As part of our recent Literacy Week, faculty and staff were asked to share their favorite book with the students.  But to make it exciting, students had to guess each person’s book based on clues from their teachers.  A huge number of students participated in this contest and we had many students who found all the right answers.  For those who didn’t get all the answers,  here’s your chance to see what everyone chose.  Some might just suprise you!

  A Land Remembered  — Shattuck

Breaking Dawn — Leary

Da Vinci Code — Coyle

Gone With The Wind — Glisson

Hatchet — Fields

Holes — Hurst

Homecoming — Massey

Hunger Games — Ms. Gastelum

Lightning Thief — Mr. Drew

My Antonia — Twitty

Oh The Places You’ll Go — Ms. Drew

Peter & the Starcatchers Series — Brauman

Pride & Prejudice — Kelly

Their Eyes Were Watching God — Giddings

The Last Apprentice Series — Mr. Gastelum

The Secret Garden — Ms. Bennett

The Underground Railroad — Barnett

Twilight — Miles

What Doesn’t Kill You — Francis

Where the Red Fern Grows — Adams

Form must be completed by Jan. 31, 2010 or call 386-329-0543

Bonus:  Schools can compete for the Grand Finale Prize of Parent Involvement Dollars for the schools with the greatest percentage of parents and staff attending.

1^st Place—$ 1000.00
2^nd Place—$  500.00
3rdPlace—$  300.00

 Help JMS be #1! Sign up today!

 Sign up at putnamschools.org or fill out the flier delivered to the school and turn in to the front office. 

Student and Parents,
For the first time, the JMS soccer teams will be playing AFTER school hours, so now is your chance to come out and see how awesome our soccer teams are.  We will be playing Beasley on February 2nd at their school (the high school field).  The girls’ game will start at 6:00 PM and the boys will begin at 7:00 PM. The cost is $2.00. All proceeds go to the schools’ athletic fund.  Please come support the teams and let’s beat those Tigers.

Students,  Have you lost your ID card and now need it for the Washington trip or to take the ACT?  Now you can order another one online directly from the photographer and the cost is only 5 dollars!

Click on the graphic or click on this link!  

 In preparation for the FCAT Writes test on February 10th, Jenkins Middle School eighth grade students are attending three days of writing workshops.  These workshops are focusing on the different aspects of how students can improve their writing through the use of creative beginnings,  attention grabbers, and well-written conclusions Students are also learning how to create vivid details and mind-movie descriptions in their writing. 

On the first meeting last Tuesday, students were given instruction on different words and phrases that are considered “tacky” and overused.  In groups, students took a simple prompt and as a group brainstormed how to make that introductory paragraph “hook” their reader into wanting to read more.  It was amazing to see how student creativity and simple changes in their writing could really boost the quality of writing that was being produced. 

This week’s focus will be emphasizing details and examples.  Mrs. Twitty will show students a quick, little “trick” to enhance their writing.

Next week’s focus will be on great conclusions.  Ms. Giddings, Mrs. Symonds and Mrs. Twitty will be focusing on how to wrap up your papers and give it that final pizzazz! 

Our goal is to have the highest scores in the county and it will take each and every eighth grader willing to try their best for this to happen. 

There have been some changes to the FCAT writes from the state level.  Now students’ papers will only be graded by one reader and only whole scores from 1-6 will be used.  No longer will students be able to make scores like 3.5, 4.5, or 5.5, so it’s even more important to make each and every word count.  Students are expected to make at least a 4 for it to be considered a passing score.

 Teachers will continue to focus on writing in the coming days and we ask that parents encourage your child to do their best. 

For more photos of this activity, please visit our photo gallery by clicking on the link on our menu on the left or use this link:  http://jmsreads.com/jmscpg/thumbnails.php?album=10.

It’s Think Link time again. These tests are designed to help teachers determine students’ strengths and weaknesses in reading, math, and science. By better understanding our students’ needs, it is our goal to help students improve their learning and score higher on required standardized tests. Students can access the testing site by clicking on the link below.

These students have shown acidemic improvement in one or more of they’re classes.

Students from left to right: