Dear Ballenger Creek Middle Families,
I hope you and your loved ones are well. How has your school year been going so far? We hope it’s been mostly positive, but we’re also aware that things are not always smooth sailing with students, particularly when they’re in middle school.
Please know that we are here to help--working with middle school students and parents is our mission and passion. Our administrative team, counseling team, teachers, and support staff have many years of experience in working with middle school students and we look forward to collaborating with you to support your students.
It’s hard to believe, but I’m starting my 28th year as a middle school educator. I came to Frederick County from Pennsylvania in 1997, where I had been a high school English teacher. The second interview I had here was with the longtime principal of Monocacy Middle School, Dr. Steve Arlen. My human resources contact said, “You’re going to have to convince the principal that you’re a middle school person--he’s not sure that you are.” I thought to myself, “I’m not sure I’m middle school material either!”
Fortunately for me, I showed enough potential to be offered a job, and I quickly grew to really appreciate working with middle school students and parents. I stayed at Monocacy Middle as a 7th and 8th grade language arts teacher, then a literacy specialist, for 13 years. I then became an administrator and have served the parents, students, and staff as an assistant principal at Thurmont and West Frederick Middle schools (for three years each) and as principal at Brunswick Middle (also for three years) and Ballenger Creek Middle (now entering my sixth year).
While I certainly haven’t seen it all, I’ve seen a lot in my career--my first 7th graders turn 40 this year!! I have benefitted in learning from students and families over those years what characteristics and habits not only make students successful in middle school, but in high school, college, and into adulthood as well. I’ve also seen many students, parents, and teachers successfully (and sometimes unsuccessfully) work through some very challenging scenarios.
I don’t have all of the answers, but my goal is to use the valuable experiences I’ve had to ensure that our team serves you and your students so that they are poised for long-term success.
Should you need assistance at any point this year, please reach out to our grade level assistant principal and counseling teams or to me--we’re here to help!
6th grade counselor: Johnny.Webber@fcps.org
6th grade assistant principal: Susan.Messmore@fcps.org
7th grade counselor: Rebecca.Reese@fcps.org
7th grade assistant principal: Robert.Everett@fcps.org
8th grade counselor: David.Ledyard@fcps.org
8th grade assistant principal: Sarah.Gordy@fcps.org
Sincerely,
Jay Schill
Principal, BCMS
6th Grade Updates
Welcome 6th grade families to Ballenger Creek Middle School! The 6th grade team is excited to welcome your child to Middle School and learn more about them and how we can help them succeed this school year.
Remind your student to come to school each day by bringing a charged Chromebook, something to write with and a positive attitude. Please encourage them to check Schoology at home to review grades and catch up on any missing work.
For your records, here is the 6th Grade Syllabus to assist you in seeing all of the 6th Grade team’s grading standards and expectations
We look forward to a great school year!
7th Grade Updates
Our team is excited to welcome students back to BCMS!
We have been working hard to get to know students and how we can best help them learn this year.
Please remind your student to bring a charged Chromebook to school every day! Please also check for updates and grades from teachers on Schoology.
In addition, here is the 7th Grade Syllabus to assist you in seeing all of the 7th Grade team’s grading standards and expectations
We are looking forward to a great year!
8th Grade Updates
Welcome back to our 8th grade students and families. We are excited to help your student navigate the final year of middle school this school year.
With a fresh start and some changes, we want to thank the students for the flexibility and the determination to start off the school year strong.
One of those changes is the later lunch time. Please discuss with your student the appropriate breakfast plan and snack during ELT in order to make it through until lunch.
Please remind your student to bring their Chromebook charger with them to school each day just in case they would need to charge before the end of the day.
Checking grades often and requesting tutoring support are great habits to a very successful school year.
Just in case you need a digital reminder of the 8th grade syllabus, here is a copy.
We are looking forward to a great school year!
ELA Department
Students are off to a great start this year in Language Arts! Each grade has started working with our new core curriculum Into Literature. Students were provided with a consumable workbook that will function as their own, personal textbook. We hope students will use this workbook to engage with the texts, annotate their thinking, interact with various standards-based activities, and make connections to course and unit concepts. They also have digital access to the textbook through their FCPS student account. Please see the updates below with information about each text the grades will be studying during the first unit of the year.
6th Grade: Unit 1 is titled, Discovering Your Voice. In this unit, students will read about how people make themselves heard. We will explore ways that people express themselves, and we will consider ideas about how students can discover their own voices. The texts we will read center on an Essential Question: “What are the ways you can make yourself heard?” This open-ended question is intended to spark thoughtful discussion.
Unit 1 includes the following texts:
from Brown Girl Dreaming: In this memoir in verse, the award-winning author and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature explores memories that led her to become a writer. Students will learn to analyze text structure, author’s purpose, and elements of a memoir.
from Selfie: The Changing Face of Self-Portraits: In this informational text, the author explores the surprising history of “selfies,” self-portraits by artists from Rembrandt to van Gogh. Students will analyze informational texts by noting the use of print and graphic features, and they will develop the skills to identify an author’s purpose and main ideas.
What’s So Funny, Mr. Scieszka?: This humorous story from the author’s memoir considers how on-the-spot, spontaneous choices can change one’s life. Students will analyze the author’s use of language and learn how to determine the author’s purpose and point of view.
A Voice: In this poem, the speaker celebrates her mother’s contributions to her family’s legacy and future. Students will analyze the poet’s use of figurative language, and they will also learn how to make inferences about a work’s tone and speaker.
Words Like Freedom: This poem provides an African American perspective on the bittersweet meaning of “freedom” and “liberty” during the pre-civil rights era of American history. Students will continue to analyze figurative language and will make inferences about a work’s tone and speaker.
Better Than Words: Say It with a Selfie: In this argumentative essay, the author defends the youthful obsession with selfie-taking by claiming that selfies provide an important tool for self-expression. Students will trace and evaluate her argument, noting strengths and weaknesses, and will determine the author’s purpose.
OMG, Not Another Selfie!: In this opposing argument, the author examines the psychological dangers that selfie-taking may pose to a person’s sense of identity. Students will continue to trace and evaluate an argument, considering the author’s purpose.
After reading some of the texts in the unit, students will engage in a variety of discussions, standards-based analysis tasks, and conclude the unit by writing a Unit Writing Task. In this task, students will synthesize ideas from their reading, argue a claim, and support their ideas with relevant evidence.
7th Grade: Unit 1 is titled, Reality Check. In this unit, students will challenge their perceptions of reality. The texts we will read center on the Essential Question “What can blur the lines between what’s real and what’s not?” This open-ended question is intended to spark thoughtful discussion. You may wish to explore this question with your student at home as well.
Unit 1 includes the following texts:
Mirror Image: In this short story, a teenager struggles to reconcile the person she sees in the mirror with who she is inside. Students will learn how to analyze plot and flashback as well as character traits.
Not Everything It Seems: This article examines the reality behind Instagrammers and the Instafamous. Students will learn how to determine an author’s purpose and how to cite evidence.
Two Legs or One?: In this retelling of a folktale, a married couple finds themselves arguing over a portion of calf legs, and the husband goes to great lengths to unmask the truth. Students will learn how to analyze folktales and humor.
The Song of Wandering Aengus: This poem by W.B. Yeats tells of a mysterious vision that sets the speaker on a life-long search. Students will learn how to analyze rhyme, a poem’s rhyme scheme and mood, and the use of sound devices and mood in poetry.
Eldorado: Edgar Allan Poe’s poem tells of how a quest for Eldorado and its riches leads to a life in shadow. Students will continue to learn how to analyze rhyme, a poem’s rhyme scheme and mood, and the use of sound devices and mood in poetry.
from Monster: In this screenplay based on the award-winning novel of the same title, a teenager in jail imagines his life as a running screenplay. Students will learn how to analyze a story’s narrator.
from Monster: This graphic novel based on the award-winning novel shows how a jailed teenager copes with the justice system as he prepares for his trial in court. Students will continue to analyze a story’s narrator as well as how to analyze graphic novels.
After reading some of the texts in the unit, students will engage in a variety of discussions, standards-based analysis tasks, and conclude the unit by writing a Unit Writing Task. In this task, students will synthesize ideas from their reading, argue a claim, and support their ideas with relevant evidence.
8th Grade: Unit 1 is titled, Gadgets and Glitches. In this unit, students will read texts related to technology and consider how technology affects people’s lives. The texts we will read center on the Essential Question “Does technology improve or control our lives?” This open-ended question is intended to spark thoughtful discussion. You may wish to explore this question with your student at home as well.
Unit 1 includes the following texts:
The Brave Little Toaster: In this science fiction story, a mysterious energy drink interferes with the main character’s networked home. Students will learn how to analyze a story’s plot and examine aspects of the science fiction genre.
Are Bionic Superhumans on the Horizon?: This informational text explains that we’re in the midst of a bionic revolution and explores what that means for the future of humankind. Students will identify central ideas and details in an informational text, and they will learn how to analyze a text’s organization.
Interflora: This sonnet, written in the form of an email message, is a light-hearted take on how digital technology has changed the art of romance. Students will analyze the structure of a sonnet and learn about the use of irony in literary texts.
The Automation Paradox: Economist and lecturer James Bessen outlines the surprising benefits of automation for the workforce in this argumentative essay. Students will learn how to analyze a claim and the evidence used to support it, as well as how to analyze the use of graphic features in texts.
Heads Up, Humans: This argument offers a perspective on the threat automation poses to human workers. Students will evaluate evidence and learn how to analyze an author’s use of rhetoric.
After reading some of the texts in the unit, students will engage in a variety of discussions, standards-based analysis tasks, and conclude the unit by writing a Unit Writing Task. In this task, students will synthesize ideas from their reading, argue a claim, and support their ideas with relevant evidence.
Math Department
6th Grade: Students will be working through Module 1 (Ratios and Rates). In Module 1, students will learn how to understand ratios and work with them in graphs, tables, equations, and real-world scenarios. They will also use the skill to convert customary measurement units using weight, length and capacity.
7th Grade: Students will be working through Module 1 (Proportional Relationships) and beginning Module 2 (Solve Percent Problems). In Module 1, students will learn how to solve unit rates and work with proportional relationships in graphs, tables, equations, and real-world scenarios. In module 2, students will learn how to solve common percent problems, like tax, tips, discounts, and interest.
8th Grade: Students will be working through Module 1 (Exponents and Scientific Notation) and beginning Module 2 (Real Numbers). In Module 1, students will learn exponent laws and how to convert between standard and scientific notation. In Module 2, students will learn about categories of numbers including rational and irrational.
Algebra: Students will be working through Module 1 (Expressions) and Module 2 (Equations in One Variable). In Module 1, students will learn how to write and solve numerical and algebraic expressions. In Module 2, students will learn how to interpret and solve multi-step equations.
Students should be completing weekly ALEKS topic goals in Math. Students should be checking their Math Schoology pages to see their specific weekly goal. Students can monitor their own progress by checking their topic reports in ALEKS. A step-by-step “how to” for checking their reports can be found here. For questions about ALEKS topic goals, please reach out to your student’s grade level math teacher, our school Math Specialist, Ms. Boyer (laura.boyer@fcps.org), or our school Math Department Chair, Ms. Dickson (ashley.dickson@fcps.org).
Students should be checking their grade reports on Schoology weekly to see updates regarding missing/re-do work. If there are any questions regarding student grades, please reach out to your student’s grade level math teacher
History Department
6th Grade- Introduced the continents and oceans. They will be studying the geography of Mesopotamia and how it impacted human settlement and development of the civilization.
7th Grade- Introducing document analysis tools and using them to write an essay determining the main causes for the fall of the Roman Empire. Then moving into the development of the Byzantine Empire.
8th Grade: Revisiting the colonial regions and determining how geography affected colonial settlement and specialization. Next, we will be moving into Unit 1 which discusses the causes and effects of the Revolutionary War.
Science Department
6th Grade: Students are working to construct explanations that predict patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
7th Grade: Students are working to develop a model to describe the cycling of Earth's materials and the flow of energy that drives this process.
8th Grade: Students are working to construct scientific explanations based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history.
All grade level science classes have assigned the FCPS Science Safety Rules Agreement. Please make sure that your student has submitted a signed Science Safety Rules Agreement so they may participate in science labs.
Fine & Practical Arts Department
Welcome back to another exciting year of middle school!
In our art classes this year, students will problem solve creatively and persevere through trial and error. Art is also one of the most popular ways people care for their mental health and express themselves.
This year the CTE courses will be helping students develop the following career readiness skills:
Responsible Citizen
Skilled Professional
Knowledgeable Professional
Creative Communicator
Innovative Designer
Computational Thinker
We are dedicated to guiding our students through pathways geared toward college and career readiness. Please see the following chart for reference of the pathways for CTE.
Special Education Department
Welcome Back! We encourage you to make contact with your child’s case manager and build the home and school communication.
Our special education department staff:
Case Managers (6th grade): Emily Pemrick and Tyler Britt
Case Manager (7th grade): Becky Schimel
Case Managers (8th grade): Elissa Grimm and Kelsey Summers
Program Assistant: Nancy Suray
Special Education Instructional Assistants: Noriko Cook, Shelly Sultana, and Michele Shafer
- School Psychologist: Julie Kaufhold
- Speech and Language Pathologist: Kellee Byun
Multilingual Learners
Welcome back and welcome newcomers! We are looking forward to seeing you in our classes this year.
Sarah Birmanns - 8th grade and A - H 6th grade
Claudine Webb - 7th grade and I - Z 6th grade
Watch for packets coming home in the first few weeks of school about the program, some of which need to be signed and returned.
5 Star Service Award
The 5-Star Service Award is for community use in recognizing FCPS employees who show excellence in one of the 5 FCPS goals. Community members are welcome to nominate any worthy FCPS employees. You can nominate here.