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

Kids show us that Sometimes being Pragmatic is BAD

Pragmatic Defined: dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations

Adults often view children as naive because their solutions to difficult problems are deemed too idealistic and impractical. Hunger? Feed the world!  War?  Make everyone obey peace!  Global Warming?  Take care of the planet!

To a middle schooler the answers to difficult questions are easy.  There are no practical or logistical considerations and while we adults regard this as naive or unfeasible, I often find middle schoolers' perspectives to be refreshing.  

Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day.  For those who do not know, Earth Day began informally in 1969 and more formally in 1970 but much of the push for it happened 20 to 30 years earlier with the work of Rachel Carson, author, scientist, and environmentalist who wrote the book Silent Spring.  In her book, published first in 1962, Carson followed up on nearly 20 years of research into the uses of pesticides in the United States.  She was also motivated to publish as a result of public perceptions that many of the era's Politicians were naively and unscrupulously believing propaganda being disseminated by chemical companies.  As a result of her book, attention was brought to bare on DDT, a pesticide linked to the declining Bald Eagle population (among many other birds of prey in addition).

Today, some 50 years later, (actually in August of 2007) the Bald Eagle has been removed from the Endangered Species list because of its population rebound.  The Bald Eagle, our national symbol, is a glaring reminder of how one person really can change the world and in recognition of Carson's work, Earth Day, or Earth WEEK as we like to call it around BCMS, is an annual reminder to all of us adults that there are times when it's not good to be practical!  

I hope you'll join me in being just a little more naive, innocent, and engaged in working toward making our planet a little bit greener and environmentally healthier over these next few weeks (or year round if you feel like I do). 

Our middle school students are a big reason why BCMS was awarded the first ever Green Ribbon School Award (only 1 of 3 schools in NYS to earn this distinction in the first year the award was offered in 2012) and while the students who were here in 2012 are now High Schoolers, our current students continue to broaden and build upon all that we did 4 years ago.

A tough reality for adolescents is learning about being practical.  There are times when being practical butts heads with being idealistic and one reason why I LOVE working with middle school aged students is that they remind me all the time that practical doesn't always have to win out against idealistic.  There are times that we adults should be forced to pause, to reflect, and to consider if by practical, what we are really being is inflexible, to expediting, or simply complacent.

And so, ...

... here's to EARTH WEEK,
... here's to being idealistic,
... and here's to recognizing that sometimes... A LOT of times, middle schoolers demonstrate a genius that makes the world a better place!

Happy Earth Day, and have a Great Spring Vacation!

May Events
May 2 (Monday) All students return to School
May 4     BOE Meeting 
May 6 (Friday)  BCMS' Staged Creations Play Production Opening Night
May 7      Staged Creations continues
May 8      Mother's Day
May 9 (Monday) BCMS Open PTO Meeting for Parents (7:00 PM)
May 12 (Thursday) Grade 5 to 6 Parent Transition and Orientation Meeting 7:00 PM
May 13 (Friday) 6th Graders have a 1/2 day due to 5th grade Moving Up Day.  More information will be sent to parents after our break

Replacing Fear with Curiosity... The Cultural Value of teaching children to be Curious and how it

A few weeks ago I promised a piece about how we measure ourselves as a school and hold ourselves accountable.  It's really long-winded and to be honest probably boring to those who don't get jazzed by reading about school accountability.  For those who do however you can read the piece here, (or scroll down the page) and for those who don't a much more compelling piece is below.

We conducted an assembly with our 8th graders on Wednesday, March 30, and because of the emotional depth that surrounds the Holocaust, we only exposed our 8th grade students to our guest speaker, Ms. Kati Preston, but we certainly hope to bring Ms. Preston back for our current 6th and 7th graders in the future.

To: All BCMS 8^th Grade Parents;

On Wednesday, March 30, we were extraordinarily fortunate to have students attend a presentation by Kati Preston who was a “hidden child” of the Holocaust.  Author of the book Closing the Circle: From Holocaust to Healing, Kati’s message was met by our students with overwhelming engagement, respect, and admiration.  Seldom have we seen students hug a presenter out of their resonance and gratitude.

Among some of the poignant topics and points Kati spoke about:

• Kati described what it was like to have to hide indefinitely in a straw barn to avoid being sent to the concentration camp Auschwitz, where many of her family and friends were sent
• Kati talked about what a wonderful opportunity it was to come to the United States and raise her children
• She created an appreciation for the value of being educated and that only through education can people come together and learn tolerance
• Kati described overcoming hatred in being able to move forward in life and to eventually forgive the crimes committed during the era

I often speak to close out presentations done in our assemblies only to highlight how the presenters’ messages resonate with our educational and character ideals but with Kati this wasn’t necessary.  It is however why I and Mr. Nick Petraccione, our K-12 Social Studies supervisor, are sending this note out to you.

 

We hope you’ll take a moment to ask your 8^th grader how they felt about the presentation.  We would enjoy receiving any reflections that students care to forward to us and we will send these to Kati.  Feel invited to forward to either or both of us at; (npetraccione@bcsd.neric.org, or mklugman@bcsd.neric.org).

The Urgent Call to Replace Fear with Curiosity

On March 22, 2016, Education Week published an article by this title and in it, the authors, Maya Soetoro-Ng and Alison Milofsky, put out a global call to teach this generation of children to see through political and cultural messages that control populaces through the use of fear.

“In the name of cultural or physical survival, it [fear] can be manipulated to fuel tensions that can spiral into cycles of violence. Taken to extremes, the results are evident—from sectarian divisions in Iraq and Syria, to religious divides in Nigeria or Myanmar. Tensions still threaten in Bosnia Herzegovina more than 20 years after the end of that crushing war. Fear also contributes heat to the political debates about terrorism and refugees in the U.S. presidential campaign.” 

Among the more poignant responses of the students to Kati Preston’s presentation was a standing ovation to Kati’s very similar challenge to our students to educate themselves to the point where truth, ethics and conscience cannot be diffused by any leadership that uses fear to do so.

“By helping children practice from an early age how to critically examine their own needs and identities and understand those of others, we could better ensure that, as adults, they have the ability to engage in disputes without turning to violence.”

With gratitude we thank Ms. Kati Preston for her outstanding presentation grounded in peace, love and the value of education!

Sincerely,

  

Mike Klugman                                                                                   Nick Petraccione

MS Principal                                                                                      K-12 Social Studies Supervisor

End of Week Notes

Well done! A Phenomenal 8th Grade Concert!

• To all of our 8th grade choral, band, and orchestra students for a great concert this past Thursday night (April 7) and thank you to our music teachers, Ms. Daly, Ms. Taylor, and Ms. Van Voris for their leadership!  
• Also... A WONDERFUL BAND FESTIVAL!
• Our music festivals make my top 5 'BC favorite events' each year and I shared the following with ALL of our middle school last week:
• I related a story about how a student from another school, when he showed up to a state-level honors band, asked his mother why every other kid in his section was from Bethlehem!  YES, the program is that good!  
• If you haven't been to one of our festivals and you have little kids who you're interested in inspiring to music, get them to the festival each year!

Impressed by our students

• This past week I was continually impressed by our students throughout our ELA testing
• They demonstrated resilience, grit, patience and an amazing amount of impulse control in being respectful to /of their peers concentration.  Even students whose parents made the choice to opt them out of assessments demonstrated tremendous respect for the testing environment by not being disruptive, by following directions and we are grateful to both them and you, their parents!  ALL of our students demonstrated a maturity and resolve to act in their best interest that was inspiring!

Reminder - NYS Math Assessments begin Wednesday

The Pavilion Project is well under way

• The BCMS Pavilion promises to be a great addition as a teaching space and as a recreation space for our community.  WE NEED YOUR HELP!
• Please visit our PTO fundraising page to read more about the project and make a donation

The Week Ahead

Monday, April 11

• Last week of the third quarter

Tuesday, April 12

• Late Buses

Wednesday, April 13

• Day 1, NYS Math assessments grades 6, 7, 8
• Late Buses

Thursday, April 14

• Day 2, NYS Math assessments
• Late Buses

Friday, April 15

• Day 3, NYS Math Assessments
• Friday After School Support (3:00 - 5:00)

How should a school measure itself?

When asked what I think the most important responsibilities of being a Principal are there are some that immediately dominate my thinking:

• Hiring the best teachers
• Supporting current teachers to be the best they can be

Those two things are probably at the forefront of any Principal's short list.  The following  should be as well:

• Being visible and approachable for students (and developing relationships with students)
• Being the primary agent for curricular accountability in the school... unless you have a whole team that does this collaboratively!

Being the person, or part of a team that effectively asks 'are we doing all that we should for students' is an enormous challenge and I think it is certainly one domain that distinguishes schools from each other.

Our team includes the rest of our building administration, our department supervisors, and our central administration.  We each play a different role based upon our perspective and these are described here (note that the following description is similar in other school districts but often not identical because of any number of variables):

• Superintendent
• Very different district to district
• some have no impact on curriculum b/c they manage budget, legal issues, and personnel issues
• some have a huge imprint on curriculum b/c they see it as a necessity of their responsibility
• In BC we have a dedicated Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction because of how demanding both roles are at all times
• Assistant Superintendent
• Coordinates a consistent curriculum between grade levels (for example, from 5th to 6th grade) by working closely with Principals and Department Supervisors
• BC also uses TEACHER LEADERS in various roles to assist in this process
• Coordinates a consistent understanding of all state mandated assessment and mandated curriculum that will be implemented in each school
• Director for Special Education
• Leads the instructional programming and service provisions necessary for not just students with identified needs but for all students indirectly
• Department Supervisors
• They specialize in their area of expertise to understand
• The best methods of instruction
• The best methods of assessment
• Coordinate smooth transitions between grade levels 
• Coordinate developmentally appropriate expectations at each grade level
• Coordinate consistency in teaching within each grade level
• Lead the professional development efforts for teachers
• Lead the hiring process of new teachers in partnership with Principals
• Building Administration
• Review data from grading and assessments and share with Teachers, and supervisors
• Conduct observations and evaluations of teachers
• Support teacher growth (with content supervisors) by focusing on consistent, developmentally appropriate teaching tactics
• Support the developmental needs of students at the grade levels in their buildings
• Support teachers in creating an environment that values engagement, rigor and focus for all students

These are the people who support our TEACHERS, but there are processes that drive what I would call an ethically responsive school philosophy.  Some of these are listed here:

• Use of Data 
• Too much of education is driven by "what feels right" (intuition)
• Unfortunately, great teachers are aware that there is a domain of learning that is "counterintuitive,"  In other words, if you only do what feels right, you miss this entire domain.
• Data helps us ask and conclude if our students are learning... period!
• It doesn't necessarily direct us toward better instruction but it will tell us if our current instruction is working.
• Types of data
• State assessments - help us gauge how we are doing both internally and externally (compared to other schools)
• Internal Assessments - allow us to align specific assessments to specific standards we have just taught to assess how our instruction is doing
• Grading data - allows us to have deep discussion about whether the way we grade influences students learning, if we are grading what we in fact want to measure and ensures that we have greater consistency between teams in the building
• Qualitative data - qualitative data are observations that are often hard to quantify.  
• How many students raised their hands to questions in class?
• How many students are guessing to get the right answer?
• How many students are really engaged at any moment of a class?

The cycle of data used by schools also (often) determines how effective a school is.  Schools who want to be average look at some data but it's often either too broad, to narrow, or not done more than just a few times in the year.  Effective cycling of data analysis occurs with the following:

• Frequency - with unit tests, quarter tests, mid-terms and after final exams
• At the broad levels of both state-wide and school-wide
• At the narrow levels of the individual student and even the individual question
• This is an area where our Department Supervisors excel!
• AND at the observational level.  Teachers get observed about every 10 weeks at a minimum and as a requirement the evaluators provide feedback in three domains:
• The instructional domain - how the actual flow and progression of the lesson is carried out
• The planning domain - how the plan did or could have made the instructional delivery better
• The affective (or student rapport) domain - how the teacher engaged and related to students during instruction (an often over-looked domain)

In short, it takes a team of people with very defined processes and protocols that facilitate working together toward a common goal.  AND, the work is never done.  We learn from every test and measure we engage with where those areas are that we do well in, but also where we need to do better!

So who are all of these people?  You know your child's teachers, or we at least hope you do.  If you don't you should always feel welcome to reach out and ask questions.  As to our other leaders please also feel welcome to reach out to any of the individuals below at any time.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about how we hold ourselves accountable!

• Superintendent (Interim) - Jody Monroe - jmonroe@bcsd.neric.org
• Assistant Superintendent (Interim) - Dave Hurst - dhurst@bcsd.neric.org
• Director of Special Education, Kathy Johnston, kjohnston@bcsd.neric.org
• Building Admin
• Principal, Mike Klugman, mklugman@bcsd.neric.org
• Assistant Principal, Mark Warford, mwarford@bcsd.neric.org
• Hall Principal, Ken Rizzo, krizzo@bcsd.neric.org
• Our Department Supervisors
• Mathematics - David Hurst (also our interim Assistant Superintendent)
• English Language Arts - Andy Baker, abaker1@bcsd.neric.org
• Social Students & Business - Nick Petraccione, npetraccione@bcsd.neric.org
• Science & Technology - Jen Gonyea, jgonyea@bcsd.neric.org
• Health, FACS, & PE - Fred Powers, fpowers@bcsd.neric.org
• Art - Melanie Painter, mpainter@bcsd.neric.org
• Music - David Norman, dnorman@bcsd.neric.org
• World Languages - Sarah Cioffi (interim), scioffi@bcsd.neric.org
• Committee for Special Education Middle School Chairperson,
• Meg Wyanski, mwyanski@bcsd.neric.org

Growth takes time!

Growth takes time!

At our faculty meeting this week our staff experienced the next in a series of workshops on defining, identifying and growing students grit.  Despite it becoming a buzzword over the last 12 months, schools have always tried to develop the elements of grit.  Key words that define the attribute are 'perseverance,' and 'passion' and 'the ability to set and stick with long-term goals.'  When we think about people who lack this, we think about people who are often impulsive (who don't think about the long-term consequences of their decisions), and who often won't stick with a task or goal that becomes challenging.  In short, we parents sometimes think of our own kids!

What's important to realize as parents is that this is okay.  One doesn't become 'gritty' simply by thinking about it or because a new challenge comes along that is so engrossing that a switch is flipped.  I think one of the hardest parts of parenting is trying to sort out those things that are obvious to us now and trying to remember how we learned them.  I don't, for example, remember when it was that I was finally able to translate the focus I could easily employ when playing a sport to reading a difficult text.  And so, when I teach my kids I find I'm trying to learn as much about the way I learned and asking myself if I'm trying to accelerate them too quickly by asking them to be masterful at a skill at an age when this expectation is not developmentally appropriate.

An important lesson for children is one we have to learn with them; that gaining a new skill or strength is best done in a lengthy, consistent, and incremental growth curve that allows for a partnered growth of passion for whatever it is that is being practiced.  What we (parents and children) fail to understand sometimes is that when this curve is rushed the result is often unpredictable.  In situations where students really excel there is as much love and passion for that thing they are excelling at as there is discipline and regimented practice.  In environments where there is no passion or time dedicated to enjoyment, it's fairly easy to predict that any child will grow his skill.  It is also likely, however, that while the child becomes skillful, the child will also lose interest.  I love it when one of my children comes home from a "lesson" and immediately wants to practice (on their own) what they learned in the lesson.  I see their excitement and their passion.

As a middle school staff much of our intentional professional development is therefore directed into two realms; we want to develop the specific tactics that help students learn our various subjects (math, science, art, etc.) but we also spend an equal amount of time learning how to inspire students in our subjects as well.

Importantly, and contrary to what some or even many parents might perceive, we do not consider ourselves judge and jury over what the right pace of learning is.  We constantly survey the world outside of Bethlehem to assess if there are methods, expectations, and mechanisms that get students along their growth curve faster.

As conscientious educators we realize that this disposition is not consistent from school to school and this is why there has been so much discomfort with the Common Core Standards.  We support these and we recognize that they are a push for us because they raise expectations but while others cry foul stating that they are too rigorous and do not allow students to exercise their passion, we recognize that we, the adults charged with growing our expertise, have to get students to these expectations in an intentional manner that allows for them to still exercise their love for math or English.

In next week's post I will describe both how we assess our progress using internal data but I'll also describe how we gauge our progress using external 'data.'  It will be my pleasure, while describing both of these domains, to give parents a deeper introduction to our Department Supervisors, our Central Administration, and to describe their role in leading these processes.

Until then have a great weekend!

End of Week Notes

Beginning of the 3rd Quarter

• At the start of the 3rd quarter we encourage students to remember that they are NOT the grades they have earned thus far this year!!!!
• For students who have done really well this means that they have to remain consistent with things like organization and effort and participation in class.
• For students who have struggled it means realizing that things like organization, study skills, and work ethic are often more the reason for struggle than any cognitive issues.  We always remind students that there is no reason why someone who has struggled cannot immediately experience growth!

Thank You's

• We are grateful to the local chapter of the Kiwanis Club for their support of our Character Breakfast!
• To Mr. Rizzo and Team Teachers for your work to bring off our Character Breakfast!
• To our 6th grade teachers and students who had a great time at our 6th grade social last night!
• To all the parents who participated in our Tuesday Night PTO meeting.  I will be posting the presentation from our Guest Speaker, Mary Lawyer, at some point soon.  Mary did a great presentation about how parents of middle school aged students can begin now to prepare (financially) for college

"Public Science is Broken"

• A headline this powerful demands to be read!
• It was stated by the lead investigator of the water contamination issues in Flint, Michigan and when I read his comments I immediately thought of how politics is contributing to the discredit of science!

Calling All Spellers!  BOU Annual Spelling Bee - February 25th!  (It will be at the High School)

Check out our Character Award Winners!

One of the most beautiful Winter Storm PhotosEVER!

Quote(s) of the Week

"I never lose!  I either win, or I learn!"
A great growth mindset quote from Cori Difabbio

"If anyone worked as hard as I did, they would get the same result!"
J. S. Bach (forwarded by Pat Pisanello)

"In Flint the agencies paid to protect these people weren’t solving the problem. They were the problem." (see above for more)

Calendar of Events... 

Monday, February 8

• Teacher Dept Meetings
• Spring Sports Signups this Week!!

Tuesday, Feb 9

• Teacher Dept Meetings
• Late Buses

Wednesday, Feb 10

• Late buses

Thursday, Feb 11

• Late buses

Friday, Feb 12

• FASS (3:00 to 5:00) (Friday After School Support)

Saturday, Feb 13 - February Break begins - School resumes on Monday, February 22nd

Have a great weekend!