Hour of Code!

On Tuesday, December 9, 2014, Central Cambria Middle School students participated in the international Hour of Code event.  The Hour of Code is an activity designed to give students a first taste of computer programming, and is conducted during Computer Science Week.  Last Tuesday, our math classes were taken over for the purpose of computer coding.  Students worked through coding tasks using a simplified format.  Students were then able to see what their lines of code would look like in Java format.  When students were done with their coding activity, they were able to complete extension activities and code in more complex formats.  Students genuinely seemed to enjoy the opportunity to code.  As a result of this activity, we had 25 students sign up for our Coding Club, which will begin after the holiday break.

If you would like your child to continue their exploration of coding, here are some web resources that will help:

http://code.org/

http://www.tynker.com/

http://www.codecademy.com/

https://www.khanacademy.org/

http://scratch.mit.edu/

http://thefoos.com/     

Thank you to Heather Niebauer and Joe Strittmatter for organizing Central Cambria’s Hour of Code event!

Ms. Minor's 6th grade students are coding!

Mr. Mazzarella's 7th grade coders!

Mr. Kochinsky and Mrs. Niebauer facilitating our Hour of Code event.

CCMS Employee of the Month

To recognize exemplary job performance by members of our CCMS faculty and staff this year, we have created an Employee of the Month award.  Each month we recognize a teacher or other staff member who has exhibited exemplary performance.  Please read below for a recap of this our employees of the month up to this point in the school year.

December Employee of the Month:  Mrs. Heather Niebauer, Gifted & Language Arts teacher

Mrs. Niebauer was chosen because she continually seeks new and exciting learning opportunities for her students.  The most recent example of this is the Hour of Code event that all Central Cambria students in grades K - 12 will be participating in next week.  Mrs. Niebauer organized this event and her students will be assisting with it.  This is one example of the initiative that Mrs. Niebauer takes to consistently improve her program.  Rather than resting on her laurels, she continues to go above and beyond to do a great job for our students.  For her consistent willingess to strive for "greatness" over "good enough," Mrs. Niebauer is our December Employee of the Month.

November Employee of the Month:  Ms. Gretchen Getz, Physical Education teacher

Ms. Getz was selected because she has been a positive contributor to our school through the first few months of the school year.  Ms. Getz has worked to adjust her curriculum to our new Exploratory rotation schedule, infusing new ideas and activities for her students.  Ms. Getz jumped headfirst into our Writing Across the Curriculum initiative by creating an informative writing prompt for her students.  She went further by incorporating the use of GoogleDocs to facilitate the writing process in her class.  In fact, she was the first CCMS teacher to have her students use GoogleDocs on a wide-scale basis.  In addition to her efforts in the classroom, Ms. Getz devoted a significant amount of time to planning our first annual Safe Halloween Night along with our other Student Council advisors.  For her willingness to take the lead of instructional initiatives that will enhance learning, Ms. Getz is our November Employee of the Month.

October Employee of the Month:  Ms. Jessie Minor, Math teacher

Ms. Minor was recognized as our October employee of the month due to the tremendous amount of growth and improvement she has exhibited so far in her second year of teaching.  Ms. Minor has devoted time and effort into honing her craft, evidenced by her attendance at a summer math institute at St. Francis this past summer.  By attending, she was able to secure grant money that we will use to enhance our math program.  For her perseverance and ability to seek opportunities for growth, Ms. Minor is our October Employee of the Month.

September Employee of the Month:  Ms. Robin Ribarich, Guidance Counselor

Ms. Ribarich was picked as our inaugural employee of the month due to her willingness to go above and beyond her job description to serve our students' needs at the highest possible level.  Ms. Ribarich put in a tremendous amount of time and effort during the scheduling process over the summer.  She serves as a Student Council advisor and is a member of several school committees.  Whenever a student needs to discuss a situation, Ms. Ribarich is always there to listen.  Ms. Ribarich organizes our Americorps program, our SAP team, and was a key player in securing a grant to provide the Botvin Life Skills curriculum in our Family & Consumer Science classes.  Ms. Ribarich conducts guidance lessons on a consistent basis and continually exceeds expectations in creating a positive and caring climate for students within our school.  For her dedication to CCMS, Ms. Ribarich is our September Employee of the Month.