Middle School

From Liz Atwood: For years we've heard about the teen and tween girls who have a negative body image. Trying to emulate the unnaturally thin models they see on TV or in magazines, they can starve themselves to death. But a new study shows that not only girls, but also teen and tween boys, can harm their health when they become too worried about their bodies. The journal Pediatrics recently published a study that shows a significant number of boys are using protein shakes and steroids to build their muscles.

As the growing season winds down, one Baltimore City school garden has harvested next to nothing. A project intended to enliven lessons or inspire healthier eating came down to four neglected beds yielding two cinder-block-sized zucchini. The garden brings to mind an all-too-common twist on the line from the movie "Field of Dreams": If you build it, they won't necessarily come. School-community collaborations like this project have a lot to recommend them and are a favored vehicle for doing more with less at schools.

From Liz Atwood: I'm just not getting enough sleep and the kids are the reason why. My sons are no longer infants crying in the middle of the night to be fed or changed. They aren't toddlers running into my room when they have a bad dream. They are a tween and a teen and they just can't seem to fall asleep until very late at night. Their habit of staying up until 11 or later is taking its toll on all of us. Last week, the 16-year-old, who has to get up at 6:30 in order to make the bus on time, asked to have coffee at breakfast.

If 2,500 Baltimore middle school students have their way Tuesday, President Barack Obama will be re-elected, children of some illegal immigrants will pay in-state tuition rates, same-sex couples can marry and gambling in Maryland will not expand. The results were announced Monday by the students of City Neighbors Charter School, who through a "Voters of Tomorrow" initiative conducted a mock vote in 29 city schools on key choices facing the state and country on Election Day. The project was a culmination of social studies lessons this fall for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at City Neighbors, which included following debates, arguing different positions in class, and hearing viewpoints from figures on both sides of the issues, including Republican Del. Pat McDonough, Democratic Del. Mary Washington and the immigrant rights group Casa de Maryland.

Prosecutors and legislators are pushing to close what they describe as a loophole in Maryland sex offense laws, citing recent cases in which they suspected that a teacher and a part-time coach became sexually involved with high-school-age students. State law bars sexual contact between "full-time permanent" employees who hold a "position of authority" over students who are minors at the schools where they work — even if the student is older than 16, Maryland's age of consent. The list in the law "includes a principal, vice principal, teacher or school counselor.

Approximately two weeks ago, while waiting in the queue of cars of parents and family members at dismissal time in front of St. John's Lane Elementary School in Ellicott City, I was amazed and angered by what transpired. With the dismissal of students at 3:15 p.m., and the daily rush of cars at the loop to pick up the kids, the entrance to the parking lot backs up, and traffic on St. John's Lane comes to a stop. As I awaited to turn left in to the parking lot, several vehicles, followed by two school buses, crossed the double yellow center line, to drive around the back up in the wrong lane.

We've reached the point in the school year where I feel like we're settling down for the long slog. The new notebooks and binders are scuffed. The excitement of new teachers and new classes has faded.  October has only just begun and I'm already tired. The transition to middle school has been tough on all of us. It isn't just that the work is harder. It's that my 11-year-old is expected to be much more responsible. This is a lesson I'm struggling to teach. Six weeks have passed and he has yet to bring home his gym uniform for me to wash.

Though 99 percent of Singapore's students pass national exams, a delegation of the city-state's educators recently traveled the globe to Anne Arundel County schools to learn innovative ways to help the other 1 percent succeed. Five educators from the Assumption Pathway School and Children-At-Risk-Empowerment (CARE) in Singapore visited classes at Lindale Middle School in Linthicum this month as part of a two-week tour of facilities in the state. They spoke with local school officials about organization, teaching strategies and assistance for at-risk students.

Jarrettsville Elementary School, Fallston Middle School and Patterson Mill High School are the recipients of the Harford County Public Library (HCPL) 2012 Summer Reading Trophies. The trophies were awarded to the public elementary, middle and high schools with the highest percentage of students who completed the Dream Big: READ Summer Reading Program. In addition, John Archer School was presented with an Extraordinary Achievement Award for having the largest increase in completions between 2011 and 2012.

Anne Arundel County police charged a 13-year-old Laurel student Tuesday with possessing a dangerous weapon on school property. The boy, who is being charged as a juvenile, also faces second-degree assault and reckless endangerment charges. He has been released into the custody of his parents. While MacArthur Middle School students waited a bus stop in Fort Meade Tuesday, a parent called to alert school that a student was carrying a BB gun in the waistband of his pants. School officials contacted police and their own security office and met the bus when it arrived.