What's New @ 542

It’s a beautiful morning and your alarm goes off. The day has officially begun, the only question is what will you make of it? Is this going to be the best day of your life, or will you slump around in your pj’s until noon? Well, the truth is, it’s completely up to you. As Dinae Von Furstenburg once said “You are the one that possesses the keys to your being. You carry the passport to your own happiness.”

If we wake up every morning thinking “today is going to be the worst” does that change the overall outcome of your day? Well, studies have shown that those of us who find something to motivate themselves throughout their day tend to have more positive thoughts and feelings towards the changes in their life. So "Get up every morning and remind yourself, I Can Do This!” (Kanta Sonii).

Motivation is hard to find sometimes so if you are struggling to find a reason to believe in yourself check out the link below for some helpful tips and strategies.

https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-get-motivated#studying

What's Battle Lake FFA been up to? We checked in with Mrs. Walkowski and found out!

Tell about some of the things you've done this year.

This year in FFA has looked a little different with COVID. We were able to do our ditch clean up in October, and we have done a few of our competitions virtually.

What does leadership mean to you?

Leadership to me is being able to work with a team and help the team be the best they can be. It means bringing out the best in others all while working on bettering yourself for the good of the group.

How would you encourage an inactive FFA member to become involved?

There are so many ways to get involved with FFA; we have something for everyone, from CDEs (career development events) to SAEs (supervised ag experience) to leadership development events.

What is the purpose of FFA?

The purpose of FFA is to enrich the agriculture curriculum through different intracurricular events that allow student to explore agriculture in different ways.

What are the benefits of being an FFA officer?

There are a lot of benefits of being an FFA officer including; gaining leadership skills, developing communication skills, getting to know other members better, gaining career experience, and leading the FFA.

How has Covid changed FFA this year?

Covid has changed a lot for us! We had to do all of our competitions virtually, which was rather difficult, because most of the competitions involve a hands-on component. We also haven't been able to do penny wars, petting zoo, pie social, and our meetings look a lot different too. Even though we weren't able to do everything that we usually have, we still have had a pretty great year so far!

How many competitions have you taken part in?

The Battle Lake FFA has competed in the following CDEs: Nursery/Landscaping, Fish and Wildlife, Soils, Farm Business Management, Crops, Small Animal/Vet Science, Ag Mechanics, and Floriculture. We still have to compete in Milk Quality, Livestock, Dairy Cattle and Poultry.

What were the results?

So far 6 out of the 8 teams have qualified for state in their competitions, and we hope we can add even more!

There were many great spellers that participated January 26th in the Battle Lake School Spelling Bee, but only one can become the spelling champion.

Once it got down to the final two, Emma Walker and Brayden Meyer, it was a battle of who could outlast the other. In the end, Emma wasn’t even knocked out of the round via a champion word. It all came down to the total number of words spelled right in the finals, and Braydon pulled through.

“There has always been a Spelling Bee in Battle Lake for as long as anyone can remember. Even those on staff who went to Battle Lake School when they were kids remember the Spelling Bee,” states Tanya Maethner,

The competitors and their grade levels were as follows:

5th Grade: Gage Abram, Carson Drechsel, Oliver Heggem, Ethan Sonju, and Maeci Tandberg

6th Grade: Graycie Cameron, Avaya Condiff, Owen Johnson, Brayden Meyer - CHAMPION, Fred Scott

7th Grade: Izzy Boyum, Garrison Fleischauer, Junior Foster-Faaaliga, Olivia Love, Peter Newark

8th Grade: Christian Carlson, Aidan Heggem, Ophelia Klemetson, Cayden Mansker, Emma Walker

“I Love to Read Month” is common in many schools. It takes place in February and the goal is to promote a love of reading. This year's theme is “Superheroes.” For every book that the students read, they will write the book name on a piece of paper. Their goal is to circle the building with the slips of paper. Mr. Kern, our superhero superintendent, will pull names for the prize cart that goes around the school. The kids who get their name chosen get to choose a prize off of the cart.

Elementary has celebrated Valentine's day in their classrooms for many years now, and this year was no different. It may have looked a bit different, but COVID didn't stop the tradition. Check out some of the activities and student boxes/bags!

Mike Scholten has been coaching basketball for 16 years, 10 of them being girls and in his 6th year of boys. He wanted to coach basketball because it was his favorite sport growing up and he knows a lot about it. Mr. Scholten has a lot of fun memories but at the top of his list was getting the opportunity to coach his own kids. Out of the many years, Mr. Scholten has been coaching, his biggest goal is to help kids to learn how to play as a team and improve with each other and not alone. Basketball is a team sport and improving together and having chemistry is huge.

There are some challenges when it comes to coaching, for him, it’s being away from his family. He loves to spend time with his children and wife.

When asked how his team was doing this year, he said his B team is doing good with a record of 4-2. But with his C team, they don’t have many players and have played 2 halves this season. There are about 7 kids on the C team and just about all of them are on the B team and play a lot. His B roster doesn’t have large numbers either, with a roster of only 10 kids on the B team.

He was also asked what he was looking forward to this season, his answer was he was excited to learn the new offense since we just got a new head coach, Tyler Owen. He is excited to team up with him and looks forward to winning some games this year.

Click on a link below to get the athletic schedule for that week.

March 8 - 14

March 15 - 21

March 22 - 28

March 8

School Board Meeting

6:30 - 8:00 pm

March 16

Lego Club - Media Center

6:00 -7:15 pm

March 31

High School Parent-Teacher Conferences

4:00 - 8:00 pm

April 1

1/2 Day School - Students & Staff

April 2 - 5

No School - Easter Break

April 12

School Board Meeting

6:30 - 8:00 pm

April 13

Lego Club - Media Center

6:00 - 7:15 pm

Book Fair

Media Center

April 26-30

Website: www.battlelakeschool.k12.mn.us
Location: 402 Summit Street West, Battle Lake, MN, USA
Phone: 218-864-5215
Facebook: facebook.com/BLSchools
Twitter: @BLSchools