Parent Newsletter March 20, 2015

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1 Dr. William V. Whalen III Principal Dr. Kevin M. Hurley Middle School 650 Newman Ave. Seekonk, MA Mrs. Mary C. Westcoat Assistant Principal Dear Families, Parent Newsletter March 20, 2015 Students in sixth grade have now completed the English Language Arts Performance- Based Assessment for PARCC, and the seventh grade students will be finished after Monday. Overall, the process has gone smoothly to this point. Next week, our eighth graders will be taking the PBAs for PARCC in ELA as well, and the sixth graders will begin their PBA for math. Please remember that the PARCC schedule is available online and is accessible via the Principal s Page. The schedule includes the dates for the PARCC End- of- Year Assessments as well. Because of some questions that I have received from parents this week, I would like to once again take a moment to provide some clarity regarding the PARCC assessment and the reporting of student results. Last year, our school participated in the PARCC pilot. Unlike the pilot PARCC assessment that took place in the district last spring, this year our students will receive scores in the fall of Keep in mind, however, that all districts that participated in the PARCC assessment this school year will be held harmless. This means that districts will not be penalized based on the results. As with most districts, there have been some minor glitches; however, the initial response from staff and students is quite positive. We will provide a comprehensive accounting of the PARCC online assessment process later in the spring. The Snowflake Ball will take place this evening at the Venus DeMilo in Swansea. I would like to thank our PTO for sponsoring and organizing this wonderful event for the young ladies that attend our school and their fathers or father figures. Baseball and softball tryouts will continue next week in the gymnasium after school. This edition of the newsletter includes a schedule for those tryouts. The coaches will not be cutting any students until everyone has had at least one opportunity to tryout outdoors on the field. Final rosters will not be posted until just prior to the start of the game schedule. I will be hosting another Principal s Coffee Session on April 9, 2015 at 6 PM in the HMS Cafeteria. These meetings are an opportunity for me to present some information about our school to parents. More importantly, it gives me the opportunity to sit with parents and listen to feedback that they would like to share with me about our school, while also allowing me to answer any questions that people may have. The event is open to everyone in the community. These sessions have been well attended in the past, so I hope that our meeting on April 9 th will have a good turnout as well. Please me in advance if you plan on attending so that I am able to order refreshments accordingly. Sincerely, The next school- wide dance will be held on Friday, April 10 th at 6 PM in the gymnasium. Dr. William V. Whalen III Principal 8 th Grade DC Trip Payment #3 Due March

2 Dr. William V. Whalen III Principal Dr. Kevin M. Hurley Middle School 650 Newman Ave. Seekonk, MA Mrs. Mary C. Westcoat Assistant Principal Principal s Coffee Meeting AGENDA Thursday April 9, 2015 HMS Cafeteria 6:00 PM Introduction of Administrative Team PARCC Update Budget Update School Improvement Plan Update for School, Student, and Staff Highlights/Recognition School- Wide Activities Engaging Students Short Presentation from Seekonk Police Department Detective Tom Hedrick Internet Safety Informal Discussion / Question and Answer Segment This will be the main focus for the evening. The presentations leading up to this will be short. All HMS parents and members of the Seekonk community are welcome to attend. Coffee and pastries will be served.

3 TODAY, March 20 th, 8th Grade Baseball Tryouts will take place from 2:30-4 Here is the schedule for indoor tryouts next week: Baseball and Softball 3/24-8th Grade Baseball 2:30-4 3/24-8th Grade Softball 4-5:30 3/26-7th Grade Baseball 2:30-4 3/26-7th Grade Softball 4-5:30 3/27-6th Grade Baseball 2:30-4 3/27-6th Grade Softball 4-5:30 Orange Team News: - Pink course selection forms for SHS have already been collected by core teachers, we will finish signing them and return all slips to students on Monday, March Students can bring forms home for parent signatures, and return to homeroom teacher on Thursday, March 26. White Team News: - Pink course selection forms will be collected by core teachers next week and recommendations will be made. The forms will be returned to students on Friday, March 27th so they can be signed by parents. - Students MUST return the forms to homeroom teachers on Monday, March 30th.

4 8 th Grade ELA Mrs. Johnson White team students are nearing completion of an Independent Nonfiction Reading Project, utilizing a variety of skills necessary for the PARCC test next week. Students chose a nonfiction book from our school library and wrote essays defending their choice. They also cited and explained evidence from their books, using proper MLA format. A vocabulary guide was created and then words were used to write narratives. Students designed a multiple- choice quiz and answer key, keeping in mind they would be able to answer the questions themselves. An MLA formatted cover page, table of contents, and Works Cited were included in the finished product. Culmination of the project will be on Monday, when students will persuade their classmates by advertising their project..

5 A Message from Mrs. Dumas- Seventh grade students have taken their PARCC testing very seriously!! They have used all the strategies taught, including pre-writing graphic organizers. I am very proud of the maturity shown during their standardized testing! Iditarod update! The first finishers have arrived in Nome. Students following the assigned mushers will also be "winners" and will be receiving awards and prizes. Congratulations to the top five finishers and those students tracking them: 1st place: Dallas Seavey (Shaun Prichardo) 2nd place: Mitch Seavey (Henry Jordan) 3rd place: Aaron Burmeister (Meredith Riordan & Xiulie Perry) 4th place: Jessie Royer (Seth Pina & Mackenzie Jeannotte) 5th place: Ally Zirkle (Matt Dundas)

6 Dear Parents/Guardians My name is Matthew Macedo and I am a student from Rhode Island College. This notice is to inform you that as part of my student teaching requirement, I will be teaching your child s Health Education class under the supervision of Mrs. Terri Latimer beginning Friday, March 20th and ending Friday, May 8 th. I will be covering topics approved by both Rhode Island College and Dr. Kevin M. Hurley Middle Schools Health Education curriculum. If you have any additional questions or concerns you can contact me by at mjmac514@gmail.com. I hope to make this the best experience possible for both myself and your son or daughter, and I look forward to getting started. Thank you, Matthew Macedo Student Teacher Rhode Island College

7 MATH LAB with Mr. Botelho Congratulations to Katerina Killiam, the only 7 th grader to correctly answer this week s 7 th grade wall of fame question: Tyler put $2000 into a savings account that paid 15% interest a month for 6 months. He then put the money he earned into a different savings account that paid 20% interest a month for 6 months. If he started with $2000, what was his total amount of money after 1 year?

8 A Message from Mr. Holden Washington DC Trip Information The 3 rd Washington DC payment is due on Thursday, March 26 th. Students who participated in the calendar fundraiser received a slip to inform parents of the amount owed including this successful fund- raiser defraying the cost of the trip! One student sold 208 calendars, which paid for the entire trip, and this student also earned $45.00 spending money! The calendar raffle fundraiser was a huge success! The next and final fundraiser is the cookie- dough fundraiser. This is the last opportunity to reduce the cost of the trip! The fundraiser will kick- off in the beginning of April. Students will earn 40% of the profit with this fundraiser. Who s going to sell the most cookie dough?

9 HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE! Hopefully Mother Nature will be kind to us now that we are into the new season. Don't miss out on the HMS Jazz Dinner on Thursday night March 26. The show starts are 6:00 and dinner is served while enjoying music from the HMS Jazz Band as well as the Seekonk High school Jazz Band! It is a fun night and chef Mr. Merola is cooking. The menu includes: boneless, stuffed chicken breast, green beans, baked ziti, rolls, salad and desert. The price is $12.00 for adult and $6.00 for children. The FINAL deadline is Monday, March 23. Extra help for 6th grade saxophones is Wednesday, March 25th. DATES to keep in mind: Band Festival- June 15,16,17 Spring Concert- June 16 Band Swim Club Field Trip- June 17 Mrs. Susan Grande Director of Bands

10 Red Team News: History with Mr. Durand We are continuing to study selected topics in European History in Social Studies class. We just completed the Industrial Revolution and have moved on to World War I. This week we took a look at the four main causes of WWI using the acronym MAIN (militarism, alliances, imperialism, nationalism). Next week will take a look at the catalyst for WWI and how the USA got involved in the war. We will wrap up the week with the Treaty of Versailles and how that helped build an atmosphere for WWII to happen. I'd like to give a big shout out to all of the students for their hard work this week. PARCC testing began this week and it is a very stressful time period for many students. The students took it all in stride and worked very hard on their tests. Have a great weekend! English with Ms Thivierge Our PARCC PBA is over!! The kids worked extremely hard and I couldn t be more proud. I know they ll continue to show focus and dedication for next week s math PARCC. In English class, we re starting back up with Poetry! We did a quick review of Figurative Language this week, and will be both reading and writing poetry in the coming weeks before April break. Their notebooks will be filled with creativity as well as their portfolios! ~ Math with Mrs. Handfield The students have all finished Chapter 6- Ratios! A take home Test was due today! We will be completing an in-class project reviewing ratios after PARCC next week. The students will be calculating how many of each item they need for a Crawfish Boil and calculating the cost. They will be able to help you calculate a Northeast version - a Clam Boil- by summer for sure! We have moved on to Algebra Properties and using them to solve algebra problems! The students know that this is hard but that I will not give up on them. They can do this! I have seen them persevere in solving problems and identifying the properties being used. A huge shout out to our amazing students - you worked so hard for the English PARCC and I know you will put in the same effort to Math PARCC next week! :)

11 YOGA CLUB The spring session of HMS Yoga Club is off to a great start. Yoginis have been continuing to practice their Vinyasa flow poses and Ujjayi breathing. Club members have been supportive of one another in their efforts to achieve difficult poses and they have made much progress toward handstands! Namaste~ Ms. Damiani

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