The Tigers' Pride

Welcome to the first issue of The Tigers’ Pride. The District is proud to provide our families and staff with this new digital newsletter. Each issue will highlight the wonderful things that are happening within our schools. Our hope is to provide our school community with a glimpse into our classrooms and share exciting educational opportunities for our students. We hope you enjoy this first issue!

Sincerely,

Dr. Tina M. Kane

Superintendent

Congratulations to this group of Paxon Hollow Middle School scientists! Their team authored one of 57 accepted proposals (out of over 600 nationwide applicants in grades 6-12) for the first NASA TechRise Challenge sponsored by Future Engineers and Blue Origin. The team (Denali Devonport, Kassidy Smith, Riley Carmichael, Britney Huynh, Kohar Baronian, and Carrie Hodkinson) will receive a prize of $1500 to build the proposed experiment to test the effects of a microgravity environment on the chemical process of paint application and drying. In 2023, their project will be launched from a site in Texas on the suborbital rocket, Blue Origin New Shephard, to collect data in a microgravity setting.

National School Counseling Week, sponsored by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career. The 2022 theme is "School Counseling: Better Together". School counselors work hard to design and deliver programs that improve student outcomes.

The Marple Newtown School District is grateful for the contributions of our 13 school counselors:

• Loomis Elementary School: Noelle Newton
• Worrall Elementary School: Renee Cahill
• Culbertson Elementary School: Pam Sarikianos
• Russell Elementary School: Kylie Kusturiss
• Paxon Hollow Middle School: Linda Wigo, Andrew Davis, and Tara Casertano
• Marple Newtown High School: Tracy Jacobson, Jen Cipollone, Shane Elison, Kelly McCool, Nicole McCarthy, and Jessica McColgan

As February is recognized as Black History Month, we would like to take this opportunity to engage thoughtfully and age-appropriately in conversations using stories to drive classroom discussions about people in American history who have made positive contributions to equality, culture, and the wellbeing of all Americans and citizens across the world.

Thanks to reading specialist Mrs. Miller (pictured above), a group of lemonade-selling students, a supportive PTO, and many fabulous donors from DonorsChoose, Loomis students welcomed a very special new addition to their school: a book vending machine! The machine was unveiled during a schoolwide assembly with Fox 29's Good Day Philadelphia in attendance (link to video). Students can earn tokens for the machine by doing their personal best, acting responsibly, working to learn and grow, showing respect, and playing safe. Read on, Loomis!

Worrall Elementary School focuses on the whole child, and, to that end, we have a wide variety of activities and learning opportunities beyond traditional classroom time. One important offering for all students is our Character Education Program, which includes new character traits every year, a unifying theme, and assemblies throughout the year. This year’s theme is “Wild About Worrall,” with the corresponding character traits of gratitude, kindness, growth mindset, and resilience. Students, families, and staff alike have a blast at Worrall School, and we love being able to enjoy ourselves together as a school community!

At a recent assembly, Culbertson's school counselor, Ms. Sarikianos, awarded children who have demonstrated Gratitude for Greatness (having an appreciation for each person’s importance in the world) with a special certificate. We are grateful for all of our compassionate, empathetic students!

As MNSD’s elementary school students returned to school this year, they were greeted with a new, fifth special called, “Design Thinking”. Joining the rotation of Art, Music, Library, and Physical Education, the Design Thinking special is a place where our K-5 students build capacity in social/emotional learning and the future-ready skills of creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication – important skills they will need to compete and thrive in the 21st Century. Empowered with these 21st-century skills, our elementary students are set on a path to becoming lifelong learners and better able to pursue their curiosities in MNSD’s secondary STEM Academy or Marple Newtown High School’s related offerings.

Russell’s kindergarten teacher, Tracy Paine, uses Fridays as an opportunity to cultivate a love of science among her kindergarten students. During their “Mad Science” sessions, Mrs. Paine dresses up like a mad scientist and challenges her students to make predictions, work collaboratively, experiment, ask questions, and draw conclusions. A recent experiment was called “Alka Seltzer Rockets" -- the cheers of her young scientists reverberated down the hall!

Marple Newtown High School Life Skills students learn various independent living skills throughout their daily classes, then apply those skills by practicing them in real-life situations. For example, many MNHS Life Skills students participate in Interscholastic Unified Bocce, a Special Olympic Sport that focuses on building teamwork and relationships, engaging in physical activities, and demonstrating sportsmanship. The MNHS team practices two times per week throughout January and February and works together to apply strategies and skills in games. In its inaugural year, the MNHS team made it all the way to the state championship in Hershey! Clearly, the students enjoy practicing their skills on the bocce court.

During the month of October, students across MNSD collected thousands of food donations for two local charities: St. Mark’s Food Pantry (Broomall) and the Greenhouse Project (Chester). At the same time, all K-5 students participated in a domino-themed STEM challenge. As a way to join these two events, Robert Speca (MNHS science teacher) created a domino run out of the food boxes collected in the drive. With the help of student volunteers, the boxes were toppled today with CBS3 in attendance (click here for video). Many thanks to all that supported these charitable efforts on behalf of the greater MNSD community!

MNHS provides our students with 63 club opportunities to participate in, ranging from themes such as the Astronomical Society and Best Buddies to the Video Game Club and Yearbook. We offer our students the opportunity to start new clubs, and over the years our students have added new, board-approved clubs to the list. Click here to learn more about our club opportunities at MNHS.

Website: www.mnsd.org
Location: 40 Media Line Road, Newtown Square, PA, USA
Phone: (610) 359-4200
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Marple-Newtown-School-District-151634388211008
Twitter: @MarpleNewtownSD