Thomas Grover Middle School

Infobox School
name = Thomas R. Grover Middle School


imagesize = 210px
caption = Front lot of Thomas R. Grover Middle School
motto =
established = 1999
type = Public Middle School
affiliation =
district = West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District
grades = 6th to 8th Grade
principal = Dennis J. Leopold
asst principal = Samuel Hendrickson
Beverly Krocker
enrollment = 1,182 (as of 2005-06)
faculty = 110.6 (on FTE basis)
ratio = 10.7
athletics =
conference =
colors = Gold and black
colorbox|gold colorbox|black
mascot = Jaguar
campus type =
campus size =
information = 609-716-5250
free_label2 = Regular school times
free_text2 = 7:43 to 2:45
free_label3 =
free_text3 =
location = 10 Southfield Road
Princeton Junction, NJ 08550 [http://newjersey.hometownlocator.com/maps/feature-map,ftc,2,fid,2059809,n,Thomas%20R%20Grover%20Middle%20School.cfm New Jersey Hometown locator] ]
country = United States
coordinates = coord|40.2729|N|74.5949|E
website = [http://www.west-windsor-plainsboro.k12.nj.us/grover/index.html Grover Middle School]

Thomas R. Grover Middle School is a middle school located in Princeton Junction in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is part of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, and serves grades six through eight. Grover's mascot is a jaguar, and its students are self-dubbed 'Jags'. The official colors are black and gold.

The school is named after Thomas Grover, the son of a farmer in the neighborhood who died in the Vietnam War. The Grover Farm is located next to the school.

As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,182 students and 110.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 10.7. [http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&DistrictID=3409660&ID=340966001104 Grover Middle School] , National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed August 3, 2008.]

Facilities

The two-story school building was built in 1999 at a total cost of $18.5 million and opened in September of that year. The building, designed by Faridy Thorne Fraytak Architects/Planners, with 175,000 square feet, was built to educate as many as 1,150 students. [ [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-68647672.html] Brief article in "American School and University" periodical, November 1, 2000, article summary accessed from the "High Beam Research" Web site, September 10, 2007.]

Awards and recognition

In April 2005, Ming-Ming Tran, a sixth-grade student at the school, won the $25,000 first-place national championship of the Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge, a vocabulary competition. A total of 1.6 million fourth through eighth grade students nationwide participated in the event. [ [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-131692253.html "New Jersey Student Wins Third Annual Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge(SM); Ming-Ming Tran of Princeton Junction, New Jersey Awarded $25,000 College Scholarship."] , news release, "Reader's Digest" Association Inc., Pleasantville, New York, April 19, 2005, distributed through PR Newswire, as quoted in a summary at "High Beam Research" Web site, accessed September 10, 2007.]

Another student at the school, Michael Wu, won first place in the 2007 New Jersey state contest of the National MathCounts Competition. [ [http://www.mathcounts-nj.org/07_results/State_07.htm "New Jersey MathCounts / 2007 New Jersey State Competition Results"] , at the New Jersey MathCounts Web site, accessed September 10, 2007.] The school has competed successfully in the state contest before. Both Michael Wu (second place) and Ming-Ming Tran (third place) were on the New Jersey state team competing for the National MathCounts Competition in 2006. [ [http://www.west-windsor-plainsboro.k12.nj.us/pressReleases/MathCounts.pdf] Untitled news release dated March 20, 2007 from the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, first sentence: "Ten teams and approximately 54 individuals participated in the State Mathcounts competition", accessed September 10, 2007] In 2000, TRG student Venkat Chandar won first place and Dan Le, also a student at the school, won third place, while the school's team coach, Cecelia Jancola, was selected to coach the New Jersey state team in the national competition. [ [http://www.mathcounts-nj.org/Press_Rel1.htm "New Jersey Student Team to Compete in National Mathematics Finals in Washington, D.C."] , news release from the New Jersey MathCounts Web site, dated March 14, 2007, accessed September 10, 2007.] The MathCounts team has taken 1st place in New Jersey 6 of it's first 9 years in existence, and coach Dr. Alyce Doehner has led the New Jersey state team to 2 national 3rd place finishes.

The school also hosts the Future Problem Solving Scenario Writing program which is offered in conjunction with the Future Problem Solving program. The 2006 winners of this were: Sean Wu (first place), Ishar Keshu (second place) and Amani Saeed (third place). [ [http://www.west-windsor-plainsboro.k12.nj.us/Newsletters%202006/JagApr07lr.pdf Jagazine April 2007 Issue] at the newsletters section of the school district website, page 13. See picture caption. Accessed September 25, 2008.]

Curriculum

Grover Middle School (GMS) students take classes in music, art, performing arts, media, health, computer, life skills, and technology. Students also participate in choir, orchestra, and band programs that provide group and individual instruction. The elective program includes a class in which students produce their own television program via an intra-school cable network.

World languages

Students in Grover are required to pick one world language for 3 years. Languages offered are Spanish, French, Chinese and German.

Electives

Seventh graders choose one extracurricular class, and eighth graders choose two extracurricular classes. In sixth and seventh grade, students have their electives every other day (see A day and B day and have physical education class in place of the days that do not have electives. Eighth grade students have electives opposite each other in somewhat complicated 2-day schedules.

Cycles

Cycles are classes that each student is assigned to every year. Each cycle lasts an equal fraction of the year. For example, in the 7th grade, each cycle lasts approximately thirty days, and the subjects are Technology, Health, Music, Computers, Art, and Life Skills.

PRISM

PRISM (Performance Revealing Individual Student Magic) is the school's Gifted and Talented program. Unlike most Gifted and Talented Programs, there is no entry test. Programs that PRISM offers are Future Problem Solving (FPS), National History Day, ROGATE, and Cognetics. The first two are competitions and the latter two are expostitions. PRISM is currently taught by Dr. Ruddiman.

Student division system

The students are divided by 'teams' that go from A to E. The number of the grade of the team is first, followed by the letter. Teams A-D consist of 4 teachers and at least 1 special education teacher. The teachers teach Math, Science, Social Studies, and IRLA. Teams 7E and 8E share their science and math teacher and have an individual teacher who teaches Social Studies and IRLA. Team 7E and 8E are unique; they have about half the number of students as any other team. However, for the 2007-2008 school year, Team 6E was dissolved due to a lack of students.

A Day and B Day Classes

A and B Day Classes are 40-minute classes which alternate every day. Throughout the year, students go to their A and B Day Classes depending upon which of the two days it is. For grades 6 and 7, there is one time slot per day for A and B day classes, for physical education and an elective. 8th graders' schedules have two A and B day class time slots, with a combination of cycle, physical education, and two electives. On A and B days, the designated classes would alternate.

Schedules

Since the district combined reading and language arts for the middle school curriculum, there are 4 basic subjects, taught within a "team": IRLA (Integrated Reading and Language Arts), Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science. Students certified as "advanced" through a test from the third grade have a separate mathematics class, the Advanced and Enriched Mathematics program. These four classes are 52 minutes each, the other three classes (one of three world languages, a cycle class, and an elective) have 40 minutes, and lunch & recess are 40 minutes. (An extra 3 minutes are built into first period for morning announcements, and an extra ten minutes are built into third period, for Morning Meeting.)

NOTE:As of the 2008 school year, "AE Flex" is given each day for 30 minutes. It is a time in which students can socialize, finish their work, and read. As a result, each team period is shortened to 52 minutes. (The past ones were 57 minutes.)

Special education Programs

The school has Special education Programs that aid students with difficulties. These programs include the Literature Lab where students struggling in Language Arts practice to improve their knowledge on that subject to normal, required standards, the Math Lab where students improve their mathematics skills, and the ACES class where children diagnosed with autism learn and socialize with other autistic people in the school.

Clubs and extracurricular activities

The school has many after school programs, also known as clubs, ranging from Homework tutorial to Science Olympiad and Debate Club. All clubs must be supervised by a teacher. A club usually has a range of about 20-25 students. Most clubs are applied for by the students in Autumn and Spring via paper, although some may require special nomination, like First Period Paws.

Jaguar Journal

"The Jaguar Journal' is a magazine published once a marking period, and is produced and edited by students. It is in black and white and also available in hardcover for $20. However, newspaper-type issues only cost 25 cents.

First Period Paws - Grover’s TV Station

The program provides students the opportunity to learn the art of communication by writing and presenting live broadcasts seen by both students and teachers throughout the school. Students that operate this program are hand-selected by teachers.

Administration

Core members of the school's administration are: [ [http://www.west-windsor-plainsboro.k12.nj.us/grover/index.html Home page] , Grover Middle School. Accessed August 3, 2008.]
*Principal: Dennis J. Lepold
*Assistant Principal: Samuel Hendrickson
*Assistant Principal: Beverly Krocker

References

External links

* [http://www.west-windsor-plainsboro.k12.nj.us/grover/index.html Thomas Grover Middle School]
*NJReportCard|21|5715|035|Thomas Grover Middle School
* [http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_list.asp?Search=1&DistrictID=3417700 Data for the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District] , National Center for Education Statistics
* [http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/53388 Thomas R. Grover Middle School statistics]