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"Eagle Updates @ 5"
Colin Powell Middle School Monthly Community Newsletter
December 2023 Edition
Principal's Message
Greetings, Families of Colin Powell Middle School!
As we enter the month of December and embark upon the remaining days in 2023, I ask everyone to ramp up their focus for the Middle of the Year Assessment for NWEA (which runs January 22 through February 2). We aim to increase student growth by at least 10% for English Language Arts and Math in the areas that meet/exceed. As of today, there are only 22 student attendance days until we take the assessment. Our goal is dual-faceted, as we must build upon this growth for our End of the Year Assessment (which runs May 6 through May 16). Please ask your students to tell you their WiFi (Where I Found I ...Can improve) score from the Beginning of the Year Assessment and, moreover, their goal for the Middle of the Year Assessment.
I am certain that if we centralize our focus, we will see positive results - #EagleMentality!
School Year 2023 - 2024 Goals:
By MOY benchmark, there will be a 10% improvement (51% to 56%) in school-wide meeting/exceeding reading standards as measured by NWEA.
By MOY benchmark, there will be a 10% improvement (24% to 26%) in school-wide meeting/exceeding math standards as measured by NWEA.
The goal is to demonstrate a neutral or higher rating regarding the Supportive Environment in the 5 Essential Survey.
To reduce the number of disciplinary infractions regarding student-to-student physical conflict for the year by at least 5%.
NOTE: We have 22 School Attendance Days until the Middle of the Year (MOY) assessment for NWEA testing. Please refer to these goals with your scholar, consistently.
In Partnership,
Dr. Jason Black Streeter
Principal
The Colin Powell Middle School
Spotlight on Eagle Academics
Spotlight on SEL:
Our scholars continue to work through the Second Step curriculum each day. Currently, each grade level is working on Unit 2: Recognizing Bullying and Harassment, where students learn how to recognize bullying and harassment, stand up safely to bullying, and respond appropriately to harassment. This unit’s content helps students develop empathy, understand the impact of bullying and harassment on individuals and their communities, examine social and environmental factors that contribute to negative behaviors, and identify solutions for preventing those behaviors.
The goals of this unit include students being able to:
Recognize bullying and harassment.
Recognize bullying and harassment happen because of individuals, but social and environmental factors also contribute to bullying and harassment.
Recognize how social and environmental factors contribute to bullying and harassment in the school and community.
Be prepared to take safe and responsible action to disrupt the factors that contribute to bullying and harassment at school.
During Bully Prevention Month, Ms. Nolen (School Social Worker) held a student media contest. Students were asked to submit a form of media (artwork, song/rap, poem) with a positive message about standing against bullying and being kind. Below is the slideshow of the runners-up and winning entries.
Bully Prevention and Red Ribbon Week Student Media Contest Entries
PBIS Focus: Hallway Behavior Bathroom Behavior Posters are posted to remind students of the hallway and bathroom behaviors, and students are rewarded for adhering to them.
A Peek into the Classrooms:
6th grade:
Science: In STEMscopes, we are still working on Bundle 1: Systems and Subsystems in Earth and Life Science. We are finishing up Scope 2: Anatomy of a Cell where we will then focus on using evidence from the explore activities and the text to construct a C-E-R before we are assessed on The Anatomy of a Cell. We will then move into Scope 3: Bodies and Systems and the Student Wondering of Phenomena: Why can you not function properly without one of your body systems? We will continue practicing our Engineering Design Process utilizing an engineering choice board for STEAM. Check the Google Classroom for more information. We will continue to focus on informational text and Earth and Space science with our Bellringers to help reach the CPMS goal of increasing the number of students to Meet/Exceed by 10% for the MOY NWEA Assessment. For Small Groups, we will utilize Study Island with a focus on Earth and Space Science, Life Science, and Engineering Practices. You can help your scholar study by allowing them to practice their Learning Paths for 30 minutes daily. Please refer to the CPMS STEAM Fair 2024 packet for information about the 2024: STEAM Fair (formerly known as the Science Fair)! The date of the STEAM Fair: Sixth-Eighth Grade: Tuesday, February 13, 2024. CPMS STEAM Fair 24
Math: This week, we began Module 3, Compute with Multi-Digit Numbers and Fractions. Students will build fluency with whole-number division and decimal operations. They will develop an understanding of the division of fractions. By building fluency with computation, they will be better prepared to study more advanced mathematical concepts in later courses.
SS: Social studies continues onto the second unit of TCi, which focuses on the Rise of Civilizations. We are kicking it off by learning about Ancient Mesopotamia and focusing on the geography and people of that region. Students will analyze geographic problems that Mesopotamia faced, and based on evidence from the texts, they will evaluate the best solutions for the people of Mesopotamia.
ELA/Lit: Literature: We will be finishing up our novel "Becoming Naomi Leon." We are hoping to get it done before Winter Break. In Literature, we have also started talking about text structures and will practice our knowledge of them with a fun small group activity and then a text structure project all about them!
7th grade:
Science: We have begun the STEAM Fair! Students have been given a checklist with due dates; please be sure to check these so we do not become overwhelmed. Please look at the Google Classroom to see the STEAM Fair packet.
Math: Please click the link for the upcoming learning in 7th-grade Math! 7th Grade Math Module 4 Parent Letter
Social Studies: It's Constitution Time! All 7th-grade students have started learning about our federal government to prepare for the state-mandated Constitution Test. The Social Studies teachers and our administration aim to assist your scholar in this task, and we need your help, as well. Scholars are encouraged to stay on task daily. It’s important to take copious notes, complete all assignments, highlight all pertinent information as we go through the book, and spend at least 15-20 minutes per day reviewing what was discussed in class after school. An announcement/acknowledgment letter was sent home with students on November 17th, along with the Remind App. If you have not had a chance to review, sign, and return the letter, please do so as soon as possible. Remind your students to have their Blue Constitution Book, notebook, and highlighters ready for class each day.
ELA/Lit: 7th grade ELA is finishing up the Text Structures Unit. Students are using the Frayer model to increase their understanding of vocabulary terms. We are also using Commonlit.org to reinforce identifying the central/main idea in a text.
8th grade:
Science: This week, we kicked off a new Bundle in StemScopes. We are beginning the new Bundle, Kinetic Energy. Students will test how objects in motion can transfer their energy to another object. We have also kicked off the Science Fair Projects. Timelines have been sent home to help track when various deadlines are coming. Students get to pick the topic they wish to research and experiment with. Students may also create an invention to design, build & test to see if their theory works.
Math: Completing Mod 2- Look for incomplete assignments on the student dashboard. Beginning Module 3 on Monday- solving equations with variables on both sides 3 Exact Path trophies required every week
SS: 8th Grade Social Studies: We are currently studying Lesson 13- African Americans in the Mid-1800s. Focusing on the Essential Question: How did African Americans face slavery and discrimination in the mid-1800s? Students are developing the skill of identifying facts and details from informational texts to support their claims. Our next research project will focus on learning about prominent slaves and abolitionists to create biographies utilizing Google Slides.
ELA/Lit: Students in 8th-grade LIT and ELA classes are enjoying THE OUTSIDERS by S.E. Hinton. Unit 5, Finding Your Path, focuses on how the challenges they face today help to shape their future. Students will be able to describe the relationships between key characters in the novel to analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in the story propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, and/or provoke a decision. Students will be studying figurative language and locating examples within the novel-- allusion, similes, metaphors, idioms, hyperbole, personification, and puns. Students will be focusing on different themes within the novel to write and respond to. The focus of writing will be descriptive and persuasive essays. Students will also read various nonfiction texts to prepare for upcoming NWEA testing.
To conclude the unit, students will watch the movie THE OUTSIDERS the week before winter break. This will enable them to compare and contrast between the book and the movie. A final activity will be to complete life-like character biographies in pairs about a character from the novel.
6th, 7th, 8th Grade ELL/ELA with Ms. Flores: Starting at the beginning of the year, we have reviewed all NWEA scores, and the main goal is to work towards getting those scores higher. 6th, 7th and 8th grade have been focusing on improving writing skills using the RACE strategy. All grade levels have worked on narrative and descriptive writing processes as well. This week, we are focused on decoding and analyzing informational text using Educational Epiphany. We are heavily focused on decoding academic terms with performance-based objectives. Looking ahead, we will continue to dive deeper into informational text in hopes of achieving higher NWEA scores.
Explore Team:
Art: This month in Art Class, students will begin to learn the importance of how art helps shape the world around us and how they can represent that world visually. 6th Grade will be jumping into new ideas about how we make colors and what colors mean to us. 7th Grade will be learning about Perspective and putting their skills to the test to draw cityscapes. While 8th Grade will be learning about Value and how contrast makes great images.
Music: We have been exploring 9 categories of what we can listen for in Music. The students completed a weeklong group project on "The Planets" by Holst. Each group selected a planet, listened to the piece of music for that planet, and then created a beautiful poster with info about the music and the planet. They are hanging in the 8th-grade hallway outside the music room. We are not starting our unit on the history of music; we are focusing on the history of hip-hop and rap. We will brainstorm and workshop ideas so that the Students can write their own rap lyrics.
Band: WINTER BAND CONCERT: Thursday, December 14th at 6:30 pm Colin Powell Middle School - Main Gym, BAND UNIFORMS for the Winter Concert: Cadet Band (6th grade): Tuxedo Shirt, black dress pants, black socks, black dress shoes. Check past Remind messages for more info about Tuxedo shirts & where to buy them. All students have Band Vests that have been fitted and will stay at school, along with bow ties. Concert Band (7th/8th Grade): Parents, please CHECK AT HOME that your band member has their BLACK TUXEDO JACKET and TUXEDO PANTS issued from school. If you do NOT have this at home yet, please contact Mr. Jensen ASAP so we can get it to your child before the Concert. Students should be communicating this to us, but some are still missing these items and NOT telling us, so we ask parents to please check at home. If they tell you, "It's at school," please make them bring it home to you ASAP. Thank you! Please join us for a musical evening featuring our entire District 159 Band program: 5th Grade Beginning Band, 6th Grade Cadet Band, Jazz Band, and 7th/8th Grade Concert Band.
P.E.: In PE, we have started our basketball unit. The students have picked teams and we have started playing our games. We are also continuing with our physical fitness testing for the second quarter.
Health: Colin Powell Health classes are in the Google slide Substance Awareness Presentations. Students are actively learning about substances and medicines and how bodies respond to their effects short and long term. Students actively synthesize good, accurate information to present to their classmates and learn from each other’s information. After this presentation, students will round out the quarter by learning about communicable and non-communicable diseases and how their bodies' immune systems and medicines are utilized to help keep them healthy.
Spanish: In Spanish class students have been developing Spanish language via listening and speaking, comprehension, learning essential, vocabulary, grammar, and writing skills among the areas that have been covered this semester. Students are wrapping up this semester and preparing for upcoming test to conclude classes. En la clase de español, los estudiantes han estado desarrollando el idioma español a través de la comprensión y el hablar, la comprensión, el aprendizaje esencial, el vocabulario, la gramática y las habilidades de escritura entre las áreas que se han cubierto este semestre. Los estudiantes están terminando este semestre y preparándose para su próximo examen para concluir las clases.
STEM and Applied Tech: The Colin Powell Middle School Broadcast Studio has been upgraded, and the staff and students who are members of the Media Club were trained on November 27th and 28th. The updated studio has 2 new full-sized cameras, 2 Pad Casters (iPads) with tripods for remote video recording, and all the equipment needed to create a professional school broadcast. During training, our students were able to create and record an interview with our Superintendent, Dr. Brunson. The students used their newly acquired skills in broadcasting to operate the lighting, camera, and video. The Media Arts Club meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and they are anticipating the first broadcast release before the Winter Break. The broadcast will showcase our students and staff here at Colin Powell. The Media Arts Club sponsors are Mrs. Dancy (STEM Technology Teacher) and Mr. Johnson (Art Teacher).
Spotlight on Extracurricular Activities
Girls Basketball: The Colin Powell Lady Eagles - 8th Grade Basketball Team has won the Regional Championship. They will play for the Sectional Championship on December 6, 2023, at Chicago Heights Middle School at 6:30 pm. They will play Homewood James Hart. A win at the Sectional Game will earn the Lady Eagles a trip to compete for the State Championship, beginning on December 9, 2023, at Parkside Junior High School in Normal, Illinois.
The Dance Team, led by Ms. Flores: The dance team has practice every Wednesday from 2:45 to 4:15 to prepare for a halftime performance on the 13th at the boy's basketball game.
Upcoming Dates:
- 12/4-12/7 Genius Week Hosted by the STEAM Team
- 12/6 Committee of the Whole
- 12/8 Early Dismissal at 11:15 am
- 12/14 Winter Band Concert
- 12/20 Board of Education Meeting