REDefined Press
February 2017
Cimarron Middle School Digital Design
By Ella Rudman and Harley Brittenham
We recently interviewed teacher, Phillip West, of digital design to ask him about the meaning and purpose of digital design. I decided to ask Mr West about what type of environment is. He told me that the environment is very inspiring. It motivates students to think outside of the box. The class is all about learning how to manipulate the tools to create amazing digital art.
The art that the students create include creating 3D paper art from 2D digital designs. The students can use their own designs like people or cars, and fold them into 3D creations. From interviewing Mr West, we learned that the classroom invites and accepts many different people. Students are in the class that are just beginners, but some kids have been taking the digital design class for multiple years.
Students have told me that they enjoy digital design because they can work at their own strength level and the possibilities are limitless. Students also enjoy digital design because it’s a cool classroom environment and the class is very 21st century-like.
This class has been going on for quite some times as CiMS started digital design several years ago as a way to help students who wanted to learn how to produce digital art and advertisements
“Digital design gave me chances to make things I never would have thought of,” says former digital design student.
Digital design is a very creative and artistic class, as Mr. West describes. The students in this class use their artistic ability and combine it with digital tools to make amazing designs. Students always come up with many interesting ways to do things, and they always get bigger and better. In this class, the students learn about the principles of design. Once they know a lot about the principles, they create unique pieces digitally. Kids also learn to use design thinking and how to push the boundaries of what there art designs can be.
Digital design provides students with a unique opportunity to learn skills through designing and creating digital art and advertising. They provide all the digital artwork for items such as student planners, student ID cards, school play advertisement, skateboard and scooter rack designing, logos for multimedia, and t-shirt design. Digital design is a great class to take to learn many things about design, especially if you want to be a graphic designer, interior designer, t-shirt designer, a user experience designer (website designer), or any other kinds of digital design that interests you. Digital design can help you in the future, and in the present. I would encourage you to take this class if you enjoy technology, photoshop, and any kind of designing on computers.
What Wish Week
Mrs.Gillespie and Mrs.Hyde organized Wish Week after Legend invited all the feeder schools to participate. We did Wish Week because it would be helping a girl with her wish, which is what wish week is all about.
If you didn’t know Wish Week was, it is a fundraiser for Make a Wish foundation. Make a Wish foundation is a foundation that grants a wish to a child with a life threatening illness. In their words “We grant the wishes of children with a life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy”.
Our Wish Week girl was Raine, a 7 year old who had cancer. Her wish was to go to Disney World. We had to raise over $2000 dollars. We had just fell short with $1500 dollars. She liked the fundraiser because it helps the children achieve their dream.
We got all the spirt day clothing theme ideas from Legend. But our school did unique fundraisers like the penny stall and PJ day which was different from what the other schools did. We got these ideas for money fundraisers from NJHS, the officers got most of the idea from a conference they went to.
Mrs.Gillespie hopes that next year we will have a movie night to raise more money. We hope to raise $5000 next year.This year we raised about 1500 dollars, which is short from our goal of 2,000.
Highlights on Boys Basketball
By Mallory Strnad, Courtney Klinker, and Annabelle Mann
Have you ever wondered about how basketball coaches feel while his team plays the game?
Mr. Willson cares a lot about his students and if they don’t understand then they have 5 days every week to ask questions. When you try to make a three pointer and get a foul then you get to make a free throw for 4 points.
Wilson said, “The thing that works well for my team is to put two defenders in the back and two players in front.” Wilson said. With that said he has a very good team and makes about 32 baskets a game.
The boys on the basketball team work very hard to achieve their goals. Coach Wilson says, “to be successful, my team has to master at least three skills, dribbling, shooting, and passing”. The boys on the team learn to do this by listening and practicing, not only at school but at home as well.
“I have many great players on my team, we have 67 players this year, so if we had to narrow it down to one it would be very difficult. It just depends on their position.” Coach tells us, “right after school we expect they are dressed and ready to go by 3:15. If they aren't ready by then, they won't get to play very often.
We asked Mr. Wilson what the highest point you can make is and his reply was, “You can make a 3 pointer, but if you get fouled and the 3 point goes in then you have an opportunity to shoot a free throw for four points on that possession.” He told us that, “the 3-pointer is a very low percentage shot, if he gets 32 points a game then his team scores a ton.”
We asked him about improvement, and if he has a player that has shown the most improvement. He said that, “Tyler Martino has, so far this year, shown the most improvement by making a buzzer shot and actually making it.”
As you can tell, Mr. Wilson thinks very highly of his team and has very high expectations. Even behind the scenes, teachers think highly of their students.
Iron Chef By Matt Taylor and Jaxon Vallier
After visiting Mrs. Avery’s class and interviewed Cole McLean, he told us about iron chef club, which is after school. This club meets twice a week on Thursday and Wednesday from 2:45 to 4:30. Iron Chef Club is about kids who can practice their cooking skills at school. You will get the chance to learn brand new culinary skills taught by the teacher Mrs Avery. The class even has competitions like you get to compete in a cook off which are very competitive where you are given a meal and you are assigned in group and you have to cook the best meals is available from grades 6-8.
Iron chef is a good place to be because you're with people that are chefs like you. You are given the choice to pick a group. You immediately start cooking and you get no demo on how to cook the food. You have to know basic cooking. You will be given the choice what type that food is, like ice cream cake, chocolate cake, the category would be cake. The average amount of kids in each club is 15 kids. It teaches your kid how to make food on their own.It’s a good class to express good teamwork and it is a class that builds communication, critical thinking, collaboration and creativity skills. Because you would use communication and collaboration while cooking and preparing the food and you use creativity and critical thinking in competitions students get to eat the food after they make it, or they have to wait a day for it to cool off.
Iron Chef club is a fun class Cole McLean recommends it for people who want to be better cooks and meet new people says . To get into the Iron Chef Club, you must pay a fee of $45.00 and you will get all the needed materials.
Unified Basketball
Do you know what unified basketball is? Unified basketball is like normal sports except for the fact that unified basketball consists only of special needs kids. The main difference between unified and normal basketball is that in unified basketball they spend less time playing by the rules and more time just having fun.
The staff members that put on Cimarron unified basketball are Mrs. Crawford. There are 12 kids on the team. The team members are Noah, Jacob, Bryce, Bret, Nate , and Jack. The kids on the team ages vary from 11-14 years old.The team works very hard. Mrs. Crawford has been with Special -Ed for 11 years.
There are other unified sports including soccer and track. They are thinking of doing more in the future. For example they are considering doing unified Track and soccer .
This special needs team plays against most of the other schools teams and they have a great time.
All of these sport also lead into the unified olympics. The unified olympics are a friendly competition between all of the schools in douglas county. These olympics are like a final game or meet for other sports.
The teachers who put this on love many parts of being a part of unified spots. One of their favorite parts is spending time with the kids. Another one of their favorite parts of unified sports is watching the kids have fun.
In conclusion the kids in unified basketball just feel at home when they're playing with their team and even other teams. The staff that puts it on love to play with the kids. They also love that all of the kid are so kind and good natured.
CiMS Jazz Band
With about two weeks away from their concert, are they ready??? Ms. Moon is the director of jazz band. Jazz Band plays separately during intermission of concert band.
Usually during rehearsals after school on Monday, students practice both of the songs that they are playing. They occasionally practice both but sometimes practice only one.
The jazz band is more exclusive than regular band. Even though you don’t have to audition for it you could be kicked out. You already need to know the instrument and be in 7th or 8th grade band. Also, only a certain set of instruments are allowed like trumpet, guitar, and drum kit. On top of all that you have to be very mature.”It's more like a privilege because, you can be kicked out of the band for non-mature actions. ” said a student in the band.
The songs they play are Jazz Hero, by George Vincent and Blues by Five by Red Garland. Jazz Hero is a sort of rock song, when Blues by Five is a more jazzy song. The jazz band doesn’t have a contest however, they do play in the school concerts, when the other bands do. They start Jazz Band in the second semester. Sign up is normally open during Winter Break or Second Semester. There can be as many kids as they want, but i it gets really crazy, they could probably set a limit. Concert Stress is big in Jazz Band when you have to play two extra songs you receive plus the other three songs from normal band. Jazz Band costs about $15 You don't have much time to practice with the jazz band too, only a couple weeks.
Upcoming Events Until Spring Break
By: Marshall Grubb
Face it, you’re ready for spring break, but it’s still a few weeks away, Ughhhhh! Don’t worry there are a lot of activities that you can do after school or attend. So Here are the Upcoming events before spring break.
February
Activity Dates About it
Jazz Band Mondays February 6th, 13th, and the 27th at 3:00pm. Jazz Band is an activity that teaches students how to play jazz. They play in concerts. This is run by Ms. Moon Boys Basketball 8th Grade Sagewood MS, on the 14th of February at 3:45pm, C Team Tournament is on the 21st at 3:00pm. They have a game on the 20th against Sierra MS at 3:45 pm on the 16th. Basketball is a sport for boys to learn the ways of leadership and cooperation towards others. Iron Chef 3 They meet on February 15, the 16th, the 22nd, and the 23rd. Iron chef is a club that helps learn kids how to cook, and learn how to read recipes. Chess Club They meet on the 16th and the 28th at 2:45pm. Chess Club is a club that teaches student the ways of the chess board. Unified Basketball They have a game against Mesa MS at 5:00pm and the 27th against Legend HS. Unified Basketball is a club for the mentally challenged students in the school. Math Club They meet on the 23rd at 2:45pm, with a competition on the 25th @ Valor at 9:30 am. Math Club is a club runned by 7th grade Blazer math teacher Mrs. Thomas, you compete in competitions, it’s also a great time to get help with math. NJHS Meeting on the 22nd at 2:55pm NJHS is a reward system for students who succeed in their learning.
March
Club Name time/date About it
7th grade boys basketball Practice begins on 27th of February at 3:00pm. There first game is against Sierra at 3:45pm on the 7th of March. Aswell the 8th there is a game against Mess at 3:45pm or 15:45. They have a game on the 13th against Mountain Ridge at 15:45, with a game on the 15th against Castle Rock at 15:45 Boys basketball is a sport that teaches boys about strength, teamwork, and Responsibility. Iron Chef #3 They meet on the 7th and 8th at 2:45pm. Iron Chef teaches students about cooking and Jazz Band They meet on the 6th aswell the 13th at 3:00pm. Jazz band helps kids reveal their talent towards music Choir They have their concerts on the 15th with 6th grade at 5:30pm and 7th/8th at 7:00pm including the concert for 7th/8th grade at the 16th at 8:00am. Choir is an elective that help kids show their voice to a crowd, they have a concert at the end of every Quarter. NJHS/ SAC NJHS has a meeting at 2:55pm on the 8th. See Top for the about it
Math Club They have a meet on the Helps kids with math or the want to
14th at 2:45pm. Go the extra mile
As you can see there those are the upcoming events before spring break. There is time to attend this events, or be like some people and go home and sleep. Either way is better. Wooo Hooo spring break.
Math club
Mrs Thomas, a seventh grade math teacher, created a math club for kids IN 6th-8TH grade. Mrs .Thomas created a math club, for kids who think that math is boring or hard So they would like math. This class is not just an extra math class. you compete, have fun, and learn at the same time. In math club you will have practice every other week for math competitions. These competitions occur twice and they last the whole morning.they Happen in the Fall and spring.
The students get to choose what they do if it’s the game or some other games. They also play 24 which is when you get a set of numbers and try to make 24 using order of operations.the math games are fun but still help the kids learn the important skill.
In the competitions the top ten people go to the finals. Finals Mrs Thomas says “ Cimarron never usually wins. Cimarron takes anyone who wants to join. Sometimes it’s sixth graders up AGAINST EIGHTH GRADERS.”If you want to join math club you can do it next year. Their is a link on Cimarron website that you sign up at the beginning of the year.
Let's Get Physically Fit!
We interviewed two students named Cooper Latino and Sarah Berst. Cooper quotes, “It boosts my confidence when I workout because I feel like I am improving every time.” He is in conditioning and wellness; an elective for 7th and 8th grade. Cooper also said that the class is a much harder version of P.E. The class is taught by Mr.Wilson, who is also a 6th grade P.E teacher, and a basketball coach. Sarah said that the class melts the stress away that she has carrying on her back each time she works out.
They said that Mr.Wilson was very motivational, pushed them to be better, and to their best ability; they each really looked forward to the class everyday. Cooper told us that there are a whole bunch of workouts, and when you push yourself to your only ability, then you get rewarded with a game day on Friday. Some days they go outside if it’s nice and run, or they stay inside and do other workouts and play games.
We learned that Cooper’s strengths in the class were push-ups, and Sarah’s was pushing herself to work to her limit and maybe even more than her limit, while working out. We figured out that they are good at those things because Mr. Wilson makes them set fitness goals at the first part of the quarter and they have to work until they reach those goals. We knew that Cooper’s goal was to get better at running, along with Sarah’s. They had the same goal, so that’s why they run almost everyday, because Mr. Wilson noticed that almost everyone’s goal was to get better at running.
We had lots of fun doing this interview, and it sounds by Cooper and Sarah, they are encouraging you to take the class and have fun! The class is mostly about working out and getting fit while having fun doing it. There is also a lot of games and fun activities. They had all positive answers to the questions we asked, and they were very inspirational to take the class and push themselves to be better. It definitely sounds like you should take the class!