This article contains the great things that took place at Asbury Park Middle School during the Month of October. Every month teachers get the opportunity to decorate a bulletin board in the middle school. As seen in the above picture, the bulletin board was decorated to represent Halloween and Columbus Day.

During the month of October, Merced Solis, also known as Tito Santana made a visit to Asbury Park Middle School. Merced Solis, a semi-retired professional wrestler and a Spanish teacher for the Eisenhower Middle School in Roxbury Township, New Jersey came to APMS to share his knowledge of teaching Spanish with Sherie Love, APMS Spanish teacher, and to do a special presentation for Mr. Wronko’s social studies class. Mr. Solis observed one of Mrs. Love’s Spanish classes and informed her that she was doing a great job. They both exchanged valuable information on how to help students learn Spanish.

From there Mr. Solis gave Mr. Wronko’s social studies class a special presentation on how important it was to be a hard worker. He explained to the students that he battled tough times in his life. However, he never gave up. Mr. Solis informed the students that because of his hard work he graduated college, played for the NFL, and became a very popular wrestler for the WWE. In addition, he told the students that now he continues his strong work ethic by being a teacher. The students were inspired and amazed by his presentation. They also were given a special autograph of Mr. Solis when he was a WWE superstar. Thank you Mr. Solis!

During the month of October, Oiada Int. has arrived at Asbury Park Middle School for Project Ghana. The members are Eric Jones, CEO, Darryl Bahs, Twia Goss, and Viviene Barr. This team is currently working on building a relationship between the students of Ghana and the students of Asbury Park Middle School. For instance, this team set up a video conference between the students from Ghana and the students from the Asbury Park Middle School. The students from Ghana gave the APMS students a wonderful presentation which consisted of a song of welcome, a news broadcast about Ghana, and a Q and A session. Students from APMS were able to share how life was in the United States while the students of Ghana listened. This interaction that Oiada Int. brings to Asbury Park Middle School is very beneficial to students learning about what life is like in other parts of the world.

During the month of October, APMS students worked on a Salem Witch Trial project. The students discussed how innocent people were put to death because of false allegations of witchcraft and devil worship. They have discovered that people who were landowners were targets for their land. As a result, false allegations would be made against them so their property would be confiscated.

During the month of October, Mr. Provenza, math teacher, established the Chess Club. Mr. Provenza teaches students different techniques while they play the game of Chess.

During the month of October, Mr. Wronko’s students participated once again in The Patriot’s Pen essay contest. This year the students had to write about what freedom means to them. Two sample essays were by Perfecto Kendle and Christlie Lavarin.

What does freedom mean to me?

To me freedom means to be able to make your own choices and decisions. However, in order for me and others to have that freedom you may have to fight for it or be fortunate to have others create a society that allows you to be free. First, in order to have freedom you may have to fight for it. For example, eighteen year old Pakistani girl Malala was not born free. In fact in Mingora, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (the place where Malala lives), the Taliban banned girls from attending school. As a result, Malala did not have the freedom of going to school. However, she fought politically to attend school which opened the doors for other women to do the same. Therefore, she fought for freedom not only for herself but for other women. Another example of fighting for freedom were freed slaves. Like Malala, slaves were not born free. Slaves were beaten or killed if they did not perform their tasks. However, slaves fought for their freedom by working with Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad and volunteering to serve in the army for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War. Although Malala and slaves were not born free, they earned their freedom by fighting for it. These two examples show that freedom should not be taken for granted.

Second, in order to have freedom you may be fortunate to have others create a society that allows you to be free. For instance, Martin Luther King Jr. fits that description. Martin Luther King Jr. was born without civil freedom. Instead of civil freedom, Martin had to deal with segregation. Therefore, he was not free at all. When Martin Luther King Jr. became an adult he decided to fight segregation. He fought segregation with his voice instead of his fists. This led him to leading the Civil Rights Movement. His movement consisted of non-violent protests. These non-violent protests sparked national attention because no matter what the police did to members of the Civil Rights movement, the police never received retaliation. Instead, the members of the Civil Rights movement followed Martin Luther King Jr. by using their voices for freedom for all. Therefore, Martin Luther King Jr. and his Civil Rights Movement fought nonviolently for the freedom of others. This eventually created a society that everyone
was free and fortunate to be born into.

In conclusion, freedom means to be able to make your own choices and decisions. But to have this freedom you may have to fight for it or be fortunate to have others create a society that allows you to be free.
I was lucky enough to be born into a society that was created for freedom.
By Perfecto Kendle

What does freedom mean to me?
Freedom is the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without restraint. The word freedom has little meaning unless we specify. Freedom is our birthright as an American citizen. Freedom does not come without a very high price. Everyone, every man, woman, and child who goes to sleep in peace is able to because some other loyal American, somewhere has made the choice to lay down their life for them. Many things that we have the freedom to do today, things like being able to worship the God of our choice, to have the right for an education; the right to be human were not easy in the earning. Many wars were fought for our freedom, wars such as the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to put a cease to terrorism. We are a free country because of many sacrifices and great leaders. Because of this America is the land of the free and home of the brave. The freedom that we have today, the freedom that some may take for granted, other innocent people can only dream about. Sometimes we take freedom for granted and do not think of all the little things that we enjoy because we are free. Furthermore, if we make mistakes in our lives, living in a country like ours allows us to correct them. If mistakes are made in another country, you might not get that chance to correct them. For instance, Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Freedom is not worth having it if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” Anyone can make mistakes; some just refuse to learn from them. But you still have the freedom to correct them. I have the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them, and when you stop and think about how different life would be without freedom, it makes you very thankful to live in a country and enjoy the promise of freedom. In conclusion, freedom means to me that I can do what I want because of our veterans, current soldiers, and past and current great leaders who created and still are fighting for the freedom I was born into. For example, even now, in the current and ongoing fight against ISIS, soldiers are fighting for our and other people’s freedom because the
terrorists want to end the idea of a good life. In closing, from all in all, freedom contains everything we want which is life and the pursuit of happiness. It is the ability to make choices on your own without having to be told.
By Christlie Lavarin