Pierce Pages ED9
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Pierce faculty members donated items to fill 36 backpacks with items for the homeless. The group pictured above delivered them to homeless individuals in Boston. Thanks to Head Custodian Mike Buzzell for organizing the collection. PIERCEPAGES 2021-2022 EDITION 9 NOVEMBER 14, 2021 PIERCE MIDDLE SCHOOL • 451 CENTRAL AVENUE MILTON, MA 02186 • WWW.MILTONPS.ORG/PIERCE Ms. Veldran - Gr. 8 Guidance Counselor • [email protected] Ms. Benjamin - Gr. 6 Guidance Counselor • [email protected] Ms. Jaquette - Gr. 7 Guidance Counselor • [email protected] Marti McKenna, Family Outreach Liaison • [email protected] or 617-980-7343 Helpful Resources Ms. Perry - School Nurse • [email protected] or 617-696-4575 Upcoming Events November 18…Early Release Day, Parent Conferences; November 24-26…Thanksgiving Break SCHEDULE OF DAYS THIS WEEK: Monday - D5, Tuesday - D6, Wednesday - D7, Thursday - DX, Friday - D1 HELPING Each year our guidance counselors identify Pierce families in need and collect gift cards to be distributed to them for the holidays. This program, Families Helping Families, provides an opportunity for your family to bring a little bit of holiday spirit to another family at Pierce Middle School in the most anonymous and quiet way. If you are interested in supporting this effort, please bring your gift card donation to the main office at Pierce Middle School by December 12 and deposit it in the sealed box. We recommend gift cards to Star Market, Shaws, Stop and Shop, Target and Old Navy but will, of course, accept and pass on gift cards from all stores. Our guidance staff will make sure that these gift cards find their way to needy Pierce families this holiday season. Please know how much we appreciate your generosity! Any families who are in need of support this holiday season can contact Marti McKenna, our Family Outreach Liaison, or any of the Pierce guidance counselors (see contact information below). Families Families Eighth grade students in Ms. Power’s IS-ELA class wrote personal essays with the theme “What I Know Is True.” Below is Ania Robinson’s essay. Crosswalk: a marked part of the road where pedestrians have the right of way to cross. The first signs of pedestrian crosswalk can be seen in Pompeii from over 2000 years ago. In the United States in the 1910s there were lines marking and outlining the roads. People normally didn’t pay attention to them. Then the first official crosswalk was installed in Slough, England in 1951. They don’t seem to have much meaning but we use them everyday. To walk the dog, to get the groceries, to walk home from a long ,but exhilarating day at school. Now those days seem shorter and more exhausting. I don’t cross the same crosswalks anymore or see the same people from when those days at school were the highlights of my week. I had always loved school but people change, and things are remodeled and rebuilt, but those crosswalks always stayed the same. Until we moved. Again. And again. Then we couldn’t see every little piece of the city when we walked to school. It is the same cars, the same cliques, the same crosswalks. The same. Exact. Everything. People never seem to change but the change, once they do, is immense. I used to skip across those thick, white, cracked lines. Feeling the wind in my once straight brown/ black hair. Then coming back down to reality before a car can run me over. Now the crosswalks changed and so did the people skipping, leaping, and jumping across them. There is no time for that anymore in the rushed mornings before school. Moving changes everything. The first time I tried going across the crosswalks in Boston, nothing would be the same. The thick, white lines had no cracks in them as if they were just painted over. Fake. Cold. They were too far apart for my second grade legs to leap and land, leap and land. Too. Far. Apart. If there wasn’t the looming threat of cars that I knew could hit me without thinking, I wouldn’t have moved off the road. There is no hope for me in this city. Fake. Cold. Last week my parents brought up the idea of moving again. This time I’m less opposed. I guess. I’ve always been a part of the people who change. Eight year old me would have sobbed and never stopped. But after five years. I don’t want to feel trapped. I don’t want to walk past the same crosswalks again and again and again and again. Every day for four more years. That is 208ish weeks. 1,460ish days of the same. Maybe I won’t even get to walk across any more busy streets. But maybe just maybe we won’t have to move again at all. The part of me that’s getting older doesn’t feel anything. Just get it over with; It’s four years. You’ll be fine. Suck it up. But part of me. The tiniest, more indescribable part of me that is honestly influencing me as a whole, doesn’t want to leave, doesn’t want the crosswalks to change. My mom told me about a Native American saying that says that once you step on American soil, you will never feel at home. As much as I try, and as much as everyone else tries:I don’t feel at home. Everyone around me has been friends for what feels like an eternity. I’ve never had that. Maybe once everything changes again things will get better. Or worse. There’s always that “you don’t know it’s good until it’s gone.” I’m scared. To move. To change, To just be alive. Maybe the problem with moving is that I do want to walk past those same crosswalks. I don’t want the change. I like the sameness. The staying. The finding a home. Maybe in a couple years, I’ll feel at home in my house. With my family. With myself. A Few Reminders • If your child is going to be absent, tardy, or dismissed, you can call Pierce and leave a message or email Administrative Assistant Sandy Wyse at [email protected]. • Chromebooks should be charged EVERY night so that students can use them in class each day. On November 6th, The Pierce Middle School Debate Team participated in the Lumos Fall Invitational Tournament. Students debated the economic and social impacts of raising the federal minimum wage in The United States. Students used the Public Forum Debate format to discuss the benefits and costs of increasing the minimum wage. Students Isabella Alba, Josue Castillo-Savage, Saibh Chaplin, Adam Cheairs, Samuel Epstein, Nailah Hazelwood, Dobie Illich, John Griffin, Penelope Jain, Sara Khan, Ben Neugebauer, Avery Squiciarino, and Sadie Wetzner-Crothers competed in this tournament. Isabella Alba, Nailah Hazelwood and Ben Neugebauer received Speaker Awards after earning distinguished scores in debate rounds. Avery Squiciarino and Sara Khan were awarded 4th place in the tournament for their excellent record after winning multiple successive rounds. The Pierce Debate Team was thrilled to participate in this tournament after several weeks of rigorous practice and preparation, and we look forward to competing again in December. ABOVE: Yosemite students read 481 books this quarter for independent reading! On average, each Yosemite student read 4.6 books. Yellow students read a total of 90 books while Purple students read 92. Red students read 82 books and Green students read 85. Blue broke all the records with a whopping 122 books! Ask your Yosemite student about their second quarter reading goal today! Orion Team students made posters for Veterans Day, and Mr. Mac delivered them to the Brockton VFW to show appreciation to our veterans. Students in Pierce Pals worked their way through the ropes obstacle course in the gym this week. You can join the Pierce team, PIERCE PALS when you register! Click HERE to register. Financial Aid for College Admissions Advisory Naviance 101 College Athletics College Application Procedures College Testing: ACT vs SAT Eang Healy Our REACH students are growing lettuce, kale and basil for all of our students to enjoy at lunch. Pierce Pals World Kindness Day Students in Ms. McEvoy’s classes made posters to celebrate World Kindness Day.
Transcript of Pierce Pages ED9
Pierce faculty members donated items to fill 36 backpacks with items for the homeless. The group pictured above delivered them to homeless individuals in Boston. Thanks to Head Custodian Mike Buzzell for organizing the collection.
PIERCE PAGES2021-2022 EDITION 9NOVEMBER 14, 2021
PIERCE MIDDLE SCHOOL • 451 CENTRAL AVENUE MILTON, MA 02186 • WWW.MILTONPS.ORG/PIERCE
Ms. Veldran - Gr. 8 Guidance Counselor • [email protected]
Ms. Benjamin - Gr. 6 Guidance Counselor • [email protected]
Ms. Jaquette - Gr. 7 Guidance Counselor • [email protected]
Marti McKenna, Family Outreach Liaison • [email protected] or 617-980-7343
Helpful Resources
Click HERE to see the 6th grade teachers’ amazing Welcome video!
Ms. Perry - School Nurse • [email protected] or 617-696-4575
Upcoming Events November 18…Early Release Day, Parent Conferences; November 24-26…Thanksgiving Break
SCHEDULE OF DAYS THIS WEEK: Monday - D5, Tuesday - D6, Wednesday - D7, Thursday - DX, Friday - D1
HELPING Each year our guidance counselors identify Pierce families in need and collect gift cards to be distributed to them for the holidays. This program, Families Helping Families, provides an opportunity for your family to bring a little bit of holiday spirit to another family at Pierce Middle School in the most anonymous and quiet way. If you are interested in supporting this effort, please bring your gift card donation to the main office at Pierce Middle School by December 12 and deposit it in the sealed box. We recommend gift cards to Star Market, Shaws, Stop and Shop, Target and Old Navy but will, of course, accept and pass on gift cards from all stores. Our guidance staff will make sure that these gift cards find their way to needy Pierce families this holiday season. Please know how much we appreciate your generosity!
Any families who are in need of support this holiday season can contact Marti McKenna, our Family Outreach Liaison, or any of the Pierce guidance counselors (see contact information below).
FamiliesFamilies
Eighth grade students in Ms. Power’s IS-ELA class wrote personal essays with the theme “What I Know Is True.” Below is Ania Robinson’s essay. Crosswalk: a marked part of the road where pedestrians have the right of way to cross. The first signs of pedestrian crosswalk can be seen in Pompeii from over 2000 years ago. In the United States in the 1910s there were lines marking and outlining the roads. People normally didn’t pay attention to them. Then the first official crosswalk was installed in Slough, England in 1951. They don’t seem to have much meaning but we use them everyday. To walk the dog, to get the groceries, to walk home from a long ,but exhilarating day at school.
Now those days seem shorter and more exhausting. I don’t cross the same crosswalks anymore or see the same people from when those days at school were the highlights of my week. I had always loved school but people change, and things are remodeled and rebuilt, but those crosswalks always stayed the same. Until we moved. Again. And again. Then we couldn’t see every little piece of the city when we walked to school. It is the same cars, the same cliques, the same crosswalks. The same. Exact. Everything. People never seem to change but the change, once they do, is immense. I used to skip across those thick, white, cracked lines. Feeling the wind in my once straight brown/black hair. Then coming back down to reality before a car can run me over. Now the crosswalks changed and so did the people skipping, leaping, and jumping across them. There is no time for that anymore in the rushed mornings before school. Moving changes everything.
The first time I tried going across the crosswalks in Boston, nothing would be the same. The thick, white lines had no cracks in them as if they were just painted over. Fake. Cold. They were too far apart for my second grade legs to leap and land, leap and land. Too. Far. Apart. If there wasn’t the looming threat of cars that I knew could hit me without thinking, I wouldn’t have moved off the road. There is no hope for me in this city. Fake. Cold.
Last week my parents brought up the idea of moving again. This time I’m less opposed. I guess. I’ve always been a part of the people who change. Eight year old me would have sobbed and never stopped. But after five years. I don’t want to feel trapped. I don’t want to walk past the same crosswalks again and again and again and again. Every day for four more years. That is 208ish weeks. 1,460ish days of the same. Maybe I won’t even get to walk across any more busy streets. But maybe just maybe we won’t have to move again at all.
The part of me that’s getting older doesn’t feel anything. Just get it over with; It’s four years. You’ll be fine. Suck it up. But part of me. The tiniest, more indescribable part of me that is honestly influencing me as a whole, doesn’t want to leave, doesn’t want the crosswalks to change. My mom told me about a Native American saying that says that once you step on American soil, you will never feel at home. As much as I try, and as much as everyone else tries:I don’t feel at home. Everyone around me has been friends for what feels like an eternity. I’ve never had that. Maybe once everything changes again things will get better. Or worse. There’s always that “you don’t know it’s good until it’s gone.” I’m scared. To move. To change, To just be alive.
Maybe the problem with moving is that I do want to walk past those same crosswalks. I don’t want the change. I like the sameness. The staying. The finding a home. Maybe in a couple years, I’ll feel at home in my house. With my family. With myself.
A Few Reminders • If your child is going to be absent, tardy, or dismissed,
you can call Pierce and leave a message or email A d m i n i s t r a t i v e A s s i s t a n t S a n d y W y s e a t [email protected].
• Chromebooks should be charged EVERY night so that students can use them in class each day.
On November 6th, The Pierce Middle School Debate Team participated in the Lumos Fall Invitational Tournament. Students debated the economic and social impacts of raising the federal minimum wage in The United States.
Students used the Public Forum Debate format to discuss the benefits and costs of increasing the minimum wage. Students Isabella Alba, Josue Castillo-Savage, Saibh Chaplin, Adam Cheairs, Samuel Epstein, Nailah Hazelwood, Dobie Illich, John Griffin, Penelope Jain, Sara Khan, Ben Neugebauer, Avery Squiciarino, and Sadie Wetzner-Crothers competed in this tournament.
Isabella Alba, Nailah Hazelwood and Ben Neugebauer received Speaker Awards after earning distinguished scores in debate rounds. Avery Squiciarino and Sara Khan were awarded 4th place in the tournament for their excellent record after winning multiple successive rounds. The Pierce Debate Team was thrilled to participate in this tournament after several weeks of rigorous practice and preparation, and we look forward to competing again in December.
ABOVE: Yosemite students read 481 books this quarter for independent reading! On average, each Yosemite student read 4.6 books. Yellow students read a total of 90 books while Purple students read 92. Red students read 82 books and Green students read 85. Blue broke all the records with a whopping 122 books! Ask your Yosemite student about their second quarter reading goal today!
Orion Team students made posters for Veterans Day, and Mr. Mac delivered them to the Brockton VFW to show appreciation to our veterans.
Students in Pierce Pals worked their way through the ropes obstacle course in the gym this week.
You can join the Pierce team, PIERCE PALS when you register! Click HERE to register.
Financial Aid for College
Admissions Advisory
Naviance 101
College Athletics
College Application Procedures
College Testing: ACT vs SAT
Ea!ng Heal"yOur REACH students are growing lettuce, kale and basil for all of our students to enjoy at lunch.
Pierce Pals
World Kindness Day Students in Ms. McEvoy’s classes made posters to celebrate World Kindness Day.
