Fall 2015
Middle School Welcomes Spanish Students Get to Know
the New Teachers
By Belle Greenberg Have you ever gone to a new school and not know anybody? It’s pretty scary. Imagine how much scarier it would be when you don’t even speak the same language! That’s exactly how our seven Spanish visitors felt when they set foot in our American school for the first time. “Schools in Spain are very different because in Spain the children have classes and the teachers go to that class,” said Mateo Rodriguez, the only male student who attended our school. “Here in America, you have the lockers and you have to go the class of the teacher.” “I came to learn English and about the American culture and to have fun,” said Celia del Vigo, one of the Spanish students. “I came to America because our English classes are in high school,” said Julia Zabaleta, one of the Spanish students. “But if you really wanted to learn English, you can take extra curricular activities and English classes. Our teacher used to teach here so she brought us and we can learn what we learn in high school.” Being from another country, let alone another continent, the schools, you can imagine, are very different than MCDS. They have different classes, buildings, even different daily routines. “America is so different,” said Alba Gutierres Mateo, another Spanish student. “The schools, the people, the food, is all different.” “School here is very different,” said Julia. “For example, we don’t have the lockers like you do. In fact,
By Ilan Zenatti
The Spanish students pose with their MCDS hosts.
we don’t even have lockers! The whole building is much smaller.” MCDS teachers and students welcomed every Spanish student with a friendly and encouraging smile and a gentle approach. The greeting made it a whole lot easier for the students to learn and understand our way of learning. “The people are very nice and I think that the teach-
There’s No "I" In "Debate Team" By Ananda Naves-Penkwitt
with additional reporting by Belle Greenberg, Ilan Zenatti and Rachel Hodes --------------------On September 28, we had a debate team visit our school. This wasn’t just a regular debate team. The team’s members all came from Rwanda. Rwanda is a very small country located in Africa. Rwanda is best known for one of the biggest genocides in history in 1994. The point of this organization is to make people who have dealt many feelings inside and couldn’t even say a word have a voice. In perspective to 9/11, the genocide was pretty
By Rachel Hodes
sulting Director of Technology Services.
Tech changes over summer “This summer the internet speed was tripled,” said Dennis Cody, the head of the IT department. “Since the internet was improved it seems like the wifi is faster,” said Donna Lenaghan, Con-
ers are very good too,” said Lucia Iglesias. The Spanish students were accompanied by Maria Lizama, the student's’ guardian and chaperone for the trip. “In only three weeks, my English has improved a lot,” said Lucia. “Maybe in a year, for example, I could be able to speak it very, very well.”
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much one hundred days of 9/11 occurring every single day. You may have had to live next to someone that killed your whole family and live without doing something for the rest of your life! The simple answer to why this happened is shocking. In Rwanda there are two main ethnic groups out of three. The Hutus and the Tutsis. To be classified as a Tutsi you needed a long nose and a long stature. To be a Hutu you need a wide nose and a shorter frame. What happened during the genocide was Hutus started spreading propaganda that the Tutsis were trying to enslave them. When their president's plane got shot down, resulting in his death, the genocide began. More than 800,000 people were murdered in their homes, churches, schools, and any where else.
Over the summer, our school’s internet was improved along with the website we use to get all our homework and grades from.
Photo by Mr. Fallik
There have been many teachers that have taught here over the years at Miami Country Day School. Most have been loved by the students and a lot of teachers have fallen in love with this school and stayed. The new teachers who have recently arrived here and are looking forward to staying. One of the new teachers is Mr. Muhlig. Mr. Muhlig taught here 11 years ago. Then he took a break and moved to Ocala to raise his two sons. Before he left, he taught middle school and upper school. Mr. Muhlig has taught in other schools apart from this one. He taught in a Catholic school in Ocala and also in plenty of public schools in New York, Ticonderoga, Springfield, and Massachusetts. Throughout his years as a teacher, he learned that if you wanted to be remembered by the kids, you have to go off topic and do other things apart from teaching.
According to Ms. Lenaghan and Dennis Cody, IT needed to improve on the internet because of the amount of electronics needed to be hooked up to the wifi and internet. When you think about it, if there is a room with 20 students, that is already 20 computers that need the internet plus hundreds of other people that are using their computers and phones. So there needs to be a good power source.
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Photo by Mr. Fallik
MS students learn a traditional dance from a visiting debate team from Rwanda. The members consist of Jish, Monique, Clemence and Maya. They were accompanied by Jean Michel, their supervisor and mentor. They are a youth based organization that focuses on debates about real issues. They were selected to be on the team after submitting an
essay to the company. Two kids were chosen to be on the team out of a variety of school to go on an American debate tour. Continued on page 4
We HOPE you'll join! By Hannah Amoils
Kids all over the world, not only in South Africa are suffering to simply stay alive. Some of the horrible diseases that cause these deaths includes AIDS and malnutrition. The HOPE club came to Country Day in 2010 when Ryan Amoils started it in his eighth grade year. Ethan Gale, cousins to the Amoils family carried it out last year now to be followed by Han-
nah and soon Tyler Gale will take it up.
It all started in 2003 when Maya Amoils, Hannah and Ryan Amoils’s cousin, visited her aunt and uncle who lived and owned a resort that is about five minutes away from an orphanage that is going through lots of deaths in South Africa. On the way to her aunt and uncles resort she saw all these people walking around with no shoes and walking into their so called “homes” which are mud blocks. Continued on page 4