Madison Middle School

By barsotti_p 　https://blogs.4j.lane.edu/madisonstaff/2022/10/02/september-30-2022/

Dear Madison Staff,

We just wanted to take a moment and acknowledge all of the hard work you are doing and effort you are pouring into kids. Thank you for all that you do!

Here are this week’s updates.

Madison INFORMATION         

•  Monday Grade and Assignment Checks – This week, we’ll be kicking off our work in supporting students with organization and prioritization around their academics. Specifically, kid’s will be filling in a grade check template while teachers meet with several kids to check in and help them prioritize a few missing assignments to tackle. Here are the resources that were previewed at Friday’s staff meeting.
  • Focus Slides with Sample Student Grade Check template. There is also a 7 minute video that models how to check for missing assignments, if you’d like to use it.
  • Missing Assignments spreadsheet, sorted by Focus teacher and Risk score
  • Digital copy of the Canvas Grade Check sheet. Paper copies are already printed and in your mailbox. They will still need to be 3-hole punched.

• River Walk on Friday – Teachers, if you haven’t yet landed on a theme for your class to dress up as for the river walk, please pick that on Monday so that kids can plan ahead for Friday’s outfit. Here are all of the logistical details for Friday’s event.   

• Student Tardies – Our supervision team is noticing more and more students who are dragging their feet to be done playing at the end of morning break and lunch time. Please know that we always blow the whistle a full minute before the bell rings, to ensure that kids way out on the field have ample time to get to class. Having said that, kids are increasingly ignoring the whistle and continuing to play. There appears to be a consistent group of students getting to class late every day following things unstructured transitions. So, rather than yell and get frustrated, we’d like to ask for your help in holding kids accountable to return to class on time. If you are noticing students rolling in late consistently, please feel free to mark them tardy. Establish a system to keep track of tardies (many teachers keep a printed copy of their seating chart and pencil in dates under a student’s photo), and then when a student has been tardy three times, you can write them a minor referral, which will initiate a lunch detention. When students understand these natural consequences, they will begin to adjust their habits.
  
     
  
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DISTRICT INFORMATION                       

• EEF Grants Due 10/7: If you plan to submit an EEF grant, please let us know. Applications are due by October 7. They are prioritizing high needs schools (like us) as well as projects that focus on their three focus areas. These are enrichment (STEM, arts, experiential learning), ready to learn (literacy, SEL, emergent needs fund), and pathways (SPED, CTE, TAG). Grants are available only once a year and are capped at $5000.       
   

Looking Ahead:

Have a wonderful week!

Peter and Gina