Coronavirus!

By Ben Rickmond 

As you probably know, the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is currently outbreaking around the entire world. So, what exactly is the corona virus? Well, it is this new virus that Chinese health officials first documented in December 2019. All the different news sites are covering this crazy virus, so all the sites have different totals. So, trying to say official, I am choosing to check the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the COVID-19 updates. The CDC says that as of March 21st, there are a total of 15,219 cases in the US. Now in Pennsylvania, PA.gov says that there 371 cases and the CDC say there are 185 (PA.gov is more accurate, as of 3/21/20). See how many numbers there are to choose from? In Delaware County, (our county), PA.gov says there are 33 cases in Delaware county. That is a starter overview of the novel Coronavirus!*

The coronaviruses are a large group of viruses that look like a crown. Crown in Latin is corona, so that’s how it got its name. The coronavirus that is stirring up trouble today is a NOVEL coronavirus. There were other coronaviruses in 2003 and 2012.  The novel Coronavirus disease started with a group of people with pneumonia, that were present in a live animal market in China.  From there, sick people spread the disease to family, and healthcare workers. Then the virus started spreading around the word. The past coronaviruses started from animals and spread to humans. The animal for the novel coronavirus is unknown but theorized to be bats. That’s why the people in the live animal market got pneumonia which morphed into coronavirus. People that are caring for people infected with the virus have a very high risk.  

As the coronavirus is closing schools and the stores are emptying, a lot of stress is happening around the globe. You may get a little frustrated about everything that is happening. You may even be scared that you will get the virus yourself.  I suggest using Headspace to help calm down a bit. They are offering free help during this time.  Try to relax a bit.  Anyway, just because you have a cough, or a fever does not mean you have the coronavirus. Remember that it is still the cold and flu season, and you could have the common cold or the flu.

These are some of the serious symptoms. Remember, that this virus is still very new, so this information can change.  Symptoms can be from mild to severe.  Some symptoms are a fever, cough, or shortness of breath. In more serious cases, there has been pneumonia and kidney failure.  To get tested to see if you have coronavirus, they take a sample and look for genetic evidence of their virus using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques, which identifies the virus’s genetic fingerprint. Click here for lessons on Khan Academy about PCR. There is no current treatment or vaccine, but treatment and vaccines are in development.

People diagnosed with the virus are in supportive care. You can prevent this virus by thoroughly washing hands, and covering mouth and nose with tissue while sneezing or coughing. The World Health Organization (WHO) does not recommend wearing masks if you are not sick. If you have the symptoms listed above, then you should wear a mask, call your doctor first, and go seek medical care immediately.  If you are caring for someone that is diagnosed with coronavirus then it would be appropriate to wear a mask. Also, WHO says that masks alone are not enough. They suggest that masks are only effective in combination with frequent hand washing with soap or an alcohol-based hand rub.  If any symptoms are present, go to your doctor EARLY and share your travel history. 

So, what is the country doing about this? Well, recently PA Governor Tom Wolf closed all schools across Pennsylvania from March 16-27 or longer.  Also, recently, Gov. Tom Wolf closed all the non-life sustaining business.  That means that all unnecessary stores and places are now closed. Like gyms and other stores. Grocery stores like Whole Foods, Acme and WaWa are still open for the public use.  Lots of stores across the country are out of stock.  That is because people are trying to stock up on food so they have something to eat if they are enclosed in their homes.

I hope you found my article on the Novel Coronavirus interesting. To learn more, take a look at the links below. Also take a look out the CDC PA.gov and WHO for trusted information. 

*All stats are from March 21st, 2020

WATCH THE HAND WASH RAP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tao33mBRVk 

Bibliography: 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html

https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/Pages/Coronavirus.aspx

Quick Cool video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOV1aBVYKGA 

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks

Now on Netflix: A Series Of Unfortunate Events

By Ben Rickmond

Today I am reviewing a Netflix Original series, “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” based on the book series with the same name by “Lemony Snicket.”

With a total of 25 total episodes, each episode is based on the books in the book series with the same episode name. Each book is split into two episodes named part one and two, except the last one.  To learn more about the book series click here.  

The series starts out with the three Baudelaire children’s (Violet, Klaus, and Sunny) parents supposedly getting killed in a fire. They are forced to live with antagonist Count Olaf (played by Neil Patrick Harris) who will stop at nothing to get their enormous fortune the parents left behind in their will to the oldest child, Violet (played by Malina Weissman) when she comes of age.

Olaf says he will stop at nothing to get the fortune (you will see if you watch or read), but it is something more than that. From what I have watched, Count Olaf was originally a member of the V.F.D. He got in a fight with other members of the V.F.D, which included the Baudelaire’s parents. There was a large unknown incident, and Olaf left the V.F.D. This book has very complicated plot lines and can be tagged as Mystery and Dark Humor. 

This show is rated TV-PG, but lots of scary events appear in all the seasons. One scary moment is when one of the Baudelaire’s guardians pushes them down an empty elevator shaft and then becomes a antagonist. This book can get dark at some points, as Count Olaf will stop at nothing to get the fortune.  

You may want to think twice about showing the show to younger kids. 

The book and the show is thoroughly narrated personally by the author, whose pen name is Lemony Snicket (real name Daniel Handler). Lemony is played by Patrick Warburton as an on-screen narrator. 

Snicket often connects the books to his own life a bit. I highly suggest watching this show as it is addicting. I hope you enjoyed this review, and I hope you start watching! 

Radnor Basketball: Why REC?

By Nancy Wible  

Swish!  Do you play basketball in the winter? Lots of students at WES including myself choose to play REC.  

Why REC? Families chooses REC for many reasons, one of them being that it’s not too serious. Serious, what? Well you have one practice on a weekday and a game on a weekend. Some Malvern or CYO teams have practices every day that conflicts with lots of people schedules or they don’t love basketball enough to go every day.  

How can I sign up? Go to this website if you have an interest in signing up: https://www.radnor.com/730/Youth-Basketball-Programs make sure to sign up early slots fill up quickly lots of people want to be a part people who have played since they were 3 or people that are starting this year.  

Will I be with my friends? In REC you can request to be with a friend or a group of friends. You might not be with all them or any of them but the organizers will try their best. Every year they also make sure you’re with someone else that is in your school so you know someone and don’t feel left out.  

Do I need a parent to coach me? Parents usually volunteer to coach the teams. You can ask you parent if that’s what you would like but, if not that’s okay! Usually enough parents volunteer. My dad does coach me but my friends’ parents, Maddie and Reece’s don’t.   

Do kids who are better get more time to play? No! Everyone usually gets to play the same amount. If you don’t it’s not just the good kids that get more time on the court. Sometimes there are an uneven number of kids at the game so people have to stay in or stay out for two rounds.  

Interviews:  

Who	Grade	Class	Said
Reece Brown (Player)	4th	Crowe	REC basketball is not too serious, and the players, coaches, and Refs are USUALLY nice.
Maddie Flynn (Player)	4th	Becker	REC basketball is fun because you might see some people that you know on other teams.
Sophia Damiani (Player)	4th	Cook	REC basketball is fun because you might make new friends on your team and the REFs and coaches are fair most of the time.

Morning Announcements: Yes or No?

By Reece Brown and Maddie Flynn

“Good morning and welcome back to the latest buzz about Wayne Elementary School!”

That was what the morning announcements sounded like one year ago.

Do you think we should go back to the old way we did the morning announcements, where the fifth graders would say them? I remember when I was in 2nd grade I couldn’t wait to say the announcements in 5th grade. Now I may never be able to. The morning announcements were always fun to hear, and I used to pretend I was saying them with my pencil as a microphone.

Why we should have them back

Every student in 5th grade would get to say the announcements at least once in the school year. Us 4th graders should get a turn too! So many students agree that the morning announcements were always something they were excited to say when they finally got to 5th grade. They were excited to hear the morning announcements and they were at SCHOOL!!!!

If you aren’t convinced, maybe you should look at what others said about this topic.

4th grader Nancy Wible says, “It was fun to hear somebody you know. I remember hearing my brother on them on my birthday in 3rd grade. It was nice to hear the birthdays of others around you.”

Ailsa Gilmour in 4th grade says, “I was really looking forward to saying them in 5th grade, and I loved hearing them when I was sitting in class.”

Ani Desai in 4th grade says, “They were a great start to the school day and I really liked hearing the 5th graders say them!”

Ben Rickmond in 5th grade says, “It’s not fair because when we finally get to 5th grade, we don’t get to say them!”

So, after all this, what do you think about the morning announcements??!!

What is K-POP?

Top K-Pop band BTS on the red carpet at the Grammy’s, January 26, 2020. Source: Getty Images.

By Leah Zhang        

K-pop is a type of music that I love. I will have a facts page, add a list of top 30 K-pop groups, & more!  

 Facts  

1. K-pop stands for Korean pop.   

2. In a K-pop group, where members are mostly around the same age, a few months difference in birthdate makes a huge difference as well. For example, A is born in January and B is born in May. B still has to speak formal language to A, even though they are born in the same year.  

3. Once idols have a new song and album to promote, they go on up to 6 music shows a week to promote their songs.  

4. Over 100 groups debut in South Korea every year, but less than 5% are successful.  

5. It can go back to 1985.  

6. In the 1990’s, K-pop musicians incorporated American popular music styles.  

        Top 30 K-pop groups  

     30. Gfriend.  

     29. IZ*One. (Off the record)  

     28. EXO-SC.  

     27. KARD.  

     26. Super Junior.  

     25. Day6.  

     24. Pentagon.  

     23. EverGlow.  

     22. (G) idle. (Girl Idle)  

     21. SHINee.  

     20. Astro.  

     19. NCT U.   

     18. Itzy.  

     17. NCT Dream.  

     16. I Kon.  

     15. Monsta X.  

     14. ATEEZ.  

      13. Super M.  

      12. Seventeen.  

      11. NCT. (Neo Culture Technology)   

      10. Mamamoo.   

       9. NCT 127.         

       8. TXT. (Tomorrow X Together) 

       7. Red Velvet.  

       6. Stray Kids.  

       5. Twice.  

       4. Got 7.  

       3. EXO. (Exoplanet) 

       2. Blackpink.  

1. BTS. (Bangtan Boys)  

Extra  

T-pop is for Taiwan pop. It exists too!  

Social Media Review (SMR): TikTok

By Ben Rickmond, Tech and Business Desk Chief 

TikTok is a growing social media website. The main purpose is to post 3-15 second videos of yourself lip-syncing, doing stunts/comedy, or just showing your talent! This is the average social media website, and it is addicting for teens. You can get likes, followers, and be followed by celebrities!

Anyway, TikTok is owned and founded by Chinese company Byte Dance.  According to People.com, there was a lawsuit against TikTok from a California college girl. She claims that she downloaded the app, but never created an account.  TikTok made an account for her without her consent. There were also videos created that she did not make. That proves that TikTok was sending her data to servers in China! So watch out when giving your info on TikTok. 

As you may already know, TikTok is a merger of Musical.ly. That means that Byte Dance bought Musical.ly. Afterwards, they developed Tik Tok and turned Musical.ly into TikTok. Musical.ly was founded by Alex Zhu. He was always into education, and then he thought he came up with a billion-dollar idea: short education videos. Zhu and his founding partner, Louis Yang raised $250,000 to start the company. Then he started working on an app called Cicada for six months. Users could post 3-5 minute education videos. Then when they sent the application for the company, he said it was “doomed to be a failure.” It did not take off. Three to five minutes was too short to post lesson plans. It did not attract many teens. By then, his team only had 8% of his money left. Then he got the idea for Musical.ly. And then it skyrocketed with no trace of the education app roots. Finally, the current parent company, Byte Dance, bought Musical.ly in 2017 and then merged into TikTok in 2018. 

TikTok is everything that teens want to have on their phones. But inappropriate content is easy to find! Lots of adults believe the content is too much, but if you have a responsible kid, some kids say it will be okay. There are filters to block out inappropriate stuff. You can make a private account if you want, but if you want to lip-sync there are songs in the library that may have cursing or etc.  Also, some people on TikTok are starting dangerous “challenges” which is something to be aware of.

Common Sense Media says the best age is 16+. 

TikTok seems to be in the top of the list of popular apps at WES. So, you and your parents can decide if TikTok is right for you. Thank you for reading the latest Social Media Review! 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical.ly

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ByteDance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok

Cool Review: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/video/modal/5457846?height=420&iframe=1&width=660

https://people.com/tech/tiktok-sued-allegedly-transferring-teens-data-china/

https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Tiktok.pdf 

https://bytedance.com/en/about#milestones

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-musically-2016-5

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/tiktok#csm-tooltip-about-our-ratings

https://abcnews.go.com/US/authorities-warn-dangerous-tiktok-outlet-challenge/story?id=68531391

Bingo Night: A WES Tradition

By Ben Rickmond

Bingo night is an annual tradition that is PTO-run. Bingo night is usually in the middle of January. This year, bingo was on Friday, January 10th from 7:00-8:45pm.

It is fun for everyone! So you come in and pick up your cards, sit down, chat with friends and begin Bingo! There are multiple rounds, like regular (up, down and diagonal), T, four corners, and the final round X. If you are a winner you raise your hand and then get to go onstage to pick a prize. The first one who wins the X wins a bigger prize, better then all the others. Usually it is a gigantic teddy bear. My friend Graci Gill won the grand prize this year.

If you have never been before, you can sign up next year on the WES PTO website. It really is a fun time. As ever, all proceeds are donated to WES. There were quite a lot of parent volunteers. Thank you parents and students! See, you next time.

A picture from the 2020 bingo night. Credit: WES PTO.

WES 2020 Talent Show: Registration Open

By Ben Rickmond

Hello WES! The annual talent show is coming soon! There will be singers, pianists, dancers, magicians, comedians and more!

The talent show takes place in late March every year. The dates for this year are, Grades K-2 will be on March 25, 2020 – 6:30-8:00 PM. Grades 3-5 will be on March 26, 2020 – 6:30-8:00 PM. 

The preview will be on March 2, 2020 from 5:00 – 8:00 PM for all grades and is mandatory.

Sign up is now open! Click HERE to register.  Registration closes on February 17^th, 2020.  Learn more HERE. You can help us by volunteering. 

Try to be creative when choosing your acts, so your audience will get a laugh or a taste of pleasure.  Also, don’t show up to the show without practicing your acts. Audiences love it when they see good and prepared performers.  And if you are not performing, be sure to come to this free show to support our WES performers! Parents and students, thank you for supporting WES!  

All About Snapchat

By Ben Rickmond 

Snapchat is an image messaging service that posts videos for a short amount of time once users click on the video. Which means that you can post videos to your friends and when they click on the video, the video/picture is only available for the amount of time the poster chooses. Let’s say you post a video with your friends at Target and you put the video for 15 seconds. When your friends watch it, they will only be able to see it for, 15 seconds.  

Snapchat was developed by Snap Inc. Snapchat was created by three former Stanford students, Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown. It started when Evan Spiegel was talking with Reggie Brown. He said “I wish that these pictures that I am sending to this girl would disappear”. 💡 That gave Evan the Idea for Snapchat. Then he created (along with the others) the original website: Picaboo in July 2011. They gained 127 users at the end of the summer. Reggie Brown left in an argument with the others shortly after the company was created.  Then, Evan and Bobby re-named the company “Snapchat”.  Snapchat became popular with school kids because they could text in class and the teachers would never know. In 2012, Snapchat gained 100,000 users by April 2012. The company also turned down a $3 billion acquiring offer from Facebook in Jan 2014. Snapchat has now 210 million users as of July 2019. Snapchat is now owned by Snap Inc. Evan is the CEO and the current stock price is shown below. 

1-2-3 SNAP! Snapchat is gaining more users EVERY day. There is currently 310.7 monthly million users as of summer 2019*. 90% of those people are 13-24 years old*. Wow! Not many adults use Snapchat, do they? Also, 3 billion snaps are created every day! * Unfortunately, some users decided to post inappropriate snaps. These users might be pressured by friends that have more followers/likes because they post inappropriate snaps. More teens do this on this app because they are supposed to disappear. But watchers can easily screenshot any video or picture on their phone, so snaps never really disappear. That was not what Reggie Brown wanted in the first place. I believe that Snapchat is in the top three most popular apps at WES in 4^th-5^th grade. Thank you for reading and be sure to check out more articles from my social media reviews series! See good security practices on this expert review. https://bit.ly/2QJTAql Coming Soon: TikTok! 

Sources and videos: 

 *Quote https://www.omnicoreagency.com for the Statistics. 

Stock: NYSE: SNAP 17.41 USD +0.050 (0.29%)  
At close: January 10 4:04PM EST 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/545967/snapchat-app-dau/

https://www.afponline.org/about/who-we-are/snapchat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snap_Inc.

https://bit.ly/2FIE1Jh

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/owns-snapchat-created/

Cool Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IO5yso1MfM 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapchat

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/snapchat

Good Review : https://www.commonsensemedia.org/video/modal/5195236?height=420&iframe=1&width=660 

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/snap?ltr=1

https://bit.ly/2uJFCML

Concert Review: GVF at the Met in Philly

By Danby Morrison

WES Buzz Pop Culture News Desk Chief of 2019

 

On December 30, 2019, I went to see one of the coolest, Grammy-winning bands of this era, Greta Van Fleet. I have mentioned this band before, but seeing them live for the first time ever, I realized that they were amazing beyond words, beyond the human language, maybe. In this month’s Pop Culture edition of The WES Buzz, I will be covering what to expect in Greta Van Fleet’s songs, the band’s background information, the cool concert set-up, and the venue The Met itself.

What to Expect

The band often will do special things with their songs at concerts, such as extending drum solos and guitar solos. They will also have sing-along songs, where they’ll tell you something to sing, and, well, you sing it (duh…). Like a call-and-response type thing.

Safari Song: One of the band’s top hits is the love-filled “Safari Song.” At concerts, one of the lyrics is “Oh mama, what you gonna to do with all that love in YOUR HEART.” Before the “your heart” part of the lyric, the singer will hold out their microphone to the crowd, so the audience sings it with them. They not only do this at the chorus lyric, but at the end when the only thing the singer sings is “YOUR HEART.”

Watch Me (Labi Siffre cover): Not only at the concert that I went to, but I have watched several live feeds on YouTube of their other concerts, and they do a Labi Siffre cover of a song called “Watch Me” where they tell the crowd to sing the, not really words, but sounds: “Pa na na na na pa na na na na pa,” twice.

Highway Tune: In their super rockin’ song “Highway Tune” in concert, the bridge of the song is where the drummer plays one drum and the singer claps his hands with the microphone in one hand. And hundreds of people in the audience join in by clapping their hands. “Highway Tune” is also a very Dancy song.

During concerts they also tend to extend a lot of their songs. At the concert I went to, they did a snippet of their song called “Anthem” in the song “Flower Power.”

GVF’s Harmonic History

Where They Began

First of all, the band’s drummer wasn’t always the amazing Danny Wagner. When the band first formed in 2012, their drummer was a mediocre player named Kyle Hauck who quit after 2013. They soon replaced Hauck with their close family friend Daniel Wagner. (Who does the best darn drum solos of the 2000’s ever!)

The band was formed by the three brothers Josh, Jake, and Sam Kiszka (just because they wanted to because they all knew how to play instruments, including Josh’s incredible vocals). And Kyle Hauck, one of their friends, became the drummer. The band name “Greta Van Fleet” was inspired by the Frankenmuth, Michigan (where they grew up) town elder Gretna Van Fleet.  The variation of the first name was so it’d be easier to say.  The elder says that even though classic rock isn’t her type, she still supports the band no matter what. The band with Kyle Hauck recorded the tracks “Cloud Train” and “Standing On”. (Unfortunately, as I had mentioned before, Hauck quit after 2013, but he was replaced by the mind-blowing Danny Wagner!)

Albums & EPs

In March 2017, the band got a deal at Lava Records and made the single “Highway Tune” off of their first four-song EP Black Smoke Rising. In November 2017, they recorded four new tracks and created an eight-track album called From The Fires.  Which included (in my opinion) Van Fleet’s best song Safari Song.  Their most recent album was released on October 19, 2018, they recorded their full-length debut album Anthem Of The Peaceful Army, which topped BillBoard Rock Album Charts within a week of its release. Their Peaceful Army song “When The Curtain Falls” was Van Fleet’s third number-one on Billboard and was released ahead of time in July 2018. They started their debut tour “March of the Peaceful Army” in August 2019 and ended on December 30th, 2019.

The Cool Concert Set-up

Now I dare say, the stage of their Met performance was absolutely awesome.  The intro to the band’s performance was smoke rising from the stage, lit up by the multi-colored spotlights. When Greta Van Fleet first came on the stage, the lights went dark and the only light came from the blue-lit stage.  The band looked like cool silhouettes in the dark as a thousand people started cheering loudly and Van Fleet gave their short introduction speech.  “You ready for the celebration?” the singer said to the audience. And the lights were constantly changing, sometimes red, and sometimes yellow.  The spotlights were exquisite.

Details of the Met

You might think of the Met as some kind of historic, classy place where sopranos performed. But just one year ago the Met was reopened to the public and has a completely new design.  It has a very modern-style bar, they use downloaded tickets on your phone for admission, they even have popcorn and cotton candy like a typical movie theater.  It is an amazing theater.  And, as you can probably tell by now, the lighting design people are just luminescent! And not to mention outside there’s a theater-type sign with their upcoming shows.  My friend took a picture of me in front of the preview sign when it flashed the show for Greta Van Fleet!  The Met also has colorful lights on the outside, too.  There’s a huge sign that says “The Met: Philadelphia” on it.

I hope you learned a lot about the venue the Met, the amazing concert set-up Greta Van Fleet made, and Van Fleet’s fascinating music history.  Watch videos of live concert feeds on youtube of Greta Van Fleet performing at the Met! Search for it on December 30th ‘cause that’s when I went and it was awesome!

 

Inside the Met