MEMS October and November Highlights

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

Italian Heritage Month

On Oct. 19 students from Signora Schiano's and Signora Ryan's class celebrated Italian Heritage month. Signora Schiano talked about various Italian foods and their origins. Then Signora Schiano demonstrated how to make spaghetti using her mom's 50 year old pasta machine. At the end of the presentation students enjoyed cheese ravioli and desserts. The presentation was attended by over 50 parents and administrators. News 12 New Jersey came to this presentation and included it in their evening broadcast.

Fall Sports

The 8th Boys Soccer Team were crowned "A" Division Champions with a record of 6 - 3 - 1. They move on to post season playoffs as the #3 seed and will face Marlboro Memorial on Thursday, 10/25 in the 1st round.

Our fall sports campaign is rapidly coming to an end. All of our soccer teams have made the playoffs and will continue with their seasons. Our cross country teams will be heading to Bucks Mills Park in Colts Neck for the Monmouth County Meet of Champions. Our field hockey team had great season. Everyone received playing time and really enjoyed being part of the team. The success that Manalapan High School is enjoying in field hockey can be traced to our program. Thanks to our fine grounds crew, as our fields remain the envy of Monmouth County. Our fall sports awards night was scheduled for Nov. 14. Our winter season began Nov. 12 with tryouts.

On Friday, Oct. 5 MEMS held two Pep Rally’s to cheer on its sports teams and highlight Respect Week.

Potato Chip Challenge 2012

Mrs. Falk's 7th Grade Problem Based Learning class teamed up with a school in Ohio to compete in a cross-country Potato Chip Challenge! The goal of the challenge was to send (via regular mail) 1 Pringle potato chip in the lightest, smallest container possible without having the chip break. Engineering skills, measurement, and interactive media were all incorporated into this fun activity! The students virtually "met" on edmodo.com and were so excited to see who's chip would survive the US postal service between Ohio & New Jersey! After packages were mailed, we held a live "opening" video conference on skype! Both teams had packages that survived and it was close enough to be called a tie! Great job to all!

High School Academy Open Houses

Counselors Corner at MEMS Students applying to the Freehold Regional High School District’s Learning Centers and Academies have started the application process. Students attended open houses to learn more about the programs offered by the learning centers and academies. Monmouth County Vocational School District’s open houses are still in progress. Applications are being accepted.

Peer Helpers

8th grade Peer Helpers is underway. Topics this month included friendships in the middle school and peer pressure. The counselors presented an assembly on kindness and respect and afterwards solicited names from the 7th graders for the next group of Peer Helpers to be trained. Training will take place in the near future. The counselors went around to the classrooms to introduce (or reintroduce) themselves to students and to collect data for future groups such as Teen Talk – our most popular group.

National Day of Service

Melissa Harris's Language Arts classes wrote letters to our American heroes in Afghanistan in honor of 9/11 and and The National Day of Service and Remembrance. Her students are now extremely excited that responses from our troops in Kuwait are starting to arrive. Students are working on collecting candy to send care packages to those service members who have been kind enough to respond to their letter!

Drug Prevention Campaign

Students from MEMS took part Monday, Oct, 22 in the nation’s oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the country, with a local commemoration at CentraState Medical Center. The hospital’s Red Ribbon Day was part of the nationwide Red Ribbon Week, begun in 1988 in memory of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who in 1985 was killed. The day’s events were informative and focused on alcohol and drug prevention. Students meet with agents from the DEA, National Guard, local law enforcement and members of the medical field.

Hispanic Heritage Month

The Spanish classes at MEMS have participated in the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. While students have been learning the history of Hispanic culture in the United States in their classes, they have also researched famous Hispanic-Americans and created posters which have decorated the halls of MEMS. Many of them are still displayed in the Spanish hallway for parents to enjoy during conferences.

On Día de la Raza, or Day of Hispanic Heritage on Oct. 12, several students presented a dialogue about the holiday over the MEMS television network that was broadcast to the entire school during morning announcements. They did a superior and enthusiastic job!

Pledge of Allegiance

Two MEMS students, Joseph Oberhuber and Michael Goebel signed the "Pledge of Allegiance" for MEMS tv and it will be shown daily as part of MEMS morning announcements!

The MEMS Boys Cross Country Team are the M.C.I.S.C.C.L. Division I runner up for the 2012 season.

The following individuals earned medals at the M.C.I.S.C.C.L. Championship Meet Will Spector 8th Place Matt Linder 14th Place James Pannullo 26th Place
Jason Battaglini 37th Place Kyle Simon 38th Place.

The MEMS Guidance Counselors have selected 32 new 7th grade Peer Helpers. The 8th grade Peer Helpers finished up lessons on friendships (making friends, keeping friends, letting friends go). They are now in the process of teaching refusal skills in pressure situations. Students will come up with situations and role play the proper use of refusal skills to help them get out of uncomfortable situations. The Guidance Counselors are also in the process of organizing Teen Talk groups which will start by the end of the month.

Two of Ms. Weinstock’s students, Joseph Oberhuber and Michael Goebel have joined our Morning Announcers’ Team and can be seen daily using American Sign Language for the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Sigma community is sponsoring a food drive called "Take a turkey or Pick a Pumpkin." Students and teachers in the community are bringing in nonperishable food items to donate to the Monmouth/Ocean County Food Bank.
The results are in for the 7th versus 8th grade food drive. The winning grade for the 2012-2013 school year is the 7th grade. The 7th graders brought in a total of 287 items while the 8th graders brought in a total of 240 items. Therefore, on Wednesday, Nov. 21, the 7th graders are permitted to wear hats. Congratulations 7th grade and a huge thank you to everyone who contributed food!