Students were dramatic
By Tyler Martin
On Feb. 3, Crestview Elementary put on its drama club production of, “Witches, Britches, Rings, And Things”, directed by Jeanette Timko. About 25 kids from Crestview were chosen at tryouts to be in the play this year. Timko said, “The kids put in about over 100 hours of preparation time.”
Much help was needed to prepare for the show. The crew was very busy producing the set, memorizing their lines, and practicing for the two shows for the school, and one to parents, family, and the public.
The drama club got many standing ovations because of the great job they did. Everyone was also very excited for the after party for the cast, and all who came. The party included cupcakes, cookies, juice, and punch.
Timko gave special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Boehm for the cardboard to produce the set, Mrs. Pickens for organizing the after party, and Mrs. Florek for her excellent work with the set crew. Overall, Crestview had a prety good day.
Cool club at Hickory Ridge
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You might think its scary riding down the ski slopes for the first time. For the Hickory Ridge Ski Club, however, it’s a piece of cake.
This is the second year Hickory Ridge has had a ski club. Students in the third, fourth, and fifth grades are allowed to participate. They meet every Thursday if there’s snow on the ground, of course! They travel to Brandywine by car pool.
The Ski Club advisors are Brian Lemmer and Heidi Pfaum.
“Ms. Pflaum and I do this club because we love staying active during the winter months,” said Lemmer. “We enjoy skiing and snowboarding.”
“The kids learn a great deal by participating in Ski Club,” Lemmer explained. “I think the most important thing they learn is that it can be fun doing something they probably have never done before. Most of our kids are snowboarders, with a few skiers as well. They also learn balance, cooperation, and trust.”
It must be very hard at first to not fall down while skiing or snowboarding. But, Mr. Lemmer says that every person handles it differently.
“Learning any of these for the first time can be challenging,” he said. “I think the difficulty in skiing and snowboarding depends on the individual trying it. Some people say they had an easier time snowboarding and some think it’s difficult to not fall down while learning how to ski and snowboard. We told our kids to expect it for the first few times out.”
The warm winter has not stopped the Ski Club.
“The winter has been especially difficult to ski and snowboard due to the unusually warm weather,” said Lemmer. “As long as Brandywine is able to make snow and keep it on the slopes, we are going to ski and snowboard. It has to be 28 degrees or colder to make the snow.”
In just two years, the Ski Club has grown from 18 to 42 members. “The ski club just grew by its self,” said Lemmer. “I think our club grew because of how popular the sport is becoming and because last year’s kids loved every second of it. Naturally, they told their buddies about it.
Well even though I’m scared to go down the ski slopes, I have to admit that the Hickory Ridge Ski Club is one COOL group.
All that jazz was enjoyable
By Alex Arcuri
There recently was a jazz concert including Jazz bands from Visintainer Middle School, Edwards Middle School, Willets Middle School as well as the High School Jazz Band.
They all played pieces that involved many examples of good jazz music. Visintainer Middle School played the pieces “No clams, just oysters,” And “Drama for your mama.”
Band teacher Mike Archinal says, “The Jazz band did very well this year and I am looking forward to next year to play again.”
Also he said “The Big Band Night is basically the Festival of Bands for Jazz bands.”
The next time you will hear the schools Jazz bands will be here before you know it. So when the next concert comes, be sure to go out and support your Jazz Musicians.
Principal will retire
By Jenna Svoboda
On Feb., Principal Mike Hodson will retire from his work at Willetts Middle School.
Everyone is happy for his dedication in the Brunswick Schools. He worked throughout many different schools in a period of 35 years. He moved through Towslee as a teacher, Memorial as an administrator, and Willetts as an administrator, teacher, and a principal.
Mike Hodson and his wife are retiring together hoping to live the rest of their lives enjoying the retirement.
Students at Willetts are making the most of the rest of their time with him, saying hi every chance they get.
Andi Lindsey, a seventh grader said "Mr. Hodson is an awesome principal and I am really sad he is retiring! I will miss him."
Many other students agree that he will be missed and remembered for his kindness and dedication to the students and staff.
Courtney Klebau said, "I think it is sad because he has been a principal for such a long time and he has done such a good job. He cares so much about his students.
Happy retirement Principal Hodson!"
Gifted students pick projects
Sierra Foltz
Isn’t it great when students get to choose, and even enjoy their educational groups or clubs? Mrs. Clark and Ms. Pompili, gifted teachers at Edwards Middle School, sure think so. Their academic assist classes, during the past few months, have been taking part in three different teams: Academic Challenge, Model United Nations, and Power of the Pen.
Each of these teams will participate at one point in a competition with other students who do the same program.
Any student part of the gifted program at Edwards was able to try out or join the teams and had a choice of the three. Model United Nations is a project that allows students to form a small group, choose a country, and find one of that country’s major problems such as lack of human rights or illiteracy. Once a problem is chosen, the group must make a resolution; their way of solving the problem, a speech, a video presentation, and an art project. The competition for Model UN is in May.
Power of the Pen is a writing competition. Students on this team are given a prompt, and a set amount of time to write a story on that prompt. Some prompts may include: find a solution, what will you never do again, and things like that. Competition for Power of the Pen is in February and March.
Academic Challenge is a team of students that work together, and individually to answer trivia. Students in Academic Challenge need to be able to do math problems and answer questions, quickly so they can succeed in their competition. Academic Challenge competes in March.
For the most part, kids enjoy these teams; especially when they win. Quinn, a seventh grader in Power of the Pen, says “It challenges your creative writing.” Molly, a member of Model United Nations adds, “Model UN is a lot of work, but the day of the competition is a lot of fun!”
The teachers agree that we live in a competitive world and it’s good for students to compete, and learn how to partake in healthy competition.
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