Maple Valley-Anthon Oto's - Maple Valley Community Schools

New student teacher at MVAO
Miss Moodie teaches the fourth
period Leadership class.
Maple Valley
School Foundation
offers
Scholarship
By Michele Pierce
The Maple Valley School Foundation
Scholarship is being offered again this year
for graduating seniors of the MVAO High
School.
The Maple Valley School Foundation Inc. is
a non-profit corporation that was established
in 1994. Its purpose is to support the
continuing improvement of the educational
opportunities of MVAO students.
A senior may apply for, or receive a
scholarship, if he or she sells a certain number
of memberships.
There are three types of memberships: an
Annual Membership, which is $25.00 per
individual or entity, a Life Membership,
which is $1,000 per individual or entity, and
a Life Pledge Membership, which may be
secured by a pledge of reaching the $1,000 Life
Membership through annual payments.
For a senior to be able to receive a
scholarship application, they must sell two
Annual Memberships at $25.00 each. Any
senior selling 20 new Annual Memberships
will automatically receive a scholarship of
$500.
If a senior sells a Life Membership of
$1,000, the senior will automatically receive a
scholarship of $500. For each additional Life
Membership sold, the senior will also receive
an additional $500 scholarship.
If a senior sells a Life Pledge Membership,
the senior will receive the amount of the
annual payment pledged, up to $500.
Last year, the foundation gave out four $500
scholarships and is anticipating being able to
offer more scholarships each year.
Page 2, The Ram Write-Up, Maple Valley Anthon- Oto Schools
By Nate Sadler
A new face has been wandering the
hallways of MVAO high school. Recent
arrival, Miss Molli Moodie, has been student
teaching alongside Mr. Benson for a few
weeks now.
Miss Moodie attended high school at
Kingsley-Pierson, and went on to Iowa State
to learn to become a teacher, majoring in
Agriculture Education and Animal Science.
She plans to teach Agricultural classes similar
to what Mr. Benson does.
This is her first time student teaching.
When asked how she likes it so far, she
replied, “It’s great.” She does not get paid for
her work student teaching. On the contrary,
she has to pay tuition in order to student
teach. She is plans to spend 12 weeks here
before her time student teaching is done and
she can graduate and move onto getting a
permanent teaching job.
A little known interesting fact about Miss
Moodie is that she is enrolled in the Army
Reserve and actually spent a year in Iraq
prior to finishing college and coming here to
learn. While serving there she prepped and
fueled land vehicles before they set out for
their destination.
By Shane Erlemeier
This month’s heap is definitely a piece of
junk. It fits the description of heap of the
month perfectly.
Tyler Walsh purchased this 1988 Oldsmobile
Cutlass Sierra about a year ago for $200.
The car has lots of rust and high miles, the
mufflers knock, the tail lights are out, and
one head light doesn’t work.
Tyler has had some good times in his
Cutlass though. One time he got it stuck at
the river, by the city dump. Tyler was fishing
and when he went to leave, the car’s wheels
just spun and sank right into the sand, so he
had to call Nick Schrunk and have him come
pull him out.
Some other things that are wrong with
the Cutlass are it has bad head gaskets, and
sometimes it will just die so Tyler has to
restart it every three to four blocks, and it
over heats after just two blocks.
Another good time Tyler had in his Cutlass
was, one time, he was driving around in his
pickup, and as usual, the pickup was low
on gas, and he ran out of gas right when he
was getting to his house, so he got out of the
pickup and got in his Cutlass and snuck up
Teacher Profile
By Kelsey Bruhn
John Nielsen, Mr. Nielsen as the students
and faculty at MVAO know him, is one of
MVAO’smathematics
teachers. He has been
a teacher at MVAO
for four years, and is
also the boys’ track
coach.
Mr. Nielsen was
born in Council Bluffs
on May 30 th , 1952, and
was raised in Avoca,
Iowa. He graduated
from Avoca-Hancock
High School. One
thing Mr. Nielsen is
proud of is that he
went to high school
with a Miss America
winner.
After graduating, Mr. Nielsen went to the
University of Northern Iowa (UNI) for his B.S.
He also went to Iowa State University (ISU)
for his Masters and Specialist Degrees.
Before Mr. Nielsen became a staff member at
MVAO, he was a principle at Boyer Valley for
16 years. At Boyer Valley, MVAO principal,
Mr. Dougherty, worked for Mr. Nielsen. Mr.
Dougherty stated, “I have worked with Mr.
Nielsen many years. During this time, I
have learned a lot from him. I have valued
our friendship as well as working with him
Heap of the Month
behind the pickup and pushed it into the
driveway. That is also why the one head light
doesn’t work.
After looking at this car, anybody would
know why it is worthy of being heap of the
professionally.”
While Mr. Nielsen is teaching at MVAO, his
wife, Nancy, teaches art
at Woodbine High. John
and Nancy have been
married for 31 years.
Mr. Nielsen says the
advantages of teaching
are that the values of
teaching are essential
and the rewards he
receives are seeing the
students achieve their
goals. His favorite thing
about being a teacher
is associating with the
students and staff. He
likes the students at
MVAO, even the ones
that “evaluate him and
what he wears.” Senior Sam Marsh smiles,
“He usually dresses really nice, but it’s
when his wife isn’t home to dress him in the
morning that his clothes kind of clash. Even
then, he still looks really nice.”
The thing that Mr. Nielsen doesn’t like
about teaching is when he watches students
who are able to be very successful waste their
talents and abilities.
In Mr. Nielsen’s spare time, he likes to ride
his bicycle and play golf. He has ridden in
Ragbrai for the past 16 years.
month. It’s an okay car, just don’t plan on
taking it anywhere farther than three or four
blocks without stopping and restarting it.