1 A complete collection of works by Hannah Green and other authors INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Incident reports Cause and Effect Essays Juicy descriptions Life as a….. Poet’s Closet Book and Movie Reivews Spilling letters MAY 2014 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 THIS MONTH”S MUST READ QOUTE: You can- not open a book without learning - Confucius
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1
A complete collection of works by Hannah Green and other authors
I N S I D E T H I S
I S S U E :
Incident reports
Cause and Effect
Essays
Juicy descriptions
Life as a…..
Poet’s Closet
Book and Movie
Reivews
Spilling letters M A Y 2 0 1 4 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1
THIS MONTH”S
MUST READ
QOUTE:
You can-
not open
a book
without
learning
-
Confucius
2
In this month’s issue:
INC IDENT REPORT………….….……P. 3 J I M H A L P H E R T T E L L S A L L
SHORT STORY T IME………….. . .……..P. 4 S P O O K Y S T O R I E S T H A T A R E S U R E T O S C A R E
CROSSWORD OF THE MON TH….. . . . . . .….P. 7
DESCR IPT I VE ES SAYS………….. .P. 12 & 13 G O R G E U S I M A G E R Y O F M I R R O R S A N D H A N D S
POETRY CORNER . .………………….. .P. 14 O U R P O E M S A R E S P R I N G T H E M E D T O G I V E Y O U L I F T
L I FE AS A…………………………. P. 15 Y O U ’ D N E V E R G U E S S W H A T W E ’ R E P E R S O N I F Y I N G T H I S M O N T H !
BOOK AND MOV IE REV IEWS………….P.17 J U I C Y R E V I E W S O N T H E H E A T A N D I F I S H O U L D D I E B E F O R E I W A K E
CARTOON CORNER……………………..P.17
S P I L L I N G L E T T E R S
3
Incident Report
P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1
On April 10th, 2014 around 1:00
pm Meredith Palmer, accountant
for local Paper company Dunder
Mifflin, was attacked and bitten
by a bat caused by the reckless
behavior of sale staff employee
Dwight Shrute. Palmer is poten-
tially suing the Dwight and the
company, to cover medical bills
and tests for rabies which are not
covered by Dunder Mifflin’s
health insurance plan.
Jim Halpert was called into ques-
tioning on April 12th, 2014. His
witness has confirmed the allega-
tions of Palmer. Halpert states
that a bat had been living in the
ceiling of the Pennsylvania
branch in the break room which
consisted of a kitchen, bathrooms
and cleaning supplies. A ceiling
tile had been moved allowing the
bat to fall into the open room.
According to Jim, Meredith at
the time was in the women’s
bathroom, unaware the bat was
in the break room. Dwight Shrute
entered the scene “crazed” says
Halpert. Shrute closed both doors
to break room in an effort to con-
tain the bat. Palmer walked out
into the room containing the bat
and it started to fly around her.
Dwight then took a large black
garbage bag and savagely ran into
the room, covering Meredith’s
head and neck in the garbage bag
with the bat trapped inside. He
held the bag there until Meredith
broke free and the bat remained
inside.
Meredith claims she was suffo-
cated and bitten, directly harmed
at the expense of Dwight’s actions
that could have resulted in death.
Dwight claims that he was simply
sacrificing the weaker link for the
good and protection of the office.
Shrute has been involved in many
incident reports before, all related
to his reckless, savage and inap-
propriate behaviour in the office
and toward his fellow employees.
Police who were called after the
scene have placed Dwight on
house arrest until the court
deems him remorseful toward the
situation.
Meredith’s doctors are concerned
about the potential rabies infec-
tion and claim that Palmer has
been in an “odd” state, constantly
“coming on” to her male nurses in
the past week. Whether this is a
possible symptom of the tragic
incident, doctors are unsure how-
ever Halpert claims it’s truly
Meredith’s personality. Branch
Manager Michael Scott states
that Dwight is only over excited at
times and Meredith will be fine
because “she’s Meredith”. He also
says the incident has been over
exaggerated and everyone needs
to move on, “it was no big deal”.
Evaluations are also in process
on Scott. For further information
please contact Dunder Mifflin
Scranton branch and ask for
Toby Flenderson.
TO: David Wallace,
Corporate Execu-
tive
FROM: Toby
Flenderson, Human
Resources
DATE: April 14th,
2014
RE: Accidental Bat
Attack by the
Hands of Fellow
Employee
4
``He pointed his
gun to the sky
and fired one
shot after
another until
thirty had rung
out like angry
dogs that
wouldn’t stop
barking.``
The Souls that Sang by Hannah Green
Narratives and Short Stories
Jaxon Browne, my uncle, was
thought to be compared to Ebenezer
Scrooge. He had no sense of compas-
sion, he always stayed by his lonesome
and he`d never let a day go by without
committing at least one selfish act, an-
other notch on his deer skin belt. His
most defining quality though, was his
thirst for hunting. When we were kids
growing up in the same neighbourhood
as him we weren`t allowed to play on
the cul-de-sac when Jaxon was getting
home from his weekly hunting trip.
Every Sunday afternoon, Jaxon would
rumble up the road, the pan of his
truck, weighed down with lives he had
destroyed that weekend. He`d park in
his driveway and yank the animals out
of the pan, onto the asphalt and drag
them to his beloved shed that doubled
as a meat locker. As you can probably
sense, Jaxon had no sympathy for life.
The fall season of 1993 was
ordinary, marked by icicles forming on
the window panes and the leaves turn-
ing brilliant oranges and reds. I was
only 10 years old at the time. When the
sun set at 7:30 pm that fall, the birds
would get antsy, the anxiety of their
great migration stirring among the
flocks. It was then that the kids of the
neighbourhood would be out watching
the birds in their angst, rounding up
their families we said. Some evenings
we would chase the birds, tormenting
them our parents used to say. The song
birds used to be our favourite, they
would call their loved ones and we
could sing and whistle right back and
our voices would reach throughout
the neighbourhood, weaving in be-
tween houses and reaching all the
way to the setting sun as we used to
imagine. Jaxon loathed the sounds of
our play, but if he could hate any-
thing more it would be our whistles,
mocking the song birds and the
sound echoing down the street, pierc-
ing his eardrums and making them
bleed as he would exaggerate.
One night that fall, while we
were all home eating dinner, we saw
Jaxon outside in the middle of the cul
-de-sac staring up at a flock of song-
birds overhead, with his shot gun in
hand. We peered through the win-
dows, concealing ourselves with the
curtains. He pointed his gun to the
sky and fired one shot after another
until thirty had rung out like angry
dogs that wouldn’t stop barking.
When the last bark had come they
started dropping. The song birds,
they were crashing to the earth one
after another until Jaxon was stand-
ing in the midst of a graveyard.
It was mayhem when Jaxon
went inside. Our parents starting sob-
bing and cussing and we were con-
fused. They ran outside armed in
fluorescent yellow gloves that always
fell out of the cupboard underneath
the sink. Police were called and the
local small animal rescue too.
S P I L L I N G L E T T E R S
5
Jaxon, I overheard, had shot
every bird without killing it, but
every bird died within twenty
minutes. Almost as if he wanted
them to suffer, almost as if he
had the heart to cause them the
agony of a prolonged death.
Around four days later,
Sunday afternoon, Jaxon was in
a personal torture chamber. All
day we listened to the most
dreadful sound and we had no
lead to where it might be com-
ing from. Until my mother had
mentioned it, I didn’t believe it
could be true. We were all hear-
ing the sorrowful whistle of
songbirds that were nowhere to
be spotted. Jaxon couldn’t han-
dle it. He bent himself over in
pain; he clawed at his ears till
they were bleeding. Suddenly,
the sky turned a rich black, and
the noise became unbearable to us.
The neighbourhood rushed outside
and peered up into the sky, watch-
ing the songbirds whirl around
Jaxon’s property. The way they
flew though was peculiar. With so
many of them you’d think they’d be
crashing into each other but they
seemed to fly through each other.
They swooped through the house
and the shed, searching for him. We
guessed Jaxon had locked himself
in the cellar, hoping to fool the
birds. But songbirds, they were not
stupid, and they were growing irri-
tated. They all descended on the
shed and all those birds, every one
of them had disappeared beneath
the roof.
We waited an hour, staring
at the shed. The birds were gone,
their song was over. After a quiet
search from a police officer living
on our street, Jaxon was de-
clared dead. He had swollen
bumps all over his body, from
pecking razor beaks, and his
face was purple from the oxy-
gen stolen from him. Jaxon was
suffocated by the thousands of
songbirds we saw descend into
the shed.
Growing up in my un-
cle’s neighbourhood was a
memory every child on the
block covets to themselves, for
a partial fear and allegiance to
the songbirds that is still burn-
ing like coals deep within our
souls. The police reports were
all false because “there’s no
such thing as ghosts” droned the
detective. He tried to convince
us, there were no feathers to be
seen, no tracks on the floor and
nobody outside of the
neighbourhood had heard the
noise or had seen the blackened
sky. The final report was a joke.
“Man dies due to anaphylactic
shock from wasp nest outside
shed.” We had no choice but to
move on, no one would believe
us. Although, we never forgot
the distinct absence of the song-
bird. Not a one had been seen in
the sky or in any tree in our
whole town since the massacre.
We carried with us the secret of
the souls that sang the explana-
tion for the unreal.
6
It was the first day of the rest of our lives, and we felt as constant as the stars. It was the clearest sky we’d seen
in over a month - the kind of clear that makes you forget where you are. The only things keeping us tied to the ground were the cracking of the fire and the sand in uncomfort-able places. There was also the waves, but the steadiness of the low tide could sweep you off just as eas-ily as the stars. Losing grip was a continuous threat in a place like this. I hooked my leg around my blanket, as if it would really do any-thing. Isaac had been haunting me since he went missing. Not actually haunting me, obviously. Those kind of things don’t happen. But in a place like this... I felt him here. My brother would have loved it here at
that moment.
Stephen must have felt my body go tense, because he squeezed my hand. That was another thing keeping me grounded. I took a few shallow breaths, and then a long, deep breath, imagining the air bub-bles trickling through my veins, and then emptying my lungs com-pletely. Stephen smiled at me. I tried to focus on the warm shadows on his face cast by the drowsy fire. Love calms the soul. We should have stayed here and not gone into the woods. It was safe here, lying next to him... But I’ve learned to never ask for forever. Forever is a
very long time.
Walking into the same woods where Isaac went missing six months ago was chilling. My bones felt weak, like they could have snapped just as easily as the twigs beneath our feet. My eyes flashed from one patch of moonlight to the next, inspecting the ground for any traces of life other than ourselves, but there was
none. These woods were eerily de-serted. I looked up as we stepped into the clearing. All the others went running into it, like they had never felt anything more freeing in their lives, screaming like children. We had our tents set up by midnight, and our eyes quickly adjusted to the dim light of the lanterns that would soon
run out of fuel.
I hate Truth or Dare. I don’t know who ever came up with it, and I don’t know why anyone would want to play it. For some reason, they all thought it was a great idea to make me go outside and stand in the woods alone for three minutes. I caught a breath of ultra-fresh air when I poked my head out of the tent. I stepped one foot out at a time, and my stom-ach managed to slowly flip itself up-side down as I scanned the edge of the forest. The walk across the clearing felt like a tight rope sending me strait into the middle of hell. No
turning back. No stopping.
The inside of my Hades didn’t look as bad as I thought it would: it was just the feeling of the place that sent spi-ders crawling up my back. Isaac would have laughed if he saw me like that, looking like a frightened kitten with its fluffy little hairs all standing up. I tried to hold on to the ounce of
comfort, but it was fleeting.
I watched the body material-ize on a lifeless branch of the old pine standing a few feet away. I can’t quite describe the feeling that was infecting my body as the man jumped from the tree and started walking towards me. I was either paralyzed with fear, or transfixed in awe. Seeing him was like looking at the world through a mason jar, all distorted and confusing. By the time he was inches from my face, I knew it
was Isaac. I knew from his walk, and the warped features on his face. I reached out to touch him, and his expression instantly turned from a gentle smile to a look of utter fear. I had never seen that kind of agonizing dread in somebody’s eyes be-fore. His scream was so piercing that it seemed to shake the whole for-est. Even the stars rattled like the
old pine with its single dead branch.
Everything after that came in a wave. My friends, Stephen, the stars, the blankets, the first rays of sunlight. In the morning, no one could remember a thing. No one re-membered the beach or the fire or the tents or the games or the scream. No one besides me. It must have taken a team of professional pranksters to make a group of teen-agers wake up in the middle of the forest with no recollection of how they got there. They kept waiting for the camera crew to show their
faces.
Only there was no T.V. show. When my friends decided to stay another night, they decided to stay every night for the rest of their lives. I came to expect the scream at 12:47 AM, but I could never get over the face that seemed to look a little
more traumatized every time.
It was the first day of the
rest of our lives, and we felt as con-
stant as the stars. It was the clearest
sky we’d seen in over a month - the
kind of clear that makes you forget
where you are.
The First Day
A Short Story By Emma Ryan
7
P A G E 7
“To catch the reader's attention, place an
interesting sentence or quote from the story
here.”
Caption describing
picture or graphic.
Caption
S P I L L I N G L E T T E R S
8
Introduction
Cheating on tests and quizzes in the Canadian high
school system has been a growing trend due to techno-
logical development as well as slack from faculty con-
sequently putting at risk the value of education and
students` futures. Recent studies have produced many
unsettling statistics toward the number of lying stu-
dents and many adults are turning a blind eye. Teach-
ers, school officials and district school boards have
supported the cheating trend by not strengthening the
rules on everyday cheating in the classroom. The
threat of cheating students is very clear when it comes
to fairness today and fairness in the future.
Current Statistics
The current statistics of cheating high school students
is an alarming number and it is only going to grow.
Previous findings have shown that 75% of students,
currently in post-secondary, have cheated in their high
school career (Hughes and McCabe, 2006). While
most people say that the majority of those students,
who admitted to cheating, had only cheated once but
statistics have shown quite a different perspective. Ac-
cording to a survey, only one in three students will
cheat not once, but multiple times and eventually
forming a habit (Josephson Institute’s Report Card
2010). The reality is in an average high school in a
metro area of 1000 students; over 300 students are
cheating on a semi-regular to regular basis. These re-
sults are staggering and most people don’t realize how
disturbing that number becomes when people take into
account the number of high schools across Canada.
The current statistics and trends prove a threat to edu-
cation and the future stemming from cheating in the
education systems.
Lack of Initiative
Initiative by faculty and school boards to cut down on
cheating with in-class tests and quizzes is grossly
lacking. Almost 65% of teens have caught or heard of
another student cheating on a test or qiz at one time
and almost every time, they were not caught by the
teacher (US teens use smart phones for cheating:
study, 2009). Most teachers use test periods to work
on catching up on correcting, reading emails and pre-
paring the next lesson plan while their students are
taking a test. At these times, cheater are slipping
though the cracks and getting away with it. Why are
teachers required by the school board to monitor mid-
term, final and public exams by not required to moni-
tor their in-class tests and quizzes? Exams make up
50%-60% of a student’s grade. The other 40%-50%
stem from tests and quizzes. Teachers should be mak-
ing the extra effort in the classroom, to ensure that the
grades they’re handing out are honest and worthy.
Polls voted on by students and teachers show that they
find the most effective way to prevent cheating is to
make it hard to cheat (Edutopia, 2014). Tests and quiz
periods should not be preparation periods for teachers.
Teachers have the immediate power to stop cheating
and give honest grades and therefore actions being
taken to eliminate cheating should begin with them.
The Consequences of Cheating and the Growing Trends Due to
Technological Development and Lack of Initiative from School Board
S P I L L I N G L E T T E R S
9
P A G E 9 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1
The Affect of Technology in School
Adding technological development to lack of initiative
by school officials means that trends of cheating have
nowhere to go but up. A study explains that “cell
phones and the internet offer new opportunities for
unethical behaviour” therefore it’s on the rise (Knorr,
2011). The study further shares that 35% of teens aged
12 to 17 have used their cellphones to cheat. With the
percentage of kids with cellphones going up, and ages
of kids having them going down, the trend is that
cheating with cell phones is rising. As every student
knows, cell phones have become a common fixture in
an average classroom. Rules on technology in the
class are slight and most are only understood as sug-
gestions, such as keeping cellphones in lockers. Tech-
nology, particularly cell phones directly influence the
number of cheaters in the Canadian school system.
The Direct Costs to Education
The value of high school education in Canada is
forced to drop dramatically when more and more stu-
dents are cheating. This in turn affects student`s fu-
tures when it comes to scholarships, preparation going
into university as well as performances in their future
workplace. Some perspectives present that cheating is
a “victimless crime”, and while usually there are no
students that are harmed by cheating, it’s the educa-
tion system that is the victim (Davis, 2009, p.5). There
is already a contrast between the value of education in
North America and in Asian countries where school
rules are stricter everyday. What this implies is that
competition in future job markets will become stiffer
with the additions of more and more immigrants be-
cause their educations are that much more developed
and honourable. Scholarships are also becoming more
of a lottery than awards for academics. More and more
students are thrown into the running for prestigious
awards and a lot of them shouldn’t be there. Students
who have been earning those grades are not being re-
warded and are discouraged because they are unfairly
given to other students who have earned impressive
averages through cheating. The more students cheat,
the more unfair the future becomes for out students
graduating into the job market and post-secondary
studies.
Conclusion
The reality we face in cheating is unsettling, and many
people fear there is no way to overcome these prob-
lems. It is true that cheaters have been around for cen-
turies and in the future there will surely be more. The
problem and threat to our society is that the cheating
trend has the potential to reach 100% of students in
the future because of the rates going up exponentially.
Therefore, cheating needs to be cut down on immedi-
ately, and actions should be first taken by teachers in
their classrooms and school officials on technology in
the classroom. Only until those actions are taken and
cheating is knocked down to less than 20%, can we
believe in the value of fairness in a Canadian educa-
References
Hughes, J.M.C. & McCabe, D.L. (2006). Academic misconduct within higher education in Can-
ada . Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 36(2), 1-21.
Character Counts!: Programs: Ethics of American Youth Survey: Josephson Institute's Report Card. (2011, February 10). Character Counts. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://