Greetings from Mrs. Roman's eighth grade Physical Science class. We are the Bobcats from Jackson Heights Middle School in Oviedo, Florida. We are located 28 degrees , 40 minutes and 11 seconds N, and 8 degrees 12 minutes and 30 seconds W. Our school is a 6- 8 middle school of approximately 2000 students.
Our Science class has 32 students. In our school we have about 125 teachers, 12 principals, 5 assistant principals and one Dean. We have a mixed population of White Americans, African-americans , Hispanics and Asians.
At JHMS we have 7 buildings. Our population has grown so much in the past few years that we have about 27 portable classrooms. There are four lunch schedule hours. Our school day starts at 9:15a.m and is over at 3:50p.m. Classes are 54 minutes long, except on Wednesdays when we have early dismissal and classes are shorter and we go home at 2:50.
The state ranked our JHMS as an "A+" school . We are the only middle school in the state with and NJROTC program. We also have many classes to choose from like: Video Production, Drama, Band, Chorus, Arts, Technology, Health and others. We also have programs for SLD students, Tutorial, and students with special needs or disinterested in school. Students can also benefit from the After School Program that offers basketball, dance, cheerleading, step dancing, football, cross country and others. As you can notice we are busy all year long and there is something for everyone to do.
We celebrate many activities in school. Last week we have a Hispanic Festival, today we honored the veterans with a flag ceremony. We have pep rallys which are lots of fun because we get all together to cheer for our teams. At JHMS we are exposed to a variety of cultural, academic, and moral activities that will help us to become better citizens.
At this time of the year we are looking forward to our Christmas Celebration and our winter break. Our weather is mild, summers are hot and humid but winters are fair, therefore we enjoy the nice and cool weather on December. This year our New Years Eve Celebration will be very meaningful. Everyone is getting ready for the new Millenium and many places are having special celebrations. Traditionally the whole family gather together and enjoy a big dinner that includes but is not limited to turkey, ham, pork, rice, pies and other desserts. We have a special drink called egg nog . We sing and dance all night. Ten seconds before midnight everyone get together in front of the T.V or the radio to wait for the count down that takes place in New York. When the clock hits midnight people starts screaming and jumping of joy. We hug each others and celebrate the arrival of the New Year. We shhot some fireworks and we spend all night enjoying the festivities. On New Year's morning. January 1st , we have breakfast with the family and then in the afternoon we go out to the movies, to visit some friends or to the Disney or Universal Studios Amusement Parks.
We are excited to participate in this project. We look forward to share with people from other parts of the world.
Best regards from students from the Sunshine State.