The cheer squad is going to the Citrus Bowl!

On Tuesday, December 9th, the John I. Burton cheer squad was interviewed for a segment on WCYB News. Both the squad and their coach, Melissa Wharton, were asked questions about about being chosen to perform at the Citrus Bowl.                   

Coach Wharton said that she could not be prouder of her girls and how hard they have worked this year. This is only the second year of Melissa Wharton's coaching career at John I. Burton and she and her cheerleaders are already All American.

Jaycee B. said, "As a freshman, I am very honored to be able to participate in the Citrus bowl. It's been one of our goals to participate at a national event. We hope to not only make our school proud, but the entire community proud."  


The Citrus Bowl will take place Thursday, January first, at 1:00 PM eastern time in Orlando Florida. The bowl will be broadcast on ABC and ESPN.   

A math lesson with Mr.Fultz

A drama lesson With Ms.Davis

Ms. Vickie: Walking a mile in a librarian's shoes

Ms.Vickie has been an employee with John I. Burton for fourteen years. Within these fourteen years she has been a substitute in the classroom and in the office. However, this year she was in for a big change.  This year she has worked as Burton's sole librarian.  When offered this job, she had only acted as a substitute librarian; she had never had to run a library on her own.  

Everyone thinks being a librarian is probably the easiest job in the world. Contrary to popular belief, being a librarian is harder than it looks. Remembering where the books go and who checked them out and when they need to be turned back in is a task. She says the hardest part of being a librarian is getting books returned. She said, "I literally have to chase children down room to room to remind them to return their books, sometimes more than once." However, there are perks to this job. She says she enjoys this job a lot because not only does she get to see certain students like she did in a classroom, she get to see all the students. 

When the 2015-2016 school year arrives, Ms. Vickie has plans to work outside of the school system, as the school plans to hire a full time certified librarian to fill this position long term.  It is uncertain at this point who the next librarian will be.

With no official training, Ms.Vickie has caught on very quickly. She is knowledgeable about a lot of books and about reading.  When students need assistant with getting a book, she helps to the best of her ability. Not only is she good with helping students picking out a book, she is great with helping students in general. After this year, I am going to miss going to her for advice and her sense of humor.

Inside SWAG: Mark Salyers

This week, I met with John I. Burton's SWAG director, Mark Salyers. SWAG stands for Students With a Gift. We talked about his role with SWAG and his career outside of helping with the show choir.

Mark has worked with SWAG since it first began here at Burton in 2011. The idea to start a show choir was conceived by Burton's cheer coach, Melissa Wharton. Mark and Melissa met when they were in fifth grade and have been best friends ever since. When her idea was approved, she asked Mark to come back to Virginia to help direct this show choir

Outside of SWAG, Mark lives in California where he directs, produces, teaches, and performs in theatre. He has worked in performing arts for about 25 years and recently co-wrote a play titled "Firecracker." He doesn't just work in Virginia and California; his work stretches from New York, Atlanta, North Carolina, and many other locations.

As we were speaking, he told me about this year's Christmas show and how it differs from past SWAG performances. This year's show will include many more dance numbers and many new voices. There will also be a few special performances from SWAG Jr.. SWAG Jr. is the show choir from Norton Elementary School, which is under the direction of Gabrielle Caruso, the new music teacher. Though SWAG has shrunk since its first year at Burton, Mark believes the performance quality will stay the same, if not grow.

This year's Christmas show will be Thursday, December 11 at John I. Burton High School. There will be two performances Thursday, one for the school during the day and the other that night for the public. Times for these performances have not yet been determined. SWAG has worked very hard on th show this year so come out and support your SWAG show choir this Thursday!

The bathroom situation

The start of the journey: Burton wrestling team travels to Lee High

On Saturday, December 6th, the John I. Burton wrestling team will be traveling to Lee High to compete in a dual tournament. Dual tournaments usually take place on Saturdays and last from early in the morning to late at night; these tournaments consist of different local teams. In a dual meet, teams are randomly drawn to decide which team will go against whom. Starting off, the wrestler at the lowest weight class will go against the wrestler at that same weight from the opposing school. This continues until the heaviest weight match has ended. At the end, the team with the most points wins. 

There are several different ways to earn points for your team. Wrestlers can win by pin (putting someone on their back for five seconds with their shoulders touching the mat), which is worth six points; by forfeit, which is worth 6 points; by technical fall (getting ahead of the opposing wrestler by 15 points, automatically ending these two wrestlers match), by major decision (the champions points subtracted from the losing wrestler is between 8-14 points), worth four team points; or by minor decision (the champions points subtracted from the losing wrestler is fewer than 8 points), worth three team points. With hopes of winning the tournament and bringing the trophy home, these wrestlers have been working very hard to prepare for this event. 

Coach Armistead said, "We are young and have time for improvement as the season progresses. I have high expectations for these wrestlers and am looking forward to seeing them strive." Come out and support your Raider wrestlers Saturday as they travel to Lee High! The tournament will begin at 9 a.m in Lee High's gymnasium, and will last until every team has competed against one another. 

Burton wins $25,000 from State Farm

During the ten day span from October 15-24, John I. Burton competed in Celebrate My Drive presented by State Farm. Celebrate My Drive is about the celebration of getting your driver license and making smart decisions while behind the wheel. During this ten day period, Burton students and teachers were on their phones or on the computers making commitments. Both students and teachers got other people in their family and in Norton's community to make online commitments. This competition was nation-wide and there were two categories: large schools and small schools.  State Farm's focus was to spread the message 2N2, which means two eyes on the road and two hands on the wheel.

John I. Burton won $25,000 from competing in this event. On Monday, December 1 during Burton's activity period, there was an assembly to celebrate this exciting occasion.  Burton won  $25,000  because we placed in the top 100 in the nation, meaning we had a large number of safe driving commitments. Our school had some special guest speakers and students during this time. The special guest speakers were Virginia Senator Bill Carrico; Nick McDavid, a representative from US Congressman Griffith's office; and Virginia Delegate Terry Kilgore. Student representatives from each grade level were also selected to participate in this assembly and to accept this huge check from State Farm.  The students who participated in this program were Conner W., Tyree B., Jaycee B., Torie A., Jon B., and Eryk N.

A big thanks goes out to Mrs. Carter, a science teacher at Burton, who initiated our participation in this competition.  Burton has hopes of winning again next year! Remember, keep two eyes on the road and two hands on the wheel!

Band fundraisers: The fruit is in!

Earlier this year, the John I. Burton marching band began their fundraising for their spring trip. This year's trip will be to Georgia. The band as a whole collected hundreds of orders from numerous people for not only fruit, but other items such as cookie dough and cheesecakes from their other fall fundraiser. They turned in their forms and waited for the day that the orders would arrive and they would have to unload and deliver all of their orders. December first marked the beginning of this process.

The fruit fundraiser is the largest and most profitable fundraiser the band has each year. All of the fruit that they order comes on a very large truck that pulls up next to the school and opens its doors. The band does the rest from there.  They unload and organize - they do it all. They begin by setting up a portable conveyor belt that stretches from the truck to one of the windows of the band room and they start sliding box after box into the band room.


From there, other members of the band grab and place the boxes in their corresponding pile until they have unloaded the entire order from the truck. After this is finished, the band room is busy for the next few days as band members and their parents come in and out taking their fruit orders.

This event leaves the band room packed to the brim with boxes and smelling of oranges and other fruits. The band usually spends one to two hours unloading and sorting the boxes. Although this sounds like an awful event, the band agrees on one thing: the work is worth the trip is pays for. This year the band will be traveling to Georgia for their trip where they will visit places such as Six Flags and other attractions. If you ordered fruit from a band member, you should receive your order in the next few days.

GIS day

Did you know that November 19 was GIS day? GIS Day is an educational event created by the company Esri. GIS stands for geographic information systems. 
Esri provides opportunities on this day for schools and businesses around the globe to showcase the real-world applications of GIS. 

In recognition of GIS day, Jordan Bates and Rohini Swaninathan from the Wise branch of the NASA DEVELOP Project came and spoke in Mrs.Carter's and Mr.William's earth science classes to present information about GIS day. They explained about how they use GIS data for NASA DEVELOP, and they also explained how GIS is used by Wise County. They also went over mapping, latitude, longitude and elevation which are all parts of the earth science Standards of Learning, so this was a good review for the science classes. Students participated by asking questions and putting their home address in the search engine as a target. 


There is a website you can visit to learn more about GIS in Wise County.  You can visit this website: www.wisecounty.org/gis 

You can also discover more about GIS day by clicking here:  http://www.gisday.com/

General Physics at MECC

This week, I had the opportunity to meet with Austin S. to discuss one of his classes at Mountain Empire this year. He is one of the 15 students who go to Mountain Empire Community College for half of the day as part of the Dual Enrollment Academy program. Austin is currently a senior in high school while being a freshman at MECC. 

Just recently I had the pleasure of asking Austin a series of interview questions concerning one of his classes. Austin chose to take General Physics rather than Biology 101. He is the only student in the Dual Enrollment Academy who took advantage of the Physics class offered at Mountain Empire. This class requires it's students to have already taken pre-calculus and to have a basic understanding of science.   

The reason Austin chose to take this class is because he is required to have this class in order to pursue a career in engineering. When I asked Austin how he felt about being the only student from John I. Burton taking this course at Mountain Empire, he says, "Being able to branch off from my peers is helping me prepare for college after I graduate because then I really will be all alone!" Austin says this class is challenging but he still encourages students to take advantage of this incredible opportunity. 

After interviewing Austin, I strongly encourage any student who meets the requirements to take advantage of this interesting class at MECC! Any student who wants to pursue a career in Engineering will need this class. Austin has been highly successful in taking this class independently and encourages upcoming students to branch away from their peers when deciding what courses to take in college. General Physics is on the same difficultly level as Biology 101; therefore, upcoming Academy students who prefer Physics over Biology should take this course! Any student who has questions regarding the Dual Enrollment Academy or the classes dealing with the program at Mountain Empire Community College can  contact Mrs. Davis in the guidance department here at John I. Burton.