1 QUARTERLY Issue NEWSLETTER FOR 02 TITUSVILLE MIDDLE 2019-2020 SCHOOL The MidPoint School Year Dear Parents/Guardians, It’s hard to believe we are already halfway through the 2019-2020 school year. As we enter into the second half of the year, Mr. Houck and I would like to concentrate on the positive opportunities set up for our students. We have numerous individuals within our building that are continually putting time and effort into providing learning experiences, academically and socially, appropriate for our students. The winter season has been a busy time among all grade levels. Students and teachers celebrated the holiday season through chorus and band concerts, movies within the school and 7th grade students traveled to the movie theatre to complete their unit on Star Wars. Wrestling and basketball have started their seasons and continue to stay busy competing in matches and games each week, with the cheer- leaders supporting them at all home events. Mr. Vetter has included our band into the mix and they attend and play at all home basketball games. We have had numerous positive comments on the team spirit we show at home games! Lastly, our students involved in the musical started practicing in January for our upcoming performance in March of Frozen. We want to just remind all parents of the multiple ways to stay connected to your child and the Middle School. We encourage you to communicate with your child and the school for any academic concerns, check PowerParent to stay up to date on grades and feel free to schedule a parent-teacher conference if you feel that it would help for a mid-year boost. Targeted tutoring started this week to help provide support for language arts and math on Tuesdays and Thursdays until 4:30. The YMCA was awarded a grant and we have provided an after-school program for our 6th grade students since the beginning of the school year. You can call into the guidance office at any time to add your child to these after-school programs. Students have their last MAP Assessments in the next 2 months and teachers will be having discussions with students about goals for PSSA testing in April. In the next two weeks, Greg and I will be meeting with students at each grade level. We will be discussing many topics of concerns that are starting to come up in this current school year. Some of those topics concentrate on academics, personal responsibility and the care of our building. We need to encourage our students to be appropriate citizens within the school which then helps them to connect these traits to future opportunities in a community. I would like to end with some reminders since the end of the year tends to go quickly. PSSA testing will occur at the end of April. Eighth grade students will have two days of Science PSSA testing as well. Winter sports will continue through February and spring sports start up in March. We still have many year-end celebrations, exploratory opportunities, grade-level activities, chorus and band concerts, a STEAM night and two Payoff days just around the corner, it seems. Please help in communicating to your child the importance of keeping their grades up and working throughout the entire year. We have great students here at TMS and every day they give us and our staff something to be proud of. 2 Student Showcase Titusville Chess Team Wins Regional Competition By: Sophia Sampson On November 11, 2019, one of the Titusville Middle School Chess Teams took 3rd place in the Junior High Regional Division. Players on this team were Abbie and Aubree Colie, along with two students from the Keystone school district. Titusville Middle School Students Win Reading Competition By: Nathan Vinson On November 6, 2019, two teams of Titusville Middle School students participated in the Reading Competition held at Brookville High School, Brookville, PA. One team, The Peeta Paperbacks, placed first in the competition, earning the highest point total ever achieved in the history of the competition. Team members were Madeline Johnson, Jenna Crocker, Kathren LaLone, Aidan Yoder, Joe Herman, Alex Reynolds, Josiah White, Leo Clementi, Olivia Decker, Elizabeth Watkins, and Aubree Colie. The team dressed as characters from The Hunger Games to show their love for reading. The other team, With the Books? No Way!, earned fourth place in the competition, narrowly missing third place by one point. Team members dressed up as characters from The Magic School Bus book series as a tribute to some of their favorite childhood books. Team members included Kai Burrows, Chloe Preston, Brooke Kelley, Sophia Sampson, Carly Fry, Lea Stanton, Gavin Chappel, Nathan Vinson, and Lilly Wakefield. 3 IUP Band Summit Eight TMS students went to Indiana University of Pennsylvania in October for the second annual Middle School Band Summit. The event was organized by Dr. Jason Worzbyt and was open to middle school students selected by their band director. Last year, over 200 students participated and this year there were 232 students in attendance from across western Pennsylvania. The students were organized into two bands led by guest conductors. They rehearsed all day and performed a concert at 7 :00 that evening. The music is usually programmed to challenge the students, giving them a higher level musical experience than the average middle school music program. The students bring back what they have learned and share it with their peers and the director. While the students were rehearsing, the directors were treated to clinics by the faculty of IUP. Everyone got to enjoy a short concert in the afternoon by the IUP students and faculty featuring various ensembles from the University. Quotes from the students: "It is amazing to me that 200 complete strangers sit down for one day and are able to play music together in a performance at the end of a few hours." "In my opinion, the IUP Band Summit is a spectacular musical opportunity and I highly recommend it." At rehearsal- "Everyone was quiet and respectful in between playing so we could hear the conductor and improve our playing. There were also students from the college giving us good tips." "Both bands played unique music in the concert and sounded pretty good. You could tell the students put a lot of effort into their music, sound, dynamics, and articulation." "By the end of the day, some people made friends and acted if they had known each other for years!" "The music was fun, challenging, and I really enjoyed the pizza and milkshakes at our meals." 4 Patriot Pens Essay Contest Middle School students can participate in an essay contest each year hosted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The essay contest encourages young minds to examine America’s history, along with their own experiences in modern American society, by drafting a 300- to 400-word essay, expressing their views based on a patriotic theme. This year’s theme was “What Makes America Great”. On Thursday, December 19th, representatives from the local VFW Post presented checks in the amount of $100 to each of the “Patriot Pens” essay winners. The 2019-20 VFW Patriot Pens essay winners are: Tyrus Dolmovich, Caysi Spear, Allison Jaco, Mackenzie Covell, Raleigh Wells, Hanah Jackson, Ryan Burnside, Tiffanie Neely, Emma Wright, Cortney Reed, and Mallory Cleland. Trinity placed 1st, Allison placed 2nd, and Mackenzie placed 3rd at the Post level, which includes Erie, Crawford and Mercer Counties. 5 First LEGO League Robotics Competition 2019 On Saturday, December 7th, at Penn State Behrend in Erie, Pennsylvania, students from Titusville Middle School competed in the Northwest Pennsylvania First Lego League Robotics Competition. Thirty-eight teams from the region participated in the event themed “City Shaper”. Students had to develop an innovative solution to a problem in our town, create and program a robot to navigate challenges related to communities, and demonstrate positive core values. Titusville Middle School had two teams: Rocket Scientists and Bricity Splits. The Rocket Scientists won an award for the “Innovative Solution” for their wheelchair beacon to improve street crossing safety. The Bricity Splits were given the “Inspiration Award” for their teamwork, engineering and outstanding work ethic. These students should be congratulated on their hard work and dedication—spending hours before and after school this Fall to create amazing projects. The future is truly bright with our young engineers! Students who participated in this year’s event were: Rocket Scientists: Charlie Hamilton, Aden Winans, J.D. Colie, Preston LaLone, Shelton Lockhart, Ryan Turner, Nathan Vinson, Josiah White, and Numair Dubas. Bricity Splits: Leo Clementi, Ayden Fullerton, Jake Hauptman, Joe Herman, Madeline Johnson, Danielle Keebler, Kathren LaLone, Aiden Patterson, Alex Reynolds, Lilly Wakefield, Bryce Watkins, and Liz Watkins. 6 8th Grade Restructures Classes This school year, the 8th grade history and reading teachers have begun the process of combining their curriculums into a new class called Humanities. The Humanities class combines the topics of Western Civilizations with the skills of Reading. Using a flexible eighty-minute block period of time, students learn about human history and the essential skills needed to be lifelong readers and writers. Historically, the course focuses on western civilization beginning with a review of the fall of the Roman Empire. Next, the focus turns to the European Dark and Middle Ages, the Renaissance and subsequent European dominance of a New World, the Americas and the mass enslavement of Africans. Finally finishing the year, students will learn about the colonization of the Americas. Additionally, throughout the year, students will also be introduced to the world religions of Christianity and Islam. While riding this incredible wave of human history, students will also focus on reading comprehension strategies, as well as written expression through Text Dependent Analysis essays.