Student Edition - FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

Valentine’s Day has come and with that comes Candy Grams! Landrum Journalism classes sold Tootsie Pop Candy Grams in the cafeteria from January 23rd to February 10th, and distributed them on Valentine’s Day 2017. This fundrais-er is open to every-one from 6-8th grade at Landrum, even Instructional staff members! The lollipops are made in a peanut-free factory, so those of students with aller-gies can participate in the fun!

Students purchased Candy Grams for one dol-lar. Students ad-dress their lollipop with a friend’s name and home-room, then their own name or blank if they want to remain a mystery. Sometimes, it’s fun to keep it a secret, you could be their secret admirer.

Not only is it fun, cute and a tasty treat for everyone, it is a great way for Journalism to raise money to keep pro-ducing the LMS Newspaper, The Predator, and The Roar T.V. show every month. When you buy a Candy Gram, you are making your friends happy and Journalism happy, which makes a very fun Valentine’s day for all!

Candy Grams are also a good way to say thank you for being a good friend. They are inexpensive and easy to make. It makes you feel good sending one, and your friend who receives it even better!

Mrs. Bard and Mrs. Umlauf, were then asked if they have received a Candy Gram and how it made them feel. Mrs. Bard exclaimed, “Yes! And it made me excited because I had secret admirers!” Mrs. Umlauf followed saying the exact same thing. They both enjoyed the experience of sending and receiving Candy Grams.

This year, they can’t wait for the excitement to come around .

8th Grader Jack Koerner joyfully expressed his opin-ion on Candy Grams, “I felt really happy when I got a Candy Gram, and when I sent one.” Jack says he can’t wait send another Candy Gram next year.

Elyse Hartman, a 6th grader here at Landrum, shared that she has not sent a Can-dy Gram before, but she will definitely par-ticipate in the very ex-citing activity, when it comes around next year. Robert Caldwell, 6th grade, said, “I have sent a Candy Gram to my friend. It made me feel happy.” Robert

explained he has never received a Candy Gram, but he will still send another one again next year.

The LMS newspaper is printed at the Florida Times Union. The newspaper charges $200-$350 per issue. The Journalism classes pay for this printing with the proceeds from the Candy Gram sales. This year the Valentine Candy Grams have raised over $1000 so The Predator will continue well through next year thanks to the students and staff at Landrum Middle School.

PREDATOR STAFF SPRING ISSUE 2017

Editors: Elliot Kantor

Designer: Avani Shandilya and Audrey-Anne Haynes

Banner Designer: Elliot Kantor

Candy Grams a Success! By: Remy Cush, Emma Greer, and Caroline Gentile

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Keeping New Years Resolutions

Keeping your new year’s resolution, whether it is to lose weight, get off the phone more, or even try something new, can be hard to keep. “You have to keep it in order to get something achieved,” says Remy Cush, 7th grade.

First off, you need to create a New Year’s resolution. The first thing to do is to pick one thing that you want to change. Then, you need to plan ahead for your resolu-tion. To help with this, you can create a sched-ule or planner showing what days you should practice keeping your New Year’s resolution (Most likely, if you are planning to exercise!) Next, you need to antic-ipate problems. Think of what could go wrong, then plan ahead to counteract it. Finally, pick a start date. One of the most common start dates is January 1st, but it can be later or before.

To make your resolution stick, start small. If less phone usage is your goal, try to not use it for about an hour a day. After that, change one behavior at a time. Next, talk about it. Tell your family or friends about your experiences with your reso-lution. One thing you should definitely NOT do is beat your-self up. As www.apa.com states, “everyone has ups and downs; recover from your mistakes and get back on track.” Finally, ask for support. One way to do that is to use some apps that can help you achieve your goal.

If you are trying to limit time on your phone, a great app to use is BreakFree. BreakFree can show you how addict-

ed you are to your phone and can help you refuse unim-portant calls and apps. If you are trying to get organized, you can use an app called Any.do. This is an app that allows you to make multiple to-do lists and categorize them. With Any.do, you can even share your lists with friends! Another

app you can use is Toggl. It helps you budget your time. It can also show you how long you have spent on an activity. If you want to get healthier, some great apps to use would be Lose It and Map my Run. Lose It helps if you are trying to lose weight. It tracks your meals and helps you choose healthier choic-es while also telling you the calorie count. Map my Run helps people track their progressing running and helps them set goals. If you want to

eliminate stress, you can use apps such as head space and stop, breathe, and think. Head space guides you through ex-ercises and meditations that can help calm you down. Stop, breathe, and think not only gives you free meditations to try, but it can also track how you feel after doing the exercises. If you want to try something new, you can use Duolingo. Duo-lingo helps you learn new languages. It has a variety of lan-guages such as French, Spanish, and German.

Overall, New Year’s resolutions can be hard to keep but there are many apps and techniques that can help you achieve your goal.

By: Audrey Haynes and Victoria Cunningham

Order online at

yearbookordercenter.com

Use code #14659

Or from Ms. Pagliughi

Room #640

25th Anniversary

of The Pride!

Just $40

HURRY! Sure to Sell Out!

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Landrum Goes to Historic Boston

4

Landrum’s Survivor Get THE BOOK!

The second half of the school year is already here, and with that comes the 2016-2017 yearbook. The year-book comes at the end of the year to cel-ebrate friends from that past school year, and this year Landrum’s yearbook is going to be a good one. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Alice B. Landrum Middle School and the

yearbook is going to reflect this important anniversary.

The 25th anniversary of Landrum is an important milestone for the school. Being the 25th anniversary, it makes sense that the yearbook would match this anniver-sary. The 2016-2017 yearbook will be one to remember, especially the cover. You’ll have to see for yourself the unique fabric used this year, by buying your own year-book.

The anniversary isn’t the only thing that is going to be celebrated in the yearbook, but 8th graders will also be able to bring in their baby pictures to be put in the year-book. Not only that, but you will get to guess your class-mates pictures too!

Yearbook prices have gone up since winter break, but it’s not too late to buy one. The yearbook is a time ma-chine back to the school year, showing you past memories you may have forgotten. “The yearbook is important be-cause you can remember all those people from years past.” Said 8th grader Mia Curtis, “When I moved here it was nice to have a way to see my friends I had left.” The yearbook creates a passage to remember memories you made from that school year, it is also a way to remember friends that you had.

The yearbook is an important part of the school year that is used to celebrate past friends throughout the years. This year’s yearbook will consist of many important and cool concepts. These concepts include the 25th anni-versary and the 8th grade baby pictures. Yearbook sales are still in session and if you want to see these amazing ideas, buy a yearbook.

By: Phoebe Collins

Just imagine one of your principals being on na-tional TV, not only for a couple of minutes, but for an entire season of reality TV! Mrs. Mid-daugh did just that. She went on season four of Survivor, becoming one the most loved contestants on the show.

When Mrs. Middaugh first stepped on to the island, it wasn’t her first time seeing it. She had been training for the past few days. She had been taught by the natives how to sur-vive in Marquesas Islands. After four days, she was an expert in poisonous plants, weaving palm fronds, and many other surviv-al skills. From the moment she got on the boat bound for the island, she began scouting her fellow contestants, “Most of them were lazy from what I saw, which frustrated me because I was raised to work hard in everything I do. Some of the con-testants’ just need to wake up and realize survivor isn’t just a vacation, it is a million dollars”, says Mrs. Middaugh. Even be-fore she was on the island, she was ready. Mrs. Middaugh is a very avid outdoorswoman, excelling in biking, racing, backpack-ing, and all things outdoors. She says this gave her an ad-vantage during the game.

Mrs. Middaugh is very competitive, so her favorite part of Survivor was the challenges. “I love challenging myself and reaching my full potential”, says Mrs. Middaugh. Once her torch had been extinguished at Tribal Council on her 18th day, she was rushed to a black car with tinted windows. In the car was a lot of food. Then, she was driven to a “primitive hut”, where she stayed for the rest of the game.” When I drank my coffee on the first night in the hut, I didn’t sleep the entire night because I wasn’t used to the caffeine”, she says. If Mrs. Middaugh was on the jury, she knows she would have voted for a girl named “Ellia” because, “she beat me outright so she de-served to win”.

What Mrs. Middaugh misses the most about Survivor is being in the outdoors and having a different challenge every day.” However, as an assistant principal and a mom, she faces many new challenges. She says if she could have done anything different, she would have chosen a different tribe to be in on the final day. When asked if she would ever come back on the show, she would go any day of the week.

Mrs. Middaugh would tell anyone to join survivor if they had the opportunity, “It is a challenge that I will remem-ber for the rest of my life. It made me experience life in differ-ent way.”

By: Ben Arthur and Logan Cooper

Photo courtesy of survivoroz.files.wordpress.com

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By Morgan Deegan and Marli Movsovitz

Courtney and John must decide.

6th Grade Elective Choices By: Amanda Hansgen

Starting middle school can be scary. Landrum tries to help by starting 6th graders on critical thinking/research and ICT for electives, and by giving them choice of taking band or PE. Is it necessary to not give 6th graders the opportunity to choose all three of their elec-tives? Some 6th graders that were interviewed gave their opinion.

Josie Sagiser thinks that taking critical thinking/research is a good idea. She thinks that it prepares you for college, when the professors don’t tell you what to write and what not to write down when taking notes. Josie also believes though that in 6th grade, ICT should not be a mandatory class. If Josie got the chance to swap out one of her classes, she would want to take a writing class. Sam Barret also agrees with Josie that critical thinking/research is a good idea to take, however Sam thinks it’s also necessary to take ICT.

On the other hand, Sa-mantha Karp, Chris Perry, Ty Stout, and Ella Wealer all think

that Landrum shouldn’t make them take critical thinking/research and ICT. Samantha feels that being forced to take

the two electives is not needed because she already knows most of the stuff that is being taught, and would rather take classes and learn new things than sit through classes where she doesn’t learn anything new. If Samantha could swap out an elective, she would take drama. Chris and Ty think it would be a good idea to have a study hall, and Ella would like to take art.

Although middle school is difficult, and making students take these two electives may help in the long run. Should sixth graders only be able to have one elective as their choice, when electives are supposed to be fun classes?

Beginning middle school can be overwhelming for some. Giving fewer choices can some-times be helpful, but is it fair? Should 6th graders only get to choose one of their electives?

Around the world on banana plantations are being completely destroyed by a deadly plant fungus known as the “tropical race four”. This isn’t the first time this fungi has attacked banana farms around the world. In 1965, a dangerous disease killed thou-sands of bananas and scientists worldwide were racing to find a way to save these plants. Luckily, they found a different banana that is sold in today’s supermarkets. But, this disease is coming back and is killing more than 15,000 banana plants a week in Mozambique, Africa. Sadly, the fungi stays in the soil, even after the plant is removed, so replanting the crop is no option, only burning down the property. Few students at Landrum know about this catastrophe, but it could affect the lunch lines banana count, meaning we might not have bananas if this virus continues. Andrew Sledzik, a 7th grader here at Landrum, says, “I didn’t know that bananas were going extinct” and “I do enjoy bananas and I would be very sad to see them go”. “I wasn’t aware of that until now that they were going extinct”, says Victoria Villasana. “I don’t like bananas, but I would get some pesticides to kill off the fungi” says Jackson Halliburton. Mrs. Garcia claimed that, “I have noticed the change in the way that bananas look in the supermarkets”. All students and staff that were interview claimed that they never knew about the banana crisis. Hopefully, bananas will overcome this fungus like they did in the past, and they will get their much needed help from scientists. Feel better soon bananas!

Feel Better, Bananas!

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By: Katya Kelly

iPhone Changed Us

On June 29, 2007, Apple came out with the original IPhone. This was a groundbreaking product, which later be-came one of the most popular electronics. It was known as the world’s thinnest phone at the time. They debuted at $399 and had up to 16 GB. Since then, apple has grown immensely. They now have multiple versions of the IPhone, such as the IPhone 6. Not only that, but there is also IPad, Apple watches and IMac computers. Overall, electronics since then have ex-panded. So how has this expansion affected the world, coun-try and your family? 25 years ago, people did not have cell phones at all. There would be no satisfaction knowing that if you were in trouble, you would always be a text away from help. Besides the feeling of security, the IPhone as brought us access to so much information to help with things like educa-tion. Ellie Stamms said, “Whenever I don’t understand a topic, I look it up and I have so many resources available.” A positive that comes with having more access to information is the fact that everyone if involved with what is going on in the world. On the other side, many can argue that the IPhone was not the greatest invention. Since 2007, medical researchers have shown research showing that the way people hold their phone can permanently change the structure of your vertebrae in your back and cause extreme back problems. There is also the conversation of how the phone screens harm our eyes. Ac-cording to Dr. Heiting, from digitaltrends.org, “The visible HEV lights can impair our eyes by damaging the tissue in the reti-na.” Besides the medical aspect of the apple products, there is also a social view. People now always have their phone on them and it is possible that your phone can get in the way of creating new relationships. Mr. Kelly says, “Whenever I go out, I see young adults hanging out, which is great, but then I see one pull a phone out. After a moment I realize they’re socializ-ing with their phones, not their friends.” Apple product have created a great system for communication, does it risk the psychological and medical issues brought with it?

Photo courtesy of Androiddevelopmentcompanieslondon.wordpress.com

School social life is centered around gossip and with gossip comes rumors about crushes and couples, especially around Valentine’s day. Everyone pictures their dream guy/girl and has a set list of requirements their crush has to meet. “Well she has to be hot.” Says 8th grader Jaiden Heath. As well as our 8th graders the rest of Landrum has their piece to share.

Lindsey Rolewicz who is 5’9 points out that her boy-friend would have to be tall because “I would. Eliza Lewin requires “he has to like me for who I am, not who he wants me to be.” Many of our basic students went on to say that their guy or girl would have to be nice, funny, etc. Some of the answers that stood out were Mason Romero “she should be able to hang out a lot and… BLONDE.” and 7th grader Payton Wood explains “he should treat me like a princess.” Anna Handley says her guy shouldn’t be sarcastic “you think you’re funny but it’s just annoying.” Almost everyone decid-ed that someone outgoing was easier to talk to than a shy person, except for a few who decided they should fall some-where in between. Putting the basic necessities aside, people also have things that they would like to see in their crush, like how they look.

“Good values, but a jawline would be nice too. Oh yah and obviously a six pack.” Berkleigh Mahan says ponder-ing this dream guy of hers. Palmer Dunn points out “hopefully she’ll look out of my league.” A lot of people also said they wanted the guy to be taller than the girl “That’s just the stereotype.” (Darby Purcell) “I would hope we support the same things… And ginger! I love gingers! They’re so cute.” Olive Wahby rants. “Blonde hair, maybe blue eyes…” Josh Cills describes. Many of the girls mentioned good teeth and a jawline but teeth surprisingly never came up in a guy’s interview. Humor was a very controversial subject. “There’s a fine line between funny and obnoxious.” Warns Anna Hand-ley. Madison Olsen says “I’d like someone funny but it’s more important if they treat me well.”

All this information can be helpful or even hurtful to some. Is dating in middle school even a healthy practice for tweens? Science daily says “Dating in middle school leads to significantly worse study skills and a higher chance of high school dropout.” So you decide to take the risk and put your heart out there or keep that crush silent and become valedic-torian.

LMS Dating Trends

By: Natalie Decker and Avery James

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Technology in 2017 By: Jack Barned

2017 is sure to have new tech coming,

the new phones and speakers, however 2017

is going to have some new things that will

have the ability to mobilize earth. Some new

technology includes, Synthetic food, smart

home appliances and hubs and smart clothing.

New technology is created and designed to

track what’s happening in your body, and ulti-

mately allowing you to do everything sitting at

home on ones couch.

New on the rise is new smart clothing,

not many have heard of this concept but

brands such as polar are designing smarts

clothes and smart shoes witch currently are

on the market from designs like Nike plus. The smart shirts

track heart rate, movement, speed, distance and accelera-

tion. Clothing brand Levi’s has also teamed up with Google

to design a smart jacket with the goal to connect you to

basic services such as maps and music, directly from the

jacket.

Companies are now starting to mobilize homes

starting with hubs (priced from 50 dollars and up.) These

allow you to control your computer to the cover on your hot

tub and lights all over your house. Companies such as

Google and Amazon have released Hubs priced all below

$200. The hubs can control nearly anything

including telling jokes and having conversa-

tions with the owner. However make sure to

not link your Amazon Hub to your amazon

account, because the hubs are known to or-

der things on first command. 7th grader Rob-

erto Lachner believes “Hackers can watch

you.” But the hubs have no camera, so you’ll

be just fine!

Lastly, synthetic food. Not many

have heard of this one being 7th grader Jack-

son Morris asking, “what’s that?” Synthetic

material was developed two years ago, it was

a protein powder called Solyent. The powder

has all the nutrients one needs, however there is one issue,

it is not at all appetizing. Scientists are working on that as-

pect of the invention though, companies like beyond meat

are making burgers based off a coconut oil, one can tell it’s

not a real burger but it has gotten surprisingly good reviews.

As the world becomes more populated we stretch our re-

sources to the furthest we can, what humans will eat is still

at question. With Solyent you could be seeing a small piece

of earth’s future.earth to the limits, we need new ways to

live and ways to make certain things either. With smart

clothing, synthetic food, smart home hubs and appliances,

the way we live could change in 2017.

Struggles of Sleeping

By: Cecilia Doyle

Sleeping, Oh the joys of sleeping! But what if it’s not so joyous if you don’t get enough of it?

Students of Landrum Middle School experience the terribleness of exhaustion. Like 8th grader Savannah who gets 6 hours of sleep

mostly from stress. According to KidsHealth “most teens need 8 and a half to MORE THAN 9 hours of sleep”. This will help students if they

have a test the next day or maybe even a competition. When another student only gets 5 hours of sleep. At this point it is more like a long

nap than sleeping. KidsHealth also states “teens produce melatonin (a key factor to help you sleep your body produces) way later in night

than kids and adults”.

But maybe it’s not all the body’s fault, electronics play a big role in students sleep. With electronics you may go to bed at 12 or later rather

than to get a long sleep. Like 7th grade Victoria who only gets 4 hours of sleep mostly from the distraction of her phone. Ok maybe it’s not

all the phones fault maybe other things consume sleep kidsHealth states “Teens have other time demands like sports and other extracurric-

ular activities”. Maybe like soccer or gymnastics, lacrosse and other sports who can keep kids up.

KidsHealth believes lack of sleep can be the cause of mental issues for some students citing, “Sadness and depression can be linked.” Not

only that but, can effect some students grades. So not only a few students get no sleep but many students lack multiple hours of the very

most important sleep. Sleep is a key factor to life just get more of it and you will wake up and feel brand new!

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Worst Trends of 2016 By Bell Benson, Madison Dupree and Isabella White

2016, the year filled with highlighter, dabbing, 100 layer challenges, unicorn everything and lots of Netflix. Now that 2017 is here, it is only fitting to recap on the worst trends of 2016.

The students of Landrum have spoken, and here is what they came up with. Sixth grader Miller Wilson thinks that musically may have been one of the worst trends. Jacob Taylor, Sam Barrett, and Juliet Holder also had the same opinion. Musically was one of the most hated trends of the students.

The next most disliked trend was dab-bing. Almost everyone mentioned this topic, even teachers. Out of the most hated trends that were stated, this one was definitely one of the most repeated. Eighth grader Sabrina Ventura said, “Dabbing was definitely the worst trend that has ever happened.” Emma Greer, Ryan Gummer-man, Mathew Peters, and Madison Jenkins also agreed. Ms. Arline gave her opinion and said “Dabbing, because it never goes away… it’s still there.” She and many other people feel like this strongly dis-liked trend will never disappear. Everyone is hoping this trend does not make its way in to 2017.

Another popu-lar response was slime and slime businesses. Juilette Holder, Meghan Hart, Sabrina Ventura, Ryan Lemon, and Charlie Gambuzza all said that their least favorite trend was slime. They saw no point to the once popular trend. Me-ghan Hart believes that “slime was a mess in more ways than one.”

Hoverboards really blew up in 2016, both literally and metaphorically. Therefore, they earned a spot on Landrum’s list of worst trends of 2016. Miller Wilson, Jacob Taylor, and Madison Jenkins thought this was not the best thing to stock the shelves. They thought the safety hazards were not worth the risk.

The majority of people said that the most repeated trend was bottle flipping. Marina Scolaro said, “I think it can be really an-noying especially if some-one flips a bottle when you’re trying to sleep… Bailee.” Aidyn DeMaio said, “The worst part is when they don’t tighten the cap all the way and water gets everywhere.” Ms. Arline said “Bottle flipping is very high on the list of aggravating things.” 17 out of the 30 people asked strongly agreed that by far, bottle flipping won the prize for worst trend of 2016.

Along with these trends, there were people with fashion opinions too. Na-talie Decker said that, “Jean skirts. Especially the ones that button down the front. It makes me rethink my life choices." Avery James thinks that velvet dresses over t-shirts were a mistake. Callen Peterson thinks that 100 layers challenges, fur nails, and outrageous eyebrows need to go. Jen-na Lewin and Mrs. Bard believe clothes with holes in them are not cute.

In conclusion, 2016 was full of some bad trends according to the students of Landrum. Out of the many regrettable trends, Musically, dabbing, slime, hoverboards, and bottle flipping were among the worst trends to surface during the year 2016.

Students dabbing with The Lion!