Bloomingdale Yearbook

On December 10th, Bloomingdale’s Mu Alpha Theta teams emerged victorious from the Winter Math Bowl at University of South Florida. The school earned the top overall ranking out of the twenty-seven in the county.

When the competitors first walked in, they had to separate from the friends on their teams and sit down for the individual portion, a 20-question Scantron test. After the test, groups reunited for the team portion, which, according to Geometry team member Freshman Breana Brinkman, was much less stressful. “It was so much fun!” she said. ”I had a great time!”

Soon after, once everything was tallied up, the award ceremony took place, in which three of the school’s four divisions achieved top-three spots. The Precalculus team made third place in their division, Algebra II got second, and Geometry took the first-place spot. Also, the Calculus team received a notable 6th place.

Many students from Bloomingdale scored well individually, too. Steven Whitaker of Calculus made fifth place on the exam, Travis Bird of Geometry got third place, and Ian Ludden on Algebra II scored first. To put that in perspective, each division had over 100 students from different schools competing. 

Mrs. Rosemarie Fuentes, who sponsored the winning Geometry team at the bowl, was ecstatic that her team and the school placed first. “Geometry has always done really well, but I think these guys were the first to get it. They won because they collaborated well. I could see the other teams’ members working on their calculators by themselves and getting the questions wrong. Our Geometry talked, used paper and pencil, split the work, checked, and got the points.” 

After the excitement died down, a few weeks of rest, then the teams went into preparation to defend their championship in the Spring Bowl.

To congratulate all of the participants, Mrs. Fuentes says, “I’m very proud. Continue the hard work. You were a great representation of Bloomingdale.”

On December 1, students received progress reports to notify them and their parents of their grades thus far into the quarter. Some students were pleased, but some knew it would take a little bit more effort to pull out a good grade for their final average. The reports were used as either a warning alarm or a refresher for the students, academically speaking. Some teachers even made getting it signed by a parent or guardian a points assignment for a grade as an easy way to get some students started on raising their academic standards, or to reinforce others’ better grades. 

“I think that [progress reports] were very helpful in keeping me aware of my status in all of my classes,” said freshman Travis Bird.

Matthew Yeatts, also a freshman, received updates for three of his classes.

“I would think the [reports] to be important, but because of Edline aren’t as necessary. They’re still good to have though.”

Progress reports informed parents and students without access to computers of their grades in school, and were a nice reminder to those who had the opportunity to check their grade online to keep up the hard work.

An achievement for some, a fright for others, the year’s first report cards came November 19th. After nine weeks of tests, homework, and grades, the official results were in.

Everyone had their reactions. The straight “A” students got to experience good raises in GPA and brag to their friends about it, others may have felt the frustration of just missing the Honor Roll, and those with failing grades are preparing to redeem themselves.

One sophomore, Christina Worley, suffered an unexpected drop in grades. An Honor Roll student last year, she finished the quarter with two high ”C”s. She blames the grade on her two weeks of absences and abundant make-up work. “I got bronchitis at the beginning of the year. Then strep throat in October. I think I could have gotten straight ”A”s had I not been absent.” Determined to bring her grades up, she set a goal to “be punctual about homework and go to bed early so I don’t get sick again.”

This Tuesday, Mrs. Diane Huber’s Biology 1 Honors classes took a mini field trip to the biodome behind the baseball field. Their mission? To nurture and plant Spartina alterniflora sea grass that they would move to the beach later on and plant in order to help protect the sandy seashore and the animals on it. The grass blades would provide shelter for a large number of critters, and act as a barrier to keep the beaches from erosion. The students worked hard, planting the grasses into small cups with holes and filled them with nutrient rich soil to get the plants started on growing towards adulthood.

“The day went very well,” said the teacher, Mrs. Huber.”Roughly several thousand Spartina alterniflora plugs were planted.”

Freshman Mitch Moreland also thought the trip ran smoothly.

“It went pretty well. All the people planted the [plants],” he said.

The eco-friendly excursion helped students learn more about biology and was a great way to help out the environment, one grass plug at a time.

The most important performance of the Bloomingdale Rajun Bull Marching Band’s marching season was the FBA festival. The FBA festival was when all the marching bands of all the high schools in Florida came together on a Saturday and were graded by a panel of judges based on the accuracy of the band’s various formations on the field, and how the way the music was played versus the way it was supposed to be played. The band could earn a superior, excellent, good, fair, or a poor rating (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 in order of best to worst). Mr. Jon Sever’s marching ensemble had practiced for countless numbers of hours t0 perfect their Journey-inspired show, and it had all come down to this. It was now or never. After the final note on the closing song, the students waited impatiently to find out the rating they had received.

“I was praying the whole time,” said freshman baritone player Cameron Clark.

Then, the announcer finally said, ” Bloommingdale High School… SUPERIOR!”

The audience roared with approval. Mr. Jon Sever, the band clinician, later commented on how well the band had done.

“The band did very well,” he said.” Their [performance earned them] some of the highest marks they’ve gotten.”

On November eleventh, ROTC went to the Veteran’s Memorial Service to perform a show for the for the Veterans and their loved ones.

The whole purpose of the service was to Thank our countries veterans for everything they have done and honoring the ones we’ve lost but still love.

The whole thing lasted about four hours but the show that ROTC performed lasted about thirty minutes.

There was a different school doing a show for every service there is such as Navy, Army, Airforce, and Marines. Bloomingdale represented Airforce.

“I had alot of fun performing the show for the Veterans and I thank them for all the work that they’ve done,” freshman Brooke Garn.

Creating a sound on your instrument and making All-County Band are two completely different things. One any random person could accomplish, and the other took skill and lots of practice. The large band consisting of all the best players in the county was not for the lazy or weak at heart, so there was no time like the present for the students that wanted to do All-County to start rehearsing the audition music. 

Some of the freshman band students had experienced All-County in the past during middle school, and had gotten such a wonderful time out of it that they were eager to do it again, including Morgan Morrow.

“I want to do All-County because I want to experience what I experienced last year,” she said.

The audition music included lots of notes and rhythms to be played, however freshman French horn playerMarc Cohen wasn’t fazed by it.

“The [music] has a wide range of notes, but it should be easy,” he said.

The band students that made All-County were sure to have a blast, while at the same time learning more and more about the art of music.

The band and choral organizations got another early jump at raising some green paper for the trip to London, England in 2011, fourteen months away by selling certificates redeemable for a free pie from any Village Inn restaraunt in America. And the best part? The certificates never expired! The band and chorus students, wise to start on any fundraiser early, began selling immediately. Whether it be French silk, cherry, apple, key lime, pecan, or the simple yet traditional pumpkin pie, no one could resist bringing a delicious dessert home for the Thanksgiving feast, especially after hearing it would support a Bloomingdale music student.

Morgan Morrow, a freshman band student, was eager to start selling the pies.

“I want to sell 100 so I can pay off my trip to London,” she said.

Mr. Anton Donchev, the band intern, also had a thought to share about the fundraiser.

“It will go as well as the [students] want it to. If they don’t want to go to London then they won’t reap any rewards,” said Donchev. ”It will take lots of hard work to get there.”

AP Lang students were given a project involving the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God. This project required the students to compose a journal, while reading the book, of either a dialectical journal or a graphic organizer. Some of the students were not stressed at all, though, about completing the project.

“I paced myself so I didn’t procrastinate,” said junior Megan Bergevin. This timing appeared to end up being helpful to the students, though, because of all that the project asked for.

“We had to read the book and take notes about quotes,” said junior Tyler Bird. These notes and/or annotations had to be thorough reflective notes about major points and events that took place during the book.

When asked if the project was helpful to understanding the book,  junior Tyler Bird said, “Yes, because it showed me things that I din’t see when I was reading it.”

So, in the end, the project’s purpose of analyzing the book by using new reading strategies proved helpful, as brought out by junior Tyler Bird.

How many people have ever gotten the chance to launch a catapult? Students in Mrs. Modica’s physics classes were assigned a project where they got to build some and do just that. 

The project was to build a catapult that was one cubic foot in volume and use it to successfully hit a certain target. The designers were almost completely unrestricted, free to use any materials they chose, such as paper towel rolls, wood, or wire. The only limitation, however, was that power had to be supplied by rubber bands alone. The catapults were not permitted to have electricity, motors, or anything else to provide force. The groups all had to have their creations ready by Thursday, October 29th.

One student in the class, junior Sarah Avery, says “It seems like it should be fun. We’re having a competition, and I’m excited about it. Whoever wins gets extra credit.”

A freshman from Newpoint High School, Carissa Hoffman, commented, “I think it’s a really unique project. It would be cool to try to do that, but it sounds really hard.”