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Show Thursday, May 1, 2008 Page 4 AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN notes NEWS AND IDEAS FROM CLASSROOMS AND EDUCATORS fA Arbor Day writing contest winners: Arbor Day Barbara Christiansen NORTH COUNTY STAFF Area elementary schools spent some time recently thinking about trees. Fourth-graders Fourth-graders participated in Arbor Day activities, hearing about the benefits of trees. They received blue spruce seedlings to take home and plant in their yards. Many also participated in a writing contest, with the topic "My Favorite Tree." The top winner at each school earned a $100 savings bond from 1M Flash; second place a $75 bond Junior High counselor honored Barbara Christiansen NORTH COUNTY STAFF Adele Whiteley is a believer. She believe in lots of things, but particularly in the students she associates with at American Ameri-can Fork Junior High School. She is one of the school's counselors and was recently honored by the Utah Scholars Initiative for her contributions to the program which encourages encour-ages students to achieve. Utah is one of 22 states which use a variation of the program. "We have always given kids recommendations from colleges about courses they encourage," Whiteley said. "This is a rigorous outline which asks for more. If they do that they get $1,000 scholarship scholar-ship to any school in Utah If they qualify for a PELL grant they get $2,000 more over two years and they are eligible for additional scholarships." The program requires four years of math, three and a half years of social science, four of English three of lab-based science and two of foreign language. This year Whiteley works half time at the school and half time at the district as a counselor coun-selor leader. She learned of the program and encouraged the district to adopt it. For 2008, 15 students from Alpine School District have qualified. White-ley White-ley hopes to increase those numbers. "We are targeting the eighth -raders," she said. "I am anticipating antici-pating we will have that number num-ber over 1,000." She said the response has been good. "The kids are excited about it," she said. "They understand this isn't just words saying this is a good idea to do. They can see it will prepare them to go to school anywhere." As excited as she is about ' i 'I:: ::J ?a i ! Elizabeth Harris, Sarah Garlick, Kylee Andrus, Aric Moore. Not pictured Eryn Stafford. contest winners announced and the third places took home $50 bonds. Sarah Garlick from Forbes wrote about a willow tree named Willy, who was very sensitive. He didn't like the birds who came to sit in his branches, and tried to shoo them away. A bird named Charlie realized that Willy was becoming lonely and cheered him. They became best friends. Kylee Andrus from Legacy called her story "Oakey the. Tree." "He talks to me when I am happy, sad, and even when I am grumpy," she wrote. "The r . f . Mis ..f,V BARBARA CHRISTIANSENNorth County Adele Whiteley, counselor at American Fork Junior High School. the program, she is even more excited about her students. At the junior high school, the counselors work with an entire incoming seventh-grade class, then follow the same students through eighth and ninth grades. With a student population popula-tion of 1,600 students, it can be a challenge to get to know so many, but Whiteley said by the time they get to ninth grade, she knows almost everyone. "We have about 520 kids in each grade level," she said. "By the ninth grade you know Cedar Fort Eagle Mountain American Fork Cedar Hills ' Pleasant Grove Lindon best part is he actually talks. When the wind blows through the branches of Oakey, I hear him speak to me, and I like to talk back." Elizabeth Harris of Barratt wrote a story telling about Addie May and her trip to Utah on a covered wagon. The little girl fell sick and told her family she wanted them to build a forest if she died. They honored her request and came back each year to plant a different dif-ferent tree. Shelley student Aric Moore wrote about "The Sweetest Apple Tree." His tree grew not for helping students achieve 1 f 1 ' AY: them. You spend quality time with them. It is fun." There are numerous jokes about students in junior high school, but Whiteley said she wouldn't trade them. "I cculu never leave the middle level," she said. "More happens physical, emotional and mental changes. Their whole brains rewire. They learn cognitive thinking skills, their bodies change and they ' have emotional changes. "The middle level is key to setting them up for the rest of Saratoga Springs Lehi BARBARA CHRISTIANSENNorth County regular apples, but Symphony candy bars. Only kids could see the candy, however; the parents saw apples. At Greenwood, Eryn Stafford Staf-ford wrote about a "fluorescent, "fluores-cent, green evergreen." It keeps her cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Other winners were Rylee Stephens and Brandon Merrill at Legacy; Hannah Dixon and Callie Rogers at Shelley; Jacob Dicou and Michael Hatch at Barratt; Mapeiah Vergara and Danielle Frint at Forbes; and Cassidey Hall and Kaitlyn Amundsen at Greenwood. their lives." Her educational philosophy includes doing that for all the students. "I went into counseling because be-cause I felt it had more change to interact and help more students," stu-dents," she said. "My philosophy philoso-phy is that all students can be successful. As an educational society we need to do everything every-thing we can to make sure everybody is successful." She said some people feel the students should be allowed to fail, but she disagrees. "Kids in junior high are too young to throw away their futures," fu-tures," she said. "We are here to help them be successful and to learn. They set themselves up for a successful future." If the response is an indicator, indica-tor, it seems to be working. "Kids come back and invite you to their weddings and show you their babies," she said. "They invite you to their college graduations." She said that is very gratifying to her and that sometimes those who are the hardest challenges are the most gratifying. "You get to know the hard kids, but that are just good," she said. "They all want to be successful and to be cared for. I love all the kids. That is why I like being a counselor." Whiteley has been at American Ameri-can Fork Junior High School for 13 years. She started at Lehi Junior High School, teaching teach-ing special education and did a counseling internship at Mountain Moun-tain Ridge Junior High School. She said the hardest challenge chal-lenge in her job was finding enough time to reach all those who need the help. "You know they are out there and you can help them," she said. "There are so many things going on. It is about making time to really do what you know needs to be done for these kids." Alpine Highland Orem Vineyard American Fork High School Renaissance assembly The annual Renaissance assembly as-sembly will be Friday and will be presented to all students by the faculty. All qualifying Renaissance students will be invited to lunch in the park by the driving range. Package deal for seniors Tuesday is the last day that seniors can purchase the package deal to the Senior Dinner Dance and Senior Sluf f Day. Individual tickets are $35 each or the package deal can be purchased for $50. No refunds re-funds will be given after Tuesday. Tues-day. The Senior Dinner Dance will be May 9 and the Senior Sluff Day at Aspen Grove will be May 21. Spring concert The bands will present their Spring concert Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the auditorium. Community members are encouraged and invited to attend. Admission is free. Band step-off meeting The marching band step-off meeting will be Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the American Fork Junior High auditorium. This is a meeting for all marching band students and their parents. par-ents. There will be valuable information regarding next year's marching band season. Students should bring their medical forms to this meeting. Medical forms can be downloaded down-loaded fro m Charms. Orchestra honors Congratulations Con-gratulations to the orchestra students for their recent performance per-formance at the Region Orchestra Or-chestra Festival. Each group received straight superior ratings from each of the three judges at the festival. Sophomore orientation Incoming sophomores for , next year will be able to register regis-ter for classes online through May 15. Information was given to students at ninth-grade ninth-grade orientation. For more information, contact the Counseling Coun-seling Center at either AFHS or AF Junior High. Fines and fees Statements were recently sent out to anyone owing more than $15 in fines or fees. Parents and students are reminded that all fines and fees must be paid before a purchased yearbook can be obtained. Anyone owing ow-ing $15 or under will have that finefee applied to their book deposit refund. School donations for flower orders The Flower Patch will donate $1 to AFHS for any order that the faculty, staff, students or patrons make. To participate, simply indicate AFHS when placing an order. Senior party Senior party tickets to Boondocks are on sale at the student finance office of-fice for $35. The party will be May 29 from 9:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. All students who plan to attend must ride the bus. Cords for sale Gold and silver cords are now available to purchase at the student finance fi-nance office. Library books due All library books are due May 9. Fines and late fees will be charged for all books not returned. Textbooks will also be turned in to the book depository de-pository May 14-15 during the students English classes. Fines will be assessed for damaged or missing books. paveman Andy Cottrell This week's article is about our big end of the year bash we call Cavestock that is coming up. Cavestock is a wonderful thing. It's the end of the year party for the entire school. This year we are going to do several things. The thing that I am especially excited for is the beard growing contest that will be taking place. It will be a two week long event to see who in our school, girls included, can grow the longest, fullest, sexiest beard in such a short amount of time. We will be changing some things this year such as our powder puff football game will be held on the Thursday night before Cavestock and it will be played on the football field under the lights. If any of you girls are interested in-terested in playing, organize Homework center A homework center is available every Monday from 1:15-3:30 p.m. and Tuesday through Thursday from 2:154:30 p.m. in the Career Center, room 3. Computers are available for student use. Students in need of tutoring or help with homework home-work are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity. American Fork Junior High School Book fair The book fair will run through Friday in the Media Center from 8 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. each day. Friday evening, eve-ning, the book fair will be set up in the commons during the school play. This is a buy one book get one free extravaganza. extrava-ganza. Community Council The next School Community Council Coun-cil meeting will be May 9 at 7 a.m. instead of the previously scheduled meeting. Dress up day Friday will be red, white and black dress up day. Students are encouraged encour-aged to wear the school colors to show school spirit. Musical planned The drama department will present pres-ent the musical "Once Upon a Mattress" May 6-12, at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for $6 for AFJH students with ID card, $7 general admission ad-mission or $30 for a family of up to 8 people. Late bus The late bus is running every Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 4 p.m. It stops at the elementary schools and American Fork High School. The bus is for students who have stayed after school for tutoring by teachers. Students must get a ticket from teacher they work with. Barratt Elementary School Safety tips Parents are asked to help keep all children safe at Barratt Elementary. Patrons often leave their cars running and unattended in the "no parking" zones to run into the school for "just a minute." Patrons are asked to park their car in a parking staJl and turn it off even if they only intend in-tend to be "just a minute." Lincoln Academy Lincoln Academy Presents "Annie Jr." A cast and crew of more than 60 students in grades 1 through 9 will perform per-form "Annie Jr." at Lincoln Academy Charter School on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Satur-day evenings. The school is located at 1582 W. 3300 North in Pleasant Grove. Curtain time is 7 p.m. There is general gen-eral admission seating free of charge; a donation box will be available. Get there early to get a good seat! This production of "Annie Jr." is directed by Lincoln Academy instructors Erin Smith Day, Angela Parker, and Darryl Stamp. "The students have worked really hard on this show," said Day. "It's become an outstanding outstand-ing production that is quite a bit more than the typical school play." a team and get practicing. We will be having a dunk tank there and rumor has it, the administration will be "sitting in" on that one, if you catch my drift. There is going to be a balloon bal-loon man making balloon animals. ani-mals. There will be face painting paint-ing and we are also working on a midnight movie. There will be a Guitar Hero contest and several other things. But now I am going to talk about the battle of the bands. Each year we have several bands compete in the battle. Some of the bands unfortunately unfortu-nately sound terrible. But that's just life. However, we also have some incredible bands that get put together. The music and everything gets so loud, we have to hand flyers out in the neighborhood neighbor-hood so that people don't call the cops. This is one humongous party. Cavestock is definitely something you do not want to miss this year. Well, readers, I hope you have a fantastic week and may the force be with you. |