December 2013 – AUSTIN TENNIS ACADEMY

Community Clean Up

Pudding cookie sweet oat cake bear claw. Marshmallow apple pie pastry chocolate cake dragée jujubes marshmallow topping liquorice. Gummies toffee pastry Lorem Applicake marshmallow pastry chocolate caramels jelly danish carrot cake wafer. Gingerbread gummi bears candy topping pastry. Liquorice cotton candy candy chocolate cake cotton candy candy marzipan jelly. Icing chupa chups jelly beans bonbon.

Chocolate bar tart macaroon. Marzipan biscuit brownie sesame snaps. Candy canes lemon drops donut caramels donut. Chocolate cake jelly donut wafer tiramisu cupcake danish jelly-o jujubes.

Latin Projects

Yesterday, I gave some of the Latin students a challenge to create a model of an ancient Roman temple. This topic followed up on a lesson about the Roman forum and the forum of Pompeii from earlier in the year.

Chase and Caleb competed to see who could sketch the most accurate temple on the board. Caleb was interested in drawing a circular temple, while Chase put a lot of detail into the triangular pediment of his temple.

In Latin class, we rely on multimedia as a tool to bring the culture, archeology, and artifacts of ancient Rome to life. Chase studied photographs of several Roman temples to design his own masterpiece.

Besides images and technology, our Latin course is focused on mastering and applying language skills such as vocabulary, grammar, and prose composition. Here, Jackson just put the finishing touches on writing a Latin sentence.

ATA’s student athletes are always hungry for competition, so it should come as no surprise that grammar and vocabulary contests are their favorite way to practice foreign languages. Here, Brennan and Meghan compete head-to-head to write the correct form of a Latin verb.

Sock Drive and SafePlace Drive

from Ms Flanagan

The Kids in Business class has been working hard to make the ATACP Sock Drive and SafePlace Drive as successful as possible.

As donations rolled in, students counted and organized:

The donations we received from our ATA community were beyond generous! So generous that Ms. Flanagan could barely carry it all!

The drive was a great success thanks to the hard work of our students and the generosity of our ATACP family!

In the end ATACP donated: 275 socks, 38 items of clothing and some handmade Christmas notes from our students to Foundation for the Homeless. And 200 items of clothing, 5 pairs of shoes, 14 canned goods and 4 cellphones to SafePlace.

Both organizations are very glad to have these donations for Christmas.

Coding in Math & Logic

This week over 5 million students worldwide will participate in the Hour of Code – and try their hand at coding for the first time. Today in Math & Logic, CP students logged on to the Khan Academy, and worked through an interactive basic coding session. They discovered functions, parameters, commands – the basics of technological coding. They also ‘drew’ some pretty cool images using basic shapes and color fills.

The genius minds and founders of Facebook, Microsoft, and Google all started their journeys with just one line of code; now CP kids have been given the same chance – to not only use the technology of the future, but also to create it.

Check out the Hour of Code on Khan Academy.

Carli K Commits to Attend Abilene Christian University

ATA senior Carli Knezevich committed to pursue the next steps in her academic and athletic careers at Abilene Christian University this coming fall.

“What initially drew me to ACU was meeting Coach Hutton at clay courts,” Carli said. “He seemed like a really nice guy and I already knew some people at ACU so I decided to take a visit.”

ACU in located in Abilene, TX, just under 3 hours west of Dallas. A private Christian college with about 4600 students, offering majors in business, pre-med, pre-dental, journalism, education and more. Upon visiting the campus, it was the people and the business school that resonated with Carli.

“What set ACU apart from the other schools were the people. Everyone was very supportive and friendly there and I loved the business school on my visit,” Carli said. “The campus was beautiful and I was really impressed with the indoor and outdoor courts.”

ACU’s College of Business is one of only six private universities in Texas that is AACSB accredited, the highest standard for business schools in the world.

“I am most looking forward to the business department because the classes were small and it seems as if I will be getting a lot of attention and help in school,” Carli said.

Carli will join an ACU Wildcat Women’s Tennis team that competes in the Southland Conference of Division I NCAA tennis.

“Athletically I am most looking forward to traveling and playing a lot of big teams because ACU has a pretty good playing schedule,” Carli said. “Also the team was really nice and since the boys and girls sometimes travel together and share the same coaches everyone seemed really close.”

In her many years at ATA, Carli has gained much more than a forceful forehand and a lethal lefty-slice serve.

“ATA has really taught me how to be a team player and to always push myself along with my teammates,” Carli said. “I will continue to use these tools throughout my college experience and even after college.”

Congratulations, Carli, and go Wildcats!