The team will begin next year and is open to 6-12 graders who have some experience in the sport. GAC will be joining the Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA), and the team will be a parent-sponsored sport with competitions against other schools. They will be competing against schools like Westminster, Pace Academy, Lovett, Holy Innocents, North Gwinnett High School, South Forsyth High School, Lambert High School, Roswell High School, and lots more.

For those of you who are new to Equestrian but would like to participate in next year’s team, here is a bit of advice Elizabeth Barker, one of the parents starting the team would like to give. “As with most competitive teams, the assumption will be that team members will have at least some experience riding horses. Since the team won’t be forming until next year, if a student is interested but hasn’t ever ridden a hose before, there is plenty of time to take lessons to see if riding horses is something they are truly interested in.” Qualified trainers will determine what level a rider is comfortable riding at. So if you already know you want to be on the team, start training now.

A practice and competition uniform will be initiated with the start of the team.  The practice uniform will consist of riding pants, uniform shirt, riding helmet, paddock boots, and half chaps. The competition uniform will be a show coat, show shirt, tan riding pants, black leather field boots, a black riding helmet, and gloves. Equipment such as horses and tack will be provided at a designated place of practice. There has been a great response to the introduction of the new team, and next years season is looking like a great start for the sport. For more information contact Elizabeth Barker at 7girl@bellsouth.net. She will be more than happy to answer any of your awaiting questions.

Tumblr helps amateur “bloggers” create and maintain their very own blogs. Tumblr allows users to post, not only, text but audio, video, images, and polls. Tumblr also has a plethora of design templates to help users have well-formatted web pages.

Another advantage about Tumblr is how easy it is for anyone to start up a blog. After you have signed up, Tumblr brings you to your customize screen. At the customize screen, you can change themes, templates, color schemes, background images and much, much more. You can also connect your blog to your Facebook page and/ or Twitter account.

Students at GACS have utilized the many opportunities that come with using Tumblr. Savanna McKellar, a freshman and Tumblr of three months, already follows 150 other Tumblr users.

But Tumblr is not only a blogging site, but a social networking site as well. After you have setup your account with Tumblr, you are given your own personal dashboard. On your dashboard, you can view recent updates from Tumblr blogs, that you follow, and have the options to like and reblog*. Junior Kelsey Fervier says her favorite feature is the ability to reblog pictures onto her own blog.

Tumblr has won a number of honors including being the Best Young Entrepreneurs in 2009 by BusinessWeek and one of President Obama’s top 5 tech tools in PC World.

With only a staff of twelve, the Tumblr crew offers a revolutionary way of blogging on the internet.

* Reblogging is when you take a post from another blog and post on your own.

Students often decide to just “blow off” this important test for a multitude of reasons. Younger students feel like they have no chance to do well because they haven’t learned everything on the test.

“Sometimes, particularly 9^th or 10^th graders may feel like they may not know all the math on the test, they’ll feel like it doesn’t really matter. But that’s not true, actually 9^th graders are at least able to do 30-40% of the test; depending on where they are in math they may be able to do more. And so its very important that everybody do their best on the test because another reason that its important is that it can help us identify places that maybe they’re missing a basic concept just regarding basic number theory,” says college counselor Lori Davis.

Another reason students feel tempted to blow off this test is that it doesn’t affect their GPA and colleges don’t care about your PSAT scores as much as your SAT scores. However, this test can still have an influence on your eligibility to get into the college of your choice.

“We give the test to ninth through eleventh graders. For eleventh graders it enters students into the National Merit Scholarship competition, and all of our students may not feel like that is something they’re shooting for. However, for all students we base their enrollment partially on the results of their testing. So, for ninth graders through eleventh graders when we look at scheduling at the first of the year for next year one of the first things we’re going to look at is how well they performed on the test,” says Davis.

The National Merit Scholarship competition allots scholarship money for college to students who complete the essay and application process if they have scored in the top 1% of the nation on the test. Two of our own seniors, Nita Jain and Marcel Cabato, are semifinalists in the process of applying to be National Merit Finalists.

For students not competitive for the National Merit competition, their scores are extremely essential in being able to take the class of their choice.

“Take the test seriously. We will always have people come to their college counseling meetings in the junior year as we’re trying to schedule classes, and they’re really wanting aggressive schedules that are going to help them in college admissions, and they’ll say ‘well I didn’t know the PSAT mattered’ but we stick very closely to our guidelines. The guidelines and scores for the PSAT thresholds for honors and AP classes are in the academic handbook,” says Davis.

So, everyone make sure you get a good night’s sleep, eat a good breakfast, and remember: this test is still important.

Yet for some reason, concerts are considered a rite of passage for teens and some of the most popular activities for students, even on weeknights. On my Facebook newsfeed, I lost count of the number of people going to concerts in the past month. The statuses, pictures, wall posts and overall hype about the recent concerts was overwhelming. If you were paying any attention at all to popular conversation, you would have been well aware that dozens of GAC students attended concerts such as Paramore and especially John Mayer. During the days surrounding the concert, students used their Macs to blast his music during my economics class.

What is it that makes concerts so appealing? The only concert I’ve ever been to in my life was the Backstreet Boys (which, by the way, is way better than NSync). The only reason I went was because my childhood best friend’s uncle was a radio DJ and we got tickets for free. It was their Black and Blue tour, an awesome concert. I don’t remember much about it except I fell asleep on the way home and I bought a cheap sticker at the souvenir stand.  It was fun, but not the most significant event in my life. I feel like concerts are fun, but they always get way more hype than they deserve. So here is my question: have I missed out on something major in my life? Or are concerts as underrated as they seem?

SENIOR TREY MARTIN, SALUTATORIAN

On April 29th, a special assembly was held to honor senior students, 9th – 12th) in all academic areas as well as citizenship. Congratulations to all students honored for their achievements during this 209-2010 school year.

In addition, accomplished seniors were in the spotlight for their impressive accomplishments. Join the Spartan Spear-It in applauding these seniors:

NATIONAL MERIT FINALIST –  Nick Chizek, Trey Martin

GEORGIA CERTIFICATE OF MERIT – Sunny Patel, Melissa Puntkattalee, Marcel Cabato, Steven Hanna, Rachel Middleton, Jacob Montgomery, Garrett Hutchins, Kristen Hansen

RAY KROC AWARD – Alexandria McCall

ATLANTA JOURNAL CUP – Trey Martin

FREDERICK DOUGLASS & SUSAN B. ANTHONY AWARD – Victoria Barker

GOVERNOR’S HONORS – Sunny Patel, Jack Weyen, Steven Hanna

ROBERT BYRD SCHOLARSHIP NOMINEE – David Davis

Senior Nick Chizek accepts appointment to West Point Military Academy. [photo attribution: Glenn Martin

Senior Justin White accepts an appointment to the U. S. Naval Academy.

Senior Shawn Kane accepts an appointment to the Merchant Marine Academy.

JOHN KELLER AWARD –  Maddison Moellering, Erin Swirk

SCHOLAR ATHLETE AWARD -  Wesley Pate, Stephanie Wilding

BRYAN COLLINS DEMONBREUN SCHOLARSHIP –  Erika Dore

SENIOR HIGH CITIZENSHIP AWARDS
9th     Olivia Julian
10th      Chase Roberts
11th     Alex Stephens
12th    Nick Coker

SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS
Scholarship, 9th            Andrew Irwin
Scholarship, 10th          Andrew H. Kim
Scholarship, 11th           Sunny Patel

CLASS SALUTATORIAN –      Trey Martin

CLASS VALEDICTORIAN -       Wesley Pate

senior portrait attribution: Glenn Martin Photography

“Technology offers an enormous power, so you as teens must learn to self-manage; you must learn to self-check,” DeWitt told students.

DEWITT is a documentary producer, CEO and child advocate who appears on local and national television and has published print and media which include her real life stories and her passion about connecting with kids in the 21st century.

“If you don’t remember anything else I say today, remember these three points,” DEWITT urged students.

1. If you wouldn’t say or show something to your own mother, don’t say or show it on Facebook or through other technologies.

2. Everyone has an internal radar. If your internal radar causes you to doubt or worry about what you’re about to do, don’t do it.

3. Finally, YOU decide who YOU are going to be. Realize that constant self-management is critical. Your use of technology affects you not just physically, but emotionally and socially as well.

DEWITT advised students to think twice before making quick decision which could have lasting, negative consequences on their lives. “You (students) know about technology, but we (parents/adults) know about life,” suggested DEWITT. She urged teens to trust the experience and knowledge of their parents.

Thank you, STACEY DEWITT, for sharing your experiences, your knowledge, and your compassion with students, teachers, and parents at Greater Atlanta Christian.

The Mr. and Miss Spartan award is an award chosen by junior high peers, recognizing one boy and one girl who have demonstrated leadership, friendship, and Christian faith to their classmates. The annual ceremony was held this year on Thursday, April 15.

Dr. Misty Overman welcomed parents, grandparents, students, siblings, and friends on this special occasion in April.

Eighth grade students submitted encouraging advice to sixth and seventh graders, in written form. Faculty sponsors Jami Denton, Jeff Harsh, Bob Lofton, and Joann Waldrop shared theses words of inspiration with those in attendance. Much of the advice included not procrastinating, staying out of the “drama” that presents itself in middle school, and staying true to yourself through any obstacle you may face.

Eighth Grader Elizabeth White offered the opening prayer. Andy Irwin read the opening scripture.

The 2010 Mr. and Miss Spartan Court included: Savannah Gray, Mary Johnson, Katie Jones, Ciarra McKinney, Paige Reynolds, Savannah Stewart, Robert Dicks, Connor Joseph, Jackson O’Brien, Jackson Rossborough, Landon Tabor and Sam Weyen.

Congratulations to all of the nominees and winners!