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June 2011 |
School House
Kindergarten Orientation at Mountain Brook Junior Mountain Brook Elementary High Literary Café
Andrew Hanson, Robert Flynn, Mary Neale Polk, Mae Helen Toranto, Hunter Keller and Luke Montgomery at Kindergarten Orientation.
By HILARY ROSS Mountain Brook Elementary hosted a kindergarten orientation at the school for the incoming class of 2011-12. The theme was “Hanging Out at MBE,” and more than 60 incoming kindergarten students received an invitation with a colorful inflatable monkey attached to their mailbox, adding excitement to the event. At the orientation, parents were given the opportunity to meet the teachers and the administration of the school. PTO officers and speakers introduced the parents to MBE to aid the transition from preschool to “big school.” Each child received a colorful monkey
name tag, which divided them groups to a corresponding teacher who had the same colored monkey name tag. Kindergarten teachers Tanya Anastasia, Jennifer Jinnette, Megan Still, Rebecca Stivender and Julie Summers then gave tours of the school and kindergarten classrooms to the children. The orientation ended in the lunchroom where students enjoyed a monkey cookie and juice. Each attendee received a red MBE T-shirt as a parting favor to remember the day and to use next fall for school sponsored field trips and events.
CES student’s art selected for national exhibit BY LAUREN FOwLER Crestline Elementary School student Taylor Hopkins has been selected as one of Alabama’s representatives for the 2011 All Kids Can CREATE national touring exhibition., The exhibition features artwork submitted by students, ages 5-15, from each state and the District of Columbia. Taylor’s artwork, titled Eden, will debut in Washington, D.C. on June 13. The 2011 All Kids Can CREATE program launched in November 2010 and invited young artists living with and without disabilities to submit a piece of artwork under the theme, “Imagination Across America.” The exhibition is sponsored by CVS Caremark All Kids Can and VSA, the international organization on arts and disability. More than 4,700 entries from artists across the country were submitted. An expert panel of judges, including artists and art educators selected 102 student artists to be featured in the exhibition. All of the artwork submitted this year, from paintings to sculptures to photographs, will be included in an online gallery at www.artsonia.com/allkidscancreate. “We’re so impressed with the passion
By HILARY ROSS
As a culmination to the unit of study on poetry and National Poetry Month, seventh grade English classes at Mountain Brook Junior High held several Literary Cafés. Parents were mailed invitations to join their child’s class for an hour of refreshments and poetry reading by the students. This is the tenth year the Literary Cafés have been hosted by the seventh grade English teachers at MBJH. The MBJH cafeteria was transformed into a black-checkered tablecloth café similar to the dimly lit cafes in the early 1960s where the beatnik generation stressed bettering one’s inner self over having material possessions through poetry and musings. The seventh grade poets were introduced by the beat of the bongo drums, and audience members snapped their fingers approvingly in appreciation of the
poets and their work. “We wanted to provide a unique opportunity for parents to see their children share their academic accomplishments,” Advanced English Teacher Kathy Byrd said. “The cafés do that, and we all get to hear their true seventh-grade voices in these presentations. It is a public speaking exercise for these students in front of a very friendly and accepting audience of their parents and classmates.” Mrs. Byrd’s advanced classes created a name and cover design for their collection of poems that were published and bound into a keepsake booklet for parents to follow along during the readings. Mrs. Byrd’s fourth period class named their booklet Pretty Little Poets as a parody of the bestselling books series, Pretty Little Liars, which is also now a hit television show on ABC Family.
MBE Career Day 2011
Crestline student Taylor Hopkins.
and creativity represented in Taylor’s artwork; it truly captures the spirit of the All Kids Can CREATE program,” said Eileen Howard Boone, senior vice president of corporate communications and community relations for CVS Caremark. “Through this program we have helped children of all abilities to use art as a way to express themselves and create positive change in their lives.”
BWF honors retiring faculty By BAMA HAGER The Brookwood Forest faculty, staff, students, parents and PTO gathered to honor three faculty members who will retire this May. Principal Yvette Faught has served as principal at BWF for several decades and as a faculty member for a total of 36 years. Fourth grade teacher Mary Jackson traught at BWF for 15 years. For years office staff member Kathy Peerson was often the first person parents and students
Four Period Advanced English Pretty Little Poets: Madeline DeBuys, Sam Hirsberg, Kate Dorsten, David Gardner, Parker Bethea, Maggie Baker, Tanner Williams, Frances Hancock, Bailey Womack, Dylan Bowen, Sarah Frances Jackson, Eric Voigt, Margaret Koopman, Owen Ross, Jennifer Lauriello, Drew Smith, Grace Lockett, Marc Straus, Sara Chandler Mitchell, Cleary Gray Plosser, Patrick Trammell, Ashley Niketas, Lauren Mussell. Not pictured: Kathryn Wason.
saw when they entered the school. Treats, snacks and punch were served using BWF Cookbook recipes. Students stayed after school to attend the festivities and PTO members decorated the lunchroom with floral arrangements and centerpieces. PTO President Amy Knight and President Elect Bridget Sikora organized the event, and PTO parents prepared recipes.
Paul Finebaum with sixth grade students Chandler Pulliam, William Nabors, Cele Sullivan, Peyton Billingsley, Caroline Crafton and Carter Alexander.
By HILARY ROSS Mountain Brook Elementary held its annual Career Day for sixth grade students. Career Day is a one-day event that features many speakers from our community who discuss a variety of career options. Last fall, MBE Guidance Counselor Leslie Cross conducted “interest inventories,” where she helped students identify their potential “career codes:” Artistic, Conventional, Enterprising, Investigative, Realistic or Social. The students then filled out a survey that indicated their top eight choices of careers about which they were interested in learning more. The parent-led Career Day Committee, chaired by Stacy Pulliam, Susan Nabors and Meg Sullivan, then recruited more than thirty speakers in the choices indicated to speak for 20-minute sessions
to small groups of the interested children. Each student was given an individualized notebook showing his or her schedule rotation of eight career sessions that included at least five of their top choices. Career choices ranged from banker, lawyer and doctor to FBI agent, rocket scientist, meteorologist, professional actor and athlete. Our very own Mountain Brook Officer Brian Wood represented law enforcement and was a favorite of the students. All students came to the auditorium to hear the keynote speaker, Paul Finebaum, writer and radio personality of the Paul Finebaum Radio Network. His message to students was simple: work really hard at finding a career you enjoy, and that is a key component to success.