Building Bridges

8th grade students worked in pairs to create a bridge with given materials during their lunch meeting. Every bridge had to look the same and groups weren't allowed to see each other. In addition, there was a new language for students to use. Ask your 8th grade student about what materials they could use and how the bridges turned out!

September and October Update

The 2011-2012 school year is off to a great start! September and October have been very busy months. Here's a quick look at what we have been doing...

* Prior to the start of school, I met with the Dolphins team teachers to discuss each student and plan enrichment opportunities for first marking period. I met with the team again following the completion of all GIEP meetings to review updated GIEP information.
* GIEP meetings for all 8th grade Paltag students were held with each student preparing and presenting a powerpoint about themselves as a learner/leader and their plans for the future. Each student will be presenting their powerpoint to the Dolphins team teachers in early November as well.
* School store was open during the Middle School open house in August as well as one day during lunches in both September and October.
* We began preparing and planning for the 5th grade video, including taping parts of the open house in August and interviewing current middle school students.
* During reading workshop in Mrs. Wehr's language arts class, students conferenced with me about the books they are currently reading.
* I met individually with students in September and October.
* The September lunch meeting focused on introducing the powerpoint presentation for GIEP meetings.
* At the October lunch meeting, we looked at the high school course catalog and summer reading requirements for the honors language arts courses. This information is available on the school district webpage (www.pasd.us), by clicking on the student/parent information link and then clicking on the high school option.
* Several 8th grade Paltag students responded to my request to help teachers and students at Pine Street Elementary.

I am very proud of all the 8th grade students for their thoughtful preparation of the powerpoint presentation. Each student put time and effort into thinking about themselves as students and leaders as well as their plans for the future.

The spelling bee is coming up at the middle school. Sign ups for the written spelling bee will be held next week in language arts classes. Based on the results of the written spelling bee, students will be invited to participate in the oral spelling bee. Please consider participating in this event.

Also, sign ups for the peer mentors program took place last week during lunches. This is a program run through the school counseling office. The peer mentors program takes place on Wednesdays after school. Peer mentors work with other students at the middle school in need of support. If interested in participating, please contact Mrs. Dorwart in the counseling office.

May Lunch Meeting

PALTAG students are invited to a lunch meeting on Tuesday, May 10th. We will have several 9th grade PALTAG students with us to talk about high school, the courses they are taking, etc. Students will have the opportunity to ask questions about high school as well. I am hopeful this will give them answers to their questions while also giving them a few more familiar faces to see at the high school.

7th grade PALTAG students will be visiting the elementary schools to have lunch with 5th grade LEAP students. They will be talking with them about middle school. Again, my hope is that the 5th graders will have some questions answered for them while also having a few friendly faces at the middle school next year.

On Friday, May 13th 8th grade PALTAG students will have the opportunity to meet with Rep. Gingrich. She will be joining us during lunch to talk with the 8th graders about the budget situation and answer any of their questions.

End of the 3rd Quarter

It's hard to believe how quickly the days are flying by! The third quarter is over and we are already into the 4th quarter. I am very proud of our students for how well they are doing in their classes. I met with all 7th and 8th grade students this past week to check in and see how everything was going. When meeting with 8th graders, we reviewed their course requests and talked about the transition to high school.

We met as grade level groups on Wednesday during lunches. The challenge during lunch was to think like an astronaut. Students were presented with a brief scenario from NASA. In the scenario, students were on a space exploration that didn't quite make it to the intended destination. They were given a list of 15 things and had to rank those items according to usefulness and importance. When finished, we compared their rankings to those of NASA. What did your student think was the most important thing to have with them?

We continue to update Moodle with enrichment opportunities and contests for our students. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have. Thank you for all of your help and support at home!

Geography Bee and Math League Contest

Students at Palmyra Middle School were offered the opportunity to participate in two new special events this year. The National Geography Bee took place in December. Interested 7th and 8th graders answered geography related questions with the highest five scorers in each round advancing to the final round. 7th grader Brandon Charochak took first place!

The Math League contest took place on Tuesday, February 15th. Students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades signed up to participate in the written contest. These students were given 35 multiple choice questions to answer in 30 minutes.

Book Fair

The Scholastic Book Fair was a huge success! Classes visited the book fair with one of their team teachers last week. 7th and 8th grade PALTAG students were assigned a time period to "work" at the book fair. During their scheduled work time, students assisted others with shopping, pricing, etc., as well as helping organize and restock items. As a result of our sales, the middle school has earned Scholastic dollars to purchase books for the library.

Book Fair and Bridges

Last week, 8th grade students worked in groups to create a bridge with given materials during their lunch meeting. While this may sound easy, there was a catch. Every bridge had to look the same and groups weren't allowed to see each other. In addition, there was a new language for students to use. Ask your 8th grade student about what materials they could use and how the bridges turned out! 7th graders will be participating in a similar activity at our next meeting as well.

7th and 8th grade students will be helping with the book fair this week. Students have been assigned a one class time period to work. Teachers have been notified and I have asked students to let the teacher of the class they will be missing know ahead of time. They are responsible for any missed work during this time.

The Gifted/Enrichment page on Moodle has just been updated with several new opportunities for students. One fun one that I'd like to mention is the Doodle 4 Google contest. Students in grades K-12 are asked to redesign the Google logo. This year's theme is "what I'd like to do someday." More info can be found at http://www.google.com/doodle4google/.

Mid Year Update

As we end the second marking period, I would like to take this opportunity to check in with all of our parents and guardians. I continue to meet individually with the students each month as well as meeting as a group for a lunch meeting. For 8th grade students, our upcoming individual meetings will focus on scheduling for 9th grade. Our monthly school store has been quite a success. The 7th and 8th grade students seem to enjoy ordering and selling items during lunch time once a month.

Palmyra Middle School will be participating in the Math League competition this year. 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students were invited to sign up in their math classes. If your child would like to participate, but hasn't signed up, please have them see me or their math teacher as soon as possible.

End of 2nd Quarter

Parents & Guardians -
Can you believe the end of the 2nd quarter is almost here! This year is going very quickly and I continue to enjoy working with your students.

I met with all 7th and 8th grade gifted students individually at the beginning of the month. During this time we reviewed goals set at the beginning of the year. We discussed their progress on meeting those goals and revised as needed. For 8th grade students, we also talked about scheduling for 9th grade.

Our lunch meeting was held on Monday, January 10th. Students had the opportunity to interact with each other and talk about our school store and the upcoming Scholastic Book Fair. The book fair will be held during the week of February 14th in the Middle School library. Students will have the opportunity to work a shift during that week, pending team teacher approval.

School store continues to be successful! Last Friday (January 14th) was our most recent adventure. With winter and Valentine's Day themed merchandise having just arrived, students were very excited to see some new items available. Our next school store will be held on Friday, February 4th.

As the second quarter comes to a close, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have. Ms. Creekmore, Mr. Makuch, and I continue to update the gifted/enrichment Moodle page as information is given to us. I appreciate all of your help and support at home.