JFK students continue to be recognized for their exceptional work using the STEM Project Lead the Way curriculum. In 2021, two 7th graders were recognized for their excellent work in the Robotics program. This year, the 8th grade App Creator curriculum also saw successes from our wonderful students.

Lucy Platte was awarded the Industry Recognized Winner award.  She created an app in technology class and then had the courage to send it along to have someone in the computer programming field give her feedback.  Out of all the applicants, Lucy’s app was recognized for her creativity.

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Elodie Chicoine, Head Teacher in the JFK GOALS Program, always strives to bring her students new experiences. In cooperation with Karen Foster and All Out Adventures, JFK Goals students spent a beautiful, sunny day riding adapted cycles around Look Memorial Park in Florence, MA.

Karen and the All Out Adventures staff met Elodie and her students at the park. They adjusted the cycles for each student, provided helmets, and gave a brief safety lesson prior to the ride.

To say the JFK students enjoyed riding around Look Park is a true understatement. The screaming, laughing, racing, and overall exuberance during the ride for both students and teachers was a beautiful relief to the last 15 months of social distancing.

A huge shout out to Elodie. Her students are lucky to have such a dedicated and fun teacher.

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Trey Rivera, 2019 Poetry Finalist
River of Words International Poetry and Arts Contest
“Youth Art and Poetry Inspired by the Natural World”

Diana Ajjan, 7^th grade English teacher here at JFK Middle School, inspired her students by combining a study of Greek Mythology with a ROW field trip to the Mill River. She submitted a batch of wonderfully diverse poems to the annual ROW contest and Trey Rivera was chosen as a Poetry Finalist. In describing his craft, he says that he’s drawn to metaphor and “for the poem I wanted to include something about disaster, something horrible happening, so I just looked up “disaster” and “Mill River” and lucky me, there was one– the flood!”

The Mill River

If the Mill River
Were to pass through ancient Greece,
It would be praised
For its winding turns.

The God of the Mill River
Would be representative of
unexpected change.
Things you thought would go predictably and straight,
But would start to curve left,
Then suddenly whip to the right.

People would build on it,
Try to block it with a dam,
But man cannot prevent
unexpected change.
The Mill River Flood of 1874.

The fish in the river,
Do not care if it takes them north or south.
They travel along the way the water wishes.
If you refuse to worry about your way,
And you go the way destiny favors you,
You will find peace.

– by Trey Rivera, Age 13, JFK Middle School, Northampton, MA

“The Mill River” will be published in this year’s digital 2019 River of Words Anthology as well as next year’s 2019-2020 printed anthology.

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First Annual JFK Family/Student/Staff BINGO NIGHT

Thursday, November 21
5:30 – 7:00 pm
JFK Cafeteria

Bingo is FREE of charge!

There will be pizza, cookies, and drinks available for purchase.
Students can use cash or BLUE TICKETS!

LOTS of fun Prizes!

Come join the FUN!

Northampton High School’s Romeo & Juliet gets a new look

NHS Theater takes on the eternal questions plaguing teenagers in a modern interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic tale of young love and ancient rivalry: when is a child not a child? How do we step into adulthood? What’s too soon? What’s too late? What’s too dangerous? What’s too… beautiful?

Director Stephen Eldredge and a cast and crew of 30 NHS students have spent the past five months re-imagining the world of the play to suit the generation of Juliets, Tybalt’s, Mercutio’s and Romeos taking the stage in today’s “Globe-al” theater. While the text of the play is unaltered, the visual world is a hash of old and new: classic stone arches vie for attention with skateboards and swing sets; the graffiti-inspired artwork of Banksy compliments the exposed brick back wall of the NHS auditorium stage. Diana Paradise and Fletcher Soto’s costume designs are neo-grunge inspired, while young duelers fight with any object that comes to hand: shopping carts, plumbing parts, and barbed wire necklaces all find their place in this vibrant urban landscape. The actors have made their own decisions about the gender identities and preferences of the characters they play, giving us a new twist on classic romance and immersing us in a world that, in Shakespeare’s words, “hold(s)… the mirror up to nature… show(s) virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure”. Paul Kinsman’s music composition students have composed an original score to accompany the action; there will never be another Romeo & Juliet like this one – see it before it’s too late!

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Students at JFK Middle school completed a year of having individually assigned chromebooks issued to them. As caregivers, we would like your feedback on the program.  Thank you for taking a moment to answer the questions on the Google Form below:

Click Here to take the Caregiver Survey in ENGLISH

Click Here for the Caregiver Survey in SPANISH

El año pasado, JFK tuvo el primer programa de libros de Chromebook en el distrito, donde los estudiantes de sexto grado tuvieron consigo el Chromebook asignado durante el día, pero éste se quedaba en el edificio por la noche. Los grados 7 y 8 pudieron llevarse el Chromebook asignado a la escuela y al hogar para apoyar su trabajo en la clase. Estamos preguntando como cuidadores si usted pudiera compartir con nosotros algunos comentarios sobre qué tal fue el programa en su primer año.

The post Caregiver Chromebook End of Year Survey appeared first on Northampton Public Schools.

Students at Northampton join community members at the Lily Library for Scrabble games–this time, Connecting Point featured an article about them.

Evan, mentioned in the news clip, and JFK teammates, Gordon and Robbie just competed in the two-day North American School Scrabble Championship in Philadelphia at the end of April.  Teacher, Ben Greenwood, was asked to direct the event this year and was happy to be able to award the JFK team two trophies:  Highest Losing Score and Highest Play in their division. 

Three weeks earlier, teammates Gordon and Jack had a 5-0 record at the New England School Scrabble Championship in CT.

To see the WGBY show and find out more, you can follow this link:
https://connectingpoint.wgby.org/

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Students in Art teacher Michelle Mallory’s and STEM teacher Jack Dembkowski’s forum used their time this spring to brighten up the lobby here at JFK.  After winter planning sessions with lots of ideas from students and staff, they decided to create a new mural for the front lobby depicting the fours seasons. But a simple painted mural was not in the works. Ms. Mallory is an remarkable art teacher, and is always coming up with great new ideas to stimulate and challenge how students look at and interact with art. She wanted to incorporate texture and dimension as well as addressing issues of recycling and reuse. The outcome – the Bottle Cap Mural.

Students and teachers brought in hundreds of bottle caps, removing them from the waste stream. The PTO generously funded the plywood and screws, and Royal Talon donated the paint.

Off they went as a forum, priming, painting and securing the caps using hundreds and hundreds of screws.  The teamwork amongst the students was marvelous to see as this was no small project . The planning, communication and collaboration involved in creating such a large mural is a great example of what Forum at JFK is all about. Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings would be filled with the sounds of drills and saws and all kinds of noises coming out of room 110 as the mural came into being.

Michelle, Jack, and their awesome group of students have created a beautiful mural for all to enjoy. Please stop by JFK and see the wonderful new feature to our lobby.

Next, a coordinating bench!

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Students on the Grade 6 Recyclones team have had an extra special week in their studies of Africa. Their math teacher, Phil Cote, is currently in Ghana participating in a medical and educational humanitarian mission. Throughout his time in Ghana, Phil has sent images and video of life in Ghana, sharing as much as he can about home life, villages, market, climate, government, etc. The students have been mesmerized by the material Phil has sent to their Social Studies teacher, Laura St. Pierre. Their collaboration has been an integral part of Laura’s work in bring authentic exposure of life in Ghana to JFK students.

The Recyclones ramped it up this week when they set up a Zoom chat with one of the most prominent leaders in the region, Naa Imori Gomah II, Paramount Chief of the Wechiau Traditional Area. Phil organized a 40 minute interview with the Paramount Chief, Zooming the interview to the entire team of students at JFK. This was no small feat for Phil, as the chief’s palace lacks electricity, phone, or even running water. Somehow, Phil got internet service.

Phil brought a list of questions generated by the students, and translators navigated the interview with grace and plenty of laughter. At the end, students were able to directly ask the chief questions through the video conference. They couldn’t believe they were talking to an African Paramount Chief halfway around the world. Some of the JFK students who had been communicating with Ghana citizens got to meet them during the video conference as well.

It was an amazing experience for the students and a testament to the great work by the Recyclones teachers.

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