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1 Teacher Interview: Mr. DiNubila

2 Teacher Interview: Mr. DiNubila continued

3 Teacher Interview: Mr. DiNubila continued

3 Checkers The Rat

4 Video Game Review

Shadow of Mordor

4 Movie Review Big Hero 6

5 BOB & ROB

5 APPLE AND CHIP

6 QUADRUPLETS

By Joseph Campos and Greg Saccone

Editor’s note: This interview was conducted and written before the students knew Mr. D was leaving St. Finn Barr. We think it is a nice farewell and reminds us of why Mr. D was such a popular teacher with his students. He will be missed, but we wish him the best of luck at St. Anselm School.

Mr. DiNubila, better known as Mr. D, is the middle school English teacher and our eight-grade homeroom teacher. He was born and grew up in Queens, New York in an area called College Point, a neighborhood similar to our own Sunnyside. He played a lot of sports when growing up. When he graduated from college, he was very interested in films, influenced by his love of the movie The Godfather, and worked as a freelance P.A. (production assistant). He also worked as a waiter, a mover for a moving company, in a video store, and as a camp counselor (which developed his love for kids.) However, he didn’t enjoy the P.A. job. His father, who was a teacher himself, encouraged him to get a job teaching. So Mr. D applied for a job as a teacher at a New York high school and was interviewed for it.

TEACHER INTERVIEW: MR. DINUBILA

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Spring 2015

2 St. Finn Barr Catholic School – Journalism Club

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TEACHER INTERVIEW: MR. DINUBILA

Mr. D loves many things about St. Finn Barr, including the burritos, the students, teachers, faculty, parents, and the community’s harmony. He loves activities such as retreats, pep rallies, and talent shows. Mr. D has a very distinctive style of teaching, which is a mixture of traditional and progressive. He likes to give students a lot of options for their assignments, and likes doing creative things. As Mr. D says: “Learning should be fun, in my opinion.” His least favorite part of teaching is grading papers. His favorite subject in school was English, mostly because his teachers made it interesting for him. If Mr. D could transform into any animal, he would turn into a bird.

To this day, Mr. D’s favorite video game is Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!, which he has never beaten (no pun intended). He claims that if he were in the secret society, The Illuminati, he could not tell us. Also, there is a very high probability he is part of the Triangle Loving Organization. Mr. D has a fascination with records, mainly because his parents owned lots of them when he was a kid. He thinks that records are better than CDs. His favorite song is You are my Sunshine, because it makes him think of his daughter, Olive. He believes that being a parent is the best thing ever. Mr. D is also a lover of the colors green and blue.

He is considering having a class pet, but does not know who will take care of it and how. In his opinion, the last

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TEACHER INTERVIEW: MR. DINUBILA

8th grade retreat was one of the best ever. He loves the current 8th grade class and is very proud of their achievements, especially the Edgar Allen Poe play and The Great Gatsby movie. He might do something with the 8th grade about the book Lord of the Flies.

CHECKERS THE RAT

By Keira FranciscoMy name is Checkers. I am a rat that lives under the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk.

My life is great! I have free shelter, junk food and rides. I depend only on humans

and without them I would die. I was born and raised at the boardwalk - I have

been on all the rides like a million times! When I go in the haunted house,

I think the people think I’m part of the ride! Every day I eat junk, old hot

dogs, popcorn, sticky deep fried Twinkies and pretzels.

But one normal sunny day, hundreds of hot, sweaty tourists came. Their

skin was pink and crisp. SO MANY OLD CHILI DOGS, SO MANY STICKY

SODA STRAWS AND SO MUCH MELTING CANDY!!!!!!! Later that night,

the tourists started to leave. I was full of sugar and calories. My life is

SO good as a rat. It is hard to think about city rats that have barely a

crumb. I couldn’t imagine life without people but soon I wouldn’t have

to imagine… To be continued - Next year!

4 St. Finn Barr Catholic School – Journalism Club

By Greg Saccone

Shadow of Mordor is an action-adventure game in the same vein of games like Assassin’s Creed and Batman Arkham. It combines elements from both games, like the combat and mission style, but adds enough features to make it fresh and exciting. Probably the best of these features is the Nemesis system. The Nemesis system allows a lowly orc to become a fear warlord. When an orc kills you, it levels up in power and becomes a captain. Captains fight with each other to level up into a warlord, one of the main five leaders of the orcs. This really creates rivalries between the player and the orc captains. You will probably die over and over to a really tough orc, and finally defeating him is a great feeling. However, the Nemesis System is only one good thing about this game. The combat is super fluid and brutal, allowing you to dispatch enemies in the middle of combat. Throw in a bunch a wraith powers like slow motion, teleporting to orcs, and even turning them onto your

side, and you have some amazing gameplay.

So the game plays great and all, but how’s everything else? Well, the environments are really good too, ranging from desolate plains to lush forests. The story is about Talion, a ranger who dies along with his wife and son, but gets resurrected by a wraith. He and the wraith go on a revenge spree, battling a bunch of orcs and meeting interesting characters like Gollum along the way. You will never run out of things to do in this game, from collecting plants to finding artifacts to just fighting orc captains. Overall, I have to say, this is probably my favorite game of 2014.

REVIEWREVIEWREVIEWVIDEO GAME REVIEW: SHADOW OF MORDOR

it took me 15 minutes to figure out what was going to happen. Overall, the movie was unoriginal but kids will love it.

On a side note, the Disney short film “Feast” that was aired before Big Hero 6 was pretty good. The hand drawn style looked beautiful and I admire the way Disney can tell an animated story with using a single word.

Big Hero 6 is a fun family adventure for kids. However seasoned moviegoers will notice the formulaic plot. It follows the basic pattern of a family friendly revenge story. The animation in this movie is excellent. The voice acting is cheesy but I give them a break because it’s not like the actors were given the best writing to work off of. The side characters are painfully cliché. They even threw in the typical “spaced out” comic relief character. The story is very predictable -

MOVIE REVIEW: BIG HERO 6

By Matthew Clifford

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Shamrock ’n Fun-eShamrock ’n Fun-eIT’SBOB & ROB by C.J. Campos

APPLE AND CHIP by Joseph Campos

6 St. Finn Barr Catholic School – Journalism Club

QUADRUPLETSby Miko Macaraeg, Neehal Ahmed and C.J. Campos