Midway Mustang Memo
August 2020
Mustang Families
Dear Midway Families,
We are off to a wonderful start for the 2020-21 school year! Our students are already showing their leadership qualities whether learning in-person or virtually. Many thanks to our Mustangs who are wearing their masks as expected and to our families who are encouraging and modeling good hygiene by washing hands, distancing from others, and wearing masks.
Our first 7 days of school were devoted to building relationships, learning routines, and practicing technology skills. Encouraging reader engagement is an on-going literacy goal for us here at Midway. Knowing that students who adore reading will pick up a book more often which leads to more reading. Continued practice makes us better readers which in turn yields greater student achievement. Click here for a list of ideas for parents (20 Ways for Parents to Encourage Reading). Please remember to remind your learner to record their reading steps each evening (a reading step equals 15 minutes of independent reading). We are diving into the curriculum with the second full week of school and the rigor will be noticeable. It is incredible how our teachers and parents partner to ensure the success of all of our students; we value those partnerships and are grateful for the close communication.
Hats off to our PTO for helping us feel more together even when we are apart! Sporting our Midway spirit wear on Mondays for Leader in Me activities and on Fridays for school spirit are ways we can continue to feel connected. Please check out this year’s line of sportswear at reasonable prices in the PTO section of this newsletter. In addition, please click on the link to join our PTO for the 2020-21 school year in order to support their efforts in providing resources for our students. Our PTO is scheduling its first general meeting as a virtual meeting for the month of September. More information to come—please update your contact information (email address).
With warm regards,
Jan Munroe, Principal
Daphne Rogers, Assistant Principal
Jennifer Brown, Administrative Support
Important Dates
September 4th: Early Release
September 7th: Labor Day/No School
September 21-September25: Fall Break/No School
Midway PTO
Welcome back to school EVERYONE! We hope your year, whether it be face to face or virtual, is off to an excellent start!
Your Midway PTO has been active on a few initiatives so far this year.
Membership -
We appreciate all those who have joined PTO this year already! We will be kicking off a Membership Drive so look for information coming out soon!
Our goal this year is to have 65% of our families join PTO. Joining is as EASY as filling out the attached membership form (also in your child’s Friday Folder) and return it in your child’s folder. Checks and forms can also be dropped off at the front desk or mailed to the school (to the attention of Midway PTO). Every membership includes a PTO car magnet so you can show your Midway Pride! If we can meet our membership goals, we will be able to accomplish our TWO main goals:
2020 PTO Goals:
1) Provide generous teacher grants. There are many items our teachers need in order to be effective for our children that aren’t provided by our tax dollars. We can help with this by simply joining our Midway PTO.
2) We also plan to provide picnic tables, with shade roofs if possible, for the playground. This will help shade our teachers and students, and it may allow some teachers to hold lessons outside in the interest of social distancing.
Spirit Wear -
We have also had new Midway Shirts made so our children can show their Midway Spirit! Pictures of the available shirts are below. Each shirt is $15.
Please indicate your shirt and size preference, and make checks payable to Midway PTO. Checks can be placed in your child’s folder, dropped off at the front desk or mailed to the school (to the attention of Midway PTO). Limited sizes are available (Youth Extra Small, Youth Small, Youth Medium, Youth Large and Youth Extra Large), so get your order in quickly to ensure your first choice! We also have a few awesome Midway Tumblers left for $20 each -
Growth -
Finally, we are actively seeking to grow our PTO Board and Committee Chairs. To learn more about who we are and what we do, please visit midwaypto.org. If you are interested in learning more, please send us an email at MidwaySchoolPTO@gmail.com
Thank you for your continued support!
Media Center News
Counselor's Corner
Welcome to the new school year. We are currently meeting all our new students and beginning lessons in classes. We plan on seeing all face-to-face classes and virtual classes throughout the year. We are currently getting to know our students and introducing them to who we are and our role within the school. Not only do we teach lessons in the classrooms, we also offer small groups and individual support. We work closely with teachers and staff to meet the needs of our children. Ms. Dricsoll is the primary counselor for Kdg – 2nd. Dr. Collins is the primary counselor for 3rd-5th.
Here are a few tips to help your student be successful in school by healthychildren.org:
· Create healthy habits: make sure your child gets enough sleep, eats a healthy breakfast, and doesn’t spend too much time on TV or devices.
· Stick to a routine
· Have a place where their back pack and other school items are stored so nothing gets lost in the morning rush.
· Have a “work” spot where your child can do their academic work and read.
· Read, read, read
· Look for learning opportunities throughout the day. For example, when cooking have your child help with measuring out the ingredients, find the colored cars while you’re driving, count the number of school busses they see, or solve riddles.
We look forward to working with our Midway families this year.
Dr. Collins & Ms. Driscoll
News from Nurse Berry
What a great start to the 2020-21 school year! For our new families, if your child was seen at the nurse office during the school day, they should come home with a clinic slip that explains why they were sent and what the nurse did.
Pain relievers, nasal spray and cough drops in the clinic for your student can help avoid phone calls home and help the student return to class. However, be aware that students are not allowed to carry any medication, including over the counter products. Parents must bring all medication to the clinic and fill out an authorization form which can be found on my school clinic page.. We appreciate your understanding as this is for the safety of all students.
This year our students are eating in the classroom and it is very important to communicate any food allergies to your teacher and clinic, so we can beware of cautions we need to take for them.
Please visit the clinic page on the school website( it is listed under student services) as there is many useful information on when to keep your child home and resources for Covid-19. We must be very careful with illness this year because of Covid-19. At any time, you have questions regarding exposure or in general regarding Covid-19 , please reach out to me. If you child has a temp greater than 100.4, nausea/vomiting/diarrhea or unwell to participate in the day's activities, please keep them home. If you could remember to contact the teacher and/or nurse of any contagious illnesses like flu, hand-foot-mouth, or strep throat.
Virtual Technology Support for Families
Parents: Due to the large number of virtual students at our school, the district has provided a support person to assist families with technical issues such as logging into platforms, accounts not working, Classlink issues, missing classes in itslearning, etc. If you run into technical issues, you can call Jeremy Hamm at # is 678-343-3023. Phone support will be available in the mornings from 7:30 – 12:30 and evenings from 4:00 – 7:00. If it goes to voicemail, please leave a message, and someone will call you back as soon as possible. This phone support will run for 2 weeks while students and teachers get comfortable with online resources and tools.
If you need information about the lessons, content, or other instruction related questions, please reach out to your child’s teacher as the technical person will not be able to assist with directions. Also, the contact person and number listed above is specific to your child’s school so please do not share this with others or post online. We hope having a direct contact for technical issues will help expedite your child’s virtual learning experience.
From the Midway Café
Welcome from the Mustang Café!
The Lunch Lady Squad is so excited to be back! It’s wonderful to see all our old friends and new faces too. Our new students are learning café procedures and doing great! Everyone is starting to settle into daily routines. We hope you are too.
Just a few reminders from the café. We serve breakfast from 7:50 – 8:20 am each morning. Cost is $1.60. Lunch prices remain the same as last year at $2.70. Funding your child’s account may be done by sending in cash or check to the school, marked for the café, or at mypaymentsplus.com with a credit or debit card.
To see our daily menus you can use the MealViewer App and online menus. Download the MealViewer app from the Apple App Store or from Android Google Play Store. Customize Student Profilies to check for allergies,nutrition and carb counts. Keep up with breakfast and lunch with this neat new tool.
Unfortunately due to our current COVID situation, guests are not allowed for lunches at this time.
However, we are looking forward to the day we can ALL be together again.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Please don’t hesitate to give me a call or email me if I can be of any assistance. I’m here from 5:30am – 2pm each day!
We’re here for you and so glad you’re here and part of our Midway family!! Hope to see ya soon!
Chris Pruitt
Café ManagerTechnology Information
Parents have an important role in online safely as well. At Forsyth County Schools, we value the rich learning experiences that technology brings to our classrooms. We believe that our students must be taught how to use online resources responsibly. With parents and guardians as our partners, we can help our students to gain skills, understanding, and mind-sets that will enable them to be responsible and safe in digital environments. Please follow this link for more information on how Forsyth County and parents can help their students stay safe in a digital world.
Use your student's log in when looking at Itslearning. Parents can see the planner and other information as a student this way. Here is a parent info guide for Itslearning.
Please contact Jennifer Lundstrum if you have any other questions.
Classlink
MyOn
Dreambox
General Reminders
We already have a growing collection of items in the lost and found. Please write your child's name inside their jackets, sweaters, lunch boxes, water bottles, etc!
REMIND
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Midway Elementary
School Handbook
Forsyth County Schools does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, or gender in employment decisions or educational programs and activities.
Midway Elementary School
Email: jlundstrum@forsyth.k12.ga.us
Website: www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/midway
Location: 4805 Atlanta Highway, Alpharetta, GA, United States
Phone: 770-475-6670
Facebook: facebook.com/midwayes
Twitter: @MidwayES