South Central Middle School
We have the Right Mental Attitude
News From the 7th and 8th Grade
7th Grade English and Reading have worked on Literature Circles for the past month. Each student is grouped based on their Lexile level according to MAP testing, and they read a book for about a month. In their group, they perform different tasks such as discussion director, vocabulary wizard, travel tracker, illustrator, connector and summarize which helps build an understanding of the content.
8th Grade 21st Century Skills class just completed an informational research project entitled "I'm an Expert" which students pick a project to research and present it to the class. Some of the presentations ranged from how to build a Firewall, how to use a Drone effectively to how a Top Thrill Dragster operates. The projects were very informational.
As we head into the final quarter of the year in less than a month, your help would be greatly appreciated in monitoring your child’s progress in math. With the new high school graduation requirements, it is very important your child have a solid math foundation from 7th/8th grades. School-wide we are trying to implement an Intervention/Enrichment program for all students. Two programs your child can use on the computer include MAP to Khan and MobyMax. All of the students have a link in the Google Classrooms for MAP to Khan and have been shown how to use the link and the program. We are also currently using MobyMax in my classes and the students who have used this as extra practice have shown up to 3 grade levels of improvement over the course of the first two quarters. Each student has their unique User ID and Password and this is a great intervention tool to work on missing math skills. All students are supposed to be logging their Interventions and/or Enrichments on their Intervention Logs.
Your child also has a link to the online textbook. The 7th, 8th and Accelerated Math classes can all go here http://connected.mcgraw-hill.com to access the online edition plus other valuable resources such as videos, worksheets and manipulatives. The Algebra class can go here https://www.pearsonrealize.com/index.html#/ to access their online edition along with videos, apps and other resources. The students have all been given a User ID and Password to the online editions and a letter was sent home in all classes.
One last reminder and one in which no students have taken advantage of….students are allowed Request to Retest once per quarter if they receive a grade on a test they are not happy with. They would need to do three interventions and log them and submit all the information to me to retest. Again, no students have utilized this tool to help improve their grade. I am available most days after school to help any student who needs extra help.
7th Grade Boys Basketball Team
Spelling Bee and Handwriting Winners
Students across the region took an online test from Script-Howard Spelling Bee to see if they would qualify for the Region I Bee to be held at Ohio University on March 18. Region I consisted of students from Ashland, Athens, Champaign, Coshocton, Crawford, Fayette, Gallia, Guernsey, Hocking, Huron, Jackson, Knox, Lawrence, Logan, Marion, Meigs, Morgan, Morrow, Muskingum, Perry, Pike, Richland, Ross, Scioto, Union and Vinton counties. Only 54 students make the cut to go on. Congratulations to Kennedy and Tyler on this amazing accomplishment!Zaner-Bloser sponsors a National Handwriting contest every year. From the 3rd grade on students must write in cursive. They submit their work to be judged against all other students across the country. Three of our students made it past the regional level and their pieces have qualified for state. Best of luck Jack McKee (6th grade), Nenia Kale, (2nd grade) and Jayna Smith (1st grade) on getting past State and on to Nationals.
1 Two-Hour Delay Start
4 Powerlifting at Bucyrus
13 PAC Meeting
18 State Powerlifting at Kenton
17 St. Patrick's Day Parade FT for Band
20 School Board Meeting
24 End of 3rd Quarter
24-25 Dinner Theatre
30 JH Track meet at New London