MSA Weekly News - October 21, 2016

October 21, 2016 | Vol 10, Iss 10, No 334

NEWSLETTER

Just Gorgeous Today!

We have had a wonderful week, with wonderful weather. This morning was awesome. When I got on campus I noticed the birds (those 9 black specks in the clouds above) soaring with outstretched wings as they ride the flow of the breeze we were getting during the incoming cold front. The picture doesn't do the sky justice, but the sun was coming up and the clouds had a beautiful pink hue. I stood outside with Susan Day as we watched the clouds move and the sun shown. Just gorgeous today.

We have had a week full of activity! There was a board meeting on Monday. Wednesday brought an open house, PSAT testing and Senior Team building. We had a dance workshop for those interested in the Spring Musical. Conferences for 7th - 12th grades were held. We hosted approximately 80 independent school counselors from all over Atlanta for their annual AAAIS Counselor Meeting. It has been a great week. I hope yours was great as well!

Art of the Week

EVERY student and teacher In Lower School helped to create this permanent masterpiece that hangs in the new Lower School building. The students brainstormed a list of adjectives that describe what it is like in Lower School. Fabulous, best, safe, colorful, action-packed, and supportive are some of the hand-written words that are put on to canvases and into a collage. They are covered in layers of paint, Sharpie and tissue paper. Every student worked on the art and was reminded that it was part of a GROUP painting, one that represents the community and would be displayed in the community. Jackson Kennedy and Luisa Gorgoll enthusiastically pose with the masterpiece!

Thank you Sue Nemesh

Thank you so much for bringing us our new fall decoration! It has brightened many days and it smells so wonderful!

We appreciate you thinking of us!

Sincerely,
Lisa Imsand

Musician of the Week

Congratulations to Middle School student Gito Nunez-Izaguirre, one of the MSA Band's enthusiastic piano players! Because of his excellent focus, fantastic attitude, and his impressive commitment to music, he is our Musician of the Week!

Hat's Off to the Class of 2017

We have had some more college acceptances this week.

Connor Bollinger - Oglethorpe University
Elli Flagg - Belmont University and Coastal Carolina University
Brett Parks - University of North Georgia
Emily Wright - University of the Ozarks

Congratulations to all of you!

Communication Arts Bunny Club

Every Monday, Becky Lamp'l (CommArts mom) brings in two of her rabbits to teach the kids. We are learning all about bunnies and how you show them at a rabbit show! So far we have learned anatomy, classifications, and different breeds of rabbit. We are also learning how to train a rabbit to show and do agility tasks. Next month we will be visiting our very first bunny show! Pictured: Becky Lamp'l, Bella Rousseaux, Connor Doyle, John Hartrampf

--Bonnie Bergstresser, CommArts Teacher

Baby Gecko

Ms. Jodi's fourth grade science students have been learning about the life cycles of different kinds of animals for the last 6 weeks. First students experienced chicks hatching from eggs after waiting for 21 days. Then they were given meal worms so they could watch them go through a complete metamorphosis and turn into beetles. To everyone's surprise, including Ms. Jodi, students arrived at school Tuesday morning to find that a gecko had hatched from an egg buried inside the plant of the class pet's cage. We quickly removed the baby just in case the parents were hungry! The kids were so excited that they wanted to write about it in their journals.

Guest Journalist - Luisa Gorgoll, Lower School

A baby gecko hatched today! There are two more eggs. I can't wait to meet the gecko! That means Blythe and Bert are married! I am so excited. It is 8:37am, then at 10:00we switch and I can see the baby gecko! The teachers are telling us to pretend it is a normal day. When I take the gecko home that means that the baby will come! It doesn't look exactly like the picture. The baby is an eyelash crested gecko.

(Note: we left out Luisa's cute little clip art picture because the one to the left IS the gecko.)

Helping Kids Make Good Social Media Decisions

Please join the counseling department for an informative parent workshop on:

Tuesday, October 25 from

6:30-7:30 pm in the

Upper School Great Room

"The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly When it Comes to Social Media and Technology: Learn How We Can Help Our Kids Make Good Choices" Presented by Sharon R Peterson, LCSW, CEDS

We hope you can join us. Please RSVP HERE.

Sharon Peterson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over twenty years of experience. A native of Atlanta, Sharon attended Holy Innocents' Episcopal School, Riverwood High School, and The New School (now Mill Springs Academy). She graduated from Kennesaw State University with a BS in Psychology and then went on to complete her Masters in Social Work from The University of Kentucky. Presently, Sharon is in private practice in Sandy Springs at Psychotherapy Services of Atlanta. Some of her specialties include: eating disorders, child and adolescent mood and behavior challenges (ages 4 yrs through teens), autism, and supporting parents. Additionally, Sharon works part-time at Alana Recovery, which specializes in addiction, as a lead therapist.

Welcome to MSA Chinese

欢迎你来MSA中文课

Hello we are Chas and Jojo MacNeill, the Chinese teachers here at Mill Springs Academy. We teach in tandem to bring a melding of the Chinese and American teaching style to our Chinese program. Recently we have had a lot of exciting things happen in class. We had two students pass the HSK, the Chinese National Language Proficiency Test, and we also took a group of students to China for an amazing Summer trip.

The Chinese program has grown massively this year, we have our biggest class ever with 14 students in Chinese I and we have our first student in Chinese IV. We very excited about the students increased interest in the Chinese culture and language.

We are currently studying for our Mid-Term and have started using Memrise.com as a new learning tool. This creates a game out of learning Chinese characters. After our Mid-Term we will be taking all classes of Chinese on our annual trip to Atlanta China Town to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We are also planning on holding another awesome China trip for this Summer.

The students like learning the language and that makes our classes so much fun. We have been very impressed with all of our classes, and are proud of how far our students have come in Chinese. Pictured: Henry Wallace in Chinese Class.

Bert Show's Big Thank You Campaign

The time of the year has come again for Bert's Big Thank You!! This is the campaign to send in handwritten THANK YOU letters to every troop that is overseas and that have to be away from their families during Thanksgiving! This is such an important cause, because those that have to be away from their families during the holidays can get some love and gratitude from all of us here at home. Lower School enjoys writing these letters to the soldiers every year. Watch for several of their letters scattered throughout this edition of MSA Weekly News.

--Laurie Jones, Lower School Principal

Volleyball Opens the Door to Victory!

No regrets were left on the floor Friday night when your Lady Mustangs played the Howard Hawks in the AAC Championship match. Howard has been the number one seed and champions for the last several years and they felt they would be again when they entered that gym. The Lady Mustangs were ready to play the best match of the season and were not about to go down without a fight, they were thirsty for the win. The team started the match with a solid win in game 1. With the assistance of Hannah Rae's serving and great teamwork, all the girls showed they were there to be champions. The score for the first match was 26-24. The second game Howard was ready to put a stop to the domination of the Lady Mustangs. The second game was tough and we missed some key serves at crucial times. The Hawks were able to pull it together and take the second match with the final score being 11-25. READ MORE

Book Reports in a Different Way

This week in MG's Language Arts classes it was all about book club collaborative projects. For this assignment, students worked together in groups and, aside from reading a particular book, were asked to compose a 500-1000 word collaborative book review and a creative project. "This is a great opportunity for students to further-develop their collaboration skills and to produce something meaningful and creative as a group" said MG. Beginning on Tuesday, students presented their projects to their respective classes and came up with ideas such as visual timelines, costume displays, and decorative edibles- all of which were specifically designed to represent a component of the group's book. It was a dynamic and entertaining week in 8th grade Language Arts class! Pictured: Jesse Taylor, Drew Horton, and Max Weiss presenting their book club project.

Bert's Big Thank You - Letter 1 of 4

Dear Soldier,

Thank you for your service. I know how hard it is to have a loved one away. I wish you could come home to be with your family to see them. i know you are fighting every day. Thank you for protecting America. I wish there was no fighting and just peace. Happy Thanksgiving!

John Keeley Davis

3rd Grade

Fathers' Night with Robert

Review from an Upper Dad last year: "Fathers' Night was well worth my time and I am very glad that I had the opportunity to participate."

Thursday, October 27, 2016

7:00 - 9:00pm

Middle School Great Room

RSVP TODAY by CLICKING HERE

What is LD? What is ADHD?

Come to explore these issues with your host and Headmaster, Robert Moore.

He will present the F.A.T. City Workshop video "How Difficult Can This Be?" by Richard D. Lavoie, a nationally known expert on learning disabilities.

In this video Richard Lavoie shows why the classroom can be an intimidating place for kids with learning disabilities. In the video he leads a group of parents, educators, psychologists, and children through a series of exercises that cause Frustration, Anxiety, and Tension … feelings all too familiar to children with learning disabilities. By dramatizing the classroom experience so vividly, Lavoie lets us see the world through the eyes of a child.

At the end of the video, a casual discussion will take place on strategies for working more effectively with learning disabled children.

This is a Dad's only event! We will serve pizza and wings.

Please RSVP so we can plan for food by CLICKING HERE.

Fun in Forensics

Guest Journalist - Jack Abram, 11th Grade, Upper School

Vaidehi's forensics class conducted an experiment to demonstrate to the students the differences between common fibers and how they burn. For instance, the distance between burning cotton and something like polyester. The experiment was very helpful in demonstrating the differences between common fibers. As an aside, this week is National Chemistry Week, and the theme is Fibers and Forensics, so it's very topical to our class.

We then continued to our Blood Splatter Analysis unit. The unit covers the ways blood moves when it exits the body due to trauma. We learned about the different types of blood, where DNA is contained within it, and how blood typing works. We also studied the behavior of blood, from the way it splatters depending on the velocity of the impact that caused the trauma, to how it pools and how to measure the angle it impacts on other surfaces. READ MORE

Bert's Big Thank You - Letter 2 of 4

Dear Soldier,

You guys are the best. Thank you for the help. You guys are really brave and smart. thank you for helping our country.

Max Young

2nd Grade

Face Off Challenge

For our first Flex Friday, Patrick Rose, our Technical Theater Director, offered a stage make up class. The Face-Off Challenge was a makeup application seminar where Patrick applied a creature makeup to a student in a little over an hour. He turned CommArts student Justin Kaufman into the ogre Shrek (pictured)! He applied a false nose and ears and lots of green paint. Students had the opportunity to help apply the makeup in its various stages.

Founder's Day

Last weekend's Founder's Day celebration was another huge success! Over 300 people came out for the annual event which honors Mill Springs' Founder, Tweetie L. Moore. This year's program was kicked-off with an invocation from Senior, Michael Martin, in both Lakota and English; followed by MSA's chorus singing the Star Spangled Banner, which was impressively directed by Upper student, Bryce Zimmerman. It was great to see the many alumni and former faculty and staff who joined us for this year's festivities which also included a yummy Chick-fil-A lunch, games and bouncies for the kids, and PVA-led drawing for a $50 gift card to Toys 'R Us. After an early afternoon of food and fun, the program was concluded with a beautifully-written benediction by Senior, Morgan Graves. Pictured are Alli Kogoy, Lilliana Coco, Kelsey Sullivan, Hannah Rae, and Audrey Henderson as they prepare to sing the Star Spangled Banner.

Bert's Big Thank You - Letter 3 of 4

Dear Soldier,

Hi, I am Luisa Gorgoll. That's a Spanish name. I am a girl in fourth grade. Today we are writing letters in class. My grandpa was in the Army. He still tells me stories about being in the Army. I give you lots of luck and thanks.

Luisa Gorgoll

4th Grade

SCHOOL CLOSED

Mill Springs Academy
will be CLOSED on
Monday, November 7

This is a Teacher Work Day. We will all be away at the Georgia Independent Schools Association's Annual Conference which will be held at the Marist School campus in Atlanta this year.

Bert's Big Thank You - Letter 4 of 4

Dear Soldier,

Thank you for your service. Thank you for protecting the U.S.A. You protect many people every day. Many of you lose your lives, but you keep fighting. You never give up. You fight until the war is over. Thank you for protecting U.S.A. and Happy Thanksgiving.

Trey Stormont

3rd Grade

Cross Country Excels!

Please congratulate our Mustang Boys and Girls Cross Country Teams for Runners Up in the Atlanta Athletic Conference on Thursday last week. Though we did not have enough girls to score as a team, our runners Grace Gersack and Jordyn DeNardo rocked this race as they took first and second place, and Grace hit her season best time, knocking almost a full minute off of her previous best time. Our boys also performed spectacularly. Sam Lynch ran his last home meet after running as a Mustang for the last 6 years, and officially breaking his 18 minute curse on our course, finishing in under 18 minutes for the second meet in a row. Sam easily took first place, as he seemed to fly, feet never touching the ground and beating out the runner up by over a full minute! Our other senior on the team, Mitchell Ryer set a new personal record at this Championship meet, beating his old personal best by over a minute and a half! Go Seniors! Matthew Wenger and Nathan Mostyn both showed their physical and mental toughness as Matthew became sick on the course, and Nathan's old injury reared its ugly head, but neither would be stopped, both refused to quit, and both finished the race strong! Additionally, there were great performances from Collins Losson, Mat Campbell, Griffin Kraft, Connor Gluth, and Zach Smith who we stole from the JV team and ran like a Varsity athlete! Thanks to all, for your support and hard work during the season, especially our coaching staff, Kate McElliott, Brandi Smallwood and Katie Winokur, and the parents who volunteered their time to help our meets run smoothly.

-- Angela White, Upper Teacher/Coach

Tech Tip: Finding Additional Contact Info
Did you know that you can find more than a home address and phone number in RenWeb? There are email addresses and cellphone numbers as well to help you get in touch with each other. Once you are logged in to ParentsWeb, do the following:

Click on School Information (if you aren't already there) on the left menu
Click on Directory from the left hand menu
Choose the student you are looking for
Select one of the family member tabs at the top. Then the information for that family member will appear below that.

If you ever have any questions about RenWeb's ParentsWeb don't hesitate to ask.

ADHD Awareness Month

It's time to celebrate the gift and manage the challenges of ADHD. If you would like to learn more about ADHD please check out www.adhdawarenessmonth.org.

We wanted to share this resource with you this week. ADDitude magazine. This publication/website has lots of strategies and support for adults and children with ADHD and/or LD. You might be interested in either their magazine or their website, check them out.

PM Program Registration has Begun

We have opened the registration window for the 2016-2017 Winter PM Program. Please make your registrations by November 11.

The Winter session will begin on November 8th and run through February 23.

You can find INFORMATION HERE.

You can REGISTER HERE.

What's YOUR Favorite Dessert?

Well the survey results are in! Overall our favorite dessert is {drum roll, please} CAKE! When we break it down by people categories, both students and faculty/staff like ice cream the best. Parents ended up with cake as their favorite. Some entrants choose more than one dessert so the percentages add up to more than 100. Those of you in the OTHER category indicated things like Cannoli, Pavlova (which I had to look up and it seems yummy!), creme brulee, and pudding! Here are the percentages so you don't have to try and read the PIE CHART (how appropriate for a dessert survey) on the left:

Cake - 34%
Ice Cream - 25%
Pie - 20%
Cookies - 14%
Other - 11%
Cupcakes - 9%

Thanks for playing along!

Did You Know

Celebrated annually on October 23 (Sunday) from 6:02am to 6:02 pm, Mole Day commemorates Avogadro's Number (6.02 x 1023), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. Mole Day was created as a way to foster interest in chemistry. Schools throughout the United States and around the world celebrate Mole Day with various activities related to chemistry and/or moles.Martha Muir, PreUpper Science Teacher, told me that every time you take an average gulp of water, you are consuming roughly a mole of water. NOW you know!

Cartwright Elf

Upper School student Cartwright Ayers is starring as the lead role, Buddy, in Act3's production of Elf, Jr. Cartwright has had many roles in MSA productions, including the lead in Little Shop of Horrors last April. Also, he has participated in One Act Play competitions (and is in the current cast that competes next week on 10/26 at the GISA regional level). In the last five years, he has represented MSA in GISA Literary Festivals and in the Junior Theater Festival as well. WOW! If you would like to see him in ELF, tickets are available HERE. Tickets go on sale October 24th for the December 9-11th shows.

Got Pictures?

Through the course of the school year, if you attend a sporting event or any activity on campus, or off, and you take pictures while you are there, I would love to have them!

I need nice, clear pictures for all kinds of things: Facebook, Instagram, the lobby monitor in Admin, MSA Weekly News, advertisements, printed items, etc.

Email your awesome camera work to pictures@millsprings.org and I will put them to work! If you have any questions, call Cheri (770-360-1336). Thank you!

Grandparents' Day Invites to be Mailed

This special day is Friday, November 18th. Invitations will be mailed next week. If you did not provide an address for your grandparents during the admissions process, or if you can't recall, please send it to Leila and she will take care of it. If your child doesn't have a grandparent that can attend, tell us about a special person that can come instead.

Attendance at Grandparents Day has been growing every year and we often end up with no empty seats. Because of this, please know that this special event is for our grandparents only and we are not able to have parents and students attend the breakfast. Students will be able to be with their grandparents after the breakfast for visiting and pictures! We are looking forward to a wonderful event! If you have any questions contact Leila Smith at lsmith@millsprings.org.

No one knows what it is that he can do until he tries.

--Publilius Syrus

Community Cares & Concerns

The Carlson Family

The Jones Family

The Vargas Family

If there is ever a care or concern you would like to share with the community, please just email me at any time, I will be glad to include either names or situations. For privacy, I will only list names and claim ignorance if anyone asks me for details. Cheri