THE MCKINLEY TIMES January 2021 Serving the McKinley Community Since 2020 Volume VII

Who is Amanda Gorman? Amanda was born in Los Angeles and has two siblings. Amanda is a twin and She is truly unstoppable and so inspir- by Zoe G. was raised by her mom who was a teach- ing! You too can be like Amanda. Read er. She rarely watched TV growing up more, write more and express yourself! Amanda Gorman is our National Youth and thought of herself as a weird child I´ll leave you with some of her words. Poet Laureate. What is a poet laureate, because she enjoyed reading and writing. you might ask? According to Wikipedia, Amanda has a disorder where she is hy- ¨We will not march back to what was a poet laureate is a poet officially ap- persensitive to sound and she went to but move to what shall be pointed by a government or conferring speech therapy to get through it. At the A country that is bruised but whole, institution typically expected to compose age of 14, she became the first Los An- benevolent but bold, poems for special events and occasions. geles Youth Poet Laureate while she was fierce and free.¨ On January 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman in the WriteGirl program. She attended read her poem ¨The Hill We Climb¨ at New Roads School right here in Santa - Amanda Gorman President Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day. Monica! Amanda graduated from Har- At 22 years old, she is the youngest poet vard University and is an award-winning laureate in history to read at an inaugu- writer. She has spoken at many historic ration. Amanda also made history when events across the country. She has al- she read her speech on the same day of ready written a poetry book called ¨The Vice President Kamala Harris´ Inaugu- One for Whom Food Is Not Enough¨ ration who is now our first woman Vice in 2015 and she will be working on two President and is the first woman of color children’s books in the future. Did I to serve that position. mention she also wrote for black athletes for Nike?

January 20th was a very special day at There was also a poet who recited a spe- Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. and cial poem she wrote called “The Hill We across the country. The day not only Climb.” Twenty-two year old National included the swearing in of Joe Biden Poet Youth Laureate Amanda Gorman and Kamala Harris, but also musical and is the youngest poet to ever speak at a literary performances to mark the occa- Presidential Inauguration. She grew up sion, and Joe Biden’s first speech as Pres- in Los Angeles and went to high school ident. Due to the Pandemic, there was a in Santa Monica, before graduating from limit for people who could attend the in- Harvard. All of her poems are well writ- auguration and everyone who was there ten and have beautiful meanings. A part had to be masked. of Amanda Gorman’s poem read, “For 2021 Inauguration there is always light, if only we’re brave The day started partly cloudy, then it enough to see it. If only we’re brave by Molly L. started snowing at the Capitol! But, in enough to be it.” the end, the sun was shining as a new On January 20th, 2021, a new President administration was put in place. Overall, this inauguration was fun, excit- and Vice President were inaugurated. Joe ing, and marked a new era in our coun- Biden was sworn in to the position of Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, and Garth try. Joe Biden is the 46th President and President of the United States, and Ka- Brooks were among the talented singers Kamala Harris is the 49th Vice Presi- mala Harris was sworn in as Vice Pres- who performed and were truly outstand- dent. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will ident. She is now the first ever African ing. They sang songs that showcased the enjoy the roles of President and Vice American, Asian American, and female U.S. and the meaning our new president President of the United States, working Vice President of the United States in is trying to communicate to all who call to make the country a better place for all history. America home. Americans.

January 2021 Serving the McKinley Community Since 2020 Volume VII CURRENT EVENTS The US Presidential Race Between November and Today: Looking Back and Ahead

by Shayla A. Many houses were tense and the election Donald Trump was recently impeached. is all they could talk about because we He was impeached because he did not The Presidential election in November didn’t find out the results until 5 days stop the Capitol riot. This was the choice of 2020 was a tense race. This is be- later. that the House of Representatives made. cause the country was very divided and He has not been convicted yet. There is because of COVID 19. More people After all the confusion, Joe Biden is another vote to convict him in the Sen- voted than ever before because it was our new president. Someone who also ate. such an important election, maybe one got elected with him is Kamala Harris. of the most important ones in our histo- She is the first black and Indian woman As you can see a lot happened. After all ry. This is because whoever won would to be Vice President. This is a historic this, I feel ready to move on to focusing have to work to end the pandemic. moment. Kamala Harris was part of the on school and COVID 19 and am glad Senate before Joe Biden chose her to be we can look forward to a new year. Getting the results of this presidential Vice President. election was confusing. In one state it looked like Biden won over the state but However, Donald Trump says that there then Donald Trump did. This proves was fraud. Thousands agreed, but when that it was a very close election. There the issue was looked into, there was no are also states called swing states. Swing evidence stating that there was fraud. states are states that switch between There were several recounts and in the democrats and republicans. Also in this end the elections stated Biden won. It is election, Georgia became a swing state not true that there was fraud. A person when it voted for Biden so it had quite might not like that fact but it’s true. some attention. Thousands went to marches saying the The Covid 19 pandemic made the elec- election was fraud. We had an unex- tion difficult because of having more pected and unpleasant experience at the mail in ballots. This also slowed the time Capitol, and most know about this. I am of getting the answers of who won the talking about the riot at the Capitol. The election because mail in ballots kept Capitol was trespassed by thousands. flowing in. There was no getting them Now more than ever the Capitol needs to stop. But the votes did all get counted. security. 2 January 2021 Serving the McKinley Community Since 2020 Volume VII CURRENT EVENTS Lunar New Year: Another clean on the first day of Lunar New Year bottles, cardboard, and even polystyrene. New Year? or buy books (Spring Festival tradition). Small actions can make a big difference. During this pandemic, you can do even by An N. Setting off fireworks: this is to ward off/ more to help the environment. Ideas in- scare evil spirits away! Eating dumplings: clude using reusable (washable) masks Lunar New Year this year starts on the Chinese word “jiao zi,” is similar to and gloves and upcycling hand sanitizer February 12th. You may think, “Um, I the ancient word for new replacing the bottles. (Don’t forget to clean them out thought New Year’s was January 1st?” old, it also looks like ancient times’ gold. first!) We need to do things like this be- Valid question. Let me explain. If eaten it’ll bring fortune! Cleaning your cause all living creatures depend on us to house, before Lunar New Year: this is so save the planet. Talk to your teacher and Lunar New Year is a tradition that many that you can clean off all the bad luck family about ways that you can do more Asian countries celebrate. This holiday is that has come from the old year. Wash- to go green. exactly like Chinese New Year; they just ing or cutting your hair, this is because have different names including Chinese cleaning or cutting your hair is thought The NBA Start of Season New Year, Chunjie, Tet, Solnal, Losar, to be cutting or washing your fortune Spring Festival, and of course, Lunar away. Cleaning: this is because it will by Jonah Cohen New Year. There are many unique tra- clean away the good luck (don’t even ditions, and it has a set or rules that you wash the dishes). If you want to clean, So far the 2020-2021 season has started should follow. Tradition says, broken do it the second day. Buying books: this well. Covid cases haven’t been a prob- rules will result in bad things happening is because in Chinese the word “book” lem for the NBA. Commissioner Adam throughout the year. sounds like the word lose. You don’t Silver has done well handling the situa- want to have bad luck! tion. Players are socially distancing The Why does Lunar New Year start on the LA Lakers have quickly raced to the top 12th? It seems quite unusual. Well, like Didn’t you have fun learning about Lunar of the league. So far the NBA Standings the name hints, it is because of the Lu- New Year? If you want to learn more, look similar with most of the top teams nar Calendar. It begins on the first new you can research about Lunar New Year. doing well . But a few teams aren’t, the moon that falls from the 21st of Janu- Well, I hope you loved learning about Houston Rockets, Miami Heat, and To- ary and the 21st of February (Gregorian Lunar New Year and it’s tradition! ronto Raptors are some top teams not Calendar perspective). So, now you know doing so well. All three of those teams why in 2021 it starts on February 12th! Staying Green in Quarantine made it to the playoffs, and the Heat made it to the NBA finals but lost to the Now, I know you want to know some by Aria E. Lakers in 6 games. of the traditions celebrated! During Tet, they’d dress up in the traditional clothes, Our environment is a valuable resource Staying Busy in Quarantine do ancestral worship, wish New Year’s and it is our responsibility to take care greetings, and give lucky money to the of it. “Going Green” includes all sorts by Jonah C. children and elderly. During Tet, you of things to help the environment, like often have family reunions! In China, the three Rs -- Reduce, Reuse, and Recy- Keeping yourself occupied during they’d have a parade, there’s fireworks, cle. Reduce means to use less of some- quarantine is important. Here are some and they pray to their ancestors and the thing, like paper towels or single-use favorite activities of some students. gods. plastics. Reuse means to use something again, which could include repurposing 1. Watching Television Lastly, rules that you should/have to or upcycling things that you would nor- 2. Playing Sports follow. What to do: set off fireworks (in mally throw away. I love to make crafts 3. Reading Books many parts of China and others), eat out of old boxes. I also use old glass and 4. Playing Video Games dumplings (a popular tradition in North- plastic bottles to do cooking and science 5. Doing Art ern China), and clean your house, but experiments. Recycle means to convert 6. Playing Music BEFORE the Lunar New Year. What waste into reusable material. Lots of 7. Going Fishing not to do: don’t wash or cut your hair, items can be recycled, such as plastic 3 January 2021 Serving the McKinley Community Since 2020 Volume VII MCKINLEY NEWS STEM Club at McKinley tables, and a thinking nook, which was but the answer for 5th graders is still dubbed by Mr. Edwards as a “thnook.” unclear. In the meantime, we will have by Jacob M. I asked some of the staff on what their something new to see when we go back opinions are of the new furniture. to school, and try it out ourselves. Lucki- STEM Club with Ms. Oyenoki is McKin- ly, Dr. Benjamin put together a video for ley’s Science Club. It is really fun! You Ms. Melissa said that she wished she families to see the new furniture. get to do 3D stuff along with other cool had had furniture like it when she was science experiments. If you like Science, in school. The new furniture is very easy you should defiitely sign up. If you don’t to move around and to store things in. like Science, you should still give it a try. Mr. Edwards also said that it is going to Science is one of my favorite subjects, change the way that students are grouped but I didn’t really like it at first. Once together, as the setup allows for more I started doing Science, I realized how flexibility. Instead of walking over to a awesome it is. Even though it is online, classmate’s desk, imagine rolling over you will get used to it and have a lot of there in your chair, or simply swiveling fun. around to face them.

21st Century Furniture Of course, a question on everyone’s mind is, “will we get to see the new fur- by Juliet S. niture?” The answer? Who knows. If we do go back to school for a model like Over the Winter Break, new furniture Distance Learning Plus sometime this was delivered to the school. But this isn’t year, we will be in various outdoor spac- furniture like what most of the class- es, using the old classroom furniture to rooms have ever had before. There are do our work. It is probable that TK-4th rolling chairs, “wobble” seats, stools, will see it when we go back to school,

of the new experiences are electives, classes that students choose to take. The electives are:

1. Exploratory In the Exploratory elective, students study French, Project Lead the Way, Ted- Ed, and Music each for a period of 10 weeks.

2. Music You can take Orchestra, Band, or Cho- rus at three different levels. Middle School Electives away, but it’s where we’re all heading next after McKinley. On Monday, Lincoln 3. ASB by Juliet S. counselors will come to the 5th grade Associated Student Body is student lead- classrooms to talk about Middle School ership and government. (Please note: This article was written and our elective choices. That night, they before Lincoln’s Show on the Road) also will host Show on the Road, where If you are a 5th grader and would like to counselors and students will talk about learn more, you can go to the email sent Middle School might seem like a century the experience of being at Lincoln. One out to all 5th grade families to hear more about these exciting electives. 4 January 2021 Serving the McKinley Community Since 2020 Volume VII MCKINLEY NEWS 10 Questions With a McKin- and at the time I just immigrated to the my most favorite thing to do outside of ley Lion: Ms. Le United States, so art was my language school. Just to be with my family. Cur- that I understood. rently, they are all in Colorado, so when by Matthew S. I do visit them I do value every minute 3. What is your favorite movie? that I have with them. Ms. Le is famous at McKinley for her My favorite movie was Beauty and the Wax Museum and Hero Projects. As Beast. I think the only reason why that 7. What is your favorite food? one of her former students, I was curi- was my favorite was because that was the My favorite food would be pizza because ous who Ms. Le would consider as her only movie (and a couple of other mov- there are all these options and topping hero. After interviewing her, I found out ies) that we had on VHS, so we would choices. For my birthday, I had a piz- it was her father, who she says, “took watch that over and over and over, so za making party where I bought pizza care of our large family with what little that is my favorite. In high school my fa- dough and we just made mini pizzas. I he had.” Ms. Le’s father, now a success- vorite movie (and it still is my favorite) is love doing that with my nieces and neph- ful business owner, and the rest of her Powder. It is about a boy that is different ews, too. We would have a pizza making family left Vietnam on a fishing boat for from the people in his community. It is a dinner. We would make our own pizzas China. She was born in Hong Kong and sad story. Great moral. and I think it is just the feeling of all then they immigrated to the U.S. when being together making our own dinner. she was just 1 ½ years old. She is one of 4. What is your favorite board or card Choosing all these toppings. Sharing 7 kids! Read on to find out how much game? “Look at all my toppings” and “try my she still loves spending time with her My favorite board game is Candyland, slice!” I think it is more about the to- family and how Dr. Seuss and art helped which was our first board game. We getherness. her as an English language learner. And would play this game over and over and if you ever want to see how you rank in over. Almost every day. Even if we were 8. What is your favorite candy? the card game, Speed, you might want to missing pieces, we would substitute the A lot of people are shocked that I don’t challenge Ms. Le to a game! She is un- pieces. My favorite card game is Speed. like chocolate. I’m not a big chocolate defeated! I’m still the fastest. I’m unbeatable! person, so my favorite candy is the Mex- ican candy that has the tamarind chili 1. What was your favorite book when 5. What is your favorite sport to play? powder over it. They have mango flavor you were a kid? My favorite sport to play when I was a and watermelon. It is a hard candy, but The thing is I’m an English language kid would be baseball or softball. All you they coat it with a Mexican sweet tam- learner, so English was hard for me to needed was a ball and a stick, so that is arind, spicy, like powdered sugar. It has understand. Dr. Seuss was my favorite. what we would use. A ball and a stick. a spicy and sweet tamarind flavor. I like There was a more obvious pattern to his We would even use other things when that mixture. books. the ball would go missing. It was an easy game. We would play in the backyard. 9. What is your favorite animal? 2. What was your favorite school sub- It would be fun. It was great to have a My dog. I adopted her at the age of 2 ½ ject? lot of siblings because there were already years old from a shelter in Torrance. She My favorite subject was art and still is art. two teams – 3 per team. It was really is 13 ½ now. She is a shih tzu – poodle There isn’t a language barrier with art, hard for our parents to get things for all mix. She is my favorite. She is my first so everyone can have their own feeling 7 kids, so we had to share, we had to im- dog. My dog’s name is Midnight. and there is not a right or wrong feeling provise, we had to be creative. We were towards art. It is like one language. We outside a lot. 10. Can you tell us some interesting can all appreciate art, so I love art. I even facts about you? won an Easter Egg drawing contest. 6. What are three things you like to do 1. I sleep walk. I believe that was in first grade. I was outside of school? 2. I have two older sisters and 4 older so happy and proud of myself because I like to be with my family. Often we brothers. that was the only subject I was good in. would go on hikes, camping, and we love 3. I was born in Hong Kong. Again, I was an English language learner to have dinners together. That would be 5 January 2021 Serving the McKinley Community Since 2020 Volume VII ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Among Us Game Review little astronaut. In order to tell the differ- ence between each astronaut, the astro- by Matthew S. naut’s suits are different colors. These colors are chosen by each player. You In the last year it has been difficult for can also customize your astronauts with many of us to socialize with our friends. hats. When you start the game there are One game that makes this possible (and two types of players. The first type of still allows you to follow social distanc- player is a crewmate. These crewmates ing protocols) is the game Among Us. go and do short minigames called tasks. Among Us is a popular murder-mystery If all of the crewmates finnish all their game that came out three years ago. You tasks, they instantly win the game. The can play this game on a computer, smart second player is the imposters. There are phone, tablet or a Nintendo Switch. normally 2 imposters who both team up What makes this a great option for you to kill all the crewmates to win the game. to play with your friends is that you need While they are doing this, they are sab- a maximum of 10 players and a mini- otaging rooms so the cremates can’t see mum of 4. I would suggest at least 8 or see the tasks. They can also sabotage players for it to be really fun. the reactor and the oxygen. If you don’t fix them in the time limit, the crewmates The game takes place in a spaceship. Be- instantly lose. fore each game begins you are assigned a

find a toilet that could process the sew- age and could reuse it to turn it into en- ergy that powers the toilet. Many of the models were successful but way too ex- pensive to build. Then he went to China to find companies that could build the new toilet cheaply, and it is now used in poor countries.

He also worked with an engineer who came up with an efficient sewage treat- ment factory that boiled the waste and turned it into steam, which powered Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding sult, many kids are becoming sick with the factory. The factory could also filter Bill Gates, Part 1 diarrhea from the germs and parasites in urine and turn it into clean drinking wa- the water. Half a million kids die from ter. He built the factory in Dakar, Sene- by Sienna N. diarrhea. gal, so that it could filter the waste and provide clean drinking water for many I never expected that a documentary The three part Netflix documentary, people that didn’t have it before. would make me happy to have a toilet. “Inside Bill’s Brain” follows the Micro- Let me explain: soft founder, Bill Gates, as he works on I recommend this documentary because solutions to some of the worlds biggest it shows how lucky we are to have clean In poor countries, many towns don’t problems. Part One shows how in 2005, drinking water, bathrooms and sewage have pipes to remove bathroom waste, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation systems. And I’m really happy that peo- which is called sewage. The sewage ends decided they wanted to do something ple are trying to get these things into de- up in rivers, which is also the place where about the sewage problems in poor veloping countries. I really enjoyed this people get their drinking water. As a re- countries. They held a competition to documentary, and you probably will too. 6 December 2020 Serving the McKinley Community Since 2020 Volume VI ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Just Dance 2021 is the 11th instalment of the Just Dance games. I would defi- nitely recommend this game for every- one because it has a mix of playing the video game part and dancing. Not that I don’t like it, but I would recommend playing it during the summer. Hopefully the vaccine comes around, so you can play with your friends. Just dance brings back a popular song by Eminem called Without Me. I know what you are prob- ably thinking, “Don’t most rap songs have curse words?” Well let me answer that for you, yes they do, but not in just dance. This game was designed for kids, so that is why just dance blocks out all grown-up related words from the song. Even in the songs you heard a million times but didn’t catch the words. Just Video Game Recommenda- color and hat. The game is free to play Dance has a gift machine that you can tions for 2021 (on the PC it costs $5). The only thing play so that you can unlock new avatars, that costs money is the pets and some backgrounds, skins, and aliases. hats, but most hats are free. by Daisy M. Mario Deluxe features the all mighty ROBLOX is a game that has millions Mario of all those great Mario games. Have you found yourself starting to of ‘mini’ games within the app. There In this great game, Mario is trying to play video games? Well if you can’t are coding programs to make good save Princess Peach with a group of choose just one to play, I have a few you games on ROBLOX. You can find friends. I would recommend this game can pick from. many of the already made video games for any kid or anyone who has a good on ROBLOX. For example, Among Us spirit and can set the goal of saving Among Us has been a growing game has a ROBLOX version called Amongst Princess Peach. My sisters and cousin with increasing popularity. I personal- Us. They didn’t make it exactly like the love playing this game and are never ly find it fun. The whole point of the real game because the creator possibly actually Mario because apparently, he is game is for the crewmate astronauts didn’t get permission from innersloth a ‘weak’ character. Mario Kart Deluxe to try to finish all their tasks before to use the same set up. You can also is another mario game on the Nintendo the imposter eliminates anyone. The be really creative and make completely switch. It’s a family racing game that is imposter’s goal is to eliminate everyone new things that might end up being on fun to play during the weekends. I like and stay low key and blend in with the a t-shirt. Speaking of t-shirts, roblox al- how the game has all these nintendo crewmates. I would find the game for lows you to be so creative, that you can characters, including Mario, who have kids a little older than 7. This is because make your own clothes for your ROB- vehicles to race in Nintendo themed there is the slightest bit of violence LOX avatar. If you are a new youtuber, race tracks. For example, The legend when the crewmates get eliminated. then this game would be a really good of Zelda is a Nintendo game that is But other than that, the game can show game for you to play on your videos, featured on the nintendo switch, and on creativity. You can give your astronaut a there are a lot of youtubers that are on Mario Kart 8. 10 lettered name. I usually keep mine to ROBLOX. You can friend your friends my nickname, but you can feel free to on ROBLOX , you just have to find the If any of these recommendations make name yourself whatever you want. Once add ‘friend button’ and find your friends you want the game, then just ask your you enter ‘the lobby’, you can chat with username. parents, with permission. the players, and change your characters

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