April 2011

The Academy at Old Cockrill is having our first ever school Talent Show! This talent show is going to show the true talents of our students. Come and watch your friends show off. The talent show will take place on Friday, May 6, during lunch (11:30-12:30) The students performing in, or assisting with, the show are eligible for Visual and Performing Arts credit. Those who do not participate appropriately will have time to finish their requirements for Art on A+. Roger Swift & Jacqueline Lepselter are directing the program. Please see one of them if you would like to participate in the talent show.

Ms. Nordstrum Academy at Old Cockrill Guidance Clerk Ms. Nordstrum plays the role of Guidance Clerk here at the Academy. She assigns MTA bus passes to students, handles student transcripts to ensure that students get the classes they need, and handles the applications that students from other schools fill out when they want to be a part of the Academy at Old Cockrill.

Ms. Nordstrum is new to Nashville, and has been here about a year. She is from Minnesota and has long distance on her cell phone so she can talk to her daughter and other family in Wisconsin. Ms. Nordstrum has only been with MNPS since November of last year, and is a thrill to have around. She moved to Tennessee in the middle of the flood of last summer. Her hobbies include painting, reading and playing mahjong.

Student Spotlight

c Victor

Thomas

What is your

favorite food?

"Hot wings."

What is your favorite thing to

do?

“Rest when I get a chance.”

Do you have a hobby?

“Spending time with my one year

old daughter.”

Tell us something about yourself.

“I’m 21, I’m engaged,

I’m a manager at McDonalds, and I’m just a down to

earth person.”

TENNESSEE  STATE  UNIVERSITY   TSU is a historically black, land-grant university founded in 1912. Originally known as the Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School (A&I), it became a full-fledged university in 1958. The main campus is located on 450 acres in northwest Nashville, and the Avon Williams

satellite campus is located in the heart of downtown.

Approximately 7100 undergraduate and 1900 graduate students attend TSU and the average class size is 22 students. Tuition is approximately $2500 for full-time, in-state undergraduate students. The university offers numerous degrees through its Colleges of Arts and Science, Business, Education, Engineering and Technology, and Health Sciences.

Tennessee State competes in Division I of the NCAA with the exception of men's football (I-AA). Programs are available for men in basketball, football, golf, tennis, and track and field. Programs are available for women in basketball, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball.

TSU's alumni include many successful business people, musicians, athletes and public servants, including Hank Crawford, Howard Gentry, Jr., Ed "Too Tall" Jones, Wilma Rudolph, and Oprah Winfrey.

Tennessee State University 3500 John A. Merritt Blvd. Nashville, TN 37209 615-963-5000 www.tnstate.edu

✩✩✩✩✩ Ms. Seay, our Spanish and French teacher, was named "Teacher of the Year" at the Academy at Old Cockrill and was presented with an award at the MNPS Teachers of the Year Banquet on Monday, April 11.

¡Fel ic itaciones! & Fe ' l ic itat ion! to Ms. Seay!

This year's free festival will have areas for recycling bicycles, shoes, cell phones, and medications. There will a scavenger hunt with great prizes and a children's area with games and crafts. There will also be workshops and demonstrations of electric vehicles, community garden information and lots of food vendors with a variety of delicious foods. Plus a great line-up of music that lasts all day. Get outside! - enjoy the beauty of Centennial Park and help celebrate our Mother Earth. For more information visit www.nashvilleearthday.org. Schedule of Music Events. Youth Stage: 11:00 am – Kala Nivedanam (South Indian Classical Dance) 11:20 am – Island Fusion (Polynesian drummers and dancers) 11:45 am – Nashville Chinese Culture Club and Little Eagles Chinese Dance Academy 12:05 pm – Djembefole Drum & Dance Ensemble (West African) 12:30 pm – Zach Walker Hip Hop Crew 12:35 pm – Grupo Hispano Americas (folkloric dances of Latin America) 1:00 pm – Metro Beautification Trash Art awards presentation 1:15 pm – Eve and Mare 1:30 pm – Sierra Iviy 1:45 pm – Circle Players children’s group Main Stage: 2:00 pm – Sarah Siskind 3:00 pm – Ballhog! 4:15 pm – The Greencards 5:30 pm – Victor Wooten & Family Between sets – RhythMystik Tribal Percussion Duo

Gardening at Old Cockrill

On Saturday, April 30, The Academy at Old Cockrill will begin work on a rain garden. A rain garden is a garden in a low area that catches rainwater and lets it soak into the ground instead of running into a storm drain and possibly polluting the Cumberland River. The Cumberland River Compact (CRC), a non profit organization in Nashville that works to keep the river clean, is sponsoring rain gardens at many Metro Schools and will give us twenty plants for our garden. Keeping the Cumberland River clean is very important because it is the source for Nashville’s drinking water.

Come join us on that Saturday and help plant the garden. We’ll also be

working on the vegetable garden and the flower garden by the back door. You could receive service learning credit for helping with the gardens. For more information about helping with the gardens and

the service learning credit please talk to Ms. Holton.

A tornado warning and power outage sent Old Cockrill's students and staff into dark hallways on the afternoon of Monday, April 4. Fortunately everyone was safe, although one of the Bradford pear trees in front of the school was blown in half by the strong winds.

Principal Fahrner organized a team of muscular students to move the tree, which was blocking access to the front door of the school. (left) The tree-removal team.

Student Interview with Demaaj Thomas Demaaj Thomas was born in Pontiac, Michigan and spent much of her life there and in Jacksonville, Florida. She arrived in Nashville on Halloween, 2010. She started at the Academy in January, 2011 and will graduate this summer. For the next two years her main goals are to begin college, stay out of trouble and continue to lead a healthy, drug-free life. She hopes to attend Fisk University and study in the field of medicine, specializing in OB/GYN. Demaaj says that she loves babies and enjoys helping women. She has a 10 month old son (who is just now getting his first tooth) and would like to have another 5 children. In her spare time she enjoys playing her X-Box 360 and

watching movies. She also enjoys playing football and softball and eating fried chicken. Demaaj has three favorite colors: brown (“because it’s the color of my skin”), green (“because it’s the color of life”) and purple (“because I love to see it when the sun rises and sets”). When asked what advice she would give to other Academy at Old Cockrill students she said, “Be an adult. Be on-time, responsible and respectful.” So what is mahjong anyway !?! Mahjong is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players. Mahjong is a game of skill, strategy and calculation and involves a certain degree of chance. In Asia, mahjong is also popularly played as a gambling game.

The game is played with a set of 144 Mahjong tiles consisting of 36 tiles in the Bamboo suit, 36 in the Circle suit, 36 in the Character suit, 16 Wind tiles, 12 Dragon tiles and 8 bonus tiles (4 Flowers and 4 Seasons). The best tiles are made from bamboo and ivory or bone and have beautiful hand-painted pictures representing the face of each tile. In most variations, each player begins by receiving thirteen tiles. In turn players draw and discard tiles until they complete

a legal hand using the fourteenth drawn tile to form four groups (melds) and a pair (head). There are rules about how a piece is drawn, stolen from another player (melded), the use of basic (numbered tiles) and honors (winds and dragons), the kinds of melds, and the order of dealing and play. Ask Ms. Nordstrum to tell you more about the game.

To request an accommodation, please contact your building principal or department head. (Interpreters for the deaf or hard of hearing must be requested forty-eight [48] hours prior to the event.) Questions or concerns may be referred to the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools Customer Service Center, 615/259-4636.

Si usted necesita información adicional o si usted tiene alguna pregunta, por favor llame o contacte al director de su escuela.

The Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, creed, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, color, age, and/or disability in admission to, access to, or operation of its programs, services, or activities. MNPS does not discriminate in its hiring or employment practices

 

The Academy is on Facebook! Find us, like us!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Academy-at-Old-Cockrill/108663409170569

Our lobby is getting a make-over and soon we’ll be able to enter Old Cockrill through the front door. A big THANK YOU to Office Furniture + Related Services for donating new lobby furniture and a new desk for Principal Fahrner!

Administration

Elaine Fahrner, Principal Dr. Sarah Eldridge, School Counselor

Michael Flushman, Program Assistant; English Language

Learners

School Information    

 

610 49th Avenue, North Nashville, TN 37209

Principal Fahrner at her new desk. 615-298-2294 http://www.academy.mnps.org/Page56453.aspx

The new office window in the lobby.              

Important Dates Rain Garden Planting: April 30 EOC Tests: week of May 2 Talent Show: Friday, May 6 Gateway Testing: May 10 - 20 Rehearsal for Graduation: May 26 Graduation: May 27