OCTOBER 2013
MS ReMarks ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS, DALLAS, TX
ISSUE ONE
Scenes from around campus athletics
Middle School Sports Injuries-OUCH! Sports injuries at any level are a terrible thing. Watching a professional athlete crumble into a heap on the ground with a torn ACL is devastating to watch whether you’re a fan of that player or not. But sports injuries at the middle school level are even more gut wrenching for everyone involved with the player who is injured. Thankfully, St. Mark’s’ middle school sports teams are usually fairly free of serious injuries, but there are always exceptions.
by: Will Forbes, ’18 During the first quarter of the eighth grade football team’s September 19 game against All Saints, quarterback Canyon Kyle was hit hard immediately after he delivered a screen pass to running back Seun Omonije. Kyle got up, dusted off the turf, and ran over to coach Hayward Lee to get the call for the next play. The game continued with Kyle staying in and making multiple deep downfield throws including a thirty-yard touchdown to Upcoming Events in the Middle School
wide receiver Fausto Reyher. When the game was halted due to weather early in the second quarter, Kyle jogged into the locker room with the rest of his team, prepared to rest during the delay and come out and try to surmount the 18-6 deficit that his Lions team faced. Little did anyone watching the game know, all Kyle could feel in his right hand was a light tingling sensation. He had fractured his right elbow, the elbow on his throwing arm, early in the first quarter on the late hit after the screen pass. Under those circumstances, it took extreme toughness from Kyle to stay in the game, lead his team, and face the daunting All Saints’ pass rush. He was also prepared to remain in the game had it not been cancelled due to the rain and lightning. “[I was going to stay in] if someone didn’t tell coach,” Kyle said. After the game was called, his family rushed him to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken right elbow.
Community Service Food Drive begins on October 7th!
He rested and went back to the hospital the next day during school. It was then that his arm was wrapped in a soft shell cast and put in a sling and it was then that his diagnosis was changed. His elbow was too swollen to properly assess the interior damage. Soon, Kyle will return to get the elbow x-rayed again and how long he’s out will depend on the results. If his elbow is broken, Kyle will be required to sit out for five weeks, which would basically be the rest of his season, but if the elbow is fractured, he will only have to sit out two weeks, and could return for the end of the season. In the mean time, Hill Washburne will start at quarterback for the Lions. Washburne has a great downfield arm and throws a good, consistent spiral. He looks poised to take over as the starting quarterback for as long as possible, and the Lions will continue to move on even if they don’t have the services of Kyle. Canyon Kyle is a great leader and everyone hopes he recovers quickly.
St. Mark’s Homecoming 2013 Game time is 7 PM on Friday, October 4th See you there! Let’s go LIONS!
Preferred Lunch Beverage For the past week, Middle School students will recall filling out a poll asking them for their preferred Lunch Beverage. The purpose of this poll is purely recreational. I decided on polling you on Preferred Lunch Beverage, because it can really show how the Middle School has a diversity of tastes that they enjoy. By: David Vallejo, ’19
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Special thanks: Sam Ahmed, Parker Davis, Sahit Dendekuri, Will Forbes, Jack Katz, George Lamb, Daniel Mirochna, Billy Stalder, Robert Newman, Antonio Quinones, Kyle Smith, Seth Weprin
Oregon "They are really athletic this year, and their running back is very experienced."
Middle School Football Poll-- Who will the National Championship? By: Benjamin Hurst, ’18 UT$
Garrett Mize, ’18
Texas$A&M$ SMU$
Texas A&M "They have Johhny Manziel and Mike Evans, the best combo in college football."
Rex Cory, ’21
OU$ Ohio$State$ MIT$ LSU$ Clemson$ Alabama$ 0.0%$
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Q & A with Mr. Holtberg by: Jack Palmer, ’20 and Antonio Quinones, ’20
Photo by Wyatt Awtrey, ’20
Q: How long have you been working at St. Marks? A: This is my 21st year at St. Marks. Q: What is your favorite book genre? A: Fiction, mysteries, different types of authors, and Scandinavian mysteries Q: What are you going to do when you retire? A: First I will visit my children then I will travel and relax and sometimes visit St. Marks. Q: Who is your favorite poet? A: Robert Frost and Regard Kipling.
Mr. Holtberg is headmaster here at St. Mark’s. This is his last year so we decided to interview him so you could get to know him. Hopefully you learn something new about him from this interview! Q: Did you teach any classes before you became headmaster here at St. Marks? A: I taught 9th grade history, social psychology, religion, and Latin. Q: Do you play any instruments? A: No but I wish I did.
Q: How many languages do you speak? A: I speak a little bit of Cantonese, a little French, and some Norwegian.
Q: What is your favorite movie? A: The Searchers.
Q: What is your favorite sport? A: Baseball.
Q: What is your favorite thing about being a headmaster? A: Getting to be part of the lives of our students and watching boys grow up.
Q: What college did you attend? A: I attended Princeton University. Q: Who is your favorite artist? A: Georgia O’Keeffe.
Q: What would you say the most important piece of advice is when it comes to being headmaster here at St. Marks? A: I would say to stick to the mission of the school and always put the boys first.
Scenes from around campus
Book Review: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card by Chris Castano, ’21 Ender's Game is a sci-‐fi book about a young, extremely mentally and physically gi<ed six year old boy, Ender. Ender is the third child born to a family in the future at a ?me when it was considered impolite to have more than two children. His parents were asked to have a third child by the government, who is known as the Interna?onal Fleet (I.F.), because of their excellent genes. This disregards the general rule making it impolite to have more than two children; therefore Ender was called THIRD by his peers, a derogatory term. However, the government knew that Ender was special. He was given a special chip in the back of his neck to let certain I.F. personnel see, hear, smell, taste, and even feel everything Ender does, making sure that he could not be bullied by others because of his gi<.
brother, Peter, take advantage of this opportunity to pounce on Ender and make his life miserable. In an effort to defend himself, Ender accidentally kills S?lson. As Peter tries to exact his revenge on Ender, their Dad comes home and brings a guest, Graff, the commanding officer of the I.F. baQle school. Graff asks if he can take Ender to baQle school. Ender's parents decide Ender should choose if he wanted to go. Ender weighed the pros and cons and decided to go.
The story gets interes?ng when the I.F decide to test Ender’s ability to adapt without a monitor. S?lson, the school bully, and Ender’s
As commander, Ender was assigned an army of launchies, which is the derogatory term for newbies, and rejects. One student, Bean was
IM P ORTANT D AT E S
End of 1st MidTrimester October 4th
A<er about four months Ender was put into an army. Ender didn't fit in that well; his bunk was in the back, and he had no friends. A<er his training, which got off to a rough start, Ender did so well he was promoted to commander at about age nine!
See Ms. Thoma to check out this book from the Green Library! smaller than the others, as Ender had been. Bean reminded Ender of himself and he knew he could be great! Ender told everyone about Bean’s intellect and his talent, so eventually everyone hated Bean. Over ?me, Bean and Ender became friends, learning more about each other every day. Will Ender finally win the last baQle or will the human race come to an end? You will have to read this fantas?c tale to find out!
Late Start Day- October 7th Classes begin at 10:30 AM
OPINION Technology Turnoff: A Much Needed Break? by Davis Bailey, ’18 Thanks to Apple releasing the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models, the line at the New York Apple Store was forming as early as two weeks before the actual release date. Most people think of waiting in a line for anything to be boring, but waiting in line for a whopping 336 hours seems like crazytalk. 336 hours seems like two weeks of wasted time, but in reality, is the average person that far off from the absurd 336 hours waiting in line for a piece of technology? Apparently not, according to Masuma Ahuja from The Washington Post. In her article, “Teens Are Spending More Time Consuming Media, on Mobile Devices.” Ahuja says, “Today’s teens spend more than 7 ½ hours a day consuming media.” This means that it would only take a little more than six weeks to rack up that crazy 336 hours of time wasting. Does this mean that we really are slaves to our own technology? With new gadgets and technological advances being made every year, we, as a society, are getting closer and closer to seemingly never being “offline”. Since more and more young kids and teenagers are getting ahold of smartphones and tablets, the Internet is truly never out of reach. The amount of time that we spend each day connected to one of these gadgets is growing, while the amount of time American kids spend playing outside and exercising is going down, writes Ahuja. This downward trend in outside activity is not just bad for the adults of America but it has also sparked a trend of much of America’s children almost never going outside and just “playing ball”. With Turnoff week upon us at St. Mark’s, consider shutting off the video games or powering down the smart phone for a week. For most St. Mark’s students, just one day might be tough without a screen to look at, but we all should try to spend just a week without our technological dependence. Ahuja, Masuma. "Teens Are Spending More Time Consuming Media, on Mobile Devices." Washington Post Live. Washington Post, 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. http://articles.washingtonpost.com/ 2013-03-13/news/37675597_1_teens-cellphones-video-games
Calling All MS Writers and Photographers! If you would like to contribute to the MS newspaper, please join us on the second and fourth Thursday of every month! We meet at 7:20 AM in the Study Hall. MS Newspaper is open to ALL students in grades 5 through 8 and we are interested in all types of contributions!
Some areas where we are looking for contributors: •
Writer-- feature articles
• Reviews-- books, movies, video games, restaurants •
Photographers and cartoonists
•
Pollsters and graphics
Video Game Review: Assassin’s Creed II
by: Rosser Newton, ’20 Assassin’s Creed II is the sequel to the beloved game, Assassin’s Creed. Players take on the role of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a Florentine noblemen during the Renaissance. While he was alive, he met and befriended Leonardo de Vinci. As you play the game, you get to use many of Da Vinci’s inventions, such as the flying machine. Throughout the game, the player’s goal is to try to assassinate various Templar Leaders who had become traitors and hung Ezio’s brother and father. Assassin’s Creed II has good graphics but the plot isn’t so great. The quests are fulfilling, with options for
the player to have lots of different things to do, from infiltrating a castle to assassinating a guard. Overall, this was a good game with an incredible open world concept where you can explore all of the components of life in 15th and 16th century Italy.
8/10 stars Rated: M
Spotted on campus.....
Meet the Middle School Community Service Liaison ALAM ALIDINA, ’21 Excited about helping out the Community Service team find new ways to reach out to our local community, Alam Alidina has volunteered to become our new Community Service Liaison to the middle school. Alam will help to deliver announcements, brainstorm new projects to help Middle Schoolers become more excited about service and help out around the Community Service offices with Mr. Correa and Ms. Schoeberlein Alam says “Community service gets you involved in the community around you and increases your awareness of other people.” He has taken on service projects on his own within the Dallas community, volunteering with Hunger Busters to help make sandwiches for those without a steady source of food.
Alam is looking forward to getting more middle schoolers interested in community service
His goals for community service include having “more students involved in community service instead of just the older students and also having students get involved earlier”. Let Alam know if you have any ideas about MS Community Service!
iOS 7: A New Perspective On the iPhone by Cooper Johnson, ’18 As you may know, the recently updated operating system released by Apple, iOS 7, was downloaded by many people on September 18th, 2013. It was a big hit for some people and a drag for some. I decided to take some time to review this new update and its features. I. Package Apps Quite a difference between iOS 6 (left) and iOS 7 (right) app icons.Complaints have been heard already about the way that these new apps look. Here’s my take: FaceTime: There is finally a FaceTime app on my iPhone! Game Center: “Ok let me show you my Game Center account,” and then I find myself on the photo app. It may be me, but this is confusing. Apple Maps: Horrible as usual, but the icon doesn’t have you driving off of an overpass this time. Music: Lets all take a moment to pray for Pandora; iTunes Radio is the new king of streaming music. Notes: Say goodbye to the notebook look, you are typing on good old .docx files this time. Stocks: Does anyone care about this app nonetheless use it? The icon looks better though. Weather: More detailed and user friendly; Apple got really creative on this one.
Grade: C+
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Apple did their best, but there are some picky people out there. These app icons received a decent rating because they were good, but could’ve been better.
II. Notification Center One of the features I like about the notification center is mostly the “Your Day” overview (even though mine will mostly say “school”) it will tell you upcoming events later that day, the next day, and even the weather, all in one spot. Scroll to the left to get all of your normal updates as before. Isn’t Apple great?
Grade: A Amazing, love this feature!
III.The Pull-Up Menu Lastly, we will look at the pull-up bar (the one I can do all day!) Favorite
Overall Grade for the
feature of iOS 7 right here, so useful and handy, especially from the lock
iOS7 Apple update:
screen. Need I say more? You can access the flashlight, airplane mode, do not disturb, your camera and calculator and adjust the brightness all on this short menu.
Grade: A+
B+