Members of the second grade at Custer Elementary School raised nearly $500 for the Humane Society of Monroe, had a good time doing it and their teachers were able to have all of the activities fit together as part of the school’s regular curriculum, too.
A second grade math lesson is called the T-Shirt Factory but the teachers changed it to a Dog and Cat Gram Factory lesson. The teachers incorporated all of the prescribed lessons, fitting the dog/cat factory portion into them. In social studies, the students were studying economics, particularly how people work together in a community. The students were introduced to the importance of helping dogs and cats by watching a Humane Society commercial.
Deciding to help local cats and dogs, the students in assembly-line style colored dog- and cat-grams and then taped them to suckers. Always on the lookout for smart marketing, the students also made a commercial to show at school and made posters, too. They sold the dog- and cat-gram suckers at lunch and donated all of the profits -- $488.95 – to the local humane society in a short ceremony Monday, March 7.
Teachers participating in the project were: Sherri Zub, Jan Heck, Tara Pafford, Sarah Kokx, Jennifer Reed and Polly Fraser.
Grant Prater, a junior at Monroe High School, received a President’s Volunteer Service Award signed by President Obama from MHS Principal Mrs. Sandra Kreps, in a ceremony March 8 at the Monroe Public Schools Board of Education meeting. It was one of two awards Grant won as part of the 2016 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards.
He also was recognized as a distinguished finalist for his volunteer service as one of the top Michigan students this year.
Grant, who also is an Eagle Scout and very active at Monroe High, was recognized for spearheading the creation of a clothing closet at Monroe Middle School to store donated clothes, hats and gloves for students in need, eliminating the prior method of storing the items in trash bags. He worked with school officials, fellow student volunteers and his family, to convert a former school storage room to what is now called the “Trojan Outfitters” clothing closet. It actually looks like a mall clothing shop.
“You are an exemplary role model for your peers. Contributions like yours make our communities and our entire nation stronger. We salute your achievements,” officials of Prudential Financial and the National Association of Secondary School Principals wrote in a letter informing Grant of his selection.
Throughout Monroe Public Schools, students and staff have the advantage of the latest educational technology in classrooms at every level. Much of the money used for technology purchases comes from the Monroe County Educational Technology Millage. To see a good example of technology at work in our classrooms, please check out the link below.
Two choral groups from Monroe Middle School have qualified to participate in the state Michigan School Vocal Music Association festival in in May at Holt High school by achieving excellent ratings (1) at the District 12 festival this past weekend in Lincoln Park.
Receiving the excellent ratings were the MMS group Jubilation and the eighth grade choir from Team C. Choir director Mrs. Elise Dinwoody said that both groups also received perfect scores in sight reading which is quite an accomplishment.
Besides the two groups qualifying for the state festival, three other MMS choirs received good ratings. They are the seventh grade choirs from Teams A and B and the eighth grade choir from Team B.
The Monroe High School Boy's Basketball game against the Saline Hornets tonight will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. tonight on monroecountyradio.com. Jeff Yorkey and Jarod Calkins will handle play-by-play of tonight's game. To listen to the game, just go to monroecountyradio.com and click on Listen Live.
Due to icy and snowy road conditions in the district, there will be no school for Monroe Public Schools today, Thursday, February 25. In addition, kid’s club at Riverside and Custer will be cancelled for today and all after-school activities are cancelled, too, including all Community Education classes and activities. Repeating there will be no school today for Monroe Public Schools, Thursday, February 25. Thank you and have a nice and safe day.
The Monroe Public Schools Board of Education has asked the school district’s administration to look into the possibility of razing the former South Monroe Townsite School and selling the property on which the school now stands. The school has been used in recent years for the Head Start program of the Monroe County Intermediate School District and for Monroe Virtual High School. However, at the end of this school year, Head Start will be moved to Arborwood North Elementary School, leaving the school vacant. A final decision on the future of the building could be made by the school board by the end of March.
There will be a half-day of classes for Monroe Public Schools students on Wednesday, February 24. Pre-school at Riverside will operate on its normal schedule, and kid’s club at Custer and Riverside will operate on the regular schedules, too. Once again, students will have a half-day of classes on Wednesday, February 24.
There’s an old joke that goes, “Hey, how do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice.” For four Monroe Middle School musicians, the question is similar. “Hey how do you get to Detroit’s Orchestra Hall? Practice.” And practice they did which paid off big when four members of the Monroe Middle School Band were selected to perform with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Middle School Honors Band. The four (left to right) -- Lauren Lebeck, Chloe Spooneybarger, (both flute) Lauren Custer and Sydney Kuhlman (both clarinet)—will perform at Orchestra Hall in Detroit on Monday, March 21. The DSO’s Honors Band is made up of selected students from around Michigan. To have four students from one school is quite an honor.
The efforts of the Monroe High School Student Council and students/staff at Waterloo Elementary School were captured in a photo essay in Sunday's Monroe News. What a great thing they did for taking water to Flint residents. Copy and paste the link below to your browser to read the story.
http://www.monroenews.com/news/20160221/we-had-to-do-something