia sullivan, temple shalom refugee response team volunteer

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They’re learning unbelievably fast. In the beginning I saw them every day, and now I see them at least weekly, and I can’t believe how quickly their English is coming along.” karen green, temple shalom refugee response team coordinator

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Even though they’ve gone through great strife, they know that they can achieve great things. It just makes me feel like I can do just as great things.” sophomore daniel morgan

Arabic students forge bond with Syrian refugee family

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FUNKY FRIDAY

Middle school develops experiential learning program Reflections on Friday classes

“We know [Financial Literacy is] good to learn for the future. As we’re getting older, we’re going to be managing money.”

- eighth-grader sophie krantz

“The [Experience] material just isn’t that interesting to me and I don’t think it’s being taught very well.”

- seventh-grader nathan gershengorn

“[In Jewish Court of All Time] each person is one Jewish person from history, and you have to write as if you’re them.”

- sixth-grader jamin weiss

photos by ariella kulp compiled by jonathan foldi

sara sporkin reporter Finance, human behavior and computer science are not your typical middle school classes, but as the week comes to a close, students in the middle school experience a unique day of learning that draws on their knowledge from their core classes.

As part of the middle school’s redesign, students in grades six through eight are now given the opportunity to have experiential and interdisciplinary learning classes every Friday.

The middle school Friday schedule is comprised of Kolot, an advisory period; Lion Time, a time for students to meet with teachers; and Huggim, a period for activities that overlaps with high school lunch to facilitate interactions between middle school and high school students with common interests.

The schedule also includes four interdisciplinary classes: a Judaics Workshop, a Math-Science Workshop, an Elective Workshop and Experience.

According to Middle School Principal Rebecca Weisman, the new Friday schedule allows teachers to focus on helping students build skills that they will need in high school and beyond.

“We also want to make sure we’re looking at the whole child,” Weisman said. “That’s something in general at JDS that we care a lot about. It’s not just about students’ cognitive development, it’s not just about their emotional development, it’s not just about their moral development; we look at the big picture of

the whole child.”

Eighth-grader Drew Sadikman said The Experience block is a time that for one activity in the class they dedicated for each grade to study were given a salary and a budget, several different units throughout and had to allocate money for food, the year. The class only occurs on clothing, savings and other expensFriday, and the area of study can es. Another time, students learned change every week or be part of a about saving for retirement. multi-week lesson. The sixth grade, The class also discussed the for example, will work on a TED Talk idea that every decision comes project as one of their units. The sev- with a trade-off, such as the conseenth grade will have a Holocaust and quences for going over budget on a Human Behavior unit, which studies credit card. Sadikman said that they the Holocaust and anti-Semitism. learned about having to pay off credThe eighth grade will complete their it card debt and that “it’s better to Capstone project, which encourag- just keep to your limits.” es students to use a variety of skills to help a “It’s not just about students’ cognitive community that development, it’s not just about their they care about.

The Exemotional developement, it’s not just perience units about their moral development; we consist of areas look at the big picture of the whole of study that were either prechild.”

- middle school principal viously taught in other discirebecca weisman plines or that were not taught in the core curriculum. The first unit this year for Sadikman believes that eighth the eighth grade was about financial grade is a useful time to take this literacy. This six-week unit focused course because it helps students on teaching students the fundamen- who are about to enter high school tals of finance so that they can make think about their futures. Financial informed decisions about how they literacy is an important part of this spend their money as they get older. future, Apter said, and the skills “The idea was [that] we teach it taught in the course can help stuin eighth grade in this experiential dents succeed as adults. way,” history teacher Dr. Eytan Apter “The more financially literate said. “It could plant the seeds so that you are, the more you can look out when they get a credit card, they un- for your own interests,” Apter said. derstand these ideas.”

“You don’t have to feel like you’re not Much of the financial litera- empowered.” cy unit focused on prompting stuLike the financial literacy unit, dents to think about their futures. the Coding elective also aims to

prepare middle school students for their futures. In this class, computer science and STEM teacher Andy Petusky teaches middle school students the coding language CoffeeScript, a language similar to JavaScript that is used by adults in the workforce.

According to Petusky, coding is beneficial because students get to see how concepts from other classes, such as math, are applied in real-life situations. Additionally, in their coding elective, students learn how to think algorithmically and in a computational manner. Students are often presented with coding challenges in class and have to figure out how to apply the simple tools and concepts they have learned to find a solution.

“That problem solving and logic and applying that, it’s really good for kids’ brains and helps them be better thinkers,” Petusky said. “You can’t start that too early, but this is a way that it’s not pushing them too far. It’s just right, so they’re getting this benefit along the way.”

Weisman also stressed the importance of instilling students with the proper tools and values to succeed in high school and later in life.

“We think it’s a really valuable piece, helping students be caring, compassionate, confident thinkers who engage the world through Jewish values,” Weisman said. “I think our students will be well served going into high school, because they will have had all these different experiences and we’re really excited to have a program that offers it now.”

Need for speed

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Freshman cyclist pedals along his own path sabrina bramson guest writer

While some students board the bus or search for their car to get home after school, freshman Sam Goldberg straps his helmet on his head as he prepares to mount his bicycle. About once a week, Sam rides almost 30 miles from the Upper School to his house in Fairfax, Va. Like many kids, Sam did not start cycling without training wheels until he was six years old. Although cycling began as a right of passage, it turned into a competitive sport for Sam. “It sounds kind of cheesy, but I love the need for speed,” Sam said.

When Sam was nine years old, his father, alum Eliot Goldberg (‘87), entered him son into a youth cycling competition. Even though it was Sam’s first organized race, he placed third.

After his first competition, Sam asked his father if he could join a racing team. Eliot agreed to sign Sam up, and said that “the rest is history.”

Each cycling competition is divided by age group, such as the

14-15 age group in which Sam competes.

Cyclists are also ranked in catigories by racing ability. For junior riders like Sam, the lowest category is Category 5, and as the number decreases, the cyclist’s level increases.

Although Sam is a junior cyclist, he is currently in Category 4. In order to move out of a category, the cyclist must win a certain percentage of their races.

“It’s quite difficult to move up out of each category,” Sam’s trainer, Kirby Newman, said. “Only the really dedicated and gifted athletes can really excel in this sport, but I think Samuel is one of those athletes.”

Throughout Sam’s cycling endeavors, which include training, practice and competitions, Eliot has noticed that Sam has learned many lessons about hard work. Sam’s training includes pedalling on a stationary bicycle at different wattages, the measure of how much power goes into each pedal. Sam either trains in intervals where he changes between easy and hard wattages, or rides at one wattage level for a long time.

“I enjoy watching [Sam] understand what it means … that if he’s investing a lot of time and effort in training, eating right and sleeping right, it’s going to pay off,” Eliot said.

In addition to participating in races, Sam also rides for fun. Some of these enjoyable rides have been completed with his father, such as the trail along the C&O Canal.

One memorable ride for Sam was when at age 12, he rode the 184mile towpath that runs up and down the C&O Canal. On the first day of the trip, Sam and his father completed about 84 miles, and stayed overnight at a bed-and-breakfast. The next day, they completed the last 100 miles.

While Sam’s ride down the C&O Canal was for pleasure, he also focuses on technique and riding abilities in his training with Newman. The trainer knows what Sam’s strengths are and works with him to improve other aspects of his cycling such as pedal technique and handling skills.

“He is also a very good climber,” Newman said. “He has a very good strength-to-weight ratio, and that gives him a lot more power. He’s been doing pretty well.”

photo provided by sam goldberg Freshman Sam Goldberg launches off the ramp at the Cycling Road Amatuer National Championships Time Trial.

Although cycling is a competitive sport, Sam said he loves doing it and that it is a very important factor in his life. To Sam, cycling is not just exercise, but is also a fun sport in which he aspires to improve.

“I plan to keep bike racing as long as I can enjoy doing it,” Sam said. “As long as I do, I will continue

to try to improve as much as I can over the next few years. I still don’t know where I’ll end up after that, but I do hope that bike racing will still be a big part of my life.”

It’s all Greek to me: Language club adapts to new schedule ari feuer contributing editor Down the science corridor lies a classroom that on Wednesday afternoons is the site of curiosity at work. Under the guidance of science teacher Nick Miller, four freshmen learn how to read and speak classical Greek.

For many years, Miller taught a club for middle-schoolers and high-schoolers about classical Greek: the language of Athens around the time of Socrates and Plato in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. When the club period was cancelled before the 2016-17 school year, most of the group’s members dropped Greek, but a few current freshmen were still eager to learn.

The freshmen and Miller decided that they wanted to keep learning together. Miller, who places large

value on a classical Greek education, and the students decided to meet after school on Wednesdays. Miller began learning Greek in college while he was studying biology, and he has been fascinated ever since.

“Our drama, democracy, athletics, architecture, music, when you study geometry, it’s basically a translation of Euclid: all that comes from the Greeks,” Miller said. “So to really understand the roots of our culture and why it’s so powerful, you have to understand the Greeks.”

One key difference between the after-school club and the old club that occurred during the school day is the length of each session. The weekly classes now last 45 minutes, which Miller said is a “night and day” improvement from the previous half-hour classes, since he gets time to teach both vocabulary and grammar.

Each class, Miller tries to teach a section of vocabulary and a section of grammar, both of which he gets from “A First Greek Book” by C.T. Ruddick Jr. The students learn to read Greek sentences, pronounce letters and words correctly and translate between English and Greek. The translation can be difficult as the structures of Greek and English are different, but Miller said that the students pick it up “well.”

Freshman Russell Lubin has enjoyed studying Greek since he first joined the club in seventh grade.

That year, Lubin also had Miller as his Life Science teacher. Miller taught as much Greek as he could, including Greek root words and how to pronounce them. Seeing the same value in Greek that Miller does, Lubin joined the after-school club, and he said that there are many benefits of the new arrangement over the old

club.

“It’s able to be a lot more focused because we have as much time as we want to,” Lubin said. “There’s also a lot less people because only the people who are really committed go to it because it’s an after-school activity and it’s not just something you can do whenever.”

Lubin said that one problem with the old club was that each year, the club would accept new members who had no Greek knowledge, which forced the group’s curriculum to restart every year. In his efforts to try and cater to all of his students, Miller tried to have the more experienced students, like Lubin, teach their younger classmates, but he still found the older kids to be “bored.” Miller decided to make the after-school club exclusively for returning students and created a Hug on Fridays for new students.

Freshman Jonah Abrams is another student in the Greek club. For Abrams, learning Greek was not the only attraction to the club. Miller, who Abrams said “genuinely likes to teach” was also a major draw.

“I knew nothing about Greek pretty much all my life,” Abrams said.

“Then I went to Mr. Miller’s class in seventh grade, and we learned science but he also taught so much more, including different fun facts and also Greek roots and that pretty much gave me the initiative to join the Greek club and just learn from Mr. Miller. A lot of it is Greek, but a lot of it is also Mr. Miller.”

For Miller, the feeling is reciprocated, and the students make his commitment worthwhile.

“The kids that are doing it, they’re sharp,” Miller said. “They’re picking it up and they’re passionate about it.”

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Lions head to Memphis

Varsity basketball team finishes fifth in the Cooper Invitational danny ingber reporter Senior Nadav Kalender caught the ball on the wing and effortlessly drained a three-pointer over his defender. Immediately after, he got the ball back off of a turnover and got the Lions out to an early lead, which they would hold on to en route to their first win at the 2016 Cooper Yeshiva High School National Invitational Basketball Tournament.

This is the fourth year that the CESJDS boys varsity basketball team travelled to Memphis, Tenn. to compete in the Cooper Invitational, a four-day preseason basketball tournament for Jewish high schools from Thursday, Nov. 3 until Sunday, Nov. 6.

While the team went into the tournament with hopes of winning the championship, they lost their second game and, as it is a single elimination tournament, were out of contention for the championship.

However, the tournament is structured so that even when a team loses a game, it does not stop playing. The Lions ended the tournament with a record of 3-1 and a fifth-place finish.

They started off strong by routing their first opponent, The Atlanta Jewish Academy, by a score of 63 to

19. The next day, however, the Lions, even with a major comeback in the fourth quarter, were upset by Milken Community High School (Los Angeles) when they lost 58 to 55. The Lions recovered after the loss and went on to win their final two games against Rochelle Zell Jewish High School (Chicago), 65-63, and the Rabbi Alexander S. Gross Hebrew Academy (Miami), 63-47.

This year, 14 players and three coaches from JDS attended the tournament. On the first day of the tournament, the Lions played a game, attended a banquet and heard guest speakers, including University of Memphis coach Tubby Smith and former Israeli basketball player Tamir Goodman. The next day, the team played another game before going to a synagogue for Friday night services and spending their Shabbat dinner together with a local Jewish family. On Saturday, after Shabbat, the team played another game before their final game on Sunday.

While the basketball aspect of the tournament is what brought the team to Memphis, the players also enjoyed the additional programming. In the four years that Kalender has gone to the tournament, it has always been a highlight of his year.

“[It was] one of the best weekends ever for me. There were some young kids there that we bonded with a lot,” Kalender said.

The team trained hard in order to prepare for the tournament and held up to three practices a week from the time school began until they left for Memphis. In these practices, they played many scrimmages in an attempt to build team chemistry before the tournament. All the players were able to bond in Memphis, but some of them had to catch up with the rest of the team, as they could not go to every practice.

This year was sophomore Max Stravitz’s first year going to the Cooper Invitational. He was one of four players on the basketball team who went to Memphis and also competed on the JDS varsity cross country team. Stravitz had to miss multiple basketball practices for cross country practice in order to keep himself in shape and up to speed for the cross country season.

“It’s hard to build chemistry when you have not gone to too many practices,” Stravitz said.

Unlike regular season games, the invitational is unique because it is a preseason tournament and does not count towards the team’s confer-

ence records, allowing the coaches and the players better a understanding of how the team will look before conference play begins.

“It’s a preseason tournament, but we still want to be successful, and put the guys in a place to be successful,” Assistant Coach Brian Westerman said.

Westerman said that while the team tries to win no matter where they play, the coaching staff was will-

ing to take more risks during the invitational. For instance, the coaching staff was more willing to call press coverages as it was good practice for the team.

“That’s the best showing that we had; it gave us a lot of things we can build off for the rest of the season,” Westerman said.

photo courtesy of the cooper invitational Sophomore Max Stravitz (center) goes for the block as seniors Nadav Kalender (left) and Bryan Knapp (right) watch on. The Lions lost the game 58 to 55 against Miliken Community High School from Los Angeles.

Moms and alumni kick it with Krav Maga joel vardon sports editor The Upper School cafeteria echoed with kicks and punches as 18 CESJDS alumni and parents participated in a one-time Krav Maga class for women taught by Krav Maga Maryland.

JDS Israeli Community Liaison Roni Samson organized and brought the Krav Maga session to JDS on Wednesday, Nov. 9. Prior to moving with her family to America, Samson participated in a number of Krav Maga workshops in Israel, which inspired her to arrange the class.

Krav Maga is a method of self-defense founded by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) that combines mixed martial arts like judo, boxing

and wrestling. In the mid-1930s, Krav Maga was created by a martial artist Imi Lichtenfeld in order to defend himself from anti-Semitic violence in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.

Shortly after, Lichtenfeld became the Chief Instructor for Physical Fitness at the IDF School of Combat Fitness and introduced Krav Maga to the IDF. “I am very proud of Krav Maga because it is an Israeli invention that can make a change in someone’s life,” Samson said.

The class discussed awareness of personal space, practiced hitting and punching techniques and went over exercises on how to break out of a choke hold. The goal of the session was for the women to learn how to handle themselves if they are ever in a dangerous situation.

Samson feels Krav Maga is es-

pecially important for women, as she has been comforted knowing her Krav Maga skills can protect her in unsafe situations. The JDS class took place 78 years after the night of Kristallnacht, which made the class

After the class, many participants asked if there would be an opportunity for another class.

“I didn’t need to promote it as much, because many women want [the Krav Maga class] and have heard about it, but do not have a chance to try it,” Samson said.

“I want to know that I’m a strong Bonni Berger, woman and that I can defend mother of sophomore Ilan Gasko, has always myself.” -jds israeli community been interested in liaison roni samson self-defense, but participated in the Krav Maga class mainly beeven more meaningful for Samson. cause of its Israeli roots. She left the “I want to know that I’m a session with newfound knowledge strong woman and that I can defend of Israeli culture, and of the martial myself,” Samson said. art.

According to Samson, recruit“We learned that Krav Maga is ing participants was not a challenge. first and foremost building your con-

fidence to defend yourself,” Berger said. “The most important thing is not about your size or how strong you are, but finding the soft spots in your attacker and using leverage.”

Sharon Pohoryles, mother of sophomores Isaac and Macie Gelb, also has an interest in self-defense and felt that it was important for her to try her hand at Krav Maga. Pohoryles said that it was especially meaningful that the class was only made up of women.

“There is a perception that women don’t always vocalize their true feelings in public and just having women there created a safe space and a feeling of empowerment for women,” Pohoryles said.

The mural at the entrance of Snowbots is adorned with robots, symbols of D.C. and other images.

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photo by rina torchinsky

I scream, you scream, we all scream for

SnowCream (and bubble tea) rina torchinsky contributing editor When I walked into Snowbots Bubble Tea and SnowCream in Rockville, Md., I was immediately greeted with the subtle scent of tropical spices and the sight of a colorful robot-filled mural on my left.

Snowbots is located just nine minutes up Rockville Pike from the Upper School. Even though the drive is quick, it might take a while to find the restaurant. Snowbots is tucked away in a smaller shopping center located behind the apartment buildings next to Congressional Plaza.

Once I was able to find the restaurant, I was eager to go in, but first, I noticed a few green metal picnic benches outside of the restaurant. Unfortunately, it was just a bit too chilly to dine al fresco.

The bubble tea barista/ puffle producer greeted me as I entered. There was a large chalk-

board-style menu on my right.

The menu listed recommended orders as well as instructions on how to personalize my own SnowCream. It was a bit of a hard decision, but with the attendant’s help, I chose a passion fruit green tea with boba, a Number Three Favorite Strawberry SnowCream and a Seasonal Puffle with vanilla ice cream.

Number Three Strawberry SnowCream ($6.95): The Number Three Strawberry SnowCream was the first item prepared. The SnowCream tasted just like its description, a cross between shaved ice and ice cream. The large paper dish was filled to the brim with strawberry SnowCream, large Oreo pieces, brownies and strawberry puree. The strawberry SnowCream itself was a bright watermelon pink, and had a bit of a flaky texture. I had never before quite experienced that texture since eating snow out of my mittens when I was little. The brownies, rich and moist, complemented

the SnowCream’s texture well.

My favorite part, however, was the strawberry puree. The deep red drizzle brought a natural fruity flavor to a very, but not overly, sweet dish.

Passion Fruit Green Tea with Boba ($3.95): After I tasted the SnowCream, I moved onto the Passionfruit Green Tea with boba.

The drink is usually served with mango jelly, but I substituted the jelly for boba, which are small tapioca balls. The tea came out in a clear cup that was short and wide. I grabbed the special wide straw with a point on the end and punctured the clear seal atop the cup, which was filled about one-third of the way up with boba. As I took my first sip, the boba, quite chewy and a bit sticky, came up the straw immediately and in a larger quantity than I had anticipated.

It also had a light honey flavor that paired nicely with its chewy texture. While there was a bit too much boba, I still enjoyed the

flavors of the tea, which ranged from tropical to a subtle but savory zing. Between the complexity of the fruity flavors and the pop of the lingering spice, the tea seemed very authentic.

Seasonal Puffle with Vanilla Ice Cream ($8.48): The puffle took eight minutes to cook, but it was definitely worth the wait. A puffle is prepared in the same way that a fresh waffle cone is prepared, but rather than being flat, the puffle had dense pods on the surface and tasted more like a rich Belgian waffle. I ordered the seasonal puffle, which at the time was chocolate chip, for $5.98. I had to pay an extra dollar for upgrade, but the chocolate chips were absolutely worth it.

I added on a scoop of vanilla ice cream for $2.00, and cookies and cream Pocky, 50 cents per topping. All three ingredients combined outstandingly. The ice cream had a delightfully creamy texture that complemented the warm and sweet puffle, while

the decadent chocolate drizzle paired well with the chocolate chips in the puffle. The cookies and cream Pocky, on the other hand, fell a bit short; the thin cracker-like sticks coated in white chocolate were not worth the extra money, as they lacked both flavor and complexity.

I will definitely be returning to Snowbots, maybe for an afterschool snack or a quick trip with friends before a cappella rehearsal in the evening. Between the helpful service of the employees, the unique robotics theme and the rich intricacy of flavors, I would definitely recommend Snowbots to anyone looking to satisfy their sweet tooth.

Snowbots Bubble Tea and SnowCream is located at 1701 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Md. Hours are Sunday through Thursday, 12 to 10 p.m., and Friday through Saturday, 12 to 11 p.m.

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WINTER StayCATION Home over break? Here are some fun, local ways to spend your time

4 photo 1 courtesy of ayelette halbfinger; photo 2 courtesy of eric glantz; photos 3, 4 by ari feuer

compiled by ilan cohen and ari feuer

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If you’d rather shop than sightsee, then Georgetown, D.C. is the place for you. For seven blocks along M Street, NW, and a few blocks up the cross streets, shops and attractions are abundant in all shapes and sizes. There’s everything from an Apple Store to Urban Outfitters to a historical site that celebrates the C&O Canal that runs alongside Georgetown. The one drawback of Georgetown is that parking is difficult, so try taking the Metro to Foggy Bottom and then walking or taking a bus.

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The National Museum of African American History and Culture, the newest Smithsonian museum, holds over 37,000 artifacts that show the black experience in the U.S. Timed entry passes are currently required to enter the museum due to crowds, but they are free. You should book in advance, but some same-day passes are available in person daily at the museum starting at 9:15 a.m. The food in the museum corresponds with the theme of black culture and is highly recommended.

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Gravelly Point Park is just bordering D.C. in Virginia. The park, known for its scenery, overlooks the Potomac River and lies only a few hundred feet from the Reagan National Airport runway, so planes zoom loudly overhead. While it is a long way from the National Mall, you walk alongside the gorgeous Potomac River where you can spot boats, take in monuments and enjoy good people-watching. For food, your best option is probably Crystal City for We the Pizza, which has any kind of pizza you may want.

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For a true D.C. experience, head to the back of the Capitol Building. Protests are common, covering a range of issues, and the back patio of the Capitol is where congresspeople talk to school and tour groups from their districts. You can go to the Supreme Court or the Library of Congress, and then get lunch at Union Station or in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Spike Mendelsohn, a former “Top Chef” contestant who also founded We the Pizza, makes some of the best burgers in the city and delicious milkshakes at Good Stuff Eatery.