The Dream Ride on Fox News!

Dr. Maestas and crew are really gearing up for the Dream Ride!  The ride will start on June 6th in Washington, D.C. and finish on June 12th in Plymouth.  Governor Patrick, Mrs. Patrick, and Senate President Murray will be in Plymouth on June 12th to welcome the Dream Ride home!  Dr. Maestas is scheduled to be on Fox News this Monday, May 30th (Memorial Day) at 8:45 A.M.  Tune in!

West Elementary School

"Be a Friend, Put Bullying to an End!"

In an effort to raise awareness about bullying, West Elementary School hosted a Family Anti-Bullying Night.  Four parents including Ann Donelan, Health Educator; Dennis Hassan, Safety Resource Officer and Karen Winsper; Technology Integration Specialist, provided information on what bullying is, how it is handled in school and what parents can do to help.  Children participated in cooperative games, interactive web sites, story time and role playing scenarios.  All who attended received wrist bands, funded by the PTA, to remind everyone they play an important part in preventing bullying.  A big thanks goes to West's Anti-Bullying Committee who planned this evening as well as additional activities during the year.

Children's Author, Jan Brett Visits Ms. Reid's Second Grade Classroom

The students in Ms. Reid's second grade classroom had the honor of a visit by well known author and illustrator Jan Brett.  She shared her most recent book, The Three Little Dassies, a story based on a trip she took with her husband to Namibia, Africa.  She also brought two special visitors, her pride and joy, her two pet hens.  The children were in awe as they watched Jan discuss and illustrate one of her dassies, an animal from the story.  She gave the illustration to the class as a gift.  She also gave every student a personally autographed book.  Ms. Reid's class is anxiously awaiting her newest book and will never forget their visit with Jan Brett.  Thanks to Michael and his mom for arranging this visit!

Cold Spring Elementary School

Kindergarten and Grade One Happenings

         Next week, the kindergarteners at Cold Spring School will begin a unit on farms. They are excited to begin the unit, as it will end with a trip to Coonamessett Farm in East Falmouth. At the farm they will engage in planting activities and meet the animals!

         To wrap up their Nutrition unit, the first graders at Cold Spring Elementary enjoyed a pancake and fresh fruit breakfast funded by the school's PTA. Many parent volunteers came in to help set up, cook, and serve at the breakfast. The children were also treated to a special interactive Smart Board lesson given by Mrs. Porter, a parent volunteer. In this lesson the children learned more about the food groups and making healthy choices.  

Cold Spring School held their annual Writing Celebration over two days, May 26 and May 27.  Each student in the school had a writing sample on display.  Students' work is saved throughout the school year so that they can see the progress they have made.  Parents are invited to attend during the day with their child's class, and students are encouraged to read writing samples from previous grades as well as see they type of work they might be doing in the coming years.  This celebration of our writing has been an annual event for over 20 years, and is one of our most popular year end events.
 

 Miss Ready, Ciara Tynan, Thallys Vasconsuellos and Kyle McKenna

Anthony Loranger, Aidan Keegan

Thallys and Kyle

Christian Pardue and his dad

Ella Furman, Emma Battles, John DeAngelo, Damien Oehme, Isabella White

 PCIS News

PCIS's Career Day offers students a glimpse at future professions.

PCIS's 7^th grade population experienced a special academic day this past Wednesday as they participated in the school's 3^rd annual Career Day.

Throughout the school day, twenty-two professionals ranging from Massachusetts State Representative Vinney deMecedo, to Bridgewater State University's President Dr. Dana Mohler-Faria, to Plymouth's Superintendent Gary Maestas, enlightened students on the life-time positive advantages of a good education, including the opportunities and the options it provides when choosing a profession.

7^th grade students rotated among four half-hour sessions which featured presentations from various professionals including: a veterinarian, nurse, genetic counselor, physical therapist, school psychologist, Marine Corp staff sergeant, attorney, architect, human resources employee, engineer, marine biologist, sports journalist, and K9 unit police officer.  Students were able to choose four professions of interest.

"Career Day is part of the education we offer our students on a variety of post-graduate experiences." PCIS Ranger Housemaster Paul Duprey said.  "In 8^th grade we take our students to a local college.  Ultimately, Career Day and other PCIS opportunities are aimed at exposing students to the different careers paths available after high school," said Duprey, who organized this year's event.

The day began with the keynote presentation to students by Colleen Coyne, a gold medal member of the 1998 woman's hockey team, and culminated with Dr. Maestas's presentation that emphasized following your dreams.

In an email to PCIS, local marine biologist Eben Franks noted that, "It was impressive to see so many students asking questions, paying close attention and really thinking of themselves in the realm of the ocean sciences and exploration." 

Career Day was a product of proper planning by PCIS 7^th grade teachers and the PCIS leadership team.  "I am appreciative of the speakers, the teachers, and the staff for their dedication and hard work in making this event a success."  Duprey concluded. 

Ride Maestas Ride!

With a little under two weeks remaining before Dr. Maestas sets off on his magical ride up the eastern seaboard, the PCIS students and staff got together to put on a Dream Ride Rally and wish him luck!  The entire PCIS 6^th grade population assembled in the gym to root on the Superintendent.  The assembly provided Dr. Maestas with some warm smiles and laughter that can motivate him throughout his adventure.

The event opened with PCIS Principal Brian Palladino wishing our superintendent the best of luck.  The event continued as music teacher Sharon Francer and students performed a song they wrote for the occasion. The rally also included interactive opportunities for both the students and staff including a jeopardy game, a poetry contest with poems having "dreams" as the theme, a video montage about dreams, and the crowd favorite-the scooter board obstacle course.

The PCIS physical education staff helped decorate the gym and included a 15-foot long sign reading "Godspeed Dr. Maestas!"  All in all the event was a tremendous success.  PCIS congratulates Dr. Maestas on his dream and wishes him the very best.

Congratulations PCIS artists- 0ne art award after another!

Congratulations to Art teacher Liz Rioux and PCIS students for their most recent recognition.  Each of the following students won honorable mention in the Massachusetts Marine Educators 2011 Marine Art Contest for students in grades K-12:  Jessica Pickett Grade 6, Khiabet Rivera Grade 7, Jake Yorks Grade 7.  This year's contest was the most competitive ever and the honorees were recognized out of 750 entries.  All of the winning artwork and many of the honorable mention pieces will become part of a traveling art exhibition that will tour this summer and throughout the 2011-2012 school year.

South Elementary School

The HipKids Reading program is sponsored by Little, Brown for Young Readers, and is an extension of the Hip Scout and YALSA YA Galley project. Eleven fourth graders from South Elementary School were selected for their reading abilities, self-motivation, and communication skills. So far our group has read six books so far this year, five of which we received prior to their publication date! The group meets during lunch period with South Elementary School's librarian, a month after we receive the book, and gives feedback on each book.  They also write reviews of the books on a blog.

Plymouth North High School News   

Congratulations to the PNHS Valedictorian!

We are very happy to announce the class of 2011 Valedictorian is Miss Cara Goodman and the Salutatorian is Miss Florence Gonsalves.

PNHS BASEBALL

Congrats to Plymouth North Varsity baseball team for the 10^th consecutive ACL Title.  Six players were recognized as ACL All-Stars, Mike Cahill, Doug Maccaferri, Zack Prifti, Alex Rozak, Matt Walsh and Zack Zaniboni. The Team won the ACL Sportsmanship award and Matt Walsh was the MVP of the Atlantic Coast League.

Robotic Teams go to Indy   

Two groups of Plymouth North students fielded two Robot teams in a national competition held at the Vicennes/Purdue university school of aviation technology.   

The competition was sponsored by the National Tool and Manufacturers Association in cooperation with DMG/Mori Seiki an international, manufacturer of CNC precision machine tools.

The Plymouth North Student Engineering Team of Derek Salvucci, Cam O'Dwyer and Dan O'Rourke fielded "Anarchy," a well armored combat robot with a horizontal axis rotating drum weapon. While the robot suffered a bit of bad luck, the students performed well in their interview with the professional judging staff and earned scores that placed them in the top five overall for engineering documentation.    

Mr. Bastoni, their engineering instructor, recognized this as the more important achievement. His comment is;  "Fighting the robots is fun, and of course it's nice to win, but the professional recognition of excellence and the educational achievement lies in the creation and innovation process, and how well the students can communicate what they know and are able to do. In this respect the sophomore PNHS team demonstrated high achievement. We are all proud of their effort."   

"Screwed up," a full body spinner, is a great representation of the design process, and its creation speaks well of the design team's tenacity and work ethic. This team of Jason Gardner, Nick Taormina, Frank Aguiar and Sean Serrilla demonstrated what we expect from all our engineering students. That is, the ability to articulate a problem as well as a solution through the iterative process of designing, building and experimenting, and most important, through the willingness to accept failure in an effort to achieve success.   

This student engineering group also gained excellent scores in the interview with professional technologists and was recognized specifically for highest achievement in the CAD design process.

The design notebooks and documentation produced by these students will remain on display in the glass case adjacent to the PNHS auditorium. They will serve as examples of excellence and sources of motivation for future student engineering teams.   

The trip to the competition was not all about robots. The students had the opportunity to examine a wide spectrum of heat engine technology applications. From the many jet, turbine and piston driven aircraft engines on display at the aviation center, to a private tour of the Andretti Motor Sports Center and the reconstruction of a turn of the century steam locomotive. They also had the opportunity to personally witness Danica Patrick's thrilling qualification for this year's Indy 500. These students enjoyed a weekend packed full of science and engineering entertainment and inspiration.   

We are extremely grateful for the support of the Pilgrim Nuclear Station and the Entergy Corporation for making it possible for our students to celebrate personal and technological success. It is this involvement in authentic learning activities that provides the Fun - da - Mental inspiration and motivation that students need in order to discover their talents and awaken their passions.   

Through the continued support of the Pilgrim Nuclear Plant, and Entergy Corporation, more than 250 PNHS students have had the opportunity to experience and participate in local, regional and national engineering competitions and events, and to go on to achieve undergraduate degrees and enter successful engineering careers. We are all grateful for these opportunities.   

This year, approximately twenty Plymouth North high School Seniors will enter colleges and universities to study engineering. 100% of the PNHS seniors who participated in this year's robot competition are headed in this direction. We wish them all success in both their studies and in their future careers. Their achievement is shared by all the students and staff of this community of learners.