Math department welcomes student teacher

Cory Sheeley will be student teaching with the high school math department for the duration of the school year.

by Natalie Kirton

Montezuma High School has recently welcomed a new face into its math department. Cory Sheeley, a student at William Penn University, is working under Alison Pargeon and Stacy Schultz as a student teacher in order to finish his schooling. 

Sheeley graduated from Oskaloosa Senior High School in 2006 before moving on to get his teaching degree at William Penn University. 

“I chose to become a teacher because I wasn’t successful in high school and graduated 163 of 168. I want to get kids like me, who do not care as much about school, interested in math and science. Engineering, Computer Science, and Biology are all in high demand,” said Sheeley. 

Before student teaching at Montezuma, Sheeley taught ninth grade Physical Science and  10th through 12th grade Physics at Oskaloosa Senior High School. Through these experiences, Sheeley has learned a lot about classroom management as well as the keys to having an effective and productive learning environment. 

“Students learn in different ways, and I am starting to pick up on various strategies,” said Sheeley. 

During his free time, Sheeley likes to play golf. 

“I am an avid golfer and play about 250 to 300 rounds a year. I also play in recreational leagues such as slow-pitch softball, basketball, dodgeball and flag football. I play a lot of ping-pong and ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’ as well. I am extremely competitive and will compete at anything,” said Sheeley. 

He also enjoys hanging out with his friends, as well as watching movies and shopping with his fiancé.

A fact that his students do not know about him is that he has never had a sip of alcohol in his life. He and his best friend both took a vow never to drink. 

Sheeley’s future plans include graduating from William Penn University, getting married in the summer, hopefully getting a teaching position around Oskaloosa and eventually starting a family.

Teacher Talk: Scott Stanton

by Bridgette Moore and Kayla Werner

After Scott Stanton graduated  from Monmouth College, he toured 48 states and Canada with his rock band, Kalico. They toured for five years before Stanton went into teaching music. 

Stanton first taught at the Yorkwood Community School District in Monmouth, IL. He was the choir director there for four years. 

He then moved to Price, UT  to work as the Director of Instrumental Music at Carbon County School District for seven years. 

While in Utah, he also had a job at the College of Eastern Utah as a music department chair for seven years. Stanton’s final teaching position before entering Iowa was Head of the Instrumental Music Department at Berkshire School in Sheffield, MA for three years.

He taught at two schools in Iowa before his position in Montezuma. In Oskaloosa, he taught at William Penn University as the Director of Fine Arts for three years. He spent five years as the Center Director and Administrator at Buena Vista University in Newton, IA. 

He started working with C. L. Barnhouse Music Publisher in 2000 to publish the pieces he has composed and continues to work with them today. The earliest piece of music that he remembers composing, called Tijuana Tears, was in eighth grade.

This marks the fourth year of Stanton’s teaching career at Montezuma Schools. While he was still an administrator at Buena Vista, he received a call from the principle at the time, asking if Stanton wanted to get back into teaching. 

In his free time, Stanton likes to play golf and play with his current band, ProMusica, on the weekends. 

His best experience is seeing the growth over the four years from where it was and now winning the Jazz Band Festival class 1A.

Academic fair takes place March 20

by Morgan Sanders

On Tuesday, March 20, the academic fair will be taking place in the high school gym from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.  

The academic fair is a fair in which every student in the junior high and high school is required to participate. Each student must have a project that focuses on two subject areas of study and have a project board to display their project and what they have learned. They will then write a reflection paper on their projects.

Students presented to judges on March 13 and 14 to determine whether they gain a white participation ribbon, a red ribbon or a blue ribbon. 

Students will be judged over their board organization, readability and creativity, the introduction, main idea and conclusion, if they had two disciplines and how enthusiastic about their content, eye contact and voice while presenting. 

During the academic fair from 5:00 p.m. to 7 p.m., the junior class and their parents will be having a potato bar in the cafeteria to raise funds for prom. The event will be free will donation and is open to the public.

Take a stand against hunger

by Vincent Bushong

Every year, 15 million people die from hunger-related causes. One way to help fight world hunger is by participating in the Empty Bowls program put on by the sixth grade SPRINT class. 

The SPRINT students will sell bowls and serve a soup supper for a price of ten dollars per person on March 27. Soups will be donated, and the proceeds will go to hunger fighting organizations to help end food insecurity.  

The Empty Bowls event is to take place from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. in the school’s multi-purpose room. Last year, the event brought in over $500; this year’s sixth graders set a goal of breaking $600. 

Sixth grade student Vance Bushong said, “Even though our event is small, we can make a difference.”

This project helps the students to see the importance of fighting world hunger and get a sense of what life is like beyond their own lives.

Sixth grade student Breck Goodman said, “You can’t say, ‘I’m not starving, so why should I care?’”

FFA chapter competes at Districts

by Bridgette Moore

On Saturday March 3, the Montezuma FFA was in Muscatine, Iowa, competing in Conduct of Meetings, Individual Sales, Individual Radio Broadcasting and Individual Job Interview. 

The Conduct of Meetings Team was comprised of Vincent Bushong, Clara Johnson, Alex Brenner, Cheyenne Peters, Steve Kopp, Mackenzie James and  Brittany Bender. Jack Little, Noah Sikes and Mikey Lyons were alternates. Kendra Cranston participated in Individual Sales, Nathan Wheeler participated in Individual Radio Broadcasting and Kendra Doty participated in Job Interview. 

The chapter came home with second in Conduct of Meetings, third in Individual Sales and Individual Radio Broadcasting and fourth in Individual Job Interview.

 Conduct of Meetings will move onto the FFA State Convention, held on April 22 in Ames, Iowa. 

Other teams competing at State are Business Management, Market Plan, Ag Communication and Ag Sales.

Band takes first at Indian Hills Jazz Festival

Luke Goodman (l) and Elijah Bryan (r) practice for the Indian Hills Jazz Festival on Feb. 25 where they earned first place in the 1A Division.

by Vincent Bushong

Montezuma showed its abilities in the arts by winning the 1A division of the annual Indian Hills Jazz Festival on Saturday, Feb. 25. 

Under the direction of Scott Stanton, Montezuma’s high school band competed against two other 1A schools, Van Meter and Moulton-Udell, for the title. This year’s festival was held in Ottumwa’s Bridgeview Center. 

The Montezuma band, which acts as the school’s concert, rock, jazz and pep band, performed three songs at the festival: “Swing Machine” by Larry Neeck, “Deja Blues” by Scott Stanton and “Abaco” by Scott Stanton. 

A panel of three judges critiqued the performance based on the categories of rhythm, ensemble, interpretation, improvisation and programming and rated the band on a scale of one to four, with one meaning excellence.

“The band performed admirably; we peaked at the right time,” Stanton said. “Other directors and adult musicians who have heard our band couldn’t believe how much we’ve grown in the past four years. We’ll keep building upon our success for future years of performance.”

The members of the award-winning band included seniors Elizabeth Ostrem, Natalie Wheeler and Nathan Wheeler; juniors Mariah Hirsch, Norman Martin, Colton Tompkins and  Kayla Werner; sophomore   Elijah Bryan; freshmen Vincent Bushong, Jade Crandall, Seth Fahlenkamp, Luke Goodman, Clara Johnson, Trevor Moyer, Sidney Roorda and Shayla Townsend; and eighth grader Jake Shaver.    

In addition to winning the 1A division overall, Montezuma was awarded an honorable mention for best soloist award. The recipient of the award was Elijah Bryan, one of the band’s guitar players.

“There were many other great soloists in the 1A division,” Bryan said. “I was excited to receive the prize.”

Graduates return for panel

by Kayla Werner

On March 9, at 1:00 p.m., six to eight past Montezuma graduates and one college representative will be coming to participate in a college panel for the senior class. 

Sarah Laudner, Parallel Porgram Coordinator; Earlene Taylor, OASIS instructor; and John Gallagher, guidance counselor, are in charge of this event. 

The graduates and the representative will be speaking to this year’s seniors about what to expect from college and what challenges they could be facing as they prepare for their futures. 

The team will be bringing in graduates who went to a community college and a four-year college,  students who transferred schools and students who dropped out of college to show  possible paths that students may end up taking once they leave Montezuma. 

The college panel was created so  that this year’s seniors will feel more prepared for the upcoming year after hearing from the former Montezuma students and being able to ask them questions. They want the past graduates to give some insight on college life to the seniors.  By presenting this panel, the goal is to increase the number of students that stay in college instead of dropping out. 

Gallagher said, “We are trying to help seniors understand they will need to advocate for themselves and expect adversity and deal with it.”

Individual speech participants move on to State

by Bridgette Moore

On Saturday, Feb. 25, the District Individual Speech Contest was held in Oskaloosa. There were 23 performers, and 17 entries received Division “I” ratings.

The categories that the students participated in were literary program, storytelling, poetry, acting, spontaneous speaking, improvisational acting and prose. 

The students that participate in Individual Speech learn the art of speaking in front of an audience and building confidence. 

Cassie Corbin, a junior, said, “Individual Speech benefits all students because it helps them feel more comfortable talking in front of people.” 

The performers that received a Division “I” rating were Aly James, Macy Taylor, and Destiny Romberg in literary program; Shena Bryan and Clara Johnson in storytelling; Cassie Corbin in poetry; Karah Hansen, Alyssa Lyddon, Destiny Romberg and Macy Taylor in acting; Zach Gibson, Niall Lyons and Seth Fahlenkamp in improvisational acting; Seth Fahlenkamp in spontaneous speaking; and Mariah Hirsch, Abbi Nelson and Luke Goodman in prose. 

The performers that received a Division “II” rating were Heaven Lorenz in poetry and acting, Abbie Wedgewood and Kaylene Corbin in prose and Matt Armstrong and Luke Goodman in improvisational acting.

The performers who received a Division “I” rating will be performing at the State Individual Speech competition in Clinton, on Saturday, March 10.