Jaguar Journal 2017 Fall Issue

STAFF SPOTLIGHT PU T T I NG T H E ED GA R ROA D SP O T L IGH T ON A S TA F F M E M BER

by Natalie Felgenhauer and Jenifer Carr-Schwartz

A

s some of you Edgar Road students already know, we have a new guidance counselor in our school community. Therefore, we chose Mrs. Luesse (Less-EE) for our staff spotlight. We asked her some questions that we know you might find interesting.

Staff Spotlight cont’d

N&J: What elementary school did you attend?

Mrs. L: Wyland and Buder Elementary.

(Wyland is in the Ritenour School District, and Buder is in the St. Louis School District.)

N&J: Do you speak or sign any languages?

Mrs. L: I use ‘baby sign language’ with my two-year-old son.

N&J: What is your favorite ice-cream flavor?

Mrs. L: Vanilla Oreo!

We really hope you enjoyed learning about our new, really open and friendly counselor!

IN THE NEWS R ECEN T LY AT ED GA R ROA D

A

Mrs. Luesse

N&J: Where were you born?

Mrs. L: I was born here, in St. Louis, and lived in Kansas for a little while.

N&J: Why did you want to become a counselor and who inspired you if anyone?

Mrs. L: I was a teacher for a while and had a lot of kids that had emotional needs, and I wanted to help them with that. My dad inspired me to go back to college and become a counselor.

N&J: What was your favorite subject in elementary school?

Mrs. L: My favorite subject was reading.

N&J: What career did you have before you became a counselor?

Mrs. L: I was a teacher for eight years and then was a counselor for eight years.

by Ella Schilling

s you might have heard, Girl Scout troop 407 was collecting donations for animals affected by Hurricane Harvey. They were collecting anything that would help animals in need.

Troop leader Maggie White and co-leader Ashley Cade helped the girls make posters and guided them through

In the News cont’d

the process. Overall, they collected three boxes of donations from the school, and as a troop they spent $100 of their troop funds to buy additional donations.

“I was happy to help the animals because the supplies weren’t available to the public at the time.” Says scout Addie White.

They worked with a fellow troop to get the donations to the animals in Texas but couldn’t. Eventually, they heard of a truck taking items to Florida for those affected

by Hurricane Irma. They decided this was the perfect opportunity because the items would still be helping animals affected by a Hurricane

GUESS WHO? CA N YOU GU ESS W HO?

by Josie Sharp

JOSIE: How long have you worked at Edgar Road School?

GUESS WHO: 14 years JOSIE: What college did you go to?

GUESS WHO: Maryville University JOSIE: Where did you grow up?

GUESS WHO: Fenton, MO JOSIE: When did you decide to teach kids?

GUESS WHO: In Elementary School JOSIE: What do you like about being a teacher?

GUESS WHO: Teaching kids

Guess Who answer on pg 3.

JAGUAR JOURNAL STAFF

Girl Scout Troop 407

Aden Abotsi Cameron Brown Jenifer Carr-Schwartz Natalie Felgenhauer Kathryn Handal Logan Leftridge

Ella Schilling Josie Sharp Laurel Stuber Aidan Willey Rich Schilling

Sports cont’d

practice, practice! You will always be better than someone and someone will always be better than you. Hit tennis balls with golf clubs. Go to driving ranges and practice hitting golf balls. If you don’t try, you can never get better. As the sister of one of his high school golfers, I can tell you Coach Morrison is well loved and respected by his entire team.

PTO HAPPENINGS

by Cameron Brown

Cary Morrison

ED GA R ROA D A LU M N US COACH ES H IGH SCHOOL G OLF

O

by Laurel Stuber

n the last match of the Webster Groves high school girls golf season on September, I interviewed the head coach, Cary Morrison.

Coach Morrison has been the varsity coach of the girls golf team for 11 years and the boys golf team for 17 years. Coach Morrison is a former Edgar Road student who graduated from Webster Groves high school. Coach Morrison is also the physical education teacher at Clark Elementary.

The girls high school golf team was started 11 years ago when one girl was better than all the boys on the team. Coach Morrison told her to gather enough girls for a team. He was coaching girls softball at the time and quit it so he could teach the girls team. He has been coaching the girls ever since. There are usually around 4-14 girls on the team each year.

This year there were 11 girls on the team. There are two different teams, junior varsity and varsity. On the junior varsity team there were five and on the varsity team there were six.

Coach Cary Morrison has been playing golf since he was 13 years old. He played golf all through high school and college.

The boys job opened up when he got out of college and remembering the good and bad things his coach did, he decided to take the job.

Coach Morrison says to those Edgar Road students who play golf practice, 2

Fall 2017

5th grader, Abby Kintz shows off her award winning costume

SURVEY SAYS

W

by Kathryn Handal

ould you rather be silly or scary for Halloween?

I’ve done a survey to find out who wants to be silly or scary. I surveyed 40 people from the Edgar Road community, which included students, teachers and parents.

The results: 90% (36) people preferred silly while only 10% (4) people preferred scary.

Personally, I would rather be silly over scary. In my head when I see a scary Halloween costume I just tell myself not to be scared and that there is a friend under the mask.

I’m part of the Girl Scout troop #407 and through an informal poll, we decided we mostly wanted to dress as something scary for Halloween. When we saw the results of the Facebook poll we were a little surprised that most people wanted to dress silly for Halloween.

However you decide to dress this Halloween, have a spooktacular night!

DID YOU KNOW?

by Aden Abotsi

A

t the October PTO meeting, many things were discussed including upcoming fundraisers. The PTO is working on a number of fundraisers with the help of the teachers, the principal, and parents. The next fundraiser is the activities program where you can learn art, build with Legos or even learn martial arts. The price for each activity is around $5, but some can be more. The fundraiser money will go to the PTO but it will also go to the art, music, library, and PE programs. The PTO also discussed that next year’s Septemberfest will have more food trucks and they made plans for the Trunk-or-Treat that was held on Friday, October 20th. Abby Kintz, the winner of the costume contest, said “I got the idea to dress up like a vending machine from Pinterest.” She also explained that she was inspired by last year’s winner who dressed as a Barbie in a box. The next PTO meetings will be held on November 2nd and December 7th.

I

Katie Jablonowski

interviewed Katie Jablonowski on the history of Webster Groves. She got 21/2 correct. Here are the questions and answers: 1. Who is the mayor of Webster Groves?

2. Who is Webster named after?

3. What is the population of Webster Groves?

4. Where was the first African-American high school in St. Louis county?

How did you do on these questions?

Were you smarter than a 3rd grade teacher?

ANSWERS: 1. Gerry Welch 2. Daniel Webster.

3. 22,900 4. North Webster

SPORTS

Guess Who cont’d

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

GUESS WHO IS MRS. LEE!

S T ELL A : U N L OCK I NG T H E K EYS

E

by Logan Leftridge

very Thursday, fourth grader Stella Dovvy places her right thumb on middle C. She listens carefully to her grandmother, who comes over once a week to give Stella an hour-long piano lesson.

These Thursday sessions with her grandma and 64 piano keys have been going on for two years, since Stella was seven years old.

At this point, Stella has learned a lot about music, the piano, and her grandmother.

Her grandmother, Stella’s Dad’s Mom, is an accomplished pianist, and Stella first grew interested in the piano when she was at her grandma’s house and would play around on her grandma’s piano before Stella knew anything about how to play it properly. Since Stella showed an interest in the piano, her grandma decided to start giving her lessons.

Thankfully, Stella has a piano at her own house, so her grandma gets to visit the family and to give Stella lessons once a week.

Stella comes from a musical family. Not only does her grandmother play the piano, but Stella’s dad plays the guitar. Her parents

are big music fans, and they have taken her to many concerts. She has been to the Red Rocks amphitheater in Colorado, LouFest in St. Louis, and the Roots & Blues Festival in Columbia, Missouri. All of this exposure to music has made Stella more interested in making music of her own. In addition to piano, she has also studied violin.

Stella says that the most difficult part of learning the piano is getting her hands to do different things at the same time. She continues to work on it, though, getting better all the time. Plus, she gets more out of the weekly lessons than just becoming a better musician: When asked about the best part of playing the piano, Stella says, “Hanging out with my grandma.”

JOSIE: Who is you favorite artist?

Mrs. Lee: Andy Goldsworthy JOSIE: Why? Mrs. Lee: Because he uses natural materials JOSIE: What is your favorite art piece?

Mrs. Lee: Starry Night by Van Gogh JOSIE: What is your favorite medium to work in?

Mrs. Lee: Fabric JOSIE: Why? Mrs. Lee: I like the process, texture and feeling.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Two Comics by Aidan Willey

Fall 2017

3