News Blog - Justice Thurgood Marshall Intermediate School

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News for Justice Thurgood Marshall Intermediate School

Tech Giants advance to state robotics competition

Posted: Feb 13, 2017 by Patricia Gibson, Communications Director

Last weekend, all five Marion Community Schools robotics clubs were finalists in the VEX IQ tournament in Gas City, and our Justice Intermediate School Sixth Grade Tech Giants advanced to the state finals.

>> Click here to view more photos from the tournament!

Thirty teams from around the state competed in the elementary level tournament, held at Northview Elementary School on Saturday, Feb. 11. The top 10 teams advanced to the event finals round, and five of those were Marion teams!

Two teams from Justice Intermediate School (fifth and sixth grade), along with teams from Frances Slocum, Kendall, and Riverview elementary schools, have been working for months to design and build their robots, and to practice the required skills that would be tested in the tournament.

The VEX IQ Challenge, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, provides students with open-ended robotics and research project challenges that enhance their science, technology, engineering, and math skills through hands-on, student-centered learning. The Marion robotics clubs foster teamwork, critical thinking, project management, and communication skills. Opportunities like this help prepare students to become the next generation of innovators and problem solvers!

This year’s challenge is called Crossover, and teams use their robots together with one other or alone to score points by completing specific maneuvers, as outlined by the challenge rules. The Justice Sixth Grade Tech Giants earned a Teamwork Champion Award and advanced to the state level competition, set for Feb. 25 at IUPUI in Indianapolis.

Here's a video of that final match-up in which they earned their state berth:

We are proud of these students, and of the teachers who have sponsored the robotics clubs and spent countless hours working with these students outside of regular class time. We wish the Justice Tech Giants good luck as they continue on in competition!

The Teamwork Champions! Justice Sixth Grade Tech Giants advanced to state-level competition. Pictured are Gabby Aguilar, Haden Montgomery, Alex Powell, Xavier Stewart, Beck Vermilion, and Christian Vermilion, along with Mary Miller, Justice Intermediate teacher and Tech Giants sponsor.

MCS singers featured at Circle the State with Song festival

Posted: Feb 13, 2017 by Patricia Gibson, Communications Director

Last weekend, several dozen Marion Community Schools students joined with thousands of students from across the state in the annual Circle the State with Song choral festival.

>> Click here to see more photos from the 2017 Circle the State with Song festival!

McCulloch Junior High has participated in the festival for the past several years. For the second year in a row, though, students from Justice Intermediate School and all the MCS elementary schools took part. In addition, one McCulloch student, Michael Seybold, earned the honor of singing a solo!

The festival – which is held at several different sites around the state (this year from Feb. 11 through Feb. 25) – exposes young singers to new music and gives them the chance to have a choral experience quite different from the regular school class or performance.

After weeks of practice on their own and at their schools, students from across the state come together and work with a guest clinician on the day of the performance. Nearly 5,000 students from elementary schools, middle schools, and junior high schools around the state participate in this annual festival series, which is in its 29th year. The Indiana Music Educators Association puts on the event.

Marion Community Schools’ young artists performed at the CSWS festival on Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Honeywell Center in Wabash. The students spent the day in rehearsals, and then put on a public performance in the afternoon.

"This was a great opportunity for our students," said Christina Huff, choir teacher at McCulloch Junior High School. "They held themselves to high standards, behaved professionally, and sang beautifully."

The students who participated in Circle the State With Song 2017 are:

McCulloch Junior High
Sopranos

Kari Bilbee
Tori Daehn
Jazzlyn DeBoard
Evelyn Detamore
Cassie Evans
Briana Huston
Makayla Kephart
Emma McAbee-Reher
Kaylie Nantz
Kylee O’Neil
Isis Phifer
Kaitlyn Tu

Altos

Timothy Bento
Navia Cushingberry
Mia de las Alas
Emily Fannin
Robert Herrington
Lizzie Nielander
Jessie Pickell
Amyah Richardson
Czarina Sierra
Anna Wuertley

Baritones

Marcus Bounds
Greg Johnson
Austen Mills
Alex Rayment
Michael Seybold
Jackson Vice

Justice Intermediate
Part 1 / Soprano

A’Miyah Adams
Chloe Bell-Mitchell
Nazdhia Dominguez
Brooklyn Evers
Emily Fisher
Lillia Fisher
Victoria Hardnett
Damari Harshaw
Chloe Hawkins
Alandra King
Emily Luckey
Stephany Miksch
Angel Mosier
Dessie Norwood
Destiny Reed
Ruby Saylor
D’nei Smith
Teysia Walker-Gray

Part 2 / Alto

Danika Ayers
Lalah Boyd
Lexi Colbert
Noah Compton
Shalyn DeBoard
Keionna Foard
Destiny Gillespie
Savana Harvey
Gracey Johnson
Princess Jones
Alicia LeBlanc
Kalique Malone
Greg Marble
Hailey Markley
Karli Purvis
Faith Riggs
Aidan Ruley
James Russell
Kelsie Shoup

Allen Elementary

Chloe Kaski
Christian Harland
Kinadeigh Smith

Frances Slocum Elementary

Josephine Gibson
Nevaeh Grace
Michael Herrington
Jacen Rose

Kendall Elementary

Ava Adams
Nathaniel Beck
Ethan Boogar
Ciara Caldwell
Grace Chandler
Abigail Crouch
Makayla Munday
Michelle Rasor
Colin Rayment

Riverview Elementary

Dacia Boyd
Caleb Huff
Darionna Wrigh

We’re so proud of our talented students, and of our choral and music teachers as well for the opportunities they give to our students not only at special times such as this, but every day! At Marion Community Schools, we recognize the life-changing potential of arts education, and we are continuing to invest in these important programs.

YOU can help MHS continue to innovate - vote TODAY!

Posted: Jan 19, 2017 by Patricia Gibson, Communications Director

In the past few years, the Media Center at Marion High School has undergone an amazing transformation, from a staid space with somewhat limited uses into a vibrant center for exploration, collaboration, and innovation. Now, MHS is aiming to win a grant from a national educational company to fund continued technology investments — and YOU can help us win!

From Monday, Jan. 23, through Friday, Jan. 27, a video produced by Marion High School students and staff will be posted on the Follett Challenge site, and anyone in the world can vote once per day to make us one of 10 People’s Choice video winners, a prize worth $8,000. We need you to help us earn this prize! Please make a plan to vote every day next week, and to share this opportunity with your family and friends, too!

>> CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR VIDEO AND CAST YOUR VOTE!

MHS students work on the Follett Challenge video in late December 2016. Vote once a day per email address Monday, Jan. 23, through Friday, Jan. 27.

The People’s Choice award is just the beginning, though. Your votes will also play a role in Marion High School’s chances to win goods and services from Follett Corp. worth up to $60,000. The public voting will factor in as 20 percent of our final score in the grant competition. We just can’t do this without YOU!

These prizes would enable MHS to continue the incredible reinvention of the Media Center into a 21st Century learning commons that promotes and facilitates not only technology-driven education but also collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, and more. These skills are not only important for success in the classrooms of Marion High School, but they are truly life-changing skills that will benefit our students no matter where their paths lead after graduation.

We are excited to be part of the 2017 Follett Challenge, and we hope you will enjoy our video and vote for us every day of the competition!

Our video was inspired by the smash hit musical Hamilton. You don't want to miss it! (And

Do you tweet? Click one of the links below to tweet out your favorite message:

A total of $200,000 in goods and services is up for grabs in the Follett Challenge. The 10 People’s Choice video award winners will receive $8,000 each. One semifinalist in each category (elementary, middle school, and high school) will each receive $30,000. Those winners will be announced on Feb. 28. The Grand Prize winner, chosen from the semifinalists to receive an additional $30,000, will be announced April 28.

About Follett Corp.: For more than 140 years, Follett has been a trusted partner to pre-K-12 schools and colleges. Now, Follett serves more than half of the students in the nation, working with 70,000 schools as a leading provider of education technology and services. It is the largest provider of educational materials and technology solutions to pre-K-12 schools in the nation, distributing books, textbooks, ebooks, audiobooks, and other digital resources. Follett is also one of the leading providers of integrated educational technology for physical and digital asset management, data storage and analysis, and more. To learn more about Follett’s pre-K-12 business, visit www.follettlearning.com.

Click to view our video and cast your vote! Vote every day this week!

Having trouble reaching your school by phone?

Posted: Jan 12, 2017 by Patricia Gibson, Communications Director

Marion Community Schools is transitioning to a new phone service, and we are having intermittent phone outages. If you are having trouble reaching your school building, it is likely that the phones may not be working correctly. Please reach out to us by email, or call the district office (662-2546) for assistance.

>> Click here to view the full staff directory (includes email addresses)

Girls basketball tryouts next Monday (1/9)

Posted: Jan 03, 2017 by Patricia Gibson, Communications Director

Any Justice Intermediate student who would like to play on the girls basketball team is welcome to try out next week!

Tryouts will be from 3:45 to 5:15 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 9.

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