Hello Junior Lancers!

Mrs. Gordon and Dr. Incognito joyfully announce, Look Both Ways, the first Junior Lancer Log issue of this year.

Our student editors and writers have created editorial staff to represent the range of student interests and styles that accommodate our diverse student population.

This edition of The Jr. Lancer Log is entirely student-run, breaking with tradition with its blog-like format. It features a tribute to Mrs. Steckert, highlights of significant events at MPMS and even live footage of teacher interviews. Enjoy!

Ever since May 1, 1929, children have been participating in FLL (first lego league) Competitions. They would create robots, ideas, and models for a certain theme. For example, this year’s theme was “SUPERPOWERED”. It means that children had to create another way to source energy like water powered, solar, thermal, and more. Kids in Livingston spent months creating robots, ideas, and models, as well as practicing their speeches for the competition. These children participated in regionals at Clifton High School. They showed their speeches to the judges with their ideas/models, then they test their robots to see if their robots could perform certain missions; that's how they earned points. Once those were done, the judges and other people who ran the event would announce the winner and they'd move on to states where some would also get awards!

In states, students also competed by performing robot runs and saying their speeches to the judges, but it was much harder because there were higher expectations. The competition would take two days (Dec 10-11). There would be one day for speeches and the other for robot runs. Once this was all done all teams would go to the auditorium and the people who run the event would first announce the awards to people and then they would call up 1 team as the team that moves up to nationals/worldwide. Even though other teams did not get picked to go worldwide, they were still happy for the team that did. Lastly, to conclude this, the top 10 teams on the leaderboard from states will be competing at “Liberty Science Center”.

Martin Luther King Jr. is a very important and influential person in society today and in the Civil Rights movement. He stood strong for Blacks, and did it in a way where he was as peaceful as possible, like his role model, Mahatma Gandhi.

You may think this is going to be a boring old article, but this will be anything but. My name is Elisha L, and you’re reading…

Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2023: Why is MLK Jr. so important that a day is dedicated to him each year??

Martin Luther King Jr. is a big deal, today and yesterday! He made serious progress in the Civil Rights movement, and some of his biggest accomplishments are winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and giving the famous I Have a Dream speech. But these were done 60 years ago! Who cares now? Well, I’m here to tell you that MLK is amazing — in more ways than one.

Martin Luther King Jr. started off as a reverend with a dream. His father was a reverend, and because of his father, he followed. He believed that everyone should be treated equally, and he wasn’t for this “Blacks are lower than Whites” nonsense. He was very religious, and he believed that God had made everyone equal; black, white, Hispanic, Asian, or anything in between.

He left his church in Alabama to pursue civil rights. Martin was an educated man, but people still lived in a segregated world. You know, the world with different restaurants and laundromats for Blacks and whites. He started a dream in which people were strong and resilient and treated equally and fairly.

Martin soon met Rosa Parks, another Black civil rights activist. You know the story, of her not sitting where she ‘was supposed to’ on a bus, and that led her to stay in jail for a night.

Speaking of jail, Dr. King Jr. actually spent a lot of time in the ol’ cell. He didn’t do anything wrong, just a white policeman thinking… Black guy protesting’. TIME TO LOCK ‘EM UP, JEREMY!

Hey, MPMS!

As you most likely know, Mrs. Steckert retired from teaching on December 23, the day before winter break officially started. She taught at this school for 27 years, contributing to incredible memories along the way. Team 4 students could always recall Mrs. Steckert saying to them, “Good morning/afternoon young scholars!” She was, as some might say, a fair and fun teacher. I was lucky enough to stumble to her room because of a lockdown after Period 5, where we played a fun trivia game. Even though I was on Team 3, I am so lucky to have been in Ms. Steckert's classroom, even if it was for a short 10 minutes. Here is a comment about the beloved Ms. Steckert from my friend, Daniel.

Daniel

Mrs. Steckert was an amazing teacher and her teaching style was straightforward and full of knowledge that sinks in right away. Many students were sad to see her go because she was so unique and fun.

Fun fact: Mrs. Steckert speaks fluent Spanish!

Photo: Mrs. Steckert (right) and friend, Ms. Youtz (left)

Managing your money can be tough, so it’s important to know how to do it- how not to spend it all in one place, how to save up for the things you need, and most importantly, how to make your money grow. You may be thinking, “How does money grow?” Well, here is your answer: Stocks! In this modern era, learning about financial decisions and the economy is important. With the guidance of the lovely, talented, beautiful Mrs. Carabello, you can learn all the things you need to know about investing from diversifying your portfolio to inflation. In addition to this, you can compete against people in both the state of New Jersey and the New England area.

The Stock Market Game is a division of the SIFMA Foundation. It is a purely online competition that allows you to buy and sell stocks with $100,000 in your savings. Obviously, this is not real money and you are not actually buying stocks, but it is a realistic investment simulation that follows real-time fluctuations of the New York Stock Exchange. Likewise, trading is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. You can learn about all the different types of trading, which include bonds, short selling, and more, as well as personal finance. The Stock Market Game is a lunchtime enrichment class that is held for about a few months. This is the second session, and it is open to only a limited number of students from each lunch period. If the maximum number of students are admitted before you get a chance to sign up, email Mrs. Carabello at ecarabello@livingston.org if you wish to be put on the waitlist. Students still on the wait list from the first session will be admitted before new applicants, so if you are interested, sign up quickly!

A collection of the newest, and classic books is coming on February 13th to February 17 in the next Scholastic Book Fair!

The fair will take place during the school day, so you don't have to worry about coming after school. Also, new to the fair is eWallet, a digital payment account, instead of the usual physical cash! Now you don't have to worry about losing cash in between classes, because it is all digital! Before the fair, set up eWallet with your parents to easily pay with no worries!

But what if you can't come? Well, have no fear, because the Online Book Fair is here! All books ship directly to your house, and if you are worried about shipping prices for already expensive books, don’t be! Shipping is free for any book orders above $25!

As for the books themselves, we have many great reads, such as the newest book in the I Survived series (The Wellington Avalanche) or Cat Kid: Comic Club Collaborations, part of a companion series to the Dog Man series, early reads such as the Pete the Cat series, and the Elephant and Piggie series. Not only that, if you like gaming the book fair has books about the Sonic the Hedgehog games, Pokemon, and if you are interested in horror games, Five Nights at Freddy's. Some popular picks are Year in Sports 2023, the newest the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Diaper Overload, and Here Here Kitty.

This newspaper’s theme is to Look Both Ways, which means to see if what you are doing is being kind and respectful towards yourself, and the people around you! And what better way to be kind towards yourself than to relax with the newest book of your favorite series, or with a book that you enjoy a lot. Well, both of those things can be done by buying a book at the book fair! As for the people around you, if everyone buys a cumulative total of at least 600 books, Scholastic will give 25% of the profits to our school! This will not only help the school, but it will also help you because the costs will help make the school a more comfortable place for all of us!

So, what are you waiting for? What will your next great read be?