
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 6, 1993                   TAG: 9307030085
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR TEACHER'S NAME

"When school ends and summer vacation begins, you always feel glad and excited for summer to start, but deep down inside, even if you do not show it, you are always sad. Your teacher is gone and you miss seeing her cheery face every morning. Even when you are depressed, your teacher will always bring out the bright side of you. You will miss all of that, and you will miss all of your friends."

So writes 10-year old KATE THATCHER, who just completed Carol Alfano's fifth grade at Margaret Beeks Elementary School in Blacksburg.

The rising sixth-grader wrote an essay entitled "Summer Blues," which is a blend of teacher tribute, reminiscence of the year past, anticipation for the summer ahead and treatise on how memories fade during the next school grades.

"Your summer continues and you think less and less of the past year. You go to camp and write home how fun it is at camp, forgetting completely about that school year. You go on to your next grade in the fall and forget most of the little important stuff that happened the grade before. Memories slip away every summer until one summer there is nothing left to remember, except your teacher's name. None of the memories of the people in your class. Only her name. Only her name."

\ RUSSELL ALTIZER, who has been driving a school bus in Montgomery County for 14 years, won the recent safety "road-e-o" competition for the second year in a row.

Sponsored by the Montgomery County Public Schools Transportation Department, the contest is completely volunteer. The goal of the rodeo is "to reduce the number of accidents and resultant injuries and deaths in pupil transportation."

Participating school bus drivers put in several hours to increase their driving skills, set a positive image for bus drivers and make pupil transportation in the county safer.

Second place went to Rusty Price; third place to Melinda Graham; fourth place to Sharon McCoy; and fifth place to Patsy Stull.

Parlez-vous francais? " Oui" is the answer for several students of French at Blacksburg High School who recently placed among the top 15 in district competition of the NATIONAL FRENCH EXAMINATION, "LE GRAND CONCOURS," sponsored each year by the American Association of Teachers and Professors of French. The test measures reading, writing and listening skills and knowledge of French culture.

The following students placed in their respective levels: Zvika Ben-Haim, Marjana Borojevic, Omaluse Amenkhienan, Michael Shumsky, Nahla Durrani, first place; Michelle Eden, second place; Michael Sharov, third place; Eleanor Lee, fourth place; Betina Chan, Charlie Liu, Michael Ogburn, Jonathan Tze, Abigail Murrmann, Sinh Ngo and Michael Rohr.

A team of eight representing the Southwest Virginia Governor's School at Pulaski County High School took first place in both the state and national 1993 JUNIOR ENGINEERING TECHNICAL SOCIETY - JETS - competitions.

Members of the team from the New River Valley are Aaron Mumaw of Floyd County; Brain Weaver of Giles County; and Emery Conrad, Diane Owens, Brooks Moses and Phuong Lui of Pulaski County.

JETS is the only organization in the United States that combines math, science and engineering principles in competition. Its goal is to teach high school students about engineering.

The contest consists of teams working in an open book, open discussion format to solve problems by relating what they learned in the classroom to real-world engineering.

Joanne Anderson is filling in for Melissa DeVaughn, who is hiking the Appalachian Trail. If you have an interesting news item from your school, write to the New River Current in care of the Roanoke Times & World-News' New River Valley Bureau, P.O. Box 540, Christiansburg 24073.

by CNB