Programs+at+Merrill

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= Merrill Middle Million and More =

By Chris
At Merrill Middle School, every kid is trying their best to reach 1,000,000 words in their reading. Every kid is in the home stretch or close to reaching it. Chris, is one of the kids who have reached 2,000,000 words. So Chris…. How do you feel about reaching 1,000,000 words? He said,’’ I am very proud in reaching 2,000,000’’. Do you have a goal? ‘’Yes, I am trying to get to 3,000,000 words and I am very determined to get there because, last year I got to 2,000,000 but I just didn’t have the time to get to 3,000,000 words’’. He said.’’ Well that was a very interesting story Chris." "What book or books are you reading right now?" "I am reading The Miracle on 49th Street and it is very good’’. Do you have anything else to say? ‘’I think it is a great to read books’’. ‘’I agree totally, thank you very much Chris’’. 

= = = Math Skills!!!!!!! =

By Rebecca
= Math Skills is a new program at Merrill Middle School. Mrs. Breetz teaches this exciting new elective. Joelle, an eighth grader here at Merrill has this elective and she says that in Math Skills you learn math and math strategies. She also said that on ALEKS.com you can do problems and learn new methods to solving math problems. She also said that the program helps her very much when it comes to learning math. The teacher of math skills, Mrs. Breetz says that each day every student has a new goal that they strive to achieve. The students spend the whole period only on ALEKS.com (__A__ssessments and __LE__arning in __K__nowledge __S__paces). The difference between Math Skills and normal math classes is that Math Skills is only 45 minutes long and it is all online. The students each have a pie that they work on every day. They try to complete the pie by learning and achieving an assessment. Math Skills helps student learn math in a fun and interesting way. = = =

By Tristan
 * A New Look for Soar**

This year Soar is very different. This year Soar is run by Denver Parks and Recreation. Instead of weekly programs they now have daily programs.

They have a radio-broadcasting club. In this club on Wednesdays you learn how make a pod cast and record a radio show. They also have an urban lens club. In this club on Thursdays you learn how to take pictures process film print pictures in a dark room and your art displayed. They also have a dodge ball club. In this club on Wednesdays you learn how to play dodge ball then you will play in an eight game league. The last club they have is a climbing club. In this club on Thursdays they teach you how climb up walls and other things.

Indian Focus
by Yafet===

The Indian Focus is the America Indian staff recognizes the uniqueness of the American Indian student, and their families, which stems from cultural values, traditional customs and settings.

The Indian education program provides services designed to help student achieve and be successful in the Denver Public School. It happened to provide academic, cultural, and other support services that nurture school success.

The Focus schools in Denver Public School are Merrill middle School with, East High School, Brown Elementary School, Collage View Elementary, Cole Arts and Middle and Collage of Denver [CEC]. Science Academyk-8, Career Education Center. The Indian focus moved to Merrill Middle School about 5 years ago but DPS started the program long time before that.

There are 20 students in Merrill and they meet in Mr. Redhorse class instead of going to elective class. Mr. Redhorse is the leader and helps their families by talking to them and helps them with some problems. He said that he takes them on fieldtrips with the MESA kids. He take’s them to collages, and science fair. =====

by Nathaniel

What exactly is an intervention class? I asked Ms. Smith this and she told me it’s a class where students get their grades up if they’re so close to getting a 3 or 4 in a class. They also test students to find out what subject they need help in, then they put them in a program to improve that skill. Students are also chosen for this class because their CSAP or SRI scores aren’t proficient.

This class is for every grade at this school and is during electives. Ms. Smith has been trained to teach this class and has been teaching it for 3 to 4 years and therefore is well qualified to teach this class; there are other teachers who teach this class too. They teach very different subjects.

These classes include the use of Reading Advantage, which is a vocabulary and comprehension program and Rewards, which is another reading comprehension program. There’s also Language!, A.K.A. phonics. Another program would be Spellography which studies word patterns and Six Minute Solutions which helps kids with their fluency. These classes are very helpful for the students who need help in a certain classes to raise their scores.

**Response To Intervention** By Jasmin

RTI is a dynamic problem-solving group that helps student with their needs on subjects like mathematics and language arts. RTI has a model that lists three levels of instruction. The first level is the Universal level that refers to classroom core instructions. The second level is the Targeted and it offers supplemental research based on the students needs. The third level is intensive that supports students with significant chronic deficits.

RTI gets the money that supports them with safe search. RTI utilizes a specific assessment plan. They have 4 major objectives. First they identify students at the beginning of the year that need more support. The second one is to form instructional planning to meet the needs of individual student. The third is to monitor the student’s progress to instruction. The fourth is to evaluate whether the levels of instruction are powerful enough to help the students achieve grade level standard.

The most effective RTI implementations occur in schools where the Principal is committed to the system. The purpose of the problem-solving process is to put in place a structure format and decision-making process that will lead to the development. The problem should be stated in objective, measurable terms, using change through the process. The DPS RTI offices are located in room 14 down in the basement.

by Mishel
====The Denver Kids Inc. helps kids with their problems like if they have a bad attitude or if they get suspended a lot. They do make a difference when a kid gets suspended. The mission of Denver Kids is to help them with their lives and problems.==== ====Denver Kids has been helping kids in Denver Public Schools since 1946 become productive members of the community. Denver Kids is a good thing because they help lots of kids People who go to Denver Inc. need some help with their school lives.==== ====The kids who go to Denver Kids inc. have problems like abuse, Aids, abusive, at home and violence these kids feel bad but then Denver kids came to help them with their lives and they have mentors male mentors for kids and girl mentors for females. Merrill Middle School has a room where Denver kids help some students. They are lots of kids who are at Denver kids Inc. getting help.====

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In this school and many other schools as well, Balarat has come to Merrill to be one of the four office groups at the school. The Denver Public Schools wanted Merrill to have 1000 students but instead Merrill decided to have four offices including Balarat at the school to take over part of the space and watch it. Here is why the Denver Public Schools have decided to have different offices at Merrill. =====

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The DPS district strongly wanted us to have a total of 1000 kids in the school. Now right now we have a little over 500 kids had in our school. So just imagine how it will be like if we have twice as many kids as we do now. If you think there is crowds in halls and classrooms now just think of how much more crowded in the halls would be with 1000 kids. Luckily Merrill did not think that they could handle that many kids. So instead they had a meeting over the summer with the DPS and have decided to have four different groups of people from different places to come and have offices in the buildings instead. Balarat is one of the groups that are watching over the schools. =====

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So now people at Merrill are happier with not having 1000 kids at school. It is so much easier for the teachers and the students when we have less than half of that. Balarat is a big help to the school right now. This is one reason Balarat came to our school to help us. =====