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HORACE MANN MIDDLE DIVISION FEBRUARY 1ST, 2019
Students make organization fun in new club Kate Feiner Contributing Writer
Middle Division (MD) psychologist Dr. Christina Nichols shares her love of washi tape, cute planners, and organization with students during the Planners for Days club meetings every Monday. The club was created after co-founders Jiwan Kim (6) and Catherine Mong (6) designed their own planners with Dr. Nichols. “When my friends saw my planner, they wanted one too,” Kim said. “So we decided that we should make a little club where we could gather everyone’s ideas and make a bunch of planners.” During club meetings, students design and laminate covers, print out calendar pages, and bind planners for themselves and their friends. The club allows Middle Division students to have fun with friends while developing strategies to manage their work, Kim said. Now that they have finished making planners for the interested students, they want to do a collaboration with Mercy Center, an organization that supports
women and children in the South Bronx. They want to make planners to give out at a booth during a carnival which the sixth grade hosts in support of these families, Mong said. “I joined the club because I wanted to be more organized.” Valentina Perez-Merlo (6) said. “It makes me more aware of what I have to do.” For example, the club members make bound flashcard holders, which can keep your studying organized, she said. The students in the club feel like it is easier to be organized when they have colorful planners with fun designs. “I love planning, and making planners is my favorite thing to do,” Nichols said. Since the commencement of the club in November, Nichols has spent time meeting with teachers from other schools in order to come up with new ideas for club activities, she said. “Some kids don’t naturally take to planners,” Nichols said. “But if they customize the planners with colors and tape, it makes them want to open them.” The club is a place where like-minded students can come together and collaborate while playing
with tape and glitter, she said. Kim loves that everyone is included and all of their ideas are incorporated, she said. “It is a club that works very hard,” she said. “When we come in every Monday, we have fun and talk while doing the work,” she said. “I love these kids,” Nichols said. She enjoys watching them work together to create planners which they are all excited about and is amazed by the number of students who show up to each club meeting, she said. The only thing that Kim would change about the club would be to install an organizational system to prevent distractions by friends and keep them working on schedule, she said. However, many students such as PerezMerlo and Mong say that their favorite part of the club is having fun with their friends while participating in an activity which they love, they said. Planners for Days is a club based on community, and they welcome new members. “The more people, the more fun we have,” Perez-Merlo said.
Juli Moreira/Art Director
Student Reflections on Unity Week “Unity week really helped the community and showed why we should care for each other, no matter the ethnicity or race.” - Ethan Katz (7) “I went to a lecture about zaidism where I learned information that I did not know, which was very interesting.” - Harry Lowy (8) Interviews conducted by contributing
“It was a very cool experience because it’s my first year here and I got to learn about all the imbalances in society, and what we can do to make our school community better.” - Lexi Gordon (6)
“I really enjoyed doing Brazilian jujitsu, which I would have never thought about doing.” - Logan Charlotte (6)
writer Lucas Glickman.
Mock Newberry club awards Poet X as winner Dallas Dent Contributing Writer Andrew Cassino/Staff Photographer
MAKING LITERARY CRITICS Students discuss Newberry award finalist books. The Middle Division (MD) Mock Newbery Committee spent D and E periods last Tuesday reviewing several books that qualified as finalists for the Newberry Award, with the 36 students from grades six to eight engaged in spirited discussion over which finalist they thought should win the award. “Each eager committee member has the opportunity to debate which book should be the winner,” faculty advisor Rachael Ricker said.
Maeve Goldman, a member of the club, was hooked onto the discussion and loved to engage in the debates to convince others which books were best, and equally enjoyed hearing others voice their opinions about their favorite finalists, she said. “There were definitely many tough moments during the event because unlike last year where one book clearly stood out above others, so many good arguments were made for each book, and in the end any book could have
won,” Larry Tao (8), another member of the club, said. Students loved the book options so much that through a series of five rounds of elimination, there was a tie that narrowed down the finalist to six books rather than the usual five, Ricker said. The committee ended up choosing the book Poet X written by Elizabeth Acevedo as their unofficial winner of the award. The book is about Xiomara, a teenager growing up in a strict Catholic household in Harlem who finds her voice in slam poetry. The novel was also recently awarded the Michael Printz Award that exemplifies Young Adult Literary excellence. Poet X was chosen because the group felt that it encompassed the pains of growing up and using your voice through adversity to do what you love, Ricker said. The other finalists included Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed, Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes, The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty, The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang, and The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani. Club member Camila Florencia (7) chose Poet X because she felt a personal connection to the it, she said. “My mother grew up in a strict Catholic household and attended Catholic schools throughout all her life,” she said. Florencia also felt that Poet X was beautifully written and that the main character’s rebellion felt organic rather than forced, she said. Unlike previous years, each novel was told through the eyes of diverse characters with different backgrounds, Ricker said. “This change undoubtedly gave way to different
expressions, experiences and an ultimately difficult final choice for the committee,” she said. Ricker created the club to address the needs of students that wanted a more formal alternative to the Reader’s Forum, another MD book club, she said. The need for such a club is apparent as it grows larger every year, she said. “What makes this committee unique, aside from their ability to award a Mock Newbery medal, is their general love for shared reading coupled with active discussion and discovery into the author’s intent,” Ricker said.
Wilder Harwood/Staff Artist