Junior high students swinging, throwing and running their way through spring sports

Haywood Junior High School athletes are busy using their skills and talent on the softball field, the tennis court and on the track as they compete with other middle schools in the spring sports season.

Track
The HJH track team – both boys and girls, have competed twice. The boys finished second and third in those meets, while the girls finished in second place in both meets. Teacher Ray Clark is coach for the track teams.

Tennis

The tennis teams, under the direction of Coach Mike Young, have completed four matches against Northview, Dyersburg, and Munford. The boys have won all four matches, and the girls are 2-2. They have six more matches against Three Oaks, Halls, Northview, and Dyersburg before the season ends on April 20. The West Tennessee Athletic Conference will hold its tournament on May 2 at Dyersburg.

Team members are Zachary R. Austin, Rory Taylor Dedmon, Logan W. Eubanks, Quentin Halliburton, William R. Joyner, Michael Colton Keen, John Ware Lonon, Justin T. Morris, David Nathan Peace, Haynes T. Russell, Eric H. Sellari, David L. Watts, Sarah Katlin Buie, Violeta Chavez, Martha Jane Jameson, Mariana Jimenez, Anna E. Overton, Alexandrea Primrose, Karina Pulido, Lauren C. Reed, and Elizabeth B. Simpson.
 

Softball
The junior high softball girls’ are five games into their season, holding a 2-3 record so far. Teams they are playing include Crestview, Brighton, Dyersburg, Munford, Lauderdale, Northview, and Three Oaks. Their coach is Shannon Burdick. HJH Assistant Principal Robert Wright is also the school’s athletic director.

Softball team members are Naomi Adams, Anna Coffman, Hanah Flood, Brittany Gibbs, Cory Jackson, Jessica Lewis, Dominique Logan, Keyuna Manns, Audrey Pattat, Megan Ragland, Megan Rye, Anna Scott, Destinee Turner, and Lindsey Yoder.

The girls will begin WTAC tournament play April 29.

Junior high students celebrate other cultures

 Geography students of Audrey Blue, Becky Streeter and Tim Williams at Haywood Junior High School held their International Fair this year on April 5. They created elaborate displays on different countries around the world and invited family, friends and community members to attend the event that was held in the HJH gymnasium. These students dressed as natives of Syria, Argentina, Iceland, Algeria, and Ethopia.

Haywood Junior High School conducted its Seventh Annual International Fair on Wednesday, April 5. Students in geography classes of teachers Audrey Blue, Becky Streeter, and Tim Williams began preparing for this event in January by selecting countries to highlight, writing letters to embassies, researching the countries in the library, and surfing the Internet. Some students received packages from the embassies and letters from ambassadors around the world. Students made flags, maps, and giant brochures packed full of interesting information the students discovered through their research. They created souvenirs and prepared ethnic foods for guests and family members to sample. And most of all, they shared what they had learned with the guests and other HJH students.

Ms. Streeter said that many community members and others in the school system made the fair a success. Funding was made possible through Haywood County Schools grants. Lasco, a local industry, donated PVC pipe fittings to assist in the construction of the booths. Wal-Mart donated bags to hold students’ souvenirs from the fair. Parents also volunteered their time and energy to design and construct props, decorate, and serve as tour guides at the fair. HJH librarian Jerilyn Thornton opened her library for computer access and offered countless time and reference materials to assist students in creating their booths.

In an effort to achieve AYP (a passing score from the state), project requirements coincided with required knowledge and skills (performance indicators) that students were tested on in the spring on the Terra Nova tests.

“Students are being encouraged to study how world issues impact their lives as well as how they can impact world issues,” Ms. Streeter said. “Yet, the goals of the fair are not purely academic. We hope that through this project, students can learn tolerance and appreciation for the many unique cultures of our world.”

Students study the use of propaganda

While studying the effects of propaganda used in advertising, Mrs. Mindy Waddell's eighth-grade language arts students became actual inventors and entrepreneurs themselves. Working in small groups, students were instructed to create a product to sell and promote it to other teens.

Among the students, these pictured were inventors of the “Auto Oven,” the creators of “Rainbow Flops,” and the makers of “Spray-On Abs.” These were just a few of the products the students created. After developing the product, each group designed a logo and a catchy tag line for their product. Next, they created a magazine advertisement and a radio spot using certain propaganda techniques. Finally, to get some heavy publicity, they created a TV commercial. After filming the commercials in class, Mrs. Waddell praised the students’ efforts saying, “The propaganda techniques used in the advertisements are no doubt going to make the entrepreneurs rich and famous.”