Team Fusion Communication: September 22

Hi all,

Everything is back to normal - for a middle school, that is.  Students are fully engaged, have homework. Hopefully computer contracts are in as computers start going home next week - 8th graders first.

Calendar

September 26 - Open House : ⅞ families visit EXP teachers 7-7:30, THEN Team Fusion presentation starts at 7:30

September 27-28: Artist in residence, Mary Lacy (BRMS/MMU graduate), working on mural with 8th grade (both grades will have a session with her on Wednesday)

October 13 (Really?! Yes) - field trip to Burlington… permission form goes home next week (no cost except lunch money)

October 11 - Two Hour Delay

October 19 - Parent Conferences (more details at open house)

October 20 - No School/School Recess

October 27 (change!) - Fusion Sponsored School Dance (donation of food/drink item from each family for no more than 10 people - basically, no more than 10 servings:)

November 8 - Two Hour Delay

Reading

All students were asked to get a book this week (from the library or brought in from home). Books should be brought to all study halls and LA class each day. .

Schoology

All students have been introduced to this online system for homework submission and assignment tracking.  At Open House

Computer Contracts

The computer contracts are due back ASAP.  A student must return their contract before they will be allowed to take their laptop home. The 8th grade should be able to take their laptops home by next week.

Curriculum Updates….

LA

7 This week we began a reading unit: A Deep Study of Character. The focus this week was on tracking character traits, first across a short story read aloud in class, then with characters in students’ own books.

8 We are about a week into our Investigative Journalism unit. The focus thus far has been on practicing observation skills and looking at different examples of journalism. Students have written a few short, informal mini news stories to start getting used to this genre.

Math

7: This week we explored using benchmark angles to estimate measures of unknown angles. We also learned to use angle rulers and protractors to more precisely measure angles. Next week we will focus on the relationships of interior angles to the number of sides in a polygons as well as their exterior angles.

8: This week we continued to work on linear relationship and using slope and y-intercept to write equations in slope-intercept form as well as graphing equations from slope intercept form. We will have a quiz on this on Monday and then will move into using linear equations to model and make predictions about real world data.

Science

7 - Students are practicing the skill of “arguing from evidence” as they debate the key characteristics of living things and develop a working definition of life.  They began a multi-day investigation of 5 mystery materials, which will give the opportunity to directly observe several key characteristics of living things.  This investigation will carry into next week.

8 - Students continued their study of the universe by conducting a brief research project on one celestial object, and by practicing making observations of the night sky.  They learned how several astronomers contributed to our current understanding of the universe organization.  The district assessment will be given in stages, with the first phase happening next week.

SS

7 - The first couple classes focused on reviewing the field trip.  Then students spent time working in groups to identify cultural activities, behaviors and items from France and Britain that are evident in United States culture.  Students ended the week with a beginning look at social norms and boundaries that are within cultures around the world.

8 - The first couple classes focused on reviewing the field trip. Students have begun looking at a moment in time within American history - 1763.  They are creating “characters” from that time period, and studying the developing “American” identity through in class activities and individual research.

Have fun at Harvest Market - and continue to enjoy this wildly warm and scenic weather,

The Fusion Team

Fusion Communication: September 18

Hi all,

What a crazy week Team Fusion had - and it was spectacular!  The trip went extremely well.  An we are right back at it this week:)

Calendar

September 26 - Open House : ⅞ families visit EXP teachers 7-7:30, THEN Team Fusion presentation starts at 7:30

Early to mid-October - Tentative field trip to Burlington

October 11 - Two Hour Delay

October 19 - Parent Conferences (more details next week)

October 20 - No School/School Recess

October 27 (change!) - Fusion Sponsored School Dance (donation of food/drink item from each family for no more than 10 people)

November 8 - Two Hour Delay

Reading

All students were asked to get a book this week (from the library or brought in from home). Books should be brought to all study halls and LA class each day.

Overnight Field Trip

Wow - what a trip! The weather held, the skies cleared in the evening and there was plenty of food.  Thank you for supporting this trip - seems like your children had a great time. The team appreciates the loan of stoves, coolers and equipment, but the time and energy it takes for bringing everything in is just as important.

A special thanks to the following chaperones for giving their time, sweat and blood (bugs were BAD at DAR):

8 Sandra Pucillo 8 Chris Kiegle 8 Kathleen Kiegle 8 Colleen Palmer 8 Florence Oliver 8 Lupe Sears 8 Sara Mabley 8 Ed Riddell

7 Paul Gale 7 John Guinness 7 Andrea Kelly 7 Chris Morrissey 7 Luke Roberge 7 Marie Sawyer 7 Paul Strek 7 David Wood 7 Steven Mundell

7 Lisa Lavoie 7 Carol Sullivan 7 Lee Rosen 7 Jennifer Silpe 7 Dayna Katz 7 Ed Nasta 7 Beth Novotny 7 Christa Alexander 7 Elizabeth Webster

**The team would love to create a slideshow of the best quality photos taken during the field trip.  If you or your child has photos to share, please choose your 5 best photos and send them by email to Lisa (lisa.windhausen@cesuvt.org).

Computer Contracts

The computer contracts are due back ASAP.  A student must return their contract before they will be allowed to take their laptop home. The 8th grade should be able to take their laptops home by next week.

Curriculum Updates….

… will return this Friday.

Looking forward to the week ahead,,

The Fusion Team

Special Message from School Nurses to Fusion Parents

Hello parents.

According to the Field trip Emergency Information and Medical form some of you submitted recently, you indicated that your child will require medication(s) to be administered during this field trip.

    -  Any prescription medication not taken in school must be delivered in the original container with written permission from the prescribing medical provider (MD order) and the parent.

    - Over the counter medication (i.e.Tylenol, Advil, Allegra, Zyrtec, Lactaid, Claritin, etc ) must be in the original container with written parental permission & instruction (dose/time of day) - this can be emailed to me for your convenience.

Please bring in the above items to our health office no later than

TUESDAY, SEPT. 12, 2017 MORNING.

You are receiving this email because we have not yet received the MD order and/or the medication as of today. Your child may not be able to attend the field trip without these medicines and orders.

Your child's medical provider could fax us the order (fax no: 802-899-4281). The following is a link to our school district's medication permission forms:

http://brownsriver.cesuvt.org/classrooms/nurseinfo

If you plan to chaperone, you do not need to provide our health office with the medication/MD order/written permission since you will be the one to administer the medication.

Please let us know if you have questions/concerns via email or phone.

Thanks in advance!

Ainee & Tina

BRMS School Nurses

Fusion Communication: September 8

Hi all,

We are in full field trip planning mode.  Thanks to all who have contributed to this effort so far and to everyone for what you will do this weekend:) Please check in with your child about what they need to bring and contribute to this effort; mr. Pless will be available this weekend to help if your child can’t remember.

Calendar

September 13 - Two Hour Delay

September 14-15: Overnight Field Trip

September 26 - Open House (generally starts around 6:30pm)

Early to mid-October - Tentative field trip to Burlington

October 11 - Two Hour Delay

October 26 - Fusion Sponsored School Dance

November 8 - Two Hour Delay

Reading

All students were asked to get a book this week (from the library or brought in from home). Books should be brought to all study halls and LA class each day.

Overnight Field Trip

**Every student has been assigned a camping family and has been working to create meals for the trip.  Please check in with your child about what is needed for supplies, food for this camping group.

Other information:

• A small typo on the permission form caused some families to underpay - many apologies. The field trip fee is $25. Mr. Pless will be in touch with affected families this weekend.
• That said, scholarships are available. And a big thank you to families that donated extra to help with the scholarships and defray chaperone fees.
• And we have enough chaperones to make the field trip a go!
• Chaperones - an email will go out this evening about meal plans.  If you did not attend the chaperone meeting, please arrange to speak with Mr. Pless before the trip.
• Groups are putting together a list of supplies they need for the field trip. Please ask your child and see what they have have volunteered to bring.  This includes:
• Food for meals
• Two burner, propane stoves
• Hard, sided coolers (two per group)
• Please make sure your child brings everything to the field trip that they might need - every child was given a packing list (which is also attached to this email).

Schedule for equipment to arrive at BRMS:

• Personal camping equipment: Monday - Wednesday morning (placed in Mr. Pless’s room with name taped on each bag)

Group Equipment: Dropped off Mornings or afternoons at end of school

• Stoves: Monday-Tuesday in Mr. Pless’s room (name labeled in tape)
• Coolers: Monday - Wednesday in Health/Wellness storage room (name on tape)
• Food: Monday-Wednesday in Health/Wellness storage room
• Ready-made foods on Thursday morning only
• Two Lunches on Thursday morning only

Computer Contracts

The computer contracts went home this week.  A student must return their contract before they will be allowed to take home their laptop home.

Curriculum Updates

LA: Our focus for the week was to get reading routines and expectations in place. Students were introduced to the reading log plan for this year.

You can view the reading log/journal plan here: Reading Journal Directions/Expectations

Other resources made available to students in class and on Schoology in the Reading Toolkit folder:

• Reading Chart
• Reading Log/Journal Progression + Resources

Students will be assessed every other week to check that they are taking and applying feedback consistently. Their end of trimester score will be based that was made along the writing about reading progression (see link above). Any questions, please feel free to check in with me!

8 - Investigative Journalism: In preparation for this narrative/information writing unit, we have spent some time looking at narrative non-fiction articles from Scholastic Scope magazine. Conversations have revolved around journalists’ process for researching and writing an article, finding a focus, and choosing a text structure to guide the reader through a topic. We will use some of these articles as mentor texts when the time comes for students to write their own investigative piece.

7 - Building a Community of Readers and Writers: Students have been working on their own or in small groups to create Book Trailers. The goal was to create a video that would get others excited about reading and to convince each other to try new books. Next week we will begin to look at schoology and other LA routines to get set up for the year. Next up: Traditional Information Writing Mini Unit.

Math

7 - Students started off with YouCube’s Week of Inspirational Math to help develop group work skills and further their growth-mindset in math. We will be starting the regular curriculum next week beginning with the geometry unit, Shapes and Designs.

8 - Students started with some select activities from YouCube’s Week of Inspirational Math to get back into the practice of group work and developing a growth mindset. We jumped right into the curriculum today defining slope in linear relationships. We will continue to explore slope-intercept form of linear equations to build skills for our first unit, Thinking With Mathematical Models. This unit explores modeling linear and inverse real world relationships with graphs, tables, and equations and finished with statistical analysis of bivariate data.

Science

7 - Students are beginning their study of life science by learning how to observe and identify common tree species that live on the school grounds and at home. We are reviewing specific vocabulary and features of leaves that help distinguish one species from another.  Next week, we will put our identification into context by comparing species diversity of different regions.

8 - Students in 8th grade have been discussing the phases of the moon and eclipses.  They practiced developing and critiquing models that explain how these phenomenon occur.  The weather has not cooperated for completing nightly lunar logs, but we plan to incorporate regular observations of the night sky beginning next week.

SS

7 - Like everyone else, social studies has been a lesson in expectations and routines.  Ask your children about the map activity, where they created maps - with expected and unexpected behaviors - of the room.  Also, much of the organization for the field trip took place during social studies time.

8 In class we are currently discussing the topic of borders and what the word means to us. We have discussed some of the borders in our world that have a good or a bad impact and their purpose.

A thank you to Carly Jenkins and Kayla Popeleski for providing some of the writing in this newsletter. Their participation is an outgrowth of the Connections class Ms. Windhausen and Mr. Pless are teaching on Fridays.

Thanks and have a great weekend,

The Fusion Team

Fusion Communication: September 1, 2017

Hi all,

It’s always a fast and furious three days - Team Fusion hopes your children are coming home tired, but positive.  For those of you receiving this communication for the first time, Team Fusion sends home a weekly communication email.  Generally, the email contains a description of the week’s academics and any important dates and events coming up in the next few weeks. Given school just started, academic summaries will not be included this week.

As we will be digging into academics more next week -  please be sure students have all of their needed supplies. The summer letter (which has the supply list) has been attached to this email, and is located on the team blog.
Team blog link:

https://teamfusion78.blogspot.com/

Calendar

September 13 - Two Hour Delay

September 14-15: Overnight Field Trip

September 26 - Open House (generally starts around 6:30pm)

Early to mid-October - Tentative field trip to Burlington

October 11 - Two Hour Delay

October 14 - Montreal Day Trip ($45)

November 8 - Two Hour Delay

Reading

All students were asked to get a book this week (from the library or brought in from home). Books should be brought to all study halls and LA class each day.

Overnight Field Trip

Lots to report about the field trip.

• Most families have submitted paperwork.  If yours has not, an email reminder will be sent every couple of days until the paperwork is submitted:)
• A small typo on the permission form caused some families to underpay - many apologies. The field trip fee is $25. Mr. Pless will be in touch with affected families next week.
• That said, scholarships are available. And a big thank you to families that donated extra to help with the scholarships and defray chaperone fees.
• And we have enough chaperones to make the field trip a go! If you are willing and able, the team needs one more parent of a male student to make the overnight.  Otherwise, a group of young men may have Mr. Pless or Mr. Keblin as their chaperone (or maybe both;).
• Chaperones - an email will go out this weekend about next steps.  Mr. Pless plans to hold a chaperone meeting - especially for the overnight chaperones - on Wednesday, September 6 with two starting times, 6:30 and 7:15 (you don’t need to stay for both.  Please let Mr. Pless know if you are unable to attend so a time can be established to discuss responsibilities.

Computer Contracts

The computer contracts will go home for students early next week.  A student must return their contract before they will be allowed to take home their laptop home.

Schoology

A parent letter will go out in the next two weeks about access to your child’s account.

Thanks and have a great Labor Day Weekend,

The Fusion Team

Fusion Overnight Field Trip Update: Aug. 25

Field Trip Update

A revised overnight field trip overview and permission slip are in the blog post under this one.  The basic trip is still in place but there have been changes:

- Fee for the trip is $25 (checks should be made out to BRMS with the memo line titled Team Fusion)

- September 14: Team will not leave school any earlier than 8:30am

- September 15: Team will visit Crown Point State Park

Otherwise, as soon as possible Mr. Pless needs to know who is planning to chaperone the field trip. To make the trip successful, Team Fusion needs the following numbers of chaperones(not including teaching staff) for each segment of the trip:

- Ft. Ticonderoga - 10 chaperones

- DAR Overnight - 14 chaperones

- Crown Point - 10 chaperones

**If you already committed to chaperone, please let Mr. Pless know again - thank you for the redundancy:)

Thanks and let Mr. Pless know if you have questions - Sincerely,

Team Fusion

Fusion Communication: Summer Letter 2017-18 Academic Year

Hi all,

Attached is the summer letter and permission forms for the fall overnight field trip.  Hope families are doing well.  Please remember - team will respond to emails before inservice but most likely will take a few days in doing so.

Summer Overview Letter
Overnight Field Trip Overview
Medical Release for Field Trip