November 26, 2014

Dear Middle School Parents,

What an amazing busy schedule we have had over the last four weeks! Students have finished Quarter 1 and started the Quarter 2.  Students are now almost halfway through the second quarter. Students have finished one season of sports,clubs and activities and now signed up for new set of activities.

Below you will see various slideshows from some recent Middle School events (Hungarian Revolution; Co-Curricular; Parent Student Teacher Conference). We are in the final performances today of the MS drama performance this year of Romeo and Juliet. Students have been working extremely hard on this production and hopefully you will be able to see the production.

We hope you enjoy the holiday this week with your friends and family.

(Counselor's Update;See PE Update; 6th Grade Portal Update; 8th Grade Portal Update)

Report Cards:

We will no longer being using these EFFORT and BEHAVIOR indicators on Report Cards and instead will be using HABITS OF LEARNING starting quarter two. We will start using the Habits of Learning for the second quarter and provide student feedback at the end of the quarter.  Click on link for more information.

We believe that the Habits of Learning provide clearer feedback and evaluation opportunities about a student’s learning, growth and challenges than EFFORT and BEHAVIOR. 

The Habits of Learning include: Responsibility; Perseverance; Reflection; Creativity; Collaboration. There are descriptors / criteria for each Habit of Learning to tell students and parents what they look like and mean in the classroom / learning environment. 

FCD Visit:

We have concluded our visit from FCD and the feedback from students and faculty has been positive. Students were engaged and involved in the classroom based discussions with the FCD counselor, David.  We also had an opportunity for two parent meetings and the feedback from those was positive as well. This is part of an ongoing discussion topic that teachers, parents must be role models for our children who need our support and guidance throughout this period.  

As an aside it was interesting to have the FCD visit at the same time as the Budapest Festival Orchestra was here performing for Middle and High school students. The performance the students saw focused on decision making and the importance of having all the information in order to make a good decision.  This was a wonderful connection with the FCD visit as we work to provide students with the facts, skills and a mindset to effectively problem solve issues related to Drugs, Alcohol and peer pressure.

MS PSA:  

Many thanks to the parents involved in the PSA for all their contributions during the first part of the school year. We are able to provide a lot of additional experiences due to the contributions of the PSA and we are extremely thankful for their collective efforts.  The next celebration will be Wednesday, November 27th's supper.

All School Clothes Drive- December 1st-5th; Actual Sort-December 6th

We hope you and your family will able to contribute items or time towards our All School Clothes sort.  Please click on the link more information.

1957 Assembly: Hungarian Revolution

Middle School Co-Curricular Assembly

Parent-Student-Teacher Fall Conferences


Counselor's Corner
All MS students had the opportunity last week to interact with David Sherell, Freedom From Chemical Dependency (FCD) presenter.  David was impressed with the knowledge, understanding and input from our students about healthy lifestyle choices.  Many students remembered last year's meetings, and hearing David's information about alcohol, tobacco and other addictive substances.  



This year additional topics were added directed at video games and social media behaviors.  David added two lunchtime discussion sessions to directly target new information about brain activity during gaming, and how students can address possible overuse of gaming and social media that all students were invited to participate.  Some of the questions discussed on these topics included: How much is too much?  When do you need help?  What's happening with your brain during excessive use of video gaming and social media?  

Please check:   

FCD.org.  For more information.
Nancy Seibel
MS Counselor