Gentlemen, I forgot to post a new heading for this so for the 4-5 of you who posted under the old heading, please don't feel as though you need to repost. For those of you who have yet to complete the assignment, please post here. Thanks, Mrs. R
In my opinion, everything that can possibly be done to help the 7th & 8th graders fit in, is being done. It is a bad idea to mix them in with the 9th-12th graders. First of all, these middle schoolers will hardly ever see the High Schoolers except for lunch and gym, so there is no need to mix them. 7th and 8th graders will only be intimidated by older grades, making them uncomfortable. Kids do not want to be in a school that makes them feel uncomfortable. I feel steps need to be taken to help each individual grade get to know itself, so to speak. It may diminish the sense of community throughout the school, but it has a greater chance of retention of students.
To make CM the best place it can possibly be we need to make it a tight knit communtiy. This not only applies to the situation between the middle schoolers and the high schoolers, but also those who are in the same grade and kind of don't pay attention to those who are seen as different or strange. Like most people have already said the middle school and high school should not be separated by buildings or lunches. Also, students need to get to know more about people who they see as different and don't like because we don't know much about them. We should make ourselves, especially as peer leaders, available to all classmates not just our friends. Another way to make CM a better place is to have more school wide activities. Maybe like more rallies other than the one just for the football team. We can also do this by having more field trips and days like Olympic Day. If I remember the sophomore class had no field trips last year. These would be two things that I would do to make CM a better place.
Mike Slonina Leadership & Service Mr. Scott & Mrs. Ramsdell
A Perfect CM
A New Gym
A new gym would be beneficial to CM because it would show that we are keeping up with the independent schools as well as the other Catholic Conference schools. From memory, Lincoln-Sudbury, Newton South, Xaverian, Roxbury Latin, Belmont Hill, Rivers, BB&N, and Beaver all have new gyms compared to ours. I‘m sure there are many more, those are just the teams CM plays or that I’ve been to. Obviously building a new gym costs a lot of money so my plan is to call the Celtics and tell them about the plans to build a new gym. Ask them for items to raffle off and hold 2 raffles a year. After about 5 years we them go to the administration and relay to them the benefit CM would see from having a more modern gym. Also, we send letters to every alumni in CM history explaining the ambitions for a new gym, a few years ago an alumni gave us around 5k to buy the shooting machine. There must be more people like him. After all the money raised over those 5 years, the alumni. And the 500,000 that CM spends in the summer we would have enough to build a new gym with new baskets, and a floor that doesn’t wave up and down like the crowd at a Red Sox game.
Changes to Fall/Spring Dress Code
The fall and spring dress code consists of a polo shirt and Khakis. My idea is to keep the polo shirt but to add shorts and sneakers. For one its way more comfortable on those hot days, and it limits the amount of cell phone use because a lot of shorts don’t have pockets. There is nothing bad that could possibly happen from this so why not make the student body happy?
Less Rules in the Middle School
The drop out rate in the middle school can be attributed to a lack of understanding from faculty. I understand that in the middle school CM tries to break all bad habits and wants to instill the idea that actions have consequences. But some of the middle school teachers bring it to a whole new level. The teachers need to be easier on the kids, especially the seventh graders. A new, all boys school is a very intimidating monster; it doesn’t help to yell at them right out of the gate. As I recall the seventh grade orientation is one big list of all the things that you can’t do, it’s just to hard, too early. I’m all for breaking bad habits and even doing it in a disciplinary fashion, but that process should be started sometime in December, that gives everyone a while to become familiar with the school and develop a sense of comfort.
To make CM the best place it can possibly be we need to make it a tight knit communtiy. This not only applies to the situation between the middle schoolers and the high schoolers, but also those who are in the same grade and kind of don't pay attention to those who are seen as different or strange. Like most people have already said the middle school and high school should not be separated by buildings or lunches. Also, students need to get to know more about people who they see as different and don't like because we don't know much about them. We should make ourselves, especially as peer leaders, available to all classmates not just our friends. Another way to make CM a better place is to have more school wide activities. Maybe like more rallies other than the one just for the football team. We can also do this by having more field trips and days like Olympic Day. If I remember the sophomore class had no field trips last year. These would be two things that I would do to make CM a better place.
In order for Catholic Memorial to be the best possible place that it could I feel we have a few things to do. First we need to bring the whole school closer, this is Catholic Memorial School grades 7-12, therefor since we are all one school we need to act like one school. To send kids that our part of our school community down the street to get different uniforms then the upper grades does not show much sense of community. To upgrade this community between the seventh and eighth grade and the high school grades you have to first have one universal uniform. I feel this will not only take some nerves out of the younger kids, but with everyone wearing the same uniform it shows that no one is different and everyone in the community is a Knight. The second way to build this community up is too blend in the two buildings on campus and utilize our whole campus space. We can have more high schoolers going over to Donahue hall and we can have more middle schoolers takes classes in the main building. Also this blending of builidings will be smoother if everyone was wearing the same uniform. I feel this is the most important thing to build up CM, and make it overall a better place.
Catholic memorial can be made into a better place this year in several different ways. The already intimate relationships we build with our classmates and teachers can be made even deeper with more field trips, and/or activities that will build us closer together as knights and not in cliques of any kind. As someone stated in class the uniform clash of the middle school and the high school can be settled by having one large dress code. Get rid of the sweater please! The code can be more relaxed, for example any polo instead of a CM polo. Maybe any shirt and tie instead of a CM tie and blue or white shirt. More additions to the weight room would further cm students ability to perform on the field, in the gym, or on the ice. A bigger space with cables and exercise balls as well as bands and foam rollers would be a positive and productive addition to the school. Lastly, middle school lunch should be changed and the school should be mixed as one. This way we will have a large shared campus, bringing us closer into even more of a community. These easy ideas can turn bring Catholic Memorial School above and beyond the competition.
In order for cm to become further enhanced as a community the barrier between the middle school and the high school must be removed. For an example: the difference in age and also maturity between a senior is and a freshmen is lesser than that of an eighth grader and a freshman. On another front, the cm track must be redone. Although it is relatively new, it is currently not in suitable condition to be raced upon, which forces cm runners to travel to oposing team's tracks for every meet.
In order for us to be a closer community, most of, if not all of the cm community must work as a unit. Communication is the key, everyone should feel like they have a voice, and that they can be heard. Some ways that i believe this can be done, is by having the lower and upper schools have closer interactions. You could have middle school kids in what are now high school lunches, and vise versa. Allow middle schoolers to get involved in more high school activities and clubs.
In order to create a better all around enviroment at CM there are two things which I believe could be made better. The first is the gap between the Middle School and the High School is to big. If there was some way to offer a class with 7th, 8th, and 9th graders all in the one class, it could lessen the gap. the second thing which I think could be made better is to offer the Campus Ministry class in 10th grade because only two years won't let you get whatever your are proposing, so it will make some people not try to get whatever it is.
to create a better enviroment at cm the firsst thing you need to modify is the classrooms. more technology like smartboards in eachroom.Next would be the library and chem lab biolab,like mr. scott said.one thing that was brought up was bridging the gap btween the middle school and high school. changing dreess code would make it more equal also having high schoolers go acroos the street and vise versa. one of the biggest problems inmodifying cm is that we are confined in our location.
For a student looking to enroll at CM, many things must be taken into consideration. The academic prowess of the school, the teacher- student relationship felt in and outside the classroom, and also a strong sense of community throughout grades 7-12. The last point could be the only hindering factor to CM's appeal. I am not saying that CM lacks any sense of community whatsoever, but only a gap in that feeling of community between the lower and higher schools. Like many others have said, a change in the middle school dress code could help to lessen that gap. This could help the middle school kids feel like a true part of the entire CM community. It is the difference between a person seeing a kid in a bright red shirt and saying "oh look a middle schooler" and that same person seeing a child in a CM uniform and saying "oh look a CM student". I know that that sense of a whole community would help me and hopefully would help any potential or current CM middle schooler.
To make CM into a better place, we could start by changing little things that the students don't like. Examples of these little things are shaving, being able to leave campus if u have a last period study as an underclassmen, making the dress code more flexible, and giving students more time to get from class to class. Many students dislike the school because of simple rules like these. Another thing that could be done to the school to make it more enjoyable is free lunch. Mant students have hardworking parents who can barely pay the tuition. They should not have to pay an additional five or six dollars to buy lunch. Also, the prices for the food in the cafeteria are too expensive. Another thing is to have kids better adapt to being an active member of the CM community. They should get involved with any sports or activities and should not leave school right at 2:20 unless they absolutely have to. These simple suggestions will in my opinion make CM a much more enjoyable place.
This year we as a class have the opportunity to change many aspects of our school for the greater good around the Catholic Memorial campus. Dress code: I don't think that dress code is necessarily a bad thing, if we were dressed down there would be many different styles of clothing and I feel that the dress code shows that we are all one school. I think that we should have more periods in shorter time zones, with more time to get from class to class. This will give you the opportunity to choose more classes and be able to meet other students, which could be in your grade or any other grade. The electives could be a class on the CM community, like ideas of improvement for example.
The CM community is a wonderful place but hear are a few things that could make it better and ways we can make that happen. Every student needs to be involved in at least one after school activity, that would build a better sense of communtity. We also need to get more students out o the sporting events to support our fellow Knights. Also the dress code is a place that of discussion that always comes up does the dress code really make us a better school. One last point to make the school better is the possiblity of open campus so that you may leave during lunch and studys as long as you get beck in time for your next class.
CM is a wonderful place as it is but there is always room for change and improvement. First, i like tylers idea of the middle school wearing the same uniform as the high schoolers. This shows a tighter knit community. Also, we could have after school intermurals of some sort that underclassmen could participate in along with upperclassmen. Lastly, I do not think i am alone when i say we need to do something about the bathrooms. I recently saw a picture of the newly designed women's bathroom and there is and expensive looking granite counter top. Women do need nice bathrooms, but I thought there was more boys at CM then women. If they get a new and improved updated bathroom, we definetly should as well.
Gentlemen,
ReplyDeleteI forgot to post a new heading for this so for the 4-5 of you who posted under the old heading, please don't feel as though you need to repost. For those of you who have yet to complete the assignment, please post here.
Thanks,
Mrs. R
In my opinion, everything that can possibly be done to help the 7th & 8th graders fit in, is being done. It is a bad idea to mix them in with the 9th-12th graders. First of all, these middle schoolers will hardly ever see the High Schoolers except for lunch and gym, so there is no need to mix them. 7th and 8th graders will only be intimidated by older grades, making them uncomfortable. Kids do not want to be in a school that makes them feel uncomfortable. I feel steps need to be taken to help each individual grade get to know itself, so to speak. It may diminish the sense of community throughout the school, but it has a greater chance of retention of students.
ReplyDeleteTo make CM the best place it can possibly be we need to make it a tight knit communtiy. This not only applies to the situation between the middle schoolers and the high schoolers, but also those who are in the same grade and kind of don't pay attention to those who are seen as different or strange. Like most people have already said the middle school and high school should not be separated by buildings or lunches. Also, students need to get to know more about people who they see as different and don't like because we don't know much about them. We should make ourselves, especially as peer leaders, available to all classmates not just our friends. Another way to make CM a better place is to have more school wide activities. Maybe like more rallies other than the one just for the football team. We can also do this by having more field trips and days like Olympic Day. If I remember the sophomore class had no field trips last year. These would be two things that I would do to make CM a better place.
ReplyDeleteMike Slonina
ReplyDeleteLeadership & Service
Mr. Scott & Mrs. Ramsdell
A Perfect CM
A New Gym
A new gym would be beneficial to CM because it would show that we are keeping up with the independent schools as well as the other Catholic Conference schools. From memory, Lincoln-Sudbury, Newton South, Xaverian, Roxbury Latin, Belmont Hill, Rivers, BB&N, and Beaver all have new gyms compared to ours. I‘m sure there are many more, those are just the teams CM plays or that I’ve been to.
Obviously building a new gym costs a lot of money so my plan is to call the Celtics and tell them about the plans to build a new gym. Ask them for items to raffle off and hold 2 raffles a year. After about 5 years we them go to the administration and relay to them the benefit CM would see from having a more modern gym. Also, we send letters to every alumni in CM history explaining the ambitions for a new gym, a few years ago an alumni gave us around 5k to buy the shooting machine. There must be more people like him. After all the money raised over those 5 years, the alumni. And the 500,000 that CM spends in the summer we would have enough to build a new gym with new baskets, and a floor that doesn’t wave up and down like the crowd at a Red Sox game.
Changes to Fall/Spring Dress Code
The fall and spring dress code consists of a polo shirt and Khakis. My idea is to keep the polo shirt but to add shorts and sneakers. For one its way more comfortable on those hot days, and it limits the amount of cell phone use because a lot of shorts don’t have pockets. There is nothing bad that could possibly happen from this so why not make the student body happy?
Less Rules in the Middle School
The drop out rate in the middle school can be attributed to a lack of understanding from faculty. I understand that in the middle school CM tries to break all bad habits and wants to instill the idea that actions have consequences. But some of the middle school teachers bring it to a whole new level. The teachers need to be easier on the kids, especially the seventh graders. A new, all boys school is a very intimidating monster; it doesn’t help to yell at them right out of the gate. As I recall the seventh grade orientation is one big list of all the things that you can’t do, it’s just to hard, too early. I’m all for breaking bad habits and even doing it in a disciplinary fashion, but that process should be started sometime in December, that gives everyone a while to become familiar with the school and develop a sense of comfort.
To make CM the best place it can possibly be we need to make it a tight knit communtiy. This not only applies to the situation between the middle schoolers and the high schoolers, but also those who are in the same grade and kind of don't pay attention to those who are seen as different or strange. Like most people have already said the middle school and high school should not be separated by buildings or lunches. Also, students need to get to know more about people who they see as different and don't like because we don't know much about them. We should make ourselves, especially as peer leaders, available to all classmates not just our friends. Another way to make CM a better place is to have more school wide activities. Maybe like more rallies other than the one just for the football team. We can also do this by having more field trips and days like Olympic Day. If I remember the sophomore class had no field trips last year. These would be two things that I would do to make CM a better place.
ReplyDelete1.) I like Tyler's idea of having middle school students haveing the same uniform to emphisize equality.
ReplyDelete2.) More student participation, i.e. sports, clubs, ect. Anything that keeps them busy after 2:20
3.) Increase school aligence, I want to make CM fell like a second home rather then a prison
4.) More AP science courses, I feel that the lack of AP science courses hinders students who want to go into a scientific or medical field.
5.) In general I can invision all of us Peer Ministers increasing student's positive attitude towrds CM, which I think is the most important.
In order for Catholic Memorial to be the best possible place that it could I feel we have a few things to do. First we need to bring the whole school closer, this is Catholic Memorial School grades 7-12, therefor since we are all one school we need to act like one school. To send kids that our part of our school community down the street to get different uniforms then the upper grades does not show much sense of community. To upgrade this community between the seventh and eighth grade and the high school grades you have to first have one universal uniform. I feel this will not only take some nerves out of the younger kids, but with everyone wearing the same uniform it shows that no one is different and everyone in the community is a Knight. The second way to build this community up is too blend in the two buildings on campus and utilize our whole campus space. We can have more high schoolers going over to Donahue hall and we can have more middle schoolers takes classes in the main building. Also this blending of builidings will be smoother if everyone was wearing the same uniform. I feel this is the most important thing to build up CM, and make it overall a better place.
ReplyDeleteCatholic memorial can be made into a better place this year in several different ways. The already intimate relationships we build with our classmates and teachers can be made even deeper with more field trips, and/or activities that will build us closer together as knights and not in cliques of any kind.
ReplyDeleteAs someone stated in class the uniform clash of the middle school and the high school can be settled by having one large dress code. Get rid of the sweater please! The code can be more relaxed, for example any polo instead of a CM polo. Maybe any shirt and tie instead of a CM tie and blue or white shirt.
More additions to the weight room would further cm students ability to perform on the field, in the gym, or on the ice. A bigger space with cables and exercise balls as well as bands and foam rollers would be a positive and productive addition to the school.
Lastly, middle school lunch should be changed and the school should be mixed as one. This way we will have a large shared campus, bringing us closer into even more of a community. These easy ideas can turn bring Catholic Memorial School above and beyond the competition.
In order for cm to become further enhanced as a community the barrier between the middle school and the high school must be removed. For an example: the difference in age and also maturity between a senior is and a freshmen is lesser than that of an eighth grader and a freshman. On another front, the cm track must be redone. Although it is relatively new, it is currently not in suitable condition to be raced upon, which forces cm runners to travel to oposing team's tracks for every meet.
ReplyDeleteIn order for us to be a closer community, most of, if not all of the cm community must work as a unit. Communication is the key, everyone should feel like they have a voice, and that they can be heard. Some ways that i believe this can be done, is by having the lower and upper schools have closer interactions. You could have middle school kids in what are now high school lunches, and vise versa. Allow middle schoolers to get involved in more high school activities and clubs.
ReplyDeleteIn order to create a better all around enviroment at CM there are two things which I believe could be made better. The first is the gap between the Middle School and the High School is to big. If there was some way to offer a class with 7th, 8th, and 9th graders all in the one class, it could lessen the gap. the second thing which I think could be made better is to offer the Campus Ministry class in 10th grade because only two years won't let you get whatever your are proposing, so it will make some people not try to get whatever it is.
ReplyDeleteto create a better enviroment at cm the firsst thing you need to modify is the classrooms. more technology like smartboards in eachroom.Next would be the library and chem lab biolab,like mr. scott said.one thing that was brought up was bridging the gap btween the middle school and high school. changing dreess code would make it more equal also having high schoolers go acroos the street and vise versa. one of the biggest problems inmodifying cm is that we are confined in our location.
ReplyDeleteFor a student looking to enroll at CM, many things must be taken into consideration. The academic prowess of the school, the teacher- student relationship felt in and outside the classroom, and also a strong sense of community throughout grades 7-12. The last point could be the only hindering factor to CM's appeal. I am not saying that CM lacks any sense of community whatsoever, but only a gap in that feeling of community between the lower and higher schools. Like many others have said, a change in the middle school dress code could help to lessen that gap. This could help the middle school kids feel like a true part of the entire CM community. It is the difference between a person seeing a kid in a bright red shirt and saying "oh look a middle schooler" and that same person seeing a child in a CM uniform and saying "oh look a CM student". I know that that sense of a whole community would help me and hopefully would help any potential or current CM middle schooler.
ReplyDeleteTo make CM into a better place, we could start by changing little things that the students don't like. Examples of these little things are shaving, being able to leave campus if u have a last period study as an underclassmen, making the dress code more flexible, and giving students more time to get from class to class. Many students dislike the school because of simple rules like these. Another thing that could be done to the school to make it more enjoyable is free lunch. Mant students have hardworking parents who can barely pay the tuition. They should not have to pay an additional five or six dollars to buy lunch. Also, the prices for the food in the cafeteria are too expensive. Another thing is to have kids better adapt to being an active member of the CM community. They should get involved with any sports or activities and should not leave school right at 2:20 unless they absolutely have to. These simple suggestions will in my opinion make CM a much more enjoyable place.
ReplyDeleteGREENE
ReplyDeleteThis year we as a class have the opportunity to change many aspects of our school for the greater good around the Catholic Memorial campus. Dress code: I don't think that dress code is necessarily a bad thing, if we were dressed down there would be many different styles of clothing and I feel that the dress code shows that we are all one school. I think that we should have more periods in shorter time zones, with more time to get from class to class. This will give you the opportunity to choose more classes and be able to meet other students, which could be in your grade or any other grade. The electives could be a class on the CM community, like ideas of improvement for example.
pink
ReplyDeleteThe CM community is a wonderful place but hear are a few things that could make it better and ways we can make that happen. Every student needs to be involved in at least one after school activity, that would build a better sense of communtity. We also need to get more students out o the sporting events to support our fellow Knights. Also the dress code is a place that of discussion that always comes up does the dress code really make us a better school. One last point to make the school better is the possiblity of open campus so that you may leave during lunch and studys as long as you get beck in time for your next class.
Christian
CM is a wonderful place as it is but there is always room for change and improvement. First, i like tylers idea of the middle school wearing the same uniform as the high schoolers. This shows a tighter knit community. Also, we could have after school intermurals of some sort that underclassmen could participate in along with upperclassmen. Lastly, I do not think i am alone when i say we need to do something about the bathrooms. I recently saw a picture of the newly designed women's bathroom and there is and expensive looking granite counter top. Women do need nice bathrooms, but I thought there was more boys at CM then women. If they get a new and improved updated bathroom, we definetly should as well.
ReplyDelete