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1. Read the article you have been allocated.
2. Comment on it with several thoughtful and positive reflections.

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Bullying sadly affects many children, They then grow up and become bullies themselves in the real world. It not only damages them physically but also mentally. Did you know that bullying is a worldwide issue that can take place in offices, homes and mostly schools. There are 3 types of bullying: Cyber, Physical and Psychological. According to stopbullying.gov, The suicide rate from children 1-12 and above, has gone up by 33% in just 20 years.

The Principal of the American School of Bahrain, Mr. Steve, stated that his job is to maintain our happiness in school: “Whether it’s a bully or a teacher problem, or a friend problem I want to be there to help”. This response was given on 9/9/21 at 1:00 in the afternoon and it indicates that it's not only children who experience bullying but also teachers and bullying can surprisingly start in a simple friendship.

With physical bullying, children can go to jail for physically abusing or bullying another child. Research shows that persistent bullying can lead to isolation, rejection, exclusion and depression which can also sadly lead to suicide.

During the interview with Mr. Steve, he explained the three levels that he as a principal takes with bullies:

1. First we try to make the victim talk about it with the bully

2. If they don't listen we get in contact with parents

3. If they still don't learn their lesson, we have to expel them

According to these 3 steps bullying can get quite severe in schools where children can be expelled. Based on stopbullying.gov out of 100% of the children they interviewed 43.4% of the children said that they mostly get bullied in hallways and the stairwells.

The 3 types of bullying:

Cyberbullying: This wasn’t an issue in the 1900s because children aged from 12 and above didn't have phones, because PHONES WEREN'T INVENTED! But nowadays children have snapchat, Instagram and tik tok; bullies that don't want to be caught in school, have an easier access to bullying that we provided, on social media, which is now called “Cyber Bullying”, which is just an excuse for the lack of attention towards bullied children on social media (the last part of this sentence doesn’t make complete sense.

Physical Bullying: This has been a “trend” since well...the beginning of time. It is a traditional way of bullying which was very rare in the 1970s according to https://files.eric.ed.gov/, It has become more serious now because of the effects it has caused such as injuries that include bleeding, cuts and even broken limbs.

Psychological bullying: In my opinion psychological bullying is the most hurtful one, it damages children mentally and can lower their self esteem. According to stopbullying.gov “Depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, and loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy. These issues may persist into adulthood” This is the effect of psychological bullying.

A boy In 8th Grade, “Yousif Abu Khamseen”, Stated in an interview that there was a boy 2 grades above him that injured him physically, and broke his knee cap in the right leg, This indicates that kids older and more stronger than children can easily push them around and physically or mentally disrupt them.

A girl in 8th Grade told me about her experience with bullying last year, at first they were friends but suddenly the bully started teasing her about her weight and continued doing this everyday. She took it as a joke at first but then realized that it hurt her in ways she couldn't grasp, she didn't want to tell teachers or “Snitch” on the bully because she didn't want to put the bully in that situation. One day, while the school was virtual, the girl got a message from the boy which her parents later read and brought it up with the principal, she was so worried that the relationship with the bully would be ruined. After some time she later realized that it stopped after a few times from being in a room together talking about what they felt, she came to know that the bully was bullied as well and that is what provoked the bully to do such things.

The 8th Grader is now friends with the bully and the bully has changed to be a friendly person who always encourages her to believe in herself, This shows that a bully can change from worse to the best, If they understand or try to they will eventually come to terms with the fact that “Bullying is hurtful” and hopefully become friends.

The nature of bullying is hurtful in so many ways and if we all agree that it is destructive, both physically and mentally, we can eliminate it from our institutions and our lives to make this world a better place.

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AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ARE NOW OPEN AT ASB

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AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ARE NOW OPEN AT ASB

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After a whole year, the long-awaited news came, as Mr. Dave confirmed that all the afterschool activities will open. Keep reading to find out more about when and what activities will be on offer.

There are a lot of after-school activities

planned by Mr. Scott, the music teacher. There

will be an ASB jazz band, where we will play

modern jazz, rock, and Latin. There will also be

a beginner/mentor program, in which students

that have been playing for over a year will

help the students that have just joined our

instruments.

There will also be private lessons for flute,

piano, violin, trumpet, euphonium, clarinet,

trombone, tuba, drum set, and sax. “This will be a paid program, with lessons by certified and experienced music teachers” confirmed Mr. Scott.

After finding out about the music on offer, I was interested in knowing more about the PE after-school activities, so I asked Mr.Butch. He talked to me about all the sports activities. The school will have our main sports of volleyball, basketball, and soccer. There will also be other sports like golf, swimming, and tennis. The volleyball

ASA is already in function, but the rest of them

will begin in October. “There will be activities at

lunch or after afterschool” Mr. Butch

confirmed.

Extracurricular activities will also be

available at ASB, like the Sustainable Art &

Crafts Club and Graphic Art club

(Grades 7-10) or the Science club.

“We’re also going to have a celebration club, there’s going to be a games club, chess club…” Mr. Dave said. Some people may have to pay for these activities because they will also be open for people outside of the school. They will have to pay 6BD an hour.

Most of the activities will be open for Grades 2 and up, but athletics will mostly be covered from Grades 6 up to Grade 10 this year.

As a student, I feel like ASB has been a great school, but the after-school activities have been an excellent upgrade that will make the school much more fun and entertaining.

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https://mars.nasa.gov/science/summary/ Mars

More than half of a century ago Neil Armstrong took the worldwide known first step on the moon called the Giant Leap. Now, our next mission is to colonize Mars, “The Red Planet.” Space programs have already sent a bunch of robotic quests to Mars with this month being China's Zhurong and this year's ? NASA’s Perseverance. This has raised a lot of questions like when are humans going to recreate the “Giant Leap” but on the “Red Planet.”

NASA wants to send their first astronauts by 2030. According to a source called “popsi.com”, Stephen Hawking said we have 100 years to colonize a new planet if we don’t want to go extinct. Space X which is led by Elon Musk wants to go even sooner to Mars, saying that they want to send their first astronauts to Mars by 2024. Even though Mars is intoxicated with the radiation levels being high we will apparently have to live under domes, but this isn’t 100 percent true. This hunch about if we are going to live on Mars started when Curiosity and other rovers discovered water on Mars, which clearly states that the once thought Red Planet has a chance it could be our upcoming lifesaver.

https://www.engadget.com/2019-12-12-nasa-ice-surface-mars.html  Water found on Mars

I have interviewed some teachers and students here at the American School of Bahrain, one of them being Ms. Noor. I asked her, “Do you think we are going to live on Mars?” She responded, “No” I then asked her “why” and she said “just cause.” Since that wasn’t clear enough I asked two other students and one responded,” I think people are going to live on Mars but not like a large civilization but like a rich people town.” The other student said “I do think so but later in the future.”

It might sound easy to go to Mars but there are actually body health problems stopping us from going. Some health issues include radiation exposures, toxic soil, lack of water, cold temperature and low gravity. Some other problems they are facing is that you could  get space sickness, mental stress, weaker muscles, eye problems, coughs and colds, the radiation can give you probably death, cancer and genetic problems.

With the Earth being at its worst (in what sense?) this could be an upcoming mission that would be life-changing but all we have to do is wait, if we are capable of achieving this goal. Most people believe we are far from achieving this but in fact we are close. The only thing that separates us from? is a manned mission.

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The police violence against transgender people of colour 

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The police violence against transgender people of colour 

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On May 25 2020 in Minneapolis, George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin during an arrest for using a counterfeit $20 bill. Despite this only being one case of many alike arrests, the murder of George Floyd was immediately publicized in a way other instances of police brutality hadn’t been before. His death sparked protests worldwide and many new conversations were had about institutionalized racism and the unfair treatment the police has been proven to give minorities time and time again. Statistically, being a person of colour has always made you more susceptible to being seen as suspicious meaning more times you’re stopped or questioned by the police. Being transgender or another member of the LGBTQ+ community will also increase the times you are seen as a threat, and will be approached. Often, these interactions have been shown to end in acts of barbarity.

According to the NCAVP (National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs) trans people of colour are 6 times more likely to experience police violence than their white and cisgender counterparts. This just reflects the severity of the issue and the fact that purely gender and skin colour can affect violence that much proves just the lack of action we take towards the officers that do discriminate. I sat down and interviewed my social studies teacher Mr. Neil about his experiences growing up in South Africa and racism during the 37 years he lived there. He grew up in what he described as a “typical middle class suburb” and he “had restricted access to certain places due to them being designated to different races”. These rules were very set in place so he didn’t ever feel unsafe in his formative years, just because he was aware and in a way expected the treatment he would receive; never doing anything that he wasn’t “technically allowed” to do. It changed slightly when he got older and started fighting back against racist policies, which is also where he first encountered police brutality. He talked about an incident known as the Trojan Horse Massacre that ended in 3 peaceful protesters being shot and killed. Mr Neil was among the protesters and he remembers thinking a garbage truck was coming, but really it was a group of cops covered by a tarp at the back of the vehicle. Out of nowhere, the officers jumped out and started open firing at the crowd with no prompting or attempt at deescalation. He recalls running around in the chaos. Another tragic case he described was an example of the police being able to get away with unprompted acts of violence. When he was 18 years old, his best friend A. B Situpa went missing and only 5 years later was found to have been killed off by the police and disposed of to leave no traces. And this isn’t the first time. It isn’t even one of the first thousand.

So many people see the next steps as unclear. After the killing of George Floyd many thousands of people around the world chanted the words “Defund the Police” as a response to the killing and the action they wanted to see. Surrounding this phrase though, came a lot of misinformation about the true nature of what it meant. The uneducated masses believed that this meant firing police officers (with no reasoning), removing authority of law enforcement and essentially descending into anarchy. Truthfully, “Defund the police” is a simple statement that would save hundreds of lives of specifically trans and POC groups. It means demilitarizing police enforcement, mandating body cameras and holding officers shown to use force before other methods (specifically to certain groups of people) accountable for their actions. Mr. Neil also stated that a huge way to combat rampant police brutality is thorough background checks on any officers before being hired. In South Africa, the cases of police brutality that were looked into resulted in the realization that a blatantly racist person had been given the title of police officer. Putting in just that extra effort to see if someone has a past history of discrimination could make all the difference. Mr. Neil described this method as, “stopping it before it has the time to even become a problem.”

We know something needs to change. We know that the exact people supposed to be protecting us, shouldn’t be the ones hurting our neighbours. And with better education and changing times, progress will come. Despite this hope for a better future, the fact of the matter can’t be denied. Eric Garner said “I can’t breathe” 11 times in 2014, Elijah McClain said “I can’t breathe” 5 times in 2019, George Floyd said “I can’t breathe” over 20 times in 2020. Once is an instance, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. And we’re far past 3 times.

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Sustainability and pollution have been issues that we in Bahrain have struggled with for years now. The environment has been mistreated and taken for granted. The beaches on the island had been suffering before the pandemic hit, and now I fear the pandemic has made it so much worse.

Earlier this week I spoke with Mr. Steve , our principal, who cleans a beach in Amwaj during his weekends. He talked to me about how much covid-related garbage they’ve been finding on the beaches recently. “It’s been crazy how many masks we’re finding on the ground, gloves, everywhere”, he said.  The amount of covid-related garbage that they’re finding is absurd and, honestly, it’s heartbreaking.

On another occasion I spoke to Ms. Danielle who talked to me about the effects that it can have on the environment. “A simple plastic can take years to break down.” Masks in particular take an average of 450 years to decompose, which, given the amount of them that we’re using and have been using, isn’t great for the environment. A statistic of 129 billion masks are used monthly in the world because, unfortunately we’re in a tricky situation where it’s been scientifically proven that masks lessen the chances of catching covid, but the disposal of them is polluting the environment.

As a school, we have been doing things to help the environment, “As a school, we have a recycling bin that Shereen, from Grade 10, made last year.” Ms Danielle said. Us students can do things ourselves to help out, like bringing in reusable water bottles, or making sure our lunches are packed with reusable containers. As a final question I asked what we can do to protect the future of our environment and our planet. I got one answer. That it’s up to us.

“It all starts with education,”Mr. Steve said. “Young people like yourself are going to start engineering ways to deal with plastic”Ms Danielle Davis claimed.

All over the world young people have started to come up with ways to deal with our over-consumption of plastic, and it’s something that should be talked about and prioritized more. We need to find more smart ways to rework the plastic into fabrics and textiles that can be used for shoes, clothing , or even toys. At the moment only around 9% of plastic is recycled. We need to start normalizing sustainability. It’s vitally important if we want our environment to survive this plastic pandemic.

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The Rise of Bitcoin

The date is 2010, you’re a pizza delivery man driving to a customer’s house. You give him the two pizzas he ordered and he pays you. He then tips and you leave. You're waiting for the next delivery when you look at the tip, 10,000! You're shocked to see it, but then you look closer. It’s this thing called bitcoin. What is this you ask? Well, we’ll get to that, but first, we need to see how it started.

It started with Satoshi Nakamoto paying a lot of people in bitcoin. Over time it got more and more popular, but it began to skyrocket in late 2012 and early 2013. It peaked at 266$ in late 2017 but then dropped down to 50$ in early 2018. You might have heard the name, Satoshi Nakamoto. That's because he is the founder of bitcoin, at least we think. There have been many people that have claimed to be the founder, but there is no concrete evidence. Some say it's one person and some say it's a group of people. The most information we have is that they were the founder of Bitcoin and they would have billions of dollars to date if they stayed. Whether you believe the people who claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the mystery still stays and is probably the biggest mystery in bitcoin history. So you might not know what Satoshi Nakamoto created. If you have been living under a rock for the majority of the twenty-first century, this is a breakdown of how bitcoin works and how you make money off of it.

Bitcoin is a digital currency that allows you to pay people over the internet. It can also work as a way to make money. You can buy and sell bitcoin to make money, like the stock market. The main difference is that bitcoin is valued by how many people own bitcoin. If you buy bitcoin the value will go up, but when you sell it dips down. So how do people make money on it? Well, most do what I just said, buy low and sell high, and though that works there are many other ways. One is to mine bitcoin. Bitcoin mining is a well-known way to get bitcoin because all you need is a simple program and it starts mining. It’s slow but consistent so it sounds like a good idea if it could be legal. Lots of countries are banning bitcoin mining because of the control it has over the market. Some people just see this as a risk so they still do it. The last one is so big it deserves its own paragraph.

The last one is influencing the public. One example is Elon Musk, who uses his Twitter account to control the price of bitcoin. How you might ask? He might buy some and then say that bitcoin is a good investment. After it is high enough for his liking he sells it and makes tons of money. Then so he can buy some more he says that people should sell while they can and they all sell and probably lose their money. Then rinse and repeat, you have a billionaire who sent a car to space. With all that bitcoin has gone through, it makes you think who invented it. Well, it's a lot more complicated as you look into it.

So why would someone go through all the trouble to make a new currency online? Simple; change. The stock market was getting old and wasn't interesting. It's only to the guy on wall street with a business suit that could make money through investing. Now that has completely changed with crypto. It can be anyone with internet access and a device. There are now people making a living who haven't even gotten ready for the day. Even though there are a few problems with it being relatively young, it's only going to get better with age. A breath of fresh air… Unless Elon tweets otherwise.

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The Impact of Mental Health in Competitive Sports

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The Impact of Mental Health in Competitive Sports

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There is a reason why some athletes have negative attitudes or show bad sportsmanship in competitive sports which could lead to poor mental health. Although mental health is becoming more prevalent today and people are acknowledging it, researchers are still trying to understand how mental health affects professional athletes. Before mental health became prevalent, a lot of people believed that athletes couldn’t have mental health issues because they are fit, strong, and professional.

In a confidential interview conducted with one of the American School of Bahrain teachers, they were asked to answer these following questions:

(1) Why is mental health important in competitive sports?                                      (2) How does bad mental health affect an athlete's performance in their sport(s)?

(3) Have you ever witnessed an athlete having poor mental health?

The teacher who has experience in sports provided these responses. For the first question he said “Mental health is becoming more prevalent in competitive sports because people are acknowledging it nowadays where as before, people didn’t think mental health could affect athletes. It’s important to acknowledge this issue in sports because it affects the athlete’s behavior and sportsmanship”. For the second question, he gave this interesting response, “Sometimes when athletes have poor mental health issues like anxiety, depression and even drug problems, this could affect their mental health overall and their motivation. So it’s important to get help so they can play their sport with more focus”. For the last question, he said “Yes', many times, especially if we count their behavior, health problems and even their sportsmanship. These are all signs the athlete is suffering from mental health issues”.

One incident that happened in the Tokyo Olympics that might be a sign of a possible mental health effect occurred on August 7, 2021 during the karate final, Saudi Arabian athlete Tareg Hamedi got disqualified for doing a high kick and injured his opponent, Sajad Ganjzadeh in the neck. After that, the judges disqualified Tareg and gave Sajad of Iran the gold. During the medal ceremony, Sajad said this heartbreaking quote, “I’m happy about the gold medal but I’m sad that I had to win it like this”.

According to a Reuters article entitled?, this victory could affect Sajad’s mental health because of the way he was injured and that he won the way he didn’t expect because this was during one of the world’s biggest sporting events.

Another shocking incident that happened during the Tokyo Olympics was when the famous American gymnast, Simone Biles unexpectedly decided to drop out of the Olympics. Not only did she surprise the world, a lot of athletes started supporting her talking about their own mental health issues like bipolar disorder, ADHD, depression and how the pandemic affected them.

According to a Time magazine article entitled?, the mental health issues with professional athletes during the pandemic made it easier to talk about because of issues such as quarantine & Covid-19 rules. Another reason why mental health became popular to talk about during the Olympics is because of their age group. “About 30% of people aged between 18 to 25 years report having a diagnosis of a mental illness in the preceding year, which means this age group already represents a higher risk group”.

Simone Biles announcing that she needed help was a positive change in competitive sports because not only did she talk about the impact of mental health on athletes, but most importantly, Simone said this encouraging quote “It’s okay to get help to become your best self”.

In the final analysis, mental health is becoming more prevalent than people realise because it is finally being acknowledged. The age group of young adults have a higher risk which is why in sports, this is becoming common because in most sports, athletes are in this age group. But most importantly, it’s okay to ask for help to improve any mental health issues.

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It was on March 5, 2018 when Frances McDormand, during her Oscar acceptance speech for Best Actress, put out a powerful message; “women have ideas and to put those ideas in motion they need a seat on the table.”

This message goes beyond just Hollywood, this is about women and men in the workplace being equal. This is about striving to stop the gender discrimination that happens in the workplace. To elaborate on McDormand's point, this is about bringing gender balance into leadership roles, in the decision-making and strategic process of the business.

In today's society we have progressed a lot from what we once were in the sense that we have become more modern and more equal but there are still a lot of individuals who are being discriminated against based on their gender identity. I sat down and interviewed my social studies teacher Mr. Neil to get his perspective on how women are often mistreated in the workplace and in response to the question ‘What do you think has changed in the workplace and society in general to support the inclusion of women? What do you think needs to be done more? Where do you think things are progressing well? And what do you think we need to do more of as a society to stop gender discrimination in the workplace and in general?’ Mr. Neil responded by saying that “First of all I think we need to accept women as our equals, and I'm not generalizing here because I don't think it’s everybody that discriminates against women, we are still living in a male dominated society and like I said once women are treated as equal partners and seen as equal partners by everyone in society, I think that, that problem would be eradicated,” Mr. Neil starts off with a great point here, men need to accept us women as equals in order for this problem to be avoided and in order for us all to be equal, which is our right. He goes on by saying, “I firmly believe that women are capable of doing exactly the same work as men, in some cases even better, just if given the opportunity. And still as you said society still looks at the man as being dominant. There’s not enough women in CEO positions, there’s not enough women in leadership positions across all spectrums and that needs to change. But I think that also women should do a little bit more in terms of fighting for their rightful place, I feel as though there are  a lot of women out there that yes they believe in gender equality but they’re not ready to fight for it, they will tolerate the inequality but they will not do enough to get that equality with men.” Mr. Neil puts out a great explanation here, a lot of women really aren't ready to fight for their rights and this has to change. If we want to finally get equal rights and equal treatment, us women would have to stand up for ourselves and have to stand for what’s right, not just tolerate or withstand all the wrong doings.

Then he goes on by saying, “I think it’s not just men that need to change their mindset but I think it's also women that need to change their mindset and stand up and claim what’s rightfully theirs based on ability. And as I said women can do the same as what men do, the only difference between men and women is physiology, men are physically stronger, that’s just the way it is, the law of nature I guess. But when it comes to mental ability I think that there should be equality with that.”

I strongly agree with what Mr. Neil has said as he is right. It’s not only the men who need to change their mindset, it's also some of the women. As I mentioned earlier, women need to start standing up for themselves and their rights and men must change their mindsets and accept women as their equals just as Mr. Neil said. We must work together to make this change. Women must find the courage to stand up for what they believe and be able to speak their minds freely, after all we do live in a world where there is freedom of speech and we must use that wisely. No woman should be silenced by a man, especially when it comes to her rights.

What’s gender discrimination?

Gender discrimination is where a person is treated differently or unjustly based on their gender identity/sex.

In the states sex discrimination in employment is illegal under federal law, However there is not as much protection for those people who are discriminated against based on their gender identity and sexual orientation.

Discrimination against employees for being a part of the LGBTQ+ community is prohibited in 21 states including Washington D.C, but we still see these discriminations in countless workplaces and people tend to not do anything about it or simply ‘blow it off’.

Types of Gender Discrimination in the workplace

Different treatment based on sex

Sexual harassment

Different treatment based on sex basically refers to the different or unfair/biased treatment of an employee based on their sex.

Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that has to do with any behaviour (verbal or physical) of a sexual nature that interferes with work performance, effects a person’s employment or creates a negative work environment.

There are too many cases of men making women feel uncomfortable and unsafe in the workplace with their unasked for comments. A lot of men see women as inferior beings and because of this they tend to belittle the women and say nasty comments, sexual or otherwise not appropriate for the work environment. These men need to be stopped, it is not right nor is it appropriate for a man to do or say these things to a woman in any environment. It shouldn’t happen point blank. Men in high positions must give these women a voice instead of silencing them, they need to help these women get the justice they so deserve instead of silencing them and sweeping it under the rug.

I had another interview with Ms. Sawsan the executive assistant of the founding director of The American School of Bahrain and these were some of her answers to a few of my questions; I asked “Do you feel like it was harder for you to get a job and to this point in your career than it would have been if you were a man?” Ms. Sawsan’s response was “No, not harder to get but when it used to be stories like promotion, it was harder for me like I have a specific example which was very shocking for me. It was during the time of promotion and I scored really high so I was supposed to get a promotion and the manager gave my colleague that I taught how to do things, the promotion and then when I asked for one he told me ‘Well do you have a family to support? Do you have kids? Are you married? You basically don’t have a family to support so why do you need that promotion?’ And for me that really triggered me and I told him that this is not relevant and that I would like to be judged according to my performances not my social status because that was more of a social status and it didn't make any sense. I think we work hard but I do agree that we have to work 3x harder to get in, but once you’re there it’s about promotion, the next level, they make it so hard for you like I’m talking about my first workplace.” This was shocking for me to hear. No one should be judged by their social status. It doesn’t matter if you have a family to support or not, it’s about your work performance and not getting the promotion or treatment you deserve based on your social status is absurd. I also asked Ms. Sawsan if she had ever gotten her opinions disregarded and from her response I understood that she didn't get her opinions disregarded always but she did have to work hard to get her opinion out there and try to say it in a way where it shows that it’s the other person's opinion when in reality you’re the one behind it.

I asked Ms. Sawsan “Do you feel that you have less room for error?” which she replied by saying “Yes I think so, generally speaking if you look into it, it’s easier to point the finger and say that ‘Okay because she’s a woman and that’s why she didn’t do her job well’. I have another example I can tell you about one of the directors I had, so we used to work in sales and marketing and I was always a marketer but it seems like that their sales team did not perform well and the majority of the sales team consisted of women, out of 7 we had 6 women and 1 man. And the Director was very mad at them because they didn't perform well that day and he said something that has been stuck in my mind ever since and mind you they were all single ladies. He said ‘Do this world a favor and stay home and raise kids rather than you being in workplaces’. That was a shocking statement for me and I remember the girls were really upset after what he said. He was really mad because they didn't perform well and the reason why they didn't perform well according to him was because they aren't supposed to be at workplaces. These incidents still do happen all around the world, it doesn't happen here but it still exists and people are still trying to fight this but I’ve experienced this in Bahrain so it’s obviously everywhere.” This is preposterous. You cannot judge someone’s work performance based on gender. It is extremely sexist and not appropriate for the workplace at all.

Ms. Sawsons response to my question “What do you think has changed in the workplace and society in general to support the inclusion of women? What do you think needs to be done more? Where do you think things are progressing well? And what do you think we need to do more of as a society to stop gender discrimination in the workplace and in general?” was, “I think it’s getting better for sure, there’s more awareness there are a lot of campaigns out there, we have a lot of organizations supporting women in every single country, we have organizations for women but we definitely have a big percentage of men being included because it’s important for them to know what’s going on, like your research now, you aren’t just asking women here because that would be the core of your research probably, but you’re also asking men to see what they think about this. So I think we are working hard towards this but somehow it feels like whenever we are working it’s just not enough, like we need to emphasise spreading this awareness by giving training to employees teaching them how, for example, to treat a woman in a workplace or how women are and just give them awareness. Because some of them just leave their houses, they go to schools, they go to workplaces, they manage, they don’t know anything about managing so maybe teaching them how to deal with and understand the difference between the two genders here. What needs to be done more is definitely having more awareness and keep doing what’s ethical and what is right in every single situation and if you always make sure you do the right thing and the ethical thing it will definitely lead to giving women's rights as well so that just falls under doing the right thing.”

I completely agree with what Ms. Sawsan has said. This just proves that no matter where you are in the world you will still experience this discrimination. We need to work together as a society to spread more awareness and do better. We need to do better in order to achieve the inclusion of women. Women have lots of potential, they just need to be able to put their opinions and ideas out there instead of getting them disregarded.

I’ve noticed that a lot of times when a woman takes initiative she is seen as bossy and overbearing but when a man takes initiative he is respected and is seen as a leader. We need to listen to women more and give them more opportunities rather than treat them any less just because they are a woman. As Mr. Neil said, the only difference between females and males is physiology. Finally, it’s important to mentor, educate and encourage each other to do better, not belittle one another. Once the mindset changes, everything else changes.

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Faze Clan Members Suspended for Crypto Scam

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Faze Clan Members Suspended for Crypto Scam

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On June 5th, 2021 a new cryptocurrency launched named Save the Kids ($KIDS). $KIDS had paid massive internet personalities like Ricegum and multiple members of the eSports organization Faze Clan to support and advertise the coin to their viewers. Specifically Faze Kay, Jarvis, Teeqo, and Nikan.

$KIDS had announced that “1% of the 3% tax would go straight to children in need.” As stated by the new token’s website ($KIDS), they had “a mission to build a better world for kids.” The $KIDS token caused a tremendous impact with its launch for the crypto and social media industry.

After the excitement had cleared up, $KIDS was down more than 150% (why the massive drop?) and the founder had left the project and had taken all funds with him. With melancholia in the air as well as a mix of animosity, Youtube personality CoffeeZilla uploaded a video to Youtube regarding the fall and scam of $KIDS. In the video, Coffeezilla exposes the scam and speaks about how Frazier Kay (one of the founders) has done this many times before and did all of this on purpose. It also states that the founder that was not known to the public was Sam Pepper, revealing that it wasn't all Frazier Kay’s fault. Faze clan has since suspended three members and kicked out one, stating the troubles in this tweet.

After interviewing a couple of people from my school ASB (American School of Bahrain) on the situation, there are quite a few different opinions. The majority of the class agrees that the coin was a massive scam and the founders of the project should be canceled. But some students feel that this all shouldn’t have happened in the first place, that the world should move backward and stop digitizing everything. With a lot of opinions in the air, I think we can all agree that scamming people is wrong and that it was a rightful punishment.

Sources:

https://www.insider.com/faze-clan-save-the-kids-cryptocurrency-scam-controversy-2021-7

https://medium.com/boil-it-down-gaming/faze-clan-scammed-their-own-fans-with-save-the-kids-crypto-token-6bec8973d98f

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-07-03-faze-kicks-out-one-member-and-suspends-three-others-over-alleged-influencer-crypto-scam

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Whether it is running or writing, speaking or sports, students have all been waiting for after school clubs, after a long day of school, we needed something. A way to wind down or burn off energy. And we have got it. Finally.

Right now volleyball is the only club, and that is already quite popular, but only a couple more weeks and we will have all sorts of after school activities. According to Mr. Steve  “We are looking at the first week of October” for the after school clubs to start, and as claimed by Coach Butch “I know that they are going to be starting in the very beginning of October”.

Although volleyball is the only club, the goals and what the school is intending to do with this club is happening pretty fast. Coach Butch says that they already have volleyball exhibiton games starting up before the end of September and they are trying to get our first exhibition game up and running. The school is currently in an exhibition schedule with seven other schools. ASB is trying to get ready and once all the teams are ready, we can compete -and we all know how competitive some students can get. Coach Butch puts forth that “We’re on a temporary one year exhibition schedule. Hopefully next year we can join the league full time.”

“There is going to be a wide range of activities suited for a wide range of interests.” Coach Butch states and Mr Steve says that they are still trying to get a plan in place with all kinds of different things for different age groups after school, right from Monday to Thursday,a variety of things that are both active and non-active. That’s why I've been asking some students themselves what after school clubs they would like to participate in. The clubs that students asked for include American football, robotics, basketball (there will probably be a stampede of students at this one), dungeons and dragons (I'm not so sure that there will be a stampede at this one), swimming, football, drama, rugby, track, maths and a study club. The students that gave me these suggestions are Jamie and Justin Oversier, Zach Zeitler (Grade 10), Zoe Visser, Anaia James and Lauti Damonte (Grade 8).

Based on the students' suggestions you can already tell that there will be people participating in both educational and sporty activities. Some clubs Mr. Steve proposed that might be here soon, are: environmental club, football club, gymnastics, badminton and ping pong club.

Mr. Steve said that to avoid conflicts within after school clubs they may have different seasons, right now would be around October to December and then a different season would be January to May. In these different seasons, Mr. Steve states that we would offer different clubs in the different months to avoid overlapping with the activities.

As you can tell by now there are lots of ideas for clubs and lots of people who would love to participate in them. We are all enthusiastic about some sort of relief after seven hours of a school day. We are in a very diverse school and so we are going to be given lots of different clubs that suit lots of different people’s interests.

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Can mental health affect a student athlete's athletic performance?

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Can mental health affect a student athlete's athletic performance?

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Well from an outsider looking in, the answer may seem obvious. The question may seem stupid, even. But in this article, I plan to dive into the numbers, speak to professionals, and see what the managers of the next generation of athletes have to say about how it used to be treated, and how they plan to treat it.

Let's start in chronological order, what did mental health in athletes look like in the 80s. As our independent variable, we shall look at male and female Olympic athletes. One from each decade to see how it evolves. To see if performance improves or damages performance. Allow us to start in the 1980s. A beautiful era for sports in a lot of aspects. One of the first cases of drug abuse for a competitive edge in athletes, in this case, “blood doping” is where an athlete may use drugs or a series of blood transfusions to allow oxygen to travel more quickly in the body, which thereby allows more power. A reason an athlete may dope himself is that he’s insecure about his performance in camp. Would this have happened if he had access to trainers, or help that we do nowadays? Does this modern equipment help athletes, giving them this sense of confidence? Cases of blood doping are still emerging. Not at Olympic levels. And certainly not as common. But they are still happening. Take care as the majority of your sentences are incomplete. Every sentence must have a subject and a verb.

The 90s

For a lot of people, this is the most entertaining era in sports. Whether it’s prime Michael Jordan, the 1992 dream team, or seeing the end of an era. A passing of the torch, if you will. A lot of people were also discovered taking performance-enhancing drugs, whether it was because of better technology, or fear of competition, but there was a rise in drug abuse from athletes who did things like track and weightlifting. Sports that HEAVILY related to each person's genetic potential were specifically affected. But not only did people use performance-enhancing substances, but also a lot of metabolic substances, which not only do not affect performance, but also may hinder it due to the fact that metabolic substances may tighten arteries and blood vessels, but what does this show? It shows that athletes are 37.8% more likely to have eating disorders because they’re humans and are just as concerned with how they look as we are. Here are staggering visual representations of everyone who got caught up with drugs in the 90s.

Finally, to bring this back to students, we’ve seen the numbers, the statistics. I’ve talked with experts on how students’ mental health is affected by sports to see the overall professional opinion on what students can do to not dive into the realm of performance-enhancing or metabolic drugs. Talking to Coach Randal “Butch” Gayton, he said that student-athletes are more prone to athletes?? because of the “combined pressure from school AND sports” and that drugs are simply an escape for some students, and that if a student is considering do it, they should talk to some older teammates for advice. And talking to Mr. Steve, Director of ASB. He believes that the best way to achieve peace of mind in an athlete, is balance in the schedule, and any teacher, in his words “would love to help it’s one of our school policies”

In conclusion, students need to find ways to relieve stress, and they need to remember that they’re never alone, because not only do they have school friends, they also have their teammates and their coaches. Finally, they should never be afraid to reach out before heading straight for drugs.

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The smell of fresh grass, the roaring of assemblies, the screaming of the children, what’s the difference between schools in the long run? In this article, I will be investigating the relationship between the American School of Bahrain and St. Christopher’s school and I have gotten exclusive interviews with the director of ASB himself as well as with a former St.Chris’s student. Are we destined to become companions in learning, collaborating to make the private education scene in Bahrain better, or are we meant to face off with each other in rival sport games to see which school is the best? Keep reading and you’ll find out.

We all know about St. Christopher’s School, one of the other private schools that sits in Isa Town about four kilometers from the American School of Bahrain. This school upholds the values of the British curriculum which from their website are to be "caring, honesty and mutual respect”. There are actually two separate school buildings apart from each other. There is a junior school in Saar which has more students than the middle school/ senior school in Isa Town. First it seemed that St. Christopher’s school was the best place ever created. According to higher-ups like Mr. Dave, who has never experienced the school as a student, it seemed like there were no problems at all and it’s a great school. But later I interviewed a former student and the response I got was that the junior school was nice and welcoming

The junior school provided lots of fun for the kids and it was laid back and lively. (picture st-chris.net)

but once you enter sixth grade and you go to the senior campus, everything changes. The teachers are more stressed, you are more pressured for the EXAMS, you are more pressured to please the administrators and be a model student. I guess when you’re actually a student who’s studying in that school there’s another perspective. Seems stressful, right? Well someday ASB could be like that. An excerpt from my interview with Mr. Dave revealed that St. Christopher’s school is an influence on ASB.

Interviewer: “Have you ever been to St. Christopher’s school, if you did, tell us a bit about it and does ASB strive to be like them?”

Mr. Dave: “I’ve been to the junior campus but not the senior campus, the junior campus is a bit nicer then the senior campus, because it’s newer. In some way we do strive to be like them because they have a good reputation. We’re very different in many ways, different curriculum, different sort of approach to teaching, not completely different from them, but they’ve been around for 60 years and they have a very good reputation so..We strive to one day, be there.”

In conclusion, are we friends or enemies to St. Chris’s? The answer is that ASB and St. Chris’s are allies, Mr. Dave explained in a interview:

Interviewer: “Is St. Chris’s a school to be cooperating with to improve the private education scene in Bahrain, or should we give anyone from St. Chris a thumbs down when we see them as our educational rivals?”

Mr. Dave: “No, I see it completely opposite. I see as a new school there are many things that we can learn from St. Chris’s as they are an excellent school and I also think they'll learn things from us as a new school that’s doing a lot of good things.  I see it as ‘a rising tide raises all boats’ so instead of being enemies or competitors, we could work together. COVID’s a great example, you can share information really easily on a whatsapp chat together, anyway, thumbs up to St. Chris’s.” So for now, don’t hold any grudges against St. Chris’s in the foreseeable future, thanks for reading!

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Since the moon landing in 1969, many individuals have come to the conclusion that it was all fake. This conspiracy theory first started with a man named Bill Kaysing, Kaysing was a former US Navy officer for NASA. This theory is very popular, because it does make sense.

According to the website,The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/5-moon-landing-innovations-that-changed-life-on-earth-102700 ) Kaysing “Claimed that he had inside knowledge of a government conspiracy to fake the moon landings, and many conspiracy theories about the Apollo moon landings which persist to this day can be traced back to his 1976 book”. They also say, “Conspiracy theorists then argue that NASA staged the moon landings in a film studio and that there are tell-tale signs on the footage and the photos that give the game away. They claim that NASA has covered up the elaborate hoax ever since.”This gives us brief information about whether or not the moon landing was fake, because it does say that conspiracy theorists believe that it was all staged in a film studio.

Many people also agree with this, because people believe that around the late 1960s there was no technology advanced enough to launch people to the moon. People till this day are led to believe that this myth is real, and they claim that the US Government faked all the Apollo missions.

I have interviewed the school’s teacher in charge of the Student Council at the American School of Bahrain, Ms. Noor, and I asked her, “Do you believe that the moon landings were all real?”, and she responded, “Yes, I do.” I then asked her, “Why do you believe in this?” She responded, “Because of the amount of time it took to get to the moon.”

According to How do we know that we went to the moon(https://www.iop.org/explore-physics/moon/how-do-we-know-we-went-to-the-moon ), they stated that, “One of the most popular conspiracy arguments is that there are never any stars in Apollo photos. Free from Earth’s light pollution and hazy atmosphere, you would expect to see thousands of stars in all the astronauts’ images. Unfortunately, this argument rests on the photos being snapped during the lunar night. All manned missions to the Moon took place in sunny daytime. This meant starlight lost the battle against the very bright surface of the Moon, too dim to show up in photos.” We can infer that this article is supporting the fact that the moon landing is fake, because the article does quote that there are no stars in the Apollo photos.

Till this day, there is no answer whether or not all of the Apollo moon landings were faked. I personally believe that the moon landings were all real, but I do understand why people do also believe that it was all just a hoax, due to the fact that we didn’t have that much advanced technology back in the late 1960s. I now leave it up to you readers to believe in what you agree with, and decide what you really think happened with all the Apollo missions.

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What Amazon employees have to go through in order to get a paycheck.

Amazon, the multi-million dollar conglomerate, which mainly focuses on the delivery of goods and services, has slowly been known and acknowledged for their mistreatment and poor health of their employees. Back in 2020, Amazon reported that a rate of 6.5  employees were injured out of every 100 full-time employees, that's 50% higher than the rate for all U.S. warehouse workers, which was 4 per 100 full-time workers.

About 40% of work-related injuries at Amazon are MSDs (Musculoskeletal Disorders), which include sprains or strains caused by repeating motions. At the same time, Amazon was also hiring large amounts of people, 350,000 people in 3 months, offering a wage of at least $15 an hour and good benefits. This situation is certainly sad and frustrating for those who have suffered a lot from working at Amazon, one might even compare it to a gulag (a system of labour camps maintained in the Soviet Union from 1930 to 1955 in which many people died).

t’s not only injuries that are a problem, there have been some racial issues within Amazon too. Current and former Amazon diversity and inclusion professionals say that “Internal data shows that Amazon’s review and promotion systems have created an unlevel playing field. Black employees receive “least effective” marks more often than all other workers and are promoted at a lower rate than non-Black peers.” According to Amazon data, Black employees accounted for 3.8% of its older positions in the U.S. (up from 1.5% in 2018), compared with 70.7% for whites (down from 74.3% in 2018).

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon July 5th, 1994 in Bellevue, Washington in the United States; it originally started as a website that only sold books. However, founder Jeff Bezos had a vision for the company's explosive growth and domination. He knew from the very beginning that he wanted Amazon to be "an everything store." And in the years to come, his statement would ring true and now Amazon is one of the most successful companies in the entire world. Amazon's success largely stems from its innovative technologies and practices, many of which were supported by Jeff Bezos himself.

With over 950,000 workers, Amazon has a networth of over $1.7 trillion dollars and their workers are paid more than double the minimum wage in the USA. Did I also mention the benefits? Even with all these wonderful perks the workers are offered, they, unfortunately, are still suffering from multiple problems from working.

I actually interviewed one of my classmate’s brothers who works at Amazon over email to see how he feels about working at Amazon.

1. What type of work do you do at Amazon?
I work as a warehouse worker; I organize boxes using forklifts or sometimes my hands.

2. How are you treated at your job?
I'm treated okay by my colleagues but sometimes I get some looks from the management department.

3. Have you gotten any health problems after you started working at Amazon?
No, thankfully.

4. What are the good things about working at Amazon?
I guess the only good thing is the salary.

5. What are the bad things about working at Amazon?
That I’m completely exhausted at the end of the day.

So in conclusion, the employees employed at Amazon are not in the best conditions, some are suffering from health problems while others are suffering from some racial problems. Unfortunately racism exists in every realm of society, we cannot eliminate racism entirely, but we can raise awareness of this crucial issue in order for the world to be a better and fair place to live in. In the end we need to make light of this to the general public and to launch a campaign in order to improve the working conditions of the Amazon employees. The campaign must shed light on improving the physical circumstances as well as the psychological well-being of the employees. These employees are an essential part of modern society and need to be treated with respect and dignity.

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Is having mental health issues a good excuse to miss sports?

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Is having mental health issues a good excuse to miss sports?

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Recently, a question came up, should you miss sports because of your mental health? When we refer to mental health we refer to things like depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, etc. Although we are rarely aware of it, mental illness is a very dangerous thing, as some of these issues could lead to things like suicide or separating yourself from your family, lately, we have been getting more aware of athletes that have mental health problems, and different sports have started offering services to these athletes. But the question remains, is having mental health a good excuse to miss sports?

After phenomenal interviews with the head physical education coach of the American School of Bahrain, the other physical education teachers, and the Principal of the American School of Bahrain, I have gathered enough information and evidence that proves that mental health is a good excuse to miss sports. A mental health problem is a psychological war with yourself, it can cause emotional trauma such as the loss of a loved one or a friend. “I don't think you can prepare people for mental health issues, what you can do is make sure that they know that they have avenues of help,” said Randal Gayton, the head physical education organizer at the American school of Bahrain. Although the world might think that mental illnesses only affect older people, we have now learned that it affects the old and young, boys and girls, and everyone else in the world. Due to very recent events in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, people have started becoming more aware of this very serious issue. Simeone Biles is an example, she is an American gymnast who had to drop out of the Olympics because she was dealing with mental health issues, witnesses say she couldn't tell what was up or down.

Simeone Biles after getting pulled

out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

due to mental health issues

But why is it a good excuse? A mental illness is a problem that you are not born with, you build it, that's why it's better to seek help when the problem isn't that big, millions die every year from a mental illness. Mental health is known to affect athletes' performances, either by their skill, their sportsmanship, leadership, etc. That's why it's so dangerous because it can affect not only you but also the people around you, either your friends, parents, family members, and more. “The reason mental health is such a complicated problem is that if you don't check it early, it can be really dangerous,” said Ricardo Lamaroz, a professional therapist in New York, who has helped over 15 athletes with their battle against mental health.

Even though the number of people who suffer from mental illnesses is higher than the number of athletes who suffer from mental health issues, the numbers are still very high. In the past few years, especially back in the 1980’s people have hidden their mental health, and some people have suffered the consequences, that’s why it is very important not just for adults but for students, to help people go through with rough times since about 35% of elite athletes suffer from some type of mental illness.

After reading this article, what do you think? Do you think mental health is a good excuse to miss sports, or should athletes go through with it; although it's a debated topic, everyone has their answer, and the answer varies. As Linda Poindexter said, “One small crack does not mean that you are broken, it means that you were put to the test and you didn't fall apart.”

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We have all seen the Esol logo before, maybe on a music book, the corner of your laptop, at school, and many other places. But what is ESOL education? Esol Education specializes in the establishment and management of high-quality international schools around the Middle East and the Mediterranean. -  esoleducation.com

Walid Abushakra started Esol about 45 years ago. He has been an educator for over 60 years, he started in his 20's. One day, he decided to open his own school instead of reporting to somebody, so he opened his own school in Kuwait. “ And when the war came, the Iraq war came and they all had to evacuate, so they closed the school and went to Cairo” - Steve Bodnar. After that, he decided he wanted to start a company. A company called Esol education. “And I was always told it's not an acronym for something, but lately I saw that it actually is an acronym for something. And some people mix it up. they think it must be English is a second or other language. So when you have people who don't speak English they go to an English second language school but that's not it .” - Dave Mcmaster.

ESOL education actually stands for Education Services Overseas Limited.

ESOL Education has 10 schools all over the world, mostly in the Middle East but also

In Hong Kong, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, three in Cairo, Lebanon, and Cyprus. All of the

schools have grades from kindergarten to 12th grade. Esol’s initiative is

“ Esol Education’s mission, vision and core values are the underlying guiding

principles that steer colleagues towards achieving the organization’s reputed

high standards, placing Esol at the forefront of the field of international

Education.” - esoleducation.com

In conclusion, ESOL education is a company that owns schools all over the world, and all of it was just because of one man with an idea. The idea to be independent and run his own school. One school turned into two schools and two turned into three. And now there are 10 schools and there are rumored to be more coming in the future but I guess we will have to be patient and see what ESOL education has in store.

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Teachers & Senior Management share thoughts on ASB’s second year!

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Teachers & Senior Management share thoughts on ASB’s second year!

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On September 5th at 8:00 AM, ASB officially started its second year of school, with new students coming from all over the world. Hala El Saadi, a student at the American School of Bahrain (ASB) has interviewed staff members and senior management Mrs Sarah Pillay, Mr.Dave McMaster, Mr Randol Gayton, Ms Sushma Kumar, and Mr Neil Visser in their classrooms about thoughts and new opportunities of the new school year.

American School of Bahrain Yard/campus

Ms.Sushma Kumar, the middle school science teacher, gave an interview on September 12 2021 at 10:26 PM, here is Ms.Kumar’s response, ‘I hope to continue to grow in my learning journey as a teacher and inspire my students for the same. As they say" practice what you preach". In my continual attempt to be a good teacher, I always try to keep in mind to be a good human being first. It is absolutely necessary to grow as compassionate, caring and respectful individuals above everything else.I believe we need to learn self-love and truly enjoy what we are doing or learning. That paves the way for inner peace and happiness. I hope to help my students build a strong foundation in the subjects that I will be teaching them and also introduce after-school clubs such as science club or peer tutoring club’.

Next, we have Ms.Sarah Pillay, Middle school & high school English teacher. Here's her plan, ‘’ I have hopes that the school will continue to grow and that the after school clubs and sports program will thrive. In terms of bettering the community, I think an area of huge concern is the rubbish/ litter, especially in areas of natural beauty such as the beaches. Community clean-ups, which are already taking place, are a great initiative. My ideas for the school year...I think it would be amazing if the students could put on a drama production. I know of several Grade 10s that would be very keen.”

And now we will talk to Mr. Neil Visser, Middle School, and High School Social Studies teacher, here's his aim. “My hopes for this year is that we continue to grow as a school and we can make sure every student is happy and taken care of. To see ALL students get actively involved in school activities. Improving the school community comes down to the students. It's the students who give the school life and atmosphere. Making sure students are happy will make it possible.”

And now  Mr.Dave McMaster Director/Senior management of ASB! Telling us all his wonderful ideas here's his mission, ‘ I hope we can build on the momentum/refinement from year one at ASB. It was a strange way to open a new school, in the middle of a pandemic. But for many reasons, we felt the year was very positive. We have welcomed a lot of new students and staff and I hope we can continue to develop a warm, caring environment where students feel welcome and important. We are hoping to start extracurricular activities and sports programs. We weren’t able to do this last year due to COVID. There will be a drama club which I know you will be very interested in. I have always believed that we should do everything we can do to improve everything we do. Offering activities outside of class will make the overall experience at ASB even better. On top of this, we need to constantly work on building relationships so that everyone at ASB feels welcome and valued.

Finally, now we will be talking to Mr. Butch Middle School & High School P.E teacher. Here’s his proposal, “ My hopes for this year, first are enjoyment and fun with the students because if my students are having fun we can accomplish great things. But I also like to push them to become better and if they enjoy it and they become better then I’ve done my part. My idea for the school is to have a sports program and a variety of activities for it. But my idea is to have a recycling club. That is the only downfall I have seen in Bahrain become Bahrain is so beautiful there's greenery, really good architecture, the ocean, the sand and there's pollution everywhere and it bothers me alot and I hope we can make this club happen, starting with our school than hopefully out into the whole country.”

Thank you so much to everyone who has given me an interview on your thoughts and hopes. Hopefully, we can make this happen, and as students, we are glad that you have a lot of hopes for ASB.

Written By Hala El Saadi, a student at ASB.

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Students are getting bored with packed lunches and parents are fed up with having to pack lunches so everyone has been so excited for the new caterers to start and finally the news has arrived. The school has hired caterers for the cafeteria.

On September 5th the new school year started and for the new school year the school hired new caterers for the cafeteria This is information you already gave in the first paragraph. Last year there were none because the Bahraini Ministry of Education didn’t allow schools to have them to lower the risk of schools having to close because of COVID-19. This year there will be caterers once again with a repeat of information and on Tuesday the 14th of September Mr. Steve and Mr. Dave had a meeting with the catering company. Eastern Bakery food services, the company, will start serving food on Sunday the 26th of September. Currently only grades six to ten will be able to buy from the cafeteria and hopefully in a few months elementary grades will too.

I interviewed Mr. Steve on this topic and he said the caterers will serve food that will factor into students' allergies such as food allergies and people who are gluten free or lactose intolerant. There will also be vegetarian options and maybe even vegan. When  you think about school cafeteria food, the first thing that pops into your head is gross food but the food the school is going to serve is definitely anything but gross. There will be various different options such as: chicken and beef options, pizza, rice, fruit and vegetables and maybe even french fries. Mr Steve described the food as ‘delicious and reasonably priced’. I asked a group of students from grade seven to ten what they would like to see in the cafeteria and the most popular answers were pasta, chicken nuggets and noodles.

The way students will pay is quite interesting. Mr. Steve said that the students would have a card that they can put money on and they can swipe this card every time they want to buy food. Food  in the cafeteria won't be unreasonably priced. Most of the food will cost 1.5 BHD and some others will obviously cost less or more depending on what it is.

Now with the caterers here, students will finally be excited for their lunch instead of having the same thing everyday. In the future hopefully Grades three to five will be able to buy from the cafeteria then maybe even grades one and two.

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Can you believe how many people litter in Bahrain everyday!? On December 9 2020 tourists found 6099 pieces of litter and trash in one area, the sea Now this isn't new.With that much half of that was cleared but some most likely still remained or got washed out to sea.

In addition to water and soil pollution, litter can also pollute the air. An unbelievable amount of people, 1 million people every day litter across the world. If people get caught littering they can get huge fines. In Bahrain littering isn't the biggest problem but it's still an issue. It's crazy how people can get paid up to 300bd for cleaning litter and trash. Litter in Bahrain is mostly in the ocean and that negatively impacts animals. Plastics are the most common objects sighted in the sea, with 18,000 pieces of plastic litter floating on every square kilometre of the oceans!

On September 14th at 11:51 in school I emailed the Principal of the American School of Bahrain because I wanted to focus more on littering around the school.So at around 12:48 Mr.Steve Bodnar the Principal of ASB replied with “Littering in Bahrain is a big problem. I think we need to look at this issue with a 2 step approach.

We need to educate our students about this challenge.  Our school has to be the cleanest school in Bahrain and we want our students to be proud of that fact.

Our students need to learn about the 3 Rs - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.  Reduce the amount of garbage that we create by using reusable water bottles, lunch containers and avoiding prepackaged snacks. Reuse plastic ziplock bags and shopping bags.  Recycle cans, plastic bottles, paper, cardboard and possibly composting fruit peelings.  The 3Rs can reduce the negative impact that our ASB community has on our planet.”

The three 3rs - reduce,reuse and recycle - can help in a major way to this problem for a solution. Now this won't cover 100% of the job.About 55% to be accurate. Other ways to stop littering. For no reason at all people will throw their trash on the ground when they have a bin at home. If you can't throw away something try to reuse it or recycle.Instead of throwing everything away put it to use.Quote from website “We don't want to live in a trash can-stop making it one.” This means we don't want our world to be a trash can full of litter. In the end our world will be a trash filled place.

Source here https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/prodigious-ways-you-can-do-to-prevent-litter.php

Few More Ways To Help Out

…………………………………………………………….

1.Don’t be a part of the problem

2.Create less waste

3. Clean up litter in your free time

4. Remove your rubbish responsibly

And that's an easy way to help out, not just in Bahrain around the whole world.

Here is a site source where i got some information:

http://www.perseus-net.eu/site/content.php?artid=565&locale=1&sel=517

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School can be fun for kids, but also pressure them with a lot with work, or being in a terrible school. Depression affects your mood, physical health, and having difficulty making choices and decisions.

A lot of middle school students appear to have depression before their adulthood. On the 2nd of December, 2017, a study from the University of Southampton discovered that most kids that are between the ages of 11-16 are experiencing depression because of online school, and even because of active school. Middle school is so different from elementary school and kids get treated like adults, causes are from school. Pressured by the work they have to do, bullying, obesity, and academic problems. We all know middle school is very different to elementary school because you would assume kids to be responsible and independent while people actually treat them like kids at the same time.

Depression from school can actually cause anxiety. If students have a presentation due tomorrow, people would expect them to have no emotions. A study says kids don't sleep enough because of overthinking and worrying about a presentation they have tomorrow, “what if it's bad?”  “ What if my classmates make fun of me?”

Get rid of bullying once and for all

Are the United States of America’s methods effective in banning bullying?

The 2010 analysis showed that overall, “school-based anti-bullying programs” decrease bullying and victimization by around 20%, the same goes for cyber-bullying.  But in high schools, anti-bullying programs were just as likely to make the bullying worse as they were trying to improve it.

Schools in the USA and Australia have experienced the most bullying, and they are looking forward to banning and stopping bullying because of the effects it has caused on kid’s mental health, and all the 50 states in the US have used laws against this issue.

- 33% of elementary students are reported to have been bullied

- 20% of kids in kindergarten are bullied

According to U. S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan, “bullying is finally being recognized as a school safety issue.” Parents and schools are effectively working together to stop this serious issue by following the 3 R's: Recognize, Respond, and Report.

now we will have an interview with a cousin of mine who has experienced bullying.

Hello, I’m Salman Alabbasi and today i’ll be interviewing you with 3 questions.

Can you give me an example of a situation where bullying occurred when you were in school? What role did you play in the example (victim, bystander, or bully)? A lot of young people get bullied at school, especially in elementary school. They mostly get bullied by the older people

“I was the victim.”

“I have  bullying for 2 years when I was in grade 2. I was bullied by a 3rd grader, he used to tease me in class and sometimes even was violent with me.”

How did they stop bullying you?

“ The school I went to was really bad and the students had no manners and teachers taught awfully, and after 2nd grade I changed my school and went to BSB.”

Why were you bullied?

“Because I was really short and he was the tallest in our class, and he had more strength than everyone else in the class.”

Thank you for your time and sharing your experience.

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This article was a pleasure to read, I love the way he quoted the interviews. I love the details he dove into, to go as far as interviewing a student. 10/10 article.

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I like the topic of your article because a lot of people can relate to this, you also included statistics that help back up your article and shows evidence, and cited a few things. Other than that I love the way your article was structured.

-Hala

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This is a very interesting article about Amazon, I really like how you included that Jeff Bezos had a great bright future for the company, and I also really liked how you included that Amazon first started as a website as a bookstore.

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I really liked your use of facts and statistics like the amount of time it takes masks to break down and multiple statistics on how much plastic is recycled. I also liked how you formatted interviews and only used important/relevant quotes from the people you interviewed. Great job :)

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I think this is a great article as it gives an in-depth and gives multiple perspectives about the 1969 moon landing. I enjoyed reading the quotes in the article and it gives evidence for both sides and an opinion from the school counsellor. Good job Zain!

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Your article is really good and I like the way you wrote the interview and how you gave examples like Simone Biles. there was also a lot of statistics which is good. It's also a really good topic and its interesting.

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It was an interesting topic that's relevant .I like that you explained some of the drama surrounding it. It was well-written and nicely structured

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First of all, I must say, after a spectacular 3 minutes of reading this article, I am amazed by the amount of hard work that has gone into this news article, and it is clearly shown. I learned a lot about ESOL education, and the number of quotes you put into it was really good.

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I like the topic of this article because i know that a lot of people are very excited for after school clubs to start. I also like the layout of the article and how there are many perspectives to read from in the interviews.

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I really like reading your article, i learned a lot.

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I liked the use of rhetorical questions.

I really liked how you took the reader through different decades showing them that you researched and it made it fun and gripping to read.

Your use of facts and statistics made the article unbiased and truthful.

Your conclusion wrapped up the article very well and it was an enjoyable ending.

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Good Job Grecia! I really like the information in the article, Your article also includes a lot of activities from different teachers, which indicates that you had to interview a lot of teachers, which must have taken al lot of work, time and effort, the information you provided is very ethical so children can participate in the activities. Well Done!

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This is a very interesting article about this crypto scam I must say. I like how you mentioned the influencers they paid and I like how you quoted what $KIDS said and I really like how you got a variety of opinions and came to a conclusion that scamming people is wrong and is worth being punished for.

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The article was amazing which clearly states you have devoted your time on researching. The interview was also good with lots of info. Overall it was an amazing article.

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I like that you added sources and quotes. I also like the topic you chose now that i'm very interested in this subject. It is a well done article, full of detailed information, and it has an interesting ending

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It's A nice article and I like how you described the start.

I also like how you added a lot of facts and statistics about how it refers to your topic.

It's nice how you also  wrote the thoughts people could have at the time

I like how you started the interview simple and nice
And i like how the interview ended brought everything all up together

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The transition between topics and paragraphs is very clean and sleek. You perfectly integrated the quotes into the writing, it sounds like you speaking, It sounds very natural. It has a great hook in the beginning and a perfect ending. Great work!

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I really liked the article, i learned a lot about the Covid-19 pandemic, it was really interesting.

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I liked the examples used and there were quotes. Its clear that you did research and that you understand. It didn't feel repetitive and your vocabulary was good as well.

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It's insanely good. I really like how you've written it and how you stop to explain certain things. I liked how you proved and supported your points with quotes and definitions. I like what you've written about :)

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After reading this phenomenal master piece, I must say i have never read such a delightful article, i learned a lot by reading it, I hope to read more of your articles.

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A really interesting article Danyaal, here's some good points about your article. 1. I liked the amount of statistics you put within your article. 2. I appreciated the fact that at the end, you put multiple different ways for individuals to help out pollution. 3. I was impressed of your vocabulary. 4. I really liked the amount of facts and quotes in your article.

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1. The topic is really interesting and relavant 2. I liked the interview with Mr. Steve it gave a lot of information about the school canteen 3. I also like the facts and statistics

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1. The topic is really interesting a d relevant 2. I liked the interview with mr steve, it gave a lot of information about the school canteen
3. The use of facts and statistics is good