Middle School Minutes

Welcome to another edition of Middle School Minutes! It’s feeling very festive at North Clay Middle School!

It’s Christmas time at North Clay Middle School! Instead of doing the usual “12 Days of Christmas,” administrators decided to spread holiday cheer all month long by doing dress-up days and fun activities! Some of the dress up days that students participate in at the school are ugly sweater days, pajama day, winter accessory day, and more. Assistant Principal Mrs. Parsons said, “ Dress up days at NCMS gives us all an opportunity to come together building wide for fun and engaging activities that lift our spirits, bring happiness and opportunities for every student and staff member to be unified. I always enjoy seeing the creativity that each dress up day brings.” The staff has also planned some amazing events for the students. The students will get to play a game to win hot cocoa, they get to purchase items from the school’s “Candy Land,” and finally, there will be a Christmas Dinner for lunch. Happy Holidays from North Clay!

North Clay’s choir will perform on December 19th at 6:30pm, directed by choir teacher Logan Williams. Sixth grade students will sing: “Deck, Deck the Hall”; “Snow on Snow”; “Hot Chocolate”(from the Polar Express). Seventh graders will sing: “Under Winter Moon”; “African Noel ''; “Carol of the Bells.” Eighth graders will sing: “Amid the Falling Snow”; “O Christmas Tree”; “You’re a Mean One”(from The Grinch). There will be a finale closing song that all grade levels sing together, “Believe” from the Polar Express. Selected students will sing solos in some of the performed songs.

The half-way mark for the school year is here for Clay Community Schools ; that means that finals are coming near too. On December 19th , the 7th and 8th graders will begin their finals for their 1st,3rd,5th, and 7th period classes. Following that on December 20th , the students will begin their finals in the remaining even class periods. Parents will notice a column on the report card for Final Test grades. Report cards will be passed out when students return in January. Good Luck to all seventh and eighth graders on their finals!

Logan Wiliams, North Clay’s Choir teacher, is the highlighted teacher for this edition of Middle School Minutes! Mr. Williams attended Indiana State University where he earned his Bachelor's and Master’s degrees. He has taught at North Clay for three years and prevously directed two choirs at Vincennes University for a year. Mr. Williams says, “I chose to be a choir teacher because I love music, the quick connections and bonds that are made between choir members…even if you are only around people for a short amount of time.” He also says, “My favorite things about teacher choir are seeing students grow in knowledge and as a person.” Mr.Williams is more than happy to see his students grow up and change from sixth grade to eighth and even in high school.

Eighth graders learned last week that hard work pays off! The eighth grade teachers planned an incentive bowling trip. To be invited, students could have no missing assignments from this quarter. The students arrived at the Brazilian Lanes on Friday, December 8th , where they played two games. In total, there were seventy-three hard-working students in the 8th grade who were privileged to go on this trip. Eighth Grade English teacher Mrs. Nuckols said, “ The eighth grade team wanted to reward students for keeping up with their assignments during this busy time of the year.” Another incentive is planned for February.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the students and staff at North Clay Middle School!