BCMS Students and Parents;

End of Week Notes and Updates

IMPORTANT – for All Students & Parents - PAC – Student Leadership Committee Update

All BCMS students were asked how they would like to “Make BCMS better” and they suggested the 9 domains referenced in the diagram below.

You can also see that our students’ interest in the importance of these domains is spread somewhat evenly and impressively.

Our next step in developing each of these areas is to connect our students to the clubs and committees that take up these charges.

Examples:

• Mr. Reilly’s “Helping Hands” club is a phenomenal model of helping others who are less fortunate
• Ms. Sanders’ “No Place 4 Hate” celebrates diversity, tolerance & acceptance of all and works to create this in our school

In the coming week we will announce when these committees meet and we will be encouraging students to join those that are their passions!  Students will be allowed to take on whatever amount of leadership they are ready for and they WILL CHANGE OUR SCHOOL FOR THE BETTER!

We encourage all of our students (6th, 7th and 8th graders!) to participate.

So look for email about each committee throughout next week.

A Fundamental Leadership Skill … we are beginning to Teach NOW

Effective Leaders (at any age) are great communicators.  Middle School students typically have not developed the habit of checking email.  We will be working on this with them because we will share more and more information with them through this medium.  Meeting times of our Leadership Committees, their agendas, and our action planning will all be communicated through email so we ask that parents be patient with us as we copy these messages to you to help your student develop the habit of checking email at least once each day.  (We will also work on this during the school day).

Players Tribune – A Great Reading Resource for Athletes & Stories about Resilience

As a young science teacher a number of years ago I realized that LITERACY was both a key and an impediment to my students’ success.  My wife was teaching 3^rd grade and I was teaching 8^th and I began to use many of her reading and writing strategies in my classes.

Later in my career, as I began to study great teachers and as I took on more responsibility to plan professional development for and with teachers, I learned that great schools get their students to read and write well.  This lesson has never left me.

So here’s one of the most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned as a parent; if you want your kids to be great readers, let them read what they love.  BC teachers from Kindergarten all the way through 12^th grade will continue to push students toward finding authors and genres they love.  With this in mind I’m sharing a great resource that I would have devoured as a Tween and Teen.

The Player’s Tribune was begun by Derek Jeter (yes, that Derek Jeter) as an e-magazine by athletes (they are the authors) and for everyone.  This week’s article has a great story about the New York Knicks recent draft pick.

Caution – all content may not be appropriate for readers younger than Middle School.

Farm to You Fest … All Next Week!

BCMS celebrates our local farming community once again through “Farm to You Fest 2017.”

• Mon – Fri our AM announcements feature agricultural questions for prizes each day
• Wednesday is our Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin
• Wednesday is also Walk / Ride to School Day – help save the planet by getting yourself to school!
• Friday is our “Salads for Kids Day” where any student who would like one can get a salad with produce grown organically in the BCMS Gardens thanks to Mr. Warford and Garden Club
• Saturday is Scavenger Hunt at the Delmar Farmer’s market

A reminder that “BC Meals Night” runs through Tuesdays in October @ “Garden Bistro 24” (look for SNN’s to see the menu each week and you can call ahead and take-out)  The menu each week features more organic produce that was grown in the BCMS Gardens!

Friday, October 6, is our “Go Home Early Drill”

We ask that all parents allow their child to go home via district transportation on this date to allow students the practice of understanding how we proceed through this drill.  All students, including students who do NOT have a bus route because of how close they live to Middle School are assigned to a bus and will be given a ride home on district transportation.  Our dismissal is 2:30 PM and we ask parents not to pick up students unless for a previously scheduled appointment.  A reminder that this drill is a mandate by New York State of all Public Schools.

From our PTO

Thanks to everyone for supporting our PTO

Remember you have until 10/6 to join & be included in the directory; easiest way is to go to our PTO website, bcmspto.org and do online.  Also, you can pay for the agenda book, there if you haven’t already done so.

Volunteer Opportunities:

• We still need volunteers for picture day
• 10/3 BCMS School Pictures—one volunteer 8:15am-11:30am & one 11:30am-2:45pm
• please use this link to volunteer: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0444aaac2da1f49-picture

Upcoming Events

• 10/2@ 7:00pm  BCMS PTO Meeting: LMC
• featuring presentations on the various MCMS clubs & activities

Please remember to bring in your Box Tops (receptacle box in lobby)

Have a Great Weekend!

Student Survey Results - Friday, September 22nd, 2017

Happy Friday!

During our first full week of school last week we took advantage of our new accessibility to students due to their having Chromebooks by surveying them on a host of important issues for our staff.  I wanted to take a moment to share some of what came back to us and to dispel one really big misconception of students.

88% of our students (wrongly) believe that they can never change their lunch table once it is established!  This is NOT true!

Some background information; we DO want students to pick a table and stay at that table and here's why. We do NOT want students to have to race to lunch every day, which would be the case if our seating were a free for all.  This would have some students who may be taking a test, or simply slow at their locker NEVER being able to count on a reliable seat. We DO understand that students sometimes get into conflict and that they sometimes wish to change tables. So, how do we balance these two competing pressures?

We allow students to make changes by utilizing the counselors or noon-aide monitors. It goes something like this...

Johnny wants to change tables but the table he would like to sit at is full. We do NOT allow Johnny to displace one of the students at that new table (if there is an open seat then Johnny can simply move to that open seat but "open" in this context means permanently open and not simply open 'today' because some other student is absent).  We DO allow Johnny to move to a different table and move with a few of his friends provided his friends are okay with moving. How does Johnny talk to the friends he'd like to move with him?  If he's uncomfortable or just awkward in trying to have this conversation either his counselor (Mr. Farnan, Mr. Lenhardt, Ms. Marcucci, or Ms. Young) or one of our noon-aide monitors can assist and facilitate for him.  They won't do the talking for him but they'll help find a time and safe space to approach his friends to have the conversation.  By the way, our counselors will also do this for students new to Bethlehem to help them feel more comfortable acclimating to the district.

More Survey Results

• 71% of Middle School students state they are comfortable seeking out a teacher to meet with them one on one if they need help.  That's good, but not great! By the time our students leave us in preparation for 9th grade we want all of our students to be confident in realizing that a behavior of strong students is help-seeking and self-advocacy.
• Social Media and MS students
• 66% of our students have an Instagram account
• 60% have Snapchat
• 16% have Facebook
• 16% have Twitter
• We remind all parents that it is perfectly acceptable to REQUIRE your children to FRIEND you
• Mr. Klugman's three kids are 19, 17 and 14 and I follow all of their social media!
• 25-40% of our students acknowledge that they don't have a lot of extracurricular, service-oriented, or community based participation.
• A goal for all of our MS students is for them to have a healthy peer network. 
• A reminder to all of our parents that our October 16th (that's a date change from October 2nd on our printed school calendar) PTO Open Meeting invites all students and parents to come and hear reps from our student clubs and athletic teams talk about these opportunities - we hope you can join us!
• 7:00 PM in our Middle School Library!

End of Week Notes

From our PTO - Thanks to everyone for supporting our PTO

~ You have until 10/6 to join & be included in the directory; easiest way is to go to our PTO website, bcmspto.org and do online.  You can also use our online store to pay for the agenda book if you haven’t already done so.

~Volunteer Opportunities:

   We need you:

 

   10/3 BCMS School pictures --one volunteer 8:15am-11:30am & one 11:30am-2:45pm

   10/3 BCMS School Pictures—one volunteer 8:15am-11:30am & one 11:30am-2:45pm

  please use this link to volunteer: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0444aaac2da1f49-picture

~Please remember to bring in your Box Tops (receptacle box in lobby)

FASS (Friday After School Support)

Beginning on October 13, we will once again provide students Friday After School Support (FASS), which is a quiet work time for students where they can receive tutoring support provided by our building administration in most subjects.  We also work with students on their organization.

Students can opt into this for any Friday that it runs (through June) but there is not transportation provided.  Some students may also be recommended for this by their team of teachers, by their counselors, or by building administration if they are falling behind or have work to make up after extended absence.

We meet from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM but students are allowed to leave early if they have transportation.

Reminders:

• Tuesday, Sept 26 is our Hudson & Patroon Open House (most or our Mohawk Teachers will not be present)
• Tuesday, October 2 is our Mohawk Open House (most of our Hudson and Patroon Teachers will not be present)
• Friday, October 6 is our annual Go Home Early Drill (look for a direct message with more information about the timing of our dismissal coming through parents' Aspen account)
• DATE CHANGE - Open PTO Meeting for all BCMS Families is moved to October 16th!  (7:00 PM in our Library Media Center)

Have a Great Weekend!

Welcome Back to School 2017!

Welcome Back to School 2017!

Happy Friday!

One of the most important things we do for students is help them establish routines and now that we are closing our first full week of school it feels like we’re there.  I thanked our teachers for their work to orient students back into school routines and I’d also like to thank parents for all of your work to get back to routines also.  Bedtimes, organization, lunches, homework, and a list of many other things all fall back into order this week and we’re grateful… AND students success these last two weeks are a direct result of their adaptability to getting back into routines.

We had our first fire drill yesterday (Thursday, Sept 14) and conducted a lockdown drill today (Friday, Sept 15) and the students were outstanding in understanding the purpose of practicing how to be safe and courteous during drills. 

If you missed our morning announcements this past Monday, I reminded students of why we take a moment to remember all those who were affected by the September 11, 2001 tragedy.  Specifically, we talked about the model that was set by those who escaped that day and that not a single person was trampled because of how calmly and courteously thousands of people exited the building.  We also remember those service people; police, fire, EMS, and first responders who bravely went into the World Trade Center buildings after they had been struck.  We lost more than 3,000 lives that day but we would have lost thousands more if not for the actions of so many.  They set a powerful model of bravery, courage and heroism!

Student Leadership!
I spend a lot of time studying adult-student relationships as you might imagine.  A trend that has changed in the last 20 years is that adults are doing more for children and it’s not hard to figure out why.  The security of our children and an ever-shrinking global community brought closer by the internet and cell phones have changed parenting dramatically.  As much as this is understandable and in many cases necessary, all of us parents and teachers run the risk of removing tweens and teens decision making skill and initiative completely.  BCMS therefore is responsive to this by promoting students into leadership opportunities with intention.

The Student Leadership concept is described here and we will be encouraging students to submit their initiatives into next week.  More to come with regard to what their ideas are next Thursday or Friday.

The link above will redirect students to a 1 question survey that simply asks them what they would like to do to make our school better!  Please take a moment to read this with your child.  This is his or her opportunity to join other groups of students in our school-change leadership program.

Lastly, I’d like to congratulate our 6^th grade students and teachers for a great Fun Fair tonight.  More than 300 students showed their spirit and community by coming out in the interest of having fun!

On behalf of all of our Staff, Have a Great Weekend!

Mike Klugman