It’s 7:15 a.m. on Friday morning, and the hall by the music room is quickly filling up with students awaiting the arrival of our music teacher, Mrs. Morris, to begin Honor Choir practice.  By 7:30, there will be nearly 90 students filling the room to practice.  The amazing thing is this is a VOLUNTARY choir!  Mr. Lawley, beware, they are headed your way in a few years!  We appreciate the extra time Mrs. Morris puts in to prepare these kids for their future as Willard singers.  They will be performing at the Lighting of the Frisco Trail, and next spring at a Springfield Cardinals game, in addition to other venues throughout the year.

Thanks to the district’s generosity and to the efforts of our maintenance staff, WIS has some new playground equipment that was unvailed today to the students.  Last year, we were only able to afford some swings and soccer goals,  but with additional funds made available to us this year, we have purchased some climbing apparatus and more swings.   The kids enjoyed the chance to try it all out, and decided the wait was worth it.  Special thanks to our maintence staff and Director of Operations, Mr. Staley, for getting the equipment installed and operational for us!

Thanks to the generosity of MSU, we were able to have nationally recognized motivational speaker Mr. Jimmy Cabrera speak to our students and teachers about the relationship between attitude and being successful in anything in life. His presentation “What’s in your backpack?” was exciting and well received by all!
Speaking of success, if anyone happened to see a Hummer limo full of Intermediate school students cruising around town you were not imagining things. Over 110 of our students earned a “Limo Lunch” by selling 10 or more of our Tiger Savings cards. Approximately 60 more students attended as guests of those that sold 15 or more cards. Thanks for all the hard work. You guys look great!
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My parents used to warn me, “be careful what you ask for!”, and our fall fundraiser was a prime example of that.  We set a goal to sell 600 cards, which would translate to $3000 profit for our building.  We dangled a carrot, offering a hummer limo ride to lunch for any child who sold 10 or more cards, and at 15 cards, they could bring a friend.  Next week, we will be arranging for nearly 190 students to do a limo lunch!  And, we exceeded our sales goal by 400%!  We sold over 2400 cards, with a profit of just over $12,000.  We will be using the funds to purchase a smart board system for our second lab, and a new sound system for the gym and music programs.  We still have cards available, if anyone (can’t imagine who it would be) didn’t get their discount card!  THANKS TO OUR SCHOOL COMMUNITY FOR SUCH GREAT SUPPORT!

One of the many transitions that begin to occur when students arrive at the Intermediate School are all the extra activities which students can be involved with.  On any given day, we have Student Council, Peer Ambassadors, Running Club, Library Club, Honor Choir, Mini Tigerettes, and probably some other clubs I’ve missed, meeting before or after school.  All of these opportunities provide students with an opportunity to explore new interests and meet more people.  We appreciate all the extra time the staff who sponsor these groups devote to providing great things for our students!

Getting MAP results each year often becomes a “good news, bad news” venture for our schools, but at Willard Intermediate we have lots to celebrate about our students’ achievements last year.  195 students in our building scored in the ADVANCED catagory of either the Communication Arts or Math MAP Test.  In Communication Arts we scored 10% higher than the state benchmark, and in Math we scored 23% higher than the state benchmark for adequate yearly progress.  We are proud of those accomplishments, but the work is never done, as we continue to strive toward even greater student achievement.  “Bring Your Best Game!”

Our theme for the year at Willard Intermediate School is Bring Your Best Game, and over 600 students have done just that!  We are welcoming several new staff members to our building this year.  In fifth grade, we added two new staff, and replaced 3 who either changed positions or left the district.  Those teachers are Mrs. Raby, Mrs. Rasco, Mrs. Norman, Mrs. Nielson, and Mrs. Barron.  We also welcome Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Harsh to our Special Education team.  We also welcome Mrs. Loffer as a para in our building.  Some other changes in staff include Mrs. Starkey who is now a Title I reading/language teacher and Mrs. Anderson who moved from 5th grade to 6th grade. 

Thursday morning, aproximately 35 career opportunity presenters visited the Intermediate School and every student in the building got to spend time in different sessions, learning about these careers.  Coach Milleson from MSU, Joy Robertson from KOLR-10, Don Berry of the “Fishing Radio Show”, the National Guard, Cox Medical Systems Flight Nurses, and the Springfield Fire Department Bomb Robot were just a few of the many folks who came.  Dr. Bacon grossed the kids out with a dog heart full of heart worms, Mrs. Anderson impressed one group by wearing a live snake drapped around her shoulders, and Mrs. Jones showed off her gymnastics talents with one of her groups!  What a great opportunity for the kids to see and meet the many career opportunities that exist in our area.  Thanks to Mrs. Huffman and her committee for coordinating this awesome event!

Wednesday evening, our 6th grade honor choir, under the direction of Mrs. Dina Morris, had the opportunity to sing the National Anthem at the Springfield Cardinals game.  We also enjoyed seeing some of our students who are members of the Willard Diamondettes who were involved in the “Field of Dreams” recognition.  Special thanks to Cheryl Buttram, who helped coordinated tickets sales (over 400 tickets sold!), and helped organize the event.  It turned out to be a great night, no rain, and a fun time for our kids.  Only thing better would have been a win for the ‘baby birds’.

We tried our best to set a new record for how many different activities we could fit into one week!  Monday, we celebrated our year’s worth of art, writing and talent with a very successful Fine Arts Night, capped off with the first ever Talent Show.  We had guest appearances by Sonny and Cher, Ike and Tina Turner, The Judds, Dolly Parton, and Elvis Presley who all assisted in the introductions of our very talented fifth and sixth grade performers.  Thanks to all our staff who contributed to making the evening a success.  The Book Fair has been going on all week, and the kids have enjoyed having the chance to shop for their favorite books.  Wednesday our sixth grade enjoyed a slightly soggy but fun trip to St. Louis, where they saw several “cool” displays and activities at the Science Center and the Zoo.  Thursday, our last group of fifth grade students completed their requirements for the DARE program, and went through their DARE graduation.  Thanks to Police Chief Tom McClain for spending his time with our kids for this valuable experience.  Today, we’ve enjoyed sharing our “facilities” with the children and staff at Willard North, while their water was shut off. 

The Intermediate School has several fun events coming up in the next few weeks.  Tonight, Mrs. Staley will be hosting a “Library Lock-In”, and rumor has it that if the kids read enough pages, they might get to tape their principals to the wall!  Hopefully, someone will cut us loose before the weekend is over!  On April 30, we will be hosting a Fine Arts Night, with a talent show, writing and art fair.  Later in the month of May we’ll be sending our 6th grade to spend a day in St. Louis, our 5th grade will be enjoying a trip to the symphony, our honor choir will be singing the anthem at the Springfield Cardinals, we’ll have our last DARE graduation for the year, and we’ll be having a Career Fair here at school.