November Newsletter

Beatrice Middle School
Randy Sc
hlueter
Schlueter
hlueter,, Principal
Da
vid Kr
aus
David
Kraus
aus,, Assistant Principal
Amy R
andel, Counselor
Randel,
Trac
yP
ost , Counselor
acy
Post
November 2011
Vol. 20 No. 3
PRINCIPAL POINTS - RANDY SCHLUETER
Great American Smokeout, November 17, 2011
The American Cancer Society is marking the 35th Great American Smokeout on
November 18 by encouraging smokers to use the date to make a plan to quit, or to plan in
advance and quit smoking that day. By doing so, smokers will be taking an important step
towards a healthier life –one that can lead to reducing cancer risk. Quitting smoking is not
easy, but it can be done. To have the best chance of quitting successfully, you need to know
what you’re up against, what your options are, and where to go for help.
A Guide to Quitting Smoking is available through American Cancer Society WWW.CANCER.ORG . It includes
Tips and tools to help you quit smoking for good in addition to information on resources.
This message is brought to you as part of the “Healthy Minds/Healthy Bodies” educational campaign sponsored by Beatrice Community Hospital Gage County PATCH.. For further information and resources, contact Sharon
Langvardt, MS, LIMHP, CMFT, Blue Valley Behavioral Health and Beatrice Hospital PATCH coordinator (402) 2283386 or [email protected] or [email protected].
Congratulations to Jennifer Zimmerman and Tina Buss! Mrs. Zimmerman will be
BMS's new school nurse and Mrs. Buss is now our new attendance secretary.
What’s Wrong with Binge Drinking?
PLENTY!!!!
Let’s start with the bad news: binge drinking is strongly correlated with dangerous driving, assault, risky sex
and long-term illness. That’s according to TIME magazine, which got it’s information from the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC).
So what’s the good news? Some of the time people aren’t binge drinking when they consume alcohol. If that
sounds weak to you, it is: 90% of the alcohol teenagers drink—and more than half of the alcohol adults drink—is
consumed during binges. Furthermore, binge drinking rates haven’t declined in 15 years.
According to the CDC, binge drinking means having had a bunch of drinks at one sitting some time in the past
month. (Okay, the CDC does not use the word bunch. If you’re a teenager or an adult male, the technical definition is
that you had five or more drinks in a couple of hours in the past 30 days. If you’re an adult woman, you had four or
more drinks in the same time period.)
There’s more: according to the director of the CDC, most binge drinkers consume about eight drinks at a
sitting weekly. Even worse, government data can account, at most, for about 32 percent of alcohol consumed in this
country based on state sales data. Which means that people surveyed by the CDC are seriously underreporting how
much they’re drinking.
And that brings us around again to the public health impacts of alcohol consumption: drunk driving, fights,
sexual assault, STDS, and alcohol-related illness.
Maybe it’s time we started taking binge drinking seriously!
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL'S CORNER
Guidelines for Helping With Homework
David Kraus
~So You Don’t Work Harder Than Your Child!~
As most middle school students have realized, schoolwork not completed during the day becomes
homework at night. To help students be responsible for doing their homework, Jim Fay from the
Love and Logic Institute recommends the following guidelines when helping with homework.
· Set aside a time each day for family learning.
· Set aside at least 30 minutes, devoted to “family brain cell development.” During this time, there should be no TV, video
games, computer games, etc.
· Model your own excitement for learning by reading a book, writing letters, etc.
· Your child may learn by doing their homework, reading about something they love, writing stories, etc.
· Help only when your child truly wants it.
· Some parents make the mistake of forcing help upon their kids. This only creates frustration, anger, and kids who believe they
can’t learn without their parents’ help.
· Help only when there’s an absence of anger or frustration.
· When either you or your child gets frustrated or angry, learning becomes associated with frustration and anger.
· Help only when your child can describe what the teacher said.
· This ensures that your child continues to believe that it’s important to pay attention to teachers.
· Unfortunately, some kids learn that it’s best to “tune-out” at school and let their parents do all of the teaching at home.
· Move away from your child before he/she “gets it.”
· Some children believe they can only learn something, or “get it,” when an adult is in the same room...or is guiding them every
inch of the way.
· To prevent this dependency, avoid falling into the habit of sitting at the table as your child does their homework, especially
when they are on the brink of learning something new.
COUNSELORS' QUIPS
Amy Randel, Counselor
Tracy Post, Counselor
K-9 UNIT FROM THE BEATRICE
POLICE DEPARTMENT
VISIts AT THE
SADD MEETINg
OFFICER SOLDO AND HIS CANINE PARTNER, SOTER DID A LIVE DEMONSTRATION
WITH OUR SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER,
ZACH LAUENSTEIN. OFFICER SOLDO DEMONSTRATED HOW HIS PARTNER A DUTCH
SHEPHERD NAMED SOTER WILL ATTACK A
SUSPECT THAT REFUSES TO LISTEN TO
THE DIRECTIONS OF A POLICE OFFICER.
SOTER LIVES WITH OFFICER SOLDO AND
HIS FAMILY. OFFICER SOLDO AND OFFICER
SOTER HAVE BEEN PARTNERS FOR OVER
18 MONTHS. ABOUT 120 SADD MEMBERS
ATTENDED THE DEMONSTRATION ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 3. THE NEXT SADD MEETING WILL BE HELD IN THE HEALTH AND FITNESS ROOM AT 8:00 AM ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7.
MUSIC NOTES ….
We had a great time at our Pops Concert. We have many talented students here at
BMS. I enjoyed listening to their performances very much. Just having the courage
to get up in front of an audience shows a tremendous amount of courage.
Over Inservice we had a training session that reminded me of the need to monitor
kids’ music. For many of our students, performers and non-performers, music is a
significant part of their lives. Our training session concerned dating violence and
mentioned the influence of the media as a contributing factor promoting violence in
dating relationships. This is very true. I often scan through music videos I know the
kids are watching to see what they are like. The videos portray powerful images
that you may not want your children exposed to and promote behaviors and attitudes you may not appreciate. Often, we adults cannot understand the lyrics being
sung or rapped. You can choose to play a song on You Tube that shows all the
lyrics. Sometimes a word may look suspicious in the context of the song or video
but it seems like a harmless word. You can find other definitions for the words in
Urban Dictionary.com. Many apparently harmless words carry an alternative meaning that is very inappropriate.
I hope you can all join us for our Holiday Concert in December. This concert will
feature vocal groups, bands, and orchestras.
BEATRICE MIDDLE SCHOOL
NOVEMBER 2011
SPORTS SCHEDULE
GO
BMS!!
GO
BMS!!
7TH & 8TH GRADE GIRLS BASKETBALL
7th Grade Coaches: Mrs. Thies/Mr. Campbell
8th Grade Coaches: Mr. Bell/Mr. Policky
7th Grade Girls Basketball
7TH & 8TH GRADE WRESTLING
Nov. 17
Seward
4:00 (T)
Coaches: Mr. Kassemeier/Mr. Vetrovsky
Nov. 22
Nov. 29
Wymore
Seward Tourn
4:00 (H)
TBA (T)
Nov. 17
Nov. 19
Nov. 22
Nov. 29
8th Grade Girls Basketball
Nov. 17
Nov. 22
Nov. 29
Seward
Wymore
Seward Tourn
4:00 (T)
5:00 (H)
TBA
Seward
Wymore Tour
Fairbury
Columbus
4:30
8:30
6:00
4:00
(H)
(T)
(T)
(H)
~ART NEWS~
Each month an artist from each period of Mrs. Thies’s art classes will be recognized. These following students have
demonstrated a high level of craftsmanship, art appreciation, and respect among their peers in the BMS art world.
Congratulations to the following students:
Cheyanne Worster
Kersten Koch-Roland
Skylar Thomas
Alexis Collins
Moncia Fujan
Maria Pinkerton
to
Hunter
Bolden
for winning the
BOLTAGE
Walk or Bike
Every Day
drawing for a
brand new
bike!!
FCS Cookbooks Created by the Class of 2016
Last year students shared favorite family food stories and recipes as part of their FCS Foods Unit. These
were all collected and have become a part of the 6th BMS Cookbook. Students may purchase one and
remember a few fun memories for years to come, as well as have many great recipes. So if you would
like one, read on . . .
·
Purchase Price - $5.00
·
Purchase Dates– During the month of December.
(Listen to announcements for more details.)
·
Times/Places – Students will sell during mentor or stop in
Room 106 to purchase.
Great Christmas Idea!
7 SOUTH PARENTS.......
Want to know what your child’s homework assignments are? Check out Mrs.
Sykes website. Here you will find the homework assignments for Language Arts,
Math, Pre-Algebra, Social Studies and Science. This page is updated on a daily basis
and will let you know not only the daily assignments but also will keep you up to
date when long-term projects are due and when quizzes and tests will be. This is a great way to
keep on top of things and will also allow you and your child to keep current on assignments when
they are absent. Simply log on to beatricepublicschools.org and click on the Middle School tab.
From there, click on the gray Teacher Websites box and click on Sykes. The assignments are posted
on the TEAM NEWS link.
2011-2012
7 Northern
Knights
Tilden Bardsley
Emma DuBois
Alternate:
Kaylee
VanWinkle
7 Southern Pride
Nathan Spilker
Dalton Hartig
Alternate:
Tia Buhr
8 East Extreme
Dylan Burenheide
Rebekah Henderson
Cooper Weeks
8 West Wing
Alternate:
Trevor Eichenberger
Ashley Hothan
Caylee Lueders Austin Ragland
Connor Husa
6th grade student council members will
Alternate:
be elected at the beginning of the 2nd
Trinity Fakler
quarter.
MEET YOUR BEATRICE MIDDLE SCHOOL'S
STUDENTS OF CHARACTER!!
CITIZENSHIP
Left to right: Corlyn
Regier, Kirsten Baete,
Randal Westlake-Melroy,
Jacob Wright, Taiten
Harms, Hannah Drent,
and Alexis Barnes.
TRUSTWORTHINESS
Left to right: Tia Buhr,
Alyssa Oakes, Katie
Steffen, Jake Brod,
Lilianna Cowell, Megan
Plessel, and Paige Klaus.
RESPECT
Left to right: Kaela
Meyer, Samantha
Maguire, Callie Lamkin,
Dakota Kerner, Hannah
Sexton, Brayden
Frerichs, and Diana
Hatfield.
PARENT COUNCIL
MEETING
Mr. Essam's and Mr.
Policky's Civics classes are
looking for old, worn,
faded, torn and tattered
United States Flags. These flags will be
used for the lesson on the proper retirement of the United States Flag. Flags
may be sent or brought to the middle
school office. It is very much appreciated!!
Nov. 7
6:15 p.m.
Check the middle school section of the
Beatrice Public Schools's website for
agenda.
The staff at Beatrice Middle School would like to thank
the parents for bringing food before Parent/Teacher
Conferences. It was greatly appreciated and delicious!!
Beatrice Middle School
215 N. 5th Street
Beatrice, NE 68310
BMS Messenger
Editors
Tina Imes
Laurie Bloomquist
Non-Profit
U.S. Postage
P A I D
Beatrice, NE
Permit #64
68310
The Mission of the Beatrice Public Schools
is to prepare all students for lifelong
learning and responsible citizenship.