The Old Rochester Regional School Committee voted unanimously at the June 9, 2009 meeting to enter the Massachusetts School Choice protocol in the 2009-2010 school year on a limited, space available basis.  The Old Rochester Regional School District will open 3 slots in each grade (7-12) in 2009-2010 to students from outside of the Old Rochester Regional School District.  The program will be managed in accordance with Massachusetts  Department of Elementary and Secondary Education regulations governing School Choice.

Inquiries regarding the Old Rochester Regional School District School Choice openings should be directed to the principals:

  Grades 7-8      Kevin Brogioli    508-758-4928
  Grades 9-12     Michael Devoll   508-758-3745

Last week, the Orange team Science students built model rockets as a culmination of their Physics lessons. The finished models were launched on Thursday and Friday. The photos show the students working on their models and launching them. Click HERE to view the photos.

It would be helpful to Silas Coellner, our new faculty member (next year), if you could fill out this survey this year. Mr. Coellner is  studying technology in a college course.  Your responses to these statements will help him complete his coursework.  Please respond "yes" if you can , "maybe" if you are not sure, and "no" if you can not.
 
He has invited you to fill out the form  ORR Junior High Technology Survey. To fill it out, visit:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cmFlbEh6cTdNcW9wcmNrRjZaUHlXZ2c6MA..

Click here to veiw this year's Survival Photos!

(over 300 more pictures added on June 15th)

PRESS RELEASE

ORR Superintendent Search Underway - Parents and Community Invited to Participate

The Old Rochester Regional School District/Massachusetts School Superintendency Union #55 School Committees have engaged the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) to assist them in the search process for a new Superintendent of Schools.  Dr. William Cooper,  who has ably served the district since 2002, will be retiring at the end of December, 2009. Mr. Jim Hardy, MASC Field Director, and Mr. Glenn Koocher, MASC Executive Director, will be assisting the Old Rochester Regional School District/Massachusetts Superintendency Union #55 School Committees throughout the search process.

An integral part of the process involves parent and community participation in focus groups.  The groups are designed to obtain participant input about the attributes, experience and knowledge that the new superintendent should possess.  The groups also provide an opportunity for participants to identify immediate tasks which the new superintendent should address.

The focus group sessions for staff members, parents and community members will be conducted between June 1 and 12 according to the following schedule.  Each group will last approximately one hour.

Date    Group/Location Time  Contact Person

June 2  Rochester Staff Focus Group   Rochester School   8:00 a.m.  Jay Ryan

June 2  Sippican Staff Focus Group   Sippican Schoon 3:15 p.m.  Ed Fava
June 3  Administrators Focus Group Superintendent's Office   10:00 a.m.  Diana Russo
June 3  High School Staff Focus Group ORR High School 2:20 p.m.  Mike Devoll
June 3  OHS Staff Focus Group   Old Hammondtown   3:00 p.m.  Matt D'Andrea
June 8  Central Office Staff Focus Group Superintendent's Office 10:00 a.m.  Diana Russo
June 8  Community/Parents Focus Group Superintendent's Office 1:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.  Diana Russo
June 8  Center Staff Focus Group   Center School 3:00 p.m.  Rosemary Bowman
June 9  Jr. High Staff Focus Group ORR Junior High   2:15 p.m.  Kevin Brogioli
 
Community member and parents who are interested in participating should call the Superintendent's office at 508-758-2772 ext. 1956 to register for one of the Community/Parents Focus Group sessions.  Childcare will be provided only at the June 8, 1:00 p.m. session at the Superintendent's Office.  If you wish child care, please inform us of the number and ages of the children when you call to reserve your spot.

Members of the school community are also invited to provide input for the search process through an on-line survey that is available through the Old Rochester RegionalSchool District/Massachusetts Superintendency Union #55 website.  

The Old Rochester Regional School District/Massachusetts Superintendency Union #55 School Committees and MASC hope that many parents and community members will be able to participate in either focus groups or the online survey to provide input for the search process.


Website:  www.oldrochester.org

The Filmmakers 2009 Project Nomman's Sin: is a pseudo-BBC type show like Doctor Who or The Tomorrow People. Sci-Fi / Horror fun is the aim. Cheesy special effects, death and destruction, super powers, and heroes to protect the unknowing masses. Visit the Filmmakers to see  their film, and how they achieved their special effects.

ORRJHS library has just launched a new multimedia book blog that highlights books available in the library. Featuring video booktalks - a kind of YouTube for books - and online book excerpts, the blog is designed to help students decide what to read next. So, please do some browsing at orrjhslibrary.wordpress.com, and then come into the library and check out some books!

Recently, the Math Team competed in a meet in Plymouth. Out of the twenty-two schools which competed, we captured seventh place.
 
Three eighth graders competed-Josh Bardwell, Emily Hou, and Rebecca Johnson. Also competing were five seventh graders-Justin Smilan, Mike Wyman, Olivia Silva, Lee Estes, and Kelly Merlot. Mike Tucker was our alternate.

Although only the top five teams will go on to the state competition, Rebecca Johnson qualified for the States as an individual and will compete in March. The winner of the state competition will receive a full, four-year scholarship (or five, with the co-op program) to Wentworth.

Thank you for your support and participation! All proceeds from this event benefit the Hands for Maddie Foundation (http://www.handsformaddie.org). Together we raised $2000 for Maddie!

Click here the see the photo slideshow.

Thanks to Mr. Andree, you can watch the game video and highlights HERE!

The game video will be available on ORCTV very soon.

In the middle of March, ORRJHS 8th grade Latin students took the National Latin Exam.  Over 135,000 students in public and private schools in all fifty states and eleven foreign countries participated in this event. The material consisted of forty multiple-choice questions on vocabulary, grammar, and the history and culture of the Ancient Roman Empire.  We are very proud to announce that of our 32 students participating, 11 students received awards:

Rebecca Johnson - Gold Medal
Jessica Correia - Gold Medal
Matthew Hlady - Gold Medal
Abby Hiller - Gold Medal
James Braza -- Silver Medal
Rebecca Adelstein -- Silver Medal
Conner Medeiros-Sweet - With High Honors
Josh Bardwell -- With High Honors
Luke Mattar -- With High Honors
Katie Wilbur -- With Honors
Salem Hartley - Blue Certificate of Merit

The Massachusetts Deptartment Of Elementary and Secondary Education has just recently (May 7th) distributed updated information sheets for educators, parents, and students regard Swine Flu. Click HERE to download these documents.

The MA Dept Of Public Health has distributed an Advisory for School and Child Care Settings, as well as a Swine Flu Fact Sheet. Click HERE to download these documents.

For more information go to the MA Dept Of Public Health Website or The Center for Disease Control (CDC) Website.

The new Gr. 7 and Gr. 8 Music and Technology Classes have been very busy creating music and podcasts using the Apple iLife program Garage Band!  We are very proud of their work. Please click to visit  http://musicandtech.net, explore our site, and enjoy our projects!

Parents need to understand Facebook. At Facebook for Parents, parents can enroll in a free course at Stanford to learn more about Facebook or sign up for a free newsletter about Facebook created especially for parents with kids under 18 using the service.

Click HERE to visit Facebook for Parents

Beginning Monday, Feb. 23, daily announcements will be available for you listening pleasure! Click HERE or on the Podcast link to the left to hear the daily announcements and other important messages.

Parents and guardians can support ORRJHS's educational objectives by agreeing to receive communications through our new internet network. Since ORRPA isn't active, we have formed Link-Ed to focus strictly on the 7th and 8th grade levels. If you choose to participate, you will be advised of volunteer opportunities and needs via email once a month (i.e. chaperones, speakers, and wish lists). Mr. Brogioli and/or staff members will advise this email network when they have an opportunity or need for assistance. Participation is totally voluntary; you reply or respond only when you wish to volunteer. We hope that you will join us in supporting our junior high school and this new form of communication which bypasses children's backpacks and monthly meetings that we don't have time to attend.

Click on the link to ORRJHS Link-Ed at the left to view our new site and join!

Metaphors are a form of figurative language that are never true, but they always point toward the truth. Metaphors make connections between two unalike things to create an understanding in someone that they could not have experienced without the metaphor's comparison. Think about "skyscrapers". They don't literally scrape the sky, but they are incredibly tall and it's almost as if they do. The term "skyscraper" helps people understand the truth about what they truly are. Click  to view the Green Team Metaphor Project: http://www.andreeinstitute.com/archivespages/metaphorprojects2009.html

The mission of ORCTV's Channel 18 is threefold:

• To provide the youth, parents, teachers, and members of the greater community of Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester with the technology and resources to produce their own television programming.
• To showcase educational endeavors/interests of schools within or available to students of the Tri-town area.
• To provide educational programming to learners of all ages within its viewing audience.
  

Click here for more information on ORCTV's ETV Channel 18 

What is Rachel's Challenge?

Rachel Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Her acts of kindness and compassion coupled with the contents of her six diaries have become the foundation for one of the most life-changing school programs in America.

Powerful video/audio footage of Rachel's life and the Columbine tragedy holds students spell-bound during a one hour school presentation that motivates them to positive change in the way they treat others.

This is followed by an interactive 45-minute training session involving both adult and student leaders that shows how to sustain the momentum created by the assembly. The assembly creates the "want to" or desire for positive change. The training session teaches the "how to" and ensures that the positive impact will continue.

That evening the Rachel's Challenge speaker conducts a powerful session with parents and community leaders. This session is similar to the assembly program and ends with a specific challenge to parents and community leaders, showing them how they can reinforce the decisions their youth are making.

Entertainers, politicians, sports celebrities, educators, and even two Presidents of the United States have been impacted by Rachel's Challenge. However, students are the target audience and they have proven that they will respond with positive words, attitudes, and actions.

(From Rachel's Challenge website- click to Learn More )

Mrs. Herrmann is asking for suggestions and/or book recommendations for our library. If you have ideas to share, please visit the ORRJHS Library website and click on the link to the "Suggestion Box."

Do you have any exercise equipment that you're looking to sell?? The staff at the Junior High is in the process of setting up a wellness room with small weights and cardio equipment. If you have a gently used treadmill, bike, or elliptical trainer and would like to assist the staff in modeling good health and fitness, please let us know. Contact: Nancy Juvinall at (508)965-6566 or njuvinall@orr.mec.edu

Would you like to learn more about ORRJHS?  Click on the links below to view the ORRJHS video produced by Greg Andree and his students. (If the video does start to play after a couple of seconds, click on the little black triangle/play button in the lower left corner of the video window)

ORRJHS Video Part 1 (QuickTime)

ORRJHS Video Part 2 (QuickTime) 

AwesomeStories is a gathering place of primary-source information. Its purpose - since the site was first launched in 1999 - is to help educators and individuals find original sources, located at national archives, libraries, universities, and government web sites.

AwesomeStories is about primary sources. The stories exist as a way to place original materials in context and to hold those links together in an interesting, cohesive way (thereby encouraging people to look at them). It is a totally different kind of web site in that its purpose is to place primary sources at the forefront - not the opinions of a writer. Its objective is to take a site's users to places where those primary sources are found, and to which the site's users may otherwise not go. The author of each story is listed on the "chapters" page of the story. A link to the author provides more detailed information.

This educational learning tool also is designed to support state and national standards. Each story on the site links to online primary source materials which are selected and positioned in context to enhance reading comprehension, understanding and enjoyment.

Click HERE to go to the site. Enter the password orr in the Academic Members Box (NOT Individual members) to start reading some awesome stories!

In the next couple of weeks, user information (login & passwords) will be distributed to teachers and students for NetTrekker.di (differentiated instruction version) and ExploreLearning (home of Gizmos!). In the meantime, if you would like to take a tour of these sites, click on the links below:

Here are some links to FREE online tools, that allow you to create documents using word processing (like MS Word), Spreadsheets (like Excel), and presentations (like PowerPoint). These tools will enable you to work on files anywhere & anytime that you can connect to the internet - school, home, a friend or relative's house, etc. If you want, files can be shared so multiple users can collaborate on the same files. No need for floppy disks to tranfer files to and from school. This is especially useful if you do not have MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, etc.) on your home computer and want to work on files at home and in school. MS Works and Word Perfect, are not completely compatible with the software we have in school.

Word Processing:

Google Docs & Spreadsheets : http://docs.google.com/ (formerly Writely.com)

Zoho Writer : http://www.zohowriter.com 

Presentations:

Zoho Show : http://zohoshow.com

Spreadsheets:

Google Docs & Spreadsheets : http://docs.google.com/

Zoho Sheet : http://www.zohosheet.com

Other Productivity Tools:

Create a Graph: http://nces.ed .gov/nceskids/createagraph

Zoho Home : http://zoho.com/

Gliffy.com : http://www.gliffy.com/ - create simple diagrams, floor plans, mind maps, graphic organizers, etc.

ReadWriteThink : Student Materials : http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp

In accordance with federal and state regulations, the Old Rochester Regional and Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester school districts provide special education programs designed to meet the needs of children who are attending public and private schools and whose parents reside in the towns of Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester. This information applies to all children who reside in the towns of Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester, including homeless children. Special education services provided by the public schools are available to all children aged 3 through 21, who have disabilities which prevent them from making progress in school. Eligible areas of disability include autism, communication, physical, intellectual impairments, specific learning disabilities, and developmental delays. Parents or guardians of youngsters who might qualify for special education are encouraged to contact the public school district to determine the eligibility of their child or children. The Old Rochester Regional School District provides a full continuum of special education services. Parents or public school licensed professionals may refer a child for evaluation for special education eligibility, if regular education interventions are not successful. Preschool screenings are available four times per year in the elementary schools in the Tri-town area - look in local papers or call your elementary school for dates and times. ORR and Union #55 Elementary Schools Director of Student Services - 508-758-2772 Ext. 1942 Early Childhood Coordinator - 508-748-1863 Old Rochester Regional High School - 508-758-3745 Old Rochester Regional Junior High School - 508-758-4928 Sippican Elementary School (Marion - Gr. Pre-K-6) 508-748-0100 Center School (Mattapoisett - Gr. Pre-K-3) 508-758-2521 Old Hammondtown School (Mattapoisett - Gr. 4-6) 508-758-6241 Rochester Memorial School (Rochester - Gr. Pre-K-6) 508-763-2049 Our school districts have developed Special Education Program Plans for the State Department of Education. These documents are public. Copies are available in the Student Services Office, 135 Marion Road, Mattapoisett, MA 02739. For further information about student services, go to http://www.oldrochester.org and click on "Special Education." Our Director of Student Services and our principals are available to answer questions, and we invite your comments about special education in any of our schools. Any parents or members of the community who would like to have input into our planning for special education should call the Director of Student Services at 508-758-2772 x1942, or should plan to attend a meeting of the Special Education Parent Advisory Council. Additionally, the Marion, Mattapoisett, Rochester, and Old Rochester Regional School Districts have openings for chairpersons. Please contact the Director of Student Services at the above listing if you are interested in serving on or chairing your town's Parent Advisory Council. If you have any questions or concerns regarding these laws and how they affect your children, please do not hesitate to contact your local principal or the Student Services Office. Anyone may obtain copies of special education laws and regulations from the Department of Education, 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5023.

Please don't throw away your empty ink and toner cartridges. Send them to JHS to help Mr. Botelho's students recycle them and raise funds for school activities. For more information click here, or contact Mr. Botelho at the JHS ( 508-758-4928 ext. 1115)

P.J. Poulin will test his baseball skills at Fenway competition!

(Click here to read full story.)