History Sure is Sweet: Shields’ Sweet 16

Submitted by jennifer.dunn on

This year is the eighth year that Mr. Shields, a US History teacher at SJHS, has been doing the “Sweet 16” to help students study for the States of USA test. Mr. Shields has two students stand up and try to say the state he points to as fast as they can. They eliminate each student until there are the top three of each class, and those three go into the Sweet 16.  It was a close competition between Parker Stewart and Monte Taylor. Parker Stewart came out on top. 

Parker Stewart, the first place winner, said, “It’s one of my favorite things so far.” According to Parker, all the seventh graders should try to get into the Sweet 16 when they are in eighth grade. In order to prepare, he had someone in his family point to a random state and he had to say it as fast as he could.  He also recommends practicing in class while other people are doing it. According to Parker, he was not really nervous until the final four. 

Monte Taylor came in with a close second, followed by Cooper Riggs and Kelby Jeppson. According to Monte, he was really excited especially when the competition got intense. All of the final three had a lot of fun doing it and encourage anyone to try to get into it, even if they do not think they will be good at it. 

Mr. Shields has a lot of fun doing it and sure knows all of the states after pointing to each of them 100 times per year. According to Mr. Shields, he thinks the students have fun doing it and and it helps them learn. He said, “Whenever you have a competition it makes people try harder and they seem to care to succeed more.” 

Good job to the students who made it to the Sweet 16: Parker Stewart, Monte Taylor, Cooper Riggs, Kelby Jeppson, Johnny Acevedo, Mikayla Robison, Zack Smith, Bryce Allen, Savannah Clyde, Kenna McNeil, Ahna Hullinger, Sydney Tolley, Will Francom, Bailee Parker, Max Davis, and Evelyn Ethington!

Attributions
Anna Birch; SJHS Staff Writer