Weekly Update 11/10

Greetings Team Equinox Families:

Happy last week before Thanksgiving break! The trimester closes for students on November 17th!

• Equinox student-led conferences are scheduled to be held November 28th and 29th from 4-7PM.  Please sign up for a time/date using our Doodle Poll! There are 6 slots for each time slot, so each family should have their first pick. If you’re able to choose a time, that time is yours!

• This week in Personalized Learning, students should have a “just right” question. These next couple of weeks, students are researching a project that they will present in December. Students may choose any topic of interest to them. There will be a presentation celebration during the week of December 19th.  Please ask your child to share with you about their question and their exploration project.

Here’s what your child has been up to this week on Team Equinox~

Science:

This past week, we have begun our experimentation with K’Nex Rocket Launchers.  We have also been engaging in mindfulness practices in the beginning of each class.   In regards to content, students are investigating Newton’s First Law and Projectile Motion while engineering a launcher in groups.  We are now using Wednesdays as Working Wednesdays for students to independently work on missing or incomplete assignments. Check in with your student as to what science work they need to focus on. Most students need to work on their simple machines project or cover page.

Homework: Finish simple machines project, portfolio reflection or work assessment if necessary.  Most students have homework this weekend.

Humanities:

In Social Studies, students began the week investigating the Bill of Rights and then spent several days creating a “product” of their choice to represent their learning about the Constitution (the three branches of U.S. government and the Bill of Rights).  For the directions to this “Constitutional Creation”, please click on the link here.  Students also completed their last geography quiz of the trimester and have begun reflecting on their work, experiences, and habits in Social Studies class so far this year in preparation for their student-led conferences.

Homework - If students did not hand in their “Constitutional Creation” on Friday, they need to finish that assignment and any other missing work they have.

In ELA, students have been working on developing their comma usage.  Students are being introduced to grammar conventions. We are also developing mindfulness practices.  If you are interested, here is a great New York Times article about mindfulness and children.

Homework: Independent reading for 30 minutes (for 5 of 7 days per week).

Grade 7

Math: Students took a quiz on proportional relationships and had to explain proportions through the use of  tables, graphs and equations.  Students began to explore scale drawings and their relationship to ratios and proportions.  This coming week students will continue this exploration of scale factor and scale drawings.  Students will also write reflections about their experiences in math during the first  trimester.

Parent tips for topic of scale factor.

Grade 8

Math:

Students took a summative assessment about linear equations with one variable.  Next week students will continue to explore linear equations with two variables using tables, graphs and equations.  Students will also write reflections about their experiences in math during the first  trimester.

Parent tips for current topic of linear equations in two variables.

Social Thinking Ideas:   A funny yet informative book around social thinking

Team Equinox

Weekly Update 10/29

Greetings Team Equinox Families:

• Equinox student-led conferences are scheduled to be held November 28th and 29th from 4-7PM.  Please sign up for a time/date using our Doodle Poll!
• This week in Personalized Learning, we finished up our academic and personal goals and started developing a research question for our exploration.  Next week, all students must have a “just right” question for exploration.  Students may choose any topic of interest to them. There will be a presentation celebration during the week of December 19th.

Here’s what your child has been up to this week on Team Equinox~

Science:

In science, we are starting our K’nex rocket launcher project.  We have also been engaging in mindfulness practices in the beginning of each class.  If you are interested, here is a great New York Times article about mindfulness and children.  In regards to content, students are investigating Newton’s First Law and Projectile Motion while engineering a launcher in groups.  We are now using Wednesdays as Working Wednesdays for students to independently work on missing or incomplete assignments. Check in with your student as to what science work they need to focus on. Most students need to work on their simple machines project or cover page.

Homework: Finish simple machines project or work assessment if necessary.

Humanities:

In social studies, students have begun looking at the government that formed as a result of the American Revolution. We discussed the Articles of Confederation and why they didn’t work, and we began dissecting pieces of the Constitution, beginning with the idea of the separation of powers, the Preamble and the legislative branch.  Students also completed a map quiz to improve their geography skills.  

Homework - If students have not handed in their American Revolution Timeline or their Separation of Powers worksheet, they should complete that to turn in. Please check PowerSchool to see if your child is missing either of these.

In ELA, we have launched our spelling and grammar programs. We’re looking forward to seeing how students take to these practices. Ms. Coax is our long-term sub while Mr. Moore is out on paternity leave. Her email is rcoax@mymtsd-vt.org. She will be an engaging presence on the team, and we hope this is a smooth transition!

Homework: Independent reading for 30 minutes (for 5 of 7 days per week).

Grade 7

Math: Students continued to analyze tables and graphs and find unit rates of ratios with complex fractions. Next week students will be working on solving real world multi-step problems that involve discounts, commissions, and taxes  We will also begin to look at scale drawings and their relationship to ratios.

If you are interested in seeing what your child has been working on in Khan Academy please ask your child to invite you as a coach.

Grade 8

Math:

Students continued to explore linear equations in algebra.  Students spent the week working on solving equations with one variable using cross multiplication where division was involved.  Students also began to write and solve equations with two variables  (x and y).  We will continue this exploration in more depth next week.

If you are interested in seeing what your child has been working on in Khan Academy please ask your child to invite you as a coach.

Social Thinking Ideas:   

From Friendly to Friendship

The Progression of Friendship

Team Equinox

Check out some awesome propaganda of the American Revolution!

Will you join the Patriot cause, or the Loyalist cause?

Weekly Update - 10/6

Greetings Team Equinox Families:

This weekly update was sent to you via email. If you didn't get it, please let us know, and we'll double check your email address!

We hope the start of the year is treating you well! Here’s what your child has been up to this week on Team Equinox~

• Survey - Thanks to those of you who have responded. If you haven’t yet, we’re asking parents to fill out this survey to tell us a little bit about you and your child. This survey should take no more than 10 minutes.

Science:

In science, we have finished our station work! I’m sure your student is happy to hear that. At this point, if your student has not finished their stations, I am asking that they come to lunch or after school to finish it up. The same is true for students who have not yet completed their “work” assessment- see PowerSchool. Next on the docket, we have started our Simple Machine Project.  Students have a choice of a bunch of mini-projects (worth a variety of points).  They can choose between writing a creative story, constructing a Rube-Goldberg Machine, writing a song/poem, creating a notebook sheet/poster, or a student led project. The combined value must be 100 points or higher and will count for ½ of the final assessment for our simple machines unit. Depending on our progress, we may finish the week with a traditional assessment or start Newton’s First Law.      

Humanities:

In social studies, students have been looking at the conditions that led up to the American Revolution, including British taxes and acts, the idea of “taxation without representation”, the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party, and revolutionary propaganda.  Students will be creating their own propaganda posters to convince their viewer to support their Patriot or Loyalist cause.

Homework: Hand in “Revolutionary Reporter” assignment (news report of either the Boston Massacre or the Boston Tea Party)

In language arts, we have continued our trip into the surprising world of The Giver. Students have been continuing their note-taking practice, and we have been exploring how to determine meanings of new words in the text. We also compared the world of The Giver with that of Milton, Vermont in a Venn diagram. For our grammar practice, we focused on appositive (TMI) commas and coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS) commas. Next week will be Mr. Moore’s last week before going out on paternity leave until January 3. We have had a visit from the long term sub, and we hope to have her back this week to make this transition as smooth as possible.

Homework: Independent reading for 30 minutes (for 5 of 7 days per week).

Math:

Grade 7: Students continued to analyze tables and graphs and continued to practice writing algebraic equations to represent the proportional situation.  Next week students will take an assessment to check in on their understanding of proportional relationships.

Use the link to parent tips if you want to see examples of what we are currently working on and what you can do to help.

Grade 8: Students continued to explore linear equations in algebra.  Students worked to determine if an equation has one solution, no solution or infinite solutions. Students also reviewed the rules of operations with positive and negative numbers. Next week they will continue to work on solving equations in the context of word problems and will move on to equations with two variables (x and y).

Use the link to parent tips if you want to see other examples of what we are currently working on and what you can do to help.

Team Equinox

Schoology for Social Studies

Hi folks!

In Social Studies this year I will be using Schoology as our online learning management system.  Please check out the link (below) to a Google Doc that explains why I am using this system and describes more about how to access it!

https://docs.google.com/a/mymtsd-vt.org/document/d/1N1wGm5lJNUiWPIlWUjuiySl-ViwY20rpIQTXDQ2qc8s/edit?usp=sharing


Thanks,

Miss Menard


                   

What We Did With Our Summer (Pt. I)

Hello Team Equinox -

We hope the summer is treating you well and that you've been enjoying these sunshine days. Here are some of the things your teachers have been up to, and if you'd like, please post your summer happenings in the comments. We'll share half of the teachers today and half in another post.

Ms. Koester

This is me trying to stay positive after our third attempt this summer at a trail ride on Icelandic Horses was canceled because of rain. I love to ride horses and on this day, the rain started as we pulled up to the barn! We will try again soon. We had severe thunderstorms and intense heat and humidity in Iowa and Illinois this summer, when we spent 12 days visiting family and friends. We even celebrated my Grandmother's 90th birthday with a big party! I was a server - that meant I did whatever my Grandma, Mom, and Aunts told me to do. In between traveling, painting our living/dining room, training our dog Buddy, and watching a sidewalk be put in on our street, I read three educational books for school and am reading some of the middle school summer read books. 

Ms. Menard

Following my graduation from Johnson State College, my summer started off with a bang when I went on a trip to the Caribbean island of Martinique through an anthropology course at Lyndon State College. During this two week adventure I went sight-seeing, ate delicious Martinican cuisine, observed and interacted with the locals, learned about the history of the country, and even hiked a volcano! The rest of my summer was spent reading, hiking, visiting the city of Philadelphia for the first time, and spending time with family and friends.

It's the Final Countdown!

This is just a reminder that we're in the last month of summer! We hope yours has been terrific, and we hope that you've found time to read the summer book you selected (and that you've enjoyed them as much as we have!). If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Moore at jmoore@mymtsd-vt.org. If you've enjoyed other books this summer, add them below in the comments!

Happy August!

Student-led Food Drive

From a Team Falcon 8th grader:

Attention Team Falcon faculty and students, as a part of my PLP transferrable skills project, I am starting a food drive among the team. There will be paper bags with advisory names in the room each advisory goes to for PLP. You are strongly encouraged to donate a few items from your pantry at home or extra food bought at the grocery store to these bags. The total food collected will be donated to the food shelf and distributed among families struggling to put meals on the table each day. The advisory that donates the most food will be rewarded with a lunchtime ice cream party soon after the competition has concluded. You have until Friday the 12th to submit your donations and try to help your advisory win the ice cream.  Good donations consist of some things such as peanut butter, crackers, canned vegetables and meats, and cereal. Pamphlets will be handed out to each advisor and posters will be hung in the hallways. On these will be more information as to what the food shelf is in the most need of. Pasta and marinara sauce are usually good donations, but the food shelf currently is not in need of those items.

Thanks for your help!

National Poetry Month

Yesterday in Language Arts, students wrote or created poems to celebrate National Poetry Month, and we wanted to share some with you. This link will take you to some of our more visual poetry (book spine, blackout, and chance poetry).

We also wrote some "exquisite corpse" poetry, where students write a line of poetry, fold it over, and pass it to the next person, who writes their line - and so on. The results, as you can see here, are pretty entertaining.

And last, but not least, students were able to just write poems - and a couple of those are posted here.

Enjoy the end of National Poetry Month! As a reminder, Poem In Your Pocket Day is April 27 - a day to encourage students to carry poems around with them. If students send me a picture of their poem and either themselves or where they are, there will be some kind of reward! Photos will be accepted upon students' return to classes as well.

Enjoy the break!

Renowned Civil War Presenter

It was just brought to my attention that we neglected to share with you this fabulous resource. Back in January, thanks to the General Stannard House Committee (thanks, Bill!) and the Milton Historical Society, we were treated to a presentation by noted historian, Howard Coffin. LCATV recorded this presentation and made it available for the public to view. Enjoy!

Video of Howard Coffin's presentation

Civil War Quilt

Students' inquiry work from our Civil War unit (The Danger of a Single Story) was incorporated into quilt squares and assembled in our hall by some visually inventive students. 

Yoga for Middle Schoolers!

We are offering after-school yoga for Middle Schoolers EVERY Thursday in May!!

2:35-3:15 in Rooms 224 and 225

5/4, 5/11, 5/18, and 5/25

with Yoga Instructor (and former Guidance Counselor) Kim Horton

Please let us know if your child is interested and whether or not they would need to borrow a yoga mat. Students will need to get a bus pass if they plan to ride the Elementary Bus. Let us know if you have any questions. 

Namaste

From the School Nurses

Hello All, 

We hope you are well. Here is the health round up for March!  

In the month of March we saw almost 400 students in the Middle School.    Out of the students we saw, 93% stayed in school :). Like the past months, our Middle School kiddos' top three complaints were Headaches (25%) , Cold/Sore Throat (20%) and Stomachaches (15%).  This month in the school health newsletter we are highlighting sleep and electronic use, as fatigue can be a major player in headaches.   

Great news, each month the nurse's office will be highlighting a health topic in the Milton Independent.   You will have to check us out in on the health page.   This is in an attempt to increase our collaboration with the community and reach out on trends and data we are seeing in the school.   

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns! :) 

Thanks

The School Nurse Office 

It's conference time!

Team Falcon Portfolio Conferences, April 11 & 12

March 2017

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 hard work. The portfolio process helps students build lifelong 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/teamfalconconferencesspring17 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

Visit http://bit.ly/teamfalconconferencesspring17

MMS in the News!

Competing against 24 other middle school teams this weekend, the Milton Chef Jackets took home the Lively Local Award for the best highlight of local, seasonal products in their Winter Vegetable Curry with Apple Raita and homemade Naan Bread!!

Please wish congratulations to Team Falcon members for their participation in this event: Thomas Young, Brad Stankiewicz, and Anna Kaigle!

Come taste their dish for yourself at the Community Dinner this Thursday from 4:30-7:00

Go Milton!!!!

John Brown: Hero or Criminal?

Here is a sampling of students' posters in response to the question "Was John Brown a hero or a criminal?"

Calendar Raffle Winners

Check here for a list of prize winners from our Calendar Raffle fundraiser. Good luck!

Science and Engineering Fair!

Here are some snapshots from last night's terrific Science and Engineering Fair. It was exciting to see such great attendance from the community - and such excellent, engaging presentations from our students. Thanks to all who made the trip, who supported your children's learning, and who learned a little something new.

Team Meeting Report - 2/10

Every week, Team Falcon has a team meeting to reflect on the week and celebrate each other's accomplishments. This week, we thought we'd send out a report from the meeting.

Ms. TC's advisory was in charge of running the meeting, opening with a slide congratulating students on surviving the Science and Engineering Fair. We greeted each other with the roller coaster greeting (which is more fun than it has any right to be).  We also observed that it is National Cream Cheese Brownie Day, House Warranty Day, and Umbrella Day. (Note: Some of those may be more exciting to celebrate than others).

We celebrated the variety of activities Falcons take part in: Milton Dance Team will be participating in an event in St. Albans, the Vermont Hockey Playoffs are this weekend, and Gymnastics' state competition is tonight.

Perhaps the most meaningful part of team meeting is the acknowledgments section, where students take the opportunity to acknowledge the work of others in front of the whole team.

• A majority of the acknowledgments were focused on the Science and Engineering Fair. Students recognized each other for their willingness to help, their persistence, and their creative topics. 
• The Stock Market activities in math were also the subject of acknowledgments. Students celebrated their teamwork and sharing of information.
• Students were also celebrated for their application of learning to other fields, their note taking, and their ability to work through injuries.

Every week, we acknowledge someone as our Habit Hero - someone who has been a leader in our Habits of Mind (Preparedness, Persistence, Precision, Citizenship, and Flexible Thinking). This week, we honored Emma Philbrook. She is a good citizen, who helps other students who need, and definitely shows persistence in her work habits. Congratulations, Emma!

See you all next week!

Science and Engineering Fair

The fourth annual Milton Middle School Science and Engineering Fair will take place this Thursday, February 9, 2017, from 5:30 to 7:30PM. All students in grades 6-8 will present a project with a focus on hands-on scientific investigation or engineering.  Our students will have researched, designed, tested, analyzed, and displayed a project that uses scientific and engineering methods to create knowledge or solve a problem.

We’ve had great turnout for this event in past years. Avoid parking stress and park at the high school. We will have a shuttle running between the high school and the middle school for the duration of the event. Remember, there is also a community dinner that evening from 4:30 to 7:00PM.

Your attendance will help make this experience a celebration for our students and for Milton Middle School. You can support your child by helping them arrive on time for their time slot and giving them the independence to interact with the judges and audience members on their own. We look forward to seeing you this Thursday!