Students Perform Wizard of Oz At Valley

                Tippecanoe Valley High School presented the musical The Wizard of Oz.  The students in the musical performed four shows from Thursday, March 20^th to Saturday, March 22^nd.  The well-known characters from this classic story were portrayed by the following students:

Dorothy: sophomore Ally Weber

Scarecrow: senior Branigan Bahney

Tin Man: sophomore Nick Reynolds

Cowardly Lion: sophomore Kaden Sebastian

Glinda the Good Witch: freshman Devyn Masterson

Wicked Witch of the West: freshman Blake McBrier

Mayor of Munchkin City: freshman Thane Madeford

Aunt Em: freshman Jenna Schultz

Gloria: junior Megan Howard

The Wizard of Oz: sophomore Jeremy Himes

               All proceeds from the tickets purchased will go towards costumes for next year’s performance.  The set was created by Mrs. Jan Mills’ Art classes.

New Class: Political Studies-Part Three

            Seniors in the Political Studies class at Tippecanoe Valley High School completed their business plan presentations on March 14^th.  During the first semester, students created a business plan for a product or service.  For the second semester, the groups made a Power Point, stating the basic facts about their business.  These ideas were then presented to an investor panel, who evaluated the presentations.  The investors also decided how much money each business would get.

Each group received an investment ranging from $200 to $600.  The highest investment went to Boost Your Beauty (BYB), a not-for-profit service that involves volunteers giving manicures to elderly women in nursing homes.  Seniors Sofia Boganwright and Taylor Garringer won the competition.  Both students will go to Boca Raton, Florida, where they will present their business plan.  If Boganwright and Garringer win the competition there, they will advance to the finals in Washington, D.C. 

The Political Studies class has completed many projects over the school year.  They have completed a business plan and created a marketing plan for the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation.  The students have also taken many field trips, including one to the Indiana Statehouse.  Finally, the seniors in the class will have a YEA! graduation at the end of the year, with the Indiana Lieutenant Governor Sue Ellspermann as a guest speaker.

Winter Sports Wrap Up At Valley

                Due to several instances of bad weather, completing winter sports has been very challenging for student athletes at Tippecanoe Valley.  However, even with the rescheduling of many games, Valley has had awesome highlights in its winter athletic career.  Wrestling, basketball and swimming have all had excellent seasons, with students traveling to state and making All-Area teams.

                For boys’ basketball, junior Chainey Zolman, and seniors Tanner Andrews and Robby Groom were named to the Warsaw Times-Union All Area Team.  The boys’ basketball team also made it to the sectional semifinals, but was defeated by Northwood.  Also, the Tippecanoe Valley girls’ basketball team had three players recognized as All-Area athletes: freshman Anne Secrest, senior Cara Hoffman, and junior Caylie Teel.

               The TVHS wrestling team completed its season with seven wrestlers advancing to regionals.  Austin Nault (11), Devin Childers (11), Wyatt Nelson (11), Cody Runyon (11), Garrett Bell (12), Keaton Bell (12), and Jaron Kidd (12) qualified for regionals.  Junior Devin Childers also advanced to state and competed.

               Tippecanoe Valley has had a great winter sport season, and will most definitely have a great season.  Girls’ tennis, boys’ golf, track and field, baseball and softball will begin practices, matches, and games soon.

Political and Economic Studies Class Surveys TVSC Alumni

I encourage all TVSC alumni to participate in this survey.  The Political and Economic Studies class is creating a marketing plan in order to bring more students into the corporation.  The class also wants to learn about the school corporation's strengths and its weaknesses.

"This survey was created and distributed by the Political and Economic Studies course as part of a collaboration with the strategic planning committee members in charge of creating a marketing plan for the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation. The purpose of the survey is to help the students and committee members figure out the strengths and weaknesses of our school corporation. Your feedback and honesty is appreciated."

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PXWSFLN

Spanish II Students Present Bullfighting Speeches

               For the past couple of weeks, students in Mr. Kristopher Walker’s and Mrs. Noemi Malagon’s Spanish II classes have worked on a bullfighting project.  This form of entertainment, which is popular in countries such as Spain and Mexico, has both positive and negative qualities.  Some may see it as the cruel torture and murder of a defenseless animal.  But, others believe that bullfighting is a major tourist attraction that shouldn’t be destroyed.  Spanish II students have taken their opinion, whether it be for or against bullfighting, and created a campaign project.

               As a part of Project Based Learning, the students were each assigned a specific task for the project.  The positions for the bullfighting project were:

Speaker/Candidate: presents opinion to the audience

Group Leader: supports speaker; keeps group on task

Speech Writer: creates speech for speaker 

Marketing Publisher: makes posters, announcements, etc. for speaker

        Each speaker presented their speech to an audience on February 19^th.  Then, all audience members were asked to vote for their three favorite speeches.  The votes were all tallied up, and the winners for each class period were as follows:

Period 1-Mr. Walker

1st Place:   Amber Mikel

2nd Place:  Katie Gunter

3rd Place: Whitney Haneline

Period 3-Mrs. Malagon

1st Place: John Salmon

2nd Place: Katherine Nolan

3rd Place: Harrison Sponseller

Period 3-Mr. Walker

1st Place: Kaitlyn Ott

2nd Place: Brandon Lozano

3rd Place: Rafael Jimenez

               All in all, the bullfighting project is one of Tippecanoe Valley High School’s biggest activities connected to PBL.  

Snow Hurts Valley School Schedule

                  Everyone in northern Indiana has suffered from the huge amounts of snow over the past two months.  Vehicles sliding off the roads and schools delaying due to cold temperatures are just some of the problems students at Tippecanoe Valley have dealt with.  In fact, most schools in the area have cancelled approximately seven days due to the weather.  With piles of snow invading parking lots, and students calling off work and being stuck inside, the winter weather has made the beginning of 2014 interesting.

               Since Tippecanoe Valley Schools have missed several days of school, there have been many rumors as to what will happen to the school schedule.  Will students have to go until the middle of June?  Will they have to attend school on Saturdays?  However, a new statement by Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz says that schools can re-schedule holidays; they can also have school on Saturdays, add days to the end of the school calendar, or add additional hours to the school day.  At the time of writing, the Tippecanoe Valley School Board has not decided on how students will have to make up snow days.

Unsung Heroes: A Gallery By TVHS Seniors

               Students at Tippecanoe Valley High School complete many projects as a part of PBL (Project Based Learning).  However, teachers and students alike are expanding these projects towards the community, whether it be completing service projects or presenting a topic to city council members.  One of the recent activities was the Hero Gallery.

               Mrs. Melanie Mason’s and Miss Katherine Wine’s English 12 classes presented the Hero Gallery to the community.  Both teachers came up with the idea after talking to their senior students about what it means to be a hero.  They also discussed how to recognize heroes within the community.  Seniors in both English classes planned out the project and created the final product.  The students chose a person that they wanted to recognize, such as a teacher, parent or law personnel.  They wrote essays about their hero and created posters about that person.  Students set up their hero displays; and, during halftime at the basketball game versus Rochester, the classes presented their project.  Community members were able to talk to the students.  Some of the students’ heroes even came to see the presentation.

               The Hero Gallery is just the beginning of PBL, community-based projects.  Many students enjoy this different learning process, and hope that these activities will grow in number.