Parent Newsletter
Feb. 26th - Mar. 2nd
Spring Intersession Forms Due Wed. March 7th
Two weeks until Spring Break
- A look at the week ahead
- School Safety
- 30 Days of Kindness Challenge Continues
- Spring Intersession
- Celebrating Black History Month - STEM edition
- Finishing the 9 Weeks Strong
- What is Project Based Learning and why is it used?
- Counselors Corner
Thank you for all that you do to support Jefferson Middle School!
Phil Cox, Principal
Chris Layton, Vice Principal
School Safety
Thank you for all of your support for JMS students and staff. Our staff will continue to review all safety plans for the building and will also pursue further discussions centered around more professional development ideas focused on school safety. Our number one priority is to promote a safe learning environment for all of our students and staff.
Thank You
Phil Cox, principal
Chris Layton, vice principal
30 Days of Kindness
A Look at the week ahead
February 26-March 2
Monday 26 – B Day
Tuesday 27 – A Day
PTO Meeting
Wednesday 28 - B Day
Thursday 1 - A Day
8th graders register for HS classes during Science class
Talent Show @ JMS JPAC, 6:00
Friday 2 - B Day
Youth for Christ @ JMS JPAC, 7:00
History Club to UTK, 7:30
Rotary – Interact District Conference, 1:00 – March 4, noon
Finishing the Nine Weeks Strong
1. Your overall grade for the school year is cumulative. The first nine weeks through the fourth nine weeks completes your overall grade. This means a really bad nine weeks could have a major impact on your overall grade. So for example, if you have a low F right now (30% or lower) it may still say F on your report card by the end of the nine weeks, but if you could make that a 63% it would make a HUGE difference in your overall grade.
2. We talk about Grit all the time in our newsletters. Now is the time to be gritty! You have 15 days left in this nine weeks to do your best, submit ALL of your assignments and give your best efforts. Grit is the intangible skill that our students will need to be successful as they move into their futures.
3. Promote a growth mindset. You need to continue to work hard and grow through the next three weeks. As we enter the fourth nine weeks much of the information you learn now will still be vital in the next nine weeks. We want to see you give your best efforts and grow to be a better learner and student. ALL students are capable of learning and growing but sometimes it takes extra efforts and continued focus to want to learn and grow.
7th and 8th Grade Dance was a HUGE Success
Homework Help
Homework Hotline offers free tutoring over the phone or internet for Tennessee students in all grades. It is available Monday – Thursday, 5 pm- 9 pm Eastern. They will work with parents and/or students. For more information, please see http://www.homeworkhotline.info/.
Spanish Class learns about Carnival
Spring Intersession
Jefferson Middle School is dedicated to providing students with the tools needed to be successful. Twice a year, Jefferson offers an intersession during Fall and Spring Breaks. The intent is to offer a program that will provide either reinforcement of prior skills or enrichment to further them.
Spring intersession will be offered from Monday, March 12th – Thursday, March 15th from 8:30-11:30 each day. Breakfast and lunch WILL NOT be provided. Please plan accordingly!
A few things to consider:
1. There is no cost to attend intersession!
2. There WILL BE transportation offered to students that are in need!
3. Students will need to choose their top three options. While we hope each student will be able to participate in their top choices, we are limited in space for each class.
4. Forms are due back to homeroom teachers by March 7th.
Course Descriptions:
Math Intervention grades 5-8
· This course will help students struggling in math by working in groups led by a teacher, focusing on skills that were taught during the first nine weeks. Students will receive additional math skill development and strengthen a positive attitude through activities and problem-solving. Students should bring their devices to work on math skills. Students can potentially earn credit towards their first nine weeks grade!
Reading Intervention grades 5-8
· This course will help struggling readers become more confident in their reading and writing. Students will work on areas of deficiency, allowing them to grow in their abilities to fluently read and comprehend material more easily. We will use the Scholastic Language Arts Scope to help improve reading and writing skills.
CODEing
· Are you ready to build on your thinking strategies, and learn the “CODE”? Come join us for some critical thinking, logic, persistence, and creativity to help you excel at problem solving in all subject areas.
Breakout Box
· Breakout EDU games teach critical thinking, teamwork, complex problem solving, and can be used in all content areas. Can you solve the puzzles in enough time to unlock the box? Puzzles that you may come across will be centered around Star Wars, Missing School Assignments, Dr. Seuss, Engineering, Minecraft, etc.
Eagle Labs - Creative STEM-Centered Brain-Teasing Activities
· Students will be able to explore using items from the JMS Library Makerspace like the Ozobots, Osmo, 3-D Pens, green screen filming, robots, Little Bits, snap circuits. This will be a self-paced and student-driven activity time with teachers serving as facilitators of their learning.
Introduction to Wetlands and Environmental Science
· Learn what critters can tell you about the health of your surroundings. Learn how to collect water quality data with direct observations - (phenological study: cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life)
***Bring rain boots or a change of shoes
You be the Chemist!
· This course is designed to give students “hands-on” experience with chemistry concepts. Activities will be provided by the Chemical Education Foundation.
Google Earth, Maps, and Tours!
· Student will use Google Mapping which lets you easily create and explore stories and places in the world. Create a custom tour of any subject, zooming in to show the places where events took place, and easily adding information with photos and videos. Your project will fly users from one place to the next along the story line of your choice using Google Earth’s imagery and the custom content you provide. This can be used for personal and school projects!
Celebrating Black History Month: STEM Leaders
Learn more from the information below from Dreambox, which is an amazing tool to help support reading for students.
George Washington Carver
Scientist, inventor, botanist, and chemist, Carver invented over 100 products derived from the peanut. Born into slavery, he became one of the most prominent scientists and inventors of his time. A teacher at the Tuskegee Institute, the agricultural department achieved national renown under his leadership. A monument showing him as a boy was the first national memorial erected in honor of an African American.
Benjamin Banneker
Son of a slave, this mathematician was also an astronomer, inventor, and writer. Acclaimed for the almanacs he published between 1792 and 1798, Banneker was appointed by President George Washington to the District of Columbia Commission and helped map out the new national capital. In 1980, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in his honor.
Euphemia Lofton Haynes
Academic, social activist, and the first African American woman to receive a PhD in mathematics. Not only a mathematician, Haynes was a distinguished educator, activist for school desegregation, and a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Science.
Valerie Thomas
This physicist and inventor invented 3D TV. Thomas received a patent in 1980 for inventing an illusion transmitter that extends the idea of television and makes images look three-dimensional. From 1964 to 1995, she worked in a variety of capacities for NASA where she developed real-time computer data systems, conducted large-scale experiments, and managed many operations, projects, and facilities. Thomas’ team spearheaded “Landsat,” the first satellite to send images from space.
Mae C. Jemison
The first African American woman to travel in space, she is also a physician, professor, and entrepreneur. Jemison joined the space program after she completed her medical degree, maintained a general practice, and served in the Peace Corps. After working at NASA from 1987 to 1993, Jemison founded The Jemison Group, Inc., which developed a satellite-based telecommunications system to improve health care delivery in developing nations. A professor in the Environmental Studies Program at Dartmouth College, she directed the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
This astrophysicist, writer, and television personality is bringing a love of science and information about the cosmos into our homes. A writer, Tyson has authored 10 books, and co-wrote and hosted the PBS-NOVA series, Origins. The recipient of eighteen honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, he is executive editor, host, and narrator for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. He heads the Hayden Planetarium in New York City and is a research associate of the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History.
What is Project Based Learning? What does it mean?
A few of the highlights of the article can be found below as well as a video that helps describe how PBLs are being implemented in an effort to help prepare students for the careers and challenges of their future. The idea behind PBLs is to help students adapt skills they will need in the 21st century global economy and skills they will need to help support their career choices.
Information from Edutopia article identifies four ways for parents to become more informed about PBLs and also provides great resources. The goal is for us to help support students and help them adapt to gain the skills they will need for success in the 21st century.
Our staff has been working over the past two years to learn more about PBLs and finding ways to incorporate PBLs into their curriculum with the state standards For many of our teachers, they have been working on professional development days, attending conferences, and working with colleagues from around the country to learn more about PBLs and how to help implement them into school. The ideas are designed to help engage learners into the learning process and also build opportunities for students to learn and grow through solving problems and designing projects.
Another target concept and idea behind PBL is to help maximize the goals of the 4 C's and promote Soft Skills in order to help students develop more real world skills to prepare them for their futures. Through the implementation of PBLs students are given opportunities to perform research on real world issues and opportunities to think critically about how to design real world projects. The idea of PBLs is to help promote the 4 C's including creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication. The communication component is critical as often the final product of a PBL is for students to produce a presentation of their ideas often for a panel of experts to review. This helps to promote the skills needed in communication for students to work towards being able to present their ideas and projects.
There are definitely challenges that will exist as students, teachers and parents grow accustomed to this new instructional strategy. Our goal is for our teaching to continue to learn and grow through professional development, resources, and collaboration to implement ideas of incorporating PBLs into instruction and align PBLs with state standards. The video below is one story of a school that has adopted the philosophy as the primary delivery of instruction. The challenges of designing a PBL take time, resources, training and professional development. However, the video below shows some of the byproducts and successes that other schools around the nation have found.
Counselors Corner
Counselor’s Corner – Communicating Effectively: Eight Tips for Speaking and Listening
Good afternoon from the Counseling Office! We are rounding out the month of February with Eight Tip for Speaking and Listening. While it is impossible to know all of the reasons, there is no doubt that learning to listen and talk is an extremely important way to broaden knowledge, enhance understanding and build community. Perhaps this is why the core standards in English-language arts include an important emphasis on developing speaking and listening, the basic tools for conversation. The eight tips below can be used regularly to help your kids learn good conversational skills.
1. Model a Good Conversation
Make a point of having one-to-two minute interactions, one-on-one, at least a few times each week with students who struggle conversationally. Share information about yourself as you might when meeting a friend or acquaintance, and show interest in the student by asking questions about his or her interests. Conversation enhancers include responses and prompts like:
· "Really?"
· "Wow!"
· "That’s interesting."
· "No kidding!"
If these students don't or won't share easily at first, don't give up.
2. Encourage Physical Cues
Identify procedures for having a conversation that includes appropriate non-verbal behavior. For example, you might teach a strategy like S.L.A.N.T. (Sit up straight. Listen. Answer and ask questions. Nod to show interest. Track the speaker.)
3. Challenge Put-Downs or Hurtful Comments
For example, if a student says, "I think what she did was really stupid," challenge with "How else can you say that without being hurtful?" If the student seems unaware, teach an alternative like, "I disagree with that." Ask the student to repeat what you said and then move on to:
· "What happened to make you feel that way?"
· "How would you have handled things differently?"
· "Do you think there is only right answer, or could there be more?"
4. Ask Open-Ended Questions
These are questions without one correct answer, questions that stimulate discussion and can be a very powerful way to reinforce the idea that there are different views of an issue, or a set of beliefs that can be equally valid. For example: "So if Columbus came knocking on your door and told you that sailing to the New World would be an amazing adventure and there might be lots of riches there, but you might never arrive because the world was flat, would you go?"
5. Put Thinking Ahead of Knowing
When asked a question, don’t accept "I don't know." Tell students that you don't require them to "know" but that you do expect them to "think." Teach them how to wonder aloud, speculate, guess or give the best answer they can. ("I'm not sure about that, but I think _____ .")
6. Have Informal Chats
Before class begins or in the hallway, ask students about their other classes, what they think about a current event, or how they feel about the outcome of a game. Share your thoughts as well. ("I thought it was more that the Jets lost the game than anything the Eagles did to win. How did you see it?")
7. Make Eye Contact
When a student is speaking in class and you are listening, give him or her your eye contact. However, gradually scan away from the speaker and direct your gaze and movement towards other students. This will often get the speaker to redirect his or her talk toward peers, and it invites peers to get and stay involved with what's being said.
8. Encourage Turn-Taking
Use an object, such as a talking stick, as a signal for turn-taking. Teach your students that when they have the object, it is their turn to talk or pass while others are expected to listen.
30 days of Kindness Challenge
We are continuing on with the fifth week of the 30 Days of Kindness challenge at Jefferson Middle School. Through this initiative, students were asked to participate in acts of kindness throughout their day. Below are the tasks for this week. Please take time to speak to your child or students about how they are working to be more kind both in and out of school
Monday - Help a friend or family member with something they need to do
Tuesday - Find three teachers or staff members and explain to them how they have made a difference in your life
Wednesday - Let another student borrow a pencil, pen, piece of paper, etc.
Thursday - Send three friends a nice message on social media
Friday - Say "hi" and smile at other students while going through the hallways
High School Registration on Thursday, March 1st
The counselors from the high school will be coming to work with the 8th grade students on their classes for next year. Please continue talking about to your students about the classes they want and need to take during their freshman year at Oak Ridge High School.