It's Friday!

Another week is winding down at Central Cambria Middle School, and it has been a week full of activity.  To summarize:

• On Monday our teachers went through a day of training, the details of which you can read about in Wednesday's blog post. 
• This week was the final week of sales for our student council fundraiser, and students are eager with anticipation to see if they met their quota of selling $35,000 of merchandise.  We hope to have an accurate figure on Monday.
• Our Box Tops for Education contest for the first marking period is heating up.  There are many forms of subterfuge and trickery taking place between our first period classes, with some of them hoarding their box tops to turn them all in at once, and others sandbagging and only turning in portions of their collection at a time in an attempt to fool their competitors.  It is all quite entertaining.  As of two minutes ago, when updated numbers came in, Ms. Vescovi's class remains in the lead, now trailed closely by Mr. Moore, Mr. Dziack, Mrs. Dziack, and Mr. Gilkey's classes.  This is a major shift in the standings from yesterday!  There are rumblings that several teachers are sitting on a hoard of box tops that they will not turn in until the last collection date, so it could be anybody's game!  The winning class will get to go to lunch first every day during the month of November, and will not have to wait in line.  That may not sound like much, but it is a huge motivator for middle school students!
• I have been out and about in our classrooms, conducting walkthroughs since the beginning of September. What I am finding is not a surprise.  We have some really good teachers who are showing some tremendous skills in their classrooms every day.  Additionally, our students are coming to school and getting the job done in the classroom, working hard, participating, answering questions, and showing enthusiasm for learning.  It is no wonder that our PSSA scores are solid after seeing what our teachers and students are doing on a daily basis.  We are always looking to improve, and will continue to do so every day, but it is nice to be starting from a position of strength in many key areas.
• We will have a Halloween Dance on October 25th, from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.  Information about ticket sales will go out to students next week.
• Communities In Schools of the Laurel Highlands, the after school program at Central Cambria Middle School, will be holding a coat drive to benefit local families in need of help this winter. Please send donations of lightly used coats to school with your child and have him/her drop them off in room H104 located in the 6^th grade hallway. All sizes from children to adults will be accepted. The homeroom/TAG group with the most coats donated will receive  free passes to the holiday dance.  The drive will begin on Monday, October 15^th and end on Wednesday October 31^st at the end of the day. Donations will be counted and the winning TAG Group will be announced on Friday, November 2^nd. The winning TAG Group will receive their free passes a few days before the dance. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me using the information listed below.
• Please view our parent resources Scoop.it page at http://www.scoop.it/t/central-cambria-middle-school-parent-resources for links to articles and web sites that I have found that may be useful for you as a parent. 
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