Oceanside Middle School

Website: oceansideschools.org/9ms/index
Twitter: @OMS_NY

The eighth annual World Autism Awareness Day was April 2, 2016. Every year, autism organizations around the world celebrate the day with unique fundraising and awareness-raising events. The Best Buddies Club at OMS promoted Autism Awareness by creating banners to hang around the school and by participating in events to celebrate the unique differences of every individual that is a student at OMS.

Founded in 1996, the Day of Silence has become the largest single student-led action towards creating safer schools for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. April 15th marked the 20th year that students around the country have participated in this effort to call attention to the silencing effect intolerance and harassment has on students in the sexual minority.

Kathy Dunne's GSA, with the support of counseling team, coordinated the Day of Silence at the middle school. This national event encourages schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT behavior by illustrating the silencing effect of bullying and harassment on LGBT students and those perceived to be LGBT.

The Districtwide Student Film Festival took place on Friday, April 15th at Oceanside High School. The Film Festival paid homage to the technique and artistry of the masters while managing to be thoroughly modern and of the moment. OMS was well represented, and our students demonstrated great creativity and technical skill in their presentations.

The First Oceanside Middle School Research Symposium was held on April 12th to highlight the work of our students in the 8th grade research programs. 91 projects and 126 students from the math, science and social science research classes displayed their competition projects.

Students researched and carried out experiments in a wide variety of topics. Students in the science and social science classes were required to develop controlled experiments to test their hypotheses. Social Science students studied such topics as gender, social media use, and sports participation. Science research students presented projects in biology, microbiology, geology, physics and chemistry. Math research students studied and presented a variety of historical math problems such as “The Tower of Hanoi” and “Sierpinski’s” Triangle.

The highlight of the evening occurred when the students, parents, and families gathered in the auditorium for the presentation of awards. All three research programs had individual fairs earlier in the year. The Math Fair first place award went to the teams of Gabriella Armengau & Justin Nudelman and Catherine Henn & Christina Palmeri. Second place went to Jessie Rosano & Zach Macer & Jon Gamarra. Third Place awards were shared by the team of Jack Bier & Chris Seychell, as well as Ryan Aizer. Mikayla Carlins received an Honorable Mention award.

The winner of the Science Research Fair was Daniel Strianese, with Katelyn Blankoph taking second, Emily Seaver & Catherine Stanford in third, and Margarita Bogdanova-Shapkina in fourth place. Honorable Mention awards were won by John Marchiel, Austin Ortiz & Michael Phillips, Mason Penn & Jack Walsh, Paige Olewnicki, Emily Oberstein & Sara Raimondi, and the team of Matthew Minelli & Stephen Sklar.

The Social Science Fair featured first place awards to Vicky Lin and Breanna Parra, a second place finish for Violet Burburan and Ethan Wile, and third place trophies for Suraj Mohan and Karis Lynch. Honorable Mention awards were garnered by Michael Mulhern, Ethan Chetkof, Anna Malin, Madison Pagano, and Annelisa Milano.

In addition, our students compete in outside fairs against other middle schools. This year Catherine Henn, Christina Palmeri, Jessica Rosano, and Jenna Picciano received Bronze Medals at the Long Island Math Fair. At the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair, Margarita Bogdanova-Shapkina finished second, and Paige Olewnicki and Katelyn Blankoph finished third. Katelyn Blankoph has won a major award at the New York State Science and Engineering Fair. Although not all of the results are in, Margarita Bogdanova-Shapkina will represent Long Island and the State Science Congress in Buffalo on June 4. Several students from the Social Science research program will compete in the Nassau County Fair later in the year.

Oceanside Middle School has had a great deal of success with our research programs. In addition to winning many major competitions, our students have gone to high school with a firm foundation in research skills. Several of our students went on to win Intel and Siemans competitions in high school, and many have chosen careers in the sciences as a result of our dedication to research at the middle school.

Mrs. Castilla-Lyson shared the new "Live" feature on Quizlet. She used it with both her smaller classes and bigger classes.

How it works:

You choose your set of Quizlet cards and click on "Live". The students go to quizlet.live and enter the game code similar to Kahoot. Once all of the students are logged in, the website randomly puts the students in groups. They are divided based on the number of students in the class. Each group is assigned an animal (in Spanish in my class) and every student has that image on their iPad. From there, students find their group and sit together. The game comes up like a horse race and the team that gets to 12 first wins. It's quick and easy to create new groups and play multiple rounds. The students were so excited. At the end, it gives each team feedback on the answers that were incorrect, and the teacher receives feedback as well.

Our Grade 8 ELA teachers continued to support and guide their students through the research and writing process. Their research was built around three powerful questions:

• Does peer pressure have more of a positive or negative impact on a teen's behavior?
  
• Should girls be allowed to play on boys' athletic teams?
• Do the benefits of playing football outweigh the health risks?

It has been a pleasure watching students go through the writing process and develop the skills associated with powerful argumentative writing.

In Mr. Risener's social studies classes, he reviews topics by playing a game called Taboo. Modeled after the game sold in stores, this game allows students to collaborate with one another to explain a term or concept and try and get one of their classmates to guess the word on the board. One student at a time has their back to the board so that they can not see the term. The student that is explaining has to try and get that student to say the right term or concept. However, the student explaining is not allowed to use several "taboo" words when explaining the term. The students like when things are competitive, so we play class vs. class to see which class can get the most terms correct.

For the past 3 weeks, members of the 8th grade ELA department have worked on a Science Fiction mini-unit. As an assessment, we are asking the students to work in groups to come up with an original idea for a science fiction story, based on non-fiction science news they researched themselves.

After coming up with a scifi story idea, the teachers took the students through a brief summary of the film-making process, from brainstorming, plot diagramming, storyboarding, to filming, editing, and eventually publishing their films. We will have a team "Film Festival" and final discussion about science fiction next week, once all of the films are complete.

7th Grade

1st Place: 7-3

2nd Place: 7-2

3rd Place: 7-4

4th Place: 7-1

8th Grade

1st Place: 8-2

2nd Place: 8-1

3rd Place: 8-3

4th Place: 8-4

Teacher Winner - Ms. Toscano

Individual Student Winner: Charlie Leventhal (Team 7-2)

Sailors For Sunrise:

On June 5th the Sunrise Cancer Association is hosting a walk as part of their fundraiser for their Day Camp. As an OMS Community, we'd like to contribute to this amazing association.

Some information regarding the Camp:

SunriseWALKS has been inspiring communities to unite for a cause and give children with cancer a summer free from the everyday demands of their illness. The money raised here helps pay for children with cancer and their siblings to attend Sunrise Day Camp free of charge, so their families don't have to. The only full summer day camp of its kind in the world, Sunrise lets campers forget about their cancer so they can play, run, and explore the magic of summer like a kid, the way you remember it, while returning to the safety and comfort of their own beds each night.

Information about the walk can be found at: https://www.sunrise-walks.org/li

Visit our page: https://www.sunrise-walks.org/li/Team/View/18320/Oceanside-Middle-School

The Oceanside Patriots Club will be creating a "Field of Honor" on May 21st.

Flags are now on sale for for $25, and all proceeds go to charity. Please see the attached flyer below for more details.

Coach Janosko is back at the helm and eager to have a successful season with the 8th Grade Boys Lacrosse team. The team has had a tremendous few weeks of practice leading up to their first game against Wantagh. The boys came up short against Wantagh, but coach Janosko was very proud of their efforts. The team looks to rebound after the Spring Break. Good Luck the rest of the season!!

The 7th Grade Girls Lacrosse team opened their season with a 13-4 victory over Mineola. The girls have really worked on their stick skills and spacing on the field over the past few weeks of practice. The team has made great strides since the first day and have really developed a strong team bond. The girls look to continue their improvement after the week long break. Best of luck this season.

Mr. Keith Lane, a broadcaster for Fox 5 News, came to visit students of the OMS Broadcasting club with advisers Eddie Risener and Stephanie Bragman on Monday, 4/11.

Mr. Lane shared many of his exciting experiences in the field of broadcasting with the students and gave them advice for becoming successful in this highly competitive field.

Students shared with Mr. Lane some of their productions over the past school year, as well as their knowledge of technology, such as TouchCast and iMovie.

It was a wonderful opportunity for all involved!

Read to learn more about your child's human development, and the extraordinary period they are going through during their middle level years.

Website: http://www.amle.org/portals/0/pdf/mlem/perspective.pdf

Read to learn information such as interests, self-knowledge, and communication during the early teenage years.

Website: http://www.amle.org/portals/0/pdf/mlem/thirteen.pdf