Lawrence Wave

Lawrence Poetry Slam Winners

The Power of Young Words

By Kaitlin McManus

This past Thursday, on the twenty-sixth of May, the Hermann Foundation Meeting Room at the Falmouth Public Library was the scene of an art show filled with words. Over sixty students from Lawrence School, along with their friends and family, gathered to perform their own original poetry for the fourth annual Lawrence School Poetry Slam.

A poetry slam is a contest that revolves around spoken words. The poet with the ability to mold words into stories and images is the most likely winner. Poetry slams first appeared as a sort of open mike gathering in which people would present their personal rhymes. These early forms of poetry slams eventually became what is now the modern slam. The poems performed at this local slam involved everything from the heartbreak of the hurt inflicted by a family member or the death of a loved one, to comic escapades on Cape Cod golf courses.  The vast audience, many viewing from outdoors through the windows, cheered loudly for all the contestants. The atmosphere was one of kindness, encouragement, and sheer joy!

Seven judges were seated at two tables across from each other with the performing poet in between. After each performance, judges held up a scorecard with a number from one to ten, ten being the score to strive for. This year’s volunteer judges were Becky Kirk, Shawn Woods, Eva McNamara, Katrina Totten, Naomi Weekes, Lynne Carreiro, and James O’Brien. The judges each had preferences; some liked rhyming poems and others enjoyed the personal feelings belted out by the poets. Two emcees, Molly Bagg and Cameron Costello, introduced each lyricist and kept the night rolling along.

Seventh grader Jack Koss started the evening off with his slightly humorous poem titled “Basketball.” Regarding the rest of the event, he said, quite simply, “It was a lot of fun,” which is a reaction that most people shared. Another comical poem followed, along with many which were very personal. So personal, in fact, that poets and audience members alike shed a few tears in reaction to the sometimes tender, but often raw, words.

At the end of the night, ten out of the sixty participants were claimed as winners. First place went to Ruth Fuller for her poem “Dispensable People,” a heartfelt piece about the flooding of the Mississippi River. KJ Weber was given second place for his poem “Cape Cod Clubbing” which had the judges and audience laughing until the last word. Olivia Beaton won third place with her brilliantly crafted poem Pet Peeves. Fourth place went to Sara Buscher, and fifth to Christian Muxica. Sixth was Chris Parkin, and seventh was Francesca Schofield. Eighth, ninth, and tenth places were awarded to Alex Yarosh, Jacy Howes, and Savannah Braley. The prizes were donated by the Library and Eight Cousins Bookstore.  In response to her win, Ruth Fuller said, “After I heard all the good poems, I really thought I wasn’t going to win. I thought that some of the people were really tough, but when they got up there and they just let everything out and cried in front of everyone, I thought that was very powerful.”

The turn out for the Slam was more than could have been asked for. The meeting room at the Falmouth Public Library was completely filled, and the number of participants was more than double last year’s slam. After the Slam was concluded, Olivia Beaton said, “It was really fun and I loved how enthusiastic the audience was, and it made it a lot easier to perform my poem. I think everyone who participated did an amazing job, and if you didn’t go, you should go next year.”

In school we listen to and read poetry, but the words on the paper can seem foreign to us.  Students wonder, sometimes not so nicely, why we study it at all. By  the reactions of the people who either participated in or watched the Lawrence Poetry Slam, it sounds as if poetry is alive and well spoken in Falmouth!

Some students in Team 4 at the Lawrence School have a chance to teach science to the 3^rd graders at North Falmouth Elementary School

By Corinne McGillicutty

        Have you ever wondered what it’s like teaching elementary school students before? Well some 8^th grade students in team 4 at the Lawrence School are getting the chance to in the C.A.S.T. (which stands for cross-age science teaching) project. This project involves a group of about 20 8^th grade students participating in 2 after-school training sessions, which trains the students to teach the 3^rd graders at the North Falmouth Elementary School various science lessons, mainly focusing on circuits and electricity. After the training sessions, the students get transported in a bus to North Falmouth School for around 1 hour 30 minutes and get to teach the kids with hands-on experiments what they have learned in the training sessions.

       The head of this program is Mrs. Parks. She does a wonderful job instructing the students, and making sure that everybody is involved. The 3^rd grade students enjoy the program a lot, and the 8^th grade students enjoy teaching them as well.

Emma Helfrich, an 8^th grader who is involved with the program loves teaching the elementary students. She says: “I think it is a great chance for the 8^th graders to be able to teach the 3^rd graders about science and hopefully get them more interested in the subject.”

            Each 8^th grader has a group consisting of 3-5 students, which they will continue to work with and instruct from between November 17^th until December 3^rd. The students picked to help teach were asked to participate because they are interested in science and are motivated to teach others, so the 8^th graders are sure to be interested in learning about science. The hands-on experiments and work with wires and batteries interest the 3^rd graders a lot, so the C.A.S.T. project is very popular with the students.

            Another 8^th grader participating in the C.A.S.T. program is Jamie Driscoll, and he greatly appreciates working with all the 3^rd grade students. He says: “The kids are great! They get into the lesson and love doing the hands-on work.”

            The C.A.S.T. program is a wonderful program for students in both 3^rd and 8^th grade to learn more about science and get a feel for what it’s like to be a teacher, and the students get a chance to make friends with people in different age groups. It is a great way to learn more about circuits and electricity, and everybody has a lot of fun in the process.

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint

Directed by: David Yates

2010, PG-13,146 minutes

Reviewed by Liam Doherty

            Harry, Ron and Hermione continue their adventure in the seventh film in the record-setting franchise with the new, unevenly paced installment with an extremely long title, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 1. Now that Dumbledore has died, Hogwarts is no longer safe. Harry, Ron and Hermione need to search the world for Voldemort’s horcruxes, the magical items he puts part of his soul into, and destroy them so they can kill Voldemort and put an end to his evil.

            If you have not read the book, you will have no idea what is going on in this movie. The film does not do a good job of explaining the plot to the people who “only see the movie” (so about 95% of America). The film builds tension for the climax that you won’t be able to see for another seven months, when the final film comes out. It seems that the film’s main intention (other than to make a couple hundred million dollars) was to show off the stars acting ability. But only Emma Watson (Hermione) shines, and is likely to be the only one with a career three years from now.  She has considered quitting acting, and she almost left the franchise after Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth movie.

               Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 1 often feels like an excuse for the filmmakers to squeeze as much money out of this franchise as possible, but if the final book hadn’t been split into two movies, it would have been a disaster. While this installment is definitely not the best installment of the franchise, it assures everyone that has read the books that the finale will be. Grade: B

Annual Alternative Gift Market Sells Gifts of Hope to Poverty-Stricken Countries.

By Kaitlin Goulart, Kaitlin McManus, Kait Kelleher, Jordan Willis, Emma Driscoll, and Becky Hopkins

            Over the weekend of November 13 and 14, the Alternative Gift Market was held at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church where both children and adults could come and purchase presents for families in need and supplies for organizations from both here and many third world countries.  Some local charities represented were the Hunger Network and CIGSYA. Some of the possible gifts included different varieties of food, animals, medicine, and school supplies.

            To make a purchase, you would get informed by the vendors of the items available, and then you could mark down on a yellow receipt what you were buying and the quantity. After giving the receipt to the vendors, they returned a card with an insert inside of it. The card and insert are a symbol of hope for someone else in the world because you helped a family by giving them a goat or chicks or even a tree. Cherry O’Malley said “The market is a very nice way to give presents and you can either give locally or even to Africa or Haiti”

There are many other ways that the organization has been earning money for the charitable causes, like the youth bake sale.  Adrian, who works at one of the bakery stands, said “This is a much bigger turn out then last year, and along with it, a better bake sale. Yesterday I made $200.00 alone.” All of the profits ($450.00) from the bake sale go to the Alternative Gift Market (AGM). As well as the bake sale, other people set up booths with beautiful, brightly-colored scarves for sale, hand bags, jewelry from different countries, and ornaments.

One vendor, a man named Craig Bautz, is responsible for CAPEable Adventures which is a local organization for disabled people of all ages. He started this business in 2007 providing recreational sports for people with all types of disabilities.  Some activities are biking, golfing, kayaking, sailing, and even skiing. Some of the reactions of visitors were, “WOW, that’s cool!” and “I didn’t know you were there.” He said if he were invited back next year he would definitly come.

            Rebekah Nicolas, an 8^th grader at Cape Cod Academy, is here on a student visa from Haiti. She ran a table at the market for her parent’s orphanage in Haiti.   “The people who have visited my stand have learned a lot about what is going on at the orphanage. They also donated greatly, and I think that if I am invited I will defiantly come back next year.”

If you run out of ideas for Christmas presents, then the Alternative Gift Market is perfect for you! The Heifer International project is great because you can “Give the Gift of Giving”, like buying chicks for a family out in Africa or a tree for someone in Haiti. A buyer named Sinica Du likes that she can help out poor girls around the world.  Janice Hank, one of the volunteers said, “This is probably the best year out of all four years we have been doing this. It is also a great cause because you can pick something local or something in another country or continent!” 

You should come and check this out next year in mid November or check out some of the organizations to help out families and kids! 

See you there!

The 2010 Lawrence soccer season was a big let down for returning players.

By: Kaitlin McManus

            This year Lawrence sports programs were cut in half due to budget cuts. As a result, Lawrence soccer only had seven games (with one more scheduled against Falmouth Academy) and one less practice per week. As well as that, the LAW soccer team has a new “no-cuts” policy which enforces the rule that all players, no matter how good they are, make the team and get to play at least two games depending on the person’s commitment and focus during practices. As a result, the team had about forty players of all different skill levels. 

            The team had three great coaches; Mr. Holt and Mrs. Gangi-Holt were the two head coaches assisted by the high school English teacher Mrs. Cipriani.  The coaches did a great job of inventing drills that would suit everybody’s skill level and experience.

            The first game of the season disappointed everyone.  The opposing team, Plymouth South, never even showed up. There were some rumors going around about how Plymouth South didn’t have a bus, and then when they got one they didn’t have a driver, and then when they finally left, they arrived at Lawrence School instead of at Trotting Park field where the game was being held. Thinking that we had already given up on their arrival, since no one was there, Plymouth South drove back home. While all this was happening the Lawrence team continued to do drills unaware of anything being amiss besides the fact that their opponents were extremely late. Finally someone managed to find out what was going on and the game was rescheduled for later on in the season. The next game was in Mashpee and was played in muddy and rainy conditions. Despite all of the player’s best efforts, Mashpee managed to score four goals and shut out Falmouth. Lawrence’s next adversary was Plymouth North, who managed to get through the midfield and defense to score a few goals. Once again, everyone played well, but there were some issues on marking up. The fourth game was the make-up of the match against Plymouth South and they had two teams, so Falmouth split up into two teams as well. One of the teams managed to pull off a 2-1 victory. Our two goals were scored by Maddie Andrade and Kelsey Azzato. The other Lawrence team didn’t have such a great turnout as they added another loss to our record. Next up was a match against Nantucket, which resulted in yet another loss for us. Then we played a miserable, wet game against Old Rochester that resulted in another loss, but our next game against Falmouth Academy brightened our spirits. We earned another 2-0 win but the victorious feeling was burned out when we lost our last game against Old Rochester.

            All in all, the 2010 Lawrence soccer season wasn’t very monumentous, but it finally came to an end with a great party in the Teen Center of the Falmouth Recreation Center.  Thank you, coaches for hosting such a great season, and good-luck, eighth graders on your journey to the high-school.

Lawrence School Bulldogs Football Season Wrap-up

by Nick Carlino, Grade 7, Lawrence School

At this time of year, when Falmouth football is mentioned, most people think of the annual FHS Thanksgiving game.  Football and Thanksgiving go together like, well, turkey and mashed potatoes. The football season is over for my team, the Lawrence School Bulldogs. It seems like it was over before it really even started. That’s because, due to budget cuts, our season was shortened from eight games to only four. I am thankful, still, that we were able to play those 4 games.

Due to a technicality, our first scheduled game of the season was considered a scrimmage.  The team had only one full day of hitting in pads at practice before this match up on Wednesday, September 29, against Nantucket’s Cyrus Pierce Middle School.  Since it couldn’t be considered an official game, a win or loss would not count toward our already shortened season. It was our first opportunity to see how the Bulldogs would work together as a team on the field. The Bulldogs’ defense made some great tackles and was quick to act when Nantucket fumbled the ball. Our offense ran fast and made some nice blocks. Even though the score didn’t count, this would be our only tie of the season.

We would face a tougher opponent in our next, and officially first, game.  Friday, October 8, 2010, we hosted the Mashpee Falcons on our home field at the Lawrence School.  Compared to last year’s match-up against Mashpee, the Falmouth Bulldogs showed a big improvement, but it wasn‘t enough for a win. Mashpee’s team put up a two- touchdown lead early in the game. The Bulldogs put up a good fight, but fell short with 27 points to Mashpee’s 33.

On Wednesday, October 20th we traveled to Orleans for our only away game of the season. The Bulldogs’ football team was ready for a win when we stepped on the field to face Nauset Regional Middle School.

The game went better for the maroon and white than it did for the black and yellow. Lawrence scored three touchdowns, thanks to our running back’s ability to break tackles, and some nice blocking by the Bulldog offense. Falmouth’s defense made some good tackles. The defense also intercepted a pass by Nauset’s quarterback in the second half of the game.  It was caught and ran for a few yards, giving the Bulldogs great field position. The end result was Falmouth 22, to Nauset 14.

The Bulldogs hosted the Vineyarders at Fuller Field on October 28th for the last game of the year. Throughout the game, our team kept strong and focused. Keeping blocks and making great tackles, everyone did their jobs. The Bulldogs beat the Vineyarders, 28 to 14.

I look forward to playing football again next year at Lawrence, when I am in the 8th grade. With any luck, we will have a full 8 game schedule. But, I will be thankful if there is money in the athletic budget for any schedule at all.

Lawrence Schoool Students really showed their spirit this week.  For more photos click here: http://blogs.falmouth.k12.ma.us/lsnewspaper/sports/spirit-week-photos/

By Nick Carlino

The Lawrence School Bulldogs football team was scheduled to play Martha’s Vineyard at home on Wednesday, October 27, 2010. Because of rain, the game was rescheduled to Thursday, October 28, 2010. Then, because the Lawrence field hockey team also had a home game, the football game was moved to Guv Fuller Field. Lucky us!

This game was our last game of the year. It was awesome how we got to play at Fuller Field. The Bulldogs beat the Vineyarders, 28 to 14. Throughout the game, our team kept strong and focused. Everyone did their jobs. In past articles, I have pointed out one or two outstanding plays to write about. Football is a team sport. No offensive play will work right without good blocking. If the defense isn’t blocking and making tackles, it only puts more pressure on the offense to win. During this game especially, we played well as a team. For this reason, I feel like I should print the names of every Lawrence Bulldog team member (including those who are no longer playing due to injury, etc):

Coach D’Amario, Coach Zine, Coach “G-Money,”

Fred Teed, Bobby Sargent, Curtis Brown, Owen Corey, Craig Green, Kyle Hogan, Liam Greene, Nick Costa, Jack Pendergast, Jake Michalski, Isiah Reid, TJ Cardoza, Blake Murphy, Tom Skehill, Thomas Fantasia, Andre Gordon, Ellis Densmore, Brendon Spellman, Matt Turner, Matt Haynes, James Jarvis, James Abbe, Yanni Rusko, Vasilios Rusko, Sergio Vasquez, Tristan Rowell, Emmett Kelleher, Nick Gonsalves, Julian Vicente, Cordell DeCoster, Tony Mase, Mitchell Medeiros, Marcus Morse, Justin Zmuda, Devon Sims, Derek Boston, Wassim Hounoud, Derek Saychew, Marc Rocheleau, John Mello, Isaiah Lineaweaver, Andrew Thompson, Nolan Rosetti, Trevon Jollymore, Rylie Harrington, Dempsey Pateirno, and me, Nick Carlino.

I hope I spelled everyone’s names right. Good luck to my teammates going on to high school next year. For those going into 8th grade in 2011, see you next season!

October 25-29 is Lawrence School’s Spirit week!

By Becky Hopkins

What is school spirit? Some would say it’s participating in school, like doing fundraisers, hanging up posters, and going to important games. Others say it’s giving school your all and arriving with a positive attitude every day. Whatever it is, School Spirit is an important quality to have, and that’s why Lawrence School dedicates an entire week to it!

During spirit week, students will be asked to show their school spirit with their clothes. Tuesday is pink day! Oct. 26^th is the day everyone will show their support in finding a cure to breast cancer by wearing pink! Wednesday will be clash day and everyone will wear ‘clashing’ clothes. Thursday will be ‘goofy day’ where all students will wear their crazy-est outfits all day! Friday will be the most fun. In addition to wearing maroon and white during the day, the week is toped off with a pep-rally featuring awesome games and the ‘Bulldog dance-off!’

So show everyone your school spirit, but remember, it’s not just what you wear, but how you act and how you treat your teachers and your peers. Also, keep in mind that Spirit week is really about having fun, so go out and show your school spirit!