at McCants Middle School and Holden is in the twelfth grade at TL Hanna. In her spare time, she loves to spend time with her family. She also loves to cook.

Another addition to the fourth grade team is Ms. Kennedi Garrison. She graduated from Anderson University, where she received a Bachelor’s de-gree in Early Childhood and Elemen-tary Education. She wanted to become a teacher because it was her passion and her calling. According to Ms. Garri-son, she had many teachers that touched her life, and now she wants to have an impact on students as well. Her first hobby is Clemson Tiger foot-ball. She also loves to exercise.

Ms. Caryn DeRuiter is joining the Fine Arts staff and will be teaching art alongside Ms. Hart. She holds a Bachelor or Arts degree from Anderson University. Ms. DeRuiter says that combining her love of art and children would give her the best of both worlds. She would eventually like to pursue her Master’s Degree in Art and be-come a full-time art teacher. In her spare time, she likes to create art, photography, church, friends, sports, reading and movies.

The beginning of each new school year brings new faces to Calhoun. This year was no different as Mrs. Self added seven new teachers to the faculty. According to Mrs. Self, “The teachers I hire are THE brightest and the BEST!”

Ms. Dean McCormick is a familiar face here at Calhoun Academy of the Arts! Before going back to school to get her teaching degree, she was a kindergarten assistant for many years. In 2006, she went college at Anderson University and she received a Bachelors of Science in Early Childhood and Elementary Education. Mrs. McCor-mick loves her students. She wants her students to never stop learning and to be successful in life. She is a wonderful teacher to hang out with. She is unique in so many different ways, and that is what makes her a perfect fit for Calhoun Acad-emy of the Arts! She is married to Mr. Jack McCormick. She has six children, and she loves to cook and hike.

Ms. Amy Cox has joined our faculty as the kindergarten assistant in Ms. English’s class. She attended Winthrop University where she obtained her degree in Early Childhood Education. She said that she always knew that she wanted to become a teacher. She loves to watch children as they grow and learn through the year, and feels that this is a very rewarding part of her job. She has close ties to Calhoun! She once taught here, but decided to stay at home when her oldest child was younger. In addition, her grandmother used to also teach at our school! Eventually she would like to return to the classroom and teach again. Ms. Cox has three children: Brady, Bryson, and Caroline. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family

and friends, reading, and walking for exer-cise.

Ms. Kayla Guffee is the newest first grade teacher at Calhoun Academy of the Arts. She received a degree in Early and Elementary Education from Anderson University. She later received her Master’s Degree in Literacy Edu-cation from the Citadel. She became a teacher because she wanted to make a differ-ence and help others. One day, she would like to become a part-time reading professor or a reading coach. Ms.Guffee likes to exercise, run, scrapbook, and decorate. She and her husband are expecting their first child, a boy, sometime in January.

Ms. Carlette Hamby is one of the newest teachers at our school. She has joined the third grade team after student teaching in Ms. McAlister’s classroom. She decided to become a teacher when she began teaching preschool at the school her children were attending about ten years ago. After teaching 4k for seven years, she decided to go back to school to get her teaching certificate. In the future, she would like to go back and get her Master’s Degree in either reading or guid-ance. In her spare time she loves to read, spend time with her family and friends, work in her yard, and go shopping. She has five children; three of her own and two stepsons.

One of the new fourth grade teachers is Ms. Megan Tarbet. She originally attended Presby-terian College, where she received a degree in Business Administration. She later decided to go back to school to pursue her life-long dream of becoming a teacher. She completed her teacher certification from Anderson Uni-versity in May 2011. She feels that she has fulfilled her goal and wants to be the best teacher she can be. Ms. Tarbert loves working with children. She has two children, Emerson and Holden. Emerson is in the seventh grade

M e e t t h e n e w e s t m e m b e r s o f t h e C a l h o u n s t a f f !

The Gator Gazette

November 4, 2011 Volume 1, Issue 1

Mrs. Self proudly stands with her new hires!

Mark your calendars! Here are some very important events coming up this month!

• Second Grade CogAT and ITBS Testing will take place on November 3, 8, 9, and 10

• Fourth Grade Performance will be on November 14 during Special Area (1:35-2:25)

• Fifth Grade Performance will take place on November 17 during Special Area (12:40-1:30)

• November 10th will be a special night as we will be hosting an Art Show, Strings Concert, Healthy Lifestyles and PTA Meeting. Events begin at 4:30.

• School Holidays are November 23-25 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

non-perishable food items that would be given to Anderson Inter-faith Ministries.

Students and faculty also took part in special dress-up days. Some of the highlights of this year’s Red Ribbon Week included:

• “Stay in the Game” where students dressed in their fa-vorite team or sports attire.

• Dressing ridiculously to show how CrAzY drugs are!

• Students and staff wore peace signs and tie-dye clothing to “Peace out to drugs!”

The week ended with a special assembly pro-gram called Go Fish! In this program, students learned you don’t always have to follow the crowd; you can be yourself and be different!

A special thanks to Ms. Dorsey and Ms. Tritt for planning such great activities for our stu-dents!

During the last week of October each year, our school cele-brates Red Ribbon Week.

Red Ribbon Week began in 1988 to honor a fallen Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent. Kiki Camarena, died in 1985 while working un-dercover in Mexico. His death brought attention to the harmful effects of drugs.

This year, our school was “Aiming” to be Drug Free! Stu-dents donated canned and

N o v e m b e r E v e n t s

P a g e 2

Red R i b b on Week

T h e G a t o r G a z e t t e

The Calhoun PTA hosted the Arty dance party on Thursday Octo-ber 6th. There were lots of differ-ent types of music. The teachers were cutting a rug. There was a disco ball and it was sparkling with bright lights.

Outside under the bus ramp there was pizza and drinks. Yogo’s was even there selling frozen yogurt, and popcorn was being sold too. Lot’s of people

had a good time. Fifth grader Kole Turpin, who attended the dance said, “It was fun and exciting. If you missed, be sure to come the next time”.

A r t y d a n c e p a r t y G r e t c h e n R u t l a n d , N a t h a n H a l l , K o l e T u r p i n ,

a n d C h a r i d y n M a s o n

A good time was had by all! First Grade students f

orm a

train!

from the Anderson Police Department came to Calhoun. According to Emilee McAlister, the officer told them that the dog only responds to commands in Dutch so that the bad guys won’t confuse the dog. The officer also talked to the stu-dents about their safety.

Later that afternoon, Mr. Smith, the assistant principal at Calhoun Academy, talked to the second graders about his job. Mr. Smith described all of the jobs that he does. He took them to the auditorium and showed them the lighting booth.

The second graders have been study-ing the different helpers in our commu-nity. These fine people are volunteers, and they serve to protect are community. The unit ended with visits by these very special community helpers.

On Monday October 10, the Anderson City Fire Department visited the Calhoun second graders to discuss fire safety. They let the second graders go into the fire truck. The fire fighters told them about the about the truck, their tools, and outfit.

On Monday, October 17, the K-9 officer

The second graders were very ex-cited about meeting these extra special community helpers.

men showed them how to put on their gear in thirty seconds. He also said the firemen talked about how to stop, drop, and roll if fire is on your clothing.

Afterwards, all of the students wrote thank you letters to the fire-men. Some even wrote about it in their nine weeks writing that this was their favorite thing at school so far. They had an amazing time!

The kindergarten students marched down to the bus ramp knowing that they would see a great big cherry-red fire truck. They were so amazed and very excited. How-ever, some students were scared after the firemen put on their suits.

During the month of October, kin-dergarten students have been learn-ing about fire safety in their classes. According to Teghan Cole in Mrs. Edens’ kindergarten class, the fire-

Spo t l i g h t o n A r t

S e c o n d G r a d e r s m e e t C o m m u n i t y H e l p e r s

W y a t t A l l e n & C o n n o r B u r k a r t

K i n d e r g a r t e n L e a r n s A b o u t F i r e S a f e t y

J o r d y n M o o r h e a d & H a n n a h B r e n n a n

P a g e 3 V o l u m e 1 , I s s u e 1

Congratulations to Shaeli Santiago in Ms. McAlister’s third-grade class and Maddy Clark In Ms. Guffee’s first-grade class for being se-

lected as the October Artists of the Month.

We are very excited to re-introduce you to the first issue of the NEW Gator Gazette. This news will be for the studentsfor the studentsfor the studentsfor the students, entirely by the by the by the by the studentsstudentsstudentsstudents. So without further ado, please welcome the newest mem-bers of the Gator Gazette staff!

Mrs. Brooke O’Neal, faculty advisor

Wyatt Allen

Connor Burkart

Hannah Brennan

Michelle Chapman

Na’Vy Clark

Cody Durham

A few years ago, Mrs. Lewallen organized a group of fifth grade students to be a part of the original Gator Gazette. Like so many other things when the economy went south, the funding for the newspaper was elimi-nated. Well, it’s back!

Austin Geer

Nathan Hall

ZiKieeya Johnson

Bryce Jones

Jayla Lawton

A’mya Lee

Charidyn Mason

Jordyn Moorhead

Trinity Peterson

T h e G a t o r G a z e t t e S t a f f

Facu l t y S u rv e y

Recently, the faculty members at Calhoun Academy of the Arts were asked what their favorite aspect of the Fall/ Winter Holidays were. The choices were:

• Picking out/ carving a pumpkin

• Thanksgiving Dinner

• Decorating the Christmas tree

• Giving/ receiving presents

• Two weeks off from school

The results are in! The majority of teachers, just like students, enjoy time at home spent with their family and friends!

Picking out/ Carving aPumpkin

Thanksgiving Dinner

Decorating the Tree

Giving/ ReceivingPresents

Tw o Weeks offSchool!