AN IB WORLD SCHOOL

Middle School News

The 7th and 8th graders traditionally perform Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Founders Theater.  But this year, the challenge was to rehearse and perform the play with many of the students stuck at home.  Music Director David Demand did an amazing job, working with Microsoft Teams, to gather, edit, and integrate audio and video from students' homes and the theater stage into this unique performance!  See the Full Performance on YouTube (running time 72 minutes) beginning with each character's introduction.

Here's how David described the "interesting learning experience" of making this movie:  

"First of all, we had students both distance learning and in person.  This changed almost on a daily basis due to COVID and protocols.  Because of this, sometimes we had to put everyone on their own computers to make the scene work or we had to skip a scene and go to the next one that had cast members available.  We also had to endure the many network difficulties and outages that occurred as well as people freezing up, forcing us to reshoot multiple times.  The stage was also a challenge.  There were other classes that met in the theater, and there was a permanent work station set up in the front of the stage.  The instrumental group also used the back of the stage, so we had to use only a side stage shot and cover up the equipment in the back.  Jean Hardie (our director) was also remote and we had to hook her voice up into a monitor so that she could give directions to the kids on stage.  We put a camera out in front so that she could see.  All costumes had to be brought from home for the most part due to Covid, so we used bedsheets and made togas.  

"Once we got through filming, which took a while due to the kids not being able to be together, we had to edit extensively, adding voice overs in some cases due to the bad audio quality of Microsoft teams.  Oliver Ling help me quite a bit.  I also added in effects, music, and transitions from scene to scene.  I hope everyone can appreciate the effort."  

The 8th graders divided up into four teams and spent May 20th roaming the woods above campus overcoming various challenges.  See photo galleries of different teams Rappelling Down the Dragon Crag, attempting a Tyrolean Traverse across a ravine, Creating Shapes and Guiding Partners while blindfolded, and navigating a Balance Challenge.  Plus see a short Video of Highlights from Teambuilding Day!

The 7th and 8th graders spent a day in May driving to Republic and searching for fossils (and finding some) at the Stonerose quarry.  See a Photo Gallery of these rockhounds chipping away in search of a prize.

The 6th graders have been studying the culture of Cuba, so they each designed a mural in the style of Cuban street art. Some are more realistic and others just use the themes and colors, but all of them turned out great!  See a Photo Gallery of their artwork that is on the hallway as you enter the Middle School.

Join the Outdoor Club for a Middle School camping and outdoor adventure on May 7-8 at SGS.  The cost is just $20, which includes dinner, breakfast and lots of snacks.  Learn basic skills in setting up a tent, hiking and exploring the outdoors, as well as how to take care of yourself on outings and have fun in the great outdoors!  See the MS Outdoor Campout Flyer for all the details.  This is open to students in grades 6-8, but is limited to 15 so sign up quickly.  To complete your signup, parents must sign the waiver on PowerSchool and submit payment (via check payable to SGS or email Gayle.Brown@sgs.org authorizing her to bill your account).

Saint George's Middle School track and field athletes were running and jumping at a meet in Ritzville on April 26.  See a Photo Gallery of them in action provided by 8th grader Simon Feist.

The Middle School runners competed at a track meet at Chewelah on April 19.  See a Photo Gallery of them running in a variety of events.

The 8th grade English students were filming short stories on April 14 using Shakespeare's sonnets as their dialog.  As for the story's plot and characters, they were just told to be creative!  See a Photo Gallery of several of the teams filming their sonnet-stories.

 

This year’s FIRST Lego League Robotics was a little different due to Covid restrictions.  The team of 6th and 7th graders uploaded videos of their robot performing game missions and then met with the judges virtually on Saturday, April 3.  "I am very proud of what Team 40706 accomplished this season despite the restrictions in place," says advisor Michelle Bledsoe.  The Project Team (Riley, Thatcher & Delaney) came up with a solution to this year’s challenge (“How and where can we help people be more active?”) by researching and designing a prototype for a new kind of knee brace to help those with knee injuries stay active.  The Engineering Team (Adrian, Preston, Hadley, Lindsey and Max) successfully completed four missions within the 2.5 minutes allowed for the game, ending with a final score of 175.  Here is a Video of some of their robot's missions, as well as a Photo Gallery of the teammates with their Lego creations.  Good job, Golden Dragons!

Brook Bassett's 8th grade English class learned about graphic literary devices by creating their own non-fiction graphic novel.  "The students practiced biographical narrative writing by collecting a true story from family, friends, or personal experience," says Brook.  After conducting background research, they wrote a narrative and built a storyboard as a plot guide.  "Finally, they used the computer program Pixton to create a graphic interpretation of their heritage story where they demonstrated their ability to identify and apply learned graphic narrative techniques, narrative arcs, and characterization." 

The Pixton program provides a blank canvas and the students curated and created all the actions, characters, settings, captions, and all nuances when designing their final project of incredible true stories!  Read two of the award-winning stories -- Elsa Goeke's "Around the World in a Daring Lifetime" and Sophia Tehrani's "The Man Himself".  Plus click here for Links to All the Graphic Stories written by the 8th graders.  They are fascinating!


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