Middle School

I am on record as not looking forward to the middle-school years.I have asked every mother I know if there is a way -- short of the institutionalization of my children or me -- that I can get out of being the parent of a middle-school child, and I have been told repeatedly that there is not.The years 11 to 13 are not pretty, but there is no way to get to blossoming young adulthood except through them.My dismay deepened the night of the middle-school open house for incoming sixth-graders. I was looking for an educational vision for children who have mastered reading and writing, and what I got was something that looked like parents' day at summer camp.

Baltimore County school officials told middle and high school principals last week that they must limit the number of leadership positions next year to save $814,000, a move teachers say means schools have again been targeted for cuts. The decision will strip the title and pay from some teachers who act as department chairs and perform certain roles, including helping principals evaluate teachers, making sure books and supplies are evenly distributed, and deciding how curriculum will be taught.

Floyd, a German short-haired pointer, knows all about drugs. But that's his job.The friendly dog sniffs out big bundles and even minute amounts of illegal narcotics during his hours working with the state police.He also has another job. He gives demonstrations of his tracking skills with his trainer, Tfc. Ed Karr.The duo delighted middle-school students who were attending a youth drug summit last week at Camp Ramblewood in Darlington."He loves people and loves food," Trooper Karr said. "He gets better treats than me and a chauffeur eight hours a day."

Retiring Baltimore Police CommissionerFrederick H. Bealefeld III, who is stepping down after serving five years in that capacity, has been capable, funny and relevant. His "Old School" phrasing of calling criminals "knuckleheads," "morons," and "bad guys with guns" is accurate, funny and relevant. He could also use another word, "dropouts. " Yes, I said it - dropouts! And it appears the younger the criminal offender and the more serious the crime, the more likely that person is a school dropout.

Middle school conference scheduledThe Maryland Middle School Association Spring Conference will take place at North Carroll Middle School, 2401 Hanover Pike, Hampstead, Friday from 7:10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m."Leadership for Social Reform" will be the topic of this year's meeting. The conference provides the background and setting for middle-level educators to discuss and share strategies, ideas and programs aimed at the middle-school student.It is estimated that 600 to 800 educators will gather to select from 90 presentations.

EMMITSBURG - While Maryland children were enjoying summer vacation last week, many of their teachers and principals were in seminar rooms searching for ways to improve reading instruction. A primary concern: the lagging performance of middle-schoolers. Teams from middle schools in all 24 of the state's systems gathered at Mount St. Mary's College for the fourth annual Maryland Reading Network conference, while 100 public school principals focused on reading at a three-day session in suburban Baltimore.

TEMPTATION KNOCKS LOUDLY on the doors of middle-school students whose parents are still at work when they return from school. These three or four hours provide a window when teen-age pregnancy happens, when juvenile crime soars, when children become crime victims, when teens use drugs. Without structure, these are some of the pitfalls awaiting latchkey children.Although it may sound childish to youths who feel like adults trapped in children's bodies, middle-school students could benefit from after-school programs that provide recreation and academic help.

When Mayor Jonathan S. Herman asked the Sykesville Town Council what to discuss with Carroll's school superintendent today, members all had the same answer: air conditioning at the middle school. Charles I. Ecker will meet with officials from all eight towns in the next few months to discuss municipal concerns with the school system. Although temperatures are hovering near the freezing point, Ecker will probably hear a lot about heat today. Herman, a father of four school-aged children, will relay several complaints about temperature and air quality at Sykesville Middle School.

JOE AND HIS jailhouse lawyer, Paul, never know when to shut up.These two middle-school boys, who will some day talk themselves into a prison term for a parking ticket, can alibi and negotiate until you wish you were deaf.And that's exactly what they were doing as they attempted to prepare me for a worst-case scenario, report card-wise."A 'C' means average. It means you are like everyone else," said Paul, talking fast and following me around the kitchen as I tried to ignore him. "You want Joe to be like everyone else, don't you?

I CONSIDER MIDDLE school to be a holding pen for adolescents and respite care for their beleaguered parents, and my only complaint with this system is that they don't keep the kids overnight and on weekends.Eleven to 14 is a difficult age, and I wonder if educator Maria Montessori was not correct when she visualized sending these kids to work on farms until they had completed all the physical and emotional changes that make them so unpleasant in close quarters, such as your kitchen while you are making dinner.

Baltimore police are at Windsor Hills Elementary/Middle School in Northwest Baltimore after a body of a young man was discovered on the edge of school grounds Friday morning. The school has been closed for the day. Anthony Guglielmi, a department spokesman, said the body if of a man 18 to 20 years old. It was found sometime between 7 and 7:30 a.m., before school opened for the day. Guglielmi did not know who made the discovery. The school is located in the 4100 block of Alto Road, several blocks from the heavily wooded Leakin Park, and south of Lake Ashburton.

All Baltimore schools are now recycling, officials announced Thursday, an initiative that generated 27 tons of recycled material in its first month. Until the systemwide effort began in February, 72 schools out of Baltimore's 205 had separated paper, bottles and cans from other garbage. The announcement, held at Highlandtown Elementary/Middle School, was met with applause from students who have been working to expand recycling this year. As Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and schools CEO Andrés Alonso made the announcement, second- and third-grade students clad in green T-shirts held handmade signs on the front steps of Highlandtown.

Katie Anger, a bright-eyed redhead from West Friendship, opened the door for cyber-bullying as a middle-schooler, when she installed the "Honesty Box" app on her Facebook page. Some teens used the now-defunct Facebook feature to criticize her anonymously, tell her that no one liked her and say things they would never have said to her face. "I felt like I almost had no one that would help me through it or be there for me," recalled Katie, 16, now a junior at Maryvale Preparatory School in Brooklandville.

Updated: Baltimore City police sent out a release around 2:30 p.m. informing that Guadalupe Sosa and Michael Carter, the two Baltimore School for the Arts students who went missing Wednesday, have been found safe and unharmed.    Original Post: Baltimore school officials are spreading word that two students from the Baltimore School for the Arts left the school Wednesday morning, and to date have not been seen or heard from...

McDaniel College football players have had a new playbook since January and the results have been pretty impressive. As mentors for eighth-grade students at East Middle School, the players have helped students with their homework, and more, in a program that has brought the student-athletes to the Westminster school several times a week. "All the kids that have mentors look forward to it. They get so excited about it," eighth-grade math teacher Angela Springer said. "I could say it a million times on how to do it, and the football players say it, and they get it. " Many of the students, in fact, have seen their grades improve with the mentorship, Springer said.

Martha Gardner takes the maternal approach to teaching. She ushers in every new school year "with butterflies of anticipation" as she welcomes her newest students into her family. After 32 years in the classroom, that family has grown very large. "If you are part of my life, you are family," she says to those students about to join her in a yearlong adventure. "I am excited to see their faces on the first day. These smiling, uncertain people don't know it yet, but they have just met the newest member of their family — me. " Those sentiments helped earn Gardner recognition as the Anne Arundel County Teacher of the Year.

On Wednesday afternoons, Bryn Mawr School sophomore Lindsay Hamilton can be found in the Roland Park branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library helping Masuma Islam with her homework. Sitting at a small table in the basement, Lindsay goes over Latin, math and other assignments with Masuma, who attends Roland Park Middle School. Lindsay also teaches her organizational skills and memory tricks. "I'm more comfortable asking Lindsay questions," said Masuma, 11, a sixth-grader from the city's Remington neighborhood who has been working with Lindsay since October.

In a cramped engineering classroom at the Johns Hopkins University yesterday morning, 40 students set out to solve problems. A firetruck had to be able to navigate through a forest. A school bus needed to traverse rural areas. A stadium had to be able to withstand a tropical climate. Upperclassmen engineering majors might have struggled to find solutions, but these students, none of whom was older than 14, found answers in about three hours.

Nigel Sydnor has never been one to shy away from a challenge. Coming out of middle school, BCL powers Calvert Hall and Mount St. Joseph recruited Sydnor, but he chose MIAA B Conference bottom-feeder St. Paul's. Sydnor entered high school as a power forward and center, but the Crusaders needed a point guard, so Sydnor became a 1. Picking a college was no different for the 6-foot-2, 210-pound point guard, who spent the past year at Marianapolis Preparatory School in Thompson, Conn.

Side by Side, a faith-based nonprofit organization that works to strengthen public schools in Laurel, will hold its next Family Academy on Thursday, April 19 from 6-8 p.m. at Deerfield Run Elementary, 13000 Laurel Bowie Road (Route 197). Family Academies are free, and are offered to parents whose children attend any of the seven elementary schools in Laurel. At the academies, parents attend workshops while their school-aged children participate in an activity. The evening begins with a free dinner from 6 to 6:45 p.m. Two parent workshops will be held from 6:45 to 8 p.m.: "Preparing for Middle School" and "It's Never Too Early to Plan for College.