Category Archives: Departments

Could our smart phones be making us dumber?

Posted on by Leave a comment

By Diana Nguyen and Manuel Aguina,

Kids today have phones, laptops, and other electronic devices that have games and are ways to communicate with others. The reason many kids have low grades and act rudely, and why people may say this generation is messed up, could be these electronic devices. Some of the people kids communicate with online could be a bad influence because these people are sharing inappropriate things, trying to make others think they are cool.

Phones distract people nowadays because people get lost in them, like its the phone, and not their surroundings, that is their one and only focus.  Twelfth grade Patterson student, Adarely Perez, says, “Phones are making us less intelligent because they are too much of a distraction.”

Also, eleventh grader Jordan Dennis says, “Phones are making us lazy in the way that you can connect with people faster and it makes life for a teenager easier.”

Most people nowadays focus on their social media status. Social media did not used to be so common on mobile devices, so when it first came to mobile devices, people were hooked on it like a drug. On devices now, it is common to see people sending tweets, posting statuses, or sending pictures. It has grown to a point that in schools, students just look at their tiny screens and forget everything else.

Although phones may sound like they are making us dumb, they can also make us smarter. Our mobile device is a highly intelligent device. “IPhone or Samsung Galaxy in your pocket is actually an incredibly sophisticated networking computer”, explains Andrew Keen, author from up front magazine. Some people don’t really understand the power that they have in their pockets the power to use a super calculator, write stories, or even edit movies, but they rarely use those powers. Apps on mobile devices help people edit movies, read books, get news , and also can help learn new things about a specific subject from science to math. Mr Mello says “No. Phones make us dumb only in the way we use them, but they are really good learning tools.”

The point is that phones can be seen as bad and good. Many people can argue that phones are making us dumber but they only see the social media  side of phones. People who see the social media side to phones only think of selfies, videos, and chatting. Other people can see the technological side of the phones, they see that phones are a learning tool. The people who do see the tech side of phones see the immense power like problem solving to reading books.

5th Annual Patterson Community Fair Welcomes Students Back For Another Great Year

Posted on by Leave a comment
A student (right), Ms. K. O'Brien (formerly Flores), and Patterson Principal Vance Benton dance with a belly dancer (right) (Photo: Patterson Press)

A student (right), Ms. K. O’Brien (formerly Flores), and Patterson Principal Vance Benton dance with a belly dancer (right)
(Photo: Patterson Press)

By Valerie Flores

Patterson High hosted its 5th annual Community Fair on September 24, 2015, in the cafeteria to welcome new students and old students back for another great school year.

As always, there were so many people, from jobs like State Farm, to after-school programs that we have here at our school, like the J.R.O.T.C program. Several colleges came to visit our school, too. Towson University came to this great event to help students make it to college by providing information about their college, as did B.C.C.C.

Lauren Hepner from Art With a Heart said, “I never had this during my high school years. This is different and cool to bring people together, which is awesome for us because not many schools have any events like this.”

Ms. Mahoney, who has been a teacher for about 16 years, loves the event. She said it’s really nice to be part of the Patterson family because it creates events like these.

Ms. Dagostino also stated that the event is great because it gives her a chance to meet new members of the Patterson family.

Kendric Senior, a freshman this year, said he enjoyed the flamenco dancing (there has been a flamenco dancer at the event every year) and the group of students selling snow balls to support their club.

Michael Candelario, a junior, has been at Patterson since his freshman year. He said the school is diverse (Nepalis and other Asians, Hispanics, Whites, Blacks, Arabs, etc.) and he gets to see these people and meet new students at the event.

The Community Fair has become a cherished annual tradition at Patterson, drawing hundreds of students, parents and community members every year. It has even been copied by other schools in the city. If the success of this year’s fair is any indication, it is safe to assume that this remarkable event is not going away any time soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Annapolis Legislative Summit

Posted on by Leave a comment

On January 29th, three students from Patterson traveled to the Annapolis Legislative Summit, where they participated in a special session in which lobbyists, community leaders and media asked questions of the new Maryland governor, Lawrence Hogan, the attorney general, the Speaker of the House, and the President of the Senate.  The event was moderated by Marc Steiner, Baltimore radio host, and was aired on WEAA 88.9 fm.

Damion Gaither, Patterson junior and accomplished athlete, boldly asked the first question of the attorney general, on the topic of self defense. “After I sat down, I thought of so many other topics I wanted to ask about,” Damien said.  Still, representing the only young people in the room, the three Patterson students impressed the crowd.  Tyriek Knight, Patterson sophomore, asked Speaker of the House Mike Busch and President of the Senate Mike Miller about the governor’s proposed cuts to Baltimore City schools.  “How is it that he wants to cut Baltimore City and Prince George’s County, when what we need is more teachers and better schools?” Mr. Knight enquired.  The two both responded that they agreed that Baltimore needs and deserves more, that they will have hearings and that they will try to restore funds.  Justist Rice was the third member of the Patterson contingent to get a chance to ask a question.  “Inequality is growing in the US–especially in Maryland–and racial inequality is still a serious issue.  How do you plan to address this?” Rice asked Busch and Miller.  Miller responded that there need to be more job opportunities and that there need to be stronger schools, particularly in Baltimore City.

After the Legislative assembly, the Patterson contingent, led by US History teacher Mr. Baron, visited with delegates from Baltimore City.  The group joined community activist and founder of the group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle Dayvon Love, who gave them a behind the scenes tour of legislative offices.  The Patterson group sat in on a hearing held by Baltimore City delegates in which the Baltimore City School Board discussed the cuts the governor has proposed to city schools.  The Patterson students then proceeded to the opening assembly of the Maryland House of Representatives, where Delegate Brooke Lierman, of the 46th District, called out each of the students by name and asked that the House recognize Patterson High School for coming to Annapolis to be a part of the political process.

“It was great to get a shout out on the floor, but we need to come back when the assembly is debating issues impacting Baltimore,” Mr. Baron noted. “Our young people in Baltimore have important contributions to make in speaking truth to power, and they have shown today that they have the courage and intellect to be future leaders.”  On the return trip, Tyriek looked out on the approaching Baltimore skyline and remarked, “Baltimore seems so small.” A little smaller, maybe, but with the help of three powerful voices from Patterson, an important place for powerful change.

Podcasts of the Legislative Summit can be heard here: http://www.steinershow.org/

Tale Of A Little Fish Boy (FICTION)

Posted on by Leave a comment

By Jamal Artis

My name is John Oaflea. I’m 12 years old and I am a fish boy. I live with my older twin brothers, James and Walt Oaflea. They’re 15 years old. They are the fastest fish boys in our village. James is the oldest twin and he is the sneaky, jealous brother that wants everything for himself. He is jealous of Walt because Walt is faster than him. Walt is the sweet, nice twin that cares about everybody and loves his two brothers. He knows he is faster than James but he doesn’t let it bother him because he’s the mature brother.

We have races. Sometimes I come in last place, Walt comes in second and James comes in first. After we are done racing we take our fish that we caught for the day back to our parents’ shop so our father can scale it and clean the fish. We get paid for how many or how big the fish are. I can catch 10 to 15 fish a day, Walt can catch 30 to 40 a day and James can catch 20 to 23 fish. But James steals mine sometimes and in laughs in my face. Sometimes when James steals my fish, after he leaves Walt gives me half of what he caught to make James jealous. At our family shop we sell lobsters, clams, and crabs but our best seller is the shrimp and fish. Everyone loves shopping at our family store. It’s the best seafood market in the village.

One day my brothers went down to the lake to go have a race, Walt asked me if I could cover his shift at the shop. I said, “Yeah, I got you, brother”, I needed to spend time with mom and dad anyway. They went down to Old Bay Lake where we always went to race because James always wants to prove he’s better then us. I would always say yes to a race to him. So Walt and James walked down to the lake and I stayed at the shop with our parents. I started to help my dad with scaling and gutting the fish, then when I was done cleaning the fish I took it to the front so my mother could put the spice on them. She told me I can go to the front so I sell stuff. I was a little scared at first but I soon got the hang of it. I sold 30 fish for 25 dollars, 8 clams for 4 dollars and 15 lobsters for 45 dollars.

It had been a little over 2 hours when the King of our village came into the shop. The King and my father were good childhood friends. All of a sudden, I heard a voice say “Daddy!”, It was the King’s daughter. She had long brown hair, light brown eyes and had the voice of an angel. Her name was Pariss and she was 13 years old and the princess of our village. She was the King and Queen’s only child and they were very protective but they trusted me because the King and Queen had known my parents for years and they would approve If we went out some time. The King and Queen asked my parents if we could go hang out together. They said “yeah”, but I was scared to talk to Pariss. Father give us a bag of gold and told us go have fun. So me and Pariss walked down to Lake Boo. While we were walking, Pariss was trying to talk to me. I was so nervous to talk to her. She asked me if I want to go throw rocks into the lake and I shyly said yes, I was thinking about how my brothers got girls because I was embarrassing myself in front of her. She asked me if this was my first time hanging out with a girl. I lightly shook my head. She smiled and said, “It’s okay. This is my first time hanging out with a boy as cute as you.” I blushed at her and I said I was happy hanging out with a pretty girl like herself. She blushed at me and lightly kissed me on the cheek. I started to smile. Suddenly, Pariss looked up with a worried look on her face. “Did you just hear something behind those trees?”, she asked me. I told her she was just imagining things and I put my arm around her and walked with her down the shore.

While we were down at the lake, our parents stayed at the shop and talked to the King. The King asked my Father, “Remember the deal I was forced to make years ago with the evil king that lives on the other side of the lake?”. My Father said, “Yes. It was about Pariss getting married to his son, a Prince who has a long, hard-to-pronounce name but who goes by the nickname ‘Juice’.” The King said he didn’t want her to be forced to marry Juice. “I want my daughter to marry whomever she pleases. But if I donít tell Pariss before her 18th birthday she is going to be heartbroken. I have to tell her sooner or later.”

When me and Pariss walked back it started to get dark, Then she saw a shooting star in the sky. She hurried up and pulled on a big rock and told me to make a wish, I wished this would never end. Pariss held my hand tight and made her wish. She kissed me said she loved me and would never leave my side. I smiled and agreed. She asked me if I wanted to be her boyfriend. I said yes and smiled and I asked her, “Do you want to be my girlfriend?” She quickly responded, “Yes!” and she smiled at me.

When we walked back to the store our parents were nowhere to be seen. I opened the door to the shop and what I saw shocked me. Both of my parents, the King, and some customers from the village were all tied up and gagged.

Out of the shadows stepped a sinister-looking man who scowled at me. “I am Prince Juice”, he announced, “and Pariss belongs to me!”. He pulled out a sword. I tried to grab it but he swatted me aside. Juice said, “any last words before you die?”, when he tried to strike me with his sword. His blade sliced through a thick rope from a fishing net that was hanging from the rafters of the shop. All of a sudden, the rope that Juice cut threw came around and wrapped around his neck. He stumbled backward and knocked over a heavy iron anchor that was leaning against the the other end of the fishing net. The weight of the anchor pulled on the rope and it hoisted him up in the air and hung him up like yesterday’s laundry.

The fight was over before I even knew it. My heart was beating so fast from my own fear. I couldn’t even think straight. I realized the fight was over and that monster was gone for good. I ran over and untied Pariss. I asked her if she is okay. She said “yeah”, She noticed a few cuts on my arm and face. I said I will be fine. Pariss said she loved me, and I said “I love you too”. She lightly tried to pick me up. I said, “My legs hurt. I can’t walk.” She yelled for my brothers for help. Walt had arrived at the store just a few seconds earlier and he came running to help us.

Walt freed our parents and the others and met back up with us. Walt ran over and helped me up. After checking to make sure we were alright, Walt said, “I’m going to go look for James. He was angry when I beat him racing earlier and he stormed off. I don’t know where he is now. I hope Juice didn’t hurt him.” Walt disappeared around the corner.

A few minutes later I noticed a muffled sound coming from the storage room in the back of the store. “What’s that?” I asked, and everyone shook their heads, puzzled. I walked into the back room to check out the sound. To my surprise, I saw an old man, tied up and gagged. “Wait a minute!”, I exclaimed. “Aren’t you Juice’s father–the king from across the lake?” “Mmmphhh!!!”, the man murmured, unable to speak with the gag on. I untied the gag but not the rope that bound his hands. I didn’t trust this king. “Thank you.”, the king said. “What are you doing here? Who tied you up?”, I demanded. “I came to warn you. My son, Juice, received a visit this afternoon from your brother, James. James told him that you and Pariss were falling in love. James always had a crush on Pariss and even though he knew she was betrothed to my son, I guess he got jealous when he saw you with her. He told Juice about it to get revenge on you, and Juice immediately grabbed his sword and sailed across the lake to confront you and Pariss.” “But why would you want to warn us? You’re the one who was forcing Pariss to marry Juice!”, I said, refusing to believe his story. The king slowly shook his head from side to side. “There is much you do not understand, my boy.”, he replied.

“A father always loves his son, and in a way I will always remember Juice as the innocent baby I once held in my arms. But the truth is, my son is a monster. When he was only 6 years old, he began torturing and killing animals. I tried to teach him right from wrong, but he only got worse. By the time he was a teenager, he began to terrorize the local townspeople. He was ride through the village on his horse and demand everyone’s gold. If they didn’t give it to him fast enough, he would stab them with his sword or trample them underfoot with his horse. Even if they did everything he told them to, sometimes he would still attack them anyway. He got a sick kind of pleasure from inflicting pain on other people. The townspeople begged me to do something about him, but I was afraid of him too. The last time I had tried to punish him, he put a knife to my throat and threatened to kill me if I ever tried to control him again. The look in his eyes was like something I had never seen before. I knew he would really do it.” The king shuddered at the memory.  “Then one day, the king of your village came to visit me and discuss some issues that affected both of our kingdoms. He brought his beautiful young daughter with him. Pariss was only a child back then, but Juice had an evil mind and he decided right then and there that he would have her as his wife when she came to age. That night he told me that if I didn’t make Pariss marry her, he would murder me and, as the new king, declare war on your village. I knew there was no way to talk him out of it. I thought of killing him in his sleep but I couldn’t bring myself to murder my own son. With a heavy heart, I forced your king to make a deal against his will.”

“You see, for hundreds of years, my family has owned the lake that both of our villages use as a source of fish and drinking water. Our kingdoms have lived in peace with each other for many generations and my family has shared the lake with your people in exchange for a small yearly fee that your king pays to me. After Juice’s threat, I told your king that unless Pariss married my son by her 18th birthday, I would forbid everyone in your kingdom from using the lake. Families like yours, who rely on fishing to make a living, would be ruined. Worse yet, there would be no drinking water for your people. Everyone would be forced to move or die of thirst. It would mean the destruction of your entire village!” I stared in shock at what the king had said. Pariss’ father had never told anyone but my father what the deal was that he had been forced to make.

The king said, “It broke my heart to force your king’s hand this way, but I didn’t know what else to do. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to think of a way to stop Juice, but when I saw him going after you, I knew I had to warn you. I knew I didn’t have much time, so I took a short-cut across the lake by sailing in-between some jagged rocks. Many sailors have been shipwrecked on those rocks and Juice had taken the safer route around them. Normally I would never have done something so dangerous, but I knew what Juice was capable of and I was determined to reach your village before he did. Fortunately I made it through the rocks unharmed. But just as I got close to the shore, a strong wind blew me off course. I rowed desperately toward the docks, and after a long time, I finally managed to dock my boat. But I was too late. As soon as I stepped ashore, a hand grabbed me from behind and before I knew it, I was bound and gagged. Juice had landed a few minutes before me and saw my boat coming in. After tying me up, he snuck into your parents’ shop through the back door and stashed me here. Then he went into the main part of the shop and pulled a sword on the King. He threatened to cut his head off unless everyone in the store sat down against the wall and didn’t make a move. He tied them up and waited for you and Pariss to return. And you know the rest.” The king ended his story with a sigh.

“Since you are here instead of Juice, I must assume you had to kill him. I don’t blame you. I wish I had had the courage to do it myself, years ago. Still, I can’t be happy about the death of my son, even if he was a monster.” Tears trickled down the king’s face. I wiped the tears away with my handkerchief and I untied his hands. “Juice is dead, but I didn’t kill him”, I told the king. “His neck got caught on a rope.” The King nodded. “I’m sorry for my role in all of this”, he said. “Now that it is over, I hope we can all put the past behind us and be friends again.” I nodded. “I have one more question, though. Where did my brother, James go?”

As soon as I had asked the question, I heard a commotion at the front door. “Let go of me!”, I heard a voice shout. It was James. I ran to the door to see what was going on. Walt and my father were holding James by his arms as he struggled to get free. “I found him hiding outside the shop”, Walt explained. “He must have been spying on us.” “He tried to run away, but James never could outrun me”, Walt added with a sly grin. James cursed loudly. After a while, he stopped struggling and a defeated look came over his face. Walt loosened his grip on him and my father let go of his other arm and looked him in the eyes. James looked back and then looked down at the ground, ashamed. “I never meant for anything to happen to you or Mom”, James said. “I was just sick of always being the loser. I had just lost a race to Walt and I went to the other Lake to be alone. And what did I see but my dorky little brother hitting on the girl of my dreams. I couldn’t take it anymore!” “That was you we heard in the bushes”, I asked? “Yeah”, James confirmed. “After that, I went straight to Juice. I was so angry, I didn’t think it through.”

After a long pause, James said, “Look, I’m sorry, OK? I’ll make it up to you.” My father looked at James sternly. “You’ll make it up to ALL of us, for a very, VERY long time.”, he said angrily. You can start by burying Juice. Then you can clean up this mess.” He gestured to the shop floor, which was covered with objects that had been knocked over in the fight. James groaned. “Oh, and one more thing”, my father added. “For the next three months, all the money you make for catching fish will be used to pay for Pariss and John’s wedding!” “I can help with that too”, said Pariss’ father with a smile. “As can I”, said Juice’s father. “It’s the least I can do after everything that’s happened.”

I looked at Pariss we both smiled. I new my wish had come true.

THE END.

 

¿Qué es el decreto migratorio? (SPANISH)

Posted on by Leave a comment

Note: This article was written in Spanish for the benefit of our Spanish-language readers.

De Jacqueline Morales

El programa DACA se refiere al decreto migratorio de la llegada de los jóvenes que llegaron desde pequeños y los que califican para poder ser parte del DACA podrían recibir un permiso de trabajo.

El programa DAPA se refiere a los padres que tienen hijos nacidos en los Estados Unidos o que sean Residentes que también podrían calificar para recibir el permiso de trabajo.

¿Los estudiantes de Patterson High School califican o no? Deben ver los requisitos para ver si califican.  Si es así hablen con sus padres para que puedan ir a procesar su solicitud o si sus padres califican díganles para que ellos también ir a procesar su aplicación en el mes de Mayo. Hagan ese cambio ya para que puedan tener más oportunidades en su vida y no vivir con temor al no encontrar un buen trabajo.

Los Requisitos

Para Estudiantes                                                                                   Para los Padres

DACA DAPA
Haber llegado a Estados Unidos antes de cumplir 16 años. Tener un hijo o hija nacido antes del 20 de Noviembre del 2014
Tener un GED , diploma de high school o estar actualmente en la escuela Haber llegado a Estados Unidos antes del 1 de enero del 2010
No tener delitos graves o tener orden de deportación No tener antecedentes penales peligrosos delitos graves o deportación
No haber salido del país y haber estado aquí antes de Enero 1 del 2010 No a ver tenido problemas con inmigración al cruzar la frontera

*Nota – después de haber sido escrito este artículo, un juez federal suspendió el decreto de Obama.  Ahora están discutiendo y veremos qué pasa.  ¡No pierden las esperanzas!  ¡Sí se puede!

Door-Decorating Contest Focuses on Colleges

Posted on by Leave a comment

A student shows off Ms. Rivera’s winning door (Photo: Jamal Artis, Patterson Press)

By Ramatoulaye  Goloco,

Patterson High School held its annual door decorating contest in November. The theme of this year’s contest was colleges and universities. Each homeroom chose a different college, wrote information about that college (GPA requirements, etc.), and posted some pictures about the college on the front of their door to show how precious those colleges are.

Some of  the teachers chose to feature the college that they attended. For example,Mr. Wagoner’s room put up pictures and information from Virginia University, because he graduated from there. “It’s great place”, Mr. Wagoner said. Mr. Scott’s choice was his undergraduate school, the University of Baltimore, while Mr. Gagne decided to use his son’s college to celebrate his recent graduation. “My son just graduated from Morgan State with a degree in civil engineering”, Mr. Gagne explained.

The goal of this contest was to encourage higher education, post-high school.”Statistics’ show that when students pursue higher education they make more money and have more career options available to them”, explained Ms. McIntosh, a guidance counselor for the school. “The College Door Decorating Contest’s purpose was to showcase colleges and universities across the United States and to educate students on the requirements needed to be accepted into college. Surprisingly, many of our students do not understand the requirements needed to be accepted to college and wait until it is too late to increase their GPA and study for standardized tests such as the ACT and SAT.”

The door decorating contest is just one of many activities the School Counseling Department sponsored during College and Career Readiness Month. The school hopes that these activities will help prepare Patterson students to pursue and achieve their dreams after high school.

FIRST PLACE WINNERS:

 Class of 2018: Ms. O’Brien

Class of 2017: Ms. Tuballa

Class of 2016: Mr. Baron

Class of 2015: Ms. Rivera

Life Skills: Ms. Clark

 

(Photos: Jamal Artis and Rama Goloco, Patterson Press)

NFL playoff results

Posted on by Leave a comment

By Joshua Carr,

The NFL Playoffs started on Saturday, January 3, with the Arizona Cardinals vs. the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers won 27 – 16 to move on to play Seattle, and the Seahawks won by 31-17. Baltimore played the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh and the Ravens won by 30-17 to play the New England Patriots, who won 35-31 in that playoff game. The Colts played Cincinnati with the Colts winning by 26-17. The Lions play Cowboys and Cowboys won 24-20. Carolina played Seattle and Seattle won 31-17 on Saturday to move on. The Cowboys played Green Bay and won 26-21, to then play the Seahawks with Seattle winning 28-22. Denver vs. Colts had the Colts win 24-13 to play Patriots, with the Patriots winning 45-7.

There has been some controversy over “deflategate,” where 11 out of 12 of the New England footballs were underinflated. The Colts said the footballs were underinflated in the game, the refs agreed and the NFL is investigating it.

The Super Bowl will take place on Sunday, February 1 at 6:40 p.m.

Students create puzzle cubes

Posted on by Leave a comment

Students try to put together the puzzle cubes their classmates created (Photo: Ms. Varela)

By Leonard Fields,

Editor’s Note: Ms. Varela’s engineering class made puzzle cubes (three dimensional puzzles) for other students and staff members to solve. This is one student’s reflection on the project.

Unit 4 was mostly about a box that my classmates and I had to create. The hardest part about the box creation was the start. When I had to pick on piece and begin from there. My teacher was a big help for me, she helped me with my brainstorming and my creations of my box but she did not create the box for me. She made sure I knew what I was doing. My classmates where a big help, they helped me understand everything also, when I was confused and my teacher was already helping someone, someone that knew would explain it for me. I didn’t really realize how much my teacher helped me understand everything until we had visitors to come and test out our puzzle cubes, and everyone was struggling to put my puzzle together.

One thing that runs in my family is creativity. So when I had a chance to use my creativity I was determined to make it the best one in the class. My determination level rose when I realized how much fun this could be for me, and how much it could help me understand better.

The brainstorming was a good part for me, it took me a long time to brainstorm the rest of my cube. To tell the truth my time management was a little bit bad. If my time management was better I would have finished a lot earlier, when I was almost done I stayed after school to finish my work.

When I was presenting my puzzle and the work I completed on the computer I had to be professional I couldn’t be playing around because when I get older I’m going to have to be a professional and be mature. It’s not easy to talk professionally about something as complicated as this. I thought it was going to be easy but in all honesty it really wasn’t, I thought it was going be easy because I understood the work I just couldn’t explain it fully, but I did it eventually.

The thinking outside the box wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, like I said starting off my box was arguably the hardest part of my project. So when I had to think of a couple more pieces to create a 3×3 box wasn’t that hard. The easiest part of creating my pieces was the measuring and putting it all together for the final piece.

This project helped me understand the ipt files, the iam files, the idw files, and the ipn files. When we first started working with inventor pro 2015 it wasn’t easy for me. Now that I have experience doing all 4 of the files, is became easy.

When everyone was struggling to put my box together that was a sign of achievement for me. All my work payed off. My teacher, my classmates, myself I don’t just give the credit to myself I give it to everyone that helped me complete this.

« Older Entries Recent Entries »