Quarterly review of progress, growing classrooms grant available

This is the biweekly electronic MMSD family newsletter. To sign up to receive this newsletter via
email, please visit www.mmsd.org/newsletter. Please make sure to add [email protected]
to your email contacts to ensure delivery. Call 608-663-1879 for more information.
March 19, 2014
Dear MMSD Families,
This week, we released our second quarterly review of progress on the district's strategic
framework. We've been working hard this year to keep our focus in schools on the day-to-day work
of teaching and learning, while building the right systems and structures to empower schools to
serve students and families beƩer than ever before. As we do that work, we commiƩed to
reporƟng publicly on our progress on our strategic framework every quarter. I hope you'll take a
look!
Sincerely,
Jennifer Cheatham
Table of Contents
Framework Focus, p. 1
Quarterly Review of
Progress, p. 1
Nuestro Mundo learns
about Madison's origin, p.
1
Common Core, p. 3
Read Up visits Lindbergh,
p. 3
News & InformaƟon, p. 3
Newly redesigned
websites, p. 3
Growing classrooms grant
now available, p. 3
Quarterly Review of Progress
Our second quarterly review of progress of the strategic
framework is available now at www.mmsd.org/quarterlyreview.
Please take a moment to read through it and give us your
feedback.
Nuestro Mundo learns about Madison's origin
Third grade students at
Nuestro Mundo Elementary
School have been especially
excited and engaged in Social
Studies class this year thanks
to collaboraƟon between their
classroom teacher and the
experience of a classroom
parent. Spanish Literacy teacher Maestra Sarah Niesen and Field
Archaeologist from the Dodge County Historical Society Museum
Mr. Chris Veit have combined forces to bring the history of
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Summer school
enrichment, p. 4
CreaƟve commercials
contest, p. 4
School Spotlight, p. 4
Arts and Words FesƟval at
O'Keeffe, p. 4
East High tax clinic, p. 5
A big shout out to West's
custodial staff, p. 5
Spanish Home Literacy
Program at Thoreau, p. 5
MMSD Strings FesƟval, p.
6
Reading bulleƟn board at
Lindbergh, p. 6
Memorial's CyberPatriot
team wins state
compeƟƟon, p. 6
Four middle school
students advance to
MathCounts naƟonal
compeƟƟon, p. 7
Community Events, p. 8
MSCR Safe Haven Summer
Camps, p. 8
FesƟval of the Arts, p. 9
Workshops on guiding
children's behavior, p. 9
Community Events from
your local non-profit, p. 9
_________________
Madison alive, in more than one way.
The third grade students have learned about the Ice Age and how
glaciers formed the city's four lakes. They are also learning about
the first seƩlers of Madison. Students will soon be learning about
why and how Madison became our State Capital and why people
chose to establish themselves in this area.
Mr. Veit has graciously volunteered his
Ɵme preparing interesƟng PowerPoint
presentaƟons and bringing in arƟfacts,
arrowheads, fossils, maps and books. A
photograph of him holding part of a
mammoth bone sparked some students
to start saying, "Someday I want to
grow up and do what Mr. Veit does!"
Mr. Veit has also talked to students
about possible future careers related to
history and archaeology and has
encouraged students to "think more like
a historian and to be curious about the world around you."
Maestra Sarah Niesen has invited Mr. Veit to be a guest speaker in
her classroom once a month to help the students learn key
concepts, quesƟons and vocabulary that is part of their curriculum.
Even when Mr. Veit is not in the classroom, the students are
making connecƟons and relaƟng to what he has delivered in his
presentaƟons, making the collaboraƟon and connecƟon between
teachers and parents even more powerful and engaging for
students in the classroom.
Maestra Sarah Niesen states, "It is such a pleasure and an honor to
have a special guest speaker from the community in our classroom,
who is also a parent of one of the students I work with. It is such a
joy collaboraƟng with an enthusiasƟc expert in the field about a
subject that I am teaching. For my students and me, it makes
teaching and learning FUN!"
Mr. Veit was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and completed his
undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. He
received his Master's in EducaƟon and Bachelor's degree in
Philosophy and Anthropology. He aƩended graduate school in
Billings, Montana. He is currently on the ExecuƟve Board for the
Friends of Azlatan State Park.
If you are interested in having him be a special guest at your
school, please contact him at [email protected].
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MMSD Planetarium King of Planets?
The next public show at the
MMSD
planetarium
is
TONIGHT, March 19 at 6:30
and 7:45pm. Tickets are only
$2.50.
_________________
Read Up visits Lindbergh Elementary
Read Up visited Lindbergh
Elementary School on Tuesday,
March 4 and recorded 6 great
videos of families reading
together using the Read Up
strategies! Find out more at
www.mmsd.org/readup.
The first of our newly redesigned websites is live!
We encourage you to visit Shorewood
Elementary School's new site at
hƩps://shorewoodweb.madison.k12.wi.us.
All school sites will be very similar in
design, so log on and start exploring!
Annual Midvale-Lincoln
Rummage Sale
The Midvale-Lincoln PTO will
hold their annual rummage
sale fundraiser on Saturday,
March 29 from 8am - 1pm at
Midvale Elementary School
_________________
Memorial High School
Rummage & Bake Sale
Join Memorial High School
on Saturday, April 5 from
8am-1pm
You'll see we've made the site mobilefriendly and all the informaƟon you need is
easy to find, including:
School closings
ReporƟng an absence
Lunch menus
Searchable event calendars
Teacher contact info
Homework/missing assignment lists
Once you've had a chance to look around, send us your thoughts
to [email protected]. Your feedback plays a crucial
role in improving the sites.
Growing classrooms grant now available!
Check out the 2014-2015 applicaƟon for the Growing Outdoor
Classrooms Pilot project!
The goal of this three-year project is to create 15 model schools
that integrate outdoor learning and garden based educaƟon in a
holisƟc way across academic content areas. Ten down, five to go!
This spring, GROW will be accepƟng applicaƟons for Year 3 of the
Growing Outdoor Classroom Program.
This year-long program begins May 2014. All schools will be expected to have completed their
outdoor classrooms by June 2015. Any public elementary and middle school in Dane County is
eligible to apply. ApplicaƟons are due April 11, 2014 by 5:00 p.m.
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Find out more about summer school enrichment at www.mmsd.org/summerschool.
Middle and high school students challenged to enter creaƟve commercials
on diet and exercise
A video contest for middle and high school students has been announced by Public HealthMadison and Dane County, the Dane County Youth Commission and the Madison City Channel.
The contest is supported by UW Health-American Family Children's Hospital and the Madison
Media InsƟtute.
Middle and High School students are being offered an opportunity to focus their creaƟvity on the
creaƟon of either 30 or 60 second TV public service commercials dealing with either healthy eaƟng
or keeping physically acƟve. "Engaging and educaƟng youth about the importance of maintaining a
healthy lifestyle is key to happy and healthy adults," said Meghan Benson, a member of the Dane
County Youth Commission and Director of Community EducaƟon at Planned Parenthood. "Youth
are an important voice and we are excited to see their creaƟvity at work to promote healthy eaƟng
and fitness."
Top rated videos will be presented for airing through local media outlets. Top teams will receive
trophies and be recognized at an awards ceremony in May. The grand prize is free enrollment for
all winning team members in the Madison Media InsƟtutes Summer Video ProducƟon Camp.
The contest has been announced to both public and private middle and high schools throughout
Dane County. More informaƟon about the contest and entry details and rules is available at the
contest website. The deadline for submissions is April 9.
Anyone with quesƟons about the contest can email us at [email protected].
Arts and Words FesƟval at O'Keeffe
O'Keeffe Middle School hosted the first annual Arts and Words Family
FesƟval on February 12, 2014. The school was filled with student work,
student performances and family-friendly acƟviƟes.
A few highlights of the evening include Spoken Word performances,
stop moƟon animaƟon creaƟon with Madison Public Library and
student buskers who played music in the hallways to raise funds in
support of the Literacy Network of Dane County.
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East High tax clinic
East High School held its first ever tax clinic this past February.
Over 30 students came in aŌer school with their W2's to learn
how to fill out a 1040EZ.
Personal Finance Teacher David Kruchten helped students learn
how to fill out their own federal return and send it in. Overall
students received over $5,000 in refunds. The highlight was one
student who did not know he could or should file, and ended
up filing federal, state and back-filing last year's federal to get a
whopping $1,100 refund which he plans to use to pay off his
car.
Next year, they plan to expand on this learning opportunity by bringing in a tax professional to
work on more complicated issues and uƟlizing the e-filing system.
A big shout out to John Flatman and David Ary of West High's custodial staff
A big shout out to John Flatman, David Ary and the rest of West High School's custodial staff for
their excellent maintenance and cleaning of the stage area and auditorium aŌer opening weekend
of the school musical, Beauty and the Beast. These men the school's knights in shining armor and
the show could not go on without them.
Bravo, John, David and the rest of the custodial staff! Thanks to all for your dedicated service to our
school! We also have to extend our thanks to John and David for intensely searching for and finding
the wallet of one of our young audience members. He will be forever grateful and so will his
parents.
The play was a huge success, receiving rave reviews which highlighted the excellent acƟng, singing,
costumes, music and crew. One aƩendee said of the play: "To say it was absolutely fantasƟc would
be the ulƟmate in understatement." CongratulaƟons to everyone who was involved!
Spanish Home Literacy Program at Thoreau
Did you know that Thoreau Elementary School has a program for checking out Spanish books?
Thoreau's Spanish Home Literacy Program started three years ago. The school staff says that they
want everyone to read at home in any language, but realized that they need to provide more
access to books in Spanish if they want to support reading in Spanish at home.
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Last year, just over 1,000 books were borrowed, read and returned through
this program. This year there are currently 37 children using the books from
the cart. No one is forced to take extra "Spanish homework," and books can
be returned and exchanged as oŌen as children decide they want to switch.
Some students borrow a new book every day, while others prefer to read a
book at a home a few Ɵmes before returning it.
To learn more about the book cart or to donate books in Spanish, please
contact Jason Durocher at 204-6966.
MMSD Strings FesƟval engages 2,500 students
Now in its 47th year, the annual MMSD Strings FesƟval "is
something incredible to experience," according to MMSD Fine
Arts Coordinator Laurie Fellenz. 2,500 students in grades five
through twelve parƟcipate in the all-day celebraƟon of string
instruments.
The fesƟval takes place at each of the four comprehensive high
schools with parƟcipaƟon from middle and elementary school
musicians from each high school aƩendance area. This year the
fesƟval will be on March 22.
The Strings FesƟval was created by Marvin Rabin, founder of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony
Orchestra. This will be the first Strings FesƟval since Rabin passed away in December. Rabin's
teaching and leadership influenced generaƟons of students.
Reading bulleƟn board at Lindbergh Elementary
Over the past few weeks, Lindbergh Elementary School has
been collecƟng staff photos from when they were kids. AŌer a
few were gathered, they made small posters showing the
pictures alongside the cover of their favorite childhood books.
The students (and staff!) have had a great Ɵme trying to guess
who is who! Can you guess who these smiling faces are?
Memorial's CyberPatriot team wins state compeƟƟon
CongratulaƟons to the Memorial High School
CyberPatriot team for winning first place in the
state compeƟƟon on Friday, February 21! Their
four-person team crushed the compeƟƟon,
showing off their cybersecurity skills.
CyberPatriots is a naƟonal cyber defense
compeƟƟon for high school students which
aims to inspire students to pursue careers in
cybersecurity or other STEM - science,
technology, engineering, mathemaƟcs careers. As Americans become more dependent on technology in their everyday lives, it is more
crucial than ever that cyberspaces are secure. Cybersecurity, or informaƟon technology security,
6
protects computers, networks, programs and data from unauthorized users, or hackers, accessing
or changing saved informaƟon.
The CyberPatriot team, made up of 10th grade students Sam Buxton and Donald Yde and 11th
grade students Silas Exum and Aaron Jing, works all year long learning about computer systems to
prepare for the compeƟƟon. During the compeƟƟon, the team has 6 hours to lock down up to 3
virtual machines to prevent hacking or aƩacks. This year they worked on a Windows 8 virtual
machine, a Windows 8 server virtual machine, and an Ubuntu virtual machine. They work to fix any
vulnerabiliƟes the machines may have.
Team member Silas Exum represented Wisconsin in last year's Future Business Leaders of America
(FBLA) naƟonal compeƟƟon in the cybersecurity event. In April of this year, Aaron Jing will be
compeƟng with FBLA in cybersecurity and Silas will be compeƟng with FBLA in computer
networking. Good luck to both of you!
Coach Keola Exum is a food service worker at Cherokee Middle School and is currently working on
her graduate degree in educaƟon from Cardinal Stritch University. Rob Thomas has been working
with the team for the past three years as a mentor in the computer field.
The CyberPatriot team would like to dedicate their win to the beloved memory of Principal Bruce
Dahmen.
Four middle school students advance to MathCounts naƟonal compeƟƟon
Middle school students from the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) performed very
well at the State MathCounts CompeƟƟon this year. The compeƟƟon was sponsored by the
Wisconsin Society of Professional Engineers (WSPE) and was held at the Lowell Center on the
UW-Madison campus on March 1, 2014.
The top four state winners will represent Wisconsin at the NaƟonal MathCounts CompeƟƟon in
Orlando, Florida on May 8-11, 2014. Just like last year, all members on the Wisconsin team this
year are from MMSD schools. They outlasted 128 of their peers from 47 middle schools throughout
Wisconsin.
The 2014 Wisconsin MathCounts Team. Front row: Loi Nguyen (coach), Zander Rossman and
Anusha Sahai. Back row: Charles Hua, Leo Ma and Norm Arendt of WSPE.
Charles Hua placed first and Zander Rossman placed second, both from Hamilton Middle School.
The third and fourth places went to Anusha Sahai of Spring Harbor Middle School and Leo Ma of
Jefferson Middle School, respecƟvely. Coaching the state team at the naƟonal compeƟƟon will be
7
Loi Nguyen, a math teacher at Hamilton.
In addiƟon to those four students, other MMSD students on the top 10 list included Sean Chang
(5th place) of Hamilton and Brandon Jin (8th place) of Jefferson.
Hamilton and Jefferson also won first and third place team Ɵtles, respecƟvely. The Hamilton team,
coached by Loi Nguyen, consists of Charles Hua, Zander Rossman, Sean Chang and Reggie Cai. The
Jefferson team, coached by Sowmya Partha, is composed of Leo Ma, Brandon Jin, Albert Men and
Samik Partha.
Started in 1982, MathCounts is a mathemaƟcs compeƟƟon designed for sixth, seventh and eighth
graders only. The subject maƩer includes algebra, geometry and combinatorics. The compeƟƟon is
divided into four stages: school, chapter, state and naƟonal. MathCounts is regarded as the most
presƟgious compeƟƟon of middle school mathemaƟcs in the U.S.
CongratulaƟons to our mathletes! Good luck at NaƟonals and have fun in Disney World!
MSCR Safe Haven Summer Camps
The Madison School and RecreaƟon (MSCR) Safe Haven Summer Camp provides structured childcentered acƟviƟes in areas such as dramaƟc play, art, science, construcƟve playthings and board
games. The camps are offered June 23 - August 15 from 7:45am to 5:30pm. There is no
programming on Friday, July 4, 2014.
Other acƟviƟes include:
Weekly swim lessons
Field Trips
Gardening projects
Indoor and outdoor acƟve games
Fun literacy, math and science acƟviƟes
Children must register for the enƟre 8-week program. The fee for the 8-week camp is $1,096
($137/week) for MMSD residents. Payments are scheduled on a bi-monthly basis. Financial
assistance is available.
The Safe Haven Summer Camp sites are listed below. These camps are open to any MMSD resident
and are also open to non-residents (non-MMSD residents pay 50% more than residents). The
parƟcipant does not need to live in the school aƩendance area of the Safe Haven Summer Camp
site.
Allis Safe Haven Summer Camp, 4201 Buckeye Road, Madison, WI 53716
Emerson Safe Haven Summer Camp, 2421 E. Johnson St., Madison, WI 53703
Falk Safe Haven Summer Camp, 6323 Woodington Way, Madison, WI 53711
Register:
At www.mscr.org
In Allis, Emerson or Falk school offices, or
Call 608-204-6561 to have form mailed to you
For more informaƟon call Vicki at 608-204-6561.
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MSCR to host 3rd Annual FesƟval of the Arts
Madison School & Community RecreaƟon (MSCR) is hosƟng the 3rd Annual FesƟval of the Arts at La
FolleƩe High School, on April 10 at 6pm.
All middle school and high school students in MSCR aŌer school programs are encouraged to
register their club/team. For addiƟonal informaƟon, please contact Cassie Kopp at 204-3055.
"The FesƟval of the Arts is an opportunity for young people to display their talents for family,
friends, and community members. It is really exciƟng to see how creaƟve each group is." - Ian
Hannah, MSCR Middle School Specialist.
Workshops on guiding children's behavior
The Family & Community Engagement Department is offering workshops at the Boys and Girls Club
of Dane County. Call 608-663-5977 for more informaƟon.
Community Events from your local non-profit
The events/acƟviƟes listed below are not school-sponsored, and the Madison Metropolitan School
District does not approve, support, supervise or endorse these programs/acƟviƟes.
View all opportuniƟes and submit yours at mmsd.org/CommunityEvents!
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