ROAR-ing to a Finish

May and June 2014 ROAR Award Winners

This year NMS faculty, and specifically Mr. McLaughlin, has begun a new program, which recognizes student achievement each month.  The ROAR award is given by each cluster, and Unified Arts, to acknowledge students who have been Respectful, On-time, (positive) Attitude, and Responsible.  The goal is to recognize students who not only take care of basic expectations in class but are good citizens and role models in our community.

Award winners receive a certificate, bumper stickers for their parents’ cars, and their individual picture displayed in the school for the month.

The May award winners received their certificates from Mr. McLaughlin in a brief ceremony at the beginning of June.

The ROAR Award winners for May 2014 for each team were:

Grade 6 Challengers:  Sam Rantz

Grade 6 Adventurers: Sam Marshall

Grade 7 Explorers: Jailyn Peebles

Grade 7 Beacons: Desiree Pelletier

Grade 8 Apollos: Cody Soderlund

Grade 8 Comets: Ben Faith

Unified Arts: Hannah Eugenio (Grade 8)

The June award winners received their certificates from Mr. McLaughlin and Mr. Geoghegan in a brief ceremony on the last day of school.

The ROAR Award winners for June 2014 for each team were:

Grade 6 Challengers:  Liberty Beasley

Grade 6 Adventurers: Ella Ferrigno and Jade Almodovar

Grade 7 Explorers: Dylan Joyce

Grade 7 Beacons: Tim Reed

Grade 8 Apollos: Jack Gerrior

Grade 8 Comets: Elizabeth Coots

Unified Arts: Carissa Chane (Grade 6)

Congratulations to all our 2014 ROAR Winners!  Great job during this whole year as you ROAR your way through a sensational year!  Have a great summer!

Final Report Cards -- Have a Great Summer!

Third Trimester and Final Grades Report Cards

This afternoon all Nichols' households will be receiving an Alert-Now message reminding everyone that Final Report Cards were handed out to the students and will come home today.  

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the Main Office.  

I also wanted to take the time to thank everyone in the Nichols' community for all your support as we traversed another year here at NMS which had many changes.  

It has been a wonderful year and it has been because of the students, teachers, staff, parents, and overall community.  

Thank you so much for all that you have done to support the work we have done with your child.  

Thank you, again, for an incredible year, good luck to our 8th graders next year, and have a wonderful, safe, and relaxing summer vacation. 

We will see you on August 27 for the start of another fantastic year.

8th Grade ELA2 Final Projects

21st Century Learning

This current school year we broke our double block of ELA (English Language Arts) into two courses, ELA1 and ELA2.  ELA1 would be considered your "typical" middle school English class with students learning through works of literature and writing.

For ELA2, we wanted to center on 21st Century learning of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.  In the sixth grade, where Ms. Fisher and Ms. Borges is teaching, their course is called "Read Your World," which has the students learning about themselves and how they are as a learner to help them succeed in the world around them.

ELA2 in 7th grade is centered on writing through newspaper articles, and they have Blogs for their writing being taught by Ms. LaPerriere and Ms. Weaver.

ELA2, in 8th grade, the teachers, Ms. Delano, Ms. Emmons, and Ms. Evans have named the course, "21st Century Skills," and here we wanted to have a project be the culmination of all the skills they have practiced over (eventually) all three years to connect themselves and their learning to the community around them.

This year, again, was our first foray into doing English Language Arts in this manner, and below are some descriptions of some of the projects the 8th grade students completed to show their 21st Century skills.

this class has emphasized our six "power words" that we have discussed throughout the year: communication, collaboration, leadership, individuality, problem solving, and critical thinking. For this project, students were "leaders in their education" and chose a community issue that interested them and worked to make a positive change in our community. 

Here are a few highlights of the many student successes from our 21st Century Skills class from their 8th grade teachers:

"Project Bingo" - team of students spending time with the residents at Golden Living Center

 

"Books for the World" - students scheduled a Red Sox apparel day with book donation today and it was a huge success! Collected over 240 books (and counting!!) to donate to Big Brothers/Big Sisters - in addition, "Fuzzy Hearts" member collaborated and donated books collected at Middleboro Public Library when he realized that he would not be able to follow through with his original plan of taking his books to Children's Hospital

 

"Clothing for a Cause" - a team of girls and a team of boys collaborated and donated over 200 items of clothing to the Red Cross

 

"Team 21" - team of dancers organized and performed a dance for the residents of the Nemasket Nursing Home

"Nichols Neat Team" - team cleaned up around the Nichols School - 9 days and 27 trash bags later...well, what more can we say!

 

"Muffins for Massachusetts" - team created a fully-functioning website to raise money for local food pantry

 

"Support our Troops" - team collected money and games for Wounded Warrior Project

 

"Project Wiffle" - team organized and held a wiffleball tournament and raised over $100 for Jimmy Fund

 

"Hospice Remembrance Service" - team participated in remembrance service for families who have lost family members

 

"Cards for Veterans" - team met with elementary principals and teachers then went into classrooms to talk to students about making cards to be delivered to veterans

 

"Helping Those in Need" - team donated time on Saturday mornings (and are continuing to volunteer!!) at the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry

 

"Project Clean up Middleboro" - team cleaned up Stuart F. Morgan conservation area (and enlisted the help of a local Boy Scout troop)

 

"Smash Bros. Tournament for Hunger" - team organized a very successful after-school video tournament and collected at least 74 food items for the food pantry (approximately 30 participants, many of whom receive special education/counseling services)

 

"Making Everyone Feel Special" - team worked in our building with students with special needs in Ms. Charrbonneau's class

 

"Cribs for Birds" - team raised awareness for the decreasing bluebird population

 

We could go on and on!  Several teams showed true collaboration and "joined forces" to make their projects even more successful.  The wide range of student interests from special education, veterans, food pantry, conservation clean up, etc, has just been amazing to watch.

Here are some pictures of the students doing their projects:

8th Grade Dancing the Night Away

8th Grade Dance = Success

One of our students' rite of passage was completed on Friday, June 13th evening as we had our 8th Grade Dance.

The students did as they usually do, where for the first 25 to 30 minutes there are not many dancers and the kids just kind of milling about checking out each other's outfits.  To then almost every single student dancing the rest of the night away, with our having to stop them at 9 PM.

It was a wonderful evening.

We thank all the faculty and staff who came to help with chaperoning and the parents who donated snacks, drinks, and paper products or their time in setting up or cleaning up or serving food.

A very special thanks to the NMS PTA for supplying the pizza for the evening.

And our DJ.

Again, it was an incredible evening for all.

Thank you.

8th Grade Whale Watch

8th Grade Field Trip on Monday, June 9

On Monday, June 9, many of our 8th Grade students went on a whale watch with Captain John's Whale Watch out of Plymouth Harbor.

Students and chaperones all had a great time.

During the trip, the whales were ever-present and they were what can almost be called "performing" for us.

It was spectacular to say the least.

A special thank you to all the eighth grade teachers and staff who helped to make this trip possible, whether they stayed behind with the students who chose not to go or those that chaperoned or just helping with the organization of the day.

Thank you to the PTA for paying for the bus transportation.

Thank you to our parent volunteers who also came on the trip.

Thank you to Mr. Scott Redpath for his pictures below.

And, lastly, but most certainly not least, thank you to our own 8th grade student, Melissa Foley for organizing this wonderful experience.  Great job, Melissa.

Melissa Foley getting a round of applause for her work.

Ms. Gates' Mathematics Research Study

Impact of Digits on Student's Attitudes Towards Math

Dear Nichols Middle School Families,

I am contacting you to inform you of an upcoming research study that may involve your child.

Melanie Gates, our Director of Secondary Education for STEM, is pursuing her doctorate through Northeastern University. For her dissertation research she is conducting a study about the attitudes and beliefs that students have about math and our math program, digits. This study will help teachers and administrators better understand how students feel about our math program.

This research study will consist of two parts, an online survey and focus groups. The online survey is anonymous and will be administered to students during one of their regular math classes. Students will be asked multiple-choice questions regarding their feelings and attitudes toward math and digits. The survey will take less than 30 minutes. Students may opt out of the survey at any time.

Students will be selected to participate in the focus group based upon criteria of grade and level of responses to survey. Students who participate in the focus groups will be given a pseudonym in order to keep their responses anonymous. An audio recording will be taken so that the conversation can then be transcribed. Students may skip any questions during the focus group and they can stop participating in the focus group at any time.

Confidentiality will be maintained through out the study and participation is completely voluntary. This study has been reviewed and approved by the Superintendent of Schools and the Institutional Review Board of Northeastern University.

In order for your child to participate in this study, your consent must be given. Consent forms will be sent home with your students on Friday, June 6^th. You can also find these forms on the research study’s webpage found off of the middle school math department website. An electronic form for the student survey may be submitted via the website. However, a hard copy of the form for the student focus group must be returned to your child’s homeroom teacher. These forms should be returned to your child’s homeroom teacher by Wednesday, June 11^th.

There will be an informational session held in the media center at the Nichols Middle School on June 10^th at 4:00 PM for any parents or students who have questions about this study. Information is also available via the math department website on the Nichols homepage. You may also contact the principal investigator, Dr. Sara Ewell (s.ewell@neu.edu or 857-272-8948) or Melanie Gates (furlong.me@husky.neu.edu or 774-766-6481) with any questions pertaining to this study.

Please consider allowing your child to participate in this study. Thank you for your time and consideration. 

Happenings in NMS PE/Fitness Classes

NMS PE and Fitness Happenings

The Physical Education and Fitness Department would like to invite all parents to come check out our new web page to take a look at what students have been working on in class.  

http://www.middleboro.k12.ma.us/domain/368

This includes some of the 8th grade Music Video Dance Projects and 7th Grade dances that we have posted.  

http://www.middleboro.k12.ma.us/Page/3360 

Hope you enjoy the students' work!