K's Excellent Middle School Adventure

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K outside of his school with his Golden Bear Award. Middle school's over!

Three Years Down, Four to Go
It seems like only two years ago that M was wrapping up his tenure at Slauson Middle School, and now K has finished his eighth grade year in style, going through his school's graduation/promotion ceremony yesterday morning, and attending a dance party with his friends in the evening.


K and two friends played a few pieces as a string trio before the graduation ceremony began.

In the last three years, K played soccer, volleyball, and tennis, joined the Mathcounts team, participated in Math Olympiad, served on the Student Coucil, and got all A's for every quarter. Like his brother, he was one of the "morning announcements" crew, and was well-known for his ability to pronounce everyone's name correctly.

At the ceremony, K was one of four recipients of the Golden Bear award. The award reads: "Exemplifying the very best of the human spirit: kindness, integrity, perseverance, selflessness, and for exhibiting high academic standards."

This summer, K will go to Interlochen with the Pioneer Orchestra, take a few piano lessons, volunteer for Rec & Ed's "Safety Town", and play as much tennis as he can squeeze in.

We're really proud of his work in middle school and look forward to more of the same at Pioneer High School.

Congratulations, K!


K gives Language Arts teacher Mrs. Murphy a hug at the graduation ceremony.
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Catching Up for the Fall

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Let's start this off with some cats. Here we can see Rigby and Mesko wondering why I won't leave them alone so they can sleep.

School started, and I stopped adding to this blog. Here are a few things that have happened in the last 6 weeks.

M

M is the sax player the to the right as you look at this picture.
M marched at the Pioneer High Homecoming football game, his first time doing so. They did a lot of practicing, and looked great.



M also went to the Homecoming dance with his girlfriend, whose first initial is O. They both cleaned behind their ears and dressed up. I promised M he was in charge of distributing pictures. If you want one, let him know...

K
K continues to play tennis twice a week with his Rec & Ed team. He's also back for another year of Math Olympiad. This year his class has 30 students, which is his largest so far. A few other parents and I grade the homework, and it's all we can do to get done before the end of class.

MATHCOUNTS has also started up again, so he's joining that group after school once a week. Add in violin and piano lessons, and he's got a full slate.


This is the Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympiad mascot, Weso the Owl. I'm told that Weso is a girl, in case you're wondering.
Science Olympiad planning has started up again. The event will happen on May 14, 2016. We already have schools contacting us asking for more information, but there's a lot to do to prepare. This is our new website, and it will grow as we build it.

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A Graduation, and End of the Year Honors

M outside the school, on graduation day

Graduation Day
He finally did it - M completed eighth grade on Friday! There was a ceremony in the gym with all the students, and it was a packed house with parents, grandparents, and quite a few siblings who had taken the morning off school to see their brother or sister.

We were proud to watch M receive honors for being one of the top science students in the grade. He also was recognized as one of the 31 students who received all A's for every quarter from sixth through eighth grade. Last but not least, he was nominated for the "Golden Bear" award - two boys and two girls are named "Golden Bears" for being all-around great students, citizens, helpers, and just plain good people. They are nominated by teachers, and each teacher gets to vote for the winners. As they say at the Oscars, it's an honor just to be nominated, and the fact that M's teachers felt highly enough of him to nominate and vote for him makes his parents extremely proud.

During his three years at Slauson, M played soccer, volleyball, and tennis. He was a member of the Science Olympiad team for two years, the second of which saw him get a medal at the State competition. He was one of five students who made the morning announcements each day during the past year. He is going to do some volunteer work this summer at Safety Town, a class for preschoolers who will be in Kindergarten next year. He will also be going to band camp in August.

He has made a fine impression on his teachers and classmates in middle school, and we know he'll do the same next year at Pioneer High.

Great job, M!



M plays a sax solo with the Slauson Middle School Jazz Band before the graduation ceremony.

Math Olympiad Wrap-Up
On Saturday, another (long) year of Math Olympiad ended with a ceremony and lunch celebrating the hard work that all the students exhibited in the name of math education. This ended K's second year in the Math Olympiad program, and his second year of receiving a medal for being the top student in his class. His "top" status was determined by test scores, attendance, participation in class, homework, and other factors.

K has a special talent for math that he is going to continue to grow in the years to come. He was taking seventh-grade math this year as a sixth-grader, and next year will take eighth-grade math. In eighth grade, he will likely go to Pioneer High for first-hour math, then go back to middle school to take his other classes.

Congratulations to K on his high level of achievement in Math Olympiad!


K (third from left in the front row) has two medals - the one with the yellow lanyard is for being the top student in the class


K outside Tappan Middle School, where the Math Olympiad classes were held every Saturday morning during the school year.