It's That Time Again! By TuAnh Nguyen & Melisa Tupkusic

Every February, Tyrrell Middle School comes alive with excitement about the annual Secret Valentine Flower Sale. It’s just the thing to liven up a dreary time of year. This fundraiser is run by Project Explore students, but the proceeds benefit all TMS students through the student activity fund. For just one dollar, students can send silk roses and matching valentines containing personalized messages to all of their friends and teachers at Tyrrell. Beginning the week before Valentine’s Day, Project Explore students will be selling these flowers and messages in the café during all lunch periods. Then, on Valentine's Day, they will be delivered to all homerooms.

This is a great way to make new friends, connect with old ones, or just send someone some cheer. Everyone surely enjoys receiving valentines...and yes, boys love receiving flowers, too! The only problem there has been with the Secret Valentine Flower Sale in the past is that the flowers always sell out before everyone has had the opportunity to buy them. More than 1,000 flowers will be sold! This shows how much Tyrrell Middle School looks forward to the flower sale every year. So if you don’t want to disappoint your friends, better buy early in the week, because once they’re gone, they’re gone!

Thanks to everyone who supports this annual sale. Whether you choose to send valentines to five friends or just one, you will be helping make TMS a better place, because caring is contagious!

Spotlight on...Mrs. Carroll By Evyn Callahan & Morgan Veronesi

This edition of The Tyrrell Times has the spotlight on Tyrrell’s most energetic and spectacular 8th grade special education teacher here at Tyrrell Middle School, and her name is Mrs. Carroll. Her favorite color is any shade of yellow, and her favorite Christmas carol to sing is, “Do You See What I See?” In her free time she enjoys cross-stitching. Cross-stitching is a popular form of counted thread embroidery which is usually in a square pattern. You may have not known, but Mrs. Carroll is also the coordinator of the TMS Dance Team, which means that she signs the whole team up for competitions and makes sure that everyone’s grades are up to par. Mrs. Carroll is very kind, and she doesn’t bite. So, if you want to go see her and her amazingly super smile that appears everyday, then go see her in Rm 303!

Looking Forward With Naviance By Serena Charbonneau & Angie Santos

Children should be able to explore a variety of career options. Some say middle school students are too young for this, but actually, their brains have developed to the point where they need to be thinking about the future. Naviance is a learning site where students may send and receive messages from guidance counselors, and also explore different careers online. When first logging on, visitors are greeted with a message welcoming them to this outstanding program. Next comes a quiz which asks many different questions about themselves.

We talked to Mrs. Hovland to get more info. Her main opinion of Naviance was, “ This site’s main purpose is to help students to learn more about themselves and their interests.” Mrs. Hovland also stated, “You will be able to explore different college and career options. On Naviance, you will be given a list of recommended sites that you may look at on the web.”

The fantastic feature is that students will be able to save the sites they visit and options they browse by simply saving it to a file on Naviance. Also, they will be able to look at this folder at any time, even next year. Keep in mind that students will be able to check Naviance in school and also at home. This will allow their parents to be part of this program also. So go ahead, and dare to dream about your future. It’s closer than you think!

Singing it Out By Anthony DeLuco

This year, the students of Tyrrell Middle School, along with many other students from schools around the state, are taking part in a singing challenge called Regionals. Regionals is a competition against yourself to see how well you can do. You go to your first rehearsal to practice a song for the audition. The music you learn at the rehearsal is the song the judges will critique you on. You are judged on tonality, pitch accuracy, rhythmic accuracy, technique, pronunciation, expression, scales, and sight singing. The results determine whether you made it in or not.

If you get past the judging, then you have to learn all of the other songs that the other schools have to study, learn, and sing to the judges. Once you learn these songs, you perform them at a spring festival along with the other people that made it. This festival will be held at Platt High School in Meriden on Saturday, March 2nd and Sunday March 3rd.

This is a great opportunity to really embrace your singing abilities and to challenge yourself to get better and work harder to achieve maximum potential. Even if you don't make it through to the finals, it’s a great challenge, and you should be proud for even
trying.

T - BONE Stankus By Gabby Leary and Emily Scarcella

Tom Stankus, also known as T-BONE Stankus, appeared at Tyrrell Middle School in his annual holiday sing-along. At the assembly, a variety of seasonal songs were sung such as “Dominic the Donkey”, and “Jingle Bells”. Our eighth graders were able to hit the dance floor, and show their moves to the traditional “12 Twelve Days of Christmas.” To end the show, the eighth graders and Ms. Bourdeau, a new teacher at Tyrrell Middle School, danced along to “The Unicorn Song” which has become a tradition at Tyrrell. To accompany T-BONE, the children of our TMS teachers twirled and danced their way around the gymnasium. Students can’t wait to welcome T-BONE back to our school next holiday season!

Door Decorating Contest By Steve Urbanski

This year, most homerooms at TMS participated in the Annual Door Decorating Competition. This is a good way to bring out some creativity while having some fun. In the past, the doors have had themes anywhere from a Caribbean Christmas to a basic Disney movie theme. During this activity kids get together as a class and decorate their homeroom doors. Judges then walk around and decide which door deserves first place. The winning homeroom is rewarded with a great prize.

This year the winners were Ms.Trovato and Mrs. Sanzo. They had a Fire vs. Ice design that really stood out. They had almost flawless doors. These doors won because of their creativity. One homeroom was fire and other was ice. Each of the students was assigned an elf or character to put their face on and then put on the door. These doors were truly amazing. There were many new, wonderful ideas this year so it was hard to pick only one door. All the doors were great. Thanks to all homerooms for participating.

Tyrrell Talent Showcase By Melisa Tupkusic

So, where did everyone go Friday, December 2nd? The Tyrrell Talent Show, of course! More than half the school, along with their families, filled the auditorium. The show included two hilarious emcees, Billy Nicol and Melisa Tupkusic, almost thirty amazing acts, a phenomenal stage crew, our awesome dance team, and the high school dance team. Mrs. Carroll, the person who made it all happen, stayed backstage with students the entire time, and helped them out with funny jokes and last minute nerves. Some of the acts were the Capristo twins performing a lyrical duet, 6th grader Amanda tapdancing to Boots, and the Tyrrell Dance Team Captains dance. All of these were followed by one last majestic performance…..King Lee and the Majestic Three, AKA Mr. Goldstone, Mr. Terry, Mr. Toller, and of course Mr. Kelsey. Bravo to everyone who performed... and many thanks to a great audience. For those of you who did not attend this year, don’t miss it next December!