September 30, 2022

GWHS NJROTC drill team wins second place at competition

Congratulations to the GWHS NJROTC Drill Team for winning 2nd Place Overall at the Bassett High School 10th Annual Drill Competition held this past Saturday. GW competed against five other high schools; Carroll County, Dan River, Gretna, Magna Vista, and Spotsylvania High Schools.

The GW Drill Team placed as follows:

1st place Unarmed Squad (JV)

1st place Unarmed Squad (Varsity)

1st place Armed Squad

2nd place Armed Individual

2nd place Unarmed Platoon

2nd place Overall

Drill Team Commander, Sol Mendoza said, "We are proud of our performance and encouraged that we missed 1st place overall by a mere 4 points. As our Master Chiefs tells us, be positive, stay positive and your hard work will pay off."

Project-Based Learning at Westwood

Students at Westwood in Ms. Cook’s civics and economics class pitched their candidate for President to “super PACs” as part of their project based learning project on presidential campaigns. They had to accurately describe their candidate’s platform based on their political party, and then lobby super PACs for money for their campaign. Students will create a campaign finance plan as part of their next step as they prepare for the culmination of the project in an election for their candidate.

GW Band successful at competitions

The Marching Eagles traveled to William Fleming High School on Saturday, September 17 to compete in the Star City Classic. The students performed exceptionally well! Their first time in uniform was the best they had done so far. The students won third place colorguard, first place percussion, first place visual, first place music and first place in class AA! On Saturday September 24th, the Marching Eagles traveled to Salem, VA to compete in the Virginia Marching Band Collective Blue Ridge Regional. The band had very stiff competition, and finished fifth, winning second place colorguard, third place Percussion, and fourth place Visual, and Music. The kids worked hard and scored very well, being only 3 points between 5th and 1st.

Upcoming Events

October 6 - School Board Meeting at 5:30 p.m.

October 7 - Early Dismissal Day for Parent Conferences

October 10-14 - Fall Break for Students, Professional Learning and Workdays for staff

October 10 - GW vs. Patrick County (rescheduled) at Averett University at 7 p.m.

October 11 - State of the District at 7:30 a.m., National Night Out

Mrs. Rosenbaum's fourth grade class celebrates 100% attendance!

GWHS Alumna speaks to nurse aide students

Our Senior Nurse Aide II students had an opportunity to hear one of our own GWHS Alumni graduates Lia Argyrakis, class of 2013, share her journey into the health care profession and what it has taken both from and educational standpoint and a personal one. Lia currently calls Bozeman, Montana home and is currently working as a travel nurse as she begins her next chapter as a Nurse Practitioner. Lia provided students various ways of reaching their own goals of one day of becoming a nurse and giving back to their own communities. She thanked each student for already taking that first step as they work towards earning their Nursing Assistant Certification in High School and I quote “you will already be ahead just by taking this class."

Senior HOSA members sport their new HOSA sweatshirts as they show their Eagle Pride!! HOSA Core Values: Learn, Lead, Serve, Innovate.

Ms. Barbour's 4th graders at Park Avenue showing off their Internet Awesome certificates they received from Mrs. Sowers.

Fifth graders in Ms. Ferguson's class at Park Avenue are creating Figurative Language anchor charts.

This week O.T. Bonner Middle School participated in kicking off Gear Up week. As Gear Up is an organization tool used in schools to increase the academic performance and college preparation of students you will Below were some of the activities that students and staff did here throughout the week.

Gear Up Week Activities for Staff

1. Students decorating a bulletin board showing where various recognizable and diverse celebrities went to college. Under each celeb’s photo is the name of their college(s) and major(s).

2. Staff wear College t-shirts or college colors throughout the entire week.

3. Classroom and office door decorating. Teachers decorate their doors with their favorite colleges or the college they went to

4. Mrs. Credle wore a referee costume symbolizing a career choice for students to pursue and having them being engaged with this concept.

Greenhouse at Gibson

The first grade classes got a chance to go to the Greenhouse, and the Master Gardners gave them a chance to explore the different parts of a plant. The students were very excited to touch the plants and can’t wait to plant some seeds when the weather warms up again!

Westwood PE Soccer Tournament Week

Ms. Ellis and Coach Perdue concluded their Soccer Unit with a Championship Game. Great week, Tigers!

GW recruits visit App State

GW Coach Cody Perdue set up another great recruiting trip to Appalachian State University vs. JMU Football game, The recruits enjoyed the game and met the coaches. Go Eagles!

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month at Bonner

Students enrolled in Spanish at Bonner Middle celebrate Hispanic Heritage by studying language, geography and art of Spanish speaking countries.

Art Therapy at Taylor

Taylor Virtual Academy has started to incorporate art therapy into staff meetings to address social and emotional needs of staff. Neurographic art is a style of drawing that captures how inner- being reacts to the outer world. Teachers wrote an intention on the back of their paper related to their reflections about their lesson plans. A scribble was made while continuing to reflect on the intentions to improve their lessons. Teachers were asked to smooth out each intersection and round each corner. This process is symbolic of the process of turning stress into something beautiful and positive. Neurographic art often resembles neurons that carry messages between your brain and body.