LDN - Teaching and Learning

Ten students made the cut

Chester-East 'mathletes'
head to Millikin for competition

[FEB. 1, 2001] Ten local students are preparing to compete regionally, statewide and possibly even nationally in Mathcounts. On Friday, Jan. 19, 40 students at Chester-East Lincoln School took a math test to see if they could be a "mathlete." To qualify as a mathlete in Mathcounts, students had to score at least half of the highest possible number of points.

[Update: Click here for C-EL results from the regional competition]

Ten students made the cut: Alison Kessinger, Daniel Ohmart, Jennifer Ewins, Chris Ramlow, Jared Davison, Wes Reynolds, Aaron Meyrick, Kevin Huelskeotter, Tracy Turner and Ezekiel Payne. Next, Chester-East’s science, math and health teacher, Doug Rader, prepares them for the competition.

[Alison Kessinger, Doug Rader, Kevin Huelskeotter, Tracy Turner, Jennifer Ewins, Daniel Ohmart, Wes Reynolds, Jared Davison, Aaron Meyrick, Chris Ramlow, Ezekiel Payne.]

Mathcounts has been in existence for 18 years, and Doug Rader has been taking his students to the competitions for 12 years. He originally heard about this junior high extracurricular activity while he was a teacher in Springfield. When Rader transferred to Chester-East, he encouraged Lincoln’s students to participate in Mathcounts.

Students in Mathcounts practice challenging math problems in class and after school to prepare for regional, state and national competition. Rader described the problems as "more complicated horizontally, not vertically." The students complete fraction, probability, algebra, geometry and graphing problems, as well as answering questions about numbers and number theory. These are the same topics they study in their normal math classes, but the problems are written in unique and inventive ways that require extra thought, and sometimes teamwork, to solve.

According to the Mathcounts national office, "Each year over 500,000 students are improving their math skills with Mathcounts materials." They expect 35,000 students to compete in regional Mathcounts competitions this year.

This Saturday, Feb. 3, is the regional competition for Doug Rader’s Chester-East students. Chester-East will be competing against six other schools at Millikin University in Decatur. There will be four levels of competition: two different individual tests, a group test and an individual oral test, which is open to the public.

The first competition is an individual sprint round. Students race to complete 30 problems in 40 minutes, without calculators. The second test is also an individual event. Students receive four sets of two problems each. They may use a calculator, but they get only six minutes per set of problems.

The next competition is a team event. Four students are preselected from each school, with one alternate in case of illness. The team must complete 10 problems in 30 minutes, and they may use a calculator. Chester-East’s team is Kessinger, Ohmart, Ewins and Huelskeotter, and Ramlow is the alternate.

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The final competition is a public, oral round. The 10 students with the best scores on the first two individual rounds face off against each other.

The National Society of Professional Engineers sponsors these competitions at the regional and state levels. Participants in the regional competitions are eligible to win trophies and calculators. The best students and teams proceed to the state competition in Springfield. Last year, 500 students gathered for the state competition, but only four students and one teacher proceed to nationals in Washington, D.C.

The four best students in Illinois form a state team, which is then guided by the coach of the highest-scoring team. These new teams and their coaches are flown to D.C. to compete for $10,000 scholarships.

The Chester-East mathletes enjoy preparing for the competitions. They refine their math skills with worksheets and practice competing against each other and even students that are not in Mathcounts.

Reynolds appreciates the challenge of Mathcounts. "I’ve gotten a lot better with math," he says. Ohmart believes it "prepares you for the next level of math." The favorite advantage of being in Mathcounts is that participants do not have to do all the math assignments that the other students do.

On a more serious note, the mathletes did acknowledge how much they plan to use math in their future careers. Turner and Kessinger plan to be teachers. Ewins will work to be a doctor, and Payne wants to be a microbiologist. Huelskeotter aspires to be an architect, and Reynolds plans to study engineering.

Doug Rader expects this year’s team to do "real well." Most of the time his teams place in the top three teams at regionals. In the past 12 years, three of his teams and three individuals from his class have gone on to the state competition. None of his students has made it to nationals, yet.

If you are interested in learning more about Mathcounts, Doug Rader invites you to come and watch the oral round at regionals this Saturday at 11:20 a.m. at Millikin University in Decatur.

[Jean Ann Carnley]

[click here for C-EL results from the regional competition]

What are 400 extra teens
doing in Lincoln Saturday?
[JAN. 26, 2001] Lincoln Community High School is hosting a varsity speech tournament on Saturday, Jan. 27. Over 400 students are expected from 30 high schools.

Lincoln Community High School's speech team is comprised of 30 students who compete in a very active season beginning in November and stretching through late February. Lincoln students compete in 13 different events at speech meets nearly every weekend. Those events include dramatic interpretation, original oratory, dramatic duet acting, special occasion speaking, humorous interpretation, verse, humorous duet acting, prose, original comedy, radio, oratorical declamation, extemporaneous and impromptu.

Carrie Schreiber, LCHS head speech coach, is assisted by Kurt Roberts, Josh Twente and Goldie Jaco. Students who serve as speech team captains are Allison Leonard and Kyle Pepperell.

[LCHS news release]

Students in health careers
can apply for Zonta scholarships

[JAN. 20, 2001] Zonta Club of Lincoln will again sponsor health career scholarships. Residents of Logan County who are enrolled in or accepted into a health care professional curriculum are eligible to apply. Scholarships totaling $4,500 will be awarded. The number of scholarships will be determined by the scholarship committee.

Each award is for one academic year and is contingent upon the student's sustained academic achievement. Former recipients are encouraged to reapply. Application forms are available from county high schools and colleges, several health care facilities and pharmacies in the county, and by request.

We encourage students to make application if they are considering any health career field, including veterinary medicine, sports medicine, physical therapy or pharmacy. Zonta Club of Lincoln has awarded health career scholarships since 1981, assisting 36 students from Logan County with 49 scholarships with a total value of $51,750. Last year Zonta awarded four recipients $1,125 each.

All completed applications, including references, are due to the scholarship committee by March 5. Applications and information are available by contacting Marilyn Weingarz, 1425 1307th St., Lincoln, IL 62656 or by calling (217) 735-1840.

[Zonta news release]

Books are one harvest from
Jefferson School garden

[JAN. 13, 2001] When you plant a seed, you can’t be sure how big your plant will grow, how much you will harvest or how many other seeds it may scatter. The seeds planted in third grade teacher Cathy Hawkinson’s Jefferson School garden have produced other harvests, but none so surprising as the gift that is bringing the school about $8,000 worth of new books for its library.

[Click here for pictures]

It started with eggs of the monarch butterfly, which hatched into caterpillars that were raised by Hawkinson’s third grade classes and then released. Those butterflies in turn hatched the idea of a butterfly garden, which Hawkinson and her 1999-2000 class built on a corner of the school grounds at Fifth and Adams streets.

"The garden became an outdoor classroom," Hawkinson said. "Each class in the school contributed something. The children were nurturing the garden and loving it. They were proud of seeing something they’d planted grow."

The success of the butterfly garden soon had Hawkinson and her students thinking of another one, an 1850s theme garden that would be planted across Sixth Street from the school. Along with the historic theme, this garden could also help children make connections with the books they were reading, like "Little House on the Prairie" and others set in pioneer times. By planting native prairie grasses and flowers, the children would be able to actually experience the prairie while they were reading about it.

To help raise funds for the new garden, Hawkinson began looking for "Prairie Partners" who would contribute money, time or other gifts. She approached hardware store owner Pete Fredericks, who agreed to build a log cabin out of old utility poles to serve as a storage shed for the tools Hawkinson’s classes will be using. Pete is just waiting for the snow to melt so he can finish building the shed.

She also approached Lincoln Mayor Joan C. Ritter, who, like Hawkinson, is an enthusiastic gardener. Mayor Ritter quickly became an enthusiastic Prairie Partner as well, even accompanying Hawkinson to visit schools in other communities that were adding gardening to their curriculum.

For the last two years, Ritter has also been a member of the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board. A fellow member, Dr. Jodi Martinez, is deputy director of the literacy office for Secretary of State Jesse White. In Illinois the secretary of state is also the state librarian and as such appoints members to the Illinois Literacy Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes the partnership of the corporate world and the private sector to provide literacy initiatives and programs.

One of the Literacy Foundation’s projects this year was a children’s literacy fund-raising drive. Each Barnes and Noble bookstore in the state was paired with a school or other organization for the promotion. Martinez was assigned to identify schools and other groups eligible to participate.

At a recent meeting of the Historical Records Advisory Board in Chicago, Mayor Ritter and Martinez sat together at lunch. They began talking about the various projects they were engaged in, and suddenly everything fell into place.

"The timing couldn’t have been better," Martinez told the Lincoln Daily News. "The night before, I had met with Barnes and Noble representatives. There are 24 Barnes and Noble stores in Illinois, and my assignment was to identify 24 recipients, one in each Barnes and Noble area. Then Mayor Ritter began telling me about the Jefferson School reading program."

Ritter told her about the way Hawkinson and other teachers were using the butterfly garden to encourage reading and about the plans for the 1850s garden, and suddenly Martinez saw "a good fit."

Jefferson School was paired with the Barnes and Noble store in Bloomington. When store patrons made purchases last December, they were asked if they would like to donate a dollar to a children’s literacy program. So many did that the Bloomington store collected $6,800, every dollar of which was given to Jefferson School. But because the store is also giving the school a 20 percent discount, Jefferson teachers will actually be able to purchase about $8,000 worth of materials, Martinez said.

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"This is truly a case of the private sector joining hands with the secretary of state and the Illinois Literacy Foundation. This is truly networking at its best," she said.

"It’s a win-win-win proposition," Hawkinson agreed.

This week, teachers at Jefferson School will "go on a shopping spree" to choose the new books they want in their library. Next week, a group which will include Hawkinson’s class, Mayor Ritter and Martinez will meet again at Barnes and Noble, and the children will select books they personally want to read from the list previously chosen by the teachers. Mayor Ritter will then take the group to lunch at a nearby restaurant.

"I’m going to ride to Bloomington in the school bus," Ritter said. "I’m so glad I was in the right place at the right time and knew what was going on in our schools."

Along with Pete Fredericks and Ritter, many other businesses and individuals have become partners in the Jefferson School gardening project. The Lincoln Elks Club has donated money and Lincoln city employees are donating time to build raised beds so special needs children can garden from their wheelchairs.

CEFCU donated a Christmas tree to replace the one lost in last year’s fire at the school, and children made natural ornaments by stringing popcorn and cranberries. The Logan County Soil and Water Conservation District is helping to develop the 1850s garden plan with advice on trees and grasses to be planted. The Logan County Farm Bureau and Salt Creek Nurseries will also help with donations and plants. Local stores R & H Farm Supply, Big R, Wal-Mart, Knox Greenhouse Outlet and Pete’s Hardware have donated tools, supplies, seeds and plants.

Dr. Lee Gurga, a Lincoln dentist, has contributed a white granite stone with his prize-winning haiku engraved on it to place in the butterfly garden. The poem is about butterflies.

Other Prairie Partners are Key Printing, Century Dental, Illico, State Bank of Lincoln, Guzzardo’s Italian Villa, YMCA, Edward D. Jones, Burwell Oil, Abbott and Associates, Keystone Risk Management, NAPA Auto Supply, Jane Wright’s State Farm office, Doug Knox Nursery of Beason, Mitchell Newhouse, Manley Monuments, and Bob and Joan Graue.

The contributions have made possible the purchase of grow lights, curriculum guides, science materials, worm composting equipment and supplies for the Jefferson Junior Garden Club, made up of the second and third graders at Jefferson School. But seeds from the Jefferson School garden project are sprouting in other places, too. Two workshops on school gardens have been held at Jefferson, one on butterfly gardens and one on literary gardens, and teachers from West Lincoln-Broadwell, Chester-East Lincoln, Carroll Catholic and all District 27 schools have attended. Hawkinson is thinking about teaching a junior gardener’s class at the YMCA this summer.

"The most important thing happening out of all of this is the community working together with the schools and the kids," Hawkinson said. "It’s amazing that so many people, through work, wisdom and wealth, have contributed so much to a project that is changing the way a school and a community can work together."

[Joan Crabb]

State Bank of Lincoln offers
scholarship competition

[JAN. 10, 2001] State Bank of Lincoln has announced a scholarship competition that enables Illinois high school seniors to enter a statewide essay-writing contest. It is part of a program sponsored by Illinois community banks and the CBAI Foundation for Community Banking to increase public awareness of locally owned banks and their contributions to the community.

State Bank of Lincoln is a member of the Community Bankers Association of Illinois (CBAI), which formed the foundation in 1996. A scholarship in the amount of $1,000 per year for up to four years of higher education will be awarded to the author of the best essay submitted to the CBAI Foundation by a participating Illinois high school senior. Up to 12 additional $1,000 awards are available in each of the regions of the state. An additional $500 will be awarded to the high school of the overall winner.

The bank is working with Lincoln Community High School, Mount Pulaski High School and Olympia High School to invite seniors to submit short essays on this theme: "What new or enhanced products and services will community banks be offering in the 21^st century?"

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William M. Hull, executive vice president, stated, "Any high school senior student in the area served by the bank is encouraged to participate. The past three regional winners have been submitted to the CBAI by the bank. Winners were from Lincoln Community High and Mount Pulaski High School."

Information on the contest is available at the high schools and through William Hull at the bank. Entries must be submitted to the bank by Feb. 14, 2001. The bank will then submit selected entries to the CBAI Foundation to be eligible for the statewide competition.

Based in Springfield, CBAI is a professional association that represents approximately 540 banks and thrifts throughout Illinois.

[State Bank of Lincoln news release]

Announcements

School menus

Hartsburg-Emden
Lincoln Elementary Schools
Mount Pulaski Grade School

Hartsburg-Emden

February breakfast menus

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
			1 Yogurt Banana Milk	2 Scrambled eggs Toast Juice Milk
5 Cinnamon roll Juice Milk	6 Assorted cereal NutriGrain bar Juice Milk	7 Sausage link Pancake/syrup Orange juice Milk	8 Egg patty on biscuit Juice Milk	9 Sausage patty Toast/jelly Applesauce Milk
12 No school Lincoln's Birthday	13 Waffle/syrup Orange juice Milk	14 Cinnamon toast Apple wedges Milk	15 Blueberry muffin Peaches Milk	16 Scrambled eggs Toast Hash browns Milk
19 Cinnamon tastries Juice Milk	20 Cereal Pop Tart Banana Milk	21 Breakfast burrito Juice Milk	22 Yogurt Milk	23 French toast sticks/syrup Assorted juice Milk
26 Muffin Fruit Milk	27 Pancake and sausage breakfast stick Juice and milk	28 Egg patty on biscuit Hash browns Milk

February lunch menus

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
			1 Creamed chicken on bun Peas Tossed salad Fruit Milk	2 Assorted sandwiches Cooked carrots Chips Applesauce Milk
5 Grilled chicken on bun Corn Strawberries Cake Milk	6 Lasagna Green beans Pears Jell-O Milk	7 Cheeseburger on bun Raw veggies/dip Mixed fruit Brownie Milk	8 Ham ponyshoe French fries Cole slaw Applesauce Milk	9 Pizza Lettuce salad Pineapple Milk
12 No school Lincoln's Birthday	13 Hot dog on bun Macaroni and cheese Peas Applesauce Milk	14 Sloppy Joe on bun Nacho chips/cheese Fruit cocktail Cake Milk	15 Chicken nuggets Mixed vegetables Peaches Jell-O Milk	16 Barbecued rib on bun Green beans Baked apples Milk
19 Mini sub sandwich Pasta salad Corn Pineapple Milk	20 Chili Veggie sticks Peaches Cinnamon roll Milk	21 Pork tenderloin on bun Sweet potatoes Pudding Milk	22 Salisbury steak Mashed potatoes and gravy Green beans Apricots Milk	23 Burritos with cheese sauce Lettuce salad Applesauce Milk
26 Ham patty on bun Baked beans Fruit crisp Milk	27 Fish fillet Cheesy potatoes Broccoli Pineapple Milk	28 Tacos with lettuce, cheese, salsa Pears Cookie Milk

Lincoln Elementary Schools

Breakfast menus

Monday, Feb. 5
Cereal
Toast with apple butter
Juice
Milk

Tuesday, Feb. 6
Fruit pie
Toast
Milk

Wednesday, Feb. 7
Cereal
Cinnamon toast
Juice
Milk

Thursday, Feb. 8
Silver dollar pancakes with syrup
Sausage
Fruit
Milk

Friday, Feb. 9
Cereal
Toast with jelly
Juice
Milk

Lunch menus

(Milk is served with all meals)

Monday, Feb. 5
Hot dog on bun
French fries with cheese sauce
Carrot sticks
Peas

Tuesday, Feb. 6
Salisbury steak
Baked potatoes
Bread and butter
Peaches

Wednesday, Feb. 7
Pepperoni pizza
Lettuce salad
Jell-O
Pears

Thursday, Feb. 8
Barbecued rib on bun
Corn
Brownie
Applesauce

Friday, Feb. 9
Homemade chicken noodle soup
Peanut butter sandwich
Celery stick
Whipped dessert

Mount Pulaski Grade School

Monday, Feb. 5 — Hamburger, bun, cheese, pickle, green beans, pears, potato chips

Tuesday, Feb. 6 — Chicken nuggets, peas, applesauce, brownie, bread, oleo

Wednesday, Feb. 7 — Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, celery, carrots, corn, peaches, Rice Krispie treat

Thursday, Feb. 8 — Sloppy Joe, tri-tator, pasta salad, cherry turnover

Friday, Feb. 9 — Early dismissal; no lunch

Monday, Feb. 12 — No school

Tuesday, Feb. 13 — Cheese pizza, green beans, apple Jell-O, monster cookies

Wednesday, Feb. 14 — Chicken legs, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, cherry pie, bread, oleo

Thursday, Feb. 15 — Hot ham and cheese on bun, carrots, mixed vegetables, potato chips, orange, cookie

Friday, Feb. 16 — Lasagna, lettuce, peas, apricots, bread sticks

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