• 2/6 - 2nd MP Report Card Grades Posted
• 2/8 - 12:05 PM Dismissal for students
• 2/10 - Life Skills Dance
• 2/15 - 11th Grade Physicals
• 2/17 - Course Selection Presentation (Extended HR Schedule)
• 2/20 - President's Day - No School
• 2/21 - School Board Meeting @ 7:00PM
• 2/24 - VOICE - Black History Program @ 6:30 PM
• 2/28 - Family Brain Night
• 3/3 - 3rd MP Progress Reports

We are happy to announce that we now have a Truman SWPBIS Spirit Shop! The store will be open until February 19th. We have tried to get a variety of items that students, families, and staff would enjoy to purchase. Items will be delivered in individual packages to the school and distributed to students.

If there are any questions about the store, please feel free to contact brian.sinkiewicz@bristoltwpsd.org at any time.

• SADD Mock Car Crash = May 4th & 5th
• Senior Assembly/Caps & Gowns Distributed = May 11th
• Senior Prom = Thursday, May 18th - Tickets go on sale on 3/1 - Reminder: Students must have 0 detention hours to purchase
• Senior Final Exams = June 5th - June 9th
• Graduation = June 14th

All attendance notes, trip approval requests, and other inquiries should be emailed to hst.attendance@bristoltwpsd.org or call 267-599-2109 to speak with our attendance clerk.

Going on a trip and want to ask permission for excused absences - You must fill out the Trip Approval Request Form at least 2 weeks in advance.

The month of January was a busy one for the Counseling Department. Keystones took center stage, and Adrienne Jones worked with Admin to make preparations to test over 1,000 students. Another highlight was the work that Rebecca Mallon did to prepare for the "9th Grade Takeover," working on an interactive presentation that helped students understand the credit and grading systems.

We are quickly preparing for the 2nd half of the school year, which includes Senior Conferences, Course Selection, and many more items. Stay tuned for further information.

Mr. Diliegro's Civil Engineering students took a tour of the newly renovated Ben Franklin Middle School and spent time speaking with Mike Cox, Director of Operations at BTSD, and contracted engineers working on the project. From electrical engineering projects, to rain water & drainage engineering, and everything in between, these student a first-hand look at how the engineers use math and elaborate calculations to make a large project like a middle school work efficiently and successfully. What a relevant and real-world experience!

Freshman in English 9 courses are finishing up a unit on the art of theater, with an emphasis on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The students will then move into a unit focusing on poetry, with an emphasis on figurative language. There will also be a continued focus on utilizing the R.A.C.E.S. strategy for writing constructed responses. Students will continue making progress on their personalized Reading Exact Path.

Sophomores in English 10 courses are finishing up a unit that focuses on analyzing the role “point of view” plays in literature. The students will then move to a unit that emphasizes the skill set of identifying the theme and/or main idea of a text. Students will also be examining numerous reading and writing strategies in preparation for the Keystone Exams. Students will continue making progress on their personalized Reading Exact Path.

Juniors in English 11 courses have begun reading several works from the time period of literary realism. The major text that the students will examine during this month is Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. Students will learn of the historical setting of the novel, which occurs during the Great Depression in the 1930s. While reading the text, students will analyze the idea of the “American Dream,” and engage with the themes of loneliness, friendship, and independence.

Seniors in English 12 courses are delving into the elements of drama and Shakespearean tragedy, with a specific emphasis on The Tragedy of Macbeth. After the completion of the Shakespearean play, students will begin examining the British romantic poets.

*New Teacher*

Mr. Schiotis has joined the Truman PE department to replace Mrs. Denny (Good Luck Mrs. Denny!!!!). Mr. Schiotis was a 2010 graduate of Truman High School. Mr. Schiotis was an excellent baseball player at Truman. He spent his college years playing at Salisbury University, where he was a four year starter. He now brings his superior knowledge and experience to the Truman baseball coaching staff and PE Department!

Driver Education: We are ready for our new semester and new students for Driver Education! Students will begin learning driving theory. They will also receive hands-on practice using our driving simulators. The simulators are a great way to gain valuable driving experience before hitting the open road!!!

Physical Education: New and returning students are getting ready for the new semester. Indoor activities will include ping pong, cornhole, soccer, hockey, basketball, and volleyball. To keep things fresh, different invasion games will be offered during certain times. Wednesdays will remain “pacer days”. Students have the opportunity to test their cardiovascular endurance!!

Adapted PE: Mr. Sicilia and the adaptive PE class have been starting their class with a 6-minute walk to music. The students love the Oldies!!!! After our walk, we stretch out our muscles before working on basketball skills. The students work on ball manipulation without dribbling, dribbling with both hands, and they show off their skills while going behind the back and through the legs. The last 10 minutes of class, they show off their shooting skills. Ask Lizzie about her shooting skills?

Honors Geometry can be a difficult course, loaded with postulates, theorems, and proofs. But it doesn’t have to be treated with such seriousness all the time. Recently, Mrs. Harvey introduced angle-pair relationships created by the intersection of a transversal and parallel lines, a key to understanding properties of triangles and other polygons. While reading the definitions and studying the diagrams of this concept is vital, Mrs. Harvey really reinforced the ideas with a game called “Dance Dance Transversal.” Adapted from the popular Dance Dance Revolution video game, it allowed her students to make a physical connection to the different types of angles they might encounter. Not sure which they enjoy more: geometry or dancing.

In Mr. Brady’s Honors Geometry class, students discovered that the intersection of the three medians of a triangle is a precise point called the centroid. Also known as the center of gravity, an accurately-located centroid would allow students to balance a triangle of any size on the tip of a pencil! What’s more challenging than just balancing a triangle on a pencil point? How about taking on your classmates in a footrace - without your triangle falling off the pencil! 27 students battled in fierce competition. Eventual winner, Jonathan Updike, earned 10 Tiger Bucks AND bragging rights.

This month we are highlighting the work of Mr. Koder. Mr. Koder teaches Advanced Placement Biology, Microbiology, Academic Chemistry and Honors Chemistry. In addition to preparing for these four different classes that he teaches, he is also the building expert on the Clevertouch interactive display boards that are found in most classrooms.

• In Chemistry he is teaching about ionic and covalent compounds. Students are also learning how to write chemical formulas.
• In AP Biology students are discussing cell division and how cells communicate with each other through signaling pathways.
• In Microbiology students are learning about how to identify different types of bacteria through chemical testing. They are also developing skills relating to staining techniques.

Students in Ms. Wright’s Civics classes created jury duty guides to better understand the process, rules, rights, and responsibilities associated with jury duty in Bucks County.

Hola, Ciao, and Hello! It’s hard to believe that we are already in the second semester. Please reach out to our teaching staff if you or your children have any questions.

Classroom Corner:

Our Italian classes continue to explore grammar and culture of Italy and the Italian Language. Medical Spanish will begin its second semester start date with a new group of students. Our Spanish classes will continue building fluency through reading, writing, speaking, listening and vocabulary activities. Finally, our ELD classes will wrap up Access testing.

Teacher Spotlight - Signora Amanda Guida, Spanish

Signora Guida teaches Italian. She has a Masters in Education from Cabrini University and a BA from Rosemont College in Italian Studies. She studied abroad in Perugia and Siena Italy.

She is looking forward to taking 60 students to Italy next month! She enjoys reading, cooking, listening to true crime podcasts, and spending time with her husband, 4 children, 3 cats, and 1 dog

Please pull ALL the way up in the drop-off zone in the mornings to help us keep traffic off Green Lane. Thank you.

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