The Tides

“Midnights”: A Music Review

Posted on March 28, 2023 by bbesthetides 2 comments

By Kayleigh Cook

Taylor Swift recently released her tenth studio album, Midnights, on October 21. She announced the album on August 28 during her acceptance speech for “Video of the Year” at the 2022 VMAS. These songs have exceeded the expectations of most and they even took up the top 13 spots on the Billboard Hot 100. Behind each masterpiece of a song, there is a genius set of lyrics revolving around different sleepless nights throughout the songwriter’s life. Many people have attempted to decode the song’s cryptic lyrics and figure out the bigger meaning behind them. In this article, I will share with you my interpretation of each song.

The Last of Us: Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on March 27, 2023 by bbesthetides One comment

By Max Gast

On January 15, 2023, one of the most anticipated media adaptations of any video game ever came out. The Last of Us, based on the award-winning video game and its sequel, aired on HBO Max. It’s been the most talked-about show of the year so far.

The original Last of Us was a Playstation-exclusive video game released on June 14, 2013, to rave reviews, including a 9.7/10 on IMDb, which makes it third place in the video games section on the site. It eventually became a best-seller and since has been declared one of the greatest video games to ever be released.

The show was a smash hit with 4.7 million viewers watching the pilot, and 8.2 million watching the ending. Along with that, the game has been having a healthy resurgence.

Cheerleaders Fly High

Posted on February 23, 2023 by bbesthetides 2 comments

By Molly Flynn

Have you ever seen high-flying, confident BBES cheerleaders? This year’s cheer team was super-duper fun and engaging. In my opinion, halftime was the most entertaining and exceptional part. In this article, I will do a Q&A with some captains, newcomers, and coaches. But first, let me give you some information on what the cheer team is about and who’s in it.

M&M’s: Marketing Stunt or Killing the Brand?

Posted on February 21, 2023 by bbesthetides Leave a comment

By Zamantha Muñoz-Morales

If there’s one candy that has made a name for itself over the years, it would be M&M’s. These chocolates aren’t really anything special since they’re just candy-coated milk chocolate circles. The real gold, and probably what makes the candies sell, are the mascots. That’s right! The famous walking and talking M&M’s candies that you’ll most likely see on television ads. Many people have seen these mascots. However, at the end of 2022, things started to go downhill, and only downhill. There was so much controversy regarding the changes made to the M&M’s mascots that it led to an indefinite pause from the spokescandies. Should we not expect to see them anytime soon or if this is just a marketing stunt? Before we can answer, let’s start at the beginning.

Spotlight on Mr. Heidelberg

Posted on January 23, 2023 by bbesthetides 2 comments

By Max Gast

Our new superintendent and principal, Mr. Michael Heidelberg, used to be a swim instructor, and he found that he really liked to teach kids. When his friend informed him about a fifth-grade teaching position opening up in Perth Amboy, he became a fifth-grade teacher and has been moving up ever since.

In the past 20 years, Mr. Heidelberg has not only served as a fifth-grade teacher, but also a seventh- and eighth-grade English teacher, a high school English teacher, a technology coordinator, a middle school vice principal, a middle school principal, a director of curriculum and instruction, and a high school principal.

Student Council News

Posted on January 19, 2023 by bbesthetides 2 comments

A report by the Student Council president, Jalil Bessellieu

What a year the student council has had so far! From board meetings to spirit weeks, the Student Council has been hard at work. The year started with elections of new representatives for each 5th to 8th-grade class as of October 19, 2022.

We had some very challenging opponents like Kayleigh Cook, Aidan Murphy, Calvin Barratt, and Krystal Juarez Guzman. We each gave a campaign speech explaining why we were the best pick. We had the opportunity to set up posters in the hallways for encouragement. Overall it was a fun competition.

What I Need is Recess!

Posted on January 13, 2023 by bbesthetides One comment

Opinion

By Leah Twerell

When I started school this year, I was so excited to have recess with my friends to play volleyball, foursquare, and freeze tag. But then I got the announcement that middle schoolers would not have recess! Instead, we have WIN, which stands for “What I Need.”

But what I need is recess!

Not only is recess fun, it is also good for us. According to the CDC, the nation’s health protection agency, recess is part of a healthy lifestyle for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Supervised physical activity improves our memory, attention, and concentration; helps us stay on-task in the classroom; reduces disruptive behavior in the classroom; and improves our social and emotional development, for example, learning how to share and negotiate. In New Jersey, there is a law requiring at least 20 minutes of recess a day for students in grades K to 5. I’m not sure why it stops at fifth grade.

Is Green-and-Gold Gone?

Posted on January 13, 2023 by bbesthetides One comment

By Lillian McClaren

Are the Bradley Beach Elementary School colors — green and gold — changing to blue and white? A lot of people have been asking. Well, here are some perspectives from three top people who know:

Liza Flynn, school board member

I know there has been a lot of confusion about the school colors. I am wearing the blue BBES shirt as I am writing this. Historically BBES has used green and gold as its colors. We are called The Breakers like the wave, but waves are blue and white. As for right now, we will be changing everything except for the athletic uniforms to the color blue. The reason that the sports teams are staying green and gold is because it would be very expensive to buy new uniforms all at once. We would also have to pay to have the entire gym repainted. To answer your question, green and gold is here to stay … for athletics, at least, for now.”

Morgan Maclearie-Gonzalez, director of curriculum and instruction:

“Not 100% there. The website reflects the colors in our logo! Do you like them?”

(What I said was, “Yes they look great!”)

Alison Zylinski, supervisor of special services:

“Good question!! I do not think there has been a direct statement indicating our colors are changing, but our adoption of our blue-colored BBES logo was probably the start of the ‘wave’ of changing our colors. Pun intended. Although, to fully change the school colors requires many resources, such as money and time, as our whole gym is gold & green and sports uniforms are gold & green. Our new colors would be light blue/blue/white if the change is made officially. Right now I like to think we are honoring both color patterns. Hope this helps!”

So you heard it here: green and gold are here to stay, along with blue and white, (for now).

Rapid Recap: The Year of Sonic

Posted on January 13, 2023 by bbesthetides Leave a comment

By Zamantha Muñoz-Morales

Rolling around at the speed of sound since 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog is without a doubt one of gaming’s most remarkable and beloved icons. The year was definitely his best year to date! Sega and Sonic Team made sure to touch every form of media possible! We got a movie, two new games, and tv shows, just to name a few. Now that he is closing his 31st year, I think we should take a look back on one of the biggest years for the blue blur and what it brought.

Starting off 2022 was the long-awaited sequel to the first Sonic movie. When Sonic the Hedgehog 2 finally made its debut in theaters on April 8, fans were impressed. The story’s main focus is around a century-long beef between Sonic and the Knuckles’ ancestors, along with Sonic’s maturity improving, and the two-hour-long journey to find the master emerald. The movie once again broke the records for the number one video game movie in the United States! It wasn’t long until Paramount announced that the third film in the franchise is in development and set to release in December of 2024 as well as a solo Knuckles spinoff show coming to Paramount Plus in 2023. Only Sonic the Hedgehog could pull off greatness like that, and his greatness continues throughout the year!

Soaked: a Short Story

Posted on December 15, 2022 by bbesthetides Leave a comment

By Milo Fakir

Man, I can’t wait to bite into a juicy chicken wing! thought Alex.

He was standing at the marble counter in the kitchen, filling up his glass. But he was not paying attention, and it overflowed. He went to take a sip as he was walking to the living room when, all of a sudden, the glass began to glide out of his slippery hands.

“Darn!” muffled Alex. He dropped the glass, and it broke. The water spilled everywhere. He was red in the face. “Well, at least I am going to the hockey game today with my cousins.”

Alex loves sports. He is a very athletic kid, and he loves recess the most. He never wants to miss out on something to do with sports. Alex is 12 years old and is a tall sixth grader.

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