|
|
|
|
Welcome!
Welcome to the Mahopac Online Bulletin, another opportunity to show you what and how our students are learning, creating and growing in Mahopac schools.
We hope you enjoy receiving this e-newsletter, which we will be sending out periodically.
If you received this from a friend, please be sure to Join Our Mailing List by clicking on the link below. Feel free to forward this bulletin to others whom you think may enjoy it. You may unsubscribe to these newsletters by clicking on the SafeUnsubscribe link below. Thank you. Sincerely, Thomas J. Manko Superintendent 
|
|
 | | RECESS: Time to "go outside, run around and let off steam." |
Mahopac Middle School C.A.R.E.S.
"Positive" is the operative word for a new approach to behavior under way at Mahopac Middle School.
It starts with a positive way of looking at things, of getting along with others, of being responsible, safe, supportive, respectful and engaged in learning. And everyone is involved: teachers, administrators, staff, bus drivers... and students.
From the first day of school, a change has been apparent. In the opening day assemblies, Assistant Principal Anna O'Connor started off smiling and saying, "Welcome back. We missed you." Then, rather than tell students what they shouldn't do, she and Assistant Principal Helen Horvitz focused on the positives, highlighting what they want to see students do. They call it Mahopac Middle School C.A.R.E.S., an acronym for Consistently Safe, Act Responsibly, Respect All, Engaged in Learning and Support Others.
There were balloons in the cafeterias, C.A.R.E.S. murals and bulletin boards, compliments for good behavior, encouragement, rewards... and time each day for recess.
Students noticed. What's going on, they asked? This school could be fun!
Members of the C.A.R.E.S. Committee -- Principal Ira Gurkin, Ms. O'Connor, Mrs. Horvitz, psychologists Dr. Don Merriman and Barbara Hynes, social worker Linda Kalman, guidance counselor Allison Pugliese and teachers Margaret Fox and Mary Wheeler -- are full of enthusiasm.
Students already seem happier, more responsible, more considerate and attentive, they say. Referrals for poor behavior have been reduced by 80 percent.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE
|
|
|
|
|
 | |
50 YEARS FROM NOW: Fulmar 5th graders predicting the future are, from left, Samantha Thierer, Mary McDermott, Mykola Pawliczko and Joseph Pecora. Their teachers are Stacey Biagini, left, and Dona Martirano. |
The World View from 5th Grade
Fifth graders at Fulmar Road Elementary School have a good idea what they'd like to see 50 years from now: cars with wings, flying saucers, solar power, life-size video games, personal robots and cures for diabetes and cancer.
They also know what they'd like people 50 years from now to know about us today: that we have technology like iPads and iPhones, but that we have plenty of trees, air and oxygen. They would also like future people to know that everyone is treated fairly and with respect.
The students in Dona Martirano and Stacey Biagini's class and other fifth graders have been working enthusiastically on statements to add to a time capsule being produced for Putnam County's Bicentennial celebration. It will be buried in front of the Historic Courthouse in Carmel for people to uncover 50 years from now.
Here are some of the class's favorite predictions:
- Regular cars and skateboards will stop being made because of the production of hover boards and flying cars. I predict they will soon build cities in space with bubbles keeping and producing oxygen inside. -- Mykola Pawliczko.
- In the future, I think scientists will find a cure for cancer and diabetes and will invent flying cars. I also think that scientists will be able to bring a woolly mammoth back to life with other extinct animals... and people will find another planet we never knew existed. -- Mary McDermott.
- I predict that the future will have flying cars and that everything will be levitating. Instead of flying long distances, you can just teleport. And everyone gets his own personal robot servant to do everything you say, like clean the house, cook and a lot more things. -- Joseph Pecora.
- 50 years from now there will hardly be grass or trees left. Doctors will come up with cures to a lot of the diseases we have and will discover medicine that makes people live longer, so instead of living until they are 100, they will live to 120. New species of animals may come into being, like a barilla - which is a mix of a bird and a gorilla; or a gironkey, which is a mix of a giraffe and a donkey.... Also televisions will show you your past and you can watch your whole life on them. Prices are going to be really high. A piece of pizza may cost $25... a house may cost a billion. But I'll be the coolest grandma ever." -- Samantha Thierer.
|
 | |
A GOVERNMENT student inserts a mock ballot into a real voting machine. |
Learning to Vote the Real Way at High School Mahopac High School social studies classes, grades 9 to 12, participated in a mock Presidential election recently in the school auditorium, using mock ballots but real privacy booths and voting machines, thanks to the Putnam County Board of Elections. The purpose was not to discover which candidate the students chose -- though those results may be revealed the day after the November 6 election -- but to let the students know how the voting process works so that they are not intimidated by it. Being familiar with the process and "getting into practice" should make students more willing to exercise their right to vote when they come of age, said Cynthia Tun, Government and Economics teacher who organized the event. One by one, classes came to the auditorium and heard both from their teachers and a Board of Elections representative why it's important to vote and... how easy it is. The voting machines resemble bank automatic tellers (ATMs). The voter takes a paper ballot to a privacy booth; fills in the oval next to his or her chosen candidates' names; slips the ballot into a slot on the voting machine; and waits for the machine to light up a message saying: "Your vote has been TALLIED." Government is a required course for all New York State high school students, Ms. Tun said. "We want students to understand that it's their responsibility as citizens to vote and to educate themselves about the candidates. They should also know that more than just a President has to be elected this year. There are senators, congressmen, state representatives, judges, school budgets.... I tell them, 'Don't be discouraged. Your vote matters.'" Gold House Principal Andy Hatt is enthusiastic about the mock election. This was the first time actual voting machines have been used in this way, he said, but students about to reach voting age are regularly given an opportunity to register through the school. CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS |
|
 | |
CATERPILLAR NOTES: Fifth graders, April Heady, left, and Samantha O'Brien, exhibit their garden reports.
|
Austin Road Garden Keeps On Teaching
The garden created outside Austin Road Elementary School looks brown from a distance and past its prime. But for students who visit it as the outdoor classroom it was meant to be, it's a place of discovery.
Take the budding scientists in the fifth grade classroom of Carolyn Ryan and Tiffany Ziegelhofer. They can hardly contain their enthusiasm about the caterpillar they discovered on parsley, celery and Queen Anne's lace.
"It's small, with orange and black spots...."
"Green and yellow, just a different stage...."
"The smaller they are the less color they have...."
 | |
A SCIENCE JOURNAL shows the facts Brett Novick has collected on Swiss chard.
|
"When he's scared, the caterpillar sticks out an orange thing -- an osmeterium -- behind his head...."
"It puts out a bad smell to scare predators...."
Ms. Ryan explained: The caterpillar they found so fascinating will eventually become a black swallowtail butterfly with a wing span up to four-and-a-half inches. "Though it was not my intent to study caterpillars, I took the children's enthusiasm as 'a teaching moment.'"
The caterpillar fans were encouraged to do research on the insect and take notes in their science journals. They also wrote stories about a caterpillar's life from the insect's point of view.
Visits to the garden offer lots of possibilities for learning, Ms. Ryan said. Students can follow what interests them. Some students decide to investigate a tomato, a corn cob, dragonflies or bumblebees. But it's not just science they learn, she said. The hands-on experience of finding things in the garden motivates them to do research, to keep a journal, to write and to draw.
The garden is available for all classes to visit, enriching study in science, math and in art, said Principal James Gardineer. "It's been available a little over a year now and it's really taking off."
 | |
TEACHER Carolyn Ryan enjoys the enthusiasm Emily Ormsby and other students display for their science research.
|
|
|
Mahopac Mission
Our mission is to ensure that every student in our schools acquires the skills, knowledge, attitudes and interpersonal skills that will permit him or her to operate effectively
in the broader community and lead a successful, productive life in a changing world.
Board of Education
Raymond Cote, President; Michael J.Sclafani, Vice PresidentEarle Bellows; Patricia Caputo; Patricia Greenwood-O'Keefe; Lawrence Keane; John Malara; Leslie Mancuso; Penny Swift
Superintendent of Schools
Thomas J. Manko
District Clerk
Jennifer Bisaccia
Published by Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES:
Barbara Coats, Editor/Photographer; Maria Ilardi, Art Director
www.mahopac.k12.ny.us
|
|
|
