September 23, 2013 Issue 5 Irmo Middle School 6051 Wescott Road Columbia, SC 29212 (803) 476-3600 www.lexrich5.

org/ims School Hours: 8:20 a.m.-3:35 p.m.

The Buzz
rsjackso@lexrich5.org

at Irmo Middle School

Creating successful students for the challenges of tomorrow

Robert S. Jackson, Ed.S., Principal
https://twitter.com/IMS_Principal

Inside this issue:

Guidance CATE Field Trip Walk / Bike to School Iam Lecture Series Summer School Band News Band News Contd. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8,9

Schedule Changes: C Team Football games will begin at 5:30pm 8th Grade Explore Testing moved to October 1st

Yearbook Staff
October 1st applications for students interested in becoming a part of the Yearbook Staff for 201314 will be available in the front office. Students should complete the application packet by Monday, October 7th and return it to Mrs. Fuseler or Dr. Ware.
Dates to Remember: Tues Sept 24 Open House 5:30pm7:30 pm Volleyball Home 5:30 Vs. Meadow Glenn Thurs Sept 26 C Team Football @ Meadow Glenn 5:30 Volleyball @ Pleasant Hill 5:30 Tues Oct 1 Explore Testing/ 8th Gr. Make-Up pictures.

Open House IMS Cafeteria September 24, 2013 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm

If you have any news you would like to see in the Buzz, email Allison Redick at aredick@lexrich5.org.

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Mrs. Sheila R. Inabinet, Guidance Director, Counselor A-G Mr. James Fanning, Counselor H-N Mrs. Tina Stevens, Counselor O-Z Mrs. Allison Redick, Career Specialist Mrs. Judy Deans, Guidance Assistant Mrs. Beth Ayers, Registrar Ms. LaToya Geiger, Records Assistant
Eighth Graders begin to EXPLORE their future Career opportunities More than ever before, it is important that all students have the skills needed to be successful in college and the workplace. Becoming college-ready does not happen overnight; students develop these skills by taking rigorous courses in middle and high school. On Tuesday, October 1st our 8th graders will take the EXPLORE Assessment. EXPLORE helps 8th graders build high school course plans that will prepare them for college and work. It introduces them to relevant career options. EXPLORE identifies;

September Activities
Character Trait Responsibility

Open House

Areas where they need extra help or additional courses. Suggestions for improving their skills. Careers that match their interests.
EXPLORE scores provide early indicators of whether students are on track for college. With plenty of time before graduation, students and teachers can use this information to focus on areas of need. To learn more about EXPLORE, PLAN or ACT resources at www.actstudent.org. EXPLORE includes: Tests in English, math, reading, and science just like the Plan (10th grade) and ACT (11thgrade).

Enrichment Speaker
Erica Davis Health Careers Academy September 26

September 24

A career section that shows you which careers match your interest. Questions about your plans for high school and beyond. A guide stating what your scores mean and how you can use them.
Tips for Doing your Best on Explore:

Get plenty of sleep the night before the test. Follow directions exactly, and dont be afraid to ask questions. EXPLORE is a timed test, so pace yourself! Dont spend too much time on any one question. Not sure of the answer? First rule out every wrong answer you can. Then, pick the best answer from those left. If you finish early, go back and review your work.

Check out some EXPLORE sample test questions @ www.explorestudent.org

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Field Trips Need Chaperones

Dear 8th Grade Parent/Guardian, Your student came home with the following letter last week about the upcoming field trips.

We need volunteers to help chaperone each trip.

Irmo Middle School is excited to have the opportunity to take our 8 th grade students to tour District 5 Career and Technical Studies Center. We are thrilled to have such an incredible learning experience in our District. This tour may help your student to make informed decisions with upcoming IGP conferences. Dates are assigned based on last name: Tuesday, Oct. 22 for students whose last names begin with the letter A G Tuesday, Oct. 29 for students whose last names begin with the letter H N Tuesday, Nov. 5 for students whose last names begin with the letter O Z The buses will leave IMS at 8:30 AM and return by 11:30 AM. Media Technology and Visual Arts Culinary Arts and Technology Biotechnology and Engineering Systems Veterinary Science and Technology Electrical Design and Integrated Systems Emergency and Fire Management Mechatronics Systems Technology Welding Technology Aerospace Engineering Alternative Energy And Engineering Systems Automotive Service and Maintenance Biomedical Sciences and Nanotechnology Cyber Security Technology Law Enforcement Building Construction Design and Integrated Technology Engineering Design and Machine Tool Technology Visual and Digital Graphic Communication

The CATE Center offers courses in: This field trip is free to our students. Please complete the attached field trip permission form with your childs name and fill in the date he/she will be attending the trip according to the above assigned dates. Please ask your child to return to his/her 4 th Block/Enrichment teacher by Friday, October 4 th. Please contact Allison Redick, Career Specialist, at 476-3668 or email at aredick@lexrich5.org, if you are willing to serve as a chaperone for this trip. Thank you, Allison Redick Career Specialist Irmo Middle School

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October is International Walk to School Month

Join IMS Wednesday October 9 2013

Learn More at:

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Attention Students, Parents, and Families,

The following dates have been approved for students who will be attending 2013-14 Summer School at Irmo Middle. We are sharing this information early with students, parents, and families so everyone can plan for their summer vacations. We are very confident that our interactions and interventions throughout the year will minimize and/or eliminate the need for summer school for most (if not all of our students). If you need any any information about summer school, please contact Mr. Glenn Hutto, Assistant Principal for Instruction at 476-3663. Summer School Information The Middle School Summer School Program is designed program is streamlined to concentrate on academic mastery. Who attends summer school? Rising 7th and 8th grade students who have failed either one or two academic subjects. Those students who have failed three or more classes are ineligible to attend summer school and may be retained in their current grade. Out of district students cannot enroll in this program. Where will summer school be held? Summer School will be held at Irmo Middle and Irmo High. Rising 7th Graders attend Irmo Middle Rising 8th Graders attend Irmo Middle Rising 9th Graders attend Irmo High What are the dates for summer school? Current 6th, 7th and 8th graders will take courses offered only on the following dates: June 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, and July 1 What times will students attend? Students will attend from 8:30am 1:30pm. There will be no afternoon sessions. How much will summer school cost? The tuition is projected to be $50.00 and may be paid with cash, money order, cashier's check, Master Card, Visa, Discover or American Express card. No personal checks will be accepted. How will my student get to summer school? Parents are responsible for transportation arrangements (to and from summer school). How do I register my child for summer school? The registration forms are available below for download in the spring. for students in grades 6, 7, and 8 who have

not mastered the essential elements of the required courses of English, Social Studies, Math, or Science. This

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IMS BAND NOTES!

Welcome new and returning students and families to IMS Band! We are off to a GREAT start in the Irmo Middle Band! Irmo Middle Band Boosters are sponsoring a Spirit Cup fundraiser to help with student band expenses throughout the year. These cups make excellent gifts for any occasion! They feature 3D graphics, are dishwasher safe, MADE IN THE USA, and last almost forever! Items available are: a set of 4-16oz Spirit Cups, 2-Travel Cups, or a Popcorn Bucket with 10 bags of popcorn. Each item is available for just $18! For more information or to place an order, see a band member or contact the Boosters at irmomiddleschoolband@gmail.com Sale ends September 30th. Try out for the Honor Band! Try-outs are continuing on Wednesday afternoons. Please send your musician with a snack and a hugand encourage them to PRACTICE THOSE SCALES! For the month of September, or until further notice, Honor Band practice will take place on Wednesday from 3:45-5:00 PM in the Band Room. GET INVLOVED!! We have lots of fun students, parents, and families! But, our kids NEED US to make it happen! Get approved to be a chaperon for trips, events, and experiences that you and your child will treasure! Please pick up an application at the front office, fill out the form, and bring the form along a picture ID to start the process of Lexington Richland District 5 official chaperon approval. We parents really do have a great time with the other Band parents, and the students! Why is Music Education so important? Read on... The Benefits of Music Education By Laura Lewis Brown Whether your child is the next Beyonce or more likely to sing her solos in the shower, she is bound to benefit from some form of music education. Research shows that learning the do-re-mis can help children excel in ways beyond the basic ABCs. More Than Just Music Research has found that learning music facilitates learning other subjects and enhances skills that children inevitably use in other areas. A music-rich experience for children of singing, listening and moving is really bringing a very serious benefit to children as they progress into more formal learning, says Mary Luehrisen, executive director of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation, a not-for-profit association that promotes the benefits of making music. Making music involves more than the voice or fingers playing an instrument; a child learning about music has to tap into multiple skill sets, often simultaneously. For instance, people use their ears and eyes, as well as large and small muscles, says Kenneth Guilmartin, cofounder of Music Together, an early childhood music development program for infants through kindergarteners that involves parents or caregivers in the classes. Music learning supports all learning. Not that Mozart makes you smarter, but its a very integrating, stimulating pastime or activity, Guilmartin says.

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IMS BAND NOTES!

Language Development When you look at children ages two to nine, one of the breakthroughs in that area is musics benefit for language development, which is so important at that stage, says Luehrisen. While children come into the world ready to decode sounds and words, music education helps enhance those natural abilities. Growing up in a musically rich environment is often advantageous for childrens language development, she says. But Luehrisen adds that those inborn capacities need to be reinforced, practiced, celebrated, which can be done at home or in a more formal music education setting. According to the Childrens Music Workshop, the effect of music education on language development can be seen in the brain. Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brains circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds, the group claims. This relationship between music and language development is also socially advantageous to young children. The development of language over time tends to enhance parts of the brain that help process music, says Dr. Kyle Pruett, clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and a practicing musician. Language competence is at the root of social competence. Musical experience strengthens the capacity to be verbally competent. Increased IQ A study by E. Glenn Schellenberg at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, as published in a 2004 issue of Psychological Science, found a small increase in the IQs of six-year-olds who were given weekly voice and piano lessons. Schellenberg provided nine months of piano and voice lessons to a dozen six-year-olds, drama lessons (to see if exposure to arts in general versus just music had an effect) to a second group of six-year-olds, and no lessons to a third group. The childrens IQs were tested before entering the first grade, then again before entering the second grade. Surprisingly, the children who were given music lessons over the school year tested on average three IQ points higher than the other groups. The drama group didnt have the same increase in IQ, but did experience increased social behavior benefits not seen in the music-only group. The Brain Works Harder Research indicates the brain of a musician, even a young one, works differently than that of a nonmusician. Theres some good neuroscience research that children involved in music have larger growth of neural activity than people not in music training. When youre a musician and youre playing an instrument, you have to be using more of your brain, says Dr. Eric Rasmussen, chair of the Early Childhood Music Department at the Peabody Preparatory of The Johns Hopkins University, where he teaches a specialized music curriculum for children aged two months to nine years. In fact, a study led by Ellen Winner, professor of psychology at Boston College, and Gottfried Schlaug, professor of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, found changes in the brain images of children who underwent 15 months of weekly music instruction and practice. The students in the study who received music instruction had improved sound discrimination and fine motor tasks, and brain imaging showed changes to the networks in the brain associated with those abilities, according to the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization that supports brain research. Spatial-Temporal Skills Research has also found a causal link between music and spatial intelligence, which means that understanding music can help children visualize various elements that should go together, like they would do when solving a math problem.

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IMS BAND NOTES!

We have some pretty good data that music instruction does reliably improve spatial-temporal skills in children over time, explains Pruett, who helped found the Performing Arts Medicine Association. These skills come into play in solving multistep problems one would encounter in architecture, engineering, math, art, gaming, and especially working with computers. Improved Test Scores A study published in 2007 by Christopher Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Kansas, revealed that students in elementary schools with superior music education programs scored around 22 percent higher in English and 20 percent higher in math scores on standardized tests, compared to schools with low-quality music programs, regardless of socioeconomic disparities among the schools or school districts. Johnson compares the concentration that music training requires to the focus needed to perform well on a standardized test. Aside from test score results, Johnsons study highlights the positive effects that a quality music education can have on a young childs success. Luehrisen explains this psychological phenomenon in two sentences: Schools that have rigorous programs and high-quality music and arts teachers probably have high-quality teachers in other areas. If you have an environment where there are a lot of people doing creative, smart, great things, joyful things, even people who arent doing that have a tendency to go up and do better. And it doesnt end there: along with better performance results on concentration-based tasks, music training can help with basic memory recall. Formal training in music is also associated with other cognitive strengths such as verbal recall proficiency, Pruett says. People who have had formal musical training tend to be pretty good at remembering verbal information stored in memory. Being Musical Music can improve your child abilities in learning and other nonmusic tasks, but its important to understand that music does not make one smarter. As Pruett explains, the many intrinsic benefits to music education include being disciplined, learning a skill, being part of the music world, managing performance, being part of something you can be proud of, and even struggling with a less than perfect teacher. Its important not to oversell how smart music can make you, Pruett says. Music makes your kid interesting and happy, and smart will come later. It enriches his or her appetite for things that bring you pleasure and for the friends you meet. While parents may hope that enrolling their child in a music program will make her a better student, the primary reasons to provide your child with a musical education should be to help them become more musical, to appreciate all aspects of music, and to respect the process of learning an instrument or learning to sing, which is valuable on its own merit. There is a massive benefit from being musical that we dont understand, but its individual. Music is for musics sake, Rasmussen says. The benefit of music education for me is about being musical. It gives you have a better understanding of yourself. The horizons are higher when you are involved in music, he adds. Your understanding of art and the world, and how you can think and express yourself, are enhanced. Please read the newsletter for upcoming ongoing information regarding performances, events, fundraising, and trips to take place this year.

IRMO BAND ROCKS!!