Leaders of Harmony (Wall Street)

Tension runs high as time gets closer. Rushing for girls to get their dresses and for guys to get their tuxes. Anxious to know the winner.

          New Year means new beginning. New beginning means another chance to have better character.

          Harmony day is the day where nominees from each grade sections compete against each other for the grand prize of knowing that they have good character. There will be a winner for each grade section. Kids from k-10 grade had a range of emotions from nervousness to much excitement.

          Ashton Lang from 9b was pretty nervous about the outcome of Harmony day. He commented, “sort of yes, sort of no because uhm, I’m nervous of loosing.” But not all nominees felt the same way as Ashton. Mercy Kuruvilla from 9b said, “No, I’m not nervous. It seems like an easy day.”

          The time has come. Now the nominees await their destiny.

          By: Chris Coby & Isabelle 

The Initiation of the Anime Club 2012-2013

Working nonstop and time consuming in the library, Ms Birman, the school librarian, sets up the Book Fair and coordinates it. If not setting up the book fair, then, she restores the library with only few volunteers and set the books in their place. Despite hard work, Ms. Birman’s ideas of creating an Anime club for high school and middle school students, in which the club’s focuses on culture, origin and language.

Ms Birman says, “I would be really happy if the students enjoy the club.”

Although Ms. Strain, the club coordinator, hopes the students will gain a new learning experience but she has some doubts about the club. “I’m not sure if the Anime club is going to be appropriate,” she says. Even though, she still plans to support the club because of the unique experience and the new culture learning.

Ms. Birman planned that the students will participate only two times a week.  “Probably one day we are going to focus on the culture and the origins of Anime and on the second day we going to draw some anime characters.”She also plans to get some references from Ms. Henneberry. “I can’t draw, but I hope to get some references from Ms. Henneberry,” she said.

Ms. Henneberry, the art teacher, plans to help out the club to draw some characters, either made up or actual ‘manga’ characters. “I’m glad to help out the club, and hopefully this will be a fun experience to the students.”

Ms. Birman has not yet set up the Anime Club in ‘stone’ yet. She still producing more plans for the club.   

Article by: Jesus Barrera

Tiger Football Looks for Fresh Start

The 2011 football season ended in shame for the Harmony Tigers. They had lost 3 of their 4 total games by a blowout score. No one on the team wanted to do anything that had anything to do with football.

Now, 7 months later, the team is rejuvinated looking for a fresh start after their 1st season, which was more of a learning experience. Everyone wants to win, but there is still alot of hard work to be put in. " I think we have a good chance of winning, we have a good team, we have good skill players and a great group of core players," said Coach Vasquez. " I don't think we will go very far," and, " Losing key players like Valon Ahmeti and Jesus Ramirez hurt our chances of winning. Key players leaving does create wholes the team needs to fill. Michael Mongomery said, " Everyone needs to step up now and play good football as a whole team.

After all the wholes are filled, there is ultimatley 1 goal, and that is to WIN. " Realistically, I think we can win 6 games if we try our best," said Reginal Blouin a soon to be freshman football player. Alex Lopez, who seems very excited for football to start said, " We can win 10 games because we are just that good of a team." Everyone is at the right intensity level for next year. Lets hope the team can carry that intensity into next season and win games.

If the Tigers want to avoid losing most of their games again next season, players from last year like Arash Gill and Jason Frias need to play key roles in the success of the football team. But games are won and lost as a team so everyone needs to play a part in the outcome of the team.

The team has alot of hard work to do if they don't want to be ashamed anymore.

Football training starts August 1st and the first football game of the season is in September.


                                          BY: Arash Gill and Valon Ahmeti

The book fair's grand finale

The last book fair was a total success in the library from April 30 through May 4 making double the profit of nearly $2500 dollars. She loves hosting the book fairs because she likes to see everyone happy and students getting the books they like. But from now on, she might run two book fairs instead of three because one does not make much profit as the others.

                After having difficulties gathering volunteers and shelving the books, Ms. Burman managed to be a great host and was always there to help us. “What I enjoy the most is seeing everyone happy and having good relations with our volunteers,” says Ms. Burman. According to her, the morning and afternoon rushes are difficult to deal with, mostly of second to seventh graders on Tuesday and Wednesday. “It was crazy but fun,” says Ms. Burman.

                The book fair sold many popular items such as The Hunger Games, Big Nate, and Diary of the Wimpy Kid books. “My favorite book is Behind the Line because it tells about the soldiers experiences in war and it is very interesting. It will not make me stop reading it,” says Luis from 5^th grade. Even the most popular poster they sold was Angry Birds. The thing students like the most about the book fairs is the selection of books. “What I enjoyed most about book fairs is the variety of manga,” says Susanna Sutherland from 6^th grade. Most of the students bought The Hunger Games, Maximum Ride, and the Dork Diaries. Suzanne Collins and James Pattersome are the favorites of most students. They get really into Adventure, Mystery, and Manga books.

                The students enjoyed the book fairs as much as Ms. Burman enjoyed helping them out. Everyone thought this book fair was better than the past book fairs they had as they took advantage of the buy one get one free sale. I believe the book fair gets better every year as more people looks forward to it. “I look forward to the next book fair because there will be more items to purchase with new books coming out”, says Luis Zavala from 5^th grade.

Article By: Raquel Galvan and Dacia Zavala

High School Social Cancelled

(From left to right) Jisha, Jocelyn, Ashwini, and Jewel in 9A helped to plan before this event was cancelled. 

The high school social, which was going to be held on either May 4th or May 11th, has been cancelled. This cancellation was due to “lack of interest” according to Mrs. Stephens. Many students disagree with this comment though as the student voice wasn’t adequately represented. 

Saadman in 9A remarked “I am very upset. I was looking forward to this event.” Others like Isabelle, also in 9A, said they were “going to go but then they changed the dress code.” Chris in 9B agreed that going also “[depended] on dress code.”

Expectations for the event weren’t very high. Students were more than willing to help though. Lizette in 10A said, “I would be very dedicated so students [would] enjoy their time.”

Although Mrs. Stephens thought student council was handling the event, Lizette, a member of student council, was astonished. When asked if student council had heard about this she replied “No. I was surprised they didn’t’ inform us of the event. Student council is made for the students to make such choices and this should have been notified to student council to plan.”

Mrs. Stephens explained that she knows “this is not an easy place to go to school,” but she also knows “it’s not an easy place to teach.” 

Although the social is cancelled for this year they plan on doing something more casual for next year. There’s just “not enough time” left for this year according to Jocelyn T. in 9A. 

Mrs. Stephens ended by saying, “we’re never going to have what Creekview has. Those kids are never going to have what we have, and we may never have a large prom but that’s okay. Let go of the idea that we have to have what the school down the street has.”

Article by: Stephenie Navarro and Cara Loehding 

The Voice of Harmony

Isabelle Arriaga was in the science lab searching for songs when Lyann Troung confidently strolls  in and says “I want to sing with you.” Isabelle just couldn’t say no.

Lyann and Isabelle performed at the Harmony Day Awards ceremony, Friday May 4. They sang “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus and “Somebody” by Lemonade Mouth. Their performances were  entertaining and surprised the audience.

“Well I don’t think I embarrassed myself,” Isabelle commented on her performance. While Lyann Troung said “I think I did well, but I got mad because I messed up on one part.”

Lexi Bailey in 1A thought the performance was really cool and said that she would like them to sing again next year. Kyree Sneed in 9B also thought that they did really good and she said that “The Climb” was her favorite part of the performance.

Lyann and Isabelle practiced every day trying to perfect the songs. Originally they were going to sing “Skyscraper” by Demi Lovato but they thought “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus was a much better fit.

The girls were really excited that they had the chance to sing at Harmony Day which is, “A day to recognize students who exemplify what it means to be a Harmony Tiger,” Ms. Strain explained. “Harmony Day is the day where students get recognized for things that they normally wouldn’t get recognized for,” She added. When choosing the nominees for Harmony Day the teachers are looking for students who exhibit good character, honesty, and scholarship.

Overall Isabelle and Lyann’s performance was a great addition to the ceremony and it helped make Harmony Day a success.

By: Sha'Kaela McCurdy and Miranda Alonzo

Ready for the STAAR?

            As the class starts to turn in their hard, 4 hour, test in to their test administrator, everyone is exhausted. 8^th-9^th grade have taken the STAAR test, on the 9^th-11^th of May. This is a new test that will be replacing the old TAKS test for the state test, which is required to help decide if a student can continue to the next grade. This new test is a lot harder than the old according to most of the 9^th and 8^th grade who took the test. Most students preferred the TAKS test over the new STAAR test. This lead to a conclusion that the STAAR test was much harder than the TAKS test, which was apparently pretty easy compared to the STAAR test. When the students were asked how confident they felt about the test, most student responded with either “I failed,” or “I passed,” says students like Alex Lopez, Rishi Maharaj, and more. Most of the students were a little tense and nervous about the test since this the first year the test was given to student all over Texas. When ask about their opinion on the STAAR test, the students all had different opinion. Emily commented, “It’s stupid,” or Mercy who say, “I don’t like the test.” Both 8^th and 9^th grade said that the Math STAAR test was the hardest out of all the tests. Estabon stated that, “I had hardest time in algebra 1.”After the long and boring test, the students were free from one less test for the end-of-course test, also known as STAAR test.

By: Saadman Khan

Portable addons to Harmony

 Harmony Carrollton is adding on more class rooms to the school by adding portable buildings  to the to the crowed school . There will be three buildings add on to the school and each building will have 6 rooms in each. The addons will be placed in either the back parking lot or the grass field to the left of the school. "Each buildings cost 1,500 per month and the school will have to pay this for three years," said Mr.Chocker.

 Mr.Chocker got the aprovel for this addon to the school from the Harmony bord in Houston.The addons will be added on some time during the summer to next school year. It will be used  house the elementary students and the teachers that will teach them. Most teachers are "happy" to be getting the extra space to teach in the all ready croweded school.

 These addons to the school will help lessen the amount of students in the main school body making the school seem less "crowded" and "small". Most students in the upper grades are looking foward to the add on because they will," Take all the lower grades out of the school and make more room for the high and middle schoolers," said Mercy in 9B. It will also aloud more students to enroll into Harmony. Hopeful more addons will be added on in the future that will give every grade their own buildings.
Article by: James Richard Jorgenson iii

Biomedical class gets a real taste of hospital life

    On Wednesday May 2, the biomedical class taught by Dr. Jun Guo took a field trip to UT Southwestern children’s emergency room. The field trips purpose was for the students to observe the different substances that were placed in the microscopes that the hospital organized for them.
  Jocelyne Ramirez from 10B, a biomedical student who attended the field trip to UT Southwestern, said that she enjoyed the field trip, and she also learned a few things. “The field trip made me realize that you have to be serious when you are in the medical field because you are saving lives,” she said.
At the field trip they walked through the children’s emergency room and went into a lab room where they observed different substances in the microscopes. The students not only saw and visited with doctors and nurses at the hospital but, they met a chemist who studied viruses and who is working on finding cures for diseases.
Jose Burgos from 10B says that he also enjoyed the trip and learned a lot. “We learned no matter what language, all sign language is the same,” he said. When asking Jose what was his favorite part of the field trip he said, “My favorite part of the field trip was going around seeing the kids in the emergency room”. The benefit of going to UT Southwestern was, “It kind of made me want to work in the emergency room,” he said.
In conclusion, most of the students look forward to another field trip to UT Southwestern hospital.

By: Kiana Hayes and Eddie Carrillo

Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston another artist caught up in the fast life, fame, and money died on Febuary 11^th. Whitney’s death is still not solved but toxicology tests have been taken and results can take 6 to 8 weeks to know for a fact why she died. People are saying that she died of a overdose, but also it was no secret that she was consuming drugs, and sadly it might be the reason it killed her. Whitney was an amazing artist she won 2 Emmy awards, 6 Grammys awards, 30 billboard music awards, and 22 american awards, so she was a talented woman. It so horrible that her life cut short at 48 years old. Drugs have been a huge problem for artist because they think resolves their problems but its also common for a teenager that is a drug fin to say its also to resolves their problems. Rest in peace Whitney Houston (August 9, 1963-2012)

                                                By: Eddie Carrillo

The Holocaust Survivor by Mike Jacobs, edited by Ginger Jacobs 2/7/2012 Book Review

                                                                                   2/ 07/2012                                                                                 Mike Jacobs, a Holocaust survivor and the founder of the Dallas Holocaust Museum, reminisce 2/ 07/2012 his experiences during the Holocaust and writes them along with his wife Ginger Jacobs who edits the book.

Mendel Jakubowcz (his name is translated) or Mike Jacobs, born in 1925 in Konin, Poland in a Jewish community. His bothers are Avram, Szlama and Reuven, and his sisters Ryfka and Ester. Mendel grew up with both parents, also the youngest one in the family. They lived like farmers selling food and goods to other towns.                    

In 1939, the Nazis invade Poland, in which his life will never be same. He saw non Jewish teacher shot in the cemetery. His family along with many Jewish families was send to Ostrowiec, Poland. He says, “I was lucky, because I am blond and have blue eyes, so the Nazis could not I was a Jew, so I had nothing to worry about.”Until one day, he was separated from his family, his brother Reuven left to the Jewish Resistance Fighters. Mendel had to survive on his own without anybody. For now he blend I society, but how long could he keep it?

After the Holocaust, Mendel fled to Dallas, in which many things revealed. Did his family survive the Holocaust? How long was he able to keep his cover? I recommend this book and figure out what happened. He also says, “A story told without hatred or bitterness, Holocaust Survivor teaches that when we recognize freedom comes within, we are never completely powerless.”

Article by: Jesus Barrera

Chronicle Review

Over the weekend I watched the new movie Chronicle, which is in theaters. I found myself satisfied throughout the whole movie. Although at times the acting was questionable, the movie was worth the 11 dollars.

Chronicle is not your typical superhero movie when it comes to camera angles. The movie was made the way paranormal activity was made. And by that I mean the movie was like a home video.

The movie is about three high schooler’s, Andrew, Matt, and Steve. Andrew and Matt are cousins. At a rave the three guys find a hole in the ground which contains a shining metallic object. They all reach for the object at the same time and the object shoots them back. The object gives them super powers. They realize that a couple of days later, and pull a lot of pranks. After a while, stuff gets serious and Andrew kills Steve. Now I’m not going to get into the details because I don’t want to spoil the movie.

Overall this movie was great. If you guys are looking for a movie to watch I highly recommend watching Chronicle. I give Chronicle a B+.

                                                      Article By: Arash Gill

                                                       http://www.upcoming-movies.com/image/chronicle-movie-poster-2.jpg

'The Voice' Season 2 Premeire

“‘The Voice’ Premiere gets the highest non-sports TV rating in 6 years” (Thecelebritycafe.com). ‘The Voice’ premiered on Sunday the 5^th right after the Giants won the Super Bowl. ‘The Voice’ is a singing competition. The difference between ‘The Voice’ and other singing competitions is that this one is based only on the competitors’ vocal ability. Unlike other singing competitions the judges (Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, Cee Lo Green, and Adam Levine) are not allowed to see the face of the person auditioning which is why it is also known as the “blind auditions”. If the judges like what they hear the press their red button which turns their chair around the singer is now on the judges’ team. If more than one judge turns around, then the singer will have to pick a team. After the auditions are over and the teams are made, the competitors are eliminated every week, and the winner gets a record deal.

In part 1 of the season 2 premiere Texas teen Raelynn was added to Blake Shelton’s team, after singing “Hell on Heels” by Shelton’s wife Miranda Lambert, but only after Blake and Adam fought to persuade her to join their teams. Christina Aguilera was pleased at the voice of Jesse Campbell and turned her chair, but she wasn’t the only one, Cee Lo and Adam turned their chairs too, but in the end Jesse chose Christina. Christina also added Chris Mann to her team. Adam Levine added Christina’s former fellow mousekeeteer, Tony Lucca.  Cee Lo added rocker girl Juliet Simms to his group later that night.

In the end not everybody made it through the “blind auditions” but the ones that did are about to compete for a chance at getting a record deal. So tune in every Monday 8/7 c to see who is one step closer in achieving their dream. If you want to know more about ‘The Voice’ or want to watch clips visit: http://www.nbc.com/the-voice/ .

Article By: Sha’Kaela McCurdy

http://nbcthevoicefan.com/nbc-the-voice-audience-tickets/

Superbowl commercials

One thing that America really enjoy other than the superbowl on superbowl day is the commercials that come on in between the game. Im sure that some people probably wonder why don’t they show those hilarious commercials all the time instead of just showing it on superbowl day?

Well from the research I did I found out that the reason why that they don’t show those funny commercials all the time is,because they are too expensive to show all the time on tv that’s why they only show them on superbowl day every year! Like for every 30 min commercial it cost 1 million dollars.

Here are some students that said what their favorite commercial was on superbowl day, Jaime Frias in 7b said that his favorite commercial was the Doritos commercial,and Nehat Biba in 9b said that his favorite commercial was the Emeniem one.

This is the reason why that they don’t show those commercials all the time on tv.

                                                By: Chris coby

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1440&bih=642&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=a5H7WmDm8GwBQM:&imgrefurl=http://www.sportslogos.net/logo.php%3Fid%3D1e7w3getgpeoqilhfseu&docid=PrkNCY_3MgePQM&imgurl=http://content.sportslogos.net/logos/7/593/full/1e7w3getgpeoqilhfseu.gif&w=700&h=588&ei=u-8yT9DVE7SCsgK23NmZBw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=710&vpy=196&dur=4344&hovh=206&hovw=245&tx=123&ty=115&sig=113749144771360410630&page=1&tbnh=140&tbnw=168&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0

Delicious Low Fat Cookie Recipe

There is a diet myth that women hate. The myth is you can’t eat anything tasty without it making you gains a lot of weight. Well, ladies! I have come to the rescue. I have found a recipe that is just scrumptious! The low fat chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Here are the ingredients:

·         ½ cup granulated sugar

·         ½ brown sugar

·         2 tbsp butter, melted

·         1 egg white

·         2 tbsp apple sauce

·         1 tsp vanilla extract

·         ½ cup whole wheat pastry flour

·         ½ cup all purpose flour

·         ¼ tsp baking soda

·         1/8 tsp salt

·         ½ cup mini chocolate chips.

The directions for making these delicious cookies are really easy. It’s just like baking regular cookies. Here are the directions.

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. If using both, combine the butter and shortening in a large mixing bowl and beat on medium speed for one minute.
3. Add the sugar and brown sugar.
4. Beat all ingredients until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally.
5. Now add the eggs and vanilla.
• Breaking the eggs into a separate bowl guarantees that you don't end up with eggshell in your cookies.
6. Beat until these are combined.
• Continue to scrape the sides of the bowl to evenly blend ingredients.
• Don't overmix, as that can lead to a tougher cookie.
7. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda in a separate bowl.
8. Next, slowly add the flour mixture, beating in as much as you can with the mixer and then stirring in any remaining flour with a spoon.
9. Add the chocolate chips, gently stirring with a spoon until they’re evenly mixed throughout the batter.
10. Drop the dough in rounded, teaspoon-sized balls, 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Optional: line the sheet with parchment paper.
11. Bake at 375 degree for eight to ten minutes.
12. Watch the cookies closely! They're done when:
• Their edges are golden brown or
• A toothpick can be cleanly removed from the center.
13. Remove from oven and let cool on their sheet for a few minutes.
14. Then move the cookies to cool on a wire rack for five minutes.

With these easy steps and a few ingredients, you can make  low fat chocolate chip cookies. I tried the recipe and I loved it. The cookies tasted just like normal ones. It’s defiently a winner.

Article by: Isabelle Arriaga

http://www.interiordesigninspiration.net/tag/logo-cookies/