SPRING VALLEY SCHOOL—EDUCATING BRIGHT STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DIFFERENCES DATES TO REMEMBER 10-18 Kids in Engineering Day 9:00am— 3:00pm 10-20 Parent/ Teacher Conferences (No News from the Valley Y E A R 1 5 V O L U M E odist 10-23 Field Amie Keith edged 10-22 Middle School Community Service at Canterbury Meth- Trip to Alabama Theater Grades 6-10 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Student Council Elections 1 Gillespie’s State Projects 1 Update on the Market 2 Alabama Theater Trip 2 Teacher Spotlight 2 O C T O B E R 1 5 , 2 0 1 4 Students Select Leaders On Thursday, October 9th middle and upper students voted for the offices of president, vice president and secretary for Student Council. School for Students) 7 Chris and Ian English in the tightly contested race for president, while Isaac Cade and Mark Roberson filled the po- sitions of vice president and secretary respectively. President Keith’s platform included ideas such as a take-out lunch menu, vending machines, cleaning crews, field trips, brightly colored school walls, and a SVS choir. According to faculty sponsor, Christa Smith, the Student Council will meet at a later date to select the at-large members. that the student council will tackle this year include fundraising, Tiki Day, and working closely with the school’s faculty and administration on special projects. Thanks to FRAVERT Services, Inc. for the lovely new signs at the entrance and on the front of the building! Among the projects Sweet Home Alabama Students display state geography and pride Students in Angela Gilles-‐ pie’s third grade class re-‐ cently completed a relief of the state of Alabama’s ﬁve geographical regions. As part of their study, students iden ﬁed the state’s Cum-‐ berland Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Highland Ridge, and Piedmont Upland, Coastal Plain regions. The facsimiles of Alabama were constructed in class from a mixture of ﬂour, salt, water, food coloring, and cream of tartar and then mounted on cardboard. Students iden ﬁed the state’s topography, rivers, and prominent ci es. Haley’s project featured in pabove. PAGE 2 The Market is Up! Paris Carlisle's Stock Market Class Earns High Marks A popular advertisement in the early 1980s featured John Houseman dressed in a vest, bow-tie, and tweed sport coat uttering the phrase, “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.” The commercial suggested that advise vis-à-vis stocks and investments from their firm was prized information. If that commercial aired today, E. F. Hutton might defer his brokerage exper- Team 2 from L to R: Matthew, Jaren, and Mark tise to members of Spring Valley’s Stock Market Team 2 and Mark Robinson, team captain in particular. This team which also includes Jaren Van Winkle, Matthew Sherrod, and Bradley Willis is currently ranked 4 out of 94 teams in the region and 27th out of 586 teams in the nation. and results are based on real-time market trading. Because it is a competition, each group does not discuss the component parts of its portfolio to keep other classmates/ investors from investing in the same stocks. However, if you hear these young men talking, it might just pay to listen. As part of the competition, stocks are evaluated daily Alabama Theater Field Trip Set Spring Valley students in grades 6-10 are scheduled to attend an October 23rd performance at the Alabama Theater by the acclaimed Chamber Theater Productions. “It’s perfect to see that set of stories just before Halloween.” The show is entitled Encore!! and is a compilation of six literary classics: Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace,” W. W. Jacobs’s “The Monkey’s Paw,” Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart” as well as his classic narrative poem, “The Raven.” Dr. Adam Jones Because the thrilling nature of these works, Dr. Adam Jones who coordinated the event notes “it’s perfect to see that set of stories just before Halloween.” He goes on to state that in addition to being a fun experience “hopefully (the kids) will learn about translating stories across different media.” Anna Levy– Teacher Feature In addition to being the proud mother to Spring Valley’s most popular baby, Mackenzie, Anna Levy takes care of many other students in the low- er school. Not only does she teach the fourth grade, but she NEWS FROM THE VALLEY also coordinates field trips and provides pullout math and reading instruction to fifth grade students, too. In fact, the small class sizes are what she enjoys most about Spring Valley. Mrs. Levy, her husband David, daughter Macken- zie, and dog Vulcan live in Vestavia. Fun facts: Mrs. Levy lived in New York until age 11. In high school she played drums, was in the flag corps, and was a majorette.