Tiverton Middle School
Fall /Winter 2015-16 Newsletter
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FEBRUARY'S STUDENTS OF THE MONTH!
Grade 8: Abby Forcier & Emily Caraveo
Grade 7: Fallon DellaVecchia-Ronan & Abby Arruda
Grade 6: Matthew Hackett & Sophia Ferraro
Grade 5: Autumn Lebeau & Zachary Andrade
TEENS: SAY NO to Vaping/eCigarettes
It is not only illegal for those under 18, to possess these high-tech smoking/vaping devices: it is also unhealthy. The TMS Student Support Services Team has responded to the growing popularity of these devices. The Taylor Hooton Foundation (www.taylorhooton.org) offered, on December 15, to all grade 7 and grade 8 students, a 30-40 minute presentation on making healthy choices. Also, the January 8th Project Purple presentation (K-Rob BMX show) included a strong message regarding marijuana, alcohol, and other drugs. In addition, all grade 8 science classes (thank you Mrs. Clarey and Mrs. Dischert) included a lesson on the dangers of vaping. Further, Rebecca Elwell, Edith Borden, and our nurse Melissa McDonald have been strategizing about bringing more programming in. Stay tuned! It takes a village!
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January 2016 Students of the Month!
Gr 8: Stephen Clarke, Lauren Bowdren
Grade 7: Angelin Santerre, Jacob Jones
Grade 6: Michael McKenna, Meadow Vieira
Grade 5: Moxie Mills, Lexey LaBonte.
December 2015 Students of the Month!
Grade 8: Francesca Viccione, Cora Chouinard
Grade 7: Isabel Whalen, Annabells Levesque
Grade 6: John Barretto, Kyle Sousa
Grade 5: Sam Farley, Ali Chamseddine
November 2015 Students of the Month
Grade 7: Samantha Marois & Sydney Silvia
Grade 6: Devan Perioni & Jack Morin
Grade 5: Julia Han & Ciana Azevedo
OCTOBER 2015 Students of the Month!
Grade 8: Jonathan DaSilva and Nate Neville
Grade 7: Andrew Carlisle and Chana Urrego
Grade 6: Quinn Morgan and Mariah Medeiros
Grade 5: Ethan Aguiar and Jackson Landy
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September 2015 Students of the Month!
Grade 8: Ana de Souza and Mackenzie Pelletier
Grade 7: Sean Tappen and Jayden Goetz
Grade 6: Elise Flanagan and Bryce King (not pictured)
Grade 5: Cassie Taber and Gehrig Sheehan
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Rude vs. Mean vs. Bullying
...from A Mighty Girl
Signe Whitson, a child and adolescent therapist, has a timely message for parents and educators: “there is a real need to draw a distinction between behavior that is rude, behavior that is mean and behavior that is characteristic of bullying.” In a HuffPost article, she clarifies the way she identifies the difference and asks adults to remember that distinguishing between them allows “teachers, school administrators, police, youth workers, parents and kids all know what to pay attention to and when to intervene.”
Whitson’s article was prompted by an encounter with a parent, who told her, “Last week, my daughter was bullied really badly after school!" and then went on to describe what Whitson characterized as a benign encounter between playful children throwing leaves. She writes, “While I always want to be careful not to minimize anyone's experience... if kids and parents improperly classify rudeness and mean behavior as bullying -- whether to simply make conversation or to bring attention to their short-term discomfort -- we all run the risk of becoming so sick and tired of hearing the word that this actual life-and-death issue among young people loses its urgency as quickly as it rose to prominence."
So how does Whitson define the differences? Rude, she says, is “[i]nadvertently saying or doing something that hurts someone else.” In children this takes the form of social errors like “burping in someone's face, jumping ahead in line, bragging about achieving the highest grade or even throwing a crushed up pile of leaves in someone's face.” The critical factor? “Incidents of rudeness are usually spontaneous, unplanned inconsideration, based on thoughtlessness, poor manners or narcissism, but not meant to actually hurt someone.”
Being mean involves “purposefully saying or doing something to hurt someone once (or maybe twice).” Unlike unthinking rudeness, “mean behavior very much aims to hurt or depreciate someone….Very often, mean behavior in kids is motivated by angry feelings and/or the misguided goal of propping themselves up in comparison to the person they are putting down.” And while Whitson agrees that both rudeness and mean behavior require correction, they are “different from bullying in important ways that should be understood and differentiated when it comes to intervention.”
Bullying is “intentionally aggressive behavior, repeated over time, that involves an imbalance of power….Kids who bully say or do something intentionally hurtful to others and they keep doing it, with no sense of regret or remorse -- even when targets of bullying show or express their hurt or tell the aggressors to stop.” Whitson gives examples of multiple kinds of bullying, including physical and verbal aggression, relational aggression (like social exclusion, hazing, or rumor spreading), and cyberbullying. The key aspect to all of them is the ongoing nature of the behavior, which leaves the victims feeling powerless and fearful.
Whitson is pleased that, in the past few years, “Americans have collectively paid attention to the issue of bullying like never before; millions of school children have been given a voice, 49 states in the U.S. have passed anti-bullying legislation, and thousands of adults have been trained in important strategies to keep kids safe and dignified in schools and communities.” As we continue to improve our response to bullying, she asks all adults who interact with children to remember that “a child's future may depend on a non-jaded adult's ability to discern between rudeness at the bus stop and life-altering bullying.”
To read Signe Whitson's entire article on HuffPost, visit http://huff.to/1XIDuIT
Whitson is also the author of the bullying prevention book for parents and educators, "8 Keys to End Bullying: Strategies for Parents & Schools" at http://www.amightygirl.com/8-keys-to-end-bullying
For our top picks of bullying prevention books for kids, we feature our favorite titles for preschool and early elementary-aged children in our blog post, "The End of Bullying Begins With Me": Bullying Prevention Books for Young Children," at http://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=10255
In the second post, we feature recommendations for tweens and tweens: "Taking a Stand Against Bullying: Bullying Prevention Books for Tweens and Teens" at http://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=10257
In our final post, we share resources for parents and educators to help them better understand childhood bullying and learn how best to respond to it: "Leading the Way: Bullying Prevention Books for Parents and Educators," at http://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=10259
We also recommend books to help teach your Mighty Girl how to be a good friend in our blog post: “Making and Keeping Friends: Mighty Girl Books About Friendship” at http://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=4661
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Our Budding Writers Win a Trip to the State House!
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Climbing to New Heights -- for the Second Year in a Row!
On October 8th and 9th -- grade 5 students went on a field trip to the YMCA in Middletown, RI. This field trip was funded by the TMS PTC and the Tiverton Prevention Coalition. Rope courses, like that at the YMCA, are an exceptional way for young people to build trust and confidence, overcome fears or challenges, strengthen bonds, and have a fun exciting experience. Our 5th graders grew, learned,and bonded in ways that are not possible in an everyday school setting.
The field trip consisted of two parts. Part One was a classroom experience involving lessons on character building. The students had two classroom experiences, one specifically on bullying and the second on Respect, Responsibility, and Safety -- which are our themes for the middle school.
Part Two was activity-based where students participated in outdoor team challenges. Students learned to work together and help each other to be successful as a team to complete physical tasks. They also worked individually to challenge themselves and face their fears on the rock wall and climbing centipede, with lots of cheering and support from their classmates!
All 140 students experienced a life-changing character-development workshop; along with the support of their teachers. Students had a great time and brought their lessons back with them to enhance their social skills and help shape their futures in a positive way.
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Professional Development Corner:
Many of our teachers and specialists are engaged in innovative professional development workshops and mini-courses!
Project Lead The Way (PLTW): Kate Brennan, Carl Chamberland, Jim Korney, Shana Roper, and Jay Szaro headed to Worcester Poly Tech last week to kick-start TMS’ planning year for implementing the PLTW Gateway program to Tiverton High School’s new engineering “academy.” This is a very exciting STEM-centric program that will surely engage our grade 7 and 8 students next year in math, Tech Ed, and Computer Tech!
Sea Perch: On Tuesday, October 6th, Maria Clarey attended the Sea Perch Train-the-Teacher Workshop at Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC). Sponsored by the Undersea Science and Engineering Foundation, the van Beuren Charitable Foundation, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and the Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance (SENEDIA). Attendees were hurtled out of their comfort zones and became engineers -- building rovers from scratch!
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Nurse Melissa's Info Corner:
Alert!!! Aqui-Q Recall Alert!!!
Sanofi US Issues Voluntary Nationwide Recall of Auvi‑Q® Due to Potential Inaccurate Dosage Delivery
Sanofi US is voluntarily recalling all Auvi‑Q® (epinephrine injection.) The recall involves all Auvi‑Q currently on the market and includes both the 0.15 mg and 0.3 mg strengths for hospitals, retailers and consumers. The products have been found to potentially have inaccurate dosage delivery.
If a patient experiencing a serious allergic reaction (i.e., anaphylaxis) did not receive the intended dose, there could be significant health consequences, including death because anaphylaxis is a potentially life‑threatening condition. As of October 26, 2015, Sanofi has received 26 reports of suspected device malfunctions in the US and Canada. None of these device malfunction reports have been confirmed. In these reports, patients have described symptoms of the underlying hypersensitivity reaction. No fatal outcomes have been reported among these cases.
Sanofi US is notifying its distributors and customers who include doctors, pharmacies, wholesalers and other customers in the supply chain by letter, fax, email and phone calls and is arranging for return and reimbursement of all recalled products.
Customers with questions regarding this recall can go to www.Auvi‑Q.com and call1‑866‑726‑6340. Customers should immediately contact their healthcare provider (HCP) for a prescription for an alternate epinephrine auto‑injector. In the event of a life‑threatening allergic reaction (anaphylaxis), patients should only use their Auvi‑Q device if another epinephrine auto‑injector is not available, and then call 911.
TMS Mission Statement
Email: ldias-mitchell@tivertonschools.org
Website: http://tms.tivertonschools.org/
Location: 10 Quintal Drive, Tiverton, RI, United States
Phone: (401) 624-6668