School District 129

JEFFERSON BAND ENTERTAINS, FEEDS RETIREES

For the twenty-first consecutive year, a service project by Jefferson Middle School band students brought together young and old for a morning of music and food.

The Jefferson Senior Citizen Breakfast and Band Concert was held on April 21, and nearly 300 seniors and retirees enjoyed every moment of it.

Under the direction of band director Lila Fagan, the service project actually begins in February when the sixth-grade band students send out the invitations with valentines to about 300 senior citizens. Sixth-grade band students also compete to be greeters and workers, while the older students furnished the music.

The band-and-breakfast project is funded by a grant from The Foundation for West Aurora Schools

Freeman tech club draws self portraits on computers

Third- through fifth-grade students from the after-school Freeman Tech-Know Club generated self-portraits on computer-generated in April. Headed by teachers Betty Engen and Laurie Mitz, students also made a Power Point lesson to help students better understand test-taking instructional words; greeting cards in Publisher, slide shows in Power Point and a vocabulary dictionary in Inspiration. Teachers believe the Tech-Know Club students will become an asset to the school as they use their tech-savvy skills to help other students.

WEST HIGH JOURNALISTS HEADED FOR STATE COMPETITION

Three yearbook staff members from West Aurora High School qualified for the IHSA Journalism state competition at Eastern Illinois University.

Competing against 12 other schools in the regional division at Hoffman Estates on April 21, Jessica Lobdell won first place in feature writing; Ariel Johnson won second in theme development, and Orion Deligiannis won third in photography.

The West students competed in different categories in the yearbook division. In the feature category, Lobdell was given reporter's notes on a specific subject and had to write the feature article in Associated Press style.

For theme development, Johnson was given the prompt "Fortune" and had to design a cover, a theme page and connections to divisional pages (sports, people, events).

For photography, Deligiannis was given the prompt "Spring" and had to take pictures around the school that captured the subject.

This is the first year that the state has held this competition, so we did not know what to expect, says Kim Dirck, yearbook advisor and English teacher. The students just relied on what they know to do for our yearbook to win. I am so proud of them all.

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