Middle School

40 7th and 8th grade girls from the Willow Springs Middle School had the opportunity to visit Missouri S&T for the Expanding Your Horizons STEM conference on Friday! The Expanding Your Horizons STEM conference at Missouri S&T is an immersive experience for middle school students. The conference kicked off with a presentation from Dr. Robin Verble highlighting her career in wildland fire and ecology. After that, students moved around campus to various hands-on presentations in many areas of STEM. The conference ended with a demonstration titled “Is it Science or Is it Magic” from Dr. Gary “Smitty” Grubbs. This year’s conference hosted over 400 students! #OneWillow

The Willow Springs Middle School Staff Member of the Week is Mr. Wilson! A little info about Mr. Wilson: 🐻 This is his 6th year in education. He previously worked at the West Plains School District for 4 years before coming to Willow Springs. 🐻 This is his 2nd year at Willow Springs Middle School. "I am a huge fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Chiefs. In my free time I enjoy spending time with my family, watching my kids play sports, coaching baseball, and playing golf. In the summer you can find me knee deep in a river fishing. I am blessed to have the opportunity to work with some of the most interesting students every day. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else, doing anything else." Congrats Mr. Wilson and thank you for all that you do! #OneWillow

Please help us give a warm welcome to our next new teacher feature, Mr. Nathan Cooper! About Mr. Cooper: "My name is Nathan Cooper, and I am an SBU graduate. This is my first year as an educator and I am extremely grateful with how my school year has been so far! I have always wanted this to be my career. I could not be any happier to be at Willow Springs working with the most amazing team and Co-Workers that you could ask for!" Welcome to Bear Nation Mr. Cooper, we're so glad that you're here!🐻 #OneWillow

It’s #TeacherProud and #BearProud Tuesday! Willow Springs is excited to join other school districts across the region in celebrating teachers and district staff on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Teacher Proud Recipients: 🐻Anita Ellis - Willow Springs Elementary School 2nd grade Interventionist 🐻Heather Miller - Willow Springs Middle School 6th grade Social Studies Teacher 🐻Jenny Payne - Willow Springs High School Math Teacher Bear Proud Recipient: 🐻Teresa Vanhorn - Custodian Congratulations to this month's recipients, we are so grateful for all the hard work and dedication you give to our district and students! #OneWillow

Some of Ms. Tice's students recently went on field trips to the Willow Health Care Inc Senior Living Home and to the Willow Springs Post Office!

Here's what Mrs. Mayberry's BETA students have been up to recently! On Tuesday during their CAT time, the students went to Mrs. Siler's office to prepare the weekly student food bags that are sent home on Fridays! On Wednesday, they went down to MUNCH and helped bag groceries for 350 families! These are just a few of the projects that the team will use for their service learning project board for Regional BETA competition in late February! #OneWillow

Mrs. Lewis' fifth grade scientists put their knowledge of physical and chemical changes to the test last week as they tested substances, made qualitative observations, and analyzed their data to figure out the "crime" of who took the missing cake! #OneWillow

Please help us welcome our next new teacher feature, Mr. James Lee! About coach Lee: "Hello, my name is James Lee, and I am the new middle school ISS teacher and assistant varsity boys basketball coach. This is my tenth year in education as well as a boys basketball coach. I have two children, Caden, an 8th grader and Deion who is currently in his second year of college. Our family is managed by my wife of 18 years, Stephanie. Before coming to Willow Springs I taught at Liberty for 9 years. During my time at Liberty I taught high school Physics, business, strength and conditioning coach, middle school boys basketball and football coach, and head varsity boys basketball coach. I am excited to be here at Willow and cannot wait till basketball season. Da Bears!" Welcome to Bear Nation coach Lee, we're so glad you're here!🐻

Mrs. Drake's classes have been doing lots of hands-on projects recently! 7th grade design and modeling students have been practicing their skills with a ruler. Last week they had to use precise measuring skills to accurately build a skimmer. On Monday, they put those skimmers to the test! Later this week they will review and analyze the statistical data from the skimmer launches. 8th grade medical students got out of the classroom to interview “sick” patients. Students took on the role of medical professionals as they sought to ask the right questions in order to gather information about the conditions and symptoms their patients are experiencing. The next step is using the information they’ve gathered to properly diagnose and treat their patients. 8th grade Project STEM students were challenged to create a device that would safely transport supplies (a raw egg) to a target.

Mrs. Mayberry's Junior BETA students spent time working with Mrs. Ryan on creating and making team BETA shirts! They learned the whole process from start to finish on hot press shirt making! They will wear these shirts when they are working on their Service Learning Projects.

The Elementary and Middle School are excited to announce that the online book fair is now open! 📖 Shop BOTH BUILDINGS at this link: https://efairs.literati.com/?school=willow-springs-elementary-school-willow-spgs-mo Students can shop in person the week of October 23rd. Families are invited to shop on Thursday, October 26th during parent teacher conferences. Watch for more information being sent home soon! #OneWillow

Mr. Bell’s 8th grade shop class built a variety of vehicles last week!

Mrs. Coursen's 7th grade art class had so much fun doing their paint pouring projects!

Some fun photos from Mrs. White's Free Friday during Bear Time on Friday!

Please help us give a warm welcome to Mr. Glen Cox, our next new teacher feature! About Mr. Cox: • 24th year in education • Taught and coached football/track at Doniphan Middle School, Belton middle School, Lamar schools, Bolivar schools, and Stockton schools • Married to wife, Mary Beth with 2 sons Jared and Trevor • Hobbies include farming, animals, camping, hunting, fishing, family, and sports Welcome to Bear Nation coach Cox, we're so glad you're here!🐻

The Elementary and Middle School will be hosting book fairs the week of October 23rd! More information is coming soon.

Coach Cox's 8th grade social studies classes are building models of Native American homes as they are going through the early American unit. Coach Cox says the kids are working really hard on these and he is so proud of them!

Mrs. Dowden's 5th grade math class ditched their pencils to do some of their math problems with chalk! The students enjoyed doing something different!

Mrs. Welch's 6th grade science classes recently completed a fun density lab!

We want to thank West Plains Bank and Trust Company for their partnership and donation of $15,673 to the school district from proceeds raised through the Community Debit Card Program!