JTMS Messenger

October 2008
1000 Weldon Road Oak Ridge, NJ 07438 (973)697-1980

Dates to Remember:

> Thursday, Oct. 2—Back-to-School Night > Friday, Oct. 17—6th Grade Harvest Carnival

> Monday, Oct. 6 through 8—7 White Team Stokes Trip > Monday, Oct. 27 through 31—JTMS PTA Fall Book Fair

> Tuesday, Oct. 7—6th Grade Grandparents’ Day > Monday, Oct. 27 through 29—7 Blue Team Stokes Trip

> Wednesday, Oct. 8—Mid-Point First Marking Period > Wednesday, Oct. 29 through 31—7 Gold Stokes Trip

> Thursday, Oct. 16—7th & 8th Grade Grandparent’s Day and > Monday, Nov. 10—Marking Period 2 Begins
JTMS PTA Meeting 7:00pm JTMS Media Center

Grandparents’ Day
One of the most positive
program promoted by JTMS
and family unity is Grand-
parents’ Day. JTMS Faculty
and Staff in cooperation
with the building JTEA and
JTMS PTA, coordinate two
Grandparents’ Day events
each year; one day solely
Volume 1, Issue 1
center where they partake
in a morning refreshment
and snack until their grand-
child picks them up. You
can image the glow on
grandparents faces when
their grandchild walk into
the media center—all faces
light up.
Grandparents walk the
halls, go from class to
class, and remain with the
student until lunch.
At lunch students bring
their grandparents back to
the media center where

for sixth grade students JTEA and the PTA provide a

Inside this issue:
followed by one day for
seventh and eighth grade
students. The event makes
it possible for students to
bring their grandparents to
school for a day.
JTMS PTA volunteers wel-
come grandparents and
escort them to the media
This is an opportunity not
only for grandparents to
share time with their grand-
child but to realize the edu-
cational changes from
when they attended school.
It’s truly a cross-
generational event which
brings together our entire
school- family community.
luncheon for attendees
before they continue on
their journey for the day.
Letters for the sixth grade
event have been sent
home. Letters for the sev-
enth and eighth graders
will be forth coming.

Grandparents’ Day 1 Scheduled

Back-to-School Night
School Closings
Back-to-School Night 1
JTMS Back-to-School Night out the night. Please note
Thursday, October 9
will be held on Thursday, that not all grade levels will Yom Kippur
New Staff 2
October 2, 2008. Parents be following the same School Closed
will report to the cafeteria schedule; grades 7-8 will
New Staff 3 Monday, October 13
for general announce- meet from 7:00-8:30p.m.
Columbus Day
Grade Level Events 3 ments and then meet with and grade 6 will meet from
School Closed
their team teachers. Elec- 7:30-9:00p.m. On October
Principal Message 4 tive and exploratory teach- 1st, your child will bring Thursday & Friday,
ers will be available to home a detailed schedule November 6 & 7
meet with parents through- for you to follow. NJEA Convention
Special Feature 4
School Closed
 Page 2
JTMS Messenger
Teaching Staff

Cherylin Brooks
Kira Arnold 7th Grade Sarah Corring Carol Gargone Krista Going
Part Time Social Worker Guidance Counselor 8th Grande Math—Gold Team 6th Grade Math—Blue Team 7th Grade Math—Gold Team
Volume 1, Issue 1

Daniel Papa Rosemarie Papasavas

Jane Guglielmello Lauren Major 6th Grade 7th & 8th Grade Kimberly Simon
8th Grade Math—White Team 6th Grade Science-Blue Team Social Studies –Gold Team SCP Language Art 7th Grade Science—White Team

Lindsay Strother Jennifer Vincente Sara Vybihal

Special Education 7th & 8th Grade Spanish 6th Grade Language Arts

Support Staff
Jacqueline Mole-Hseih
World Language, ESL &
Music Supervisor
K-12

Kim Fleming Robyn Malejko Elizabeth Marks

Main Office Secretary Aide Aide
Principal’s Coffee
Tuesday, October 14
10a.m. or 7p.m.
To Register
Call
973.697.1980 ext. 5710

Jenifer Plevin Linda Rogalsky Kelly Tarsitano

Aide Aide Aide
 Page 3
New Hall Monitors & Lunch Aide

Janet Bohman Sanlee Halma Craig Peters Susan Sincavage

Lunch Room Aide Hall Monitor Hall Monitor Hall Monitor

Apples and Education

The seventh grade
SCP Mathematics class is
currently studying estimation,
mean, median, mode, range
and outliers. Apple picking
complements the curriculum
and allows for the students
to make real-life connections
to their lessons. Students
will estimate how many ap-
ples a bag can hold and com-
pare their estimations to the
actual number and deter-
mine percent error. Also,
students will be able to de-
termine a mean for the class,
as well as median, mode,
range and outlier. Then, we
will be able to discuss these
comparisons and discover
reasons why the numbers
worked out the way they did.
In the seventh grade
SCP Language Arts class,
students are reading and
analyzing short stories and
poetry. Leading up to the
trip, the students will discuss
and discover the five sense
by creating a Sensory Shape
Book. While at the orchard,
students will use the five
senses to free-write in a jour-
nal about their experience.
The focus will be on how the
five senses relate to real-life
and how to incorporate the
five senses in descriptions.
The Apple Picking
Trip is tentatively scheduled
for Friday, Oct. 17 from
9:00a.m. to 1:30p.m. Rain or
Shine.

“There are some

Election 2008
Mrs. King’s, Mr.
Migliacci’s, and Mrs. Miski-
mon’s eighth grade social
studies classes are teaming
up with Mrs. Harris’ Gifted
and Talented program to
bring the presidential elec-
tion to JMTS. The teachers
will teach a unit on the elec-
tion process to their stu-
dents. Students will then
teach this information to the
sixth and seventh graders.
As part of this activ-
ity, on Monday, November 3
a vote will take place in
homeroom. Each homeroom
has been designated as a
different state. As the day
progresses, results of the
morning vote will be an-
nounced. The results of this
vote will be used to reinforce
the concepts of the Electoral
College. Students will chart
the progress on election
people, who live in
maps to see which candidate a dream world,
is ahead in the Electoral
Vote. and there are
Additionally, ar- some who face
rangements have been made
reality; and then
to have two voting booths
delivered to the school on there are those
October 10. These machines who turn one into
will allow students the oppor-
tunity to learn how to cast a the other.”
vote in the same manner as Douglas Everett
registered voters do.
 Note From the Principal, Jeanne Howe JTMS Name That Location
JTMS Messenger
Last year, JTMS worked with the National Middle
School Association's (NMSA) School Improvement
Toolkit to identify areas where we can improve.
The NMSA developed recommendations for JTMS
based on student, teacher, and parent surveys.
From those recommendations, I developed a MS
Action Plan. The action plan includes working with
stakeholders on improving the master schedule, Do you know where this photo was taken at JTMS?
investigating an advisory program, piloting student- A. Cafeteria B. Gymnasium
led conferences, increasing student participation C. Hallway D. Exterior of Building

in the performing arts, and promoting student lead-

ership. Please stay tuned for more information in
these areas. If you are interested in becoming
involved in one or more of these areas, please call
the middle school.
News from 6 Blue
Mrs. Kucinski ran a 5K at Woodbourne Park in
Wantage, NJ on September 13th. She wore a
shirt signed by 6 Blue Students. Students were
allowed to sign the shirt only if they participated
in the AR program since they learned about the
program. The shirt was awarded to a lucky 6
Blue student.

A Parent’s Guide to the Jefferson Township Middle School (JTMS)

Whether you are a parent of a
new or returning student, the beginning
of a new school year can be filled with
excitement, anticipation and anxiety.
JTMS wants to inform parents
of all the resources available to them
and the chain of command through
which concerns should be directed.
To keep parents informed,
JTMS provides an agenda book to all
students and the district provides one
school calendar to all families.
The agenda book is a way for
the student and parent to track home-
work and communicate with child’s
teachers. The front pages of the
agenda book provides a wealth of infor-
mation pertaining to JTMS.
The calendar notifies parents
who the representatives are within the
school district, administration, dates of
school, breaks, holidays, early dis-
missal days, monthly Board of Educa-
tion Meetings, all PTA meetings, school
activities and events for the building.
The calendar is an invaluable tool to
every parent, filled with pages of infor-
mation not only pertaining to every
school, but it also includes district poli-
cies and procedures and provides infor-
mation regarding organizations for the
entire Jefferson Township Community.
Where is a parent to go if he
or she still has questions or concerns
after reviewing the calendar? A parent
should begin by addressing his or her
child’s teacher with concerns, ques-
tions or problems. If a parent feels the
concerns were not handled to his or her
satisfaction by the teacher, the parents
should direct their concerns to the
grade level guidance counselor. The
guidance counselors are a parent’s link
to the working of the middle school. If
the counselor is unable to satisfy a
parent’s concerns, the next step would
be to contact the students grade level
administrator. Parents should know
that most times their concerns, issues,
questions or problems can be allevi-
ated at the building administrator level.
Other resources available to
middle school parents include visiting
www.schoolnotes.com as well as
www.new.schoolnotes.com to check
homework and other information pro-
vided by teaching staff. On the Jeffer-
son Township School District website,
www.jefftwp.org, parents can click on
their child’s school to see a number of
things ranging from building informa-
tion, photos and information regarding
upcoming events. The district website
also offers the staff directory which
enables open communication via e-
mail, along with district calendar to
acknowledge after school activities,
athletic schedules and addresses the
most recent concerns in the district.
Another resource is the Par-
ent Teacher Association (PTA). JTMS
PTA helps the school by offering pro-
grams, sponsoring book fairs, raising
funds for educational items for staff; in
addition members volunteer to help
within the facilities. At PTA meetings,
members learn of upcoming events,
where volunteers are needed, and
building administrators/principals
share news from each facility. Parents
have the opportunity to communicate
and learn about his or her child’s
school environment. As a member of a
PTA, a parent is actively taking part in
his or her child’s educational experi-
ence. The PTA is not just an organiza-
tion but another resources within the
middle school.