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Hawks and Lady Hawks basketball season has tipped off

Back again! With more stories from the halls of YOUR hometown middle school.

You will find short pieces below related to areas of learning and fun in our building from Classes and Sports to Hawk Life, Student Spotlight, and our new focus on College & Career awareness.

Showcasing a wide variety of the positive happenings at Clinton Middle School: College and Career Academy (CMCCA) is Hawk Talk’s first priority.



While students danced, parents learned

by Reese Rittenberry, Mia Baylis, Blayk Hazelhurst, and Tomi Taylor

On Tuesday, Oct, 29, CMCCA hosted a night of food, fun, and fundamentals on our students’ digital lives.

To begin the night, our Culinary Arts Department prepared a Taco Tuesday dinner for the first 150 guests.

After the dinner, students were invited to attend a spooky Halloween Dance while their parents attended a meeting all about “Navigating the Digital World,” presented by Street Hope TN.

“We were so excited to be able to offer events not just for our students, but for the parents as well,” said Kerry Patterson, CMCCA guidance counselor and co-coordinator of the event.

She added, “We were privileged to have StreetHopeTN share their information with parents, staff, and community members about navigating the online world our students interact with daily.”

Clinton Middle Book Challenge update

by Marissa Eccles, Jasmine Erick, David Holguin, and Emma Vaughn

CMCCA students in all grade levels are rocking out some reading in this year’s 40 Book Challenge.

The 40 Book Challenge, now in its fourth year at Clinton Middle, is our way to get students more engaged and motivated to read throughout the school year and offer them choices in how they learn.

Students can read books to win incentives such as movie and popcorn days, field trips, and special events and assemblies.

Since August, we have had 1,407 books checked out from the Clinton Middle library by the eighth grade, 1,303 by seventh grade, and 1,335 books checked out by sixth.

Eighth grade has logged a total of 808 books as of Oct. 25, seventh grade has logged 606, and sixth grade has logged 504 book.

Our current top readers are Hayleigh Johnston, Aiden Davis, Madison Bryant, Grace Allen, Matthew Armendariz, Faith Smith, Sophia Tipton, Lilly Starr, Rylee Taylor, Shealan Cooper, Tyler Hampton, Sierra Harris, Brennan Nicely, and Breana Woodard.

Read along with us!



Sixth grade adds a math teacher

by Hawk Talk Staff

We are pleased to announce the “addition” of a new sixth-grade math teacher to the Clinton Middle family.

We are especially excited about having three math teachers and a lower student to teacher ratio in math.

April Melton just moved to Anderson County and comes to us from Crab Orchard Elementary in Cumberland County, where she taught middle school math for five years.

She enjoys activities outdoors including, horseback riding, hiking, swimming and hunting for arrowheads. Ms. Melton especially enjoys exploring with her dog, Lucy, and her fiance, Nate.

“I believe that building relationships with my students, setting high expectations, and holding students accountable will contribute to their success in and out of the classroom setting,” Ms. Melton told us, adding, “I hope to reach, support and challenge my students to be successful in the classroom and become productive citizens of the world.”

Sixth-grade students may have noticed her in and out of their classes as she spent this past week with our team learning about our students and our school.

She is already making connections with students, and we love having her as a part of our sixth- grade team.

Welcome, Ms. Melton.



Hawks basketball season tips off this week

by Rylee Gann, Braylon Taylor, Eric Page, and Jordan Pridemore

The Clinton Middle Hawks basketball season is off to a strong start. Our Lady Hawks are 4-0 and the Hawks boys are 7-0.

Over the weekend, the boys team took first place in the Foothills Middle School Classic.

“The coaches have put us in the right positions to execute well on the court,” said eighth-grader Bryson White.

“We have improved a lot since last year, we really think that we have a chance to go to sectionals,” he said.

On the girls’ end, Head Coach Kristen Land told us, “The Lady Hawks JV team played in the preseason tournament at Eagleton Middle and went 4-0.”

At that tournament, seventh-graders Allie York and Ashaunti Davis were named to the All-Tournament Team for the girls.

At the end of the boys tournament, eighth-grader Carter Nelson was named tournament MVP, with eighth-graders Travis Jackson and Elijah “Deuce” Hall taking All-Tournament Team honors.

The Lady Hawks Varsity went 4-2 playing in the preseason tournament and won third place in the Gold bracket. Allie York and Bailey Burroughs were named All-Tournament.

We have plenty more Hawks hoops in store as our teams begin regular season play this week at Carpenters on Monday, Alcoa on Tuesday and at home on Thursday against Horace Maynard.

Until next week ...