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AOSR News February 2004

Contents Message from the Headmaster

1 More PTO News 10 MS News 17

Trustees’ Report 4 Poetry 12 HS News 18

All-School News 3,4,6,7,8

Pre-K News 13 News from the Counselor

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AOSR 2004 Ball 5 Carnevale 14 Sports Briefs 20,21

PPAC 8 ES News 15 Notes from the Field 22

PTO Corner 9 MS News 16 Rome ‘N’ About 23

Bon-Appetito

Il Foro

Calendar

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WWW.AOSR.ORG

TEACHING NEW TEACHERS By Dr. Larry Dougherty, Headmaster

Excellent schools with excellent teachers have a responsibility to educate the next generation of teachers. As some of you know, we have had eight student teachers in our school this year. We have had an outstanding group of young people finishing their university practicum with us. All of the students who come to our school first have to pass a rigorous screening by their colleges and universities. They must have outstanding references and they have to demonstrate tremendous independence to be selected for an international student placement. If they are teaching in a discipline, they have to have fulfilled all of the requirements to qualify for a teacher in that discipline. Our student teachers have come from Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, Minnesota State College, Christian Brothers University, and Boston College. From Iowa State University, Kelsey Wallace completed her student teaching in the Kindergarten class-room with Patricia Robertson; and Karen Hoover has worked in the P.E. program together with Carlyn Zaniboni.

(Continued on page 14)

HOW THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES DETERMINES TUITION By Richard Zacaroli

Chairperson, AOSR Board of Trustee At the annual January Board of Trustees meeting, the Board of Trustees will consider and decide what the tuition and fees will be for the 2004-05 school year. This is a responsibility the Trustees take very seri-ously. So, what are the Trustees’ objectives in establishing the tuition and fees schedule for the next school year? The Board determines tuition necessary to address our priorities for strengthening our academic pro-grams, attracting and retaining outstanding teachers and improving the physical and learning environment for our children. In addressing these goals, we consider the following financial considerations: The tuition and fees must be sufficient to cover our projected costs, and maintain a positive cash flow. Importantly it is not AOSR’s objective to make a profit. While AOSR pays Italian taxes, we operate as a Not-For-Profit corporation. Simultaneously it is our objective to keep tuition within the range of other international schools, as Rome is a very competitive market for English Language students. Our student population has grown because of the high quality of our faculty and our educational programs. The tuition increases we have had over the years have financed the improvements to our academic programs that have contributed to our success. We must continue to make prudent decisions regarding tuition and fees now and in the future to ensure our pro-

(Continued on page 17)

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is a monthly publication of the American Overseas School of

Rome (AOSR) To make comments or suggestions, or to submit an article to the Falcon Flyer, please call editor Lisa Fin-erty at 06-4782-6192, or send an email to ptonewslet-ter@aosr.org. A Flyer submission box is also located in the Principal’s office.

Next Deadline 2-18-04 The deadline for submission of articles for the March Flyer is Wednesday, February 18, for news and announcement for the period, March 1st to April 3, 2004.

Important Phone Numbers School Number: 06-334-381

Fax: 06-3326-2608 Headmaster: Larry Dougherty 06-3343-8331 Headmaster’s Secretary : Domenica Losani 06-3343-8331 Principal: Beth Pfannl 06-3343-8326 Principal’s Secretary: Alessandra Cozzi 06-3343-8326 Admissions: Don Levine 06-3343-8300 Reception/Secretary: Joanne Hoberg 06-3343-8300 Financial Consultant: Elisa Bruno 06-3343-8338 Boarding/Finance: Estelle Dougherty 06-3343-8339 Guidance Counselor: Donna Ross 06-3343-8327 Nurse: Diane Cullen-Moore 06-3343-8321 After School Activities: Christine Hogan 06-3343-8320 Margaret Ciuffreda MS Actvities Coord.: Angela Santangelo 06-3343-8336 Resource Room: Karen Lee 06-3343-8302 Records Office: Marina Benetti 06-3343-8315 PTO/Boutique 06-3343-8322

Via Cassia 811 00189 Rome, Italy

Internet: www.aosr.org

PTO Partners

Carol Atwood atwood@mclink.it Susan Berton thebertons@hotmail.com Julie Deptula juge98@hotmail.com Grazia Deulus deulus@virgilio.it Lisa Finerty lisaland@mindspring.com Susan Haight b.haight@agora.it Francesca Kelly fkellysun@aol.com

Laura Rumpf ericrumpf@yahoo.it Monique Smits smitjes@libero.it Ana Volk vvolk@libero.it Moshira Zelenka karel.zelenka@tiscali.it

As always, please call if we can help!

Publisher’s News Welcome to Mariela Ortiz who has volunteered to be the Falcon Flyer’s Graphics Editor. She joins M a r l e n e D e r - Kh a c h a d o u r i a n (Distribution) as well as our regular columnists, Doug Kneeland, Sue Ber-ton, and Claudia Sobral. We are really happy to announce a contribution to “Rome’N’About” by Sabine Neumann. Welcome to newcomer columnist Katherine Berton who will tell us what is going on in Grade 6. Corrections: In last month’s Falcon Flyer, the last line was left off of Dr. Pfannl’s National Principals’ Award report on page 3 of the December/January Falcon Flyer. It should read: Happy Valentine’s, Carnevale, Mardi Gras, Chinese New Year, and Ski Week everyone! Lisa Finerty Editor

NO CLASS DAYS

Ski Week Monday 16 through Friday 20

School begins Monday, February 23

Dr. Pfannl was also presented with a U.S. Department of State Cer-tificate of Appreciation for dedicated service and outstanding contributions to children overseas, by the Office of Overseas Schools directed by Dr. Keith Miller. The award was given by Assistant Secretary of State, Dr. Wil-liam Eaton.

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All School News

AOSR Music Gets a Giant Technology Upgrade By Roy Zimmerman, HS Music Teacher

Exciting new equipment in the computer lab means good news for AOSR music students. The school has just purchased eight music production workstations, enabling Mr. Zimmerman’s theory and composition stu-dents to explore the Number One musical instrument of today, the computer! The specific description of the equipment may not impress the layman, but try telling a recording engi-neer about our sleek Roland PC-100 keyboard midi-controllers, which plug straight into Steinberg’s Cubase sequencer, equipped with their hot new grand piano, virtual guitarist, and synthesizer/sampler plug-in mod-ules. Students will wear professional headphones as they cook up their musical concoctions; they will be producing a whole CD full of their work by the end of the school year. Since the advent of the digital age, every note of music we hear has passed through computer processing. Only very recently, however, has it been possible for a school budget to acquire complete music production packages for its students. Without exaggerating, AOSR can say that its music production gear make mythical 1960’s studios like Abbey Road or Muscle Shoals seem very tacky indeed.

American Women’s Associa-tion of Rome members and guests celebrated the holi-days together at an elegant reception held at Villa Tav-erna. The December event featured a special perform-ance by the American Over-seas School of Rome choir. AWAR President, Lori Hickey Mucci, wrote in their newsletter, “It was definitely a very special occasion we will all remember for many years to come. Without ques-tion, the children from the AOSR Middle School Choir provided the ultimate festive touch.” (photo courtesy of www.awar.org)

Teachers bring back ideas from ECIS conference

By Jane Rumsby and Carlyn Zaniboni

In November, teachers who went to the Euro-pean Conference of International Schools (ECIS) in Hamburg attended an inspiring pre-conference work-shop, called “Operation Respect.” It was run by Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul & Mary musical fame). The workshop focused on de-escalation of con-flict, assertiveness training, communication skills, and mutual support. These issues permeate all aspects of our lives --- from the way we talk to bus drivers, the cleaning staff, our children, our spouses, and even to the tellers at the bank. The topics learned at the workshop have been introduced at the MS, and the students’ response is positive and encouraging. Grades 2-5 have the materi-als also, and teachers who attended the conference have offered to do hands-on workshops in the other classes. It has already been implemented in the Grade 3, and third grade students will present the topic of “Respect” at an ES assembly on Friday, January 30, at 2:15.

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Last issue the Falcon Flyer presented the biographies of the four Board of Trustee members elected at the Novem-ber corporation meeting. This month, we present the bi-ographies of an additional four Trustees, and present the remaining four in our next issue. Contact information for all Board members is in the School Directory. TODD ATWOOD

Todd Atwood is an American citizen and has been a resident of Rome since March 1998. He is married to Carol Atwood and has three children attending AOSR: Sam in Grade 5th, Jason in Grade 1st, and Sylvia in Pre-K. He has served on the AOSR Board for four years and is currently Board Vice-Chairman. Mr. Atwood works with Colgate-Palmolive where he is European Business Category Director. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of Cosmederm Corporation and Duke University. Prior to his business career he was both a teacher and coach at Charlotte Latin School and Wallace O'Neal Day School. He attended and remains closely involved with several private schools in the U.S. and Istanbul. CHRISTINE MARCIASINI Christine Marciasini is an American citizen who has been a resident of Rome since 1989. She is currently Assistant Director and Registrar of Loyola University of Chicago in Rome. She is married to Marco Prosperi and has two children at A O S R : D a v i d , G r a d e 7 a n d S a r a h , Grade 3. She previously served two consecutive terms as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1995 to 2001. While on the Board she served AOSR as Vice Chair of the Board, Chair of the Personnel Committee, and Co-Chair of the by-laws com-mittee. She took a by-law mandated pause from Board service in 2002-2003, but she continued to serve AOSR by taking on the duties of Treasurer of the Corporation and remaining on the Per-sonnel Committee. She is also a US attorney and has practiced international law in Italy, concentrating on employment law, non-profit corporation and corporation law for 10 years. SERGIO MASSERINI Sergio Masserini is an Italian citizen, presently serving as a Board Member. He and his wife Mariella have a son, Lorenzo, in Grade 7 at AOSR. Mr. Masserini is a Partner and VP, Avionics and Defense for Intermark Sistemi, which is the Italian representative of several US leading industries. Before becoming associated partner at Intermark, he led sales and mar-keting for Thales Communications in Italy and worked over 25 years with Rockwell Collins. Throughout this time, he worked for long periods in the U.S., managing international business development operations. GENE WILLIAMS: Gene Williams is an American citizen. He and his wife Genevieve have two sons. He is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Alabama. He worked for 31 years in the United States Foreign Service, 20 years abroad in seven coun-tries. He has been involved in several international schools in Brussels, New Delhi, Athens and Rome. He has served on the AOSR board for two years from 1996-98. His oldest son Cedric graduated from AOSR in June 2002. Son, Christopher, is pres-ently in Grade 11.

AOSR Board of Trustee Biographies

Alumni News Congratulations to AOSR Alumna, Margot Sikabonyi, who is starring in “Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola” (“Set another place at the table”), now being performed at the Teatro La Sistina (near the Spanish Steps). Margot, since graduating from AOSR in 2002, has been a regular on Italian National TV (“Un Medico in Famiglia” on RAI) and has starred in a live theater production, performing in French, in Paris.

Don Levine is at it again…. •The Pinus table now has a top, with its biography and reason for being wood-carved into it. •The container classrooms out back now have a wooden porch designed and built by our own Matt Tupper. A table and chairs will be added as another work area for the students and the surrounding area is being dressed up with flowerbeds and laurel bushes. It should be very nice when completed. •Teachers have been using the new tables and chairs donated in part by the PTO. The terrace overlooking the Hillside theater where the new tables and chairs are located is a great place to eat lunch. •The area between the gym and the Villa now has a gar-den and sitting area. The full beauty will be realized when the Spring planting season arrives. Next time on campus, look around!

Hold the press: Semester II enrollment is about 600.

Cafeteria News

After cooking “three square meals”

during the school holidays, most of us agree that it is a nice service for students to be able to purchase hot, home-made lunches that are so tasty here at school. Paying for them on the Student ID “credit cards” makes things simpler also. When the credit on these cards runs out, the cafeteria doesn’t turn your hungry student away. The managers of the cafeteria allow students to charge lunch on credit, but a letter from “Romana Gestione Mensa,” is sent out to parents. Please respond to this notice if you get one by sending in some money im-mediately to recharge the card. Remember, if you have any money left on the card at the end of the year, you can either be refunded the credit or you can elect to carry the balance forward until the next school year.

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AOSR Ball 2004

Saturday, February 7 By now you must have already circled the date on your calendar, and are already busy call-ing your friends to fill your table. Last year over 150 guests attended this wonderful evening – hopefully you will be part of the festivities this year! The AOSR Ball will be held once again at the Hotel & Resort Borgo Bamboccio, located at Via della Giustiniana 990. This exquisitely refurbished ancient fortress of medieval design is an all-suite hotel located within the boundaries of the Archaeological Park of Veio. We en-courage you to check out their website at www.borgobamboccio.it. Cocktails will be held in the “Don Ferdinando” room starting at 7:30pm, and we will then move to the “Pieter Van Laer” room at 8:30pm for a 5-course dinner and dancing. Maurizio Massimi and his orchestra will provide music for the evening; there will be a silent auction, as well as some lovely surprises for all who attend this elegant evening. A beautiful souvenir Gala Booklet will be distributed to all attendees, as well as to our sponsors, members of the international community in Rome, and friends of AOSR throughout the world. Further details can be found on the AOSR website. The donation for the evening is € 70 per person, and groups of 10 people receive our “Ten for Ten” special offer – a 10% discount. All ten tickets must be paid for and picked up at the same time. Tickets are still on sale at the following locations: AOSR – Domenica Losani – 06-3343-8331 Olgiata – Carol Atwood – 06-3088-9705 Vigna Clara – Laura Rumpf – 06-329-1827 Giustiniana/PTO Boutique – Susan Haight – 06-3031-0876

For information - please contact Domenica Losani at 06-3343-8331 for any questions you may have. We look forward to seeing you on February 7th! Deadline for Reservations and Payment to attend the Ball is Friday, January 30, 2004

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All School News (continued)

After-School Activities Abound! Second Session Starts February 23

What do double-dutch jump-roping, badminton,

ceramics, synchronized swimming, and board games have in common? That’s easy. They’re all activities in-cluded in the new program of AOSR After-School Ac-tivities.

Yes, it’s time to sign up again for one -- or sev-eral -- fun activities that can be enjoyed right here on our own campus, from 3:30 to 4:45 pm, once the first session After-School Activities end on Thursday, Febru-ary 12. The second session begins Monday, February 23, after Ski Week..

The program is divided into three sections -- Elementary School, Middle School and High School/Adult -- and offers something for just about everyone. Elementary students have basketball, synchronized swimming, badminton, choir, guitar club, gymnastics, Girl Scouts (Daisy, Brownie and Junior troops), paint-ing, games and much more!! Middle schoolers can do 3-on-3 basketball, Girl Scout Cadettes, music lessons, ce-ramics, board games and more.

High School students and adults can choose from several activities, including music lessons, English conversation, board games, swimming and computer. There’s just no end to the fun you can have between now and the end of the year from 3:30 to 4:45PM.

The After-School Activities program booklet has already been sent home, so if you haven’t seen it, be sure to stop in the ASA office and pick one up. Second session After-School Activities program begins Febru-ary 23 and goes until May 28.

PREPARATION UNDERWAY FOR HS WELLNESS DAY

PROGRAM AOSR will hold a Wellness Day for HS students on March 4. Teachers and administrators are cur-rently planning a program for this day and are asking adults in the AOSR community if they might be able to help present a health topic that is relevant to this age group. Currently planned are mini seminars to educate, enlighten, and inspire students to de-velop positive skills. This program will focus not only on the physical, but also social, emo-tional, relational and psychological health of the adolescent student. Positive growth and devel-opment encompasses the “complete person.” Adolescents struggle with many chal-lenges in the years between MS and graduation from HS. Much research on this age group em-phasizes the increased conflict and stress this generation must endure. The program will help students develop coping mechanisms for health challenges. Knowledge is power and thus this pro-gram will serve to educate, then offer positive choices, by exposing students to a variety of methods and techniques to cope with life’s chal-lenges. In time of distress and crisis we all need to have a plethora of skills and positive habits to turn to which are not destructive (smoking, ex-cessive eating and alcohol consumption, drugs, violence, isolation-- to name but a few). With the assistance of our AOSR staff and in partnership with parents, we are seeking presenters for this program in order to meet the unique needs of each HS student as he/she moves through this challenging phase of his/her life. If you have an interest, a hobby, a pro-fession that you would like to share with the staff and students, please contact Jody Ballard at 339 772-1385 or email to jballard@aosr.org. — Jody Ballard Family Counselor

Lost and Found All lost and found items were placed out on tables outside of the gym on Friday, January 16. The unclaimed items which

remain after Monday, January 26 will be washed in the laundry room outside of the cafeteria and remain there for one week. The items remaining will be donated to char-ity the first week of February. If you are looking for something specific, please see Ms. Zaniboni or one of the IB Students that are handling this project: Chiara Siravo, Sey Smith and Davide Lelli. And remember to LABEL your children’s cloth-ing, especially outerware and sweatshirts. If you find clothes that do not belong to anyone in your family, please send them back to the Lost and Found.

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Start Thinking about the AOSR Summer Camp

It’s a Sports Camp, an Arts and Theater Camp, and a Swimming Camp all rolled into one! It’s the AOSR Summer Adventure Camp. The sports agenda for the 2004 camp includes soccer, lacrosse, tennis, volleyball, flag football, bas-ketball, baseball, ultimate Frisbee and, for those who choose the full-day program, swimming! AOSR’s wonderful outdoor Hillside Theater houses the ac-claimed theatrical offerings in which every camper takes part. Painting, acting, singing and dancing, as well as work on scenery and costumes are all in-cluded. Designed for children ages 3-15, the camp features specially designed recreational activities based on summer camp programs in the United States. These camp activities, songs and games are always a hit with children. And, at the end of every session, campers will take part in Olympics Day and be treated to a real American picnic. Of course, we’re proud of the quality of its camp instructors, including members of AOSR’s own staff. As an added bonus, door-to-door bus service is available. Camp is divided into two sessions:. June 21-July 2, and July 5-16. For the “Pre-K Pods” (pre-school children ages 3-6) there is an additional session offered, June 14 to June 18. Campers may choose to attend the half-day program from 9 am to 12:30 pm for €250 a session, or the full-day program from 9 am to 3:30 pm for €350. Another camp — Total Sports — will be held July 19-23, and costs €175. Registration forms are available at the main office, by writing summercamp@aosr.org,. Or, you can always call 06-3343-8320 for more information.

All School News (continued)

Let Your Fingers Do the Walking - at least during the planning stages!

Every year there are new teachers and personnel who come for the first time to Rome, so teachers and parents have begun putting together a “Travel Binder” of interesting places to visit, good places to eat, and reasonable places to stay for AOSR school newcomers. This folder, categorized by “Europe”, “Italy” and “Rome”, is located in the Teachers’ Lounge. Please direct contributions of information to this folder to Tara Rosso, in her mailbox or through email.

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES EN-ROUTE TO AOSR!

By Barbara Faidley and Millie Kneeland, AOSR Girl Scout Representatives

This year’s supply of Girl Scout cookies started out from Rhode Island, by sea to Holland, by train to Livorno and by truck to Rome. This lit-

tle bit of “home” will be available from all the Girl Scouts at AOSR. The school has a Daisy, Brownie, Junior, and Cadette/Senior troop that will be selling cookies as soon as they arrive in Rome. Girls will be selling cookies individu-ally and there will be booth sales at the school every Mon-day and Friday after school throughout the months of Janu-ary and February. There are 8 types of cookies this year and each box will cost euro 3,00. Last year they were sold for 3,50. (Finally, SOMETHING dropped in price!) The cookie sale is sponsored by the Rome Neighborhood Girl Scouts. There will be 8 troops selling throughout the city. The Girl Scouts sell cookies at schools and universities throughout the city and to friends and rela-tives. This year the Girl Scouts will be selling more than 4500 boxes of cookies. After paying for the cookies, part of the profit goes to North Atlantic Girl Scouts to support pro-grams for Girl Scouts throughout Europe. The rest of the profits stay in the Rome Neighborhood. Most of it goes to the troops and girls that were selling to cookies for special events and other things for their troops. A small portion of the profits goes to the total Rome Neighborhood to help fund the activities for all the Girl Scouts in Rome. Girl Scouts of the USA are located at schools all around the world. The Girl Scouts celebrate an international celebra-tion of scouting on February 22 which is the birthday of both Lord and Lady Baden-Powell who started the scouting movement for boys and girls. The U.S. Girl Scouts cele-brate their founder’s (Juliette Lowe) birthday on March 12. HELP THE GIRL SCOUTS IN ROME AND BUY GIRL SCOUT COOKIES. Look for posters on display at the school to show you the types of cookies available this year and when the sale will be starting.

English is a Funny Language! When sailing out from England to the eastern parts of the Empire (India etc) the north (port) side of the ship was more comfortable as it was shaded from the sun in the southern sky. When returning home, it was the starboard side that was to the north, shaded, and preferred by the passengers. Wealthy travelers could afford to pay extra for these preferences and therefore their baggage was marked “Port Out ,Starboard Home,” or "POSH" for short.

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All School News (cont.) PPAC NEWS

The December 15 PPAC MEETING was cancelled in or-der to bid farewell to Hope Moore, the PTO President, whose family was transferred from Rome. The next meeting is scheduled for January 26, at 13:15 PM, and the subsequent meeting is scheduled for February 23 at 9:15 AM. There will be a report on both meetings in next month’s issue. PPAC Members: Grazia Deulus Millie Kneeland Sam Simpson Carolyn Grosso Claudia Ottolenghi Claudia Sobral Susan Haight Cinzia Palana Lisa Finerty Beth Pfannl, Principal

The AOSR Ball Benefit Owes Much to Jimmy and Christine

AOSR has a Theater program unparalleled in Rome. Last year AOSR presented its 40th annual Shakespeare Festi-val, drawing its audience from parents, neighbors, alumni, and Italian high school students. Other AOSR annual per-formances, like the MS Fall play, the HS Improv Show, the HS Night of One-Act Plays, the 5th Grade Musical, the 3rd Grade Musical, and 2nd Grade Egyptian Play are eagerly an-ticipated by participants as well as viewers. Our student per-formers have fans from all over the world!

The Theater program, as well as the Fine Arts and Music programs, are supported, in large part, by the fundrais-ing at the annual Ball Benefit, to be held this year on Satur-day, February 7 (see the advertisement on page 5).

The money raised at the Ball (dinner, program adver-tisements, and silent auction) contributes to all of the school’s theater productions for costume rental, script purchases, set design and construction, stage lighting, and is also used to purchase musical instruments and scores, as well as art mate-rials.

This year’s Ball is being organized by Jimmy McDi-vitt, an OSR alumnus and current Board Member. This is the second year that he has given his cheerful energy and organ-izational skills on behalf of the Gala. They are appreciated. Thank you so much, Jimmy!

The tradition of the Gala Ball Benefit, goes back a long way — 32 years!— and was rekindled and maintained for many years by Christine Hogan, fifth grade teacher and AOSR parent. The AOSR Ball owes much to Christine's en-ergy, leadership and hard work building this founda-tion. Thank you, Christine!

AOSR Teachers Visit Rome’s Holiday Exhibitions

On Wednesday, December 17, AOSR spon-sored this year’s first social event for teachers. Twenty-three teachers (as well as the mothers of two of them!) were taken, by school van, to the most sig-nificant “presepi” (nativity scenes) in Rome. AOSR Parent Susan Berton prepared her famous “Holiday Eggnog” (the recipe was published in the December Falcon Flyer) and sent it along by thermos with the bus driver. After viewing the exhibits, the teachers decided to have a holiday supper at a family restau-rant in Rome. The installations visited were: • The oldest presepio in the world, at St. Maria

Maggiore, • The 17th century Neopolitan installation at the

church of Saints Cosimo and Damiano near the Republican Forum (where there are so many characters that finding Bambino Gesu is like ask-ing “Where’s Waldo?”) ,

• The official presepio of the diocese of Rome at St. John Lateran, and

• The annual exhibit of 100 presepi at the Sala di Bramante, at Piazza del Popolo.

The most interesting seemed to be found among the installations at the Bramante exhibit: one was entirely made out of telephone wires, and an-other was designed and built by a group of adults with emotional disabilities, and intended to commu-nicate some of the anguish of mental illness. The teachers were really appreciative that the school arranged the van. All in all, it was a very wel-come, wonderful social event which the participants all want to do again soon.

AOSR ESL Classes for Employees

AOSR’s maids have now joined AOSR’s bus drivers in studying English in the school-sponsored ESL classes. Last year was the first year of the pro-gram, and it was very successful. The ESL graduation ceremony in June was attended by almost all of the staff and staff families, and was followed by a reception in the Quad. The ESL valedictorian for the class of 2003 is the person responsible for printing the Falcon Flyer, Egidio Luzi. Congratulations!

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THE PTO’s CORNER

Along with the new year have come some changes at the PTO. We bid a fond and sad farewell to our outgoing President, Hope Moore, whose pres-ence will be very much missed. Sabine Neumann, our Vice President, has now stepped smoothly into the role of Acting President with the support of other PTO board and committee members — it’s going to take a lot of us to replace one Hope! But we’re carry-ing on with enthusiasm. Speaking of enthusiasm, we’re putting to-gether baskets for the Gala Ball Silent Auction. (You’ve already bought your tickets to the Ball, right? The Gala Ball is on February 7 – read all about it elsewhere in the Falcon Flyer as well as on the www.aosr.org website.) The PTO is contributing theme baskets —and this is something fun you can help with! Right now, we have the following theme baskets which would benefit from donations and are being coordinated by school parents and staff: Italian Basket (Gloria Contaduca) Israeli Basket (Joseph Alfassy) American Basket from Gaeta (Diane Halloran)Mexican Basket (Sue Berton) Book Basket from Teachers (Lori Tibbett) Wine Basket from the Board (Rich Zacaroli) Afternoon Tea Basket (Francesca Kelly) Magazine Basket (Francesca Kelly) Baking Basket (Haight and Sensi families) Can you think of other fun theme baskets to put together for the Silent Auction? A pet care bas-ket? A chocoholic’s basket? A video/CD basket? A school supplies basket? A bath-time basket? A beau-tiful basket full of Italian papers and stationery? A “flu basket” full of medicines, tissues, magazines and a funny video? A cooking utensil basket? If you don’t want to make your own basket, feel free to contact one of the people above to con-tribute an item to their baskets – they’ll gladly accept. You can also come help us tie up the baskets with cellophane and ribbons so they look all the more enticing for the ball. PTO members will be in the Boutique starting at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb-ruary 4, so if you are contributing a basket, please have it delivered to the Boutique by then. You should include a list of contents, your name, the basket theme name, and an approximate value. Contact Lori Tibbett for more information at ltib-bett@hotmail.com or at 06-3089-6566. Thank you to everyone who contributed goodies to the Teacher Appreciation Brunch in December. You can’t imagine how much they appre-

ciate that – and we all know how much they deserve it! You may also have noticed that Santa Claus made an appearance right before our holiday break. We are so grateful that S.C. was able to use his sleigh to fly right over Via Cassia traffic and come greet the students, teachers and staff at AOSR! Our Boutique is doing a lucrative business this year. Many of you sellers and buyers have discovered what a hot meeting point the Boutique is every Tues-day. If you don’t already know it, you can actually make quite a bit of money in the Boutique selling your unwanted items. (All items must be in very good condi-tion with no breakage, stains or tears.) But even if you choose not to sell, don’t forget that you can also donate your unwanted clothes and bric-a-brac to the Boutique, which allows the PTO to keep the full profit of your donation. It’s a very worthy cause and the funds go right back into PTO programs which benefit your kids! Another huge school fund-raiser is the PTO-sponsored Booster Bar. Not only does this benefit whatever club or team volunteers to run each Booster Bar (because they keep the profits), it also gathers the community together for a fun time. New procedures are now in place to help the Booster Bar work even better for you and for the school. We’ll see you at the AOSR Gala Ball on Feb-ruary 7th! And please join us at our next PTO meeting on Monday, February 9, at 9:15 in the Boutique. Francesca Kelly PTO Secretary

This is the bell that Dr. Pfannl received as a commemoration of her National Distin-guished Principal award. It is now in the School Office.

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Basket Items Needed The AOSR Gala 2004 will be February 7th. This event is a fun fundraiser for the art, music, and drama departments at AOSR. In addition to the dancing, dining, and rev-elry, the Silent Auction is the big part of the fundraiser. As you noted in “PTO Corner” on page 9), PTO is helping to organize the donation of sev-eral themed baskets for the Silent Auction. We need help with donations for an American Bas-ket, Israeli Basket, Italian Basket, Mexican Bas-ket, and for the book basket, and wine bas-ket. Last year there was a great single malt whisky basket, too. Teachers, too, are asked to donate a book for the “Teacher-Sponsored Book Basket.” Items can be give to Lori Tibbett or put them in her box by Wednesday, Feb.4. Any other donations or questions can be directed to any PTO mem-ber.

Teacher Appreciation Holiday Brunch

I wish to thank all of you who sent items for the Teacher Appre-ciation Holiday Brunch, and the volunteers who helped me on that day. We had some good

specialties to enjoy from the world, for our teachers, administration and staff. They also enjoyed the coffee and candies which Saiwa donated. —- Grazia Deulus

Booster Bar The PTO/Booster Bar

Committee has developed new guidelines and pro-cedures to help run a Booster Bar event. This booklet is available in the Principal’s office. Vol-unteers are always needed to help with the opera-tion of it on Fridays. If you are interested in help-ing, call Sabine Neumann at 06 3326 6738 or Carol Atwood at 06 3088 9705.

Valentine’s Message:

Love Through the Eyes of the

Children

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?" The an-swers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think: "When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love." Rebecca, age 8 “When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth." Billy, age 4 "Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other." Karl, age 5 "Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs." Chrissy, age 6 "Love is what makes you smile when you're tired." Terri, age 4 "Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK." Danny, age 7 "Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kiss-ing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss." Emily, age 8 "Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop open-ing presents and listen," Bobby, age 7 "If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate". Nikka - age 6 "Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, and then he wears it everyday". Noelle age 7 "Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well." Tommy, age 6 "During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore," Cindy, age 8 "My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night." Clare, age 6 "Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken." Elaine, age 5 "Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford." Chris, age 7 "Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.”Mary Ann, age 4 "I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones." Lauren, age 4 "When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." Karen, age 7 "You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget," Jessica, age 8 And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry.”

MORE PTO NEWS

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Yearbook Issues

By Lori Tibbett

Seniors: Deadlines are approaching for this year's senior pages. The deadline to send in pic-tures to be professionally scanned is Friday, January 30. Write-ups for senior pages will be due in February and completed pages, including layout will be due at the end of February to al-low time for the yearbook staff to read, edit and fix any problems. Parents: Time to start thinking about sponsor-ing this year's yearbook with an ad for your busi-ness or a special ad for your graduating senior. Everyone: Articles and pictures will be ac-cepted throughout the spring. For help or infor-mation, contact any yearbook member or Ms. Flaherty or Ms. Tibbett.

The After School Activities cheerleaders made their campus debut on January 14 at the AOSR-Marymount Basketball Game. Ms. Rosso, shown in the photo, above, with the team, coaches this dedicated group of 12 girls, in Grades 2 to Grade 6. The day of the cheerleaders’ first performance was made even more exciting by the reorganization of their final stunt. One of the team members broke her leg over the holiday vacation, and the girls needed to quickly revamp the human pyramid to accommodate the misfortune of their team member. The team was outfitted in the teeshirts that were given to them by the Cross Country Team after the ASIL Tournament Championships in October. During the season, the girls were so busy preparing their routine that they didn’t have time to make themselves pom-poms but hope to do so --- and will!-- if the activity is of-fered for a second After School session.

First Graders are “Heroes” in HS Stories

Ms. Harris’ American Literature class practiced writing for an audience last term. The project, writing children’s storybooks for kindergarten and first grade children, was created in cooperation with Ms. Shelly Young, who chose four first graders to come to the high school to be interviewed by the whole 11th grade Ameri-can Literature class. They volunteered their ideas as to what kind of children’s book stimulated their interest the most. The final books were giant-sized and, without surprise, featured the three children as protagonists (“We’re heros!”). They were artistically done, with illus-trations and photos. The American Literature class volunteered to read them to the Kindergarten at Ms. Roberts and Ms. Prisco’s holiday party on the last day of class before win-ter break, and the kindergarten students were fascinated by the action-packed stories. The HS students learned how to read with appropriate, dramatic expression for this age group. And all who participated at every phase of the project had fun doing this assignment.

Cheers for the Cheerleaders!

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Ms. Rabin's 11th grade English class wrote poems to evoke imagery. In the class exercise, the names of the poets were removed and all poems, including some by published poets, were read aloud in class. The students then critiqued each of the poems by writing letters to their (unknown) author. Each student then received the written “fan mail” for his/her poem.

The following three poems were submitted for the exercise. Their authors are revealed here for the first time!

School On a Wet Cold Monday By Julian Brophy

The blanket of dark grey clouds,

The soft pitter patter of raindrops on the ground tired feet moving slowly through the dim corridors

wandering eyes, tired, not knowing where to wander. low whispers of the past few days

the dank smell of predominant dampness the feeling of linen now far away.

Those who stand aloof. contemplating nothing;

or perhaps – the meaning of life…

Crowd

by Agnese Marino

I stand in a crowd they walk fast

with their heads down

Their stammering footsteps, pounding with my heartbeat.

My hands feel sweaty, and I wave them to push aside the stench of routine

that won’t let me breathe

my mind is a cage of swirling thoughts and I yell, to let some out

grey eyes all around me – they don’t see;

they don’t hear; they don’t notice their faces are insipid

their paths are set

they walk fast with their heads down

Summer Day by Davide Lelli

It was a hot summer afternoon;

my friends and I were playing soccer on the seashore.

While we ran in the water we could hear the splashes of it on our

undressed bodies, and we could feel the sun beams on our backs which by that

time were starting to burn and itch. The time went by swiftly and I

was overwhelmed by juvenile thoughts of how those hours should have lasted

for ever. The air I breathed gave me a

sense of liberty and power. These feelings are now far away,

and certainly a lot of time will pass before I can repeat this experience;

but now I understand that when we have certain inspiring moments in our life, those will come to an end! there is no

way one can capture a moment in time, thus all we have to do is: hope for new

emotions.

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PRE-K NEWS

This month, the Pre-K class has been putting to-

gether an aquarium. We began by looking at books about fish and fish care. Next, we had to prepare the fish tank. The children helped us clean the sand and then arrange it with plants in the aquarium. They watched excitedly as we poured the water into the tank. We then voted for our fa-vorite fish to live in our aquarium. After the water was tested at a nearby pet store, we were ready to put the fish in the tank. The children are taking turns feeding the fish each day. We enjoy observing the fish (through magnify-ing glasses) as they adjust in their new home.

Every day in school, both 3 and 4 year old children participate in a time called “small group.” Here the chil-dren have an opportunity to work with one teacher in groups no larger than 8 children. This time always includes theme-based literature and related activities.

The three year olds are investigating “Winter.” They are reading books, singing songs and acting out finger plays about winter. They worked together to make a class snowman (out of paper). The children sorted clothes by “winter” and “summer” and then practiced putting on their own winter jacket and mittens or gloves and hat. The chil-dren also had a “snowball fight” using paper for snow and then tried to throw their snowballs into a hoop.

The four year olds are split into 2 groups. One group is currently investigating their “Five Senses.” From making their own “smelly book” to learning sign language to playing guessing games with instruments, the children are exploring their sense of touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. The other group is looking closely at “The Neighborhood.” Here they are looking at community help-ers such as people who work at the post office, the fire sta-tion and the police station. The children have the chance to write a letter to themselves and mail it from school.

A police officer will come to visit the school this month and talk about his job. Upcoming Events in February… Pink Day — day to be announced Mid-Year Progress Reports — delivered to families by February 6th Mid-Year Parent Teacher Conferences — the week of Feb-ruary 9th —Kimberly Murphy Pre-K Coordinator

News from Rome

(thank you to all contributors) • Cars must turn on their head-

lights on all main streets (e.g. raccordo annulare and highways) even in the daytime. Motorini must always have them on, everywhere and at all times.

• Starting January 2004, every 15 year old must get a driving license for the motorino - it is called 'patentino'. This applies to everyone who drives, not just to Italian citizens.

• January marks the end of the storni bird migra-tion through Rome. These migrating birds, which roost at Termini Railroad Station and EUR during the olive harvest, will soon fly to Tunisia in order to catch the next olive harvest. Meanwhile, enjoy their million-bird formations in the urban sky at dawn and dusk (and watch where you walk at Termini; it is especially slip-pery under the trees after a rain!).

Celebrate Roman Spring!

By Alessandra Giannetti, AOSR Parent Once per year it's good to have a party! To celebrate spring's arrival in Rome, and

mostly associated with the last days before the Chris-tian Lenten holiday, we fry frappe. My grandmother, Nonna Maria, taught me how to prepare frappe for six people like this: 500gr of flour, 100gr of sugar, 50gr of butter, 3 eggs, frying oil, few drops of beer, and a pinch of salt. You should place the flour, the eggs, the sugar, the butter in pieces, the salt, the drops of beer in the center of the big table and mix by kneading to obtain a consistent texture. Leave the mixture to stand for an hour. Roll out the mixture, cut in strips and fry. Powder with caster (confectioner’s) sugar and serve.

These are traditional pastries that are made, in almost an identical way, to traditional springtime pastries in other European countries. For example, in Spain, they are called orejas and in France, merveilles. I recently learned from Ms. King from Texas that on Mardi Gras in New Orleans they also make a cake, which originally was made for the king, and called gallette du roi. This year, “Fat Tuesday” (the day before Lent begins) falls on Febru-ary 24.

Auguri di primavera!

English is a Funny Language! In Scotland, a new game was invented. It was entitled “Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden” and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

14

It is Carnevale Time!

Each year (or rather, when Carnevale doesn't fall exactly in the middle of Ski Week), Mrs. Cioli and her first-year Italian students perform the Commedia dell'Arte, the classic Italian street theater, in Italian, as a Mardi Gras event at the school. During the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”), Mrs. Cioli chooses dialog from one of the 990 comedies (she never even considers the ten tragedies!) to be memorized by her Italian I class. These students then script their "improvisations." William Kelly, now in HS, remem-bers when he “played the kindergarten crowd” — to rave reviews (the little ones threw confetti). "Most of them spoke Italian, too --- and they still liked it!" Jordan Musselman said that even though he is not a "language guy," he still remembers his big line, "Sei Matto!" and has used it since then. Annie Neumann, who played the comedic maid, Columbina, a few years ago remembers she had a great cos-tume to wear around the school the day of the perform-ance. She was a little nervous when the class performed for the 8th grade but there was applause — and confetti — just the same as in the first-grade classroom. The Commedia gained its popularity in the Renais-sance in Venice as a reaction to the stiff drama that was in fashion during most of Medieval time. This body of work, which features characters such as Pucinello (the role model of the British "Punch" of "Punch and Judy"), and Arlec-chino (Harlequin) even today defines the costuming of Carnevale, or Mardi Gras, in Italy and especially in Venice. These three students are now in Mr. Hendry's Im-prov class. All think it is much easier to write — and per-form improvisation — in English.

Carnival in Europe

By Dario Marino AOSR Class of 2003

According to some, the term Carnevale means

literally ‘to take away meat,’ from the two Italian words “carne” and “levare.” This meatless period is associated with the forty days before Easter, the Christian Lent. Lent begins always on a Wednesday (since Easter is always on a Sunday) and the day before Lent is called “Fat Tuesday” or “Martedi Grasso” (Mardi Gras, for short). This is when Chris-tians ate their last “fat” meal, full of meat and sweets. This explains the old tradition of building a Lenten bonfire and burning all the herbs and wood used to cook the meat the evening of Mardi Gras, a tradition which is still in use today in some European countries.

In Mediterranean countries such as Italy and France, the tradition of Carnivale can be traced back to ancient pagan beliefs that gave birth to other simi-lar manifestations, such as the feasts of Dionysus, or the feast of Saturnalia and Lupercalia, which all happened in the late winter/early spring part of the year. In these festivals, masters became slaves and slaves, the masters. All wore masks and there was great revelry and drinking.

With the conversion of the Roman Empire to the Holy Roman Empire under Constantine in about 400 AD, these traditional feasts were lost for a time because paganism and its rituals were not accepted by Christian society.

In the Middle Ages, however, some celebra-tions, such as the Feast of the Donkey and of the Madman, emerged which closely resembled the pre-vious pagan festivals, and these were somehow tol-erated. Through the Renaissance and into the eight-eenth century, public masked festivals were ex-tremely popular and new figures and characters filled the streets with colorful masked parades. In this century, Paris hosted several masked balls for the Opera.

After a major decline that occurred in the past century, only a few European towns are still famous today for the great Carnevale celebrations, which are mostly characterized by colourful firecrackers, and puppets of made up popular characters. Venice and Viareggio, in Italy; and Nice, Bordeaux and few other towns in France still maintain a tradition of feasting and festivals in the days leading to Lent.

In the past centuries the popular celebration of Carnivale moulded together the different social classes, an event in which everyone could be what-ever they wanted to be, a feast that brought together and reflected the hopes and the dreams of the most different peoples. It is a good thing to be celebrated.

Andrea Stauffer, from Christian Brothers University in Mem-phis and worked with Mrs. Scimatore in Italian and in first grade under the supervision of Shelly Young. Jennifer Per-reault, Gina Feudi and Luke Juran came from the University of Northern Iowa. Jennifer has worked in the third grade un-der the supervision of Jane Rumsby; Gina worked with Rich-ard Rice in the P.E. program and Luke did his student teach-ing in Raleigh Werberger’s history class for one period and in the middle school for his second period under the supervision of Donnie Pirozzi. Courtney Lane who arrived from Boston College has taught secondary history under the tutelage of Alessandra Telmon. Katie Mortellaro from Minnesota State College has worked for one period with Donnie Pirozzi in the middle school and Raleigh Werberger in HS history for her second period. These students bring tremendous energy, enthusiasm and expertise to our children. They pay their own airfare, room and board to come to Rome to work in our school. They eagerly contribute their expertise during and after school.

(Continued from page 1) Dr. Dougherty: “Teaching New Teachers”….

15

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL NEWS

Workshop for AOSR ES Teachers

Dr. Kennith Mechling, an interna-tionally recognized science educa-tor, will give a workshop for AOSR ES teachers in February on how the scientific method (observation, measurement, inference, and test) can be used to teach all ES subjects, not just science.

Dr. Mechling is known for linking science and children’s literature, in addition to his work as a scien-tist. His hands-on method captivated the nine AOSR teachers who attended the Mediterranean Association of International Schools conference in Seville, Spain, in November last year.

Second Grade to visit Pigorini Museum

On February 24, the Ms. Ciuffreda and Ms. Rosso’s second grade classes will go to the Pigorini Museum at EUR where they will visit the Prehistoric section. This is part of their studies of Early Man. The museum has an extensive collection of prehistoric fos-sils, and exhibitions of early farming practices and metal smelting from all over Europe.

BOOK’ AUTHOR VISIT By Clem Ricci, ES Librarian

In December, the 4th and 5th graders were highly entertained by visiting author Caroline Lawrence who spoke about her books. She has written a popular series of mysteries for children that take place in An-cient Roman times. She told the audience about the research that she does before starting her stories, and filled them in on some very amusing facts about daily life in Ancient Rome. She was a very amusing and enlightening speaker. Maybe you noticed her walking across the quad that day. She was dressed in Roman garb! The children were enthralled by her talk, and so were the teachers. Salve!

Third Grade News By Jane Rumsby and Susan Prideaux,

Third Grade Teachers Unfortunately, bad things happen and we were all extremely shocked to hear that one of our third grade students lost both parents in a horrific car acci-dent. What was so touching and impressive is that not one day has passed by without a staff member or a student and family going to visit this student in hospi-tal. All his classmates in 3rd grade have written to him and he really loved those messages. One parent made an offer to pay school fees at AOSR, if there had been any economic problems. Another parent offered him a home, if he had needed one. The entire school’s cleaning, administration, cafeteria and grounds staff contributed to gifts so that he could have the feeling of being special to us. So many people drop by his class-room to ask for news of him. This is what being a community is about

“Rooted” in Second Grade Mrs. Ciuffreda’s second graders had a long-term home project related to their history studies.

We have been talking about Early Man, evolu-

tion, and ancestors. The children worked together with their families to make a Family Tree, write an autobiog-raphy (including photos), and a time line. They also brought in photocopies of their birth certificates and pass-ports.

Then each child produced a “Treasure Box” to share with everyone. Each box was full of personal, spe-cial items (i.e. the first tooth, the first curl, a pacifier, a Christening gown, a first pair of shoes) which the chil-dren were proud to show.

We presented these projects to different grades, and then to parents and grandparents on Friday, 23 Janu-ary. This was followed by a family tea party.

—Ms. Ciuffreda

2nd Grade Visited Teatro Don Bosco

Second grade students had a wonderful experience when they went to Teatro Don Bosco, 21 November. They saw their first "operetta" in Italian. They enjoyed magical moments of acting, singing, and ballet. The students were mesmerized by the swift changes in scenery and colorful costumes. "The Strange Illness of Mr. Birillo Tappo" was adapted and performed especially for children by the Mimma Testa Ballet Company. Our children behaved beautifully and were an appreciative audience. Thanks to Wendy’s mother, Cinzia Ciotti, for bringing the perform-ance to our attention! —- Margaret Ciuffreda and Tara Rosso

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MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS

The Sweetest Month Gummy candies, chocolate bars, and Valentine’s hearts are just a few of the many goodies that will be on sale in

Villa #11 the week of February 2. The MS STUCO is busy preparing bags for over 120 stu-dents. Don’t forget to stop in and buy your friends a special treat. These Valentine’s messages and sweets will be distributed on Friday, February 13.

MS Ski Trip is Snow-Bound! On Sunday, February 15, at 6:45 AM, all MS skiers should be in front of the school, ready for de-parture to the Bellunese Dolomites for AOSR Ski Week 2004! All students are allowed ONE luggage per person (not including skis, ski bags, and boots), and should have a packed lunch or snack for the 9-hour bus ride to the Ski Civitta area. Don’t forget your money for optional ski/ski boot rentals which should be E35-50 for the week and personal spending money (recommended: E5/day). By Friday, February 13, please bring any video tapes to school to the trip chaperones, if you would like to share them during our bus rides. Students will be with their ski instructor and/or AOSR chaperone at all times, and we will have each other’s cell phone numbers. I can be reached by mobile phone at 338/3664696. Should you care to contact anyone at the hotel, the best time is at break-fast (7:30 to 8:30 AM) or dinner (7:30-8:30 PM) at the Hotel Marmolada, Caprile (BN), 0437-721107.

Mr. Mancini MS Ski Trip Coordinator

STUCO NEWS The MS STUCO and their teachers will schedule numerous fun-filled events during the second se-mester which begins January 26. We have already scheduled a Valentine’s Candy Sale, the Ski Trip, Spirit Week, a Booster Bar, the 7th Grade Science Fair, the Spring Dance, Drama and Music produc-tions, Sports Day, the 7th and 8th grade Prom and more.

Ms. Santangelo STUCO Coordinator

The MS Science Fair is Coming!

The annual Seventh Grade Science Fair will be held sometime in April. While Mr. Ullman will have spe-cific ideas and suggestions for students next month, par-ents and students can develop a good sense of what’s in-volved with a science fair project from different internet links.

Your Science Fair Project Resource Guild, www.ipl.org/youth/projectguide, is a well-designed site and a good place to start looking for help for science pro-ject.

For an explanation of the scientific method, there is a short movie at www.brainpop.com/science/matter/scientificmethod/index.weml, and a comprehensive dis-c u s s i o n a t w w w . s c h o o l . d i s c o v e r y . c o m /scientificmethod.html.

There are sample projects done by seventh-grade students at www.edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/jtindell/sample.html.

Chem4Kids.com is a site devoted to chemistry; 18 elements are highlighted.

The site, www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/ScienceInternet/ChartsGraphs.html is very helpful in ex-plaining to students how to use charts and graphs to dis-play their findings.

(Thank you, Susan Haight, for the web research!)

Sports Before High School

By Doug Kneeland

AOSR students in elementary and middle schools learn to play many different sports in physical educa-tion classes. In addition, many sports are offered in the after-school-activities program and in summer sports camps.

In physical education classes, students learn ways to increase strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endur-ance and flexibility. They also learn how to play traditional sports such as basketball, soccer, volleyball and tennis, as well as sports such as lacrosse, yoga and ultimate Frisbee.

Middle school students can run with the high school cross country team, and the annual Middle School 3-on-3 basketball tournament runs for 6 weeks on Saturdays starting February 28. The annual Middle School Sports Day in the Spring gives every student the opportunity to compete on a team in sports such as volleyball and basketball, as well as fun games such as “water on the head” and tug-of-war.

For more information, contact Richard Rice, Carlyn Zaniboni, or Christine Hogan.

17

More Middle School News

MS Students Prepare for the Italian Exams

MS Italian students will be meeting once a month on a Saturday morning, beginning January 24, to prepare for the Italian State exams. The second session will be February 21, at 9 AM in the Villa. Official no-tice has been sent to all families.

MS 3 on 3 Basketball By Doug Kneeland

In America, the annual NCAA basketball tournament is known as March Madness. In Rome, March Madness is the annual Middle

School 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament. Starting the week after the winter break, every

Saturday morning girls and boys in the 6th - 8th grades play half-court basketball games in the AOSR gym. Co-ed teams are formed with up to six players on a team. Students from other schools are also welcome to play. Check the Spring After-School Activities Pro-gram for information about how to sign up.

This Month in 6th Grade By Katherine Berton

Uh-oh! Exams are coming up, and every-

body’s very nervous. Next week is going to be very tough, all the studying and such. Because we in the Sixth Grade have never taken midterm exams before! But, you have to put up with it sometimes. We are very busy in the sixth grade, as al-ways, and right now we are studying several different units. Take English, for example. In English with Mr. Mancini, we have started more writing, rather than grammar exercises. Creative thinking, I should say, is what Mr. Mancini likes to call it. In math, we are reviewing every unit we have done so far this year, like the Metric System and decimals and divid-ing with decimals. In computer class, we are con-structing a slide show on a city of our choice. And in geography, we are on the verge of breaking into units on India and China, but currently we are covering the whole world! In science, we are doing ‘the skin’ as a unit. In P.E., Coach Canter is substituting for Mr. Hall, and he does a good job, too. I’d like to say we are all having an easy time preparing for the exams, but you never know. I can’t speak for everyone…

ANTICS OF THE RESIDENT ZAPPOLOGIST

High school music teacher, Roy Zimmerman, had a special Thanksgiving holiday this year because he was invited by the University of Genoa to lead a seminar on one of his favorite musicians, Frank Zappa. Together with Guglielmo Bilancioni, Guido Zac-cagnini, and Pietro Gallina, Mr. Zimmerman spoke to a large and attentive audience, outlining the unique career and the aesthetic significance of Zappa’s work. In case you haven’t been paying attention, the resident Zappologist would like to remind you of the following facts: Zappa’s first LP was the first double album in the history of popular music It was also the first ‘concept album’, coherently structured rather than a sequence of unrelated songs. Zappa was the first musician to record with the “wah-wah” pedal on the guitar (and he immediately used it on woodwinds and keyboards as well). His group, the Mothers of Invention, was the first rock group to work with major symphony orchestras, both in concerts and on record. Zappa was the only popular musician ever to receive a commission from Pierre Boulez, the prince of avant-garde art music. Zappa was the only rock musician to be ap-pointed to a prestigious government position, when he was made a cultural attaché for the Czech Republic by president Vaclav Havel. Zappa loudly proclaimed abhorrence of drug use and provided a positive model for popular musicians and young people. His favorite quote: “The present-day composer refuses to die.” Spoken by Edgard Varese, French Com-poser, who was Zappa’s hero from the age of 14.

rams remain at the highest levels The one time capital assessment that all current parents have already paid helps cover our major capital projects such as building improvements This fee will likely increase for new families in 2004 to help us con-tinue to improve our facilities without adding an addi-tional burden to families who have been in our school for several years. Finally, the Trustees and Administration will continue to exercise diligence, and to manage costs to assure that income from tuition and fees is spent on fa-cilities, activities and programs that ensure the quality of your children’s academic experience at AOSR.

(Continued from page 1) Zacaroli: Setting Tuition Policy…

18

HIGH SCHOOL NEWS

MUN Class to The Haig January 24-31 by Kholoud Al-Hajri, '04

I am extremely happy to be this year's ambassador of the AOSR’s 15-member delegation to the Model United Na-tions conference which begins Saturday, January 24 in The Hague, Netherlands. With Ms. Sandra Cozzi and Mr. Ray Ross as our chaperones, we will be gone for one week. We will be with 3,800 other students and teachers from more than 200 schools who come from over 90 coun-tries far away as Iceland and New Zealand, Peru and Russia. All the activities are carried out in English on an informal as well as on a formal level and a high standard is demanded in the formulation of ideas, whether in the writing of resolu-tions, lobbying, or in debating with fellow students.

This past semester our class work has focused on causes of conflict between nations and we have been trying to understand the interests and motivation of countries other than Senegal. Human rights, protection of the environment, economic development, disarmament, the problems of youth and of refugees, as well as the more critical issues of war and peace, are problems that we have identified and will try to seek solutions through discussion, negotiation and debate, at this convention.

We have learned a lot from our research, and have, in some cases, adopted views and attitudes other than our own in order to represent Senegal. We have also identified reasons for narrow, national self-interest, and we have identified areas which would benefit from international cooperation for Sene-gal. Now we just have to convince the delegations from the other countries! For those who are interested in the UN (and the works of the UN ("to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors"), I suggest that you join MUN next year, because this class is for you. I did it last year as a normal delegate and I had to take it again this year because I loved it so much. The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental educational foundation associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information. The MUN Foundation organizes two conferences; a five-day simulation of the United Nations for secondary school students (in which AOSR will participate), and the Youth Assembly, a five-day conference for young individuals between the ages of 16 and 25 to develop and produce Action Papers on a variety of issues. Both conferences take place annually at the end of January in the Nether-lands Congress Centre (Nederlands Congrescentrum) in The Hague.

National Honor Society Believes Education is the Best Way to Help

by Hannah Ceen and Annie Kelly, ‘04

In February, the National Honor Society will be accepting nominations for the 2004-2005 school year. The nominees applications will then be reviewed by a teacher nomination board and the new NHS members will be an-nounced in April. Students must have a 3.2 GPA for the first semester, which ends on January 23.

NHS was created for schools that are usually

within a tightly-knit community but our families are scattered all over Rome. Our school community comes together only at school, so NHS helps out mostly at the after-hours school events. We try to set a good exam-ple to other students. Every NHS member is encour-aged to have part in extracurricular activities such as yearbook and newspaper, Santa at Christmas for ES kids and by setting up games and sports tournaments for the little kids at the school picnics.

We are also concerned about our world com-munity. If that is not preserved and improved, then the smaller communities we are all part of will fall apart. Although we are a small group, we try to help as best we can, especially when it comes to education. In years past, NHS has sent money to India that went to building a school and supplying text books. We have given money to non-governmental and international relief organization to help fund food programs.

This year we have decided to financially adopt a child and fund his education until he finishes school. This is actually the first long-term commitment the NHS at our school has made for quite a few years now. The NHS at AOSR will maintain this relationship, with monthly letters and a monthly stipend, until the end of his/her education.

HS Ski Trip

The HS Ski Trip to the ski area of Civetta, between Marmolata and Cortina D’Ampezzo, is a definite “go”! The small group of HS students will stay in the town of Zoldo during Ski Week, Febru-ary 15-21, and will be accompanied by HS teach-ers. Further information will be sent home the week of January 26.

Tutoring Help Available Tutoring help in Physics, Chemistry and Math is available to any high school student at no charge on Mon-day and Fridays, 3:30 to 5 PM, with Mr. Joe Miller in Room 9 of the high school. Students need to sign-up with Dr. Bree or Mr. Miller. Since this is a supervised activity, students who are signed up in these tutorials may ride the after-school buses home.

19

News from the Counselor Donna Ross

Our CONGRATULATIONS go to the following sen-iors for their acceptance to college/university: Luca Candelori — University of Bath; University of Bristol; University College London; Imperial College London, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology Ian Haight — Bowdoin College Chrissie Skodon —University of Chicago Annalisa Kelly — Tulane University PSAT RESULTS: PSAT test booklets and Score Re-ports will be distributed to tenth and eleventh graders the week of February 2. It is extremely important for students to review the Score Report which shows the correct answer and the student’s answers to the ques-tions. Reviewing the material will enable students to better understand the test – verbal, math problem-solving and writing skills. Remember standardized testing is only one part of the college admission proc-ess. The student’s daily academic achievement in the classroom is the most important. However, if both test-ing and academic achievement are strong, students have more options; therefore AOSR will again be offer-ing a SAT prep program for second semester. SAT PREP: Students who are interested in taking the SAT Prep class should contact me by Friday, February 6th. This class will be preparing for the May 1st SAT 1. TESTING: During second semester, juniors will be taking several tests. If you are applying to US, UK or Canadian universities, I recommend the SAT I in May and the SAT II (if appropriate) in June. ACT can be taken in February or June.

SAT I and II TEST DATE REGISTRATION DATE May 1 March 25 June 5 April 29 Registration for SAT is at www.collegeboard.com. Regis-tration and practice booklets for the tests are also available in my office. Some tenth graders should take the SAT 11 in June. Please see me if you have questions.

ACT TEST DATE REGISTRATION DEADLINE Feb. 7 Register with Mrs. Ross by Feb. 2 June 12 Register with Mrs. Ross by May 21 Be sure to register for the ACT with Mrs. Ross; do not send registrations to the USA. Space is limited so register early. PARENTS OF JUNIORS: During second semester I will have an evening presentation to discuss the college admis-sion process. Then I would like to meet with you and your son/daughter individually to discuss specific plans. The National Survey of Student Engagement Institute in conjunction with the Pew Forum on Undergraduate Learn-ing and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recently released some interesting findings re-garding student engagement in US colleges/universities. They state that students who “experience diversity” report higher levels of engagement; they are more involved in ac-tive learning and personal growth. “International students are more engaged overall than American students.” This survey also pointed out that students who investigated col-lege and “matched their interests to an institution were more satisfied with their college experience.”

Did you Know???....

• Coca-Cola was originally green.

• ***It is impossible to lick your elbow.***

• The State with the highest % of people who walk to work: Alaska

• The youngest pope was 11 years old.

• The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

• Each king in a deck of cards represents a great king from history: Spades- King David, Hearts- Charlemagne, Clubs-Alexander, the Great Diamonds- Julius Caesar ~~~~~~~~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~ At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow!

20

Sports Briefs With Doug Kneeland

AOSR OPENS ITS SPORTS FACILITIES TO ADULT

PLAY

The adult sports events available at school this year are: Monday at 19.00 volleyball Tuesday at 15.30 soccer Tuesday at 19.00 basketball No charge, no sign-up, just please bring your parent ID to show at the front gate.

FALL/WINTER SPORTS SCHEDULES

BASKETBALL 2/6-7 vs. Milan at Home 2/12-14 Mediteranean Championships at Aviano 2/19-21 European Championships TBD

WRESTLING 1/31 vs. Aviano, Sigonella, Vicenza and Naples at Aviano 2/7 Mediterranean Championships at Naples 2/13-14 European Championships TBD

AOSR Sweeps Royals The Falcon girls and boys basketball teams swept all four games against Marymount in the first meeting this year of the cross-town rivals on January 14. The girls’ junior varsity started things off with a convincing win, followed by a close win by the girls varsity. The Falcon girls built up a big lead, then held on at the end as the Royals rallied to get within ten points. The Falcon boys had little trouble against the under-manned Royals. Following an easy win by the junior varsity, the varsity boys started slowly but poured it on in the second quarter to lead by 30 points at the half. The game was called in the 3rd quarter ac-cording to the "mercy rule" when the Falcons opened up a 40-point lead to win the game 52 - 11. Ten dif-ferent players scored for AOSR. Despite the blow-out, Marymount put up a good fight, considering they have only 8 varsity players who are mostly un-der-classmen.

Winners and Losers?

In the world of sports, there are winners and losers. But sometimes the players on the losing team may in fact be the real winners. This is especially true when one team has a clear advantage over the other in terms of size and talent, yet the underdogs compete with such courage and determination that the final score does not indicate which team really “won” the game.

This was evident in the first week of high school basketball competition following the winter holidays. First, Marymount came to AOSR with a team full of freshmen and only 8 varsity players. They played with courage before being wiped out by the Fal-cons. Coach Phil Davis showed his usual class by playing every boy on the AOSR roster before the game was ended by the “mercy rule.”

I suspect that many of the Falcon fans felt the same as I did. I was happy that we won, but the Mary-mount kids had played with heart and I thought they were also winners.

Two days later, the families of many of the AOSR high school players ventured down the auto-strada into the den of the Naples Wildcats, one of Europe’s largest high schools and strongest sports pro-grams. Naples has an awesome boys basketball team that played the game “above the rim.” Before the game, the Naples players acted like the games would be a walk in the park.

But a funny thing happened. Despite being slowed down by injuries and reduced practice time just before finals, the Falcons hustled and dove for loose balls and hustled some more and kept stealing the ball, and suddenly the score at half-time was 32-31. The game remained close until the final minutes, when the Falcons ran out of gas and Naples took advantage of their tremendous height advantage to dominate the boards and eventually win the game 75 – 53. But there were no losers in that game.

The young AOSR boys junior varsity contin-ued to improve, playing two close games. The Falcon girls traveled with only 8 players and ended the week-end with barely enough healthy girls to make a varsity team. But they played with determination and they never gave up. Shame on Naples’ coach for continuing to use a full-court press and play his first string after building up a lead of more than 30 points. The Falcons girls lost on the scoreboard, but they came away win-ners.

21

Sports Briefs (Continued)

Grappling Issues by Tom Finerty

As a first time wrestling observer, I must say

that I was very impressed with the tournament held this past Saturday at AOSR, pitting the Falcons against Naples, Vicenzo, Sigonella and Aviano. Over 100 athetes in all competed!

Though each of these matches are individ-ual....mano-a-mano.....there is a terrific palpable sense of camaraderie, as fellow teammates and coaches urge on their competitors. The matches themselves are comprised of three, two- minute peri-ods (unless one of the combatants is pinned which ends the match).

It's great too, that the athletes are always within six pounds of one another weight-wise, so that in most cases, wrestling knowledge wins out over simple strength and speed. Tyler Carner, the assistant coach of the Falcons, shared with me that even Mi-chael Jordan, matched up against a seasoned wrestler his own size with skill, would be defeated every time. In this way, the sport becomes somewhat cerebral and chess-like.

These are no easy matches. In the six min-utes of a match, each wrestler taxes all of his/her muscle groups, somewhat like isometric exercises. Think of trying to push a boulder up a hill, only the

boulder is a moving target AND actively resistant. Three wrestlers represented AOSR on Sat-

urday. Ry Finerty, Michael Showalter and Marco Sperti (Teammate Simon Yi was sidelined with a twisted leg injury). Team managers Yalier Alejan-dro and Trilli Gregg did a full day's work at the timing table.

All had their work cut out for them. The other schools have a much bigger student body pool to pull talent from and the Falcons did not come out on top this time. I was impressed, though, that Falcon Coach Joseph Ianuzzi has trained his athletes to appreciate their individual progress and understand that the skills don't come overnight. Thus, a defeat is not seen as a let down per se, but a learning opportunity.

Each athlete on Saturday participated in four to five matches. To say that they were ex-hausted would be an understatement. Speaking of tired, the referees did an outstanding job working straight from 10:30 AM till 4:30 PM with only 15 minutes off. They deserve our thanks and gratitude.

I would encourage everyone with an AOSR student (girls too!) looking for a great team/individual sport, to consider wrestling. Now, I just need to convince Dr. Dougherty to install Lazy Boy recliners in the bleachers and perhaps just a little bit stronger exhaust fan.

Freshman Michael Showalter faces-off against Naples op-ponent, Josh Teeples, in the third of five matches on Satur-day, January 18, at AOSR.

22

NOTES FROM THE FIELD

If I kept a memory scrapbook, I think it would probably be quite full up to this time in my life. I know of one thing that would definitely be in it: my dragon lantern. This lantern has had to be packed up and shipped twice. It is torn and broken. Yet I still keep it and have had it in my room for the past seven years. Although this is not the most meaningful thing I pos-sess, my lantern reminds me of one of the most beauti-ful sites I’ve seen. I lived in Singapore for three and a half years. Every year thousands in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia celebrate the moon festival. Each year my family and I celebrated by eating the moon cakes which are molded into various shapes and filled with lotus paste. In my opinion, these don’t exactly have the most deli-cious taste, but flavor does grow on you. During the last moon festival that we were in Singapore, however, I asked my parents if I could par-ticipate in the celebrations like all the other kids did. My parents took my sister and me to a neighborhood of Singapore that has not been very westernized. There, we searched around for the perfect lanterns, going to tons of different shops. I finally found mine. It was an orange cellophane dragon with a wire skeleton. It has silver glitter spots on its body, and big, round blue eyes. Its horns are made of pink cellophane and its beard is blue cellophane with a green fringe goatee. My dragon was the best lantern I could find. On the festival day, my parents took us down to the Chinese-Japanese Gardens. These are filled with floral decorations native to those two countries, being divided into two separate sections. This place is really beautiful with all the flowers, trees, and ponds. The Japanese one even has a huge pagoda which I used to love to climb to the top of and look out over the gar-dens. Once the sun went down and the moon came up, I put a burning candle in my dragon’s belly. Ex-tended from a stick, I carried him as I walked around gardens. A multitude of other children were doing the same. It was very quiet and the gardens were filled with these bobbing lights that had glowing soft colors from the different cellophanes. This sight was incredi-bly beautiful. I’ve remembered it all this time, walking with my lantern and seeing all those lights. I’ve never celebrated a moon festival again, but I’ve kept my dragon. Even though his belly is torn on both sides and his goatee is falling off, I won’t get rid of him.

MEMORIES OF THE MOON FESTIVAL

By Christine Skodon, Grade 12 CHINESE NEW

YEAR By Serena Zhang, Grade 8

This year (2004) the Chinese New Year is on the 21st of January. This is the year of the Monkey. On this day in China, everyone celebrates the New Year in many different ways. • Going to the restaurant • Staying at home with the family • Going out, parties or other nice things. In Italy, like other places of the world there are several China towns in different cities of Italy, such as Rome, Milan or Florence. They can't do the same things that the Chinese people in China do, but they still go out, in restaurants, meet with family and friends. In China they get fireworks and they ex-change presents and another thing that is very popular is when old people or at least people that are not kids anymore, they give to each child of the family a little red packet with money inside, like 100 to 500 yuan. Everyone gets dressed up very nicely, specially using the red (for women) color be-cause it represents happiness.

Did You Know ??? ...if a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. …if the horse has one front leg in the air, it means that the per-son died as a result of wounds re-ceived in battle. ...if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

23

Rome ‘n’About

Rome, the center of ancient time, is also the cen-ter of Catholicism with over 180 churches. We do not have to be historians or very religious people to under-stand how fortunate we are to live in this city and having the opportunity to ‘conquer’ it.

A real Roman would say to you that it takes a

lifetime to see all of the magnificence of our city -- and more time to understand all of it! -- but from my own experience, having studied history of art and having lived here for some time, it is valuable to just ‘dive’ into its beauty and stroll around with open eyes.

Being a mother and housewife, my sightseeing

time is limited, but I would like to recommend a site worth seeing, which does not take a lot of time and does not need a whole lot of ‘study’ to be able to understand, even today, the magnificence of ancient Rome.

Spas (or “Baths”) were important social meeting

points in ancient Roman times. All social classes could use them. The entrance fees were low and it was the pride of each of the great emperors to build them even bigger and with more efficiency. The main part of the spa served Romans as a meeting point to exchange gossip, and to have conversation while walking around. Some-times the Baths were meant to be the place where people meet to be distracted and satisfied (“Panem et Circenses”)…

Each of the Roman spas had the same pattern of

construction: bathrooms, shops, fitness centre, stadium, libraries and big reading rooms. The center of the spa always had a big garden for the gym. Men and women entered into the changing rooms, and then continued to the ‘turkish bath’, and then to the vapour baths, where they rubbed themselves with different oils and essences to stimulate sweat and relaxation. They could choose be-tween the vapour baths and many other rooms with luke-warm water. In the middle of all those ‘bathtubs’ was the big room for the baths with cold water. Men and women did those baths with a different time schedule.

Our first walk leads you to the Spa of Dio-

cleziano at Piazza Repubblica, a space of 14 hectares of land built for more than 3000 people. It is the biggest spa in Rome. This is a place where we can imagine how big and enormous antique Rome was: how big this simple meeting place, a public bath, needed to be!

Outside of the entrance corresponds with where the bath rooms of warm water of the spa (“Calidarium”) were located. When you enter the church you can see the size and feel the unique mag-nificence. What you now see at the entrance and what you walk on was formerly the lukewarm baths (“Tepidarium”).

On the ruins of this enormous spa, we can

see the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. In 1561, Michelangelo transformed these old ruins into a church. Entering in this church lets you feel deep emotions, maybe more than in any other place here in Rome.

The main part of the old spa is now the main

part of the church, as built by Michelangelo. Even though Michelangelo raised the original floor by two meters, the church remains at 28 metres of height anyway! The roof is carried by 8 gigantic columns of red granite, all in one piece, which he "recycled" from ancient times.

If you continue walking through the church

you can see some changes to the original structure of Michelangelo’s church. All the magnificent work in the inner part of the church dates back to the 18th century, when Luigi Vanvitelli opened the walls of the ancient spa’s‘ Frigidarium’ to lengthen the church by incorporating the area of a former outdoor swim-ming pool.

A thing worth seeing is a sundial. There is a

small hole in the roof, from which sunlight comes in at noon and you can see the time, the month, and the signs of the zodiac on the floor of the main apse.

The part described here is only a small part

of the ancient spa of Diocleziano; the rest is not that important, but you can find fragments of it around and behind of today’s church up to the zone of Stazi-one Termini. Today the church belongs to the Italian state and houses the tombs of Italian heroes of the First World War. Could we compare this spa of an-cient Rome with the huge ‘shopping malls’ of today? Maybe…

But what will remain of OUR malls in 2000

years…?

Baths of Dioclesian and Santa Maria Dei Angeli — Two Monuments in One!

By Sabine Neumann-Heider and Nicola Voci

24

Bon Appetito ! with Sue Berton

Perhaps you have noticed that this food column has a new name: Bon Appetito. After many inquiries, our esteemed editor and I were unable to figure out where the previous title, Good Eats and Caffe, came from. We felt it was time for a change, and after tossing around a few ideas, we decided on something with an Italian flair. Please continue to look for us each month under the new name, in our wonderful Falcon Flyer publication. I was so pleased to receive a recipe from one of my favorite teachers here at AOSR. Okay, I may be a bit partial because she did teach my son last year, but I am sure you will agree that she is warm hearted, always cheerful and loves chil-dren. With that in mind, she sent the following recipe from a restaurant that she visited not long ago. Thanks a million, Jane Rumsby!

Pasta Alla SPQR This was a dish found at the “Archetto” spaghetti joint near the Quirinale. The chef wouldn’t share his secret but we think we cracked it. 6 red onions 100g butter 125ml fresh cream 1 heaped tablespoon of dill (you can use oregano) Freshly ground black pepper Healthy pinch of salt 1 Tablespoon of olive oil Freshly grated Parmesan or grana 600g of spaghetti (you should use spaghetti but recipe tastes just as good with shorter pasta too) Gently sauté the onions in the butter until translucent. Blend them until a creamy pu-ree is obtained. Add the cream, dill, salt and black pepper. As soon as the pasta is cooked and drained well, add the olive oil and stir. Next add the pureed onion mix-ture. Add grated Parmesan to taste. Serves 6.

Now, here we are starting out the New Year and no doubt some of you are thinking this is the time to start eating healthier and exercising more. While I can’t help you with your exercise dilemma, I can offer you a tasty, healthy, low-fat pasta recipe that I think you will enjoy. This one came from the In The Kitchen With Rosie cook-book (one of Oprah’s former personal chefs). It calls for spinach and semolina angel hair pastas, which seem to be a bit sturdier than the plain wheat flour variety. 1 tsp olive oil 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced ½ cup dry white wine ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 cup chopped tomato (1 medium) 4 ounces spinach angel hair pasta 4 ounces semolina angel hair pasta ¼ cup fresh basil 2 Tbls freshly grated Parmesan Salt and pepper to taste Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and maintain a boil. Put the olive oil and garlic in a sauté pan and cook over medium heat just until the garlic be-gins to brown. Remove the sauté pan from the heat and pour in the wine. Return it to the heat. Cook for another 1 to 2 minutes, until the wine has been reduced by half. Stir in the lemon juice and tomato. Remove the pan from the heat. Place the pasta in the boiling water and cook to desired doneness, 30 seconds to 1 minute (only!). Drain the pasta and put it into a warm serving bowl. Add the basil, Parmesan cheese and black pepper, along with the tomato mix-ture. Toss and Serve immediately. Serves 4. Finally, for next month’s article I am looking for some international recipe ideas. If you have any Indian, middle Eastern or Asian recipes you would like to share, please send them to me at: thebertons@hotmail.com .

25

AOSR parents Dottoressa Lorinecz and Dottore Karpel are pediatric dentists with an office on Via Cassia (no. 515). They are new to Rome and have generous hours. They can be reached at 06-335-0522. Tutoring available: by quali-fied Canadian teacher with 15 years experience, living close to the school. Doris Firmin can tutor most subjects but specializes in language (French/English) and all mid-junior level Science and Math. If interested call her at 340-682-8494 or 338-682-8494. Baby sitter is needed for a Pre-K girl on Monday through Fri-day 15:20 -19:30, next to the school. If interested, please contact Mrs. Elena Sposito at 333-402-1157 or 06-3031-1933. An American Internist, Dr. Susan Levenstein, has moved her office with a group of mul-tilingual colleagues to a new location. Circus Maximus: Aventino Medical Group Via della Fonte di Fauno 22 00153 Rome, Italy Telephone + fax: 3906 578-0738 Many household items for sale: desks, dining tables, bunk beds, single beds, trundle bed, wardrobes (various sizes) bookcases. Reasonable prices. Contact Barbara Faidley at 06-5236-1348 or L.Faidley@agora.it

Et tu, Sherlock? By Lisa Finerty, AOSR Parent

It's always fun to match wits with a good detective, be it Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Nero Wolfe, or Sir Peter Mayle. And who doesn't like the great episodic crime shows, like Law and Order, CSI, or NYPD Blue? When you find a mystery series where the characters evolve believably from one book to the other, given the tugs and pulls on their lives, you have the best of both worlds. And, if it is non-fiction, well, you can even read it during daylight hours without feeling guilty! It is just so in Steven Saylor's fantastic series of historical (real-life!) mysteries, where one is magically transported to the last days of Republican Rome. There, fictional character Gordianus, (“The Finder”) sleuths actual crimes that helped shape Roman history -- and which, of course, is now our historical legacy! This eight-part series begins in 82 BC, and ends (so far at least) in 48 BC, a year after Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon River to ultimately engage Pompei in battle for the "crown of laurels." Although each book is a stand-alone mystery, the series is internally consistent, and the fictional developments in one story are referred to in another--- much like a good episodic TV show. And besides the great history review, Gordianus is a family man (unlike most other literary sleuths) so we get to grow up with his family. Historian Saylor uses the transcripts of Cicero and other au-thors, as well as primary source documents, as he wrote the Roma Sub-Rosa stories. Reviews by other historians have been admiring, and the literary reviews glowing. This series is actually used by some Italian high schools in their language studies. As much as he loves history, Saylor says that the REAL inspiration for his life's work came from watching drive-in movies in his youth of Spartacus, Cleo-patra, and Ben Hur! Republican Rome is described as a place where the desire for more power by the already powerful creates murder and other may-hem. I started by reading A Murder on the Appian Way (set in 52 BC), where Clodius is murdered and his arch-enemy, Milo, is ac-cused. In Roman Blood (80 BC), the young Cicero takes his first case which involves the land-grabbing Sulla the Dictator. Arms of Nemesis (72 BC), happens during the time of the Spartacus slave re-volt. In 63 BC, the events of Catalina’s Riddle, unfold when Cicero first becomes a consul. In The Venus Throw (56 BC), Egypt's King Ptolomy seeks to keep his kingdom independent of Roman rule. Last Seen in Massilia (49 BC), is set on the battlefield of Marseilles. Rubi-con (48 BC), is the story of the first few months of the Roman Civil War. The Vestal Virgins are the topic in A Mist of Prophecies (48 BC). Gordianus painstakingly solves these intricate webs of revenge, deceit, betrayals, and jealousy, and still manages to remain a-political in the fractious, partisan political landscape. Readers can follow the action of each installment by refer-encing the map at the beginning of the book. Although Saylor now lives in Austin, TX, there were several Saylors who went to OSR (as our school was called) in the 1960's and 1970's, so he may even be an alumnus (the school's yearbooks were NOT as well organized then as now)! I have found many of these books at the Economy Bookstore on Via Torino and at Feltrinelli International on Via Orlando. There may even be some in the Book Basket at the Gala Ball. Enjoy!

Il Foro