“ Middle School Minutes”

Monday, February 26, 2024

By: 8th Grade Advanced English

Welcome to another edition of Middle School Minutes.

It is hard to believe it is the end of February already!

Not all teams at North Clay are sports related. One academic team squared off in a competition against other local schools. The Math Counts team, or as some call it, mathletes.

This team was coached by Mrs. Sarah Kissinger ( 8th Grade Math teacher). Ayden Howard, Charity Rodgers, and Lilly Greenwood represented North Clay. The competition was February 17th at Rose Hulman.

They competed in four different rounds : a 40 minute sprint round, a dash round six minutes for each of the four sections, a team round, and a countdown round. Unfortunately, Honey Creek and St. Pats were the only schools to advance. “ It says a lot that these three sacrificed early mornings to practice and a Saturday to compete. I am very proud of them,” said Kissinger.

The past couple of weeks has been busy in North Clay’s music department. Band and Choir students have had a chance to compete against other local performers.

Solo and Ensemble is where a member or a group of members perform a piece and then get awarded based on their performance score. There are different levels of solos based on the performer(s) skill level: level one being the highest. Depending on the performer’s score, they can get a medal.

Gold, silver, bronze, and participation (Gold being the best).

If one gets a gold rating on a level one solo, they can perform at State Solo and Ensemble. None of the Knights received below a Silver metal. That is very impressive noting that North Clay had sixth graders participating. North Clay is very proud of all of the performers!

The NCMS Wrestling Team has the WIC conference championship approaching quickly in two weeks. The Knights haven’t won a conference title since 2014.

However, they have high hopes this year. They recently had several wrestlers who qualified for State.

Two stand-outs, Lane Barker and Austin Brewer, are undefeated for the season. Also, there are several weight classes that only have one loss on the year. They have only lost two meets on the season. Eighth grader Ashton Boyd said, “The Knights have a great team this year full of strong and hard working wrestlers. We hope to make waves at conference and bring a WIC Championship back to Clay County.”

This week’s teacher focus is from the Technology Department. Ms. Rebecca Milner is one of the computer teachers here at North Clay Middle School. She has been teaching eleven years total, but only the past four at North Clay.

For her seventh graders, she teaches computer science. Computer science includes coding for games, an app, and HTML (website). The eighth grade course focuses on digital apps. Digital apps include the teachings for skills people use in everyday life on computers. Ms. Milner taught at Avon High School before North Clay, for seven years.

She describes herself as a very techy person, so she enjoys helping the kids with the technology that they will use in everyday life. “I enjoy working at North Clay with this age group…”

Milner says. She loves the age group of the students helping them prepare for everyday life. Needless to say, North Clay is in good hands with Ms. Milner.

All eighth graders should have received a letter from Northview containing information about high school scheduling. The counselors will be at North Clay February 26th, during Homeroom, to meet with the entire grade level.