Ending hunger one bowl at a time

Sixth grade students Brayden Hudnut, Mackenzie Talbert and Allison Wheeler work on counting the money they collected from free will donations.  (Abby Clark photo) 

by Natalie Kirton

With 13 percent of U.S. citizens living in poverty, the sixth grade SPRINT class hosted a soup dinner to raise awareness of hunger in America. The dinner, called Empty Bowls, was held on May 4 in the high school study hall from 5-7 p.m.

Community members arrived with hearty appetites and left with satisfied stomachs, both physically and emotionally knowing the money they gave for hand painted bowls would be donated to the Montezuma Food Pantry. 

Planning for the Empty Bowls event began before Christmas break. After the elementary Parent Advisory Committee provided money for needed materials, the sixth grade class went straight to work. 

Each student hand painted a rice bowl, helped coordinate details for the event, and got the word out to the community. By working so hard together, the sixth grade class raised $485 dollars for the Food Pantry. 

These students also accomplished a greater goal by helping to raise awareness of hunger in America. 

When one thinks of starving people around the world, they normally think of third-world countries and less thriving parts of the continent. Empty Bowls is a reality check that there are people in our own neighborhoods who also go to bed hungry. 

Those at the heart of this event were SPRINT students Hannah Beeken, Alana Fahlenkamp, Shane Helm, Brayden Hudnut, Grant Johnson, Tyler Meyer, Kennedy Phillips, Allison Wheeler, Cole Cameron and instructor Abby Clark, who participated in an Empty Bowls event herself during college. 

Sixth grader Grant Johnson said, “I think the event went really well. We all learned something and I would love to do it again.” 

The sixth grade class would like to thank Marie Boulton, Kris Ferguson, Debbie Iverson, Shelly Long, Liesl Roorda, Anita Seitstra, Alice Taylor and Cathe Wilson for donating the various soups for the dinner.

Students gain college experience and journalism knowledge

by Morgan Sanders

This year, journalism students are given the opportunity to have the life of a college student for five days during the summer, made possible by  the University of Iowa’s Summer Journalism Workshops. 

For 12 years, yearbook participants have attended yearbook camps through Jostens, mainly at Coe College, but these were only for yearbook. 

This is the second year Montezuma will be attending the University of Iowa Journalism camps. 

University of Iowa allows students more variety of camps in things other than just yearbook. 

The camp will be held from July 24-28. Attendees will stay in the Currier Residence Hall and will be accompanied the new English/journalism teacher, Anya Johnson.

“At first, it was all overwhelming but in the end I was glad I had the opportunity to go,” said Teona Sutfin, Blue & White designer, about the college experience last summer. 

Students made lasting friendships with people from all over the United States; some students came all the way from Washington state. Students in the 2010-2011 Journalism class have the option to attend. 

Students attending this summer are, Natalie Kirton and Morgan Sanders for Graphic Design, Rachel Ranfeld for Advanced Writers' Workshop and Cami Shaver for Photojournalism. 

Last summer, Jered Engelkind, Teona Sutfin and Alexa Wheaton attended   

Wheaton, Editor-in-Chief of Dreamcatcher said, “I enjoyed going to the journalism camp because it gave us a good start to the yearbook. It was nice to have other yearbook editors there to base ideas off each other and to come up with new ideas for the yearbook.”

Block scheduling excites students for the next school year

by Jamie Van Dee 

With everyone’s brains ticking with new ideas, we have a new junior high/ high school schedule for the 2011-2012 school year: block scheduling. 

According to Principal Brian Moretz, block scheduling will increase academic time, students will have more time with their teachers, no classes will be split over lunch, and students who go to Grinnell for Iowa Valley Community College classes won’t miss any class time at MHS. Due to some teachers being shared with the elementary, 1^st hour is the regular 45-minute class, and 5^th hour is 55 minutes. Those two classes will be held every day. 

Block classes will be held every other day - like college classes - and they are 85 minutes long. Study hall for high school students will be the advisor time held daily from 12:10 to 12:35 p.m. 

Junior high students will have study hall 5^th period everyday unless they are involved in band or vocal; then they would have study hall every other day. If students are in both, they would not have study hall, but they would have advisor time from 12:35 to 1:00 p.m. daily.  

When upcoming seniors were asked what they thought of block scheduling and if they thought it would be beneficial, their responses were: 

Cami Shaver said, “I’m really excited about it, especially because of all the freedom future seniors will have. I think it will help everyone academically because we will have time to do our work in class and ask our teachers for help.”

“I think block scheduling will give students and teachers more time to get things accomplished with having some classes every other day and some everyday,” said Andrea Farrington.

Garrett VanMaanen said, “I think it will help us in science classes, but in other classes it will be really long and boring. I think it is a good thing but I won’t know until I experience it.” 

Teachers will be training for teaching in block scheduling in August. The training will include a teachers' in-service and Moretz is looking for a person who is familiar with block scheduling to come in and talk about how to teach in a block and what kind of techniques that shoud be used. The goal with the block scheduling is to incorporate more hands-on activities. 

Young Bravettes keep making improvements

by Hope Kriegel

On April 21 the JH girls track team traveled to Belle Plaine and continued to make more improvements. The young Bravettes ran in fair weather conditions and gathered 83.5 team points for a 4^th place finish among 8 teams. 

The young team had five first place finishes on the night. Alex Brenner was strong in discus, bringing home a first place finish. The 4x200 relay that consists of Keira Blanke, Katie Maschmann, Clara Johnson, and Mackenzie James finished 12 seconds ahead of the second place team. 

The 4x100 relay team; Blanke, Mashmann, Alisha Arendt, and James ran a solid 59 seconds to also come in first. Maschmann remains undefeated in the 200-meter hurdles and James is undefeated in the open 200. 

Another highlight of the evening was Aliya Pargeon cutting eight seconds off her mile time in just one week. Maschmann also placed 3^rd in the long jump with James coming in right behind her in 4^th. 

Coach Ashley Rief commented, “Every meet the girls are going out there and trying their best and you can see that in our points. I am so proud of the girls and am looking forward to the rest of the season, hopefully with better weather.”