The YMCA basketball team made up of Remynse Elementary students won more games than they lost this season. But when principal Matt Brown did his end-of-year review of lessons learned, the successes with the team didn't have a whole lot to do with Ws and Ls. The team finished 6-3 but, more importantly, they learned unity, engagement, goal setting and taking ownership of their behavior. "Being connected as a team is always a good thing," said Brown. | Remynse principal Matt Brown, left, formed a basketball team with his students hoping to teach them more about life than basketball.   

You could easily describe the AISD Area Spelling Bee as a contest resembling the waning rounds of a tense boxing match. By the time Barnett Junior High eighth grader Irfan E. outlasted challenger Chandler N. of Little Elementary for the Area 7 title, they had battled 19 rounds, going toe-to-toe for at least five of them. "I don't know if I'd seen one last this long before," said Advanced Academics Coordinator Julie Porter. "We were running out of words." | Irfan E. from Barnett Junior High and Haley W. from Pope Elementary won the Area 7 and Area 8 Spelling Bee contests, respectively. Irfan spelled perturbed correctly to win, and Haley's winning word was baffling.

Chimera seems to be finding a life of its own. The just-under-five-minutes film produced by Bowie High School students D'Angelo F., Andie Y. and Bryson S. not only advanced to the second round of the UIL film competition but it is also finding an audience elsewhere. Chimera, which tells the story of a young man who hears a noise in his house, goes to investigate it and is sent to a bizarre alternative reality, was screened recently during the Experience Arlington Film Festival at UT Arlington. | Bowie High School senior D'Angelo F. directed the film Chimera.