for your child’s
Transcript of for your child’s
A monthly newsletter from the school principal
Volume 12, Issue 8 April 2015
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Last Friday it was announced that I have
been selected as the Maine Principal of the Year for
2015. It is a true honor that is a reflection of our
school. I tell you this not to toot my own horn, but
to let you know how enjoyable it was to share this
with the staff and students at Brunswick Junior High
School. We do not do many assemblies during the
school year, so it was extra special to have all of our
students together at one time. They were incredibly
supportive and, of course, well behaved. It was a
moment I will not forget. Thank you to the
incredible teachers and staff at Brunswick Junior
High, our wonderful students, the supportive
administrative team and School Board, and the
parents who are our educational partners.
As always if you have a school related
question or concern, please contact the school at
319-1930.
Sincerely,
Walter Wallace
Principal
8th grade students & their parents are
cordially invited to attend the
GRADE NINE SPRING FLING
A special program for
students & parents on
Thursday, April 9, 2015 at the
Brunswick High School Cafeteria
at 6:00 P.M.
Refreshments and Entertainment
Extracurricular/Sports Exhibits
Speakers and Tours
How to prepare yourself
for your child’s
transition into high school
Please mark your calendar!
Maintain good posture to support a healthy body. Bad posture can cause headaches, neck, shoulder, arm and back pain, numbness and tingling of your hands and arms.
Do these things to try to maintain good posture:
Keep body aligned while sitting in a chair or when standing Get up and move. Take a break to stretch, stand or walk Use bags and backpacks that are designed to minimize
back pain and try to lighten the load of the backpack Position computer screens to natural resting eye position
can help avoid leaning or straining the neck with the head tilted forward
Give a thought to your posture – your body will thank you! Happy Spring!
Helen Tetu, RN
Congratulations to seventh grader Isabella
Banks and to eighth grader Delaina
Hildreth who recently received an
Honorable Mention in the Scholastic Writing
Awards sponsored by the
University of Southern Maine.
Isabella’s short story was entitled “Finally Me,” and
Delaina’s story was entitled “Lost Soul.”
We still have our Yankee
Candle fundraiser open for on
-line orders! If you are
interested in placing an
order, please go to
www.yankeecandlefundraising.com
and enter group number
990044196 in the “Start
Shopping” box. Orders ship
directly to your home and our
school receives 40% profit on
every sale! Help support
BJHS and shop
Yankee Candles!
Why are boys underperforming in reading? While there is no definitive answer to this question, a number of
researchers have posited several reasons to explain why boys
perform at lower levels than girls on reading assessments. Since
this discrepancy does not widen significantly until the middle
grades years, many of the thoughts are focused on develop-
ments occurring during adolescence.
Boys generally take longer than girls to develop comparable
literacy skills. What is considered a grade level appropriate
reading skill for a girl cannot always be considered the same for
a boy.
Boys generally need more “teacher time” than girls do. In the
larger, time limited classes of middle and high school, teachers
are unable to give boys as much one-on-one time. Therefore,
they do not make as much progress in reading as girls do.
Boys of all ages generally read less than girls.
Middle school aged boys indicate that they believe reading is
much harder than it was in elementary school.
Boys claim reading becomes less enjoyable as they become
older.
Many adolescent boys fail to see real life applications in what
they read. Literature read in Language Arts classes tells
“stories” rather than providing useful information. Some boys
stop reading because they think there is no practical value in
reading.
As they reach adolescence more and more boys stop consider-
ing themselves readers. Research on the reading attitudes of
middle school boys shows that many consider themselves “non-
readers”.
Reading is sometimes stereotyped as a “feminine” activity.
When boys reach adolescence their gender identification be-
comes more important. If they believe reading is not a mascu-
line activity, they will abandon it in order to demonstrate their
masculinity.
What can parents and teachers do to help
adolescent boys become stronger readers?
Again there is no “silver bullet” that will help all adolescent
boys become stronger readers. However, research suggests
there are several strategies adults can employ to facilitate their
reading development.
Use texts boys like to read. While boys generally perform
lower than girls on reading assessments, there is one area in
which they actually “outscore” the girls. Boys’ scores on sec-
tions of tests featuring informational texts are often higher than
those of their female counterparts. This seems to indicate that
informational texts are the boys’ forte. Teachers and parents
should provide boys with informational texts to read and learn
from. These can include magazine and newspaper articles, non-
fiction books about topics boys are interested in (like hobbies or
sports) and instructional manuals. Surveys of boys show they
are not only interested in informational texts. They also like
graphic novels and comic books, stories featuring male protago-
nists, humorous stories and works that allow them to escape
(such as science-fiction and fantasy). Offering these texts to
boys as instructional tools or for pleasure reading will increase
their interest in reading.
Use shorter texts. Because adolescent boys often consider
themselves “non-readers” they do not want to spend long peri-
ods of time sitting and reading a text. Provide them with short
“chunks” or “episodes” of text to allow them the opportunity to
read for a focused period of time that doesn’t feel like “too
much” to them.
Allow boys to actively respond to texts. In the typical English
Language Arts classroom students read a text and then discuss
its meaning. Boys generally do not like to sit around and talk
about literature. Research shows they want to actively and
physically engage with a text. Teachers should provide boys
with opportunities to actively respond to what they read. This
can mean acting out portions of a story, creating visual or phys-
ical representations of the text or performing an activity out-
lined in the story.
Know your boys and appeal to their individual interests and
preferences. Boys are more likely to become engaged in their
learning when they feel like it has some application to their
lives. When adults take the time to get to know what makes a
child “tick” and then tailors their reading experiences to fit the
child, he will embrace the activity. This is not only true for
boys. Any adolescent, male or female, wants to see value in
what they are doing. Take time to discover what your children
are interested in and offer them texts that speak to their interests
and preferences.
Provide opportunities to immediately apply what they have
read. Adolescent boys generally do not like to focus on learning
information that they might use later. Saying “you’ll need to
know this in a few years” or “this will help you later in life”
causes male students to tune an adult out. Instead, allow boys to
immediately apply what they learn through reading so that they
develop the understanding that reading has real life value. For
example, if your class is reading an informational article about
the effects of global warming ask students (boys and girls alike)
to write a letter to their congressperson(s) or an environmental
group stating their views on the topic and offering solutions to
the issue.
Provide as much one-on-one time with boys as possible. Be-
cause boys seem to request and require more teacher time than
girls do, teachers should try to structure their classrooms so that
they can offer boys opportunities to have one-on-one time with
the teacher. This does not mean that categorically boys should
always have more access to the teacher than girls. Those that
need teacher support, male or female, should be given opportu-
nities to work one-on-one with the teacher as needed.
Offer good male reader role models for boys. Since some
boys believe that reading is a “girly” activity it is important for
them to see that males read in real life. Seek out good male
reader role models for boys. These may be celebrities or men in
the community who boys look up to.
Student Council is hosting an activity night on April 10th
directly after school to Get Air indoor trampoline park! We will be leaving directly after-school and returning around 6:30pm. The cost per jumper
is $25 for 2 hours of jump time! Permission slips and
more information is available outside room 309, Ms. Russo’s
room.
Celebrate spring by enjoying time outside! Go for a walk, run, bike ride, or play a game, or work in the garden. To celebrate the warmer weather and get back to our healthy habits, The Wellness Team at BJHS has developed the first ever 5-2-1-0+8 Challenge. This will act as a reminder of the healthy messages from Let’s Go! Students who participate in the Challenge will be eligible for exciting prizes related to healthy eating and physical activity. This is also a great time to work together as a family on making small changes to improve our health habits.
The healthy snack cart is open EVERY DAY
now between periods 2 and 3 by Mrs.
Duffy’s office. The cart sells a variety of
healthy snacks for only 50 cents! We have
Veggie Sticks, pretzels, cheese sticks,
yogurt, Nutrigrain Bars, Pirate Booty,
Goldfish crackers, Belvita, and much more!!
The world is mud-luscious and
puddle-wonderful. e. e. cummings
The deadline for yearbook orders is April 25th!!
Order yours on-line now by clicking on the link from our school homepage. Questions? Please email me
at lhench@brunswick. k12.me.us
Would using a calculator help you solve the
problem?
Would it help to go on to another problem
and come back to this one later?
Why don’t we look for some help on the
Internet?
If you do only part of a problem, will the
teacher give you some credit?
Can you go in before or after school for help
from the teacher?
Remember, support homework—don’t do it!
Besides supporting your child on homework,
show the importance of learning math by helping
your child connect math with daily life. Point out
your own activities that involve mathematics, such
as deciding if you have enough money to buy items
on a shopping list, estimating how long it will take
to make a trip, determining how much carpet or
wallpaper to buy for a room, or developing a
schedule to complete a series of tasks. Talking
about these everyday situations will give you a
chance to increase your child’s appreciation for the
usefulness of math!
Math homework is due
tomorrow —
how can I help?
Homework causes trouble in many house-
holds. Relax—remember whose homework it
is! Think of yourself as more of a guide than a
teacher. Don’t take over for your child. Doing that
only encourages him or her to give up easily or to
ask for help when a problem becomes difficult.
The best thing you can do is ask questions.
Then listen to what your child says. Often, simply
explaining something out loud can help your child
figure out the problem. Encourage your child to
show all work, complete with written descriptions
of all thinking processes. This record will give your
child something to look back on, either to review or
to fix a mistake, and can also help the teacher
understand how the problem was solved.
Asking the following kinds of questions can
help you and your child tackle the challenges of
math homework:
What is the problem that you’re working on?
Are there instructions or directions? What
do they say?
Are there words in the directions or the
problem that you do not understand?
Where do you think you should begin?
Is there anything that you already know that
can help you work through the problem?
What have you done so far?
Can you find help in your textbook or notes?
Do you have other problems like this one?
Can we look at one of those together?
Can you draw a picture or make a diagram to
show how you solved a problem like this
one?
What is your teacher asking you to do? Can
you explain it to me?
Can you tell me where you are stuck?
Is there someone you can call to get help?
Can you discuss the problem with a
classmate?
HOMEWORK CLUB Homework Club meets every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour in room 309 for some quiet, guided, homework time
(with snacks!) Walk, arrange a ride, or catch the 3:30 “late” bus home. All
are welcome.
The Brunswick Junior High 7th and 8
th grade math
teams have had a busy winter season. The 8th grade
team came in first place out of 16 teams in all three Central Maine Math League meets this year. The 7
th
grade team came in third place out of 16 teams at the last Central Maine Math League meet. At the March Southern Maine Math League meet, Daniel Lyons earned a first place individual high score for 8
th grade.
The 8th grade team placed seventh out of 25 teams,
and the 7th grade team placed fifth out of 22 teams.
Daniel Lyons also placed seventh overall at the Math Counts State Final Competition out of a field of 77 competitors. Way to go, Mathletes!!
During Spring conferences, parents will
be able to sign up for next year’s
electives. Seventh graders may
choose Chorus, Band, French or Spanish,
or a combination. 8th graders may choose
Band, French or Spanish
(provided they have completed the
previous year successfully). Chorus is
open to everyone. These courses are in
lieu of study halls. Please note that all sign
-ups will need the signature of a parent/
guardian and the approval of the teacher.
B.J.H.S. Celebrates Poetry During the last week of April, B.J.H.S will celebrate Poetry Week. Each day, select teachers will read their fa-vorite poems over the announcements. On Thursday, April 30th, students will celebrate "Poem in Your Pocket Day." Students will have the opportunity to pick a poem from a basket in the library and grab a sticker. When they see another person with a sticker, they can share or exchange their poems. The town of Brunswick also celebrates "Poem in Your Pocket Day," on April 30th, which culminates in an "Open Mic Night" at Curtis Li-brary’s Morrell Room from 6:30-8 p.m., during which volunteers read their favorite poems. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Peg Acheson.