Students Solving Real World Problems

  • By Laura Phillips
  • 25 Feb, 2014
The 10th grade Sociology class has turned in their textbooks for a more practical approach to learning. They’ll have no more tests, no more quizzes, and no more “homework.” But if they aren’t careful, they might “accidentally” learn more about the world this semester than they ever have. They were given the option between continuing […]
The 10th grade Sociology class has turned in their textbooks for a more practical approach to learning. They’ll have no more tests, no more quizzes, and no more “homework.” But if they aren’t careful, they might “accidentally” learn more about the world this semester than they ever have.
They were given the option between continuing in their regular bookwork or signing up for a program called Challenge 20/20. The program was designed by the National Association for Independent Schools (NAIS) to give students the opportunity to learn about global problems and to take steps to solve one of those problems. Although we aren’t affiliated with NAIS, we decided to ask the students if they would be interested. They knew from the beginning that, even though they wouldn’t have tests and such, the work was going to be much more difficult and time consuming. They were going to have to work together, manage their own time, meet deadlines, and make important decisions as a team. They enthusiastically chose the program.
Currently, the students are researching global problems to decide which one they want to tackle. They will write two research papers before they decide which problem to solve and how to do it.
Even though they won’t be directly connected with NAIS, the students will have the opportunity to connect with Village Life, an organization that works with rural villages in Tanzania. And at the end of the semester, they will present their project to workers on the ground in Tanzania.
By Laura Phillips March 7, 2020
Congratulations to all girls who tried out for both squads!

The 2020-2021 Junior Varsity Squad members:
Tyane Anthony
Abigail Brooks
Talley Carter
Kayla Howard
Halle Hurst
Gabby Lamb
Baeda McClellan
Sarah McClellan
Jordan Miles
Meleah Tigner

The 2020-2021 Varsity Squad Members:
Bailey Allen
Claire Allen
Jamie Clark
Lindsey Fuller
Kaylyn Keebler
Natalie Lovelace
Audrey Miller
Abbie Morgan
Kamdyn Oliver
Mattie Reese
Brandalon Rombokas
Alyssa Sorrells
Kendall Talbot
By Laura Phillips March 4, 2020

Media Mentions

Our Book Fair is March 9-13. We look forward to visiting the “jungle” to search for some great books!


February top readers are as follows:

Kindergarten: Allison McElvy and Phoebe Benson (11 points)

1st Grade: Rowan Benson (21 points)

2nd Grade: Yates Lashley (20 points)

3rd Grade: Layton Caldwell (22 points)

4th Grade: William Lashley (29 points)

5th Grade: Beth Landrum (10 points)

These students will enjoy lunch off campus!

By Laura Phillips February 5, 2020

My seventh grade science class has been doing some labs this week. We grew bacteria that was collected from different items in an incubator. They got to see how much bacteria is lurking and what it actually looks like. They compared bacteria and fungus. They also used the scientific method in performing this experiment and discussed independent and dependent variables. This was a nice break from note taking!!!

By Laura Phillips February 5, 2020

Hello Everyone

          HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We hope you all had a GREAT winter break. We are happy to be back in class. First grade has been working hard in January. We celebrated our 100th day of school. We are working on the first story of our fourth reading unit. This school year is flying by. We are all working hard to reach our goals for AR quizzes. First graders ARE SMITTEN with books. Our top AR reader in January is Rowan. Keep up the good work First Grade.

    We are looking forward to February; we will be doing a “Tell me something good” project for Valentine’s Day. We will write a nice comment about each student in the class on hearts. The ground hog did not see his shadow so we hope we can start enjoying the warmer weather of spring. We had a great time doing an experiment to see if we could blow up a balloon inside a bottle. Thank you to Mrs. Flanary and everyone else who helped us conduct our experiment. Do you think you can do it? Give it a try! Well that is all the news for now. Have a Wonderful February!

By Laura Phillips February 5, 2020
In the month of February, our students ‘love’ learning about new events in history. The 9th graders are finishing learning about World War 1 and begin to study the roaring 20s and World War 2. The 10th graders are finalizing their studies of the Civil War and succession of the states. The 11th graders are moving into World War 2 and our 12th graders have moved into economics and politics. The speech class is writing speeches on important figures from the 1920s! We can not wait to see what spring has in store!
By Laura Phillips February 5, 2020

January was a busy time in 4th Grade! In Reading, we read stories about puzzles and mysteries. We focused on literary elements and plot/theme. In Alabama History, we started discussing Alabama’s Early Statehood – specifically the first 5 capitals. In Science, we talked about Earth’s Changes like erosion. We did our first Weird Science Wednesday and completed an Ice Castle STEM Challenge.  WOW – it is hard to believe how quickly the year is passing!    

Our great year continues!

By Laura Phillips February 4, 2020

January has been a busy month in the library! We’ve gotten back in the groove after the break, and we’ve enjoyed making books of our own, and performing Readers Theater scripts!

Our Spring Book Fair is coming up! It will be held during the week of March 9-13. We will be open from 7:30-2:30 Monday-Thursday, and 7:30-11:00 on Friday. “ Finger Foods with Families ” will be held Monday morning from 7:30-8:00. Please come and join us for shopping and snacks. Grandparent luncheons will be held on Tuesday, March 10 for grades K-3, and Wednesday, March 11 for grades 4-6. More information will come home with students soon.

Top AR readers for this month are:

K: Phoebe Benson- 10 points

1st: Rowan Benson- 30.3 points

2nd: Yates Lashley- 34.4 points

3rd: Layton Caldwell- 18.3 points

4th: Eben Sasser- 14.4 points

5th: Beth Landrum- 36.5 points

6th: Easton Janowiecki- 18 points

 

Congratulations to these students!

By Laura Phillips February 4, 2020

The second graders are learning a new way to write ----- cursive!

Cohen had a tooth pulled and has now joined our Tooth Club. We have 6 members now!

Harleen guessed the closest number of triangles in the Triangle Tree! She guessed 32.

The first week after Christmas break was “Frog and Toad Week!” We listened to 4 books about two very good friends, wrote about our favorite Frog and Toad story, and practiced letter writing by writing 3 Frog and Toad letters. We read “A Lost Button” and did an activity with that story with K-5.

We continued our letter writing the next week by writing 2 letters to our classmates and mailing them via Class Mail. After reading “Flat Stanley,” we mailed Flat Fred/Freida letters to someone who does not live with us! After visiting for a week,  they wrote back telling us what Flat Fred/Freida  did and saw. We are sharing our letters with our classmates as soon as the letters come in.

January 27th was our 100th Day of School! We celebrated with activities, refreshments, and goody bags! Many thanks to Mrs. Dianne Lee for baking our cake. We ate every bit of it!  For several years, Lowe’s Pharmacy has blown up 100 balloons for us! The children enjoyed weaving through all the ribbons in our hallway!

By Laura Phillips January 31, 2020
Our elementary grades celebrated 100 days of school earlier this week! They each had special activities throughout the day as well as end it with some celebration and cake!
By Laura Phillips December 13, 2019

We have had a great month! The students are making great progress learning sight words and sounding out simple words. We made Christmas ornaments and decorated our tree.

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