7th Grade Team and MLK Parade Wrap-Up:
This month's grade level spotlight is our 7th grade team. Our seventh grade team is: Mr. Oksen, Mrs. Austin ,Mrs. Crews, Ms. Gray ,Ms. Gordon ,Ms. Howard-Mott ,Mr. Wilson Mr. Williams ,Mrs. Murrisky-Hayes ,Ms. Holmes ,Ms. Butler, and Including Mrs. Guthrie, who is the teams amazing 7th grade school counselor. This 7th grade team is having an awesome year leading their students a positive direction to being ready for 8th Grade. Mr. Swanson has done a wonderful job as the 7th grade Principal and has brought a tremendous vision to our school's community.
My article is about last month’s MLK parade. I interviewed a fabulous 7th grade ELA teacher, Ms. Butler, who was in charge of getting Williston to march in the MLK parade. Here is what I asked Ms. Butler:
How does Williston contribute to the parade?
Ms. Butler: We have a proud legacy in the city. Wilmington as the Black school were the only accredited black high schools in the area for 100 years. So we are honoring the legacy.
We have a special connection with Martin Luther King because he was supposed to be here at Williston in April.
The 4th, 1968 when he was assassinated, he was supposed to be here for a voting drive and instead he went to Memphis. So that's a connection we have. So we honor in that way we are standing for what he stood for. You know which is equity and equality in our country So we showed up to be a part of that celebration.
Thank you, Ms. Butler, for all that you do for Williston and for making sure Williston represented!
Written By: Danny Martinez
Sam Schwarz, Rodney Batts, Naurice Dukes, Victor Bonilla, and Dallas Bowers
The Super Bowl is a staple of sports in the USA. As prices are skyrocketing this year, we still wanted to find out peoples opinions on which team will win the Super Bowl. Most of the students that we interviewed thought that the 49ers would win, but some of them voted for the chiefs. The students that voted for Chiefs were unfortunately correct and the kids that voted for 49ers were incorrect. The Chiefs won and the score was 25-22. Those who picked the 49ers were upset because they lost, but there's still hope for next year. The Chiefs had players that played extremely well like Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce while The 49ers had players who did great like Christan Mccaffrey, and Brock Prudy. This truly shows just how much the NFL was on a decline of viewers because they needed Taylor Swift to have a ton of her fans buy chiefs merch.
Favorite foods (in order):
Wings, Pizza, Nachos, Buffalo Chicken dip, Rice
Which team do most of Williston think will win?
Kansas City Chiefs: 13
San Francisco 49ers: 28
Commercials: Top 50 Super Bowl commercials
Favorite SB commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vEEVNAOFFY Sling Baby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6JjyRhfjOE (Super Bowl 100 Commercial) Cake Fumble
Clubs at Williston
Williston clubs -
Clubs are good for giving you relief from all the expectations at school while still being productive.
You may even gain things like Communication skills, Creative thinking, and a lot of skill development from joining clubs.
At our school, Williston Middle, We have different clubs here like Garden club, Rockemy, Science olympiad, and Leadership club.
You may be wondering what those clubs are, so let's talk about them!
First is the Garden club, where you can do all kinds of gardening like planting, watering, and even cooking. If you like things like cooking and gardening this club would be perfect for students.
Next is Rockemy with Ms.Rickanek, Rockemy is a Scientific, Engineering, and Creative club made for the open minded students who love competitions and building. Rockemy lets you express yourself and put yourself and put yourself to the challenge with others from your school and more.
Also there's Science Olympiad ran by Mrs.Meno, Science Olympiad is a fun and engaging way for our students to learn about S.T.E.M, which is science, technology, engineering, and math . Students prepare to compete against other Science Olympiad teams. There are 23 events. The events are based on Life, Personal & Social Science, Earth & Space Science, Physical Science & Chemistry, Technology & Engineering, Inquiry & Nature of Science. So yes there are clubs to choose from at our school and hopeful rising students out there decide join these clubs!
By: Ashanti, and Malia
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We decided to interview our cool art teacher, Ms. Sargent, because she helps Williston students get interested in art. Here is a little information about her:
From Ms. Sargent:
My father was an artist so I had a wonderfully creative influence my entire young life. He built my sister and I small easels so that we could draw and paint while he worked. He was a brilliant artist. Like him, I loved challenging myself to create realistic portraits and landscapes. I loved drawing butterflies and hands holding flowers. I loved getting all the details just right. After high school, I went to UNCW where I double-majored in Fine Arts and English with an additional certificate in professional writing. I wanted to travel the world and document my adventures with photography and journalism. After I graduated, I moved to Australia for a couple of years where I studied creative nonfiction writing and painted the beautiful scenery all around me. I lived in Queensland, which is situated twenty minutes from the Australian rainforest and very close to the great barrier reef. I sold a series of paintings featuring the wildlife that populated the reef. My favorite was a giant painting of a sea turtle swimming after a school of baby barracudas I chased down on one of many snorkeling expeditions. I paint with acrylic paints, but always draw everything out with a pencil first. Realistic painting is very time-consuming, so I mainly do commissioned pieces for family and friends these days. I ran a gallery for a couple of years before going into teaching. I love my job because I get to inspire young artists to develop their talents and be creative every day. Being a teacher is a wonderful job and it allows me to spend as much of my freetime with my own child as possible, since we share the same schedule. I felt like I was missing out on too much working late hours at my previous job. I chose Williston because this is a key developmental stage in children's lives, and I wanted to be a part of making it a positive one. Art might not be for everyone, but it can provide a wonderful escape into the world of beauty and creativity and mindfulness if it is given a chance.
Thank you for the opportunity to share!
We love you, Ms. Sargent! Thank you for inspiring future artists!
By Danny and Steve
Disability Awareness Month-March
By, Dae Bracht
For the year 2024, March is the month of awareness for Disabilities, and the official color for this awareness month is orange! This month we are reminded that despite someone's abilities, they should be respected and treated the same as someone else. We are shining a light on the values of those with developmental disabilities. The purpose is to bring attention to the perspectives, and experiences of the ones who although are different, have wonderful achievements we should value. This entire month is dedicated to those who are different, yet the same. Everyone is human, and everyone deserves to be appreciated. So throughout the country there are multiple ways to be involved in your communities. This ranges from participating in local events, supporting various organizations, engaging with individuals with developmental disabilities, and educating and advocating for those in your communities. This month originated back to 1987, and is celebrated annually to include, advocate, and understand developmental disabilities. Although those might be different, we are the same. Everyone should be valued and respected. At the end of the day, your differences come down to who you chose to be. Appreciate, don’t discriminate.
This week the entire school wore BLUE SHIRTS to recognize student inclusion and including students of all abilities at Williston and all schools in the USA.
Meaning of saying: If the weather started badly/stormy/chaotic at the beginning of march, the weather should be calm towards the end of march and into april.
Origin; There are no results as to where the saying may have come from or when it was even made, the only thing that may be known is that it was more of ancestral beliefs. They believed that spirits could affect the weather adversely. One of these beliefs were that there should be a balance in weather & life. March is a really indecisive month when it comes to choosing only one main atmospheric condition. Which also led ancestors to believe that based on bad spirits , march would go as it was influenced by these spirits.
Age: unknown
Aniya Allen a 7th grade band student
Baritone
How long have you been playing? A year and a half
Do you plan on still playing in high school? Yes
What's your favorite thing about the band? Playing my instrument and playing songs
When did you know you liked Band? In the 5th grade
Have you ever thought about quitting the band, if so then why? No
Who taught you? Mr Hinson
Why did you join the band? I wanted too and my friends were joining also
By Shelby Blake and Brennanh
Go Positive Williston Students
I am not sure if you are listening to our AM announcements or not but you should read and listen to this! Mr. Mortenson is changing our culture with your support. Each day students are doing different things to help their teachers and it's thanks to the positive referrals. So when you see Mr. Mortenson thank him for the change in making our school focus on the good in life,."Hey students lets get more positive referrals and not the other one!"
By Samuel Calderon