Clark-Shaw Magnet School

As a school of choice, our mission at Clark-Shaw Magnet School is to develop students into globally aware and productive citizens who excel academically and are responsible, courteous, life-long learners. This will be accomplished by providing a challenging curriculum in a safe and nurturing environment.

Happy New Year Eagle Family,

We have reached the half-way point of the 21-22 school year. 3rd Quarter is a busy time of year for us as we prepare for Spring assessments, Mardi Gras, Spring sports, recruitment, and so much more. Parents, please take a few minutes to make sure your student is on track each week. You can do this by checking grades and attendance. 2nd Quarter report card distribution will occur January 19, 2022. If your student is in danger of failing by magnet standards or by MCPSS standards, you will receive a Failure Notice from the teacher. It is imperative that you review this information and work with the teacher to schedule a conference to review your student’s status.

The magnet application period is now open until January 25, 2022. If you know of someone who would like to be a Clark-Shaw Eagle, tell them to apply today! Unfortunately, due to increasing COVID cases, we cannot open the school for tours; we need your help spreading the word in the community about our awesome school. You can find more information about the magnet application timeline on the Clark-Shaw website and social media outlets.

"Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life." unknown

Mrs. Taylor-Jackson

We are proud to announce the 2021-2022 Teacher of the Year for Clark-Shaw Magnet School is Mrs. Veronica Bragg!

Mrs. Bragg is a 6th grade math teacher for team 6B. Mrs. Bragg has spent her entire career teaching at Clark, and she started out teaching 4th grade, back when Clark was located in Chickasaw. She taught 4th grade for about 12 years and then switched to teaching 6th grade when 4th and 5th graders were phased out of Clark. Mrs. Bragg stayed with 6th grade when our school moved to its present location and has been teaching 6th grade math since then.

Mrs. Bragg has been married for 28 years and has 2 daughters - Maya (28) and Jalisa (26). She is a graduate of Alabama A&M University. Her hobbies are dancing, shopping, traveling, and skating, and she still skates on Friday nights every now and then. You might be surprised to learn that her favorite subject growing up was history! But now she is all about math! As a way of encouraging her students to do well on tests and quizzes, one of her favorite things to say is "Today is an A Day!"

Here are just a few comments from her colleagues who nominated her for Teacher of the Year:

"She is a hard worker and she is always willing to help the kids achieve and work harder in math."

“She is awesome. She works very hard to mold these kids into the best students that they can be.”

"She is extremely helpful and insightful, even when she doesn't realize it and a great role model for a newer teacher.”

Former students describe her as being passionate about math, funny, and truly caring about her students.

Mrs. Bragg, you are a fabulous teacher and have helped countless Clark-Shaw eagles over the years to succeed! Congratulations on this well-deserved honor!

Do you know students who would thrive at Clark-Shaw? Encourage them and their parents to complete the on-line application so they can attend next year! Enrollment is open to 6th through 8th graders. The magnet school application period is open now through noon on January 25, 2022. To apply, visit the website here.

Science Bowl is similar to Scholars Bowl or Scholastic Challenge. If you like science, this is an activity for you!

Science Bowl Try-outs will be Tuesday, January 11 at 2:50 in Mrs. Specker’s room (Room 218). Please pick up your child at 3:50 in the front of the school. Our practices will be Tuesday afternoons from 2:50-3:50. We will compete on a Saturday in March.

It was a busy December for Clark-Shaw Magnet School. Here are some of the highlights!

Clark-Shaw students had a chance to play Santa for the "Stuff the Bus" Toy Drive! In just a few days in early December, we collected over 200 toys for the MCPSS Magical Christmas Toy Drive. Members of the National Junior Honor Society helped organize the collection efforts, and NJHS officers (pictured above) stuffed the bus on December 8th. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Assistant Principal Mr. Reed and the Grinch (Mrs. Robin Martin) were caught delivering a much-appreciated morning snack to teachers and staff to lift their spirits. The administration also shared other treats and a delicious brunch for faculty and staff in appreciation for their hard work.

December is the best time of the year to get tacky! Students and staff had several opportunities to show off their tackiest holiday fashions during Tacky Sweater Days on December 3 and 10th.

PTA hosted an Ugly Sweater holiday dance for students on Wednesday, December 15 complete with snacks, drinks, and a DJ. It was the perfect way to wind down the semester and have fun before the holidays!

The holiday spirit was on full display during the month of December. PTA sponsored a Door Decorating Contest, which resulted in a colorful, joyous wonderland across the Clark-Shaw campus as faculty, staff, and students showed off their creativity. The over-all winners were 1st place: Mrs. Mouton for her reading themed door; 2nd place: Mrs. Burch and Mrs. Houston for their joint "Full STEAM Ahead" display, and 3rd place: Mr. Braswell for his student-created STEM Stables featuring 3-D printed snowflakes.

Members of Clark-Shaw's Student Council sold, assembled, and delivered candy grams during the month of December to help earn funds for school projects. Thanks to everyone who bought a treat to make someone's day!

Our PTA is up and running and we need you! December was a busy month for Clark-Shaw's PTA. We are thankful for having for their support and look forward to even more fun activities in the future with your help!

To join PTA: https://clarkshawpta.memberhub.com/store/items/28462

To volunteer at Clark-Shaw: https://forms.gle/vcLRW66jdJ56gXW36

Link to PTA's December newsletter: https://www.smore.com/uf6ez

For the first time in over a year, Clark-Shaw bands were able to showcase their talents in live performances! On December 14, the Winter Concert was held in the school gym, which featured the strings group, jazz band, beginning band (6th grade), intermediate band (7th grade), advanced band (8th grade), and a performance by the dance team. On December 16, the Jazz Band performed at Bellingrath Gardens as part of their Magical Christmas in Lights program. We commend the students and their band director, Ms. Crystal Reynolds, and look forward to seeing how much they develop by their Spring performances.

8th graders Natalie Morvant and Madison McCaskey, members of the advanced band and jazz band, warm up before the winter concert.

6th grade band performs at the winter concert on December 14th, 2021.

The Clark-Shaw Jazz Band performed under the lights on the great lawn at Bellingrath Gardens on December 16th.

The girls and boys track teams have been chosen. Congratulations to these students!

It's YOUR yearbook... we want you to be in it! Share your own personal photos for this year's yearbook. Since our photographers can't be everywhere, we need your help to make sure we include as many students as possible. Do you have pictures of the first day of school, sporting events, spirit week, tacky sweater days, or anything else featuring Clark-Shaw eagles? Share it with us so we can include it in the yearbook.

Submitting photos is easy! Simply go to this link (click here), enter school code HJ21021, fill out the information (be sure to tell us who you are and what you're doing in the photo), and submit! Please submit soon since we are designing the yearbook right now!! For questions, email Mrs. Dena Van den Bosch at dvandenbosch@mcpss.com.

The annual Clark-Shaw Spelling Bee was held on December 6th. The competition included the winners from each language arts class. The overall champion was Grant Langham, and the runner-up was Madeline Borchert. Both are members of the Clark-Shaw Scholars Bowl. Grant will represent Clark-Shaw at the county-level spelling bee.

The other participants (and winners from their respective ELA classes) were Ava Bell, Ju’morian Adams-Nettles, Violet Borchert, Lacie Brown, Catalina Bryan, Landyn Carson-Owens, James Colleli, Christopher Daniels, Cole Davis, Brandon Gamble, J’Kaia Harris, Brooke Huber, Shi’Erra Jones, Jayden Jordan, Jacob Kim, Maggie Kruszewski, Jaslyn McCann, Chloe McCutcheon, Chyler McCutcheon, Menelek Ozaeta, Julia Panchenko, James Pate, Myles Patton, Briana Pears, Edwin Perry, Adalyn Persons, Alaysia Scott, Laith Shabeneh, Avery Smith, Sara Ussery, Demarcus Wheat, and Khiyah Winston. Congratulations, students!

There are only a few more games left! If you haven't seen our student athletes play this year, make plans before the season is over.

Jan. 10 (home) vs. Hankins

Jan. 13 (away) at Pillans

Jan. 20 (home) vs. Grand Bay

Jan. 24 (away) at Semmes

To purchase home game tickets, guests should type http://gofan.co/app/event/ID Number in their browser and show their ticket verification when entering the gym. For away games, go to the GoFan website and search for the school we are playing.

Here are the ID Numbers for our remaining home games:

427896 Jan 10 vs. Hankins

427905 Jan 20 vs. Grand Bay

February is Heart Healthy Month, and we will be participating in Jump Rope for Heart again. For the past 3 years, Clark-Shaw has been recognized by the American Heart Association as the top middle school, and we plan to continue that tradition! Look for information to go home from PE classes about Jump Rope for Heart, Wear Red Days, and candy gram sales, with all proceeds going to help fund heart research.

Mrs. Alecia Howell, one of our 8th grade social studies teachers, recently received a “Classics for All” grant from Ascanius: The Youth Classics Institute. The grant was used to purchase art supplies to enhance her ancient Greece (December) and ancient Rome (January) units in world history class.

Students created a Greek “vase” that retold a Greek myth of their choice. Some students also created labyrinths after learning about the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. These activities provided a memorable hands-on learning opportunity while incorporating the arts. Way to go Mrs. Howell!

Students, remember to get in rhythm each day during homeroom by going to the "Rhithm" app that's accessible via Clever. This wellness check-in tool provides a quick social-emotional learning activity along with a simple emoji assessment to let us know how you're doing mentally, socially, physically, and emotionally. The faculty and staff at Clark-Shaw care about you, and if you are struggling in any of these areas, please let an adult know. Help is available! Mrs. Tamara Woods is the 6th grade counselor, and Mr. Ron Sayles is the 7th/8th grade counselor.

Our archery team has been quite busy! They participated in the Bright Beginnings Academy Reindeer Games tournament at St. Mark's United Methodist Church and the Semmes Middle School Winter Warm Up tournament in December as well as the Denton 3rd Annual Winter Wonderland tournament on January 6, 2022.

At the Semmes tournament, Clark-Shaw came in 4th of 10 teams and scored a season-high 3066 as a team, with a total of 79 perfect 10's! We had 10 archers score above 250. Top archers were Paden Roberts (279), Charlotte Milling (262), Carter Dunbar (261), Julia Panchenko (256), Eli Weatherford (256), Jordyn Adams (255), Brady Burkett (254), Senad Shabaneh (252), Isabella Meade (251), and Sophia Piper (251). Paden, who shot 15 10's, finished the tournament as #2 in 6th grade boys, #3 in all middle school boys, and #4 out of all boys (269).

Our archery team's next tournaments will be Gilliard's Battle of the Swamp on January 13-15th and the Causey Classic at Causey Middle School on January 27-29th. Flight times and names will be posted soon. All tournaments have a $2 spectator fee for adults, while children are free. To learn more, contact Mr. Jonathan Braswell at jbraswell@mcpss.com.

Get to Know.....Mrs. Angela Hansen!

Mrs. Hansen is one of several new teachers to Clark-Shaw this year. She is a 6th grade Earth Space Science teacher who recently moved moved from Central Florida, where she was a full time art teacher and Disney dance partier. She says that she learned some of her dance moves in the Mobile Ballet when she was 15, but most of her choreography came from a bunch of characters! She has also taught high school earth space/environmental science.

Mrs. Hansen has a bachelors degree in studio art and a masters degree in education. She shows her artwork nationally and was just accepted into one of the top fine art shows, Chain of Parks, in Tallahassee where she will be sharing her oil paintings. She and her husband just completed their 10th year of Space Coast Half Marathons in their spare time, because as she says, "It’s all about the beach and the bling!"

Mrs. Hansen has also been sponsoring the girls basketball team this year. Thanks, Mrs. Hansen, for all you do for our students!

Science Fair projects were due in December, and this month, students have been sharing what they learned with presentations during science class. They are presenting the hypothesis, relevant research, methodology, materials, data findings, and conclusions from their individual projects and sharing their abstracts and display boards with fellow students.

Clark-Shaw's school-wide Science and Engineering Fair, featuring top projects from each class, will be set up in the gym starting January 26th. They will be reviewed by outside judges to determine the top entries in a variety of categories and ribbons will be awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places in all categories. On Friday, January 28th, students and teachers will be able to view all the displays boards and see the winning projects.

In March, many of our students will be participating in the Mobile Regional Science and Engineering Fair held annually at the University of South Alabama. In April, the state science fair for Alabama will be hosted by the University of Alabama - Huntsville, and we hope to see Clark-Shaw represented.

7th grader Mei-Ling Rollman presents her science fair project in Mrs. Burch's class.

Monday, Jan. 17: Dr. Martin L. King, Jr Day - NO SCHOOL

Wednesday, Jan. 19: Report cards (2nd Quarter) go home

Monday, Feb. 28 - Wednesday, Mar. 2: Mardi Gras break - NO SCHOOL

Thursday, March 17: Last Day of 3rd Quarter

Friday, March 18: Teacher Work Day - NO SCHOOL

PE uniforms are on sale so that students can dress out during PE class. Dressing out is part of their participation grade in PE. Shirts are $10.00 and shorts are $10.00, for a total of $20.00. Students may purchase uniforms during their PE class period. Cash or checks made payable to Clark-Shaw Magnet School are accepted.

Don't miss out! The deadline to reserve a personal ad for 8th grade students in the 2021-2022 yearbook was December 17. Limited space is still available, but you must act fast to avoid a late fee of $15. The cost is $30 for a 1/4 page ad, $50 for 1/2 page ad, and $100 for a full page ad, and the cost of the yearbook is $35. Send payments (cash or check payable to Clark-Shaw) to Mrs. Van den Bosch, Room 209. Requests can also be sent to dvandenbosch@mcpss.com. Online sales for yearbooks only (no ads) can be done using a credit card at www.yearbookordercenter.com, using school code 21021.

Orders can now be placed for the 2021- 2022 yearbooks. The cost is $35. Payments can be made by cash or check (made payable to Clark-Shaw) and given to Mrs. Van den Bosch, Room 209. Please include the student's name and homeroom when turning in your payment. Orders can also be placed using a credit card at www.yearbookordercenter.com, using school code 21021.

Don't miss out! Catch the latest announcements, Dad jokes, lunch menus, student interviews, birthday announcements, and other entertaining features from Mr. Sikes' broadcast team. Click the link here or the button below to watch our daily broadcasts via YouTube. You can also participate in their weekly poll question on the Clark-Shaw homepage.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clarkshawmagnet

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarkshawmagnet_eagles @clarkshawmagnet_eagles

Twitter: https://twitter.com/clarkshaweagles @clarkshaweagles

Website: https://clarkshawmcpssal.schoolinsites.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH5jO4hJwMgEawGLisFn4Lw/featured

Your child's teachers and the entire staff here at Clark-Shaw are committed to your child's success. Please let us know how we can serve you!

Timesha Taylor-Jackson, Principal

tltaylor@mcpss.com

Website: https://clarkshawmcpssal.schoolinsites.com/
Location: 5960 Arlberg Street, Mobile, AL, USA
Phone: 251-221-2106
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clarkshawmagnet
Twitter: @clarkshaweagles

Newsletter compiled by Dena Van den Bosch, dvandenbosch@mcpss.com