• Welcome Back Students
  • We have had a wonderful first week of school
  • Hallway behavior has been great and students getting to class on time.
  • The Lunchroom has been wonderful.
  • Class Meetings
    • 9th Grade - Monday, August 30th
    • 8th Grade - Tuesday, August 31st
    • 7th Grade - Wednesday, September 1st
• Fall Sports tryouts
  • Girls Soccer see Coach Ungricht
  • Boys Volleyball see Coach Vuong
• Honors Program
  • Matheson Jr. High is known, among other things, for its excellent Honors Program. Please view our brochure for highlights and more information about this program.
  • Honors Brochure

Principal's Message - 4th Quarter 2010

As we enter the 4th term we are excited for the many things that have happened this year as well as those that are still to come. Students this year have been challenged to increase the time they study at home to 70, 80, and 90 minutes depending on their grade level. Students have put an emphasis on not just completing assignments but more importantly to using that time to also review and study. We have heard from teachers that many students have done a better job this school year at studying at home and at finishing homework assignments.

This year we have continued school wide initiatives and strategies to increase achievement levels in Language Arts. Through the MVP (Matheson Vocabulary Power) students have focused on content specific vocabulary in their classes and general academic words in their Advisory class. We have continued the PAWS for Reading program with a goal to read at least 8,000 books as a school. Students have been able to start each school day in Advisory with silent reading time; students are reading books in their reading classes (in these classes we have seen many students gain more than two years of reading level progress); and students are reading each night at home as part of their 70, 80, and 90 minutes of studying at home. We are still short of our goal and we encourage each student to read at least two more books before the end of school. In addition to Language Arts, there have been great efforts in our math department this school year. Students have been working hard in math to learn those core math skills. Throughout the entire year math has been one of the most commonly studied subjects in the after-school Study Skills Center. When registering for classes next year, over 100 of the Math 7 students requested a math study class in addition to their Pre-Algebra class.

In addition to classroom tests and assignments, students have been monitoring their math learning through a computer-based testing system called Acuity. The math teachers have been meeting regularly throughout the year in collaborative planning and data review; the Algebra teachers have also participated in district-sponsored workshops.

Students have started English CRT testing and will continue with Math and Science over the final month. Students and teachers have worked hard all year engaged in teaching and learning and now have the opportunity of showing their competence and understanding in these subject areas. It is important that students come ready each day for testing by being well rested and by eating a healthy breakfast. During the test every student will encounter some questions that they are unsure of the answer; it is important that students try their best on each and every question.

These are some of the academic highlights this year and there are many more including accomplishments of our Fine Arts department, our Academic Team, and our Athletic teams among others. We have enjoyed this school year and look forward to a strong finish to what has been an excellent year.