March 17, 1997

Once upon a time, in a magical land called South Boston, my brother and I were in my mom’s living room playing karate. My mother hates (to this day) when we play fight in our house. So as we continue to fight, my mother calls me to stop fighting and as soon as I turn around, my brother Chris kicks me square in the chest and I go flying onto a glass table. As soon as that happened, we go running into our little brother’s room and slam the door shut. Chris insists that we go check the situation, but I tell him “are you crazy, do you not hear her screaming”? In my mind I thought she was yelling because we broke the table, but in reality she wanted to check if I was alright (and for good reason). I finally begin to peek, and as I do I get this massive headache like someone just kicked me onto a glass table. I reach back to grab my head and as soon as I pull my arm around, there is this huge pool of blood in my hand. I freak out and go running to my mom who sees it and goes all out. She immediately grabs her coat and has us get in the car as we speed off to Children’s Hospital. We finally arrive after what felt like an eternity, and we wait in the emergency room for exactly 1 hour until the doctor comes to get me. My worst fears come true as the doctor tells my mother that I have to get 4 staples on the back of my head without anesthesia (sulk). So as I prepare myself, my brother gets this sudden realization of this is his fault. I lay down on the hospital as my mom and brother hold me down. When the procedure is finished, I get bandaged up and sent home after only 2 hours at the hospital. The next year and a half were the worst because I couldn’t really get my scar wet, I couldn’t play around and I got special treatment which I hated. June 6, 1999 my staples finally come off and I am excited to get back to my life. To this day every time I get a haircut, I can feel the scar and I get reminded of how I still need to get back at my brother, but only time will tell when I get my exact revenge.   

Things Fall Apart

They say nothing lasts forever, but I thought our friendship would. My best friend, Jessica,and I were inseparable ever since we were kids. Since we lived on the same street, she came over every day. She was like a little sister to me. We've been best friends for eight years. Jessica was tall and skinny. She has short black hair with a caramel complexion. We never had an argument in all the time we've known each other. As we got older, Jessica started to change; she started lying to me about things. I knew she was lying to me because the things that she would say to me wouldn't make sense - one minute she would say one story and the next minute she would change her story. For example she would describe her Friday night at the mall and the next she was talking about a party she went on Friday. Which one was it? We went from being around each other all the time and talking on the phone everyday for hours to not speaking for days at a time. During our eight year friendship, this had never happened before. Things were definitely changing. On Jessica's birthday, I went to her house to celebrate her birthday when none of her so-called friends showed up. But when it was my birthday, she couldn't do the same for me. She had so many excuses as to why she couldn't come. I just felt like she was being selfish, and the Jessica that I knew in the past would of been there for me like I was for her. I go over our fight again and again in my head thinking about the hurtful things we said to each other. Should I try to make up with with her or was she just bringing me down ? From this experience I've learned that people change. This situation has changed me because now I don't trust people, It takes a while before I can trust someone. I also learned not to tell anyone my personal business even if I've known them for a while because if we get in a argument they can always tell people the things I've told them in confidence or they could throw it back in my face.

-Lizzy

Mother's Prank Moment

Dedicated to Carlita, my mother

Once upon a time, there were four people in a car. Their names were Ephriam, Imari, Tice, and our mother, Carlita (Judy); we are the Ward family.We had just come back from Boston to visit my brother Corey (on my Father’s side); on our way back from Boston we were driving home to Fall River. When Tice was pulling up next to our house to drop us off we conversed in the car for a while. Then it was time to go up stairs in the house. On that summer of 2004, Tice looked at me in the back seat and winked at me to watch what he was going to do to her. While mom was giving a kiss goodnight to Tice, as she did so, she was rolling up the front seat passenger window so she could get out of the car. Then she turned around and said, “I sworn I put the window up”, so she did it again with one of her legs out of the car. She stared at the window to make sure it was truly up this time then slowly the window started rolling back down. Again, she rolled it back up for a third time. My mom thought that the window was broken; however, Tice had all the window buttons on his side of the driver’s door. The up and down of the window proceeded to make my mom feel like she was going crazy. She was losing her mind! The window was going up and down, half way to the middle, and back down and up again. My mom was moving her head through the window operation – her eyes following every motion of the mystery window. I was laughing so hard that I had tears and I almost went to the bathroom on myself making that the funniest day of my life and one of my happiest memories.

-Imari

Instinct of the Mind

                        It was a month before my grandfather had passed. I was coming home school and everything seemed normal. I sat my bags down and went to the kitchen to get some food out of the refrigerator. The second that I reached into the fridge, I felt an immediate disconnect between my grandfather and me. That moment I knew that some of my other family members felt it too. At this time, my grandfather was in remission for colon cancer. I got the ideal sense to call my grandmother and ask her ‘how’s papa doing’ even though I had no reason to feel this way. Her voice, in great grief, replied, “you’re grandfather is going to die”. Instantly, I grew sad and had goose bumps. I told her that this was the reason I called that day; I knew something bad was happening. From that day, I learned what it is to know something instinctively what events are to come. From this I conclude that life happens fast and instantaneously and to trust your instincts.

-Matt

The Cardboard Sign

Almost three years ago, I went through a lot of crazy stuff. In the summer of 2009, I got kicked out of my foster home in Lakeville, Massachusetts because I didn’t give up my phone for texting in class. Long story short, I moved to my father’s house after not seeing him for six years. Once I got there, I found out he was living with an old man named Dennis, but everyone called him “Denny”.  He also lived in a very small one room apartment in Malden, MA, with his girlfriend April. I had to sleep on a couch and they didn’t have much food. I had two options; I could either go back to school or get a job. However, my father somehow convinced me to go into the city and pan-handle for money. I would pretend to be homeless by holding a cardboard sign in the middle of the street. Now I’m not going to lie, I was making a lot of cash. One time, a man in a rolls Royce pulled up to me and handed me a hundred dollar bill.  Even though I was making money I was miserable.

After about a month, my father decided I should “save some money” and give him twenty bucks a day.  Little did I know he wasn’t saving it.  It took me three month to realize he was spending it himself.  Even after I found out he wasn’t saving it, he made me start paying him an extra $20 a day.  I was paying Denny rent money in addition to the $40 I was giving to my father. It sucked because I could no longer make much money for myself. Day after day, month after month, I would wake up, go into Boston, and continue to make the money for my father, until it got to the point where I couldn’t even keep any money for myself. Then I found out the worst possible news…. my father was doing drugs. He wasn’t himself anymore and when I confronted him about his drug problem he denied it.  I couldn’t stay at his house any longer. About a year ago, I packed my stuff at 4am and left. I’m living with a friend now and I’m back in school. I haven’t spoken to or seen my father since.

By: John J. 

I Have No Idea

My first day in The United States something bad happened that was funny to me. I was walking in Dorchester on Blue Hill Ave when someone approached to me and started screaming at me. He thought I called the police on him when I didn’t. I had just arrived from Puerto Rico and the phone I had was broken. Because the phone came from Puerto Rico, it had no service. I didn’t know English either. After he left I kept walking with my mother and little brother happily ever after.

- Jose

                                                                                                              

Why I Don't Trust Girls

Why I Don't Trust Girls!

-Alex

In the sixth grade, this girl Kethia and I were really cool. I talked to her about everything! I told her I had a crush on the popular boy. That morning, he gave me candy and I knew something about it was fishy. After he gave me candy, I was in the secretary's office with Kethia talking smack about the popular girl, whom he was dating. Later, I found out Kethia was recording me. When we went upstairs for homeroom, I went in the bathroom and while I was gone, Kethia was playing the tape in the classroom. When i came back, everyone was looking at me and because of that, the popular girl wanted to fight me. That's why I don't trust females.

Students Create Political Cartoons

After completing a lesson on how to effectively read maps, bar graphs, line graphs, and political cartoons, our students created their own cartoons. 

Revolution Highlights

Class Collected Notes from Revolution on the History Channel

• Boston 1765 - Thomas Hutchinson, Leuitenant Justice of the King's Council
• March 5, 1770 - Boston Massacre - 5 people died
• December 16, 1773 - Boston Tea Party, dressed like Mohawk Indians to oppose stamp on tea. Threw over 420 cases of tea worth 10,000 pounds
• "No taxation without representation" - Patrick Henry (from Virginia)
• Loyalists often tormented by the colonist
• Benjamin Franklin was a patriot but his son was a loyalist
• Paul Revere - Lit of the tower saying the British were coming by sea, not land
• London is 3000 miles

Trip to the State House

Treaty of Paris and the Declaration of Independence

 Treaty of Paris

In 1763 a document was signed to end the revolutionary war, which was between Britain and France. Britain was the triumphant ones in this all. France had lost North America. Britain did not do this alone, though. Spain was Britain's ally. You would think the British and the Americans would be happy with the win but there was a split between Britain and America because of the war. Americans were once scared of France, but because the French were defeated, America was no longer scared of them. They also did not need Britain anymore so this helped start the split. The British looked down upon Americans and thought they were lacking in culture and were impure. Americans did not like taking orders from Britain. William Pitt was appointed by King George II to be secretary of state, in charge of military affairs, and colonial policy. Americans called British soldiers “redcoats” because of what they wore. Americans thought of them as unholy heathens. Tension was growing between the British and the Americans. There was rivalry between the Americans themselves, but having a common foe brought them together. Nationalism was starting to develop for the 13 states ever since they fought beside each other in the war. Now the English colonies' economy was flourishing.

 Declaration of Independence

This document was written in the summer of 1776. It said that all men were created equal and should be able to have equal rights. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This meant a lot to women, because this was the start for woman to have rights. In Seneca Falls, 1848, The Declaration of Sentiments was created with the same rights of The Declaration of Independence. David Walker, an activist, questioned if slavery should be legal. He asked, “do you understand your own language?” because not all men were being treated equal. Thomas Jefferson, chief author of The Declaration of Independence, owned slaves, as did many fellow signers. Thomas Jefferson criticized slavery and King George for allowing the slave trade to flourish. So The Declaration did not have equality for all, but it was a start.

Sincerely,

Malissie H.

American Enlightenment

The American Enlightenment also known as “Age of reason” was a period of intellectual growth in America in the 18^th century. In Germany, this was known as Aufklaerung. Afuklaerung means clearing way. Since the 1960’s historians have debated the enlightenment’s role in the American Revolution. Some people think that if the enlightenment movement didn’t happen then the American Revolution probably would have never happened. The American Revolution became a blueprint for Democracy in America.

Some “big thinkers” in the Age of Reason were Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, John Locke, and Thomas Jefferson. John Locke was especially important and became known as the Father of Liberalism. Thomas Paine contributed by writing the book called Common Sense. This book argued why the U.S should be independent. Benjamin Franklin was a major figure in the American Enlightenment. He also practiced deism. Deism is the “belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe,” according to the Google homepage.

 

To sum it up in the words of the Declaration of Independence, the Age of Reason was about freedom, right to govern ourselves, and religious tolerance. 

LATARSHA 

Declaration of Independence

 American Revolution: The Declaration Of Independence

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.

 These are the famous words written by Thomas Jefferson as he wrote the Declaration of independence. The Declaration of independence was written on July 4, 1776.

 The main reason for this was to announce and explain the separation of the United States from Britain. The reason for this is because they felt they were being taxed without proper representation.  “No taxation, without representation”.  King George 3rd was the representative for the British people. Another reason they wanted to become independent was to govern themselves. As Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of independence he had the support of John Adams, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, and many more.

The Declaration time line goes from June 7, 1776, January 18, 1777. June 7, was the first time the congressmen met to talk about their independence. January 18 was the day that signed copies of the Declaration were sent out to the individual states. In between June 12 and June 27, 1776, Thomas Jefferson prepared his draft, which he presented to the congressmen on June 28, 1776. The leaders of the colonies signed the Declaration of independence on July 19, 1776.

King George’s reaction to the signing of the Declaration of Independence was not good; he was very angry. King George sent his troops to try and ambush Charleston, S.C. but the American troops denied their entrance into the country.

- Sandra C.

The Stamp Act

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             The stamp act was passed by the British  Parliament on March 22,1765 the new tax was on American colonist  required them to pay tax on every piece of paper they used ( the tax ship paper legal documents, license, newspapers other publications and every playing card.) The money they collected was used to help pay the defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachian Mountains. The money was also used for the British to pay back there dep’t .The costs of the Stamp Act relatively small, but the colonists found the standard it seem to set offensive. It was viewed as a direct attempt by England to raise money in the colonies without the approval of the colonial legislatures.

-Michelle

enlightening

The American Enlightenment

The American Enlightenment was a intellectual thriving period. This movement happened during the American Revolution time in the mid-to-late 18^th century. Two of the main ideas are liberalism and republicanism, which the colonists used to fight against tyranny and monarchy. To gain freedom, and be treated equally, the colonists wanted their own rights for overall liberalism.

Some of the main thinkers who participated in this movement were John Locke, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin,Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson. John Locke, born 1632, was known as the father of liberalism. He was also an English philosopher, and physician. Voltaire, born 1694, was a French enlightenment writer. He was known for his great ideas such as: civil liberties, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, free trade, and separation of church and state. Benjamin Franklin, born 1706, was known for signing the Declaration of Independence, making him one of the Founding Fathers. Before signing he was famous for being an author of his book, Poor Richard's Almanack. Thomas Paine, born 1737, was known for doing an excellent job advocating independence. He did this by writing a pamphlet called Common Sense in 1776. Thomas Jefferson, born 1743, was known for writing the Declaration of Independence, and later becoming the third president of the United States of America. He also was a part of the Continental Congress, and was leader of this movement. 

Kimpsha G.

FREEDOM!!!!

The Treaty of Paris

The Treaty of Paris was a document that was signed in 1783 that ended the revolution and formally declared the United States as an independent nation. It is composed into ten sections; the first being the acknowledgment of the U.S. as a free nation and the rest as agreements and rules that both nations should abide by. Albeit there were subsequent battles, the final major battle prior to the signing took place in Yorktown, Virginia. American forces (led by George Washington) along with the French forces (led by Comte de Rochambeau) won a crucial battle that caused Cornwallis (Commander of the British)


to surrender that eventually led to the capture of eight-thousand troops including various types of combat equipment and transportation methods. Animosity was doused between the two nations and the reformation of the U.S. was set anew.

By Martin N. 

Key Events in the American Revolution

Boston Massacre

Called the Boston Riot by the British, the Boston Massacre was the killing of five civilian men on March 5, 1770. British troops were stationed in Boston since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular parliamentary legislation. There was ongoing tension between population and soldiers. British fired into small crowds apparently without orders. Killing three and wounding others, two others later died from wounds during the incident.

Acting governor Thomas Hutchinson promised an inquiry but reformed the next day. Eight soldiers, one officers, and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder. Defended by lawyer John Adams, six were acquitted while two were convicted of manslaughter. The depiction and reports of the event engraved by Paul Revere heightened tensions between the thirteen colonies. This event is widely viewed for the outbreak of the American Revolutionary.

Boston Tea Party

Boston Tea Party was a key event in American Revolution . Direct action by colonists in Boston against British government and East India Company. On December 16,1773 officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into the harbor. They believed that the Tea Act violated the right to be taxed only by their own elected representatives. Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Britain.

Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts,which closed Boston's commerce until British East India Company been repaired for destroying tea. To respond to Coercive Acts with protest and convening the first continental congress,which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them. This escalated the American Revolutionary war that began near Boston in 1775.

Compiled by Daphnee D. 

Long John Silver Mega Bucket

 Boston-

During a staff meeting at Long John Silvers headquarter in Dedham last week, staff wondered why no one purchased from their restaurants, and came up with the conclusion that their prices were too high. They came up with the Mega Bucket meal deal. This allows patrons to weigh and fill up their own 1 1\2 gallon buckets with any choice of option they like.

“Here at Long John Silvers, we're happy to announce that we now sell Mega Buckets for $2.99,” says restaurant manager Tom. "Our new dining option comes with free sauce with any order of Mega Buckets. Customers fill up a 1 1/2 gallon bucket with any combo, and if it is under 5 lbs. the bucket is $2.99."

"If we don't make deals like this, how do we sell food without people finding out about the roaches found dead in the scallops?" asked Stacy Matthews. Store Manager Tom Spacer came up with the brilliant idea to make the tarter more tangy, using crushed mice pellets as an ingredient. Many people love the new change. According to Spacer, the Mega Bucket meal deal comes with free sauce because of its new taste. This could make business much better and might actually boost Long John Industries.

In the wake of  Long John's manipulating and overwhelming success, other fast food chains have been trying to compete against one another. They could not understand the problem with their dining options compared to Long John. Little do they know, the secret is in the sauce. Popeyes now has a 5-piece chicken meal for 75 cents, but it is still no match for Long John's.

However, a similar deal at McDonald's was shut down by FDA after a health inspector found a tooth in BBQ wrap. Restaurant employee James Spilberg says, "Lately customers have been trying to shut us down. I don't know if I could tolerate the cruel behavior people come in here with anymore."

It looks like other restaurant employees agree with Spilberg when he says, "Enough is enough."

 Kimpsha G.