Middle School Minutes

Welcome to another edition of Middle School Minutes! We just concluded Fall Break and are ready to get going with the Quarter Two Grading Period.

Canvas is Clay Community Schools’ Learning Platform. Students are able to access their classes and assignments. The corporation has made some significant changes to all of the teachers’ canvas pages to help the students, as well as the parents, navigate the pages easier. Canvas was getting hard for the parents to locate where the assignments were that their children needed to complete. So, all teachers at North Clay have the same “Home” page that helps students get around each module. Every page also has the dates of each week on a grid that will help parents know what week the students have completed. All weeks that have been completed are still active links, so if your child has missing assignments from a specific week they can go back to complete their work.

The Nature Bowl is an annual field trip that the seventh graders take every year. The seventh grade science teachers, Mr. Sheets and Mr. Pell, take the students on this trip sponsored by the Clay County Soil and Water Conservation District. This is held at the Clay County 4-H Fairgrounds for both North Clay and Clay City students.The students learn about many things including water conservation, invasive species, recycling, ect. Mr. Sheets states, “My favorite part of the Nature Bowl is seeing the teams compete against each other and trying to finish in the top ten. I think students like being outdoors at the Nature Bowl and being able to participate in a learning activity that is outside the regular school setting.” The students had a beautiful day learning outside!

North Clay’s Fall Sports just concluded with successful records.The 7th and 8th grade volleyball teams, Coached by Alisha Osborn (8th) and Stacy Dotson (7th), had a great season. Both grades went 23-0 and won the WIC championships. They worked tremendously hard this season. The 8th graders only went to three sets in two games. One against St. Pats Middle School, and the other against South Vermillion. The 7th graders won every game in two sets with forty-eight straight wins by the end of the season. Northview Volleyball has a lot to look forward to in the future!

The seventh and eighth grade football teams both had an amazing season this year. The eighth grade team went 8-0 with an undefeated season, while the seventh grade team went 7-1. The seventh graders put up a good fight, but lost to the Linton Miners with a score of 6-0, ruining their undefeated season record. Coach Nathan Hopf commented on the season, “ Both teams showed improvement all year and really improved on their knowledge of the game and their own personal skill sets. Good luck to 8th graders moving onto the high school program!”

Molly Tipton, a former sixth grade English teacher, has officially moved up to seventh grade English. She states, “ I moved from 6th grade to 7th grade because I was ready for a change.” Mrs.Tipton’s favorite quote is : “To improve is to change” -Winston Churchill. She believes that one of the major differences she has noticed between the two grades is that the seventh graders are more mature and already know the expectations for North Clay Middle School. That means she has to spend less time organizing, which leaves students with more time to learn. She also comments that she is very excited about teaching the literature this year because she gets to help the students learn how to relate short stories to their own lives.