It's Conference Time!

**Paper copies of this form will be sent home on Wednesday**

Dear Families of Team Falcon,

How time flies! We're well into autumn, and it’s already time for our first round of Student Portfolio Conferences. Children benefit greatly from having meaningful conversations about their learning with important adults in their lives. To that end, we invite you to a Portfolio Conference where your child will present to you artifacts of his or her learning - work from each class that he or she has thoughtfully selected to demonstrate learning and growth. Any caring adult is welcome - parents, adult siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors. Conferences will take place in the Middle/Elementary School Library.

These conferences are important to your child, and represent many hours of hard work. The portfolio process helps students build life-long skills including: organization skills, self-evaluative skills, and communication skills. Most importantly, the portfolio process helps your child take more ownership of his or her learning and be more accountable for his or her academic progress. Thank you for the important role you play in this process!

Please visit http://bit.ly/teamfalconconferencesfall16 to indicate your preferred conference time, or return the form attached to this letter. Any caring adult is welcome - parents, adults siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors. If no adult is able to attend at one of the times offered, we will gladly make arrangements for you to conference with your child at another time. Conferences will take place in the Middle/Elementary School Library.

We look forward to seeing you!

The Teachers of Team Falcon: Jana Fabri-Sbardellati Megan Smith

Greer Krembs Gloria Crowe

James Moore Tami Koester

Catherine Thibault-Cote

Progress Reports and Permission Slips

Hello families of Team Falcon:

Monday afternoon, your student should have brought their progress reports home. We encourage you to review them with your students. There should be three progress reports: math, science, and humanities. 

Additionally, Team Falcon is attending a performance of Macbeth at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts on November 1. As part of the humanities unit, Myths, Legends, and Cultures, this is an exciting opportunity to see a live performance of a legend that continues to have great impact on cultures around the world. A permission slip was sent home with your student along with the progress reports. If you have any questions about this field trip, please contact James Moore (at jmoore@mymtsd-vt.org). 

Open House

We're looking forward to seeing you Thursday night between 5:30-7:00. We'll be in the Team Falcon classrooms doing four 10-minute rotations with a few minutes for passing time in between, starting at 5:30pm. We will also have printed materials available if you miss all or part of a presentation.

Please feel free to bring your child. The students can help walk you through some of the material we'll be covering.

Field Trip Reflection

Team Falcon teachers would like your thoughts and observations about the field trip today. Complete a reflection of the field trip on this Google Form.

Science Walking Field Trip to Lamoille River

Dear Team Falcon Students and Families,

Team Falcon students will be participating in a free, walking field trip next Thursday, 9/8/16 to the Lamoille River or Lake Arrowhead. Please complete the permission slip that comes home or that is linked here (Permission Slip Here) and have your student bring it to Ms. Krembs on Tuesday. The trip will be about 2 hours and students will continue with other classes on that day. On Thursday 9/8 students should be prepared to walk about 20 minutes, wear shoes and clothes that would allow them to wade into the water (no deeper than their knees) if they want to in order to collect data, and to be outside for 2 hours (small water bottle, snack if needed, sunscreen or hat, and layers or rain coat depending on the the weather). Please let me know if you have any questions!
Ms. Krembs

School Lunch Applications Update

Good afternoon from the Milton Town School District.

Please be aware the 2016-17 MTSD school lunch applications were sent out last week from the food service program. Please use these forms to replace any previous form you may have completed this summer.

We understand that a middle school summer mailing went out earlier this summer and it had the outdated 2015-16 school lunch applications attached.

Per new federal requirements, the food service program is required to have this 2016-17 form on file.

Please contact Kristen Abare at 893-5501 or email at kabare@mtsd-vt.org if there are any questions or if you are in need of the 2016-17 application before the first day of school.

Thank you kindly.

Enjoy the last few days of summer vacation!

Reading and Writing

Hello fellow Falcons,

It is already August! Can you believe it? Time flies (like a falcon!) when you're having fun, and we hope that you're having lots of fun.

As we are in the last month of summer, we felt it was a good time to remind you about our summer reading. While some of you may have already read the book you selected, others might have put it off until the last moment. Well, we're almost at the last moment! Make sure to read your book before the start of the school year. We are looking forward to discussing our team culture using these books as a starting point!

For those of you looking for a writing prompt, here you go:

1. You find a turtle by the side of the road. When you stop to pick it up, it looks up at you and says, "Thank goodness you're here. We don't have much time." What happens next?

2. You have been chosen by the state of Vermont to make an ad to boost tourism. What image do you select and why?

3. Write anything you'd like.

Remember: You are encouraged to just write and not stop for 7-10 minutes. This may result in some mistakes (eagle-eyed* readers from last prompt may have noticed that my writing changed verb tenses!), but that's all part of the process.

Enjoy your summers!

* Perhaps I should say "falcon-eyed"?

Writing Prompt - Week Six

The Last Prompt of July! I'm going to write my response to this prompt and post it tomorrow. I'd be interested to see what anyone else comes up with. Feel free to post your writing as a comment. 

And again: the idea is not to create the best writing ever, but to create some writing.

Today's prompt: You have seven minutes to tell everyone in the United States anything that you'd like. What do you tell us? What would you show us? What would you want to happen after you were done talking to us?

OR:

Two people knock on your door and call you by a name that is not yours. You pull out your wallet to show them your identification and it says...the two people are right. That is your name. What do you do? What happened? WHO ARE YOU? 

OR: 

Write whatever you'd like.

And remember...have fun!

Writing Prompt - Week Five

Another week = another prompt! Let's write. If you are so inclined, feel free to post your writing as a comment below. 

Remember: the idea is not to create the best writing ever, but to create some writing.

Today's prompt:You have been chosen to be the president of the United States. What would you like to see for the country? What would you change? What is just fine as it is? How do you feel about being chosen as president? For an extra challenge, write this as if it were a political speech for thousands of people! 

OR:

You are stuck in an elevator with two other people. You discover that your cell phones don't work. What do you do? What do you say to the other two people in the elevator? Who are the two other people in the elevator? And what was that sound you just heard...?!

OR: 

Write whatever you'd like.

And remember...have fun!

Writing Prompt - Week Four

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a PROMPT! If you are so inclined, feel free to post your writing as a comment below. Remember: the idea is not to create the best writing ever, but to create some writing.

Today's prompt:
You find yourself stuck in the middle of a lake with one other living being (friend, family, animal). What do you do? What does that living being say or do? What do you see/hear/smell/taste/feel?

OR:

You are a famous rock star/politician/writer/dancer/artist. Write a letter from a fan to you. What do they love about you and your work?

OR: 

Write whatever you'd like.

And remember...have fun!

Writing Prompt - Week Three

Happy Independence Day!

I find that summer brings me opportunities to write letters or postcards that I don't make time for during the school year. So one of today's prompts will be just that. (That prompt may require more than seven minutes, and you may want to revise it to make sure your reader can understand what you are writing!) Remember: the idea is not to create the best writing ever, but to create some writing.

And if you'd like to, post your writing as a comment below.

Today's prompt:

Write a postcard to someone who may not expect to hear from you. It could be a friend or a family member or a camp counselor or whomever you'd like.

Seven Minute Ideas:

Write about gaining independence. It could be the US's independence from Britain, or the planet's independence from aliens, or your independence from school, or...

OR: write whatever you'd like.


And remember...have fun!

Writing Prompt - Week Two

Happy second week!

As a reminder, this is a voluntary opportunity to keep your writing skills sharp over these lovely warm months. Each Monday, I will post a writing prompt for those who would like to keep practicing writing. Treat it like our free-write Mondays: give yourself seven minutes, try to write the whole time, and let yourself play! The idea is not to create the best writing ever, but to create some writing.

And if you'd like to, post your writing as a comment below.

Today's prompt:

You wake up and discover that you're a giant beetle. What do you do? (I borrowed this idea from a Franz Kafka story called "The Metamorphosis")

Tell a story from the point of view of a piece of gum.

Or, write whatever you'd like.


And remember...have fun!

Writing Prompt - Week One

Happy Summer, everyone!

I know that we're all taking breaks this summer, but I wanted to provide an opportunity to keep your skills sharp over these lovely warm months. Each Monday, I will post a writing prompt for those who would like to keep writing or keep practicing. I encourage you to treat it like our free-write Mondays. Give yourself seven minutes, try to write the whole time, and let yourself play! The idea is not to create the best writing ever, but to create some writing.

And if you'd like to, post your writing as a comment below.

Today's prompt:

Your pet can suddenly talk - write out your first conversation with your dog/cat/fish/parrot/lizard.

You find yourself suddenly transported to Spain. What do you do on your first day? Use sensory details.

Or, write whatever you'd like.

And remember...have fun!

Humanities Update (5/20)

Welcome to another update from humanities!

We started this week by introducing the upcoming unit about food insecurity. Students were given an anticipation guide for a documentary called A Place at the Table. This guide asked students to mark statements true or false based on their understanding before watching. As we watched the video, students evaluated their assumptions and identified evidence that supported their new findings. This material will be used as we enter this new unit.

On Tuesday, we reflected on our work in the classroom debates and learned who “won” (as decided by their peers, who were asked to evaluate the evidence presented and the manner in which it was presented). Students reviewed some of the feedback they received from their peers and discussed it with their teams. We pushed their learning a step farther by having students trace the development of an argument in a piece of writing. This assessment will be used to identify what parts of arguments need to be emphasized in future lessons.

We spent time this week writing our argument. We began with our introductions (Claim and Context) and then added our first two confirmation paragraphs (where students identify the evidence that supports their claims and provide reasoning to explain that evidence). Friday allowed us to have a little bit of fun with our arguments as we discussed who our audience is and how a different tone or voice impacts a piece of writing.

Our plan is to finish writing the first draft of these arguments by Tuesday. In order to stay on target, students should have three paragraphs done by Monday (one introduction and two confirmation). Some students have been sharing their writing with their parents. This is a good conversation starter, and it’s a good way to make sure that our students stay on track to finish. The digital version of the argument should be entered into Google Classroom.

Independent book projects and blog posts are due in a little over a week (on May 31). Those assignments are on the Google Classroom. To support work on the blog posts, we presented a mini-lesson about empathizing with a text. We talked about Harry Potter’s qualities and what happened to him over the course of his story. Students were then asked to come up with ways that they are “like” Harry Potter. This resulted in some fun discussions.

This coming week, we will take a break from United States geography and capitals. After the eighth graders return from Boston, we will have one more practice (on June 1) and then one final assessment (on June 8). This final score will be used on their upcoming report card. Links to practice are also on the Google Classroom.

Please let us know if you have any questions. We hope you have a great weekend.

Humanities Update (5/14)

Hello Families of House C Students:

While it may not be Friday, it's never too late to give an update of the week in humanities...

This week's primary focus was debates. Students worked in their debate teams to finalize their preparation. We held our debates on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Students did some terrific work debating in front of their peers. We were quite impressed! While teams debated, the rest of the students served as our audience. They practiced tracing a debate and identified who they thought "won" the debate. On Monday, we'll reveal those 'winners.'

We worked on some grammar fundamentals on Tuesday: 6th graders worked on apostrophes while 7/8th graders worked on proper comma usage. We will re-visit these topics in the coming days to make sure the concepts stick.

Argument writing made up most of the rest of our week. We worked on making our claims more precise and engaging, and we introduced the concept of a context. Argument writing will be the focus of our coming week - we will build our arguments daily by writing and revising in class. This may result in homework this week if students don't finish the writing in class.

Students also got introduced to the summer reading plan for Milton Middle School. This year, students could pick their own book to read from a selection of four books. We placed an order for those books and will deliver them to students closer to the end of the year, along with some expectations and ideas about summer reading. The book students chose will be used at the start of next year to help create our school culture and give us common texts to discuss!

Ongoing work:

There was yet another weekly check on our United States geography and capital naming. We heard many students express excitement over their progress towards their goal. Links to practice are on Google Classroom.

Independent book projects and blog posts are due in 16 days. Students who had turned in an early version received feedback on their work. This feedback is meant to help students take their work to the next level. We encourage students to review the feedback and revise their work! Again, links for this assignment are on Google Classroom.

Please let us know if you have any questions. We hope you have a great weekend.

Humanities Update (5/6)

Hello Families of House C Students:

It's another Friday, so here's another update of the work done this past week in Humanities!

We started off this week by watching some debate examples. We used one to analyze the format of a debate, and a second served as an exercise in 'tracing an argument' - being able to identify the parts of an argument in an oral presentation. This is a skill that will be utilized for the remainder of middle school and through high school! In in the midst of a presidential election year, it also seems like quite a good skill to have!

We continue working on our debate preparation with a goal of presenting our actual debate at the start of next week. Students finalized their individual research and evidence collecting, and spent time with their debate team to plan. (They are still using procon.org for the majority of this work).

We introduced the concept of an argument claim, and what makes it different from writing a claim for  an opinion or informational text. After identifying some good examples, students worked to develop their own claim in response to the question: "What food system best supports the needs of the United States?" This might be an interesting thing to talk about with your student! What is their claim? What evidence do they have to support that claim?

While 8th graders were taking their science NECAPs, we spent some time working on our independent book projects. Students are now just 25 days from when their book project and blog post are due. These assignments are on Google Classroom.

We completed another weekly check on our United States geography and capital naming! It might be interesting to ask how they view their progress on this skill so far! Links to practice are on Google Classroom!

As mentioned above, we will have our debates next week. We will also introduce the format of a  written argument, so students can build on their claims. It should be an exciting week!

T3 Progress Reports

House C students were sent home with their progress reports on this afternoon (Friday). Please let your child's advisor know if you did not receive them.

Humanities Update (4/29)

Hello Families of House C Students!

Here is an update about the work done this past week in Humanities!

In order to create a more complete argument, we’ve been introducing students to responses to The Omnivore’s Dilemma. One article called The Omnivore’s Delusion, written by a farmer named Blake Hurst, questioned many aspects of Michael Pollan’s book. In addition, and to work on our listening skills, we listened to a discussion between Hurst & Pollan, hosted on National Public Radio.

We applied our close reading skills to a modified version of an article from Seven Days about James Ehlers, a passionate advocate for water quality in Lake Champlain who presented in our science classes on Thursday. We used our NPS (Non-Fiction Positioning System) Coordinates - which help readers know what an author is trying to communicate - to better understand the text and to gain some background knowledge for Thursday’s presentation. NPS Coordinates include metaphors, similes, comparing and contrasting, expert opinions - we use these as road signs that help point the way to understanding the reading! Your student should have a handout that displays what each coordinate is and what they mean.

For the last part of this week, we have been preparing for a debate. Students have been assigned topics such as college education, school uniform, violence in video games, and tablets vs. textbooks. They have spent time researching both sides of the argument on procon.org and are now in the process of creating their debates. Some students may not have finished this preparation; there is a two-page worksheet that they should use to capture their best arguments for their side as well as some arguments that might come their way from the other side (and rebuttals to those counter-arguments).

Next week, we will be debating these topics in teams, with an eye towards using these skills to complement their argument writing.

Students are now just over a month from when their book project and blog post are due. Those assignments are on the Google Classroom.

We will also be completing weekly quizzes on the United States geography and capitals! Links to practice are also on the Google Classroom!

Please let us know if you have any questions. We hope you have a great weekend.

Humanities Update (4/17)

Hello House C Families:

Happy break week! Since this is a week away from school, and since we have been working hard on some interesting things, we thought we'd take a moment to let you know what we've been doing in humanities, as it may spur some thoughtful discussions (and we know that sometimes the only response to "What did you do in school today?" is..."Not much!")!

As you may have heard, we are reading a student edition of The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. We are using this as an informational text for students to work with in creating an effective argument. Over the past three weeks, we've been reading about three food systems: Industrial, Industrial Organic, and Local Sustainable. Students have been collecting arguments for and against each food system and upon their return to class, we'll start creating arguments for which food system students think is best to meet the needs of our community. We will also read some articles written in response to Omnivore's in order to get a sense of both sides of the argument and to round out our understanding of the material.

On Friday, each student highlighted one piece of evidence and created a poster to display in our classroom. Students then participated in a gallery walk to collect evidence they might not have already had on their note sheets. Their work is really informative and eye-catching. This book has been the fuel for some really interesting discussions, and we encourage you to ask your child about what they're thinking about!

To link geography skills to the content of the book, students have undertaken a series of activities to sharpen their geospatial thinking skills. They first thought about some of the foods they typically eat in a week. Then they used several maps to determine where those foods would likely have come from if bought in a conventional supermarket and mapped the states of origin of those food products. Based on that data, they wrote paragraphs to analyze what grows where, why there, and why we should care. Many students still need to follow through with all of those steps. It would be great if they could work on that over the break.

We are 44 days away from our book projects and blog posts being due (May 31). As a reminder, each student is expected to read at least two books per trimester, and then complete a book project about one and a blog post about the other. Hopefully students are finding books that interest and entertain them! You can find the links to the assignments here: Book Project - Blog Post.

We are also working on knowing our state capitals. We've used this very catchy song and video as a way to remember them. Students have completed two attempts at naming all 50, and on Friday, we set a goal for our third attempt, which will take place shortly after returning from break. This might be a great opportunity to ask your student to name the capital of a certain state - or to watch the video with them and challenge each other!

Finally, in celebration of National Poetry Month (and to go along with Omnivore's Dilemma), we spent some time on Friday looking at the grass and making observations related to our senses in Milton Middle School's field. Students then wrote a short poem about the experience, or about the grass, or about the strange request of looking and listening to grass. We hope they share their work with you!

We hope that this break week is refreshing for our students and that you get some time to enjoy their company. If you have any questions, please let us know. Thank you for you all that you do.

Color Run

 

Greetings House C families,

The next big thing in fundraising is here: The Milton Color Run.
On May 14th, at Bombardier Park, at 10:00 a.m., we will be running a 5K with tons of color.
Check out this video for more information about the Color Run:
http://shop.schoolathon.org/EventIndex.asp?EID=183883 (The video is on the right side of the page)

Registration is $30 to participate in the run. Students can get pledges from relatives and friends to run. Students will receive prizes depending on how much they raise. PLUS students will receive 50% of the amount donated in their name to their Boston Field Trip Account. Donations need to be received by April 25th.

Students have received a registration packet (or can get one from their advisor). There has been a lot of interest shown, but we now need folks to register on the website to show their commitment. The website to register is http://shop.schoolathon.org/EventIndex.asp?EID=183883

Our School Code is 140066

This has the potential be a big, big event. This event is open to everyone in the community, so spread the word.

Thanks for your support!

Spring Conferences

Dear Families,

The days are getting longer and spring is in the air! It’s time for Student Portfolio Conferences! Your child has done much learning and growing over these past months. We invite you to a Portfolio Conference, where your child will present work from each class that he or she has thoughtfully selected to demonstrate learning and growth.

These conferences are important to your child and represent many hours of preparation. The portfolio process helps students build life-long skills including: organization, self-evaluation, and communication. Most importantly, the portfolio process helps your child take more ownership of his or her learning and be more accountable for his or her academic progress. Studies show that children benefit greatly from having meaningful conversations about their learning with important adults in their lives. Thank you for the important role you play in this process!

Please visit http://bit.ly/housecconferences9 to indicate your preferred conference time. Any caring adult is welcome - parents, adult siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors. If no adult is able to attend at one of the times offered, we will gladly make arrangements for you to conference with your child at another time. Conferences will take place in the Middle/Elementary School Library.

We look forward to seeing you!

T2 Progress Reports

House C students were sent home with their progress reports on Friday. Please let your child's advisor know if you did not receive them.