April Comes to an Outstanding Close

Before We Move On To May

As April comes to a close, I just wanted to highlight some of the unbelievably fabulous things that happened at NMS this past month.

• Our Student-Led Conferences having been piloted throughout the building were an incredible success.  We saw more parent involvement than we have ever seen before during the Spring Parent-Teacher Conferences.  Our students and teachers are loving the system and are seeing such gains with our students at the center of their own learning.  Much more of this to come.
• Our Jimmy Fund Team Dylan Berio Rally Against Cancer Fundraiser raised a little over $1,500 for the Jimmy Fund and cancer research.  It is a testament to the community Middleborough is.
• Our 1st Annual STEM Fair was an amazing success with students volunteering their efforts to show how creative they are in the science and technology field.  Awesome.
• Our Wizard of Oz shows were stupendous.  (I am running out of adjectives to describe the work of our students this month.)  The shows were top-notch and the house was phenomenally packed for all three sensational shows.
• The work our students did on our ELA MCAS administration was wonderful.  Students worked hard and it showed every single day.  I know our scores will reflect this diligence.
• Our teachers and students continue to utilize the technology in our building by bringing in their own devices or having greater utilization of Google Apps and our ever-expanding tablets.
• Our own Geography Champ, Owen McCarthy represents our community again at the State Championships.
• Our students continue to impress as we move through the warm days and finish strong as the year begins to come to a close as grades for Trimester 2 end and Trimester 3 begin.

I am thrilled with the work we are doing as a complete school community from the teachers and staff working the way they have this year to our students doing a phenomenal job being the center of their own learning, and to the parents and community who are supporting our efforts for they know and see we are moving in the right direction.

Thank you.

May May be as prodigious.

Trimester 2 Report Cards Go Home With Students on Friday, April 17

Trimester 2 Report Cards Distributed Friday, 4/17

On Friday, April 17, all Nichols Middle School students will be heading home with their second trimester report cards.  They will go home with your child with a receipt saying you received and saw the Report Card, which will need to be signed and returned to your child’s homeroom teacher on the Monday after Spring Break, April 27.  

I have said this before, that communication is a powerful tool in closing the gap between home and school and ensuring success for all of our students.  The marks that you have found on this report card should never be a surprise to either you or your child.  If you feel that discussion regarding your child’s progress or lack of it is needed, please call the school to talk to the teacher, to then make an appointment to schedule a time that would offer both you and the teacher enough time to adequately discuss your child's present situation. 

Please make sure that you also pay attention to the comments section of the report card.  Many of our teachers have begun to pilot standards based reporting, where they will have a comment that says where your child is with the standards.  

In studying and researching better educational techniques, standards based grading is a much better means to focus on "learning."  This is our goal here at NMS; we want our students to learn the material, and not continue with a system that doesn't really explain where your child is with their learning.

Please follow this LINK  to an excellent article on the reasons for changing to standards based grading.   

Also, check out this VIDEO which explains what standards based grading is.  

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.  

Thank you and have an Spring vacation,
M R Geoghegan

2015 NMS STEM (Science) Fair Champions Awarded

59th Annual 

Nichols Middle School Science Fair

Is Now the 

Nichols Middle School S.T.E.M. Fair

(Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)

& On April 15 Champions were Awarded

What a privilege it was to be at the Nichols Middle School on Wednesday, April 15.

In the afternoon of April 15, the Nichols Middle School hosted its first annual STEM Fair. Students from all three grades donated their time, effort, and knowledge to making this annual event a huge success.

This year's format was the first time we changed the Science Fair to a voluntary venture open to all three grades. As I said above, the experiment for us was phenomenal. As Mr. Scott Redpath, our Science Department Chair said in the Awards Ceremony, "We sacrificed quantity for quality." The students who participated truly wowed the audience, teachers, and judges with their efforts.

We had projects on finger printing, Autism, lighted traffic signal gloves, pulleys, rainbows, space, automatic page turner, Rube Goldberg machines, and even a working hover craft, to name a few. It was fantastic.

I want to thank all of our Science teachers in grades 6 through 8, Ms. Karen Curtin, Ms. Jennie Gomes, Ms. Cindy Kuhn, Mr. Steve Eddy, Mr. Aaron Petruski, Mr. Scott Redpath, and our STEM teacher, Ms. Carmela Mayeski. Also, special thanks go out to Ms. Debbie Walgreen, our Library Media Specialist; Mr. Adam Pelletier and his TV Pro students for documenting this incredible event.

Mr. Steve Eddy and Mr. Scott Redpath did much of the heavy lifting for the event including working with our 6-12 STEM Director, Dr. Melanie Gates.

But, in the end, it was our students who were the real stars of the day and evening. Their passion and drive made sure that we will continue to build on this new process for our annual STEM Fair.

Awesome job, all. Thank you.

Our NMS 2015 STEM Fair First Place Winners: 

Grade 8 Sydney Montross

Grade 7 Haley Devine, Keira MacQuillan and Ali Leary

Grade 6 Shaelyn Gallagher

Harold H. Williams Award for Excellence in Plant Science, Emma Teceno and Sarah Delaney

(Talk about needing females in STEM -- I think we have shown something here.  [All female champions!])

Our complete list of 2015 NMS STEM Fair Winners:

Grade 6: 

1st: Shaelyn Gallagher

2nd: Jake Glenn

3rd: Eden Eugenio & Aileen Peddie

Grade 7:

1st: Hayley Devine, Keira MacQuillan, & Ali Leary

2nd:  Max Dargie & Matt Scanlon

3rd:  Carissa Chane, Olivia Ventresca, Kara McManus, & Caitlin Swanson

Grade 8:

1st:  Sydney Montross

2nd:  Marc Millette

Harold H. Williams Award for Excellence in Plant Science Emma Teceno & Sarah Delaney

All students were recognized in the Awards Ceremony for their tremendous work and effort.  Again, they made the night immensely special.  Thank you, all students.

And some more great pictures from this outstanding event: