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middle school quiz bowl help

Discussion of quizbowl topics not related to specific tournaments
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DIoanis
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by DIoanis »

I found out today that my mother is "going to try" to become a brand new quiz bowl coach at the school she is teaching at (as in she is going to start the program from scratch). There are some problems though about her becoming a coach.

1) The school: She has taught in inner city Kansas City for the past 25 years. To give an idea about the neighborhood, her car has been stolen not once but twice right from the school parking lot (and this is an elementry school we are talking about here), the school itself is always covered in graffiti due to gang related activities and in recent years the school has simply given up cleaning it because it always comes back. I remember going to school with my mom one day when I was about 9 or 10 and there was a police chase that ended at the school and the guy was running around on the school yard with kids playing and everything! Anyway it's the kind of school people should be glad they didn't go to as kids.

2) The school district: Like I said her school is in the Kansas City Missouri School District, which is about the worst in the state. There is a new superintendent in charge of the district about every 18-24 months it seems. The last superintendent thought it would be a bright idea to make all the elementary schools that were K-5 into K-8 schools and since my mother's school was a K-5 school 2 years ago it will now become a K-8 school next school year (the oldest kids didn't go anywhere as the school went from K-5 to K-6 and so one unitl K-8 was reached). Right now the extracurricular activities at most of the schools are in the toliet compared to schools in the suburbs. The funding the school gets all goes towards just the basic things the schools need (and so they can get another superintendent the next year, every year). I'm not sure if she is going to even get funding for this activity. (teams need buzzers and questions right? Right now all she has...are shirts. Her principal bought her shirts with the team name on them already and that's it!)

3) She doesn't know what she is doing: My mom means so well yet she doesn't know what she is doing. Her quizbowl experience is going to just about every tournament I went to (including MSHSAA State and NAQT Nationals) and for lack of a better term was the "team mom". She has no contacts at all with other quizbowl coachs other then Mr. Tarvin. She is also expecting me to be basically be the assistant coach for next year (since I know more then her I guess, I don't know). Is there a middle school MACA? Should she attend the MACA convention? Should she even join MACA as a middle school coach? I know Illinois covers middle school quiz bowl but does MSHSAA? (no I'm guessing).

4) Who does the school play? Let's say this program actually gets off the ground and a team is formed at my mom's school. Who are they going to play? I know that when I was in middle school there was a scholar bowl team but I wasn't a member of it (looking back I wish I did) so I don't know what other schools they went up against. I can't imagine they would go up against other schools within the district (my mom's school is usually the top one or two in test scores in the district and told me that if they were lower she wouldn't even think about starting a program. There are always diamonds in the rough, right?) Does she put the team into JV high school tournaments?

I have a lot of other questions about this but it's getting late so I'm going to cut my post here for now. I'm looking forward to helping my mom with getting this off the ground. It has got to be one of the quickest turn arounds in quizbowl, being a player at nationals just over a month ago to becoming an assistant to the coach of a team at the start of the next season. Who knows what might happen :-)



<div class="editby">Edited by <a href='http://s4.zetaboards.com/Academic_Compe ... DIoanis</a>, Jul 4 2009, 02:47:17 AM.</div>

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socalcaptain
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by socalcaptain »

Well, knowing next to nothing about urban school districts or big-school politics, I can't shed a lot of light on that situation for you.

However, I can tell you a few things:

1) MSHSAA doesn't sponsor any kind of middle school quiz bowl program.

2) Theoretically, anyone can join MACA. Therefore, if she wants to, I would say go for it. Couldn't hurt.

3) My middle school has a quiz bowl team, which I played on in 8th grade. I have no idea what questions we played on, but we played other teams in our conference. At that time, all but one school (so 5 out of 6) had a middle school team. We also hosted a county-wide tournament (4 schools). In a more urban area, I don't know that you'd see many other middle school quiz bowl teams. It would be pretty hard to travel very far with middle school kids, so even if there were just one or two other programs around, at least something could get started (like a monthly game with the other school) until more teams were formed. You could even try like a tournament where instead of official school 'teams', you just found some teachers at nearby schools who wanted to bring a squad or two of their smart kids up to play (gifted programs might be a place to start, though obviously not the only way to get in touch with teachers). Maybe this way some other schools get a feel for what it's like and might be interested in starting a program of their own.

4) As far as buzzers, a somewhat decent set for 8 players will run you about $200. Mizzou just bought the 8-player set from SVBZ (http://www.svbz.com) and we've had no major problems with it yet. Questions, the price all depends on the provider. I don't know anything about middle school appropriate questions providers.

I think it's a great premise. The middle school program gets kids prepped for the mechanics behind high school play (buzzers, timing, etc.). If you can get this thing off the ground, I think you'll see some good things happening.

WillHack
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by WillHack »

At my middle school, we held in-house tournaments once a year. We had enough gifted students to form 8 teams, and had them square off against each other in "in-school field trips." I would suggest that even if finding other schools to play against is difficult, an in-school option might be just as appealing; perhaps an after-school club or something.

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Charlie Dees
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by Charlie Dees »

4) As far as buzzers, a somewhat decent set for 8 players will run you about $200. Mizzou just bought the 8-player set from SVBZ (http://www.svbz.com) and we've had no major problems with it yet.
That's just because you didn't come to practice last week.

DIoanis
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by DIoanis »

I would suggest that even if finding other schools to play against is difficult, an in-school option might be just as appealing; perhaps an after-school club or something.
This was something that has been brought up in talking to my mom in the past (this quiz bowl team is something that has been floating around in her mind for a few years but I really didn't think she was going to go through it until now). Perhaps I can get in touch with the middle school coach at my old school. She was my teacher, I was just never on the team she coached. Who knows?....


Theoretically, anyone can join MACA. Therefore, if she wants to, I would say go for it. Couldn't hurt.
My high school coach said to do this, so I'm going to make her. Like you said it can't hurt.
In a more urban area, I don't know that you'd see many other middle school quiz bowl teams. It would be pretty hard to travel very far with middle school kids, so even if there were just one or two other programs around, at least something could get started (like a monthly game with the other school) until more teams were formed. You could even try like a tournament where instead of official school 'teams', you just found some teachers at nearby schools who wanted to bring a squad or two of their smart kids up to play (gifted programs might be a place to start, though obviously not the only way to get in touch with teachers)
I would imagine that there are no other urban teams in the area. I will talk to my mom about playing gifted kids from other schools nearby, at this point that sounds like a really good idea. Otherwise we would have to travel to the suburbs to play real teams and your right about how it would be rather difficult to travel anywhere with middle school kids.
I think it's a great premise. The middle school program gets kids prepped for the mechanics behind high school play (buzzers, timing, etc.). If you can get this thing off the ground, I think you'll see some good things happening
I hope good things do come from this. Right now none of the high schools in the district have a quiz bowl program. Even the "gifted" high school (and I say "gifted" because one only needs a 2.5 GPA to attend the shool) doesn't have a program. The one ray of hope though is every high school in the district has a debate team and band/orchestra. This might mean funding is available for a high school program (at least at the "gifted" high school)

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redliberte
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by redliberte »

I know Savannah had some kind of quizbowl at the middle school level at one time, but that would probably be a huge stretch for an inner city KC school to fund a trip up there to see.

Jason Loy
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by Jason Loy »

The in-school tournament sounds like a good start; the elementary school that my sister used to go to did this with great success.

As for questions, I know that St. Viator (Illinois) and Northwestern ran well-written middle school tournaments last year, and there might be a few more this year. JV stuff like HAVOC would be good for practices (after the kids are acclimated to playing a little bit).

Arkansas has a middle school circuit, which actually has more participating schools than the high school circuit. I can put you in contact with some of the coaches there for a little more perspective, if you like.

DIoanis
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by DIoanis »

Jason Loy wrote:The in-school tournament sounds like a good start; the elementary school that my sister used to go to did this with great success.

As for questions, I know that St. Viator (Illinois) and Northwestern ran well-written middle school tournaments last year, and there might be a few more this year. JV stuff like HAVOC would be good for practices (after the kids are acclimated to playing a little bit).

Arkansas has a middle school circuit, which actually has more participating schools than the high school circuit. I can put you in contact with some of the coaches there for a little more perspective, if you like.
Any help would be great. I'm sure my mother wouldn't mind contacting other middle school coaches that know what they are doing.

Awehrman
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by Awehrman »

As Jason mentioned above, I ran a middle school tournament at Northwestern in February. I would be glad to send your mother the questions for her students to practice on. The University of Oklahoma ran a large middle school tournament for years and may be able to provide her additional questions from past tournaments. Oklahoma Contact page

The best contact that I know for all things regarding middle school quizbowl is Jeff Price, a coach at Barrington Station Middle School in Barrington, IL. He is very knowledgeable about the game, preparing teams, and building programs at the middle school level. His team's website is here.

DIoanis
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by DIoanis »

Awehrman wrote:As Jason mentioned above, I ran a middle school tournament at Northwestern in February. I would be glad to send your mother the questions for her students to practice on. The University of Oklahoma ran a large middle school tournament for years and may be able to provide her additional questions from past tournaments. Oklahoma Contact page

The best contact that I know for all things regarding middle school quizbowl is Jeff Price, a coach at Barrington Station Middle School in Barrington, IL. He is very knowledgeable about the game, preparing teams, and building programs at the middle school level. His team's website is here.
Thank you! All this help will come in handy later on this year when this program gets off the ground.

My email is dakota.ioanis@yahoo.com if you all want to send questions or other information. The information I have received thus far is great and I thank you all for it :-)

jceeit
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by jceeit »

I did Middle school in sixth grade, and only didn't do it in 7th or 8th because we either didn't have enough players or a coach. In sixth grade it was my understanding the schools would host a tournament, and Invite other coaches (all gifted ed teachers form the kc area) they knew, and have a tournament. In the Park Hill School District both Middles Schools and the 6th Grade Center had a team, (We go K-5, 6, 7-8, 9-12) usually divided into A's and B's of 4-6, (Randomly) and two other Schools brought their team(s). This makes for a pretty good round robin tournament that lasted at least from 7 till lunch. The other Schools were Center Middle School (Center School District, but I'm pretty sure they stopped doing it the year after I did it in 6th grade), and another school I can't remember, but Know it was "Something Prep".
The way we did it so it was fair was break them down into 7-6 grade level and 8th grade level. It was fun, and of course was what got me hooked at scholar bowl in the first place. The problem is I don't know if it fell apart after Center and Congress (Park Hill) Pulled out, because the Only 2 tourneys we attended were Center and one at one of the Park Hill Schools. I can't find any evidence that Plaza or Lakeview (Park Hill Also) still has one on their website, but I can't find anything on it with this new SchoolWires thing their using now. I do know that teachers that did are still there, and maybe if your mom get's into contact with them they can either fill her in on what they are doing or they can get something organized, and even if you can't find anyone to play against, it's always fun to play scrimmages at practice, and it also gives a social opportunity to kids who might not necessarily be common in an inner city school to feel welcome in. Here's a list of the emails of all the Teachers/Coaches I think might still do it:

EDIT: I have found proof of at least one Middle School Team + Coach in Park Hill. I forgot who became the new gifted teacher after I left Congress so i checked and found out that she did Scholar Bowl.

Nicole Scott - Plaza Middle School (6th Grade) - Gifted Education (Bridges): scottn@parkhill.k12.mo.us
Terry Beasley - Lakeview Middle School - Gifted Education (Bridges): Beasleyt@parkhill.k12.mo.us
Valerie Butler - Congress Middle School - Gifted Education (Bridges): butlerv@parkhill.k12.mo.us

Those are All in Park Hill way out here in Suburbia, but it's not too far. But being inner city transportation is probably going to be an issue because some students can't afford to take a car like we always did, so that's definitely an issue to be looked into.

EDIT AGAIN: I almost forgot that we also did an online group effort question thing that ranks teams by how many right-wrong answers they have. Not exactly quiz bowl, but it asks quiz bowl questions, and it's nice to set up a pizza night for. I can't remember the name of it though, but one of the listed contacts probably will.

If you need anything else PM me.



<div class="editby">Edited by <a href='http://s4.zetaboards.com/Academic_Compe ... >jceeit</a>, Jul 7 2009, 01:05:53 AM.</div>

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Charlie Dees
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by Charlie Dees »

The computer based thing is called Knowledge Master Open, by Academic Hallmarks ie the horrible question writing company that won't shut up about Auk birds. I guess I can't blame middle schools for diverting money towards it since it's not like there's really a real life circuit, but the warning about KMO is that it's assumed some teams cheat on it since there's nothing to stop them, and apparently a bunch of the questions are silly.

jceeit
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by jceeit »

ashkenaziCD wrote:The computer based thing is called Knowledge Master Open, by Academic Hallmarks ie the horrible question writing company that won't shut up about Auk birds. I guess I can't blame middle schools for diverting money towards it since it's not like there's really a real life circuit, but the warning about KMO is that it's assumed some teams cheat on it since there's nothing to stop them, and apparently a bunch of the questions are silly.
yeah I didn't do It, I was on vacation the day they did so I don't know

FishyFreshman
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Post by FishyFreshman »

KMO is silly but as long as you don't take it too seriously, it's pretty fun.

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redliberte
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by redliberte »

Yeah, KMO is pretty dumb but it is something that a lot of schools-- gifted programs mostly, I think-- do in this area. We did it all the way back in the elementary gifted program, all the way through to doing it in HS qb. Obviously, it's not really a desirable alternative to quizbowl, but if you have nothing else it's an ok place to start.

"Something Prep" is probably Lincoln College Prep. It's kind of a gifted magnet school in the KCMO district, or at least I think that's how it works. They always sent teams to middle school science olympiad, so I am assuming that they would be likely participants in middle school qb action as well.

DIoanis
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by DIoanis »

redliberte wrote: "Something Prep" is probably Lincoln College Prep. It's kind of a gifted magnet school in the KCMO district, or at least I think that's how it works. They always sent teams to middle school science olympiad, so I am assuming that they would be likely participants in middle school qb action as well.
Lincoln Prep is the gifted middle school in the KCMO district. Lincoln Prep is also the name of the gifted high school in the district (two different buildings but still have the same name). It's not a magnet school. My mom's school was a elementary magnet school for arts and sciences when it opened up in the late 80's, but the district got rid of the magnet programs at all the schools around 9 or 10 years ago.

To tell you the truth I'm not even sure if Lincoln Prep is the honors middle school anymore or not. As far as I know all K-5 schools in the district were going to become K-8, meaning that no students went through middle school. I know in the district some students depending on where they live in the district could apply to go to Lincoln Prep. I say depending on where they live because back when the KCMO school district had schools in western Independence (which are now in the Independence school district), students that lived in Independence could not attend Lincoln Prep at the middle school or high school level. They were forced to attend the neighborhood schools. My mom's school is usually at the top of all the test scores and get praise from the district (at least that's what she tells me). I would think if all these kids that did well on the MAP tests and other exams would already be attending Lincoln Prep, but there is a reason my mom wants to start this program and I'm guessing she thinks that there are enough intellgent kids at her school to start a program.

The other Schools were Center Middle School (Center School District, but I'm pretty sure they stopped doing it the year after I did it in 6th grade).......
I know Center High School has a scholar bowl team because we played them in quads for the past 2 years. Getting in touch with someone from Center would be great becasue it's another urban school district (although I wouldn't say the area from the Grandview Triangle west to state line along I-435 is really "urban" but that is the area the school district covers)

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redliberte
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by redliberte »

Thanks for the clarification about Lincoln Prep, I figured you would know better than me any how, Dakota. I didn't think that KCMO had magnet schools (though my dad tried to convince me otherwise, but that's probably because they must have had them when he was in high school there) but that was the best explanation I could think of-- yours is better.

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DeckardCain
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Post by DeckardCain »

I'd like to see a middle school circuit get started. I know a few of the schools in the area have teams.

If there's sufficient interest I'd definitely be open to running a middle school tournament at Missouri S&T.

WillHack
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Post by WillHack »

I think Parkway Central and probably Parkway Northeast (or whatever they call the North middle school) would be interested in such a tournament.

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ajax
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by ajax »

I know several of the schools south of KC have middle school teams, but the schools are usually small 1a's.
Golden Valley Vernon Conference has many schools in middle school play, they hold conference tourneys or just practice matches, the practice matches are usually in Ballard, MO. The larger conference WEMO may have middle school matches as well, I would contact a coach from that conference.
Here is a list of the schools.
GVVC-Hume,Ballard,Bronaugh,Montrose, Sheldon, Northeast Vernon County,
WEMO-Rich Hill, Miami R-1, Adrian, Drexel, Archie,

jceeit
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by jceeit »

Yes it was Lincoln Prep, Sorry that was four years ago and I was very tired at the time.

Does KCMO do any gifted programs through Elementary? I've always wondered about gifted programs in other schools, I know NKC has one, but that's about it.

EDIT: AHH! Typos


<div class="editby">Edited by <a href='http://s4.zetaboards.com/Academic_Compe ... >jceeit</a>, Jul 11 2009, 05:46:36 PM.</div>

DIoanis
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middle school quiz bowl help

Post by DIoanis »

jceeit wrote:Does KCMO have any gifted programs through Elementary? I've always wondered about gifted programs in other schools, I know NKC has one, but that's about it.
The district does have a gifted program at least on the elememtary level. I'm not sure in middle school or high school but I know for a fact at the K-5 level there is a gifted program. But I don't know much more other then that. I'm not sure if it's at every school or just a few. My mom's school did have one that's why I know for sure there is such a program in the district.

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