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CMS Teaching Team Wins Grant to Attend Technology Conference

A team of five educators from Central Middle School received a grant from the Michigan Department of Education and the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning to attend training at the annual conference in Grand Rapids. Amy Franks, Mike Juodawlkis, Janet Wydendorf,, Stephanie Chapman, and Susan Pullo went to the conference. The award they won is called the MI-Champions grant.

MACUL was awarded a grant by the Michigan Department of Education to develop the expertise of teachers to use technology to improve student academic achievement. The purpose of the grant is to design and deliver a statewide model for professional development that will create the skill set necessary for building based “Technology Integration Champions” at the local level. 
The project addresses this purpose by:

• Identifying up to 90 school teams of certified teachers (up to 350 teachers) across Michigan.

• Providing funding for teachers to attend MACUL Conference held in Grand Rapids in March 2008 where training will be provided.  Participants had the opportunity to attend conference sessions and exhibits. 

• Providing intense, two day integration training, including Universal Design for Learning, for all teachers and coaches: trainers, materials, and teacher stipends are provided.  Training sessions will be scheduled in various regions in the State this summer.

• Providing two days of coaching for each school during the 2008-‘09 school year.

At the MACUL conference in Grand Rapids there was a group called "School Tube" doing interviews. It is like "You Tube" or "Teacher's Tube" for educators. Students were assigned various news stories throughout the conference. Portage Public Schools has two teams of teachers, one from Portage Northern High School and one from Portage Central Middle School, who won grants to go to the conference and obtain free training in this summer. That grant program is called MI-Champions. Amy Franks, a science teacher at CMS, is featured in the news piece called MI-Champions created by students for School Tube. Here is the link to the interview.

CMS Jeopardy Competition

The CMS Jeopardy team the "Raymond Noodles" fought a close battle at the city-wide Jeopardy competition on Tuesday, April 22nd. In sprite of an amazing display of knowledge and recall, the “Raymond Noodles”, came in second place.  Our group tied the team from West Middle School. The winning group was from North Middle School. Our participants won a $20 gift certificate from the library and will go to Barnes and Noble in May to select books. They also get to have special lunch at a local restaurant.

Yearbook Distribution

The distribution of the 2007 / 2008 yearbooks will take place on Monday, June 9th. There will be a lottery for the purchase of one of the approximately 50 extra yearbooks. On Monday, June 2nd students who have not purchased a yearbook, may bring cash or money orders for $25 in a sealed envelope. The student’s name should be on the envelope along with the name of the homeroom teacher. Teachers will collect the envelopes and pass them along to Mrs. Riker.  Winners will be notified; any leftover envelopes will be returned to their owners.

Fifth Grade Visitors

On Monday, April 28, Wednesday, April 30, and Thursday, May 1, students from our elementary schools will visit Portage Central Middle School. This group of 230 students will tour and see presentations beginning at 9:30 each day. We would like to say “welcome” to the soon-to-be 6th graders.

[Central Middle News Archive]