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Homewood Show Choir Encourages Students to Speak Up
When Homewood High School competed in the Mississippi State Show Choir Contest on Feb. 2, all three of the school’s show choir groups advanced to the final round. Jason Thorne, the show choir director, said this is almost unheard of. “It’s only ever happened one other time that I know of in the nation,” he said. “And that was us in 2013. Most schools don’t have three competitive groups.” Homewood’s three groups include the top group – also known as The Network – the girls group and the prep group. The top group won first place after the final round, the girls group came in fifth, and the prep group came in fourth. Unlike a regular choir performance, the show choir’s competition performance is an 18-minute show based on a theme. “And they have all kind of extravagant costumes and costume changes within the show,” Thorne said. Inspired by the students who spoke up after the Parkland shooting in Florida last year, Thorne decided that this year’s theme for The Network would be about encouraging students to speak up and use their voices. “After the Parkland shooting, I saw those kids standing up and saying what they believed,” he said. “And they believed in a cause. And I just thought, ‘Wow. That’s really cool that they’re doing that.’ And then I started seeing adults in the media bashing them. … I think we as adults discount kids’ opinions and their thoughts.” Thorne said that this is not a political show but that he wants to encour-
MBJH Tedx Event to Feature Student Ted Talks On March 16, Mountain Brook Junior High School will host its annual Tedx program featuring talks by students. Speakers will include Caroline Allen, Hunter Anderson, Kate Barlow, Jane Grey Battle, Bickley Bowron, Ivy Cobbs, Olivia Dayhuff, Meg Dobbins, Reagan Downley, Eleanor Elkus, Brynn Hannon, Amy Beth Hudson, Amanda Jones, Emily King and Ann Catherine Stephens. The event also will highlight featured artist Ingrid Smyer and musicians Bay Matthews and Claire Lauterbach. Robbie Gibbons, Homewood
“... I want them to have something that they can kind of go, ‘You know what? My voice does count.’” JASON THORNE, HOMEWOOD SHOW CHOIR DIRECTOR
age his students to know there will be opposition to their voices if they use them. But that opposition doesn’t make their voices unimportant, he said. “I want them to leave me and not just remember music or the dance part of it,” he said. “But I want them to have something that they can kind of go, ‘You know what? My voice does count.’” The show The Network has been performing this year begins with “One Voice,” by Barry Manilow. Other songs in the show include “Land of Confusion,” by Genisis, and “I Dreamed a Dream,” from the musical “Les Misérables.” The show includes a positive force of “dreamers,” and there is a negative force that tries to silence them. “We teachers are teaching the next leaders, and we’ve got to take them seriously,” Thorne said. “It’s important.” The girls group, Legacy, has been performing a show with a theme based on the idea that the Wizard of Oz might think the grass is greener on the other side, but often home is where happiness is found. The Associate, the prep group, has been performing a show about reaching for your goals, opening with “Go the Distance” from Disney’s “Hercules.” Middle School physical education teacher and football coach, will also be speaking at the event. Gibbons, who is married to MBJH Assistant Principal Brook Gibbons, began a drastic weight loss journey when he participated in “Castaways” – an ABC reality show that aired in fall 2018. For the show, Gibbons survived 41 days on a remote island in Indonesia. Since day one on the island and after his return home, Gibbons has managed to lose 180 pounds. Tickets are $25 for general admission for the event, which will take place from 9 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. For more information, visit tedxyouthmbjh.com. – Emily Williams
MBHS’s Amber Benson Named Alabama Business Teacher of the Year By Emily Williams “Far and away the best prize life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing,” is a quote from Franklin Roosevelt that has been the foundation for Amber Benson’s career in education. Benson, a business education teacher at Mountain Brook High School, recently was recognized as the Alabama Business Education Teacher of the Year by the Alabama Business Education Association. “I desire for students to gain the confidence and motivation to find this prize in their own lives,” Benson said. Earning the title is both a high honor and a chance to reflect on everything her students and colleagues have accomplished throughout her 12 years of teaching. “The business students at Mountain Brook High School never cease to amaze me with how they step outside the box to expand their knowledge in the business industry,” Benson said. “They are the reason I am able to succeed as a teacher.” Her path to become an educator began when she was a child, though she had forgotten the dream for a while and pursued a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship and family business at Auburn University. “While (she was) in college, my mother found my childhood diary in which I wrote, ‘When I grow up I want to be a teacher!’” Benson said. “This probably came from the fact that I’m an educator’s daughter.” She took the writing as a sign to pursue a master’s and educational
Vestavia Hills City Schools Announces Construction Delays at Berry Campus, Adjusts Capital Project Timeline At a Feb. 25 Vestavia Hills Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Todd Freeman announced several changes to the school system’s capital projects timeline. Most notably, the Pizitz Middle School campus will not be opening as the Vestavia Hills High School Freshman Campus for the 2019-2020 year. The timeline change is due to delays in construction projects at the Berry campus, which previously was projected to open as the new Pizitz Middle School location at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. “The project has faced challenges because of three major factors: the unpredictable changes in a renovation of this size, our decision to replace the roof instead of patching and above average rainfall,” Freeman said in a video message.
Photo special to the Journal
Journal photo by Ingrid Howard
Rising Voices
By Ingrid Howard
Thursday, March 7, 2019 • 31
SCHOOLS
Amber Benson
specialist degrees in business education. Ever since her first year of teaching, she has been a member of the ABEA, and its community of business educators have helped expand her knowledge and challenge herself for her students. “No matter what career field a student is interested in pursuing, they will benefit from the real-world lessons learned in business education, which is what I love most about the profession I’ve chosen,” she said.
Applying Lessons
At MBHS, Benson teaches courses on business and personal finance, business principles and management. In addition to what is laid out in the lesson plan, Benson said that it has been her personal goal to mentor and motivate her students to take ownership of their learning and find ways to apply lessons they are learning in their communities. In addition, she oversees the Leadership Mountain Brook proRainfall has been the biggest obstacle, Freeman noted, as the Birmingham area has received more than 10 inches above the average rainfall over the past 90 days. Students in sixth through eighth grades zoned for Pizitz will begin the new school year on the existing campus. Freshmen will remain at Vestavia Hills High School for the entire 2019-2020 school year. Freeman stated that he expects to make a decision in the coming months regarding when the Berry campus will open. The existing Pizitz campus is projected to open to VHHS freshmen in August 2020. The timeline for Vestavia Hills Dolly
gram at the school alongside her fellow department faculty in the school’s Incubatoredu. The Incubatoredu course is entrepreneurial. Students create and fully develop their own products or services with help from real-world entrepreneurs and business experts who serve as coaches and mentors guiding student teams throughout the process. “I’m extremely grateful to teach courses I’m passionate about such as finance, leadership and entrepreneurship, but I get the most excited about teaching the time value of money concept,” Benson said. “My students often look at me crazy, but if I can give them a little motivation to start saving at a young age, I feel as though we have established an important foundation for their future.” Overseeing the Leadership Mountain Brook program, Benson works to encourage a collaborative environment between students and the Mountain Brook community by building relationships with local government and Chamber of Commerce officials as well as business leaders and community members. Those connections are then used by the students as they create and implement community service projects. According to Benson, the program showcases the essence of the authentic learning environment that she is able to provide through the Mountain Brook school system. Not only do students find a sense of ownership in the community, but Benson has cultivated one as well. “It is remarkable how the city of Mountain Brook, the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce and the Mountain Brook community freely gives of their time and resources to support their teachers and students,” Benson said. “I am motivated by the trust given to me from this community.”
‘The project has faced challenges because of three major factors: the unpredictable changes in a renovation of this size, our decision to replace the roof instead of patching and above average rainfall.’ TODD FREEMAN
Ridge, East and West elementary schools will remain the same, opening to K-5 students in August 2019. Renovations of the Dolly Ridge campus will include a classroom addition, 175 more parking spots, an expanded carpool line and a new playground. “We are excited about Dolly Ridge and anticipate the completion of the new classroom addition in late July,” Freeman said. “We do have a contingency plan to utilize all available space in the existing buildings on the campus should the new addition not be completed when school begins.” – Emily Williams