The Paxton HS Baseball team held it's 7th Annual Jake's Bobcat Open at Blackstone Golf Course on August 24th, 2019. Bobcat Baseball holds this event in memory of one of their assistant coaches, Jake Taylor, who passed away after a fight with cancer. The Bobcats donate each year to two organizations that were instrumental in Coach Taylor's treatment and care: Cancer Freeze and Pilots for Christ. Both organizations will receive $500 this year from the Bobcat Baseball Team.

Superintendent visits with students during lunch at SWHS. The Art Club entertained potential members, and shared the value of being involved at school. The other students were enjoying their 12th Day Of school and love SWHS! 
EPIC3 in motion during the Third Week! Superintendent Hughes loves seeing the babies in their element!

In seventh grade Civics classes across the state of Florida, students study the roles, rights, and responsibilities of United States citizens.  On Friday, August 23rd, students in Mrs. Katie Williams' and Ms. Regina Messer's classes interacted with their peers to enhance their content knowledge in a collaborative carousel activity. 

In small groups, students rotated around the room, like a carousel, to different scenario cards and had to closely and carefully read and determine whether the situation described is a citizen's "obligation" or "responsibility."  Students then had to provide a summary sentence of key ideas from the scenario and then list evidence to support their rationale.  The teachers guided students to look for key words and phrases, like "must," "everyone," "required," and "you can."  They also told them to ask themselves, "Is there a consequence described?"  (If not, then it is probably a responsibility.) 

This engaging activity built students' content knowledge through writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and inquiry (WICOR) tasks--a foundation of AVID-style learning at WMS.  It also helped equip students with fundamental knowledge about their roles and duties as United States citizens--knowledge that will prove beneficial to them for the rest of their lives.

Submitted by Kristen Nelson

Heroism is a concept that has been explored in society and culture throughout time--a concept that continues to be worthy of study in ELA classes at Walton Middle School. The first unit in the eighth grade Springboard curriculum introduces the challenge of heroism. Because the word "hero" is used daily--in school, conversations, movies, video games, news, daily life--it is worthy of exploring.

In Ms. Alex Rhodes' classes this year, students are taking the time to reflect on what heroism really means as a societal and cultural concept. On WICOR Wednesday, these eighth graders spent time analyzing how a film--Disney's Big Hero 6--uses the hero's journey to structure its plot. Students closely and carefully watched the film to identify stages of the hero's journey. Ms. Rhodes' students organized their thoughts (a key WICOR concept) using a graphic organizer, recording details from the film that aligned to each stage of the archetypal hero's journey. During Wednesday's lesson, students carefully traced how the film's hero, Hiro, faces a series of challenges that become increasingly difficult as the story unfolds, mapping out the hero's "Beginning of Adventure," "Road of Trials," and "Experience with Unconditional Love." After pausing the film, Ms. Rhodes instructed students to "turn and talk," collaborating with their classmates about how key details from the film support the hero's archetype.

WICOR strategies were in full force throughout the lesson, as students "read" the film as a text, as they wrote down key details and analysis in their graphic organizers, and as they collaborated with their peers to articulate their thoughts. Students at WMS practice these essential skills across campus each and every day--but especially on WICOR Wednesdays.
Submitted by Kristen Nelson