Baseball Tryouts

At our school Logan Elm we have baseball tryouts. During baseball tryouts you tryout to make the team like in any sport. Whenever you tryout you normally go to the position that you are best at, so then the coach will see how good you are and pick you. Our 7th grade baseball coach is keeping 12 people on the team. The years before you played for your elementary school team. Logan elm has three elementary schools. Laurelville, Pickaway, and Washington. Whenever you still play for the elementary team there are different levels. The first level would be K-2, the next would be 1-2 , then it would be 3-4, and last but not least 5-6. Therefore those are some of the things about Logan elm.

The last two years for the elementary schools the 5-6 grade Laurelville team has won the championships, but now this year we combine all of the elementary school teams and that’s why the school only keeps 12 so everybody can have playing time. Also the biggest thing about 7th grade is now scouts for college watch to see how good you are. Most of the time people keep stats. My parents this year if I make the team are going to keep stats for me so I can study and see what I need to work on. Another big thing is you might not make the team for the next year even though you made the team from the previous year. So that is why I recommend taking lessons for whatever sport you play. Like I do for baseball. It doesn’t have to be baseball, it can be basketball, football, soccer or whatever you play. Therefore that is a little about Logan Elm baseball and tryouts.

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February 13

Valentine’s Day- Its Meaning, and Its History

So Valentine’s Day. Most of us know what this day/ holiday is, but how many of us know what it is truly about or where it is derived from? Today I’m going to be explaining Valentine’s Day, its history and how it is celebrated here at McDowell.

When most of us think about Valentine’s Day, we tend to think of love, and getting each other gifts and romance and all of that other… stuff. Did you know that Valentine’s Day is named after a person, or why it’s celebrated today? Well today’s blog post will cover all of that.

Starting off, what is the back story behind Valentine’s Day? To start, this holiday originated in a Roman festival, Lupercalia. This festival celebrated the coming of Spring, and held a lottery to pair men and women. Later a pope replaced Lupercalia with the title of St. Valentine’s Day. It later became a day to celebrate love in the 14th century and up. The most popular legend states that this title came from a priest named St. Valentine, whom was a priest that defied the emperor of Rome’s orders and married couples so the husbands could be spared from the war. That is the reason that this day is associated with love.

In McDowell, we celebrate Valentine’s Day by taking a compatibility test, which is a survey that takes your results and tells you your match. We also celebrate by doing a few activities like line graphs and such. We also have the option to buy candy for someone. Apart from the past and modern concept, this is how McDowell celebrates Valentine’s Day.

If you want to find out some more info on Valentine’s Day, then check out the link. Valentine’s Day

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January 31

Julia-Techy chapter 1

freephotocc / Pixabay

This is a original chapter that I made for a book series that I am working on called Techy. Techy is a book series about a 19 year old who works at a cafe. The 19 year olds name is Roco. Roco really hates his job But he cant quit his job because he does not have a lot of money and he lives on his won. Roco really wants to go to college but he cant at the slow rate hes making money. But then one miserable day Roco gets the opportunity of a life time.

Have you ever watched a “HALLMARK” movie? You know one of the ones at Christmas time where there’s a nice calm little town. The little town has a nice bakery or something like that. That cute little bakery is never packed and it’s always so calm and quiet!

WELL THAT’S NOT MY LITTLE TOWNS CAFE/BAKERY OR WHATEVER!

“Please calm down!” I said “You will get your drink soon, I promise!” This is the reality of my small towns “nice” cafe. Since there’s no other cafe/bakery’s our place is always busy. A ton of customers were yelling at me at the same time for their drink.“Hey!” I yelled at our baristas whatever that means. “Does someone want to work the register? All these Karen’s are going to LITERALLY kill me!” “NO!” All the baristas yelled at the same time.

…………..

“ I don’t see what you think is so special about that curly haired kid.” Said my assistant. “He’s special, you’ll see” I said. I closed my laptop and stood up. I took one last glance at the curly haired kid. “We really need him you’ll see.” I said quietly.

…………..

Man being a barista is so hard! My best friend really has it easy! All he has to do its work the register and take orders. Well at least my shift is FINALLY over. I am exhausted. I went into the break room to grab my keys from my locker.

But then I saw something on the floor. Oh no what is it? A crocodile, alligator, a HUGE spider? Oh no I hate spiders! They are so creepy with all of their legs and their eyes! What should I do? Should I turn on the light? Do I really want to see what it is?

After much hesitation, I turned on the light! I screamed in terror at what I saw.

………………

I was lying on the floor when I heard a scream. Oh no there’s probably a spider and it scared Thomas. “DUDE OH NO! PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE NOT DEAD!” Thomas screamed in terror. Thomas rolled me onto my back.

“Calm down” I said quietly, ” I’m just taking a nap.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m tired I don’t have time for this Thomas. Working the cash register is the WORST,” I said with an annoyed tone. “Sorry you just looked so…..you know …dead!” He said. I jumped up on my feet. “I really need and want to go home. Bye Thomas.” “Bye?” He said questionably. My job can be really weird sometimes. I just wanted to take a nap.

…………………..

I heard the keys jingling in the door.”You ready?” I whispered to my assistant. My assistant gave me a big smile. “Yup I hope this “Roco” is ready” he said.

…………………..

Category: Braves, McDowell, misc., Student Showcase | 1 Comment

January 29

Clubs – Scotty

Here at McDowell middle school we have many clubs. Any student from McDowell has to join a club of their choice and participate in them every month. There is a large variety of clubs to choose from all fitting in different categories.

The list of the clubs we have and what they are is here:

Agriculture, a club dedicated towards farming and the science of farming.
Art, a club dedicated to drawing, painting, and sculpting, this may include information on said subjects.
Board games, a club for playing all types of board games and having a good time. Book club, a club aimed toward reading books and sharing your book with other members.
Community service, a club dedicated to helping the community they can have many tasks to complete and they all go to a good cause.
Creative writing, in this club you would write a series literative writings and share with each other. Dance/music/singing club, this is all about fun, whether that would be dancing, singing, or listening to music.
Debate cub, in this club you will research and learn about controversial topics then argue your point about them.
Design/engineering club, if you were in this club you would learn and create new ideas about engineering. Home ec, in this club you will learn about multiple household tasks such as sewing, knitting, and many other tasks.
Improv/drama, here you learn about and do plays this is a club where everyone will have a part. Intramural sports, to join this club you cannot be playing a current sport such as basketball, wrestling, etc. This club is about multiple sports that you will learn how to play with each other.
Junior naturalists, this club is focused mainly on nature and exploring and learning about local or faraway wildlife.
Kindness club, this club is all about being nice to others and helping each other out, this can be toward a large series of students that need to be helped.
Personal fitness, this club is all about keeping yourself in shape, here you will do many physical activities such as jogging.
Relaxation club, this club is the opposite of personal fitness club, here you can lie down, relax, and have a good time.
Spanish club, here you will learn about the Spanish language, this can help prepare you for future Spanish classes in highschool, and maybe college.
Technology club, in this club you will be learning about the wonders of technology, whether it would be learning code such as Javascript, C, or Python, you will be shown how modern day items work like TVs or PCs.
Last but not least, yearbook club, in this club you will collect information and achievements from students and staff at McDowell, and make this year’s yearbook.

Those were the many clubs of McDowell, us students here would be glad to infrom you more about our clubs so if you have a question about our clubs, ask one of our students! I hope you learned something about McDowell and have a great day!

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January 24

Cheerleading

Here at McDowell , the 7th and 8th grade cheer squad is like a family. Making memories during team meal, choking on croutons while laughing at each others jokes and funny comments. We’re always there for each other, putting in each others bows (it’s a very difficult art to master), and asking “First or second button?” when helping each other button our skirts (also difficult)

Cheerleading is tons of fun but it’s also a lot of hard work. We work hard at practices, learning new cheers and perfecting our stunts. Stunting is one of our favorite and most difficult things we do, and we have to make sure we do it right or else we could drop our flyer (the person that is help up in the air) which could result in serious injury of the flyer or the bases, backspots, or frontspots (the people that hold her in the air). All of the struggle is made up for by all of the fun we have cheering at the basketball games, and on the joyful bus rides back to the school after each away game.

Our squad is definitely not perfect, we mess up and have conflicts, but we always work it out. We have so much fun together we are more like sisters than friends.

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November 26

Featured Student Blogs

We recently completed Week 7 of the Student Blogging Challenge and my students wrote about a favorite holiday or the holidays that they celebrate throughout the year. These students did an exceptional job on their post:

Lindsay’s Lounge

Abigail’s Questionable Statements

Brett’s Breathtaking Blog

Ella’s Site

Maggie’ s Spectacular Site

I encourage you to check out their Week 7 posts and leave a comment for them.

Category: Braves, McDowell, stubc, Student Blogging Challenge, Student Showcase | LEAVE A COMMENT

November 22

Our Holidays and Celebrations

For the Week 7 Blogging Challenge, I asked my students to complete Task #1, to describe a favorite family holiday or celebration. Since we live in the United States (Ohio), we realize that there may be some things that we celebrate with our families that are not celebrated in other areas of the world, or others may celebrate the same holiday, but in a different manner. To help our visitors to understand how they celebrate with their families, I asked my students to share their favorite on a Flipgrid video.

We would love to hear about YOUR favorite holiday and how you celebrate with your family. You can leave a note in the comments, or if you’d like, you can create a short video on the Flipgrid.

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November 15

Fun with Emojis-Week 6 Challenge

For this week’s challenge, I gave my students the choice of which task they would like to complete with Emojis. They seemed to enjoy this week’s challenge quite a bit! All did a great job, but here are a few I chose to feature:

Feel free to see what they created with Emojis this week!

Category: McDowell, stubc, Student Blogging Challenge, Student Showcase | LEAVE A COMMENT

November 4

Rock, Paper, Scissors Fun!

On Friday, Nov. 1st, McDowell Student Council held our very first Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament! The tournament was held in order to raise money to donate for our local veterans in need. Students paid $1 to enter the tournament and could pay an additional $1 to get a “2nd chance” to stay in the tournament. We had 82 students participating in the event and the other 7th and 8th graders were cheering them on!

We have collected $160 so far to donate to veterans and will be continuing to collect donations throughout the week.

The winners, Lance and Delsin, received gift cards, shirts and candy.

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November 1

Student Blog Showcase

We just finished Week 4 of the Student Blogging Challenge. This week was a Free Choice week and students were able to create a blog post on a topic of their choice. For my Free Choice, I decided to feature some of the great work my students have been doing on their blogs. I asked my students to suggest a few of their classmates’ blog posts to showcase, and here are their suggestions:

Gena has written a nice post suggesting things to do in New York City. Blaine had fun with creating a snowman image for the Week 3 Challenge. Evey argues why Minecraft and Fortnite should not be compared. Maddox tells about his favorite sport and Ella offers some great book suggestions.

Visit their blogs and leave them a comment!