See You at the Pole gathering held

South Middle School students and teachers participated in the annual See You at the Pole prayer gathering Wednesday.
The observance, which is a voluntary, and not a school-sponsored activity, is held each year on the final Wednesday of September.

SMS volleyball teams fall to Neosho

By KELLEY LEACH
Room 210 Sports Editor
The South Middle School seventh and eighth grade volleyball teams lost to Neosho Thursday.
The seventh grade A team lost 25-19, 25-12, while the B team fell 25-13, 25-11.
In the eighth grade matches, the A team lost 25-5, 25-19, while the B team came up on the short end of a 25-18 score.

SMS volleyballers fall to CJ

By KELLEY LEACH
Room 210 Staff WriterSouth Middle School's seventh and eighth grade volleyball teams lost to Carl Junction Monday night.
The eighth grade fell 25-12, 25-10, despite the serving of Breanna Baker, while the seventh grade lost 25-14, 19-25, 25-9, despite nine serve points by Bayley Strella. The seventh grade B team lost 25-19, 25-10.

Former SMS student teacher enjoying Carthage job

By BECKY COOPER and
LAINIE NICOLAS
Room 210 Staff Writers
Mr. Jacob Osborne, former student teacher at South Middle School, is now teaching at Carthage Junior High School.
Last year, he was a student teacher in Mr. Jason Weaver's world history class, so he could teach geography. Being a real teacher is different for Mr. Osborne.
"I have been treated differently by my students," he said. "I think that is because whenever I was a student teacher, the students were used to Mr. Weaver and the way he ran his classroom. Student teaching gave me an opportunity to figure out how I wanted to run my classroom.
Another big difference is that at Carthage there are two different teachers for every subject in every grade. That means he is not the only geography teacher. "This has been a huge help to me because the other teacher and I are working on every lesson so we can try to put both of our ideas together to make a good lesson," he said.
Mr. Osborne says Mr. Weaver taught him a lot. "He taught me to teach lessons without using the textbook; there are also certain organizational things that Mr. Weaver taught me. I also have my gradebook set up the same way that he does."
Mr. Weaver said he enjoyed working with Mr. Osborne "because I had the chance to teach someone what I was never taught." Mr. Weaver was also affected by his experience with a student teacher. "It helped me become a better teacher because he would ask me questions and even though I knew how to answer them it made me realize how to do better at it myself."
Since Carthage is Mr. Osborne's hometown, he feels a certain loyalty to the district. "I hope to stay here in Carthage," he says. "I liked Joplin a lot and I wouldn't trade my time student teaching there for anything."

Seventh grade spikers defeat College Heights

By KELLEY LEACH
Room 210 Staff Writer
The South Middle School seventh grade volleyball team defeated College Heights for the second time in less than a week Monday night, 25-18, 25-27, 25-9.
The host College Heights team beat the SMS eighth graders 25-10, 25-8. The eighth grade B team lost 25-18. The seventh grade B team also lost.
Members of this year's SMS volleyball teams are:
Eighth grade- Christen Cool, Rachael Foster, Shaynee Johnson, Kelley Leach, Leah Forkner, Victoria Smith, Breanna Baker, Cassey Schulze, Makenzie Freeman, Mikaila Craig, and Seychelle Jackson.
Seventh grade- Molly Baker, Kirsti Banning, Emylee Brown, Taylor Camden, Jordan Chambers, Allie Lacey, Sydney Long, Nicole McDonald, Tori Mitchell, Ann Nguyen, Holly O'Dell, Mackenzy Pierce, Chloe Potts, Bailey Strella, Jamie Walters, Cassee Wheeler, Nichole Yeoman.

Quiz Bowl prepares for 2006-2007 season

By KANE MCCASLIN
Room 210 Staff Writer
The 2006-2007 South Middle School Quiz Bowl team got off to a rocking start Wednesday, Aug. 30, with mind boggling questions like, "The capitol of Wyoming is.." and "Who is the former senator from Indiana who later became vice president of the United States?" The buzzers were ringing off the hook.
Mrs. Kathy Weaver is already working to hard to fill the shoes of Mr. Jason Weaver. Mr. Weaver was unable to continue with Quiz Bowl due to added responsibilities this year.
Mr. Randy Turner, co-sponsor for the last two years, is serving in that role again. "We hope to do better this year since we have students who have already had a year in quiz bowl."
Returning from last year's team are: Leif Larson, Arthur Brown, Steven Williams, Kane McCaslin, and Dylan Prauser. Other team members who attended the first meeting included: Christen Cool, Kelley Leach, Victoria Smith, Ken Zhang, Shelby Nicole McDonald, Mackenzy Pierce, Holly O'Dell, Alex Kangethe, Cheyenne Howard, Sharah Howard, Sarah Kessler, Ashley Whittington, Steven Denmark, and Beau Carroll.
The team's first competition is expected to take place in October.

The pop is gone

By SAVANAH SWEETON
Room 210 Staff Writer
Students have noticed that the pop in the machines at South Middle School has been switched to water.
SMS Principal Mr. Ron Mitchell said the change was made by the Coke and Pepsi companies and was done worldwide.
"It's a good thing," he said, adding that he hoped students would make healthier choices and would ask their parents for less money for lunch.
Joplin High School has small diet soft drinks, but the elementary schools have only less sweet juices and water.
Mr. Mitchell may think the change is a good one, but not all students agree.
Eighth grader Alicia Shofner said, "I want those pop machines back."

(Photo: Students can still buy pop when they attend after-school activities such as Tuesday night's season-opening volleyball match at Memorial. Members of the SMS Library Advisory Board are shown manning the concession stand.)

Math teacher works to fight multiple sclerosis

By SAVANAH SWEETON and
TAYLOR TRESSLER
Room 210 Staff Writers

Eighth grade math teacher Mrs. Valerie Doerr will bike to help people with multiple sclerosis.
THe M150 Bike Race will take place Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 16 and 17. All participants can bike a total of 100 miles each day from Republic to Carthage and back.
Mrs. Doerr says 100 miles is the furthest she has biked, but she has reached 39.0 miles per hour. She has been biking all of her life.
Her inspiration for biking comes from one source. "It would have to be my dad," she said. "He was always riding and I've loved it since I was a kid."

Clubs start at South Middle School

By VICTORIA NOLAN
Room 210 Staff Writer
Clubs started Tuesday, Sept. 5, at South Middle School, and will continue for the following three Tuesdays.
"The purpose of clubs is to let kids have fun at school and explore their personal interests," said Mr. Gregg Klinginsmith, assistant principal. "All of the teachers came up with the ideas for their clubs."
Clubs being offered include:
Checkers, Yahtzee, Spanish, team activities, board games, creative art, card games, arts and crafts, Hollywood history, block it, t-shirt painting, creative writing, mind trap, games, drawing/coloring, knitting, flag football, German, chess club, boggle and scrabble, card games, conservation, internet scavenger hunt, scrapbooking, yugio, basketball, trivia club, crochet, and uno.
Mr. Klinginsmith said, "If I was a middle schooler, I would join flag football."

Seventh grade volleyball teams sweep College Heights

South Middle School's seventh grade volleyball teams opened their season Tuesday night with wins over College Heights. The eighth grade team lost. The teams return to action next week.