Marco Island Eagle, FL
Sept 22 2004

MICMS students compete in Olympic Day
By MARCI ELLIOTT, Staff Writer
September 22, 2004

It was a day for champions.

The academic kind.

Seventh-graders at Marco Island Charter Middle School left their
regular classes Sept. 15 to take part in Olympic Day, an annual event
organized by teachers to help students develop an affinity for
learning through fun.

The event’s awards were styled after the Olympic Games, with gold,
silver and bronze medals presented to the top three teams. In the
MICMS version, the “medals” were made of spray-painted compact discs
that dangled from yellow ribbons around the winners’ necks.

The seventh-grade class, mostly 12-year-olds, was divided into 26
teams of five students each, with each team naming itself after a
country. Team members got to design their own flags, and many sported
their country’s name on their arms and legs or face.

The students performed dances, held relays, worked problems on the
metric system and took part in other activities in the morning. At 11
a.m., they had lunch and munched on popcorn as they watched Miracle,
the 2004 movie about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.

The best part of the day, students said, was when they gathered on
the pavilion that afternoon and the winning teams were announced by
science teacher Shane Totten.

The gold medal went to Armenia, silver to Greece and bronze to
Norway. The champions roared with glee as their classmates cheered
and applauded.

“We really worked hard,” said Tabitha “Taby” Crotts, a member of Team
Armenia.

“We couldn’t have won if we didn’t all help each other.”

Conor Watt said being on Team Armenia meant a lot to him.

“It’s good to represent your own (ancestral) country,” he said. “My
great-grandmother knew what it was like to live there. She fled with
her family when the Turks invaded.”

Some students said their favorite parts of Olympic Day were the
“cotton ball” relay with math teacher Debbie Waldinger and wearing
dress- up costumes with social studies teacher Lori Galiana.

Beata Logan of Team Norway said the event was a lot of fun,
especially the social studies activities.

“It takes a lot of teamwork,” she said.

MICMS Seventh Grade Olympic Day

Gold – Armenia: Conor Watt, Danny Fleming, Chad Severn, Taby Crotts,
Anthony Funk

Silver – Greece: Danin Greusel, Ashley Wierback, Jake Pappas, Dan
Lopez, Nikki Popoff

Bronze – Norway: Nick Thorstenson, Kailey Knudson, Kevin Blaiweiss,
Nick Kalmanek, Beata Logan