Schools

MEMS Highlights from December

Students celebrated cultural diversity, reflected on racism, won spelling bees and learned to dance!

The following highlights are submitted by Irene Policastro, the Secretary to Superintendent John J. Marciante of the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District.

Delta had a community day on Wednesday, Dec. 23, to celebrate cultural diversity in conjunction with Harassment Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) instruction. Delta students had read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and were exposed to nineteenth century Victorian culture through it. Delta students celebrated the cultural differences among themselves by bringing in a dessert associated with their own heritage.

Also, students viewed Remember the Titans. This story was set in 1971 wherein overcoming racial diversity eased tensions and resulted in a unified community. The theme of the story served as a springboard for activities related to HIB. Students were instructed on what their specific responsibilities would be. They needed to work in predetermined groups to accomplish one of three tasks. First, they could have written and performed a HIB rap which promoted the message of unity and acceptance. Second, they could have come up with a promotional campaign for a movie titled HIB; the campaign could have included newspaper ad layouts, radio and/or television commercials, and any special events. Lastly, they could have designed and created a comic strip wherein diversity leads to HIB issues. Delta students had a fun, productive, and educational day.

Mr. Arbeitman's Physical Education classes just completed their very successful square and line dance unit. Parents and visitors to were greeted with a rousing square dance as they entered MEMS lobby. A few even joined in. A good time was had by all.

On Tuesday, December 20, 2011 MEMS held their 3rd annual Scripps Spelling Bee. The winner is Kayla Gumina from Lambda Community and the Runner up is Rahul Singh from Omega Community. The top student spellers from each community did a great job putting forth their best efforts and handling the pressure of standing in front of a group of students and
parents. Kayla will go on to represent our school at the 2012 Spelldown at Monmouth University on March 13 and 14. Congratulations go out to all of the participants!

The Lambda Community generously donated over 200 dollars to the Save the Children fund. Our donation will be used to send four orphans to school and stock a library in an impoverished US community.

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