Parents, We would like to set up peer tutoring between 6th graders and 8th graders. The focus is helping students with their homework and transition to middle school mindset in terms of organization, study skills, and test taking strategies. 8th grade students who participate will be able to use their time for their service learning hours. Please contact Mr. Field or Mr. Johnson if your son or daughter is a 6th grader in need of a peer tutor or an 8th grader who would like to participate.

Justin Field

Dear Parents, I' am happy to share this news with you. On January 11, 2020, FLL team went to Catonsville, MD and after a tough competition. Our team won "1st Place in Robot Design" at Catonsville High School FIRST LEGO LEAGUE QUALIFIER. Congratulations Tigers!!

Mr. INCI/ Technology Teacher.

If you saw the flier about the photo competition for third quarter and are interested, this event might be right for you! https://www.networkevents.tv/events/nbc4-health-fitness-expo-washington-dc/

Danica Justsen, Wellness Champion

Hello Parents and Guardians, If you would like more information on how to start preparing your scholar for college? You will be happy to know there will be a informational event taking place on Thursday, February 13th at Charles H. Flowers High School from 6 pm - 8 pm. The session will be for both Middle and High School Students. The informational session will discuss the following: PSAT/SAT/ACT, Financing Your College Education, Career Technical Educational Programs, Accuplacer and Dual Enrollment in High School, Scholarship Information, and Specialty Programs.

Yurhance Johnson

Dear CMIT Parents, Community, and Fellow Pioneers of Science: The science department would like to cordially invite you to be a STEAM FAIR JUDGE and support the upcoming Chesapeake Math and IT Academy MS - North STEAM Fair on Saturday, January 25, 2020. STEAM Fair judging consists of viewing the students’ posters, conducting an impromptu interview with the students about their projects, and scoring based on the CMIT STEAM Fair given rubrics. STEAM Fair judging will be held at CMIT-High School (14800 Sweitzer Ln, Laurel, MD 20707) from 8:30AM to 1:00PM on January 25, 2020. This would be a wonderful opportunity to meet and converse with some of our wonderful math and science students about their research projects.. If you are interested in assisting CMIT MS North as volunteer judge, please contact Mrs. Nhyirani or Mr. Johnson at the following: enhyirani@cmitacademy.org or yjohnson@cmitacademy.org by Thursday, February 23rd 2020. We look forward to hearing from you, and the students appreciate your participation. If you know anyone else who would be interested in assisting us with this respect, please extend this invitation on our behalf. Also, any parent that participate their child/student will receive 2 Student Service Learning Hours. Remember students need 24 SSL Hours in order to graduate from high school. Breakfast and lunch for judges will be provided by Panera Bread Company. Thanks in advance. Kindly use the link below to sign-up. Thank you! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc9qRXKy9E4fiW9a03t3k4RrpiR-EIwCQLtdqwSE_JFn3Ud9Q/viewform?usp=pp_url

Yurhance Johnson

“Science is more than a school subject, the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand, explore and engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world..." — President Barack Obama, In a world that’s becoming increasingly complex, where success is driven not only by what you know, but by what you can do with what you know, it’s more important than ever for our youth to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to solve tough problems, gather and evaluate evidence, and make sense of information. These are the types of skills that students at CMIT-Middle School North have been learning by studying science, technology, engineering, art and math—subjects collectively known as STEAM. Out of more than five hundred students, one hundred fifty scholars obtained the highest grade point using the CMIT STEAM fair rubric will be participating in the 9th Annual STEAM Fair on January 25, 2020 at CMIT-North High School Gym (14800 Sweitzer Ln, Laurel, MD 20707). Help us show our support for the hard work and dedication these students showed by coming out and being a part of our STEAM fair. Public viewing of the entire participant project is from 12-1PM. Thank you for continuing to support CMIT science department.

Mrs. Nhyirani ( STEAM Fair Coordinator)

Please see attached flier for FIT FAMILY PHOTO COMPETITiON! Submissions due via email to Ms. Justsen djustsen@cmitacademy.org BY WEDNESDAY, 01/22!

Attachment(s)

Danica Justsen, NBCT

PG County Middle School Cheer Competition is here and our Cheer team will be a part of this awesome event. Please see below for details: Date: Saturday, February 8, 2020 Time: 10 am Place: Oxon Hill High School Cost: $5 Please come out dressed in your best purple and gold, and help support our cheer team. We hope to see you all there!!!

Coach Bond cmitcheer1516@gmail.com

We will be having an interest meeting on January 30th @ 7pm at CMIT middle school room 108 for the July 2021 trip to Isreal ,to visit the cities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Nazareth Jericho and Bethlehem. This trip is to experience the historical sites and cultural sites of a modern country representative of the Middle East. You will have the oportunity to see the important sites of the birthplace of 3 of the world's religions, walk the streets that historical figures have walked, explore ancient Jewish, Roman and Muslim architecture and eat authentic middle eastern food. Although this trip is open to families, all children under the age of 17 must be accompanied by an adult traveler. This trip is not a field trip and is not sponsored by PGCPS or CMIT. You must attend meeting to get inromation for this trip.

James Screven, Assistant Principal

We are somehow at the conclusion of Quarter 2! It has been quite exciting with our novel studies and whole-group discussions. In the upcoming week (our last week in Quarter 2), we'll finish preparing and then present our persuasive presentations. Students have developed persuasive speech scripts, and on Tuesday/Wednesday they'll pair these scripts with visual presentations. Before Thursday, students will record screencasts at home -- they'll be shown how to do this in class, but the website/tool that's suggested is screencast-o-matic. Feel free to help them "play" with it at home over the weekend. Attached is the AOW we'll discuss on Friday, 01/24/2020! Our first of the year! It's an opportunity for family discussion about college, goals/aspirations, things that make a scholar desirable beyond quantifiable data like test scores and grade averages... Students should, as usual, annotate this article before 1/24. To prep for third quarter, please ensure your scholar has the required book (a small group in Grambling, who's been notified, will read We Beat the Street by Samson Davis, ; all honors students will read Dear Martin by Nic Stone). Here are links to those titles: https://www.amazon.com/We-Beat-Street-Friendship-Success-ebook/dp/B001R6OTO4 https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Martin-Nic-Stone-ebook/dp/B01N9U3ALR/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=dear+martin&qid=1579269254&s=digital-text&sr=1-1 We will also receive a new set of vocabulary for Quarter 3! Please ensure your scholar comes on Tuesday, 01/21 with blank 3x5 notecards. REMINDER: Every set of notecards will earn students an assessment grade at the end of quarter 3 and quarter 4...so they should be holding onto their cards! They'll use them to review for SAT/PSAT in the upcoming years. Here's to a great second half of the year!

Attachment(s)

Danica Justsen, NBCT

The seventh grade class is finishing up the quarterly unit, "What can one generation learn from another." They have read news articles, poems, and short stories about generations learning valuable lessons from one another. Students wrote a literary analysis task that included brainstorming, drafting, and peer editing. Students are continuing to practice their writing through weekly reflections for warm-up, informal assessments at the end of lessons, and brief essays at the end of each weekly test. Students were able to finish reading Thanhha Lai's Inside Out and Back Again as they continued to explore the lessons the main character learned from her mother as her family immigrated from Vietnam and settled in America. Students completed the Student Learning Objective and the Measure of Academic Progress tests immediately after the winter break. The results of those two tests will be shared with students and parents soon.

Mr. Conde RELA 7 Teacher

Dear CMIT Parents, Community, and Fellow Pioneers of Science: The science department would like to cordially invite you to be a STEAM FAIR JUDGE and support the upcoming Chesapeake Math and IT (CMIT) Academy North Middle School STEAM Fair on Saturday, January 25, 2020. STEAM Fair judging consists of viewing the students’ posters, conducting an impromptu interview with the students about their projects, and scoring based on the CMIT STEAM Fair given rubric. STEAM Fair judging will be held at CMIT-High School (​14800 Sweitzer Ln, Laurel, MD 20707)​ from 8:30AM to 1:00PM on January 25, 2020. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet and converse with some of our students about their research projects. If you are interested in assisting CMIT North MS as a volunteer judge, please contact me by e-mail: enhyirani@cmitacademy.org​ by January 13th, 2020. We look forward to hearing from you, and the students appreciate your participation. If you know anyone else who would be interested in assisting us with this respect, please extend this invitation on our behalf. Kindly use the link below to sign up. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zdQo0Rgot4TFj7ROrCkDPFcjYRXl7ML8zYDumUO9wew/edit

Mrs. Nhyirani (STEAM Fair Coordinator)

Essay Requirements (Grades 6-12 ONLY): At least 250 words, but shall not exceed 500 words • Typed and double-spaced • Original work only • Be sure to properly cite your sources. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/ • Due on Friday, January 24th Scoring Rubric Comprehension (20 points) How well does the essay reflect a thorough comprehension of the essay topic? Does the essay provide supported reasons for the student’s topic selection? Organization (20 points) Does the argument/discussion follow a logical and easily understood progression? Does any outside evidence contained in the essay support the essay’s main points? Conclusions (20 points) Do the conclusions follow logically from the main body of the essay and reflect what the student has learned from research? How compelling are the conclusions? Creativity (20 points) Use of diverse resources, language &/or style, unique angle? Writing (20 points) Correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure. Poster Requirements (Elementary ONLY): • Poster MUST be 18x14 inches • Illustrates & supports a significant African American • Illustrates the contribution clearly and with artistic energy • Is it Colorful? Creative? Innovative? Legible? Different? Finished? • Poster should have a caption of at least three sentences, but no more than 10 to include who, what, and how the person contributed to shaping history. • Poster should mention at least one NEW thing the student learned during this contest? (E.g. arts in STEAM, African American role models, about oneself, society, African American history &/or culture, etc.) CLF will have 3 winners from each division who will receive a $50 gift card. Student winners and their parents will be invited to an awards reception hosted by CLF. One honorary mention from each school/division will be asked to read their essay or present their poster submission. Refreshments will be served and community leaders, special guests, fellow students, teachers, school officials, and board members will be in attendance.

CLF Community Partnerships

Monday, January 20th is a day off for our staff and students, however, the meaning of the day should not be forgotten. Martin Luther King Jr has been gone from us for over 51 years, but his words and deeds are as important today as they were during the 1960's. His message of love, mutual respect, universal acceptance and dignity for all people must not be forgotten. This Monday, remember and reflect on this amazing figure who touched so many and was taken too soon.

James Screven, Assistant Principal

SIT stands for student intervention team and it meets for students who need interventions put in place to aid their success in school. The team consists of the school guidance counselor, administrators, teachers and the parents/guardians. Parents should know that this is the first stop should there be a suspicion of an underlying issue impeding their student's learning. It is also a team that addresses students "at risk" so that if a student has excessive absences, behavioral issues, failing grades among multiple core academic subjects or is at risk of failing for the year. SIT meets to find stategies to help. You can put your request for a SIT meeting for your child should they have a demonstrated need (grades,behavior,absences), through Mr. Johnson in guidance.

James Screven, Assistant Principal

We have identified a few negative behaviors that many of our students are engaged in such as, running in the school hallways, abusive and inappropriate phyiscal play (hitting, poking, slapping etc) and foul language. These type of behaviors have led to student collisions and physical altercations. It has recently become more pervasive and has gotten the attention of the staff and administration. To combat this issue, we are making it known to students, parents and staff that students who engage in these type of behaviors will be stopped, identified and warned that a second offense will result in a lunch detention, a third offense will result in a Saturday detention. It is our mission to make this school a good and safe place for students and adults. Therefore we need to put this in place to minimize the risk of running and playing turning into something more severe, such as collisions and student physical altercations. Please talk with your children about the impact of these behaviors and your expectations for their making good choices. Thanks so much for being our partner in your children's education.

James Screven, Assistant Principal

Q: Is CMIT North MS a public school? 

A: Yes We are a public charter school who is staffed by PGCPS teachers and administration, and support staff who work along side of a limited CLF staff. We have access to PGCPS support but also benefit from additional guidance, management and financial support from Chesapeake Light House Foundation, whose educational concept this school is based on. 

Q: Do siblings get preference in applying to CMIT?

A: The process of gaining entry to any charter school in Prince George's County is through a lottery. However, siblings of already attending CMIT students are weighted differently during the lottery process. This different weighting gives preference to siblings. 

Q: What makes CMIT different then any other school in the district? 

A: Although we are a PGCPS public charter, we are given some autonomy over curriculum. This autonomy allows us to fast track students, who are academically ready, through selected high school courses in math, foreign language, science and technology. It is that fast tracking that opens up opportunity to more advanced  coursework on the college level while still in high school.  Additionally, we offer students supports and enrichments to every student, not available at most schools. Lastly, we are a uniform school which takes away the distraction, the competition and the social stratification that is brought on by non uniform dress in a school. 

Our test scores oustrip not only county averages but also state avaerages. This, along with other metrics has made us a 5 star school. 

Q: Do you offer everything the big middle and high school's offer? 

A: Unlike many school in Maryland, we do not have a  full spectrum offerings in sports.  Instead, our focus is on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics). Therefore, our sports offerings are more limited.  We offer, boys and girls soccer, basketball, girl's softball, boy's baseball and club lacrosse in the middle school. Additionally, boys and girls basketball, track/field and volleyball at the high school level. With that said we recently (2017) won the girls county basketball championship and made it to the playoffs in soccer. Our high school opened a multi-million dollar, state of the art gym complex, competitive with all schools of their size. The middle school has also added an indoor gym space.  Lastly, we do offer special educational services, but becuase we are a school of choice, the amount of service hours we can provide is limited to 7.5 hours a week, split between literacy and math. Services hours are delivered by special education teachers but are limited to literacy and math courses.