VCMS PTO Newsletter November 2012

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1 A Word from our President This is a quick note for you to read as you step into our November newsletter. It is always exciting to look back at all that we have accomplished and October did bring us so many events and activities around campus. There is so much happening at VCMS especially as we begin our second nine weeks of our school year during the month of October. We had football games, basketball try outs, Red Ribbon Week, Book Fair, and oh so much more. We cannot say enough about our awesome volunteers who make all the activities around our school so much easier and so much more fun for the teachers and students. We are sending a huge thank you to Cheryl Kearney and Amy Szvetecz for spearheading our Red Ribbon Week. Wow, so many great decorations, fun dress up days and prizes all around. You ladies did a tremendous job in having the very best speakers for our entire school to learn from and remind us that saying no to drugs is the only way to go for our VCMS students. Thank you for your hard work and making it a GREAT WEEK! With the holidays just around the corner, we hope all our VCMS Students and Families enjoy spending time with their families and friends during the holiday breaks and most importantly how very blessed we all are to have each other in our community and our school. As always, thank you to everyone who is a part of VCMS and thank you for making this school the very best school ever to attend. Lisa Bridges PTO Membership Raffle Winners The PTO membership drawing was held on October 1 st for the IPAD 2 and the winner was Kristen Harrison (her son is William Harrison). Our second prize winner for the 4 tickets (Free-donated) to Six Flags was Bonnie Michaels (her son is Charles Michaels). Congratulations to both of our winners.

2 Sports Update We want to congratulate our Viper Football team and cheerleaders for the big Forsyth County Championship win on October 23 at Lambert against the Riverwatch Panthers. The final score was 14 to 7. It was an awesome game and our Vipers played with heart and pride throughout their entire winning season with only one loss to Riverwatch during the season. This is VCMS 4 th County Championship in the school s history. We are so proud of our 2012 Vickery Creek Middle School Vipers.

3 2012 Red Ribbon Week VCMS students, faculty and staff enjoyed a week of informative, fun and insightful activities focused on drug awareness and making a commitment to live a drug- free life. The theme for this year s event was I Elect To Be Drug Free. The week s highlight activity was the Drug Awareness assemblies. The guest speakers added a real deal element to the subject of drug awareness, drug abuse and rehabilitation. The sixth grade students were addressed by Deputy Henry Plager, Forsyth County Sheriff s Department and the seventh and eighth graders enjoyed the presentation of Greg Brooks and his team members from Three Dimensional Life. The students were allowed to make a vow to say NO to drugs and live a life without the harmful impacts of drugs, alcohol or tobacco by signing the I m Voting For My Future! pledge cards. These cards were proudly displayed on the bulletin boards throughout the school. The students also cast pledge cards into ballot boxes, which entitled them to participate in the drawing for gift bags. The winners were Alison LeBlanc, Lauren Hogan, Ryan Paravate, Hunter Schaffer, JJ Stillion, Preston Hall, Jordan Stein, Bradley Yates, and Brittany Ray. Each Connect Time class designed an Anti-Drug Message Banner for the contest. The banners were excellent and the judges had a hard time selecting the winning classes. The winners will receive an in- class breakfast sponsored by the VCMS PTO. The Connect Time teachers for the winning classes were Ms. Armbrust, Ms. Pollack, Ms. Bruen, Ms. Franklin, Ms. Racine, Ms. Holzapfel, Ms. Davies, Ms. Mace and Ms. Maldonado.

4 The students also dressed up in theme related attire for the week. There were many variations of patriotic clothing, sports attire, caps and sunglasses and most fun of all; crazy hairdos! Our many thanks go to the Red Ribbon Committee chairpersons: Cheryl Kearney and Amy Szvetecz. The Committee considered this Red Ribbon Week celebration a success. The following people were instrumental in making sure everything came together: Perrie Tucker, Jeannie Adams, Julie, Ethan, Regan and Nathaniel Smith, Amy and Sydney Szvetecz, Lily Ramirez, Elisabeth Christina Kearney, Kerrington Witherspoon, Lisa Bridges, Dottie Nix, Mindy Crawford, Susan Kline, Karen Brown, Laura Kidd, Cheryl Hillman, Carolyn Gladden, Abi Omotoso, Ms. Rohacek, Ms. Ingram, Mr. Slavov, Mr. Cono, Mr. Hammonds and the VCMS PALS.

5 PTO Teacher Grants When you purchase a PTO Membership you contribute to a fund which enables the PTO to provide our VCMS teachers with grants for various materials and supplies to enhance their classroom instruction. Each newsletter we will profile some grants with faculty testimonials so that you may better appreciate how your membership dollars are being utilized. A Great Big Thank You to the PTO from the 7 th Grade Math Teachers! In order to enhance the math curriculum and help students understand difficult concepts, our 7 th grade math students sing songs. Some of the top hits from last year included: Graphs to the tune Twist and Shout by the Beetles, Box and Whisker to the folk tune Are you Sleeping, and Stats Can, Graphs Can Mislead you to the tune We Will Rock You by Queen. With the help of a PTO Grant, we were able to hire a professional musician, Julie Austin, to bring her sound system and instruments and lead the 7 th graders in a Math Sing-A-Long. Some PTO volunteers copied and spiral bound the song booklets complete with lyrics and math notes. Thanks PTO for sponsoring this memorable event. Students still talk about singing the math songs and how the songs helped them learn and remember the skills. Nancy Higgins 7th Grade Math Dear VCMS PTO, Thank you so much for funding the DVD video grant last spring for our VCMS Spanish program. Following up with our lessons by showing grammar and cultural movies are not only entertaining in class, but most importantly, provides yet another modality for reaching our students. My students love and look forward to watching the Spanish Quack videos and often cheer with excitement when they see it listed on our daily lesson agenda. Your generosity has made a big impact on our instructional program. Thank you again so much! Very sincerely, Deborah L. Maedke, Spanish Teacher

6 The Survey Says The results of the 8 th Grade Dance Survey are back and are as follows: Food Preferences (293 responded) Pizza 143 (49%), Chicken Nuggets 51 (17%), No Preference 48 (16%), Subs 40 (14%) and Hambugers 11 (4%) Desserts( 291 responded ) Cupcakes 90 (32%), Cookies 91 (31%), Ice Cream 60 (21%) and No Preference 50 (19%) Casual or Dressy Attire (291 responded) Dressy 193 (66%), Casual 43 (15%), No Preference 55 (19%) Incorporate some games such as dance contest, or just focus on dancing? (289) Dancing/Hanging out 182 (63%), Fun games 35 (12%), No preference 72 (25%) Other PTO News The VCMS Directory will be distributed this week. The directory will be given to your youngest child's homeroom teacher. BOX TOP LABEL DRIVE The 2012/2013 VCMS Box Top Label Drive will be the week of February 25, Be sure to start collecting your box tops now! Stay tuned for more information in upcoming newsletters regarding some exciting prizes for our top collectors. 'Tis the Season OK, Vipers, it's never too early to start thinking about your holiday shopping list! How about a $12 Viper t-shirt for a favorite teacher, coach, study buddy? Parents, our charcoal gray or violet hoodies are only $25 and make a great USEFUL present under the tree. Colors and designs can be viewed via the VCMS website under Parents and partners/pto and there is a link on the left for Spiritwear. All orders received by December 7th will be delivered in time for Winter Break.

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