Barrington Middle School
BMS Connected learning Newsletter 3.25.2018 The BMS Learning Community is Respectful, Responsible, and Ready to Succeed! Upcoming Events: (Note: Please review the dates as dates are subjected to change due to a number of factors from one newsletter to the next).
Looking Ahead:
Note from Dr. Anderson The week of March 18, 2018 was certainly a proud week for our Barrington Middle School Learning Community. The first moment came last Monday evening when Commissioner Wagner recognized and highlighted our learning community and a BMS student in his annual State of Education Address. The second moment came during Thursday’s Unified Basketball 6th Grade Student assembly. Both events captured the spirit of BMS quite well. These two events are highlighted in this week’s BMS Spotlight on Learning! BMS Spotlight on Learning This week we would like to shine our BMS Spotlight on students Grace Mole, Stella Densley, Elle Ouhrabka, and Lara Nicholson, as well as Mr. Davis for their participation in the Commissioner of Education's State of Education Address. In particular, Grace Mole was recognized personally in the Commissioner’s address for her engagement in 21st Century Learning with the development of a podcast that she first worked on in Mr. Davis’s Digital Literacy class, and continued the development of podcasts for her genius hour project. Well done Grace! Please see the clip of his address that referenced Grace and her work: https://youtu.be/pJ-NlSc0GcI. We would also like to shine our spotlight on our Unified Basketball Team, 6th Grade Students, Mrs. Bienkiewicz and her pep band, Coach Moran, as well as the number of faculty and staff that supported this amazing event. Thursday, March 22, 2017 the Barrington Middle School Unified Team played against Martin Middle School’s team. For those who do not know, Unified Basketball is where students with intellectual and/or physical disabilities are paired with typical peers and they work together to achieve a common goal. This past Thursday, our 6th grade students cheered on both the BMS Eagles and MMS Wildcats Unified athletes! It was a day where we celebrated teamwork, sportsmanship, and all abilities. The feeling of acceptance, inclusion, and compassion was palatable in the gymnasium. Mrs. Bulk and I could not be prouder of our learning community. BMS News you can Use BMS Building Update: The new building construction is well underway. To help with communication, each week I have been releasing the BMS Building Project Blog. You can access the blog by visiting the BMS Building Project Homepage or the direct link to the BMS Building Project Blog. In addition, each Tuesday morning we will have a student volunteer give updates to our student body during morning announcements. 7th Grade College Exploration and 8th Grade Career Day: This week will be an exciting week for our 7th grade and 8th grade students. Beginning this week, our 7th grade clusters will be visiting the University of Rhode Island as part of our BMS College Exploration program. The goal of the college visit is to expose our middle school students to education after high school. Students tend to come back from the visit enthusiastic about their options after high school. Later on in the school year, we will have New England Technology Institute speak to our students about post secondary education options. Our 8th graders will be participating in our annual Career Day. 8th graders have been provided with an opportunity to choose among 30 plus career oriented workshops. During the day, students will learn about a number of different career opportunities from local professionals. BMS Career Day- Thursday, March 29th 15 parent volunteers are needed to chaperone students in classrooms where BMS Career Day speakers will be presenting. Chaperone volunteers will meet in the library at 9:00am for a brief overview. Career Day is over at 12:00pm. Please take a look at the sign-up and consider joining us for this great event! You can log into your My School Anywhere account or use this link: Volunteer at BMS. Vaping Presentation for Families: Barrington Middle School and the PTO are planning a vaping presentation for March 27, 2018 from 7:00pm - 8:30pm in the BMS Auditorium. We are encouraging parents to come to this presentation with their children. We believe the presentation would be appropriate for families of students in grades 5 through 12. In addition to the family presentation, students participated in a Town Hall style presentation during the school day on Tuesday, March 20. 2017 - 2018 Family SurveyWorks Survey [Due March 30th]: Families have until the end of March, 2018, to complete the Family SurveyWork Data. Currently we have had only 19% of our families complete the survey. Our goal is to have at least 50% of our families to complete the survey by March 30, 2018. Please complete the survey here: surveys.panoramaed.com/ride. The access code is 01108family. RICAS (Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System) This year, we will introduce the new RICAS assessments (or Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System modeled after the Massachusetts Comprehensive State Assessment) in mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA)/literacy. All students in grades 6 through 8 will participate. Students will take RICAS assessments using a laptop and will complete two sessions for both Math and ELA. The RICAS ELA assessment will begin April 3rd. The Math RICAS assessment will begin May 7th. Released items and practice tests are available. RICAS Student Tutorial and Practice Tests can be accessed here: ricas.pearsonsupport.com RICAS Released Items can be accessed here: ricas.pearsonsupport.com/released-items New Science Assessment Our state science assessments, will also change this year. Students in grade 8 will continue to take the new assessment (Next Generations Science Assessment or NGSA) aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Students will take 2 sessions of this assessment using a laptop. This assessment will be administered as a field test and will begin May 21st. Test Items can be found at AIR Science Practice Test Items for Middle School https://airscience.tds.airast.org/student. Barrington Community Safety Forum: On Wednesday, March 28, 2018 The Town of Barrington, the Barrington Police Department, and the Barrington Public Schools invite you to a community forum on safety. The forum will provide an opportunity for the community to learn about the steps the schools and town have taken to support safety. In addition the forum will allow school and town leadership to engage in two-way dialog with parents and community members related to school and public safety. The forum will begin at 7:00pm at Barrington High School’s auditorium. BMS Special PTO Meeting: Safety and Security: On April 2, 2018 from 7:00pm - 8:00pm Mr. Messore will be present to discuss safety and security at Barrington Middle School. Mr. Messore has been meeting with each school’s PTO over the past month. The BMS meeting will be held in the BMS Library.
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Barrington Middle School
BMS Connected learning Newsletter 3.19.2018 The BMS Learning Community is Respectful, Responsible, and Ready to Succeed! Upcoming Events: (Note: Please review the dates as dates are subjected to change due to a number of factors from one newsletter to the next).
Looking Ahead:
Note from Dr. Anderson Each week Mrs. Bulk and I send the faculty/staff a weekly administrative bulletin. In the weekly bulletin we have a standing section called BMS Spotlight on Learning. Recently, Mrs. Bulk and I were talking, and thought it was a great idea to share this spotlight on learning with our greater community. Our students and teachers are amazing, and they are doing incredible things in and out of the building that we would also like to celebrate with our families. In this newsletter, you will see a slightly modified format that will include a standing BMS Spotlight on Learning segment. BMS Spotlight on Learning This week we would like to shine our BMS Spotlight on Mr. Henderson, Mrs. Henderson, and Jack Culton for their participation in a national conference hosted at the Rhode Island Convention Center on Monday, March 12, 2018. Mr. Henderson, Mrs. Henderson, Jack, Dr. Dillon, and myself presented on our experience as a Lighthouse School to a room full of educators from across the country. Mr. and Mrs. Henderson presented on the topic of the change process and professional development, and Jack, along with another student from another Lighthouse School, presented on the student’s perspective of project based learning/deeper learning. Great work Mr. Henderson, Mrs. Henderson, and Jack! BMS News you can Use BMS Building Update: The new building construction is well underway. To help with communication, each week I have been releasing the BMS Building Project Blog. You can access the blog by visiting the BMS Building Project Homepage or the direct link to the BMS Building Project Blog. In addition, each Tuesday morning we will have a student volunteer give updates to our student body during morning announcements. BMS Building Project Learning Opportunities: Recently we had a planning meeting with community members, teacher leaders, as well as members from central office, to begin to brainstorm potential learning opportunities students and teachers can take advantage of during the construction of the new building. Sample ideas includes learning about suitable soils, erosion control, and building a green building in Science classes, learning about scales, ratios, geometry/architect designs during math classes, and in our technology classes, learning how to create stop motion videos, as well as documenting the building project from start to finish through pictures, videos, and interviews. We look forward to maximizing the learning opportunities through this once in a lifetime experience. Please stay tuned for a menu of opportunities, and we certainly welcome additional suggestions. BMS Career Day- Thursday, March 29th 15 parent volunteers are needed to chaperone students in classrooms where BMS Career Day speakers will be presenting. Chaperone volunteers will meet in the library at 9:00am for a brief overview. Career Day is over at 12:00pm. Please take a look at the sign-up and consider joining us for this great event! You can log into your My School Anywhere account or use this link: Volunteer at BMS. Unified Basketball Student Assembly: Barrington Middle School has been presented with an amazing opportunity to host a Unified Basketball game coached by Mr. Moran during the school day. Our BMS Unified Team pairs partners and athletes together and work towards a common goal of sportsmanship, teamwork, and the celebration of all abilities. The game is scheduled for Thursday, March 22, 2018 with tip off being at 12:30pm against Martin Middle School from East Providence. We will be inviting the 6th grade clusters to attend this very special event to cheer along both BMS and MMS athletes! Vaping Presentation for Families: Barrington Middle School and the PTO are planning a vaping presentation for March 27, 2018 from 7:00pm - 8:30pm in the BMS Auditorium. We are encouraging parents to come to this presentation with their children. We believe the presentation would be appropriate for families of students in grades 5 through 12. In addition to the family presentation, students will also participate in a Town Hall style presentation during the day. “A Day Without Hate” The BHS Chain Reaction Club is organizing their annual “A Day Without Hate” on Friday, March 23, 2018. This day will be an incredible opportunity for every member of our community to come together to say that we will not tolerate violence or hate, and we will reach out to friends and acquaintances and say, "We're all in this together." One of the hallmarks of DWOH are the "Peace Posters." We transform the school environment by covering the building with posters with messages of unity, respect and nonviolence. We also invite everyone to wear white, the color of peace, on A Day Without Hate. This year we want the entire district to be involved! On Thursday, March 22, the night before A Day Without Hate, all Barrington students, families and employees are invited to a Peace Poster Party in the BHS cafeteria from 6PM - 8PM. We will make posters to either hang up in the high school hallways, or bring back to their schools to hang the next morning. 2017 - 2018 Family SurveyWorks Survey [Due March 30th]: Families have until the end of March, 2018, to complete the Family SurveyWork Data. Currently we have had only 11% of our families complete the survey. Our goal is to have at least 50% of our families to complete the survey by March 30, 2018. Please complete the survey here: surveys.panoramaed.com/ride. The access code is 01108family. RICAS (Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System) This year, we will introduce the new RICAS assessments (or Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System modeled after the Massachusetts Comprehensive State Assessment) in mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA)/literacy. All students in grades 6 through 8 will participate. Students will take RICAS assessments using a laptop and will complete two session for both Math and ELA. The RICAS ELA assessment will begin April 3rd. The Math RICAS assessment will begin May 7th. Released items and practice tests are available. RICAS Student Tutorial and Practice Tests can be accessed here: ricas.pearsonsupport.com RICAS Released Items can be accessed here: ricas.pearsonsupport.com/released-items New Science Assessment Our state science assessments, will also change this year. Students in grade 8 will continue to take the new assessment (Next Generations Science Assessment or NGSA) aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Students will take 2 sessions of this assessment using a laptop. This assessment will be administered as a field test and will begin May 21st. Test Items can be found at AIR Science Practice Test Items for Middle School https://airscience.tds.airast.org/student. BMS Special PTO Meeting: Safety and Security: On April 2, 2018 from 7:00pm - 8:00pm Mr. Messore will be present to discuss safety and security at Barrington Middle School. Mr. Messore has been meeting with each school’s PTO over the past month. Teachable Moment Barrington Middle School: A Destination for Teaching and Learning Over the course of this year, we have had nearly 75 educators visit Barrington Middle School to learn about the amazing teaching and learning that happens on a daily basis. We have had the Commissioner of Education, Deputy Commissioner of Education, various Rhode Island of Department of Education employees, Administrators, Consultants, Teachers, as well as inspiring educators visit our classrooms to observe teaching and learning in action. Our visitors are eager to learn about our emphasis on Deeper Learning principles where lessons are designed to promote student communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, strong academic content, and student reflection. At the end of every visit we have time to debrief with the visitors. Without fail, the visitors always comment on how engaged and how respectful your children are! Visible Learning Strategies: In addition, visitors also come to Barrington Middle School to learn about our visible learning strategies. Visible Learning Strategies are strategies that are used to maximize instructional time on teaching and learning. In any given classroom throughout our building, a visitor will see examples of visible learning strategies. These strategies include:
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