At Nazareth Area Middle School we have two ways in which we start off our mornings: activity period or Excel period.  Activity period is three times in the six day cycle. Last year activity period was all six days of the cycle.  I think that having activity period everyday is beneficial to students. During this time students are able to see teachers to ask questions, catch up on missed work, and meet for clubs and activities taking place throughout the school.

     Excel period is on days that there is not activity period. During Excel teachers have different activities taking place in their rooms depending on what academic team you are on. At the beginning of each rotation the students get to sign up for which activity they would like to be a part of. 

     As a whole school we did a school wide read which took place during the Excel period.  We read the book “Schooled” by Gordon Korman. (See other article on school wide read for more information about the book)  

     I think that the Excel and Activity period are both great ideas and allows students the time they need to get their work done and also be creative. I am excited to see what fun ideas the school will come up with for Excel.

By Ally Papageorgiou

Drop everything and read! That’s what our entire school has been doing on certain Excel days. Our school is reading the book Schooled by Gordan Korman. Schooled is a book about a boy named Capricorn Anderson moving into the “real world” from Garland Farms. Schooled is a funny yet emotional book that is fun for everyone to read.  We had a day at school where everyone was asked to dressed up as hippies in tie dye and jeans. As we get farther into the book we continue to get hooked as the point of view changes from the mean bully Zach Powers to the nerdy Hugh Winkleman. Cap is trying to adjust to the new environment, and so far he has gotten his shoes stolen and spitballs stuck in his hair. We will just have to wait to see what happens!

 By: Chelsey Edwards

        Best Buddies is a wonderful program where students help kids with special needs. They meet every B day, during activity period. This is a great way to give kids the chance to see that everyone is different, and see the different challenges that some people have to face.  They do activities together and go on numerous field trips throughout the school year. 

        Right now this club is for 8^th grade students only, but should 7^th graders be allowed in?  This is a fantastic program, but maybe it would be better if 7^th graders were permitted to be buddies. This way they would have more experience for the following year when they would be in 8^th grade.

      Seventh graders are just going to have to wait a year until they are in 8^th grade to be in Best Buddies. Overall let’s hope that Best Buddies keeps up the good work. 

 By: Ally Papageorgiou

      There are so many fun and exciting clubs this year at Nazareth Area Middle School but one that definitely stands out is Art Club!  From the second you walk through the doors to the art room you are surrounded by so many unique projects.  For example; there are intricate portraits of skeletons’ hands, colorful masquerade masks, and plastered molds of the students’ arms.  If you thought the projects couldn’t get any more interesting, you are mistaken.

            Mr. Kroll, the art teacher, has been in charge of Art Club for 10 years.  Not only is he an excellent teacher, but he is a phenomenal artist!  All the students who joined art club this year have been having a blast!  “There are so many fun things to do,” says Hannah Frame.  A unique project that we have recently done involved color and using pudding as a substitute for paint!  That was an obvious favorite.  Everyone is ecstatic about the newest project, painting 3 different rocks.  One rock will have flowers, another will have sketching and painted lizards, and the last rock will be turned into a hatching dragon egg! 

Art Club isn’t just about doing projects. “My favorite thing about Art Club is being able to interact with some of my friends on different teams,” says Sara Tanzosh. Crystal Lussl says her favorite part of Art Club is, “expressing art in a creative way.”  The talent level in Art Club is very high!  All the projects are incredibly detailed and amazing!  Mr.Kroll’s talent and eye for art has definitely rubbed off on his students.  Fantastic, amazing, creative, exciting and most of all fun are what the students say about Art Club, and they are truly right! 

By:  Madison Cerniglia

         There is a food drive fundraiser that National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) is running.  You can bring in money or canned food to earn feathers for your homeroom’s turkey .  Each item you bring in warrants a feather to add to the turkey. The homerooms are competing against each other to see who can collect the most feathers for their turkeys.  Last year’s winning homeroom was Mrs. Bastidas’s class on the Thunder Team. The winning homeroom will get a party of their choosing the day before Thanksgiving break.  All of the food will be donated to the Nazareth Food Bank to help families in need.  May the best class win!

                                                                                                                                                        -Alan coco and Kaitlyn Peterson

Nazareth Area Middle School’s Drama Club is performing their fall show on November 11^th and 12^th.   The drama teacher and director, Mr. Salevsky, chose the play “13”  because he saw this show done on Broadway in 2009.  He liked it because it was the only show he has ever seen where the cast was entirely made up of kids.

 “From the first scene, there was so much energy, and then I knew I needed to do this show someday,” said Mr. Salevsky.

 “I had to wait for the play to become available since it’s a new show, and you have to wait for the off Broadway version to come out.”  Mr. Salevsky waited for the play, and was excited when it finally arrived!

 Mr. Salevsky shared that auditions were not an easy decision.  When asked about the selection process he stated, “It was really tough; over 70 people auditioned and this play has a very small cast of 17, and that includes ensemble.”

“The part that was actually the hardest was choosing all of the roles for the students that were selected.”

 The male lead, Evan Goldman (Chris Singer), said “We are like a family, we all get along.” A bond that was apparently made over a few months, is working very well.

 Their first performance is approaching on November 11^th at 7:30 PM in the Middle School’s Auditorium. The next two performances are the following day November 12^th at 2:00 PM and 7:30PM.

 I personally believe this show will be an unbelievable success because of the great chemistry the students have on stage. Come out and support our NAMS Drama Club. Tickets are $7.00 for pre-sale and $5.00 at the door. Good luck to the Drama Club, “break a leg!”

                                                  By: Matt Gary & Chelsey Edwards

Q: What is the music setup?

A: We will have a DJ set up to take student requests

Q: Why did you choose this setup?

A: We’ve been doing this for 3 years and the students love it!

Q: What’s the theme of the dance?

A: The theme is “The First Dance” – we want to get them excited for the first dance of the school year.

Q: Will there be any more dances

A: Yes we’ll have a semi-formal in January and a dance at the end of the year.

The night of the dance the gym was decorated with orange lights and Halloween decorations.  Everyone was rocking out in the gym, buying refreshments from the concession stand, or lounging in the cafeteria.  Even though many people left early for the game, there were still plenty of people at the dance.  Before the dance came to an end, there was a contest.  The best female and male dancer would win an iTunes gift card.  The two winners were Joey Suhr and Bailey Carpenter who are both 7^th grade students on the Storm Team.  The student council said it was a big success and raised more money than they spent!

During that night I took a poll on how good the dance was.  I asked 10 random 7^th and 8^th graders if the dance was great, okay, or boring.  The result was:

Great:  50% (5 people)

Okay:  40% (4 people)

Boring:  10% (1 person)

The first school dance was a big hit!  I wonder what student council has in store for the next dance!

Throughout the past month the morning news show has been trying to excite the students about the Saylorsburg Haunted House field trip.  However, in the long run, there were not enough students that were committed.  A small amount of people signed up to go to the haunted house, but not enough to cover the cost of the trip.

        The cost of the field trip might have driven away some students.  Paying to get into the dance, buying refreshments at the dance, and paying for the field trip may have been too much for the students to afford.  The students that did sign up for the trip must have been devastated!  At least they will still be able to go with their families and friends outside of school.   Hopefully they will try to hold the event again next year and more students will sign up!

                                                              By: Danielle LeDonne and Victoria Palochik

     Guten Tag! On Thursday October 6, 2011 the eighth grade students of the Glacier team participated in an afternoon German event created by Frau Karen Pearson. What started out as a pre-event havoc, turned out to be one of the most memorable German Luncheons as told by Frau, herself. The whole tradition started out well over nearly 30 years ago when one of Mrs. Pearson’s 2^nd period students brought in German hotdogs from a specialty food shop called Ehmer’s German Butcher. “It wasn’t the best idea to eat hotdogs in the morning,” said Frau, but it certainly sparked an idea to have a German Luncheon.

      On the sixth of October, the Glacier Team students all had an extraordinary day at the Luncheon. With so much delicious food to choose from, it’s no wonder they were all full from lunch!  The Glacier team was asked to bring in any food item of their choice to make the event extra spectacular. Frau had said that she never saw so much food brought in that was actually German rather than American. From cookies and cakes to soup and potato candy, the choices were endless. In addition, the students brought in $5.00 for their meal which included a hotdog and Kaiser roll along with their choice of a drink.  In the end, all the students had a blast eating the food. Watch out seventh graders, you won’t regret going to German in eighth grade (except on test days!)  

                                     By: Purna Ahasan and Alyssa Amadore