The Middle Update 2/24/19

Resource of the Week
A short video this week goes into the science behind why great relationships are so critical for students to maximize the learning.  An important video at an important time of the year.

Staff Meeting Recap
During our staff meeting we spent some time learning about some new ways to engage students.  Pictured below, you'll see students in Mrs. Weckerly's class using Quizizz...something that Molly and Mackenzie shared at our staff meeting.

Also, thanks to Mr. Odden for allowing me to record his closure activity from Monday.  As we reflected in the meeting, those 2-3 minutes are so critical to strengthen the student's understanding of lesson goal for the day.

Art Excellence! (contribution from Mrs. Crawford)
Please congratulate the following middle school students. Because of their excellence in the visual arts, their artwork has been chosen to represent Poynette Middle School at the 2019 South West Region WAEA Youth Art Month Exhibition.

Valerie Heth     Jocelynn Nehls     Ryli Theis     Ilse Benzing     Ashlyn Lien

Hold Drill
We will be holding a drill this week.  The drill will be for the 1-8 building.  The purpose would be to practice keeping the students in the room, but continuing with academic activities.  The drill will be fairly short and more information will be shared through email prior to the drill.  We will need to coordinate with the elementary school.

Parent-Teacher Conferences
Spring PT Conferences are approaching rapidly.  This spring will be different than in the past because instead of two nights of conferences, we'll have only one.  Please look ahead and reach out to parents with an invitation to participate in a conference for any student that is in need (NE's or BE's or for any other student that you may have some concerns that you want to connect with parents).  Also for this night, we are inviting all parents in to either check in with teachers or hear a presentation from me about how to really understand student progress at PMS.

Also, we'd like to start a student talent tradition for Spring Conferences.  Please be thinking about ways to display student talent on this night.  If we could have students come in, present or display projects, or show parents cool things they have created or written, that would be a start.  We'll continue to discuss ways in which we can make the most of this evening.

Minutes Added to Calendar (starting Monday)
We will be adding 5 minutes to our school day starting on Monday, 2/25/19.  Please review (slight edits from last week) the updated PMS Master Schedule and become familiar with it.  It is very important for the function of the building to dismiss students at the time listed on the Master Schedule.

To make up days, we will, instead of PD Days on March 22nd and April 22nd, have normal school days.  Also, the last student day will be on June 6th (release at 12:30).  In other news, the End of Quarter 3 will be on Friday, April 5th.

Upcoming Calendar Items
-3rd Quarter Progress Grades should be updated by end of day Monday (2/25)
-Homeroom next week is on Thursday (2/28)
-Winter Assembly next week is on Friday (3/1) at 2:15 in 1-8 Gym
-Next Student of the Month Breakfast will be on Thursday (3/21)
-April 3rd - 2:50 pm - Forward Exam Teacher Prep Training - location (Mrs. Rogness' Room)
-Forward Testing will begin Week of April 15th - All Teachers with a Homeroom will proctor

Images from the Week

 

The Middle Update 2/17/19

What a month we've just experienced.  In conversations with many, I believe we all are striving for some consistency in our schedule and establishing routine and flow.  Let's hope the weather cooperates here for the rest of the winter season and we can get back that routine and structure that is so helpful for us and the kids we serve.  If the groundhog legend is true, good news lies ahead...an early spring.

Resource of the Week
Our resource this week highlights the opportunity that each of us has each day at school.  We have the potential to have a major impact in the lives of our students.  The empathy, care, compassion, curiosity, and effort we give of ourselves for our students is there each day.  This is not only a great opportunity for us, but also a responsibility that we have in our roles.  The article this week speaks to the unique opportunity that we have working in our profession.

"Understanding a Teacher's Long-Term Impact" by Youki Terada

"People overwhelmingly said that great teachers make their students feel safe and loved, believe in their students, model patience, and help their students reach their full potential—all qualities that remain largely unmeasured."

Parent-Teacher Conferences
Spring PT Conferences are approaching rapidly.  This spring will be different than in the past because instead of two nights of conferences, we'll have only one.  Please look ahead and reach out to parents with an invitation to participate in a conference for any student that is in need (NE's or BE's or for any other student that you may have some concerns that you want to connect with parents).  Also for this night, we are inviting all parents in to either check in with teachers or hear a presentation from me about how to really understand student progress at PMS.

Also, we'd like to start a student talent tradition for Spring Conferences.  Please be thinking about ways to display student talent on this night.  If we could have students come in, present or display projects, or show parents cool things they have created or written, that would be a start.  We'll continue to discuss ways in which we can make the most of this evening.

Minutes Added to Calendar (starting 2/25/19)
We will be adding 5 minutes to our school day starting on Monday, 2/25/19.  Please review the updated PMS Master Schedule and become familiar with it.  It is very important for the function of the building to dismiss students at the time listed on the Master Schedule.

To make up days, we will, instead of PD Days on March 22nd and April 22nd, have normal school days.  Also, the last student day will be on June 6th (release at 12:30).  In other news, the End of Quarter 3 will be on Friday, April 5th.

Staff Meeting This Week
We will have a Staff Meeting this Wednesday (2/20) at 2:50 in Mrs. Rogness' room.  We will hear from some teachers about recent learning experiences, analyze some data, and hear some thoughts from our students.  Also, there will be cookies.

Equity Book Study Update (from Mr. Hausser's blog)

We have 25 staff members and 5 administrators who are participating in the Book study which is awesome.  Those of you who have signed up will be invited to our Google Classroom this week and the books should be here by Monday we are hoping.  We may need to adjust the timeline for assignments depending on when the books arrive.

Winter Assembly (3/1)

Some of our students in our Leadership Group have been hard at work planning an event that will help grow our culture of connections and positivity.  If anyone has an idea or two that staff members could come together and give our students something to cheer about, let me know...it's hard to top the "Baby Shark do do do do do do" performance, but I think it's possible.

Next week, we will run our Homeroom groups on Thursday, and dismiss straight to 3rd block from lunch on Friday to accommodate the testing schedule.

February Safety Drill

We will be having a safety drill coming up this week or next.  Please review all of the potential situations and procedures that could be called.  It could be any of the holds, lock-down, fire drill or an evacuation.  I'll keep you posted as the plans become clearer.

Images of the Week

The Middle Update 2/10/19

I hope your weekend was outstanding.  I am looking forward to my return to school after a couple of days learning a lot at the State Principal's Convention.  Dr. Hoernke and I also got the chance to present to about 90 other principals about the great things we are up to in our school this past Friday morning.  I hope we can get a full week of school in this week!!

Resource of the Week
I got the chance to hear Dr. Ross Greene speak on Thursday morning.  He is the author of the book "Lost at School".  His message was right in line with the work that we have been doing on things like "Trauma Informed Care" and "Collective Teacher Efficacy".  His book and message brought some clarity as to what we can do in schools with the information gleaned from the topics that we studied.  The article this week provides a glimpse into the message I heard last week.

"What if Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong" - Katherine Reynolds Lewis

Puma Pride Standards Reminder
This is a reminder to assess your students in the "Follows Classroom Expectations" standard at least once a week.  This is the minimum requirements and I encourage everyone to look for ways to leverage our Puma Pride standards to provide students and parents more feedback on their performance in class.  When used effectively, our Puma Pride standards are built in ways in which we can communicate our expectations for each student.

Calendar Update
We have been working on a tentative plan to make up the minutes lost from snow days.  The following plan is not finalized, but may be close...We will be adding some time to the MS/HS day, and we will be now going to school on June 5th for the full day.  We will have an early release day on June 6th.  Please be careful about planning any plane rides the last week of school.  Unfortunately, we may not be done with adding days.  Also, March 22 was originally a PD day, but this is now going to be a student day.  If we need additional days, then the April PD will become a school day and then we will add to the end of the year.  It has been a tough year already and we are not through February and March.  When the plan is finalized it will be communicated in detail with staff.

Book Study Professional Development Opportunity
The administrators are going to be facilitating a book study over the next couple of months.  The book will be focused on building equity in our schools.  Here is the write- up about the book study.  This professional development will entail reading the book, participating in 2-night sessions and posting on Google Classroom.  Please let me know if you are interested so we can order the books.  Participants will be provided with the book once they have committed to the opportunity.  This will be worth 90 points.

Budget Time
It's that time of year again...Details will be going out soon for you to submit your budget requests for the next school year.  Please be thinking and making lists of what you will need for your classes next year.

Staff Meeting Next Week
We will be having a Middle School Staff Meeting next Wednesday (2/20) at 2:50 in Mrs. Rogness' class.

Forward Testing Schedule
We are finalizing our Forward Exam Schedule.  At this time, it looks like we will start our testing the week of April 15th.  We also have preliminary plans to have all grades test at the same time, and utilize a form of our Late Start Schedule for the remainder of each all school testing day.  If you have thoughts on our testing plan, please communicate those with me when you can.  Details will be shared soon, and we will also be having a Forward Testing Preparation Meeting coming up as well.  We plan to utilize small groups organized around our Homeroom groups for testing this year.

Images of the Week