The Bridge 2012 March

March 2012 [THE LARUE COUNTY BRIDGE]


The BridgeThe BridgeThe BridgeThe Bridge March 2012

Heather Cline Selected as 2012 ExCEL Winner

Heather Cline, a fourth grade teacher at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, is this year’s

LaRue County ExCEL winner. Cline, who previously taught at Magnolia Elementary, also taught

in Hancock and Hardin counties. She began her

teaching career in 1997 as a Title 1 math and

science teacher and returned to her native

LaRue County as an intermediate teacher in

2000.

Known for her work as a writing and reading

cadre leader, Cline has also served on the school

council and as a supervising teacher for several

student teachers. She is currently a candidate

for National Board Certification and is the mother of three children, Evan, Sydney, and Emmi

Cline.

WHAS and EON will recognize Mrs. Cline on March 21 with a ceremony at the school and

highlights of the ExCEL presentation will be televised later that night on WHAS News. Cline is

the eighth LaRue County ExCEL recipient and joins fellow teachers Summer Garris, Beverly

Heady, Peggy Newton, Susan Phelps, Rex Hanson, Martha Page, and Kathy Ross in the honor.


Art Students Preparing for Exhibit

The advanced students in the LCHS Art Department are once again preparing for their spring art

exhibit, to be held at Woodland Gallery in Elizabethtown. The date for the upcoming exhibit

will be announced in late March. “9 Cups” by junior, Miranda Hornback, “White Tiger” by

Darren Brennan “Laith” by senior, Cedrick King are three of the pieces that will be available for

viewing at the upcoming exhibit.

Nook Color E-readers Available for Student Use

To promote reading at LaRue County High School, Amy Loyall, the library media specialist has

purchased 25 Nook Color

e-readers for student

use. With the popularity

of e-readers, Mrs. Loyall

wanted to expose LCHS

students to this

technology. The Nook

Colors are exclusively

used for reading along

with several educational

apps available for

student use. Students

will not be able to access

the internet with them

or make purchases of e-


books with them. Students, along with their parents/guardian, must sign a permission form

before they can check-out a Nook Color and they cannot have any outstanding overdues or

fines with the LCHS Media Center. The students who have checked the Nooks out are very

excited about using them. Besides a selection of classic titles such as Jane Eyre and The Scarlet

Letter, the Nook Colors also contain many more titles popular with teens right now such as The

Hunger Games and The Help. Students can keep the Nook Colors for three weeks just as they

do library books.

Students Learn Valuable Cooking Skills

The students in Mrs. Heil’s

and Ms. Lewis’s special

education class participate in

a once a week cooking

program which involves not

only the food preparation but

also includes recipe

selections, ingredient

collections, and analysis of

nutritional values. Parents

have often assisted with

sending in some of the

required supplies. Students

prepare, enjoy, and clean up afterwards while learning valuable skills that will help them

become more self-sufficient in food preparation after they leave this program.

Hawk Quilting

LaRue County High School and the Art Department

are pleased to announce the formation of a new club,

“Hawk Quilting”. “I think it’s important to keep this

traditional art form alive. Human beings have been

sewing by hand since before we had a coherent

language. Every family has a quilt story, everyone

knows someone who quilts and every quilt tells a


story”, said L.C.H.S art instructor Monique Hanna. The club will meet every Tuesday from 3:00-

4:00 in the art room.

“LaRue County is peppered with quilt designs on barns, signs and family homesteads. Teaching

the art of quilting is a natural extension of the awareness of this time honored tradition. In

order to avoid club dues, I am asking teachers and

the community at large to donate anything they

might not use anymore; things like fabric (print and

solids), thread (any color), needles, straight pins, pin

cushions. This afternoon, email was sent to all

Larue School District employees and the response

was overwhelming!”

“To all of you who have already promised donations

or pictures of quilts from family members, thank

you so much. The only money that students have to

spend will go towards the batting that is placed

between the front and back of the quilt- the stuff

that keeps you warm! One package of batting runs

about $8.00, and that would make 2-3 lap quilts, I

think we can do that”, said Hanna. “Wouldn’t a

quilt show in the spring be wonderful?”

“To date, we have 20 members and the current work includes quilts and pillows. I absolutely

love spending time with my girls. We meet every Thursday during club activity time and every

Tuesday after school”

Monique Hanna can be contacted at

[email protected].

If you are a LaRue County District

employee, she will be happy to pick

up donations from any of the

schools. If you are not a district

employee, please bring your

donations to the high school. Make

sure that you contact Ms. Hanna to

let her know that you will be leaving

a donation.


The Future Is So Bright for LCHS Speech

The LCHS speech team is off to a great start this semester as they prepare for their remaining

state and national qualifying tournaments. Assistant Coach Bill Thompson states, “Despite their

youth, this team has worked together and pushed each other to keep up the tradition of

success at LCHS in speech & debate. They have set high goals and consistently met them.”

The semester started with the team traveling to Louisville to compete against 25 other schools

in the Assumption High School Rocket Invitational. Taking home trophies for their placement in

finals were: James Reding 1st Extemp & 2nd Impromptu, Brian Anderson 2nd in Extemp & 3rd

Declamation, Curtis Milby 2nd Poetry, Elijah Thomas 4th Dramatic Interp, and Chelsea Blair 5th

Prose. The team placed 2nd in sweepstakes which is consistent with their performance at this

tournament last year, even with a young team.

The last weekend of January a small group of students traveled to Atlanta, GA to compete at

Emory University in the prestigious Barkley Forum. The tournament is a tournament students

must submit applications for in order to compete. The tournament is attended by over 100

schools from all over the country and representing nearly every state. Milby, a sophomore,

advanced to the semifinal round of Prose/Poetry. Advancing to the quarterfinal round in their


events were: Alison Schurfeld/Elijah Thomas in Duo Interp, Maddie Lee in Prose/Poetry, and

Brian Anderson in Extemp. According to head coach Katy Cecil, “LCHS was given back its Chair

Membership (which the school first earned when her father was head coach in the 70’s).

Having a chair at the Barkley Forum is an acknowledgement that a speech program has a

history of success and is one of the best in the nation. It took LCHS only three years to earn it

back, and I am confident that we will continue to prove our worthiness in the coming years.”

Two weeks ago LCHS hosted the Louisville Regional tournament.

Congratulations to Blair and Reding for bringing home individual Regional Championships.

Congratulations also go to Blair, Milby, and Anderson for being Region Runners-up in four other

events. Also representing LCHS at the KHSSL state tournament later this year will be Lee,

Schurfeld and Thomas, as well as Zachary Thurman, Joey Gearon, Christian Pope, Sidney Cline,

Kaitlyn Burden, Sarah Mortensen, Misty England, Claudia King, and Kayla Rutledge.

This past weekend the team competed in the Kentucky Educational Speech & Drama

Association state invitational tournament in Lexington. “Several students had amazing

performances and worked hard to make sure LCHS remains one of the top teams in the state.

Brian Anderson was a standout for us this weekend, his individual point total was more than a

lot of team’s combined totals,” reported Eric Cecil, another assistant coach. Representing LCHS

speech in the state final round of competition were: Anderson 2nd in Impromptu and 6th in

Extemp, Reding 3rd in Congress and 5th in Improv Duo with Amarah Reed, and Christian Pope

6th in Declamation. Anderson also made the Final session of congressional debate but did not

place in the top 6. Semifinalists included: Anderson in Declamation, Milby in Poetry &

Storytelling, Burden in Poetry, Lee in Storytelling, & Blair in Oratory. Quarterfinalists included:

Reding in Impromptu, Misty England in Poetry, and Brian Anderson in Broadcasting. LCHS took

4th Overall. Cecil summed up the semester so far by saying, “I’m proud of my young team!”

The Stitchin’ Hawks Club

If you walked into Carla Preston’s

classroom on any typical club day, you would

see young ladies sitting around with needle and

thread in hand, working on their first cross-

stitch picture. They are learning the art of doing

needlework by hand, and this is just one of

several types of craft work that they’ll be

learning. Some of the other types of craft work

that we’ll be exploring will be quilting, knitting,

plastic canvas, and decoupage.


Mrs. Preston began this club because, even with all the sports and academic clubs

available, some students just can’t find their own niche. She wanted to help them find an area

where they, too, could participate. She also feels that hand crafting isn’t passed down from

generation to generation like it used to be, so she

wants to bring back some of that valuable work.

She’s hoping that the members will find at least

one type of craft that they enjoy and can do for the

rest of their lives.

Other staff members have been lending a

hand, through helping the members, bringing in

supplies, or teaching some themselves. Mrs. Caulk

and Mrs. Sandidge are involved, as well as Ms.

Shelton, who is a retired teacher coming back to

help our students.

Members of the club are 7th graders Catelin

Niemynski, Kristen Yarborough, Keely Duncan,

Madison Brinegar, and Madison Royalty. 8th grader

is Ashley Grimes.

Old Fashioned Geocaching

Earlier this year, students in sixth grade seminar class used map skills to find specific locations

on LaRue County Middle School’s campus. Students were organized in to groups of four. They

were asked to find a

specific location on

campus. Students

were then asked to

create a map of the

campus with X

marking the spot of

the chosen location.

Groups then

exchanged maps and

the hunt began.

Students had to rely

on their map legend


and compass rose to find

the specific location. The

seminar class reinforces

socials studies skills.

Students were required to

create a usable map and use

a created map

demonstrating their

understanding of map

components.

Magnolia Bank Essay Winners

This past year, students on the LaRue County Middle School 6th grade Kids.Com team

participated in the fourth annual Magnolia Bank “Preparing for Success” essay contest. The

essay question asked students to answer in 250 words or less: what might make a great career

and how do you plan to achieve that career. Students completed the essay using the writing

process in

their home

room

reading

class. Nine

students

were

chosen as

winners

from the

team.

Winners received a t-shirt, a free pizza party at Mr. Gatti’s, and a $100 CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT

Dane Milby, Breea Kirkpatrick, Jessi O’Bryan, Mallory Williams

(Dakota Martin, unavailable for photo)


ALES First Graders learn about Famous Americans

All of the 1st grade classrooms at ALES have been studying many famous Americans for the

month of February. After learning why people like Abe

Lincoln, Martin Luther

King Jr., Sally Ride,

Robero Clemente, or

Rosa Parks are famous,

the students then got

to pick one of their

favorites. Each student

dressed up as their chosen American and gave a presentation

to the class. The students enjoyed seeing each other dress up and hearing what their friends

had to say.

ALES Jr. Beta Students Attend State Convention

Seventeen Abraham Lincoln Elementary School students recently attended the Kentucky Jr.

Beta Convention held at the Galt House in Louisville. Those attending were: (front row) Jake

Walters, Tharon Blair, Jake Taylor; (second row)

Zack Duvall, Maddie Helm, Bridget Southwood,

Clair Keller, Jackie Rigdon, Chloe Childress;

(third row) Kaitlin Hack, Bailey Rogers, James

Akin, Clay Cecil, Hunter Howell, Rachel

Thompson, Parker Smith, Tyler Sullivan and

sponsor Allison McDowell.

Helm, Howell, Cecil and Akin participated in

the quiz bowl event while Walters entered the

math competition and Southwood competed in the social studies quiz. Rogers, Smith,

Southwood and Sullivan took part in the team poster competition.

Students in fifth grade through eighth grade are eligible for Jr. Beta in their local schools and

membership is determined in a screening process that includes grades, character and

leadership qualities.


ALES Fifth Graders Honor Grandparents

Each year the students in Karlotta Cecil’s fifth grade class honor their grandparents by

entering the AARP/Kentucky Retired Teacher Association Grandparent Essay Contest and each

time Mrs. Cecil is touched by the students’ stories

and memories. This year the top three essays

were written by Haley McDowell who wrote

about her adventures with Grandmother Yvonne

McDowell, Chloe Childress who authored an

essay on grandmother Shirley Childress, and

Maddie Helm, the proud writer of a story on

Grandmother Zolon Helm.

Mrs. Cecil was recently notified that Chloe’s

essay will represent the Elizabethtown-Hardin-LaRue Retired Teachers’ Association at the

district level. Chloe, Mrs. Cecil, and her grandmother Shirley Childress will be recognized at the

next EHLRTA luncheon in March where Chloe will read her story and receive a medal and gift

certificate.


Award Winner

LaRue County Board of Education

Superintendent - Sam Sanders

Board Members

Price Smith - Board Chairman

Dick Greenwell - Vice Chairman

Norbert Skees - Member

Ronnie Chelf - Member

Michael Hornback – Member

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The Bridge 2012 March

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