Posted on Author Jennifer Gepson Categories Uncategorized

Doane College Vocal Festival & Honor Choir

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Sunday and Monday, January 11-12, Hailey Hansen and Nolyn Appel participated in Doane College Vocal Festival & Honor Choir. These students went through an nomination process in November and were chosen to take part with 260 other High Schoolers from across the states of Nebraska and Iowa. Students are nominated by their choir directors to take part in the honor choir and the Doane College Music staff chooses the final list of participants from the nominations. This honor choir is open to only juniors and seniors in high school.
Students spent Sunday night and all day Monday rehearsing with Dr. Kurt Runestad, a vocal faculty member at Doane College. The festival ended Monday night with a final concert where both the honor choir of 260 performed along with the Doane Choir. The students have been individually preparing the music on their own since they found out they were selected in December. This honor choir gave Hailey and Nolyn an opportunity to go above and beyond, experience a new director, visit a college campus, and meet other students who share a love of music.
These students participated:
Hailey Hansen (11th grade)
Nolyn Appel (11th grade)
The songs they learned and sang:
O la, o che bon echo! (The Echo Song)
Highland Mary
The Last Words of David
Sunday (from Sunday in the Park with George)
Posted on Author Jennifer Gepson Categories Uncategorized

UNO’s Middle School Honor choir

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Friday, January 9th, six Jr High students participated in UNO’s Middle School Honor choir. These students went through an audition process in September and were chosen to take part with 160 other Middle school students across the state. For the auditions, students sang a solo song and a scale to show their voice capabilities. The UNO Middle School Honor Choir staff chooses the final list of participants. Throughout the day, students worked with guest conductor, David Puderbaugh in a music clinic setting and ended the afternoon with a final concert at 3:00 pm in the Strauss Performing Arts Center on the UNO campus. The students have been individually preparing the music on their own since they found out they were selected in November. This honor choir gave the students an opportunity to go above and beyond and challenge themselves with new music. It also gave the students a chance to really expand and grow in themselves as musicians.
These student were selected:
Oliva Evans (8th grade)
Julie Klemm (8th grade)
Jordan Wear (8th grade)
Joshua Nachtigall (7th grade)
Riley Mitchell (7th grade)
John Crump (8th grade)
The songs they sang on the concert were:
The Falcon
I Will Arise and Make Music
Amavolovolo
He Never Failed Me Yet
O Swiftly Glides the Bonny Boat
Posted on Author Jennifer Gepson Categories Uncategorized

Dance Camp Fun

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The Fort Calhoun Dance team held their dance camp on Friday, December, 5th. It was a success with 45 students participating. Dance team members, Kira Boyd, Emily Shannon, Mikayla Schmitt, Nicole Swanson, Hailey Greenwell, Lizzy Namuth, Taylor Thalman, Molly Shannon, were each placed in charge of a group of students. The theme for the camp was “Live, Love, Dance” and the girls danced in large and small groups to songs by Katy Perry, Madonna, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, and Lady GaGa at halftime of the girl’s varsity game that evening.

Posted on Author Jennifer Gepson Categories Uncategorized

Conference Choral Clinic

On Monday, November 10th,  the concert choir went to our annual conference choral clinic at Platteview high school. A guest clinician was brought in to work with the choirs. As a choir we prepared our own individual piece which we worked on with the clinician and then performed our song on the final concert. Along with that, the students have been rehearsing and preparing 4 other pieces that they sang along with all of the other 7 choirs in our conference as a huge mass choir of over 400 students.
Our students represented our school SO well – we got many compliments on our performance, our behavior, and our preparedness for the day!
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Drama performance of “Going to School” coming soon.

Going to School Cast

This year we will be performing “Going to School” by Ed Monk. It is a One Act play, in which Nick makes the big transition of heading off to college for the first time. The only problem is, his family is taking him – his mother worries he will starve to death, his father forgot the tuition check, his sisters definitely do not want to go along for the ride, and his grandma “don’t hear so good no more!” It is definitely going to be a fun-filled day.

November 23rd – “Going to School” community performance – 2:00 pm at the Fort Calhoun High School gymnasium. Admission: $3.00 adults – students/children free
November 24th – One Act Capitol Conference competition at Wahoo High School. Fort Calhoun performance: 10:00 am
December 3rd – One Act District competition at Bennington High School. Fort Calhoun performance: 9:00 am
Posted on Author Jennifer Gepson Categories Uncategorized

Student Surveys will be distributed November 21st.

The process of school improvement will be a continual process each and every year.  This process provides both schools time to self reflect on opportunities and challenges to enhance the learning environment.  In this process we value all stakeholder feedback.  Part of this feedback will be received through surveys.  Last year we had the opportunity to get feedback through parent surveys that were available during Parent/Teacher conferences.  That information has been shared with all stakeholders appropriately.  The feedback was reviewed by both schools and then posted on our school’s website under “School Improvement Plan.” This year we will distribute student surveys, in their respective buildings appropriately.  On November 21st students will have the opportunity to share their feedback on how they view their school.  At this time students will be taking an, age appropriate, survey in their respective buildings.  The survey will be taken online on a computer or iPad.  An example of the student survey will be posted on our website for your viewing.  Once the surveys are completed and reviewed the information will be posted on the districts webpage under “School Improvement Plan.”  We want to continue to strive for a systematic and transparent process.

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Honoring our Veterans 2014

On Tuesday, Fort Calhoun Community Schools honored our Veterans by having a Veteran’s Day Ceremony. The event was hosted by our Skills USA students. The Band performed several patriotic songs including the Armed Forces Salute. Both the High School and Elementary Choirs gave performances as well. Fred Carritt, the Washington Country Resource Officer, was the Keynote Speaker. Fred served in the Navy on the USS Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War. Several service members from every branch of the Military were in attendances and enjoyed a luncheon prepared by the school kitchen and served by the Skills USA students. Thank you to everyone who helped with the event including the American Legion, school administrators and staff, and Skills USA students. Once again, Fort Calhoun Schools would like to thank all our Veterans their service to our country.

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Junior High Great Race

On Thursday November 6th, the Fort Calhoun Junior High teachers hosted the Great Race. It was a huge success with 17 teams competing. Students and their family participated in different physical or brain teaser challenges to win the race. Thank you to the many student and staff volunteers who helped with this event. Winners were as follows.

1st Place Winners Team Bradburn/Pace Families
2nd Place Winners Team Therkildsen Family
3rd Place Winners Team Klemm Family

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