Dear EMS Families,

With three weeks left in the year, the EMS faculty is busy readying for

• The 8th grade Celebration of Learning

• End of Year Step Up activities

• Procedures for pick up of personal items and drop off of Edmunds items

• Scheduling for 2020-2021

Exciting news for us is that with some of these plans comes the opportunity for us to connect in person, which we have all missed!

Please see below for details.

Enjoy this glorious weather,

Meg

Celebration of Learning

The 8th grade Celebration of Learning will have three parts this year!

• Virtual celebration that will be shared with families and students electronically - details forthcoming

• Faculty car parade - see route here. We have designed the route with the hopes of getting to the neighborhoods of all our students. Given a few traffic safety precautions, please note the following:

• Those in the Grove/Patchen/Chase area, please come to UVM Green or Roosevelt Park to view the parade.

• East Ave., please come to UVM Green.

• South End and Hill Section, please come to Calahan or Oakledge Park to view the parade.

• Collection of Certificates

• In June, families and students will have the opportunity to collect personal items and turn in school-owned materials. At that time, students will receive their Certificates of Completion.

Seventh Grade Transition Information and Step Up Meeting

• On June 8th, rising 7th graders will have the opportunity to meet with their new team teachers. These meetings will happen via google hangout.

• In advance of these meetings families can expect to receive a letter home in the mail and an email sharing their team placement for next year. Please note: we anticipate mailing letters by June 4th.

• Details regarding meeting links, codes, and times will be shared in the letters sent home and in the June 5th Newsletter.

Drop off of school-owned materials and pick up of personal items

• Next week, families will be able to sign up for a time to come to EMS to collect personal items and return school owned materials. Please be on the lookout for an email and more details in the May 29th newsletter

• Details regarding the process to ensure safety and proper physical distancing will be forthcoming.

Course Selection Process

• During this time of year, admin and staff are preparing for the following school year and building schedules and class lists. Part of this process involves getting student feedback regarding select classes; this requires 6th and 7th grade students to fill out an Exploratory Choice survey indicating their class preferences. We wanted to make families aware that this survey is going to be presented to their children on team, and that parents/guardians should be ready to support and assist students in the process and discuss the choices.

• Families and students alike need to be mindful that there are limitations to all schedules and that there may be a possibility that students will not get all of the classes they want. For this reason, we strongly suggest thinking over the class choices and trying only to select classes that fit within a student's capacity. We want to make informed decisions that help place students into classes they want and also classes that will best lead to overall success. This process can be done by considering what is a reasonable workload for students, interest in a class, and the needs of the student. If your decision leads you to drop a class, please email that teacher as well.

• Please follow this link to see a detailed description of the classes offered at EMS: course descriptions

Friendly Reminders

• No School on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25th

• You should be receiving a weekly email from your child’s team with details of the week’s assignments and reminders of when google hangouts are scheduled.

• Students are expected to engage in their learning for 2-3 hours a day. This includes 2 hours of core class time and 1 hour of exploratory time. Most students have 3 exploratory classes and should expect 1-1.5 hours of work for each exploratory class per week. Our expectation is that students spend 15 hours per week on their school work. If they choose to spend more than that they are welcome to, but 15 hours of work time per week is the expectation. Here's what this might look like: Monday through Friday - 2 hours per day on core classes/1 hour per day on an exploratory class. Total = 15 hours.

• Students are referred to guidance, then the Dean of Students, when they do not attend classes for several days in a row. Follow up is by email and by phone, and is meant to ensure safety and to offer support.

• Curriculum during the Continuity of Learning will continue to be posted on the EMS website

• In addition to emails from your child/ren’s team and the curriculum being posted on the EMS website, students can find their assignments in their Unified Classroom accounts.

• Student and Parent Sign In Link
  
• Family Powerschool and Unified Classroom Help Sheet
  
• If you need assistance setting up a family or guardian Powerschool account, please email jstein@bsdvt.org.

Community Announcements

• 8th grade BHS transition support

• 9th Grade Night is scheduled for the last week of August (exact date TBD).

• Tentative 9th grade first day: August 25

• 2020-2021 BSD Calendar

Hello EMS and Greater BSD Community,

I just created (at least I think I did!) a fun, little and creative fundraiser for COTS - Coalition for Temporary Shelter, the organization that takes care of many of the homeless within our community, on Facebook. The link to the fundraiser is here.

EMS Art students have created small houses from cardboard as a recent art assignment during this pandemic. (See more about Assignment 6 - HOME - here ) I have taken these smaller homes and combined them into larger pieces of art. They are absolutely adorable to say the least. I am smitten with them, as I am sure you will be too. I think they will be even more phenomenal when framed.

This is the way this auction works:

• Click on the Facebook link above. Take a look at the posts, with images of the items for auction.
• Look through all of the images before you decide which one you will bid on.
• Please post your bid (e.g., $30.00) as a comment in the post. If you want to bid above someone who has already placed a bid, please do so! All proceeds go to such a good cause.
• Bidding opens at $25.00. Please increase your bids by no less than $2.00.
• The auction will end at 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 31st.
• Winners will be notified by me on Monday, June 1st.
• I will then deliver the art you won to your home and pick up your payment at that time.
• Checks should be made out to COTS.

Additionally, I have added a COTS donation button on the page, so if you just want to donate and not bid on the art, feel free to do so by clicking that donation button for COTS.

I hope this works as a platform for this fundraiser. I've never done such a thing, so this is an experiment in small fundraising and I am sure there will be issues! Let me know if something isn't right. I would appreciate the feedback.

The first four items are 14 x 14 inches, and made up of four different 6 inch houses. The fifth one is 16 x 40 inches and is made up of three 12 x 12 inch houses.

Thank you for your support!

Judy Klima

Art Teacher

jklima@bsdvt.org

Dear Parents, Teachers and Guardians,

The State of Vermont Libraries, along with the AOE, are collaborating to change the name of the Vermont State Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award program due to controversy around Fisher's association with Vermont's eugenics program.

Jonathan Clarke, the State Librarian, is asking for student input for a new title for the award. Parent involvement is required on the form, but all student and parent names will remain private.

The Vermont State Library asks that the webform not be published on websites or in social media platforms so that only Vermont students in grades 4 - 8 participate. They recommend that the form is included in an email or a closed internal platform and suggest parental or teacher guidance. The deadline for all submissions is May 26th.

We encourage participation from EMS readers for the new state name of this award. Every summer and throughout the school year, Edmunds Middle School students are encouraged to read the outstanding book nominees from our middle level state reading program.

The participation criteria and expectations are included in the links below if you are interested in getting involved.

Submission Guidelines.pdf

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8KN7N5H (This is the survey)

Thank you very much,

Carole Renca, EMS Librarian