Category: Archive
HS yearbooks are on sale
The FPHS Yearbook 2023 is now on sale for $40. Those who are interested in purchasing a yearbook may purchase one online at jostensyearbooks.com or by seeing Sue Summerfield at the Jr./Sr. High School in Room 202A.
Ozo baseball is a homerun for digital fluency and computer science students
By Wendy Stokna and Rachel Heroth
As part of the 7th grade team baseball event, students in Mrs. Heroth’s Computer Science and Mrs. Stokna’s Digital Fluency classes teamed up to program our Ozobots to perform in a baseball-themed manner. Students have spent the school year learning various computer science and applied digital skills such as programming with JavaScript and using digital applications for productivity and creation. This project pulled together all of those skills along with some baseball-themed fun!
Students brainstormed, developed a plan, and developed algorithms to enable the Ozobots to “play ball!” Students participated in stations in which they programmed the robots to round the bases and perform a special movement at each base, hit a ball to compete in a home-run derby, and choreographed a “7th inning stretch” dance with code. Students had fun learning about how the technology communicates through optical sensors, color codes, all while problem solving and debugging their code to complete the final product.
As a real-life connection, small baseball-themed cutouts were created to “dress up” the Ozobot using the Cricut machine. A Cricut machine uses optical technology similar to that of the Ozobot to read registration lines and work in coordination with its software to cut out the shapes used in this activity.
The celebration concluded with a special ballgame favorite . . . popcorn! There was truly a lot of excitement and learning around this special event.
Check out our video!
Please join us at our May 3 Community Conversation as we focus on Improvement Priorities
[Posted 4/20/23, reposted 4/28/23]
All are welcome and encouraged to participate in the third in a series of Fort Plain Central School District Community Conversations on Wednesday, May 3, 2023, from 5-6 p.m. in the Harry Hoag library. The focus topic will be Improvement Priorities.
“We welcome all to participate in our Community Conversations: parents, guardians, families, students, community members and business owners. If you wish to be part of conversations about FPCSD’s mission and vision and related action plans, I invite you to join me on May 3, when we will focus on Improvement Priorities,” said Superintendent Lauren Crisman.
“The goal of our Community Conversations is to foster a dialogue between our district’s leadership and our community related to matters of public interest. Questions, concerns and celebrations are all welcome for discussion.”
Please note that the superintendent and district leaders will not be able to discuss matters related to contractual negotiations or specific personnel.
The first Community Conversation of the year was held in October and the second in January.
Sign up is not required.
Glow week and trashketball: no boring test reviews for these students
Who said that getting ready for state testing had to be boring? As students across the state prepared for the New York State English Language Arts (ELA) assessments, the students in Mrs. Amy Bartholomew’s 6th grade ELA classes were doing the same . . . sort of.
And in Abigail Gorinshek’s 5th grade ELA classes, students were surprised with a basketball theme review day, featuring trashketball, as they prepared for the 5th grade NYS ELA assessment.
Mrs. Bartholomew’s students spent last week reading incredibly challenging text passages and then analyzing and answering multiple choice questions. But since she was asking for so much effort and focus from them, Mrs. Bartholomew decided to reward her students and their hard work by making the experience as fun as possible.
They call these days “Glow Week,” and students spend their ELA class in complete darkness with blacklights, glowsticks, glow-in-the-dark balloons and highlighters to light their way as they work. When students completed test questions accurately, they were allowed to play glow-in-the-dark bowling, ring toss, tic-tac-toe and basketball as a reward.
“It is one of the most fun weeks in 6th grade ELA and students were actually thanking me for their week of test prep!” Mrs. Bartholomew said. “I’m incredibly proud of our 6th graders and all of the hard work they’ve put in during the test preparation week, as well as throughout this entire school year.”
Meanwhile, in Ms. Gorinshek’s 5th grade ELA classes last week, it was game time! “In preparation for the 5th grade NYS ELA assessment, my students were surprised with a basketball theme review day where they got to play trashketball!” Ms. Gorinshek said.
“In teams, the students worked together to answer questions and when they answered them correctly, their team had a chance to shoot a mini basketball into a trash can to earn points. “The students worked hard, embraced some friendly competition and even found some fun in test prep: who knew!? I am so proud of all of my students for ‘shooting for success on the state test’!”
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Bikeway is cleared of plastic, trash thanks to HS students
A motivated group of 8th through 11th grade students celebrated Earth Day 2023 by cleaning up garbage along the Fort Plain section of the Erie Canal Bikeway.
The most common items found were bottles, cans, and plastic food wrappers. Plastic doesn’t biodegrade and breaks down into microplastics, which persist in the environment for a very long time. Thank you to our students and Mr. Elliott, Ms. Veitch and Ms. MaGinnis.
Topper Pride!
School newsletter is available
The Country Editor is no longer printing issues of our school’s newsletter.
To download the April issue, click here
To download the March issue, click here.
If you have difficulties accessing the newsletter online, contact communications@fortplain.org.
Board of Education to meet April 26 to vote on HFM BOCES budget, HFM BOCES board candidates
The Fort Plain Central School District Board of Education will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, April 26, at 7:30 a.m. for the purpose of voting on the HFM BOCES Budget and HFM BOCES Board candidates.
The meeting will be held in the Ronald H. Thibodeau Conference Room in the District Office.
6th graders decode a masterpiece – and the media notices
Posted April 6, Updated April 17, 2023:
Students in Autumn Slawienski’s 6th grade art enrichment class spent eight weeks using pixelated charts of five colors to decode an image. The group of 21 students worked in collaborative teams to read, transcribe and color code nine 30×40 panels of grid.
“They had no idea what the final image was going to be – although many had a very good guess!” Slawienski said. “Just in time for their final class, the image was unveiled: ‘The Mona Lisa’ smiled upon them and the students returned to the art room to watch a video about the history of one of the most widely recognized pieces of art to date.”
2012 grad Samuel Hoffman graduates first in NCOA class
Congratulations to Fort Plain Class of 2012 alumnus Samuel Hoffman, a Technical Sergeant with the United States Air Force, on graduating with the highest grade point average from the Gunter NCOA (Gunter Noncommissioned Officer Academy), Montgomery, AL.
Hoffman is currently stationed at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia. He completed five weeks of studies at Gunther NCOA, part of Air Force University, in March. He is the son of Fort Plain Class of 1983 graduate and bus driver Marty Hoffman.
“Samuel went into the Air Force in August of 2012, and he recently got his private pilot license in August 2022,” Marty said. “He’s pursuing higher education to be an NTSB flight investigator.”
In the photo: Samuel holds his Academic Achievement Award while standing with an Air Force colleague
Baseball unit covers many academic bases
Fort Plain’s 7th grade class kicked off spring with an interdisciplinary unit revolving around the topic of baseball. Throughout the week before their break, the students learned about various aspects of America’s Pastime.
Interactive stadium tours, walk-up songs, coding baserunning robots, stadium foods, calculating batting averages, escape rooms, cultural diversity, stadium geography and mascots were all part of the learning – and the fun – in their classrooms.
The unit ended with a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, where the students learned about many historical aspects of baseball in America, as well as the tools of the trade.
“They were even treated to a fantastic lunch at Sal’s Pizzeria in Cooperstown,” said teacher Dale Smith. “A huge thank you to Adria Palmeri for her generosity!”
