November 21 - No School
November 22 - Happy Thanksgiving!
November 23 - No School
November 29 - Student Council Mtg at 2:15 p.m.
December 3-7 - Scholastic Book Fair
December 3 - Blake Site Council (3:15 p.m. in Blake LMC)
December 4 - Grades 6-8 Band Winter Concert
December 5 - Spaghetti with Santa
December 7 - 7th/8th Grade Dance (7-9 p.m. in Blake Cafeteria)
December 12 - Blake Ski & Snowboard Club Rental Fittings
December 13 - Grades 7-8 Chorus/Orchestra Concert
December 19 - CSA Mtg (7:30 p.m. in Blake LMC)
December 20 - Grade 7 to A Christmas Carol
Election Work in Advisory
During these first couple of weeks in November, the Blake School advisories will focus on several significant national events, two of those events being the upcoming Presidential election and the Massachusetts Senatorial election. For the presidential race, every advisory was able to view several engaging videos that explained the national electoral college process, including what would happen if there were a tie in the electoral college. Along with those informative and user friendly videos, the advisories were able to access maps and graphs that showed different scenarios describing how the distribution of electoral votes from each state could affect the outcome of the presidential race. Furthermore, the Advanced Placement High School students visited every advisory and led a discussion of the electoral process as compared to a popular vote scenario. These AP students also answered questions about the presidential and Massachusetts senatorial candidates. These visits went very well for students from both schools. All students will have the opportunity to cast their vote early this week.
Mock Debate at Wheelock
Sixth grade students Carolyn Bergland, Dylan Hogan, Katie Farrell, Nathan Parry, Ainsley Marshall, Michael Morrison, Mark Friscia, and Ainsley Shelley will participate in the presidential mock debate held at Wheelock on Monday November 5th. Carolyn Bergland will represent President Barack Obama while Dylan Hogan portrays Governor Mitt Romney. Vice President Joe Biden is played by Michael Morrison while VP candidate Paul Ryan is played by Mark Friscia. Katie Farrell and Nathan Parry represent the campaign managers for the two candidates. In addition to the Wheelock debate, Ainsley Marshall and Ainsley Shelley presented speeches to the sixth grade class on Friday 11/2. Ms Marshall showcased talking points of Governor Mitt Romney while Ms. Shelley highlighted the work of President Barack Obama. Michael Morrison and Mark Friscia both gave convincing speeches as to why their presidential candidate deserves the title of President of the United States of America. I would like to thank these students for their hard work and dedication in making both events a success, and also a big thank you to Mike Gow for organizing this event.
6th Grade Parent Coffee
The 6th graders seem to have settled into the Blake routines quite nicely, but that doesn't mean all the information about school is being shared at home. Join Tracy Allen and Kelly Campbell for a parent coffee where you can get some of your questions about Blake academics, routines, and school culture answered. The coffee will take place Wednesday, November 7th, at 9:30am. Please feel free to send questions in advance or walk in with your list. Hope to see you there. Please RSVP to Tracy Allen at [email protected].
Costume Day
Lip Sync Contest
The 14th Annual Blake Lip Sync will take place on January 25 and 26th. The Lip Sync is a great Blake tradition that allows all students the opportunity to put together a dance routine and lip sync to their favorite (school appropriate) song. Any interested performers MUST attend a pre meeting on November 15th at 2:15. Other important dates include...
Cancer Awareness Week
November 13th through the 19th will be Cancer Awareness Week at Blake sponsored by students in Ms. Allen's Community Service Class. Each day will represent a different type of cancer, and students are encouraged to wear the color of the awareness ribbon of that cancer. Each morning, students will read an explanation of the type of cancer and how many people it affects on the morning announcements.
Tuesday 11/13 - Leukemia/Prostate Cancer -- Orange/ Light blue
Wednesday 11/14 -- Pancreatic Cancer -- Purple
Thursday 11/15 -- Breast Cancer -- Pink
Friday 11/16 - Colon Cancer -- Blue
Monday 11/19 - Lung Cancer -- White
As noted in last week's blog entry, I encourage you to explore the world of Twitter. I am exploring this technology as a communication and resource tool for both the Blake community and my own learning network. If you are interested in exploring with me, my account is @nat_vaughn. In addition to the weekly blog to our community, I plan on tweeting up-to-date information, Blake happenings, links to sites, and articles of interest on a daily or more frequent basis. Admittedly I had some reservations, but Diane Horvath (one of our Technology Integration Specialists) has been encouraging me to get out of my 'comfort zone' - thanks, Diane. This is by no means an expectation for anyone, but I thought you may find it of interest - I have found the 'dialogue and network' via Twitter to be relevant, engaging, tangible, and simply put - useful.
There are two ways to get my tweets...
1. Go to this link: http://twitter.com/nat_vaughn where you'll be able to see all my tweets without a twitter account.
2. To get the 'real feel' for Twitter- you should sign up for your own twitter account and follow me. This works well when you use the twitter app to get the live feed.
Here are two links that may be of interest or of help regarding Twitter...
A Twitter Guide: http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/
'How to Get Started with Twitter' video tutorial from the 'Twitter Guide': http://youtu.be/4YGp4cWdndc
3rd Annual Student/Staff Charity Basketball Game
The 3rd Annual Student/Staff Charity Basketball game was a great success, with approximately $950 raised for Christmas in the City.
Basketball for Boys
Students who plan on applying to private school need to contact their guidance counselor by no later than November 30th. For more information, please call the guidance office or visit the guidance website: http://blakeguidancepage.weebly.com/index.html.
iPad Pilot Information on Website
A new tab on the Blake Middle School web/forms-and-documents.htmlsite has been established with information about the iPad pilot. Please click on this link if you are interested in learning some information about the pilot. We will be adding more information throughout the year and I will be highlighting the components as they are developed.
Nashoba Valley Ski Area offers a winter ski and snowboard program. This will be Blake Middle Schoolís third year participating in this program. It is a great opportunity to sharpen skills for skiers and snowboarders while enjoying fresh air. The program begins our first week back from break, January 3rd and runs for 6 consecutive Thursdays, until February 7th. The bus will leave Blake at 2:15 p.m. We will plan to arrive at the mountain by 3:45 p.m. to give students time to get their rentals and equipment on. We will leave the mountain at 7:00pm, arriving at Blake around 7:50-8:00 p.m. For those interested in ski and snowboard lessons, they will begin at 4:00 p.m. All paper work for this program is located on the Forms and Documents tab of this blog. Please email Eileen Hurley at [email protected] with any questions or concerns.
MCPE News
MCPE's community wide 25th anniversary appeal is underway! You may have noticed the blue bows popping up around town. A blue bow attached to a mailbox is a show of support and represents a donation to the appeal. For more information about how you can support continued enrichment programs at Blake please visit www.medfield.coalition.org.
CSA News
MEADOW FARMS ORDERS ...
Meadow Farms orders will be available for pick on Thursday, November 15
from 2:30-7:00pm in the Blake Gymnasium.