McKinsey Ferrell, daughter of Robert and Lori Ferrell, was chosen as Morgan High School’s 2011-2012 Computer Technology Sterling Scholar! Kinsey has designed three different companies’ websites and currently designs the monthly newsletter for the company Inspire Us NOW.
Mrs. Smith is new to Mountain Green Elementary School this year. She teaches first grade and really enjoys it! Her favorite thing about teaching is the kids with their enthusiasm and bright comments. Mrs. Smith believes her job is definitely the most entertaining one out there.
In recent days many have heard about the “Bomb Plot” at a nearby high school. It was an experience that everyone hopes they will be able to avoid. I am thankful the district and school administration from that nearby school had policies and procedures in place they could follow. My hat is off to those district and local administrators who dealt with that difficult situation and were able to keep all students safe and parents informed of what was happening.
Lindsey Richards, the daughter of Stewart and Gretchen Richards, was selected as this year’s Dance Sterling Scholar at Morgan High School! She has danced for sixteen years, performing numerous times. She won the All-Star All American title in clogging for two years, was on the All American clogging team for seven years and was recognized as the National Jazz and Ballet Queen of America On Stage.
The Visual Arts Sterling Scholar representing Morgan High School this year is Ashly Pentz, daughter of Troy and Sonia Pentz! Residents of Morgan may have seen some of her work on display at the Rocky Mountain Fine Art Gallery, at the Morgan County Fair, or even at Morgan High School. Ashly’s favorite classes in high school have been her Fine Arts classes such as Band and Art.
Each week for the past sixteen years, KSL Newsradio and Zions Bank have sponsored a program highlighting teachers who have gone above and beyond the call of duty. Each week hundreds of nominations are sent to KSL where a panel of judges from Zions Bank, the State Office of Education and KSL Newsradio help select the well-deserving teacher. This program, known as “Teacher Feature,” is announced each Tuesday morning as part of KSL Newsradio’s Grant and Amanda Show. This week Morgan was honored when Morgan Elementary school’s own first grade teacher Mrs. Christine Tyrrell was picked. Monday afternoon she was highlighted in an assembly to focus on what a wonderful influence she has been. Zions Bank representative, Dennis Porter, was very excited to be able to present this award as they grew up in Morgan together.
Today marked the start of the 2011-12 winter season for Utah’s newest ski resort Eagle Point. The opening signifies that every Utah ski and snowboard resort is open for the season. A fresh blanket of The Greatest Snow on Earth® during the past 24 hours added two to eight inches to resort snow totals. This new snowfall, in addition to the past weekend’s storm cycle, has created wonderful conditions for skiing and snowboarding in Utah.
Congratulations to Julia Caldwell, Cameron Caldwell, and Emma Blake for being chosen as the three storytelling finalists from Mountain Green Elementary School. Julia and Cameron will now have the opportunity to represent MGES and tell their stories at the Weber State Storytelling Contest in February. A special thank you to Cade Erickson with RE/MAX Realty who donated gift certificates to Barnes and Noble for the three finalists.
The National Honor Society at Morgan High School is putting on an Operation Smile fundraiser again this year! It will take place on Friday, Feb. 3 after the boys’ basketball game against Bear River at the high school from 8:30-11:30.
The annual Inspirations contest rapped up this week with certificates and medals given for achievement in five categories; Literature, Visual Arts, 3-dimensional Arts, Photography, and Musical Composition.
The Morgan County School Board is happy to announce that work on the Trojan Century Center continues to make progress. The construction manager has informed the district that the building will be ready for occupancy in late March or early April. The Board has tentatively set an open house and dedication date of May 8, 2012.
Winter has finally arrived to Morgan. With the cold weather kids don’t want to go out to the bus. As a parent you hate to have your child waiting in the cold longer than necessary. The solution to both is OnTimeBus.
The growth of Morgan County has been of major focus the last few years. As a community, we have grown in population, opportunities, and challenges. Morgan County School District is no different. The district has been experiencing challenges, as well as many opportunities for growth and improvement in its schools due to our growth as a community. This applies to all areas of our schools including special education.
What happens when a marshmallow, a balloon, or a cup of warm water is put in a vacuum pump? Fourth graders at Mountain Green Elementary had many different hypothesizes. Eldon Jensen, retired Morgan High School chemistry and physics teacher, taught these students about air pressure. At the end of a half an hour of exciting experiments, students were able to sample the results of a pressurized marshmallow.
Each November, Morgan Elementary students start preparing to show off their storytelling skills as they compete for the opportunity to showcase their talents at the annual Weber State Storytelling Festival. All students from 1st grade to 5th grade are encouraged to learn or write a story. They then share their stories with their classmates in December. It is a tough decision to choose just two students from each class to move on to the grade-level competition because the children are all working to be great storytellers.
On Thursday, January 19th, Morgan Elementary School Faculty and Staff joined Chili’s in supporting the Weber/Morgan Strike Force by holding a luncheon. We appreciate the opportunity to be a part of such a worthwhile event.
On January 17, 2012 the Morgan High Cheer leaders traveled to Timpview High school to participate in the Utah Cheer Coaches Association State Championship. The cheerleaders work hard all year and look forward to the competition. Morgan also won the state title in 2008 and 2011. This year Morgan beat out a tough team from Desert Hills for the title. The girls were thrilled and surprised because their coach Tammy Bullock had just talked to them about being good sports if they did not win.
Broc Wilkinson, a student at Morgan Middle School, won the school-level competition of the National Geographic Bee on January 10, 2012 and a chance at a $25,000 college scholarship. The school-level Bee, at which students answered oral and written questions on geography, was the first round in the annual National Geographic Bee.
The students at Mountain Green Elementary presented a wonderful Christmas program this year before the Christmas break. Each grade performed several Christmas songs that were entertaining and enjoyable to listen to. There was a huge show of support by parents and community members who came to hear the students sing and share the Christmas spirit. Pictured are the Kindergarten students performing their songs.
A clear glass lies atop the counter. A young child fills the glass to the half-point mark with water. Is the glass half full or is it half empty? The answer could very well depend on the respondent’s attitude.
FROM THE OFFICE OF THE MORGAN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
(To Clarify from 100 years of Morgan High School article, the beginnings of Morgan higher education started 100 years ago, not the graduating class. The 100 year graduating class will be 2015)
The students at Mountain Green Elementary School had the pleasure the past month of participating in a local food drive to help those less fortunate in our community. The students were given the opportunity to bring donated food and baby items to the school where the donations were combined and delivered to the Morgan Food Bank. There was an enormous amount of support for this project and thanks to the wonderful people who donated, 570 pounds of food and other items were delivered to the food bank. Thank you to all who helped support this wonderful cause. Pictured are the students in Mrs. Tolley’s 2nd grade class.
The students at Mountain Green Elementary School were privileged this week to watch a performance put on by the choirs from Morgan High School. Students from the Millennial choir and the Ovation choir entertained the students with lively, seasonal Christmas selections. The performing students did an exceptional job and the Mountain Green Elementary students enjoyed listening to the students share their wonderful singing talents. Pictured is the Morgan High School Millennial Choir directed by Mr. Michael Mills.
For the past several months the Morgan County Board of Education has been focused on creating a new facility use policy for district buildings and grounds. In the process the Board looked at a number of similar policies throughout the state as a basis for their plan.
Morgan Elementary School seems to have its own fairy godmother granting it amazing new staff members. The new fifth grade teacher, Aimee Perry, seems to be a wish come true to her students and fellow staff members. The mutual love is easily seen between the students and their teacher.
On Dec. 13, 2011 Barber Brothers Ford cut a check to Morgan High School in the amount of $3250, from the Ford Motor Company’s Drive One 4 UR School program.
“Reality Town” came to Morgan High School on December 6th. Reality Town is a 2 to 3 hour activity, similar to the board game “Life”, the entire 10th grade participated in this annual event, which has been presented to the students and volunteers since 2002,said Emily Rose, Work Based Learning Coordinator. She said, “I think it went really well and the students gained a lot from this experience, and also learned a lot from it.”
The students filled out an “Reality Town Employment Application” that requires to be completely filled in with following information: personal information; education; employment; references; talents and hobbies, and employment desired. The applications are sent to R.E.A.L. LLC in Lehi, Utah (founders of this program) for processing. The scenarios that are assigned to each student is taken from the job application, but is mainly based on gender and (in years past ) grade point average(GPA). The GPA was not included this year on the application. Each scenario is different as is each student, Mrs Rose feels that these scenarios are scaled fairly with the GPA not a factor.
Sixth Grade Science is teaming with life. Not just with students anxious to learn, but also with living things too tiny to see with the naked eye. Students in sixth grade have been exploring and investigating the microscopic world. Thanks to a grant from 100% for Kids Utah Credit Unions Education Foundation, Morgan Middle School 6th graders have use of a microscope with a digital camera inside. This allows all students to see what is happening on the slide at the same time as it is projected on screen as well as the ability to take photos or capture video for later use. All students in the 6th grade were able to watch swimming protists and other pond water organisms from water sources all over Morgan County. These samples were collected by selected students living close to them.
The students at Mountain Green Elementary School have had an opportunity this Christmas season to learn about reindeer and caribou thanks to an amazing piece of artwork loaned to the school from Milan and Susan Mecham.
And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ‘till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. ~Dr Seuss
The “Educate to Innovate” campaign for Excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education is a new initiative being funded by the federal government, private companies, foundations, and non-profit organizations. The purpose is to lift American students to the top internationally in science and math achievement over the next decade by motivating and inspiring students to excel in STEM subjects. Many states and universities have received or are about to receive large grants. Morgan Middle School CTE/Technology teacher Brian Rutherford has received multiple grants for this purpose. He has been awarded $1500.00 from the Utah Credit Union Education Foundation, $1000.00 from the Utah Education Association, $500.00 from the Carl Perkins grant that was awarded to the District Career and Technical Education Department, and several hundred dollars’ worth of product from vendors as well as a 20% discount on all future orders from TeacherGeek.
We are fortunate in our community to have numerous local businesses and other supporters willing to help the district in a myriad of ways, including their financial assistance when needed. This was certainly apparent as the Morgan Education Foundation conducted fund raising activities for the Trojan Century Center. More than $500,000 was given to the Foundation for the cause and ninety-five percent of those funds came from businesses, foundations, families, and individuals with connections to the Morgan Valley!
Teachers from all over come to teach at our schools but Morgan Elementary didn’t have to look too far for the newest first grade teacher, Chelsee Brown, because she is from Morgan herself. Chelsee graduated from Morgan high and then went to Utah State University.
Morgan Elementary has had the great opportunity to receive several outstanding new teachers this year, including John Kelly. The elementary school has warmly welcomed this new special education teacher. The kids especially have quickly grown to love him. He can recall countless recesses of being mobbed and chased, but he absolutely loves it. In fact, that is one of the reasons why he loves teaching.
What is happening with Special Education in Morgan School District? Federal law 94-142 Idea mandates the practice of special education. Each state dictates how they will adopt and implement educational practices. Then each district utilizes the guidelines to design programs that are mandated for individual schools, classrooms, and students. This can be tricky in both large and small districts because of size and funding, so creativity and intelligence combined makes it work! Synchronizing education between what is happening in the regular education classes, special education classes, related service providers and at home, is as crucial as a balanced diet.
Congratulations to Emma Morgan, 5th grade student at Mountain Green Elementary School, for her winning entry into the Morgan Conservation District’s “Forests For People” poster competition. Emma was awarded a cash prize, as well as a pizza party and a watershed model demonstration presented to her class. Emma put forth an amazing amount of thought and time into her project and her winning poster was a clear representation of her efforts.
Morgan High School’s Academic Decathlon team placed first at region this year!! They attended their regional meet on February 3rd and 4th at Westminster College to compete against all of the other high school AcaDec teams in the state.
Serving on the School Board is a privilege and an honor. I believe it would be beneficial to share a few things about School Board governance that may affect the way the community interacts with the Board and the Administration.
The new sixth grade teacher at Morgan Middle School this year is Mrs. Ball. Mrs. Ball attended high school in Arizona and then graduated from Northern Arizona University where she studied nursing and microbiology. Once her youngest child started kindergarten, she went back to school and received her teaching degree from Southern Utah University. Mrs. Ball taught eighth grade in Cedar City before she came to Morgan. She was given the opportunity to teach sixth grade here and she loves it. She is very glad to continue teaching middle school. Mrs. Ball very much enjoys being with her students. Her favorite thing about teaching is seeing the understanding in her students’ eyes. The satisfying feeling of helping the students learn is what she takes the most pleasure in.
Special Education at Morgan Middle School is a variety of experiences, personalities, subjects, abilities, and needs boiled into one program. Part of what makes us unique is that every day has different thrills and experiences. It is an exciting adventure!
How many times has this sentence been said, “I hate all the drama!”? More than a billion times. How many times has this sentence been said, “I am going to stop gossiping.”? Not enough. The only way to stop “drama” is to make a change from within you. You need to be able to look at yourself and say, “I am going to make that change!” We can’t just sit around and think that someone else is going to fix the problem.
With the dawning of a new age at the turn of the century, the beautiful Morgan valley experienced more rapid growth and change along with the rest of the nation. The changing times also changed the functioning of the American families, communities, and society as a whole.
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