The future took center stage today at Gobles Middle/High School, as Michigan Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley joined school leaders, Representative Aric Nesbitt, and Senator John Proos to announce the establishment of a special program in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education, STEM for short, that promises to change the way students prepare for the future at Gobles Public Schools.

STEM programming in Gobles will focus on the biomedical sciences, an area where Gobles is already an established leader. Biology students in Gobles Middle School participate in hands-on science through a long-standing partnership with the Michigan State University Kellogg Biological Station, and students in Gobles High School are able to take advanced and AP classes in biology, participate in Biology Club activities, and even travel to the Bahamas to do field research on tropical ecology on coral reefs.

Lt. Governor Calley told Gobles students and administrators he was impressed with the vision the district has for STEM programming. According to Calley, STEM middle and high school students are the individuals our state will look to invent and discover and create a prosperous future for all of Michigan.

“I am excited about the scientific inquiry process that is being used and developed here,” Calley said. “STEM is going to open up doors for all of us, and this program is going to open a lot of doors for students in Gobles Public Schools.”

According to Principal Phil McAndrew, the assembly to kick off the STEM program in Gobles was a great opportunity to show the public about the past and present of biomedical programming in Gobles, and that the future is going to be very exciting as well.

“STEM is the way education needs to go, because it’s the way the world is going,” McAndrew said. “At Gobles we are always working to be at the leading edge of instruction, and we are now partnered with The State of Michigan and corporate partners to be at the leading edge of innovation in STEM, all to better prepare our kids to be the ones to solve the problems of the future that don’t even exist yet.”

There is an old tongue-in-cheek saying that the reward for a job well done is more work to do. Last year Chris Miller was recognized as the Michigan Athletic Director of the Year for our region, and his reward for the job well done is the opportunity to do more work on behalf of high school athletics in Michigan.

Miller was recently elected to the Class C and D Representative Council for the Michigan High School Athletic Association, and in this role he will work with officials in Lansing and across the state to improve and promote high school athletics for the small schools of Southwestern Lower Michigan. He was elected by small-school principals and superintendents from across several counties who know Miller’s reputation as a consummate professional and the excellent reputation of Gobles Athletics. It is a position he will hold for two years.

“There is no question that the excellent reputation of the Gobles athletics program is what got me elected,” Miller said. “The Gobles name, and reputation of our coaches and student-athletes, is second to none, and I couldn’t be more proud to represent Gobles and all the small schools in our region in Lansing.”

Miller felt it was time to step into this new opportunity as it was an opportunity to better himself in his profession.

"The Gobles name, and the reputation of our coaches and student-athletes, is second to none..."

“We expect our coaches and our athletes to work hard to get better, and I am holding myself to the same standard,” he said. “I am honored to represent all the Class C and D schools in Southwest Lower Michigan, and I owe it to all the schools to work hard for them. I expect to learn a lot more about athletics in The State of Michigan that I can bring back to help improve programs for our students and coaches.”

Though he knows there will be hard work, Miller knows he already has what he needs to be successful here in Gobles.

“The key to my success is having a great coaching staff and great kids to work with,” Miller said. “And I have the best athletic secretary in The State of Michigan who really knows how to make me look good.”

Autumn is a magical time at Gobles Elementary School for students, when pumpkins turn into storybook characters, and a magician made objects disappear while talking to students about kindness, character, and the challenge of bullies.

Pumpkins in October are a common site, but usually they are the grinning and sneering type that wait on front porches for Halloween night. But this fall students at Gobles Elementary School turned pumpkins into well-known characters from stories they are reading in class, thanks to a generous donation from Harvest Moon Farm.

When kindergarten teacher Suzie Stambek found out about the donation of pumpkins, she invited her colleagues to get their creative juices going for an October celebration of reading and literacy. The result, pumpkins decorated as characters from stories read in class that line school display cases.

"As teachers the fall can be such a busy time," Stambek said. "We're all so busy analyzing data, giving assessments, and creating interventions, that it can be easy to forget about the creativity and fun of teaching, and our kids need that, too. The pumpkins were a way to celebrate reading in the fall, instead of just during March (reading month). Reading and the fun of learning should be part of what we celebrate all year."

During the Halloween festival held at school, magician Alan Kazam told students that working with bullies doesn't take magic, but rather that all kids need to treat everyone well, and to always talk to an adult if problems come up with a bully at school or on the bus. During his show he made bunnies magically appear in the hand of one student, and he made a drawing seemingly come to life and talk, but it was all a fun way to talk to students about how they act and how they should treat others.

"Magicians never give away their secrets," he told his enthusiastic audience. "But when it comes to bullies we never keep secrets. We always tell an adult who can help you or others fix the situation."

It's all part of the magic of autumn in our elementary school in Gobles.