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Show Thursday, November 5, 2009 Schools The Gunnison Valley Gazette Page 7 GVHS Sesquicentennial Concert by CHRISTI GARFF The Gunnison Valley High School Department presented “Celebrating the Sesquicentennial Year” Concert Thursday evening. Concert goers were entertained by a combined Orchestra with members from the High School String Orchestra, Symphonic Band, the Snow College Orchestra and Community Members. This ensemble presented “The Gunnison Symphony” written, composed and conducted by Jody Allred. The high school symphonic band then presented two selections; “Salvation is Created” and The Liberty Bell. This was Mr. Patrick Summerhays debut performance as the newest band director to join the staff at GVHS. The GVHS string orchestra under the direction of Lisa Johnson performed three Christi Garff/Gunnison Valley Gazette Students perform during the Sesquicentennial Concert. musical selections including; “Tambourine” and “Allegro Spiritoso” from the “Baroque Suite No. 1”, and “Air” and “Bouree” from “Handel’s Water Music Suite”. The Gunnison Valley Middle School 7th and 8th Grade Chorus the Gunnison Valley High School Chorus and the Women’s Choir Cantus! concluded the evening with combined and individual musical numbers under the direction of Mr. Jody Allred and accompanist “Mrs. Linda Campbell. by CAMI CARLISLE The week of October 5th – 9th was Gunnison Valley High School’s Homecoming! We had a great turn out this year. A comment was made to the student council that GVHS showed the most school spirit this Homecoming in years. We are very proud of that since one of our big goals for the year was to build up the school spirit in the school. We’d like to give a big thanks to everyone and anyone who helped make Homecoming so fantastic this year! The student council is now working hard and preparing for our Zero Fatalities Week. Our goal is to make students more aware of the dangers of driving under the influence, texting while driving, and driving without a seatbelt. We are planning fun activities designed to also stimulate this awareness. Some of these activities include an assembly with a guest speaker, my very own dad, Thayne Carlisle. The entire student body will sign pledge cards to drive safely. Also, we will have the crash simulator and drunk goggles out so the students can experience what it feels like to be in a car accident and under the influence. We are excited to promote safe driving habits and hopefully reduce the number of fatalities in this area. Bulldog Pride Award Congratulations to Bridgette White and Jantz Jensen for being selected to receive the Bulldog Pride Award at GVHS. Bridgette White is the daughter of Joel and Stephanie White of Gunnison. She is a Junior Class Officer, serving as the Prom Chairperson. This past summer she attended the Dixie Leadership Conference. Bridgette is on the Speech Team and competes in Congress. The Speech Team placed 1st at the Snow College meet this past Saturday. Bridgette has been a member of the cheer squad and she enjoys supporting the sports teams. Bridgette is a Laurel in the Gunnison 1st Ward. She is currently employed at Shelle’s drive In. She is also a member Bridgette White of the Gunnison Youth Relay for Life Team. Bridgette enjoys time with her family, hanging out with friends, listening to music and shopping. by MR. JESSE BURRELL GVHS FFA Advisor Six students from the Gunnison Valley High School FFA Chapter, along with 48,000 other members across the nation attended the FFA National Convention recently. What a great trip! This was a busy week packed with educational tours, motivational speakers, race cart driving, a career show and leadership workshops. The students who attended were Kasey Bartholomew, Kolten Christiansen, Chance Christiansen, Kameron Crane, Caden Burrell and Ty Blackburn. With lots of late nights and early mornings and a bit of jet-lag, these students had a great week. Below are some of the things that the students had to say after the trip. Ty said “I liked a lot of the things about the convention and all the tours we did. I really liked the National Air Force Museum. It was pretty cool how they had all the Air Force planes and fighter jets there. I also enjoyed the motivational speaker Mike Rowe from the TV Show ‘Dirty Jobs.’ I also liked the Toby Keith concert, it was pretty neat to see him in concert, I had a blast!” Chance said “My favorite part of the trip was the go karts. I also had fun at the Air Force Museum. One thing I did not like was the Indy 500 museum, it was boring, it took three minutes to see the whole museum. I think every student in the FFA should go.” Kameron said “It was the last night of our stay in Indiana and we got back to the room to change our clothes. Some girls knocked on our door and invited us to come play games. They were from Hurricane, Utah. After two card games we played spoons. The guys had a lot of fun. Mr. Burrell made us go to bed at 11:30.” I am sure Kameron liked other parts of convention, this one just involved girls so it is the only thing he wrote down.) Kasey said “National FFA Convention was a blast! Between the Key note speakers to losing my wheel on a go-kart, we were always on the move. Just a quick thanks to all the boys, letting me tag along with them when I was the only girt. Also, thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Burrell for an awesome time.” Caden said “Nationals was a blast!! All our motivational speakers were awesome. The national day of service was way fun, along with meeting new people while we were there. Meeting such a wide range of people was very cool. The career show, the rodeo, the concert, our many tours, everything was amazing! I’ll give anything to go again next year. I (Mr. Jesse Burrell) enjoyed the convention this year, mostly because we had a great bunch of FFA members attending. How I feel about the trip usually depends on if whether or not I had problems with students. Other Bulldog Bulletin Mr. Burrell with his wife, Lisa, and the FFA students in front of Conseco Field. than waking a few kids up during convention sessions and having to put the boys to bed more than once the first night, there were no problems. The motivational speakers, Mike Rowe, Josh Sundquist and Harvey Alston were awesome. They were able to keep the students attention and teach them something. Mike Rowe talked about how its okay to have a job that you get your hands dirty and that every student does not need a 4 year degree, the tech schools and other “alternative” education are great ways to get training and an education. Josh Sundquist talked about getting past out disabilities that each one of us has and turning our disabilities into strengths. Josh only has one leg and he has competed in the Para Olympics. Harvey Alston talked about the importance of staying away from sexual activity when you are a teen and staying away from alcohol and tobacco. All of the motivational speakers said things that struck home. Things that I like to teach kids. It is good for them to hear these things from another source. I liked the career show as well, there are thousands of booths with information and things to do, everything from John Deere and Case to Purina, the Marines, Ford, Toyota, Welding booths, to the Alpaca association. Many of the Universities were represented there. The students were able to see many different potential careers. We also attended a rodeo and a convert. One of my favorite things I liked while we were there was the National Day of Service. We spent one afternoon with several other chapters (1400 kids in different locations) working on a historic restoration project of an old farmstead from the 1920’s. They first learned a bit of the history of the farmstead, then we worked together to move gravel, organize old tractors and artifacts, and rake leaves. Of course some of the boys flirted with girls. I was impressed to see the students work hard. It was also good to see students from other places work hard. I don’t know their names, but there was a particular boy from Indiana that worked harder than most boys are capable of and there was one girl from Michigan that worked hard as well. I made sure to complement these kids before we left on their work ethic. I want to thank Scott and Courtesy Photo Lila Bartholomew for attending as chaperones with us. This was a great trip. Jantz Jensen Jantz Jensen is the son of Rohn and Monica Jensen of Centerfield. He is a Junior Class Officer and is serving as the Prom Chairperson. Jantz is involved in Basketball, Football, student council and Youth Court at GVHS. Jantz is a member of the Priest Quorum in the Centerfield 1st Ward. He works at the Gunnison Elementary every day. When he has time he works at Beck Family Farms. He is also a committee member for Sanpete County Relay for Life. He is a Youth Leader for the Gunnison Team. When Jantz isn’t doing his homework, he enjoys riding motorcycles, playing sports, hanging out with friends, hunting, shooting skeet and riding snowmobiles. Sponsored by Spotlight on Education Building a Community of Readers by PRINCIPAL GRANT HANSEN There is nothing a child does at school that is more important than learning to read and comprehend well. Children are more likely to be successful if parents and teachers both emphasize the importance of reading. Besides providing practice beyond the classroom, here are five things parents can do to help make reading a part of your child’s daily life. 1. Start a family book group. 2. Sign up your child for an e-mail newsletter on any subject — from dinosaurs to pop music — that interests her. 3. Make the connection between fact and fiction. For example, if your child loves stories about animals, show him a newspaper article about animals, zoos, or wildlife. 4. Introduce him to lighter fare like detective novels, short stories, magazines or comic books that are relaxing and fun to read. 5. Show your child that you’re a reader. Kids are more likely to grow up loving reading if they see you enjoy it too. Dads, reading research shows that there is a significant correlation between children being successful readers and seeing their fathers read in the home. You may have heard the saying, “You’re your child’s first teacher.” Well before your children come to school, they start to build literacy skills and habits. Here are some early literacy tips. • Reading together, playing together, and just enjoying each other’s company will all go a long way toward building pre-reading skills. • Form a close bond. This one is easy! Your relationship with your child is very important to his ability to learn. If you are interactive, close and loving, your child will reap the rewards. • Get in on the fun. Being a participant at playtime can bring you closer and help you learn useful information about your child’s habits and emotions. • Tell tales. Build narrative skills by gathering family members at meal times and having them tell the story of their day. • Play rhyming games to build phonemic awareness... and just for fun. • Bring reading and writing into everyday life. Encourage literacy in your child’s daily routines by writing thank-you notes or mak- ing shopping lists together. • Be attentive and engaged when you communicate with your child. • Read together. Make story time a daily ritual that your child can count on and look forward to. As your children advance into the upper elementary grades, you can still be involved in helping them become even better readers. They need to expand their vocabularies, increase their oral fluency rates, and comprehend more difficult reading material; especially, non-fiction. Here are some suggestions of ways you can connect with your advancing readers. You can use these ideas to develop strong personal relationships build around books. • Start a Parent-Child Book Club - - What better way to connect than to be reading the same book at the same time? Set up a time for your discussion and try to find guides and activities to do together. • Read as a Family - Set aside a “reading time” for your family where everyone turns off the TV and reads. It’s also a great idea to let your child read to you. Have him read his favorite parts of a book to you and explain what he loves about the passage or chapter. • Play With Words - - Let your child show off her vocabulary with a game of Scrabble or Boggle. Or do word searches and crossword Spotlight on Education is sponsored by Shanelle Winn 85 East Center Street, Gunnison • 528-7161 puzzles together. • Select Books Together - - Come to the library, go to a bookstore, or online retailer with your child and pick out books. Challenge him to find a book you will like, and pick out an unusual book for him! • Watch It - - If a movie or TV show based on one of your child’s favorite books comes out, enjoy watching it together. Afterwards, discuss how it was different from the book and if the actors fit the characters. As your children become mature readers, they have the need for reference materials that are readily available at home. You can help your children tackle their homework by having print, CDROM, or online versions of the following available. • High school or collegiate dictionary • Foreign language dictionary • Science dictionary • Thesaurus and/or synonym and antonym finder • Atlas • Basic calculator • Introductory mythology book that explains Greek and Roman gods and myths I agree with Peter Senge who wrote, “A community is a perceived whole whose elements “hang together” because they continually affect each other over time and operate toward a common purpose.” In this case, helping our children become skilled readers. |
