Making News in Middle School

Building a Strong Foundation
 
By Olivia Babasick
Sports Editor
 
             The sixth graders were gradually adjusting to middle school. In language, the students were working on note taking, capital letters, punctuation, and building a strong grammar foundation. In literature, the students were reading to learn and build their lexicons. The students have been reviewing the rules of middle school and started bell work later in the quarter. The students were getting used to the reminder board which summarizes what important events and things that are going on during the week. The language alliteration project was the first project for the sixth graders. For this alliteration project, the students picked a consonant sound and repeated it multiple times in a story. Their first quarter book project ended with success. They chose a book from the classroom library and orally presented it in front of the class for 90 to 120 seconds. The Chromebooks were put to good use in Ms. Festa’s class. Research is vital, and Voyages.com, Vocabularyworkshop.com, and Vocabtest.com have been some frequently used websites. Coming prepared to class, bringing completed assignments, and repeating and reteaching a lesson were some hard things for the students to adjust to, but they got the hang of it. Overall, the students have been encouraged not to just listen, but to participate. They have learned that repetition helps them to remember things well. Making mistakes is important, so the students can learn by being corrected!

Starting Strong
 
By Elizabeth Dang
Editor in Chief, John Paul II Times
  
            The year has just begun for the sixth graders and they are hard at work. In social studies, the students have begun doing their warm ups that are over the basics of maps. As the weeks progressed, the warm ups became more advanced. In theology, the sixth graders have been focusing on how to properly find the different chapters and reading the Gospels. To prepare her students for both subjects, Mrs.McBee has encouraged her students to reread the chapter to help refresh their mind for upcoming test and quizzes. Mrs. McBee had started helping the sixth graders adjust to the work by explaining that studying must be chucked and not studied all at once. Visuals and videos are used to help sixth graders understand the lessons more. They had also started taking notes and learned how to find the main events in chapters. The sixth graders have hit the ground running and have done an amazing job!

 











Sixth graders work on science projects.

Tests and Experiments
 
By Diana Basaldua
Layout/Design Editor
  
            This year Mrs. Cueva, the new science teacher, has started off by keeping the sixth and eighth graders very busy. She taught her students about many new concepts, projects, experiments, and models. She also used technology to her advantage, because it makes posting grades faster.
            For the sixth graders, Mrs. Cueva taught her students about sea-floor spreading, plate tectonics, the earth’s systems, the interior of the earth, and the mantle and convection. She helped her students learn these concepts by letting them take group notes, watching videos, and using the computer. She gave the students websites to help them understand what she is teaching them. They also used models to allow the students to see the interior of the earth. Mrs. Cueva also encouraged the sixth graders to perform experiments, and she has different in-class project ideas for them to work on. These include possibly building an earthquake-proof house or building a landscape showing plate movement. As experiments go, they completed an experiment that showed how hot water or air rises and cold water or air sinks. She hopes to help her sixth grade students succeed and get used to harder concepts.
             This quarter, the eighth graders learned about simple machines. They learned about the types of machines, scientific notation, and calculating speed. Mrs. Cueva gave the eighth graders multiple experiments and labs. The labs represent numbers as real life situations. For her eighth graders, she gives them more freedom knowing that they can handle themselves. She also uses more scientific language. She had  the eighth graders complete a project about simple machines. Mrs. Cueva wants to let the eighth graders know that math is a very important part of science.
            There are many ways Mrs. Cueva taught her students. She gave them different things to do to get a major grade. These things would be tests and having them write essays. Mrs. Cueva also gave the students a journal to take science notes. She had journal checks to make sure that the students had all the information they need to succeed. She checks the students’ journals and gives them a major grade depending on whether they had all of the necessary information. Mrs. Cueva does all that she can to help her students learn what they need to learn. So far, Mrs. Cueva has had a great start to the year.

Jumping into Math
 
By Ignacio Perez
Senior Editor
 
            Mrs. Harvey, the sixth grade math teacher, has already got the sixth graders jumping into math. This quarter the Saints learned about the order of operations, decimal operations, and solving one-step equations. They also reviewed subtraction and addition with decimals. The mathematicians started to use the Chromebooks for math by watching educational math videos and to access their assignments on Google Classroom. In addition, these future Einsteins occasionally get together with a partner at their table to discuss homework or work on some assignments together. The new middle schoolers had a test on decimals in October. To prepare the students for this test, they reviewed past homework and worked on a review sheet. Mrs. Harvey has them prepared for the years to come.
 

 

 













Seventh graders rap a song for a Texas history project.

Making History Fun
 
By Maggie Pierce
Senior Editor
 
             It has been a great start to the year in Mrs. Berrie’s seventh and eighth grade history classes. Seventh grade learned about early Native Americans and European explorers in Texas history. Seventh grade also completed a project about European explorers. They learned to take notes and follow directions. Also, the seventh graders had a big Texas cities test that they all did very well on. Mrs. Berrie uses warm ups, which are critical thinking essay questions. Mrs. Berrie’s homework is usually whatever the students don’t finish in class.
            Eighth grade learned about Native Americans, the early English colonies, and the American Revolution. Their projects were making Native American posters, bio poems, and comic books. There are also new textbooks in both seventh and eighth grade. It has been more difficult for the students to have the textbook online this year. Mrs. Berrie will have new projects this year, especially skits, because those are a favorite of the students. She will be incorporating many new things into the year including new videos, fun activities, and different things to make history fun. It has been a great start to the year in history!
 
Super Science Class
 
By Thomas Whitson
Features Editor
 
            The seventh graders in Mrs. Palmer’s science class are having a lot of fun this year! The students are learning about ecology, the study of interactions among living things. For ecology, the students are currently monitoring the progress of an ecosystem that they built themselves. The students use their Chromebooks for webquests to learn about living things and how they interact with each other and their surroundings.
Some of the upcoming projects the students will be working on are a webquest about food chains and cycles in ecosystems. “The students are doing very well in my class so far,” Mrs. Palmer said. She also said that they will cover topics in the future like classification and cell structure.
                 The seventh graders are still getting used to all of the homework. There is much more than last year in sixth grade. As well as the homework, the students are adjusting to the new style of teaching Mrs. Palmer uses. She has taught the students to use PAGES, which is a very helpful study skill in middle school.
              Overall, the seventh graders are getting used to everything. Not just in Mrs. Palmer’s science class, but all of their classes. It has been a good start to the year so far for the seventh graders, and we hope that it continues.
 
Stepping up to Seventh Grade
 
By Janea Thibodeaux
Editor in Chief, The Spirit
 
            In the first quarter, the seventh graders in Mrs. Bowring’s classes were diligently working to get in the groove for the 2015-2016 school year. In language, they were taught the different types of adjectives, more about nouns, and wrote personal narratives. The students really enjoyed the lessons, and the ability to have free seating. The story elements and character traits of Wonder, and a timeline project and Google Classroom project on Chains, were what the students worked on in literature. The students enjoyed reading their books in Mrs. Bowring’s literature class. The seventh grade students used Chromebooks to work on warm-ups, write personal narratives, and complete work on Google Classroom. They created SQUIRT book projects, in newspaper, advertisement, or cartoon form in literature. They also created a genre poster project. The students worked on video warm-ups, where they watched videos and wrote a response and supported their response with evidence.
            The students have read Chains, Wonder, and individual SQUIRT books. Mrs. Bowring hopes SQUIRT reading will help her students learn to love reading this year. To prepare her students for eighth grade, Mrs. Bowring helps teach them to remember to turn things in, study ahead of time, and has assisted them in organizing their Google Drive like their binders. These students are struggling with managing their time, so Mrs. Bowring helps them with time management in involvement with homework. To prepare for midterms and finals, this language and literature teacher reminded her students to keep all of their work, helped them break down their lessons into manageable parts, reviewed with them, and helped them manage their time. The students hope Mrs. Bowring will teach them how to write well for the future. These seventh grade students sure were hard at work.

Multiplying Our Math Skills
 
By Austin Wilhite
Sports Editor
  
            The eighth graders started off the school year with a new math teacher, Mrs. Kinchen. In her classes, she decided to review some of the seventh grade math skills, and then they began learning about scientific notation. The seventh graders began learning about graph analysis, scientific notation, and a review of sixth grade decimal and word problems. The seventh grade completed a project about surveys and the eighth grade worked on a project about scientific notation.
            Both grades had tests that covered about two weeks’ worth of learning. Mrs. Kinchen helps prepare the students for these tests by using a website called Nearpod. She uses this about once a week, and it’s used to reinforce what the students are learning. She also makes sure that the students know what they did wrong if they made a mistake on their homework or classwork. Mrs. Kinchen says that the seventh and eighth graders’ math skills have greatly improved during the first quarter.
 
This I Believe
 
By Elizabeth Dang
Editor and Chief, SJPII Times
 
            The new school year has begun and Mrs. Drewes’s eighth graders are ready to go. During language, the students have started to review the grammar rules, including nouns, verbs, and more. To help the students’ mistakes, Mrs. Drewes constructed the warm ups by taking the simple mistakes made and applying them to the warm ups. This quarter, Mrs. Drewes plans to help expand the eighth graders' skills in discussion and writing. The eighth graders worked on their personal narratives during the beginning of the year and later worked on their This I Believe essay. For their This I Believe essays, they were required to write an essay about a subject or characteristic in which they strongly believe. The students read their essays aloud to their class. Some students will choose whether they would like to submit their essays to the National Public Radio. Eighth grade has enjoyed the assignments given and can’t wait to continue the year with Mrs. Drewes.

Getting to Know God
 
By Abigail Bowring
Layout/Design Editor
 
            Opening the year with an amazing start, Mrs. Hartfiel, the seventh and eighth grade theology teacher, likes to begin her class with God in her students’ minds, hearts, and souls. Class begins with warm-ups, prayer, and the daily responsorial psalm. Warm-ups are based off of the classes’ recent studies or the Liturgical calendar’s recent events. In seventh grade, the students will be learning about the Life of Jesus throughout the school year. They covered Genesis chapters one through three to understand who God is and His image and likeness. St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body is also being taught in class. Mrs. Hartfiel believes her students are having much more fun than expected. She likes to challenge the seventh graders to think more deeply.
            The eighth graders reviewed Salvation History and finished a project on it. They focused on God’s Covenants and his chosen people as well as Moses leading the Israelites into the Promised Land. During the year, eighth grade will learn about the Sacraments, Mass, morality, and social justice. This year, eighth graders will also be taking a leadership role by becoming the head in each of their Saints’ Families. Mrs. Hartfield’s class isn’t like any other class you might find. Her class is about the journey to the A. It’s the journey, not the end result. That’s what really counts, what really matters. Mrs. Hartfield wants her class not to only know the stories, but to get to know God on another level, Her classes help the students to love, serve, and know the Lord.