Welcome Mrs. Ahonen!

Gulf Shores Middle School is proud to announce that we have a new addition to the school faculty. Peggy Graham retired after 30 years of teaching different levels of art, which left GSMS without an art teacher.

For the first month of the new semester, Dana Boyd substituted for the sseventh and eighth grade art classes. And as of last Monday, GSMS now has a new art teacher for the rest of this year.

Cindy Ahonen has been teaching art for about three years. Before she started teaching at GSMS last week she taught in Atlanta at Harris County Middle School for three years. Prior to teaching at HCMS, Ahonen graduated from Valdosta State University in southern Georgia.

Ahonen is very dedicated to her family including her daughter, Charlotte Ahonen, and her husband.

By: Olivia Helms & Julie Shattuck; 7th

Aiming for a One!

On Feb. 12, the seventh grade GSMS band went to The Alabama Bandmaster’s Association District VII Band Assessment at Davidson High School in Mobile.

The state assessment is for middle school and high school students, grades seven through 12. In this competition there are three judges with a list of criteria used to judge the bands. They rate the band on a scale from one to four, one being superior, two being excellent, and three being good and four is fair.

The purpose of this association is to recognize bandsmen dedicated to musical excellence, and each instrument has its requirements to earn the greatest score.

The attire the students must wear is black pants or skirts for the girls and white shirts (button up or polo). This is a big event for the band because it is there first time performing in front of judges.

By: Sarah Beth Loper & Harlie Guy; 7th

Time to sharpen your pencils!

All seventh graders, it’s time to sharpen your pencils and your writing skills. Feb. 19 will be a mentally challenging day for all seventh graders because that is when the Alabama Direct Assessment of Writing will be held.

For the past few weeks, seventh graders have been writing non-stop in their English classes for practice for this major test.

The ADAW is focused on letting the Board of Education know how well students can write. It also shows how well our teachers have been teaching us and what kind of things they have taught us. 

This assessment will be timed for 60 minutes giving students an hour to take the test. The writing performances are expository, descriptive, narrative and persuasive.

Students will have a prompt within these four areas. The students will be graded with a score of zero to four.

By: Sarah Jarrett & Autumn Poe; 7th

To bee or not to bee

On Jan. 13, GSMS hosted its annual school-wide spelling bee. The participants consisted of students who won their class spelling bee in either English or literature.  Jeff McDonald, eighth grade English teacher, moderated this bee.

Many bright students representing their classes battled it out, but in the end it was Bailey Smith, eighth grade, who was victorious. She battled intensely with eighth grader Maliha Khan before finally emerging as the winner.

The annual school spelling bee is only the first level at which students can potentially compete. After winning the school spelling bee, the student can advance to the county, or district, held at the Loxley Civic Center each year. 

This year’s Baldwin County Spelling Bee winner was Abigail Marie Akins, a seventh grade student at Perdido School.

She correctly spelled M-U-S-L-I-N to edge out Christian Tyszkiewicz of Elsanor Elementary School.

GSMS did not send a representative to the county competition this year due to a communication error.

This year’s state competition will be held on March 7, at Spain Park High School in Birmingham.

The journey does not end there. The winner at the state level receives an all-inclusive trip for two to Washington, D.C. This is where the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee is held.

“I think participating in this year’s spelling bee was a great experience and I nearly got a chance to compete in the county bee,” Khan said.

By: Autumn Poe; 7th & Zach Warren; 8th