11/18/08

11/14/08  

It was the evening of the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of our eleventh month of 1918 when soldiers laid down their weapons and the battles ceased.  It was the end of the Great War, the War to End All Wars.  Millions had given their lives.  Over 116,000 of those who had died were young American soldiers.  However, now arms had been laid down, an armistice had been reached.  We honor and remember those Americans from that day, Armistice Day.

  It was 90 years later at 9:00 in the morning of November 11th that South Vienna Elementary and Middle School honored those who have served our country in the armed forces.  Breakfast was planned and coordinated by Jennifer Toth and Audrey Jones and served by South Vienna’s seventh and eighth grade office aides.  A trio of patriotic songs was performed by Mrs. Jeni Wiant’s fifth grade choir.  Placemats were designed and made by Mrs. Lisa Truitt's seventh grade English classes.  Music was played and kind words were spoken.  Most importantly South Vienna’s first through eighth graders proudly sat beside their relatives who have served their country well.  

11/4/08

Update on the 7^th Grade Student Led Conferences

“I think this was a very good idea. The student-led conferences helped us better see what our child is doing in school and to meet/discuss with the teachers.”

“I believe this is a great idea. This makes them accountable and responsible.”

Parents, thank you for attending your child’s student led conference.  Over the past three years we, as a seventh grade team, have wanted to include all our students' parents on conference day.  We have found this not only allows you to have a better understanding of how your child is doing, but creates an important opportunity to share in your child’s success. 

We were pleased that 93 out of 121 parents were able to attend a scheduled conference at the school.  Seventh graders whose families were unable to conference at the school took home their portfolios and were able to share them with their parent(s).  This way, 100% of seventh graders had the chance to share their progress with their families.

 As one parent wrote, “This was a great idea allowing the student to control the conference. I think this contributes to self-confidence! I’m impressed.”

We agree.

************************************************ 

Parents, we are always looking to improve ourselves.  While most of the comments written on parent evaluation forms were quite positive, a few offered constructive suggestions for improving the student-led conference process.  If you have anything you would like to add, feel free to e-mail us back.  Below is the data on how the student led conferences were rated. 

1.)  My child was prepared for this conference.

            Strongly disagree                                                              Strongly agree

                        1                      2                      3                      4                      5

                        0                      0                      3 (4%)             23 (32%)  46 (64%) 

2.)  I now have a better understanding of how my child learns.

            Strongly disagree                                                              Strongly agree

                        1                      2                      3                      4                      5

                        0                      0                      9 (12%)  28 (39%)  35 (49%)

3.)  I have a clear picture about what my child has been studying this quarter.

            Strongly disagree                                                              Strongly agree

                        1                      2                      3                      4                      5

                        0                      0                      5 (7%)             21 (29%)  46 (64%)

4.)  I have a better understanding of my child’s effort, study skills, and classroom behaviors.

            Strongly disagree                                                              Strongly agree

                        1                      2                      3                      4                      5

                        0                      0                      2 (3%)             14 (19%)  56 (78%)

5.)  The student led conference was valuable and informative.

            Strongly disagree                                                              Strongly agree

                        1                      2                      3                      4                      5

                        0                      1 (1%)             5 (7%)             24 (33%)  42 (59%)

10/28/08

Next Tuesday morning, Election Day, we will be holding our school election throughout grades one through eight.  All students and staff are invited to vote.  There will be three issues on our ballot; President, U. S. House of Representatives, and Northeastern Permanent Improvement Levy.

Middle School student council members will be helping to run this.  We will try and have students vote early in the day.  We hope to first have the elementary and then the middle school students voting right after each group arrives at school.  As is being taught to the older students, we will have the election run on the electoral system.  Therefore, each child will vote as part of their class, or state.  Each class will be given a certain electoral number set up by how many students are in that homeroom.  Adults will be divided into three states; elementary school, middle school, and Mr. Justice’s office.  Mr. Justice wanted to be Montana.  He got his wish and one electoral vote. 

We will try and do this quickly and not take up too much of your time.  We will announce the results right before the elementary students go home.

October 27,2008

The history reports are coming! 

The history reports are coming!

Over the past years students have been writing for my class seventh grade history research papers.  This year is no exception.  For their report, students may choose most any topic from ancient world history through 1750.  To help them, each seventh grader was given a three-page packet from me explaining this research report.  In addition Mrs. Truitt gave to each child several other papers and a folder to keep all materials.  While we will do some work here at school, most of the work will need to be done outside the classroom.  The important dates to remember are:

·       Have a topic chosen:  Thursday, October 30th

·       Rough draft completed:  Monday, November 24th

·       Hand in report:  Wednesday, December 3rd 

While we are covering history report information in detail with your child, feel free to e-mail me back or call the school at 568-4765 if you have any questions.

Thanks,

October 24, 2008

Congratulations to the members of this year’s Power of the Pen team.  Twenty-three South Vienna seventh and eighth grade writers came to tryouts on Thursday, October 12th.  All did a very nice job.  From those participants, twelve students were chosen. 
South Vienna eighth grade team

Our seventh grade team 

October 2, 2008

This October 13th and 15th will be conference days for our seventh graders.  We, as a seventh grade staff, value the idea of having student led conferences.  With that we invite all seventh graders and their parents or guardians to join us for conferences.  This will be the third year we have had student led conferences and last year we had over a 90% turn out rate.  It was a great success.

Conferences will be held in the cafeteria and there should be about a dozen or so conferences taking place during each scheduled time period.  Yes, teachers will be available to speak with you if you have any questions.  Please, be prepared to devote about 30 minutes for this valuable conference.

We have discovered that when students take ownership of their grades and assignments within each class, they tend to do well.  Moreover, a pride takes place within each child as they demonstrate what they have achieved.  We think you might be pleasantly surprised with how well your child presents him/ herself.  You will also learn more about your child from this type of conference.

Students have been preparing by practicing in their homerooms, accumulating necessary materials, and having a dry run conference with a classmate.  We look forward to seeing you on either Monday, October 13th or Wednesday, October 15th.

Power of the Pen Tryouts
September 26,2008

Attention writers.  On Wednesday, October 1st, we will be holding tryouts for this year’s seventh and eighth grade Power of the Pen teams.  
     

Power of the Pen is an academic writing team that South Vienna has proudly fielded for many years.  We have won several team trophies and have sent numerous students on to the regional tournament and several to the state finals.
     

Students who are interested in trying out need to meet in one of two rooms during lunch.  Seventh graders will need to meet in Ms. Wilson’s room and eighth graders go to Mr. Arter’s room.  Students will need to first quickly purchase lunch from the cafeteria.  (This would be a good day to bring a sack lunch.)  They will need to bring with them paper and a pencil or pen.  Students will then be given a prompt, a phrase or sentence around which they will write a short story.  From all the entries, judges will choose the top six writings from each grade level.  The winners will comprise our two Power of the Pen teams. 

Each team will meet once a week or so to prepare for the district tournament.  Students will be expected to practice and improve their writing skills. 

As you probably deduced with the difficulties presented to us by tropical storm Ike, we did not send home progress reports with students on Tuesday, September 16th, nor did we send home interims.  Therefore, here is what we decided to do.  Interims will go home Friday, September 26th.  With that, we gave all students their up to date progress report on Friday, September 19th.  Yes, these were certainly for you as parents to see.  However, we want our students to realize what assignments they need to complete or redo before interims will be sent home this Friday.  For those students who need to, they can improve their grades.

Thanks for all your support.

Attention all 7th grade girls!  

Come and join Mrs. Riley on Saturday, November 1st from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm at COSI for "Girls Discover. . . Engineering"!  The cost is $20.00 and covers the cost of two workshops, lunch, a T-shirt and admission to COSI's permanent exhibitions.  We will be taking a bus to and from COSI.  Parents are invited to attend a workshop designed just for parents and teachers.  The cost for parents to attend is also $20.  There are a few scholarships available; please see Mrs. Riley for the form.  The permission and registration slips were passed out to all girls on Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

Parents

  We’re glad you found our web page.  We hope this will help us communicate better with you about what is happening at South Vienna in your child’s seventh grade.

We have begun sending home grade checks with every seventh grade student.  Tuesday, September 2, 2008 was our first day for this and we hope to continue this most Tuesdays for the remainder of the school year.  The way we will do this is as follows:

Remember that you can access your child's grades daily on the web!  Simply visit www.nelsd.org and click on the "Parent Access" book bag icon.  From there, you can even have your username or password emailed to you if you have forgotten them. 

Interims will be sent home the week of Sept. 15th!

Finally, please note that Friday is PICTURE DAY!!!  Students took forms home Tuesday this week.  To order pictures, students must bring the form AND payment to school Friday.  There is an online payment option available on the form as well.

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments feel free to e-mail us back.  

Parents,

Welcome to our new South Vienna Middle School seventh grade website. As your child’s teachers, we are hoping to use this website to serve you better.  We will strive to keep you informed about tests, major assignments, and the upcoming events around South Vienna Middle School.  Please be patient as this is a new program for us.  To get us started, below are our e-mail addresses.

We welcome your input to this website and we are looking forward to a great year.

Your seventh grade teachers.

Jim Arter, history teacher, has been teaching at South Vienna for the last 29 years.  He has a B.S. degree in elementary education from Murray State University and a Master’s in English from Wright State University.  Jim enjoys being the eighth grade Power of the Pen coach and co-directing Northeastern High School’s musicals.  Jim’s wife, Paula, is a psychologist in the Urbana City Schools.  They have one son, Seth, a graduate from Urbana High School

Carey Cunningham has taught 7th grade Reading at South Vienna since 2004.  She is currently the National Junior Honor Society advisor.  She earned a B.A. degree in Middle Childhood Education (Language Arts and Math) from Mount Vernon Nazarene University and is presently taking coursework in a masters program at Wright State University.

Carla Johnson, the seventh grade math teacher, is starting her 28th year of teaching at South Vienna.  She earned a B.S. degree in elementary education from Morehead State University and a Master’s of Education in Classroom Teacher:  Middle School Math from Wright State University.  Carla is a graduate of Northeastern High School and is married to Colin Johnson, an Industrial Arts teacher at Northeastern High School.  They have a daughter, Katie, who also graduated from NEHS and is an educator as well.  

Chad Kirkbride, the seventh grade math intervention specialist, is starting his second year at South Vienna.  He earned his B.S. in adolescent to young adult (7-12) education with a second major in Mathematics from Heidelberg College.  Chad is married to Tiffany Kirkbride, who is a Math teacher at Kenton Ridge High School.  Chad also enjoys being part of the Northeastern High School Track and Field coaching staff.

Lorraine Precek, inclusion specialist, has 32 years of experience as a teacher.  She has a B.A. from Marshall University and a Master’s degree from The Ohio State University.  She has taught every grade in the Northeastern District but kindergarten.  She has been married for 33 years to her husband, Randy, and her two sons, Nick and Chris, attend Northeastern High School.

Sarah Riley, science teacher, is in her eighth year of teaching, the last 5 at South Vienna.  She has a B.S. degree in elementary education from Wright State University and a Master’s in the Art of Teaching from Marygrove College.  Sarah enjoys being a co-advisor for the school newspaper, The Pilot, and going to student events in and out of school.  Sarah graduated from Shawnee High School and married her high-school sweetheart, Tim, who is a therapeutic probation officer with the Clark County Juvenile Courts.  They have one son, Jackson, who is 14 months old.   

Parents,

  We’re glad you found our web page.  We hope this will help us communicate better with you about what is happening at South Vienna in your child’s seventh grade.

We have begun sending home grade checks with every seventh grade student.  Tuesday, September 2, 2008 was our first day for this and we hope to continue this most Tuesdays for the remainder of the school year.  The way we will do this is as follows:

Remember that you can access your child's grades daily on the web!  Simply visit www.nelsd.org and click on the "Parent Access" book bag icon.  From there, you can even have your username or password emailed to you if you have forgotten them. 

Interims will be sent home the week of Sept. 15th!

Finally, please note that Friday is PICTURE DAY!!!  Students took forms home Tuesday this week.  To order pictures, students must bring the form AND payment to school Friday.  There is an online payment option available on the form as well.

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments feel free to e-mail us back.