8th Grade Writers

Transitioning from the Middle School to the High School

The Class of 2029 back in 5th grade

Raegan Murphy '29

Transitioning to high school was pretty intimidating at first. I wasn't sure how to feel about it. Although being the youngest in the school out of four other grades wasn’t my biggest concern, it was still pretty weird. It’s not very easy to get through the halls with so many people rushing in different directions not paying attention to the people around them. Doing a sport that required me to go from high school to middle school was stressful sometimes considering the minimal time we had to get where we were supposed to be, but I was happy to do it.

Having different elective choices was better so that I could expand what I was learning instead of doing the same electives every year. But the classes are more challenging. I find myself having hard times a lot of the time and feeling like I'm expected to do great at a lot of things and expected to know a lot too. It can be stressful. Overall, I'm happy to be in the high school, know my way around, and be prepared for next year.

Mr. Doerr

Madison Hensley ‘29 & Alison Merlone ‘29

Zach Doerr is a student support staff member at Pennfield. Doerr enjoys working at Pennfield. He likes working with the students and the staff have been a great support system. He said his favorite thing about working in the school is making a difference in students' lives. He wishes students would show more integrity in the cafeteria. Outside of school, he likes to spend time with his sons and his dog, Scooter. Doerr also coaches football for Pennfield and he currently doesn't play any sports but he plays basketball whenever he can. Doerr also stated he is hoping to stay at Pennfield for at least 7 more years.

Middle School Spring Sports

Syler Rudy ‘29 & Sawyer Rudy ‘29

Mr. Steele is the athletic director for Pennfield. Some of the spring sports that he is helping to make happen are coming up like coed track and field, tennis club, softball team which is 6 through 8. March 17 is when track and field starts and also the first day of club sports. On March 24 middle school softball starts as well as on April 7 after returning from spring break, 8th grade tennis will begin. Spring sports will typically last till before the end of May. Steele Said that he would like to see as many people that can volunteer for a spring sport because without people it wouldn’t be possible. Steele has helped a lot to make these sports happen so if you see him you should thank him.

Incoming 8th Graders

Olivia Royer ‘29 & Raegan Murphy ‘29

Trenten Feltner is one of the incoming eighth graders at Pennfield who plays basketball and football. Feltner likes the fifth graders in middle school, but he thinks seeing someone much younger than him in the halls is odd. Feltner says he is excited to be in the high school next year and believes it will help him prepare for “real” high school. He said he will miss being in middle school because of the teachers and most of the staff. Feltner said it will be sad to leave middle school because it has been a fun couple of years.

Jackson Marble is another one of the incoming eighth graders at Pennfield who plays basketball and football. Marble states that the fifth graders in the middle school can be annoying at times, so he’s looking forward to being in the high school, also because of the bigger space. Marble says he’s not going to miss middle school, but he’ll miss his history teacher, Mr. King.

Hailey Pierce

Sarah Mietz ‘29

Hailey Pierce is an eighth grader at Pennfield and has been going here since kindergarten. She has done three different sports, cross country, tennis, and basketball. One sport she thinks she would never do is wrestling. Pierce said that she would like to do track this coming spring because she likes running.

Mrs. Smithkey's Experiences Teaching Algebra

Ashlynn McDaniel ‘29

Mrs. Smithkey is an eighth-grade math and algebra teacher here at Pennfield High School. She has also taught fifth and sixth grade in the past. She has been teaching for 14 years altogether, and two of those years have been teaching algebra. Her favorite thing about teaching this subject is the “unlimited real-world connections that help students build confidence in the content.” Her least favorite thing about algebra is knowing many students suffer from anxiety relating to difficult math. She claims that she teaches with an open-note method because she wants students to know that it’s not always about memorizing content. She wants to make sure students have something to refer back to if they forget anything and reliable materials to study with.

Moving to Pennfield

Bella Mahoney ‘29

Moving to Pennfield in the middle of the school year was difficult and stressful in the beginning but the more time I spend here the more at home I feel. At first, it was strange, I felt out of place, I felt as if I didn't belong. On my first day, many people introduced themselves and helped me with my schoolwork and getting to my classes. I'm very appreciative of these people who helped me get through the day. I plan on doing a few spring sports this year to meet and bond with my teammates. Some of the sports I plan on playing are track and tennis. Next year I plan on doing volleyball, track, cheerleading, and possibly tennis. The teachers at Pennfield are very helpful and understanding. So far I've been doing very well in my classes and the students are very kind. The lunch lines have multiple different options and the food is far better than Marshall's options. The lunch ladies were also very understanding, as it was my first day I had struggled to remember my lunch number, and the lunch ladies had helped me. I'm very appreciative of the helpful and kind people here at Pennfield who have made me feel welcome.

Jayda Gordon on Basketball

Noelle Augustine ‘29

Jayda Gordon is an 8th-grade student at Pennfield High School. She was thrilled that her team won their final basketball game. Gordon said she played well because of her team's confidence, and she made her first 3-point shot. Gordon also stated that she thinks her team played very well. She scored a total of around 18 points the whole season! The teammates help each other gain better confidence on the court by explaining things in detail. Making better shots helps Gordon gain confidence on the court.

Fortnite with Maizyn

Bradley Michael ‘29 & Mauricio Andres ‘29

Fortnite is a popular battle royale game. The goal of the game is to be the last one standing of the 100 total people. Fortnite has many different collaborations with other games, shows, and movies, so you can see just about anybody walking around the maps. This can go from Rick and Morty to a walking humanoid fish named Fishstick. Maizyn Bowman is a Fortnite player. His rank is Diamond 1. The ranks of Fortnite show how good of a player you are, and they are as follows: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Elite, Champion, and Unreal, so Diamond 1 is pretty good. Bowman’s favorite Point of Interest (POI) is either Lavish Lair or Fencing Fields. His favorite POI in this season is Demon’s Dojo. Bowman’s favorite skin is the T-60 Power Armour, which originated from the game Fallout. So far, his favorite season has been either Chapter 5 Season 1, or Chapter 5 Season 3. In the future, Bowman wants to become rich from gaming by completing tournaments and winning crowns.

8th Grade Band Festival

Sarah Mietz ‘29

Each year all school band members in grades 7th and up attend a yearly concert called Festival, where they play select pieces of music in front of judges. On February 28th, the 8th grade band has their festival and will be having a “Pre-Festival” concert after school on the 19th with the high schoolers. Addyson Mann is an 8th grader here at Pennfield and is in band. She said she is very excited for the Festival, and thinks that she and the rest of her class are ready for Festival and only have a couple of things to work on. She also said that it’s good that they have a Pre-Festival concert to help them with the few things that they have left to fix. Mann is most excited to play a piece called “Annabel Lee.” She is most excited to play it because “it’s the most difficult and articulated song” they’ve played, but she thinks that they play another piece titled “Pinnacle of Distinction” the best as a class. Mann added that she wishes everyone good luck at their festival.

Jonah Demerse is also an 8th grade band member at Pennfield and has similar opinions about Festival this year. He feels that he is ready for it, but he thinks that the whole class is somewhat ready because they still have a few things that they struggle with. Demerse says that he is excited for Festival and to play on a stage outside of the high school. He also thinks that it’s nice that we have a Pre-Festival concert to sharpen the classes skills and practice since they have not played on stage in a while. In contrast to Mann, Demerse is most excited to play “Pinnacle of Distinction,” and thinks that the class plays “Annabell Lee” the best. Demerse also added that he wishes good luck to all who are playing in Festival.

Ms. Mello: Working With Students

to Better Herself and Others

Ashlynn McDaniel '29

Ms. Mello provides extra educational support for students around Pennfield High School. She took this role because she wanted to educate herself and try something new. She enjoys educating students on life skills and their importance. Outside of school, one of Mello’s favorite activities is hanging out with the neighborhood kids and her own. She takes huge inspiration from Mr. Beck, the dean of students at Pennfield Middle School, because of his positivity and the lessons he has taught her. She states that one of the biggest lessons he taught her was “You can't always choose what's happening around you, but you can choose how you deal with and handle it.”

8th Grade Girls Basketball

Kayleona Bozell ‘29 & Alison Merlone ‘29

Madison Guilfoyle is an 8th-grade student at Pennfield High School. She likes that the team works well together. Guilfoyle said she has been playing basketball for 2 years and would like to continue playing. She doesn't want to make basketball her full-time career. Guilfoyle said the team needs to improve the plays so everyone can get playing time.

Coach Porter is a high school health and PE teacher. Porter stated that he has been coaching basketball for over 10 years. Porter likes to be active all day and he also likes to see his students and players grow. He said the ladies need to work on their plays and understand the game more. Porter said that he sees himself coaching basketball until he falls out of love for it.

PHS Assistant Principal

Noelle Augustine ‘29

Mr. Allen, the assistant principal at Pennfield High School, values his education and social-emotional growth and educational settings with students. Allen’s favorite thing about being an assistant principal is the relationship with teachers and students. He likes having his own office because he gets the opportunity to have a lot of conversations and it helps promote trust. Allen thinks that Pennfield is a good school with great people and great teachers to help educate students. Allen has always loved coaching, he appreciates the opportunity to get back into coaching because he hasn’t coached in about 4 years but it’s been a wonderful experience. Sometimes it’s hard to be both assistant principal and coach because it overlaps business with extracurricular. Allen would like to thank all the staff and students for welcoming him with open arms. “It has been an honor to be an assistant principal at Pennfield High School,” says Allen.

Mrs. Crandall in the Office

Alan Arroyo ‘29 & Chase Hunsicker ‘29

Mrs. Crandall is one of the amazing office assistants in our high school. Before working for the Pennfield district she was a stay-at-home mom, making sure her wonderful kids' needs were met. She has also been supporting her and her husband's dairy farm business, loving each step that they take together.

Crandall has also been working at our district for almost 15 years. One of the challenges that she is currently facing is not being able to see her own kids at school with her regularly. Although, she is reminded that she has wonderful students at our school. She loves to see her old North Penn students and how they matured and grew over the years, seeing their smiles brighten her day even more.

Crandall likes that Pennfield has strong traditions. She also loves how committed the staff and teachers are to their students and how they want them to grow into successful young people. Crandall enjoys that the Pennfield district is like a second family to her, sharing the laughs and the good memories with her. One of Crandall’s favorite sayings that helps her on her hard days is, "If He brings you to it, He will bring you through it.” Mrs. Crandall is honored to work at Pennfield High School. Wishing many more great memories on the way.

Views on Wrestling

Mauricio Andres ‘29 & Bradley Michael ‘29

Deon Marshall is a student at Pennfield High School who is on the wrestling team. Marshall says his season has gone well so far, he hasn’t lost many matches. The main thing that Marshall is working on to improve his wrestling skills, is just fixing up the things that he already knows, and making sure his positions and stances are better. He chose to wrestle because it releases his anger, but he has also learned lots of valuable skills from it. Marshall focuses his exercises on working his core and neck. He thinks that his team has been doing great because they can help each other well.

Gander Daghuer is a student at Pennfield High School who is on the wrestling team. He says, even though he had ups and downs, his wrestling season was great. His mindset was to win every match, using God for strength. The main things Daghuer worked on were learning new moves such as the assassin. Daghuer’s best way to improve at wrestling is stretching, and conditioning. Another reason why Daghuer joined the wrestling team is because his brother started wrestling and he felt left out, which pushed him to start wrestling on his family's behalf. He feels the team is better than the past years since there are more teammates and meets this year.

Battle Creek Area

Math and Science Center

Sawyer Rudy ‘29 & Syler Rudy ’29

Bradley Michael is an 8th grader at Penfield High School and he wants to go to the BCAMSC because it’s good for college credits and he wants to get into coding and robotics because he thinks it’s going to be important in the future. And the hardest part of the BCAMSC tests was the science part because there was a lot of stuff that he hadn’t learned yet. Michael feels that he did well on the tests and if he got in he would be most eager to learn coding or robotics. He likes the BCAMSC because he wants to learn and to experience something different. Michael said, “Everyone should try going to the BCAMSC before deciding not to go.”

“Winning First”

with Maliyah Longstreth

Olivia Royer ‘29 & Raegan Murphy ‘29

Maliyah Longstreth is an 8th grader here at Pennfield High School. Longstreth has been doing dance for 11 years at Dance in Motion dance studio. Her favorite thing about dancing is that she can put her emotions into a movement while dancing. Her favorite style of dance is Jazz because she loves to show her facial expressions on stage. She states that her goal for herself when dancing is to beat everybody. “I like winning first,” Longstreth states. A fun fact about Longstreth is that this is her second year of having a solo.

Student Spotlight on Miranda Baker

Ian Irving ‘29

Miranda Baker is an 8th-grade student at Pennfield High School. She likes band and choir because she loves music. Baker likes choir because of the amazing director and piano player Mr. Bowen and Mrs. Beach. Baker likes to rehearse “This Train,” by Donald Moore for festivals. She writes music in her free time.

Bowling League with Owen Wygant

Brayden Waterman ‘29 & Micah Inman ‘29

Owen Wygant is an 8th-grade student at Pennfield High School. Wygant is in a bowling league in his free time. He bowls in Flint, Michigan for tournaments, but for practice, he bowls at M66 Bowling Alley. His average bowling score is 124-140, and he would recommend bowling to friends because “it's fun, engaging, and you can meet new people.”

The spring play

The Big Play: With Jeslyn Hunsicker, Gabrielle Gieske, and Olivia Wils

Chase Hunsicker ‘29 & Alan Arroyo ‘29

The big play “The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon” is a comedy of the Brothers Grimm trying to combine 209 fairytales into one play. The actors play various roles, so their faces may appear more than once.

Although there are about 20 people throughout the school in the play and some are nervous, they promise to give you 100%. One of the greatest fears about this play is forgetting their lines even though they have memorized their lines for the most part.

What the actors love most about this play is being able to tweak the play to make it even more funny which is because of the way Mr. Collins teaches, he allows them creative freedom to do so. And for people who signed up for this without being in acting class, it is their first play so some are not experienced.

As for the cast members, they are all good to work with, funny, and kind. There are around twenty rehearsals left. The plays will be on the March 13th-15th.

Mr. Driver to Retire in June

Sarah Mietz ‘29

Mr. Driver has been the band director at Pennfield for 21 years, and he has recently decided that he is retiring after this year. He says that he thinks it’s the right time to retire because he feels like it's time to hand the program off to someone younger who can spend more time on the extra things it takes to run the program. He also thinks it's the right time because his family needs him to be home with them more and more. Driver said that he is going to miss his students when he leaves, whether it’s the groaning at his dad jokes, or the stories they get to share. But he said he will miss making music with his students the most. He added that he enjoyed teaching music to his students and that it rarely ever felt like work to him because “opening the eyes of kids to the wonders of music is just so amazing.” He said his favorite memories from working at Pennfield were taking the band to Washington, DC in 2012 and 2016, and performing in the Big House in 2014 with the marching band.

the Dance Team

Kayleona Bozell ‘29, Alison Merlone ‘29, & Maddie Hensley ‘29

Kayleona Bozell is an 8th grader at Pennfield High School and is on the dance team. She enjoys being on the dance team. It gives her something to do after school and she enjoys dancing. Bozell wishes that they had outfits for the dance team, and she wishes that they have a second pair of poms just in case she loses a pair. Bozell stated that the whole dance team has to wear the same hairstyle and they have to wear the same outfit and bows.

Mrs. Gammons teaches math and is a dance coach. She said she enjoys the dance team because of the kids, and the opportunity to bond with them. She said she danced for 23 years and started at 16 years old. Gammons said she enjoys teaching math because it is consistent and universal. She grades on weekdays instead of weekends because she doesn't think about school on the weekends.

Math and Science Center

Myah Lambeth

Raegan Murphy ‘29 & Olivia Royer ‘29

Myah Lambeth is planning on attending the Math and Science Center during her freshman year. Her motives are to challenge herself and have it show up on her college applications. Lambeth is looking forward to the experiences and environment because she feels it’ll be more comfortable and she’s looking forward to the extra passing time to work on assignments. Lambeth states “The future career I want to pursue revolves around math and science.” What Lambeth is looking forward to most at the center is hanging out with friends and helping each other out with work. Lambeth is prepared for all the challenges she will face and has heard from many people what it will be like.

Spotlight on

Mr. McCafferty

Riley Muroi '29 & Christopher Dunn '29

Mr. McCafferty is a teacher at Pennfield High School. McCafferty said that he graduated high school from Coldwater and later went to Michigan State University. McCafferty didn't originally want to become a teacher but fell into it during his college years and doesn't regret it. His favorite things are teaching students, working with other teachers, and looking forward to every day. Mr. McCafferty stated that he has few hobbies besides watching and coaching football.

Mr. Porter

Sawyer Rudy ‘29 Syler Rudy ‘29

Mr. Porter is a health and PE teacher. He became a PE educator because he loves sports and he loves to do fun things. He likes to play guitar, travel, and spend time with his kids in his free time. Porter’s favorite sport to coach is all of them, he thinks they're all great and he loves to coach. His favorite sports to teach are volleyball and weightlifting. If there was another subject that he would like to teach it would be the history of rock and roll.

Anabell Mares’ Opinions on Band

Ashlynn McDaniel ‘29

Anabell Mares is an 8th-grade trumpet player in the Pennfield band. She plays the trumpet because she appreciates the range of notes it is capable of and the “simple but complex way to play it.” The thing she enjoys the most about participating in the band is when they play their old favorite pieces with Mr. Driver. There are moments when the band room can get very loud and full of chatter, which can sometimes make it difficult for her to focus or hear what she’s playing. Her favorite piece to play out of their current catalog is the “Pinnacle of Destruction.”

Mares had a very difficult time after receiving the news about Mr. Driver’s retirement. Although she enjoys playing in the band very much, she feels it may never be the same without him. Nonetheless, she continues to persevere and play more in the years to come. Overall, she absolutely loves the band and is enjoying all the moments she can with Mr. Driver while he is still here at Pennfield. She recommends playing in the band to anyone interested.

Student Spotlight on Noelle Augustine

Brayden Waterman ‘29 Micah Inman ‘29

Noelle Augustine is an 8th grader at Pennfield High School. She likes that she can communicate with her friends and teachers at school. She stated that lunch is pretty good, but she would choose some things over others. A few of her favorite teachers are Mr.Collins because he understands her, Mr. Doerr because he’s chill and can take a joke, and Ms. Royer because her class is fun. Jayda Gordon is her best friend because she understands her and enjoys hanging out with her. Her favorite class is health because she gets to sit by her friends and she said it's pretty nice to be able to express her emotions to people.

Mr. Kirkland

Ethan Campbell ‘29

Mr. Kirkland is a high school art teacher and former principal. He started in graphic design for his own schooling and it took him five years to become an art teacher. He always liked to draw and got into comic books in his early childhood. When he was in 11th grade art, he was taught much more than copying comic books and fell in love with art which influenced him to attend art school to become an art teacher. What makes him so fascinated with art is that he likes the idea that you can make something people would enjoy looking at.

Brayden Waterman

Student Spotlight

Bradley Michael ‘29 Mauricio Andres ‘29

Brayden Waterman is a student at Pennfield High School. He thinks what makes Pennfield High School different from other schools is his friends and the kind teachers. Waterman thinks it is easy to socialize with the students at Pennfield High School because he has been around them for 8 years. Waterman’s favorite part of school is the gym “Cause it’s fun.” Waterman doesn’t play in any school sports anymore, but he used to play football and wrestling. If he could improve 1 thing and the high school would be to make the water fountains better. He thinks their pressure is too low, and sometimes they aren’t cool and refreshing.

Spotlight On Jayda Gordon

Noelle Augustine '29

Jayda Gordon, a student at Pennfield High School says, what encourages her to play basketball is the exercise and the fun of spending time with her teammates. The sports Gordon plays are volleyball, track, and basketball. What encourages her to play volleyball is that she wants to get better at it and earn a scholarship. Gordon felt her first basketball game went pretty well since they won, and she was happy about it.

Nash Scott on Wrestling

Gander Daghuer ‘29

Nash Scott is an 8th grader at Pennfield High School. Scott loves the sport of wrestling and he can take his anger out on the mat. During one of his last matches, Scott was looking to God for help and strength. His mindset was telling him to do it for his aunt and grandma. Before the match, Scott was aggressive, quiet, and ready to slam his opponent on the mat. After the match, Scott felt proud and victorious.

Spotlight on Mr. Collins

Noelle Augustine ‘29

What most encouraged Mr.Collins to become a teacher was that his parents were both teachers and he also saw what kind of impact they had on students. Another thing he would like to add is that he had two really bad middle school math teachers and as crazy as it sounds he said he wanted to “do better than them.” Collins' favorite class this year is advanced geometry because he enjoys hanging out with that class. It is also a small class and he loves intro to theatre. Collins' favorite way to take notes is either in his notepad or on his phone. The colleges he went to to get his degrees were Spring Arbor University and Taylor University. Collins' favorite thing about being a teacher is that he enjoys seeing the kids grow and have a positive impact on their education. Some of Collins' favorite hobbies outside of school are working at a youth group for his church and he enjoys camping.

Spotlight on Mr. Klepac

Brayden Waterman ‘29 & Micah Inman ‘29

Mr. Klepac is a 9th-grade history teacher at Pennfield High School. Klepac stated that a majority of his family have been teachers, and at a young age, he wanted to be a sportscaster but always circled back to the thought of being a teacher. He went to Eastern Michigan University to earn his teaching degree. Some of his favorite things about teaching are the students, the other teachers who work with him, and the amount of time that he gets off of work. In his free time, he enjoys playing sports, working out, going on hikes, watching movies, and going to concerts.

Ms. Collins’ First Year Teaching

Eighth-Grade Health

Ashlynn McDaniel ‘29

Ms. Collins is a physical education teacher known around the high school for her inspiring motives and confidence-boosting approach to teaching. This year, she has been faced with a new challenge she has never faced before. This year, Collins taught eighth-grade health for the first time. Collins enjoyed the “discussions and the great conversations” she had with her students about topics that people are commonly uncomfortable talking about. She also enjoyed the form of the exam she attempted this year, which kept all the students engaged in the activity.

When it comes to her field of teaching, she is very passionate about what she does and what she is doing for her students. She was not nervous heading into the first semester, but she knew she was going to miss teaching the topics she is used to and so passionate about. But she’s fully aware that challenges and new experiences are beneficial for her, so she was excited to jump into it.

She also featured multiple guest speakers to come into her class to share information. She feels it is beneficial for students to get multiple stories about an important message or to simply hear the repeated message through another person. In four words, Collins would explain her experience teaching eighth grade as interesting, energetic, enlightening, and pivotal.

8th Grade Girls Basketball

Olivia Royer ‘29 & Raegan Murphy ‘29

Eighth grade girls basketball season is just starting and the girls are excited to be with this team and have a good season.

Olivia Branham is an 8th grader here at Pennfield High School. She is new to basketball considering she has only been playing for four months. Branham states that she is confident in the middle school basketball team this year because of their strong defense. One of the reasons Branham joined the team this year was because she wanted to stay productive during the winter. Another reason that she joined the team was that her friends, Devin Hegner and Haydyn TenBrink inspired her to join. Branham says that communication is the main thing that they need to work on this year. Branham states, “I’m really excited for this upcoming season.”

Haydyn TenBrink is an 8th grader here at Pennfield. She is taking part in the middle school basketball team. TenBrink is confident in her team and thinks they're going to do well. TenBrink has been playing for seven years, since first grade. Her basketball role models are her mom, her aunt, and Caitlin Clark. Some things TenBrink would like to improve in the game are her team's communication skills and their rebounding.

8th Grade Football Players

Ian Irving ‘29 & Gander Daghuer ‘29

Cory McGee is an 8th grader at Pennfield High School. McGee’s family got him into the sport of football. McGee got hit in the hip pretty hard (it was not a major injury). McGee looks up to Justin Fields and Lamar Jackson because they are knowledgeable and relatable.

Bentley Tesch is an 8th grader at Pennfield High School. Tesch said, “I never really wanted to do it, but my dad said to give it a chance.” Tesch had a concussion this past season, he took a hit to the head and went to the hospital. Tesch looks up to Amon-Ra St. Brown because he works hard and is fast.

Ivander McHerron is an 8th grader at Pennfield High School. McHerron loves the game of football and likes the feeling of hitting people on every play. McHerron rolled his ankle when he was kicking a field goal because he stepped on someone’s back. McHerron looks up to Tyreek Hill and Barry Sanders because Tyreek Hill is fast and Barry Sanders was the best running back in the league. McHerron said, “Keep putting in the work and you will get a lot better."

Maizyn Bowman on Wrestling

Chase Hunsicker ‘29 & Alan Arroyo ‘29

Maizyn Bowman has been wrestling for two years. The thing Bowman loves most about wrestling is his teammates, and he thinks the best thing about his team is how adapted they are. Bowman has always wanted to wrestle. They have been using running as a training tool. His greatest challenge was wrestling with a messed up knee. They had a lot of hard matches last season, because of all the good wrestlers but they gave it their all. The only thing wrestling has interfered with is how much he plays video games and eats because he has to cut some weight. One of the worst things about wrestling is how tired he is after practice.

Student Spotlight on Alan Arroyo

Bradley Michael ‘29 & Mauricio Andres ‘29

Alan Arroyo has been a student of Pennfield Schools since Kindergarten. He likes the cross country team and received a coaches award this fall. Alan also enjoys the teachers at Pennfield because they are nice and they make Pennfield a good community. He wishes that there was a coding class. If he could add any extracurricular class, he would have instrument classes, including guitar or piano.

8th Grade Student Views on the

Pennfield Community

Sarah Mietz ‘29

Addyson Mann and Samuel Smith are both 8th graders here at Pennfield. The two of them have their own opinions on the community of Pennfield, more specifically the high school. Some of them are different, and some are also quite similar.

Mann says that she thinks the students here at Pennfield are pretty good compared to others. She also said that she thinks the teachers of Pennfield are often nice and that their teaching styles are all different, but they’re all trying to teach us something. In addition, she had also stated that she thinks the staff are super nice, and kind to people. Mann said that she feels safe inside our school, and the only thing she feels could be improved is the water fountains, for understandable reasons. As for respect, Mann says that she thinks that it mostly depends on the students and staff treating each other with respect.

Smith said that he thinks the students of Pennfield that he knows of are often kind to one another, and even when it’s bad he says it’s usually not severe with him. Smith also said that the teachers here at Pennfield do their jobs well, and are almost always nice unless something happens with another student or him that makes them, reasonably, makes them a bit rude or snappy. As for the rest of the staff, in his words, “They are good people, good morals, aren't rude, those kinds of things.” Smith added that he feels safe inside of our school, but a couple of things could be improved. One of those things was the traffic situation for pick up and drop off between the high school and the middle school. Lastly, Smith said that he thinks that the students of Pennfield are respected and respect their peers and the staff.

Mrs. Boucher

Syler Rudy ‘29 & Sawyer Rudy ‘29

Mrs. Boucher is a science teacher at Pennfield High School. What made her want to teach science is that she enjoyed it in high school and when she got to college. Boucher took several science classes to become a Health/PE teacher so she decided to take a few more to get her science degree.

What made Boucher want to teach was that she wanted to coach and back then the only way to do that was to teach. Things that Boucher likes to do in her free time are to play pickleball, go to bible study, watch movies, play with her dogs, work in her flower gardens, and go camping. Boucher enjoys teaching science because “You get to blow things up! And it’s easy to show the relevance in what we learn to how we use the information in everyday life.”

Other than science Boucher likes health. Boucher’s favorite part about being a teacher is interacting with the students. Boucher has taught for 40 years in New Mexico, Indiana, China, and Michigan and she still loves it.

Spotlight on Mr. Martin

Madison Hensley ‘29 & Alison Merlone ’29

Mr. Martin is an 8th-grade English teacher at Pennfield. His favorite parts of teaching are helping kids grow and become confident in who they are, making a difference in students' lives, and seeing them smile. He enjoys spending time with students, having conversations, and seeing them smile.

One of his least favorite parts of teaching is seeing what kids have to go through, which can be heartbreaking and frustrating at times. He also stated that kids see teachers as their worst enemies when they are there to help. Another disadvantage of teaching is that he works a lot on weekends and weekdays at home, just grading papers.

Martin was inspired to become a teacher by his 3rd-grade teacher, 6th-grade teacher, some of his coaches, and his dad. His dad showed him how rewarding it was to help others. Outside of school, Martin likes to farm. He used to love to play sports when he was out of school and not working. He also loves going on vacation with his kids. Martin started college at KCC and then graduated from Spring Arbor University. He said "We need good teachers and a lot of the times when I talk to kids, they don't see teaching as a career choice. I recommend for students to see what it takes to be a teacher because we need more good teachers in this economy.”

spotlight on aubrie campbell

Ethan Campbell '29

Aubrie Campbell is a senior attending Pennfield High School and Kellogg Community College. She has had some fun memories throughout her sophomore year in culinary classes, and she said, “It was a class packed with friends and funny moments.” Her advice for being a senior is “It's okay to lose friends. During high school you tend to grow as people, so it's okay to outgrow your old friends, you’ll meet new people in places you wouldn't have ever thought of.” She also has a passion for the healthcare field and could see herself becoming a doctor. The special thing about being a senior for her is being dual enrolled so the school days seem shorter.

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