By: Donnell Hilton and Callum Watson
A Shakespearean tragedy of murder, deception, mystery, and trauma is brought to life in MASH’s rendition of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. A play first published in 1604 gets a refreshing lift by directors Sarah and Michael from Elm City Shakespeare, as well as several spirited and determined MASH actors. Five people will be playing the part of Hamlet. Yadiel Ortiz (who, by the way, plays four different parts, a grave digger, a demon, a player, and a ghost) says that “the directors are EPIC because they always encourage the actors and tell us to keep going even if we mess up on a part.” “They help us understand the play and the characters on a deep level, and are always open to ideas about our characters, that we might want to do,” said Genesis Guillen who plays the role of Ophelia. Hamlet is sure to surprise us all in this dark but epic tragedy. Hamlet is a very good play, and Mauro Sheridan is excited to watch it in the band room during school on Wednesday, June 5. The parents will see it in an evening performance on June 4 at 6 p.m. The students have practiced for two days a week for the past five months on this difficult play, and we wish that the performers do well! Thanks to Ms. Jodi Schneider for coordinating the show and bringing snacks to rehearsal! By Rehab Rajoui When Mayor Toni Harp was nine years old, she explored a giant concrete cylinder that was being used to build a freeway near her house. Her mother warned her against doing this, as it could be dangerous. As she and four friends started to explore, Harp felt trapped. Her friends turned back, but Harp was determined to make it out the other side. After making it all the way through, Harp felt a sense of pride and accomplishment as she discovered her ability to persevere. “It was as far to go back as it was to go forward, so I chose to go forward.” As a mayor, Harp uses this experience to guide her and the City of New Haven, as a lesson to persevere. Mayor Harp has been mayor since 2014. She is New Haven's fiftieth mayor. She was born in San Francisco and also lived in Chicago where she attended Roosevelt University. She also attended Yale school of Architecture. Mayor Harp has three children: Matthew, Jmil and Djana Harp. At a press conference on April 10,2019 with the MASH News staff, Mayor Harp answered some tough questions on a wide variety of topics including taxes and housing. In response to a question on why the city cut the education budget, Harp said that she is trying to let each school help to make budget decisions. “We asked teachers and principals to make a decision about things they could use less of.Some schools chose to have a part-time librarian or not have paraprofessionals." One of Mayor Harp’s goal is to increase low income housing in New Haven. Mayor Harp just cut the ribbon for five new houses on Judith Terrace in April. These are two family homes. one side of the home is a rental unit and one side is owned and occupied by the homeowner. This will enable the homeowner to build equity and wealth over time. Mayor Harp is running for mayor again this year. She loves being the mayor and hopes to continue to be so for many more years. By Camilla Murphy, Jackson Murphy, Jaymarie Pena-Gonzalez
Janiqua Davis is an eighteen year-old Mauro Sheridan alumna. Her favorite sport is the game of squash. Mauro Sheridan does not have a squash court and so she played at Squash Haven. Janiqua has played squash for the past five years and has won ten tournaments. She was very nervous when she first started playing squash but now she loves it! Janiqua attended Mauro Sheridan school for nine years, starting in kindergarten. Her favorite teachers at Mauro Sheridan were Mrs. West and Mrs. Rosa. Her favorite subject in school was history. While reminiscing on her days at Mauro Sheridan she said, “People really cared about me here and gave me lots of support.’’ The game of squash is similar to tennis. It is called squash because the ball is squashable. The game is played by two people on a court, and is played against one wall. When the first player hits the ball against the wall the second player needs to do the same. If the ball bounces twice before the second player hits it, the first player gets a point. The first player to get best three out of five games wins the match. The required equipment to play squash is shorts, shirts, squash shoes (they look like Sketchers) and goggles . A normal squash game will last about twenty minutes for beginners, forty minutes for club players, and between sixty and ninety minutes for a professional game. Squash is one of the quicker sports to participate in, and even the longest professional game of all time was under three hours. Squash is becoming very popular and may one day be as common as baseball and tennis. Twenty million people play squash around the world. According to the World Squash Federation, as of June 2009, there were 49,908 squash courts in the world, with 188 countries having at least one court. England has the most number of squash courts at 8,500. Janiqua Davis is going to college this fall. She got accepted into eight colleges out of the eleven that she applied to. She will be attending Mount Holyoke in South Hadley, Massachusetts and has received a full scholarship as a member of the squash team. Mauro Sheridan wishes Janiqua the best of luck! By Haley Violante-Fletcher Chapel Haven Schleifer Center, a private non-profit organization that helps people with disabilities, is building a wonderful new building adjacent to Mauro-Sheridan. The M.S. Journalism team interviewed Mike Storz, the President of Chapel Haven and Karin Frodel, the director of Vocational Services. Mike is very proud of this project. “New Haven is a city worth living in, regardless of their ability to live independently. This wonderful new facility will serve many people and also create new jobs.” Chapel Haven is now under construction across the street from Mauro-Sheridan. The construction crew is working fast and plan to be finished by December 1st, 2019. There are about 77 workers at on the project at any time. The building will contain one and two-bedroom units and common space for people to socialize. It will cost a total of $70 million and include housing, storefronts, a wellness cafe, a greenhouse, clinical space for doctors, and more. About 42 residents will live there. The new buildings are wheelchair accessible. Residents come in for two years and receive training from workers to learn how to live independently so that they can get a job outside of Chapel Haven and pay their own rent. If it wasn’t for Chapel Haven, many of these people would not have a place to live. Chapel Haven is planning to partner with Mauro-Sheridan. MASH kids will get opportunities to go over to the building or people from Chapel Haven will come to the school and help out. There are two volunteers currently working at Mauro-Sheridan. One is learning how to feed the animals in the halls. The other is a shelving assistant in the library. Students will help recycle, take care of the animals, and much more. By Rafat Ali
Mrs. Lauren Bitterman is the new fourth grade teacher here at Mauro Sheridan. She comes to us from Hill Central where she worked with students for three years. Believe it or not, she once worked at Disney World, where she dressed up as Dopey and Donald. She grew up in Bethel, Connecticut. She attended Western Connecticut State University. When Mrs. Bitterman was little, her mom was a lobbyist for Bill Clinton and she got to shake hands with him! She got married in Brookfield, Connecticut. Currently she lives in Stratford, Connecticut with her husband and dog named Lizzy Dizzy, a terrier. Her favorite subject to teach is math because of the hands on activities. She also enjoys seeing students at school learning. She loves being able to make an impact on kids’ education. Mrs. Bitterman was not strong in math as a kid, but pushed through and worked hard and ended becoming better in math. She wants to pass her persistence and knowledge on to her students. She is also an amazing illustrator and has created drawings for several books. Mrs. Bitterman has an undergraduate degree in illustration and also a masters degree in education. One of her books is titled “My Dad Could Do Anything.” If you walk in to Mrs Bitterman’s classroom, you can see some art she made for her class to look at and admire. In her free time she likes to watch movies, and read comic books. Her favorite character is Rogue from the Marvel Universe. She also enjoys quilting and spending time with her family. She also cheers for the football team Oakland Raiders. By Donnell Hilton, Callum Watson, Jack Watson
If you were wondering what beyblades are, all you need to do is look inside any MASH classroom because beyblades are taking Mauro Sheridan by storm! Beyblades are a popular spinning top. Beyblades seem new to us, but they were actually invented in Japan in the 17th century. In our version, beyblades came out in 1999. The beyblades tops battle each other and can burst. They burst when they reach a certain amount of damage they split into three different parts -- a tip, a middle, and a top. They battle each other in a stadium that is made of plastic and each battle takes 30 seconds to a minute. You win the battle by bursting the other beyblade with force, knocking the other beyblade into the pocket, or spinning longer than the other player. Beyblades are taking over Mauro Sheridan. More than half of the students own beyblades. To kids, beyblades are super popular but to teachers they are about as popular as a trash can. “I don’t think they should be in school,” Claudia Post, a 5th grade teacher, said. Many of the teachers dislike beyblades. Camdyn Johnson, a third grader says, “we shouldn’t have beyblades in school because they may hit someone in the eye.” Catello Vitelli, another third grader says, “yes, we should only have them for recess time.” Mrs. Bitterman says they are a distraction. Students may only use beyblades during recess. However, kids almost always have them out during class. Because of this, the assistant principal, Mrs. Courcey frequently takes them away. She puts them on her desk, and takes them back at the end of lunch period, but most kids swipe them before Mrs. Courcey picks them up from her table. The spread of the beyblades at MS may continue. Beyblades are getting more popular because there are more types of beyblades to buy. You can buy them at Target, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, Gamestop, or online. They usually cost $7.99 to $15.00. There are four types of beyblades in the series -- Normal, God, Turbo and Cho-z. The difference between the four is how much power they have. Normal beyblades are the least powerful, God has the third most power, and Turbo has the second most, and Cho-z is the most powerful. These are different evolutions of a main character beyblade, called Valkyrie. By: Haley Violate-Fletcher and Jennifer Tlapanco
Have you ever heard of a Shakespeare play called “The Tempest?” Well, on February 6th, 2019 the students at Hopkins School came together to perform it. This play is about two brothers fighting and creating a storm. This play showcases many of the talented thespians at Hopkins School. Here’s what the audience had to say about it. “Yes, I like Shakespeare. His plays deal with basic truths of relationships between people,” Mr. Slusky says. “My favorite character was Prospero, because he’s a wizard. It’s really his play because he ends up changing in the end. If I had to change one thing, I would change nothing. It’s perfectly wonderful the way it is. It’s a good idea to have summaries because it helped the audience understand what was going on. My favorite part was when they broke the fourth wall, (which is when characters in a play, movie, or television show talk to the people watching.) They were able to visually depict magic.” “My favorite part was when they asked the audience to improvise and they turned into a dancing dragon,” said Ms. Schultz. "One thing that I would change is that I would add a program so you can tell who the characters are. I really liked when they got the audience involved and we gave them ideas. I liked it because we were able to give creative examples. My favorite character was the Jester. I liked the input he gave. He gave us insight to what was happening next, said Ms. Amarone. “I loved that the Hopkins kids came and gave up their time to come here. I think they were really talented. I asked them to come perform because I’m reading “The Tempest” with a bunch of my students and I wanted them to see what it was like. I wanted the Shakespeare kids to see how to put on a good play.” Ms. Jodi says. Two fifth graders, Deloris Hamrick and Aaliyah Jones, loved the show. “The play was very amusing. My favorite character was the princess in purple that loved the man. It’s interesting but its not my thing. On a scale from 1-10, I give it a 9,” they said. “Yes, I liked it. I enjoyed the way it was interpreted and it broke the 4th wall. I wouldn’t change anything because I’m not the director. My favorite character was Prospero because he was the good guy and he survived his fate, and who doesn’t like a protagonist?” says Ms. Post. We hope that the Hopkins students will come back and perform another great play! |