At River City Science Academy, we strive to offer a variety of clubs and extra-curricular activities to our students. River City Science Academy Mandarin is offering a Journalism Club this year. Students involved in the club have the opportunity to learn more about the field of journalism and begin practicing their own journalism skills.
Students had the creative freedom to write about anything they wished, but chose to write about certain things that they would like to see added to their school. Please enjoy the writings of these talented 6th graders below.
Bullying, By Maddie Leitner:
Bullying-an eight-letter word meaning “wanting to harm, intimidate, or coerce someone.” But this is what the dictionary says. What do you think bullying is? Many people would say bullying is wrong, even when they’ve done it themselves, past or present. The same goes with cyberbullying. A recent study from http://www.cybersmile.org shows that cyberbullying is one of the main reasons for skipping school. Over 1/3 of children experience some type of bullying a year.
Social media can be used for good. Unfortunately, cyberbullying has made it so social media can be a bad thing.
Here are a few facts from www.ditchthelabel.org/21-facts-about-bullying/ to get you started:
About 37% of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 have been bullied online.
95% of teens in the U.S. are online, and the vast majority access the internet on their mobile device, making them the most common target for bullies.
23% of students reported saying or doing something mean or cruel to someone online.
Girls are more likely than boys to be both victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying.
To learn more, go to:
www.dosomething.org/us/11-facts-about-bullying
www.ditchthelabel.org/21-facts-about-bullying/
I interviewed 2 people from RCSAM and here’s what they thought: Alanna DeJesus, 6th grade: I think bullying is not believing in others for who they are and treating others the way they don’t want to be treated. If someone is bullying you, back away/don’t be part of that group, and stand up for yourself. Aarav Mathur, 3rd grade: I think bullying is being mean, hurting people, and annoying them. If someone is bullying you, tell a trusted adult or supervisor and ignore them.
Some people said to tell an adult, stay away from them, and stand up for yourself. But again, you must decide what you are going to do with bullies. If you’re a bully yourself, STOP. Think about what you’re doing to hurt others, and imagine what it would be like if you were them. If you are the bully, talk to a trusted adult about why and who you’re bullying. Normally, kids who have big problems in their life will put other kids in a problem. The bullies will make sure they’re not some weird kid who has a bunch of problems in their life and doesn’t know how to solve them.
Melania Trump, the first lady, has started a No Bullying campaign as her project to help the world. She called it Be Best, and is using the New York Times Bestseller Wonder.
She quotes,
“It remains our generation’s moral imperative to take responsibility and help our children manage the many issues they are facing today, including encouraging positive social, emotional, and physical habits…”
Melania Trump
First Lady of the United States
More After FSA Events, by Michael Bautista:
So I was thinking that we could have more school events after the FSA or a really huge test in the future. Last year, we had really fun events. Ex: Field Day, Fun projects, etc. In the future, we could have a lot of other fun stuff for the kids to do so they can unwind after the FSA. We could host a big game of Sharks and Minnows just for the Middle School grade level. Considering that we have a budget for this, we could have a big fun project our teachers give us. Last year, we had Ms Chow, (our science teacher) gave us a big project that included us getting a fish. I was thinking that we could still do that with our teachers and that we could do things that have to do with the subject we were given. In all honesty, I think this would make our school more likeable and more popular amongst the other campuses. But then again, that is my opinion. I have no idea what the principal or council will say about this. But to conclude this persuasive writing, I will list some things you should add. Art showcase, Dodgeball tournament, Bingo, etc. In conclusion, in my opinion, I think that this school would attract a lot more students if we add more events even though they are just events. Also I was thinking if we could have, say, more clubs. I know we have a lot of clubs but there are a lot of people who would agree with me if I said to make more clubs. We would make a lot more money just saying.
Chats and Rewards, By Matthew Cinnamond:
Did you ever think that you needed to ask what’s your homework but its not in connect. You might even be in the car, but we can fix this. First, it would be easier for teachers to put in homework to just chat with the kids about questions instead of homework being late and incomplete. Also kids can talk to each other about homework and do stuff. The problem is though, people could say inappropriate and bad words. To fix that problem, we can put different people as chat moderators that can control the site and create chats. There should also be a tracking area so mods that make chats of black side bad stuff can get demoted. That is so people can manage their words and chat nicely.
Also, they should receive punishments for saying these bad phrases/words so they learn not to do it again. Here is a list of punishments for offenses to the chat rules. The next section will be about the words. Punishments reset every month
-Saying Bad Words or phrases
1st offense – Warning
2nd offense – 5 minutes mute from all chats
3rd offense – 8 hour mute from all chats
4th offense – Permanent Ban from the chat where used, Must write apology note to RCSA to regain access
– Spamming
1st offense – Warning
2nd offense – 5 minutes mute from all chats
3rd offense – 8 hour mute from all chats
4th offense – Permanent Ban from the chat where used, Must write apology note to RCSA to regain access
- Back talking and saying bad stuff about people/ offensive words
1st offense- 20 minute mute from chat used
2nd offense- 1 day mute from all chats
3rd offense- Permanent ban from chat bad word is used.
4th offense- apology note and 30 day ban from website.
Rules:
Be nice, think how your teacher would react, and don’t say anything bad.
That’s it, just follow the simple rules and you’ll be fine.
*note make also direct messaging
Rewards
Ways you can become a chat mod:
Apply for mod through RCSA connect
Have 96 or above in all subjects in 3 report cards or progress reports.
Be voted most helpful chatter of the month voted
These rules will encourage students to do good so they get the higher roles
Helper Role/ Admin
Ways you can get admin
Be the first 50 people to join the chat
Get promoted by an admin
Be a founder or creator of the website
Apply from having Chat mod
Have a 100 in all subjects after first quarter
Apply from special academic club or honor rows
*Must make letter through connect
Books are Actually Helpful, By Hailey Foster:
Your reading teacher has probably has asked you to bring a book to class every day and read 20 minutes every night well sorry to say but this is about both! Upon hearing this you didn’t want too but it can help your brain gain more knowledge inside and outside of school and when you read the books you use your imagination and get to experience these places and characters for yourself. A couple sources mention and tell why it is good to read. https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-benefits-reading-why-you-should-read-everyday.html ,http://mcxl.se/thoughts/the-importance-of-books-in-our-life/ , and https://www.selfdevelopmentsecrets.com/benefits-importance-reading-books/ are just a few that cover why its good to read . Another reason is that it expands your knowledge about reading and writing, using finding new words in your story and looking them up can expand how you write and normal sentence can just change a lot just from those two or four new words you saw in your book that you made a decision to put in there. For example I play a visual novel game called When the Night Comes that has amazing writing and characters that with some of the words you feel like you’re there with certain describing words like those I use to make my writing and it makes it better! Here’s a sentence from the game that makes you feel like you’re there that sentence “and your reading can change because you with the more books that you read the better your reading is getting you read faster , more fluently ,and say difficult words gets easier , and if you don’t like the physical book in your hands or you like reading online … There’s also that option Tapas comic is a good one to try to read novels and comics that people like YOU! Made themselves .So go out there and start getting those reading books!
RCSA Rocket Link 