Hoofprint

When Coach Castro (better known as “Mary Jane” to the sixth grade girls), was in sixth grade, he was an average student. He kept busy, stayed out of trouble and liked sports. Maybe that is why he is a P.E teacher. A few days ago, I interrupted his floor hockey class, but he still agreed to be asked a few questions. The native of Queens, N.Y moved because the teaching jobs here were better and easier to find. I am pretty sure that he could have found a PE teaching job up in Queens though. Before he took up teaching, he played professional soccer and attended a college called SUNY Cortland. Despite his impressive background he does not coach any MMS teams. However, he did coach two C.A.S.L. teams. Both of those teams finished number one in the state. I see a MMS coaching job in his future. Despite that, it’s not just soccer that he likes tied for his favorite sport is basketball. His favorite sport to watch is football. Although one of his favorite sports is basketball, he does not care about the NBA lockout, and prefers college basketball.

Even though he looked very happy when I interrupted him in the middle of his floor hockey and appears to love his job, he says that he would like some jobs more than the one that he has currently the job he would like the most would be a college coach or becoming a doctor. The MMS teachers are all pretty close but he says that he is best friends with the PE teachers at MMS; Coach Hill and Coach Calabrese. From time to time when for some reason, we cannot do our real electives, we play games. These games usually involve throwing dodge balls as fast as you can at or near another player. His favorite of these games is called Greek Dodge. This is pretty much like regular dodge ball, except you play for points, by achieving certain tasks. His favorite elective to teach, he says is probably flag football. His favorite NFL team is the Giants (hence his birthplace).

He has been teaching at MMS for seven years. That is at least twice as long as any students have been here at MMS. He has also been teaching two years longer than our principle. He chooses to teach P.E because he likes kids and he enjoys sports. Finally, I asked him if his name was Mary Jane, he never answered. Coach Castro, the former average middle school students and professional soccer player, obviously has lots of teaching and coaching talent. He is also a very nice man and a very fun PE teacher. I hope that that after reading this blog you know coach Castro more than you did before.

The only sports played during the winter at MMS are men’s and women’s basketball. That is a big difference from the fall when there is three different sports going on at one time.

Coach Hill, the men’s basketball team coach said that he has an older team with six returning players, and wants hustle, hustle, hustle. The team has a lot more experience than previous years and expects to win. MMS is looking forward to a long energetic season because this is one of our best teams in a while and we can easily produce points whenever we want. Coach Hill likes the hard work from the players which will give them momentum to win their games. To sum it up everyone is expecting a pretty good season for the Boys Mustangs team.

I also talked to the women’s basketball coach, Coach Vickery, and one of the returning players. Coach Vickery also said that there is a lot of talent and experienced returners from last year. He said that he and the assistant coach made new offensive plays that are nearly unstoppable. Almost half of their team is returners, with a total of five. Lily (8th grade) said that, “the team is going to grow, and is a lot better than the teams in the past”.

MMS is looking forward to these great seasons. We have a great crowd here so it will make it difficult for all of the visiting teams to concentrate. I think that the players and coaches will do their part.

We hope to see all of the readers at the MMS games. The price is only four dollars, and we all would appreciate your support for MMS. The schedule for the teams are below.

WINTER SPORTS BASKETBALL (GIRL’S AND BOY’S) December 5 – Martin at Ligon December 8 – Martin at East Garner December 12 – North Garner at Martin December 15 – Martin at Carnage December 19 – Carroll at Martin January 5 – Dillard at Martin January 9 – Martin at Daniels January 12 – Ligon at Martin January 19 – East Garner at Martin January 25 – Martin at North Garner January 26 – Carnage at Martin January 30 – Martin at Carroll February 2 – Martin at Dillard February 6 – Daniels at Martin

All parents or guardians received letters talking about the school assignment policy in mid-November, 2011. The school assignment policy is a plan to give your child choices of which school to be enrolled on. In this plan, you have the option to discover which school is for your child’s and family’s needs. From there, the children will grow as a learner to achieve. The school district believes in the potential of all the students and is committed to providing an education.

The key points of the student assignment policy are if a family is happy with the school they child is in, they can stay within their current transportation. Families who have a child moving from elementary to middle or middle to high can stay in the newly approved feeder pattern of their child’s existing school. Each school will be part of a defined feeder pattern that will provide students with a predictable, stable path to senior year of high school. In this plan, the magnet program will not change. Therefore, all magnet schools and programs will continue.

The people participating in this plan are families with rising kindergarteners and families new to the system. Also, existing families who want to change school assignments. Lastly, families who have a child moving from elementary to middle or middle to high would like to choose a different school from their list rather than staying within their newly approved feeder pattern of their school.

According to Mr. Martin, the school assignment policy mostly affects eighth graders. If the eighth grader is a magnet student, they will go to Enloe. However, if the eighth grader is a base student, they will go to Broughton. This policy helps families that have moved to Wake County and that need to know which school they will be assigned. The policy also exists so families have more choices in terms of schools and so all schools in the county will be filled with children. In Mr. Martin’s opinion, the school assignment will work, but may take some time to make it work.

Get ready, get set, read! It’s time again for Battle of the Books (B.O.B). Grab your reading glasses and thinking caps.

What is B.o.B.?

B.O.B is a competition where students read from a list of books. Then on 1/4/12-1/6/12 there will be a competition. During that completion two opposite teams will be asked questions. They will have to give the answer by saying the title of the book. They may get 2 points if they get the title right and one if they get the author correct.

How does B.O.B work?

There will be one team of 12 students. That team will be broken in two. One team of the two will play against another team. That will narrow the team that had 12 to now being 6. There will be 12 questions the two teams will be asked. They will have 20 seconds to answer each question. Only one person may answer the question, but in your 20 seconds they can discuss the answer with their team. They must wait until they hear the person that is going to answer the question’s name is called a second time. If they don’t they will be warned and the second time they will have to give the question to the other team. If they get the answer wrong the question will go to the opposing team, but if they think the answer is right they may challenge the judges by raising their hand and saying “time”. They will have 3 minutes to prove their answer is right.

How can you get ready?

The first way they can get ready is to read the selected books (no brainer). As they read each book try & memorize the author and pay attention to the details. Think about questions they might be asked. Write the question on an index card. Organize each book by the genres (science fiction, myth). It will help them when they have to say the answer. They can practice memorizing the author and thinking of the questions with a friend. Make sure that each member of the team reads the book he/she is assigned to read.

Go MMS B.O.B team!

Toniyah Allis Kush Emir Kathrine Addie Laurd Taylor McKenna Emily Anna Lydia Anvita Lucy Joshua Liam Vivek Sharient Eloise Sofie Shreya Selen Dillion Sydney Patrick Luke Natalye Jay Lainey Stacy Athena Lauren Faizan

5. Here every meal is a mystery. What am I?

Im red, in every hallway and I put out heat. What am I ?

3. Down to the bus, down to the Media Center? Follow me! What am I?

2. Enter the ghostly realm of sixth grade social studies. Who am I?

On this contest you wil come to the Hoofprint everyday to check the new clues aboutn a person, place, or thing in the school. Then once you think you have all of the answers go to the Media Center and fill out the ballets and turn it into the decorative box. The dealine is Decmeber 21st, the last day until winter break. Then the people that got all of them correct will have their ballet put in a hat and whoevers gets pulled wins!!

1. By the DICKENS, it sure is BREEZY on this HILL in CASTRO. Where are we?

"Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. " - C. S. Lewis