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The Demon Report

Quarter 1—2017/2018

PS Jones Middle School Newsletter

One School One Book

Once again, the students and staff have enjoyed reading the novel Wonder by R.J.

Palacio through our One School, One Book program. The program is designed to

bring unity through a shared reading experience, and to teach important character

traits such as compassion, empathy, and courage. We are also making plans to

view the highly-awaited movie Wonder when it hits theaters in mid-November.

“I think there should be a rule that everyone in the world should get a stand-

ing ovation at least once in their lives.”

― R.J. Palacio, Wonder

This past summer, two teachers, Ann Behar and Rebecca Paul, attended a weeklong class

in Philadelphia in order to offer a new class to 8th graders at PSJ – Computer Science Dis-

coveries. Computer Science Discoveries is designed to help students improve their prob-

lem–solving, collaboration and persistence skills through an introduction to Computer

Coding. While the class focuses on using these skills to develop web pages and computer

apps, these skills will be useful no matter what field the student decides to explore.

With the implantation of the first class, taught by Mrs. Behar, students have learned 3 pro-

gramming languages; HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They have created, formatted and pub-

lished their own web pages. Currently, they are learning about game design and creating

their own computer games. In order to create these games, they have to learn to draw

screen backgrounds, characters that move upon command and variables to control differ-

ent actions within their games such as collisions, velocity, and rotation.

As we continue the semester-long course, students will learn how technology is incorpo-

rated into everyday life and how to design applications to meet the needs of others. The

course will conclude with students learning to write programs to control hardware with

circuit boards.

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Haunted Hallway PSJ's Haunted Hallway fundraiser was again a success this

year. Along with the hallway, games were also played, the book fair

was open, and lots of food was sold. The money raised will be spent

to help teachers supplement their classrooms with much needed ma-

terials.

Builders Club has gotten started

for the year at PSJ! This is a

club that focuses on community

service and involvement spon-

sored by the Kiwanis. We meet

the second Tuesday of each

month (unless otherwise an-

nounced) and volunteer at differ-

ent organizations such as Eagles

Wings, the Kiwanis Lobster

Sale, and visit the nursing

homes. We also participate in

Read Across America Day with

elementary students. All stu-

dents are invited to attend,

whether they can attend every

meeting or only one. Interested

students can see their homeroom

teacher about getting a permis-

sion form. Please call or email

Mrs. Hodges

(ahodges@beaufort.k12.nc.us) if

you have any questions.

Beaufort County Schools' Character Education program lays

out a character trait to be focused on each month of the

school year. PSJ teachers are able to nominate students they

feel represent the trait. A winner is chosen for the school

and this winner is submitted to the county to be considered

for the middle school winner. September's trait was respect

and responsibility. The winner was Tyajah Windley submit-

ted by Ms. Glenn. Courage was the trait for October. Mrs.

Landen submitted a nomination for Monzerat Chavez. She

was chosen as the winner for PSJ and the district. Next up is

Citizenship for November!

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Demons football is 6-1 so far this season and tied for 1st in our divi-

sion. We play our last game on Nov. 2nd at home against

Chicod. This group of young gentlemen have worked very hard since July and it is paying off. We hope to finish 7-1, with a victory on Thursday. It has been a long time since Demons Football has had such a successful season.

Yearbooks continue to be on sale for

$38.00—there are extras, like your name,

you can add to your order. See one of the

computer teachers for your order

form. Books will go up at the end of No-

vember. You must order your book by

Christmas if you wish to have personali-

zation on the book. Remember, you may

pay a $10.00 deposit to secure your book

and then pay the balance over the next

several months. This payment plan

should allow most students the opportuni-

ty to get a Yearbook.