Civics Field Trip to the Duval County Courthouse

By Mirabella Latukhina and Sara Dhami

Photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels.com

Coming to school on the day of the civics field trip to a U.S courthouse was interesting. Instead of reporting to the 6^th grade holding area, me and my friends were instructed to go to Mr. Legree’s room to drop off our stuff. Since we were going to a courthouse, the most we were supposed to bring with us was a phone or small bag so checking in wouldn’t take too long.

It didn’t take too long for everyone to arrive, so we were able to go to the bus loop fairly quickly. Some kids from Mr. Harris’s and Ms. Dickinson’s class were going as well. When the bus arrived, I was one of the first on, so I was closer to the back. Thankfully, I was able to sit with someone that I knew. The bus ride wasn’t very long, but seeing different parts of Jacksonville was interesting. Many of the buildings were pretty, and a couple of them had murals painted on them. I hadn’t seen that particular part of the city before the trip. Once we got off the bus, Mr. Legree stopped to explain some things, such as us not being loud or wandering off.

As we entered the building, there were metal detectors before you got into the main part of the building. There were also guards and people to welcome us in. We passed through the metal detectors and went straight to the elevators, going up in two groups. We were going up to the thirteenth floor.

On the thirteenth floor, there was a massive window from which we could see a lot of the buildings below. There were also a couple of paintings hanging on the walls and a few hallways. One of those hallways led to the naturalization ceremony we were going to watch. It started at ten o’ clock so we had time to take in the view. Before long, a guide led us into the ceremony, and we sat down. The ceremony started shortly after, beginning with an explanation of what was happening. Afterwards, the forty-nine people applying for citizenship introduced themselves and where they came from. When done, three people marched out with the U.S.A flag. The man that was to either approve or deny their naturalization made a speech about being a U.S. citizen and then we said the pledge. Then, the man told them to hold up their right hand and swear on a couple of things, such as renouncing their citizenship to their other country and any ties they might have to it. After, there was another speech and a video of the U.S. Finally, the man approved of their citizenship, and they were officially U.S citizens. They showed a video of Joe Biden welcoming the new citizens and the ceremony was over. It was now time to interview an immigration officer. We went into another room and sat down. They gave us tests with questions people applying for naturalization would have to answer. When done, we got to ask the officer questions about his job and why he chose it.

Quickly, time was up, and we headed to lunch. During lunch, we were shown a video about U.S Marshalls and got to ask a U.S Marshall questions too. Before we left, we got to touch some gear they used. After leaving, we went down the street to Sweet Pete’s, got back on the bus, and that was the field trip over. Overall, it was a great field trip and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The History of Ice Cream, by Abigail Addison

Photo by Somben Chea on Pexels.com

Ice cream Is a people favorite. There is a lot of flavors than just the normal flavors like vanilla and chocolate or strawberry. ice cream, frozen dairy food made from cream or butterfat, milk, sugar, and flavorings. Frozen custard and French-type ice creams also contain eggs. Hundreds of flavors have been devised, the most popular being vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.

Iced desserts were introduced into Europe from the East. Marco Polo brought back descriptions of fruit ices from his travels in China. Italian cooks developed recipes and techniques for making both water and milk ices; Buontalenti, one of the cooks taken to France by Catherine de Medici, first prepared these treats for the French court. In 1686 a Sicilian, Francesco Procopio, opened a café in Paris and began to sell ices and sherbets, which became so popular that numerous other ice makers soon opened in the capital. Tortoni, owner of a café in late-18th-century Paris, is credited with developing cream ices. In the United States, ice cream was served by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Dolley Madison. Philadelphia became the hub of ice-cream manufacture in the United States; the ice-cream soda was invented there in 1874. The ice-cream cone, portable and easy to eat without silverware, originated at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square, home to the onetime chocolate factory, became famous for its hot-fudge sundaes.

As you can tell, I love ice cream! Many of you probably do, too.

Advice to Next Year’s 6th Graders

From students in Ms. Canepa’s 6th Grade Critical Thinking Class

Dear new 6th graders,

Welcome to Twin Lakes Middle School! I hope you are excited for this year and are doing well, I’ll try and give you some tips for what’s coming, but the first thing to do is be yourself! Middle school is filled with concerns, but if you try and blend in, you’ll just disappear. So, stay unique and find something for you to enjoy, for example: music, sports, writing, etc. On this topic, I would also recommend you join a club, they are very fun and if you find the right one, it will feel just like home. It also can release some stress from school and let you have some fun! Clubs can also help you calm down if you’re angry. One day when I was mad, I went to my club after school, which was drama. Being in drama really helped me forget I was angry whenever I was with my friends and singing! This is just one of the things I would recommend.

-S. D.

Some advice,

Keep organized. In order to do this, I suggest that you keep a planner. (I didn’t and I learned the hard way). A planner will help you so much throughout middle school. I suggest that you look through the planner everyday to keep it updated. When you hear a teacher say something important, for example, a date, you can write it down in your planner so you don’t forget. Another way to stay organized is to keep everything in one binder. If your teacher gives you a separate notebook, ask him/her if you can just use a section in your binder. I did this and it helped so much! It’s much better than 8 notebooks in my backpack, but that’s just my opinion.

-H.L

Dear new 6th graders,

When you’re in class, listen to the teacher to pass the FAST test or the EOC. If people don’t like you, then ignore them and move on. If they put their hands on you, write a statement. If you are mad at someone, don’t fight, think about how much trouble it will get you in.

-N.N

Dear new 6th grader,

I wish you the best of luck! Try and be smart about your actions. Make sure that even if you have so much homework, don’t be a procrastinator like me. Don’t get on people’s nerves , it’s going to happen. Stay away from fights. Find your friend group, and stick together.

-K.T

Transgender Poets

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By L. Buchanon

Hi, I’m Logan. I thought it would be interesting for me to do an article on trans poets! I will be talking about 4 trans poets. I started researching and writing this during National Poetry Month, though it might not be when I finish. First, we have Ryka Aoki. Born to Japanese American parents, Aoki grew up in Southern California in the San Gabriel Valley. Aoki studied chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, after her parents initially discouraged her to become a writer. She is a first-generation college graduate. After graduating, Aoki spent a year working as an environmental lab technician. Aoki, a trans woman, has said that she strives not to write just for other trans readers, but for their family, and other people in general. Her book He Mele a Hilo or a song of Hilo was meant to chronicle the common Hawaiian experience. In addition to her book, Aoki also wrote a piece for Publishers Weekly. She hopes that through writing for a general audience instead of only trans people, that she alsoto hopes help others see transgender people as human,

Second, we have Joshua Jennifer Espinoza is an American poet from Riverside, California. She is a Visiting Professor of English at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. Her work covers topics like mental illness, coming out as a transgender woman, as well as universal themes like love, grief, anger, and beauty. Theres no biography though, because I couldn’t find one Third, we have Oliver Baez Bendorf, oliver was born on June 21, 1987, in Iowa City, Iowa. His poems sometimes feature the landscape of his childhood, and his writing about returning to Iowa for a visit while transitioning genders was published in Buzzfeed. He graduated with a BA from the University of Iowa in 2009. In 2013, he earned an MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he met his teachers Lynda Barry, Quan Barry, Amaud Jamaul Johnson, Jesse Lee Kercheval, and Ronald Wallace. In 2015, he received an MA in Library and Information Studies, also from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he worked with The Little Magazine Collection, one of the most extensive of its kind in the United States. Bendorf is a fellow of the CantoMundo Poetry Workshop. Last, we have Miller Wolf Oberman, Miller is a former Ruth Lilly Fellow as well as a 2016 winner of the 92nd St Y’s Boston Review/ Discovery Prize. His translation of selections from the “Old English Rune Poem” won Poetry’s John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize For Translation in 2013. Miller’s first book “The Unstill Ones,”

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryka_Aoki

https://rykaryka.com/bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Jennifer_Espinoza https://www.pw.org/content/an_interview_with_oliver_baez_bendorf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_Wolf_Oberman

Book Review a Long Walk to Water

By Abigail Addison

Photo by Gu00fcl Iu015fu0131k on Pexels.com

It’s Abigail, and IM BACCCKKKKK!

This book is based on two different people in two different times.

Salva Dut is based on a real person, and one of the two main characters in A Long Walk to Water. Both in the book and in real life, Salva grows up in a small, south Sudanese village. At the age of eleven, he’s forced to flee his village to avoid the ongoing civil war in his country. Salva spends much of the next decade of his life wandering across the country with other refugees, trying to find a safe place to live. Throughout the novel, Salva is a model of bravery and steadfastness. He is often terrified by what he experiences in Sudan—at one point even witnessing the murder of his own uncle—but he manages to summon the courage to carry on and the strength to survive. As he grows up, Salva begins to feel a desire to help others, not just himself. While in Sudan, he leads more than one thousand Lost Boys to a refugee camp. He stays in multiple refugee camps in different countries before being adopted by an American couple in Rochester, New York. As a young man, Salva reunites with his father, Marien Dut Ariik, and feels inspired to found a nonprofit organization to help struggling villages in his country. The organization, called Water for South Sudan, has brought clean drinking water to over three hundred Sudanese villages since 2003. A Long Walk to Water is the story of how Salva survives civil war in his country and grows into a young man and a leader with a strong desire to help those in need.

Nya is the other main character in A Long Walk to Water, also based on a real person. A young girl, Nya spends much of her waking life walking to and from a large pond, miles away from her family’s village. She collects water from the pond into a gourd, balances the gourd on her head, and walks home, where she immediately deposits the water, turns back, and does it all over again. Linda Sue Park doesn’t spend much time describing Nya’s personality—readers know that she’s a devoted sister and a loving daughter, but don’t know much else about her. In many ways, Nya’s role in the book is to serve as a witness to the enormous changes affecting her village in the early 2000s: thanks to Salva Dut’s activism, wells are being built, bringing safe drinking water to thousands and saving Nya countless hours of work, which frees her to begin attending schoo