Octoberfest at YSMS
Mrs. Shearer’s German students got creative by decorating gingerbread hearts. After making comparisons between foods served at a typical fall festival in Pennsylvania with those served at the Oktoberfest in Germany, students had an opportunity to decorate a gingerbread heart of their own. Hearts like these are traditionally sold and worn at carnivals and festivals all over Germany. They were not only fun to make, they tasted great too! (A special thanks to Mrs. Cara Beth Zortman who helped us out with the baking!)
¡YSMS Fiesta at Fiesta México!
“Yo quisiera...,” “¿Cómo está la comida?,” and “La cuenta, por favor.” This was just a little bit of the Spanish being used by YSMS students at Fiesta México on November 11th. The students were off school and teachers were participating in Parent/Teacher Conferences, but both met up for lunch to practice their Spanish in the real world. In class the students had just finished a unit on food and ordering food at a restaurant. To apply what they had learned, about a dozen students decided to meet up with their Spanish teachers for lunch at Fiesta México.
The students were encouraged to try different foods and ordered quite a variety – queso fundido, fajitas de camarones, mole poblano, and more. However, no one was willing to try beef tongue. By the end of lunch everyone was full and had a few laughs as everyone experimented with their Spanish. Everyone that attended had a great time and learned a few new things. Thanks to parents and Fiesta México for their support.
Grade 6 Visits the Byrnes Center
Sixth grade students from YSMS visited the Susan P. Byrnes Health Education Center in York the first week of December. Students attended two workshops. The first workshop, FAT: WHAT’S UP WITH THAT allowed the students the opportunity to explore how the media and popular culture portray health and body image. Students learned about healthy choices and self-esteem as well as eating disorders and social pressures.
The second workshop, What Color Are You? was a workshop that focused on the colors of our personalities and how we all have strengths and weaknesses. Students identified their personality “color” and discussed how working together with all the colors can lead to balance and success. Students parlayed this information into daily interactions with others with the hopes of combating harassment and bullying.
Santa Visits YSMS
The faculty at YSMS recognized that this holiday season may be extra stressful for some of the families of our students due to the economic crunch caused by growing unemployment rates and fewer available community-based supports. Accordingly, we invited all YSMS students to shop for loved ones at our newly created Secret Santa Shop. The new items were donated by the staff at YSMS as were the decorations and wrapping supplies. These items were available free of charge to students who visited the Secret Santa Shop after school on December 17, 2009 from 3:00 to 4:00 PM in the YSMS Student Lounge. Although it was a whirlwind event of shopping and wrapping, nearly 40 students enjoyed the experience and were able to shop for 3 to 7 family members! In addition, 10 student C.H.I.P.S. assisted the shoppers and helped wrap the chosen gifts with supervision from 12 volunteer staff chaperones! Students who participated were then transported home by parents or used the school activity bus with their holiday gifts in tow. The many items that remained after the shopping event were donated to Big Brothers Big Sisters of York County, Inc. and were quickly distributed to the many families whom that agency serves.
7J-Team Cooks Up A Storm!
With the help of our special parent volunteers, Holly Falco, Janet Toner, Christine Kates, Ginny Parr (Gabe Tyson's grandmother), Denise Harrison, Teresa Gati, Dana Aliaga, Meg Wheeler, Victoria Brehl, Betty Arnold (Faith Brenneman), Gina Kouma, Beth Marshall, and Lori Tyson, not only at the party but with food and decorations for the tables, the 7J team teachers served up quite a holiday breakfast! We celebrated on Dec. 22 with pancakes, orange juice, and hot chocolate and then continued our activities with Academic Jeopardy!
Each homeroom created five teams that would compete with the other homerooms. During the ninety minute period we covered three rounds of Jeopardy. Teams kept a tally of their points. After lunch, we concluded the game with our final Jeopardy question. YSMS Trivia. “What current teacher at York Suburban Middle School, has been teaching here the longest?” Was it Dr. Gertsmyer, or possibly Dean Young, oh!!… it had to be Mrs. Gross. To our amazement it was Mrs. Weidman. She has worked at York Suburban for 30 years.
For the second year in a row, Mr. Darrah’s strategic placement of students on teams succeeded! They won by a landslide. For their efforts and quick response to questions they celebrated with another pancake breakfast!
YSMS Presents: Just Another High School Musical
The YSMS musical is in full-swing! Fifty students in grades six through eight are rehearsing for this year’s production, Just Another High School Musical, by Bryan Starchman and Stephen Murray. This comedy centers around a group of students who are abandoned on opening night by their director and left to fend for themselves to put on a show. The result is a series of witty spoofs on several classic tales from literature. Come join the fun on March 12 and 13 at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $2.00 for students and $4.00 for adults.
Spelling Bee
On Friday, December 11, 2009, 49 YSMS students, grades 6-8, participated in the 2010 WITF Central Spelling Bee, held annually at YSMS. Winners of this spelling bee, will go on to a regional written spelling test at WITF, which will then qualify them for the Grand Championship Oral Spelling Bee in late February. All of this leads to one winner who will then move on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee held in Washington D.C. in the late spring! Our top three spellers this year are:
First Champion - Jon Arthur (8th Grade)
Second Champion Brad Clark (8th Grade)
Third Champion: Devon Hornberger (6th Grade)
Our fourth runner up is Micaela Snyder (7th Grade)
Student Council News
Gigi Hoffman
During the winter months Student Council has been active reaching out to the community. We held a school wide sweatshirt competition for just one week. Within that week 407 sweatshirts were collected. The Council decided to distribute them to York Rescue Mission, Salvation Army and the Homeless Shelter of York. In addition to the sweatshirt drive, twelve care packages filled with books, magazines, toiletries, instant hot chocolate, beef jerky and CD’s, were sent overseas to our Service Men and Women in Iraq.
Portfolio Conferences at YSMS
For the second year in a row, the 7th grade A Team is conducting Portfolio Performance Conferences at YSMS. Portfolio conferences are a way for parents, teachers, and students to sit and discuss the academic progress of each child for the marking period. Parents can come anytime during the two hour time period and stay as long as needed; no appointment is necessary. During this time, parents bring their child to the conference, view their work for the marking period, and ask their child questions about the work. The team teachers are there to answer any curriculum specific questions, as well as to touch base with the parents to assure them of their child’s progress.
During a Portfolio Conference, each person has a role. The student tends to have the most important. It is their job to create the portfolio, reflect on their learning, and create goals for their future success. The parent is given the job of listening and trusting the child to explain what is in the portfolio and the reflection of the materials. Parents should also review the goals set by the student and possibly help them create new ones to add to the paper. The teacher has the job of being present to answer questions and discuss future goals for the class. They can also inform parents of any concerns or triumphs regarding the student.
Overall, portfolio conferences have been successful for many reasons, such as time constraints of parents, and lack of appointment spaces for conferences. Mainly, it is a way for students to take ownership for their education. As many people know, when there is a sense of ownership for something, there tends to be a greater sense of respect and responsibility toward it as well. To witness students telling parents why they did well, or why they did not achieve the desired success for a test or project is wonderful. It gives the child a moment to reflect and think about how they can better achieve their goals in the future; a future that is theirs to form.
YSMS York County Choral Festival Participants
The following 6th grade singers have been selected to participate in the 2010 York County Elementary Choral Festival: Chloe Bloom, Tyler Holland, Vanessa Jones, Jacob Shoemaker, Alden Kane, Tyler Lentz, Cosimo Sciortino, Breanna Sterner, Monida Tum and Nicole Peritz. The festival will be held on March 27th at the Central York High School. The concert will be at 3:00 P.M. and open to the public.