City Academy Flag Football 2011

City Academy recently completed its first flag football season, competing in the Utah Small School Alliance (USSA) flag football league. Teams from John Locke Academy, Legacy Preparatory Academy, Heritage School, Provo Canyon, Telos, and others, were in the league.

City Academy finished the regular season at 1-6, and were eliminated in the first round of the USSA Championships. The overall 1-7 record does not reflect how close several of the games were, as the team went through a streak in the middle of the season where it lost three consecutive games by a total of three points.

“I’m really proud of these kids,” says coach Scott MacMurdo. “Of the 13 players on the roster, very few of them had ever played organized football. They came to practices and worked hard, learning the game from a very basic level and learning what it means to be a part of a team. They were also great ambassadors for City Academy,” Coach MacMurdo continues, “as the referees approached me after almost every game to tell me what a class act these kids were on the field and to tell me how much they had improved as the season went along.”

The 2011 City Academy Dragons Flag Football team roster:

Tyler Schirm – Senior
Walker Candelaria – Senior
Samantha Nelson – Senior
Morgan Godfrey – Senior
Gabe Cassett – Junior
Alec Emery – Junior
Robbie Nelson – Sophomore
Marcus Poulos – Sophomore
Lyman Wayman – Freshman
Jeremy Rosser – Freshman
Troy Navanick – Freshman
Isaac Vuong – Freshman
Ray Young – 8th grade

Post content provided by Coach Scott MacMurdo.  Photos provided by Teri Nelson.

(Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune) City Academy students Lorna Fullmer, Phoebe Stokes, Shivone McMullin, Nikole Pruess and Alex Martinson hold a giant check the school won as part of the Green School Challenge.

BY CHRISTOPHER SMART
The Salt Lake Tribune

First published May 31 2011 12:45PM
Updated Jun 1, 2011 04:59PM
They’re green, but they want to be greener.

Students at City Academy in Salt Lake City have been recognized as one of the most environmentally conscious schools in the nation.

Among other things, students grow organic vegetables. They built a small greenhouse and distribute plant starts to the community at a very modest price.

Students also started a beehive to help pollinate fruit trees on campus and to help grow the bee population. And they make bio-diesel from used vegetable oil for their school bus, dubbed the “Grease Bus.”

Recently the public charter school, which includes grades 8 through 12, was named one of five winners in the nationwide “Green Your School Challenge” sponsored by Hewlett Parkard and DoSomething.org.

The prize: $1,000 for their next green project.

City Academy, 555 E. 200 South, was founded 12 years ago and has an enrollment of about 200, said spokeswoman Susan Webster. It’s a publicly funded preparatory school and like any public school, does not charge tuition.

The students say they thrive on the small class sizes and individual attention at City Academy, along with a rigorous curriculum.
Nikole Pruess, 15, is a ninth-grader who takes a lot of interest in the school’s bees. This fall, Pruess and her classmates hope they will be able to harvest the hive’s honey.

“We want to educate the public about bees,” she said. “Without bees, you wouldn’t have the food you ate an hour ago.”

Pruess said the small size of the academy makes the learning experience personal. “You can actually communicate with the teachers here,” she said.

Ninth-grader Phoebe Stokes, 15, explained how the school’s bio-diesel program collects vegetable oil from restaurants in order to refine clean-burning fuel for the Grease Bus.

“We’re recycling and we aren’t adding to the pollutants,” she said.

Alex Martinson, a 16-year-old sophomore, said the school’s green projects have opened his eyes to making a difference on an individual basis.

“I’ve picked up recycling a lot more since I’ve been at this school. And we’re starting a vegetable garden at home,” he said. “This school has helped me with academics and everything.”

csmart@sltrib.com

By Elizabeth Ziegler, on May 6th, 2011

This guest post was submitted by City Academy Charter School, a public charter in Salt Lake City.

An Unexpected Invitation

On March 23, City Academy Charter School competed against Alpine School District’s Mountain View High School from Orem, Utah, at the Utah Court of Appeals for the 2011 State Mock Trial

City Academy's 2011 Mock Trial Team

Championships. Although Mountain View won this year’s title they are unable to attend the National Championships this week in Phoenix, Arizona. As a result, the City Academy Mock Trial team of eight students and their teacher, Mr. Gareth Orr, have accepted the honor of representing Utah in their place. The City Academy team has worked hard and is prepared and eager to take to the national “Mock Trial stage.”

Susan Webster, City Academy’s Communications Director, says this is more than just a story about eight talented and lucky students from a small Salt Lake City charter school.

“This is no doubt a great honor for these students,” she says. “But this is also a wonderful example for teachers and parents about the power of hard work and the merit of Mock Trial as a teaching tool.”

Mock Trial is an Exceptional Teaching Tool

A school’s mission is to promote and advance learning. For high schools in particular, our job is to prepare each student with the knowledge and cognitive skills to support further learning and careers. City Academy was founded with the mission to provide academically rigorous curriculum that would prepare each student well for the college and careers of their choice. Mock Trial competition is a natural fit with the types of authentic and civically oriented learning opportunities City Academy is committed to providing for its students.

Participation in Mock Trial requires students to research and intellectually engage with important current topics that are selected for Mock Trial cases. For example, this year it was a cyber-harassment case for the state of Utah. And for the national competition, it was a civil case concerning the competing rights of indigenous peoples to use and enjoy their lands without interference, and those of the owners and operators of uranium mines who depend on mining to provide income, jobs and reasonably-priced nuclear energy. Mock Trial team members must be able to develop and draw on deep understandings of the issues of the case in order to “think on their feet” as they listen to arguments from the other side and quickly find meaningful approaches that will best defend and extend their own case.

Mock Trial is a Good Fit with Utah’s New Common Core State Standards

Utah’s adoption of the new Utah Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in 2010 has raised the bar on the obligations of high schools by requiring more profound understandings and abilities in literacy and numeracy from graduating students. In particular, the new standards in English Language Arts place emphasis on instruction that focuses on big ideas, and develops cognitive processes and intellectual strategies. Implementation of the new CCSS should result in students who can question and research, analyze and evaluate, as well as well as demonstrate complex understandings of key ideas.

City Academy is excited about the enriched focus on big learning that the new standards bring. We also see Mock Trial as one authentic context in which it is possible to continue to develop the types of learning outcomes outlined in the English Language Arts CCSS. Mock Trial team members must use many cognitively complex skills as they research complicated topics through primary documents and authentic readings. Particularly relevant to the new CCSS emphasis on argumentation in writing, students participating in Mock Trial must reason about the use of evidence to build support for the arguments of their case.

A student’s time in high school classes and programs is relatively fleeting and should be structured wisely to best focus on learning and preparing students for college and careers. City Academy is confident that time spent learning about important issues of the day and their history, preparing both sides of a case well, and then competing in mock court is learning time well spent. In light of adoption of the new CCSS for English Language Arts, we are even more confident of the place Mock Trial will have in our range of programs to support student learning. We also know that with Mock Trial competition, we are extending opportunities for students to learn grace, poise, collaboration, leadership, public speaking and etiquette through court room procedure. In preparation for future careers and life, these abilities are also not small accomplishments.

City Academy Students display their Science Fair Projects and describe the results to teachers

The annual Science Fair at City Academy was held February 25, 2011. It was a chance for City Academy students to show off their talents for tackling issues of worldwide concern like oil pollution as well as issues that hit a little closer to home like how music affects learning. The projects were evaluated by a panel of distinguished judges with years of experience in a variety of scientific fields. The top three winners from each division received cash prizes as well as the respect and admiration of their fellow students.

10th Grader Tori Cody explains her project "Trash or Treasure?" which earned 1st place in the Jr. Divison

Thanks to all the participants and a special thanks to all our volunteer judges. Great Work Everyone!! Eight of the top projects will be competing at the Salt Lake Valley Regional Science and Engineering Fair on March 25th.The Fair is being held in the Rice Eccles stadium on the University of Utah Campus. The public is welcome to attend the Fair between 2 and 4 PM on the 25th ,so come cheer on our City Academy team!  City Academy Science Fair Winners are listed below as well as the other students that will be displaying their projects at the Regional Fair.

Junior Division Winners

1st place Tori Cody:   Trash or Treasure?

2nd place Korieann Jensen:   Is Music Distracting?

3rd place Tie Stephanie Fitzgerald:   Oil Pollution on Plant Growth;  Elyse Jones:   Identical Twins and Finger Prints

Senior Division Winners

1st Place Louie LaBohec:   When In Search Of Chaos….

2nd Place Nissyen Lopez:  Can Oyster Mushrooms Be an Alternative to Clean Up oil Spills?

3rd Place Arminda King:  The Magic of Plants

Honorable Mention

Jaymie Beck:   A Bloody Mess

Dayan Saurbron and Juliana Cottam:  Electromagnetic Propulsion Rollercoaster

Drew Sorenson:   High Voltage

Thanks to Science Teacher David Vala for providing the text for this post.

City Academy students and the school director, Sonia Woodbury, spent time on January 27 and 28 in the rotunda of the capitol building. We had the opportunity to talk with our legislators about the unique opportunities our school is providing for high school students. Students shared their in-depth studies as a part of the Cambridge International Exams program, both pre-advanced and advanced level courses. Students described the clear difference they sensed in working with their City Academy teachers who genuinely cared about them and their learning.

Legislators wondered about the issue of bullying among students at the school. City students assured our legislators that in a school like ours, small enough so that everyone knows each other, we do not have a bullying issue. And further, said one student, “If, for example, I were to start harassing this fellow here, many of my friends would take me aside and tell me to cut it out. We just don’t allow that here.”

One of our City Academy 12th graders was thrilled to have the opportunity to talk with some legislators about the value of his senior year. He described the opportunity to take four advanced level courses and really improve his knowledge and his writing ability. He also appreciated the chance to develop his leadership skills as he took on coaching roles with younger students through the advisory program and on the City Academy mock trial team. The legislators seemed genuinely interested in hearing this student value his educational opportunities and growth through senior year.

Red Butte Creek has become a research site for City Academy science students learning about recovery from an oil spill. Several of our Environmental Management students brought examples of their research on soil decontamination through mycoremediation, a very inexpensive form of remediation through growth of fungi in the soil. Legislators were very impressed with the students’ work and felt the students’ enthusiasm as they learned about science through being scientists. We hope our legislators will carry these testimonials and images of our students with them as they make hard decisions about funding for public education.

(Thank you to Dr. Sonia Woodbury for providing the text for this post.)

At  City Academy, we think that we have good reason to be proud of our history courses.  Our team of teachers delivers an innovative and highly engaging history curriculum crafted using driving questions that power rigourous and authentic investigations.

~ Gareth Orr, Lead Teacher

The videos below display the dynamic outcome of students’ BIG learning at City Academy.

Lincoln, God, and begin on the right Side, presented by Shivonne McMullin, will be posted soon.

Each Wednesday after lunch City Academy holds its weekly Town Meeting with the agenda of announcing events, celebrating the good things in our community, reminding each other of responsibilities, and the recitation of the Pledge.  The Meeting is led by Study Council Representatives.

On January 12, 2011,  Carol Merrill, 11th Grade Student  Council Representative, led the town meeting with these remarks:

The Pledge - Town Meeting, January 12, 2011

Good afternoon.

I’m sure that I am not alone in being shocked by the shooting in Arizona that killed 6 people, and wounded 14 more.  A 9 year old girl was shot dead.  A congresswoman who was meeting her constituents took a bullet to her brain, but it seems that she will live.

After the shootings, there has been a lot of talk about how divided America is, how polarized America is, how violent America is. OUR American community, WE at City Academy, WE are committed to civility, not violence.

This week only, I ask you all to stand while the Pledge is said.  Each week, we have the choice to stand or sit, and we make a choice for different reasons.  This week only, no matter what your choice on the Pledge, no matter if you say the Pledge or not, I ask you to stand and show that we are a community  united in the belief that we Americans can put aside our differences, and live and work together, without violence, and with unity and peace.

With these words the City Academy students and staff stood together in unity as a community in honor of our work together in this world.  Part of the magic that happens at City Academy.