Scars from the Tornado (9 page)

In the
afternoon, I went to technology, reading, and comm. arts. I was still shy and
hesitant to raise my hand, but the teachers were really helpful and tried to
include me as much as they could. Finally, the bell rang at the end of seventh
hour. My first day of school was over at last. I went outside to wait for my
mom to pick me up. Before too long, she arrived, and I got in the car. “So, how
was your first day?” she asked. I thought about the question for a while. I had
been nervous and had some problems, but I’d also met tons of nice people and
some great teachers. The school had looked nice, and the classes had been both
fun and educational. Finally, I decided on an answer, “Wonderful,” I replied.

Sarah
Peterson was a seventh grader during the 2011-2012 school year.

FIELD DAY A
SUCCESS

BY
M
EGAN
H
ICKEY

This year the
teachers of East Middle School decided to do an experiment. This year unlike
the past few years at East the students earned their right for a field day.

"I like
how the students earned the amount of time by keeping the lunchroom and
hallways clean," said eighth grader Jennifer Nguyen. This year the eighth
graders came out on top by earning an hour playing the fun-filled games, and an
exclusive game that no other grade received.

In honor of the
eighth grade teacher, Mr. Brian
Neugebauer
because of
the stuffed animal angry bird named
Pepe
. Mrs.
Crystal Stokes' class created the very green pigs out of a hula-hoop covered in
green plastic and homemade faces. The point of the game was to toss three
beanbags through the hole in the green pig. This game seemed to be the most
popular out of the five choices.

"My
favorite was the egg relay," says the sixth grader Brianna Hickey. The
eighth graders also received a special treat of ice cream sandwiches which was
Jennifer Nguyen's favorite part of the of the field day event.

Overall, this
was a success and hopefully it will be a recurring event.
 

Megan
Hickey was an eighth grader during the 2011-2012 school year.

QUIZ BOWL
ENDS WITH FAMILY FUN NIGHT

BY
A
MY
K
OCH

Last Tuesday,
the Quiz Bowl had its last meet. It was parents against teachers against
students.

The six rounds
of questions frustrated and annoyed the contestants, but with each correct
answer, they let out a whoop of excitement.

After the rounds
were over, the final scores were tallied and announced. All the teams waited in
anticipation as first place was announced.

“The Misfits!”
one of our parent groups let out cheers as they accepted the “Nobel East
Prize.” Our other two parent groups and one former student group took second,
third and fourth place and the teacher group took fifth. In sixth place, our
own Quiz Bowl kids cheered sarcastically and high-fived each other on their 26
points.

Jennifer
Nguyen said, “It was very exciting and mind-blowing at the same time! I’ll
definitely miss the EMS Quiz Bowl next year.”

Overall, the
night was a blast and all the contestants are excited to come back next year
for another shot at the “Nobel East Prize!”

Amy Koch
was an eighth grader during the 2011-2012 school year and served as Journalism
Club co-editor.

TECHNOLYMPICS

BY
J
ENNIFER
N
GUYEN

Last Thursday,
April 26, the first ever East Middle School
Technolympics
were held in the EMS gym! Students attended the technology related event
throughout the school day. From first to third hour, eighth graders took turns
playing the cool, tech games set up. From third to fifth hour, seventh graders
had their share of fun in the gym. And lastly, from fifth to seventh hour, the
sixth graders continued battling for total victory in the different
events/games.

When students
arrived in the Pitt State remodeled gym, they were divided into groups of
twenty-four. From there, they were divided into teams of twelve from the
twenty-four people. Each team was assigned a team captain and a team card,
stating the team color and number. After this, the fun began.

The teams
traveled together from event to event, rotating every few minutes. The overall
goal was to get a better score than the other teams and conquer a medal in the
events for your team. Different events included wheelchair racing, hover
crafting, and boat racing.

At the end, a
ceremony was held in which a third, second, and first place medal was awarded
to team captains for winning or scoring the highest in certain events. Overall,
the time spent in the
Technolympics
was very
exciting, fun, and informing at the same time. Eighth grader Chris Springer
commented on the event saying, “It was pretty cool.” Christi Montgomery,
another eighth grader said, “It was really interesting.”

EMS EXCELS
AT JOPLIN TECHNOLOGY FAIR

EMS
CAPTURES
 
THREE
AWARDS
AT
JOPLIN
TECHNOLOGY
FAIR

East Middle
School had its best showing ever at the Joplin Schools Technology Fair Monday night,
winning two first places and one second place, in competition with the other
two Joplin middle schools and Joplin High School.

The East
Middle School Journalism Club took first place in the communications category
with this website, East Middle School Roundabout, as well as the club's
Facebook page, YouTube channel, and the book the club is putting together about
the Joplin Tornado and our first year attending school in a warehouse.

The
Journalism Club was represented by co-editors Jennifer Nguyen and Amy Koch,
eighth graders
Karly
Weber, Darin Clark,
Alize
Iverson, and Megan Hickey, and sixth grader Katy
Brown
.

The other
first place came in the collaboration category, thanks to the work done by
eighth graders in Mr. Randy Turner's eighth grade communication arts class on
the third quarter civil rights research project. Keisha
Grunden
,
Stella
Ndauwa
, Jamie Sullivan, Megan Hickey, and
Jennifer Nguyen represented the class, showing the internet research, e-mail
contact with those connected with the civil rights movement, and their work on
the website Room 210 Civil Rights, which features research papers and videos
from the project. The technology aspect of the project was also represented by
Stella
Ndauwa's
power point on Brown v. Board of
Education.

East took
second place in the creativity category, thanks to Ms. Lara Stamper's first
semester drama class, with its horror movie "From the Pond." The
movie was initially shown to the student body at an assembly in the commons
area Nov. 4. Cassie Williams represented the cast of "From the Pond,"
at the show.

FIGHTING
FOR THE BOND ISSUE

East Middle
School eighth grader Jennifer Nguyen spoke to more than 100 area business and
community leaders and parents during a celebration breakfast at the Holiday Inn
shortly before Joplin School District voters went to the polls to decide the
fate of a bond issue which would provide the money to rebuild the schools
destroyed in the May 22, 2011, tornado, including East Middle School.

In addition to
her presentation, those attending heard updates on rebuilding efforts from Dr.
C. J. Huff, superintendent; and Dr. Angie
Besendorfer
,
assistant superintendent.

The breakfast
concluded with words of support for the upcoming bond issue from Joplin Area
Chamber of Commerce President Rob O'Brian and Mayor Mike
Woolsten.

The text of
Jennifer Nguyen's speech is provided below:

Hello, my name is Jennifer Nguyen. I am an eighth grader
from East Middle School, and today, I came to talk to you about why I think the
bond request should be passed. I remember coming to East Middle School for the
first time when I was in the sixth grade. I remember seeing the huge hallways
and thinking to myself that I would never make it out alive. After a few weeks,
though, the building became home, and I could easily navigate my way around. I
was one of the lucky people that got to go to the new school. East soon became
home to many others, as well: the students and staff. When the tornado came by
last year, no one expected to find
East
as it is now.
Nobody expected to find a pile of rubble in place of our beloved school.

Luckily, we found a building to use as a temporary school.
As many of you know, we are now located on East 26th Street. Everybody is very
thankful to have a place to go to continue learning, but those that went to the
old
East
, miss it dearly. The warehouse provides a
place to learn, but it just isn’t the same as the old East.

The building we are in now is much smaller and crowded, and
getting from class to class can be hard some days when you are trying to beat
the crowd. At the old East, we had a beautiful auditorium where we held all our
assemblies. Now, we are crowded into the cafeteria for any assemblies or pep
rallies, and we have no space in the current building for an auditorium. Instead
of a gym, we have a blown up, tent-like structure beside the warehouse. We are
restricted from having any home games at our school, whether the sport is
volleyball or basketball. Replacing our outside basketball court and field is a
parking lot. Now, whenever students go outside for some fresh air after lunch,
they are kept inside the boundaries of the parking lot, and even that is not
much space. After school, students waiting in the parent pick-up line have to
wait quite a while because of the slow progression in the small area of the
back parking lot.

These are just a few of the many disadvantages that occur at
the warehouse. The largest disadvantage of all, though, is the lack of spirit
in our school. In the minds of many, the building we are in now is not truly
East
; it is just a temporary building, a warehouse. And even
though East is now at a new location, to
me and many others,
the old East will always be home. The old East will be remembered as our true
middle school, not the warehouse. Hopefully, East will soon be returning home.
Thank you.

Joplin
School District voters passed the bond issue and there will be a new East
Middle School in January 2014.

NEW MEMBERS
INDUCTED INTO JUNIOR NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY

BY
J
ENNIFER
N
GUYEN

The induction
for the East Middle School National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) was held on
March 8, 2012, at Missouri Southern State University’s
Billingsly
Student Center Ballroom.

The induction
lasted around an hour, including a reception at the end of the ceremony. The program
started off with an opening processional and the Pledge of Allegiance. After
that,
opening remarks were made by Mrs. Kathy
Howerton
, Mrs. Tina Guiles, and Mr. Bud
Sexson
,
and an introduction to guest speaker Mrs. Becky Gardner, the National Honor Society
(NHS) adviser, was also made. While Mrs. Gardner was speaking, four members of
the NHS helped with the lighting of the pillars: Alyssa
Farney
,
Miriah
Johnson, Joseph
Loden
,
and Taylor Mann.

Next, all of
the NJHS candidates were required to take the Pledge of the NJHS. After the
pledge came recognition of all candidates and closing remarks. The following
reception had cake provided by Mrs. Mary Blackburn-Freeman and plenty of
opportunities for pictures! Ms. Melanie Epperson and MSSU made the facilities possible.
Overall, the induction was very nicely put together; it was a night to
remember!

2011-2012 NJHS
Candidates:

Estrella
Arreola
,
Maggie Baker, Anna Blue, Jonah Caldwell,
Aubrie
England, Madeline
Fichtner
, Bailey Gardner, Keisha
Grunden
, Mackenzie Gunderson, Desiree Hawkins, Megan
Hickey, Ethan
Holz
, Kylie
Howerton
,
Kara Hulsey, Bonnie Johnson, Audrey
Kanan
,
Abigael
Killinger
, Amy Koch,
Janet Lopez,
Elimo
Lounis
,
Cara Marshall, Ashton
McGehee
, Madison
Meinhardt
, Stella
Ndauwa
,
Jennifer Nguyen, Dakota Osborn, Abigail Randall, Jillian
Rentfro
,
Molly Ritter, Miranda Sanders, Aiden Stahl, Austen Still, Amelia Street, Annie
Strickling
, Jamie Sullivan,
Quionte
Tidwell, James Tupper,
Karly
Weber, Shelby
Welton
, Logan Whitehead, James
Willerton
,
and
Ishman
Wilson.