The Pirate Treasure
JANUARY 26, 2023
FINE ARTS
PTHS ART CLUB PARTICIPATES IN MLK DAY CELEBRATION
Art Club students from Pine Tree High School participated in the MLK Day Celebration on Saturday, January 14 at the Broughton Recreation Center. The event was sponsored by the City of Longview, and PTHS Art Club students volunteered as face painters for the event. Thank you, PTHS Art Club, for volunteering and giving of your time to our community!
Sixth - Eighth grade UIL coaches and students are grinding out extra practice time in preparation for their district meet this Saturday in Hallsville. The team is hoping to repeat their district championship win from last year. If your students are interested in competing in the future, please contact librarians Donna Kistner or Francetta McGowen.
After kicking off the spring sprint to district at the Pine Tree tournament, the PTHS team brought home medals last Saturday from the White Oak tournament. The team continues to prepare for the district competition on March 23-24 with weekly practices and February meets in Hallsville and College Station. Practice schedules are posted on the website: www.pinetreeuil.com.
Senior UIL essayist Karima Mbeh and PTHS and UIL alum Kameron Benefield represented Pine Tree as part of the Texas Eastman Black Oratorical Essay contest float titled “Dream” in the Martin Luther King parade. Pine Tree students have won $8250 in college scholarships through the contest sponsored by Texas Eastman.
PRIMARY - CLASSROOM HIGHLIGHT - MOSLEY
Students are researching their favorite animals. They worked with partners to read and take notes on what they have learned.
Meeting Goals in Kindergarten!
Meeting goals is exciting in Kindergarten. Each week, we meet goals. On Fridays, we test for sight word reading. It is a big accomplishment so students get to stand on the table for their BIG hooray!!!!! They LOVE it. It is fun to hear them walk in on Friday mornings telling others what goals they will reach that day!
PRIMARY - CLASSROOM HIGHLIGHT CROCKETT
We are readers, writers, and problem solvers! We write every day! We use our problem-solving skills during STEAM time.
Here at the Primary, we have a daily "Lucky Pirate". The kids are eager to hear if it's their number getting called during announcements. Keep up the good work and maybe you will be next!
BIRCH ELEMENTARY
UIL parent night was a great success! Pizza was served, and parents took the time to come learn about how to best support their child in UIL. They learned practice strategies, received practice schedules, and met the coaches. Our UIL competition will be February 24th, and the students are working hard to prepare!
Page Turners
Birch Elementary Page Turners is a student group who has gone above and beyond with reading and AR points and is rewarded with T-shirts for their efforts. The students also made pizza book reviews about the books they have read.
National Shelfie Day-January 25th
A big thank you to Healthcare Express for bringing Klondike to visit Mr. Sauceda’s class for National Shelfie Day! Mrs. Melancon, from Healthcare Express read TWO of her favorite stories to these students to congratulate them for earning the MOST Accelerated Reader points in the entire school! A special picture was taken with each person holding their favorite story in honor of National Shelfie Day!
SPRING BOOK FAIR - FEBRUARY 13-16 2023
Birch Elementary School will hold the Spring Book Fair from February 13th-16th in the Birch Music Room. Students will be allowed to shop during their assigned days and during the special events listed below. The book fair schedule will be posted on our campus Facebook page prior to the book fair. Teachers will also share their assigned days with students and parents. Listed below are some important details regarding the spring book fair.
-Tax will be added to each item. Please send at least $1 with your child to ensure an item can be purchased.
-All sales are final. There are no refunds or exchanges.
-Cash or credit/debit cards will be accepted. No checks.
-We should have several books available for $3.99 plus tax.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Family Night: On Monday, February 13th, families are invited to shop at the book fair from 4:00-5:30 p.m.
A GRAND Lunch Event: On February 14th, GRANDparents and other “GRAND” people are invited to eat lunch and shop at our book fair with their child. (Lunch will be $4.50 for visitors.)
“We Love Our Teachers” Wednesday: On February 15th, parents are invited to eat lunch with their child and shop with their students to purchase a book for their teacher’s classroom library. (Lunch will be $4.50 for visitors.)
PARKWAY ELEMENTARY
Disco Time
Our very own Pack member Mrs. Pruitt’s class started heir week off with a Disco Dance Party with our amazing principals. Classes who earn perfect attendance for the day get a disco ball to put on their chart. Any class that earns 10 disco balls, meaning perfect attendance for 10 days, earn a disco dance party with Mrs. Keoun and Mrs. McElyea.
Mrs. Keoun and Mrs. McElyea will show off their dancing skills this week with a dance party in Campbell, James, and Graves classrooms.
Perfect Attendance
Our 2nd graders were rocking their hats last week. On Wednesday January 18th, our 2nd grade Pack Ranchers earned a Hat Day for having 100 percent attendance for the whole grade level We love having our Pack members at school every day!
Glazing Time
The Pack Ranchers are working on glazing their clay pieces that were made a couple of weeks ago. These pieces will go back into the kiln to be fired and come out as beautiful shiny masterpieces. All clay pieces will be featured in the end-of-the-year art show on May 11, 2023 here at Parkway Elementary. Our students were able to make different types of desert clay projects. If you want to get in on the action, Mrs. Scaggs is scheduling days to make and glaze 6”X6” relief tile.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
PTMS Students on Mrs. Vidaurri's Speech and Debate team participated in the Model United Nations competition at Stephen F. Austin State University last week. PT had 27 students participate that made up five nations. Our students went above and beyond when debating the world's issues.
PT also submitted supplemental competitions where the delegation of Singapore won 3rd place in the Art competition. Model UN team members are: Devlin Foster, Joey White, Jaxon Goodman, Landon Warner, Morgan Eggerman, Vanessa Amaya, Isabella Aguilar, Robert Ragland, Tori Buford, Nevaeh Amos Clugston, Aubrey Klein, Eliza Williams, Vianey Olvera Landaverde, Matthew Carter, Lillian Dodson, Megan Danapas, Airlilyn Autry, Wednesday Warren, Averie McQueary, Jadelynn Armas, Gracie Kemp, Caleb Davis, Douglas Palmer, Blair Schroeder, Kaailey Thomas, Juan Martinez, Gracie Belle Hampton.
Six Pine Tree Middle School robotics teams competed in the Winter Wonderbots competition in Rowlett, Texas recently. There were 46 teams in the competition. The top 20 teams made it to the finals and five of the six PTMS teams made it to the finals.
Stormshot, driven by Jackson Knight and Cody Holder, finished in 10th place. Minnie Mouse, consisting of Falon Rutkowski, Annaleigh Hebert, Gracie Kemp, and Brinley Walker, finished in 9th place along with Chanclas, driven by Evangelynn Valencia and Evelyn Diaz.
FC Dallas, consisting of team members Aaron Lanier, Jorge Garcia Jr., Noah Prusinksi, and Facundo Schisano, tied for 3rd place along with Harry Styles Fruit Salad, consisting of team members Devlin Foster, Carter Servatius, and Lillian Dodson. We are proud of the effort of all of these teams representing Pine Tree Middle School!
PTMS Students Going Above and Beyond
Our campus recently celebrated many students for going above and beyond in each grade level. This is one group of students who are achieving more and more each day. Students received medals and certificates for Straight A's, Perfect Attendance, Growth, Prioritizing, Ambition, Honesty, Meaningful, Encourage, Appreciation.
We are grateful for our students who work hard. We are glad we get to take a moment to celebrate them.
JUNIOR HIGH
We are celebrating kindness as part of #thegreatkindnesschallenge this week at PTJH! Each year, the last week of January brings about a nationwide campaign to promote kindness in our schools, and PTJH is showing up and showing out. We have themes for each day such as "You're never too old to be kind" with students dressing as senior citizens.
Our Student Council joined in on the fun and brightened up our front porch and bus line with positive affirmations. During our character driven P180 groups, students will be continuing to spread kindness throughout our community by writing positive notes on coffee sleeves that The Coffee Mill will be using on their beverages!
We are so thankful for cooperative business partners and our amazing students who demonstrate kindness all year long. We have other surprises in store this week, so stay tuned for what's next! Just another reason #PTJHrocks!
Mr. Carl Newman, a Certified Financial Planner from Capital Wealth Group, was a guest speaker in Mrs. White's Employability Skills classes. He spoke about entrepreneurship, investing, and the kids got a taste of the wonders of compound interest!
Our Pine Tree Junior High students are working hard to prepare for our UIL Academics meet this Saturday at Hallsville. UIL has been a big deal on campus this year, and our students are thrilled at the chance to show off their skills and whoop those bobcats!
TEXAS MATH SCIENCE COACHES ASSOCIATION TEAM DOMINATES!
The TMSCA team had a combined total of 4,103 points to dominate their competition at a recent meet! We are so proud of all the hard work our students and coaches have put in to perform at such a high level! Way to go Pirates!
PIRATE PRIDE AWARD WINNERS
We love highlighting our amazing students at PTJH. This week we have a 7th and an 8th grader showing true Pirate Pride!
Congratulations to 7th grader Bryson Robertson for earning a Pirate Pride award for going above and beyond on a daily basis in our cafeteria!
Congratulations to 8th grader Aubrey Arce! She earned a Pirate Proud Award for being an all around outstanding student!
HIGH SCHOOL
HELLO SECOND SEMESTER!
After only two weeks, life is as busy as can be at Pine Tree High School.
Two weekends ago, the Pine Tree UIL Academic team hosted a meet involving 26 schools and finished 2nd overall as a team. This is outstanding work for all of the students in the events and has pushed them to win the upcoming Hallsville Tournament of Hearts Valentine’s Day weekend.
Lee Branson, UIL Director, gave great praise to Terri Davis and a host of Pine Tree UIL coaches, staff members and teachers who volunteered and spent hours on campus Friday night and Saturday to make sure the meet was run as well as possible. He had praise for the coaches who have worked so hard with their students to earn the second place overall finish.
The cheer team went to state competition in Fort Worth and competed against 71 other teams in the division. The girls did a three-minute routine including a jazz dance, a cheer and a fight song dance. Pine Tree did not advance to the finals but improved on last year’s performance by 30 places, putting them near the finals and with great hopes for next year. Taylor Fogle is the cheer sponsor with assistance from Whitney Barnett. Greg Collins sponsors the BUCS.
Skills USA, which is construction, culinary, welding and automotive, have finished with one competition and are ready to head to Waco for another important competition. Students in these areas have been putting in many hours on major projects for months, and now is the time for them to show off their talent and hopefully earn recognition. Teachers in this area are Chuck Davis, Jamie Hudman, Mark Thomas and Bryan Brown.
Students have started receiving their schedule notice for next year. This means they can choose courses they may want to take next year, as long as it goes along with their graduation plan, and then counselors will start to match their wishes with available courses and then lock down a final schedule. Students are excited to not only finish what they have started this year but are ready to look to the future and move closer to graduation.
Speaking of graduation, seniors are currently voting on Senior Superlatives, about 35 of them, and teachers, administrators and staff are currently voting on ten senior boys and ten senior girls who will make up the Hall of Fame this year. Voting and nominations should be complete by the first of February. The Hall of Fame will be announced then, but Superlatives are generally held until prom night. Prom is scheduled for April 15.
Formals will begin to take center stage this month as Cheer BUC is held on January 28 at Maude Cobb Activity Center. This involves cheer, BUCS and the football team. It is generally one of the largest formals of the year, besides Band, and generally draws a big crowd.
Soccer, basketball and powerlifting are well into their seasons now, and boys basketball, boys soccer and girls soccer have already made a name for themselves with big wins and a push toward a district championship. Powerlifting has only had one meet, but it was a second place finish in that competition and that has propelled the team to look forward to more success in the future.
More sports, baseball, softball, track, tennis and golf, are poised to begin their seasons in the coming weeks. They have all started practice and have scrimmages and first games of the season coming up in a matter of days.
Pine Tree High School students and organizations are also making plans to participate in EXPEDITION 2023 at Maude Cobb Activity Center on February 16. This showcase will allow the entire campus to display work and programs to our community and the East Texas area.
Do not blink, because this is just a small amount of activity that is either going on now, or will go on in the next month. And, it gets even busier as we finish spring break and head to graduation. But, for now, welcome to second semester.
PTHS FOREIGN EXCHANGE PRESENTATION
Alpha Delta Kappa teachers sorority was honored to have the Pine Tree High School Foreign Exchange students as guest speakers at their January meeting.
Student speakers include Francesca Indovino from Italy, Axel Barral from France, Silvia Larroya from Spain, Emma Hoffman from Denmark, and Papungkorn Prasaraae (Mackey) from Thailand with Mrs. Jade Lee, Assistant High School Principal, and another house parent.
The teachers were delighted to learn about the students’ home, culture and activities in which they are participated. Some students brought their favorite sweet treat from their homeland to share with the teachers. It was an evening of sweet treats indeed!
EXCEL
ExCEL would like to acknowledge our most recent graduate, Kohl McKinley. Kohl completed his coursework January 12th and will graduate tonight at the Pine Tree High School Theater . He moved to the ExCEL program the second semester of the 21-22 school year.
Kohl says he was having a hard time at the main campus in a traditional classroom prior to coming to ExCEL. He says he found that same support at ExCEL and says the teachers were "amazing!" What he liked best about the ExCEL program was there were no papers for him to keep up with. He liked having everything on the computer and says computers are his strength.
After graduation, Kohl plans to take some time to relax a bit before attending Kilgore College. He plans to pursue a career in Computer Science and Art. Kohl describes himself as an introvert and added he is "trying to work on that." Though he is not much of a talker, when things absolutely need to be said, he says he has no problem saying them.
The ExCEL staff is looking forward to celebrating with Kohl and the other 10 graduates scheduled to walk the stage tonight at 6:00 P.M at the ExCEL fall graduation ceremony.
PACE ALTERNATIVE CAMPUS
PACE Volunteer Service Projects
PACE students and faculty volunteered at the Longview Dream Center on a Thursday evening.. The group worked together to organize donations and to assist the clients with their selection of food items. We are thankful to the students and staff who give their time
in various ways each week to be world-changers. #PACEStrong
Student Spotlight
It is with great pleasure that we celebrate our amazing ABU Elem students as they take their place with the Parkway Pack!
Trace Henderson and another friend have successfully worked through their ABU program to reach the ultimate goal of full transition to their home campus. We celebrate and congratulate them on their accomplishments. #PACEStrong