Cougar News

Volume 2, Issue 5 February 03, 2010

Editorial Staff: 6th Grade Leadership Classes with special assistance from Mr. Varela and
Ms. Zytko

Dr. George Washington

Carver Middle School Disaster Hit Haiti
On Tuesday, January 12, were reported and many to support Haiti. If you want
Principal: Luz Cotto 2010 at 4:53 PM Haitian were missing or severely to give a helping hand,
time, an earthquake of mag- injured. please contact Ms. Settlage
nitude 7.0 hit Haiti and in room S121. You can also
People around the world are
caused tremendous destruc- text “HAITI” to 90999 to
doing everything they can to
tion. On Wednesday, Janu- donate $10 to the Red Cross
Inside this issue: help the earthquake victims.
ary 20, 2010, a second earth- relief efforts. Thank you for
Money, food, water, medi-
quake of magnitude 6.1 hit your support.
The Super Bowl 2 cine, and clothes have been
Haiti. Besides these two big
sent to Haiti by many chari- Jasmine Cruz
quakes, there have been 33
ties. At Carver, Ms. Settlage
Interview with Ms. 2 aftershocks and 14 out of Elizabeth Acuna
and many other staff mem-
Zytko those 33 were between mag- Flor Elias
bers held a fundraising event
Interview with Ms. 3 nitudes 5.0 and 5.9. Many
Jacob public facilities, houses and
buildings in Haiti were dam-
Babar Ali 3
aged or destroyed. For in-
stance, the control tower at
Funny stuff 3 Toussaint L’Ouverture Inter-
national Airport was badly
Brain buster 4 damaged, and the Port-au-
Prince seaport collapsed.
Current issue 4 The President’s house was
among the destroyed build-
ings. Thousands of deaths
Special points of interest:
 Earthquake in Haiti
 Super Bowl winner predic-
tion
 Interview with school staff Everyday Hero, Babar Ali
 A sixteen years old stu- Around the world millions of for the tuition and school Babar Ali is trying to change
dent makes a difference in children are not getting a materials. Even when they this. He is the first member
people’s lives
proper education. For exam- can afford it, the children do of his family to get a proper
 Jokes of the month ple, poor people cannot send not have a way to commute education. He has to ride a
 Brain buster their children to school in because schools are usually rickshaw or walk to school
India because they do not very far away from the vil-
 Current issue Continued on page 3
have enough money to pay lage. One school boy named
Page 2 Cougar News

The Super Bowl

On February 7, 2010, the most impor-
tant football game of the year will be
shown on CBS at 3:30 PM. We have a
Super Bowl game annually and this will
be the 44th game. It will be at Sun Life
Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Many 6th grade students and teachers
have been talking about this game. So,
on January 19, we decided to take a
survey of 100 6th graders to predict the
winner. The results were as follows:
53% voted for the New York Jets, 27%
voted for the New Orleans Saints, 13%
voted for the Indianapolis Colts, and 7%
voted for the Minnesota Vikings.
Since the survey, we now know the an-
swer to the question, “Which team will
be at the Super Bowl?”. Many of you
may know that the Indianapolis Colts
will face the New Orleans Saints in the
coming Super Bowl game, which will
decide the National Football League
(NFL) champion for the 2009-2010 sea-
son. For those of you who made the
right prediction so far, good job! Better
luck for the New York Jets and the Min-
nesota Vikings next time.
Remember to watch the Super Bowl on
Sunday, February 7, 2010. It will start
at 3:30 PM. Enjoy the game and we
wish the best of luck to your favorite
team.
Joshua Vissoni
Lucia Elias

Our B Track Leadership Teacher, Ms. Zytko

There are three 6th Grade Leadership
classes at Carver, one on each track.
Leadership students help with organiz-
ing many school activities. For example,
we help with the school newspaper,
Q: Ms. Zytko, how long have you been
working at Carver?
A: I have been a teacher at Carver for
exactly fifteen years.
also want them to feel safe, learn a lot,
and have fun.
Q: Are you going to retire soon?
A: No, not anytime soon.

Thanksgiving canned food drive, making
posters to promote different events, par-
ticipate in school beautification projects,
etc. We really enjoy these activities, and
appreciate our teachers’ support and
guidance. The 6th Grade Leadership
teachers are: Mr. Oakley (A track), Ms.
Zytko (B track), and Mr. Varela (C
track). We want to interview them and
share the information with you. On
January 28, we interviewed Ms. Zytko
and this is what we discovered about
her:
Q: When did you want to become a
teacher?
A: I wanted to be a teacher since I was
seven.
Q: Do you like teaching in this school?
A: A friend convinced me to come to LA
and teach at Carver. Thanks goodness
because I absolutely love it.
Q: Do you have any goals for this school
year?
A: My goal is for each of my students to
feel confident in all sixth grade material,
and improve their CST scores by 10%. I
Q: When you do, what other jobs will
you get?
A: I may get a volunteer job. I espe-
cially enjoy helping people in some
way.
Q: Have you ever visited any interest-
ing schools?
A: Could there be a school more inter-
esting than Carver???
And she is right, you know?
Alejandro Arellano
Daniel Alexandre
Volume 2, Issue 5
A Few Minutes with Ms. Jacob, the Cafeteria Manager
We interviewed Ms. Jacob on Thurs-
day, January 21, 2010. We talked
about what happens in the cafeteria
everyday. The workers here work hard
to make sure that students have break-
fast, nutrition and lunch quickly since
we do not have much time for a break.
She advised students to always check
Babar Ali (Continued from page 1)
everyday. Even though Babar Ali some-
times has trouble coming to his school
because of all the rain and the floods, he
never gives up. Also, his parents have to
pay 18,000 rupees (around 40 dollars) a
year for his uniform, books, and other
school supplies. Forty dollars is not
much in the U.S. but it’s worth a lot in
India, where many people always have
to struggle for food.
Babar Ali has made a huge difference in
his community. He was just nine years
old when he started teaching and he has
been doing it for the last seven years.
The minute he leaves his school, he
heads back to his house to teach all the
poor children in his village. He delivers
Funny Stuff
Q: What do monsters make with cars?
A: Traffic Jam
Q: Why did the pony cough?
A: He was a little hoarse
Q: What do sheep do on sunny days?
A: Have a baa-baa-cue
the expiration dates on the milk carton
and exchange for a new one if necessary.
We learned that the most popular items
are chicken wings, French toast, coffee
bread, pizza, lasagna, and cereal. Oh,
and do you know that teachers get the
same food as we do, but they have to
pay for the food? We asked Ms. Jacob if
the lesson the way his teachers teach
him. It was like a game for him at first,
but he loves it very much and it has
turned into a huge thing now. Babar Ali
teaches over 800 students in his family’s
backyard. It’s hard to believe that he is
Ask yourself, “What can I do to
make this community better?”
only a sixteen year old. All of his stu-
dents are from poor families who would
never have had a chance to go to school
before. These students do not have to
pay Babar Ali. They can even get all
their books for free through donations.
Q: Where do Aliens keep their sand-
wiches?
A: In a Launch box
Q: Why couldn’t the skeleton go to the
dance?
A: He had no body to go with
Page 3
we could change the food selection. She
said that she used to take students’
opinion and gave them what they
wanted, but now she has to follow the
menu. What do you think about our
food at school?
Brianda Chavez
Jaqueline Morataya
Babar Ali gives these students the op-
portunity to succeed and have a better
life in the future.
Babar Ali is an example of people who
make a difference in other people’s lives.
His work shows us that if we work hard,
we can accomplish a lot. If you want to
learn more about Babar Ali and other
people who have made a great contribu-
tion to their communities, you can visit
the website http://www.dailygood.org/
more.php?n=3894.
Have you ever ask yourself “What can I
do to make this community better?”
Brianna Hernandez
Wendy Santana
Q: How do you know when a dog has
been naughty?
A: It leaves a little poodle on the carpet
Q: What do you call a vampire that lives
in the kitchen?
A: Spatula
 ton
Dr. George Washing
Carver Middle School
Carver Middle School
4410 McKinley Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90011
Phone: 323-846-2900
Fax: 323-232-5344
Website: www.carverms.org
"Where Kids Are
First"
The Brain Buster
This month’s riddle:
Twelve pears hanging high, twelve men
passing by. Each took a pear and left
eleven hanging there. How can this be?
What never gets any wetter, no matter
how much it rains?
Remember to tell Ms. Robbins your an-
swer. If you are the first student with
the right answer, you will receive a spe-
cial prize. GOOD LUCK!
Answers for last month’s question:
 A caterpillar, a worm-like stage of a
butterfly (see picture). It does not
have wings, but will fly when it be-
comes a butterfly
 Unplug the bath tub to save your-
self from drowning
OUR MISSION
Carver Middle School is to pro
vides a safe, suppor-
tive, engaging, and challengin
g learning environ-
ment in order to prepare all
students for academic,
social, and personal success.
Current Issue
Voting for Carver Reform Plan 10am and 3pm-7pm. If you were unable
to vote that day, you can come on Satur-
Many of you already knew that two enti-
day, February 6, 9pm-12pm. So, talk to
ties applied to gain control of Carver
your parents, relatives, neighbors and
Middle School next year. One group is
encourage them to vote. Carver’s future
headed by Ms. Cotto and the Carver
depends on us.
family, and the other is the Partnership
of Los Angeles Schools. They both sub-
mitted their written plans to the school
district. To view these plans in detail,
you can go to the Public School Choice
update on the LAUSD website. Let your voices
On Wednesday, January 27, 2010,
many parents, teachers, and students
attended an important meeting in the
be heard,
school auditorium. The two reform
plans for Carver Middle School were
presented and the audience had the op-
VOTE!
portunity to voice many questions and
concerns. If you did not have a chance
to attend this meeting and wanted to
get all the important details, talk to
your classmates and teachers.
The voting took place at Carver Middle
School on Tuesday, February 2, 7am-