December 6 7th Grade Winter Concert [Band, Chorus, Orchestra]

December 11 8th Grade Winter Concert [Band, Chorus]

December 12 Interims Available on Home Access Center

December 13 9th Grade Winter Concert [Band, Chorus]

Dec 24-Jan 1 Winter Break [No School for Students]

January 21 Martin Luther King Day [No School for Students]

January 22 National Junior Honor Society Induction

January 25 End of 2nd Marking Period

12/6 Penndale 7th Grade Winter Concert

Performing groups: 7th Grade Band,

7th Grade Chorus, Orchestra

12/11 Penndale 8th Grade Winter Concert

Performing groups: 8th Grade Band,

8th Grade Chorus

12/13 Penndale 9th Grade Winter Concert

Performing groups: 9th Grade Chorus,

9th Grade Band

Mid year interventions for students:

Are you finding that you are struggling academically and would like support in improving your grades? Here are some in-school resources and tips that you may find helpful:

• Consider Peer Tutoring as an option for extra support. Peer tutors are available during PennTime to assist students with a better understanding of the curriculum and helping to improve your grades. If interested, email your counselor to find out more information about how you can request a peer tutor.

• Be sure to take advantage of all extra credit opportunities offered throughout the year. Don't wait until the end of the marking period to find out that one extra credit assignment might have made a big difference in your overall grade.

• Take time to speak to your teachers and ask them for assistance. It is their goal to ensure that their students understand the curriculum and they will appreciate your commitment to learning. If time is tight between classes, consider emailing them and asking for a time to meet.

Middle school is a critical time for self-discovery, developing confidence, and understanding why education is relevant to a students' future. Naviance™ is a college and career readiness solution that helps students discover their strengths and interests, and see how they can help them reach their goals. Naviance Student is linked with Naviance™, a service that we use in our office to track and analyze data about college and career plans, so it provides up-to-date information that’s specific to our school district.

Naviance Student allows your student to:

 Get involved in the planning and advising process – Build a resume, complete online surveys, and manage timelines and deadlines for making decisions about colleges and careers

 Research colleges – Compare GPA, standardized test scores, and other statistics to actual historical data from our school for students who have applied and been admitted in the past

 Research careers – Research hundreds of careers and career clusters, and take career assessments

 Create future plans – Create goals and to-dos, and complete tasks assigned by the school to better prepare your student for future college and career goals.

Naviance Student also lets us share information with you and your student about upcoming meetings and events, local scholarship opportunities, and other resources for college and career information.

To visit Penndale’s Naviance Student site, use an Internet browser to connect to: Penndale Naviance Student Your student has been given a login [student email prefix] and password [student ID] to access their account. [For example, John Q. Public, ID #123456 publicjq@stu.npenn.org: Naviance login would be publicjq and password is 123456].

We hope that you will find this resource helpful as you begin to explore future plans with your child. If you have questions about Naviance Student, please contact us.

Here is a breakdown of the different types of assessments that are on Naviance Student. These assessments are instrumental for students to learn about themselves - their strengths, interests, learning style, etc. To best take advantage of this tool, we strongly encourage all students to logon to Naviance and complete their grade level assignments prior to the course selection deadline. * [Please note that some assessments are accessible to specific grades and may not be available to all students.]

LEARNING STYLE ASSESSMENTS

• [7th] Learning Style Inventory online assessment diagnoses your unique learning styles based on an analysis of your personal preferences in 16 different areas. Those areas include your environment [sound, light, heat and design], emotionality [motivation, persistence, and structure], sociological needs [self-oriented, peer-oriented, or adult-oriented], and physical needs [perceptual preference(s), food intake, time of day, and mobility].
• [8th] MI Advantage uses the Multiple Intelligence theory to reveal your individual intelligence strengths and challenges such as bodily-kinesthetic, musical, or interpersonal intelligences.

PERSONALITY TYPE AND CAREER ASSESSMENTS

The act of discovering personality types is where many students start on their journey to planning their future careers. These assessments are helpful to discover your interests and hobbies and combining your personality type to suggest relevant career paths that would be good matches for you.

• [7th] Career Cluster Finder is an online questionnaire to discover career industries that are most interesting to you.
• [8th] Do What You Are is a personality type assessment that shows strengths and blind spots, recommends career paths and college majors, as well as tips for conducting the most effective career search.
• [9th] Career Interest Profiler and Career Key are online career interest assessments based on Holland interest codes.

STRENGTHS-BASED ASSESSMENT

• [9th] Strengths Explorer is based on 40 years of research by the Gallup Organization to help students discover and develop the unique talents within them. This assessment can only be taken one time - please take your time when completing for the most accurate results.
• [9th] Strengths Explorer assesses 10 talent themes for individuals and identifies each student's three strongest emerging talents. It provides explanations of these themes, strategies for capitalizing on each, and action items to help gain insight into your greatest talents - natural patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior - to leverage in the classroom and in life.

At the end of each assessment, a personally tailored report identifies your unique learning style and provides guidance on how to maximize learning potential. It will be to your child's benefit to complete the appropriate assigned grade-level Naviance Student tasks prior to course selection:

• 7th Grade: Learning Style Inventory, Career Cluster Finder
  
• 8th Grade: Do What You Are, MI Advantage
  
• 9th Grade: Career Interest Profiler, Career Key, Strengths Explorer
  
• [Resume Builder must be updated prior to your sophomore orientation meeting]

Staying healthy during the winter months

1. Get Enough Sleep: Getting plenty of sleep is an essential component of good health! A good night’s sleep will make you productive and it will assist your immune system with operating well. Children and teens between the ages of 10-17 should get a total of 8.5-9.5 hours of sleep per night.

2. Eat Well: Healthy eating plays a huge role in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. You should try to eat brightly-colored fruits and vegetables – ideally 2 fruits and 3 vegetables per day during meals and snacks.

3. Stay Active: Sometimes is difficult to stay active during the cold months of winter, but you should try to stay active for a minimum of 60 minutes after school. You can do this by playing a winter sport or working out after school! Here is the link for Penndale Clubs and Activities.

4. Wash Hands: Be sure to wash your hands throughout the day. Germs are easily spread through coughing and sneezing on hands. Prevent catching and passing germs by washing your hands - tip: Sing the happy birthday song twice, when washing your hands!

The YMCA offers all 7th grade students a free membership! When registering, all students must present a school ID and be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Your membership will be valid from the start of your enrolment, until August 31, 2019. Membership provides students with access to both Indian Valley and the Lansdale YMCA. Visit either locations and take advantage of this awesome opportunity today!

By joining the YMCA, students will be able to connect with other teens in our Teen Leaders Club as you work together to plan special events, social activities, and volunteer opportunities. Students can have fun participating in trips, teen rallies and community events; and while volunteering, playing sports, and just hanging out. Students can enjoy a variety of exercise options - teen fitness classes, play sports in the gym, swim in the pool, and use the cardio and fitness equipment in the wellness centers.

• Play Sports

• Swim

• Community Events

• Meet Peers

• Volunteer Opportunities, and the

• Teen Leaders Club

* Don’t forget – your membership will give you access to both branches and reciprocity with hundreds of YMCAs throughout Pennsylvania.

Our Teen Leader’s Club is an adult supervised program that promotes leadership, character development, community involvement, and exciting special events. In this club, teens have a voice in community events, attend youth rallies, do community service projects, and have meaningful talks about what’s important in their lives. Interested teens will receive a conditional YMCA membership while participating in the club.

For more information contact Lansdale Teen Coordinator, Ayana Sanders at 215-368-1601 text 200 or email ayanas@northpennymca.org. For additional information, please visit the YMCA’s website.

Email: ayanas@northpennymca.org
Website: https://www.northpennymca.org/
Location: 608 E. Main Street Lansdale, PA 19446
Phone: 215.368.1601

Winter is here and snow days may occur! North Penn’s delay and closing number is 303. In the event of inclement weather, listen to radio stations WNPV [1440 am] and KYW [1060 am] for closing, early dismissal, and late arrival information. You can also find information on NPTV [Comcast channel 28, Verizon Fios Channel 29] and by visiting www.npenn.org.

The digital world is constantly evolving with new social media platforms, apps, and devices, and children and teens are often the first to use them. Some negative things that may occur include cyberbullying, sexting, posting hateful messages or content, and participating in negative group conversations. If your child posts harmful or negative content online, it may not only harm other children; it can affect their online reputation, which can have negative implications for their employment or college admission.

While you may not be able to monitor all of your child’s activities, there are things you can do to prevent cyberbullying and protect your child from harmful digital behavior:

• Monitor a teen’s social media sites, apps, and browsing history, if you have concerns that cyberbullying may be occurring.
• Review or re-set your child’s phone location and privacy settings.
• Follow or friend your teen on social media sites or have another trusted adult do so.
• Stay up-to-date on the latest apps, social media platforms, and digital slang used by children and teens.
• Know your child’s user names and passwords for email and social media.
• Establish rules about appropriate digital behavior, content, and apps

DIGITAL MONITORING APPS AND SOFTWARE

Parents who want to protect their children from cyberbullying, harmful digital behavior, and exposure to adult content can use parental control and monitoring software to help them set up systems that are less invasive to their children.

There are free software options and apps available to help parents restrict content, block domains, or view their children’s online activities, including social media, without looking at their child’s device every day. Most of the free software options provide some features for free, but charge for more robust insight. A parent should consider a child’s age, device use, and digital behavior when selecting software – what is suitable to restrict for a ten-year old may not be useful for a teenager.

According to the recently released Pennsylvania Youth Survey, vaping [using a device with a heating element to vaporize and inhale tobacco and/or marijuana] has risen significantly among secondary school students in the past 3 years. The survey revealed that an average of 28% of all high school students have vaped in the past month. Of those vaping, 54% of students reported using nicotine and 24% are using marijuana. The physiologic and addictive effects of vaping are only beginning to be understood; however, early research suggests that the long-term impact of vaping may include permanent lung damage, addiction, and abuse of other substances.

For more useful information on how you can tell if your child is vaping and information on electronic cigarettes, we ask that you visit the sites below.

US News: How to Tell if Your Kid is Vaping

Concerns Explode Over New Health Risks of Vaping

How Can I Tell if My Child is JUULing or Vaping?

A Parent's Guide to Vaping

YouTube Teen Vaping on the Rise

The course selection process will begin at the end of January. Counselors will begin speaking to students about their future academic plans, starting in February. For more information about the course selection process, please visit the Course Selection page of North Penn’s website.

[7th grade A-R] Mr. Nate Harvey harveyng@npenn.org

[8th grade A-R] Mr. Chris Joy joycw@npenn.org

[9th grade A-R] Mr. Mike Flynn flynnmj@npenn.org

[7-8-9 S-Z] Mrs. Susan Reichwein reichwsa@npenn.org

Administrative Assistants

Mrs. Moore to Mr. Harvey and Mr. Flynn moorek@npenn.org 215-853-1714

Mrs. Lynam to Mr. Joy and Mrs. Reichwein lynams@npenn.org 215-853-1713