Ms. Margaret M. Widgren
Principal
Mrs. Kathy Tobia
Asst. Principal
Ms. Joanne Martino
SAC/Anti-Bullying Specialist
Mrs. Liz Conley
Nurse, X5720
School Hours: 7:35 am - 2:15 pm
1000 Weldon Rd.
Oak Ridge, NJ 07438
(973) 697-1980
Fax (973) 697-1348
Dear JTMS Parents and Students,
I am excited to introduce myself as the principal of Jefferson Township Middle School. While I only began my new position as principal on July 1st, I am not new to Jefferson. I began my Falcon career in 2006 as an assistant principal at the middle school, and then was appointed as the Director of Student Personnel Services in 2012. It is great to be back “home” at the middle school.
While the 2020-2021 school year presents us with many new challenges, I can assure you that the faculty and staff are committed to providing our students with a comprehensive and rich learning experience, while encouraging high standards of positive student citizenship. As we begin preparing for the reopening of our doors, your child’s safety and well-being will be at the forefront of our decision making process.
I am confident that whatever comes our way, we will remain Falcon strong and have an amazing school year. I look forward to meeting you all in the upcoming months. Have a wonderful summer!
Sincerely,
Ms. Margaret M. Widgren
Principal
In the past month, the counseling department held an Advisory Council meeting with over twenty stakeholders from the JTMS community, to discuss school counseling program goals and to obtain feedback on priorities for the remainder of the school year. Counselors are facilitating multiple counseling groups. In the 8th grade, students attended a scheduling presentation and selected their electives for High School. Students began scheduling course requests with High School counselors. The counseling department is focusing on their goal of improving student attendance through group and individual counseling.
In 6th grade Mathematics, students have been evaluating expressions, combining like terms and using the Distributive Property to help solve problems. Students have been completing daily and weekly review of skills: fraction computation, decimals, Order of Operations, factoring expressions and converting measurements to identify equivalent amounts. Students are beginning to study data within the data unit by using range, mean, median and mode to analyze data. Also, within the curriculum, students are starting a Moby Max Challenge with a competition among the 6th grade students for the most Moby Max minutes.
Students in the science department are finishing their study of the rock cycle and as a result, have gained a deeper understanding of weathering and erosion. Both teams in the sixth grade completed a Fossil Detective activity while students worked in collaborative learning groups. All detectives did a wonderful job solving the mystery questions! In addition, a guest speaker visited both teams on February 6th. Mr. Michael Fondacaro spoke about accepting others and helping students to see beyond differences and disabilities which often can create obstacles in getting to know someone. The students on both teams asked fantastic questions and made Michael feel right at home, here at JTMS!
In Social Studies, students have begun their unit on the Civil War and Reconstruction. Students will have access to recording equipment which they will use to create authentic presentations. The projects students complete will appear in the form of news broadcasts, done with green screens. Students will also utilize recording equipment such as Flipgrid, a recording program. Of course, some projects may be completed using traditional written essays. Students will have opportunities to demonstrate their creative skills while working on strengthening their analysis and content writing skills.
In 6th grade Language Arts, students immersed in a unit that focused on Agents of Change: Motivated individual and/or groups can affect great and lasting change even against seemingly insurmountable obstacles. To that end, students learned about important people and events in the civil rights and the movements for racial and gender equality, through a variety of nonfiction texts, historical essays, and films, which students viewed, analyzed, and annotated. Soon, students will begin a major research project, which continues to explore this theme. In addition, students have been reading fiction books, independently, in preparation for the Battle of the Books event. Students continue to use the individualized vocabulary program, Membean, as well as the grammar-focused platform of No Red Ink.
The 7th grade Language Arts students completed their unit on the Dawn of Dystopia where several dystopian texts were read and analyzed. Students also focused on writing an argumentative essay and progressed through each step of the writing process including creating, revising, editing, and publishing.
Students in 7th grade Mathematics began working on solving operations with rational numbers. In doing so, students incorporated the use of Edulastic, a program that provides teachers an opportunity to monitor student progress and understanding. Through the program, teachers conduct individual conferences with students.
Students in 7th grade Science explored who they are on a microscopic level - their DNA! By understanding the code of DNA, students learned why they are so unique and how they acquired their individual physical traits.
Seventh grade Social Studies students discovered an appreciation for the importance and difficulties of struggling against tyranny. The civil rights movement was taught in a manner that helped students understand that injustices can be overcome.
In Language Arts, the eighth grade students completed Unit Two, including Socratic Book Clubs. Students picked a novel of choice and then collaborated with peers who picked the same novel. Students read and annotated their books while they engaged in academic discussions about their novels. As a culminating activity, students participated in Socratic Seminars, further analyzing literature through the discussion of essential questions.
In 8th grade Math, students finished their unit on functions and relations. In doing so, students learned to compare different types of functions using real world scenarios. Students will be given their end-of-unit assessment and then begin the second half of the year learning about geometry. In the algebra classes, students learned about exponents and exponential functions in the real world, such as how to calculate exponential growth and decay, along with compound interest. Students will start Chapter 8 soon learning about polynomials. Students in geometry finished their unit on relationships in triangles (including bisectors, medians, altitudes of triangles, inequalities in one and two triangles, and indirect proofs). Students will learn to analyze properties of quadrilaterals and polygons within the next month.
In Social Studies, students began to study the Middle Ages in the Middle East and Asia. They compared the basic tenets of the three monotheistic faiths and completed document based investigations on the spread of Islam through the Mediterranean, India, and Arabia. Students will end the marking period with a Socratic Seminar on the controversial Empress Wu.
Eighth grade science students just completed their unit on waves in which they designed a product to help people with hearing issues or vision impairments. The students focused their products on safety concerns that these individuals face on a daily basis. Students are now transitioning into the unit of forces and gravity.
The 8th Grade GATEways students recently completed their mini unit on transcendentalism and civil disobedience. They have begun working on their Educational Presentation project where they are designing a recorded presentation that will be viewed by their classmates. Designing an effective presentation that others will view and critique is a learning experience in itself. The 7th Grade GATEways students have been working on their unit on the United Nations where they have been learning about the main organs of the UN, the primary roles the UN plays in our global society, and current events associated with the UN. They will be moving on to activities and learning experiences that will give them a deeper understanding of how the UN operates with issues of global concern. The 6th Grade GATEways students finished their unit on using spreadsheets to calculate their results and produce graphs and charts to display their group’s results. They have moved on to the visually captivating National Parks unit. Students will be enhancing their communication skills by creating digital maps, designing parks passes, and discovering and sharing with others the many unique features that our national parks have to showcase and serve to protect.
The students in 6th grade learned vocabulary related to their house and home as well as learned how to describe their household chores. Students in 7th grade learned to talk about sports and sport related activities. The students in 8th grade learned to describe their daily routines.
Students in 21st Century Researchers are learning how to evaluate websites and online sources, how to paraphrase and directly quote from sources, and will soon start using NoodleTools to organize the research they are conducting in preparation for a class debate.
As a new semester begins, students have the opportunity to explore new electives. The students who are discovering Computer Science are learning the importance of problem-solving and how any problem can be solved by defining the problem, preparing to solve the problem, attempting to solve the problem and reflecting upon the results. They are also understanding that it is important to go through the Problem Solving Process more than once if a problem is not solved. As the students begin to learn about computers, they will develop the skills to apply the problem solving process in understanding how computers work and how they, as computer scientists, will solve problems using computers.
The second marking period proved to be a successful one for many Core Skills Language Arts students! Many students increased their overall Linkit performance! Skill Assessment scores showed an overall improvement in skill levels. All language arts CSP students are anxiously awaiting their final results of marking period two’s incentive challenge. Students hope to have earned a movie and snack party during lunch/flex for attending Core Skills extra help sessions during the flex periods!
The second marking period closed with the Core Skills Math students finishing strong. Many students made overall improvements in their studies and increased their LinkIt scores as well as increased their MobyMax grades through weekly practice. Students are currently waiting for the results of the second marking period incentive challenge. Along with ELA, math students hope they earned the reward of a movie and snack party.
Students in the seventh and eighth grade Family and Consumer Science classes learned how to work with the ingredient, yeast. In doing so, students prepared homemade pizza dough during the Yeast Bread Unit. In an effort to enhance their study, students brought in an assortment of pizza toppings which resulted in a wonderful time had by all!
In Forensics, students completed their 1st semester class with a final project on determining who contaminated the lake. The new classes of semester two are learning to measure and sketch a crime scene. Students will then draw their sketches to scale within the classroom once they complete two days of measuring the scene.
In Band, the eighth grade students finished their musical pieces in preparation for their Mid-Winter Concert combined with the High School bands scheduled for February 26th. The sixth and seventh grade bands are continuing to develop their musical skills by working on music for their Spring Concert.
With five new classes, students are studying the basic concepts of robotics. Sixth grade students are building coding skills in preparation to begin building and programming lego robots. Seventh and eighth grade students are studying topics such as the engineer and design process as well as Newton’s Laws of Motion in order to prepare themselves to work on different projects such as building catapults to launch marshmallows.
The seventh and eighth grade STEM students recently learned the seven steps of the engineering process and are putting them into practice for their first project. The students researched which materials make the best insulators in an attempt to keep an ice cube frozen while placed in an oven for 25 minutes. The sixth grade students learned about construction joints and stress types in engineering. After completing their initial blueprints, they began construction on straw towers that should be capable of holding several tennis balls.
The district would once again like to thank the Jefferson Township Community for their support of our Bond Referendum vote back in October 2018. The district was able to receive 40% reimbursement from the State in grant money. Fortunately, when our credit history was reviewed by the financial institutions providing the bonds, we were able to secure loans at the rate of 3.62% which is lower than expected.
Although it is a smaller-scale project, we are excited that the work has started! The door locks are being replaced at Cozy Lake by Oak Security. The new locks will have a thumb lock for enhanced security and will be ADA compliant.
The other projects slated to occur this summer are:
Update: 7.23.19
High School:
Makerspace Flooring Progress
Update: 7.22.19
JTHS:
Science Flooring
Outside
Science Classroom Drop Ceiling
Wood Shop Flooring
Roofing Machinery & Crew
Music Rooms
Future Makerspace Classroom
Band & High Tech Music Room Flooring
Update: 7.19.19
Cozy Lake:
Outside Facade
All-Purpose Room
White Rock:
All-Purpose Room Abatement
Makerspace Flooring
Makerspace Flooring
Update: 7.18.19
Cozy Lake:
Outside Facade Progress
Ellen T. Briggs:
Exterior Modular Wing Facade Progress
Makerspace Room 111
Makerspace Room 111
JTMS:
Gymnasium Lobby
Locker Room
Floor Abatement
Panoramic View of Media Center
Stanlick:
All-Purpose Room Flooring
Makerspace Flooring
UPDATE: (6/26-7/10):
JTMS:
Media Center Moving Out, Ceilings Removed & Painting Begun
Cozy Lake:
Removal of Outside Facade:
Makerspace Classroom Before
JTMS Science Rooms:
Classrooms B3 & 4 Emptied
B4 Flooring Removed
B21 Final Demolition
White Rock:
Makerspace Classroom Before
All-Purpose Room Before
Middle School:
Locker Room Before
Locker Room Before
Media Center Before
Media Center Before
Robotics Classroom Before
Robotics Classroom Before
Science Classroom Before
Science Classroom Before
Ellen T. Briggs:
Facade Before
Makerspace Classroom Before
Door Hardware Before
Stanlick:
All-Purpose Flooring Before
Classroom Before
Kitchen Flooring Before
Closet Before
Makerspace Classroom Before
High School:
Roof Areas A,B,C, & D
Roof Areas C & D Before
Auxiliary Gym Roof Before
Fascia Before
Fascia Before
Science Lab Before
Makerspace Classroom Before
Wood Shop Classroom Before
Wood Shop Classroom Before
C7 Cleared Out
Prep Room Floor Hatch
C9 Early Demo
Room C8 Before
C8 Cleared Out
C7 Outside Fascia
May 16, 2019
Cozy Lake:
Before: Old Hardware
After: Updated Hardware
