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The Hawk Eye Produced by Mrs. Felts

“Eye” drawing by Abby Rusch (8th gr)

April, 2015

Issue 8

2014-2015

Important Calendar Dates April to early May

April 14: Track AT Clintonville April 16: Track AT Oconto Falls April 18: State DI Competition at UW-Stevens Point April 21: Track HOME vs Clintonville April 23: Track HOME vs New London Spring SCMS Choir Concert at HS April 27: Track Conference Relays @ Seymour April 28: Spring SCMS Orchestra Concert at HS April 30: Spring SCMS Band Concert at HS

Shawano School District

TITLE VII MEETING PUBLIC MEETING NOTICE Indian Education Title VII Parent Advisory Committee Notice is hereby given that the Title VII Parent Advisory Committee is having a public meeting regarding the tutoring program and grant application for the 2015-2016 school year. This meeting will be held in the District Boardroom, 218 County Road B, Shawano, WI on Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 4:00 pm. The public is welcome to attend. Kelley Swartz Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment

BADGER and STAR testing update

The BADGER test will be given in English and

Math classes during April to early May (dates to be

determined). The tests are given in the classrooms

and the students use chromebooks for this test.

The STAR tests will be given from April 6 – April

17 in English and Math classes. The test takes about

30 minutes and will be given in the labs.

The teachers will be keeping the students apprised of

which dates the tests will be given in their classes so

please check the student agendas for more

information.

Spring has arrived!!!!

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PRINCIPAL NEWS

Mrs. Mary Kramer

Hello everyone, Spring always seems to brighten our steps and put a smile on our faces. Perhaps it’s the promise of a new start or beginning. Whatever the reason behind it, we have the chance to start over. What a wonderful structure we have at school; no matter what lies behind us, we can begin anew with what lays ahead of us! Just before break, we completed a school-wide locker cleanout. For some students, this was an opportunity to find missing library books, homework or odd gloves. For others, it provided the chance to re-organize and dedicate themselves to better study habits. We scheduled this cleanout intentionally, knowing that clean and organized lockers, with a refreshed brain, keep us moving in the right academic direction. As we enter this 8 week home stretch, I encourage each and every student to use the time to reevaluate priorities and coursework. Make this time great, both academically and behaviorally. Make wise choices and be strong when confronted with temptations. Pledge to find new ways to use your talents and skills. Offer to help your teachers and parents. Set high and lofty goals for yourselves. Stay the course and you’ll be wiser and richer for the effort. Sincerely, Mary C. Kramer SCMS Principal

Summer School Registration

It is time to sign up for summer school. There are several new classes offered this year which might be of interest to you. Please pick up a brochure in the Visitor’s Center and complete the back page with your class choices. Return it to the office as soon as possible. See Mrs. Beaumier or Dr. Watson with any questions. If you need another brochure, please pick one up in the Visitor’s Center.

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FROM THE DESK OF THE ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Dr. Rod Watson

Student Services Team

It is nearing the end of my first year as associate principal at SCMS and one of the things I am most

impressed by is the lengths staff members go to help students in this school. When students are struggling,

the staff of this school is accustomed to doing all that it can to help them. There are many ways that help is

established, but the one that I am most involved with is the Student Services Team. I want to explain here

what that team does to help students in this school.

The Student Services Team (SST) consists of Sara Rentmeester and Rebecca Jacoby (school

counselors), Craig Ferch (school psychologist), Karen Brown-Schaible (school social worker), Molly

Oleson (school nurse), and myself. Lately, we have been joined by Jenna Hammer as a substitute school

counselor. We meet for about two hours every Tuesday morning and discuss students. The process for

doing this has been refined throughout the year.

Students are referred to the SST through teacher referral (called “Kid Talk”) or through SST

member recommendation. We keep a database of the students we meet about. We go over students’ grades,

test scores, and behavior data. We share what we know about the students. Then, we decide on an action. If

a student is failing math class, we might decide to get the student a tutor. If test scores are low, we might

choose to put a student in an intervention class. Schedule changes, counselor meetings, setting up mentors,

and parent conferences are other actions we often take. The goal with every student we discuss is to take an

action, decide which SST member will take the lead on it, and decide when to check back on the student.

Over the course of this school year we have discussed about 75 students through this process. That

means that 75 of our neediest students have received help that may have been the deciding factor in their

success this school year. This is only one way we help students here, we have other mechanisms such as

grade level teams, PBIS, RtI, etc, but it is an excellent way to help struggling students. We had nothing like

this in my last school; the pressure was all on the students and the teacher to make changes when needed.

Too often that resulted in failure. I am proud to be a part of this very effective intervention for our students.

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Athletics at SCMS Mrs. Bartz

Middle School Athletic Director

As of March 23 track season has started. Our head coach for track is Mr. Stomberg. If there

are any questions for him, he can be reached at the high school where he teaches. We are

hoping for great weather for the start of our season so that we do not need to do any

rescheduling of meets. Track is for both boys and girls in the middle school grades 6-8, and is

open to St James and Sacred Heart grades 6-8. Please check out the school website for the

dates and times of our track meets. Good Luck to all track participants.

Student Council News Mrs. Logerquist, Advisor The 8

th Grade students at SCMS have received an informational

letter regarding 8th Grade Promotion and the 8

th Grade Celebration

Dance. These letters were passed out in the students’ Language

Arts classes to go home and be read and seen by their

parents/guardians. Attached to the letter was a permission slip that

is for the Celebration Dance (one is not needed for the promotion

ceremony). This slip is due to Mrs. Logerquist in room 155 by

May 16, 2015.

Important times and dates to remember about the 8th Grade

Promotion Ceremony and 8th Grade Celebration dance are listed

below. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Logerquist

the Celebration Advisor and Student Council Advisor (Ext. 3155

or via e-mail).

Both the Dance and Promotion are on

June 3, 2015

8th Graders need to arrive at 4:00 PM to

get ready for the Promotion Ceremony

Promotion Ceremony will take place from

4:30 PM to 6:00 PM

The Celebration Dance will be from 6:30

PM to 9:00 PM (with doors closing at

7:30).

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Teacher Notes - 1

Mr Homan – AA Tech Ed News

We have been very busy in the Tech Ed department lately. The sixth grade exploratory class continues to explore the concepts of Computer Numerical Control. Our CNC machine along with our student’s creative designs has been manufacturing some great signs. The 7

th grade exploratory

class continues to work on the Dirty Jobs project. They have been designing some great solutions to many different problems. The 8

th grade class continues to explore rocket technology. They are

especially excited to finally have some nice weather to begin launching in. The 6

th grade Tech Ed class has been very busy in the woodshop. Students completed a clock

earlier in the year and are now finishing up a wooden moose planter. The students have been working very hard on these projects and they are looking very nice. Students have been working safely and will soon be moving onto a communications unit. The 7

th grade Tech Ed class researched and built bridges earlier in the year. The students were

able to use a bridge tester to compete and see which bridge could hold the most weight. We had some great bridges and learned how much geometry and math are involved with bridge building. We have just completed our wood Duck house project. Students were able to construct wood duck houses using cooperative learning groups and a proven house design. These classes constructed 20 wood duck houses and are now taking them home to be hung up where wood ducks might use them. The next project will be the design and construction of CO2 cars. This is a highly anticipated project as the students are anxious to begin working on them. The 8

th Grade Tech Ed class has worked on many things so far this year including Cutting boards,

Stepstools and band saw projects. They have been learning the importance of planning for projects and using many different tools safely. The next project for this class involves individual project work. Students will be creating plans and a bill of materials for a project of their choice. We are already seeing some nice projects being constructed and look forward to many more.

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Teacher Notes - 2

Ms Mielke – Math

Students in 7th

grade math are just wrapping up Geometry, where we explored

triangular frameworks and classified triangles, determined missing angle measures,

and calculated volume and surface area for different geometric shapes. We will be

taking the Badger Exam during the next couple of weeks and then we are heading

into our final unit of the year: Probability and Statistics! This unit will be very

hands-on and will include numerous lab activities, surveys, and experiments! You

may have heard your student mention filling out and playing the NCAA March

Madness Tournament for class. We calculated the odds of having a perfect bracket

(1 in 9.2 quintillion!!!), tracked our winning percentage throughout the entire

tournament, and even watched a game to calculate shooting percentage!

Coming up on Wednesday, May 6th, students will be listening to guest speaker,

Jackie Suehring, from Premier Community Bank. She will be sharing information

with the students about money matters and how to prepare for their future! Make

sure to ask your child about what they have learned!

Pictures of

Students

exploring

Triangle

Inequality

Rule

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Teacher Notes - 3

Ms McCadden – Science

Ms. McCadden’s 7th grade science classes have been studying genetics where students did various activities from making their own dog to identifying some of their own traits inherited from their parents (from genes that affect what we can taste to tongue rolling). Could you roll your tongue? Can your parents? We will be studying invertebrate animals over the next several weeks. Some of the animal phyla we will be studying include poriferans (ex. sponges), cnidarians (ex. jellyfish, corals), mollusks (ex. clam, squid) and echinoderms (ex. seastar, sea urchin). We will learn about the animal: parts/functions, body systems (respiration, reproduction, nervous/muscular, digestion, cardiovascular) and energy pyramid relationships. The students will investigate them further by dissecting some of the animals we’ve studied. Get ready to roll your sleeves up… we’re digging in. ***Don’t forget… your next Science News assignment is oral. It is due 4/15!

************************ Ms. McCadden's science classes are studying animal cells, tissues, organs, and systems. Her class pictured here is acting out the functions of the cell parts from the nucleus (the control center) to the vacuole (holds, food, water, and waste).

Ms Schmidt – ELA

Students celebrated Read-Across

America Day on March 2 which is the

anniversary of Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

Students dressed in red, white and black

and wore crazy hats. The focus for the

year was Oh, the Places You’ll Go and ELA

classes all did activities centered on that

theme. All ELA students agreed that it

was a lot of fun to have a Book Fair at

SCMS.

Currently, students in grade six are in the

middle of reading novels and doing

research with an environmental theme.

Seventh graders are learning about

argumentative reading and writing. Eighth

grade ELA students are just finishing

informative research about a human

rights theme.

If you haven’t heard, we have a number of

teams that have signed up for and are now

competing in the Battle of the Books.

Competitions have been intense and

exciting, not to mention promoting

reading.

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Student of the Month and Citizen of the Month For

March, 2015

Recognition Ceremony

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Students Recognized for March were:

Student of the Month

6th

Grade

Grace Huntington

Matthew Bohm

7th

Grade

Mark Prokash

Caitlin Daniel

8th

Grade

Dayna Besaw

Elizabeth Esch

Citizen of the Month

6th

Grade

Mattilyn Koehler

Benjamin Cook

7th

Grade

James Flanigan

Emily Thornock

8th

Grade

Faith Schenk

Charles Kuhn

Chess Club

Students in Grades 6-8 were once again invited to join Chess Club in Mr. Beversdorf's room after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the months of February and March. We had 29 students total stop by at least once, and 21 students qualified for Chess Club Spirit Award. Everyone who participated played well and always shook hands after the match was over. Students especially enjoyed having Mr. Bromeisl stop by and challenge them to a game or two. Mr. Bromeisl also took over supervising the club on occasions when Mr. Beversdorf wasn't available. Thank-you Mr. Bromeisl for your great support. Everyone improved their games and gained new confidence in their ability.

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Family & Consumer Class Updates

Mrs. Schwartz

The 8th grade Family and Consumer Science classes have been very busy learning about child development. Students have study children from prenatal stages through the teen years. Currently we are discovering how brain development during the teen year can effect them. Students evaluated children books based on their knowledge of child development. Students experienced what it would be like to have the fine motor skills of a toddler. Thanks to Shawano County Child Support Agency students could choice to take a mechanical baby for a weekend to understand the demands of a newborn.

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Photo Ops – SCMS

Dr. Watson spoke with Mrs. Bartz’s 6th grade

social studies classes about his time in

Iraq and his experiences as a soldier.

Some examples of some of

the Geometry “Spring”

Poster Projects students

created in Ms Mielke’s

math classes.

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