Editors Note

  After another month of hard work, here we are with the second update on our Middle School Blog, Midway’s Voice! We sincerely hope that you enjoy reading this month’s articles just as much as you did last time. We must thank all members of the Pathways Middle School family, be they parents, teachers, or students, for taking some precious time out of their schedules to read our blog. Without your support, encouragement and appreciation, we could never have been able to carry this blog forward and release a second update.

This month, the school was host to quite a few interesting activities and events that ranged from Literary Week to Pathways’ first Intra- School MUN. We also celebrated Teachers’ Day and conducted the first round of the 12^th Unified Cyber Olympiad. This update aims at briefing you about all these activities, as well as presenting the opinion of Middle School students on select topics. For example, students have presented their opinions on the role of computers in a teenagers’ life, a book by Andrew Lane, and even some now gadgets. There are subject-oriented articles as well. You can read all of this, and lots more, on just this one blog: Midways’ Voice!

-Malak Khan

8B

Teacher's Day

Any successful person in the world now would thank one very special person: Their teacher. Teachers help us through our ups and downs and have always told us to remember just one thing; never give up. I am sure that all the teachers around the world wait for Teachers’ Day and it does not surprise me that the teachers at Pathways do too. On this auspicious day, we honour and realize just how much our teachers have done for us. This year the senior and middle school students of Pathways school had decided to make their teachers realize how important they all are to us. The theme for the Teachers’ Day assembly was ‘Back to School’. All the teachers were requested to dress up the way they used to when they were in school. The assembly started with Manek Singh performing a few songs to the teachers. That was followed by an astonishing dance sequence performed by both middle and senior school students, which I found to be really motivating.  Then, a student from grade 6 conducted a humorous surprise quiz for the teachers on the topic ‘Cartoons’. There was also a hilarious video in which students tried to imitate their teachers. Towards the end of the assembly, a few senior school students sang a song written especially for their teachers. The assembly concluded with a ceremony in which the form 12 students presented each teacher with a gift and a card. It was a really enjoyable day for both the teachers and the students.

-Kasvi Bhasin

7B

Literary Week

Literary Week was a unique experience for most us. With a guest author coming in, various competitions and a fabulous book fair, our school was swarming with activity. The adventure writer Mr. Deepak Dalal put quite a spin on the week and the book fair was rather enjoyable as well. The competitions included the Elocution Competition and the Book Discussion. There were also a variety of quizzes.

                Mr. Dalal started off by saying that writing had always been his passion and only became an occupation much later on in his life. He managed to explain the setting and basic storyline of three of his stories to us within in his visiting time. These three books were ‘The Snow Leopard Adventure’, ‘The Ranthambore Adventure’ and ‘Aniruddh’s Dreams’. The books were set respectively in Ladakh, Rajasthan and Mumbai.

                The second competition was the Book Discussion. Students from Senior School came and spoke on a book called ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’. The theme of honor and the genre of magical realism were spoken upon. This competition was won by Air house with Water house coming second.

                There were many quizzes throughout Literary Week. One of my favorites was the one regarding English literature. This quiz had five rounds, the first three being Q/A, the fourth a visual round and the fifth an audio round. The teachers seemed to find the Middle School’s eagerness to answer the questions amusing!

                The book fair was the highlight of the week. A range of books covering children from grades 5 to 12 were seen on the shelves of the Primary School’s temporary ‘library’. Almost everyone found something worth reading and books quickly disappeared off the shelves.

                Overall, Literary Week was a fun experience and I wouldn’t mind having a repeat at all. The events inspired many of us to read more and more each day. I’m sure a repeat would help carry this further.

-Ayona Sengupta

8B

 -Varun, from Random House

 -Deepak Dalal

A few books written by Deepak Dalal

Elocution Competition

This month, Pathways School Noida celebrated Literary Week. The events that took place all promoted reading. One of my personal favorites was the Elocution Competition, quite possibly because I participated as well!

                The competition took place on 11^th September, 2012. Two students participated from each house with one reciting a poem and the other a prose piece. It was practically a speaker’s paradise. Some of the poems recited were ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling and ‘My Teacher Ate My Homework’ by Ken Nesbit. Some of the pieces included Shakespeare’s ‘The Quality of Mercy is Not Strain’d ’ and the all time famous speech ‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen’ that was once given by Mark Anthony. Speakers were allowed prompts if any lines were forgotten. They were judged on the basis of intonation, clarity, physical expression and presentation. Though all the speakers spoke quite well, Fire house won the competition with Earth coming second.

The competition was quite enjoyable and I loved participating in it. The nervousness is worth it. When you step onto that stage you know that you can speak and be assured that many are listening. The stage is in your hands.

-Ayona Sengupta

8B

MUN

On Wednesday, the 12^th of September, there was an Intra School Model United Nations. As per the definition taking from the net, A Model United Nations is an academic simulation of the Unitmed Nations that aims to educate participants about current events, topics in international relations, diplomacy and the United Nations agenda.

Though the committee session usually begins with an agenda being set, we did not set the agenda because we had only one topic, which was Human Trafficking. Therefore, we started with the General Speaker’s List, which is the list of volunteers who wish to come up to the podium to speak about the legislation against human trafficking in their countries, facts on human trafficking and how the country plans to combat human trafficking. After some people on the General Speaker’s List had spoken, a delegate raised the motion for an un-moderated caucus, which is a time period in which the delegates were allowed to discuss the positions amongst themselves, and could use their electronic gadgets to research about facts, etc.

After the un-moderated caucus, we continued with the General Speaker’s List. After some more people had spoken, we had moderated caucuses on the topics: ‘Consequences of Legalization of Prostitution’ and ‘Actions Taken to Protect Victims of Trafficking’. After the moderated caucuses, we had lunch.

After lunch, we were about to continue with the General Speaker’s List when the President came with bad news. There was a Crisis! The crisis involved a French agency alleging that the officials in the Russian Government were involved in a worldwide trafficking nexus and informing Britain of the same. Then, we moved into a heated debate in which the delegates of the Russian Federation, France, United Kingdom, the USA, and China presented their positions and tried to defend their allegations and stands. Then, the Provisional Speakers’ List involving the crisis was over and was followed by un-moderated caucus to discuss our final resolutions on this crisis. Two blocs were formed and two resolutions were passed.  Finally, the day ended with the award ceremony. Malak Khan, the delegate of France won two awards, Special Mention and Best Position Paper. The outstanding delegate award went to two delegates, the delegate of China, Tavishi Gupta, and the delegate of Norway, Vivek Verma. The best delegate award also went to two delegates, the delegate of USA, Maulini Sikri, and the delegate of the Russian Federation, Saharsh Arora.

-Kshitij Upmanyu

Grade 8B

National Cyber Olympiad

On the 7^th of September, students from grades 6-12 took part in an examination called the Unified Cyber Olympiad. This is a competitive exam taken by students across India and getting a good rank can really lift one’s hopes of getting into a good university. This exam was the 12^th of its kind... It was a tough exam that really put us to the test and we had to prepare a lot for it.

Ketan Gupta

Grade 8-A

I walked in the busy room. It was chaos; there were many students who had come to participate in the Cyber Olympiad. They were all just as nervous as I was. I went to the teachers, Mrs. Dipti and Mrs. Geetanjali, who were organizing the test session. I was given an admit card and said that I was to sit on the front table. To be honest, it was all really scary since this was the first Cyber Olympiad I participated in. 

Soon enough, the answer sheets were given out and we filled in the required information with shaky hands. We looked up, and the teachers said that one word we all were waiting for; “Begin.”

I opened the first page. Read through each of the questions; there were fifteen questions of mental ability, another fifteen of reasoning, another fifteen of ICT, and the last five of English.

 Within five minutes of finishing my paper, I was out of the hall. I had revised the paper twice, and I was pretty satisfied with my performance.

        I can only hope for the best till 4^th October.

-Anmol Kaul

7B

Spanish

Spanish has always grabbed my attention. Not only have Spanish delicacies often tingled my taste buds, but to me, Spanish music and songs seem to have a different aura and feel as well. These are only few out of many reasons as to why I chose Spanish as my second language. This term we covered Salutations, some verbs and some basic sentences in Spanish all of which were taught by Mr. Nishant and Ms. Neeraj. Soon enough, we were tested on what we learnt. The test felt like a piece of cake after all that we had learnt previously.

-          Mehak Diwan

7A

Opinion

I am going to give my opinion on the importance of computers in teenagers’ lives. I, being a teenager, know that we cannot survive without our computers. We need it to socialize, play games and then socialize again (on Facebook obviously)! Yes, some of us are addicted but we can’t help it. Our computers have become such an important part of our life that we simply cannot live without them. We use our computers everyday and it really is quite a miracle that we finish our homework, that too to a high standard. If I ever had to spend a day without my computer, I don’t know what I’d do.

Ketan Gupta

Grade 8-A

Groovy Gadget of the Month:

LED Faucet-

Do you like glowing lights?

Are you a tech-fanatic?

Do want to jazz up your bathroom a bit?

If you have answered a 'Yes' to any of the above questions, this gadget is for you!

It requires no battery, and its color changes according to the water temperature.

The LED lights are very good energy-savers as well. It has a pocket friendly price of $80.00, inclusive of tax. In my opinion, it is a must-have for all modern households.

It's the faucet of the future! The ultimate bathroom fitting!

Paired with some LED showerheads, and sparkly neon tiles, it's sure to jazz up your bathing experience!

Nokia Lumia 920:

Though it has not been publicized much, the Nokia Lumia has mesmerized the world with its capabilities. No one expected such a revolutionary device. It was certainly a breath of fresh air after the iPhone 5. It has several innovative features:

1. Wireless Charging

For the first time in history, wireless charging is the default way to charge a smart-phone. Several other companies have started developing their own wireless charging technology, but the Nokia Lumia 920 is the first to put it into use as a default setting.

2. Pure-Motion HD+ display 

The Nokia Lumia 920 has a 4.5 inch HD display. It has a better quality than most phones and is qualified as "Retina-grade".

3. Brand new Apps

Apps are something a smart-phone is incomplete without. The new apps in the Nokia Lumia 920 Marketplace take applications to a whole new level. These apps go perfectly with the Pure-Motion HD+ display.

This phone is the smart-phone the world has been waiting for. Although it doesn't have a very pocket-friendly price, it is worth every penny.

Apple IPhone 5:

The most awaited iPhone 5 has disappointed 99.9% of Apple fans (including me). It is quite sad that the iPhone 5 is not the innovative device the world has been waiting for.

All of us were expecting a super-phone with the newest, most amazing technology. However, the iPhone lacks several things.

1. Camera- Apple did a song and a dance about the 'Improvements' in the camera. However, it is still 8-megapixels. There is absolutely no difference between the cameras of the iPhone 4s and the iPhone 5.

2. Speed-The speed of the IPhone 5 was hyped up a lot. It was said to be twice as fast as the IPhone 4s. The fact is that its speed has only increased by 50%.

3. Maps-Generally, Apple's map soft-wares are reasonable, but this time, there have been a lot of complaints about it.

My theory-

iPhones have become a status symbol these days. Anyone who has the latest iPhone is considered “cool” or popular. I think the reason for this is that the first iPhone was a revolutionary device, even though its successors aren’t all that impressive.

- Divya Vijaykumar

 grade 8 B

Mathematics in the 8th grade.

Mathematics has always been a subject that gives me great pleasure, especially after completing the hardest sum. At least for me, mathematics is a subject that tests me and pushes me to do the best I can, all the time. There are two Mathematics teachers in the middle school, Ms. Neeta Ramesh and Mrs. Vandana Kapoor. Since I am in the 8^th grade, I am unaware of what the other grades are doing in Mathematics. However, I can give an overview of what has been covered in Mathematics so far in the 8^th grade. We started with the topic ‘Fractions, Decimals, and Percentages’ upon which we had to make and present charts and PowerPoint presentations. After that, we were tested upon the topic ‘Percentages’. About three weeks back, we started work on Indices and Scientific Notation. Both the topics will be tested together. These subjects in Mathematics all interest me, but some of the more extensive and important topics in Mathematics will be coming up. For example, we will be studying Algebra next, and along the year, we will be learning Extended Algebra, Data Handling, and much more.-Karan PandandaGrade 8A

Welcome to the new year of 2012-2013

Welcome all to a new year at Pathways Noida. We hope you’ve had a fantastic start to the new year!  For the 8^th graders, this year is a year of preparation for the IGCSE’s. For the 7^th graders it’s a time to enjoy and experience the essence of middle school and for the 6^th graders, it’s a huge jump from being kids to being young adults. We, the members of the blog team, promise to bring you coverage on what’s happening in the school every month along with a lot of other interesting items! All the big events coming up: Founder’s Day, Christmas, Diwali, Sports Day and the Awards Ceremony will be covered in our regular updates. Not only will we be covering big events, we will also cover the small events that often go unnoticed like the recent Inter House Board Competition. But none of this will be possible without everyone of our integral blog team and it is my honour to introduce them.  Comprising the editorial crew, we have Malak Khan, Divya Vijaykumar, Sanya Sharma, Mehak Diwan and me, Karan Pandanda. As article writers and reporters, we have Kshitij Upmanyu, Kasvi Bhasin, Shubhi Raghav and Ayona Sengupta. Karn Nag, Rhea Agarwal, and Tanay Gupta as photographers, play an important role in this blog as well. Then again, the whole blog would fall apart without the people who make the blog a reality, the web designers, Ketan Gupta, Poorvangi Sikri, Aaryaman Jatia, Muskaan Srivastava and Soohyeon Na.

On that note, I conclude by saying that I hope you enjoy reading our blog and best of luck for the upcoming year!!

By Karan Pandanda Grade 8

Inter- House Board Competition

The excitement grew and grew. All the participants of each house gathered around. In the inter- house board making competition, all the houses had to use waste material and in the time slot of forty five minutes they had to create a motivating board. The Air house used foil, cardboard, old cloth, and even molten crayons for their board which revolved around the concept of “freedom”. The Earth house made a board on “music” using old CDs, broken earphones, and newspaper. The Water house and the Fire house both made boards on the topic “angle vs. devil”. The former used a variety of materials such as music CDs, cotton, newspaper and plastic sheets to complete their board. They also had a caption: “I am sin but I am not the devil; I am good but I am not the angel.” Last but not the least, the Fire house used newspapers, cloth and many others to make their board, which was complete with the caption: “There is no good and there is no evil. There is only power and those too weak to use it. Which side are you on?” I was one of the participants and I was really delighted to see the work of each team. Giving a thought to the work I think everyone did a brilliant job but there is always room for improvement. So I believe that the next time we all will try to improve to the best that we can. The captains of each house were not allowed to help their team members. All the teams were able to complete their board and they all did a tremendous job. Everyone was eagerly waiting for the results after the competition. The results were given to the house captains after three day.  The Fire house secured the first position, the Water house secured the second, the Air house came third, and the Earth house came fourth.


- Kasvi Bhasin
   Grade 7

Book Review- Murder On The Nile

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie was a British writer born on the 15^th of September 1890. She is best known for her crime novels consisting of the famous fictional characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss. Jane Marple. Her books have sold over four billion copies worldwide and ranks third, to Shakespeare and the Bible, as the most sold set of books ever. Her most famous series is the Hercule Poirot series and two of her most famous books ever are ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ and ‘Murder on the Nile’. Murder on the Orient Express is the book that I have just read. By far, it is one of the most complex and stunning books that I have ever read. The way Agatha Christie built up the plot and maintained the nail-biting suspense till the end, was truly mind-boggling. I will not reveal the ending because that is for you to find out, but I will describe my favourite characters. I really liked the character of Hercule Poirot in this story because I feel like he almost knew the ending all along. I also liked the character of MacQueen in this story because I feel like he was an excellent actor and kept on tricking Hercule until the end. The plot revolves around a few men and women who are in the train when a murder occurs. However, Poirot has found a way that might link the murder of the man to people on board…

Karan Pandanda

Grade 8 A

Award Ceremony

On the 29^th of August, 2012, we had an award distributing ceremony. Our chief guest, Mr. Dinesh Kothari, is a famous educationist and a good friend of our Directors’. The awards given were based on the students’ academic grades. There were also some special awards, including:

·     -   Exemplary Leader

·    --  IB Learner Profile

·    -    Techno Proficiency

·     -   Ideal Pathwayzian

·      -  Global Citizen

·       - Social Responsibility

There were awards won by the age group of the current grade 7 to the current grade 12. After the Middle School students were given their awards, there was a piece of Indian Music on percussion instruments by Ketan, Karn, Shaurya, Aryan, Khushi, Gehna, Akshit, Riddhi and Shaquille. The house of the year award went to  Water house. At the end of the award ceremony snacks were available for the students, teachers and parents. After that, the students returned to their respective classes. I believe that an event like this is crucial to recognize the efforts that students make on their paths to success and to encourage them to keep working hard. 

Kshitij Upmanyu

Grade 8 B

The World Of Languages

Language plays an important part in every culture. It’s basically a medium of communication between people. It helps us express our emotions, and channelize ourfeelings. It is difficult to imagine what life was like, before humans discovered language. We take it for granted, but if we think about it, we will realize its significance in our lives.

Learning a new language is like stepping into a whole new culture. It’s the baseline for understanding what the language’s home country or region is really like. It’s the key to understanding the peoples’ culture, and customs. Often, learning a new language is a challenge, but it is well worth the while when we actually can converse in that language.

At Pathways, we have the opportunity to learn a new language. Currently, Pathways offers:

·         French

·         Spanish

·         Hindi

In addition to these we also have English. English this semester in Grade Seven and eight is mostly based on the novels Swami and Friends by RK Narayan, and To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, respectively.

In Grade Eight, we are discussing the various issues that affected the United States during the 1930’s,  i.e The Dust Bowl, The Great Depression, The Scottsboro Trial and racism. After our research, we have a discussion, and debate on the topics, and their sub-topics. This makes us understand everyones’ perspectives, and point of views.

In Grade seven, the pre-independence era is being discussed and researched. Alternative book covers were also made. Predicting the novel beginning was a task enjoyed by many. All this helped them understand the context of the novel, and display their perspectives artistically.

Divya Vijaykumar
Grade 8 B

Whacky Hair Day

On the 28^th of August, every Pathwazian showed up with the wackiest hairdo possible each with a reflection of their personalities. We had all sorts of bizarre hairstyles from wigs to hairsprays to twigs stuck in ones hair!

Pathways had a very cheerful atmosphere spread across the corridors thanks to the bright colors beaming out of students’ hair. With every person wanting to know what the others had done to their hair the excitement didn’t wear off till the very end of the day.It was really amazing to see that almost the whole middle school had participated. Some of the teachers also participated and, at times, they looked even wackier than the students. There should be more events like this which promote enjoyment along with academics. Another thing I liked about whacky hair day is that it symbolizes freedom by allowing us full freedom to do whatever we want to do with our hair. 

             Mehak Diwan 
            Grade 7 A

        &

Shubhi Raghav

Grade 7 B

The Indian Olympic Phenomenon

5 score and 10 years ago, the world saw the beginning of a new phenomenon, an event that has almost become a tradition to the world. To add on to the anticipation, it occurs only once every four years. There is no sporting event in the world that creates more passion, more pride and more ferocity than the Olympic Games.

The athletes representing our Mother India have certainly made us proud by winning more individual medals than any of our previous performances. With 2 silver medals and 4 bronze medals, the Indians have knocked up an impressive 6 medal tally, double their 3 medal tally from the last Olympic Games at Beijing.

However, the most inspiring thing about the athletes is how we have outdone ourselves to achieve glory. Saina Nehwal, for example is only the second Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. Then, we have Parupalli Kashyap, who sadly didn’t win a medal, but was the first Indian male shuttler to reach the Olympic quarter-finals. Also, we had a representative in a new event, Mary Kom in female boxing. She did the nation even more proud as she won us our 3^rd bronze medal. Then, we have our prestigious silver medal winners; Vijay Kumar and Sushil Kumar. Sushil Kumar is the only Indian athlete to ever win back to back medals at any Olympic Games.

These are examples of great athletes who defied all odds and conquered new heights. People like Sania Nehwal, Mary Kom, Sushil Kumar, Gagan Narang, Vijay Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt have all risen to a level that seemed impossible merely 4 years ago. But now, we should hope that we will continue our progress as a sporting nation in the next Olympic Games too.  

Karan Pandanda 
Grade 8 A

Independence Day

This Independence day, Pathways School Noida got a chance to wear traditional Indian clothes. This splash of color brightened up the school and made the atmosphere even more warm and welcome than before. Though many activities ranging from role-play to lectures were carried out, I’d say one of the most prominent of them was a speech given by Mr. O.P. Kohli.

Mr. Kohli talked of what independence meant to people in the 19^th and 20^th centuries and what it means to people now. He talked of breaking free from the chains of corruption and flying off into the sunset having earned social and economic independence. Primary school was quite keen on the subject and the rest of us soon warmed up to it too. The speech ended on a sober note and left us thinking of just how far we’ve come and how tied down we are.

Soon after the speech, we headed out to the field to fly the colorful kites that lay strewn on the benches. The colors of the kites contrasted with the bright blue sky. The wind blew the kites up and away from the ground. The soberness left by the speech struck again and I was left wondering if the wind was our chain and the kites our spirits. Were the strings that got cut remains of the tries of many men and women before us? I was left with the answer blowing in the wind and determined to be one of kites that managed to overcome the strong wind and fly away to glory.

While the sober feeling stayed for a while, it was soon replaced by happiness and joy at the fact that the next day was a holiday. I feel that I’ll never forget to celebrate Independence Day as it always leaves me with a refreshed mindset and an extra holiday!

Ayona Sengupta

Form 8B

THE MAKING OF THE BLOG

The blog team faced a huge number of challenges in the process of making this blog a reality. With deadlines looming large, we were expected to write and submit our articles and photographs before it was too late, and for most of us these duties proved to be a little taxing. Fortunately, we were all able to meet the deadlines through our hard work. Simply the fact that you are reading these words makes all of that work worthwhile. Though we faced many trials and tribulations, our biggest challenge was probably to come up with a name.  At first, we had over twenty ideas that we sent for a poll. However, this only resulted in confusion, and in the end we were forced to narrow it down to three names which weren’t even in our original list. We took a vote and finally decided upon one name: “Midways’ Voice”. I like to think we were successful in making the blog a medium of conversation with the whole Pathways middle school, and as so many people have said before me, “Success is the result of 99% perspiration and only 1% inspiration”.

Malak Khan

Grade 8 B