A 2011 Pennsylvania Don Eichhorn and National Schools to Watch Middle School

 

NEWS & INFORMATION

Million Word Challenge: The CMS Student Council is sponsoring a "Million Word Challenge" starting February 13th. The words will be tracked with the AR system. Please see your English/Language Arts teacher, Mrs. Barbarino, or Mr. Manion for more details. Top readers who reach the mark will be awarded on each team along with an overall seventh grade and eighth grade champ!

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High School Visit: The high school guidance counselors will be visiting CMS on February 8th to start discussing scheduling with the 8th grade. A Move-Up Day where the 8th graders tour the high school and talk with administration will be scheduled in June. You will receive more information from the high school in the near future.

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Book Club: Canonsburg Middle School's Cover-2-Cover Book Club is up and running. The students had a blast at the first session! See the LMC Blog for more information to join and pictures.
Or see Mrs. Barbarino, Mrs. Gaetano, Mr. Nairn, Mrs. Ramsey, Mrs. DeBlasio, or Mrs. Wolf for more information.
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CMS News Blog Team: If you want to be a part of the CMS News Blog Team, please attend Mr. Nairn's informational meeting on October 7th.

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Teen Outreach Power Program: All eighth grade students have the opportunity to take part in the Washington Hospital Teen Outreach Power program designed to teach students about removing the myths and misconceptions about sexuality, pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV/AIDS. A strong focus will be on abstitence, refusal skills, and keeping lines of communication open between child and parent. The program will take place during your child's scheduled Health class. For more information or to opt out of program, click here. If you choose to opt your child out, please submit signed form to Mrs. Hedderman by September 30th.

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On Demand Homework Help: If you are looking for homework help, you can now access it anytime, anywhere (with access to the Internet) via Khan Academy. The site has thousdands of tutorials on various skills in various subjects (mostly math & science). Click here to visit or the link under student resources.

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Severe Allergy Information: Severe allergic triggers and reactions will be shared with the students on the first day of school during home base. The students will also be given the Severe Allergic Reactions in Schools informational handout to bring home. Click here for a digital copy of the handout.

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New Library/Media Center Website: Check out Mrs. Barbarino's new website for the library/media center. A great resource for our middle school students! Select the link to the left under "School Pages" or click here.

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CMS is on Twitter: On an experimental basis, we will be sending out pertitnent news and information via Twitter in addition to our website. If we have a substantial number of followers then we will continuewith the service. Please follow us at "@WEARECMS25" on Twitter.

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Highlights: Read all about Canonsburg Middle School in this issue of The Highlights. Select here for link.

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Morning Drop-Off Reminder: Parents who wish to drop their children off in the morning must do so in the designated school drop-off zone located on East College Street. Click here for more information or refer to your student handbook.

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Keystone Exams: New Pennsylvania Department of Education Graduation Requirements: Pennsylvania adopted new graduation requirements starting with the class of 2015 (our current eighth grade class). The new graduation criteria require students to pass a "Keystone Exam" (end of course comprehensive exam) upon completion of several core academic classes. The exams will be phased in with Algebra I as the first scheduled Keystone Exam. Students will take the the Keystone Exam upon completion of the course. Student's taking Algebra I this year will take the exam on an "operational basis." This simply means that they must take the exam to pass it. The Algebra I Keystone Exam will officially count for students taking Algebra in the 2011-2012 school year. In order to pass and receive high school graduation credit, they must pass the exam. We will be sending more information out once we receive it. In the meantime, the website for the newgraduation requirements is www.pdesas.org/Assessment/Graduation.

 

HAPPENINGS AT CMS!

Leadership Washington County: Business leaders from Washington County visited Canosnburg Middle School on January 17th to learn more about how the middle school's technology education program and digital literacy. Mrs. Barbarino, library/media specialist, Mr. Herrig, tech. ed. teacher, Mr. Maffei, tech. ed. teacher, Mr. Mychalishyn, tech. ed. teacher, and Dr. Taranto provided the day's presentations.

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CMS Singers: The CMS Singers were invited to sing at Canonsburg's Old Fashion Christmas Event on Saturday, December 3rd held at the Frank Sarris Library.

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Giving Thanks: Students in all three eighth grade social studies gave thanks to our military by creating cards. The thank you cards were delivered to the veteran hospitals today just in time for Thanksgiving!

Anti-Bullying Kick Off: The students, faculty and staff kicked off this year's anti-bullying campaign with a sing-off in the auditorium. A number of students took part by changing lyrics to popular songs to have an anti-bullying theme. Classroom meetings to educate students on the effects of bullying will take place on a monthly basis.

 

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Anti-Bullying Door Contest: In preparation for next week's anti-bullying assembly, the homebases took part in an anti-bullying door decorating contest. All the doors looked great and displayed wonderful creativity. The eighth grade winner was Mrs. Porter's (403) homebase and the seventh grade winner was Mrs. Wolf's (316) homebase. Congratulations!

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Breast Cancer Awareness Month: To support Breast Cancer Awareness month, the faculty and staff wore their pink and made a monetary contribution on October 14th to the students' fundraising efforts to support th Young Women's Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation and Lee Jean's Denim Day.

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CMS Goes Pink: CMS students, faculty, and staff showed their support in the fight for breast cancer on October 14th. Donations from faculty and staff combined with proceeds from the CMS Night Out will benefit teh Young Women's Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation, Cancer Programs of the Entertainment Industry, and the Cancer Support Community. A special thanks to our student helpers on this initiative goes to: Caleb, Morgan, Eleni, Regis, Katherine, Kayla, Lexi, Gabriella, Julia, and Demetria. Teacher leaders on the initiative were Mrs. Hedderman, Mrs. Dennick, and Mr. Manion. Pictures courtesy of Ms. Paddick and the yearbook staff.

Velocity Lab: Students in Mr. Colbert's, Mrs. Killmeyer's, Mr. Smith's, and Mr. Wolf's science class took part in a physical science lab where the students learned "hands-on" about velocity.

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CM Fit Day: Friday, September 30th was our sixth annual 7th grade CM FIT DAY.  The focus of this yearly event was fitness and nutrition with a full day of activities.  The morning activities took place at Canon-McMillan Memorial Stadium and included a warm-up, aerobics, a one-mile walk, and more. 

After a healthy lunch back at the school, students split up into their teams to attended sessions where they learned about lifelong fitness and proper nutrition.

A special thanks to the CM Fit Committee (Mrs. Vulcano, Ms. Gilbert, Mr. Dominick, Mr. Weber, Ms. Clawson, Mrs. Angle, and Mrs. Barbarino) for planning the entire event.

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First Day of School: The students were excited to walk through the doors for the first day of school. It is always nice to see their exciement. The seventh graders were anxious to get their first day under their belt while the eighth graders were ready to be the leaders of the school.

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Peace Art Contest: Alexa, a seventh grade student won first place in the Rotary District 7330 of Soutwestern Pennsylvania's Peace Art Contest. Her work is proudly dispalyed in the Rotary's newsletter. Mrs. Angle, CMS Art teacher helped with promoting the contest with her students. We had a number of students from the school enter where they competed with students across Southwestern Pennsylvania. Congrats to Alexa!

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Schools to Watch Celebration: CMS celebrated the designation of becoming 1 of 21 middle schools in Pennsylvania to be a part of the Pennsylvania Don Eichhorn Schools to Watch and 1 of 250 middle schools in the country to share the honor of being a National Schools to Watch middle school.

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Schools to Watch: Canonsburg Middle School has been included in a list of six more exemplary Middle Grades Schools in Pennsylvania named Pennsylvania Don Eichhorn Schools: “Schools to Watch” as part of a recognition program developed by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform.  CMS will join 20 other middle schools in Pennsylvania and 250 in the country who share this special distinction.  

Each school was selected by state leaders for its academic excellence, its responsiveness to the needs and interests of young adolescents, and its commitment to helping all students achieve at high levels. In addition each school has strong leadership, teachers who work together to improve curriculum and instruction, and a commitment to assessment and accountability to bring about continuous improvement. Dr. John Harrison, Past President of the National Forum stated, “We congratulate these schools for being places that do great things for all of their students. These schools demonstrate that high-performing middle grades schools are places that focus on academic growth and achievement. They are also places that recognize the importance of meeting the needs of all of their students and ensure that every child has access to a rigorous, high-quality education.”

“The prestigious Schools to Watch designation validates the teamwork, leadership, innovation and overall good work being done on a daily basis at Canonsburg Middle School. Our students in grades 7 and 8 are fortunate to continue to experience the outstanding educational quality that they first encounter in our Blue Ribbon elementary programming. With this noteworthy honor—the first in the history of the District-- Canonsburg Middle School validates our position as the upper echelon hallmark of educational excellence in our County.” Dr. Helen McCracken, Superintendent, Canon-McMillan School District.

For more information on Schools to Watch, visit the National Forum’s Schools to Watch site at www.schoolstowatch.org  and the Pennsylvania Schools to Watch site at www.pmsa.org. 

 

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Leadership Washington County: Business leaders from Leadership Washington County visited CMS February 15th to learn how students and teachers are utilizing various forms of technology.

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Canonsburg Middle School is featured in the National Middle School Association's Middle Ground magazine for the month of October. Please take a moment to read the national publication about our seventh grade thematic unit. Click here to read more.

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Canonsburg Middle School recently received a grant to implement the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.

Outcomes of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program:

Statistics show how successful implementation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program can reduce school bullying. Outcomes have included:

• Fifty percent or more reductions in student reports of being bullied and bullying others. Peer and teacher ratings of bullying problems have yielded similar results.
• Significant reductions in student reports of general antisocial behavior such as school bullying, vandalism, school violence, fighting, theft, and truancy.
• Significant improvements in the classroom social climate as reflected in students' reports of improved order and discipline, more positive social relationships, and more positive attitudes toward schoolwork and school.
• Greater support for students who are bullied, and stronger, more effective interventions for students who bully.

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Canonsburg Middle School will be taking part in the Minnesota Smoking Prevention Program. The purpose of the program is to teach students about the harmful consequences of tobacco use and provide strategies to counter peer pressure. Click Here for More Information.

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