JUNE 2018 On the first of each month, my sixth graders are eager to see who will win the pineapple award, an award that acknowledges students of outstanding character -- students whose actions create a kind, helpful, productive classroom environment. Each month, one lucky student from each English class receives the coveted pineapple award: a certificate and pineapple trophy. Yes, they are real pineapples that travel with the tweens throughout the day and proudly perch on the their desks class after class. These treasured pineapples are so coveted that they have been known to survive the school cafeteria in one piece.
They work well with others and leave no peer behind. They strive for quality work and readily lend a helping hand to anyone, ensuring everyone is successful. Every. Single. Day.
Like pineapples, these students are sweet on the inside. They are thoughtful and kind towards others. Their sunshine generates an inviting, risk-taking classroom community. Teachers can download my pineapple certificate and clip art on my Scholastic's Top Teaching blog.
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Each year the VFW sponsors the Patriot’s Pen Writing Contest, a national competition for students in grades six through eight. This year, students were asked to write an essay on the theme: America's Gift to My Generation. On March 17, Ms. Krusper and Mrs. Blow's sixth-grade winners and their families were invited to an awards dinner at the VFW where they read their award-winning essays and received participation certificates and monetary awards. Veterans of Foreign War Post #6912 local-level winners are listed from first to fourth place: Collin Schrag, Keira Stockum, Katelynn Baker, and Stephanie Beyer. The entries will go on to national level competitions. Please visit the VFW "Youth Scholarship" web site for more information about the annual Patriot's Pen Writing Contest and The Voice of Democracy scholarship available to high school students.
On Wednesday, June 7, Lowville Academy Middle School honored those students whose dedication and perseverance lead to high academic achievement. These amazing middle schoolers maintained high honor roll status (95 or higher) throughout the year while engaging in extracurricular activities: sports, clubs, community fundraising, and other activities, demonstrating that you can learn and have fun.
Anna Lyndaker, Lowville Academy High School senior and president of the High School Honor Society, delivered a motivational speech that captivated the audience. Anna shared the importance of aspirations and suggested that students contribute their individual talents when working as a team and striving for success. Anna encouraged her underclassmen to get up if they fail, and if they fail again, to get up again and keep trying. And now, for the unveiling of the Lowville Academy Middle School 2017 honor students. Drum roll please…. Grade 6 – Class of 2023 Honor Students Front Row: Anna Exford, Isabelle Krop, Mackenzie Ples, Brandon Sauer, Taylor Stalker, Olivia King, Stacie Hernandez Back Row: Landen Moshier, Brody Brown, Peyton, Cole, David Fayle, Colin Kempney, Samuel Gillette (absent) Grade 7 - Class of 2022 Honor Students Front Row: Taylor Zubrzycki and MiKayla VanNest. Second Row: Megan Tiffany, Emma Rowsam, Sofie Reitema, Faith Froehlich, Colden Pike, Jenna Freeman, Kiley Zicari, Jeremie Lehmann. Back Row: Morgan Nortz, Meredith Lovenduski, Linnea Haney, Kyla Reed, Olivia Baker, Hayden Beyer, Kennedy Duncan, Daniel Fayle, Grade 8 – Class of 2021 Honor Students Front Row: Joseph Truax, Anna Western, Kelsey Beyer, Isabelle Lovenduski, Angelica DeGuardia, Erik Gronowski. Back Row: Alex Zubrzycki, Gavin Macaulay, Aiden Macaulay, Charlie Virkler, Barbara Vaquero, Emma Dening, Sydney VanNest, Marcus Wind (absent) and Gregory Haggerty (absent). Candid Shots of the All-Star Team Click on the fist image to start the slide show. Congratulations! You are amazing. You make us proud.
It has been a rainy spring, but rain didn't stop our sixth graders at Lowville Academy Middle School from closing their books and experiencing a day of outdoor recreation -- mountain biking at the Black River Outdoor Education Program Inc. in Boonville, New York. The educational field trip provided students with an appreciation for and understanding of our environment while engaging in outdoor aerobics. The BROEP generously provided appropriate-sized bikes and safety equipment for all the students. Before hitting the trails, the outdoor explorers reviewed safety guidelines and practiced how to shift bikes to maintain consistent peddling speed whether going up hill or down. Before long, they were tackling the woodsy trails. Teacher Brag Book One determined outdoor enthusiast didn't let a little thing like a broken leg stop her from enjoying the day. While on a nature walk, she photographed patterns in nature and is in the process of creating a video: Everything You Missed While Riding A Bike (coming soon).
Thank you Black River Outdoor Education Program Inc. for a great day!
Revising Essays The student above is engaged in evaluating her essay. One of the best ways to revise and edit writing is listening to your writing, reading it aloud. It isn't easy when there are 20 or more students in the classroom working together in groups. It can get noisy, and not to mention, we want to be sensitive that some students are shy about reading an unfinished piece of writing aloud in front of their peers. Read & Write, a Google extension, solved that problem for us. In the photo above, Read & Write is reading the girl's essay to her, allowing her to hear what she wrote privately. She pauses the reading to revise and edit as needed. Grammar Check Those pesky punctuation marks like to take a vacation, so we found an app for that. Professional writers have editors, a fresh pair of eyes that provide great suggestions for improving sentence structure and grammar. The student above may not have a professional editor, but he does have GradeProof, a Google Docs extension, to help him polish up his grammar and spelling. Discussion Boards In Google Classroom, we have the ability to engage in online discussions. Lately, we have been reviewing grammar and discussing the rules and how to effectively break them. Who would have thought that grammar could inspire engaging discussions among preteens? Grammar discussion boards make a great sandbox for practicing online etiquette, so we don't unintentionally offend our classmates. Peer Review We also learned how to share online documents with our classmates, so they can provide constructive feedback, suggestions for improving a friend's writing. Vocabulary Retaining vocabulary words to use them later is a common struggle. Students often learn them for the moment, to pass a quiz, but the knowledge slips away if they don't review. Now, we engage in friendly online competitions. Students eagerly study vocabulary words using Quizlet, an online app. Periodically, we meet in class and work in teams to race to the finish line using Quizlet.Live, a component of Quizlet. Digital Literacy
Newslea is a library of newspaper articles, current and historical event, that integrate into all subject areas. We transfer our reading skills learned in class to digital reading. Students read online articles at their independent reading levels. We are fortunate to have this resource to meet the needs of all our students using this resource. The more informed our middle school students are of our world, the more motivated and engaged our classroom discussions become. Once again, Lowville Academy Middle School applauds sixth graders for their outstanding writing. Anna Exford and Kyra Reali placed first and second place respectively at the sixth-grade level of the 2017 Annual Greater Thousand’s Literacy Council Young Writers’ Contest. The annual contest required students to write about a theme: If I were invisible I would…and why. Nine school districts from the region participated in the competition. Winners were selected at each grade level, kindergarten through twelfth grade.
Anna is a gifted writer who has the ability to succinctly articulate her ideas. She has a way of capturing people and the world from a surprising perspective. Anna uses sentence structures to create engaging stories like musicians use notes to play different tunes. We are proud of her hard work. Kyra, too, is a gifted writer with a distinctive voice, revealing bits of her soul with each story she tells. She uses words to take readers on an engaging journey beyond their imaginations. Kyra, aspires to be a published author, a dream that will very likely become reality. We are proud of her dedication to writing. Participants, winners, and teachers are invited to attend a celebratory author’s reading at Case Middle School in Watertown on April 11, 2017. First place winners will participate in an author’s reading. During the celebration, the participants will receive ribbons and gifts.
Anna's journey was not easy. There were 24 participants in the Spelling Bee at Lowville Academy Middle School on Friday, February 10, 2017. Anna competed against many gifted speller, including Colden Pyke (grade 7, #7), our 2015 spelling bee winner who represented Lowville Academy at the 2016 regional competitions. Anna claimed victory after 13 nail-biting rounds of back-to-back battles between her and Deon Rollock (grade 8, #18), becoming the Lowville Middle School champion speller on round 21. We are proud of all the sixth through eighth grade participants who worked extremely hard to participate, and in the process, make our school shine.
Many thanks to out to our middle school students Anna Western, Hugo Zabielowicz, Robert Farney, David Fayle, Landen Moshier, and Nicholas Hetzner who attended the Lowville Academy Board of Education on February 13 to showcase how technology enhances their education. The students took board members on a tour of the many Google apps, extensions, and add-ons that allow them to learn in ways they never imagined before. Their time and efforts earned rave reviews from the board members and administration. The beginning of the 2016-2017 school year marked a pivotal moment for our middle school, the 1:1 Chromebooks implementation. Students in sixth and seventh grade each received a Chromebook to use during and after school hours. Eighth grade students have access to Chromebooks for classroom use, and are expected to receive their own computers in the second stage of the roll-out in the fall. Our digital natives appreciate that many teachers have adopted a hybrid classroom, moving some assignments online to Google Classroom, thereby, providing the ability for students to work on and submit assignments from home.
State tests are scheduled for the week of March 28-31. I am offering after school review classes to help you prepare. You can sign up for either Tuesday or Thursday state test review classes that run from February 14 to March 23. Classes start at 3:20, so you have a little time to visit the snack bar, take a short walk, or get homework help from a teacher. Classes end at 4:20, at which time you can walk home, go home with a parent, or go to the library and wait for the 5:30 late bus. Students in the Connections program should report to the learning center. EngageNY.org has released sample questions from past tests if you want to review on your own. |
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