Holiday Party Contribution and Movie Permission for 12/19

Milton Middle School

House B

December 15, 2014

Dear House B Families,

We are having a ½ day holiday party on Friday afternoon before break.  Each advisory is responsible for making a contribution to our event.  If you could check in with your child to see how you can help that would be much appreciated.  Here is how we divided responsibility for snacks and drinks:

Advisory Teacher, Party Contribution

Allard, plates, cups, plasticware, napkins

Chanin, chips, pretzels, popcorn

Krembs, drinks (no soda)

Lemnah, plates, cups, plasticware, napkins

Roof, fun holiday munchies

Taggart, cookies/ baked goods

Also, we will be playing two movies.  We are choosing from the following depending on availability:

White House Down, PG-13

Elf, PG

Miracle, PG

Home Alone, PG

If you DO NOT want your child to watch one of these movies, please contact your child’s advisory teacher.  The best way to reach us is by email.  If we do not hear from you, we will assume that your child is free to choose the movie they would like to see.

Thanks for your help with our celebration.  Our best wishes to you all for peace and joy in the new year.

Regards,

House B Teachers

House B Calendar of Events November, 2014 

House B teachers are committed to keeping you and your child informed of the month's major events within House B and the larger school community.  This month teachers created the calendar of events, but in the future House B student leaders will create the calendar.  Your child received a copy of the calendar to bring home on Friday, October 31.
Click here for a digital copy of the calendar.

Student-Led Parent Conferences

Tuesday, November 18th and Thursday, November 20th

Dear House B Families, 

Your child brought home a letter and form for you to sign up for your Student-Led Parent Conference.  This is a valuable and challenging learning experience for your child, so your participation is very important.  The letter is copied below for your information. Please let us know the time that works best for you. Feel free to email if that is more convenient. Your child's advisory teacher will confirm the time.  

We look forward to seeing you in a few weeks!

House B Teachers

_______________________________________

Milton Town School District

      42 Herrick Avenue, Milton, VT 05468-3097 (802) 893-5400

www.mtsd-vt.org

HOUSE B

October 31, 2014

Dear House B Families,

It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of the first trimester of the school year.  That means it’s time for the first round of Student-Led Parent Conferences!  We know that you discuss school and learning with your child on a regular basis.  We invite you to participate in this opportunity to have a more formal and structured discussion your child leads to reflect on his or her successes, challenges, and growth during this trimester.

At the Student-Led Parent Conference, your child will share a portfolio of artifacts of his or her learning – work from each class that he or she has thoughtfully selected to demonstrate learning and growth.  In addition to these artifacts, your child will discuss reflections on successes and challenges in each academic area, and the goals he or she set for the first trimester of the year. These goals encompass both lifelong learning skills and the Habits of Mind that students are striving to achieve in our Middle School: flexible thinking, preparedness, citizenship, persistence, and precision.  While all teachers will be present during the conferences, please know that the purpose of the conference is for your child to share his/her learning experience with you. Unlike a traditional parent-teacher conference, it is difficult for each teacher to visit each conference because of the time pressures.  If you have specific concerns or questions that don’t get addressed, please contact your child’s teachers individually and separately from the conferences.

We are scheduling conferences on the evenings of Tuesday, November 18th and Thursday, November 20th from 4:00PM to 7:00PM in classrooms 205, 206, 212, and 213.  We look forward to seeing you at this important event!

Sincerely,

Debbie Chanin - Consulting Teacher Josh Roof - Humanities

Greer Krembs - Science Ellen H. Taggart - Humanities

Francine Lemnah - Math

Additional members of House B who may/may not attend the conferences, but are available via email and phone:

Karen Allard- Consulting Teacher and House B Advisor 
Tami Koester - Speech Language Pathologist

Please complete and detach the section below, and return to your child's advisor.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Please indicate your FIRST and SECOND choice for a conference time. We will confirm the scheduled time of your conference.*

___ 4:00–4:30pm on Tuesday,November 18 ___ 4:00–4:30pm on Thursday, November 20

___ 4:30-5:00pm on Tuesday, November 18 ___ 4:30-5:00pm on Thursday, November 20

___ 5:00-5:30pm on Tuesday, November 18 ___ 5:00-5:30pm on Thursday, November 20

___ 5:30-6:00pm on Tuesday, November 18 ___ 5:30-6:00pm on Thursday, November 20

___ 6:00-6:30pm on Tuesday, November 18 ___ 6:00-6:30pm on Thursday, November 20

___ 6:30-7:00pm on Tuesday, November 18 ___ 6:30-7:00pm on Thursday, November 20

___ 7:00-7:30pm on Tuesday, November 18 ___ 7:00-7:30pm on Thursday, November 20

Student: ________________________________________________________________

Attendees: _______________________________________________________________

Best way to confirm the conference time (email or phone number):
_________________________________________________________________________

Progress Reports for Trimester 1

Progress reports were sent home with students today.  Each student receives a packet containing a cover letter and a report from Humanities, Math, and Science that describe the units students are studying and how students are progressing.  Please fill out the cover letter and return it to school by this Friday, October 24th.  If you have specific questions, please contact the appropriate teacher (contact information is on the cover letter).

Cover letter:

Trimester 1 Progress Report

August 27, 2014 – October 10, 2014

House B

After reviewing your child’s progress report, please complete this form and have your child return this to their advisor.  The progress reports are for you to keep.  If you have any questions, please contact us by e-mail or phone.

Humanities:     Ellen Taggart: etaggart@mtsd-vt.org or 893-5532
                         Josh Roof: jroof@mtsd-vt.org or 893-5525

Science:     Greer Krembs: gkrembs@mtsd-vt.org or 893-5519

Math:         Francine Lemnah: flemnah@mtsd-vt.org or 893-5520

Consulting teacher:    Deb Chanin: dchanin@mtsd-vt.org or 893-5587

Co-teacher/Math Interventionist:    Karen Allard: kallard@mtsd-vt.org or 893-5502

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trimester 1 Progress Report: August 27, 2014 – October 10, 2014

Please return by October 24, 2014

I received and reviewed each of these progress reports:

    _____ Math

    _____ Science

    _____ Humanities

    _____ Other: Math 180 / Tier 3 Intervention (if applicable)

Student: __________________________________________________

Advisor: _________________________________________________

Parent:___________________________________________________

Parent Signature: ___________________________________________

OPT-OUT WALKING FIELD TRIP FORM
DUE: Wednesday, October 8th

Your child will be bringing this form home today.  You must sign and return this form if you DO NOT want to give your child permission to go on a walking field trip from school.  Typically this involves walking to the high school for a performance or to Bombardier park for an team activity.  Any questions, please contact us.

Thanks,

House B Teachers

STAR READING ASSESSMENT

A note from Joe Smith regarding Boston September 2, 2014

 

Dear Families:

At the end of your student’s middle school experience, he or she will have the opportunity to participate in the 8^th grade field trip to Boston. This field trip is three days and two nights and for many students it is the highlight of their middle school years. During this trip, students get to witness the culture of Boston, visit a few of Boston’s best museums, and they get to stay at Emerson College. This is a unique opportunity that every student should experience. 

 

In order to make this trip affordable for all families, we offer numerous fundraisers throughout the school year. Each student is given a field trip account. Students earn money for this account by fundraising. This money will be put towards the cost of the Boston trip and can also be used to fund other school based field trips as well. I have created these accounts so that students can earn their trip to Boston. This year the cost of the trip is $325, if your student participates in a couple of fundraisers each year, they will not have to fund raise all of the money during 8^th grade. I cannot stress enough the importance of fundraising early so that your family is not stuck with a $325 bill at the end of 8th grade. Also, this account can be used for other field trips in the middle school.

I will be getting out a list of fundraisers that we will be doing shortly. I just wanted to alert you to this excellent opportunity to earn money that does not involve selling something.

Christine Vaughn has given us a fun opprotunity for parents to earn money for their students fundraising account. If you help out for the 6.5 hours you will get $65 for you students account. Here is the information:

For groups of 10-20 adult volunteers before or on event day, we will donate $10 per volunteer hour back to the field trip fund.  Our day begins at 6:30, and lasts about 6.5 hours.  The work is easy, either monitoring the course for fair play, working merchandise tables, or registration.  We also have some opportunities for set up and tear down.  

Possible donations:

10 volunteers X 6.5 hours X $10 = $650 total donation

20 volunteers X 6.5 hours X $10 = $1300 total donation

If you are interested in running in the Zombie Run, you can get $10 off runner registration - and for each time the coupon is used, we would donate $5 back to the Field Trip fund. The code for registering is MMS.

To register for the run https://zombierun.webconnex.com/register

To register to volunteer and help with the run contact Joe Smith, at jsmith3@mtsd-vt.org or

893-5529, by September 11th.

To learn more about this even visit www.zombierun.com

Thanks,

Joe Smith

Reminder of MTSD Cell Phone Policy from Matt Bloom:

Cell Phone and Personal Electronic Device

Student/Parent Contract

2014-2015 School Year

Cell phones have become and increasingly important part of our every day life.  However, use of cell phones during the school day has become a greater issue that calls for a Supervisory Union response.  The Milton Town Supervisory Union has found that the use of cell phones and personal electronic devices  (PED) i.e., tablets/MP3 players by students during the school day has had an adverse effect on classroom instruction, personal student safety and privacy, and the ability of school officials to maintain discipline.

·        My cell phone and/or PED will remain off and out of sight during the instructional day  (7:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.) and in the buildings, including hallways, restrooms. Students will be  able to access their cell phone and/or PED during their lunch period.

·        I agree to use the device only outside the building and only before or after school hours.

·        I take full responsibility for my cell phone (PED) use by another person.  They are not to 

      be shared with other students.

Failure to agree to these conditions will result in any/all of the following:

·       1^st Offense:  confiscation of cell phone or PED. ONLY a parent may pick up a student’s cell phone or PED.  Cell phones or PEDs will not be returned to students.

·        2^nd Offense:  confiscation of cell phone or PED.  Administration will schedule a conference with the student and his/her parent/guardian.  The cell phone or PED will be returned to the parent/guardian following the conference.

·        3^rd Offense:  after-school call callback with the possibility of suspension from school.  Permission to have a cell phone or PED at school is revoked for the remainder of the school year.

House B News to Start the 2014-2015 School Year

Dear Students and Families,

Welcome to House B!

We hope you are having a wonderful summer and are excited for the upcoming year.  We would love to see you at our welcome back ice cream social on Wednesday, August 20th from 5:30 to 6:30 in the courtyard in front of our middle school.  This will be a great opportunity for us to meet and welcome our new 6th grade students and families.  We will also enjoy hearing from our 7th and 8th grade students and families about their summer and hopes for the new school year.

We are committed to building a positive community for our students, giving them leadership opportunities, and furthering their understanding of how to be a good citizen as a member of House B.  To help accomplish this, we will have an overnight camping trip within the first month of school that students plan.  We will have information available about our trip and the other events we have planned to make the start of the school year successful for each of our students at our ice cream social.

We also have high academic expectations for all students.  Being prepared is an extremely important part of being a successful student.  Please see the attached supply list (click link that follows) to help your child be ready for each of his or her classes.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AXqJ78p8IH_SxI0eqQ06KvbxcR0z1LJR_O0QHNZpT3I/edit?usp=sharing

We look forward to seeing you at our ice cream social.  If there is anything you feel we need to know about your child before the school year starts, please contact us.  We will all be checking our email throughout the summer and would be happy to meet with you at the start of the year.

Sincerely,

House B Teaching Team    

P.S. Meet the House B Teaching Team by clicking this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jpHLyD-hLb5J3LKpYM4zXGfDYSbGro-RTd-hh8T2O1g/edit?usp=sharing

P.P.S. All students can pick up their copy of Wonder at the Milton Public Library after August 1st. Go to our Humanities page for summer reading details!

REMINDER- HOUSE B BREAKFAST

This is a reminder that students and teachers are having a breakfast tomorrow morning after advisory, and that students were asked to bring in small amounts of specific items per advisory:
Krembs- Cream cheese and drinks
Lemnah-Fruit
Roof-Bagels/Donuts
Taggart-Muffins
Allard-Yogurt
Curtiss-Granola
MacBeth-Drinks

Thank you for all of your support. We are almost to the end of a fabulous year and we couldn't have done it without you!

Production Resources quick match

Click on this for activity

Click Here for 8th Grade Boston Survey

What: Making a Difference Media Projects

When: Wednesday, May 7^th, 7:45AM – 8:50 AM

Who: House B Families

Where: Humanities Rooms 212 & 213

Please join us for breakfast on Wednesday to enjoy the multimedia projects created by House B students as the culminating project for our Media, Me, and Making a Difference Unit.

Marketplace Survey

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1SSsCYrLST-S27smOgVOLSVZ8ItIANjoTEgyNTMcE4u0/viewform

Science Homework

Due Monday, 4/14/14

Use your corrected food web of the pond ecosystem to predict how a decrease in one population would affect other populations in the ecosystem.  Write your answers on the back of your food web or a piece of lined paper.

Your task:

1.    Find the minnows on your food web.

2.    Pretend the population of minnows had a large decrease one year.

3.    Clearly explain how the decrease in minnow population would affect the following populations.  You must include your claim (what you think), and your reasoning (why you think that).

a.    Aquatic insects

b.    Largemouth bass

c.     Great blue heron

d.    Aquatic plants

Example:  The first sentence is the claim and the second is the reasoning.

A decrease in the size of the minnow population would cause an increase in the population of zooplankton.  Minnows eat zooplankton, and if there are fewer minnows, then there will be more zooplankton because there are fewer minnows to eat them.

House B Classroom Norms

To start Trimester III, House B students answered the question, what behaviors create a positive classroom environment?  Their answers and what they believe is most important to make our classrooms positive and productive are reflected in the wordle linked below.

http://www.wordle.net/gallery?username=House%20B

STAR Reading Assessment

PLEASE CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK:

https://rpnb4.renlearn.com/trial76jt

Humanities Media Literacy Articles

Digital Footprint:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/how-robb-lewis-is-helping-web-users-erase-their-digital-footprint-with-justdeleteme-website-20140308-34e1v.html

Facebook & Free Speech
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Facebook+%26+free+speech%3A+what+rights+do+workers+and+students+have+to...-a0330678201

Trimester 2 Student-Led Conferences

Milton Town School District

42 Herrick Avenue, Milton, VT 05468-3097

(802) 893-3210 Fax: (802) 893-3213

www.mtsd-vt.org

HOUSE B

February 19, 2014

Dear House B Families,

It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of second trimester of the school year.  That means it’s time for the second round of Student-Led Parent Conferences!  We know that you discuss school and learning with your child on a regular basis.  We invite you and your child to participate in this opportunity to have a more formal and structured discussion about his or her successes, challenges, and growth during this trimester.

At the Student-Led Parent Conference, your child will share a portfolio of artifacts of his or her learning – work from each class that he or she has thoughtfully selected to demonstrate learning and growth.  In addition to these artifacts, your child will discuss reflections on successes and challenges in each academic area, and the goals he or she is proposing for the final trimester of the year. These goals encompass lifelong learning skills and the Habits of Mind students are striving to achieve in our Middle School: flexible thinking, preparedness, citizenship, persistence, and precision.

We are scheduling conferences on the evenings of Tuesday, March 11th and Thursday, March 13th from 4:00PM to 7:00PM in the school’s library.  While all teachers will be present during the conferences, please remember that not every teacher will be able to check in with you like in a traditional parent-teacher conference.

We look forward to seeing you at this important event!

Sincerely,

Karen Allard - Consulting Teacher

Greer Krembs - Science

Francine Lemnah - Math

Josh Roof - Humanities
Ellen H. Taggart - Humanities

Additional members of House B who may not attend the conferences but are available via email and phone:

Paul Curtiss - Theater Arts, House B Advisor

Maria Gordon - Special Educator

Tami Koester - Speech Language Pathologist

Amy Macbeth - MMS Special Education Evaluator, House B Advisor

Please complete and detach the section below, and return to your child's advisor.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Please indicate your FIRST and SECOND choice for a conference time. We will confirm the scheduled time of your conference.*

____ 4:00–4:30pm on Tuesday, March 11

____ 4:30-5:00pm on Tuesday, March 11

____ 5:00-5:30pm on Tuesday, March 11

____ 5:30-6:00pm on Tuesday, March 11

____ 6:00-6:30pm on Tuesday, March 11 

____ 6:30-7:00pm on Tuesday, March 11 

____ 7:00-7:30pm on Tuesday, March 11  

____ 4:00–4:30pm on Thursday, March 13

____ 4:30-5:00pm on Thursday, March 13

____ 5:00-5:30pm on Thursday, March 13
____ 5:30-6:00pm on Thursday, March 13

____ 6:00-6:30pm on Thursday, March 13
____ 6:30-7:00pm on Thursday, March 13

____ 7:00-7:30pm on Thursday, March 13

Student: ___________________________________________________________

Attendees: _________________________________________________________

Best way to confirm the conference time (email or phone number):

___________________________________________________________________