MARK YOUR CALENDAR

December 6: Parent/Teacher conferences (1:00-6:00 pm)

December 6: Early Release Day (10:55 am dismissal)

December 8: PCMS Winter Dance

December 12: Term 2 Progress Reports emailed home

December 18-December 22: PCMS Spirit Week

Monday December 4th

Grilled cheese with homemade chicken & rice soup, Hummus Pack, Crispy Chicken Sandwich, Salad Bar, or Yogurt n' fruit parfait or Smoothie

Tuesday December 5th

Loaded Tots: Taco meat, cheese sauce, sour cream & salsa, Hummus Pack, Crispy Chicken Sandwich, Salad Bar, or Yogurt n' fruit parfait or Smoothie

Wednesday December 6th

ERD: Breakfast only. No lunches served.

Thursday December 7th

Popcorn chicken with tater tots & broccoli, Hummus Pack, Crispy Chicken Sandwich, Salad Bar, or Yogurt n' fruit parfait or Smoothie

Friday December 8th

Stuffed Crust Pizza & Veggie Boat, Hummus Pack, Crispy Chicken Sandwich, Salad Bar, or Yogurt n' fruit parfait or Smoothie

Breakfast is available on early release days but lunch is not served.

December 6, 2023

PCMS ERD Schedule

7:20-10:55 am

Day 4

HOMEROOM

7:20 - 7:30

10”

PERIOD 4

7:30 - 7:59

29”

PERIOD 5

7:59 - 8:28

29”

PERIOD 6

8:28 - 8:57

29”

PERIOD 7

8:57 - 9:26

29”

PERIOD 1

9:26 - 9:55

29”

PERIOD 2

9:55 - 10:24

29”

PERIOD 3

10:24 - 10:55

31”

Scheduling is now open for parent-teacher conferences on December 6th. We use an online scheduler called Pick A Time for conference scheduling. Instructions for using Pick A Time are available at the link below. You will have the option to select either in-person or virtual conferences. Google Meet links for virtual conferences will be provided on your Pick A Time schedule once you have selected your conference times.

For PCMS conferences, please build in 5-10 minutes between conference slots to allow for traveling between the different teachers or switching for virtual conferences.

IMPORTANT Note for Virtual Conferences: For reasons of security and confidentiality of your child's information, you must use your first and last name in order to be admitted into a virtual conference with a teacher. If you have a Google account and you currently use a nickname instead of your first and last name, please change your name in your Google account before your conferences (a link to instructions is below). If you do not have a Google account, you will be asked to type in your first and last name before entering the meeting.

Click here to begin scheduling your conferences

Click here for instructions to change your name on your Google account

PCMS will be holding a winter dance on Friday, December 8 from 6:30-8:30 pm. The dance will be held in our cafeteria. Tickets will be sold during lunches closer to the dance date and will be $10/ticket. Checks should be made out to PCMS. Profits from the dance will be split between the Student Leadership and Best Buddies/Unified Sports. There will be snacks (pizza, candy) and drinks available for purchase.

Basketball tryouts will begin on December 11. See links below for more information.

Final rosters will be posted end of day on 12/20 in the main office.

The PCMS Student Council sock drive fundraiser was a success! Officer Kirby came by to collect all the donations and he will deliver them to the police station. Thank you to the students, staff and families who donated!

Our next fundraiser will be Our next fundraiser will be Coats for Kids and Families. Families can drop off warm winter coats for children or adults. Anton Cleaners will clean and distribute them to families in need, free of charge. More information can be found here: https://antons.com/cfk/about-us/

Families can drop off warm winter coats for children or adults. Anton Cleaners will clean and distribute them to families in need, free of charge. More information can be found here: https://antons.com/cfk/about-us/

The PCMS Student Council has decided to hold a spirit week, to fall on the week before winter break (December 18-22). Here are the themes they decided on:

Monday: Sleepy Monday-- wear your favorite PJs to school

Tuesday: Keepin’ It Country-- wear your flannel, hats and cowboy boots

Wednesday: Festive/ugly sweater day

Tropical Thursday: Winter is coming but let’s brighten up PCMS with your favorite summer/Hawaiian gear

Friday: Student vs. Staff. We’ll be ending the week with Jingle Ball. Students wear red and the staff will wear green.

Team 7.1 teachers had a student celebration today during Titan Time. Students were chosen based on work ethic, attitude, and character. The first term 7.1 superstars are: Emily Herman, Hailey O'Connor, Sophie Monti-Drown, Brianna Symanski, Maddie Rejewski, Ben Meehan, Marco Gullinello, Jackson Banks, Chris Gassiraro, Jack Rockett, and Liam O'Neill.

Last week, PCMS students got to vote for their favorite art entry. The winning artwork will be on display outside of the cafeteria. Here are the winning artists and their submissions:

Every school district in Massachusetts is allowed to nominate one 8th grade student for a state-wide leadership initiative called Project 351. PCMS staff nominate students who have demonstrated leadership potential, have a strong work ethic and exemplify the values of kindness, compassion, humility, & gratitude. This year, Seamus McFarland has been identified as this year’s Project 351 candidate. Here were the nominations we received:

Nomination #1: Seamus McFarland would be a great candidate for Project 351. Seamus is kind, compassionate and hardworking. I had the privilege of working with him on the PCMS school council last year and got to see firsthand how much he cares about our school and wants to make it a better place. I also have Seamus in science class and he is a member of the PCMS cross country team that I coach. He is as equally hardworking on the athletic fields as he is in the classroom. I highly recommend Seamus as a Project 351 candidate.

Nomination #2: I would recommend Seamus McFarland as the Project 351 candidate. Seamus is a great worker when he works independently as well as when he works with his peers. He seems to be invested in the concepts that he is learning. He also has made great positive contributions to our school community. He leads by example and shows kindness and humility.

Nomination #3: He is creative, bright, kind, respectful, and a true asset to any class and team. Seamus worked well with others and always gave his all. He communicated well with his peers and adults. I loved how he was not a follower, but regularly thought outside the box. He enjoyed hard work. Seamus is the type of student you are blessed enough to teach once in your career. I know that I will see his name associated with the creation of clever movies or novels or hopefully the idea that brings peace to our world.

Congratulations to Seamus! If anyone would like to learn more about this program, information can be found at: Project 351.

PCMS is fortunate to have 33 student leaders on our student council this year. Our student council will be meeting throughout the year for various leadership initiatives. For our school council, which is made up of staff, parents and community members, we wanted to ensure we brought student voice into that body. Therefore, I had the staff vote, via rank order, students from our student council that would be on the school council. There are so many talented, thoughtful and hardworking students on our student council so the voting was tight but below are the students the faculty voted to be on the school council:

G7: Beckett Hawkes & Maddie Rejewski

G8: Tessa Vitale & Sam Ruggiero

Happy Friday to us! The PCMS PTO dropped off some snacks and drinks to the faculty room. Thank you! We appreciate all you do for us!

Take it or leave! Students may place unwanted, unopened package food or drink from their cafeteria meals on the table. Any student may take food or drink from the table at no cost. Items To Share...packaged food, fresh fruit, milk, juice, fresh vegetables. Items not consumed will be donated to a local food pantry.

PCMS has a great tradition of donating toys to the Pembroke community while also having a basketball in house tournament.

The winners of the tourney which is two or three days after school for an hour get jingle ball tee shirts, their name engraved on the school plaque and the chance to play the staff in a game !!!!!! The idea of helping those in need and also being able to have some fun is a win, win.

Please remember this opportunity to bring in the toy and sign up to play will be ending on December 5 which is a Tuesday fast approaching. Good luck and thank you to all who accept the challenge.

Today during Titan Time, the Unified Bocce Team played against PCMS staff members. Everyone had a blast!

French Club met this week. Everyone had a bon temps! Such a good time! The next meeting is scheduled for Monday December 11. Thank you Ms. Safizadeh for running this club!

Our jazz band will also be performing a concert at the New England Village. This concert will take place on Thursday, December 21 at 4:30 pm.

We’ve got some catching up to do to acknowledge and thank all of our student volunteers for the last couple of weeks! This week, Mimi M and Shaelyn M led morning announcements. Molly K December’s Fun Friday host. Tessa V finished up her Fun Friday’s hosting last week. Shaelyn also took the lead in announcing the last few weeks in November, along with Katelyn C.

Fun Fridays are a great way to wrap up the school week here at PCMS! Every Friday morning, a song is played over the intercom after announcements. Titan Time teachers and students work together to identify the song and the artist and it gets VERY competitive. The fifth caller wins a $5 DD gift card (and bragging rights!). Our thanks to our PTO for supplying the weekly DD gift cards.

This week’s Fun Friday winning Titan Time was Mrs. Gearin. The song was “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa.

This year, PCMS is rolling out a year-long initiative, MyCAP: My Career and Academic Plan. MyCAP is designed to provide students with ongoing and school-wide opportunities to plan for their academic, personal/social and career success in high school and beyond. Through the MyCAP process, students will be presented to a range of career awareness and career exploration lessons. The goal is to help students make connections between their current and future coursework and their postsecondary goals. Below are some summaries from recent MyCAP lessons:

Students researched a STEM career of their choice online, and answered questions about it such as, what is the salary? What education and/or training is needed? Where does this person work? What qualities should a person have to be successful in this career? They created a Google slide describing the highlights of the career that they researched. Popular career choices included computer programmer, electrical engineer, marine biologist, and various medical fields.

Students spent 3 days exploring careers in STEM and taking a peek behind the scenes in an industry that has employed many of the fastest growing tech professionals within the STEM field; Amazon.

Students first completed a self reflection “Which STEM field fits me best” where they identified characteristics that will serve them well in their future and shared with me the types of work they think about after high school. From there they worked through a webquest gathering data on different careers such as expected job growth, median salary and what they could do with a 2 year degree and a four year degree.

Next students participated in Amazon Future Engineer where they learned about the amazing technology behind the concept of “click to ship” and how Amazon is able to get our orders from online to doorstep so quickly. Students were led on an interactive tour of one of Amazon's largest fulfillment centers where they discovered the many different types of jobs (STEM and some not tech related) that all have to work together to make this happen. From the software engineers who program the Kiva robots, hardware research scientists developing the next generation of robotics to the pick and pack assistants and delivery drivers students have not only gained an understanding of the many opportunities available to them but a greater appreciation of how those “smile” boxes arrive on their doorsteps so quickly.

Throughout this school year, each PCMS department will be planning and delivering a lesson with a focus on college and career readiness to help students understand how course material may align with their future career goals. The schedule for these classes is below:

This class meets weekly and is taught by your child’s school counselor. Below are summaries of the lessons currently being taught. Want to see what other upcoming lessons will be in the 21st Century Skills class? Check out the curriculum: 21st Century curriculum 23-24

7th and 8th grade 21st century skills classes will be starting a unit on gratitude. Students will have the opportunity to learn that simple expressions of gratitude have the ability to boost their overall well-being. Students will also have the chance to reflect on what they are grateful for and will practice expressing gratitude.

PCMS Clubs are free clubs that meet after school for an hour. Clubs are open to all PCMS students. Clubs run on Mondays, Tuesdays & Thursdays.

There are late buses available to take students home for students with a bus pass. Students report to the cafeteria after clubs are over to get on the late bus. A staff member will be there to help students get on the right bus.

Unified Intramural Sports Club will meet weekly on Mondays (2:15-3:15) playing lots of different sports. Mr. Flynn is the advisor. The first few weeks, we will be learning bocce and setting up student teams to compete against each other. Sign ups in the front office!

Art Club is where students get to design and create their own artwork in a supportive, fun and creative environment. Art club is an open studio format where students work on independent and collaborative projects enjoying a variety of art experiences.

Mondays in the Art Room

2:20-3:20

Advisor: Ms. Gillis

Best Buddies Middle Schools pairs students with intellectual and developmental disabilities in one-to-one friendships with middle school students without intellectual and developmental disabilities. In today’s middle schools, students with intellectual and developmental disabilities often enter the same building and walk the same hallways as their peers, but they are left out of social activities. Best Buddies ambitiously envisions a world where people with intellectual disabilities are so successfully integrated into our schools, our workplaces and our general communities that our current efforts and services will be unnecessary.

First Monday each month at school and one outing a month outside of school.

Advisor: Ms. Leahy

BO22 - Ms. Leahy's Room

Using our classroom kitchen, students will prepare and cook various foods. Testing the final product is always part of this club! Sign ups in the front office.

2nd & 4th Tuesdays

Advisor: Mrs. Whitehill

Consumer Science Room (across from art room)

Students in the drama club will participate in the school musical, which will meet after school in the auditorium from November until March. We will be performing Aladdin Jr. this year. Students will learn to read music, sing, and dance on stage in full costume. Auditions will be held in November in the PCMS auditorium. During production week (March 18-23), rehearsals and performances will be at PHS. Auditions will be held on Thursday, November 16 after school.

Mondays & Thursdays

(November-March)

Advisor: Mr. Hovey

Auditorium

GSA is a safe place for all students to talk about gender and sexual identity. The club will have fun activities twice a month and will serve as a space for communication and discussion. The GSA welcomes all students regardless of gender, sexual identity, or sexual orientation.

1st & 3rd Tuesdays

Advisor: Mrs. Larson

B035- 21st Century Skills room

Homework Club provides students with a quiet space to complete homework and get extra help.

Mondays, Tuesdays & Thursdays

Advisor: Mrs. Gearin

Library

Jazz Band is for instrumental music students who want to learn how to play jazz and rock music. Students will practice, improvise, and record songs that will be shared with the group. Each week, students will listen to famous artists of jazz and rock music.

Tuesdays

Advisor: Mr. Hovey

Band Room

The purpose of Spanish Club is to provide educational opportunities outside of the classroom for those interested in extending their learning about the Spanish language and culture. Topics will range from music, to food, to understanding celebrations, traditions, and special holidays. We will learn about these topics in the context of the specific countries of Latin America or Spain. All students are encouraged to participate even if they are not currently enrolled in Spanish class.

The French Club meets monthly to provide extended opportunities to students to facilitate a deeper understanding of the French speaking world. Students will explore a variety of cultural traditions like holidays and celebrations and compare it to their own. Topics include music, food, arts and crafts. All PCMS students are encouraged to participate even if they are not enrolled in French class.

The 2nd Monday of each month

Advisor: Ms. Safizadeh

B118 (Ms. Safizadeh's room)

Stem club could be anything the students want to make: drones, 3D printing, electronics, coding etc.

Tuesdays

Advisor: Mrs. DeBellis

Stem Lab 8 (room B027)

Here is a link to the student handbook:

Here is a link where you will find PCMS course descriptions:

PowerSchool and Google Classroom are the two main software programs that are used at PCMS. Below are two brief descriptions of the differences between the two.

PowerSchool is our student information system. This program has increased functionality once a student enters 7th grade. Through this program, parents and students can access attendance information, schedule information, current grades and forecasted assignments. If you hit on the cumulative grade within a specific class, a different screen will open that will provide more detailed information on the grade breakdown. Parents can also set up their account preferences to receive automatic reports (e.g., daily/weekly/monthly) emailed to them. Here is the Parent PowerSchool login link: Technology / PowerSchool Login Instructions

Google Classroom: This software has more course-specific information. Assignments, instructions and other class-based announcements are posted here. There are no grades. Most parents are probably already very familiar with Google Classroom from the last few years. Most teachers will have already sent invites out to parents, using the primary email you have listed in PowerSchool. If you haven’t yet been invited to join your child’s classrooms, just send the teachers an email.

Mrs. Alicia Clancy is our front office secretary. She can be reached at alicia.clancy@pembrokek12.org

Mrs. Tracey Smith is our special education/guidance secretary. She can be reached at tracey.smith@pembrokek12.org

Ms. Courtney Keller is our office paraprofessional. In addition she oversees the library and supplies some in class support. She can be reached at courtney.keller@pembrokek12.org

Email: donna.mcgarrigle@pembrokek12.org
Website: www.pembrokek12.org
Location: 559 School Street, Pembroke, MA, USA
Phone: 781-293-8627
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PembrokeCommunityMiddleSchool
Twitter: @PemSch_news