by Kaylee-Jean Myers and Kalliope Lucky

On Friday, Sept. 20, all the students of Mendocino K 8 gathered together for an assembly. The students, fifth to eighth graders, all got buddies with the lower classes, kindergarten to fourth graders. Let’s get on with our story!

The reason for this assembly was to congratulate the Star Students. These students were picked by certain teachers. They based their choices on participation, quality of work, and attentiveness in class. These students were picked throughout every class and every grade. There should be a handful of assemblies like this, but no certainty on a schedule. The star students are told on every Friday one for each class.

Kim Humrichouse , the principal of Mendocino K-8, told us that the reason she chose to change ticket winners to Star Students is because she wanted a way for the teachers to choose what kid is chosen, by their achievements. It’s different from ticket winners because ticket winners are pretty much chosen at random. “Wanting a way for kids to want to get tickets and teachers wanting to hand them out.”

Ms. Frederick, the seventh and eighth grade ELA teacher, and her class went to Ms. Jessica’s kindergarten class and helped design our tickets that will be handed out at school. We all got paired up into groups of four and then started drawing. Before we started this, we went around in a circle telling everyone our names. We held hands with the littles, and got split up randomly. We took turns drawing the tickets. We think they are going to be made into real tickets but I’m not sure.

At the assembly, Kim  announced the names of the first star students of the year. The winners were: Iya Lucky, Parker Pinson, Esme Tuomala-Barnett, Luna De pierro Cataldo, Carlon LaMont, Sofia Tyson Cruz, Erica Scott, Aila Sochaski, Andrew Perry, Autumn Guinan, Leo Hinkle, Luke Wells, Amelie Reis, Lucy Harris, Lilianna Larsen, and last but not least, Evan Paul. To this day, we are still doing star students and have recently introduced star staff.