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| Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet The Woodland Consolidated School had one student from each grade level win state competition of the Zaner Bloser National Handwriting Contest; student winners are, from left, front row: first-grader Riley Burlock, second-grader Jasmine Berry, third-grader Gabrielle Sutherland, fourth grader Hannah Landeen, sixth-grader Hollie McDougal, seventh-grader Makenzie Conroy and eighth-grader Simone Michaud. Absent from photo was fifth-grader Ariel Plucker. |
By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
WOODLAND — Seven new winners from Maine were announced in the Zaner Bloser National Handwriting Contest — and they’re all from Woodland.
The Woodland school had one student from each grade level named a state grade-level winner in the contest, which is highly unlikely.
“We were told that a school might have two or three winners at the state level, but to have eight — one in each grade level — is a rarity,” said teaching principal of the Woodland Consolidated School Susie Schloeman.
The winners were announced during a surprise assembly on the morning of April 3, and the gymnasium was filled with cheers while each student was called to receive their awards.
This was second-grader Jasmine Berry’s second time winning her grade-level in the Zaner Bloser contest statewide, having won last year as a first-grader. Other winners were first-grader Riley Burlock, second-grader Jasmine Berry, third-grader Gabrielle Sutherland, fourth-grader Hannah Landeen, fifth-grader Ariel Plucker, sixth-grader Hollie McDougal, seventh-grader Makenzie Conroy and eighth-grader Simone Michaud.
By the time the assembly was held, however, Plucker and her family had moved out of the school district but Schloeman assured that the second-grader’s parents were informed and they’d be picking up Ariel’s award for her.
As the eldest winner of the bunch, eighth-grade Michaud of Perham said that she’s been a Woodland student since first grade.
“The teachers here teach us at a really young age that handwriting is important, and they teach us a lot about it,” she said.
Michaud said that it took her about 45 minutes to pen her submission to the contest, and it looks nothing like her handwriting when she’s quickly jotting down notes in class.
“I don’t think I have neat handwriting, honestly, but I tried pretty hard,” she said.
The hard work of the eight Woodland students paid off with the unprecedented sweep.
“I think it’s really cool that everyone won,” she said of her fellow Zaner Bloser state winners, “ I don’t think I could have done it at their young age.”
Expressing how proud she was of the students, Schloeman expressed that the awards speak to the staff as well as the students. With the unprecedented Woodland handwriting win, Schloeman credited the success to the staff’s dedication to instilling good penmanship values and the students’ desire to take pride in perfection.
While many students, like Michaud, took the better part of an hour to pen their entries into the contest, Schloeman said that the annual contest is something that the students generally like to do.
“It’s a little challenge for them,” she said.
Possibly a contributing factor in the landslide victory, Woodland teachers historically begin introducing students to cursive in the middle of second grade.
“I think cursive is important to learn, because if someone wants to write an important letter or something like that it has to be neat — and cursive is pretty neat,” said Michaud.
When the eighth-grader was asked if there was anything else she’d like the community to know for the story, Michaud promptly had this to say:
“Woodland is a good school and I like it.”
