The Sprayberry Buzz - Cobb County School District

The
Sprayberry Buzz
“Hive You Heard….?”
From the Principal
November 30
Purchase your yearbooks now! The
current price is $80
and will increase to
$90 on January 1,
2011. Order forms
are available in the
front office or on-line
at
www.cobblearning.n
et/shsyearbook.
Orders are also accepted on-line at
www.yearbookorderc
enter.com.
I’m excited to share news of our students’ achievement on the recent Georgia High School Writing Test. This is a
required test of our eleventh grade students as part of their academic portfolio
that evidences mastery of key academic
curriculum.
This fall’s results are just in, and I am
very proud of our students achievement
this year as well as the progress the
school has enjoyed over the previous
year’s results. Overall, 98% of our eleventh grade students passed the writing
test compared with 93% the previous
year. Additionally, 11 percent of students passing the test exceeded standards, scoring well above the required
passing score. This was an increase
from the 5% who exceeded standards in
the previous year. Finally, 100% of our
students with special needs passed the
test—you can’t do better than that!
ing in their classroom and content during the year. In specific scoring feedback, Sprayberry students scored higher
in content and ideas than previous test
results, which was a particular focus of
our teachers over the past year. Teachers ask students to respond in writing to
various prompts in order to clarify their
thinking, summarize key information, or
reflect on the content of a lesson. This
guided practice in all subject areas is a
key component of our success on this
year’s test.
Please check the school’s website as
well as the Cobb County school district
website for more information. Congratulations, juniors ! We are striving for the
same success on the remaining graduation tests this spring.
Ed Wagner
Sprayberry Front Office – Volunteers needed to answer the phones,
cover lunch and help students. Other
tasks as needed. Times vary, but biggest need is during lunch.
Basketball v Lassiter
9/JV/Varsity
December 4
Northeast Cobb Business Association Pancake Breakfast
Basketball v Wheeler
and Cherokee
9/JV/Varsity
Echo Pageant
@Piedmont Church
December 8
December 11
From PTSA: We Need Volunteers!
Sprayberry Attendance Office –
Volunteers needed to call parents to
verify early dismissals, answer the
phones, and various other tasks.
Times needed vary.
December 3
Wrestling v Pope/Kell
I appreciate the efforts of the teachers
throughout the school who support writ-
Here are just a few ongoing opportunities:
Jazz Concert 7:00pm
Sprayberry Guidance Office –
Volunteers needed to answer the
phones, cover lunch and help students. Other tasks as needed. Times
vary, but biggest need is during
lunch.
Email Jean Howard at
[email protected] to see if one of
these volunteer opportunities will
fit into your schedule!
Shop with a Yellow
Jacket
December 14
Cap/Gown Orders
Last Chance
December 16 & 17
Final Exams
December 17 & 18
Swimming—Cobb/
Gwinnett Challenge
Meet
The Sprayberry Buzz
Page 2
Fine Arts Awards and News
Marching Band News:
Congratulations to the Sprayberry High School Band of Gold
for their performance at the
White Columns Invitational at
Milton High School on Saturday,
October 23rd.
The band had a wonderful performance, and earned the following awards::
Superior Ratings in all Categories
Colorguard - 2nd Place Overall
Percussion - 1st Place Overall
Most Outstanding Visual Award
Most Outstanding Music Award
Most Outstanding General Ef-
fect Award AND
OVERALL GRAND CHAMPION!
The band has also been selected to participate in the
2011 National Cherry Blossom
Parade in Washington D.C. in
April.
Drama News:
Juniors and seniors of the
Drama Club attended a field
trip to Valdosta State University. Sprayberry students
toured the campus, toured
the Fine Arts building, sat in
on a college Theatre class, sat
in on a rehearsal, saw an Improv show, and met with the
head of the Theatre department. The highlight of the trip
was attending a VSU performance of Sweet Charity, staring
a Sprayberry alumni, Laura
Wright.
This was a great experience
for the students and parents. The Drama department
plans to tour Columbus
State University in the
Spring. Thank you to all the
parents who made this trip
possible.
Governor’s Honors Program
On November 10th more
than 150 Cobb teachers
had the pleasure of interviewing the district's nominees for the 2011 Governor's Honors Program. It
was very inspiring to see
such enthusiastic and
bright young people engaging in rigorous academic,
career technology, and fine
arts interviews. Everyone
was impressed with the
caliber of our candidates.
Cobb County is sending 270 students on to
the state GHP interviews! Attached is the
list of Cobb students
who have been selected
to interview at the state
level for the Governor's
Honors Program in fine
arts, career/technology,
and academics. Here
are the Sprayberry students who are going to
these state interviews.
Do you have a
story idea or
Brittany Hallman Spanish
Taina
Hiba
Joseph Spanish
Biology
Zafar
CommuniNicole Corbett cative Arts
GarTravis diner
Jia
Shing
Communicative Arts
Music/Jazz
Nelson (trumpet)
Iron
Meng
Music/Jazz
(guitar)
Emily
Morrison
Music/Voice
(soprano)
Trevor May
Theatre
Club News
The Key Club just participated in their first Adopt
A Mile. We had a great
turn out! Twenty one
volunteers came out
Saturday morning to
clean up their community. Keep Cobb Beautiful will be recognizing
their efforts by putting
an Adopt a Mile sign up
at the ends of our mile
on Sandy Plains Rd. We
will conduct the cleanup
4 times a year.
HOSA will sponsor a representative from Lifelink
Ga at their December
2nd meeting. They will
speak about the importance of donating organs and the process
that is involved in the
decision. Everyone is
invited
information to
share? Contact
Paul McMahon at
Sprayberry—770578-3200 x258
or
paul.mcmahon@c
obbk12.org
“Shop with a Yellow Jacket” - December 11th
The pictures below tell a wonderful story about Sprayberry
students and the spirit of the
holidays that happened last
year with our first “Shop with
a Yellow Jacket” event. The
excitement and expectation is
growing as we look forward to
our third annual event scheduled for Saturday, December
11th.
Last year, with a wonderful
show of generosity and help
from the Sprayberry community, business partners, parents, teachers, and students,
we were able to raise nearly
$11,000 for this event. With
that amount, all four feeder
elementary schools—Kincaid,
Bells Ferry, Addison, and
Blackwell—were able to send
students and their families to
Sprayberry to allow our students to help them have a
happier holiday. More than
300 students volunteered for
the event, combined with faculty and parent volunteers, to
serve the elementary students a breakfast, shop for
Christmas presents, wrap and
box their gifts, and have lunch
on a wonderful December
Saturday.
This year’s fundraising is well
underway, and Sprayberry
volunteers are applying to join
elementary students to assist
them. Donations can be
brought to the school bookkeeper up to the Thanksgiving
holidays, and several fundraisers are scheduled between now and the end of
next week.
It is times like these that
make us proud to be part of
the Sprayberry community. All
of us coming together to help
others is truly the message for
the holiday that we share.
The Sprayberry Buzz
Athletics Update
.As the cold weather arrives
just after Thanksgiving, it
seems fitting that we quickly
recap the fall sports and focus on the current winter seasons.
Volleyball completed another
strong season with a final
record of 32-11 and a state
AAAA tournament quarterfinal appearance. Following a
runner-up finish in our region,
the team hosted a state playoff match with Union Grove
High School in front of a noisy
crowd. With a win against
Union Grove at home and
Rockdale County High School
on the road, the team next
traveled to Johns Creek High
School in Fulton County. They
lost a very hard-fought match
against a tough opponent,
ending a fantastic season.
Individual congratulations go
out to Nadia Ogene, selected
as Georgia Public Broadcasting’s Athlete of the Week,
Katie Gilstrap, selected to
play in the state all-star game
at Woodward Academy,and
Blair Winston, selected as a
first-team state AAAA player.
Coach Bateman and the girls
have once again provided us
with a super-successful season.
The competition cheerleading
squad advanced to the state
meet by finishing fourth in the
region competition on November 5 at Starr’s Mill High
School. Congratulations to
the squad on this accomplishment!
The football team failed to
reach the state playoffs this
year but did win its last game
of the season against Alexander. The team competed well
in a very tough region with
Kell High School winning the
region and advancing deep
into the state playoffs. The
team matured throughout the
season, growing into expectations and demands on and off
the field. Congratulations to
all of the players in this year’s
program. They should be excited about next season, especially with the new turf being installed this winter.
Above is a picture of the new
field that should be completed in time for the spring
seasons of lacrosse and soccer.
The boys and girls basketball
programs kick off their 2010
season with a home game
with Lassiter this Friday. Both
showed well in pre-season
games with Pebblebrook and
Berkmar, but Friday night
begins the real season. Hope
you can all make it out to
support these players! The
wrestling team has begun its
season in fine form with wins
against Banneker, Norcross,
Meadowcreek and Walton.
Their first home match is
Wednesday, December 8. The
swim team also begins its
season this Friday with the
Sprayberry Invitational . Good
luck to all of the winter sports
teams—come see them!
Page 4
The Sprayberry Buzz
Charitable Events—”Get Your Good On!”
The Promote Positive Club,
with sponsor Kyra Caldwell,
donated 510 diapers and
320 wipes for the Diaper
Day in Cobb County. Pictured is the event’s finale
held at the Marietta
Square.
The Sprayberry FCA huddle
is volunteering to assist
with the efforts of FCA
Haiti. We are attempting to
assist with their mission of
serving the people of Haiti
through the platform of
sports. They are implementing soccer and basketball
to address the motivation
of the youth. We are assisting by collecting new and
used soccer equipment
from the community. This
can be items such as; needles, balls, pennies, shoes,
uniforms, etc. All donations
will go towards providing
equipment and organizing
missions teams to conduct
sports camps. Please visit
the website for more information. www.fcahaiti.org
Thank you to everyone who
participated in the canned
food drive! We were able to
collect over 1700 food
items to donate to the Center for Family Resources.
Your outpouring of generosity helped make our canned
food drive a tremendous
success.
News from School Counseling Department
We will finish seeing our seniors by Dec. 1st reviewing post-secondary options, colleges,
ACT/SAT, etc.
As finals and EOCTs are quickly approaching, the ACE center has been busy! Remember
students and parents that it is not too late to bring those grades up by going to tutoring in
ACE or after school!
Seniors don't forget to turn in your transcripts requests by Dec. 3rd if you have the January 15th deadline!!
Sprayberry Student Blogs for Local Magazine
The East Cobber, a
popular, free magazine that has been
sharing good news
about our community
for 16 years, is going
viral! Several sections of this magazine will soon be
available online as a
weekly blog. One of
the blogs is specifi-
cally for high schools
in East Cobb. Sprayberry juniors Allyson
Reyer and Shannon
Morrow have teamed
up to write weekly
blog posts about
what's going on at
our school and give
readers an inside
look at high school
life. Check it out and
post your comments by going to the
website at
www.EastCobber.com
starting Wednesday,
November 17th.
Page 6
Congratulations to Ms. Catherine Barry, Sprayberry High School’s Teacher
of the Year for the 2010-2011 school year. Ms. Barry works in the Special
Education department. Below are pictures from the school district celebration for all teachers nominated by their schools held recently at Roswell Street Baptist Church. “Barry’s Bunch” are the students in Ms.
Barry’s classroom who came to support her in the celebration. Also pictured are her husband Brian, Mr. Wagner, Debbie Aloisio (PTSA President), and Sherri Kornegay, lead teacher in the Special Education department. Congratulations, Catherine—we are proud of you!
Sprayberry High School Unveils A New Character Education Program
Dr. Betty Siegel’s Wings of Excellence is a character education program designed to recognize students who consistently
come to school with the “can do” attitude that reflects the Sprayberry HS mission.
At the end of each month, the names of the student nominees will be announced by the SHS morning video crew. Student
nominees receive a Wings of Excellence T shirt and an invitation to the end of semester Wings of Excellence celebration. The
fall student nominees, their parents, and the teacher responsible for the nomination will be invited to a breakfast celebration
in January. Likewise, a breakfast will be held for the Spring semester nominees.
Dr. Betty Siegel, is the Distinguished Chair of the Siegel Institute for Leadership, Ethics, and Character and she is President
Emeritus at Kennesaw State University.
Wings of Excellence October 2010 Nominations
Carolina Maritnez
Deandrick Payne
Maurice Henderson
Shannon Murray
Matt Bishop
Erin Wallace
Skip Wells
Tiffany Darlington
Sidney Lindley
Lilia Akar
Emmie Axford
Quin Napier
Bryant Long
Daphne Rosario
Josh Daktar
Alexi Roethl
Tamesha McKay
Kinza Khan
Alex Pethel
“Have a Heart For Those Who Need One”
The Sprayberry community has recently been informed about a health crisis that is affecting one of its own. The husband of one of our custodians, Amir Alic, has struggled with a chronic
heart condition since 2003. Dubravka and her husband, Amir, immigrated with their two children
to the United States in 1998 after facing many hardships in their native country of Bosnia. After
suffering a severe heart attack in 2003, Amir has remained positive and supportive to family and
friends. He now needs a heart transplant to help with a heart that now functions at less than 15 %.
He is eligible to receive matched funds up to a maximum of $10,000 from Georgia Transplant
Foundation.
The AVID classes at Sprayberry hosted a Bake Sale during the week of October 11-15th.
With everyone’s help for this worthy cause, this event brought Amir one step closer for a chance at
a new beginning. During this week, the bake sale raised more than $2000. Two students, Corinne
Law and Allison Law , had their own bake sale and brought in $82 themselves for Dubravka's husband. It was a wonderfully generous show of support by the Sprayberry students, faculty and community.
Thank you to the AVID students and teachers Rita Tyler and Jeff Hutson. And thank you for helping!
The Sprayberry Buzz
Advanced Placement Scholars
College Board recognizes several levels of achievement
based on students’ performance on the Advanced Placement Exams. Congratulations
to the following students for
earning College Board recognition for their achievement on
the AP exams.
28 Students at Sprayberry
High School qualified for the
National AP Scholar Award by
completing three or more AP
exams with grades of 3 or
higher:
AP SCHOLARS
Adeyemo Mudasiru, Sara
Blevins, Alexandria
Brashears,Christina Choi,
Daniel Delgado, Adam Dodson,
David Fein, Michael Fernandez, Dina Gass, Erin Gregory,
Derek Hamrick, Joel Hanselman, Jillian Hart, Eduardo
Holanda, Kaelyn Ireland, Arita
Kaimal, Jamie McClure, Iron
Meng, Caitlin Mueller, Nadia
Ogene, Wesley Powell, Alejandro Quintero, Mark Racher,
John Rice, Esra Shurbjy, Joseph Tait, Nikki Thai, Yasin
Anushay
7 students qualified for the AP
Scholar with Honor Award by
earning an average grade of at
least 3.25 on all AP Exams
taken, and grades of 3 or
higher on four or more of
these exams:
AP SCHOLAR WITH HONOR
Sydney Dawson, Kathryn
Delgado, Nadine Hernandez,
Rebecca Orfe, Yogini Patel,
Samantha Schuman, Elizabeth
Studstill
9 students qualified for the AP
Scholar with Distinction Award
by earning an average grade
of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams
taken, and grades of 3 or
higher on five or more of these
exams:
AP SCHOLAR WITH DISTINCTION
Lauren Bishop, Beryl Fulmer,
Katelynn Garrett, Joseph
Lindsey, Yafet Mamo, Marcus
McGinnis, Ryan McGraw, Wilson Shugart, Shaowen Zhang
FCA Leadership Camp
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes Club had the
opportunity to send several of its members to a
Leadership Camp in
Adairsville Georgia. This
was a free opportunity
offered to Sprayberry students through their membership in the national
club network.
The students who attended were Trey Wil-
liams, Samario Koger,
Tevin Moore, Malik Young
and Caleb Hall.
They attended workshops
on being a leader and interpersonal skills as well
as being offered time to
spend time with business
leaders in the community.
They participated in several activities including
fishing, softball, skeet
shooting, turkey frying,
and other fun activities.
Football Team Visits Local Retirees
Members of the Sprayberry Football team visited Dogwood Forest Assisted Living facility on
LeCroy Drive in Marietta
recently. Coach Emery
Williams and players are
pictured with some of the
residents as they shared
stories and lots of good
times together.
Page 9
The Sprayberry Buzz
Sprayberry High School
2525 Sandy Plains Road
Marietta, Georgia
30066
Phone: 770-578-3200
Fax:: 770-578-3202
WE’RE
ON THE
WEB!
W WW. COBBK1 2.
ORG/
S P R A Y B E R RY /
committed to a culture
of excellence in
academics, arts,
athletics,
and the community
C HECK US OUT!
Sprayberry High School
2010-2011