In honor of Dr. Seuss, Anson Elementary hosted several special visitors on Monday, March 4, among them the Cat in the Hat.
The Cat in the Hat visited classrooms Monday morning on the day commemorating Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Throughout the day the school hosted “celebrity readers” who came and shared their favorite Dr. Seuss books with students.
Marshalltown High School’s health clinic hosted “The Amazing Health Adventure” Thursday, March 7, a health fair that attracted 350 students.
The goal of the fair was to empower students and staff to make healthy choices. Booths included Mid-Iowa Community Action, Hy-Vee Dietitian Melissa Richardson, Central Iowa Family Planning, Building Health Families, Team APP (Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention), and Winding Creek Spa.
Officer Kraig Lageschulte had drug vision goggles and information about the impact of drugs on the body. Information was also available from Iowa Statewide Poison Control Center and United HealthCare.
The health fair was held in the upper lobby of the MHS/Community Auditorium and drew a number of staff members as well as students.
The small metal components fabricated by students in Lee Daub’s classes don’t look like much on their own, but together they mean giving someone on the other side of the world the gift of mobility.
Students in Daub’s Machine Metals and Advanced Metals classes at Marshalltown High School are creating parts for Personal Energy Transportation (PET) vehicles, a kind of hand-operated tricycle given to people in poor nations immobilized by war and disease.
Daub first heard about PET International through someone at his church who participated. He has had students work on it before, but never to this scale. At the end of this week the 18 students in three sections will have fabricated the parts to build 100 PET vehicles. Through PET International the vehicles are shipped around the world to more than 60 countries.
The vehicles are designed for places without paved roads – where wheelchairs aren’t effective. Daub’s students are building parts for the steering column and brake levers.
Students had examples of each component and from there reverse engineered them to find out how to start. Materials for the project were donated. Daub said the project has allowed the students to learn some new skills and new welding techniques.
In the end, the project will have taken about three weeks. The parts will be shipped to Hawarden in Northwest Iowa and from there to a PET International location for assembly and use somewhere in the world.
A team from Marshalltown High School will compete in the statewide Iowa High School Battle of the Books held Tuesday, April 16, in the MHS Library.
The team, named the Flaimin’ Mustaches, is coached by Susan Fritzell and placed 10th out of 72 teams competing in the qualifying round. To qualify, the team took an online test consisting of multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions about the 29 books on the battle list. The top 16 teams qualified for the Grand Battle.
Members of the qualifying MHS team are Nick Lanes, Matthew Dickey, Jonathan Ortega, James Drummer, Dayana Carrera and Tim Potter.
Fritzell and MHS teacher librarian Sue Inhelder started IHSBOB in 2007 and opened it up to other schools the following year. MHS had three teams involved in the qualifying round this year.
Visit the IHSBOB website here.
Craig Huegel
Craig Huegel will be the next activities director at Marshalltown High School.
“I am extremely excited to join a school district that has such a history of achievement in athletics and activities,” Huegel said. “As I met people during this process, the passion Marshalltown has for its students and its activities made an impression on me.”
Huegel is currently activities/athletics director and At-Risk coordinator for Martensdale-St. Mary’s School District. Previously he served as activities director for North Polk Schools from 2007 to 2011. There he was also an assistant varsity football coach and head varsity boys track coach, as well as social studies teacher.
He has previously taught and coached at Paton-Churdan and Oskaloosa school districts. A native of New Hampton, he graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a degree in social sciences and earned a Master’s degree in education administration from Drake University.
“I am honored to be able to collaborate with students and staff to provide opportunities in our activities program,” he said. “I look forward to giving my very best, along with all of our students, coaches and sponsors, to create the best possible experiences for students.”
He will begin his duties July 1, 2013, replacing retiring activities director Tim Bell.
Marshalltown High School presents its fourth annual Show Choir/Jazz Band Blast on Thursday, March 21, at 7pm in the MHS/Community Auditorium.
MHS Jazz II under the direction of Brett Umthun will present their contest jazz music and MHS Jazz I under the direction of Bret Lee will present their contest music with additional selections. The show choirs will perform their 2012-2013 competition shows.
Encore’s show this year features music that was performed for USO tours by female artists at different time periods in our military history. Songs include music from the Andrews Sisters, Natalie Cole, Nancy Sinatra, Jessica Simpson and Joan Jett.
South Side Transit’s show is “The Elements of Life & Love: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water” featuring music by Adele, Tina Turner, Jordin Sparks, The Beatles, Vanessa Williams and Katy Perry.
Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for K-6 students with activity cards honored.
Marshalltown High School art teacher Julie Bousum has leaned on a student for help this year, and that student has responded with unwavering energy.
Sophomore Talia Fosness has helped Bousum each school day with several tasks and was an integral part in getting ready for the recent youth art show.
Read Talia’s spotlight in today’s Marshalltown Times-Republican.
The Marshalltown High School Forensics Team will hold a “tip night” fundraiser Monday, March 25, 5-8pm at Pizza Ranch.
Forensics is a speech and debate program consisting of a variety of speech, acting and debate events. For the past 4 years, MHS has qualified someone to compete at the national level against students from all around the United States and the US Territories. Our students compete against some of the top schools in Iowa, and do very well.
The group holds fundraisers to allow students to go to competitions without having to pay for their own fees, transportation, and hotel rooms.
Marshalltown High School junior Elizabeth Russell has been invited to perform at the Iowa High School Speech Association All-State Festival Monday, March 25, at the University of Northern Iowa.
Russell will sing “Popular” from the musical Wicked on the Strayer-Wood Theater main stage. Russell recently received a Division I rating for her solo musical theatre performance at the state contest.
The All-State invitation puts her among the top two percent of students participating in speech contest across Iowa.
State Speech Participants (L to R): Zam Lai, Daniel Blom, Min Lin, Chander Fisher, Brittany Ryerson. Not pictured: Elizabeth Russell.
Marshalltown High School speech contestants earned all Division I ratings at the Iowa High School Speech Association State Individual Contest Saturday, March 9, at Vinton-Shellsburg High School.
MHS garnered a combined eight Division I rankings – the highest possible – among six students.
Daniel Blom and Chandler Fisher each earned two Division I ratings apiece, Blom in storytelling and spontaneous speaking categories and Fisher in acting and radio news. Elizabeth Russell earned a Division I in solo musical theatre and Brittany Ryerson, Min Lin and Zam Lai each earned the top mark in expository address.
The students advanced to state after competing at a tough district contest Feb. 23 at Center Point-Urbana.
Speech coaches are Craig Luttrell and Julie Bousum.
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