May 2011

Dates to Remember

Wednesday, May 11  

 Seventh Grade Presentation 

on Careers in the Medical Profession 

With Dr. Steven Treon

 

Eighth Grade Presentation  

on the "Big Dig" 

with Mr. Fred Salvucci    

 
Thursday, May 19 
Faculty Meeting Schedule
School Starts at 9:00 
 
Friday, May 27
President's Holiday/No Classes

Wednesday, June 1
Student Showcase Night
Tour of Donahue Hall at 6:30 p.m.
and Student Presentations in the Perry Gymnasium at 7:15 p.m. 

__________

The National  

Air and Space Museum

by Jack Harn '15

 

Jack Harn

During April vacation I had the opportunity to visit Washington, DC, with my family.  One of the highlights of our trip was our visit to the National Air and Space Museum.  The National Air and Space Museum is located on Independence Ave in Washington, DC. The museum is apart of the Smithsonian Institution. The museum holds the largest collection of aircrafts and spacecrafts in the world. The museum is the second most popular tourist attraction in the Smithsonian Institute. There are over 6 million tourists who come to the museum yearly. The museum opened in 1946. Before 1946, there was just a National Air Museum which was built in 1918. But finally in 1946 Congress created the National Air and Space Museum.

National Air and Space Museum

The museum has more than 30,000 aircraft artifacts and 9,000 space artifacts. The museum has famous airplanes such as the Boeing 247-D, the 1903 Wright Flyer, the Antonov An-2 Colt, and many others. The museum also has famous space artifacts such as controllers, ALSEP Sub package 1 and 2, the Lunar bag, space binoculars, and much more. The museum is free to enter for anyone. You just have to go through security and you're in. The reason why you don't have to pay is because the museum is a federal museum. Federal museums are free and get their money from US taxes.

 

The National Air and Space Museum is opened from 10 AM to 7:30 PM every day except Christmas. Special events take place at the museum on historic airplane/spacecraft days such as the Wright Brother Ceremony and the Apollo 11 Ceremony. The Museum has 2 floors. The 1st floor contains space artifacts and exhibits and the he 2nd floor contains aircraft artifacts. The museum is huge and is more than double the size of the Boston Science Museum.

 

The museum is a great place to learn information. There are over 50,000 exhibits in the museum. The museum has artifacts and exhibits about the United States' aviation history chronicling the development of  spaceships and aircrafts. Other countries are included in the exhibits with their contributions to building aircrafts and spaceships such as Russia, China, and Germany. At the museum, you can buy DVDs and books about artifacts that are in the museum.

 

The National Air and Space Museum is one of the top 5 places to learn about the development of aircrafts and spaceships in the world. Hopefully, more tourists from America will go see the museum and learn about America's rich history in creating spaceships, airplanes, and much more.   

__________ 

 

Interview with  

Mrs. McGauley

by Patrick O'Leary '15 

 

How are the science classes going this year?

Mrs. McGauley: They are going very well. Everyone in my science class is doing very well.  I am happy with my science classes this year.

 

How is the after school program going this year?

Mrs. McGauley: Well, some days are a lot busier than others. When it is between sports seasons, there are a lot of kids. For the most part the kids come early, then they will leave to go to Dunkin Donuts to get something to eat.  When they come back, it takes them around 15- 20 minutes to settle down.  It is going pretty well and it is a pretty popular place to be after school.

 

What are your plans for Student Showcase Night?

Mrs. McGauley: I will have a project that the eighth grade will be showcasing and a project that the seventh grade will be showcasing. The seventh grade will be building bridges of Boston. The eighth grade will have a parcel of land over a tunnel. They will have a choice of what they can do for the parcels of land.

 

Patrick O'Leary
 and Mrs. McGauley

How do you like the Smartboard?

Mrs. McGauley: I like the Smartboard but sometimes it gets a little temperamental. When it all goes well, it works very nice.  I like having it in the classroom. In the future, I would like to do more with it.

 

What are some of the differences between teaching boys and girls?

Mrs. McGauley: At the beginning, it was quite different because I had taught boys and girls for ten years. However,  students are students no matter where they are. The boys work especially well when the rules are just for them and not girls. When the rules are like this, classes run a little smoother. I like it though, and of course, I have a sense of humor.

_________

Speech Team News

Our Team at Milton Academy

Fifty one CMMS students competed in the  

Milton Academy Forensics Tournament on May 1st.  

Thanks to Mrs. Eberly and the 30 parent judges who provided our students with this opportunity.

 

Congratulations to

Anthony Panaggio in  Demonstration and  

Kevin Lynch in Poetry.

_________ 

 Eighth Grade Visit  

to the Boston Fire Museum 

Sean Watson, Jack Harn, and Kevin O'Toole 

Fire Museum Director Mr. Dan O'Neill shows students some of the fire equipment that was once used in Boston 

 

Secret Service Agents  

Visit Donahue Hall

by Christopher Vixama '15

 

On April 8th, 2011, three members of the Secret Service took time out of their busy schedules to speak to the eighth grade about their jobs. One of the agents was a graduate of Catholic Memorial. One other agent was the mother of seventh grader James Bratsis.  The agents spoke about the requirements for becoming a part of the Secret Service, which requires a lot of hard work and dedication. The speakers told us that their main jobs were protecting the president when he travels anywhere in the world and protecting our currency by investigating counterfeit money. They brought along some of the counterfeit money they had collected in recent years.

Christopher Vixama

Christopher Vixama

 

I was surprised because some of the money wasn't even printed correctly. For example, there was a one dollar bill that had Andrew Jackson's face on it instead of George Washington's. Also, there were dollar bills that you could tell were counterfeit just by looking at them. 

 

The agents also showed us some of the equipment that they use. Their equipment was similar to the equipment that the police use but theirs specifically read Secret Service. One of the agents told us about the scariest and most memorable moments of his career. I thought he had courage to tell us something so personal. He also told us about experiences he's had with the president. He remembered that Barack Obama would say hi to him or thank him for the hard work that he was doing and he said he was so focused on his job that he was unable to acknowledge the President.

Secret Service Agents Crehan, Bratsis, and Boyd

 

After listening to what these Secret Service Agents had to say, I learned to respect them because they risk their lives every day to make sure that we can live in peace and harmony. I think some students might want to pursue that type of career one day.

Seventh Grade Career Day

by Tim Weinstein '16 

 

Career Day began for me with Mr. Twomey.  Mr. Twomey works for the Boston Fire Department and inspects the plans for sprinkler systems that buildings must have in case of fire emergencies.  Mr. Twomey enlightened us on the importance of water safety systems in high rise buildings and how they can ensure our safety in a dire situation. 

Tim Weinstein

The next workshop was with Mrs. Stacey.  Mrs. Stacey is an Assistant United States District Attorney working at the Moakley Federal Courthouse.  She deals with crimes like murder, stealing and drug trafficking.  She represents the United States in criminal cases and tries to make sure that criminals are brought to justice.   Our next workshop was with Mr. Zegarelli.  Mr. Zegarelli is a Macy's store manager.  He told us all sorts of interesting facts like how the New York Macy's is the largest department store  in the world.  Macy's is also a worldwide organization with stores in South America as well as the U.S.  So if you want to look good at the next C.M. function go talk to Mr. Zegarelli.  Now it was on to Mrs. McGoldrick.  Mrs. McGoldrick is a Boston Police Officer.  She presently works at Police Headquarters at Ruggles Square in the fingerprinting department, but she use to drive around in a squad car and protect the streets of Boston.  She is part of an ever-growing number of female police officers on the Boston Police Department. 

 

Then it was off to lunch, a game of wiffle ball and an inspirational speech by the Head Guidance Counselor, Mr. Tegan.  He spoke to us on how preparing for college and our life starts in middle school and how we develop good habits.  How we must put forth our best effort in everything we do whether it be on homework, a test, a project or how we act out in the real world.  When we returned we visited Mr. Steele.  Mr. Steele showed us the latest plans he had for a local school he was renovating.  He is the Clerk of the Works for the City of Boston.  The job of a Clerk of the Works is to supervise a building project to make sure every part of the project comes together on time.  He showed us how each dimension has to be precise based on a scale model.  He also showed how he had to record all the processes done on a particular day and how certain things had to be done at a specific time to keep the project on schedule.  After that we paid a visit to Mr. McCarthy.  Mr. McCarthy is an administrator in the Department of Public Works for the City of Boston.  He dispatches the trucks that plow the snow and manage trash disposal.  He also works closely with different people in Boston to help stop gang activity.  Finally, our last stop was with Mrs. Hock, the president of Adecco Industries.  Mrs. Hock's business basically finds employees to work for major companies like Google and Bank of America.  Mrs. Hock also treated us all with the beauty of five dollar Dunkin Donuts Gift Cards for how attentive we stayed.  This is a very effective teaching technique that we hope more teachers start to use.  We want to thank all who came and participated in this year's Seventh Grade Career Day.

           

           


The Moakley Federal Courthouse

and the Fire Museum

by Ryan Nelson '15                                

 

On April 5, 2011, the Eighth Grade visited the Boston Moakley Federal Courthouse and the Boston Fire Museum. We left the Middle School at around 8:00, and headed into Boston. The bus ride was fun, but when we arrived we were all excited. We arrived at the Federal Courthouse for our first stop. We were amazed by the enormous size of the Courthouse.

Ryan Nelson

We were checked by federal agents before we could actually tour inside. The security at these government buildings is very tight since 9/11.  The place was huge.  It consisted of eight floors, the top floor being all offices, and the rest of the floors had courtrooms. There are twenty-seven courtrooms in the building.  We had taken a tour around the building from the bottom which showed us some of the most wanted criminals in Boston and the United States. One floor we ventured through lead us into a courtroom where the tour guide showed us where some famous cases took place.  They showed us where the defendants were in the courtroom when the case was being presented and some of the famous attorneys that were involved with the case.  The infamous "Shoe Bomber," Richard Reid was tried in this courthouse.  I had a chance to sit where the head juror told the judge what the jury's verdict was.

 

moak
Moakley Federal Courthouse

After we were done with the tour of the courthouse, we headed over to Sullivan's on Castle Island for lunch. Sullivan's is a famous restaurant in South Boston that serves great food.  We finished eating and then under the watchful eye of Mrs. Eberly, we calmly toured the perimeter of Fort Independence on Castle Island.  After lunch we headed over to the Fire Museum near South Station. When we walked into the Fire Museum we were greeted by former fire fighter and museum director Mr. Dan O'Neill.  He showed us some exhibits which chronicled some of Boston's most famous fires, including the "Fire of 1872" and the Coconut Grove Fire.  He then led us upstairs for a presentation on some of the situations that firefighters have encountered over the years. Many firemen have risked their lives trying to save other people. That is an important part of their job.  As we headed back to CM on the bus, I realized the amount of heroism it takes to be a fireman.  We all came away with a little more respect for firemen and how they do their job.

_________________  

 

My Trip to the Dominican Republic

by Matt Chipman '15

 

The Thursday before the start of April vacation a group of 14 kids 10 high school 4 middle school students woke up bright and early in order to catch the 7:30 a.m. flight to Miami. After we checked in all of our lives were about to change. When the group first touched down in Santa Domingo we all immediately noticed the extreme poverty that the country as a whole has to experience.

Matt Chipman

The worst part about the poverty we saw  was that the part of the country we were in was one of the best parts in this depressed country.  Something that everybody on this trip was surprised about was that there were multiple members of the army who carried shotguns around with them. On the whole trip we didn't see any police cars, stop signs, and no street signs.

 

After the fist night that we spent in Santa Domingo,  we all piled into a bus the next morning and took a five-hour bus ride to El Cercato. This was the part of the Dominican Republic  that you would not see in commercials. The fist day that we were there the group spent the day with the youth group.  We were all still awestruck by the poverty that we saw and how little resources that they live off of. While with the youth group we played many games including baseball, basketball, and volleyball. The children were very happy to see us and were grateful for the basketballs, baseballs and frisbees that we gave to them. The next day we went to the Haitian boarder and ended up going a couple feet into Haiti.  While we were in Haiti we saw people who had to walk miles just to get water.  We also saw a 95 year old man who every Sunday walks five miles to church.

 

The next day was Palm Sunday.  When I woke up that morning I knew that the group was going to go to church but I didn't expect that all of the towns people would be so welcoming and religious. When we first arrived to the church it wasn't even where we were going to celebrate Mass.  Father John hoped on a Donkey and led everybody, which was at least 200 people on a mile walk to the Church where we were going to celebrate Mass.   After the two and a half hour Mass, Father John who was accompanying us around that day was late for his second Mass and we tagged along.  This Mass was different than any Mass that we in the States would see. This Mass was in a house at a village in the mountains. This was amazing to me because these people didn't have a parish in walking distance. Walking distance for them I noticed was al least 5 miles!

 

On Monday our group went to a waterfall all-natural, and after a 20-minute walk there a fully-clothed swim was necessary.  Yup! Me along with Bill Kennedy (freshman at CM) and Greg Mowles (eighth grader at CM) all jumped into the water. Then we all came home to a get together with the youth group.  Here we all talked about the differences between American culture and Dominican culture.  The next day was hands down the most fun day of the trip. We went to a baseball field to play ball against the local AAU team. We were all scared due to the fact that the Dominican is the home of many very talented Major League Baseball players.  We were right to be frightened due to the fact that I think we lost by a total of 15 points, but we could all tell that us playing with them made the kids extremely happy.

 

The next day we were all upset because this was our last day there. On this day we did a lot of community service. First we picked up milk and containers.  These were for the old people who don't have jobs and are barely surviving.  As a group we all handed out the milk to the senior citizens. As we were handing out this powder milk you could just tell that they were happy to an extent where words cannot describe.  After we did this we went to a hospital that was very small. This hospital had 5 beds and an emergency room. I was shocked at the lack of medical care that they had.  There whole hospital was probably the equivalent to maybe two rooms at Mass General Hospital.  After this we went home for our last night.  When we came home we had a dance with the Dominican youth group and we all had a good going away party.  This trip overall was very informational, life changing, and now I have a whole different way off thinking, instead of thinking what I do have,  I think of what other people don't have.