Program Overviews

MMS Program Overviews

Career Studies

Computer Applications:

The emphasis of study is to develop computer skills that are important for academic, personal, and job success.  Units of study include office applications, internet skills, research skills, computer ethics and desktop publishing.  Specific applications include: MS Office, Google Application tools, browsers (Chrome, IE/Edge, Firefox), and Online productions tools.

Family & Consumer Science:

This course introduces students to Family and Consumer Sciences through short units of instruction. Course units are designed to educate students in consumer skills including money management, consumer actions, purchasing decisions, goal setting and decision making, career exploration, nutritional needs, food preparation, importance of home and interpersonal relationships, and basic sewing skills. Students will learn essential daily skills that will prepare them for future real world situations within the home and workplace. 

Pre-Enginering/Technology Education:

In this class students will learn about Computer Graphics & Animation, Garbology, Biotechnology-DNA, Rocks & Resources Geog,  Soils, Plastics and Polymers, Civil Eng Bridges, Going Green/ Env, Electronics, Rocket Science, Simple Machines, Micro-Biology, Astronomy and Aquaculture.  In addition to these on-line hands-on curriculum students will design & edit web pages, explore cyber citizenship, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Computer Hardware.  In this practical living course we will also take several aptitude surveys of various careers and their details. Occupational Outlook Handbooks are also a part of this course where students read and explore in depth with writing their favorite careers.  Students by 18 weeks will ultimately have a summative folder of their assignments, packets, tests and writings for the semester. 

This course is very hands on with labs and student work with a different lab partner every 7-8 days of lab.  This real-life personal skill helps students to learn to work in a cooperative collaborative environment practical life skills.  Some of our class projects are onion DNA, plastic golf tees, circuit boards, fish production, environmental natural cleaners, solar water heaters, homemade toothpaste, soil sample ph,  balsa wood bridges, water bottle rockets and etc.... Students love the hands on labs which also are graded on ACT-multiple -choice like subject centered math, science and physics questions for assessments.  This web based curriculum is FCPS contracted Pitsco-Synergy Co. with STEM and CTE learning opportunities.

Health & Physical Education

Health:

Health Education is an important skill that students will use for the duration of their lives. Health is designed to help students learn about their changing bodies, to help them sort out emotions and personal values, to aid them in maintaining optimum health as a lifelong process, and to show students how to take responsibility for making healthy decisions. Many topics include real-life situations for teens. The course emphasis will be on the importance of lifetime

personal wellness, nutrition, and safety. It is my goal to provide students with the evidence based knowledge needed in order to make healthy decisions throughout their lives.

Physical Education:

The course emphasis will be on the importance of lifetime physical fitness, leisure activities, and sportsmanship.  Activities will focus on court and field sports, as well as other lifetime sports and fitness activities.  The class will include an emphasis on rules and regulations, skill development, effort/performance, and sportsmanship.

Visual & Performing Arts

Band:

The Morton Middle School band program has a long tradition of excellence, and has received many honors and recognitions. Comprised of the 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Bands, 8th Grade Jazz Band, over 200 students participate in a full range of classes and perform several times throughout the year.

Chorus:

Chorus at Morton Middle School is offered as a year-long exploratory class at all three grade levels. Variety is very important in many aspects of the course, including repertoire studied, instruction provided, and evaluations conducted. The focus of the MMS Choral Program is comprehensive musicianship, producing singers who can read music independently and make strong performance choices individually with regard to historical and theoretical context. Vocal development is also considered, as most male and female singers experience a voice change sometime during middle school.  All students will learn performance etiquette as performers and audience members through experience on both sides of the stage. Performance opportunities are varied and include on-campus and off-campus venues.  Students may also be selected for district honor chorus and/or invited to audition for the Kentucky All-State Chorus which is held each February during the Kentucky Music Educators Association annual conference in Louisville.  

Performing Arts is a 18-week study of two of the performing art areas: theatre, and music. It includes arts components such as monologues, development and study of characters, puppetry, improvisation, theater critique, and script writing. It will also incorporate the fundamentals of vocal and instrumental music incorporating instruction on both recorders and ukuleles. Students will explore through listening, singing, reading, writing, moving, playing, creating and acting.

Exploratory Art:

Exploratory Art is an exploration of a variety of art concepts, media and techniques. Students will be introduced to different periods of art history, different styles of art, art from other cultures and the work of individual artists. Students will begin to understand the relationship between famous artworks and his/her own work. Hopefully students will develop a sense of appreciation for both. A variety of media, both two-dimensionally and in the third dimension will be explored. Students will work on drawing and painting skills as we place emphasis on the elements and principles of design.  We will work with each of these elements separately so that the student will be able to understand the mechanics of putting together a work of art that displays the principles of design.  As we explore the many different aspects of modern art, we will make comparisons and study relationships between modern styles and traditional and classical styles of art.  We will try to understand the importance of art in our lives and the impact it has on our society.

Orchestra:

The Orchestra program at Morton Middle School is a string orchestra class for students who play violin, viola, cello or string bass.  Elements of music, theory, history, technique and performance will be taught. Students rehearse daily by grade level. Performance opportunities include the Fall Concert, Holiday Concert, Spring Concert, In-School Concerts, Workshops, Honors Orchestra, Solo/Ensemble Festival and JMEA Performance Assessment.

World Languages

French:

For students entering seventh grade, French is offered as part of a two-year language and culture study. Students begin with French in seventh grade, then continue with a second year in eighth grade. At the end of the two years of language study, students are expected to reach the Novice-High/Intermediate Low level. At the end of the seventh grade year, students are assessed formally with a district-wide common assessment for all the modes of language learning; speaking, listening, reading and writing. The students are also assessed at the end of eighth grade with both a district-wide common assessment, and the STAMP test.  

During both the seventh and eighth grade year, students learn much about the culture and holiday traditions. One holiday celebration taught during the year is the winter holiday, where students make holiday greeting cards, and the famous “Bûche de Noël. In February, students make masks and learn about the tradition and meaning of Mardi Gras, which includes a celebration with crêpes and games. At the end of the eighth grade, students do research on francophone countries. The students then present in the cafeteria to parents, teachers, and other specially invited classes at an event called “The Francophone Country Fair” where students present information in French about the country chosen, and visitors can taste authentic foods and drinks that the students have prepared. This event is something that both the students and the staff and parents of Morton look forward to each year. 

Spanish 1:

FCPS recognizes the importance of preparing students to compete in an increasingly multicultural and global community. To be successful, Kentuckians must enter the workforce with expanded cultural horizons and increased communication skills. At Morton, we offer students the opportunity to learn a modern language such as French or Spanish. In the process, students will learn to communicate with others and develop insight into their own language and culture.

In seventh-grade Spanish, students will experience a high school level proficiency-based curriculum, similar to first semester Spanish I courses in FCPS high schools. This is an introductory course to the Spanish language and its culture. Students will perform listening, speaking, reading and writing communicative tasks as they discover the different cultures, including the arts, foods, music and daily life of the Spanish speaking world. Students will use the target language to communicate about familiar topics related to school, home, and the community. Students will make basic connections to other content areas and compare the target language to their own native language. Additionally, students will use the language both within and beyond the school setting to work collaboratively as they connect to the globalized world.
 
Language learning plays a very important role in students’ education.  Learning another world language at any age is beneficial, and in today's global society, the ability to speak more than one language is a valuable asset. When children have an early start to a long sequence of language instruction in a carefully designed program that continues through high school and college, they will be able to achieve high levels of fluency. Additionally, children who acquire another language will not only develop a lifelong ability to communicate with people from other countries, but also experience cognitive, academic, and attitudinal benefits.

Spanish 2:

This course is an introduction to the study of the target language and its culture. It allows students to perform the most basic functions of the language and to become familiar with some elements of its culture. The emphasis is placed on the development of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing within a given context extending outside of the classroom setting when possible. The context focuses on the students’ lives and experiences and includes an exposure to everyday customs and lifestyles. Grammar is integrated throughout the course and is selected according to the language needs. Students acquire some insight into how languages and cultures work by comparing the target language and culture(s) to their own.
 
All modern language courses will include interpretative, interpersonal and presentational tasks and assessments. These tasks/assessments will not replace tests, but can be a substantial part of students' grades per unit.