June 2006
The Crusader
3
Physical Education: Ups and Downs
By Mai Kusayangi
“GET YOU BUMS MOVING!
AND GO RUN TWO LAPS!” Another
exciting P.E. class has just begun. P.E.,
which stands for Physical Education, is
ALL about moving your body and
staying healthily
fit. That doesn’t
necessarily mean
we have to be
muscular, it just
means we have
P.E.
to
stay
healthy. An exciting class of P.E.
usually starts with
warming up. Typically, jogging, but
small games like
“capture the flag”
or “dodge ball” are
certainly better
preferred. Then
comes the specific
sport or activity
that you will play throughout
the unit. If you like to play different sports, P.E. is most likely your
favorite subject. As Physical Education
is probably the most interactive subject
in school, many people say that it is
their favorite subject.
“P.E. is so much fun. We get to
play lots of sports, and I enjoy it a lot”
says a seventh grade student, who
wishes to remain anonymous. “It must
be so hard for the teachers. We’re so
loud in P.E.”.
Indeed, it is quite challenging for the
P.E. teachers to keep all the students
focused and quiet as Miss Sue Tingley,
a P.E. teacher here at ISB says. She explains that the students usually get a
little chaotic when they are involved in
an energizing activity. So yes, maybe
we should take it a little easy in P.E.
class… at least for the teachers.
Some typical games played in
P.E. are soccer, basketball, volleyball
Another PE class kicks off in fine style
Photo: file
and fitness. You will most likely play
these sports in any school that has
teaches physical education. Several
other sports that might be played are
American football, ping pong, gymnastics, hockey… the list can go on and on.
In ISB, the most popular sport seems to
be soccer.
“Yea soccer is one of my favorite
sports. It’s really fun and I like how we
get to kick and chase after the ball.”
Said a seventh grader, Lisi Haberbauer.
Many people seem to enjoy team sports
more than individual sports like cross
country.
“There is more strategy involved in
team sports; when a whole team
succeeds it feels cool, rather than just
you celebrating by urself. You learn to
work with other people and you can
make new friends.” Dominic Ferris
says, “I just like working and
accomplishing
something with a
group of people I
can work with”.
In
P. E . ,
there are generally
two types of warmups. One, is just
running one or two
laps, and then
strat ching
your
muscles. The second
type is playing a
small game of
dodgeball or some
kind of running
game, like tag.
“I prefer jogging
and
str etch in g
because it’s simple,
short and effective.
The other games we play
tend to be strange and
require more than necessary energy.” Jo
Ogunleye said.
Melis Ataol, having a similar
opinion, says
“I prefer the jogging and stretching
because it’s usually just like running for
about a minute which is nothing; and
then it’s over. But with dodgeball and
other games, it takes too long”.
Physical Education is an
important part of children’s education.
But the actual way that the children are
being educated, can never satisfy every
children. People always seem to find a
way to insult many things, but maybe
it’s time to consider the trouble the
teachers go through to make the lessons
as good and fun as possible.
Farewell to all the teachers leaving!
Ms. Thomas, Ms. Strucchelli, Mr. Bell, Mr.
Ruskay, Ms. MacIsaac, Mr. Morandi and Ms.
Farris, we’ll miss you SOOO much!!! Good
luck!
The Crusader staff
June 2006
The Crusader
4
NEWS
A Farewell and Salute to the Leader of The
Crusader
by Youri Smouter
Another person very close to Ms. ber me, before you were famous.”
It’s a major loss to both Journalism,
During Ms. Thomas’s stay here at
Student Council, and The English De- Thomas was none other than Dr. Crowpartment, and its one in which a lot of us ley. Crowley who retired as an English/ ISB and Belgium, she truly made quite a
in Middle School can’t help but feel sad Journalism teacher was replaced by Ms. remarkable mark. From an English
for. And that is that The Leader of the Thomas when she arrived, and he shared teacher, to The Crusader, to this year’s
Student Council, as well as a soccer
Crusader, English Teacher Ms. Sarah some thoughts about Ms. Thomas.
“I think she was always really fo- coach, it is hard to forget, let alone not
Thomas, is moving to Massachusetts in
the US to explore other interests. The cused on students, always has been posi- miss her. For two years she was Master
of Ceremonies at the 7th Grade
Crusader wanted to know
Poetry Celebration and advisor
more details and so an interfor Kattenberg Papers for five
view with Ms. Thomas went
years.
underway.
A final word of thought was
She explained in brief
given to Ms. Thomas, when
detail why she was moving.
friend of hers Ms. Corcoran
“I’m going back to school, to
made time for an interview. She
get a PhD in curriculum and
said when asked what she’ll
teaching at Boston Univerremember most about Ms. Thosity.” When asked on her
mas that “I will remember her
feelings in moving back to
positive attitude, I will keep in
the US and her views on the
touch with her, and I will see her
future she described it as
again”. When asked on behalf of
“it’s bittersweet, I’m excited
ISB, if she would truly missed,
to go back to school, and be
Ms. Corcoran claimed “She is
closer to my family, but it’s
always there for her students,
difficult because I enjoyed
my time in Brussels”. Ms. Tho- Ms. Thomas and her class give the camera a final salute and is so involved in ISB life from
Photo: James Duguid
Journalism, Student Council, and socmas was later asked on her
cer, so she will be missed”. Ms. Coroutlook getting here in Belgium and again having to leave. “It was tive and cheerful. I think she’s done an coran later gave a final thought on Ms.
fun while I was here, it will be a diffi- awful lot of good for people at Middle Thomas the person, not the teacher.
cult move because I’ve been here for School, teachers and students, and she “She is kind and funny, very adventurbrought The Crusader to a higher level ous, optimistic, open minded, and she is
about six years now” she replied.
there for her students and teachers when
Ms. Thomas’s greatest memories more than I did”.
Dr. Crowley was later asked his own they need her”.
consisted of “the first field trip with 8th
And so there you go. A wonderful,
Grade (Normandy). I had no clue what I thought about Ms. Thomas leaving and
inspiring, bright and yet another teacher
was doing and was amazed with the he had some nice things to say.
“ O b v i o u s l y will be leaving ISB/Middle School. We
hundred plus kids.” Another memorable
moment revealed was “the girls soccer I am very sorry to see her go, but very hope and know she will be rememteam taking 2nd Place at ISST in 2004 pleased to see her continue further edu- bered.Her memory and work has done
cation. I encourage her, and I don’t more for ISB/Middle School than many
and the teacher retreat in Malmady.”
Of the Middle School she said, “I think we will completely lose her. He well know. For someone who’s been
think it’s a great place to work. It has a later finished with some final words here six years, it’s all gone by so fast.
great faculty, everyone is very suppor- “thank you, good luck, and see you Now going on to further interests, we
tive, and the kids are very curious and when you return to ISB as a professor give a final farewell and salute to the
with a big consulting firm. And remem- Leader of the Crusader.
fun to work with.”
THE CRUSADER STAFF WISHES EVERYONE A HAPPY AND ENJOYABLE
BREAK!!!
June 2006
The Crusader
5
The Story of 36 Wonderful Years
By Émilie Couture
Everyone knows this tall man who ize that it might be time for him to retire
appears to live on the English floor of due also to his age. Mr. Bell will remain
the Middle School building. After being in Belgium after his retirement and will
try to enjoy himat ISB for 36
self as much as
years, Mr. Bell is
possible now that
finally retiring
he doesn’t have to
after a great career
worry about gradas a Middle School
ing all sorts of
English teacher.
assignments for
Mr. Bell is now
his students or
part of the MS and
making sure he
fits in along with
has all his lessons
every other person
planned everyday
present in this
and every week.
building.
Since coming to
Mr. Bell first
ISB Mr. Bell, has
came to ISB in
met all sorts of
September 1970,
students. When
36 years ago, after
asked if he was
studying in many
happy with what
places such as
he has achieved
Michigan
State
during the 36
University. He has
Mr. Bell in 1970
Source: Mr. Bell
years he spent at ISB, Mr.
always been an English
Bell simply replied in a huteacher though when he first
came to ISB he was also offered the morous way “Have I achieved anypossibility to teach Social Studies as thing?” From what past students say,
well, but settled for English. Since then, Mr. Bell should feel like he achieved
Mr. Bell has been a teacher to many something with all the crazy teenagers
students in the Middle School and is he met. He has also received appreciation awards from students which goes to
now retiring.
This retirement came for the simple show that maybe he did achieve somereason that Mr. Bell received a letter thing in the end.
After asking a few of Mr. Bell’s
about his pension, which made him real-
current and past students what how they
feel about Mr. Bell leaving and if they
enjoyed having him as a teacher the
most common answer was that Mr. Bell
was an inspiration for many it might feel
weird walking around the Middle
School and not seeing Mr. Bell somewhere on the English floor, if not anywhere else. Mr. Bell was an important
part of the Middle School and there will
be a feeling of emptiness on the English
floor.
Mr. Bell has many memories from
the 36 years he spent at ISB. “I don’t
have any specific memories. What it
mainly is is a mix of many things and
also of the combination of all the students I met over the years,” said Mr.
Bell. “The one thing I will remember is
that ISB is a happy place to be and
work.” It looks like Mr. Bell will be
leaving this school with many wonderful memories.
At the end of this school year, the
Middle School will be losing a great
teacher amongst many others. What
thing for is for sure though many students and teachers will miss having Mr.
Bell around. All we can do is wish him
good luck and to enjoy his retirement.
Mr. Bell has been at ISB for so long and
done such a great job teaching the English language that he is getting a well
deserved retirement.
Interview With an Ex-Student of Mr. Bell
By Harry Cross
Mr. Bell is retiring from ISB at the
end of this year after his 36th year working in this school. He has been serving
us so long that his former student Debbie Barter, who was in his class from
1972 – 1974, is now a teacher in the
Special Ed. Department.
I asked her a series of questions on
what ISB and Mr. Bell’s classes were
like when he first came. I was told that
he had taught a joint class with Ms. Purcell.
“I recall this exceptional duo as being dynamic, enthusiastic, committed to
their principles and values, as well as
being entertaining and inspiring,” says
Ms. Barter.
The English class of that time consisted of reading novels, writing poetry
and studying grammar, along with reflecting upon how one could make the
world a better place
to live in by recognizing, accepting
and celebrating differences.
Ms. Barter says:
“I believe that a seed
was sown then,
which was to determine my choice of
studies and career. I
became fascinated
with the understanding of language acquisition and development, and thus
pursued to do my
masters in Speech
and Language Pathology.”
After working for 8
Mr Bell in 1980
Source: Mr. Bell
years in the European
school of Uccle with
children who had articulation problems
and/or language delay,
Ms. Barter came to
work here and has
done so for twelve
years. Her children
Eliot and Alexina are
now both students in
the MS.
She finishes by saying: “…I had never
imagined I would be
working alongside the
teachers which I admired so much. Mr.
Bell will always stay
in my memory as being
one of the best.”
June 2006
The Crusader
6
The eighth grade Fieldtrip to Normandy
By Erika Wingerter
The eighth graders that partook in room assignments were exactly what being joining up with our other bilinthe Normandy field trip were filled you wanted or you were extremely up- gual half, the French group, we filled in
with mixed feelings throughout the set with the outcome, everyone was the last hours of the day at the beach in
week. The happiness of starting a brand happy to have a pillow to rest their tired front of the hostel.
Wednesday was filled with unannew year as a ninth grader but the sad- heads on. The worry about roommates
ness of the realization that another year seemed to vanish from every person’s swered questions about a mysterious
of middle school had flown right by. attention; everyone rushed to their event that the teacher’s planned for the
The despondency that comes with the rooms because their minds had been students every year after the scheduled
proceedings of
farewell of good
the day. The
friends and teachday was set in
ers but the content
motion by a
recognition that
visit to the
there will be nuBayeux tapesmerous new peotry and the
ple to befriend
cathedral near
next year but of
by. We were
course the main
given
free
topic on everytime for lunch
one’s mind was
and
s om e
the fact that we
lucky students
were missing five
managed
to
days of school.
locate a resYes, by the end of
taurant selling
the week people
Ben
and
were running out
Jerry’s
ice
of toothpaste and
cream. Needclean socks but
less to say I
emotions were the
am
almost
one thing that were
positive that
not in short supEighth graders investigating part of the destroyed portable harbor of Arromanches
that particular café
ply.
Source: Erika Wingerter
had no ice cream left
The trip began, as any
by the end of the day.
other trip would, with an
early departure at eight thirty and the consumed of thoughts of fatigue and We left for St. Marie-Eglise, where a
students waved goodbye to an empty the need for a shower. Finally the last paratrooper accidentally got caught on
middle school. After two and a half and possibly the most awaited for event the church but survived. There now is a
hours of seemingly endless driving and of the day, dinner. After everyone felt mannequin in his place to represent the
nonstop talking we took a break from more than full people casually made paratroopers’ valor and how grateful
the bus and went to the Somme Valley their way to their rooms and prepared the people in the town are to them. We
saw the museum across from the
in France for visits to Thiepal Monu- for the next day of activities.
Bright and early was the beginning church and then we made our last stop
ment and Beaumont-Hamel. The Thiepal Monument had a huge arch in- of the second day at Normandy. of the day at a German cemetery. Then,
scribed with names of missing soldiers Though the wakeup called was much finally the surprise group activity was
from WWI as its center memorial and less than needed to get people up and being announced we were taken onto
toward the back of the monument was a out to breakfast, most 8th graders made the beach and because there were alcluster of graves of both British and breakfast on time or early. The French ready shovels and buckets laid out
French. Following the stop at Thiepal and English busses were separated for many kids guessed before they were
Monument we made our way to Beau- that day but were reunited for free time told. Sandcastle building! Everyone
mont-Hamel Newfoundland memorial. and dinner. The English busses left the was putting in their best effort to win.
We took a tour of the trenches that had hostel and made their way to Omaha The castles were varied in theme, size
been preserved and saw the statue of Beach and its memorial. We not only and sometimes even in the materials.
the caribou, the symbol of Newfound- got to learn about the history but we got Of course sand was used, rocks and
land, to commemorate the Newfound- to see exactly where it happened so as shells and occasionally we saw some
landers that gave their lives there. We to better visualize the horrific events seaweed. The day had ended and no
proceeded to pile back on to the bus for that were gripping the world in WWII. one went back to their room without
another long ride. We then arrived at Following the Omaha beach visit we unintentionally bringing some sand
the hostel and waited nervously as stopped at Pointe du Hoc and glimpsed with them.
Day four and not only were the
rooms were assigned and we finally the destroyed battlefield that was punclearned who our roommates would be tured with craters made by devastating French and English busses separated
(Continued on page 7)
for the next five days. Whether the bombs and unbearable artillery. After
June 2006
The Crusader
7
A bon voyage in Brittany
By Johanne Arnet
The school trips, probably one of the aquarium, we learnt a lot about the
the most enjoying school events of the different species of fish and sea inhabiyear. Getting to travel, see new things, tants. After an exhausting day, we delearn new things, and best of all, spend parted for the hostel.
May 17th, up and ready at 8:00, we left
time with your friends in the sun (if
for our second day in Brittany. On our
there happens to be any).
These trips were organized so second day we jumped onto the busses
we can see
and learn new
things about
other
areas
and cultures
other
than
Belgium. Seeing the sites
and adapting
to the different life styles
teaches
us
something
new and exciting.
On the 15th
of May 07:45
am, the seventh
grade
piled onto our
busses at the
château to be
on our way to
St.
Malo,
France.
We
traveled
by
The seventh grade says goodbye to St. Malo
three busses, one French
and drove to the Pointe de Grouin for a
bus and two English busses.
May 16th, after getting up at 7:15am, we group challenge. The challenge was the
left for our first adventurous day. We first chaperone group to build and sucspent our day touring Les Sable D’or cessfully fly a kite, the first one to acdes Pins to do some beach study. For complish this would win. After lowerlunch, we picnicked at the beach before ing our kites and having an hour of
departing for the Grand Aquarium. At free-time in Cancale, we left for the
Marine Farm. At the Marine Farm we
tried the famous oyster. When everyone
had finished their oyster, we left for the
hostel once again.
May 18th, on our third day we went to
Mont St. Michel to tour the castle. We
spent an hour for lunch and shopping in
St. Malo, after
we had gathered
together as a
group we were
given our maps
and
answer
sheets for our
Road Rally. We
all
separated
into our chaperone groups and
star ted
our
scavenger hunt.
When we were
done with running
around
town
looking
for the answers
to the questions,
we had half an
hour more free
time before we
took a very long
but
enjoying
walk on the
beach back to
the hostel.
May 19th, after a superb voyage in
St. Malo, and learning lots about the
culture and history of Brittany, we
piled onto our busses and journeyed
back to Brussels.
for what would be our last night in Normandy.
No one could believe the trip had
gone by so fast. It seemed we were
waving goodbye to our parents a second ago and now we were heading
back! Despite the fact if we wanted to
or not we loaded the busses and began
our long trip back. Four hours had
passed and we stopped for a visit of the
cathedral at Amiens. Then our last stop,
before our arrival at the school, a break
for lunch. Then three and a half more
hours and we had arrived to the familiar school we see everyday. Our parents
and siblings all waiting for us to pile
off the bus and retrieve our bag which
is exactly what we did. Our trip had
come to an end.
The trip to Normandy was not only
educational but was fun as well. It flew
right by which adds even more evidence to the assumption that “time flies
when you’re having fun.” At school we
read and learn from textbooks about the
conflicts between countries and how it
can lead to violence but throughout this
trip we were given the opportunity to
understand more in-depth the events
throughout the World Wars and see the
places that were so essential during the
battles. I found the trip to be a rewarding experience and I can’t wait to see
those of you who are staying for the
Loire Valley field trip in ninth grade.
(Continued from page 6)
once again but the English busses were
split into bus one and bus two, departing at different times from the hostel.
“Don’t wear flip-flops” was the number
one rule because we were walking to
Arromanches on the beach. It was a
pleasant thirty-minute walk and was
preceded by a guided visit of the Arromanches museum that was devoted to
the artificial harbor built there in
WWII. We were then reunited with the
second English bus, and they both departed for a visit of Calvados. We were
allowed to taste some of the alcohol
made by Calvados and then we were
permitted to buy a bottle for our parents. Then we drove back to the hostel
June 2006
The Crusader
8
History + Fun Activities = The Loire Valley
By Émilie Couture
Monday, May 15 2006. The entire known for its many towers and impres- Frankard. “We have now been going to
ninth grade is gathered at the Château sive two-way winding staircase. Last the Loire Valley for 17 years and it will
parking lot at 7:30 am. We are waiting but not least we were able to enjoy a continue to be that way for a while.”
Most of the students enjoyed
for instructions as to when and how to nighttime light and sound show proboard the buses that will lead us to the jected on the Blois château. But visiting this trip but as usual there are the few
Loire Valley in France. First, the divi- chateaus wasn’t all we did. On who just don’t like anything that has to
sion between who is going on the Wednesday we were treated with a do with school. However, most everyFrench bus and who is going on the minature gastronomic tour complete one had their favorite activities during
English bus. Then comes the suppos- with goat cheese tasting, wine cellar and shared their thoughts. “I enjoyed
edly organized boarding of the buses. visiting and mushroom caves. The trip kayaking the most. It was fun to see the
different people trying to
And off we go.
race each other,” said CrisThe first stop
tina Wingerter.
after about three hours
While some people enof traveling: the welljoyed activities that everyknown Château de
one did, others had memoVersailles. After a
ries not related to the chaquick lunch we headed
teaus. “One night at dintowards the gardens of
ner, we decided to go
this wonderful château.
through without cursing.
We are shown the most
We had just started when
important and interestall of a sudden I say someing characteristics of
thing and a curse word
this park. About two
comes out. We all start
hours later we are back
laughing and my friend
on the busses and
almost spits out the mouthheaded towards Cheful of food he had just
digny in the Loire Valtaken. In a way it was disley, where will be staygusting but it was so
ing for the week to
funny,” said Guillermo
come. Following the
The French group in front of Chambord after their boating trip
Dochao-Naveira.
first day comes the inOverall the trip went well.
tense chateau visiting, gastronomy wasn’t all about working hard. The
tours and enjoyable activities. Through- ninth graders got the opportunity to do Though everything was fun, we all
out the week we had the chance to visit 17 km of kayaking on the Loire River were eager to go home, relax and to
the Clos-Lucé where Leonardo da and to go biking and boat rowing in the finally get enough sleep after the crazy
week we had just lived. For the ninth
Vinci resided during the years of his park of Chambord.
“We chose the Loire Valley be- graders this was the last week-long trip
life, the Chenonceau château that is
partly built over the Cher River, the cause that is where the Renaissance at ISB and the teachers in charge of this
Cheverny château that is well-known started in France because of François trip made sure we would enjoy it as
for its hunting dogs and for being the the First who asked Leonardo da Vinci much as possible.
castle known as Moulinsart in Tintin, to come to France for the last years of
and the impressive Chambord château his life,” Said assistant head Mme
Eggs with Green Ham
By Sam de Ferranti
Most people have heard of the
child’s book Green Eggs and Ham but
have you ever heard of Eggs and Green
Ham. When the lights dim, the scientists wait one second for their eyes to
adjust to the light. Yes, what they are
seeing is green. They are green all the
way through green heart, green lungs
and green snouts. These were the
thoughts of scientists from a genetic
engineering laboratory in Taiwan. They
have genetically engineered three pigs
that glow in the dark.
Taiwan University's Department of
Animal Science and Technology has
created these green pigs by injected
fluorescent green protein from jelly fish
into pigs during the embryonic stage.
These pigs glow green in the dark and
during the daytime have green tinged
eyes, skin, trotters, teeth and snout.
These pigs are not the world’s first
glowing pigs but the previous glowing
pigs had a mere partial glow to them
while these Taiwanese pigs are green to
the core. So far the pigs are no different
to any other pig and other pigs seem
not to notice any difference in the
transgenic pigs.
The proteins were added into 265
embryos and implanted in 8 female
pigs, 4 of these pigs became pregnant
and 3 male green pigs were born 3
months ago. According to http://
news.bbc.co.uk under a blue light these
piglets “glow torch-light bright”.
Upon being asked the question do
you think pigs can fly, can talk or can
(Continued on page 9)
June 2006
The Crusader
9
Extreme rights
By: Aoife Daly
Extreme rights. What does that
mean to you? Probably the subject of a
few newspaper articles, or a couple of
television programs. But to some people, extreme rights are a matter of life
and death.
A few weeks ago, a young man in
Antwerp shot three people. He was the
son of two members of the Vlaams
Belang. The Vlaams Belang is an extreme rights group. Extreme rights are
the belief that your country should kick
out all the foreigners, and only have the
natives. For instance, the Vlaams
Belang (a Belgian extreme rights party)
believes that there should only be Belgians in Belgium. All three people that
were shot in Antwerp were foreigners.
“I have the impression that xenophobia is getting more and more widespread,” said ninth grader Erik Enberg.
The Vlaams Belang, formerly
called the Vlaams Blok, is a political
party of extreme rights activists. When
it was called the Vlaams Blok, the government made sure it had no power to
run for elections. But then the Vlaams
Blok changed its name to Vlaams
Belang and it’s now back in the running. Extreme rights have never been
that much of a problem in Belgium,
until the shooting in Antwerp was
traced back to the Vlaams Belang influence.
The shooting in Antwerp is the first
big example of extreme rights violence.
But will it get worse? Many people are
now afraid that the extreme rights violence in Antwerp will provoke both
extreme rights and anti-extreme rights
violence in the cities of Belgium.
Many people are also worried about its
acceptance as a political party. It supports
Flemish independence, restricted immigration, and free market economics. The
party characterizes its current party policies as those of a traditional conservative
party, but opponents see it as the extreme
rights party that it truly is.
Hay Fever at ISB
By Einar Stefansson and Emilia Hull
and diet changes.
ATCHOO!!! It is hay fever season at
Mrs. Linda Tylke, one of the school nurses estiISB and many of the students are sneezing
mated that around 30% of the students at ISB have
in the corridors. All across the campus, stuhay fever, or some sort of other allergy to pollen.
dents, as well as teachers and parents, are
She also said that she gets many complaints about
crying and coughing due to the pollen in the
itchy, runny noses, watery eyes… but not recently
air.
because of all the rainy days we’ve been having. If
Many people don’t know what hay fever
you didn’t know, rain keeps pollen out of the air and
is and wonder why everyone seems to be
keeps it on the ground. At least one teacher in each
crying. Well hay fever is “allergic rhinitis,”
division has hay fever according to Mrs. Tylke. She
in other word an allergic reaction to pollen
added that hay fever sufferers can react to the pollen
or dust and during this time of year the trees
practically everywhere at any time, but there might
and flowers are blooming filling the air with
be delays.
pollen.
“Different places have different plants
Hay fever can cause coughing,
A famous sneezer you may know
headaches, itching nose, mouth, eyes, Source: http://www.disney2go.disneyfansites.com/ and flowers. When people from the
U.S., for example, come to Belgium, it
throat and skin, runny nose, impaired
smell, sneezing, stuffy nose, teary eyes, sore throat and sometimes takes them time to develop allergies for the pollen
wheezing. Symptoms vary according to during certain times here,” she said.
(Continued on page 10)
of the day or season it is; exposure to pets or other allergens
(Continued from page 8)
glow in the dark Brad Wilkinson from
9th grade said “Yes they can fly they
just need to be thrown out of an aeroplane and yes, they can glow in the
dark”. It seems obvious that the news
of these green pigs have spread to some
people. But not all people have heard
the news. The reply to the same question as above “No of course not are you
stupid or something” a 7th grader who
wished to remain anonymous said.
Technology like this can help scientist research diseases. Because of the
green proteins in the pig’s body they
show up more easily under observation
than other proteins. This eliminates the
need for invasive testing on pigs or,
when it gets to that stage, other more
Source: http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/
sophisticated animals. The research
used to create these green pigs shall be
used for stem cell research to try and
cure human diseases.
On the negative side these green
pigs have not developed easily. Many
of the original embryos did not develop. Only 3 out of the initial 265 embryos with green genetic material were
born for reasons unknown.
Other glowing animals have been
created using the same technique as the
one used to create the three pigs. Alba,
a green rabbit was created in France
about 5 years ago. Now scientists are
trying to create glow in the dark cake
frosting, ink, hair mousse, champagne
and beer.
Scientists are hoping that the greens
pigs shall mate with other normal pigs
to create a new generation green pigs.
Some scientists are coining this new
outburst of genetically engineered animals and objects as the “Green Generation”.
June 2006
The Crusader
10
Kids-don’t try this at home!
By Sophie Earl
It was the big day. I could feel the sun blazing down on
my back I could feel my legs shaking. I put my board on the
ground, stepped on and then I was off, plummeting down
then lifted in the air, seeing the world spin as I did my 360’. I
felt the violent landing, and struggled to keep my balance.
Extreme sports is more than bungee jumping and snowboarding. Imagine yourself flying over The Great Wall of
China about 120 feet high with a skateboard below your feet,
turning in numerous rotations then struggling to keep balance as you land. Well, Danny Way set a new world record,
jumping over the wall of China, and he did it five times, in
front of the crowd. Extreme sports is taking a sport to the
absolute limit. BASE-jumping involves parachuting off
buildings and cliffs. There is a day called bride day held in
Fayetteville, West Virginia, where 450 BASE jumpers and
hundreds of rappellers jump off the bridge. Phil Shaw of
Leicester created the sport “extreme ironing” which he says
"combines the thrill of an extreme sport with the satisfaction
of a well-pressed shirt". The sport can be done up a mountain
or under water or in the most bizarre places. Hang-gliding
and skydiving have given future ideas of heli-bungee jumping and sky-flying. Skateboarding has lead to street luge,
going down a hill as fast as you can on a skateboard.
Buildering is free climbing up skyscrapers! Who would want
to do half of these things? In 2000 there was a four-year old
boy in Paris who tried to bungee jump for the record but got
stopped by the French authorities. But other then that the
closest an ISB teacher has got to an extreme sport was done
by Mr. Gramolini, who went ice abseiling in Mexico city. He
hiked 15 thousand feet and ice-repelled down 10 water falls.
He also scuba-dived in the crater of the Novadodetolua volcano in Mexico City.
There are new extreme sports born every week, everyone seeming more dangerous than the last.
But are these extreme sports really that dangerous? Surprisingly, statistically, horse riding is the most dangerous
sport you can practice. Everyone believes that extreme sports
imply great danger whereas usually this is not the case. The
dangers of these sports have been exaggerated. Many of the
misunderstandings are from the publicity that surrounds
these sports. In fact, the publicity can be bigger than the actual sports - from designer drinks, to graffiti, to clothing and
TV programmes. In reality, many extreme sports have safety
equipment and sometimes a backup safety team in case of
accidents. The Extreme Sports Channel has a huge audience
of 20 million across Europe most of whom have never gone
near a half pipe.
Family Sports Day
by Will VanKoughnett
Sunday, May 21. Noon. The sun is just starting to
rise over the clouds and, for the first time, the Belgian sky is
blue. Today is perfect day for sports. It’s a good thing that
it’s Family Sports Day at ISB. Sports, games, and junk food.
Four hours of enjoying yourself on a Sunday afternoon is a
perfect way to spend the first sunny day in the year.
There were many fun activities to participate in on Sports
Day. Intramural soccer, human foosball, and the bouncy
slide were some of the main attractions. Many people agreed
that it was well planned, but remarked that there was a wider
variety in last year’s Sports Day. “Tickets were cheaper than
last year, but there weren’t as many things to do,” one eighth
grader commented. One site often visited was the popcorn
stand. Free popcorn and cotton candy was given out here.
The Raiders Boosters Club was selling clothes to support the
Raiders sports teams, and the MS Student Council was trying
to get rid of, I mean, sell, the rest of their large hoard of
Raiders wristbands.
Meanwhile, the FA had devised an ingenious system to
sell concessions and games. If someone wanted to buy food
or drink, all they had to do was to buy an amount of tickets,
based on what they wanted to get. This was all written out
for them on a handy list. Then, they could go to the conces-
sions stand or either
of the synthetic fields
to give in their tickets
in exchange for a
soda, a game of soccer, or a turn on the
bouncy castle (for the
younger kids). If this
hypothetical, nondescr ipt ,
asexual
[human?] being changed their mind or had leftover tickets,
they didn’t have to go back to buy more; they could just
spend them in a different outlet. Isn’t technology great?
But, let’s not forget all of our sports teams that got up
before one o’clock on a Sunday to go play their hearts out.
No, I’m just kidding, but seriously, they did deserve to win,
if they did, and, if they lost, well, nice try? Forget everything
that I just said. This article is about the upcoming fundraiser.
No, I didn’t think you’d fall for that. Anyway, I’d just like to
say, thanks to all of the people who put the fabulous event
together, thanks to all of the people that came and had a good
time, and to the people that didn’t come, there’s always next
year.
(Continued from page 9)
in the air is the most, wear face masks, keep windows closed
and use air conditioning, don’t dry clothes outside, avoid
unnecessary exposure to other environmental irritants(bug
spray…) and avoid doing yard work. You can also take
medicine such as Claritin, Zirtek and Benadryl like many
other hay fever sufferers which help a lot. If you’re one of
the sufferers that have to live with this allergy remember that
we feel your pain and we hope you’ll get rid of it!
Natasha McMillan is one eighth grader who suffers from
hay fever. She says, “It’s like having a cold in summer. It’s
always there and it’s very annoying. Sometimes you can’t
breathe properly and you grasp for air while you’re trying to
blow your nose.”
How do you get rid of getting the symptoms of hay fever? You can remain indoors in the morning when the pollen
June 2006
The Crusader
11
The Kinshasa project comes to an end
By Erik Engberg
What is the Kinshasa Project? No doubt most MS stu- broadband connection. The internet café is open for everyone
dents have heard of this project but have, like myself until seven days a week from nine to nine and the exceptionally
low prices makes it available to a
now, known little more than
very wide public. All the computers
what its name omits.
were donated and set up by the ISB
The idea of the Kinshasa
IT Department.
Project is that ISB, in cooperaThe centre offers free technology
tion with the commune of Wacourses for schoolchildren attending
termael-Boitsfort was to help set
the surrounding schools and at a subup an IT centre on the campus
sidised rate for the local community
of the Université Cardinal
of Kingabwa; it employs eight peoMalula (UCM) in Kinshasa, the
ple including four teachers.
capital of the Democratic ReThe Kinshasa Technology Centre
public of the Congo (DRC). The
is the only one of its kind in the comproject began three years ago –
munity, and has proven a unique
and is now finally drawing to a
resource for the local population.
close. As the centre is now more
The success of this project clearly
and more able to stand on its
Courtesy of Ms Flynn
demonstrates the extent to which we
own feet, ISB’s involvement will
can support those living in less priviend at the end of 2006.
The centre, dubbed the Kinshasa Technology Centre, leged parts of the world if we make an effort, how the labour
is split in two parts. One is used as an IT classroom, includ- really does pay off. With the Kinshasa Project, ISB has
ing 20 of the computers, and the other is an internet café brought great opportunity in education, an invaluable rewhich employs the other 15 – all of course with wireless source, to an entire community.
New Sevvies: Will the Veterans be naughty or
nice
By Matthew Finney
When seventh grader Garrett Welch
arrived at the ISB Middle School this
past trimester he felt lost in a vast
world of lockers, corridors, and doorways. The immense hallways and myriad of staircases, secret passageways,
and shortcuts didn’t help either; they
just made him feel like a grain of sand
on the beach. Luckily, Garrett was able
to find help because a veteran of the
Middle School was always around the
corner to offer assistance.
Veteran Middle Schoolers (people
who are currently in grade 8 or 9) who have
already mastered this labyrinth we call
the Middle School were always there to
help people find their way to room 304
English or room 107 Chemistry. Sixth
Grader Zach Simons said, “I believe
that some current seventh graders will
be nice enough to help me if I’m really
lost, but, I’d rather explore the Middle
School on my own. I think it would be
fun.”
“I would definitely treat the new
students politely.” said Hugo Petitjean,
“If I was in their position, I would definitely like to be shown around.” We
can all see why, because with all of the
hidden passageways of the Middle
School just making it to your classes
before they are over can be hard on
your first days. But when the ninth
graders leave, who will show the new
grade sevens around?
Seventh and eighth graders will
have to show new students around next
year when they become eighth graders.
Seventh grader Shamil Norshidi thinks,
“They [seventh graders] should explore
to find their way around, that was fun
for me last year.” He added some advice for all of the new seventh graders,
“Don’t carry all of your stuff in your
bag when walking to your classes. It
was really hard for me to do.” And
Shamil gave some good advice, because sometimes, as we all know, going
up four flights of stairs to your French
or ESL class can be a pain, and even
more so with a bag full of books.
Antonia Coenen will, “…try to
make them feel comfortable [in the
Middle School]” next year. It will take
a lot of work and effort to do this, with
the gigantic hallways, wide staircases,
multiple levels, and the added responsibility of having multiple teachers and
all types of homework. Not to mention
traveling to classes on opposite ends of
the campus.
Another problem facing new seventh graders is the fact that most of
them classes with other new seventh
graders who can’t help them find their
way. They will have refuge in advisory
though, because they can share their
newfound knowledge of Middle School
classes and customs with others like
them, and they will be able to talk
about their problems with their peers
and advisor.
The incoming seventh graders are
going to be a lucky batch because of
the current seventh (and eighth) graders’ empathy and their respect for the
golden rule, “Treat others as you want
to be treated”. Because the current seventh graders agree on one thing, the
new seventh graders will get the same
treatment that the current seventh graders received. As the eighth graders did
to them earlier, the seventh graders will
treat the new sevvies with dignity and
respect. If they are called upon for directions they will give them in a heartbeat.
June 2006
The Crusader
12
Mr. Morandi: Bye Bye
By Lorenzo Cioni
sonville, Florida. He will not be coming
back to ISB and strangely he will not
even change job! Yes, he is going to
teach in another school called Bolles
School. This school is about the same
size as ISB and he is probably going
to teach mathematics again.
“I am definitely not happy to leave
ISB and will miss this place a lot!”
says Mr. Morandi.
“He was one of my favorite teachers” said an eighth grader who wishes
to remain anonymous.
Mr. Morandi said he will miss the
students and his faculty friends the
most. We all wish him a terrific time
in Florida and wish him good luck!
“For me, the Middle School was a
great place to work,” he said.
His name is Frank Morandi and he anonymous said,” Mr. Morandi was an
is a teacher at ISB. What does he awesome teacher. I will definitely miss
teach? Mathematics! Seeing
that he has been here for 11
years most people know who
he is, (so why am I saying
this?). Many people might
not know that he coaches a
team, no, actually two teams.
He is the coach of the varsity
girls basketball team and the
varsity boys baseball team.
Unfortunately, he will be
leaving this school in June
and nobody knows to where
or why! Joking! He is returnMr. Morandi taking a break from correcting math tests.
ing to his home country the
Photo: Lorenzo Cioni
United States because of his
daughter’s graduation.
Students will certainly miss him. A him.”
He is going to go to the live in Jackseventh grader who wishes to remain
Farewell and good luck Ms. Farris
By Sara Altaei
After four years of working at ISB,
the time has come to say farewell Ms.
Farris and good luck. Ms. Farris the
Middle school’s technology facilitator
is moving to Beirut, Lebanon at the
end of the school year. Good luck Ms.
Farris you will be missed.
When Ms. Farris was asked
the reason for the move she said that
she wants to try living in a different
country with more sun. She also wants
to experience how life is in Beirut.
The school that she will be working in
is the “American Community School”
and there she will be the technology
coordinator. She will be leaving on
August to depart for Beirut.
When asked what she will miss
about ISB she said “The great faculty,
the students and the underground
Café”. She is looking forward to going
Ms. Farris gets busy in her office
Photo courtesy of Ms. Farris
to the “American community school”
because it will be challenging and it
will provide her with a new adventure.
When asked if she had a greatest moment at ISB, she couldn’t decide and
instead said, “Everyday contains a
great moment at ISB.”
A student who would like to remain
anonyms said “I would really miss,
Ms. Farris because she has taught me
a lot of things about technology that I
didn’t know before”.
Everyone is going to Miss Ms. Farris who was always very helpful to
others when in need and we everyone
just would like to say good luck in Beirut and have fun.
Mrs. Stephens and sabbatical
By Erum Khalid
ESL teacher Ms. Karen Stephens
won’t be seen around school next year
because she will be taking a sabbatical.
Erum Khalid spoke to her to find out
more information on her new adventure.
What is a sabbatical?
A sabbatical is when school allows a
teacher to take six months or a year off
to study something that will help their
work as a teacher and benefit school.
Ms. Stevens and her class say goodbye to the
camera
Photo: Erum Khalid
Why did you decide to take a sabbatical?
I think reading and writing are the
most important skills at school because
they help you with all of your subject’s
not just English and ESL.
What have you planned to do in
your sabbatical?
Well I am going to research difficulties that some students have with liter(Continued on page 13)
June 2006
The Crusader
13
Goodbye Mr. Ruskay, so long Ms. MacIsaac
By: Matthew Finney
In the long list of teachers leaving
the school are Mr. Christopher Ruskay
and Ms. Cherylee MacIsaac. This reporter decided to interview them for the
full scoop.
This summer they will be
moving to Calgary Canada. After
teaching at ISB for seven years, they
A shot of Ms. MacIsaac and Mr. Ruskay
Source; Ms. Thomas
will be sad to be leaving.
Mr. Ruskay and Ms. MacIsaac
have been teaching at ISB since 1999. designs.
After missing most of this year and
In his first year here, Mr. Ruskay
taught PE. Coincidentally, his wife, parts of last year due to a complicated
pregnancy, Ms.
Ms.
MacIsaac,
MacIsaac
is
ta ught
Social
happy to be
Studies in her first
teaching again
years, and then
at ISB. Howswitched to PE.
ever she is sad
Also on his
to be leaving
long resume, Mr.
this year, and
Ruskay coached
will remember
the
American
her fun times at
football team from
the school.
1999-2002. Since
Mr.
Ruskay
2001 he and Ms.
enjoys
teachMacIsaac
have
Some of Ms. MacIsaac’s jewelry
Source: Ms. Thomas
ing social studbeen coaching the
ies, and would
Rugby team. Mr.
teach it again
Ruskay
really
if he returned to ISB. When asked if he
enjoys playing sports.
Under her façade of a PE teacher would return to ISB if he had the
and sports coach, Ms. MacIsaac enjoys c h a n c e, M r . Ru s k a y r e p l i e d ,
spending time with her daughter and “Anything’s Possible!”
making jewelry. If you look closely
you can see many teachers wearing her
The little coffee shop that could
By Joanne Arnet
“May I have a medium, chocolate
frappachino please?” I ask the clerk at
the desk in Starbucks. All the
drinks and snacks to choose from
make me dizzy. There’s everything
from muffins to lattes.
Have you ever been a part of a
stampede running toward a Starbucks for a creaming quality beverage? I have. Although I do not live
in a place where I can regularly get
a Starbucks treat, whenever I can I
will and it tastes like a piece of
heaven.
The story of the little coffee
shop that made it big and how it became a worldwide coffee company
one cup at a time is one of great interest. Starbucks has always been one of
our favorite places
to grab a
delicious
coffee or
one of the
other tasty
drinks,
and
sit
down in
the comfy
sofas and
r elax.
Source: http://www.jstart.org
W h a t
would you
say if you had to travel all the way to
Seattle to get a Starbucks coffee? In
1971, this was the case. Before Howard
Schulz joined the team that is.
The story begins with a poor boy
living in the projects, New York, a boy
who was very talented in sports and
earned his scholarship for college. With
this scholarship he wanted to fulfill his
dreams and began working in a little
coffee shop in Seattle.
In 1971 the first Starbucks was
opened at Pike Place Market in Seattle.
The name comes from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, a classical American novel about the 19th century whal-
(Continued from page 12)
going to teach the same subject?
Yes, I will teach the same subject
when I come back.
What is the greatest moment you
had at ISB?
I would say there have been great
moments with every class I taught, but
I don’t have one great moment which
was better than the other one.
When did you arrive at ISB?
I came to ISB seven years ago.
What did you achieve from
working at ISB?
I have been able to develop my
skills as a teacher and I hope I have
helped a lot of students to learn to use
and love the English language.
Good luck Ms. Stephens and we
will see you in the 2007-2008 school
year!
acy devilment.
Why did you choose this year to
leave? There are several reasons; first it
is the best time for my family because
my children are not yet at school and it
will be more difficult when they come
to ISB. It is also because it is something I am coming more and more interested in. I think now is the time for
me to follow up the interest.
When you come back are you
(Continued on page 4)
June 2006
The Crusader
14
Another Canadian leaves her mark on ISB
By Caroline McKissock
As we all know, or maybe not all of us, Ms. Alison Strucchelli is leaving us here at ISB, we are all sad to see the
teacher who slaved away, testing us and making sure that we
understood the concepts in physics and Algebra, leave.
Well some may wonder where Ms. Strucchelli is going,
but it is no longer a mystery.
Ms. Strucchelli will be leaving us this year to go back to
Ottawa, in Ontario Canada, to teach High School math and
science.
When asked if she will miss ISB, Ms. Strucchelli said she
will miss it a great deal. “The Middle School has an atmosphere of positive energy, enthusiasm and faculty and students
are enthusiastic and have a genuine interest in learning.
“I will miss ISB, I have made some great friends here that
I will remember forever,” she said.
Though she will miss ISB, Ms. Strucchelli said she is
looking forward to participating in some of the things she
Ms. Strucchelli and Ms. Thomas share a laugh.
couldn’t do while living in Brussels.
Photo courtesy of Ms. Thomas
“Going back to Canada I’m looking forward to skating on
the Rideau canal, camping and spending time in the out- Ms. Strucchelli for a long time.
We all wish Ms. Strucchelli good luck back in Canada,
doors,” she said.
Ms. Strucchelli has been working at ISB for 2 years, al- and hope that she can fill several other students’ minds with
though it has been a short time here, everyone will remember the wonders of math and science.
(Continued from page 13)
ing industry. This ties in well with the
icon of Starbucks, a mermaid. The
color green in the Starbucks logo
comes from the coffee bean itself
which is green before it is roasted when
it turns brown.
In 1982, that little boy, Howard
Schultz joined the company. He was
the new marketing executive and began
straight away to convince more local
cafes, restaurants and hotels to buy
their coffee. Their coffee was after all,
very high in quality. Schultz was looking for a new direction for their company. In those times coffee was sold in
a sweet coffee-smelling shop in bags.
He did not want the coffee to be sold in
bags. He wanted to be able to purchase
their cups of coffee at a desk and enjoy
them there or on the way to work.
While on a business trip to Italy, he
visited Milan’s famous espresso bars.
He was so impressed with their popularity and culture, that he introduced
the idea to Starbucks. He was right, and
after trying mochas and lattes, Seattle
quickly became coffee crazy. After a
while they expanded to places like Chicago and New York.
Even after his success, Schultz
aimed higher. He bought Starbucks in
1987. That same year, and the demand
for great coffee allowed Starbucks to
expand beyond Seattle. First, it expanded to the rest of the United States
then to places like Vancouver, Canada.
Then finally Starbucks became a publicly traded company, and stocks were
being publicly traded at NASDAQ.
Approximately 165 cafes were established.
In the years of 2000, Starbucks phenomenon continues. Today the company has more than 8,000 cafes in more
than 30 countries. Most of the success
is held in Asia in places like, Thailand,
Beijing, Tokyo, etc. There are sadly
less Starbucks coffee shops in Europe;
the places coffee is most common.
To make these coffee shops more
comfortable for customers, they play
mostly jazz music to bring up people’s
moods on a Monday morning before
work. Starbucks coffee might be a bit
expensive because of the quality but
trust me, it’s better than buying it in a
bag!
It is World Cup fever! Who
will take home the coveted
trophy? Log onto fifa.com
for updated scores and
standings.
June 2006
The Crusader
15
Crude oil by-products underneath ISB found to be
the cause of toxic drinking water and penguins
By Will VanKoughnett
NOTE: This story was originally intended to run in the Spoof Issue, so don’t worry, you’re not gonna die
Late this February, a
team of sixth graders trying
to find buried treasure on
campus mysteriously disappeared. Investigations by the
local police led to an interesting dilemma. Underneath
the grounds of ISB, a large
reserve of oil waste was
discovered untouched. This
was the breakthrough in the
ISB funding. Plus, it would
follow the ISB mission
statement: (1) independent
learner- learn how greedy
some people can be and (2)
international citizen- going
abroad with the new [nonprofit?] gasoline business.
Unfortunately, no one succeeded in realizing that byproducts of a natural resource can be anything but
untouched. So much for all the [nonprofit??] money.
But that wasn’t the only
problem. Recent complaints
to the Student Council about
almost toxic water coming out
of the drinking fountains in
the hallways forced a blind
survey to be taken by the
[non-profit???] eighth grade.
About two-thirds of the students said they didn’t like the
fountain water. Strangely, the
population in the middle
school dropped 60% over the
weekend. Many assumptions
can be made between the two
facts, but then again, let’s not
leap to conclusions.
Inquiries have been made
on the subject of the white markings in the outline of a human
body around the vicinity of the water
fountains. Inquiries have been stopped
quickly. Very quickly. Why these
strange things have been happening, we
didn’t know. At least not until we met
the guy, who likes to be called Mr.
Tiki. Mr. Tiki is somewhat difficult to
capture and put in a cage, let alone interview him. We were in for a rough
day. Then some guy came up to us and
asked why we wanted to interview Mr.
quickly contacted
the Antarctic army
and they came and
destroyed half of
the campus in the
process of defeating the zombies.
This was odd because the Antarctic
army was 250,000
penguins. We tried,
but never succeeded in, getting
the penguins off of
the campus. They
eventually became
trampled so much
that their white
floated up to the
sky and every winter, which is penguin season, some
of their remains
float
back
down
to
earth. Their black
The future of ISB?
turned into little blubbery pellets that
Source: http://www.lastrefuge.co.uk
cover both synthetic fields. So
take off your
shoes and shake
them out. There is
probably some
penguin inside.
Yum! So that’s
how
penguins
were created. I
mean, that’s what
happened to penguins. I mean,
that’s how snow
and rubber bits
that get in your
shoes and get all
over the floor of
Yeowch! Brussels is covered in PENGUIN!!!
Source: http://www.viking.be/
the locker rooms
where you dump them
Tiki.
out and drive the cleaners crazy beWe didn’t know.
cause they don’t sweep but bounce
We returned to ISB, only to find away because they are trying to escape
glowing green students tramping back to Antarctica were made. I mean,
around in the rain, like zombies. A nor- that’s what happened with penguins. I
mal day. No, wait. The Middle School mean, PENGUINS!
was in ruins! It’s totally collapsed!
And they all lived happily ever afOh, sorry, the Middle School is ter. Until they died. The end.
over there. I was looking at the ICC.
To be continued…
That was close! Then someone asked
me about the zombies. Oh, yeah. We
June 2006
16
The Crusader
Features
And Tibet’s Plight Drags On
By Hannah Brown
Soon after, the Dalai Lama left
Do you know what is happening in
the world as you sit comfortably read- Lhasa and escaped from the pursuing
ing the Crusader? None of the people I Chinese to seek political refuge in Ininterviewed for this article knew any- dia. He was followed by an extraordithing about any situation in Tibet. nary mass departure of Tibetans into
Some of them didn’t even know where exile. Never before in their history had
Tibet was. What’s happening in Tibet so many Tibetans been forced to leave
is a serious world issue that ISB stu- their homeland under such difficult
circumstances. There are now more
dents should be concerned about.
“What is going on in Tibet?” asked than one hundred thousand Tibetan
a seventh grader who wishes to remain refugees all over the world.
Since 1950, about 1.2 million Tibetanonymous. “I’ve heard it mentioned in
the news before, but I
don’t know what actually
happened.”
What is happening
today is the result of a
long chain of events that
began after World War
II. In September 1949,
Communist China invaded Eastern Tibet and
captured Chamdo, the
headquarters of the Governor of Eastern Tibet.
On November 17, 1950,
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama assumed full spiritual and
earthly powers as the
Tibet
Head of State because of
the severe crisis facing his coun- Source: http://www.freetibet.org/info/key_issues.html
try, although he was hardly sixteen
ans have been killed by the Chinese,
years old.
On September 9, 1951, thousands many of them tortured to death. China
of Chinese troops marched into Lhasa, has ratified several UN conventions,
the capital of Tibet. The violent occu- including those associated with torture
pation of Tibet was marked by the and racial intolerance, and yet has reregular demolition of monasteries, con- petitively violated these in China and
tainment of religion, denial of political Tibet.
Specific Tibetan issues that people
freedom, widespread arrests and captivity, and slaughter of innocent men, all over the world are trying to address
women and children. This went on for include genocide and human rights, the
lack of religious freedom, the exploitamany years.
In mid-March 1959, the nation- tion of natural resources, and educawide Tibetan resistance resulted in the tion. For example, the 1982 ConstituTibetan National Uprising against the tion of the People's Republic of China
Chinese in Lhasa. The Chinese fought guarantees freedom of religious belief,
back with ruthlessness unknown to the but China is trying to restrict the numTibetans. Thousands of men, women bers of monks and nuns entering monand children were massacred in the asteries and to damage the reputation of
streets and many more imprisoned and the religious authority of the Dalai
deported. Monks and nuns were pri- Lama, even thought there are many
mary targets, and monasteries and tem- Chinese Buddhists who also look to
him as their religious leader. Mining
ples were shelled.
and mineral extraction is the largest
economic activity in some of the largest
Tibetan cites, and at least one-half of
Tibet's natural forest has gone since
Chinese occupation.
Education is yet another issue. Chinese has replaced Tibetan as the official
language, and young Tibetans are being
taught a re-written history of their
country with all references to a free
Tibet omitted. The education given to
Chinese children in Tibet is of much
better quality then that available to Tibetans, and few
Tibetan children graduate to
secondary school. Even those
that do graduate have little
hope of employment unless
they speak fluent Chinese.
It is overwhelming to even
think of the trials that this
unique culture is going
though. So how can ISB students help? Maybe the Student Council could set up a
fund raiser next year to support the Stop the Torture in
Tibet Campaign, or donate
money to the Students for a
Free Tibet. Individually, you
can write letters to the Chinese administration, or to your home
country’s Chinese ambassador. Tips
for writing letters to them are available
at http://www.freetibet.org/info/action/
action2.html. Letters are very effective,
because international public opinion
does matter to the Chinese Government, who wishes to seem fair. Writing
to the Chinese administration and urging the immediate and absolute release
of Tibetan political prisoners, and
pointing out that they have done no
more than peacefully apply their basic
human rights, is effective. The more
publicity prisoners receive, the more
likely they are to be freed. By doing
something as simple as writing a letter,
you could make a difference in the
world, and if everyone who has read
this article wrote a letter, we could help
make a big difference in the lives of
these people. Don’t you think it’s worth
a try?
June 2006
The Crusader
17
Best moments of the ISB school year
By Sophie Earll and Joanne Harrower
Boiling hot days spent supposedly
“running” around in PE (when actually sunbathing on the field). Jumping
up and down in math after seeing the
first flake of snow. Ms. Thomas
screaming at you for not handing in
your project. The great memories we
passed; new faces, saying goodbye,
field trips and just those ordinary
days spent hanging around the corridors with your friends. This year has
been crazy, awesome, terrible, cool,
dramatic, and important, but definitely not uneventful. Welcome to the
ISB year of 2005-2006!
Field trips are definitely some of
the best times of the school year. Lior
Meshula confidently said the seventh
grade trip to Brittany was his highlight of the year with the world cup
night and evenings spent shooting
hoops on the hostel campus. The oysters were weird, the shops were good,
and the caramel was even better.
Whether it was pouring with rain and
all the guys were running around getting their butts kicked by French teenagers, or freaking out all the residents
of St. Malo by screaming to each other
during the scavenger hunt, Brittany was
seriously a fun time for all.
Eighth grade trip was also a great
success. The free time was fun after a
long day at work, and most 8th graders
A smiley
that most of their memorable moments
were made during those hours. “We got
two hours free time at lunch!” said Guy
Azran. Also, apparently the novelty of
having the beach so close was great. So
that’s even more favorite moments for
everyone.
Eighth grader, Amanda Bifani said
the first spirit week was her highlight of the school year. With all
the wacky outfits and colorful
clothes it was like carnival all week
during spirit week! Although some
of the weird days the student council picked out weren’t really as fun
filled as they could’ve been, it was
still a lot of fun. Whether it was
masked Zorro’s, or heavily padded
football players, it was one crazy
awesome, memory making week!
Of course, we’re not going
to leave out those precious ninth
graders. However it’s the same old
story as their field trip seemed to
highlight their year. With the long
walks through ancient buildings,
and fun times spent on the long bus
ride it was another memory success. Apparently, the canoeing was
a lot of fun also, although perhaps a
bit wet…
Overall, this year was great fun for
all, with loads of astounding memories
to go with it. I’m sure all who are leaving this year will be able to remember
all the memories they had at ISB, and
keep them close to them. For all returning students, we hope to see you for
another fun-filled memory making
year! See ya next year!
Memories…
Alexandra Helmer-Jensen
grade: 7
To all my friends, you guys have made
this year so awesome! Thank you! To everyone who’s moving, I’m going to miss
you tons! Especially Claire, have fun in
your new school! Klara, enjoy Sweden,
you have to come and visit! Harrison, you
better visit from Holland! Thomas, I’m
going to miss your sense of humor.
Brooke, thanks for all the laughs! The next
person is not moving but she means the
world to me. Johanne, after being friends
for four amazing fun years we are still best
friends and we will stay that way forever! I
love you so much! Thanks!
To everyone (you know who are!),
you’ve made this year the most incredible
year ever! Thank you so much! I love you
guys tons!
Xoxo times infinity!
Alex.
Claire Dufounier
grade: 7
I will miss everyone in this school so incredibly much when I change schools. I
will miss Alex Helmer- Jenson, and all her
advice and our memories together. I will
Johanne Arnet, Antje Shwartz, Claire
Duguid, Brooke Hamilton, Bailey Semkuly, Vanessa Demoulas, Henna Poikela
Killian…and all the other guys. But most
of all I’ll Miss Klara Kwangach, have fun
in Sweden hommie! Xoxox to you all love
I will also miss all the wonderful teachers
(Mme.Frankard Francais 6 + Mrs. Hoag +
Mrs. Van Ginhinhoven) thank you!
Xoxoxox Claire
lightsabers. Yes, Ms play06 was awesome,
Thanks you Kristen, and all the cast and
crew.
Josh Weiner’s- 8th Grade
- We were facing off ISB (International
School of Bangkok) on this year’s ski trip.
I had been elected captain to the team;
only I didn’t have a clue about what to do.
Suddenly, the DJ happened to put on
“Hollaback Girl”, and so I danced freestyle
to it, mouthing the lines as I went along. I
almost fell over and thought I’d made a
total idiot out of myself. Instead, both
sides were roaring with laughter and applause, and when it was all over, I earned
our team an extra half point. My subseDrew Zaremba- 9th Grade
quent performance of “Candy Shop” in
The MS play, Alice and wonderland, I had
French was less than impressive though,
a blast. Sound effects, singing for the first
but we ended up crushing Bangkok under
time, but the best part was the sword fight
my leadership- one of two reasons why
with capon. Remember when I actually
everyone started applauding when I came
wounded myself while rolling that one
down to breakfast the next day.
rehearsal? It got even better when we got
June 2006
The Crusader
18
Ideas on where to go and what to do during the
summer vacation
By: Antje Schwarz and Bengi Öztürk
Everyone always looks forward to
the summer. They think
about swimming, surfing, water fights, tanning, beach volleyball,
popsicles, and ice
cream. They can’t wait
to sit around, watching
movies all day, not having any homework to
look forward to and
tests to learn for. Below
are some people’s ideas
or just thoughts on how and where to
spend the summer vacation.
“I think the best way to spend your
summer vacation would be in southern
France in Club Med where it’s nice and
sunny,” said Klara Kvarnback
“I can just imagine myself in Hawaii, sitting by the pool, tanning, and
eating ice cream. That would be the
best summer vacation,” said Cazzie
Rees.
“It would be nice if I
could spend a summer
visiting all the continents for about a week
at a time. It would be
cool to learn about all
the languages and cultures…If only it didn’t
cost so much…L,” said
Johanne Arnet.
“Going to California,
Beverly Hills, and staying in the Beverly hills hotel. I’d go to the San Diego
Zoo and Laguna beach, where they film
the O.C. sometimes,” said Vanessa
Demoulas.
There’s lots of other thing too. You
could go to Australia, pick up the accent and go surfing. Or say, to The Bahamas or the Caribbean Islands. Just
imagine all the fun you’d have not to
mention the tan. But it doesn’t mean
that if you don’t go to these places, you
won’t have an awesome time.
You could go to the movies for example. Let’s see, what’s new this summer? If you haven’t seen the Da Vinci
Code or there’s Poseidon, Scary Movie
4, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and there
are tons more. You could go to one of
the “Alibi”s either Aqualibi or Walibi.
There are lots of attractions, rides and
waterslides to pass time with. If you
don’t like these ideas, you could always
get into the “summer mood!” You
could have a water fight with your
neighbors without warning them or you
could pretend you’re at the beach with
your biggest sunglasses and bikini. Or,
you could just sleep. That works too.
Where ever you go, we hope you have
the best summer vacation ever!
couldn’t find it in the dark because it
was her first time in that hotel. She
bumped into about a dozen things include a few walls. She woke up her parents, and probably her neighbors, when
she knocked over a glass of water. That
sounded like an interesting night. Embarrassing Rating: 6/10
Also, a long time ago, a girl who
wishes to remain anonymous, was playing in the ocean with two of her guy
friends and one girl friend. After they
finished swimming and were about to
get out of the water, one of her guy
friends undid her bikini top. She didn’t
notice but when she got out the whole
beach was staring at her and some of the
younger kids were giggling. She says it
was the most embarrassing thing that
ever happened to me. Embarrassing
Rating 10/10
Another person who also wishes to
remain anonymous was playing soccer
in the park when he kicked the ball way
over the hill far away and it hit a girl
that he didn’t know on the head. The
girl came over with the ball in her hands
and a forgiving expression on her face
and gave him the ball. The next thing he
knew, she was giving him a friendly
hug. The poor guy turned fire-engine
red as he was not use to expressions like
this as he was so young. He looks back
on the moment and laughs but is still
embarrassed. Embarrassing rating
6/10
Last summer, a girl who wishes to
remain anonymous, was sitting by the
pool at a resort she was staying at, sipping lemonade and reading a magazine.
She saw that some of the other kids
were having a diving contest and she
decided to participate. She got up and
put her magazine and lemonade down
and joined. After the kids had named her
the diving queen and not to mention
extremely coordinated, she got out of
the pool and grabbed her towel. While
walking over to her chair she tripped
over her towel and sent her drink flying.
It landed in the pool! They had to filter
and drain the pool and everyone knew it
was her. So much for coordinated. Embarrassing Rating 8/10
Just remember to stay away from
falling asleep in the sun, not to walk
around in the dark, watch out for losing
your bikini top, not to kick soccer balls
at people’s heads and don’t trip over
your towel. By considering these kids’
situation, you could save yourself a lot
of embarrassment.
Summer Mishaps
By Jasmine White
Over the summer everyone has fun
and does things that end up being pretty
funny like getting a massive sunburn, or
wearing a new summer outfit to a dinner
party to find out that the restaurant has
super air-conditioning and end up shivering the whole night! Embarrassing
summer moments happen to everybody
including myself…
A couple of summers ago I was vacationing in Florida and while I was
lying by the pool, my mom told me that
she and my dad were going up to the
room. I told them I wanted to get some
sun so I could have a tan before I got
back to school. I was lying in the sun
and I fell asleep. When I woke up I had
been sleeping for over three hours. I was
so sunburned that I could barely even
open my eyes. I was bright red from
head to toe. I had to stay in the room for
three days before going outside again.
Luckily my sunburn cleared up before
school had started but whenever we
went out to dinner or a movie people
would look at me and point and laugh.
Embarrassing Rating: 7/10
Last summer, eighth grader Sophia
Lewis was at a hotel with her parents in
California. When she had to go to the
toilet in the middle of the night she
June 2006
The Crusader
19
Music of the Summer
By Josh Weiner
Summer is an awesome time for
music. No work, nothing to do, relaxation. It’ll be a music fan’s dream. But
two months is a long time to listen to
the same old stuff over and over!
Thankfully, there are plenty of artists
who will be dropping new tracks over
this time. Here’s the news on some of
the highlights.
THE NEW KID:
Pharrell In My Mind OUT JULY
25
After a seven month delay
(hopefully all for the better), Pharrell
William’s debut should finally reach
stores in the midst of this year’s summer heat. In My Mind will feature the
hit singles “Can I Have It Like That”
and “Angel”, along with what promises
to be a very cool mixture of hip-hop
and R&B. With so much extra waiting
we’ve done, it BETTER be.
SECOND-ROUNDERS:
Lloyd Banks Rotten Apple OUT
JULY 18
No rap businessmen had any
“Hunger for More” after G-Unit’s
youngest and most lyrically talented
member reached double platinum on
his solo debut. Few worries about a
sophomore slump should circle around
his second LP, Rotten Apple (originally
titled Gang Green). Banks already has
plans to release the album’s first single,
“My House”
(which will feature 50 Cent), and it
leaves one curious about what more
there is. Will his new songs deliver
lyrics like “Don't confuse me with
these suckas/ When I spit, you hear
more 'oohs' than a Skip to My Lou
move at the Rucker”? [!]. That will be
confirmed in little more than a month.
Beyonce B’Day OUT SEPTEMBER 5
On Beyonce Knowles’ 25th birthday, the multi-talented performer will
release her appropriately title sophomore effort. She will team up with boy-
friend Jay-Z again in a song called
Déjà Vu, one of two confirmed tracks
thus far. Her debut Dangerously In
Love brought in huge sales and critical
acclaim in 2004, thanks to her public
appeal and distinct voice, as well as
some solid guest spots. Same story,
same result this time around.
The Game The Doctor’s Advocate
OUT AUGUST (tentative)
The Game received a solid mixture
of critical and public success in his ‘05
debut, The Documentary. But he’ll
have less help this time around, especially since 50 Cent won’t even speak
to him now, let alone be featured in
three of the album’s biggest singles and
work as the Game’s executive pro-
A bang from Bust: Rhymes new LP: The
Big Bang
Source: www.interscope.com
ducer. Yet the west coast rapper has
said to be aiming for greater independence and rawer, more N.W.A.-like
sounds in his sophomore effort, The
Doctor’s Advocate (named for hip-hop
pioneer Dr. Dre, who essentially
“found” the Game in bringing him to
stardom). He will bring on heavyweights such as Snoop Dogg, Mary J.
Blige, Mariah Carey, and Nas, but even
so, Game’s distinct talent as a rapper
will have to come up big for The Doc-
tor’s Advocate to succeed.
Crazy Frog More Crazy Hits OUT
JUNE 15
After driving people of the world
insane since his 2004 album came out,
the world’s most annoying amphibian
is back! This album will contain tedious but hilarious parodies of songs like
“I Will Survive”, “I’m Too Sexy”, and
“We Are The Champions” (just in time
for the World Cup). Every pesky little
brother’s dream!
THE OLD-TIMERS:
Bust Rhymes The Big Bang OUT
JUNE 13
The title is probably the only thing
about the album that hasn’t been seen
before. Busta’s been busy on over 170
titles with nearly twenty different artists while working for The Big Bang,
and only the best can be included in the
final product. Propelled by the huge
new single “Touch It” and this guy’s
reputation as a master of rap, expect
The Big Bang to make some noise on
the Billboard chart.
Ice Cube Laugh Now, Cry Later
OUT June 6
The man who spent five straight
years as unarguably the best rapper on
earth has finally left dumb-headed
movies and will return with his first
album in five years. It looks like Ice
Cube is headed more towards oldschool sounds, as he delivered so
prominently in the early 90’s, bringing
back memories of a time where he has
almost absolute power over this genre.
Indeed, Laugh Now, Cry Later is almost completely devoid of guest spots,
and the few featured artists have been
in the game as long as he has. I sense a
feeling of self-confidence here.
These are just some of what awaits
us after the final bell rings. Don’t return
to school without them!
The Crusader Staff wishes everyone a
safe and exciting summer.
For those of you moving, good luck, and those
staying, we will see you in September.
June 2006
The Crusader
20
Your Worst Nightmare…Embarrassing Moments!
By Ana Fitzpatrick
Everyone has them and sooner or
later you will have one, you can’t avoid
them….yes I am talking about embarrassing moments!! Scary aren’t they?
These “embarrassing moments” can
happen at any time and any where, but
usually occur at school so that everyone
can point and laugh. Whether it’s falling down the stairs, saying something
REALLY stupid, making milk come
out of your nose, disturbing the silence
with an awkward sound or anything
else you can think of you can always
look back and laugh about it….in some
cases cry. Either way people love hearing about embarrassing moments and
knowing that they are not the only one.
It took awhile to find people that
were willing to share their embarrassing stories, but of course there is always someone. Eighth grader Einar
Stefansson said, “I got sick drinking
energy drinks at my friend’s house and
threw up all over his balcony!” That is
almost as good as what happened to
ninth grader Trevor Bweta …. “I slept
over at a friend’s house and we drank
TONS of soda all night. We all finally
fell asleep and when I woke up I realized that I had urinated in my pants!! It
was so embarrassing!” he said.
That must have been traumatizing,
but at least it didn’t hurt unlike ninth
grader Brad Wilkinson’s embarrassing
moment. “I was at a party and there
was a trampoline, so I tried to do a cool
flip, but instead my whole upper torso
landed on the metal part of the trampoline! Yeah that hurt…” People could
laugh at that, but hopefully you would
feel a little bit of pity.
An eighth grader who wished to
stay anymous said “One time I walked
up to a stranger and grabbed their hand
because I thought it was my mom!”
Well since so many did not want to tell
there embarrassing moments, I have
taken it upon myself, Ana Fitzpatrick,
to tell one of mine embarrassing moments. “I was running down the stairs
trying to catch my friend, but I missed
the last step and flat on my face. I have
braces so my whole mouth was filled
with blood. I tried to keep my composure in front of a bunch of ninth graders. Pretty embarrassing….
So no matter how horrible or stupid
your embarrassing moments are there is
always someone who’s worse! (Doesn’t
that make you feel so much better?!)
After reading these stories of embarrassment I hope you have learned that
drinking too many energy drinks will
eventually lead to someone getting sick
or wetting your pants. Make sure when
you grab someone’s hand that it is
someone that you ACTUALLY know,
and don’t try to an impressive flip if
you’re not even sure how to land. Last
but not least DON’T run down the
stairs; you’ll feel stupid once you fall
on your face. I guess the moral of this
“article” is that Friday the 13th can happen any day….so watch out!
Special Olympians Bring Home the Medals
By Sophia E. Lewis
Every year our friends in Special Ed
participate in a grueling test of physical
endurance- training themselves for the
Belgian Special Olympics! These are
the Olympics for everyone who
has special needs in Belgium.
Our friends compete against
adults, children and everyone!
They compete in events such as
the 50m run, softball throw,
long jump, unified run and
gymkhana. The ISB community
sends them off for a weekend of
competition and fun. This
year’s Special Olympics were
in Antwerp, and although it
rained, all the participants had
great fun.
The nine participants
were:
Helena Baker, tenth grade:
horseback riding (gymkhana
and dressage trot)
Jennifer Light, eighth grade:
50m run, softball throw and
unified run
C l o d a g h C r om b i e , e i g h t h
grade:50m run, softball throw and unified run
Eleni Milissis, eighth grade:
long jump, softball throw and unified run
Deirdre Nevin, seventh grade:50m
run, softball throw, unified run
Photo courtesy of Mr. Graf
Ysaline Pillet, seventh grade:
50m run, softball throw and
unified run
Mi ch a el Hen str om, E S:
long jump, softball throw and
50m run
S a ul e M ar t i k on yk e, E S :
long jump, softballs throw and
50m run
Max Scheepstra, ES:
horseback riding (gymkhana
and dressage walk)
Mr Graf, one of the Special Ed
teachers said this about the Special
Olympics,
“Loved it, absolutely loved it. As a
teacher, it was just the best time
I’ve ever had with these students. It
was just so enjoyable, even though
the weather was bad, the weather
just didn’t matter.”
The weather was especially
bad, raining all the time, but the
athletes battled through, not complaining at all. All of the participants did very well winning a total
of nine medals. There were two
gold, three silver and four bronze.
But how did the athletes enjoy the
Olympics?
“It was really fun, even though it
rained a lot. It was just nice to be with
my friends.” says one eighth grader,
Jennifer Light.
The athletes did extremely well and
I’m sure we all are very proud of them.
Well done, Special Olympians!
June 2006
The Crusader
21
Surfs up!
By: Alexandra helmer-jensen
The summers coming up! Get ready
for a blast! Everyone’s doing their own
thing, enjoy it. It’s also a sad time of
the year. Many people leaving, going
to, maybe even, different continents.
The end of the year is filled with tons
of mixed emotions. Happiness, sadness
and tons of excitement! I mean, for the
9th graders it must be filled with tons of
stress, considering they have to finish
their exams. And get ready for three
more years in high school, a completely
new environment.
I’m going to check out the
“streets” (A.K.A hallways) and ask
some people about their holidays.
“I am really looking forward to going
sailing with my best friend Alex, to the
fantastic land of Norway” says Johanne
Arnet.
There are plenty of spicy
places to go, many places that are sizzling over the summer.
“If I could go anywhere for
summer I would go to either the Italian
coast, or Hawaii. Equally hot!” says
Claire Dufournier.
So many places to go, so little
time. How do you decide? Do you prefer nice hot places…or cold areas? Me,
I’m more of a person who loves hot
places. To me that’s more fun. Lying
on the beach all day, getting a tan, going for swims, nice hotels the whole
shabang.
A couple of hot places to go, and a little information on each of them:
Spain, Mallorca:
great, hot place, but then again, that’s
just one city in Spain. Pick whichever
one you like! You don’t even have to
pick Spain, just one spicy place!
Greece, Athens:
lovely place, filled with culture! Not
just culture, but fabulous shopping! It’s
definitely on my top 5 list of hot countries! Over there it’s at least, a minimum of 25 degrees at daytime. A place
to shop till you drop!
Italy, Rome:
again with the culture! And again with
the shops! But its filled with tourists
attractions, and a wonderful cuisine.
Zagreb, Croatia, :
you don’t have to pick Zagreb, its just
the capital. Any city will do! Croatia
has gorgeous water, which is surrounded by glistening blistering sand!
While you’re over there, don’t forget to
check out the food. YUM!
Portugal, Lisbon:
great place to just relax and bathe, and
tan! Learn the language, try the great
food! Wear the fashion, shop till you
drop!
France, Nice:
gorgeous weather, and lovely fashion!
Lovely beaches that stretch out for
miles. Definitely a zesty place to go! J
Plenty more places to go! Pack your
bags for a hot trip! I’m really looking
forward to the vacation, even though
many people are leaving. Good luck to
everyone in the future!
The Bad, the Ugly and the Incredibly Stupid: A
list of the worst 2005-2006 school year injuries
By Sam de Ferranti
Throughout the year there have
been injuries galore at ISB. There have
been the bad, the ugly and the incredibly stupid. From injuries to the head, to
injuries to the toe, there have been
many. From sport related to slipping on
the stairs, here is a wrap up of some of
the worst ones.
Ninth grader Vincent Cohen missed
school for a couple weeks after an injury playing soccer in P.E. when Amit
Elimelech tackled the ball from him.
He landed on his back awkwardly and
went to hospital. That’s the story many
people know but there is more to it. On
November 9, 2005 Vincent’s neck was
injured and his back and right arm were
also severely damaged. He missed one
month of school. After getting out of
hospital Vincent said, “I could only eat
and sleep... now, I can do almost anything, except put pressure on my neck”.
He says that his left hand is 50% better
than his right because of the incident.
He does not blame anyone for the injury and said, “It just happened” but he
stills jokes around with Amit about it.
There is also myself, Sam de Fer-
ranti. I was skiing in Switzerland on the and weeks in a cast always vary. For
MS field trip, when, with very little this reason I cannot come up with a
skiing experience (mistake number grading scale (although I would like
one), I went down a jump that was big- to). Now to pay tribute to many people
ger than me. Then when I realised that I who have suffered this year.
List of Injuries this Year:
had gone down too
fast, I freaked (mistake
(Due to limited sources this list
number two) and two
may not be complete.)
seconds later I landed
on the ground and
Arm Injuries:
broke my arm. I lay in
Sam de Ferranti (9)
the snow for an hour
Jimmy de Jonge (9)
before being lifted by a
James Duguid (9)
helicopter out to a hosAlex Fekete (8)
pital. I had broken my
Joanne Harrower (7)
shoulder and elbow. I
Tyler Rosen (7)
have had 2 operations
Jasmine White (7)
and I might have one
more on June 24. One
Leg Injuries:
day after school ends,
Yara Jalal (8)
wonderful. It was done
Daniel Olofsson (8)
Source:
on 24 February, 2006 www.portlandchurch.org
and to this day I cannot
Other Injuries:
bend my arm to 135 degrees.
Vincent Cohen (9) Neck
The injuries of the year have come
thick and fast, so broken bones, torn
These people agreed to have their
ligaments and sprained joints have been story told and no one was injured in the
pretty much standard. Pain, discomfort process.
June 2006
The Crusader
22
“I’ve had it with these snakes”
By James Duguid
“It’s a title. It’s a concept. It’s a
poster and a logline and whatever else
you need it to be. It’s perfect. Perfect.
It’s the Everlasting Gobstopper of
movie titles.” This comment was made
on a blog by a screenwriter about the
movie, Snakes on a Plane. It doesn’t
take the sharpest mind to figure out that
this movie is about, namely snakes on
well, a plane. This however is not what
makes this movie so special.
Snakes on a Plane, or SoaP, as it’s
called by its hardcore
fans, is getting mountains of surprise publicity heaped on it. It
has gotten to the level
where it is getting the
same buzz as summer
blockbusters like The
Breakup, Click, and
Miami Vice. News
stations and magazines looking for light
and humorous news
are going crazy over
the way it is growing
in cult popularity
which also contributes to its exposure.
All this and the movie has not even
been released.
It all started with a college student
who heard about SoaP. He sent an
email to his friends to ask if they know
anyone with connections in Hollywood
that could get him a ticket to the premier. He also started a blog on which
people could sign a petition to get New
Line to grant him attendance to the
premier in Hollywood. The website
now has thousands of people visiting
daily, posting comments of their own,
writing poems, songs, creating anima-
Source: www.cinematical.com
tions, and using various other mediums
to express their fascination with this
movie.
This is just the latest example about
how the internet is affecting pop culture. Another perfect example is the
white hot run of British band, the Arctic Monkeys. Their career had been
practically nonexistent and they had
stopped putting a lot of effort into their
music. However, they gained a huge
audience on the internet, creating a
loyal fan-base that
won them publicity
with record companies. They shunned
these, and have kept
many of their songs
available
for
download on their
website. Another example that many people here at ISB will be
familiar with is the
Internet show, Pure
Pwnage.
Who knows
what people will
come up next to hawk
entertainment over the
net; all we know, is it’ll be bizarre.
Brooke and Johanne’s Puzzle Challenge!
4
2
2
4
6
3
3
8
5
9
4
5
3
2
1
2
1
2
4
5
8
9
2
8
7
5
9
3
8
5
6
2
Good Luck!
June 2006
The Crusader
23
An Ocean of Wisdom: The Dalai Lama
By Hannah Brown
Gentle Glory, Holy Lord, Eloquent,
Compassionate, Ocean of Wisdom,
Pure in Mind, Learned Defender of
Faith was a long and unusual name for
a three year old boy. Then again, he
wasn’t your usual three year old Tibetan boy. He was the 14th Dalai
Lama.
The 13th Dalai Lama had been
dead for two years when monks,
or lamas, found Tenzin Gyatso.
Who, or what is the Dalai Lama?
In Buddhist culture, the Dalai
Lama isn’t just a king. He is also a
god on earth. He is believed to be
the current incarnation of Buddha,
who was a reincarnation of Chenrezig, a bodhisattva of compassion. Bodhisattvas are enlightened
beings who have postponed their
own nirvana and chosen to take
rebirth in order to serve humanity.
Chenrezig was also the patron
saint of Tibet. That is one reason
why the Dalai Lama is so important to them.
There were many signs that
Tenzin Gyatso was the true godking of Tibet. When Number 13
died, his body was found facing
the north-east. The lamas took this
as a sign as to where his reincarnation would be found. After two
years of searching, they had heard
several tales of a young boy who
seemed special. Kwetsang Rinpoche
and his companions went to investigate, disguised as merchants who
seeked lodging for the night at the
home of a certain Lhamo Dhondrub.
They sat by the fire, sipping their
tea, when the boy toddled in. He immediately climbed onto Kwetsang Rinpoche’s lap and began playing with the
man’s rosary, while insisting that it
belonged to him. The lama’ hopes were
immediately raised, since the rosary
had actually belonged to the 13th Dalai
Lama. Kwetsang Rinpoche told young
Lhamo that he could have it, but only if
he knew who Kwetsang Rinpoche was.
The lamas listened is astonishment as
Lhamo quickly identified him as a lama
of Sera, and then went on to name the
other three. However, the travelers
gave no indication of their amazement,
but thanked their host for the tea and
mounted their horses. They would return.
A few days later, the party came
back with more monks to perform an
official examination of the boy. As his
first test, Lhamo was shown many objects, some of which had belonged to
the 13th Dalai Lama. Lhamo picked out
the Dalai Lama’s possessions one by
His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Source: www.dalailama.com
one. No more. No less. The lamas still
weren’t convinced. They gave the boy
two walking sticks. One had been the
Dalai Lama’s, and the other had been
used by him, but had later been given
away as a gift. Lhamo picked the correct stick in both hands after looking
closely at both. His examiners still
weren’t convinced. They proceeded to
inspect him for a number of bodily
marks that were traditionally associated
with the Dalai Lamas. Lhamo had them
all: the large ears, eyebrows that curved
up at the end, streaks like tiger skin on
the legs, moles in certain locations on
the torso, and a palm print like a conch
shell. That was enough evidence for
them. They were satisfied that they
truly were in the presence of the 14th
Dalai Lama.
By his third birthday, Lhamo Dhondrub was installed in Lhasa, the capital
of Tibet, as Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai
Lama. He began his monastic education
at the age of six. The major subjects
were logic, Tibetan art and culture,
Sanskrit, medicine, and Buddhist philosophy. The five minor subjects were
poetry, music and drama, astrology,
phrasing, and synonyms. At age 23
he sat for his final examination in the
Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, during the
annual Monlam (prayer) Festival in
1959. He passed with honors and
was awarded the Geshe Lharampa
degree, the highest-level degree, and
the equivalent of a doctorate of Buddhist philosophy.
In 1950 His Holiness was called
upon to assume complete political
power after China's invasion of Tibet
in 1949. In 1954, he went to Beijing
for peace talks with Mao Zedong and
other Chinese leaders. But finally, in
1959 after his final examination,
with the brutal suppression of the
Tibetan national rebellion in Lhasa
by Chinese troops, the Dalai Lama
was forced to flee into exile. Since
then, he has been living in Dharamsala, in northern India, as head of the
Tibetan government in exile.
Since the Chinese invasion, His
Holiness has appealed to the United
Nations on the question of Tibet
many times, and made several propositions for peace. Tenzin Gyatso is a
man of peace. In 1989 he was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his
non-violent struggle for the liberation
of Tibet. He has time and time again
supported policies of non-violence,
even in the face of intense hostility. He
also became the first Nobel Laureate to
be recognized for his concern for global
environmental problems.
The 14th Dalai Lama has traveled
to more than 62 countries, on 6 continents. He has met with presidents,
prime ministers and sovereigns of major nations. He has conversed with the
heads of different religions and many
well-known scientists. Since 1959, he
has received over 84 awards, honorary
doctorates, prizes, etc., in recognition
of his messages of peace, non-violence,
inter-religious understanding, universal
responsibility, and compassion. He has
also written more than 72 books.
Tenzin Gyatso describes himself as
“a simple Buddhist monk”.
June 2006
The Crusader
24
Rock around the clock
By Mai Kusayanagi & Jenny Mouyon
After many weeks of hard work and
preparation from the Prom Committee,
the night has finally arrived; the prom
(now known as the ninth grade graduation dance), Sunday, June 4th was
probably the night that all the girls had
dreamt about for the previous month
and that all the guys thought of as another Sunday to lie in and spend the
night playing videogames. This year’s
theme was “Rock around the clock”.
Songs from all the way back to the 50’s
to modern music were played throughout the night. As a fundraiser for the
Makhaputu orphanage in Africa, some
of the vintage songs were put on auction to give a chance for families to
sponsor songs and dedicate them to
their beloved children
The girls, all dressed up in their
gorgeous outfits seemed rather interested in their classmates’ dresses, and
kicked off this night with compliments,
chatter and judgment. Meanwhile the
boys, decked out in their suits, didn’t
compliment each other once and spent
their time talking, eating and enjoying
the atmosphere of
the very different
looking Chateau.
Eighth
grader,
Billy Muirhead
that was invited to
the event complimented the decorations, “The Chateau looked really
different, in a
good way. I was
surprised.”
Some of the classic songs which
were played were
“YMCA”,
“I Will Survive” and “I
Love Rock
n’ Roll”. It
seemed like
“YMCA”
was
the
only song
which
all
students felt
like dancing
to,
while
only about a
third of the
whole grade
seemed to
be on the
dance floor for the rest of the night.
Many people seemed to be enjoying
“deep talks” with each other rather than
dancing, and posing for
photos on the staircase
with friends or dates.
Ninth grader, Diogo
Guia said “There were
some good songs and
some bad ones, the
whole thing was enjoyable and the food wasn’t bad either.”
One of the many
memories people will
keep about the Dance
was their personalized
CD to take home after
trying to find it among the 90 others
placed around the rooms. The CD’s
were placed in each of the three rooms
on a banner for decoration. It might be
a good idea to burn some songs on it to
make it a super duper uber cool personalized CD! Nicole Reichert, a ninth
grader said, “It was fun to see everyone
dressed up and the CDs were cool.”
Most of the students that attended
seemed to enjoy the night and were
able to make them forget about the
stress of exams and finishing the school
year.
Victoria Dewavrin, a ninth grader
thought that “the graduation dance was
a good way to end the year and it was
great to see most of the grade gathered
together.”
Have a great summer.
-All Graduation Dance photos
taken my Mr. Bocken.
June 2006
The Crusader
More digital photography
Thanks to Mr. Bocken for organizing this.
25
June 2006
The Crusader
26
Sports
The World Cup: Who will win?
By Jimmy de Jonge
Brazil. Argentina. Germany. The Despite this, expect football fans
Netherlands. All names of countries around the globe to watch the Netherwho have won the FIFA World Cup lands-Argentina game, as it will measmany times in the past, but who will ure the chances of both against the
win now? Will Brazil live up to expec- might of Brazil. The games in Group D
tations? Will England settle the score will be more interesting, although it is
with France? Which teams will face off safe to say in advance that Portugal will
for the ultimate title? And which player most likely win the group, followed by
will be hoisted onto his teammates’ Mexico.
Expect the might of the United
shoulders after the most watched game
States to be humbled by their performof all, the FIFA 2006 final?
The qualifications mostly went ance in Group E, where Italy and the
without surprise, the favourites all still Czech Republic will most likely make
pressing ahead. Brazil went through short work of them and
almost without fault,
their only defeat 3-1 to
their archrivals, Argentina. England pressed
ahead as well, although
only narrowly, with a
one point lead over
Poland. Portugal and
France both pressed
ahead in their respective groups, the former
with a seven-point win
over the runner-up, the
latter needing to wait
until their final match
against Cyprus to secure their ticket to Germany. In Group one,
the Czech Republic
succumbed to the
Netherlands in a 2-0
home defeat, but because their two 1-0
victories over Norway,
Source: www.expertfootball.com
still qualified.
In the group stages, it will most Ghana. It will be a field day
likely be a breeze for the big contend- for the papers if Brazil loses
ers, although some might find them- out in Group F, but most
selves unpleasantly surprised. In group likely, they will go through
A, Germany will most likely charge without fault, leaving Japan,
straight through, but the second place Australia and Croatia to
will not be determined too easily. Po- squabble over second place.
land, Costa Rica and Ecuador all stand A similar game will most
a fair chance of making it through. likely take place in group G, France
Group B is similar, England probably winning and leaving Togo, Korea,
conquering all in their path, but an in- and Switzerland to fight it our for secteresting game occurring between Swe- ond place. Group H, though, will prove
den, Paraguay, and Trinidad & Tobago. interesting, with a final showdown beGroup C will most likely be an easy tween the Ukraine, who made history
group, Argentina and the Netherlands during the qualifications, and Spain.
smashing straight through the Cote Tunisia and Saudi Arabia will fight
d’Ivoire and Serbia and Montenegro. heroically, but will probably bite the
dust.
Past the group stages, it will be an
uneasy race for the finish, for both favorites and outsiders. Brazil will almost
definitely make it to the finals, where
they will probably face Argentina,
France, England, Germany, the Netherlands, or Portugal. A wide range of
opponents, but then again, the World
Cup has always been full of surprises
(In the last world cup, neither Brazil
nor Germany arrived as favorites due to
bad qualifications). Some see it as a
The most coveted trophy of all
Source:www.elvenkids.com
duel
b e tween titans, some simply as a game
designed to create a feeling of team
spirit and unity. Whatever the views,
though, there will be plenty of football
to keep everyone happy during the
most watched sports tournament of all.
June 2006
The Crusader
27
World (good) sports round ups
Peter Collins
This sports season, everything has
been very exiting; Barcelona won the
Champions League trophy versus Arsenal after an amazing
comeback and added
the trophy to the La
Liga trophy they
won back home in
Spain. Chelsea won
the premiership for
the second time running with a worse
season than the one
before but with 5
losses, 4 draws and
29 wins they still got
through the season
top of the table.
Lyon won the Ligue
Orange 1 with a 299-4 run, whilst Italian
giants Juventus won the
Italian league.
Munster won the Heineken cup
after an intense match against Biarritz.
They finished the match 23-19 and they
scraped through after a 3rd minute try
by Biarritz. Ulster won the Celtic
League after beating the Ospreys and it
was the first time they had won it. Sale
Sharks sailed to the title in the Guin-
ness Premiership.
The Pittsburg Steelers won the Superbowl after beating the Seahawks 21-
Steelers wining Superbowl
www. NFL.com
10. They won it for the first time and
got a Superbowl ring on their thumb.
The Miami Dolphins won the National
League with a brilliant 12-0 run; they
only accomplished this many years
before in 1972.
The Hockey Western Conference
was won by Ottawa with 52 wins and
21 losses. Whilst in the Eastern Confer-
ence, Detroit pulled off the gold with
58 wins and 16 losses. Both were exciting competitions but it was disappointment for Pittsburgh
and Saint Louis
who finished last
in there competitions.
Sweden beat defending champions
Czech Republic 40 in the hockey
world cup to win
it. It was the eight
world title for the
Swedes who had 8
Olympic champions on there roster.
In the winter, Sweden also beat
Finland in the finals.
No team had managed an international hockey double
before. Italian Giordi Di Centa won the
cross country skiing for the first time
and only beat Eugeni Dementiev by 0.8
seconds.
Those were the highlights of the
sports season and they made the season
was very exciting but now the new seasons will start.
A hit to the pyramids
By Caroline McKissock
“In the words of Coach Hesse, we
had three goals this year; to win the
conference,
to
win ISSCs, and to
win ISSTs. And
guess what, we
got em all baby!”
This
year’s
varsity softball
team was a huge
success, winning
the Triple Crown
( wi n n in g :
conference,
ISSCs and ISSTs)
for the first in
Raiders history, only one other team
has accomplished this since the
beginning of these competitions. The
competition was fierce at moments, nail
biting times and some not so great calls
by the umpires but overall the whole
competition was a victory. Each team
showed great levels of sportsmanship
and came out and played a grand game.
Conquering Cairo was more than
anybody could ask for.
Whipping the Cobham team’s
butt and using Cairo the wipe
the floor, our ISB raiders
rocked. The whole experience
was surreal, just being in Cairo
was a mind boggling time, but
to win the ISSTs was out of
this world. But of course it
wasn’t all about the fun; the
girls had to work hard and long
in the boiling sun, to win the
glory.
Being chatted up at the
pyramids by old Egyptian men (in
desperate need of an orthodontist),
tanning by the pool and being spat at by
a camel were all part of experience of
Cairo.
Ending the season on with the
Triple Crown was the perfect finish to
the perfect season.
Congratulations
to the
softball
team for
winning
the triple
crown!
June 2006
The Crusader
28
Lacrosse…The end of the line
By Guy Azran
The lacrosse spring season is finally
over. The team had a number of games
this season, winning a great deal of
them. The last too games were a complete waste of the other team, with ISB
winning eight to one, with Thomas
“Trip” Adams scoring seven of Brussels’ goals.
The season is finished at last and
many boys and girls from eights to
twelfth grade and Coach Greg Murawsky seem very happy with their
results. No matter how early the practice was not how wet the field was,
everyone showed up if they could. Here
is what some people have to say about
this year’s lacrosse season.
James (Jamie) Pinnington, the
team’s goalie, says, “This year’s season
was awesome. I really enjoyed it.” Jamie has been the team’s goalie since
the beginning of the season. According
to Jamie, he has enjoyed the whole
time, even with lacrosse balls flying at
him at 100mph. The team would not
have survived the season without him.
James Brenner, attackman/middie
for the team, was very happy with this
year’s season although he did have a
few negative comments. “It was too
short,” he said, and then concluded
sarcastically, “We got a lot of new talented players.” It is James’s opinion
that many of the new players made the
season more of a challenge to the other
players. He also has his remarks on the
early morning practices. “Everyone is
tired,” he said “so we never have a full
team.”
It appears that there were some
complaints. However, every player was
new sometime. Overall, James had a
great time, no matter the obstacles. All
the numerous games won made up for
any inconvenience. We had a great
season… Thank you Coach Greg Murawsky for coaching the season, and
thank you Ed Grody for keeping the
team organized. The year wouldn’t
have been the same without you.
Summer is taking over: spring sports season
round-up
By Brooke Hamilton
As summer rolled along and the
school year started to
come to an end, we
finished up our spring
sp or ts
seas on .
Whether it was that
swing and homerun
or that dive over the
finish line, or maybe
that graceful kick,
this season was amazing and full of so
many victories.
Softball
swung into action on
March 13th as they
had their first practice, directed by head
coach Hesse and
coach Gramolini. For
the whole season,
they were practically
undefeated, resulting to a victorious
win during the ISSC’s Tournament
Championship beating Frankfurt
International School 10 to 3 in the finals. Travelling to Cairo, Egypt for the
ISSTs (International Schools Sports
Tournament), they returned with smiles
on their faces and gold medals around
their necks.
As the warm weather swept in,
All the way to the finish!
Courtesy of Claire Duguid
so did the tennis team, with both boys
and girls. Travelling frequently, they
went to many places, including London, Frankfurt, Antwerp and The
Hague. The boys coach, Claudine DeCock, and the girls coach, Bernard
deConinck, helped the team work
on their skills, leading
up to ISSTS, which was
hosted here at ISB.
There, they tried their
hardest, ending the season with many memories
to keep.
Running hard, the track
team had a great season.
The team was full of bright
new seventh graders, as
well as the old timers coming back for a great new
season. With Coach
Vandewalle as head coach/
spr inters coach, Ms
Stromeyer and Ms. Hawkins as mid/long distance
coach, Madeleine as jump
coach and Coach Gil as
throwing coach, the team
worked four times a week, attending
meets on Saturdays. As the end of the
season crept up, the coaches made cuts
for the upcoming ISSTs, which were
located this year in Paris. There, the
Junior Varsity boys came in second
place out of thirteen teams, taking sec(Continued on page 29)
June 2006
The Crusader
29
The attraction of violence in sports
By: Danny Vargas and Guy Azran
Some of the most famours sports in
world history have been associated
with violence and the general injury of
the opposition. Some people some call
them sadists; others call it a clean hit.
Would some people join these sports
just to hurt other people or get into
fights with them? In sports like hockey,
lacrosse, American Football and rugby
contact is allowed, though some hits
come with a price to pay.
In hockey if someone hits someone
else with their stick or trips them or
slashes them a minor penalty will be
called. The penalty may last 2 minutes,
5 minutes, 10 minutes or even a game
because of misconduct for a fight. In
lacrosse if there is unnecessary roughness, spearing, cross checking, late hits,
on the back, holding, slashing and head
checks will give you a penalty. In
American Football there are many penalties such as holding, face mask and
others.
(Continued from page 28)
until the penalty shots, where they were
on d i n bot h of t h ei r r el a ys
(4x100meters and 4x400meters). Junior
Varsity girls were also doing well, but,
partly due to different conflicts, they
took 8th.
Soccer scored a great season, starting with the tryouts on March 13 as
they waited nervously on the lower
field. Working hard as a team, they
entered into their first match on March
18 on the Thompson field and played
their best all the way up to the DODDS
tournament. There, the girls came all
the way up to the match for bronze,
where they remained tied with K-town
Total Ownage
Hockeyfights.com
On your mark, get set, GO!!!
Courtesy of Claire Duguid
We asked an eighth grader
about the subject, “They are probably
violent themselves and need to find a
better outlet for their anger,” says the
anonymous one. “I think that they are
violence-seekers and get pleasure from
pain.” This outlook is a negative one
but to those who enjoy paindistribution this may be positive. Those
who play sports where contact is necessary to the game may not love to hit
people but feel that it is essential to the
defence and offence of the game. When
playing sports some enjoy the sport
more than the contact.
Finally, as far as fights are concerned those who play to fight don’t
play at all, and when people fight to get
hurt many people will not play anymore due to the fact they will be hurt.
barely beaten. Yet, with all of their
hard work and determination it definitely was a season to be proud of.
“I am so proud,” said Ms. Thomas,
the head coach of girls’ soccer, “about
the 1-0 tie to Heidelberg in the semifinals at the DODDS tournament.”
It was an awesome season; fun,
exciting and full of thousands of
memories. Yes, at times those practices
might have hurt and yes, sometimes we
could hardly walk because of fatigue
and pain, but with every smile, victory
and every single clang of our medals,
this was a season that will not be forgotten.
Congratulations to all members
of Spring sports teams. It was a
memorable season.
June 2006
The Crusader
30
It’s not goodbye, it’s farewell for now
By Sarah Thomas
It was January 22, 2001 and I was exceptionally anxious.
As I greeted the students at the door, I thought, this isn’t going to be too bad. It’s only middle school. But then, the big
guy with the red hair raised his hand.
“Umm, where is Doctor Crowley,” he asked when I entered the room.
“He won’t be teaching the course this semester as he is
preparing for his role as headmaster,” I said.
“You mean he won’t be teaching journalism at all?” A
deafening silence invaded the room.
“Yes, that’s right,” I said. “But I am sure this will be a
great semester.”
He raised his hand yet again. “Can I go see the counselor?
I want to change my elective.” And so began the great exodus
from journalism. The students weren’t prepared for a new
teacher, and I certainly was not prepared for the strong reaction. But things got remarkably better as the semester (years,
really) moved on and I think the journalism course became a
place where students who enjoyed writing and publishing
found a niche.
Through the time I have been here, I have seen numerous
changes in the journalism course. From the layout to the varied styles of writing, to the inclusion of digital photography
photos and the use of excel to create surveys, the course has
developed and changed with the times.
When I first began teaching the course at ISB Ipods didn’t
exist, online journalism was just reaching mainstream audiences and The Crusader was not printed in color. Students
weren’t accustomed to reaching their teachers via e-mail and
the course was offered during alternate lunch periods, as were
the other electives. Only a handful of students knew how to
use Publisher, and the majority of the layout was done after
school and late into the night. One thing that hasn’t changed,
though, has been the commitment of the students.
The innovative ideas have always come from the students
and it is their enthusiasm that make the course such fun. I
remember doing a school wide survey on mad cow disease
and the frantic conversations between students. “How do you
work excel?” “Why did we decide to do this?” “Ms. Thomas,
I don’t want to do this. It is too much work!” However, the
staff overcame that obstacle, only to be faced with numerous
printing delays, typographical errors and misquotes. But we
won’t talk about those minor problems, just what we have
learned.
We learned how to work as a team and the importance of
meeting deadlines. Many students fostered an interest in journalism and now read the newspaper everyday! The list is endless.
Finally, I can’t express my gratitude to all of the students
who have made this teaching this course a fantastic experience. The energy that fills the room during each class is
something that stays with me throughout the day. I am constantly amazed by the critical thinking that takes place during
the class. The discussions about current events assure me that
the world will be in good hands, when this generation moves
into positions of power. I am so fortunate to have been able to
work with these students and learn with, and from, them.
I will miss ISB, especially the Middle School and the
journalism class, but I know the students will continue to
keep The Crusader going. After all, it is the students who
make the class.
All the best for now and the future. Thank you for giving
me the opportunity to share my knowledge and learn from
you. I am sure we will cross paths again.
NEVER GIVE UP ON
WHAT YOU REALLY
WANT TO DO. THE PERSON WITH BIG DREAMS
IS MORE POWERFUL
THAN ONE WITH ALL
THE FACTS.