The second grading pe-

riod (2nd quarter) officially

ended in December before

Winter Break and the news

on student achievement is

excellent.

‘I had high hopes for the

kids to do well considering

the fact that we had 365

students make the academic

rolls in the first quarter.”

Mr. Sharosky said. “The

kids hung in there in the

second quarter as 380 stu-

dents made one of the aca-

demic rolls. That’s great

progress as the first quarter

tends to have some review

material in it where the

second quarter tends to be

mostly new material.“

The Merit roll features

students who have a G.P.A.

from 3.0 to 3.49. The 6th

grade had 26 students reach

this level of achievement.

The 7th grade had 30 stu-

dents and the 8th grade had

21 students at the Merit

Roll

level.

The

Honor

Roll

recog-

nizes

students

who

have a

G.P.A.

from 3.5

to 3.99. The 6th grade had

68 students, the 7th grade

had 54 students and the 8th

grade had 67 students make

the Honor Roll.

“It’s very exciting to see

the progress of the 6th

graders because they are in

a transition year.” Mr. Sha-

rosky said.

“I have asked the teach-

ers to increase the level of

rigor” Sharosky said. “As

teachers continue to ask

students to complete more

rigorous tasks, it is wonder-

ful to see that this many

students are continuing to

be successful.”

The final category is the

Principal’s Roll which is for

students with a GPA of 4.0

or higher.

There were 83 students

make this honor; 32 sixth

graders, 30 seventh graders

and 21 eighth graders.

The students were rec-

ognized at the Honor/Merit

(Continued on page 9)

Students complete first semester splendidly

Issue features grade level updates

One of the problems

parents of middle school

students share is the idea

that their children no long-

er tell them what is going

on in school like they did

when they were in elemen-

tary school.

“How was school today?”

“Fine.”

“What did you do/learn today?”

“Nothing.”

This is the usual ex-

change. This issue of the

Blue Devil Times features

an update from each grade.

Teachers reviewed their

first semester activities and

previewed the second se-

mester plans.

Blue Devil

Times February 2018

Students of the Month 2

P.T.O. news 2

6th grade update 3

7th grade update 4

8th grade update 5

Encore Tribe update 5

Guidance update 6

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Special points of in-

terest:

8th graders

have their win-

ter formal on

February 9th

There is no

school for stu-

dents on Feb. 19

V i s i n t a i n e r

M i d d l e

S c h o o l

Project Lead the Way 6

Talent show 9

Calendar 10

Principal’s desk 10

Each week Visintainer Middle

School honors a student at each

grade level as being the student of

the week. In addition, there is a

monthly Student of the Month se-

lection. Students receiving the

honor of STUDENT OF THE

MONTH are recognized for meet-

ing all six of the criteria listed be-

low. Each student has to meet all

six criteria in ALL of their classes as

the entire teaching

team decides upon students to be

selected each month. Each grade

level team selects three students

and the Encore team, which has all

grade levels, selects one student.

CRITERIA:

1. Shows respect and consideration

for others.

2. Shows enthusiasm for academic

and extracurricular activities.

3. Exerts a positive influence on

classmates.

4. Exhibits leadership characteris-

tics.

5. Exhibits patriotism and demo-

cratic principles.

6. Shows responsibility (punctuality,

assignments, etc.)

Visintainer’s students of the

month for January were: Kourt-

ney Abshire, Susan Puts, and

Ashley Weers from the sixth

grade; Shaun

DeLancey, An-

drew Harvey,

Kally Milicia, and Jason Thomas

from the 7th grade; and Evan Fe-

dak, Mara Gurtsak, and Emily

Stratman from the 8th grade.

All recipients will receive a

commemorative t-shirt and a certif-

icate from Mr. Sharosky. There is

also a candy prize.

corn sales also continue. The last

popcorn sale is April 13th. Pop-

corn is only 50 cents.

PTO is selling conces-

sions at the 7th and 8th

grade boys/girls basketball

games at Visintainer. We

have been struggling to

find volunteers and have

not been able to have

concessions at every

game. There is no cook-

ing involved. Sales are

mostly popcorn, snacks,

and beverages. It is not a compre-

hensive concession stand like at

high school football games, for ex-

ample. Please consider volunteer-

ing a few hours. The season runs

through February 16th.

The PTO provides the snacks

for Homework Club after school.

If you are interested in donating to

this cause, please drop off any items

PTO, whose sole focus is to

support our school and children,

needs your help! The Ohio State

University has a program called

“Real Money, Real

World” which pro-

vides our 8th graders

an opportunity to

experience real-world

financial responsibility

learning. The 8th

grade social studies

teachers will present

in class the financial

literacy lessons and then the 8th

grade participates in the simulation.

We need 20 parent volunteers for

Friday, February 16th. You do not

need to bring any information,

there will be training provided that

morning. Please contact either the

school office or the PTO if you can

volunteer. Volunteers do not need

to be 8th grade parents.

Lunch time/PRIDE Time pop-

in the Visintainer office. Donations

must be store bought.

The next PTO meeting is a

“Parents Night Out” sched-

uled for February 15th at Co-

zumel Restaurant in Brunswick

(625 Pearl Road) at 7:00 pm.

Please join us for appetizers. We

would love to invite any parents

wishing to attend to do so.

For those families who did not

get the opportunity to buy

Spirit Wear (especially “Class of”

items) there will be a 2nd chance

March 5th-16th.

Thank you

for your con-

tinued sup-

port of our

students, our

teachers and

our school!

Students of the Month

P.T.O. News and Notes

BLUE DEVIL TIMES Page 2

BLUE DEVIL TIMES

Page 3

The sixth grade team had a busy

and exciting first semester. Along

with our academics, we had several

extracurricular activities that made

for a great first half of the

year. We participated in a very

successful Thanksgiving Meal

food drive. Our field trips to

see a production of A Christ-

mas Carol and view the movie

Wonder which was our sum-

mer reading book were awe-

some.

During the first semester in

Language Arts students

worked on short stories and

story elements. Students

read the novel, Tuck Everlast-

ing. Advanced language arts

students read the novel, The

Giver. Students also had the

opportunity to attend the per-

formance of A Christmas Carol at

Playhouse Square after reading

the classic story by Charles Dick-

ens. Context clues and vocabulary

were a focus as we dug into the

British author's style of writing.

Looking ahead to the second

semester we will be studying figura-

tive language, poetry, and argumen-

tative writing. We will be reading

the novels, Bud, Not Buddy and

Hoot. Students will also be work-

ing on nonfiction text and research

writing. Edgar Allen Poe will be

studied as we focus on famous

American authors. We look for-

ward to a semester full of learning.

Social studies classes began

the year working on geography and

map skills, culminating with a

"Zombie Survival" project in which

students used geographical

knowledge to plan a survival strate-

gy against an impending zombie

attack. We also learned about vari-

ous forms of government and the

roles that both citizens and leaders

play. Next, our sixth graders

learned about many economic con-

cepts and how they affect our daily

lives. Our second semester began

with a survey of major world reli-

gions and their lasting impact on

our modern world. Following reli-

gions, we will focus on the ancient

civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt,

India and China. As we learn about

these civilizations, we will be apply-

ing our knowledge of maps, govern-

ments, and economics learned ear-

lier in the year. We are hoping to

end our year with an interdiscipli-

nary unit. "

In Science, in the first semes-

ter, students in Mrs. Davidson’s,

Mrs. Wolf’s and Mr. Yoak’s classes

were introduced to the scientific

method and explored rocks, miner-

als and soil.

“Some fun activities we did in-

cluded identifying minerals, editable

soil lab as well as many virtual labs.”

Mrs. Davidson said.

At the break, Mrs. Wolf went

on parental leave and will be re-

placed for the third quarter by Mr.

Zachary Wise.

In the third quarter,

students are currently

studying kinetic and

potential energy, states

of matter, and proper-

ties of matter with lots

of interactive labs. The

students will close out

the year with the life

science unit by dissect-

ing squid and shark.

Mrs. Carlisle’s, Mrs.

Davidson,’s & Mrs.

Schweisthal’s sixth

grade math

students have enjoyed

learning mathematics

with the use of the

computer

based pro-

gram DIGITS

and the in-

corporation

of technolo-

gy through

Google

Classroom

and Ed Puz-

zle.

Last se-

mester they

explored ex-

pressions and equations, reviewed

multiplying and dividing fractions,

and practiced developing fluency

with decimals using all four opera-

tions.

We began the second semester

working with rational num-

bers. Next, students will be heading

into a unit on ratios and propor-

tional thinking, which is a major

focus for sixth grade mathemat-

ics. The year will end with geome-

try and statistics.

Sixth grade semester update

BLUE DEVIL TIMES Page 3

(clockwise from top left) Mrs. Jeppe, Ms. Banevich, Mrs. Davidson, Mrs. Grebey, Mrs. Shepherd, Mrs. Wolf, Mr. Yoak, Mrs. Heffner, Mrs. Schweisthal, & Mrs. Carlisle

Mrs. Studor teaches language arts in the 6th and 8th grades.

Middle schoolers are the middle

between elementary and high

school, our 7th graders are our

middle children. What have they

been up to?

This school year, 7th grade

Language Arts began by explor-

ing themes in literature. We read

two novels in the first semester

including And Then There Were

None by Agatha Christie and The

Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

This spring, we are responding

to text through informative writing.

We will also be reading two nov-

els: Drums, Girls, and Dangerous

Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

and Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.

In 7th Grade Advanced Math

during the first semester students

completed a rational number unit

which included percents, decimals,

integers, exponents and scientific

notation. We also learned about

ratios, rates, proportions and

equivalent expressions. We are

currently learning about equations

and inequalities. Next we will

move to probability and finish the

school year learning geometry.

The 7th Grade Honors Algebra

students completed their first high

school mid-term right before win-

ter break. In the first semester we

completed units on solving equa-

tions and inequalities, functions and

linear equations. We are about half

way through a unit on solving sys-

tems of equations and inequali-

ties. There is a lot of challenging

material coming up in the next few

months as we delve into polynomi-

als and factoring, exponents and

exponential functions, as well as

quadratic equations.

In the first semester 7th Grade

Math students completed units on

ratios, rates, proportional relation-

ships, percents, adding, subtracting,

multiplying and dividing rational

numbers, and decimals. We are

about half way through a unit on

simplifying expressions,

solving equations and ine-

qualities. There is a lot of

challenging material com-

ing up in the next few

months as we dive into

geometry, statistics and

probability.

Just a reminder that all

math students must have a

calculator. Please make

sure your student has one

of their own to use in class

on a daily basis. This year,

students will be permitted to

use their own calculator for the

AIR test, so it is important that

everyone has a calculator now so

they can learn to use it before the

test.

In Miss Colosi’s, Mr. Bambau-

er’s, & Mrs. Jakub’s science clas-

ses, students started out the year

reviewing science process skills,

such as observing and inferring. We

also studied argument-driven in-

quiry techniques leading us to un-

derstand particles, atomic struc-

ture, and the periodic table. This

then led us into the classification of

particles according to their proper-

ties and the realization that the law

of conservation of energy/mass

exists. Electromagnetic waves and

currents were extensively re-

searched using hands-on activities,

along with online simulations.

Explaining how thermal energy

transfers in the ocean and the at-

mosphere contribute to the for-

mation of currents creating an influ-

ence on global climate patterns was

begun. Outer space will be ex-

plored and earth’s interaction with

it, including phases of the moon,

eclipses, tides, photosynthesis and

cellular respiration.

The hydrological cycle, ener-

gy pyramids, biodiversity, biomes

and threats to biodiversity will be

covered through lab investigations

and projects.

Mrs. Grebey’s, Mrs. Metzger’s,

Mrs. Heffner’s and Mr. Thompson’s

7th grade social studies students

have been working hard this past

semester utilizing a variety of strat-

egies to learn about the lasting lega-

cies of both Greece and

Rome. Students have enjoyed the

activities in class. Students were

also able to show their understand-

ing of the lasting legacies by com-

pleting various projects such as the

“Legacy Scavenger Hunt” and the

“Roman Mosaic” Project. Students

were able to go into our communi-

ty and take pictures showing these

lasting legacies of Rome. Students

also created some amazing mosa-

ics.

With the fall of the Western

Roman Empire, this leads the way

into the Mongol Invasions, Muslim

Conquests, Middle Ages and the

Feudal System. Students really en-

joy learning about manor systems,

feudalism, kings and queens and the

stages of knighthood. We have

many other challenging and exciting

activities coming up for our stu-

dents. Such as “A Monk For a

Day”, our “Manor Project” and as

we move through these topics, we

will then study West African civili-

zations, the Renaissance and move

into the Reformation.

Seventh grade update

Page 4

from top left) Mrs. Jakub, Mrs. Z., Mrs. Young, Mrs. Heffner, Mrs. Lykins, Mr. Thompson, Mrs. Metzger, Miss Colosi, Mr. Bambauer and

Miss Delnay flank the caption.

The 8th Grade Team is working

to prepare our students for high

school.

In Social Studies we finished

studying the American Revolution,

The Declaration of Independence,

and our nation’s first constitution,

the Articles of Confedera-

tion. We learned why the

weaknesses of the Arti-

cles of Confederation led

to the creation of the U.S.

Constitution.

In our next unit, we

will study the seven prin-

ciples of government that

helped shaped the U.S.

Constitution. We will

spend a lot of time analyzing the

Constitution, which includes the

three branches of government,

checks and balances of each branch,

how a bill becomes a law, our Bill

of Rights, and our citizens’ rights

and responsibilities.

Some of the other topics in the

second semester are the first presi-

dencies that shaped our nation:

Washington, Adams, and Jefferson,

the

First

Indus-

trial

Revo-

lution,

West-

ward

Expan-

sion,

the

American Civil War, and Recon-

struction. We are eagerly looking

forward to our Washington, D.C.

Field Trip on May 21st, 22nd, and

23rd.

In Mrs. Davis’s, Mrs. Dool-

ing’s, and Mrs. Studor’s Lan-

guage Arts- In the first semester,

students worked weekly on gram-

mar and writing conventions. We

also read two novels which focused

on the theme of injustice, Copper

Sun and a title from a collection of

different Holocaust novels.

In the second semester, students

are beginning with a study of my-

thology and its continued influence

in our modern world. They will

then read To Kill a Mockingbird and,

time permitting, Don’t You Dare Read

This, Mrs. Dunphrey so that we may

continue to examine the injustices

faced by people throughout history

and in today’s society. Continued

(Continued on page 7)

8th grade update

Page 5

Encore Tribe update

The one team of teachers that

literally works with all of the stu-

dents at Visintainer is the Encore

Tribe. The Encore Tribe consists

of Ethan Eraybar & Jeannette

Timko-Band; Adam Albright &

Andrea Ryan-Choir; Rebecca

Barko & Andrea Ryan-

Orchestra; Thom Clark & Chris

Esterak-Physical Education; Janie

Wornoff & Jeff Zvara-Health;

Nicole Schultz-Art; and Bridget

Metzger, Tara Zielaskiewicz, &

Angela Ebert-Technology.

This year in art, we are using a

flipped classroom model, which

means that students are able to

watch art demonstrations on

video and can work at their

own pace when ready, and

have integrated technology

into our class by having all

students create a digital art

portfolio that they can main-

tain throughout their time in

art class from 6th grade all the way

through high school. The digital

portfolio is a great way for students

to be reflective of their work, see

their growth and share their work

with each other!

In 6th grade, we break art down

into its simplest elements like line,

shape, and color and talk about

how these elements are found in all

kinds of art, including our own. Our

biggest units we focus on are the

elements of art, color theory and 1

point perspective. Students will

work on their craftsmanship and

deepen their understanding of art.

In 7th grade, we talk about

the principles of design, which

help the artist decide how to

arrange the elements within

their art. We look at art history,

explore the use of clay as an art

making material, and build upon

our knowledge of one point per-

spective and further push our skill

and techniques.

In 8th grade, we have a focus on

using our knowledge from 6th and

7th grade and work on discovering

our own art aesthetics. The base

projects include portraiture, art

history, logo design and perspective,

but the projects are completely

tailored to the individual student

and how they want to tackle the

project. This class is designed to

push the students in their own ex-

ploration of art and help them to

take ownership and pride in their

learning.

Students in the Band program

at Visintainer Middle School are

learning to develop the necessary

skills for them to succeed as musi-

cians and people in society. Stu-

dents learn to work together to

(Continued on page 8)

Mrs. McCune, Mrs. Davis, & Mrs. Dooling

It’s hard to believe that we are a

little beyond the halfway point of

the year, but it is scheduling season

as we begin the process of schedul-

ing students for next year. Since

our current 8th graders will be high

school students next year, they go

first.

Parent meetings were held in

January regarding incoming fresh-

man scheduling, as well as the Col-

lege Credit Plus Program. If par-

ents missed either of these meet-

ings and need information, please

contact Mrs. Rhoads

The high school counselors will

visit all 8th grade classes on Febru-

ary, 9th to present high school

scheduling information for the 2017

-2018 school year. Freshman

course selection sheets will be due

the following week on Friday, Feb-

ruary 16th.

Coming up during the month of

February, Visintainer 8th graders

will visit the Medina County Career

Center (MCCC). All 8th graders in

Medina County visit the MCCC to

learn about what opportunities the

MCCC has to offer. One half of

the 8th grade will go on February

26th and the other half will visit on

Feb. 27th. Mrs. Rhoads will prep

this on February 20th through 8th

grade social studies classes.

Also coming up in February, 7th

graders will receive the opportunity

to turn in applications for the

“Early Bird” World Language Pro-

gram. The “Early Bird” program

gives 8th graders the opportunity

to take a high school world lan-

guage at the high school for high

school credit. Mrs. Rhoads will

present the information regarding

the program in language arts classes

on Monday, February

12th. Applications will be due by

Monday, February 26th.

NO LATE APPLICATIONS WILL

BE ACCEPTED!!

A representative from the

Brunswick PD will be conducting

Cyber Safety presentations for 6th

graders on February 22nd through

the social studies classes. Seventh

and eighth graders have seen this

program previously, but they will

get a refresher during the PRIDE

time on the same day.

Important Upcoming Dates:

Early Bird Program

Presentations: Monday, February

12th through 7th Grade Language

Arts Classes

Applications Due: Monday, Febru-

ary 26th- NO late applications will

be accepted

Incoming Freshman Scheduling

Presentations: Friday, February 9th

through 8th Grade Science Classes

Course Selection Sheets Due: Fri-

day, February 16th to Science

Teachers

Guidance Department update

Page 6

Project Lead the Way

“I am often asked to describe

what Project Lead the Way

(PLTW) is” PLTW teacher, Kevin

Bambauer said. “The easiest way

to describe this class is to call it a

Pre-Engineering class. During the

first quarter of the class we

complete the PLTW module

called Design and Modeling.

During this time, students

discover the design process

and develop an understand-

ing of the influence of crea-

tivity and innovation in their

lives. They are then chal-

lenged and empowered to

use and apply what they’ve

learned throughout the unit

to design a therapeutic toy

for a child who has cerebral palsy.

On top of this, we were also lucky

enough to receive a 3-D printer for

our class. Students were not only

able to build their therapeutic toys,

but they were also able to design

them on 3-D modeling software

and print pieces of the project out.

In the second quarter we

moved into the next module of

PLTW, automation and robotics.

In automation and robot-

ics students trace the history,

development, and influence of

automation and robotics as they

learn about mechanisms, energy

transfer, machine automation,

and computer programming.

Students use the VEX Robotics

platform to design, build, and

program real-world objects

such as traffic lights, bridges,

spinning signs and more. To top

the class off the students de-

signed, built, programmed and

raced dragsters! After a success-

ful first semester, we are very ex-

cited to usher in a new group of

students to experience what Pro-

ject Lead the Way has to offer.” Bam-

bauer said.

“PLTW II students were empow-

ered to lead their own discovery this

past semester. The hands-on program

promoted classroom engagement and

excitement, drove collaboration, and

inspired ‘aha! Moments’ while encourag-

ing students to explore future careers in

biomedical engineering and science and

technology.” PLTW II teacher, Julie

Jakub said.

Some examples of the hands-on in-

vestigations include making ice cream,

dissecting the brain, solving a murder

mystery, and creating a roller coaster.

“This semester, we have a new

group of students that will get to expe-

rience this new, innovative program.

Currently, we are working on under-

standing the variety of types of engi-

neering careers available and beginning

to design solutions to problems the

‘engineer way.” Mrs. Jakub said.

Page 7

8th grade update continued...

practice on writing and gram-

mar conventions will be cov-

ered on a weekly basis in the

form of Daily Grammar and

varied writing/journaling oppor-

tunities.

In Mrs. Gribben's Language

Arts class students read The

Boy Who Dared in the second

quarter and wrote an essay

culminating the text with Ohio

State Standards using evi-

dence. These students can

now identify subjects, verbs,

and prepositional phrases with-

in sentences.

“Currently, we are studying

verbals. All students (General

and Advanced) continue to

read 30

minutes, Monday through Fri-

day and complete a quarterly

book project. As well, all stu-

dents study Greek and Latin

roots per quarter.” Mrs. Grib-

ben said.

General and ad-

vanced students wrote an argu-

mentative five-paragraph essay

choosing their own topic. Stu-

dents in the Advanced class

read We Are Witnesses--Five

Teenagers Who Died in the Holo-

caust and wrote a five-

paragraph essay focusing on

evidence-based responses to

show how the teenagers

showed perseverance during

the adversity that they were

forced to endure. Advanced

students can identify subjects,

verbs, prepositional phrases

and adverbs. They are also

studying verbals.

“Moving into the third quar-

ter takes all my students into

paired reading with an evidence

-based essay and a study of

Greek mythology. Next, we

will all read the classic, To Kill a

(Continued from page 5) Mockingbird as we connect the

many themes of the text into our

lives in 2018. Time permitting, I

would like my students to write a

narrative with dialogue at the end

of the school year, complete with a

plot and a theme of their choice.”

Gribben said.

In Science, during the second

quarter, we continued with our

unit on Earth’s changing sur-

face. This was the major theme

throughout the first semester.

We will begin third quarter with

the geologic record and we will

then transition into our life science

unit with a focus on heredity and

reproduction.

For fourth quarter, we will fo-

cus on physical science with an em-

phasis on force and motion. As has

been established during the first

semester, we will continue having a

research/writing assignment that

spans each of the last two quarters.

Math 8 students have com-

pleted units on the Number Sys-

tem, Expressions and Equations,

Exponents, Proportional Relation-

ships, and Systems of Equa-

tions. We also completed a project

using slope-intercept form in the

real world. Students researched

an occupation that they were in-

terested in, then graphed the

amount of hours of work that

would be necessary to purchase

items of varying costs. They pre-

sented their findings to the class

using Google Drawings. We have

just begun a new unit on Functions

and will wrap up the year with

units on Geometry and Statistics.

Algebra and Honors Alge-

bra students completed their

first high school mid-term with

great success. In the first semester

we completed units on Solving

Equations and Inequalities, Func-

tions, and Linear Equations.

We are just beginning a unit on

Solving Systems of Equations and

Inequalities. There is a lot of chal-

lenging material coming up in the

next few months as we delve into

Polynomials and Factoring, Expo-

nents and Exponential Functions,

as well as Quadratic Equations.

ALL MATH STUDENTS

MUST HAVE CALCULA-

TORS! Please make sure your

student has one of their own

to use in class on a daily ba-

sis. This year, students will be

permitted to use their own calcu-

lator for the AIR test, so it is im-

portant that everyone has a calcu-

lator now so they can learn to use

it before the test.

Just a reminder that students

must clear any fees/fines they may

have BEFORE they can purchase

an 8th grade dance ticket and at-

tend the Washington, DC trip.

8th grade important dates:

Feb. 9 High school scheduling

presentations w/ HS counselors;

Formal dance 6-8 pm at Viz.

Feb. 16 HS schedules due to Mrs.

Rhoads by 3 pm.

March 15 Final DC payment due

(clockwise from top left) Mrs. Gribben, Mrs. Meczka, Mrs. Hanchuk, Mrs. Stu-dor, Miss Sefchik, & Mrs. Novak

Page 8

Encore Tribe update continued...

achieve goals, learn to com-

municate effectively with one

another and learn to become

great problem solvers. Stu-

dents are constantly being

active learners when they

are challenging themselves to

grow and become more disci-

plined when learning an in-

strument. Not only are the

students active in the band

programs in Brunswick, we have

many students who are part of

Honor Bands around Northeast

Ohio.

March 20th is the Festival of

Bands Concert located at the High

School. Come see the Brunswick

South Middle School Bands play

with all of the bands in the Bruns-

wick City School District and be on

the lookout for our Spring Con-

certs in April and May. Mr. Er-

aybar is the 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade

Brunswick South Band Direc-

tor. Mrs. Timko is the 6th grade

Brunswick South Band Director.

The Visintainer choirs under

the direction of Adam Albright and

Andrea Ryan are looking forward

to their 6th grade spring concert

on April 23rd at 7 pm in the Ed-

wards gym. The 7th & 8th grade

concert is May 14th also at 7pm in

the Edwards gymnasium.

Mr. Albright is also

excited about the drama

production of “The Lion

King Jr.” which will have

performances on March

15th (7:00 pm), and 17th

(2pm shows). All perfor-

mances will be in the PAC

at Brunswick High School.

Congratulations or-

chestra students who

have chosen to prepare for and

perform at Medina County Solo

and Ensemble Festival on February

3rd at Buckeye High School! 8th

grader, Alex Gregg will be per-

forming a solo and Ava Bood-

(Continued from page 5) heshwar and Maeve

McGinnis will be playing

a violin and viola duet.

Students will perform for

a judge and receive a rat-

ing based on their perfor-

mance.

After the excitement of per-

forming with electric violinist

Mark Wood this December, or-

chestra students are taking a

break from intense concert prep-

aration and diving into music funda-

mentals. 6th graders are working

on reading music, 7th graders are

learning new finger patterns and

rhythms and 8th grade orchestra

students are busy mastering ad-

vanced string techniques including

shifting and vibrato. Students are

looking forward to their next con-

cert on Monday, March 19. This

concert will be at Brunswick High

School and will be a chamber music

concert which will feature the stu-

dents performing in small groups.

In Physical Education the first

semester finished with students

completing post assessments in

Fitness including the PACER test

and 1 mile run. Students in 8th

grade completed fitness packets

which are part of the State

Physical Education Assess-

ment. All grades enjoyed

team sport units in basket-

ball, volleyball, soccer, ulti-

mate frisbee, football and

hockey. All students also

enjoyed individual activities in

Recreational Games including

Table Tennis, badminton,

pickle ball and corn

hole. The highlight of the

semester was the Corn Hole

League with the 7th and 8th grade

classes which lasted three

weeks. The tournament teams

utilized a blind draw of students by

the teacher. Some of the feedback

included: "It was nice getting to

know someone I would not nor-

mally talk to in class" and "I never

knew how

good she was at

Corn hole"

The second semester started

with our fitness pre-testing. We

will be beginning our team sports

unit with hockey. We are working

on the skills of passing, shooting

and will incorporate them in game

play. In 6th grade Coding and

Gaming we continue to learn the

language of computer programming

through the Tynker web-based

curriculum. This is a fun and engag-

ing program that introduces stu-

dents to computer science using

coding blocks and encourages crea-

tive problem solving by the stu-

dents. Each student has their own

login for the entire school year

when they are enrolled in

the class.

In 7th and 8th grade

Digital Citizenship and

Design we are beginning

a new semester learning

photo editing skills using

Adobe Photoshop. We will be

trying out and evaluating multiple

photo editing programs online that

are free to use during our Website

Tournament. During the last quar-

ter of this semester class we ex-

plore video editing using Window

Movie Maker and Adobe Premi-

ere. Students are always encour-

aged to be creative in all their pro-

jects and create projects that are

meaningful to them. We end the

semester with the creation of a

digital portfolio where students can

showcase their work on their very

own website! Throughout the se-

mester we have many discussions

and activities on being good digital

citizens and how to stay safe in our

fast-paced digital world.

On January 19th, Visintainer

held its annual student talent

show.

“We had students try out

and we selected the top acts to

be part of the a show for the

whole school” Assistant Princi-

pal, Jessica Boytim said.

The students selected then

performed did so in front of the

whole school on the 19th.

“It is incredibly difficult to do

anything in front of literally the

whole school” Mr. Sharosky said.

“These kids are amazing to per-

form and our students did a fan-

tastic job being a great audience.

They were respectful of the acts

and encouraged their classmates to

success. It was tremendous to wit-

ness.”

The students performed in front

of a panel of 4 teachers and 3 stu-

dent judges.

“The voting was very, very

close” Mrs. Boytim said. “All of

the kids did a tremendous job and

the scores were so close.”

With the students sitting in si-

lent anticipation, Mrs. Boytim an-

nounced the five winners to move

on to the next round. The winners

were, in no particular order, Eighth

grader Hailey Peterseim who

sang and played “Can’t Help Falling

in Love” on the ukulele; 8th grader

Emilie Dobranski and 6th grader,

Alex Telatko who did an acrobat-

ic jump rope performance; Sixth

grader Emma Bradbury did a

comedy routine; Ella Pace, also

from the 6th grade, performed an

Irish dance; and 6th grader, An-

drew Demko, sang acapella to

the delight of the crowd..

The top 5 acts represent Vis-

intainer at the district talent show

on February 8th at the James Hay-

est PAC at Brunswick High School.

Visintainer’s top 5 acts will face

off against the top 5 acts from both

Edwards and Willetts Middle

Schools.

Ella

Pace,

Addison

Patrick,

Vincenzo

Petitto,

Andrea

Petru,

Susan Puts, Ashton Raabe,

Aaliyah Radwan, Brianna Sivy,

Elise Sulima, & Ashley Weers.

7th graders were Iana Brown,

Chase Buchner, Kyle Callahan,

Cain D’Amico, Alexis Demp-

sey, Alessandra Galvan-Flores,

Dante Grassa, Lianna Hasan,

Emma Hovanec, Ella Hru-

schak, Teodora Iovi, Morgan

Kolesar, Sydney Kowell, Joshua

Krecic, Alexa Lightcap, Maeve

McGinnis, Colleen McRae,

Zachary Merrill, Kally Milicia,

Roll Breakfast on January 11th.

“The breakfast is just a small

token of the staff’s way to ex-

press our sincere appreciation of

the students’ efforts. I know we

all feel fortunate to have the op-

portunity to work with the fami-

lies of Brunswick.” Sharosky

said.

The students that made the

Principal’s Roll included 6th graders

Kourtney Abshire, Brooke Al-

len, Hannah Bertoli, Emma

Bradbury, Isabella Brune, Mari-

ah Cain, Autumn Conrad, Na-

than Conrad, John Crawford,

Dustyn DeFoor, Ana Flood,

Anna Gurtsak, Teddy Gurtsak,

Madeleine Hicks, Ella Huston,

Samantha Hyde, Dalyn Jaskol-

ka, Payton Kekic, Theerthaa

Krishnan, Jackson Lattner, Ja-

cob McComas, Ryan McMahan,

(Continued from page 1) Joshua Milo, Caroline Muniak,

Dylan Murach, Jessica Murral,

Ethan Nemcek, Ethan Oberg,

Hailey Peterseim, Johnathan

Puts, Dehlia Radcliffe, James

Snider, Jr., Hailey Strnad,

Ethan Thomas, Hailey Tidey,

Mario Tripp, Lindsay Wolf, &

Morgyn Woodring;

8th graders were Ellie Casper,

James Cellura, Derek Corniel-

lo, Kaelin Davis, Mara Gurtsak,

Leah Hoover, Cassandra Koba-

sic, Dawson Kosh, Kaylee Lat-

arewicz, Madison Lisy, Maksim

Maras, Mackenzie McIntosh,

Stephen Osowski, Julia Par-

tem, Matthew Puleo, Jason

Safko, Joseph Schmidt, An-

drew Shenal, Caitlin Sivy, Ha-

ley Stasik, & Jamie Zak.

Awesome job to all!

Viz selects talent winners

Students complete first semester splendidly continued...

BLUE DEVIL TIMES Page 9

From left: Emma Bradbury, Hailey Peterse-im, Andrew Demko, Alexandria Telatko, Emilie Dobranski, & Ella Pace.

FUTURE EVENTS AT Viz-Feb.

by the Encore staff. Eighth grader

Kaelin Davis, 7th grader, Faith

Glass, 6th grader Daslyn Jaskolka

and Evelyn Dean (6th) (Encore) were

Congratulations to our students

who made the Merit, Honor, and Prin-

cipals’ Rolls for the second quarter.

Those students were honored at a

breakfast January 11th. For the rest of

our students, I encourage you to keep

trying and take advantage of our extra-

help time after school. A common

theme amongst some of our students

who have not been successful is they

have missing work and they have not

taken advantage of extra help situa-

tions. As we move to the second se-

mester, we do not want to see any

student fail. The following students have been

selected by the staff as Students of the

Week for their contributions to Vis-

intainer. The week of January 8th fea-

tured 6th grader, Dustyn DeFoor,

A.J. Tomasi (7th), and Kayla Ousley

(8th). Mae Talley (7th) was selected

honored as the students of the week

for January 15th. The week of January

22nd had Tatyanna Watson (6th,)

Ryan Churnega (7th) Jessica Wilks

(8th) and Derek Corniello (Encore)

recognized.

Our parent conferences were Jan.

25th. We have a second opportunity

on February 1st Although the time of

year would not suggest it, but these

are considered the “spring” confer-

ences. If you were unable to attend,

please contact our teachers, the of-

fice, or Mrs. Rhoads to schedule a

conference with your child’s teachers.

Mark your calendars for the annual

Brunswick Education Foundation’s

Spring Fling on April 21st from 6-9 pm

at Coppertop. Contact Jan Rizzo at

330.273.0201 for tickets.

From the Principal’s Desk….

Visintainer Middle School

1459 Pearl Road

Brunswick, OH 44212

Phone: 330-273-0402

Brian Sharosky-Principal

Jessica Boytim–Asst. Principal

Go Blue Devils!

MIDDLE SCHOOL

We’re on the web

www.bcsoh.org/

Domain/11

1 Homework Club 3-4 pm room 133 (every Mon-Wed-Thur)

Study table 3-3:30 cafe (every day)

Parent/Teacher conferences 4:15-7:15 pm

2 Lion King rehearsal 3:45-5 pm cafe

Girls basketball vs Willetts 4:30 (8th 1st)

Boys basketball vs Willetts 4:30 (at EMS)

5 National School Counselor Week (Feb 5-9)

Lion King rehearsal 3:45-5 pm cafe

Girls basketball-at Parma Shiloh

6 Boys basketball-vs Strongsville Green

Girls basketball- at Strongsville Green

7 Jazz Band @Edwards MS 3-4 pm

Lion King rehearsal 3:45-5 pm cafe

All Middle School Talent Show Dress Rehearsal 3:30-6 PAC

8 All Middle School Talent Show- 6-8 p.m. PAC

9 High school counselors in Science classes 8th grade

8th grade semi-formal dance 6-8 pm cafe

12 Real Money, Real World (8th SS classes-Feb 12-15)

PTO Executive Board Meeting 3:30 pm conf room 121

Lion King rehearsal 3:45-5 pm cafe

14 Jazz Band @Edwards MS 3-4 pm

15 Lion King rehearsal 3:45-5:30 pm cafe

16 Real Money, Real World simulation in gymnasium 8:20-2:55

Lion King rehearsal 3:45-5:30 pm cafe

19 Presidents’ Day- NO SCHOOL

21 Jazz Band @Edwards MS 3-4 pm

22 Lion King rehearsal 3:45-5:30 pm cafe

23 Lion King rehearsal 3:45-5:30 pm cafe

26 8th grade to Medina County Career Center 11:30-2:00

Lion King rehearsal 3:45-5:45 pm cafe

27 8th grade to Medina County Career Center 11:30-2:00

28 PTO Marco’s Pizza Day

Jazz Band @Edwards MS 3-4 pm

Student Council Meeting 3:30-4:00 room 138

Lion King rehearsal 3:45-5:45 pm cafe

It is “All hands on deck” during a safety drill. Helping out at Viz’s drill were Officer John Fink, Jori Slepecky-café cashier, Of-ficer John Witthuhn & Assistant Principal Jessica Boytim.