A monthly newsletter from the school principal

Volume 12, Issue 8 April 2015

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Last Friday it was announced that I have

been selected as the Maine Principal of the Year for

2015. It is a true honor that is a reflection of our

school. I tell you this not to toot my own horn, but

to let you know how enjoyable it was to share this

with the staff and students at Brunswick Junior High

School. We do not do many assemblies during the

school year, so it was extra special to have all of our

students together at one time. They were incredibly

supportive and, of course, well behaved. It was a

moment I will not forget. Thank you to the

incredible teachers and staff at Brunswick Junior

High, our wonderful students, the supportive

administrative team and School Board, and the

parents who are our educational partners.

As always if you have a school related

question or concern, please contact the school at

319-1930.

Sincerely,

Walter Wallace

Principal

8th grade students & their parents are

cordially invited to attend the

GRADE NINE SPRING FLING

A special program for

students & parents on

Thursday, April 9, 2015 at the

Brunswick High School Cafeteria

at 6:00 P.M.

Refreshments and Entertainment

Extracurricular/Sports Exhibits

Speakers and Tours

How to prepare yourself

for your child’s

transition into high school

Please mark your calendar!

Maintain good posture to support a healthy body. Bad posture can cause headaches, neck, shoulder, arm and back pain, numbness and tingling of your hands and arms.

Do these things to try to maintain good posture:

Keep body aligned while sitting in a chair or when standing Get up and move. Take a break to stretch, stand or walk Use bags and backpacks that are designed to minimize

back pain and try to lighten the load of the backpack Position computer screens to natural resting eye position

can help avoid leaning or straining the neck with the head tilted forward

Give a thought to your posture – your body will thank you! Happy Spring!

Helen Tetu, RN

Congratulations to seventh grader Isabella

Banks and to eighth grader Delaina

Hildreth who recently received an

Honorable Mention in the Scholastic Writing

Awards sponsored by the

University of Southern Maine.

Isabella’s short story was entitled “Finally Me,” and

Delaina’s story was entitled “Lost Soul.”

We still have our Yankee

Candle fundraiser open for on

-line orders! If you are

interested in placing an

order, please go to

www.yankeecandlefundraising.com

and enter group number

990044196 in the “Start

Shopping” box. Orders ship

directly to your home and our

school receives 40% profit on

every sale! Help support

BJHS and shop

Yankee Candles!

Why are boys underperforming in reading? While there is no definitive answer to this question, a number of

researchers have posited several reasons to explain why boys

perform at lower levels than girls on reading assessments. Since

this discrepancy does not widen significantly until the middle

grades years, many of the thoughts are focused on develop-

ments occurring during adolescence.

Boys generally take longer than girls to develop comparable

literacy skills. What is considered a grade level appropriate

reading skill for a girl cannot always be considered the same for

a boy.

Boys generally need more “teacher time” than girls do. In the

larger, time limited classes of middle and high school, teachers

are unable to give boys as much one-on-one time. Therefore,

they do not make as much progress in reading as girls do.

Boys of all ages generally read less than girls.

Middle school aged boys indicate that they believe reading is

much harder than it was in elementary school.

Boys claim reading becomes less enjoyable as they become

older.

Many adolescent boys fail to see real life applications in what

they read. Literature read in Language Arts classes tells

“stories” rather than providing useful information. Some boys

stop reading because they think there is no practical value in

reading.

As they reach adolescence more and more boys stop consider-

ing themselves readers. Research on the reading attitudes of

middle school boys shows that many consider themselves “non-

readers”.

Reading is sometimes stereotyped as a “feminine” activity.

When boys reach adolescence their gender identification be-

comes more important. If they believe reading is not a mascu-

line activity, they will abandon it in order to demonstrate their

masculinity.

What can parents and teachers do to help

adolescent boys become stronger readers?

Again there is no “silver bullet” that will help all adolescent

boys become stronger readers. However, research suggests

there are several strategies adults can employ to facilitate their

reading development.

Use texts boys like to read. While boys generally perform

lower than girls on reading assessments, there is one area in

which they actually “outscore” the girls. Boys’ scores on sec-

tions of tests featuring informational texts are often higher than

those of their female counterparts. This seems to indicate that

informational texts are the boys’ forte. Teachers and parents

should provide boys with informational texts to read and learn

from. These can include magazine and newspaper articles, non-

fiction books about topics boys are interested in (like hobbies or

sports) and instructional manuals. Surveys of boys show they

are not only interested in informational texts. They also like

graphic novels and comic books, stories featuring male protago-

nists, humorous stories and works that allow them to escape

(such as science-fiction and fantasy). Offering these texts to

boys as instructional tools or for pleasure reading will increase

their interest in reading.

Use shorter texts. Because adolescent boys often consider

themselves “non-readers” they do not want to spend long peri-

ods of time sitting and reading a text. Provide them with short

“chunks” or “episodes” of text to allow them the opportunity to

read for a focused period of time that doesn’t feel like “too

much” to them.

Allow boys to actively respond to texts. In the typical English

Language Arts classroom students read a text and then discuss

its meaning. Boys generally do not like to sit around and talk

about literature. Research shows they want to actively and

physically engage with a text. Teachers should provide boys

with opportunities to actively respond to what they read. This

can mean acting out portions of a story, creating visual or phys-

ical representations of the text or performing an activity out-

lined in the story.

Know your boys and appeal to their individual interests and

preferences. Boys are more likely to become engaged in their

learning when they feel like it has some application to their

lives. When adults take the time to get to know what makes a

child “tick” and then tailors their reading experiences to fit the

child, he will embrace the activity. This is not only true for

boys. Any adolescent, male or female, wants to see value in

what they are doing. Take time to discover what your children

are interested in and offer them texts that speak to their interests

and preferences.

Provide opportunities to immediately apply what they have

read. Adolescent boys generally do not like to focus on learning

information that they might use later. Saying “you’ll need to

know this in a few years” or “this will help you later in life”

causes male students to tune an adult out. Instead, allow boys to

immediately apply what they learn through reading so that they

develop the understanding that reading has real life value. For

example, if your class is reading an informational article about

the effects of global warming ask students (boys and girls alike)

to write a letter to their congressperson(s) or an environmental

group stating their views on the topic and offering solutions to

the issue.

Provide as much one-on-one time with boys as possible. Be-

cause boys seem to request and require more teacher time than

girls do, teachers should try to structure their classrooms so that

they can offer boys opportunities to have one-on-one time with

the teacher. This does not mean that categorically boys should

always have more access to the teacher than girls. Those that

need teacher support, male or female, should be given opportu-

nities to work one-on-one with the teacher as needed.

Offer good male reader role models for boys. Since some

boys believe that reading is a “girly” activity it is important for

them to see that males read in real life. Seek out good male

reader role models for boys. These may be celebrities or men in

the community who boys look up to.

Student Council is hosting an activity night on April 10th

directly after school to Get Air indoor trampoline park! We will be leaving directly after-school and returning around 6:30pm. The cost per jumper

is $25 for 2 hours of jump time! Permission slips and

more information is available outside room 309, Ms. Russo’s

room.

Celebrate spring by enjoying time outside! Go for a walk, run, bike ride, or play a game, or work in the garden. To celebrate the warmer weather and get back to our healthy habits, The Wellness Team at BJHS has developed the first ever 5-2-1-0+8 Challenge. This will act as a reminder of the healthy messages from Let’s Go! Students who participate in the Challenge will be eligible for exciting prizes related to healthy eating and physical activity. This is also a great time to work together as a family on making small changes to improve our health habits.

The healthy snack cart is open EVERY DAY

now between periods 2 and 3 by Mrs.

Duffy’s office. The cart sells a variety of

healthy snacks for only 50 cents! We have

Veggie Sticks, pretzels, cheese sticks,

yogurt, Nutrigrain Bars, Pirate Booty,

Goldfish crackers, Belvita, and much more!!

The world is mud-luscious and

puddle-wonderful. e. e. cummings

The deadline for yearbook orders is April 25th!!

Order yours on-line now by clicking on the link from our school homepage. Questions? Please email me

at lhench@brunswick. k12.me.us

Would using a calculator help you solve the

problem?

Would it help to go on to another problem

and come back to this one later?

Why don’t we look for some help on the

Internet?

If you do only part of a problem, will the

teacher give you some credit?

Can you go in before or after school for help

from the teacher?

Remember, support homework—don’t do it!

Besides supporting your child on homework,

show the importance of learning math by helping

your child connect math with daily life. Point out

your own activities that involve mathematics, such

as deciding if you have enough money to buy items

on a shopping list, estimating how long it will take

to make a trip, determining how much carpet or

wallpaper to buy for a room, or developing a

schedule to complete a series of tasks. Talking

about these everyday situations will give you a

chance to increase your child’s appreciation for the

usefulness of math!

Math homework is due

tomorrow —

how can I help?

Homework causes trouble in many house-

holds. Relax—remember whose homework it

is! Think of yourself as more of a guide than a

teacher. Don’t take over for your child. Doing that

only encourages him or her to give up easily or to

ask for help when a problem becomes difficult.

The best thing you can do is ask questions.

Then listen to what your child says. Often, simply

explaining something out loud can help your child

figure out the problem. Encourage your child to

show all work, complete with written descriptions

of all thinking processes. This record will give your

child something to look back on, either to review or

to fix a mistake, and can also help the teacher

understand how the problem was solved.

Asking the following kinds of questions can

help you and your child tackle the challenges of

math homework:

What is the problem that you’re working on?

Are there instructions or directions? What

do they say?

Are there words in the directions or the

problem that you do not understand?

Where do you think you should begin?

Is there anything that you already know that

can help you work through the problem?

What have you done so far?

Can you find help in your textbook or notes?

Do you have other problems like this one?

Can we look at one of those together?

Can you draw a picture or make a diagram to

show how you solved a problem like this

one?

What is your teacher asking you to do? Can

you explain it to me?

Can you tell me where you are stuck?

Is there someone you can call to get help?

Can you discuss the problem with a

classmate?

HOMEWORK CLUB Homework Club meets every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour in room 309 for some quiet, guided, homework time

(with snacks!) Walk, arrange a ride, or catch the 3:30 “late” bus home. All

are welcome.

The Brunswick Junior High 7th and 8

th grade math

teams have had a busy winter season. The 8th grade

team came in first place out of 16 teams in all three Central Maine Math League meets this year. The 7

th

grade team came in third place out of 16 teams at the last Central Maine Math League meet. At the March Southern Maine Math League meet, Daniel Lyons earned a first place individual high score for 8

th grade.

The 8th grade team placed seventh out of 25 teams,

and the 7th grade team placed fifth out of 22 teams.

Daniel Lyons also placed seventh overall at the Math Counts State Final Competition out of a field of 77 competitors. Way to go, Mathletes!!

During Spring conferences, parents will

be able to sign up for next year’s

electives. Seventh graders may

choose Chorus, Band, French or Spanish,

or a combination. 8th graders may choose

Band, French or Spanish

(provided they have completed the

previous year successfully). Chorus is

open to everyone. These courses are in

lieu of study halls. Please note that all sign

-ups will need the signature of a parent/

guardian and the approval of the teacher.

B.J.H.S. Celebrates Poetry During the last week of April, B.J.H.S will celebrate Poetry Week. Each day, select teachers will read their fa-vorite poems over the announcements. On Thursday, April 30th, students will celebrate "Poem in Your Pocket Day." Students will have the opportunity to pick a poem from a basket in the library and grab a sticker. When they see another person with a sticker, they can share or exchange their poems. The town of Brunswick also celebrates "Poem in Your Pocket Day," on April 30th, which culminates in an "Open Mic Night" at Curtis Li-brary’s Morrell Room from 6:30-8 p.m., during which volunteers read their favorite poems. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Peg Acheson.