MSA Weekly News - October 13, 2017

October 13, 2017 | Vol 11, Iss 9, No 369

NEWSLETTER

Just Another Morning

We had a short week, but it sure was busy. The Upper School students have been doing some testing and the Seniors went on a leadership trip. Conferences have begun and by now Lower and Middle School are pretty much finished. The rest will continue into next week. Tomorrow is the Dyslexia Dash - we are glad that we are able to continue to sponsor this wonderful event, make sure if you are at the race that you stop by our table to say "hi" to our admissions team - Sheila and Margaret. Run like the wind. :)

The other day a blanket of fog was lingering on campus when I arrived in the morning. It was quiet all over with the exception of those we share the property with - the bugs, birds, etc. I could hear squirrels rustling around in the leaves, the birds calling to each other, and twigs snapping in a forested area where something larger was traversing (hopefully deer). Along the walkway a spider was minding his own business as he wove his magic web, which I noticed others examining closely later. Just another morning at Mill Springs Academy.

Try to stay dry and have a wonderful weekend!

Fine Arts Student of the Week

Meet Cameron Carr! Cameron, who is an Upper School 10th grader, first got involved with MSA Theater in last year's One Act play, and then showed off his dancing chops last spring in Singin' in the Rain. And he's at it again! He's killing it in this year's One Act, ART. He has numerous monologues and lots of dialogue, and he's taken it all on like a true champ! He is this week's Fine Arts Student of the Week because of all this, and he's a darn nice guy on top of it! Congratulations Cameron!

Thank You to Karen Ferguson Butler!

A GIANT thank you to Karen Ferguson Butler for her weekly delivery of delicious fruits and cookies to KK's Club!!!! We appreciate you and your generosity, kindness and love.

--"KK" Katy Kane

Feature Teacher

Ok well not a teacher - but Nurse Ann Hartin. Ann has been our school's nurse since 1990! Since she has been here so long I wanted to know what kept her here, she said, "it is the caring family and community atmosphere." AND she loves working with the students. She has previously been an OR nurse and the mother of 2 ADHD boys. Her philosophy is that you should all "teach as you go".

Outside of school she loves to garden, make handkerchief dolls, and do crossword puzzles. Her favorite food is Chinese. Right now she is reading a book titled, "Guyana Massacre: The Eyewitness Account" by Charles A. Krause. Interestingly when Ann was in high school she was the State Vice President for the Florida Future Nurses Club.

Counseling Corner

I recently attended the national conference of the National Association for College Admissions Counseling. There were over 7,000 in attendance including high school college counselors, college admissions personnel, independent educational consultants and other involved with the college process. i reconnected with old friends and met many new people.

I took a full day tour of Landmark College in Putney Vermont. Landmark is one of two colleges in the country specifically for students with learning disabilities, ADHD, or Autism Spectrum disorder. I was very impressed by the variety of options offered. Students can attend Landmark for a Summer, a semester, or for a 2- or 4-year degree depending on their needs.

--Susan Day, Counselor

Moms in Prayer Meets Weekly

We will meet in the conference room in the Administration building at 8:15am every Tuesday for 60 minutes - October 17 is our next gathering. Although I hope we have people show up week after week, I know everyone is busy, so there is no long-term commitment. Come when you can. If you want more information, you can check out the Moms in Prayer website before you come.

God's word says where two or three are gathered together in His name, he will be there also (Matt 18:20. I know our school will benefit from the power of prayer. I hope you will join me. Contact me if you have any questions.

--Michelle Weyant 770-377-4222

The Ocean's Awesome!

As many of you know, Coral Lab is PreUpper's Marine Biology program that is centered around the study of coral reef ecosystems and oceanic awareness. Recently, the lab lost several of its long term aquatic inhabitants due to the power outages caused by Hurricane Irma. Thanks to the tremendous support from our families, we were able to raise enough money to replace our lost livestock and are now the caretakers of several intriguing new specimens. The first animal that the Coral Lab would like to introduce (and share some facts about) is quite a rarity- the Longlure Frogfish, or Antennarius multiocellatus. In the wild, this bizarre reef dweller mimics surrounding sponges by varying its background hue to match that of the dominant sponge in the area. It also has multiple ocellii (eye-like markings) that look like the openings in a sponge. READ MORE

Public Open House

Wednesday, October 18

9:00 - 11:00am

Student Activity Center

If you know someone that might benefit from attending MSA, please invite them to an Open House or better yet bring them! In case you haven't attended an Open House, it provides prospective parents with an overview of the school, a wonderful Fine Arts presentation, at least one parent and one student perspective, a tour of the school and an opportunity to speak with the principal. It's a great opportunity for them to get a feel for what we are all about. Word of mouth is by far the biggest way families find their way to Mill Springs and we know that you sometimes have the chance to be "Mill Springs on the Street", we thank you for sharing MSA!

JV XC Takes Second Place!

The Mustangs had our first two Cross Country meets and Astrid and I could not be prouder!

First, a special THANK YOU to Roberto, who is, AS ALWAYS, the REAL MVP! In addition to making sure that things on our trail were looking good, he came through in the clutch with the generator when at the last minute our speaker system was not working during our first meet, AND went out to get us more gas. THANK YOU ROBERTO! Also a shout out to Judy Norris who volunteered as one of our course monitors for the entire first meet when she heard that we were short on volunteers. Thank you Judy! Last, but certainly not least, a special thank you to Patrick Rose and Nate Foster for expediting the order of a new speaker battery, getting it installed and working within minutes of it arriving, and in just in time for our 2nd meet! READ THE RESULTS

Conferences have Begun!

Whatever days your school is holding conferences, there are no classes for your student. Please pay close attention to the schedule, here is what is left of that:

PreUpper Student Conferences

October 19 and 20

CommArts/Upper Student Conferences

October 20

If you have any questions, please contact your principal, they will be glad to answer them for you.

BINGO!

This week in Phonics, we learned all about prefixes and suffixes. We discussed how each prefix and suffix completely changes the meaning of the word. We played a class game of BINGO, where students had to figure out the meaning of each word with a prefix or suffix attached. For example, I called out the word "quickly" and students had to cover their space with the meaning, "in a quick way." In these photos Trey Stormont (L) and Lexi Murphree (R) were determined to win the BINGO prize.

--Carolyn Shapiro, Lower School Instructor

LAST WEEK for the Annual Food Drive

Make sure you get your canned food items in during this coming week.

Let's get together to feed those in need! Please join us as our small community partners with the Atlanta Community Food Bank in order to take a bite out of hunger in Metro Atlanta. We have big goals this year, so we hope you will participate (and maybe bug a neighbor or two), because many hands make light work and big differences!

September 5 - October 20, 2017

Please do NOT bring glass items or perishables. Check out the list of the MOST NEEDED ITEMS.

Latest Issue of MILK. is Published

MILK. Newspaper has been working hard to release its first issue of the year and has finally published it. With a mix of mustang, pop culture, national, and international news there is something for everyone, so feel free to read the Fall 2017 issue on the MSA Website.

36th Annual Founder's Day

Please mark your calendars and plan on attending our annual Founder's Day event on:

Saturday, October 21, 2017

11:30am - 1:00pm

For those families new to Mill Springs, our Founder's Day event is kind of like a fall, family picnic and is our way of honoring the school's founder, Tweetie L. Moore. The event is FREE OF CHARGE and includes:

Lunch provided by Chick-Fil-A
Rock Climbing Wall with Spider Jumps
Outdoor Laser Tag
Two Giant Hamster Balls
Bounce House

NOTE: The event will take place near our athletic fields on the MSA campus. When entering the campus that day, please follow all traffic signs down into the fields for event parking.

Are You STUCK?

If so, GREAT! Wait, what? Great? Yes that is great! If you are not STUCK, then let me help you get STUCK. Come by the Administration building at any time and we will be glad to help you get STUCK. I have lots of stickers (pictured above) in the closet that are just waiting to be STUCK to the window of your car, truck, mini van, bus, whatever you drive. If you don't have a sticker STUCK to the window of your car, come on by and I will be glad to give you one for every car you have. I'd love to see your car STUCK in front of me on the road one day! Come get STUCK!

--Cheri Harwood

Learning Our Language

Guest Journalists - Ms. Kaylee's 4th Period 5th Grade Language Arts Class

The 5th graders in Language Arts have been learning vocabulary words that have Latin and Greek root words. We have been working on roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Some examples of root words are "pend" which means hanging and "circ" which means round. We also learned about Latin prefixes for numbers one, two, three, and four, which are uni, bi, tri, and quad. To review, we played interactive Kahoot games, studied using a learning tool called Quizlet, and watched Brain Pop videos. We took a test over Lessons 1-4 this week as well.

We are also working on a nonfiction personal narrative about a small moment of our lives. We are using the writing process to help us plan our writing. For pre-writing, students completed graphic organizers to discuss the characters, setting, main idea, thoughts, feelings, beginning, middle (action), and end (resolution). READ MORE

All Dads are Invited to Fathers' Night

Thursday, October 26, 2017

7:00 - 9:00pm

Middle School Great Room

RSVP TODAY

What is LD? What is ADHD?

Come to explore these issues with your host and our 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 our learning disabled children.

This is a Dad's only (grandfathers are welcome too) event! We will serve pizza and wings.

Please RSVP to help us plan for food.

Way to Go!

Tyler Lillard, an 8th grader in PreUpper School, continues to receive national accolades in the wrestling world. Tyler is currently ranked in the Top 10 wrestlers in the nation in the 136 lb wrestling category. Earning the top spot in wrestling is not new to Tyler. Over Columbus Day weekend, Tyler competed in the I-64 National Wrestling Duals with his team (Morris Fitness, Alpharetta) and the I-64 National Wrestling Individual Tournament in Virginia Beach, VA. In the team tournament, Tyler went undefeated getting 3 pins and 2 wins for his team, which finished in 8th place out of 20 teams. Because Tyler didn't lose a match, he was named to the All-Tournament team for the tournament.

In the individual tournament, Tyler pulled off 4 big wins to get the national championship (1st place). Tyler practices wrestling 6 days per week, and he is eager for the wrestling season to begin to compete with the Mill Springs Mustangs. Way to go, Tyler!

Personality & Communication Parent Workshop

Wednesday, November 1

6:30 - 7:30pm

Upper School Great Room

Our speaker will be Dr. Jeannine Jannot, the Balanced Student, and she will discuss how to make parent-teen communication more productive through understanding the influence of our personality types (particularly Extroversion - Introversion) and our Love Languages.

Please RSVP HERE if you can join us.

Splitting Cells

In Keith Muma's, Upper School biology class, students are studying the cell including the stages of mitosis (the division of cells). Each student is given Oreo cookies to use as the cell and sprinkles as chromosomes. PMAT is the Acronym to explain the steps involved in mitosis.

P - Prophase - PREPARING - The cell is preparing to divide. The nuclear membrane dissolves and chromosome become visible

M - Metaphase - MIDDLE - The chromosomes attach to the spindle fibers and move to the middle of the cell.

A - Anaphase - AWAY - The chromosomes move away from one another to the opposite poles of the spindle.

T - Telophase - TWO - Two nuclei are formed.

Afterwards, milk is supplied and every cell is eaten. (Pictured is freshman Aimee Grace Murray)

College Day is Coming

Parents - you are invited to join us for College Day!

Our annual College Day college fair will take place on Friday, November 3 in the gym from 10:30 - noon. All parents are invited, as are students in grades 8-12. We are expecting 40+ colleges and programs to be represented at the fair. If you are planning on attending, please RSVP so we know you are coming. We are very excited about this year's fair.

Weekend Shirt Still Available

This new t-shirt was created by our Parent Ambassador group for the sole purpose of getting the word out around town about Mill Springs Academy. That is why we call it our Weekend Shirt! The point is for everyone (parents, especially) to wear it on the weekend while you are running errands or out having fun. Someone may ask questions about the shirt or the logo, thus providing a terrific opportunity to share information about our wonderful school with the community, and that means the shirt is doing its job! Let's show our school pride all around town.
These shirts were given to all of our new students at orientation. But there are more and they are available to you for $14 each! All you have to do is go to the website, order yours today, then WEAR it and TALK about it!

Founder's Day is a great opportunity to wear them!

p.s. This is NOT approved as a uniform item.

Community Cares & Concerns

The Buckley Family

The Hughes Family

The Murray Family

The Smith Family

Las Vegas

Those affected by hurricanes

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