Owensboro Catholic Middle School

February 2009

Dear OCMS Families:
Catholic Schools Celebrate Service is the theme for this year’s Catholic Schools. NCEA states that this theme “emphasizes the duty and delight of giving back. Catholicism has a long and rich tradition of direct service to those in need, as well as social justice efforts to end social ills like racism and homelessness. Catholic schools incorporate service projects into the curriculum, teaching students the value of helping others as an expression of faith and good citizenship”.

Owensboro Catholic Middle School students have taken service to heart. As each of our students prepares to accept the responsibilities of being confirmed in the Catholic faith, they agree to do service for others in their parish, the school community and the greater community.

Our eighth grade Religion classes kicked off the year by helping Immaculate Parish set up for their annual picnic. They learned that being good neighbors can be fun in the process. When Immaculate parish’s Director of Religious Education needs help, our students are quick to volunteer for Sr. Julia Head.

The Religion Department voted this year to help St. Benedict’s Homeless Shelter as our first semester service project. Students sacrificed money they would use to buy a coke each day and donated it to this wonderful facility. In four short months a student body of about 220 students donated $1500. Sr. Suzanne Sims was overjoyed at our student’s generosity.
October brought a request from the Diocese of Owensboro. Mr. Jim Mattingly, our superintendent, asked if we could raise some money to help with the Hurricane Ike and Gustav victims. With unlimited tootsie pop sales on Halloween and a dollar jean day, our student body and faculty/staff raised $450 which was presented to Mr. Mattingly after Mass in November. Enjoying tootsie pops and a jean day was a sweet way to do service for those in great need.
Our newly formed BETA club took charge of our Thanksgiving Food Drive, advertising, collecting and transporting the food to the Help Office. The Student Council was responsible for our Christmas Giving Tree service project. They distributed gift tags, collected wrapped gifts and delivered those gifts to St. Joseph’s Peace Mission and Birthright. June Bell, Director of St. Joseph’s Peace Mission, and Mrs. Terry LaHugh, Director of Birthright, were both overwhelmed by the gifts collected by our students and parents and shared in thank you notes the reaction of the children and mothers upon seeing and receiving those gifts on Christmas day. Those that were able to deliver the food and gifts were able to experience the gratitude of those in need.

The Fellowship of Christian Athlete members have shared their gifts of time and energy by clearing neighborhood graveyards, working the Mt. St. Joseph picnic and raking leaves. This has helped to develop camaraderie among the club’s members while serving the greater community’s needs.

Each of our OCMS students involved in these service projects has found that we truly can ‘Celebrate Service’. Service doesn’t have to be drudgery despite it being a Christian’s duty. Doing service for others can be fun, sweet and enjoyable. Friendships can be deepened when working together. A stronger community is formed when a group decides to work towards a common goal to help others. Experiencing the gratitude and positive feedback from those for whom the service has been done is a moving and humbling experience that one won’t forget for a long time. Students come to a deeper understanding of our faith and what Jesus calls us to do while here on earth.

Owensboro Catholic Middle School has only begun to “Celebrate Service.” We have four more months in this school year to work as a team sharing our collective gifts and talents with our school, parish and the greater community. Upcoming service projects include helping to build a Catholic church in Africa and stewarding the earth’s resources by collecting recyclables. The Owensboro Catholic Middle School family has learned that serving others is truly a delight!

Blesslngs,
Ann Flaherty, Principal

ACADEMIC DEAN’S CORNER
By: Janice Clark, Academic Dean

Know How to Read a Textbook

To better understand and remember what you read in a textbook, use the Scan, Read, Review method.

SCAN. Scanning offers a quick overview of the material. Read all titles, subtitles, and everything in bold print. Take notice of any pictures, graphs, or charts. Read summaries, if available. Scanning provides information in a short amount of time. It provides you with an “information framework” of main ideas and makes detailed information easier to remember.

READ. Make sure your reading has purpose. This will improve your comprehension and help you stay focused. To give your reading purpose, look at each boldfaced subtitle and turn it into a question. Your question will give your reading focus. As you read each section, try to answer the question. Also, as you read each section, look again at bold print words, names of people and places, etc. Ask yourself, “ Why is this word, person, or place important?”

REVIEW. After scanning and reading the material, most people think they are finished and close their books. Try taking a few extra minutes for review. This will make a huge difference in what you remember later. Reviewing helps to lock the information in your brain before you forget it. Ask yourself, “What is the main idea the author is trying to get across?” Then, briefly review each subtitle and think about and restate the main idea of each section. If you review again the next day, you can really lock in info and even cut down on study time for a test later.

Summary:
•
• SCAN- read subtitles, bold print words, summaries, graphs, charts, etc.
• READ – with a purpose.
• REVIEW- by scanning material to check your comprehension.
(Adapted from 'How to Get Good Grades' by Linda O’Brien)

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle

GUIDANCE NOTES

Mrs. McCormick will be visiting the 8th grade classrooms in March. She will be with each 8th grade class for three days. Students will determine what their likes and dislikes are in relation to different tasks, working environment, activities, etc. The purpose is to help students relate this to career exploration or subject areas and level of education they wish to pursue. The students will then bring this information and their high school planning sheets home in a two-pocket folder. Please go over all of this with your son or daughter when he/she brings it home.

STUDENTS OF THE MONTH
OCMS CONGRATULATES our December students of the month:
8th graders: John Wathen and Emily Rose; 7th Graders, Houston Hartz and Emily Wills

CONGRATULATIONS to our January students of the month:
8th Graders: Megan Woodall and Trevor Lowe; 7th Graders: Ryan Clark and Jenny Beth Willis.

LIBRARY NEWS

Thank you PTO and Susie Alvey for providing snacks for our quarterly AR rewards. 186 students enjoyed a break from class. Oreo cookies with Capri Sun were served as a reward for earning their points for 2nd quarter. Our goal is to have ALL students “reading” and “munching down” for 3rd quarter.
We always have competition among those “avid readers.”

The top five 7th and 8th graders with the most points for 2nd quarter participated in a pizza party in the library. Congratulations to the following

8th graders: Cody Payne, Stefan Swift, Rachel Hamilton, Jared McMaster and Allison Schepers

7th graders: Alyssa Ralph, Seth Tignor, Hagan Baird, Jared Tucker, and Reece Payne.

RELIGION DEPARTMENT
Julie Renshaw
Department Chair

Thanks so much to the students who continue to contribute to the Snack-A-Week program here at school. Last semester, our generous students and parents donated a whopping $1500.00 for the residents of St. Benedict’s Joseph Shelter in Owensboro!! Sister Suzanne Sims, the director, was pleasantly surprised and very appreciative of the efforts of the OCMS community. This semester we will help build a “Chapel of Divine Mercy” for Catholics across the world in the diocese of Lahore, Pakistan. The endeavor is the brain child of Fr. Patris Samuel and came to us via a request by Mrs. Martha Kauffeld. Please consider foregoing one snack a week (50 cents) for this worthy cause.
Lent – the season of repentance and renewal – is almost upon us! This liturgical season, beginning on Ash Wednesday, is a time for prayer (daily scripture reading, praying the Rosary, etc.), fasting (limiting those things that we make more important than God as an expression of sorrow for our sin), and almsgiving (giving of our time and treasure for those in need in our church and community). Let’s all make Lent our own personal retreat into the desert so that when Easter arrives, we’ll be ready to rejoice in Jesus’ resurrection!
Congratulations to our school-wide Religion bee winners who showed amazing knowledge of Catholic doctrine and trivia: 1st place – Emily Rose, 2nd place – Kevin Thompson, and 3rd place – Michael Englert. This bee was part of the Catholic Schools Week activities that were postponed due to the January ice storm.
All students had the opportunity to experience the forgiveness of sin in the sacrament of Reconciliation on February 12. Thanks to so many of our priests who joined us that day to offer life-giving repentance and absolution of sin. This sacrament is offered twice a year to our students, in the spring and the fall.
The ACRE test (Assessment of Catechesis/ Religious Education) will be administered to our 8th graders on February 24 in morning homeroom. This inventory is a tool to assess the effectiveness of our religious education program. It measures basic religious knowledge, as well as assessing beliefs, attitudes, practices, and perceptions of students in the 8th grade. . Please see that your child is in school that day and that he/she eats a healthy breakfast.
Please continue to pray for us as we continue to keep you in our prayers!
KUNA

On March 1-3, 11 students will be attending the KUNA Conference in Louisville, Ky. The Kentucky United Nations Assembly is a 3 day experience in the diplomacy of the United Nations that provides students with hands-on involvement with international issues and solutions for our global community. OCMS will be representing the United Kingdom. Advisors are Bart Rhodes and Sharon Walter.

ACADEMIC TEAM

District Governor’s Cup News Release

Congratulations to the OCMS Academic team who placed first in District Governor’s Cup Competition Saturday, January 24, 2009, at Hancock County Middle School. Our quick recall team grabbed first place by not losing any games against Ohio and McLean Counties. Members of the Quick Recall team are Kyle Alvey, Marty Crowe, Chase Carrico, Brian Gross, Patrick Lasley, Martha Hughes, Justin Magnuson, and Kevin Thompson. Our FPS team also placed first in this competition. Members of the FPS team are Kelsey Conkright, Marty Crowe, Martha Hughes, Andrew Riccio, and Kyle Alvey.

Special congratulations go to the following team members who placed in written assessment:

Kevin Thompson – 1st place in Social Studies and Language Arts
Chase Carrico – 2nd place in Mathematics and Language Arts
Justin Magnuson – 1st place in Mathematics and 3rd place Science
Patrick Lasley – 2nd place Social Studies and 4th place Science
Martha Hughes – 1st place Arts and Humanities
Emily Whitehouse – 1st place Composition
Marty Crowe – 2nd place Science
Sarah Beth Caudill – 3rd place Composition
Emily Rose – 5th place Composition

Thanks to the coaches Mrs. Ebelhar, Mrs. Renshaw, and Mrs. Riccio for practicing and guiding the team to a win. Also thanks to Mrs. Clark for scoring Composition and Mr. Rhodes for moderating the quick recall games!

The Academic team will compete at Regional Governor’s Cup competition on Feb. 17 and Feb. 21 at Ohio County Middle School. GO ACES!!

SPELLING BEE WINNERS

CONGRATULATIONS to the following classroom Spelling Bee winners: Simmie McCormick, Marty Crowe, Colton Roberts, Jared McMaster, Chase Carrico, Jacob Mills, Kelsey Conkright, Hadley Shepherd, Jared Millay, and Zach Clore.

The winners of the schoolwide Spelling Bee are: 3rd place - Colton Roberts, 2nd place - Jacob Mills and 1st place - Chase Carrico!!

OCMS GEOGRAPHY BEE WINNERS 2008-2009
Kevin Thompson, Owensboro Catholic Middle School, won the school-level competition of the National Geographic Bee on January 8, 2009. The school-level Bee was the first round in the 21st annual National Geographic Bee. Third place winner is Sam Lilly and coming in second place after 5 tie-breaking rounds is Justin Magnuson.
Congratulations to the following classroom winners:
Neil Mattingly, Jared McMaster, Megan Woodall, Bradley Norcia, Dylan Gaddis, Alex Mitchell, Colton Roberts, Aidan Cardona, Caleb Brand, Michael Thompson, and Justin Krampe

 

BETA CLUB

Beta Club will be holding a recycling fundraiser March 16, 17, and 18.
We will be collecting the following items: old cell phones, inkjet cartridges, laser jet cartridges, iPods/MP3 players, laptop computers, digital cameras, digital video cameras, and handheld gaming systems. Students can drop off these items before school in the collection boxes located in each grade's respective supervision area. If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Cheshire by phone or by e-mail mary.cheshire@owensborocatholic.org

YEARBOOK NEWS

The yearbook staff has been working on the 2008-2009 school yearbook. Students may purchase the yearbook for $25.00. Attached to this newsletter, you will find an order form. Orders can be sent to the OCMS office.

OCMS PTO MEETING
TUESDAY,
FEBRUARY 24, 2009
7:00 P.M. CAFETERIA

After a short business meeting,
Ray Roth will be speaking on adolescence, what to expect developmentally and how to handle issues that arise from this stage of growth. Mr. Roth has been in education for more than 20 years, serving as a school psychologist, a behavioral specialist, an alternative high school director, and currently as an elementary school assistant principal. He is also a college instructor in psychology and focuses on developmental issues of children and adolescents. He has provided trainings to parents and teachers in districts across the state and nationally in his work as a consultant with the organization Safe and Civil Schools. He has also provided CHAMPS, A Proactive and Positive Approach to Classroom Management, training to our Diocesan Catholic school teachers.
Students will receive a jean day on Thursday, 2/26, if their parent(s) attend this meeting.

 

TRAFFIC NOTE
PARENTS: We have noticed that there are times when parents and/or brothers or sisters picking up OCMS students are diving too fast along the side of the church and around the corner. Please remember we have your children standing and waiting and sometimes crossing into the drive area while searching for their parents. Also we have elderly parishioners sometimes parked along the south side of the church coming and going from the church. We are asking that you move at a slow rate of speed both at dismissal and in the morning when picking up and dropping off your children.