Pembroke Community Middle School

This year’s student Jingle Ball Champions are Zac B, Edlin D, Ryan B, Kellan W and Braydon T. The runner up team of Ben M, Jordan G, Connor D, Domingos T and Hartley L will join them in playing against the PCMS teacher team on the December 20th, last hour of the school day. Great team play and sportsmanship shown by all the participants!!!

Congratulations to everyone who participated and a huge thank you to everyone who donated a toy. We were able to donate 61 toys to the Pembroke Community Group/Santa's helpers for distribution to the Pembroke Community this holiday season.

Reminder: students must wear rubber-soled shoes to safely participate in PE classes. Crocs, uggs/slippers and boots are not appropriate footwear for gym class.

Please help us in congratulating the following Pembroke musicians who have been accepted to the 2025 Junior District Music Festival! The students were accepted based on their outstanding audition in a very competitive field.

Accepted to the Chorus: Violet Carson, soprano, G8 & Tenely Grey, alto, G8

Accepted to Jazz Band: Hunter Glass, drum set, (#1 Score!) G8

Accepted to Band: Ben Meehan, snare drum (#1 score!) G8, Beckett Hawkes, alto saxophone G8, & Landon Smith, Tuba (#1 score!) G9

Accepted to Orchestra: Luke Finch, violin, G9

Please check the athletic website for most up to date information.

Girls Head Coach: Rachel Dresser

E-mail: rachel.dresser@pembrokek12.org

Boys Head Coach: Jim Shannon

E-mail: james.shannon@pembrokek12.org

Boy’s Team:

• Ryan Baldwin
• Zackary Bonomi
• Edlin Dorn
• Hunter Glass
• Connor Kilroy
• Travis McPhail
• Ben Motta
• Grayson Murphy
• Nick Pike
• Rowan Pratt
• Jaxson Resil
• Nolan Richardson
• Seamus Rioux
• Jonathan Searfoss

Girl’s Team:

• Caylee Blakeman
• Alexis Doton
• Reilly Duggan
• Brooke Fraga
• Jamie Goff
• Sydney Lane
• Janet Laffey
• Hadley Matta
• Daveigh McMullen
• Elizabeth McPhee
• Sydney O’Dette
• Jessica O’Hara
• Ella Riley
• Mary Rizzitano
• Idelle Tam

New England Village: Our Jazz Band performed for the residents at New England Village on December 11 at 4:30 p.m. A wonderful performance of a rainy, windy night!

Thank you Maddie and Tenley for finishing off 2024 as our school announcers!

Any other 8th graders interested in being morning announcers? Log in to your 21st Century Skills Google Classroom to sign up!

PCMS Clubs are free clubs that meet after school for an hour. See below for a list of clubs, their descriptions and start dates. More clubs may be added as teachers sign up to host them.

Students attending after school clubs may be picked up by parents/caregivers or if they have a bus pass, they could take the late bus home. See the details on how late buses work below the clubs.

Students in the drama club will participate in the school musical, which will meet after school in the auditorium from November until March. We will be performing Frozen Jr. this year. Students will learn to read music, sing, and dance on stage in full costume. Auditions will be held in November in the PCMS auditorium. During production week mid March, rehearsals and performances will be at PHS.

• Advisor Mr. Hovey
• Mondays & Thursdays (November-March). Audition Day- Thursday, November 21st
• Auditorium

GSA is a safe place for all students to talk about gender and sexual identity. The club will have fun activities twice a month and will serve as a space for communication and discussion. The GSA welcomes all students regardless of gender, sexual identity, or sexual orientation.

• Advisor Mrs. Larson
• Meets the 2nd & 4th Tuesday of the month
• Compass Room

Jazz Band is for instrumental music students who want to learn how to play jazz and rock music. Students will practice, improvise, and record songs that will be shared with the group. Each week, students will listen to famous artists of jazz and rock music.

• Advisor Mr. Hovey
• Tuesdays- starts September 17th
• Band room

This year the club will focus on introducing basic robotics using Hummingbird kits. This club will also allow students to have the opportunity to dive deeper into any of the materials used in class. Such as 3D printing, Microbit, Makey- Makey, Snap Circuits, and App Creator.

• Advisor Mrs. DeBellis
• Tuesdays- starts Tuesday, September 17
• Stem Lab 8 room

PHS/PCMS 2024-2025 ~ 3 Late Bus Routes ~ North, Center, South

Start Date: Monday, 9/16/24

Bus Passes are required and must be presented to driver upon boarding

Late Buses Run Monday,Tuesday, and Thursday only

Routes are general, stops depend on ridership, students should let the drivers know where they are on the route.

• North Late Bus route
• South Late Bus route
• Center Late Bus route

Please note all stops are group stops. There is no door-to-door service with late buses. Stops can be up to one mile from home. Parents/caregivers may want to make arrangements to meet their child at the designated group stop.

Please join us for the first PTO meeting of the year on Monday, September 9- 6pm in our library!

President: Karen Laffey

kballant1999@yahoo.com

Vice President Brandie Seavey

bseavey627@gmail.com

Hospitality Melissa Archambault

melanthoney2@gmail.com

Secretary Kathryn Jarrett

Kathrynilean@gmail.com

This week, 7th grade 21st century skills classes have started a unit on teamwork and communication. Students will first learn about how this skill ties into future success by discussing examples of teamwork and communication within the workplace.

Students will practice this skill by working together to solve “The Mystery of the Bank Robbery.” Students will then have time to reflect on what went well and what could have been improved on while working as a team.

This week, 8th grade 21st century skills classes started a college and career lesson which focuses on budgeting. Students work together to buy holiday gifts given a certain budget. This activity will help students understand how to create a budget, considering certain income limits and unexpected changes. This activity will also help students in the areas of organization, prioritization, collaboration and teamwork as students navigate the challenges that may come along with budgeting and differing viewpoints on how to manage a budget.

21st century skills are essential to student success beyond the classroom. One of the best ways to prepare students for life in the real world is to immerse them in situations that provide opportunities to develop soft skills. This cycle students will play board games in the classroom. Playing board games will provide students with an opportunity to practice the skills of collaboration, communication, persistence, flexibility, and leadership. These are all skills that will set students up for success in a 21st century workplace.

PCMS is continuing a focus on college and career planning, referred to as MyCAP (My Career and Academic Plan). MyCAP is designed to provide students with ongoing and school-wide opportunities to plan for their academic, personal/social and career success in high school and beyond. Through the MyCAP process, students will explore their individual interests and skills to help them discover careers that may be a good match. This will help students make connections between their current and future coursework and their postsecondary goals.

Throughout this school year, 21st century skills classes will utilize MyCAP to further support students in their journey to plan for academic, personal/social and career success in high school and beyond. There will be a strong focus on transportable skills such as problem solving, critical and creative thinking, collaboration, communication, and ethical reasoning and mindset, which are all important for future success regardless of a student’s chosen college and/or career path. In addition to the ongoing focus on college and career readiness in 21st century skills, each PCMS department is also planning a lesson with a focus on college and career readiness to help students understand how course material may align with their future career goals.

Students began a unit through Everfi called Future Goals: Hockey Scholar - Science Edition where Science and engineering concepts come to life through the fast-paced game of hockey. Students explored real world applications of STEM through sports. Through that program they were able to explore careers in the NHL such as T.V. Production, Event Presentation, Athletic Trainer, Ice Technician, and Equipment Manager. They were able to see that there are other options in the sports industry besides being a professional athlete. From there students did a research project where they had to research other careers in sports. They presented to the class the job titles, job descriptions, training requirements, and pay.

G7 students are completing a STEM career mini research project on Friday 11/22 and Monday 11/25. Students research a STEM career of their choice and create a Google slide for the class that describes things like:

-What a person with that career does day to day

-How much money do they make?

-What is their work environment like? - in a lab, in an office, from home, etc.

-What education or experience is required for this career...etc.

Students work with the partner and finish most of the project in one day, taking about half of the next class period to finish up any loose ends.

The 8th grade programming class did a Green Careers exploration lesson this past week.

They watched a video that showed several technical professionals who talked about what they do, how it helps the environment, and how they became interested in their field. It was a good mix of careers, some were programmers and engineers, but there were also others such as a lab technician and a solar installer. They described their "middle school selves" and gave thoughtful advice. Students played an interactive game at the end to summarize their learning.

Article about STEM salaries … opinion based.

https://bigeconomics.org/the-highest-and-lowest-paying-stem-majors/

List of STEM careers - lots to choose from, especially some that you might not think of as STEM related.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-engineering-careers#engineering

Indeed Job search website - easy to search by location and job title.

https://www.indeed.com/

Another job search website

https://jobs.stemjobs.com/jobs/

Vocational information center list of careers and definitions

http://www.khake.com/page53.html

NOAA website - interviews of professionals in marine industries

https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/edu/oceanage/welcome.html

PCMS buses drop off/pick up students using the front parking lot. (green line) No cars should enter that area during arrival and dismissal times.

When dropping off/picking up seventh grade students, families should line up around the circular driveway. (blue line)

Eighth graders should be dropped off/picked up near the basketball courts/gym. Families should drive around back of the building on the fire road. (yellow line)

Thank you.

Here is a link where you will find PCMS course descriptions:

PowerSchool and Google Classroom are the two primary programs that are used at PCMS. Below are two brief descriptions of the differences between the two.

PowerSchool is our student information system. This program has increased functionality once a student enters 7th grade. Through this program, parents and students can access attendance information, schedule information, current grades and forecasted assignments. If you hit on the cumulative grade within a specific class, a different screen will open that will provide more detailed information on the grade breakdown. Parents can also set up their account preferences to receive automatic reports (e.g., daily/weekly/monthly) emailed to them. Here is the Parent PowerSchool login link: Technology / PowerSchool Login Instructions

Google Classroom: This software has more course-specific information. Assignments, instructions and other class-based announcements are posted here. There are no grades. Most parents are probably already very familiar with Google Classroom from the last few years. Most teachers will have already sent invites out to parents, using the primary email you have listed in PowerSchool. If you haven’t yet been invited to join your child’s classrooms, just send the teachers an email.

PCMS runs a 6-day, 7 period schedule. We start the year on a ‘Day 1’ and then the days move consecutively from there. Here is a link to the schedule of PCMS Days: 24.25 PCMS DAY SCHEDULE

Mrs. Alicia Clancy is our front office secretary. She can be reached at alicia.clancy@pembrokek12.org

Mrs. Tracey Smith is our special education/guidance secretary. She can be reached at tracey.smith@pembrokek12.org

Email: donna.mcgarrigle@pembrokek12.org
Website: www.pembrokek12.org
Location: 559 School Street, Pembroke, MA, USA
Phone: 781-293-8627
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PembrokeCommunityMiddleSchool
Twitter: @PemSch_news