Books That Have Impacted Lives

Have you ever read a story that changed your perspective on life completely? Or read about a character who you fell in love with, or cried with, or suffered with? Today, I will share with you some of my favorite ones. But, being the curious mind I am, I also wanted to know which other books had an impact on members of our school community, and most importantly, why. Although it was hard for everyone to pick favorites, knowing why they picked them, made this experience meaningful.

My all-time favorite book, believe it or not, is Dr. Seuss's "All the Places You'll Go!" I adore that book that no matter the age, there is a lesson that applies to you.  Every time I read it, I can find one specific for whatever I am going through in life. Another book that I totally love, because it connected me to Latin American Literature was I was "The House of Spirits" by Isabel Allende. I was 13 when I first read it and it opened my eyes to the immense possibilities writing can give you. I felt empathy and a special kind of love for the character development in Allende's work, and the beauty of her plot.

For Mrs. Fadul, our Literature teacher, it was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.  In a way, she felt connected to the idea of always giving others what they need; making others feel happy. From Flowers In the Attic by VC Andrews. What most impacted Mrs. Fadul was the suspense and mystery of it, the empowerment of the main character, and how she did what she could for her siblings. Mrs. Fady also mentioned "The Alchemist" and its influence on her path to self-discovery.

Mrs. Rocio Roja's book was “Little Women” by Louise May Alcott. She read it when she was 11 years old, and it made her fall in love with books. That Christmas, she mentions, she only asked for books. Another impactful book in Mrs. Rojas's teenage life was "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. She mentions she has read it more than four times in her life and every time she does, it’s like a whole different story coming alive. Mrs. Rojas loves family stories, and this is one of the best.

Mrs. Sylvia Mena loves "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint- Exupery. She has read it many times in her life. Mrs. Mena mentions the first time she read it she was very little and took everything very literally, but as she grew up, she started understanding the different themes about the meaning of life, relationships... She also mentioned La Dama de Las Camelias because it was her first time reading tragedies. She realized then that not all stories have a happy ending.

Mrs. Georgina Calzada en Mrs. Lilian Acosta share their love for "Tuesdays with Morrie" and how the book teaches you to focus on and value what really matters in life. "The Red Tent" is another one of Mrs. Acosta's favorites. She mentions she values beautiful stories that encourage you to pursue your dreams.

For Mrs. Aida Morel, it's not a specific book, it's a genre. Our Elementary Librarian enjoys reading biographies during her free time because they help her understand and analyze the life events in the characters, and how things change through the different times.

Regardless of the genre or book you decide to choose, there is one thing that is inevitable: One day, you will find yourself in front of a book that will touch your life in such a way, that you will never forget it. Who knows, maybe this list can help you start looking for yours.

Mrs. Marial Valenzuela

MCS Head Librarian 

Follow your Passions

                                                                    Photo credits: www.pixabay.com

Have you ever stopped to think about what are you passionate about?  How can finding what you are passionate about helps you choose your future job or career? Is following your passion enough to be happy? Why is it important?

A passion is a strong desire for something. It means to explore areas that spark your interest, developing your skills in a specific area and to use these skills to contribute to something that is beyond yourself.

You can be passionate about animals, hobbies, art, uplifting others, learning, simple things, health and fitness, entrepreneurship, making a better society, teaching, your faith, taking action and life in general.

But, what does it mean to follow your passion? It simply means to find what you love, and explore how can you include it in your daily life. Focusing on your passion will make you wake up every day, feeling excited about life.

It helps you to relate to your work and career with a positive attitude. You come up with better ideas and also learn and improve in the field of your choice.  Following your passion will additionally help you build a stronger career for your future.

You can be passionate about multiple things. The more things you find that spark your interest, the better human being you will be, plus, if you ever feel you need a change, you will always be able to discover a new passion.

Passion is the fuel that brings the greatest results in life. Are you willing to take the risks and never give up on those things you dream about?  Never let others stop you from achieving what you are passionate about.

Like Mary Forleo once said, "You can't find your passion in your head." Your passions come from deep inside your heart. Identifying your passion will help you reach your full potential in life. Spending life doing what you love will help you be happier, more motivated and achieve goals easier.

"People with great passions make the impossible happen."

Carlos Graveley Carlo
6th Grader

How Does it Really Feel to Be Back to School

Coming back to school has been a strange experience for all of us. As we all know life is no fairy tale. You don’t just get what you want right away, you have to work hard for it.

We can all agree that virtual school was difficult, and not because we saw it in a random video, we lived it and it was real to us. Going back to school did actually seem like heaven at some point. Buying new materials, uniforms, backpacks, etc, was something we were really looking forward to. When it finally happened, it was exciting but nerve-wracking at the same time. For a while, the feeling of being able to sit in a classroom and run in a playground felt like the best thing ever, but it is not so all sunny and peachy in the long term, especially if you are a bit introverted. This is my very true and honest opinion about being back to school.

I don’t consider myself a very social person, and I understand that I have always been like this. I can notice how kids my age use social media such as Instagram to connect and interact with each other. I do not, I just use them for fun. I understand that this means that during the pandemic, a time when I wasn’t going out anywhere, I did not speak much with anyone other than my family members. Due to this, going back to school at the beginning was a bit difficult since I didn’t talk to anyone over the summer vacation. Everything and everyone seemed so different it felt like being the new kid in a new school trying to make friends again. I had to start from scratch, and this is not as simple as it looks. It kind of feels like baking. you can’t start making a cake by putting the tray inside the oven, you need to start by mixing the sugar with the butter and the eggs even if you have to do it a thousand times to get it right. I am still trying to figure out the ingredients in all this process.

It's really funny how every year the teachers say “This or that is to prepare you for the next grade” and we as their students we don’t really focus on what It means. Now I understand it. Being at home connected to meetings and not really not doing much physical activity for an entire year is now taking a toll on me since it is really hard to adjust what we had before to this new reality and routine.

I am currently in 6th grade which means a certain percent of my classes are in the High school building, other than my classroom which is on the Elementary building, on the third floor. This means I spend most of my day moving from one building to another, especially Mondays, and it is tiring. Going up and down the stairs and walking really long distances does not make it better. It is a lot to get used to, especially because we have to wear a mask.

I think that the assignments we are currently doing are pretty hard to understand. It feels as if we skipped a whole grade and started doing things far from our level of knowledge. However,  I do understand that we are supposed to learn new things that challenge us and take us out of our comfort zones, so we can understand new topics and things that will be useful to us for our entire lives.

We all have an opinion on how things should be this year and it is really important that we share it, especially with the school since they really try to help us create an environment in which we feel comfortable and safe so we can learn peacefully and enjoy our education.

To sum it up, everyone is different and we have to learn how to accept that, but in the end, we are all human and we must express exactly how we feel about situations like this one. Me having a tough experience coming back to school doesn't have to mean you do too, and I totally respect that, but I know that some people have been feeling the same way as I have, and it is important that they know they are not alone.

How do you feel about coming back to school? Write it in the comment section!

Maria Alejandra Vásquez Ventura

6th Grader

Columbus: Hero or Villain?

We all know that on October 12 we celebrate Columbus Day. Columbus Day is a holiday in the United States and in most Latin American countries that commemorates the landing of Christopher Columbus in 1492, to the New World. There is a very tight debate on whether this day should be celebrated or not. Some people state that Columbus was a hero, however many people think he was a villain.

The Hero:

For some, Columbus is considered a hero. They see the positive effects of his journey and claim that he "discovered" a new land, where in fact, he didn't. The truth is that other explorers had already visited America by the time Columbus made it here. Of course, we cannot forget the Tainos, our natives, were already here. The arrival of Columbus definitely marked a new era of product exchanges between Europe and the New World, the discovery of new animal and plant species and a mixture of races.

The Villain:

I believe Columbus got all the credit for something he really did not do. Instead, he is usually not held responsible for many things he DID: He profited, enslaved and sold our indigenous to the Spanish. He exploited them for no pay, no food, or care for their health or their families, took their lands and claimed them for Spain (He even named our island Hispaniola). The only thing our Tainos received from Spaniards was damage and enslavement.

In my opinion, Columbus is definitely a villain. He and his crew were too ambitious, selfish and evil and mistreated a race that was kind and noble. What is your opinion about this topic? Share it with us in the comments! See you next time!

Written by Paula Garcia

7th Grader

What your teacher will never tell you about this school year...

They say difficult times happen to strengthen you. Today is the end of one WILD ride. Virtually teaching you this year was by far the hardest, most difficult, exhausting and wacky task EVER placed upon me. There! I said it! And you need to hear why. 

It all started in September... 

There you were, all sitting at your desks, excited about your first day of school, with your fresh haircuts, playing around with your new tablets, and laptops... YES! I was excited to see you, NEW tiny humans, but I did not know who you were, or how to honestly do this new thing we needed to do... this virtual teaching.

When the pandemic started, it was chaotic, I can't deny it, but at least I had my not-so-tiny students figured out by then. But not you. YOU WERE ALL NEW, you had your expectations and hopes for the new school year. And there I was filled with anxiety and fear I would not meet them and hoping you would not notice it. 

Teachers, you see, we were NOT taught to teach this way. 

We were taught that teaching implied welcoming living humans with a smile into our classroom, playing games, clapping, being loud, singing along crazy songs, painting, drawing, and jumping around in costumes or wearing funny wigs. 

We were taught to read al sitting in a circle on the carpet, to write stories on a chart pad with our students on the floor, to think and discuss and build things, and play music to sing along, and analyze texts and do all the hard math problems in a million ways, and make experiments and blow things up (if you are that kind of dangerous teacher) 

We were taught to listen to your funny stories and to try to make sense of them, to give hugs when you were sad, or advice when you required it. We were taught to teach you with love.

We were NOT taught to talk to screens, to empty rooms, and hear the echoes of our own voices in the classrooms.

Teaching you this year was hard, and sad, and made us cry more than once. 

But you were there, on the other side of the screens, showing your pets, eating your breakfasts, playing video games and TikToks (Yeah, we know), and every day you were there. and you were happy and learning! Most of you could not get out of your houses, or see your friends, or lost family members, or moved to a different city, or a different country. But regardless, there you were! Ready to learn...

...and that was my gasoline throughout the whole virtual process.

Watching the impossible happen was a miracle. We needed to adapt and figure out how to do the jumping, and singing, writing, and storytelling. Teach vowel sounds and phonographs, and prefixes and suffixes, and mathematical concepts, problem-solving, Pre-calculus, Algebra. Still do our read-aloud sessions, and make experiments, and research papers... 

And somehow, we did. 

Sometimes it was very hard to teach you. You seemed like you were not there. Your camera was off and sometimes your microphone was off too. Those were the times when we wanted teleporters to be real... we did not know if you were ok, or if you were even learning. We called you but heard no answers. We know sometimes was hard to be exposed with a camera on your face all the time, but that was our only way of knowing if you were ok. 

We - your teachers- love to help, and sometimes, we couldn't.

A ray of sunshine hit us all when you started coming back to school. I never thought I would miss the horrendous sound of backpacks dragged up the stairs, but it teared up my eyes the first time I heard it after the pandemic. 

Meeting you in person was the best! It was like when you meet your favorite artist. You've watched him on the TV and videos for so long that when you see him you say "Wow, HE IS A REAL HUMAN!"

And we got to see that part of you that was hidden from us, that part we could not figure out through the screens. The type of music you liked, your sense of style, that you liked Doritos (just like me!), that you had a million questions to ask about when I was a kid, that you liked to randomly climb trees, or made little jumps when you walked, or that you were lonely. 
Teachers, we do this because it matters. Every year we put our very best expertise, our brains, hearts and souls so that you can learn, and become better tiny humans. And every year, we receive back that kind of love.  

Not this year. NOT A SINGLE HUG WAS GIVEN. 

But that's COVID to blame. 

Not hugging you was the hardest thing I ever had to do. 

Honest. 

Anyway, you DO owe me all the hugs when all this is over.  I will start collecting, you will see. 

Now that it is the end of the school year, I have one last thing to say to all of you: THANK YOU.

Thank you because you showed up, on time, and did your best. 

Thank you for not giving up on me- even when my class was terrible or I could not help you as quick as you needed me to.

Thank you for your kind words, your disposition and your honesty. 

Thank you for the random stories and comments. 

Thank you for muting yourselves so I would not need to do it, and taking turns to speak.

Thank you for helping me navigate this virtual madness with you, and being patient with me when Zoom did not open, or the internet did not work, or my computer went crazy (and for teaching me to share the screen with audio- that was awesome!)

Thank you for the love and learning we shared this year.

Thank you for teaching me how to be a virtual teacher. 

It was difficult, but you made it memorable. 

I will miss you, tiny humans!

 

"Be strong, because things will get better. 

It might be stormy now, but it can't rain forever"

Evan Carmichael

PS. FACT: When this is all over, I know teachers will miss the MUTE ALL button.  ;)

Written by Mrs, Marial Valenzuela

5th Grade Teacher

Head Librarian @ MCS

10 Facts about Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mothers of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May. 

In the Dominican Republic, Mother's Day is a family celebration, where we recognize the love, service, and devotion of our mothers by giving them gifts, cards, flowers & bouquets, food, among others. Schools make special celebrations and sing along to our famous Mother's Day Anthem.

Here are 10 fun facts about Mother’s Day you might not really know:  

1. The Dominican Republic is the only country in Latin America that has dedicated an anthem to Mothers.

2- Mother’s day is remounted back to Ancient Greece.

3- Mother's day is the most popular day of the year for eating out.

4- The person who founded Mother’s Day in America was called Anna Jarvis.

5- In the UK thirty thousand cards are sent during Mother’s Day 

6- The first Mother’s Day in the whole world was celebrated in the ’70s.

7- The tradition that is more associated with Mothering Sunday is the Simnel Cake.

8- Carnations are the flowers that are typically associated with Mother's Day.

9- In the United Kingdom and Ireland the Mothering Sunday is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent. In our country, it takes place on the last Sunday of May.

10- Mother’s Day is celebrated in 46 countries around the world.

Mothers are great and, in my opinion, they deserve more than just one special day because they protect us, even if we don’t know how to do it, and are always looking after us, making sure we have everything we need and that we do what we must ('boches' included).

Happy Mother's Day 2021!

Written by Carlos Graveley

5th Grader

What makes of TikTok so addictive?

Whether we like it or not, we all have heard of TikTok, a Chinese short video app where you can make and also watch short videos. Wikipedia defines it as "a video-sharing social networking service." It is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. The social media platform is used to make a variety of short-form videos, from genres like dance, comedy, and education, that have a duration from 15 seconds to one minute. Conclusion: It’s like a vine, but less exciting, and way more engaging.

This app has been around since 2016 but became really popular during quarantine time. In fact, according to Medium.com, TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform in the world! Each month TikTok has around 800 MILLION active users. Its mission, as it claims, aims to “...capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge, and precious life moments, directly from the mobile phone. TikTok enables everyone to be a creator, and encourages users to share their passion and creative expression through their videos.”

Passion and creativity are a big part of the app's success, followed by immense boredom during quarantine time, but TikTok is truly addictive, and we are here to try to explain to you why.

People are so addicted to TikTok because of its videos of random things people like. For example, if a cooking video appears on your feed page, and you watch it, and you mark it as "liked" TikTok is programmed to keep you watching cooking videos. Now that the app knows you like that kind of content, it will bombard you with it... for HOURS! This model of engagement for users is called recommendation algorithm and they use it to provide accurate content that fits the historic behaviors of its users. In short, if you watched the same TikTok as others, you are likely to be recommended the videos they have watched.

Additionally, there is also this option called FYP (for you page). This is where videos that you may like appear. This page can save from all the different types of content: comedy, cooking, dance, inspirational quotes, fan pages, etc. 

This is fun, but a little scary. 

Usually, social media gives you some sort of choice in what you watch. Take YouTube, for example. The app recommends videos using an engagement algorithm, however, you always have some sort of choice in what you are watching. This does not happen with TikTok. TikTok simply recommends you nonstop sets of 15-second videos that you NEVER chose to watch. 

This has been a huge success for users because it is pretty easy for anyone to go viral in Tiktok, but you're not recognized as a celebrity, you're recognized as an influencer. For example, a young girl started Tik Tok around the age of 15, she went Viral and now she has more than 100M+ followers at the age of 16 and is on the World Records Book. 

Also, TikTok is a way for celebrities and artists to make their songs go viral, cause people create dances or trends with their songs, so they will be stuck in your head, and you will search them up.

In conclusion, TikTok offers users a sense of connection, distant engagement, and the ability to be anonymous and expressive with a stream of constantly relevant information. This is a total recipe for addiction. We recommend that even if you like the content and enjoy spending hours watching endless video streaming, you limit your time as a user in order to avoid addictive behaviors and find other ways to express yourself and connect to others that do not just include a screen. 

TickTock influencers and why should you follow them:

This is a list of TikTokers that you should totally check out!

1. @elisalley If you are a Disney fan, make sure to watch him because he does really good Disney theories.

2.  @butchhartman  This is the creator of the show Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom a truly, true classic from Nickelodeon. He also draws and teaches how to draw anime on his TickTock account.

3. @disney You should totally watch this one since it’s the actual Disney TickTock account and it’s super fun.

4.  @chemtecherphil This one is cool for scientific minds. He makes really cool experiments that you can do at home.

5. @disneyparks you should watch because it shows the inside world of Disney Parks - I personally recommend you to watch it- it is super fun!

                               Written by Avril Velez     &     Jose Emilio Ariza