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!

Don't forget to share this blog on facebook and Google +!!

TMCS OM Team finishes FIRST in Spontaneous Problem Solving at NC State Finals!!

Odyssey of the Mind teams are evaluated in three different categories during competition, Long Term, Style and Spontaneous.  A team could possibly earn 350 points, 200 for Long Term, 50 for Style and 100 points for Spontaneous.  Teams receive a base "raw" score for each category and then a relative point total is calculated with the highest raw scores being transformed into the highest possible score, 200, 50 and 100 respectively.

Long term refers to the play that the team develops before competition.  It needs to be 8 minutes long and include all the requirements listed in the detailed problem description (see last post for Odyssey Angels).  At competition, each team performs their play and the judges evaluate them for creativity, performance quality and meeting all the requirements of the problem.  Our team scored First Place in their division in Long Term at the Western Regional Odyssey of the Mind competition at Enka High School on February 25! Check out the scores from the Western Regionals at: Western Regional Scores

TMCS Odyssey Angels at Regional Competition, Enka High School February 2012

The Style Category is an opportunity for the team to show their creative artistic abilities beyond the minimum requirements of the play.  Teams select the most creative aspects of their play and the judges evaluate them for originality, creativity and effectiveness in the performance.

The Spontaneous Competition involves the team working together to solve a spontaneous problem challenge on-site at the competition.  They are judged on the creativity and effectiveness of the solution and how well they work together as a team.  The NC State Odyssey of the Mind Finals included the top 10 Odyssey of the Mind teams from across the state of North Carolina and our team finished FIRST in the state, in spontaneous problem solving!!  This amazing performance catapulted the team into qualifying for the first OM World Finals competition ever for The Mountain Community School and the first World Finals team from Henderson County in nearly 10 years!

Here are the scores from the NC State OM finals held at Wingate University in Wingate, NC on March 31, 2012:  Odyssey Angels NC State Finals Scores

We are so proud of these Odyssey Angels, the Number 1 Spontaneous Problem Solvers in North Carolina!

Odyssey of the Mind is an international student competition focused on creativity and teamwork where teams develop a long term project and present their solution and solve a spontaneous creative challenge at competition.  Teams of seven students work together to create a play which incorporates a wide range of requirements focused on a central theme.

Odyssey of the mind is a unique program in many ways but one important aspect of this program is that the students involved must do everything associated with the solution of their problem, themselves, without any outside assistance.  

Check out their website for more details:  http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/

The Mountain Community School Team consisting of two 8th graders, four 7th graders and one 6th grader, began working in November of 2011 on national problem #5, Odyssey Angels.  The problem asks the team to create a play which can be performed in less than 8 minutes about Odyssey Angels that are students who work together to help people solve their problems.  One of the Angels must have some kind of team created special power, and another Angel must not be able to speak.  The Angels are to solve two team created different problems of two different individuals and then solve a team created community-wide problem.

The team worked on the play for months focused on the Western NC Odyssey of the Mind Competition which would be held at Enka High School on Saturday, February 25, 2012.

TMCS Odyssey Angels Take 2nd at NC State Finals

The TMCS Odyssey Angels team finished 2nd at the NC State Odyssey of the Mind Tournament on Saturday March 31, 2012 at Wingate University in Wingate, NC.  They are now headed to the World Finals at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa on May 23-26!!!

Congratulations!!

Follow the team on this blog and join with us to help support the team's 1000 mile trip to the OM World Finals!