Welcome to Central Middle!

Summer Vacation

Speaking for the staff at Portage Central Middle School,  we wish you and your family a safe and happy summer vacation. We will see you again Tuesday, September 2, 2008  for the new school year. That day is a  ½ day for students. More information will be coming as we get closer to  September. See you soon!

The Seventh and Eighth Grade Book Groups

The Seventh and Eighth Grade Book Groups have been busy connecting books and the theatre. During an hour long lunch presentation on May 7th , Zac Thompson, Director of the Civic Youth Theatre’s production of  Holes, talked with the Book Groups and Mr. Guilford’s drama students about the play and how it is transformed into a stage production, including lighting, staging, scenery, characterization and sound effects. 

Mrs. Sims and Mrs. Chapman accompanied twenty-five members of the Book Groups to the Parish Theatre on May 15, where they enjoyed a late afternoon performance of the play, featuring eighth grader Eric Larsen as Zero and included Emily Walsh who helped with props. The students also made a brief visit to the Kalamazoo Public Library and dined at Old Burdick’s.

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.