Last week was a busy one here at RCMS, especially with many of our teachers catching up from NYC (not to mention Halloween, and a few little baseball games!). What follows is an uncharacteristically utilitarian mash-up of updates and announcements from last week, in an effort to keep everyone connected and informed. Thanks, as always, for reading…
High School Options Night
On Monday night, parents took advantage of the chance to hear from and ask questions of representatives from Seneca Valley, Poolesville, Richard Montgomery, Edison, Einstein, and Northwest about programs and options for high schools. (Agenda & info sheet here)
One important clarification: Students may apply to both the IB countywide program at Richard Montgomery and the IB regional program within their catchment area for the foreseeable future. The MCPS Office of Curriculum and Instructional Programs Special Programs website offers presentations and documents for parents and schools. Additionally, here is a link to an informational flyer that provides more information.
Math Team
The math team sent eight of its members to its first competition of the year this weekend at the Mathalon Contest in Laurel, MD. This ia the first time we get to test our skills against mathletes across the region. Our hats are off to Sumedh Vangara, Milo Stammers, Pranav Karthikeyan, Neel Bhattacharyya, Saahas Yadulla, David Ruan, Swarnabh Maharjan and Eric Huang!
Math Team will not have a practice on November 6th (Wednesday). The selected 20 Math Team members will participate in the Region 1 Middle School Math Meet at Kingsview Middle School. The event will start at 4:00 PM and ends at 5:30 PM. No transportation provided.
National Cryptologic Museum
On Tuesday and Wednesday last week, 8th grade students learned about secret world of codes and ciphers in a fun and exciting way. They started the day by hearing a story, “The Gold Bug,” and then tried to decipher the message from the story using substitution cipher. Then, they were given a Scavenger Hunt Questionnaire, which they had to complete by exploring the museum. The hunt was followed by an answer session in the museum classroom. The museum staff went over the questionnaires in a fun and interactive way, and she also gave additional historical information concerning the exhibits. Students were rewarded with frisbees and pencils for correct answers. In the following weeks, students will learn about some basic encryption algorithms and program it using python.
Parent Advisory Council: October Meeting
Tuesday night we facilitated our second PAC meeting, with light but much appreciated attendance. If you missed it, here is the no-frills slide deck. If you have questions or need more information, give us a call at school or contact Amanda Graver, PAC President. Hope to see you at the next meeting!
. . . And also . . . GO, NATS!
Outside the museum, we held one final session of the 2019 Humanities Poetry SLAM (SLAm, Slam, slam), featuring a healthy balance of inside jokes, personal connections, and emotional reflections. While listening to the students and chaperones share their poetic offerings, we adults were struck by an idea: we should pull all of this year’s poems together into a printed compilation later in the year. Stay tuned for updates; meanwhile, here is 
It was a blessedly uneventful trip home, with huge props owed to our drivers, J.T. and Monica, who became an integral part of our 2019 NYC experience throughout the week, and especially on our smooth return trip. Parents reunited with their children, teachers bid fond farewells (until Monday), and everyone was relieved and a little sad to see the adventure come to a close. As Mr. Young and I shared with the group outside the museum today, it is important to take all of the things we learned, experienced, and practiced together — patience, awareness, creativity, problem-solving, flexibility, support, and the ability to be present in the moment, just to name a few — back with us into our “normal” lives. 
Monday will definitely bring us back to life, back to reality… but our reality will never be the same. We have all been changed by this chance to get to know each other, this city, and ourselves, a whole lot better.
Today was our first day of using the Subway, and we learned a lot about problem solving and having a plan B (and C and D!) We found out there are several types of fare cards, and not all work in all situations. These tenacious kids made it work, however, and we had a great ride to Chinatown! We saw diverse architecture, a wide variety of family owned small businesses and stores and eclectic street performances. We enjoyed a delicious lunch and learned all about dim sum table-side service, dividing checks, and tipping.
After a morning spent immersed in the rich cultural experiences of Chinatown, we headed to the studios of New York Public Radio where we interviewed Mr. John Schaefer, host and producer on WNYC Radio. He was very impressed with the level of questions, and invited us back anytime we wanted to be a part of a show!
We reminded our students why it’s important to respect others using the city’s sidewalks and bike lanes; the Brooklyn Bridge hosts plenty of fast-moving cyclists, impatiently commuting into Manhattan. After a few minutes of paired walking practice (it really helped!), we kicked off our 2019 NYC Humanities Poetry Slam, which will continue spontaneously throughout the remainder of the trip in various locations.
From there, groups splintered off to explore different local landmarks, including 
A small cluster of students began asking questions of Julie Sweeney Roth, a tour guide routinely making her rounds, and she began to recount her personal experience of the attacks and resulting events.
groups set their own itineraries regarding shopping, exploring Times Square, and (eventually) embracing bedtime. We have one more full day in Manhattan tomorrow, and then we set our sights once more on Germantown and our own families and beds.
After a quick continental breakfast downstairs at the hotel, groups went their separate ways to explore the city and record their first interviews and historical project footage. Every group had a different adventure – from navigating the subway system to traverse the boroughs to interviewing VIPs and spokespersons from disparate industries – so we’ve asked our chaperones to share a few brief notes and pics to summarize what their students got into. At the end of the day (literally) we all came back together at the Gershwin Theatre to thrill to the beloved musical Wicked.
Today was a day where my students learned to adapt. Their very thought-out schedule had to be redone this morning. They handled it like the true rockstars they are. The girls came together, formulated a plan, and in the end, had an amazing day.
Students interviewed CEO Gerard Boucher from Boucher & Co., a digital advertising agency. Mr. Boucher and his staff were very gracious and encouraging of our students, and provided us all with swag including stickers, coasters, and coffee mugs.
The next few hours were an enjoyable flurry of ferry rides, history lessons, and selfies, as students explored Ellis Island and Liberty Island in their groups. Walking in the literal footsteps of previous generations of immigrants, students listened raptly to the stories and voices of real individuals, via audio pendants, on a self-guided tour the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. We hit the jackpot with the October weather today, shifting from light jackets to T-shirts, and then back to jackets again on the top deck of the return ferry.
After a quick but historically informative pass through 
Students look, listen, smell, and feel the life around them as they traverse the bustling, fascinating streets of Manhattan… and they’ll draw upon this inspiration to craft and perform reflective poems about the city throughout our trip. [Make a note to ask your children to share their poems with you, as well as any other reflections they are able to capture while we are here in the Big Apple.]
Of course, the Empire State Building itself was a uniquely memorable experience, whether students had previously visited or not. Several new exhibit pieces illuminated what the building process looked like, how it would feel to have King Kong reach into the room and grab for you, and the ways various superstars (and ordinary visitors) have made their mark on the iconic architectural marvel.
[To give you a sense of scale, the GBT dwarfs the Statue of Liberty and is almost as tall as the Washington Monument. It boasts the title of “the largest moving structure on land, and the largest fully-steerable telescope in the world.”] We wouldn’t really wrap our minds around its true engineering grandeur until day two, when we stood at the foot of the giant… but even from several miles away, and knowing very little about it or the observatory itself, the GBT was a wonder to behold.
They hypothesized about size, shape, and weight, as well as how best to return their payloads safely to Earth. Once construction was complete, Mr. Young added water and Alka-Seltzer to each rocket’s film canister for an explosive gas-powered lift-off. Even though some rockets experienced difficulty on the launchpad, we had some spectacular performances. In the end, students reflected that “lighter materials and simpler designs” were the way to go.
In order to obtain their building materials, they completed sketches and purchase orders, carefully deliberating on how to spend their limited funds on gum drops, toothpicks, marshmallows, raw spaghetti, and other goods. The 
What would we do differently? Well, we originally planned to use exactly ten spaghetti pieces in the top part, but as we were building, we found we needed to add more strength to the base.”
On our second and final evening, we all set off down the road on foot to see the GBT, and along the way spent a few minutes at each planet marker on the scale model of our solar system. [It’s kind of like the one at the Smithsonian, but much larger.] Students shared what they had researched for class, and taught each other about each of the planets… and also Pluto. The journey back to the dorm featured the annual “Space Race,” in which students raced up the slightly graded 1.6 mile return trip, in divisions including Speed Walking, Backwards Walking, Distance Running, and the newest category, Naruto. 
AND one final, lasting impression that the trip has left on me—and I think on all of us, to at least some extent—is a reminder that there IS life without cell phones and our ubiquitous technological interconnectivity. Even returning to 400 emails was worth it to escape my deep habit of Pavlovian response to every ping and vibration in my pocket or on my wrist. On our ride home, as we crossed back into cell range, the bus suddenly came alive with beeps, tweets, and ringtones of stalled communications—a sad and ominous audial bookend to the vocal excitement that so galvanized us when we first saw the GBT on arrival. One student a few rows back from me exclaimed, “Ohhh, man… I wish I was still in the dead zone!” I pondered this for a moment, understanding her perfectly, and then twisted back into the aisle to reply: “Well, maybe—just maybe—we can take a piece of the dead zone home with us.”
In their current unit, “Computer Hardware,” Mr. Simkanich’s 7th grade Computer Science students are combining coding, building circuits, and problem solving, as they program various hardware using our 
Throughout the unit, s
Last Thursday evening, we were pleased to host our first PAC meeting of the year. Our PAC President, Ms. Amanda Graver, set the stage by reviewing the agenda, comprised of parent questions and suggestions. Mr. Orders then shared a Google Slides presentation that addressed these items and provided a few other updates. If you missed this meeting, or you would like to review the information that was shared, you can access the 