Dear Parents & Guardians,
Attached is our Weekly Sunday Update, which can be found at the link or text below.
Thank you.
Dr. Mayes & Mr. Horlick
This Week’s Major Headlines:
- Need Chromebook or Schoology help? Any BASD students needing Chromebook or Technology Help should fill out this form https://forms.gle/ZJE6SJNaX6RSSd927 Once submitted, a BASD Information Services Department team member will contact you via email (the email will come from “ISD Service Desk”). The Service Desk will then help you resolve the issue at home or direct you to go to Nitschmann to pick up the needed supplies.
- School Closure FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Dr. Mayes has collected many of the questions students & parents are asking regularly. Link to NMS Website FAQ
- Do You Want to Recognize an amazing BASD Teacher? This year, The Foundation partnered with the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation to host the award selection process. We are hopeful that with our relationship with you and the community, that we will have far more nominations than ever before. Anyone can nominate a teacher: staff, students, parents/guardians, and/or community members. Nomination Forms are due to The Foundation by Friday, May 8th. The Foundation’s Website – the homepage has all the information about the B.E.S.T. Awards and the Nomination form.
- Week 4 Assignments: All new assignments in Core & Encore classes are posted every Monday at 9am. Don’t forget to encourage your child to complete both sets of assignments, especially in encore classes which provide opportunities to explore and enrich their studies! Week 3 assignments are due on Monday at 12pm.
Parent & Student Weekly Email
Nitschmann Middle School Weekly Update, Home of the Nitschmann Nation!
Sunday, April 19, 2020, to Sunday, April 26, 2020
All of this information can be viewed at our
Nitschmann Middle School Website under Weekly Announcements (Click Here!)
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Links to Review
Schoology Directions for Parents
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Upcoming Dates to Be Proactive!
All dates are listed from our NMS Website, BASD Event Calendar, & BASD Academic Calendar
Weekly Schedule & Highlights
Monday, 4/20/20 Online Day; Week 3 Remote Learning Core & Encore Assignments Due 12pm; Week 4 Remote Learning Begins 9am; Food & Supplies Distribution 10am-1pm
Tuesday 4/21/20 Online Day
Wednesday, 4/22/20 Online Day; Food & Supplies Distribution 10am-1pm; Administrative Professionals Day!
Thursday, 4/23/20 Online Day
Friday, 4/24/20 Online Day
Saturday, 4/25/20
Sunday, 4/26/20
Monday, 4/27/20 Online Day; Week 4 Remote Learning Core & Encore Assignments Due 12pm; Week 5 Remote Learning Begins 9am
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Academic Information
Weekly Assignments (Mayes) All students should be working on their weekly core & encore assignments on Schoology. If you have a wifi issue, please email your child’s teacher or guidance counselor (information below).
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School-wide Announcements
BASD E-News (Dr. Roy) This week’s edition of the BASD e-News contains updated COVID-19 information including Dr. Roy’s recent video to BASD Students, Parents, Staff, and the Community. Did you know that the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley can help you if you are in need of baby and infant essentials? Details can be found in this edition of the BASD e-News. As always we also recognize students and provide details of events in the area. Check out this week’s latest edition. BASD e-News April 17, 2020, Edition
National Junior Honor Society (Wallach) Students should please hold on to their applications until the fall. We will have a new application process when we return to school in the fall and will induct our new members in September.
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Teacher Updates
Assistant Principal – Mr. Horlick
Student Services:
Your school counselor will now have office hours where you can share concerns or talk. Please log on to their schoology group for the Zoom Meeting link or send an email to arrange a time to meet.
OFFICE HOURS
Hipp/8th grade : Tuesday and Thursdays 9:30-10:30AM
Cenci/7th grade : Tuesday and Thursday 9:00- 10:00AM
Stewart/6th grade : Tuesday and Thursday 9:00- 10:00AM
Team Lafayette (6th) (Twitter @NMSLafayette Team Leader Mrs. Hackman) Hi Team Lafayette students and families! We hope you are all doing well. As you have heard, we will be continuing our online learning for the rest of the year. We miss seeing you during the week and would love to hear from you. Keep up the great work completing your assignments and putting forth your best effort. We also encourage you to expand on your learning and discover more about topics that interest you. Keep looking on Schoology for your weekly assignments and contact us if you have any questions. Have a great week, stay healthy, and be kind to each other.
Team Lehigh (6th) (Twitter @NMSTeamLehigh Team Leader Mrs. Oliver) Hello Team Lehigh! Hope everyone is doing well. It was very nice to see several of you during our “Office Hours” this past week. We will continue to run these each week. This is a good way to get help in a subject if you are struggling on an assignment or just if you want to stop in and say hi. We definitely miss all of you!! Please be patient as we can only let a couple of students in at a time so you may have to wait. One way to possibly avoid this is to vary the time you try to get in. We seemed to get a lot of students right at the start and not many towards the end of the hour. The schedule for the “Office Hours” is below. Look for the link to join on Schoology.
Mrs. Druckenmiller Monday 11:00 am to 12:00 pm
Mrsl Hriniak Wednesday 11:00 am to 12:00 pm
Mrs. Oliver Thursday 9:00 am to 10:00 am
Mr. Fritzinger Friday 10:00 am to 11:00 am
Hope to see you this week; Stay Healthy!!
Team Moravian (6th) – (Twitter @NMSTeam Moravian/Facebook@NMSTeamMoravian Team Leader Mrs. Roufakis)
Hi Team Moravian students and parents. We hope that you are all doing well. Keep up the great work completing work and checking in with us. We love to hear from you. Please continue to check Schoology for your next assignment. If you have any questions, please email your teacher. Make sure to continue to check your email!
Team Kutztown (7th) (Twitter @TeamKutztown Team Leader Mr. Hess) Team Kutztown Teachers wish all of our students good health and happiness. We know that this is not the way that any of us expected the seventh grade year to end, but obviously this health crisis is beyond our control. We will continue to make the most of our remote education. It is great to see that so many students have checked in on Schoology and are completing the required assignments. During week #1, around 95% of Team Kutztown’s students completed and passed the required assignments. Please email us on Schoology or through school district email if you need any clarification on your assignments. Please try to invest some time for your studies each day, and of course, do your best work. There are approximately 40 days remaining in the school year; please know that we (your teachers) are here to support you and help you to be successful. We just need to see some good effort on your part! ELA (Mr. Falteich and Mrs. Gomez) – We hope that everyone had a Happy Passover/Happy Easter! – This week’s required ELA assignment will be posted on Monday morning 4/13 at 9:00. This week’s project is a research project posted on Schoology. Please make sure to ask us via email if you have any questions about this week’s assignment or even about weeks #1 or #2. (ANOTHER BONUS EXTRA FOR MR. FALTEICH) – Some of you may have noticed little oval stickers on my desk that read… “John Prine is Pretty Good, or Blow Up Your TV.” These are quotes from one of my favorite folk singers, John Prine. John Prine passed away this week at age 73 from coronavirus complications. I had tickets to see him on June 28 in Philadelphia; sadly I will miss seeing him in concert. A few years ago, he performed at the Library of Congress and was interviewed there by the 13th poet laureate of the United States, Ted Kooser. If you love poetry with great images, I would recommend reading Ted Kooser poems. Anyway, here is the extra credit assignment. We have discussed “theme” in literature. Songwriting is a specific literary genre. Listen to the following John Prine Song… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVhA01J0Zsg It is a bit sad, but has a strong message for the listener. All you need to do to receive the 10 points is to listen to the song in the Youtube link and explain the theme to me in a few sentences via email. If you explain a correct theme, I will post the feedback within 24 hours. Good luck.) Congratulations to E.J. Powers who was the first to submit last week’s bonus extra credit! MATH (Van Woert) – Make sure you are using ALL the resources given to you in the Weekly folder. Watch the videos THEY WILL HELP YOU. And of Course Email me with questions you have BEFORE you hand in your assignment. SCIENCE (Mr. Pearson) – Please make sure that you completed and SUBMITTED THROUGH SCHOOLOGY the “Remote Learning Week #3 Assignments” by Monday, April 20th at 12 noon. This includes the required LEAD assignment that is posted to your Schoology class page. The “Remote Learning Week #4 Assignments” will be posted to Schoology and activated as of Monday, April 20th at 9 AM and are due the following Monday, April 27th at 12 noon. I will post in Schoology an announcement, as well as, a document with specific instructions on how to complete and submit the assignment. As always, keep checking Schoology and email regularly for updates and email me if you have any questions, problems, or just want to keep in touch. Stay safe and healthy!
Team Penn State (7th) (Twitter @NMSPennState/Facebook @NMSTeamPennState/ Instagram pennstatenms Team Leader Mrs. Miller) We are very proud of the many students who have completed assignments and checked in on Schoology. Parents and students, please continue to email us (through Schoology or district email) with any assignment that needs clarification or any other difficulty you may be experiencing. Please keep us informed….we are here to help! All students are working on a time capsule in their LEAD course….. The team meets weekly with Mrs. Cenci, our guidance counselor, to review any issues that students may be experiencing. Thank you to parents who have reached out or responded to concerns…..together we can get through this! Reminder: All coursework for week three is to be submitted by noon on Monday, April 20. GETZ – Need ELA help? Mrs. Getz is starting “virtual extra help” every Wednesday from 10am – 11am. You can drop in anytime during that hour with a question or just if you’d like to work through some of the assignments together. Check your email for the details. Need Math Help? Mrs. Lafey is going to have “virtual extra help” every Wednesday from 11:30am-12:30pm. You can stop in anytime during that hour if you need help. Find the link in the “Read This Before Starting” letter in this week’s Schoology folder. Please make sure that you’re using all the resources in the weekly folder. The lesson and videos will help you understand the material. If you go directly to the graded assignment without preparing, it will be very difficult for you.
Team East Stroudsburg (8th) (Twitter @@nmsteamesu Team Leader Mr. Amen Instagram @nmsteamesu8)
History students: I have posted MANY videos that are OPTIONAL, they are meant to bridge the gap in the chapters or topics that were not covered. The videos are short, and OPTIONAL. Crash course videos on Youtube are great reviews for various history topics, again OPTIONAL. ELA students should check Schoology Monday morning for your weekly Study Sync assignments. Two of the assignments are mandatory and graded and two are optional/enrichment activities.. As always, Mrs. Pogue and Mr. Danyi are available to answer any of your questions. And we both love hearing how all of you are doing. Mrs. Jarosz will be posting next week’s assignment along with supplemental materials meant to help you learn. Any questions or trouble, PLEASE message her or email her for help. That’s what we’re here for. The format for how you will be submitting math work might be changing. Mr. Vajda and Mrs. Jarosz are looking into other options, such as MathXL, that you are already familiar with and that will help provide you with more feedback. PLEASE UTILIZE OFFICE HOURS for help with math. It is so much easier to show you how to do the work than it is to explain via email. But any contact is welcome when you need help.IF you have any ideas as to how to celebrate the end of the year – taking the place of an in-person ceremony, feel free to forward those ideas to Mr. Amen.
Team Northampton (8th) (Twitter @TeamSpartanNMS Team Leader Mrs. Hood) Thank you to our students who are putting in the time and effort into completing the online assignments. We greatly appreciate this:) It is about makign yourself proud – which we talked about on Day 1. Continue to reach out via email if you have any questions or need help with any assignments! We have and will always be here for you. In ELA classes (Hinkel and Wallach), we are posting 3 ELA StudySync assignments each Monday morning. Two are extension/enrichment activities and one is a mandatory and graded assignment. Please look on Schoology for complete updates and directions and email us with any questions and/or concerns. We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. Math students should check Schoology Monday morning for your weekly assignment. I have also posted additional materials to help with the assignment (guided notes / formula sheets, video tutorials, practice worksheets (with answers) and additional Math XL and IXL sections (all optional).
History – as per the District Assignment – Week 4’s lesson is focused on the improvements of transportation in the 1800’s. Students will be referencing the Techbook and completing a chart. Keep checking out the political cartoons – there are some good ones! Check out the article link in updates on the 10th Amendment as it relates to COVID19 decisions by our Federal Government.. In Science we will be continuing the study of Waves. As always if you are having trouble or need anything, please email any of us. Be well. IF you have any ideas as to how to celebrate the end of the year – taking the place of an in-person ceremony, feel free to forward those ideas to Mrs. Hood.
Encore (All Grades):
From Mr. Carlstrom. You guys have been doing an awesome job on the assignments. Please continue to ask questions when they come up. I will try and answer them as quickly as possible. Remember, assignments are due each Monday by noon. Take care.
Kocon&Burzynski:
Music (de Vries): Thank you for sharing your flipgrid projects. If they made me do a happy dance, you will see a new Schoology badge in your profile. Ready for the week 4 lesson? This week, you will be using Google Slides to share some things about your favorite musician or band. I can’t wait to see your choices. Did you miss some of the assignments? I have opened lessons 1-3 for a limited time. Jump in and earn some cool new badges. Stay safe and stay in touch!
Spanish (Bouhana & Sierra): ¡Gracias! To all those who have been completing the weekly assignments. Make sure to check Schoology for your weekly assignments. If you have any questions, feel free to message me directly on Schoology or email me. Email if you want to meet via zoom and the link will be sent to you.
French (Lare):
German (Sofka u. Schwarz): Hallo alle!! We are bummed that we won’t be able to see most of you until next year, but we want to make sure you have access to awesome German review activities! Coming soon… Have you ever wondered who first settled this area of PA? Tune in to next week’s assignment to find out! As always, check Schoology for your weekly assignments and announcements from us. We are thrilled with the hard work you are putting into the assignments! If you have any questions, feel free to message us on Schoology or email us.
Team PITT (Hoffman/Villani/Long/Weinert):
Library (Pohlidal) Hello from the online library! Are you ready to try some engineering, coding or mindfulness activities? I’ve added some fun challenges called “INNOVATION HOUR” to the library web page. Take a look and give them a try! Send me an email and let me know how you did. I hope you are continuing to read. I’ve added a few more options for eBooks so you have lots more from which to choose. Mrs. Pohlidal
ESL (Bartolacci)
Art (Lund/Kozero) Check Schoology for your weekly assignment. Fun at-home projects!! Don’t be afraid to challenge
yourself with the Enrichment Extensions!!
Gifted Seminar ( Sukanick/Kozero) Make sure to keep up with assignments on Schoology. If you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact us by email or on Schoology. Stay well.
Nitschmann Middle School Performing Arts Department Updates
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Nitschmann Middle School Instrumental Music Website (Click Here!)
Mr. Daniel Zettlemoyer, Instrumental Music
- Parent links and resources are posted on WWW.NMSIM.ORG
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- I am moving forward with the traditional scheduling of all our events for next year. All dates are subject to change pending federal, state, and local directives due to the pandemic.
- NIMAS is working on a process with the LHSGB&OP to roll over 8th grade fair share funds for students who will be participating in the high school instrumental program. While you may have questions, we are asking that you hold them for the time being as there we have many ourselves. Once we have a plan in place we will distribute the information and we can begin to move forward specifics and answer your questions,
8th GRADE MUSIC AND DRAMA TRIP UPDATE
We have begun the processing refunds for the 8th grade trip. You will receive an invoice with your financial details. If you have not done so, please go to the 8th grade trip website to submit your request for a refund
Complete details are on the website at http://www.nmsim.org/8th-grade-trip/
FUNDRAISERS
- NEW Fun Pasta – March 7 – April 30 (Click here for information)
- The Nitschmann Instrumental Music Association is now part of the Amazon Smile program. Now you can shop at Amazon, get great deals and support the Nitschmann Instrumental Music Association all at the same time. Please share this with your friends and family. Go here for more information: http://www.nmsim.org/nimas/fundraising/
SPRING TRIP TO BOSTON
We are waiting for the last of the vendors to get back to us. Once that occurs we will follow a similar process for refunds as we did for the 8th grade trip.
Complete details of the trip are on the website at http://www.nmsim.org/spring-trip/
COLOR GUARD:
LHS MAJORETTES & BAGPIPES
- Any individuals who are interested in auditioning for or joining any of our auxiliary units (majorettes, bagpipes and colour guard) to please be patient. Realistically, auditions may not occur until summertime or early fall. I know many of our rising 8th graders would like a definitive answer but at this time we have none and it would be irresponsible for me to give one. Stay well and stay safe. Mr. Long
PRACTICE INFORMATION
- Each week your child receives an email via Schoology with the assignments for the week. I will mirror that email to parents through our NIMAS parent email account.
We are all experiencing a substantial disruption in our lives. The assignments are created to provide your child with a basic level of instruction to keep them engaged and to help them maintain their performance level. Encourage your child to practice and complete the worksheets. If they are getting upset because they have hit a performance roadblock, send me an email and I will do what I can to help them. I am working on additional resources to assist your child.
ONLINE LISTENING
- Jazz for Kids – Featuring Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
- Army Field Band Virtual Concerts – The US Army Field Band will program daily content, to include live, interactive performances..
- List of live virtual concerts during the Coronavirus shutdown.
- Jazz at Lincoln Center – Schedule of weekly online events and performances
NEWS OF NOTE:
- LHS bagpipe information – If you are interested in receiving information regarding playing the bagpipes at Liberty text @piping2020 to the number 81010.
- Any individuals who are interested in auditioning for or joining any of our auxiliary units (majorettes, bagpipes and colour guard) to please be patient. Realistically, auditions may not occur until summertime or early fall. I know many of our rising 8th graders would like a definitive answer but at this time we have none and it would be irresponsible for me to give one.
Stay well and stay safe
Mr. Long
- Stay up to date on the latest by following the instrumental music groups on Twitter. @NMSBandOrch
- Do not forget to check the Instrumental Music Website www.nmsim.org for everything dealing with instrumental music.
CALENDAR AT A GLANCE:
ALL DATES ARE TENTATIVE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
August 10-14 Summer Music Camp
August 17-21 Summer Music Camp
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Nitschmann Middle School
A LEAD School, partnering with The Leader in Me
“Lions Lead the Way!”
Our Collective Vision Nitschmann Middle School is committed to cultivating a respectful community of innovative learners who are socially competent citizens ready to meet the challenges of their future.
Twitter @NitschmannMS
Facebook @NitschmannMiddleSchool
Instagram @BASDNitschmannMS,
Web http://basdwpweb.beth.k12.pa.us/nitschmann/
1002 West Union Blvd
Bethlehem, Pa 18018
Main Office (610) 866-5781
Fax (610) 866-1435
IMPORTANT/CONFIDENTIAL: This communication is intended solely for the confidential use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and the privileges are not waived by virtue of this having been sent by electronic mail. If the reader of this email is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this email is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please notify me immediately & permanently delete this message including all attachments. Thank you.