JANUARY, 2011

Thoughts from Dr. Goodman

Motivating Middle School Students

Middle school age is a stressful point in a child's life. By the time children reach middle school

they are either eager to grow up or intimidated by the future. This is the time when motivation is

most important. Since each child responds differently to various forms of motivation, it is a good

idea to try several methods to see which works best.

1) Offer rewards for positive actions. By this age, children are used to rewards. In

elementary school, they received candy or stickers or special tasks after they did the right

things. When the children reach middle school, they may miss these little tokens.

Although they may be too old for stickers (no one is too old for candy), there are other

rewards that students this age like. Talk with your child and find out what tangible

rewards might motivate them.

2) Provide more challenge. One of the reasons middle schoolers become unmotivated is

because life has become too easy for them. You can remedy this problem by assigning

more tasks or making work more challenging. For parents, give your child more

responsibilities like getting the mail each day, helping to balance your checkbook or

cooking a family meal.

3) Teach them to be friends. In this awkward stage of life, children need more than ever to

have a sense of belonging. When children feel like they are a part of a friendly group,

they will be motivated to work hard and will look forward to each day.

4) Cater to their interests. All you have to do is to find one thing that a child is passionate

about. Whether it is drawing, writing or playing videogames, use the child's interests as

motivational tools. Have the artist draw the science lab results. Have the creative writer

write a story about a historical figure. The video gamer can put his coordination skills to

use during P.E. or computer class. Play a game with your child every once in a while. Or

sign him up for art classes or a book club.

5) Keep the child well-rounded. A well-rounded child is typically a happy child. Integrate a

variety of music, art and sports into the child's life. And don't be limited in your thoughts.

Your child might not like football but may like bicycle racing or martial arts. Your child

might not play an instrument but likes to listen to the stereo.

Class assignments for 2011 - 2012 Schedule Requests Due March 4, 2011

NMS is currently building staff and student schedules for the 2011-2012 school year. NMS allows parents to request that their child have, or not have, a specific teacher for the up-coming year. We are not able to accommodate all of our parent requests but the requests are a factor of consideration when developing a student schedule. A parent request does not guarantee a specific student placement.

We share this information in an effort to create an understanding that NMS will attempt to accommodate parent requests with the fore-mentioned knowledge that there are a number of factors that may limit our ability to do so. Our scheduling goals will be:

• to balance student population when placing students on an instructional team

• to balance class size, and

• to meet student educational needs within our curricular and individualized programs.

Any parent/guardian scheduling requests for the 2011-2012 school year should be sent to the attention of the building principal. The requests must be in writing, stating the rationale for the request, and signed by the parent or guardian. These requests must be submitted on or before March 4, 2011.

Counselor’s Corner

On Tuesday, November 16th

, NMS eighth graders participated in the annual Career Day.

Each student was assigned to three speaker presentations based upon their areas of interest,

rotating from classroom to classroom to hear about their chosen

careers. Speakers from fifteen professions were selected from the community, and we are very

grateful to them for volunteering their time to come and share about their career field. The

careers presented on included a chef, veterinarian, computer programmer, teacher, nurse, youth

program worker, photographer, auto mechanic, cosmetologist, entrepreneur, lawyer, news

broadcaster, police officer, EMT/firefighter, and a construction/skilled trades professional.

Students were expected to prepare two questions to ask of each of their presenters, and presenters

made sure to share a job description, working conditions, education and training, high school

classes that would be helpful, and salary range.

MARCH 25 – FAMILY FUN NIGHT – PLAN NOW TO ATTEND PTO Mtg – Monday, February 7, 6:30 PM

ATTENTION ALL FAMILIES OF 8TH GRADE STUDENTS

On Monday, January 24th 2011, at 7:00 p.m. in the high school

auditorium, the high school guidance counselors will be holding a registration

meeting for all incoming freshman. This meeting is REQUIRED of all 8th

graders and a parent! At this meeting, students and parents will meet the

high school staff, discuss diploma requirements and diploma types, review

the high school schedule, and learn about required courses and electives.

Also, families will sign up for a small group scheduling session. These

sessions will occur on:

Monday, February 7th 6:00, 7:00 & 8:00 p.m.

Tuesday, February 15th 4:00, 5:00 & 6:00 p.m.

Thursday February 24th 6:00, 7:00 & 8:00 p.m.

At the meeting on the 24th, families will receive an educational handbook and

be asked to review it before attending the small group scheduling meeting.

6th grade Students of the Month

November: December T-Rex* T-Rex

Cade Durren Kelsey Brickner

Jacob Poole

Raptor Rapter

James Dugle Sam Grewe

Imani Warner-Lima Olivia Checkley

Saber Saber

Melinda Bontrager Logan Riffell

Tre Marvel Seanna Smartt *One of the students is listed on the Do Not Publish list.

Middlebury Optimist Club to Sponsor Oratorical Contest for Students The Optimist Club of Middlebury is encouraging our students to speak their minds about the topic “If I Were Leader of the Free World, the First Issue I Would Address Would Be …” as part of the Optimist International Oratorical Contest for this year. The Optimist Club will judge the students’ speeches based on content and presentation to determine the top winners. The contest will be held on Wednesday, February 16 at 6 p.m. at NMS. Winners will receive awards and the winning speeches will be sent to the zone level, and possibly the district level for the opportunity to win college scholarships. Students under the age of 19 as of December 31, 2010, are eligible to take part. Students wishing to participate in our local oratorical contest can get more information and sign up now by contacting Mrs. Kelli Rasler or Mrs. Kathy Franko at Northridge Middle School.

Honor Breakfast

The middle school will host a continental breakfast for all our first semester (1st or 2nd quarter) honor roll students and their parents. The breakfast will be held on THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2011, 7:00 TO 8:00 AM in the MAIN GYM. Please join in the celebration of our students’ accomplishments. Parents are a key ingredient in the success of our students and we would enjoy honoring you as well. We will serve

doughnuts, juice, and coffee. Please, mark your calendar and plan on attending.

MATH MASTER’S WINNERS For December:

Math Master’s winners from the magical contest for December are in. The honorable mentions scoring 8

out of the 10 possible tasks are: Brandon Hunsberger, Abby Zook, Justin Ayres, Matthew

VanCoppenolle, Cayla Carner, Josh Solis, Eryn Calfee, and Sam Grewe. They received pop during raft

class. Runner ups scored 9 out of 10 and received milk shakes were: Jacob Poole, Ross Kirkton, Katie

Hughes, and Robert Good. The new Math Master is Max Teunissen who performed some awesome

magic on the 10 tasks. Completing all tasks with style A only masters have, of a perfect score. He

receives his choice of a hat, SET game, or Blink game.

For January Math Masters was a challenging set of problems for January. One perfect score to be called the Master of

the magic is, Brandon Hunsberger. Brandon will receive his choice of a game or Northridge apparel.

Runner ups with missing up to three questions were; Jacob Poole, Justin Ayres, and Peter Fair. They

receive a pop during Raft. Honorable Mention with a total score of six are: Laura Miller, Anna

Kovalenko, Alyssa Hochstetler, Max Teunissen, and Abigail Zook. They will receive a Raider Buck.

The student who was picked for the surprise award was Rachel Thomann she has turned in all five Math

Masters. See if next month you are picked for your personal best just turn in a Math Master.

* Names omitted due to “denial to publish” request.

2nd Quarter VIP Luncheon

The VIP program at Northridge Middle School recognizes good citizenship qualities. Ten students are selected from

each grade level. Each quarter, VIPs will be honored with a Middlebury Dairy Queen luncheon with a speaker from

the community. They also receive a bumper sticker provided by American Legion Post #210 in Middlebury.

The criteria considered for selecting these students are: they help and care for others, take care of school

responsibilities (grades, detentions, over due books etc.) in a positive way, display leadership ,actively involved in

school, have good attendance, pleasant personality, respect authority and other students’ rights and property,

The featured speaker for the second quarter was Gloria Martin of Middlebury. The luncheon was held December 7,

2010 in the Family and Consumer Science room. The students selected for the second quarter were:

6th

grade: Olivia Checkley, Anna Craig, Kailey Knepper, Tre (Paul) Marvel, Blake Miller, Julaine Miller,

Matt Unzicker, Zoe VanCuren and Ben Zuercher.

7th

grade: Emily Barkow, Morgan Blyly, Connor Deal, Kaitlyn Kennedy, Brody Miller, Karissa Miller,

Matthew Miller, Will(Jake) Odebrecht, Bailey O’Dell and Hannah Wogoman.

8th

grade: James Beechy, Marcus Bontrager, Ryan Haarer, Emily Hughes, Taylor Miller, Wyman Miller,

Sophia Miller-Martinez, Sarah Patino, Megan Robbins and Travis Schlabach.

* name omitted due to “denial to publish” request”

Congratulations to these students!

We hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday with lots of time to read some good books. Speaking of good

books, for those who made it to the theater to see the Chronicles of Narnia: the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, you

may want to consider reading the series by C. S. Lewis. The first book in the series is

The Magician’s Nephew, followed by The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. With

seven books in the series (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is actually the fifth book)

this would be a great way to spend the cold winter evenings following the adventures

of four English school children in the magic land of Narnia.

Many parents and students have been asking about obtaining Accelerated Reader

information at home on the Internet. To access Accelerated Reader Home Connect

go to the Middlebury Community School’s home page (www.mcsin-k12.org) and

under Navigation on the left, click the Parent Links. Open the Accelerated Reader

Home Connect link and this is where you can type in your child's AR name and

password (each student will know this as they use this each time they take an AR test

at school). This will give you access to information on all of the AR reading your

child is doing in school, and much more. One really nice feature is the "View My

Bookshelf," which has all of the books that a student has read since coming to

Northridge Middle School, including a short description of the book. To search for

books that have AR tests, you can click on AR BookFinder, which is at the right

hand bottom of the page.

Thanks to a

wonderful

volunteer

from the

Middlebury

Community Public Library, we are

pleased to be able to continue our book

clubs starting the end of January. Kelsey

Kauffman will be featuring The Hunger

Games by Suzanne Collins during lunch

periods on January 28th

. All students are

invited to join her as they learn about this

exciting Young Hoosier book through

activities, food, and lively conversation.

Kelsey was a great help last year, and our

students are thrilled she will be getting our

book clubs going again. The clubs will be

held once each month and anyone wanting

to lend a hand should contact Teri Schmidt at 822-5068.

The end of the semester is almost here, and our students are working hard to get to 10,000 books read. Our

principals have agreed to sleep on the roof of the school if our students make it to 20,000 books by the end of the

year. Some of our students are hoping to make the goal early so that the principals might end up sleeping in the

snow. You never know with our crazy weather in Indiana.

Stay tuned for our annual Battle of the Books and Mad Gab Contests…coming soon.