Parent Information

Some hints on how to help your child succeed in science

Science is perhaps the most dynamic subject that a middle school student will study. It is forever changing as new information and understanding displaces the outdated and unknown.

With this in mind, St. Mary School replaced all of the science texts last year with the most up to date middle school books that Prentice Hall offered. These texts are a system that will take the student from grade five to grade eight using a similar format. The texts not only provide current scientific information, but they also contain information on how to learn science.

Every chapter begins with a title page that includes the publishers web site (www.phschool.com) that has activities related to the material in the text, and a list of other activities that the students can do. Some of these I incorporate into the classes, others can be done at home. The Discover activities that begin each section are nice into to the subject being studied and can often be done out side of the class. Some of the “Try This” activities are specifically designed to be done at home and involve the family. These activities can be a great tool for understanding the important ideas of the section.

Each section begins with Guide for Reading which is two to three questions, that when answered, are the essence of the section. There are also checkpoint questions mixed into the text that the students should be able to answer before they move on.

Each chapter includes a study guide at the end of the chapter, as well as a practice test that has questions similar to the type that will be found on their quizzes and tests. I encourage the students to take these practices and correct them because it is better they discover what they don’t know before the quiz, then I discover what they don’t know during the quiz.

Every text has a skills handbook near the end. These are the science skills that the students will be developing as they study science. They are not a separate block of instruction in the curriculum; these skills are part of all the activities related to science. As such, they will be continually part of the curriculum. As their teacher I am continually assessing the students on their strengths in these skills and adjusting the curriculum when a greater emphasis is needed on a given topic. The individual students should be referring to these sections as needed.

Lastly, I strongly encourage all students to have an appropriate dictionary available in their study area at home. Although the text provides a glossary for the key vocabulary included in the book, there will be times when they will be presented with an unfamiliar term.

I will continually encourage students to understand the importance of critical thinking and understanding in science so they will be better positioned to deal with the new information as it arrives.

Thank you,
Michael T. Moakley

Math Team News - November 2008

On Tuesday, October 28, 2008, fifteen 7th and 8th grade students from St. Mary participated in the Fall Invitational Math Meet that was held at St. John’s High School. Approximately 350 students from 20 schools across Central Massachusetts and Metrowest Boston competed.

To prepare for this Math Invitational, the following “mathletes” have been practicing after school every Tuesday with Mrs. MacDonough and Ms. Lordan:

Ben Barresi, Mary Therese Daly, Brennan Langhammer, Keeghan Lavin, Taylor Lemieux, Catherine Linh, Tim O’Donnell, Tom O’Donnell, Emma Winslow, Kiki Chan, Michael Curran, Chris Gorman, Mikey Henry, Caroline Johnson, and Andrew Smiley.

Upon entering the gymnasium at St. John’s, our students were overwhelmed by the number of participants. However, their enthusiasm and excitement about academic competition prevailed as they prepared to stretch their minds. Every student competed in two of three rounds and the team round. The first three rounds posed three questions each in the fields of algebra, arithmetic, and geometry. The final round, where students worked with two other students from their team, challenged the students with eight questions. Ten minutes were allotted per round.

An awards ceremony was held at the end of the competition where the top eight scorers and the top three teams were recognized. We are thrilled to announce that Keeghan Lavin was recognized for his individual score of 8 points and that St. Mary tied for third place with an overall score of 24 points! Congratulations to our fifteen outstanding students. Their efforts and diligence are exemplary.

The Spring Invitational Math Meet, our next competition, is scheduled on April 16, 2009. All 7th and 8th grade students are invited and encouraged to join our team. Practice will begin in December with a session every other Tuesday. As the competition date nears, we will meet every week as we prepare to defend our third place standing and challenge the second and first place winners.

Classroom News - Fall 2008

Math with Mrs. MacDonough

The students in the Accelerated Algebra class are working energetically to master all material introduced to them. As we work quickly through the beginning of their curriculum, we are reviewing topics such as evaluating expressions, inequalities, and functions, number properties, absolute value, proportions, and solving multi-step equations. We will be investigating the intersection of lines using the graphing calculators and we will explore different programs on the calculators throughout the course of the year. We will begin graphing linear equations and inequalities, solving exponential equations, and factoring polynomials in the months ahead.

Homeroom

The eighth grade class started the year out with a real sense of purpose towards reaching their goal of a year-end trip to Washington D.C. and graduation. Although these events seem distant, our eighth graders realize how much it will take to reach our goals.

Our eighth graders seamlessly assumed the tasks of the class that preceded them. This includes bus check, garbage collection, and raising and lowering the flag.

One event that caused our eighth graders to look back on their own time here with some nostalgia was when our class went to meet their kindergarten buddies (editor's note: check out the Kindergarten Photos!). We spent some time helping our buddies with their artwork. Later, we escorted our buddies to their first mass and modeled how to conduct ourselves while in church.

Our fund raising efforts are well underway with the Snack Shack up and running. Eighth grade parent volunteers are responsible for keeping our supplies up and establishing prices. Eighth grade students also help organize our supplies, bring snacks to the lower grades, and collect money.

This weekend our eighth graders will also be helping out at several Family Festival events. They will bus tables at Gerardo’s Kitchen on Friday, September 19th. On September 20th and 21st they will assist by volunteering at many of the game and raffle tables. One of our eighth graders will be the Master of Ceremonies at the annual Talent Show. Finally, to top it all off the eighth graders will be putting on the annual Pancake Breakfast following mass on Sunday, September 21st. Many of the eighth graders will be wearing costumes and this event will go a long way towards helping us towards year-end financial goal.

Literature with Ms. Seraichick

We began our school year by closely analyzing our summer reading texts. We discussed all three books in detail and then took a test on them.

This past week we moved ahead into the Short Story Unit in our new anthology, Elements of Literature – Second Course published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. In our first readings and homework from the anthology we are concentrating on plot and setting. We will see how plot is structured and; in some cases, discover that plots can be structured like a rubric cube with baffling configurations for us to unravel. Our class will then concentrate on setting and how setting can sometimes propel the plot or affect mood.

English with Ms. Seraichick

In English class, eighth grade students have been working on a five-paragraph essay on how Atticus Finch demonstrates courage in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. During this series of classes we learned how to write a thesis statement, organize paragraphs, write introductory and concluding paragraphs, and how to use parenthetical citations. We navigated through all phases of the writing process from brainstorming using a graphic organizer, thesis statement writing, outlining, first draft and final copy.

Book Check I with Ms. Seraichick

Our first Book Check will be due on October 20th. Students chose an appropriate book from a selected book list or by consultation with our librarian, Mrs. Cote. This book check will involve a writing piece as well as an oral presentation.

Autobiography with Ms. Seraichick

Eighth graders will be working on a joint project due for both their technology and English classes. The assignment is to create a PowerPoint presentation using techniques that they learned in technology class as well as writing a five-paragraph autobiographical essay. Students will interview parents, relatives, and friends to get some good quotations and proper citation will be used.

Grammar with Ms. Seraichick

In our grammar lessons we have been covering nouns and pronouns. The types of pronouns that we are discussing are personal, relative, demonstrative, and interrogative. Following this unit an assessment test on nouns and pronouns will be given.

Spelling and Vocabulary with Ms. Seraichick

Spelling and vocabulary are important components of the eighth grade curriculum. Vocabulary tests will include definitions as well as using the words in sentences. Word usages are common in PSAT, SAT and ACT testing. The vocabulary words come from our literature series as well as SAT word lists.

American History with Ms. Seraichick

The eighth grade class picked up our study of American History where they left off in seventh grade, i.e. Washington’s first administration. We learned about the important contributions that Washington made in setting precedents that we have adhered to since the founding of our nation. We then turned to the second administration, that of John Adams. Here we learned about the struggle between Federalist and Republican ideals. Although a Federalist, we saw how Adams used his wise judgment to negotiate with France rather than enter into a costly war. We discussed how partisan factions led to the creation of political parties and how states rights versus federal rights began to dominate the political debate from the second administration onward.

Presently we are immersed in the Age of Jefferson and we are exploring all aspects of his presidency including the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition. Our goal in history is to set a good background for the Civil War so that we can spend considerable time on this watershed event and create in-depth projects to make this period of history come alive.

Math with Miss Lordan

Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students enter the math room each day eager to begin our time together by writing the date and objectives of the day in their notebooks. Next they contemplate the RAP question(s) of the day. This activity is designed to involve everyone in the study of mathematics immediately upon entering our classroom. RAP is an acronym for Review and Preview. The questions posed often assess students understanding of the objectives from previous lessons or preview their knowledge of the next topic.

Our class motto is Marcel Proust’s: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Our goal is to look at all of the beautiful landscapes provided by nature as well as the landscapes in our textbooks and on practice sheets, workbook pages, the white board, or assessment papers, through the eyes of a mathematician. We are learning the importance of reading, following directions, and using our textbook as a resource tool. We have come to the conclusion that any reading involving mathematics requires our undivided attention.

EIGHTH GRADE students began the study of algebra, the foundation of all upper level math courses, by writing and evaluating variable expressions, checking solutions to equations and inequalities, using verbal and algebraic models, and organizing data to represent functions. We developed number sense by exploring categories of numbers in the real number system. Next, we performed operations with real numbers, learned to combine like terms, and use the distributive property to simplify expressions. The end of the term finds us solving a variety of linear equations. I am counting on this topic to keep us all in line! This creative group poses many interesting questions.

Math with Mrs. Ethier

I share the grade 8 math teaching assignment with Mrs. MacDonough and Ms. Lordan. Students are divided into three homogeneous groups. Students in my Algebra 1 class have completed chapter 1, Connections to Algebra and will soon complete chapter 2, Properties of Real Numbers. Following this is the chapter on solving limear equations. Problem solving activities are part of each lesson. Students continue to expand on their writing in math skills by explaining how they arrived at an answer in paragraph form. Homework assignments reinforce the day’s lesson and are an integral part to success in math class.