Cyberbullying Event a Great Success!

The H.O.O.T. (Helping Others Out Together) Club at Suffern Middle School put on an original performance about Cyberbullying here at Suffern Middle School recently.
The students performance was based on a student who was being harassed online. Students played out what could happen in school as well as what strategies students could use to deal with cyberbullies and bullies in general.
The H.O.O.T Club was assisted by Cablevision's Power to Learn Internet Smarts site. Cablevision provided resources and we are grateful to them for helping to bring us these resources. At yesterday's presentation another great site was mentioned as a resource for parents and that site is called Common Sense Media.
Peggy Sheehy, Library Media Specialist, has begun to put together a site we are calling SMARTSMS with resources for students and parents. Be sure to check out all of the links above for great information on how to best use Social Media.

We were all incredibly proud of the students for putting on their original performance for an audience which included our District Superintendent Dr. MacNaughton, District PPS Director Mr. Stephen Walker, V.P. of Education for Cablevision, Mr. Anderson, and Town of Ramapo Supervisor, Chris St.Lawrence. The audience also included Mrs. Biddy's 6th grade Humanities class.
Students were awarded certificates from Mr. St.Lawrence and signed the Internet Pledge. This pledge gels with our philosophy of promoting safe use of Social Media and Social Networking Tools.

I want to thank everyone who was involved in making this very valuable and timely event a success. It could not have happened with out the students of the H.O.O.T. Club and their advisor Mrs. LeBlanc, our current 7th grade Guidance Counselor. Mrs. LeBlanc was assisted by Mrs. Leale, our current 6th grade Guidance Counselor.

Enjoy this quick clip of all the students after being awarded their certificates. Brian Fox, Principal

Supercharge Your Interactive Whiteboard

Check out this SlideShare Presentation by Lucas Gillespie.
Very well done!

Supercharge Your Interactive Whiteboard

View more presentations from Lucas Gillispie.

Reminder

The second day of 6th grade orientation at SMS will be August 30, 2010.

Chinese Bridge Delegation Glog

A quick Glogster I did about my participation in the Chinese Bridge Delegation.

5th Grade Parent Orientation

We had our annual meeting for incoming 5th grade parents.
Here is the link for the presentation in case you missed it or would like to review it again.

5th Grade Parent Orientation Presentation 2010

A reminder we are having a Coffee Hour for parents on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 9AM in our cafeteria.
All are welcome!

Brian Fox

Mother/Daughter Engineering Workshop at Suffern Middle School

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Originally uploaded by foxstop

What a great day!
Our first Mother/Daughter Engineering workshop saw 30 pairs of mothers and daughters exploring Engineering Careers through activities and presentations.

I want to express my thanks to Celeste Baine for conducting the workshop and showing our young ladies their potential for exploring engineering fields as they move towards high school.

The workshop was made possible through the commitment of the Ramapo Central Schools Board of Education, Superintendent Dr. Robert MacNaughton, and Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Judy Barbera.

Special thanks to Ms. Ivey, Assistant Principal at Suffern Middle School, and Travis Jackson, Guidance Counselor at Suffern MIddle School for attending and helping to make this event a success.

I want to encourage all of the young ladies and mothers who attended to continue to let me know what we can do to encourage them to continue exploring careers in Engineering.

There's a complete Flickr stream of pictures from the day at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smsprincipal/sets/72157623764821457/

Brian Fox

Girls and Engineering

So why aren't there more girls excited about exploring the field of Engineering?


This is a question we have been exploring here at Suffern Middle School. We have a well developed pre-Engineering program through Project Lead The Way called Gateway To Technology (GTT). It's an activities based program that is focused on challenge and inquiry. All of our students take 40 weeks of GTT before they leave Suffern Middle School. By all accounts we have engaging teachers and the students love being in the classes. We also have a high percentage of girls in our Accelerated Math and Enriched Science programs. It's about a 50/50 Girl/Boy split in those classes and performance on Regents Exams and New York State Intermediate Level Assessments are about equal as well.


There does seem to be more of a national awareness of how girls are performing in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) classes these days. A recent ASCD article talked about how to close the STEM Gender gap. The article does point out that there is little difference between boys and girls in math and science all the way through high school, but that only 11 percent of engineers and 27 percent of computer scientists are women. Today's New York Times met this issue head on by publishing an article called, "Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences."


That leads me to an event we have planned here at Suffern Middle School. I'm pleased to announce our first ever Mother/Daughter Engineering Workshop. The workshop will be held on Saturday, April 17, 2010 from 8:00AM-12:30PM. There is a nominal charge of $10.00 per Mother/Daughter pair, which will cover all materials and snacks for the workshop. There are limited seats for Mother/Daughter pairs from Suffern Middle School. You can download the registration form at: http://sc.ramapocentral.org/education/school/school.php?sectionid=7

We are thrilled that the Workshop Presenter will be Celeste Baine from the Engineering Education Service Center. Celeste talks about finding, educating, inspiring and recruiting students into engineering or other technical fields. For more information on Celeste you can check out her blog at: http://www.engineeringedu.com/celestes_blog/.
There are also a number of great resources for women in science and engineering on her site at: http://www.engineeringedu.com/wieres.html.


I hope you will consider joining us for this unique and exciting event. Please check out the flyer and RSVP by April 9, 2010 if you are interested in joining us.


Brian Fox, Principal