ITUFSD

ITUFSD

Friday, October 28, 2016

An Interview With Mrs. Bochner

An Interview With Mrs. Bochner
By Jessica Defrancis

This kind-hearted, and helpful women decided to do something a bit out of ordinary from my previous interviews, she decided to be a teacher assistant. She did not need to go to college for this. She did go to New York University for advertising. She advertised for about 20 years. She is married with two boys. I believe they may be part of the reason she wanted to be a T.A., the main reason is she wanted to work with children. She has been helping teach for 12 years.

An Interview With Mrs. Hassell By Jessica Defrancis

                        An Interview With Mrs. Hassell
By Jessica Defrancis


A stunning lady with an incredible sense of humor became an academic teacher the year of 1998 by going to Hunter College for her undergraduate and Stony Brook University for her graduate degree. Going up the ladder, she got married and had 2 children: a girl (14) and a boy (11). She has been teaching for 18 years. Before being a teacher, she worked as a waitress, manager, hostess, and even a bus-girl for a short amount of time. A goal she set for herself is to be proactive with the students and in problem and a few words of wisdom from her to you are, “Never let anyone define you, dream big!”

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

An Interview with Mr. Esposito by Jessica Defrancis

An Interview With Mr.Esposito
By Jessica Defrancis
Mercilessly friendly and hysterically funny Mr. Jeffrey Esposito decided to become a teacher. Why not a doctor or a scientist you may ask? Well he had two teachers named Mr. Harling (Of whom he worked with for two years at the start of his career.) and Mr. Huether. They inspired him to become a teacher, but he had to go college first!
He went to four different colleges! St. Johns, Nassau Community, and Suny Old Westbury for his undergraduates. Finally, Queen's college for his graduate. He proceeded to be a teacher for 17 years up to now, Mr. Esposito has taught 6th grade since 2001.
If you didn't know, he is also the boys soccer coach. Coach Jeffery has been playing soccer since he was a child. Unfortunately he is not married, looks like I might have to start playing match-maker!  


Halloween Crossword Puzzle by Simrah Normani


Across
3. He has fangs
6. This makes a jack-o-lantern
7. October 31st
8. A monster with many bandages
10. Has a pointed nose
Down
1. An animal with 8 legs
2. Creepy dark house with scary things
4. Disguise
5. Kids get lots of this
9. Another word for sorcery

An Interview With Mr. Spuches By Jessica Defrancis

An Interview With Mr. Spuches
By Jessica Defrancis


In the winter of 1998, a younger Mr. Jeffrey Spuches was acting as a college substitute and absolutely fell in love with the job. Before that happened he had to go to college, so he went to Plattsburg State. Mr. Spuches has worked in the Island Trees School district for 12 years, since 2004. His inspiration was the fact that he loved working with kids. His favorite part of teaching is working with wonderful students each year and getting to hear compelling stories about their own experiences and feelings. He said if he could meet up with any person in history he would hang out with Sam Adams, a revolutionary wildman! Lastly, some advice this brainy history teacher would like to give to all his students is, “It doesn't matter how smart you are, it matters how hard you tried!”

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

An Interview with Mrs. Bergamino

An Interview with Mrs. Bergamino
By Jessica De Francis
Tenth grader Ms.Bergamino was struggling in chemistry, but then her chemistry teacher helped her to realize two things: Chemistry was easy, and that she wanted to become a teacher. She ended up going to Adelphi University and has been teaching preschool and 5th grade for 21 years.

An Interview with Mrs. Bergamino

An Interview with Mrs. Bergamino
By Jessica De Francis
Tenth grader Ms.Bergamino was struggling in chemistry, but then her chemistry teacher helped her to realize two things: Chemistry was easy, and that she wanted to become a teacher. She ended up going to Adelphi University and has been teaching preschool and 5th grade for 21 years.

An Interview with Mrs. Longhway

An Interview with Mrs. Longhway
By Jessica De Francis
Mrs.Longhway became a teacher because she saw her children going into school and they asked for parent assistants and it turned out she loved it! She became a teacher by going to CW Post University, but most people may know it Long Island University. (L.I.U.). She has been teaching for 13 years.

An Interview with Mrs.Stanley

An Interview with Mrs.Stanley
by Jessica De Francis

In high school, Ms. Brisco (which was her maiden name), had to start thinking about what she wanted to become. She thought about her 3rd grade teacher, who was the person that inspired her to become a teacher. Following her dream, she went to Suny Cortland University for her undergraduate and Stony Brook University for her graduate degree. First, she started teaching in nursery school music. Then, Mrs. Stanley became a 7th grade aide and special education teacher. Finally, she became a 5th grade teacher and has been teaching ever since. She started teaching in 1995 and has been teaching for 21 years. She now spends her free time on vacations, at the beach, and playing golf!

Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Columbus Day

Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Columbus Day
By Nicholas Isaacs

In seventh grade, we learn about the importance of culture. This year, Rosh Hashanah, Columbus Day, and Yom Kippur are being celebrated as important holidays for different cultures.

Rosh Hashanah literally means “beginning of the year” in Hebrew. This Jewish holiday lasts for 2 days and according to tradition, we are in the year 5777. You can wish people “Shana Tova”, which in Hebrew means “have a good year.” At Jewish Rosh Hashanah services, you can hear them blowing a ram’s horn like a trumpet. This is called a “shofar”. It is intended to sound like a crying voice to remind people to think about and repent for any sins they committed in the past year. That’s because 10 days later they will observe…

Yom Kippur. In Jewish tradition, this is the day of atonement when people ask forgiveness for anything they did wrong they did the previous year. People over the age of 13 will fast for 25 hours and refrain from any entertainment and luxury. It is a day that is somber and primarily for prayer.

Columbus Day became a Federal holiday in 1937, though people have been celebrating the voyage well before then. Columbus discovered the American continent in October, 1492, and is actually celebrated in many countries around the world! In Latin American countries, it is called “Dia de la Hispanidad”, and in Spain, it is “Fiesta Nacional”. Since 1970, the holiday has been observed in the U.S. on the second Monday of October every year. In some states, they don’t recognize Columbus Day at all including Alaska, Oregon, and South Dakota. In Hawaii however, they celebrate “Discoverers Day” in observance of the Polynesian discovery of Hawaii. For Italian Americans, Columbus Day is seen as a great celebration of their heritage.

It’s great to understand and recognize different cultural holidays and celebrate the diversity in our lives.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

7th Grade New York City Field Trip a Success!

The 2016 7th Grade New York City Trip
By Nicholas Isaacs

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This year, from September 29th to September 30th, the ITMMS seventh graders went on the annual New York City trip. About 80 kids went on the trip which was organized by Vice-Principal Amanda Steele, and teachers Mrs. Danielle Azar and Mrs. Taryn Aponte, and chaperoned by many of the Island Trees teachers. The two day trip included many exciting stops to New York’s most famous landmarks.

We left Island Trees Middle School around 7:30 AM and arrived around 10:00 AM at Battery Park, where we took the ferry to Ellis Island. There we could see across to Liberty Island and we had a good view of the Statue of Liberty.

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On Ellis Island, we toured the Immigration Museum. We saw many pictures and artifacts of what life was like before, during, and after immigrants came through Ellis Island on their way to becoming Americans. I was struck by all the reasons why people came, such as religious persecution. For example, Jewish families, such as my grandmother’s, trying to escape Russia in the early 1900’s.

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Next, we were supposed to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, but we did not have enough time, so we headed to the South Street Seaport to get a good view of the bridge instead. Then we took the bus and went to Radio City Music Hall, located at 1260 6th Avenue.


Inside, we got a tour throughout the entire building, which is actually designed to look like a boat sailing into a sunset. We got to see rooms such as the boys and girls lounges, which are completely original from the 1930’s, the locker room, and the room under the stage area where all the set mechanisms are located. We got to see the stage from a VIP area. We even met a Rockette who took pictures with the students!

Our day wasn’t even done! We headed to Ellen’s Stardust Diner, located at 1650 Broadway and 51st Street. This diner is famous because the staff are singers and dancers that entertain you while you eat. We got to choose from a variety of foods. We had so much fun there!


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We then were escorted by two New York police officers while we walked to 214 West 43rd Street, where we saw “Cirque du Soleil: Paramour” at the Lyric Theatre. It was an exciting show with a lot of humor, drama, and acrobatics. The story is about a movie director in the 30’s who finds a really good actress and then falls in love with her. We ended the first night at our hotel at the Hyatt Place, in Secaucus, New Jersey.
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We began day two by visiting the National September 11 Museum and the 9/11 Memorial at 180 Greenwich Street. It was really emotional and upsetting, but very powerful and informative. I tried to help my classmate find his grandma’s name on the plaque. I also looked up and found my grandfather, Frank Bucherati, whose name is printed as “Bucaretti” in the book, “102 Minutes”. He was trapped in an elevator on the 73rd floor of Tower 1 with another man, but escaped and survived. I always heard stories from him about the attacks, but it was even more powerful to be at the site and see others stories and sorrows. We even got to see “The Survivor Tree” that not only survived the attacks, but also survived hurricanes Irene and Sandy.


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Next, we went to the Empire State building which is located at 350 Fifth Avenue. It has art deco style and was named a national landmark in 1986. There we got to see New York City from an 80th story window, and we got to go to the outside observatory area located on the 86th story. It was so high up that it was nearly snowing up there instead of raining! Back inside, we got to visit the gift shop where they had a lot of King Kong merchandise (the famous fictional giant ape that climbed the Empire State Building), candy and models of the building. A lot of kids were nervous about heights beforehand, but eventually had a good time. By the time we got back down, everyone’s ears were popping!

Finally, our last stop was the Metropolitan Museum of Art, located at 1000 Fifth Avenue. It is considered one of the largest and finest museums in the world.

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Some of the things I saw were a weapons gallery, a hall of Greek statues, masks and outfits from Africa, and even an Egyptian tomb. We were there for almost 3 hours, and we just skimmed the surface of what was actually there. One probably needs a couple of days to see all the exhibits properly.

Then we headed home and got back at 8:00 PM, ready to share our adventures with our families. Everyone overall had a great time. We were very lucky to have great teachers who chaperoned us and all the fifth and sixth graders who are reading this should consider going when it is your turn. I had a really great time!