The Bexley Middle School Newspaper December 2014
Masthead Design by Karlene Fadley
BMS Adds Large Study Hall to Improve Learning
By Sari Goldson
A new Middle School Study Hall was put into place at
the beginning of the school year that is intended to
allow students to accomplish more during the school
day.
The Cafeteria Study Hall was created by the Middle
School Response to Intervention Team, Assistant Principal Jason Caudill explained. This team consists of
Caudill, counselor Tara Louys, English teacher Chevy
Sidel and humanities teacher Elizabeth Jax, Caudill
added.
“We have a bigger than usual Eighth grade class this
year so the Study Halls have gotten really big,” Caudill
explained. “This is partially because there are so many
kids, and partially because the teachers have more
classes than usual.” Since there are so many eighth
graders at the Middle School, some of the teachers
had to sacrifice their Study Halls for more teaching
class periods, Caudill said. With the loss of some Study
Halls, the remaining ones became too crowded and
became very difficult for the students to work in this
environment, Caudill explained.
“The teachers felt they couldn’t work with kids in
small groups, which meant they couldn’t give all their
students the help they needed,” he added.
The Cafeteria Study Hall idea was put into action in the
first few days of school, Caudill said.
Eighth grader Virginia Anderson thinks that the new
experiment has both positive and negative aspects.
“I get more work done in here,” Anderson stated. “It’s
so much quieter and everyone’s so much more focused on their work. But it’s hard to work in groups
because you are so confined to the space.”
Eighth Grader Helen Girin does not think the new
Study Hall is a positive experience.
“We don’t really get to go anywhere to get help from
teachers,” Girin said. “The only way is to use a pass
that you got from a teacher earlier that day.” Girin
continued to say that she dislikes other aspects of the
Also in this issue…..
Nurse’s Office
Matchgirl
Peace Flags
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Page 2
Do Students Escape to the Nurse’s Office?
By Evie Lewis
Many students between K through 12 are going to the
nurse for one reason, and one reason only, and that is
to get out of class. Are they skipping or is there a deeper
issue going on that the school should be aware of?
The nurses, Kate Talbott and Joann Spain give medical
assistance to all grades Elementary, Middle school, and
High School. They work in a small office to the left of the
Cafeteria before you walk in. The nurses aid students
five days a week, Monday through Friday. Their purpose
is to help student if they have an injury or are ill.
Although, recently the nurse’s office has been experiencing an issue involving students, and it has nothing to
do with their physical health. Students of Bexley Elementary school, Middle School, and High school have
had teachers write them an excuse to go to the nurse
just so they can get out of class.
Kate Talbott says, “I think it is avoidance, meaning they
have classwork they missed, a test, or homework that
they didn’t finish, or even boredom.” Since teachers
have to let students go to the nurse in case it actually is
an emergency this, can make it an easy excuse to get
homework done or miss a test to get more time to
study.
Talbott has also mentioned that going to the nurse for
long periods of time could absolutely effect their grade,
“If a student only comes in for a cough drop it will not
impact their grades, but on the other hand if it is a busy
day where they have to wait for ten or fifteen minutes it
could certainly take away from their learning time so
they aren’t learning all the important material from that
class which could impact their grade in some way.” In
addition, both nurses value the time students get in
class to learn and try to get students in and out as fast
as possible while also helping them get better
Students going to the nurse only to get out of class also
negatively affect the work of both nurses, “We have to
document every student that comes into the nurse, and
it makes it very hard and tedious for me if 80 percent of
students don’t actually need any medical assistance, but
I still have to record it in their charts,” Talbott explains.
“If forty to fifty kids come in per day and only about ten
need assistance there must be a root to this ongoing
problem,” she continues.
Student Julia Dorochenko tells me, “Students normally
get out of class because they are uninterested in what
the teacher is saying, and they think pretending that
their foot or head hurts allows them to get out of class
and go to the nurse for a break.” However, Nurse Kate
Talbott has some different ideas, “I think students might
be having a deeper issue besides just wanting to have a
break from class. I know that some students might
suffer from bullying and anxiety. Transitioning into seventh grade I'm sure can be very stressful. More work is
put in front of the students and it might be hard to manage time, some might think that an escape from this
problem is to go to the nurse."
Dorochenko suggests, “Teachers should question their
students to find out if there is really an issue going on
with this person to prevent this from happening as
often.” Talbott has also said that the principle has
reached out to students that have been going more
than often to find out if there is a more personal or
medical issue that they can get involved in to help out,
“If students are having anxiety issues in class we should
step up to help this student out so that they don’t feel
that their only escape is the nurse’s office.” Overall, students should not be using the nurse as an excuse to get
out of class. If this problem reduces, it can make both of
the nurse's jobs a lot easier.
Page 3
Big Changes to Columbus Dance Theatre’s Matchgirl
By Maeve Herzog
Big changes were made to Columbus Dance Theatres
Matchgirl for the fifteenth anniversary of the production.
Columbus Dance Theatre has been preforming Matchgirl for fifteen years. Matchgirl is based on Christian
Hans Andersen’s “The Little Matchgirl.” Columbus
Dance Theatre twists the story by adding the character
“Death” to the ballet to taunt the little girl about how
much time she has before she freezes to death. This
year is the fifteenth
anniversary, Tim
Veach, the artistic director of CDT decided
to cast Maddie Gosnell, sixth grader at
Cassingham elementary as the little girl.
“I was basically in
shock and just sat
there for a minute
when he first told me
he wanted me to do
this, now with the
show starting on December twelfth, almost a week away I
am extremely nervous
because I’ve never
had such a big part
like this, and you never know how well it
will go during the show, I don’t know if I will mess up
or not, I am also extremely excited for all of my friends
and family to see. I have had so much fun doing the
show and everyone has been so supportive of me. I
will be sad when it’s over.”
Maddie explained what it was like working with Columbus Dance Theatres company members, “I was
terrified of working with the company at first because
they were all so much older than me, and I didn’t
know all of the that well but they were so nice and
supportive, now it’s no big deal for me to go to a company class or be in rehearsal with them.”
She also explained her daily schedule now that she has
to work with the company “On days I have to go to
rehearsal with the company I leave school at 11:00
and my dance day it 11:00-12:55 class then we have a
break to eat and then rehearsal till 3:30 or 4:00, I still
have to go to all my other dance classes and rehearsals including Saturdays from 12:30-5:00! You could say
I’m a bit busier than before!”
“I really love having a big part but it can also be stressful at times because I have to keep up with everything
that’s going on. I have
to keep on track with
my school work and get
everything done, I also
really want to do well,
so I feel some pressure.”
“I think that I have improved on my dancing
skills a lot including
partnering, mostly because I have to be focused in order to be
able to do it all. I also
feel I have become
more confident in my
dancing skills and my
memory has gotten a
lot better since I have
to memorize a whole
ballet!”
Who knows what
Matchgirl will be like next year and years to come,
Maddie added to this comment saying “I honestly
don’t know at all what Tim will want for next year, if
he will go back to having a company member dance
the role or keep it how it was this year. I would totally
do it again next year but we will see what he wants to
do.”
Matchgirl performances will be on Friday December
twelfth at 8 pm and Saturday December thirteenth at
3 pm and 8 pm. The performances will take place at
Otterbein University’s Fritsche Theatre. Tickets cost
$30 for adults $25 for seniors and $15 for students.
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Seventh Grade Peace Flag Project Keeps Flying
By Rosa Jones
Have you noticed the colorful flags outside of middle
school? Those flags are the embodiment of peace.
The Seventh Graders at Bexley Middle school have created these flags for the past five years in honor of the annual United Nations International day of Peace on September 21.
These peace flags are based on the prayer flags of Tibet.
Traditionally, the prayer flags are used to promote
peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. I got a hold of
some fellow students to ask them about their experiences completing our project.
When I spoke with Ada Jarosch, she told me, “I really
enjoyed the peace flag project. In this global time of turmoil, it’s a nice break. I can’t wait to see next year’s Seventh Graders add on to our peace flags.”
I also spoke to Julia Miracle who said, “It showed me the
real meaning of peace… I loved learning about the peace
flags and about the different ways of writing peace in
other languages.”
The overall goal for this project is for us to understand
the meaning of peace, how to spread it to others, and
understand what it means to live peacefully.
When I asked Ms. Jax about future goals for this project,
she told me that she is satisfied with the project and
that Seventh Graders at BMS will continue making their
peace flags in the future. We will continue to spread
peace messages to the greater Bexley community.
BMS Adds Large Study Hall to Improve Learning Continued
Study Hall. “They should allow more people to go to
the library and not be monitored as much everyday,”
Girin recommends. “We should have more freedom.”
Anderson also said that the pass system could improve
so it can go more smoothly. “It could be more flexible
and we shouldn’t have to have passes all the time,” Anderson said.
Although students seem to have had some difficulty
with the new Study Hall arrangements, Girin said that
she still finds the experiment useful. “We got to experience something new, something we haven’t done before,” Girin said. Girin added that she thinks the quiet
environment in the Cafeteria has a positive impact on
the students’ use of time and allows them to accomplish more. “We focus more closely on the work at
hand,” Girin stated.
Anderson said that the new Study Hall allows many
people to get much of their homework done more
quickly.
“You’re not distracted by people talking like you are in
normal Study Hall,” Anderson said.
Although there are many improvements that can be
applied to this new addition to the school, the RTI team
has been witness to many of the previous problems
being solved, Caudill said.
“This is similar to the high school Study Hall and will
help eighth grade students become prepared for the
years to come in that section of their education,” Caudill explained.
Caudill said that he thinks that there is definitely room
for improvement in this venture.
“The way we communicated the idea could have been
improved,” he said. “It’s not my first choice, but it is a
good solution for the problems we were facing.”