BMS | October 2020 Newsletter

BROOKWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL

OCTOBER 2020

#BrookwoodStrong Well there’s no doubt about it, Fall is here. We are thankful that we are all here and able to watch it with you and your children. We here at BMS are on a continual learning journey to learn new and innovative ways to teach our students.

Reminder we are taking attendance each period and it is imperative that students are logged onto their ipads/computers on time. Students are expected to attend the synchornized (live) teacher instruction for the first (20-25) minutes of class. The remainder of the class period is asychronized (not live). We still ask that students stay logged on and use this time to work independently on their assignments. The teacher will be readily available to answer questions and/or work with small groups of students in a breakout room to further assist if needed.

ClassDojo is our main communication tool. If you are not connected please call the school so you can get connected.

Do you need access to PowerSchool? Please send an email to bmsremotelearning@brookwood167.org, send a message through ClassDojo or call the office. Please remember we are here to assist you and your child! f

www.facebook.com/brookwood167

t

www.twitter.com/brookwood167

w www.brookwood167.org

g

v

Our Vision

Mission Statement

Our overall vision is to improve the achievement of all students, regardless of race, socio-economic status, gender, or ability levels (disabilities).

We share the accountability of student achievement throughout the school. We believe in using researchbased practices to achieve our goals. We promote school and community involvement because we believe that these partnerships help us meet the needs of all of our students.

Brookwood School District 167, in partnership with parents and community, will create a learning environment in which all students excel at becoming lifelong learners and decision makers.

We Believe... aF milies shape their children’s motivation, confidence, and academic success by being interested and involved in their overall deev lopment.

All students are unique and should be challenged to the highest level of academic and artistic excellence.

We are committed to: • providing students with highly qualified teachers • providing our staff with professional development

In the importance of staff deev lopment opportunities based on best practices and educational research.

In educating our children in a safe and nurturing environment with access to state of the art technology.

The school system should teach students to think critically enabling them to become contributing citizens in our global society.

In continuous improvement in all aspects of the school system to o f ster a culture of excellence, accountability and integrity.

In responsible stewardship of financial and phsy ical resources.

f

www.facebook.com/brookwood167

t

www.twitter.com/brookwood167

w www.brookwood167.org

EMAIL US: bmsremotelearning@brookwood167.org CALL US: 708.758.5350

Technology Help Line!

If your child is having any technology problems connecting to their teacher’s Google Meet (live teaching), please contact our help desk at (708) 300-3553 or email our help desk: helpdesk@brookwood167.org Please leave a detailed message with your name, your child’s name, phone number and

g Absence Reporting

the issue you are having with the device.

Parents must call the school to report their child absent before 8:30 a.m.

The number for reporting absences is (708) 757-2110. Official attendance will be reported every morning at 9:00 a.m. If your child joins a teacher’s classroom late, they will be marked tardy in PowerSchool, and you will be notified through the Principal’s ClassDojo.

If your child needs any resources or supplies for any of their classes, please contact the school office so we can help provide them with the needed materials.

f

www.facebook.com/brookwood167

t

www.twitter.com/brookwood167

p Resources/Supplies

w www.brookwood167.org

MR. WESLEY SOCIAL STUDIES

OUR TEACHERS!

Currently my fifth (5th) grade students are learning how to research materials on trusted websites. The fifth grades are also learning what would be important information when researching a topic or theme. The students are also making predictions about themes and topics. My fifth grade Social Studies students will create a mini-research paper about Patriots Day (9-11). Finally, the students will understand the usage of a KWL Chart.

MS. EASON MATH THE fifth (5th) graders are currently working on exponents and order of operations. Coming up in October we will begin to work on numerical expressions, multiplication using area models, and the distributive property.

f

www.facebook.com/brookwood167

t

www.twitter.com/brookwood167

w www.brookwood167.org

MS. MILLER-COOPER SCIENCE

OUR TEACHERS!

In fifth (5th) grade science, students are learning about Matter. We are studying the composition of matter, states of matter, properties of matter, and changes in matter. Our next unit will be a life science unit about Ecosystems. At that time, we will learn about how living matter and nonliving matter interacts within an environment.

MS. GUZMAN 5TH & 6TH | R180 In Read 180, students are getting used to logging into the HMH Software and finding eBooks to read online for 20 minutes daily.

After reading for 20 minutes, students should complete a Daily Independent Reading Log under the Classwork section of Google Classroom. If a student finishes a book, they can take the quiz for the book and earn points for the quiz. Soon we will be able to log into the Student Application section to complete our independent work on the computer. Within the week, we will be transitioning from the Getting Started Workshop to Workshop 4 in our ReaL book. f

www.facebook.com/brookwood167

t

www.twitter.com/brookwood167

w www.brookwood167.org

MS. CROWEL 5TH & 6TH | M180

OUR TEACHERS!

In Math 180, Periods 1,2,4 & 6 are starting Equal Groups in Multiplication and then moving on to Facts and Factors. Period 3 is starting with Understanding Fractions by composing and decomposing model fractions. Remember to have your student complete 25 minutes on the Math 180 Software each day. Students can enjoy the Brain Arcade each day after completing their required Math 180 Software! Check out the eJ lly Drop and eJ tpack Outpack Games!

MS. HORN DTM | “Do The Math” DURING Math Intervention Class “Do the Math” students have been learning various math strategies to add multiple digits in a more “user friendly approach.” Two of the math strategies that were taught included “Branching and Crossing Out’ which focused on making combinations of 10, to add a series of 5 to 10 numbers. In addition, students were provided the opportunity to utilize Math websites that enhanced skill reinforcement, such as Study Island and Mathia.

As we move into October, Place Value will be reinforced using addition. Students will learn another math strategy called “splitting” which will allow students to decompose two-digit numbers into tens and ones, or rename them in expanded form.

Ex. 26 + 53 would become 20 + 6 and 50 + 3. f

www.facebook.com/brookwood167

t

www.twitter.com/brookwood167

w www.brookwood167.org

MR. CRESCENTI ELA

OUR TEACHERS!

In 6th grade ELA, students will be focusing on a series of mini-lessons covering essential reading comprehension strategies

(sequence

of

events,

context

clues,

visualization, and imagery). Students will be introduced to historical fiction in the next few weeks of our Wonders curriculum. The two main stories that will be read are Drumbeat of Freedom and The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P Figg. The essential question that students will be working on answering over the next few weeks is: Why do people form alliances?

MS. SCHIEMANN SOCIAL STUDIES In 6th Grade Social Studies we started the school year with World Geography.

We are learning about the (7) Continents, (5) Oceans, labeling a Compass Rose, and incorporating Google Earth into our lessons. We also spent some time learning about September 11th, and we interviewed family members to learn about their experiences. We are currently working on our Hispanic Heritage Month Research Projects (research due Oct. 9th) and will present our famous Hispanic Americans to our class beginning Oct. 12th. Moving forward, we will start our travels to the Ancient World using our textbooks and start our lessons with learning how to take valuable notes! f

www.facebook.com/brookwood167

t

www.twitter.com/brookwood167

w www.brookwood167.org

MR. BLAHNIK DTM | “Do The Math”

OUR TEACHERS!

In Do the Math, students have been introduced to addition strategies. We have been learning about the Commutative Property and the Associative Property of Addition to solve problems. To provide students with motivation with visuals, we have used 1001 Animals to Spot for fun! We also took a mindset scan to show how important Growth Mindset is to strive for success within school. Going forward we will learn about how to split numbers into Place-Value parts for addition.

MS. BOEHL SOCIAL WORK CORNER This year our 1st period classes have started to have daily Morning Meetings. These meetings, which go from 8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m., focus on different Social Emotional Learning (SEL) topics each day. Some SEL topics that we’ve gone over so far include anxiety, bullying, social injustice, and so much more! Moving forward, we will be using lessons from Second Step and Ripple Effects, which are different SEL programs. Starting in October we will be implementing Mindfulness Mondays. This is where, during the morning meeting every Monday, the students will learn a different technique on how to be mindful. Being mindful is beneficial for our students (and adults!) to learn because it can help them learn to manage stress and regulate their emotions, which will in turn help them focus better in school.

f

www.facebook.com/brookwood167

t

www.twitter.com/brookwood167

w www.brookwood167.org

MS. BRYLEWSKI MATH

OUR TEACHERS!

In 6th grade math we learned about how shapes and numbers can be composed and decomposed! We learned how to write equivalent expressions using the distributive property: a(b+c) = ab + ac.

We also discovered how the area formulas for parallelograms, triangles, and trapezoids are formed from using more common shapes such as rectangles!

Going forward we will be learning about factors and multiples of numbers, as well as how we can find GCF and LCM using prime factorization-fun stuff! Don’t forget our daily math talks to develop different mathematical ideas and math discourse or our math tutor program Mathia-Carnegie!

MS. NEELY MUSIC This month, we will be focusing our lessons on Latinx and Hispanic history, culture, and music. Students will learn about the unique rhythms that come from a variety of Spanish-speaking countries, they will identify different genres of Hispanic music (Mariachi, Bachata, Tango, Salsa), and they will discover influential Latinx musicians and celebrate the contributions they have made. To wrap up our unit, students will be asked to select a Spanish speaking country, do some research about their culture and music, and put together a Google Slides presentation to present to their peers. f

www.facebook.com/brookwood167

t

www.twitter.com/brookwood167

w www.brookwood167.org

MS. SEYLIER SCIENCE

OUR TEACHERS!

In 6th grade Science, your child started the year off learning about Cells. Conducting investigations to provide evidence that living things are made of cellseither one cell or many different number and types of cells. The end of September / beginning of October students will develop and use a model to describe the function of a cell as a whole and how parts of cells contribute to the function. During this time, students will conduct a poster project on the Animal Cell vs the Plant Cell. Students will utilize Google Classroom as their main means of communication and homework completion and submission. Yet, some classwork will be completed in STEMscopes as well.

MR. BRANDT MR. CHINN | P.E. During Physical Education your student will be performing a number of rigorous daily exercises, along with the teachers! The exercises will be following along with the categories of essential health-related physical fitness. Each week we will incorporate some exercises for muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular, and flexibility.

These exercise routines are posted in the Google Classroom! The students will also be taking a look at how the nutrients they consume can positively or negatively affect their day to day. We look forward to another fantastic month of learning and growth!! f

www.facebook.com/brookwood167

t

www.twitter.com/brookwood167

w www.brookwood167.org

MR. RAB ART

OUR TEACHERS!

The 6th grade art class began the school year with projects involving Pop Art. From there we began talking about the concept of “art for change” or “art with a voice”.

Students then created a poster design supporting a cause.

The art class took a virtual field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago. We sketched our favorite artwork and answered questions about the museum.

For our next project we will begin learning about and discussing mural artists and their work. Students will be working on projects based on the concept of “art for the public” or “site-specific artwork”.

f

www.facebook.com/brookwood167

t

www.twitter.com/brookwood167

w www.brookwood167.org

f

www.facebook.com/brookwood167

t

www.twitter.com/brookwood167

w www.brookwood167.org

Remote Learning Schedule | Grades 5th & 6th LIVE HOURS

TIME CLASS PERIOD

30 MIN 8:30 A.M. | 9:00 A.M. MORNING MEETING | Social Emotional Learning

Activities | (1ST PERIOD) | Official attendance will be sent to the school office at 9:00 a.m.

20 MIN

9:00 A.M.

| 9:50 A.M.

1ST PERIOD

20 MIN

9:50 A.M.

| 10:40 A.M.

2ND PERIOD

10:40 A.M. | 10:50 A.M.

BRAIN BREAK

20 MIN

10:50 A.M. | 11:40 A.M.

3RD PERIOD

11:40 A.M. | 12:10 P.M.

LUNCH

20 MIN

12:10 P.M. | 1:00 P.M.

4TH PERIOD

20 MIN

1:00 P.M. | 1:50 P.M.

5TH PERIOD

1:50 P.M. | 2:00 P.M.

BRAIN BREAK

20 MIN

2:00 P.M. | 2:50 P.M.

6TH PERIOD

2:50 P.M. | 3:10 P.M

INDEPENDENT READING

TOTAL

(2.5 HRS)

TEACHERS WILL BE LIVE THE FIRST 20 - 30 MINUTES OF EACH CLASS 2:50 P.M. - 3:15 P.M. TEACHER PLC MEETINGS

BROOKWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL

Ontquane te e,cPir Princpal

p Contact

Brookwood Middle School 200 E. Glenwood-Lansing Road Glenwood, IL 60425 708.758.5350