T O W N O F M IL T O N

The Pierce Middle School was fortunate enough to offer professional developmentfor English teachers by bringing in Sara Holbrook (acclaimed authorand poet) to look at poetry and vocabulary instruction. In addition, the schoolheld its annual Literacy Night with keynote speaker Doug Wilhelm (author ofthe seventh-grade summer reading book, The Revealers). A Scholastic BookFair was held in conjunction with Literacy Night and raised over $1,000 forteachers to purchase books for their classrooms.Study Island was purchased by the district to support our ELL and specialneeds populations and a number of professional development workshops and tutorialswere held to support teachers in the use of this valuable standards basedprogram. In addition, teachers were able to take advantage of a number of professionaldevelopment opportunities through the Milton Public Schools, theNational Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the New England Leagueof Middle Schools (NELMS).History/Geography: Although history is not an MCAS subject, our History/GeographyDepartment worked tirelessly to develop a strong curriculumthat supports the development of historical literacy. Teachers in grade six werefortunate enough to receive a new Ancient Civilizations textbook, History Alive,and are in the process of integrating this comprehensive text into their curriculum.Grade seven has developed a number of common assessments focused onperformance tasks and writing. Teachers have worked together to develop thetasks, products and rubrics for scoring. In addition to participating in the fallPre-AP training, grade eight has been evaluating some of their common assessments,looking at student work, and has begun discussions with the highschool around the alignment of grade eight and grade nine history.The Pierce Middle School once again held its annual Geography Bee withthe same student winning two consecutive years and placing fifth in the Statefinals.Science: Sixth-grade teacher Nicole Hoyceanyls was selected by theLawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkley to participate in the national field trialsof the FOSS Earth history course. Ms. Hoyceanyls and Ms. Decker, Directorof Science, attended a three-day professional development institute at UCBerkeley in preparation for the field trials. Seventh-grade teacher David Romeocontinued to lead the FIRST Lego League robotics team. In November, thePierce Middle school team hosted12 teams from around the state for a roboticstournament. FIRST is a “not-for-profit” organization devoted to helping youngpeople discover and develop a passion for science, engineering, technology andmath.213