Principal's Weekly Update

On Friday students paid for the privilege of wearing a hat, pajama pants, or both (that's why you will see so many Santa hats in some of the photos below) . A surprising number of teachers bravely came to work in their most festive pajama pants. I give them a ton of credit for their willingness. My only contribution to the spirit of the day was a holiday tie– next year I vow to wear some pajama pants– either the ones with beagles all over them, or maybe the one with penguins–such decisions. You don’t necessarily need to hold me to that promise. The money is donated to the local Toys for Tots organization. Students continue to bring in donations to their homeroom teacher as well. Every dollar raised goes directly to the organization to purchase toys for this holiday season. The drive runs until Monday, December 16th.

We concluded our winter concert season on Thursday night as our Jazz Band and 7th & 8th Grade Band delivered a diverse program which included some holiday themed songs along with works which spanned the genres of classical, jazz and even rock (a familiar Santana classic which I'm sure parents enjoyed as much as I did). Congratulations to all of our Madison Musicians who entertained and impressed us this month !

Earlier in the day on Thursday, our staff enjoyed a luncheon provided by our PTA. The food was amazing-- I made sure to tell them that, because I really felt as though it was the best I've ever had from a caterer. I'm sure many of our teachers would agree with me. We are so grateful for our PTA-- they really take great care of us.

Madison 7th grader Lucas Wojdaszka, along with Hillcrest 8th grader Griffin Enchura, were the first-place winners of the middle school Generation Esports Champ Bracket! After an intense 13 weeks of preseason matches, regular season games, and playoffs, they triumphed over 93 teams from across the country. In the Gold Bracket, Madison’s Dylan Berowksy and Hillcrest’s Max Kelly achieved an impressive third-place finish after a stellar season and final performance. Way to go, Trumbull Middle School Esports team!

So I observed Mr. Anderson’s Reading class recently. Whenever he is modeling a vocabulary acquisition strategy, or inferencing by means of context clues, he will utilize some of his “favorite words”. They are words that are obscure, funny sounding, or just downright interesting. In discussing this lesson with him, I asked him if he has ever thought to ask his students what their favorite words are. He followed up on this for me, polled his students, and shared with me their responses.

Some of the”Favorite Words” which students chose were:

Widdershins (think “lefty loose-y”)

Obsequious (this word was no doubt submitted by the “teacher’s pet”)

Sanguine (that gives me hope)

Biblioklept (Miss Dwyer will increase her vigilance), and finally…

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (At first glance I thought this might refer to a fear of hippos, but, ironically enough, it means “a fear of long words”).

Thank you to Mr. Anderson’s students for providing me with more than a little amusement. You have probably discerned that what makes me so happy is how this promotes a love of language in a very natural way.

Save the date! The annual Crosstown Showdown will be on Saturday, January 25th at Trumbull High, featuring basketball games between Madison and Hillcrest. The boys tip off at 3:00 followed by the girls at approximately 4:30. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased online using this link

Reminders:

8th Graders: Please ensure that your parent or guardian has submitted your baby photo for this year’s yearbook. *Deadline is January 27th.*

The next Sports Club activity is Team Handball. Signups are underway in all PE classes. The permission slip deadline is Friday December, 20.

Clubs & Activities:

Madison MakeOver Club will meet Monday, 12/16, in room 220. This week the stairwell and downstairs murals will be worked on.

The next Period 8 Lounge will be on Monday, 12/16 As a reminder, this offers students a chance to work together on homework in a comfortable setting. Our insert photo this week comes from a recent afternoon session.

D&D Club will meet on Monday, 12/16 in The Learning Commons. We will continue with character creation!

Do you love writing stories and poems? Are you an illustrator or an artist? Join the Madison Literary Magazine Club to help create a magazine that will be shared on our school’s website. We will meet every two weeks in Room 106, and our first meeting is Wednesday, January 8th.

It has been a very heart-warming month at Madison, as our students have tapped into multiple opportunities to demonstrate their generosity. You have already read above about our effort to support Toys for Tots. In one of the big photos at the bottom you can see two of our students readying some gifts for delivery-- our KARE club has a tradition of getting gifts for the Center for Family Justice to deliver to children in need. The photo below that shows some holiday cards which our NJHS members made for delivery to residens of the Maefair Health Care Center. So many students have been caught up in a spirit of the season which leads them to acts of kindness. We are so proud of their efforts.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

Take care,

Peter Sullivan