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Friday notes is a weekly update from Superintendent Gary E. Maestas on the happenings within the Plymouth Public Schools.
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Plymouth Public Schools School Committee Meetings:
The next regular meeting of the Plymouth School Committee will be Monday, April 23rd, 2012. School Committee meetings are held at Plymouth Community Intermediate School in the Little Theatre. Meetings begin at 7:00 p.m.
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Weekly Quote:
"If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you'll never enjoy the sunshine."
Morris West
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District news and information for all k-12 teachers, administrators, and parents from the Elementary Library Media Specialists.
Do you know Joyce Valenza? A nationally renowned Teacher, Library Media Specialist, author, and lecturer on technology in education, Joyce has created a valuable, informative guide to technology information for educators.
Check out her Web2.0 Toolbox web site for up to date information and help on everything from App Builders to Writing Tools and more at:.
http://sdst.libguides.com/newtools
(See the entire Spartan Guides list below)
App Builders
Apps for iPads, iPhones, & Mobile Devices
Backchannel, chat, stickynotes, meeting tools
Beyond Classroom Walls
Blogs
Cloud Storage
Conversion Tools
CopyrightFriendly/Creative Commons/Fair Use
Curriculum Standards
Digital Citizenship, Privacy & Safety
Digital Storytelling & Publishing
eReaders-Kindles, Nooks, etc.
Fair Use & Information Ethics
Feeds & Aggregators
Game Generators
Google+
Google Apps
Google Docs and Apps
Images, avatars, fonts, and colors
Infographics
Infographics Lesson
Interactive Calendar
Interactive Whiteboards
Map Apps
Media Literacy
Mindmapping/Charting/Timelining
PLN Building for Teachers
Polling & Survey Tools
Portfolio Strategies
Poster Tools
Presentation Reform & Sharing
QR Codes
Reading 2.0
Social Networking/Bookmarking
ScreenCasting/ScreenSharing/Podcasting
Tag Clouds
Twitter
Universal Design
Video Tools
Web Tour & Pathfinder Tools
Wikis
Widgets
Writing Tools
Bookleads
Information Portals
Research Guide
TL Guides
Databases & Pathfinders
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West Elementary News
West Elementary Hosts Enrichment Day
On Saturday, March 31st, West Elementary School hosted its annual enrichment day. Hundreds of students, parents, teachers, and high school volunteers turned out on this drizzly day to enjoy over 28 different activities, sports and events.
Events ranged from sports (both indoors and outside), arts and crafts, to cake decorating and cooking classes. Several students took full advantage of the spa day event, explored their creative side in Bubble Art and making their own pillows. Others challenged themselves in "Minute-To-Win It" or at the Red Sox Training Camp.
Students were able to select from the wide range of programs and get an hour in three different activities of their own choosing. They were eager to hear the opening call to report to the gym to begin their day. Overall, it was a fun-filled day.
Abby and Janelle show off their cake decorating skills.
 Street hockey was a big hit!
 Students got a charge in electronics.
 Students made edible bouquets.
The cafeteria hosted many different activities.
 The volcanoes erupted!
On behalf of the West Elementary School faculty, we would like to thank all of the volunteers and PTA members for making this day possible. The smiles on the students' faces surely demonstrated fond memories of a Saturday well spent!
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Indian Brook Elementary News
Indian Brook's PTA kept busy in March, sponsoring several fun events. The annual Spaghetti Supper had a great turnout, with teachers and students acting as hosts and servers for two seatings of happy customers. Thanks to everyone who helped to make the night a success!
TD Bank visited several second grade classrooms to present WOW!Zone. The TD Bank WOW!Zone is a comprehensive financial literacy program created by TD Bank with the goal of providing children and teens with valuable information about money, saving, banking and investing. Written to meet the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards, the TD Bank WOW!Zone lesson plans provide Educators with a resource for introducing topics such as:
The value of money
The difference between saving and spending
Balancing a check book
Planning a budget
Creating an investment
Indian Brook's Kindergarten classes reinforced their lessons about Tidepools with a visit from the New England Aquarium. Using guided imagery, costume and live animals, students explored and interacted with local tidepool animals while learning basic biology and anatomy. The program was a huge hit!
On March 25th, there were record breaking numbers for the annual Indian Brook on Ice skating hour at Gallo Rink in Bourne. Skaters of all abilities had a blast on the ice.
The month ended with a Scholars for Dollars fundraiser which pays the school by the pound for donated clothes and other soft goods. Our Scholars for Dollars collection weighed in at 1,920lbs, which earned $174.18 for Indian Brook. Thanks to everyone who donated!
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Plymouth South Middle School News
Band Earns Medal
On Friday, March 30th the PSMS 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Band participated in the MICCA (Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductor's Association) Music Festival at Bellingham High School. This is a statewide adjudicated competition that took place in six different sites around Massachusetts over this past weekend. The PSMS Band was awarded a Bronze medal for their performance. Our students worked very hard to attain this accomplishment and are to be commended for their hard work and dedication.
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Congratulations to the PSMS Yearbook Staff and their advisors, Mrs. Zuberer and Mrs. Burns, for receiving the 2012 Josten's National Yearbook Program of Excellence. The staff was recognized for meeting several criteria including; parent notification, 5% increase in sales from the previous year; meeting all deadlines. This is an impressive accomplishment and demonstrates the organization, hard work and dedication required to produce a high quality yearbook. We are grateful to the staff and the leadership of the advisors as we look forward to seeing this year's award-winning yearbook entry.
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Plymouth North High School News
Report Cards went home today with Bus Forms for the 2012-2013 school year. Bus forms can be returned to the Main Office. Student obligations are listed on report cards. All student obligations must be settled in the Main Office prior to purchasing tickets to functions.
Best Buddies Formal
On Saturday, March 31st, thirty-one Best Buddy members of PNHS attended the Best Buddies of Massachusetts Formal. The theme of the Prom was Candy Land. The Buddies of PNHS danced the night away with over 600 other Best Buddies members from around Massachusetts. They also feasted on a delicious buffet dinner and snacked at the candy bar. It was a great time had by all.
Battlebots Success
For the 20th time (over the past 10 years), students and advisors from Plymouth North and South attended a combat Robot event to engage in engineering sportsmanship with other schools.
Two teams each from Plymouth North: Anarchy: Derrek Salvucci and Cam Odwyer, Zack Farrel and Screwed Up: Sean Serrilla and Brian Long, and two teams from Plymouth South: Phenomenal Luck - Andrew Whittaker, Melisa Whittaker, and Labotomy - Dominick Colangelo were accompanied by their advisors Mr. Michael Bastoni and Mr. George Ayers engaged in cooperative engineering activities.
While "Screwed Up" did not win the contest, it can be said that the little robot "smoked the competition". During the final seconds of its second match, the robot driven by PNHS Sr. Sean Serrilla, attempted to deal a knockout blow to his tiring opponent. The robot drive and weapon systems on Screwed-Up, already hot from nearly 3 minutes of non-stop combat, burst into flames in the knock out attempt. This resulted in a TKO for Screwed Up, and final elimination for Sean and his team. However, winning is not the number one motivation for engaging in these contests. The number one reason these students work this hard is to acquire real world engineering skills. These skills will serve them well in their college studies and well into their professional careers.
The Judges at this year's Assabet Valley Competition included CEO's of major manufacturing businesses, a representative from SolidWorks Corp. and a PhD in Physics/electrical Engineering. This team of professionals awarded Sean and his team the "Judges Award" which is given to the students whose robot documentation and design best exhibit the professional levels of achievement expected from the best engineering students.
We are all proud of Sean Serrilla and Brian Long for their dedicated effort and willingness to acquire skills and knowledge.
The Plymouth South group consisting of Andrew Whittaker, South vocational student, and his sister, Melisa Whittaker, Plymouth North student, made it to the finals and finished second overall.
The Anarchy team from Plymouth North finished 1 for 3 but in their first match they dealt their opponent a knockout blow inside of 16 seconds.
Everyone agreed it was a worthwhile experience and we all look forward to the December 8th competition that is planned to take place at the engineering lab in the new PNHS. Everyone is invited.
Bryan Long and Sean Serilla
Events and Tickets
Junior Prom tickets go on sale Monday after school in room 207 and Tuesday at all lunches. Checks made payable to PNHS-SAF $85
Senior Dinner Dance Tickets are on sale next week at all lunches. $85 check or money order made payable to PNHS-SAF.
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Plymouth South High School NewsReport cards were sent home today with all students.
No school tomorrow, Friday, April 6th - have a great long weekend.
On Wednesday, April 11th, Chris Herren will be at Plymouth South High School to do a powerful presentation to our students on the dangers of drug use.
Please check out this link for a wonderful presentation put together by Plymouth South Senior Santiao Narino:
or
here to view the presentation by Santiao Narino. As you may have seen around the school, a new campaign has been released by International Club called The Girl Effect. The Girl Effect is a powerful social and economic change brought about when girls have the opportunity to participate. It's a movement with indisputable potential that raises awareness and funds for the 600 million girls living in poverty around the world.
The focus on girls in this campaign is not meant to be discriminatory to boys. It has been shown that an educated girl will invest 90% of her future income in her family, compared to 35% for a boy. Yet 250 million adolescent girls live in poverty and are more likely than boys to be uneducated, married at a young age, and exposed to HIV/AIDS. Today, less than two cents of every international development dollar goes to girls, the very people who could do the most to end poverty. As long as girls remain invisible, the world misses out on a tremendous opportunity for change.
The Girl Effect has different organizations that they sponsor, International Club is looking to donate all of our funds to a leadership camp in the slums of Mumbai, India. The students in International Club are looking for sponsors to donate to the cause, our goal as a club is $500 dollars to send 20 girls to one more year of high school. If you are interested in donating please contact International Club by talking to one of its members or the adviser Mrs. Dias.
Plymouth South High School Spring Sports have started. Check out the website at www.southpanthers.com for a schedule and come CHEER ON THE TEAMS!!!
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Gary E. Maestas, Ed.D Superintendent
Plymouth Public Schools
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