Student Spotlights October 2022

Ms. McConnell’s fifth graders at Foley Elementary School wrote letters to their Pet Pals, Beni and Javi. They are closely inspecting all the sentence structures, looking specifically for compound predicates and compound subjects. There’s also a lot of questions they have to answer.

The Bay Minette Middle School Tiger Paws made their game debut in support of the BMMS Tigers football team. Members of the Tiger Paws include, in no particular order, Ansley Guy, Haylin Milstead, Zoe Hughes, Starla Chapman, Leah Stuart, Kaydence Scott, Aalaiya McCLain and Kaylin Lundy. Photo courtesy Tiger Paws

Bay Minette Elementary recently recognized and celebrated the BMES Lighthouse team members for the 2022-2023 school year. This group of students show leadership skills daily. Their purpose will be to represent the student body and serve in several capacities within the school and community.

The North Baldwin Coalition for Excellence in Education (NBCEE) has received a donation from the Heritage Women’s Club in Bay Minette. These funds will be use for the education foundation’s Teacher Grant program. Club members Starla Sellers and Ashley Jones Davis made the presentation to NBCEE Board members Tiz Day, Kelli Wallace and Colleen Beason. NBCEE supports programs and the schools in the North Baldwin feeder pattern including Baldwin County High, Bay Minette Middle, Bay Minette Elementary, Delta Elementary, Pine Grove Elementary, Stapleton Elementary, Perdido School and the North Baldwin Center for Technology. To learn more about the organization, follow the Facebook page or visit www.nbcee.org.

Fifth grade students from Christ the King Catholic School travelled to the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile for the annual Blue Mass. This Mass is held to honor and pray for law enforcement, firefighters and emergency medical personnel. Our thoughts and prayers go out to first responders as they run towards danger selflessly to protect us.

Mrs. Browner, with Loxley Elementary School, taught a counseling lesson to Mrs. Lavender’s kindergarten students. These Loxley Cubs learned about “The Good Egg” and followed up with an art activity. Check out those cutting skills!

Mrs. Cotton & Mrs. Cartee’s 2nd graders created landform models to demonstrate understanding of the information they’ve been learning.

Daphne Middle School Teachers, Ms. Antinarella and Ms. Holt, conducted inquiry lessons with their 8th grade World History students to solve the mystery of Otzi the Iceman. Their students worked in groups to try and conclude what caused the death of the world’s oldest naturally preserved mummy.

Mrs. Ralston’s class at Bay Minette Middle School participates in the “penny lab” to learn about the scientific method. The goal is to see how many drops of water they can fit on a penny.

Mr. Walley’s 8th grade Math students at Spanish Fort Middle School explain their understanding of how to determine congruent shapes!

On every Friday, Ms. Vinson’s class at Bay Minette Elementary turns out the lights for a little while and uses flashlights to read. Each student chooses a book and sits quietly reading it in the dark with only a flashlight! This is fun way to engage the class in reading!

Sixth graders synergized using verbal communication in a. unique way. Student pairs took turns secretly building a structure with building bricks. Then the other student had to try building the same structure with only the partner’s verbal instructions as a guide (no peeking). Great test of communication skills! Pictured are students from Mrs. Booth and Mrs. Wittendorfer’s rooms.

The 6th grade Fairhope West Elementary band has instruments, can put them together and is ready to learn how to play them. The Fairhope West Band is going to do great things this year!

Heather Sorrell’s Math class at Spanish Fort Middle School used teamwork today to save “Sam’s” life! (Gummy worm) He had been boating and his boat capsized. His life preserver was stuck under the boat and he was clinging to the top of the boat. The challenge was to get the life preserver on Sam and get him safely into his boat using only paper clips. You see, Sam is allergic to humans, so we couldn’t touch anything! Communication was key and lots of laughs were had

Foley Middle School Peer Helpers started off September with creating bulletin boards for Childhood Cancer Awareness month and Suicide Awareness.

Cub Scout Pack 177 of Spanish Fort hosted their first Bicycle Rodeo at The Fort Container Park The Bicycle Rodeo is an event to help teach kids under 11 some bicycle safety. The group had a station for checking bicycles (tire pressure, attaching training wheels), a station for making sure helmets were worn correctly, and a station to learn road rules from Spanish Fort PD. Officer McGuff demonstrated proper hand signals for cyclist and also identifying road. The children were able to practice their skills on the 4 obstacle courses. Once a kid completed all the activities, Mayor McMillan of Spanish Fort, awarded them with a special Bicycle Safety License.
Pictured is Officer McGuff of Spanish Fort Police Department
teaching Road Rules to some Cub Scouts.

Mrs. Bussie’s classes at Robertsdale High School created different types of epithelial tissues with Playdoh!! Once done, they had to take pictures of the finished products and present them. What a fun project! Kind of like being a kid again!

Mrs Harbaughs 3rd grade class loved their on-campus experience today with the Pelican’s Nest! They learned about the weather and also used the engineering design process to build a structure that would withstand “Hurricane Hardman”! Thank you FEEF for providing these experiences for our children!

After Spanish Fort High School students created Rhetorical Choice posters in groups, Ms. Labrato’s AP Lang classes voted on their favorite one The winning poster will hang permanently in Ms. Labrato’s classroom!

Mrs. Payne’s class at Florence B Mathis Elementary School used technology and collaboration skills to go on a life cycle hunt!

Students in Mrs. Barnes’ class at Fairhope East Elementary work on their STEM skills with Snap Circuts.

Engineering I students are working on rotations this week. From wiring an electrical outlet to setting up pulleys, these students are gearing up for a great year!

Students at South Baldwin Center for Technology are applying the construction skills that they have learned from Mr. Bullock and building a octagonal picnic table. Great job students.

Daphne East Elementary Sixth grade participated in an Environmental Stewardship lesson on Groundwater Pollution. Mr. Lee and Mr. Tony were guest speakers for this lesson. The students were engaged and enjoyed this interactive activity.
By observing a groundwater model, students saw how the water moves through an underground aquifer. The use of colored dyes allowed students to visualize the effects of pollutants on groundwater.

Mrs. Canida’s students at Fairhope East Elementary School celebrated the beginning of September with pumpkin doodle art and opinion writing about their favorite things in fourth grade!

The students in the Music Production classes at Foley High school recently learned “first-hand” about working as a professional in the music industry. Isaiah Mercado, a performer with Legends in Concert at OWA, shared with students about being an entertainer in the music industry. Isaiah performs as Bruno Mars in the Legends Show Lineup. The students were able to talk to him and ask questions as well as get feedback on projects they may be working on. It was a GREAT experience for the students. Thanks for organizing such a great day of learning Mr. Jimmy O’Cain.

3rd grade students at Foley Elementary School had a blast learning their multiplication through flashlight Jenga. What a fun way to learn!

Mrs. Dillon’s classes at Foley Middle School have been learning about the scientific method, graphing, and the metric system! It looks like these mini scientists are having a blast!

It was a beautiful day at Rock Creek Golf Course on Thursday, September 8th as the Baldwin County Education Coalition celebrated the 10th Anniversary of their Annual Golf Classic. Presented by Baldwin County Sewer Service, the Annual Golf Classic is the Baldwin County Education Coalition’s premier fundraising event.
More than 120 players hit the links for friendly competition, networking, and to raise funds for education in Baldwin County. This year’s event raised more than $25,000 bringing the 10-year total to more than $250,000 in net proceeds to support education. Through the outpouring of support for this event, the Baldwin County Education Coalition has been able to make a big impact on education in our communities over the last 10 years.
Baldwin County Sewer Service began the tournament in 2012 and selected the Coalition as their beneficiary as proceeds are used to serve the entire county. Since that inaugural tournament, Baldwin County Sewer has remained the Coalition’s largest corporate sponsor.
With tough competition, Identity Signs took 1st place in this year’s tournament. They were followed closely by Larson Real Estate & Investments in 2nd place, Rock Cable in 3rd place, and GeoCon in 4th place. Longest drive went to Todd Thomas with the Stone Crosby team and closest to the pin went to Richard Teal with the Baldwin County Sewer Team II.

During Stonebridge Elementary’s STEAM library lesson this week, students learned the basics of block coding by completing an unplugged coding activity. The students gave coding commands to help their classmates get through obstacle courses. Students continued the coding unit by adding Dash robots.

These 6th graders at Daphne Elementary School enjoy chess while eating lunch! What a great way to feed your mind and body!

Mrs. Orfanello’s Event Planning classes at Fairhope High School researched careers in the events/hospitality industry and some chose careers that they would like to pursue.

Ms. E Parker’s class at Florence B Mathis Elementary had a busy Wednesday mapping short a words and going on a scavenger hunt for living and non living things around the school!

Ms. White’s 6th grade class at Belforest Elementary went to help Mrs. Rawls’ 1st grade class yesterday to assess each student’s knowledge on addition facts. Mrs. Rawls is getting ready for a class WIG based on addition facts. This is one example of our older students serving our younger students in the learning journey. We are proud of our students and their teamwork.

Congratulations to Robertsdale High School for achieving STEM certification! The first high school in Baldwin County and one of a few in the state! This program will enhance the education of those that want to pursue a STEM profession.
The staff and students have been working on this certification for 3 years until receiving notification this year that the school was selected!

Mrs. Kier’s class at Fairhope West Elementary concluded their unit on the industrial revolution by participating in an assembly line building model t candy cars!

For their first activity in STEM class, Mrs. Dube’s Baldwin County Virtual Elementary/Middle School class engineered a tower or device with paper rolls. Third graders Kathleen, Vincent, and Rykr were the first to turn it in and share!

Baldwin County High School Business teacher, Ms. Jordan, had Career Coach Kellie Isbell visit and help her students take their career assessments!
It’s an important opening activity in Ms. Jordan’s Employability Unit,
It’s a joint effort to have students prepare and begin to focus on their post secondary career preparation! Thank you Mrs. Isbell for helping our students today!

This high tech anatomy and physiology table is the best 3-D anatomy advanced visualization system for A&P. SBCT, NBCT and Foley High Schools have all received these tables and are among the first to be in high schools in Alabama. The table comes pre-loaded with actual cadavers that were donated to science for the study of human anatomy. Also, stored is the anatomy of animals and reptiles for the study of vet science. Users can visualize anatomy exactly as they would on a cadaver. This will take learning about the human body and its systems to new heights.

Bayside Academy congratulates its 37 students who have received AP Scholar Awards for the 2022 AP exam administration. Ten of these students were recognized as an AP Scholar with Distinction, one of the highest academic distinctions from the College Board. We are very proud of these students.

AP Scholars with Distinction
Granted to students who receive an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams

Class of 2022
Camille Buckner
Claire Donald
Ethan Dull
Ty Hartman
David Klimjack
Angus Ladd
Cason Lane
Rhia Tkac
Walker Watson
Class of 2023
Kate Ginger

AP Scholars with Honor
Granted to students who receive an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams

Class of 2022
Gracie Sims
Ben VanDerHeyden

Class of 2023
Wilson Engeriser
Lauren Godwin
Hunter Hyderally
Beverley Milteer
Marlee Moore

AP Scholars
Granted to students who receive scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP Exams

Class of 2022
Cole Boswell
Henry Dowhan
Leah Jha
Landon McLean
Peyton Phillips
Lilly Rubio
Avery VanderMeeden

Class of 2023
Blai Cebrian-Claramunt
Elizabeth Chen
Claire Hamilton
John Will Kirkland
Faith Lindsey
Hope Lindsey
Ryan McCullough
Trey McKean
Libbi Melendez
Millison Mixon
Ty Postle
Ashton Rowland
Victoria Rutland

Pictured left to right, front to back: Lauren Godwin, Faith Lindsey, Hope Lindsey, Elizabeth Chen; Libbi Melendez, Kate Ginger, Beverley Milteer, Marlee Moore; Victoria Rutland, Hunter Hyderally, John Will Kirkland, Millison Mixon; Wilson Engeriser, Blai Cebrian-Claramunt, Ty Postle, Ryan McCullough; Ashton Rowland, Trey McKean.

Daphne High School students in AP Literature and Composition have been studying short fiction, and worked to identify intertextuality made between three short stories.

The St. Michael Club Fair, held during Thursday activity period on September 8, was a huge success! Clubs are alive and well at St. Michael! The club leaders did a great job promoting their clubs by creating posters and decorating tables. There is truly something for everyone at St. Michael. We can’t wait to see and hear about all the upcoming activities!

Chef V’s class had the kitchen smelling amazing with fresh homemade biscuits!

Daphne East Elementary Peer Helpers hosted a pancake breakfast to help connect and honor students from military families.

Students in Ms. Johnson’s class are collaborating to write a CER paragraph contrasting the mood and theme of DaVinci’s painting, Mona Lisa, and Portly Bard’s poem, “the Smile Unbroken She Awaits.”

Fourth grade students at Christ the King Catholic School have been learning about the scientific method in Science class. They completed a Penny Lab experiment in small groups. The students were given 3 very old & tarnished pennies. They made hypotheses about what would happen to each penny when it reacted with different liquid solutions.

The senior class at St. Michael started a new tradition by encouraging their classmates to bring a favorite childhood backpack filled with school supplies to the first day of school. They had a great response! 50 backpacks were collected and donated to the Prodisee Pantry who will re-distribute them to other agencies in need this school year including the Education Foundation and the Child Advocacy Center. Ava Cocke and Ellie Guepet spearheaded these efforts. Way to serve Seniors 2023!!

Desk graffiti test prep makes studying fun! Ms. Duke and Ms. Barbers classes worked in carousels to answer study guide questions for their first test in Civics.

Recently, the Peer Helpers at St. Michael Catholic High School hosted their annual welcome lunches.(Inside this year, due to weather!) Each year they invite transfer students and ninth graders who did not attend one of our Catholic feeder schools to eat lunch with them. They enjoy chatting and getting to know our new students as they welcome them to SMCHS!

The “Teddy Bear Read” is a tradition at Christ the King Catholic School. 8th grade Peer Helpers traveled to the kindergarten classrooms to read to the students. Kindergarten students prepared for this event by bringing in teddy bears, making adorable teddy bear hats, and eating Teddy Graham snacks. The Peer Helpers did a wonderful job reading with excitement to the kindergarten students! They all enjoyed the time together outside, in a picnic setting! It is moments like these that create memories for the students. In fact, the Peer Helpers reminisced about their time in kindergarten when this event happened!

Congratulations to Bayside Academy senior Ty Postle for being named a Semifinalist in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program! As a semifinalist, Ty has the opportunity to continue in the National Merit competition.

According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, “High school juniors entered the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

After reading the story “Little Blue and Little Yellow”, Bayside Academy’s PK3 class wanted to investigate the way colors mix together and make predictions about what the result would be. As they mixed their custom colors, they observed the transformation as the colors swirled together. This led to more discussions about different types of transformations and mixing potions was the perfect way to observe a change physically and chemically! We repurposed the color mixes from earlier in the week and added a variety of materials that could cause a reaction such as baking soda, vinegar, and alka seltzer tablets (which the class referred to as “explosion tablets”).
Pictured: Bayside Academy students learn about physical and chemical changes while creating potions in science.

Our seniors heard from Alumni Private Connor Sheils (Class of 2021) this past week. He spoke about opportunities in the Army. Connor is an Active Duty Infantryman and will be assigned to the 11th Airborne Division in Fort Wainwright in Alaska. We wish him the best and thank him for wanting to share his experience with our senior class!

Beta Chi Sigma recently held its first meeting of the school year. The team is already looking forward to continuing to serve the school and community. In support of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month the color of the day was yellow and members up in support of observance. Officers for 2022-23 include President – Tre’kerria Smith, Vice President – Derriana Bishop, Secretary – Kaylen Morrison, Historian – Brookelyn McWilliams, Treasurer – Malaysia Andrews, and Parliamentarian – Shamyia Whittle.

BCS students helped raise funds and awareness by donating money and wearing gold for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. $1,500 was raised in total! Thank you to everyone who helped donate to this amazing cause.

BCS Varsity volleyball team raised awareness for Childhood Cancer with a great win against Mobile Christian last month. Thank you to all of our fans for coming out and cheering our Lady Eagles on.

Congratulations BCS Junior, Cole Edwards, for earning the CLT10 2022 Distinguished Scholar! We are so proud of you!

Congratulations BCS Senior, Boaz Dernlan, who is our National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist this year!

Daphne High School students in Mrs. Helms’s Global Perspectives hosted a Middle East Fest to wrap up the study of the region. Students brought a dish specific to the country they researched.

Baldwin County High School FBLA officers recently attended the Academy Chapter Excellence (ACE) Leadership Summit at the Battlehouse Hotel in Mobile. Among those attending included, from left, Zack Hicks, Brady Powell, Malik Edwards, A’Meria Brooks, Lorna Hester, Julia Ching, Alex Wasden , Austin Hartley, Sponsor Cherrie Jordan and, not pictured, Sponsor Michael Hill.

Coach Jimbo’s class have a lot of fun playing tag games in PE!

Bayside Academy Lower School students celebrated International Dot Day on Thursday, September 15, 2022. The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds is the story of a caring teacher who dares a doubting student to trust in her own abilities by being brave enough to “make her mark.” What begins with a small dot on a piece of paper becomes a breakthrough in confidence and courage, igniting a journey of self-discovery and sharing that has gone on to inspire countless children and adults around the globe. Bayside students worked with Lower School Art Teacher Shannon Noble to create dots that were important and special to them. These students are making their mark on Bayside!
Pictured: Bayside Academy Lower School students with their unique dots

Congratulations to Elberta Elementary School who was selected as a US Department of Education Blue Ribbon School. Elberta Elementary is one of five schools in Alabama chosen to be a Blue Ribbon School. Students, staff and administrators have worked very hard for this designation.
The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes public and private elementary, middle, and high schools based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. Every year the U. S. Department of Education seeks out and celebrates great American schools, schools demonstrating that all students can achieve to high levels.
The coveted National Blue Ribbon School award affirms the hard work of students, educators, families, and communities in creating safe and welcoming schools where students master challenging and engaging content.

Central Baldwin Middle School-FCCLA participated in the National Conference in San Diego, California with teacher Alissa Murphy. Congratulations for achieving Top 10 Nation Gold Medal Score at the FCCLA National Conference in the Repurpose and Resdesign Category Halie Hempfleng, Taylor McClellan.

Students in Ms. Keith’s 3rd grade class at J. Larry Newton Elementary applied for classroom leadership teams, then they worked with their teams to decide which roles their team would be responsible for and created a schedule for 1st quarter.

Is there a better way to learn about US industrialization than a paper airplane assembly line? We don’t know of one! Mrs. Hunt’s social studies students at Spanish Fort Elementary learned important lessons about the balance of quality and quantity. And they had a beautiful day to test out their products!

The new playground equipment at W. J. Carroll intermediate School is proving to be a hit with everyone. Pictured are Mrs. Keys’ fifth graders

Mrs. Theodore’s classes at Spanish Fort Elementary have been learning about the Coriolis Effect as they study global winds and ocean currents. If you’re unsure what the Coriolis Effect is…our incredibly smart sixth grade students can teach you!

Mrs. Marion’s 3rd Grade class at Robertsdale Elementary was busy with Science today. We started the day with observations of our class Lima bean seeds and a nature walk to classify living and non-living things around our school.

CBMS held its annual Sweet Potato Cook-Off on September 14th. We had 14 delicious entries this year. Thank you to everyone who participated!
The winners are as follows: 1st Place, Brenna Stevens; 2nd Place, Clayton Waddle; 3rd Place, Brayden Smith.
Good luck to Brenna as she competes at the Baldwin County Fair next week!

We have officially started the 2022-23 school year at Nature Connect Outdoor School! We now have our first kindergarten class, which is the first nature kindergarten class in Alabama! The students started their phonics program, and they are catching on quickly. The story for the week was “Alma and How She Got Her Name,” and we all discussed our unique, special names.”

Sixth graders from Swift Consolidated Elementary worked on weather experiments and practiced collecting data.

Coach Brymer and Coach Wooten’s classes PE at Robertsdale Elementary have something for everyone! Skill station circuits for K-5, 6th grade loves Dodge pinball. K and 1 loved doing dance activities for rhythm.

4th graders at Stonebridge Elementary used thermometers to test how energy transfers from the sun.

Students in Ms. White’s classes at Belforest Elementary made multiplication fact flash cards. They created strategies on their cards to help them learn their facts. Their WIG for September is to increase the number of multiplication facts they know.

NBTech Health Science Simulated Workplace students checked blood pressure and students showcased their personal protective clothing. This great group of students is getting ready to be part of tomorrow’s workforce.

Congratulations to Thomas Schultz (12) on his recognition as a National Merit Scholarship Program Semifinalist.