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the final bell Looking aheadandto avoid spring fever
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is an opportunity to do their best. Encourage set aside your kids to try their best, continue to prioritize time to complete homework, and about school attendance. Your positive attitude time for school (even when it’s sunny and almost strong. vacation!) can help your children finish
Focus on school
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he school year might be winding down, but this is one of the most treacherous times of the year when it comes to stuof the dent attendance and focus. The advent winter nicer weather, plus the stress of intensive that combine to produce a sort of “spring fever” and hits kids of every age, making them restless when inattentive. This is also the time of year starting attendance numbers plummet as well, June. from April and worsening on through and With spring in full swing, many students of the families begin to think about the end the only school year. High school seniors aren’t “end-ofones who experience “senioritis” or the school the-school-year-blues.” Even elementary dial back students can begin to shut down and year. their efforts towards the end of the school the It’s important to help children finish responsiraise to is goal school year strong. The to work ble learners who don’t quit and are able hard despite distractions. how School administrators are well aware of kids the annual epidemic of spring fever impacts teachers in the classroom. Toward this end, savvy incenextra with motivated students their keep tives, including engaging projects. Many teachers also instigate periodic “brain breaks,” when everyone takes a five-minute in some break to get up and stretch, or engage many spontaneous, fun activity. Likewise, during schools schedule incentivizing activities and the last few weeks to keep kids interested motivated. of For parents, this can be a frustrating time child’s the year. You’re sympathetic about your keeping restlessness; but also concerned about for final grades up, especially when it’s time exams. The good news is, with a bit of extra atten-
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proactive tion and creative thinking, you can be last in helping your child during these difficult easily be weeks of school. These tips, which can can help implemented into your daily routine, until the your child stay motivated and focused bell rings for summer vacation. Create a list of mile markers or Find out about upcoming school projects marker assignments, and transfer them to a mile This will list, charting progress along the way. without encourage your child to stick to the task track procrastinating, and will also help you keep to conof your child’s progress without having comis project the When stantly ask questions. child. pleted, plan a satisfying reward for your De-clutter work/study spaces Creating a peaceful, clutter-free work/study toward space for your child can go a long way your relieving unnecessary stress. Encourage cleaning, child to join in with a bit of early spring last so that you’ll both be prepared for those weeks of school.
Stick to the routine be When it’s warm and light outside, it can it’s super more difficult to enforce bedtime, but to get a important to help your child continue school good night’s rest through the end of the and year. Stick to your child’s regular bedtime and atcontinue to make time for homework home reading. responsidevelop to child your Encourage that bility and perseverance by maintaining until the good learners do what they need to do summer job is done. Sunny days and a looming learnvacation can’t stop motivated and eager will ers! Maintaining your school-year schedule help reinforce these beliefs.
Reasonable and reachable goals motiGoals are a great way to keep students a school vated and on-task towards the end of Gear check or two small time year. Help your children select one After months of hard work and lots of end of the level] goals to accomplish before the spent in the classroom, many [elementary be challenging supplies. school year. The goals should some ideas students are left with less-than-ideal have but reachable. For younger students crayons and erasers have longer no Pencils a level in reading, do your include things like moving up having a been worn down to nubs. It’s hard to memorizing their multiplication facts, tools. etc. days, best work when you don’t have the right best certain number of positive behavior Support your children put forth their steps to take stock of Work with your kids to determine effort up through the last day, by taking and encourage pencil, to work towards their goals their school supplies. A freshly sharpened can practice at home. a glue stick or two, and a new box of crayons By creating a low-stress, supportive home child to make a world of difference. environment and encouraging your be can you off, slacking without keep studying Lead by example during to proactive in combating spring fever Kids learn by example, and are quick With your help, talking those last two months of school. adopt our attitude. If your child hears you of seeing just how you your child will have the satisfaction about how you wish it was summer, or the school year on is likely to how rewarding it is to finish summer can’t wait for school to be over, he/she top. And you’ll both be ready for the adopt that mindset. Avoid speaking negatively season. your of about school, homework, etc. in front put forth child. It will be harder for your child to as the don’t Above photo: It’s way too easy to let things slide from down his best effort if he thinks you don’t care, weather gets nicer and kids are feeling worn like school, etc. months of study already completed. We like to tell our kids that every assignment
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Vol. 33 No. 17
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For first-time director, star is a Dodge Dart By KARINA KoVAC kkovac@liherald.com
Herald file photo
The TRANSIT-oRIeNTed deVeloPmeNT project on S. Franklin Avenue will replace this strip of commercial properties with a 35-unit apartment complex.
Residents say new apartment projects will ruin their suburbs By JUAN lASSo jlasso@liherald.com
For years, whenever she looked across the street from her home at 54 W. Jamaica Ave., Natalie Ormeno had a clear view of the Moore Funeral Home. The building was a fixture of her childhood, and the place where her mother worked for 40 years before it closed earlier this year. Now the empty 20,000-square-foot structure and the house next door will be razed to make way for the construction of a five-story, multi-family apartment complex with 63 units and a firstfloor parking lot with 58 spaces.
And on the opposite side of the block, at 137-147 S. Franklin Ave., a mostly abandoned strip of commercial storefronts and offices will also be torn down, and replaced by a four-story, 35-unit apartment complex. New apartments are coming to the neighborhood, but Ormeno and her neighbors are not pleased. She said she would miss the Moore Funeral Home. “It’s just a lot,” she said. “I think it’ll be too much: too much traffic, too crowded, and my daughter plays around here. I like living around houses. I don’t want to live around apartments.” The building in the works will dwarf the houses around it, and, she said,
“The worst part is going to be the construction.” “I’m not happy about this,” said neighbor Danuta Grygierczyk. The development will bring more traffic and parking problems, she said, and parking is already at a premium for people living in nearby apartments. As for the construction at the Moore Funeral Home, “We’d have less to complain about if the apartment was no higher than the funeral home, like three stories,” said Grygierczyk’s husband, Ryszard, “but not a five-story building with a terrace. This is not supposed to be the city.” These apartment projects Continued on page 16
The idea for his feature-length film started out with a dream — literally. Anthony Natoli, 37, of Valley Stream, dreamt that he was watching a film that he had made called “Sunday Sunday Sunday” in a movie theater. He turned that dream into a reality, which has already sold out at Merrick Cinemas. Inspired by friends who were using their iPhones for photo g raphy, Natoli shot the entire movie on his iPhone Anthony 5S and 12 over the course of five years, in Valley Stream and in Pennsylvania. Merrick Cinemas will be screening the movie for one night only, on May 1. The show sold out in 24 hours. Natoli describes his film as a “Rocky”-esque tale, with drag racing instead of boxing as the subject. The film is an underdog story of two brothers who inherit a junky jalopy that can’t hold a candle to some of the others on the track, but somehow claw their way to the top. As the story progresses, they
learn to make the most of each other’s skills to boost their dragster up the ranks. The moral of the movie is that “it’s not about what you want or don’t have,” Natoli said. “It’s about what you do have, and how you wield that tool to make the most of it.” The car, a rusty 1967 Dodge Dart GT, undergoes its own transfor mation alongside the protagonists. “The car was an important character in the film … and I was like, I want the ugliest thing, something undesirable,” Natoli said, explaining the choice. He Natoli t r u d g e d t h ro u g h December snow in 2017 to get the Dodge from a guy who’d put it on Craigslist, blowing half of the film’s $5,000 budget on the vehicle. “I think we probably hold the record for the cheapest feature-length ever made,” Natoli chuckled. Filming was a laborious, unpredictable, do-it-yourself project. Shooting at South Mountain Raceway in Boiling Springs, Pa., Natoli’s crew consisted of friends, family, musicians he’s Continued on page 13