In the Middle - March 16

The 2019 Regional Technology competition was held at Boaz High School this year. The GMS tech team included students from Mrs. Stapler’s Project Lead The Way classes and Mrs. Samuel’s Journalism and Video Production classes.

Mrs. Samuel’s said, “We had 27 project entries and 25 projects win awards. 18 of the 25 projects that placed will go on to the State Tech Comp in Montgomery in April. We are extremely pleased and excited for our students”.

In first place, Animation, “Cartoons- then vs. now” was Reese Cobb, Mary Daniels Leach, Addy Stewart and Laine Willis; Digital Art “Social Attack” with Jilli Pair, Chase Pearce and Chloe Sellers; Hardware Modification “Xbox Controller Modification” Conner Flanagan, Lane Pilotte and Michael Raulerson; Internet Applications “Out with the New; In with the Old” Grace Harris and Cadence Kikuyama; Multimedia Presentations “Down Syndrome” Cera Fortner and Addison Hammond; and Productivity Design for “Beautiful Lake Guntersville” by Allee Belle Kutner and Hannah Melton.

In second place, Digital Game Design Hanging with Friends by Antonio Spurgeon, Jake Talley and Riley Thomas; Multidimensional Design/3D Modeling Top Ten Inventions- past to present¨ by Gabe Jones and Thomas Reliford; Multimedia Presentations ¨Sliding Through History of Alabama “by Emma Bearden, Jadyn Bonds, and Duncan Morris; and ¨Bullying” by Ashley Zeisset; Robotics ¨Vex Trash Collector¨ by Sam Canady, Seth Matthews, Jantzen Mosley and Jacob Roberts; ¨Ant¨ by Noah Fitzgibbons; Video Production, ¨Alabama History News Flash by Carter Britt, Date Peterson, Addie Grace Smith and Kenligh Teague; and Website Design-Internet based Websites, ¨Cancer Awareness for Children¨ by Kennedy Brown and Kendall Teall.

All first and second place finishers will take their projects to the state competition later this spring.

Addie Grace Smith said that it was a wonderful experience that gave her team a chance to bond. She is sad it is over for the year but glad she gets to do it again next year.

Duncan Morris competed with Emma Bearden and Jayden Bonds in the multimedia category. “We chose that category because it was interesting and we knew a lot about it.”

Emma Bearden added that they did their project about Alabama and added in information about Guntersville Lake. In the end they won 2nd place in their category.

Rollins Whitaker said it was her first time going to the competition. Her group which included Abby Chastain, Justice Mansel and Marli Ellis. They won 3rd in video production.

Jake Talley’s group used Photoshop for their project. He said, “We took pictures and then added filters, text and highlighting.” His group’s project placed 2nd.

Reese Cobb said the experience was a little nerve-wracking but he enjoyed working with animation.

Evan Taylor and his partner Cale Dollar competed with a Nintendo type project for which they came in 3rd.

Jackson Brickey was impressed with the robotics at the competition. His team created a reaction game where a flashing light would go off and the first person to press one of the buttons would win. They came in 3rd.

McCormick Langford and Cal Bearden used the school’s 3D printer to create a tractor. Cal said, “I really enjoyed working with 3D. I think I learned a lot.”

Mary Daniels Leach said the judges were really nice and joked around a lot. She and her partner made a project called Cartoons through the Ages. They placed first in animation.

Carson Brown kept to the Alabama Bicentennial theme and created a project about important people in Alabama history. His project placed 3rd.

Menardah Elbrehard said she almost “freaked out” but it all turned out fine. In the end, her project placed first in its category so she is headed to state.

Congratulations to all the participants for a job well done and good luck to those going to state.

State Beta Convention

46 students from GMS attended the State Beta Club Convention in Birmingham March 13-15 to compete against other students throughout Alabama in several different categories either individually or as groups. GMS Beta Club sponsors Mary Dea Rains and Jennifer Teall will attended the event with the students along with Breeana Talley, Tracy Smith and Julie Brown.

Mrs. Rains said the students have been working extremely hard on their projects from a wide-range of categories such as Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Living Literature, Academics, Robotics, Engineering, Apparel Design, Jewelry, Poetry, Creative Writing, Speech, Technology and Scholars Bowl. The Top 2 winners in each category will move on to compete in the National Beta Club competition.

Two years ago, the GMS Quiz Bowl Team finished in 2nd Place in the state competition and then finished 6th in the National Beta Club competition. Each student was asked to complete a form that asked the following questions: (1) What category are you in? (2) Are you doing something else? (3) What are you most excited about? (4) What is your project about? and (5) Do you think we will go to State?

Andrew McCormick said that he was very excited about going to the convention and that he and his group were doing an Engineering project. They were making some kind of device that would surprise everyone and looking forward to seeing what others throughout the state would be making as well because there were a lot of smart people out there.

Hudson Miles said he was participating in the Academics category and was working only on this topic. He, too was looking forward to the convention and seeing all of the events there. Hudson will be taking an English test as part of his competition. He looks forward to the challenge and attending the State competition stating that, “We (GMS students) are very cool, but seriously, we are pretty smart all-in-all”.

Alabama’s 200th Birthday

Several students from GMS attended and/or participated in the The Schools of Guntersville, an Alabama Bicentennial School System, a celebration of our city on Sunday, March 10, at Guntersville High School.

Carson Brown, a 7th grader, shared his story about “Alabama’s 200th Birthday” and how it has impacted him during these past couple of months.

“I was supposed to do a project for the Technology Competition for one of my classes and really didn’t know what to do,” he said. “One of my teacher’s suggested that I do something about the state’s bicentennial.”

He said that he started the project by researching Alabama’s past history. He started with how Alabama was named and the people that played important roles in the state during this time. He then thought it would be interesting to look for people who he had never heard of and eventually found five individuals.

“One of those was George Washington Carver,” he said. “I never knew he made so many things out of sweet potatoes.”

He created a video recording that told the story of the five people he researched and the impact they had on Alabama. He took this project to the State Technology Competition.

“I proudly won 3rd Place in this category, but was even happier that I had shared my research with all of the judges who said that they had learned a lot about the history of Alabama from my project,” he said.

Duncan Morris, 7th grader, said that he was able to help out with the celebration by editing the bicentennial video.

Duncan proudly stated, “One of the people I did editing on was Mayor Leigh Dollar when she did her interview for the bicentennial video. This video was shown at the bicentennial event at the high school”.

Eighth grade student Annelise Bradshaw said, “The bicentennial event helped immerse me into the history of Guntersville. My favorite part of the event were the wax figures. Their stories helped take me and everyone at the event back to their time that was so extremely different from ours.”

Approximately 350-400 people attended the event which was enjoyed by all ages.

Media Center News

We ask that you help us promote the program by encouraging young women in your schools and communities’ grades 6th-12th to register online at the Power UP Loud website, www.poweruploud.org. Feel free to visit the Power UP website: http://www.poweruploud.org for more information about the Mother-Daughter Thing event and other Power UP programs.

Class News

6th Grade

Bradshaw 6th Grade Reading

• Unit 13 Vocabulary quiz and practice due Friday, March 15th
• Class novel for the 4th nine weeks is Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

7th Grade

Croley

• March 18-22: Wildcat Week

Hinkle

• 5/13: Plant Collections due

Clubs and Sports

Anchor Club — We will have a GMS Anchor Club Blood Drive on March 18th in the school parking lot from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m.

Crimson Guard News — The Crimson Guard is holding a Coke Truck Sale until March 21st. All Coke products are $24 case and proceeds will help the band members with their trip to Philadelphia where they will participate in the 100th Thanksgiving Parade. You may speak to any band member or contact the school to place an order. Delivery will be the week after Spring Break.

GMS Cheerleading Tryouts — Mandatory parent meeting will be Wednesday, March 20, at 5:30 in the cafeteria.

Outdoor Track

• 3/16 James Clemens Invitational (Madison)
• 3/19 Huntsville JV Meet (Huntsville)

GMS Softball

• 3/15 and 3/16 Boaz Tournament (Boaz) TBA
• 3/18 vs. Albertville (Away) 4:30

GMS Baseball

• 3/14 vs. Boaz (GHS) 7th- 6:30, 8th- 4:30
• 3/16 vs. Alexandria (GHS) 7th- 5:30, 8th- 3:30
• 3/19 vs. Scottsboro (Away) 7th- 6:30, 8th- 4:30

JV Girls Soccer

• 3/22 vs. Scottsboro (Home) 7:00
• 4/2 vs. Ft. Payne (Home) 5:00

Announcements

Reminder We are having a problem with excessive checkouts at the end of the school day which is creating a safety issue with our buses and car lines. If you must get your student before the bell rings, please check them out no later than 2:15!

Academic Help Needed Outside of the Classroom? GMS is offering after-school tutoring Mondays through Thursdays from 3 p.m. until 4 p.m.

• Math will be offered on Monday and Thursday.
• Reading/ELA will be on Tuesday and Wednesday. Letters with more information have been sent home with students.

Wildcat School Store will be open on Tuesdays and Fridays in the morning and during Advisory! New supplies and inventory are coming in! Don’t miss getting your Wildcat Gear!

Please ask your child if they are in need of school supplies. It’s the time of year when students are missing pencils and pens. Thank you!