Media Festival Winners, Battle of the Books 2nd place

Hi everyone! We have great news to share from the CCSD Battle of the Books and The Clarke County Media Festival.

The CMS Battle of the Books Team including Katie Googe, Ariel Santillian, Nida Javaid, Hendley Landers, and Alex Dominicali placed 2nd at the district competition yesterday.

The other great news is that we had several students win at the school level with amazing projects, and many of our students placed at the CCSD Media Festival. The first place winners' projects will move on to the International Student Media Festival in Orlando, Florida. I am working on uploading all of the projects to YouTube for families and friends to view. Here's the link http://www.youtube.com/mrshinger Below is a list of our winners:

1st place: (There is a four-way tie) Mattie Jasiulevicius, Clarke Middle: Women’s Abuse, Dory MacMillan, Clarke Middle: 1 Out of 8, Matthew Dellaria, Clarke Middle: The Truth, Hector Martinez & Jesus Medina, Clarke Middle: Natural Disaster
2nd place: Brionna Hall, Clarke Middle: Preventable Diseases
3rd place: Katie Google, Clarke Middle: Burning Dinner

I hope you have a great weekend!

Mrs. Hinger

Battle of the Books 2008 Round 1

Yesterday, we had our first three, of the many Battle of the Books Competitions that will take place in the next two weeks! We had heated battles in all three grade levels. I am very proud of all participants; the students were well prepared and very competitive this year!

And the grade level winners were:

6th grade Team—Jenny A., Geneva H., Isabella Z-J., Aurora F., Josefine S.

7th grade Team—Katie G., Ariel S., Nida J., Hendley L.

8th grade Team—Theo K., Orion M-H., Jonathan M.

The school Battle of the Books will take place on Monday morning during ELT (8:35-9:30) in the media center!

In case you are not familiar with Battle of the Books, I'll give you a quick description. Students have an opportunity to form a team and read ten books over the course of the school year. Then, in April compete first, against teams at their own grade level and then, at the school level and eventually, at the district level to answer 20 questions about the books. The team that answers the most questions correctly moves on to the next of each of these levels.

The teams listed above will compete Monday morning during ELT in order to win an opportunity to advance to the district level competition held at the Athens Public Library on Thursday of next week!

Come and see the Book Battle fun at CMS or the Athens Public Library next week! I'll be back on the blog next week with the results of the school and the district competition!

Mrs. Hinger

I'm back, YA blogs, Wake and the new Maximum Ride

Hi everyone,

It's been a sad month. First, my husband's grandmother passed away, and as we were leaving to attend her funeral in West Virginia, my own grandmother suffered a stroke. We attended John's grandmother's funeral and returned to spend the last days of my grandmother's life with her.

It's a strange feeling to know someone is going to die very soon. I told my grandmother how much I loved her one last time, as I watch her drift away. When my father died suddenly almost 17 years ago, I didn't have this chance. I wonder how it would have changed my life if I could have spoken to him knowing he only had a few days to left.

While all of this was going on, I tried to read to take my mind off things, but that didn't work out because everything I picked up seemed to be sad. Finally though, after lots of sifting through sad books, I ended up finding this quirky little book called Wake. The book, written by Lisa McMann, is a little paranormal and a little mystery. The main character is a girl who has her own share of problems but gets pulled into other people's by seeing their dreams. It's CRAZY. I loved the book! I have a review copy in the media center if you want to borrow it. I plan to order a copy for the fall.



Also, I read Patterson's 7th Heaven over spring break. It's from his adult mystery collection, but his latest in the Maximum Ride YA series just came out as well. I haven't read it myself since Ms. Hyers and Casey D. hijacked it from the media center as soon as it came in. Now that I have my hands back on it, I'll let you know what I think soon.

Did you know that there are many Young Adult Literature (YA) blogs out in the wide world of the Internet? If you like to find new and interesting books to read, this is a cool place to look for suggestions. I've been subscribing to one called The Page Flipper for a while and recently answered the author's request to do an interview with someone with a "bookish" job. She is really cool and a teenager just like you guys! I'm going to connect her blog to mine so that you can find her easily.

See you soon!
Mrs. Hinger