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.

Shout out to Mrs. Stephenson’s leadership class at WHS who recently participated in a "Tower of Pasta" challenge.  Each group held the max weight for the same time before breaking.  One tower was 10-1/2 inches vs. the other tower which was 8-1/2 inches.

Great collaboration, critical thinking, and team work were shown in this hands-on Odyssey of the Mind-type challenge.

Submitted by Christy English

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