Clinton Township Newsletter

1 3 S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 Remember: August 27 is School Visitation Day! I N O U R S C H O O L S : p a t r i c k m c g a h e r a n S c h o o l It is September already! There is electricity that you can feel in each of our buildings. Students, teachers and parents are all anticipating a wonderful year of enjoying learning. Everyone had the opportunity to visit Patrick McGaheran School on August 27 to walk the halls and to start figuring out how to get around. This is a warm, welcoming building. It has welcomed me back after a 10-year hiatus. It has welcomed our new Second Graders to an academic setting that meets every child's needs and encourages them to grow. We also welcome back our new and returning Third Graders who will all make new friends along the way. Patrick McGaheran School is a place "Where Friendships Grow" and we celebrate that every day. – John Scott, Interim Principal, PMGS Summertime, summertime, sum, sum, summertime! September is quickly approaching and we are awaiting the arrival of our Round Valley students and staff! Hallways are shining, classrooms sparkling, and teachers have been actively preparing for the arrival of students. Our 'Summer Visitation Day' offered students and parents the opportunity to meet the teachers and view their new classrooms. We are looking forward to seeing all of our RVS families at the September 26 Pizza Night! Every month we have an All School Meeting, which highlights our Words of the Month. We celebrate seeing our students put those words into action throughout the school. September's Word of the Month: Responsibility. The All School Meeting will take place on Fri- day, September 19 at 8:15 am. We would love to have parents visit! We welcome the following teachers to Round Valley School. Look for their biographies in the next issue of the Clinton Township Newsletter! 4th grade: Mrs. Jill Jordan Mrs. Shannon Rolak Barb Pisani 5th grade: Ms. Angela Caruso Arianna Scarponi 6th grade: Mrs. Jane Smolyn Music: Ms. Allison Miller Speech: Kristina Kroll Guidance: Mrs. Lianna Gillespie Secretary: Mrs. Cindy Christopher Lunch Monitor: Mrs. Stacy Linzer At Round Valley our school theme revolves around "Footsteps Worth Following," which focuses on setting goals and being a posi- tive role model. We continue to harvest our Community Garden;if you have extra time please drop by and help with the maintenance. Produce is donated to the Clinton Open Cupboard Food Pantry. r o U n d v a l l e y S c h o o l September brings colorful new school supplies, crisp Autumn days, busy school buses, squeaky new shoes, the smell of the newly waxed school floors and the buzz of excited children's voices on the first day of school! We are so excited to have our stu- dents and staff back in school, and we have a GREAT year ahead as we continue "Planting the Seeds of Friendship." This year we are also "Wild About Animals" at Spruce Run School! To help ease potential "first day jitters" for our SRS students, families were invited to meet their teachers before the first day of school. SRS parents and students had the opportunity to visit Spruce Run School on August 27 to find classrooms and say hello to their teachers, and our staff really enjoyed the opportunity to meet our students! Kindergarten and new students were invited to take a bus ride by themselves on this day, as well. It was a great chance to practice getting on the bus alone, buckling their own seatbelt and waving good-bye to mom and dad for a short trip around town. We welcomed smiling faces and even more confident preschoolers, kindergartners and first graders on our first day of school after our visitation day. We are looking forward to a great year together at Spruce Run School! S p r U c e r U n S c h o o l We are looking forward to welcoming new and returning students and staff to CTMS for the 2014-15 school year. The Clinton Town- ship Middle School motto of Community & Teamwork Motivate Success will continue to be our focus for building community spirit. We are truly excited to share with you that Mrs. Kate Zimmerbaum, CTMS grade 8 English Language Arts teacher, has been selected as the recipient of the 2014 Teacher-as-Researcher award by the Northeastern Educational Research Association (NERA)! The award is for the school based action research project "Will the Introduction of a Critical Questioning Technique and the Toul- min Model improve the Argumentative Essay Writing Scores of Students in an Eighth Grade English Language Arts Class?" Mrs. Zimmerbaum will present her research at the NERA 2014 Annual Conference in October. We are very proud of Mrs. Zimmerbaum and her research project! c l i n t o n t o w n S h i p m i d d l e S c h o o l c t S d B o a r d o f e d U c a t i o n B o a r d m e e t i n g : S e p t e m B e r 2 2 Unforeseen circumstances may force the rescheduling of this meeting. If so, notice will be given as provided in the Open Public Meetings Act. Meetings are held at Clinton Township Middle School (34 Grayrock Rd.) in the Auditorium or Library at 7:30 pm. Find out what's going on in our schools, meet the Board and the Superintendent! All residents of Clinton Township are encouraged to attend, not just the parents of CTSD children. For BOE meeting minutes, please visit: www.ctsd.k12.nj.us

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