OM World Finals Great Learning Experience

What a great experience the Odyssey Angels had at World Finals!

The Awards Ceremony was amazing and although we ended up not getting recognized at the ceremony, it was a tremendous success for our team.  We couldn't be more proud of what they have accomplished.

Awards Ceremony

Awards Ceremony

The team from Singapore won the Odyssey Angels Division II group.  We got to see them perform and it was fantastic!  Their theme was music and their angels solved the problems of Hip and Hop had broken up and they got them back together, the Oldies we losing energy and they re-energized them.  Their community problem was music piracy and they solved that problem by "Syncing" the pirates.  They sang and danced nearly the whole time with the songs telling the story.  I was so glad the team got to see the performance.  It was a great example of what the possibilities are.

World Champion Singapore Team

Things went really well and we were proud of our performance at the competition.  We ended up in the middle of the pack out of 57 state or national champion teams.  You can check out the final standings at:

World Finals Scores

Performance Room

Breakdown Dumpster

We left Iowa State University at 1:30 am on Sunday and finally arrived back home at about 10:00 pm!  it was a long bus ride.  The team was still singing as we arrived at the pick up site!

Wind Farm in Illinois

We had a fantastic and memorable trip.  Thank you so much to our entire community for following and supporting this once in a lifetime trip.  They are already talking about next year!  Thank you again!

Performance - Long Term Problem

Today we rocked our Long-Term performance, BIG TIME!  The conditions were a bit challenging because the performance was in a lecture hall with an immovable (by rule that is, we COULD have moved it if they would have let us!) lectern right in the middle of the performance area!  So instead of a huge performance space, we had to do the whole play in half the space (avoiding the Titanic in the middle of the stage).  It was pretty tight.  The good news is we JUST made the time (the plays cannot be longer than 8 minutes), so no overtime penalty!

Emily had been hoping to meet someone from Poland on this trip and as luck would have it, our team was assigned a "shadow" who just so happened to be from Poland!  A shadow is a coach from another country who follows teams through the performance process to see what it is like.

After the performance with our Polish Shadow

With the World Finals Odyssey Angels Problem Captain

What do we do with the set now?

According to my Stopwatch we made it just in time!

The team did a great job and even got a standing O from a few of the judges.  The practices had been a little shaky just before the scored performance, but they were spot on when it counted.  We have seen several plays from other World competitors but so far ours has definitely been one of the better ones!  When we got our raw scores from the judging team we were pleasantly surprised to see that we score higher than we did at the NC State Finals (and that score qualified us to be here!).  It was a very good day.

After the performance, the team got the honor of tearing down the set (literally!) in celebration of a job well done!

Tomorrow we will be watching plays from Sinapore and Hong Kong as well as many others.  A team from Germany followed our performance today but we didn't get a chance to see it.

Spontaneous!

Wednesday afternoon the team competed in the Spontaneous portion of the World Finals.  In this competition, students are presented with a problem that takes creativity and teamwork to solve.  They are given a short period of time to plan and then they have to solve the problem in the most creative way they can. They are judged on results (the extent they actually solved the problem), creativity and teamwork.

Getting ready to ROCK Spontaneous

Rocking with Japan in the holding room!!

Tomorrow we perform the play at 10:21 (Central)! Keep us in your thoughts!!

Opening Ceremonies!!

The Opening Ceremony was Awesome!  There were slide shows, fire, flashing lights and a laser light show!  We had fantastic seats and there was a huge JumboTron on the ceiling.

 

 


They start the ceremony off with a processional of representatives from each country and state participating (like the opening of the Olympics).  Taylor was our team representative with the North Carolina Delegation in the processional and she even got to help carry our NCOM banner!!

 

Thursday morning will be spent recovering from the bus ride, unpacking and getting our set ready, pin trading, watching some performances and slamming our Spontaneous problem at 3:01!

We perform tomorrow at 10:20 (Central Time).  Keep us in your thoughts!!

Arrived at World Finals!!

We all survived the epic bus ride.  When we pulled onto the Iowa State Campus at 1:00 (Central Time) we had spent approximately 20 hours on the trip.  The scenery was great once the sun came up but we had a hard time seeing the mountains here!  Saw a lot of wind farms in Illinois at sunrise, pretty cool

Wind Farm in Illinois

Wakin up is hard to do..........




 

Breakfast at Cracker Barrell!

 

We ended up being just off campus in a hotel and we're getting cleaned up, rested up and organized..  Opening Ceremonies at 7:30 tonight at the Hilton Arena!

Our Spontaneous competition is Thursday at 3:00 and Long Term (the play) is Friday at 10:30 (Central Time).

It is great to be off that bus!

Here We Go!!

We are on the road to Iowa!  We met the bus in Asheville, picked up the Waynesville Middle School Team and hit the road at 6 30 for the 1000 mile trip.

Thank you again to all our wonderful supporters who made this trip possible!

Odyssey Angels Car Wash Huge Success!

Thank you to all the supporters who came out and helped with the car wash today!! It was awesome!  We raised over $700 and have almost reached 100% of our fundraising goal!  Thank you to O'Charley's for allowing us to use their facilities!!!  Thank you!

 

 

 

 


We leave for Iowa and OM World Finals in 3 Days!!

See you at the Gnarliest Kids Adventure Race Ever at Camp Pinnacle tomorrow!!

Car Wash Saturday, May 19, 2012 O'Charley's Walmart Shopping Center

EOG Tests are now over and the Angels will be focusing full time on preparing for World Finals!

We are still about $1700 away from our fundraising goal of $7200 for the trip and are still in need support for our trip!  Please be an Angel and help support our trip!  Click on the Support our Trip to World Finals above to find out how to be part of this effort!

This coming Saturday, May 19, 2012, we will hold our final fundraiser, a Car Wash at O'Charley's restaurant in the Walmart Shopping Center off 64 in Hendersonville from 10-2pm.  Please come out and get your car washed to support our team!!

Click on the page Come to the Car Wash! for more info and a flier you can post around town!  Spread the word!

World Finals Schedule Set

The 2012 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals competition schedule is now posted on-line!

The Odyssey Angels will compete in Spontaneous on Thursday with our Long Term performance on Friday!

There are 55 teams in our division including teams from South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Poland!  It truly is an international event.

Check out the schedule at: 2012 World Finals Odyssey Angels Division II Schedule

You can find out more about World Finals at:  2012 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals

If you would like more information about this year's Odyssey Problems check out the 2012 OM Problems

Also, the 2013 Problem Synopses are also on-line:  2013 OM Problems

Remember to spread the word about effort to raise money to take this trip!  Click on the Support Our Trip to World Finals and donate to this great cause on-line!

Angels Hold Dance to Raise Money for World Finals Trip

The Odyssey Angels (Angel FISH, that is) held an Under the Sea dance for our middle school to help raise money for the trip to Iowa State University and the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals.

TMCS Odyssey Angels

The dance was well attended and very well planned.  The attendees had a great time with great music (Thanks Noah!), lots of dancing, Fotos from Fishland, a 50-50 raffle, pizza and snacks and even a couple of teachers dancing the Cupid Shuffle (not naming any names here)!

The dance was a tremendous success and raised over $300 for our trip!  Congratulations Angels and thank you to everyone who came out to support the team!


The next fundraiser will be a car wash in a week or two (follow the blog for dates and times!).

Thank you so much to everyone who has pitched in to help support this wonderful group of kids!  You are truly TMCS Odyssey Angels!!

There is still time for you to also Be a TMCS Odyssey Angel and join our effort to get this team to World Finals!  Just click the Support Our Trip to World Finals Page (above) and click the donate button!  Your tax deductible donation is just that easy!  Thank you so much!

Local TV News team visits TMCS to meet Angels!

WLOS TV news anchor Tammy Watford visited The Mountain Community School today to do a story on the Odyssey Angels and their trip to World Finals!

Odyssey Angels meet with Tammy Watford

Congratulations Team!

Check out the story at the WLOS website:  
http://www.wlos.com/shared/newsroom/features/learning/videos/wlos_vid_915.shtml

Pleas consider helping to support our trip to World Finals!  Click on Support our Trip.  Thank you!

Go Angels!!

Into Uncharted Waters.....

Rocket Science - Science Olympiad

The Mountain Community School has been involved in Odyssey of the Mind for nearly every year of its existence (13 years).  We believe that activities like this, which focus on creativity, problem solving and teamwork, represent the essential skills that our students will need in the 21st Century.

Stream Investigation

We are fortunate to have the flexibility to incorporate this project into our regular class schedule during the school day.  Two days a week, we offer our middle school students extended elective Exploratory classes where they can take part in multi-age investigations in a variety of endeavors such as Field Ecology, Physics, Science Olympiad, Spanish, Southern Appalachian Musical Heritage, Odyssey of the Mind, Art, and Drama just to name a few.

Field Ecology

Our Odyssey Angles team spent their time in Exploratory Classes developing their play, designing and making their costumes, building their set, practicing spontaneous and preparing for the regional competition.

Preparing the Fishland Reef

After several months of hard work, it was time to take our play to the Western Regional Odyssey of the Mind Competition at Enka High School.  We knew we were up against stiff competition.  There were teams in our division from schools who have had a long history of success in Odyssey of the Mind.  One school,  has been to World Finals many times over the years.  We felt very fortunate to have the highest scoring long term play at regionals and qualify for the NC State Finals at Wingate University.

We have been fortunate to be successful at Regional competitions many times in recent years (we have had 7 teams in the last six years qualify for the NC State Finals).  Three members of this year's team were on a team last year that won first place at the regional competition and made the trip to the state finals.  Fortunately, this year we were able to return to the state finals with a much more experienced team.

NC State Finals!  Now on to World Finals!!

We have had state finals experience at TMCS in the past, but this is our school's very first trip to World Finals! Our Odyssey Angels, (Angel FISH that is), find themselves in uncharted waters for our small school (only 60 students in the ENTIRE middle school) We now have the daunting task of raising a staggering amount of money ( about $8000) to fund this once in a lifetime trip to OM World Finals for our team.
  

The Team is working hard with fundraising projects such as dances, car washes and in-school promotions, but we will need help from this community to make this dream trip a reality.  We are asking everyone within the sound of our voices to help make this happen for these fantastic, hardworking students.

Be and Angel and join our Odyssey!
If you think you might be able to help us, please click the link to the "Support our Trip to World Finals" page where you can donate on-line by clicking the DONATE button on that page using PayPal, MasterCard or Visa.  Any amount will be a tremendous help, it is only a few clicks away.

You can also send donations to the school:

The Mountain Community School 

613 Glover Street

Hendersonville, NC 28792

Thank you!!!

Also don't forget.  The Mountain Community School is a tuition free K-8 Public Charter School in Hendersonville, NC which is open to any students in Henderson County (and surrounding counties).  Our open enrollment period for the 2012-2013 School Year will be closing on April 20, 2012 and our Admission Lottery will be held on May 8.  If you are interested, now is the time to become part of our community! Please come by the school and take a tour, we would love to have you!

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