Students will continue to work on the 8th grade book project for St. Jude. All books are due Tuesday with the exception of 4th period. Theirs must be turned in on Wed.

ALL STUDENTS NEED TO RETURN THE GRAMMAR BOOK THAT WAS SENT HOME AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR. ANY STUDENT WHO DOES NOT BRING IT BACK ON TUESDAY WILL HAVE SILENT LUNCH UNTIL IT IS RETURNED

Fines have been assessed for damaged literature and grammar books. Students have been notified if they owe money. All money should be paid by Wed., May 13th.

A few students still have not paid the $1.50 for the book project; it was due by April 20th

Poems will not be accepted after Wed. the 13th (due April 27th)

Some students STILL have not returned the blue form about the promotion ceremony!

This includes the following:

current text (Tarzan or Tangerine at this time)

LOOSELEAF NOTEBOOK PAPER not paper torn from a spiral

journal (composition notebook)

2 blue or black pens

2 #2 pencils – already sharpened

Students are also supposed to have a highlighter and a red pen or pencil.

• Bring in clippings or books that use vocabulary words or grammar or punctuation errors and earn white homework coupons (10 white homework coupons = one overnight homework assignment).

• Books must be approved by Mrs. Nall prior to reading.
• Take the AR online test at school by the deadline.
• The directions for the written report (for FICTION books only!) are now online. Check the heading links for this new page.
• For non-fiction books, see Mrs. Nall for the forms to complete.
• Regular classes must read one book, enriched classes must read two books.

I am including his comments below: 

“She began teaching at Collierville Middle School in 1989. ”

I remember that part!

Hi, Mrs. Nall — it’s Chris Baker from your 1989-90 seventh-grade English class. I recently rediscovered my journal that you had us write, which made me think, “Hmm… I wonder what would happen if I Googled ‘mrs. nall’ and ‘collierville middle school’…” The result: Finding your blog here!

I wish I had more time right now to tell you what I’m up to these days, but the really quick version is that I’ve got a bit of a dream job in L.A. working in Marvel’s videogame division. Before this, I did a PR for about two and half years at LucasArts (George Lucas’ game company) and was an editor for the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine for almost five years, both in San Francisco. Actually, most of the details are here: http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=4447664&trk=tab_pro

Oh, and you’ll definitely want to check out my blog at the URL I included. The last few entries are all about looking back at my old journal, and you’re even mentioned in the pages within.

Anyway…thanks for being an awesome teacher I’ll always remember. I hope all is well!

All my best,
Chris

If you have any questions, email is the easiest way to get in touch: mnall@scsk12.org

You may also call the school at 854-2345 and leave a message.

Mrs. Marsha Anderson-Smith Nall

(Anderson-Smith is her maiden name, same as her four sisters, brother, father, grandfather, etc. Since we’re speaking of her family of origin here, it might be interesting to note that her two older sisters are also teachers (one at CBHS, the other at St. Francis), while the two younger ones, respectively, became a nurse and a businesswoman. Her brother moved to Alaska [Where would you go if you had five sisters?] and is involved in genome research at the university in Anchorage.)

Personal Information

She was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, sometime after the great earthquake that formed the Oxbow at Reelfoot.

Her family moved to Memphis sometime after the War of Northern Aggression, otherwise known as the War Between the States, never acknowledged as a civil war. She attended St. Louis School for a few years but was graduated from White Station High School sometime after the Korean Police Conflict. (It never was a Congressionally declared war!)

Her children are all adults now, and she has three adorable, precious, wonderful, sweet grandchildren.

Professional Information

She was graduated from Memphis State University with two majors: English and Russian. (Alas, it has been decades since she has read or spoken Russian, and since she didn’t use it, she did indeed lose it.)

For many years she worked for Memphis and Shelby County Public Library and actually worked for several years at the Collierville Branch Library back when it was by the town square. Then she decided to be a stay-at-home mom (Yes, she did have children by then so she could legitimately be a stay-at-home mom; eventually, she and her husband were blessed with three beautiful girls [inside and out!] and one son [Can we say handsome inside and out?] ) but worked part-time for several years at The Carpenter’s Shop bookstore or at First Evangelical Church in the mother’s day out program.

When her youngest was close to school age, she experienced what some might call a mid-life crisis which caused her to go back to college for a master’s degree. After successful completion of course work, thesis (Would you like to read it?), and student teaching, she began teaching at Collierville Middle School in 1989. In 2002 her husband’s job was transferred to Middle Tennesse, so she decided she probably ought to go with him as he had become something of a habit after 30 years. She taught in the program for gifted students for several years in Rutherford County before returning to the Memphis area and has been at Schilling Farms since 2006.

She is one of the Beta Club sponsors and trains and takes students to the National Junior Beta Club State Convention where the students compete in academic competitions.

She is a member of National Council of Teachers of English, National Association of Gifted Children, and Christian Educators Association, International. She has been chosen as the Rotary Club Teacher of the Year, and has been in Who’s Who Among America’s High School Teachers three times. (This is considered a very high accolade because that recognition comes from former students who are selected as students for Who’s Who Among America’s High School Students who are then asked to choose their best teacher from grades K-12.)

In her spare time she is an avid reader, works crossword puzzles, plays Scrabble, enjoys cooking, and has been known to watch some of the reality TV shows. She loves middle-schoolers, reading, writing, literature in general, word games, and teaching.