In addition to the student bands the festival will include performances by the Ken Trimmins Quartet, the Georgia State University Jazz Combo and with our headliner, The Atlanta Seventeen. The Atlanta Seventeen is in its fifth decade as one of the regions finest big band groups recreating the smooth and stylized arrangements from the name bands of yesteryear.
The Bennett’s Mill Middle School Band Boosters will be presenting the Second Annual Villages Jazz Festival on April 28, 2012. The festival will be held at the Villages Amphitheater, in Fayetteville is a community event and will feature middle school and high school jazz ensembles from the area.
In addition to the student bands the festival will include performances by the Ken Trimmins Quartet, the Georgia State University Jazz Combo and with our headliner, The Atlanta Seventeen. The Atlanta Seventeen is in its fifth decade as one of the regions finest big band groups recreating the smooth and stylized arrangements from the name bands of yesteryear.
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The phrase, "nothing is perfect", stands out as one of the guiding principles of any good parent's litany of advice, but the music department at Bennett's Mill has proven even the best of mothers wrong this time - they were perfect. Every single musical group at Bennett's Mill Middle School was perfect in their Large Group Performance Evaluations for the 2011-2012 academic year. For many who don't know, the Large Group Performance is an evaluation, much like the CRCT for music, that rates the overall strength of a musical programs in Fayette, Coweta, Spaulding, Clayton, and Henry County. While not a direct competition, the Large Group Performance Evaluation allows band, chorus, and orchestra to compete against their previous year's performance. There are a multitude of different categories that the groups are rated on, and the rating of superior is the highest honor that a group can get in any one category.
Too put it straight, in every single category of every single specific musical group at Bennett's Mill, we were perfect. Not only have we carried on an amazing tradition of excellence for the 2012 season, but the individual groups have one an amazing amount of accolades for the past few years. This year both the band, directed by Mr. Ricky Williams and the chorus, directed by Mrs. DeLacey Wilkins, won the prestigious Exemplary Performance Award for the State of Georgia to honor their work in the 2010-2011 school year. Once again this is the highest award that a school's musical group can achieve. There are only eight awards of this kind handed out in the entire state, and Bennett's Mill took two of them. The orchestra, directed by Patti Davis, has also made waves on the state and national stage, performing most recently with Bridgid Bibbens from Mark Wood Productions at the American Strings Teacher Association's National Convention on March 23rd. The "Electrify Your Strings" Event was both a performance and a clinic that gave our students an amazing opportunity to work with professional in their field. Even though phrases like "nothing is perfect" have to be removed from our vernacular at BMMS, the directors of our musical program will tell you that there is a piece of advice that is always relevant - "practice makes perfect" One of the greatest joys a child has is the day they are allowed to go to the Book Fair at school. Often, this is also the time where parents scramble for cash at home or furiously write checks in the drop-off lane at school. Welcome to the Book Fair of the 21st century!
The fair this year will be held April 23-27 from 8:30-3:30 and will operate as usual where students can purchase items in the library, but there is also an online option where parents can participate without actually coming inside the school. Parents will be given a sneak-peak at the books and items and will be able to shop online between April 17 and April 30. On the official Bennett's Mill Scholastic webpage there is a link to purchase books online and have them delivered to the school for your child's enjoyment. Want to do more? - Consider volunteering at the book fair or consider donating to "One for Books" or "Classroom Wishlist". The Organization Station at Bennett’s Mill Middle School has become an staple of learning that teachers and students have grown to rely on. Developed during the 2009-2010 school year as a direct intervention to get new 6th grade Broncos organized, the Organization Station was the brain child of Mrs. Marianne Menke, a 6th grade teacher at BMMS. The students come to a designated place one morning a week and get assistance organizing their binders, book bags, lockers. The OS helps with sharing organizational strategies and provides time to reorganize a student’s educational system. Many teachers agree that when the binder, book bag and locker are organized, it not only becomes easier to find homework and notes, but the student feels more confident and has more success across the board.
Through the years, the need for the intervention continued and the OS grew. In the 2010-2011 year, Menke incorporated the assistance from the BETA Club. BETA students were given the bulk of the responsibilities and soon the organization took over the station. This year, Marianne Menke and the students who have donated their time once again to help other students tweaked the program by setting up multiple stations. While Menke is still responsible for the initial training and set-up, the students from the Beta Club run the Organization Stations and model good organizational skills to their peers. Each Beta Club member is assigned to an OS homeroom filled with young students needing assistance. This new way of peer-to-peer teaching allows for the work to be done in a more intimate area with easier access to necessary tools and more time. Students seeking help from the Organization Station originally consisted of students who were recommended by teachers, but Mrs. Menke allows all students who need help to come to the station. Mrs. Menke states, “being organized is a strategy to better efficiency in all areas of life, not just academics”, and the teachers at Bennett’s Mill agree. It would seem that having a young team has not slowed the Bennett's Mill Middle School Track and Field Team down one millisecond. Not only did the team score six first place wins and six second place wins at Sandy Creek High School on Tuesday against Booth and Flat Rock Middle School, but the team broke four previously held records. Here are the specifics:
School Records: Ian Davis / 300 Hurdles (New School Record) Ian Davis / 110 Hurdles (New School Record) Cameron King / 1600 M (New School Record) Van Neeley / High Jump (Tied School Record) First Place: Angela Heimback / Shot Put Lauren Shelfo / High jump Beatriz Francisco / 4x400 Relay Monique Atkinson / 4x400 Relay Lota Erinne / 4x400 Relay Sophia Skonberg / 4x400 Relay 2nd Place: Mackenzie Hass / 300 Hurdles Cameron King / 1600 M Lauren King / 100 Hurdles Ian Davis / 300 Hurdles Ian Davis / 110 Hurdles Keaton Wimbish / Shot Put Brandon McDowell / Long Jump The Bennett's Mill Middle School PTO met on March 14th to discuss the ongoing relationship between the parents, faculty, and staff at BMMS. Please contact on of our amazing PTO Board members for more information on any of the following highlights:
The following Bennett's Mill students came in first place in the tri-school meet held at Starr's Mill HS:
JP Caldwell – 1st Place - Long Jump Harley Obsitnik – 1st Place - 3200 M Run Ngozi Chukwueke – 1st Place - 300 Hurdles Cameron King - 1st Place - 800 M Run The New BMMS Website is constantly expanding to meet the needs of our amazing community of parents, students, faculty, and staff, and we would like you to keep up with all that is going on here at Bennett's Mill. Click on the calendar on the left to see the new BMMS interactive Calendar. This calendar not only allows you to plan months ahead for upcoming events, but you can also link this calendar to your Google Calendar by clicking the Google Calendar link in the bottom right corner.
You can also keep up with all that is going on at Bennett's Mill Middle School by subscribing to the Bennett's Mill News Page. Simply click on the RSS feed symbol on the bottom of the right-hand side of the screen and follow the directions. Please fill out the survey below if you have any great ideas for items to add to the site. Thanks for being part of such an amazing community! One person can make a difference. Nowhere is that more evident than with the story of the American Cancer Society Relay For Life, which began in Tacoma, Washington. In the mid-1980s, Dr. Gordy Klatt, a Tacoma colorectal surgeon, wanted to enhance the income of his local American Cancer Society office and to show support for all of his patients who had battled cancer. He decided to personally raise money for the fight by doing something he enjoyed – running marathons.
In May 1985, Dr. Klatt spent a grueling 24 hours circling the track at Baker Stadium at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. He ran for more than 83 miles. That first year, nearly 300 of Dr. Klatt's friends, family, and patients watched as he ran and walked the course. Throughout the night, friends donated $25 to run or walk with Dr. Klatt for 30 minutes. His efforts raised $27,000 to fight cancer. The faculty and staff of Bennett's Mill Middle School are gearing up to break all of the records, pull out all the stops, and raise an amazing amount of money to stop cancer in its tracks. We are in desperate need of donations from the entire Bennett's Mill community. Please consider giving what you can to a great cause - simply follow this link to the team website and contribute to a wonderful cause. Do you know a cancer survivor? Please have them sign-up for the survivor's walk or purchase a luminary in their name, and let us honor them the way that they deserve. Best yet, come on out and contribute your time to a great cause by donating your precious time to walk with the Bennett's Mill Team. Dr. Martin Luther King said it best, "Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve". Please join us in serving our community and celebrating another year in the life of a cancer servi Today marks the official change over to a more "cloud-based" data storage at Bennett's Mill Middle school. Essentially, all of the documents that we have been storing on the schools servers will now be stored on internet based servers like Google Docs. This marks a significant change in the way things are done at BMMS because now documents will be saved on internet servers, and then all of the faculty and staff will be able to share and collaborate on projects anywhere in the world that has an internet connection.
This change also means that our teachers will be able to share documents with students, our students will be able to collaborate on projects from the comforts of their own homes, and teachers will be able to create paperless solutions to much of the work that we do here at Bennett's Mill. The teachers and staff at BMMS also participated in staff development workshops yesterday that illustrated many uses of the tablet and smart phone for the classroom. These classes, taught by Mrs. Diana Caldwell, are part of the Bennett's Mill Middle School initiative to bridge the 21st century gap in technology and learning styles. Simply stated, Bennett's Mill is ready and able to confront the challenges that these emerging technologies present in an effort to help students better achieve in our fast-paced technological frontier. |
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