Our School’s NCAA Bracket Challenge

One popular sporting event in our neck of the woods is the NCAA basketball tournament known as March Madness. This is a tournament where 64 teams meet head to head! Our middle school is having a friendly challenge to see which student or teacher can correctly predict the most winners of these games.

Students can check out the up to date stats of the tournament by visiting our Student Council Blog post about the NCAA Bracket Challenge. (Unfortunately, only students from our school will have access to this particular Google Sheet because of privacy settings.)

Does your school have any fun traditions? Is there a tradition or fun contest you wish they would offer? We’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

12019 / Pixabay

Get to Know Our New Bloggers – 2018-2019

Who makes up Ms. Mack’s 18-19 6th Grade Language Arts class? What makes us unique?

Check out some fun facts about our class below! (Click the red text to visit each student’s blog to find out more about them.)

We’d love to get to know more about you as well!  Leave us a comment with something that makes you unique. Be sure include a link to your blog so we can come to visit!

Who plays setter in volleyball?

Who plays the drums?

Who loves animals?

Who speaks a foreign language?

Who is obsessed with pandas?

Who has a sister?

Who loves ice cream?

Who likes to dance?

Who plays baseball?

Who likes to play the piano?

Fornite is a favorite of this student. And this one too!

Who loves theater?

Whose favorite sport is Lacrosse?

Who LOVES cows?

Which class member thinks Fortnite is dead?

Who plays field hockey?

Who is the youngest of three?

Created using Wordle.net

A Better Look into the Class Blogroll (Guest Blog Post)

Enjoy this post from guest blogger, Lily! Here is her post encouraging you to learn more about our 2017-2018 class! Happy reading!

Are you bored and want to find a blog that you’d actually enjoy? Maybe the sidebar on my blog isn’t enough for you! Listed below is every student on my sidebar in my LA class, and I’ll give you a little glimpse into the bloggers.

Allison runs a lot and loves Pygmy Goats in pajamas.

Ava-Rose dances the night away and loves her cat.

Ben’s chickens are laying eggs, while he is trying to go fast on a Rubix Cube.

Cameron shoots hoops and is the next Kobe or Lebron.

Camille wants to travel to Germany and could keep reading Refugee.

Chloe likes telling stories and believes happiness is the key to life.

Claire-Louise wants to go to Los Angeles and finds neat words.

Claire loves books and is a member of Cabin Athena.

Jonathan goes crazy for Fortnite and enjoys time at the beach.

Jude loves gummies and would rather be on Mars.

Kenna is a total fashionista and listens to Todrick on the daily.

Kevin is a sucker for banana bread and writes poems about pain.

Kyla wants to go to Rome and Jamaica.

Lauren knows how to be a true friend and likes making DIY things.

Maddie is a fan of all things Supernatural and everything strange.

Quin loves his dog Nasher and enjoys time in the mountains.

I hope you have as much fun reading the blogs as I did when getting information for the post!

~Lily 

DA Literary Challenge 3!

The Creative Writing and Literary Magazine club is happy to announce its third writing challenge for the Spring 2018 issue. Use the following prompt to inspire your creativity, and email the result to Mrs. Howes by May 1. The winner will receive a small, ridiculous prize, automatic publication in The Locker, and the opportunity to read their work at a Community Meeting. Here is the prompt:

Base a piece of writing or art on a weird fact or several odd facts that you know. 

Credit: Pexels

DA Literary Challenge 2

The Creative Writing and Literary Magazine club is happy to announce its second writing challenge for the Spring 2018 issue. Use the following prompt to inspire your creativity, and email the result to Mrs. Howes (kelly.howes@da.org) by April 10. The winner will receive a small, ridiculous prize, automatic publication in The Locker, and the opportunity to read their work at a Community Meeting.

Grab the closest book. Go to page 42 or 67. Use a sentence from this page as the TITLE of your written piece or artwork.

What is one sentence that speaks to you on page 42 or 67 in a book near you? Add the sentence from your book and the book title in the comments below. Maybe one of these quotes will inspire your next piece of writing!

DA Literary Magazine Challenge 1

ATTENTION Durham Academy Students:
The Creative Writing and Literary Magazine club is happy to announce its first writing challenge for the Spring 2018 issue. Use the following prompt to inspire your creativity, and email the result to Mrs. Howes by March 27. The winner will receive a small, ridiculous prize, automatic publication in The Locker, and the opportunity to read their work at a Community Meeting. So here is the first prompt:

Think of an abstract idea (like “joy,” “hunger,” or “stupidity”). Imagine that abstraction as a character. It can look like a person, an animal, or a creature of your own invention. Once you have the character in your head, set it in motion–make it DO something. For example, “Joy” might ride a bicycle, “Hunger” might go to the movies, or “Stupidity” might dig a hole. Tell the story of what happens, in the form of either writing or artwork.

Student Blogging Challenge

For the first time, our Language Arts class will be participating in the Student Blogging Challenge through EduBlogs! Why the challenge? The goal of the challenge is to connect student bloggers with a GLOBAL AUDIENCE! This challenge has run twice each year since its start in 2008. The last challenge in October connected 2,452 students in 74 countries! Our LA class will be participating in the next exchange that starts March 4th and will last for 10 weeks.

Learn more about the challenge on the Student Challenge Blog.

Students will sign up for the challenge by clicking on the Student Blogging Badge in the side menu!

Globe

Photo Credit: tsbl2000 Flickr via Compfight cc

 

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