Jordan-Small Middle School “adopts” a school hit by the hurricanes in the U.S. Virgin Islands by Jennifer Davis

The Sprauve School prior to hurricane damage

This year has brought with it many devastating storms that have affected many parts of our country. One area that was hit especially hard was the Virgin Islands. Although the storm itself is gone, these areas still need help to recover. Jordan-Small Middle School in Raymond is offering that help by “adopting” the Julius E. Sprauve School on the island of St. John in the United States Virgin Islands. 

 

The Sprauve school is home to 350 students, grades K-8.  During Hurricane Irma, the Sprauve School was heavily damaged. The damages worsened when Hurricane Maria passed through the island a week later. The school was so damaged, that the students had to miss over a month of classes while the school made repairs. As of today, the school has reopened but the students must do split sessions, as parts of the school still remain unusable. Of the damages, many if not all of the school supplies were destroyed.

Randy Crockett, Principal at Jordan Small Middle School along with Kelly Crockett and another colleague wanted to find a way to help. Having visited St. John on several occasions, Randy and Kelly Crockett had a personal interest in helping. “We wanted [to] find a way to let the staff at the Sprauve School know that people are aware of their needs; that they had not been forgotten,” Crockett said. 

After some work, the Jordan-Small Middle School Guidance Counselor was able to connect with someone at the Sprauve School to get the process going to adopt the school and help supply the school with much needed materials and supplies for the students. “Our goal is to have a box of supplies with notes from our students [delivered] to each of the classrooms at the Sprauve School before the holidays,” Crockett said.

Each year, Jordan-Small works on community service activities, and this year adopting the Sprauve

Sprauve School after hurricane damage

School is going to be the main event. The fifth graders at Jordan-Small are going to be at the heart of the project. The students have already made signs to promote the adoption of the school and they will play an integral part in sorting the supplies donated.  

As mentioned, the goal for Jordan-Small is to have a box of supplies delivered to each classroom before the holidays. The biggest struggle they are currently facing is getting these supplies to the Sprauve School.  

As of right now, they must choose between a very costly delivery or a very long delivery time.  The staff at Jordan-Small is looking for suggestions that will make the shipping of these supplies get to the staff and students in a timely, cost effective manner.

Jordan-Small Middle School will be accepting donated supplies as well as monetary donations through December 8th. Items to be donated can be brought directly to the Jordan-Small Middle School.  

Monetary donations should be made payable to the Raymond PTO and mailed directly to the Middle School at 423 Webbs Mills Road, Raymond, ME.  

If you have any questions on the items needed, please email Randy Crockett directly at rcrockett@rsu14.org.  

There will be another opportunity to donate in the future through Raymond Elementary School in January.  “It’s all geared toward the kids,” Crockett states. “We want to make sure that Sprauve School knows that they have not been forgotten.”

A team of fifth-graders from Jordan Small Middle School heads to Washington DC by Elizabeth Richards

Five fifth-graders, and their teacher, will receive the red carpet treatment in Washington DC next week. They will be recognized at an awards assembly on Capitol Hill for finishing eighth in the country in the SIFMA Foundation’s 14th Annual Stock Market Game^™- Capitol Hill Challenge^™ (CHC). 
 

The Capitol Hill Challenge is one element of the SIFMA Foundation’s Stock Market Game^™, a curriculum-based program where student teams, in grades 4-12, learn about the global marketplace, long-term saving and investing fundamentals by using a hypothetical brokerage account. 

A SIFMA press release described the program as follows: “This 14-week challenge organizes teams of middle and high school students by congressional district and state and teaches the importance of saving and investing, while simultaneously promoting a better understanding of our government. Teams invest a hypothetical $100,000 in listed stocks, bonds, and mutual funds and learn the value of the capital markets as they work together to maximize the return of their portfolios.”

Jordan Small Middle School (JSMS) teacher Jack Fitch has led students in the challenge since it began in 2004. Before now, the school’s best team landed in fourteenth place, narrowly missing the top ten and a trip to Washington DC. “This year, this group of boys got together and they played the game great,” he said. “It’s a down market over the last three months, and they outperformed the market with their stock choices.” The JSMS team is the only team from New England and the only middle school team to make the top ten. 

In previous years, only two teams from Maine have made it to Washington DC. Fitch said their team has talked with Jim Ford from the SIFMA Foundation, who was the coach for the Oak Hill teams who made it to the top ten. He has filled them in on what to expect – and that is the “red carpet treatment,” Fitch said. While they won’t have their full itinerary until they reach Washington DC, they know they will meet Chellie Pingree, who was their congressional partner for the game, on the first day. They hope to also meet Angus King while they are there. The awards ceremony is on the afternoon of June 21.

At the ceremony, the boys will be able to hear ideas from other teams and share their own ideas. While only the top three teams speak at the luncheon, the JSMS team will be interviewed several times over the course of the three days. 

The JSMS team is made up of Lucas Oldershaw, Brian Mank, Brandon Mank, Jacob Goslant, and Noah Mains. The boys formed their own team after participating in other stock market games throughout the year. Oldershaw said that he came in first in the year-long game, and Mains came in first in the fall. “We wanted to put this team together because we were all doing really good in our other ones,” he said.

The three-month CHC began in February. Fitch said the boys worked well as a team, researching and discussing possible stocks to buy or sell. Oldershaw handled the actual buying and selling in the game. Fitch said the team studied their stocks’ 52-week highs and lows, tried to buy low and sell high, and sometimes picked stocks he would not have chosen. “It’s a three-month game, and so they don’t diversify a portfolio a lot. They put a lot of shares into one stock, and if a stock goes up they make a lot of money.”  

The boys said they didn’t argue much while making decisions, but that didn’t mean there were no challenges in the process. One of those challenges was when they lost money. Brian Mank said, “That was a real difficulty. Sometimes, the stocks just slipped right under our nose.”  

Another challenge, according to Brandon Mank, was getting the whole group to decide whether to buy or sell a stock. Mains said that to make decisions, the group got together to talk about things.    “If three of us wanted it, we would do it,” added Oldershaw.

Fitch said the first 15 minutes of each math class were spent on the challenge. As the end of the challenge drew near, and they saw themselves rising in the standings, the anticipation built and they spent more time monitoring their stocks. Fitch said that three days before the challenge was over, the boys made $7,000 in one day, which put them in the top ten.

When asked what they were most looking forward to as they made the trip, the boys showed enthusiasm for the food, the plane ride, the limousine, and seeing the White House. “I’m looking forward to meeting all of Maine’s representatives and maybe, hopefully, the President,” said Brian Mank.

Goslant echoed his thoughts. “I’m looking forward to the food, going to the White House, and I’m hopeful I can see the president,” he said.

Brandon Mank said he thinks the trip will be a blast. “It’s going to be really exciting because we’re the first fifth-grade and the first people from Jordan Small Middle School to go,” he said. None of the boys have been to Washington DC before.

When asked how it felt to be the number eighth team in the country, Brian Mank said, “Being in eighth is a real honor, I never thought we would make it this far.”

Meteorologist Todd Gutner visits Jordan-Small School by Lorraine Glowczak

The sixth-grade students from Lynne Estey’s science class, at Jordon-Small Middle School, had the opportunity to learn the ropes of a meteorologist from the WCSH Channel 6 TV station in Portland. Morning weatherman Todd Gutner spoke to the crowd of 11 and 12-year-olds about the science behind weather on Thursday, April 27 in the school’s library.
 

He began his talk by stating that, as a morning weatherman he must get up by 2:00 a.m. to be on the air by 6:00 a.m. “In the winter,” Gutner began. “I get up at 1:15 a.m. Winter weather is a little more complicated and takes more time to prepare for the morning broadcast.”

Gutner stated that he has a great time being a meteorologist, explaining that often he and the other co-hosts tell jokes and laugh with one another. 

“There are times, however, when things are serious,” Gutner explained. “Weather can be a very serious topic because it can be dangerous and affect daily life.”

As an example, he spoke about the thunderstorms he has covered over the years. Specifically, a thunderstorm that developed into a tornado warning in the Rangeley/Farmington area and most of the Carrabassett Valley a couple of years ago.

It was at this point students got to view a live broadcast of Gutner on air during that tornado warning. By watching the video, they got a better understanding of the science behind summer meteorological conditions such as velocity, high air pressure, low air pressure, the exact definition of a tornado warning and the difference between a cyclone and a funnel cloud.

The students also discovered that tornados are labeled into specific categories. Based upon the Fujita Scale, a scale for rating tornadoes established upon the amount of damage it has caused, tornadoes are given between a F1(least amount of damage) to F5 (the most damage.)

“In Maine, there has never been a tornado greater than an F2,” Gutner said.

Gutner discussed what to do during a tornado warning to keep safe. His suggestions included going to the lowest point in the home, staying away from windows and using pillows and blankets for protection.

6th students prepare to be filmed for TV

Students were given an opportunity for question and answers. Lightening was one major topic of discussion, including the occasional “bolt from the blue” lightning. This occurrence is a lightning bolt that can strike many miles away from the thunderstorm cloud that produces it and can be exceptionally dangerous.

The morning talk ended with the 6^th grade class being filmed by Gutner himself in front of “Stormy”, the Channel 6 weather vehicle, for the Friday morning’s broadcast. If you missed last Friday morning’s weather broadcast, the students got the opportunity to be on air at 6:55 a.m. telling the viewers who they were and what school they were from. Their on-air limelight ended with the morning shout, “Wake Up!”

Student iMovie project an educational hit

By Walter Lunt - Creative energy was in abundance at the Jordan Small School in Raymond during the first weeks of 2016.  Groups of students, grades 5 through 8, were collaborating, making group decisions, writing and producing. What were they doing? Making movies – iMovies.

Classroom teacher John Powers said the school-wide project is this year’s version of an annual unit that attempts to encourage students to apply classroom and personal knowledge in creative ways. He says the iMovie Project was spawned through the inspiration of a teacher in another district; an idea that has really taken off at the Raymond middle school.

Students prepare to film their animated production.

Here’s how it works: Students form self-selected groups and brainstorm ideas for a short film. The collaboration results in decisions, scripts, and production meetings that require leadership and teamwork. The process demands responsible group interaction, making contributions, listening to the ideas of others and above all, patience. And finally, all products have a deadline that’s expected to be met. 

While it’s the fun part of the project, filming, using Apple iPads, often results in the frustration of do-overs, necessary tweaking or changes, or underestimating the difficulty of an idea. The filming stage saw students spill out classrooms into halls, even into the parking lot.

Eighth grader Tom DuPont says the iMovie project gives students the “chance to take an idea, use your brain and then make it come to life.”

Norma Easter and Rainey Pawlowski were working on a stop-motion film, pointing their iPad at a hand- made city-scape while manipulating small cotton figures that represented people. They said their digital story carries a message that encourages all to “follow your own path and make your own decisions,” not follow blindly the wishes of others who seek to control you. They were joined by Joshua Marquis who, although not a member of their group, had joined to help Easter and Pawlowski edit their film.

Another eighth grade student, Sophey Potter, said that, initially, she had a hard time coming up with an idea for her film but after collaborating with a family member decided to pursue one of her pet-peeves: friends and fellow students “who are always talking negative about themselves.” She said they should reflect on how they see themselves and try to be more positive. “Don’t say ‘I’m short,’ say ‘I’m fun-sized,’” Potter said with a smile.

Subject matter for the films is as varied as the grade levels and number of students involved. Powers discussed one innovative project titled The Adventures of Ivan” in which the central character engages in certain every-day activities that demonstrate various principles of trigonometry. He said another was based on a student’s original poem, while still another playfully charts the life of a snowman.