Valley Middle School
November Newsletter
FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PRINCIPAL
Greetings Valley Families:
“How is your year going” is a familiar question I receive often. My typical response is “pretty good”. A more accurate response should be “pretty good for most of our students with room for improvement for some”. I’d like to elaborate on this notion a bit.
As previously stated, the start of a new school year is always an exciting time. This year was no different. Students and staff returned in August with enthusiasm for a new year, and that enthusiasm has been felt through the first two months of the school year.
Some highlights: new staff – once again we made strong hires over the summer; new policies/practices – aimed at bringing structure, predictability, and safety to our building on a day to day basis; building improvements – removing the stage to enlarge our lunchroom, new carpet in many classrooms, new hallway floor covering in B, C, and D hallways.
These changes/improvements have helped us to get our new year started in positive way. I am extremely pleased with our staff for encouraging and holding our students to the high expectations we have set. I am equally pleased with the high number of our students that are doing what is asked and expected of them the vast majority of the time. We do have room for improvement and we do have room for more students to get on board with what are appropriate choices/behavior for the school setting. Additional support, teaching, and accountability will continue for those students.
Grades will be coming home very shortly. This is an area of concern for us for a large group of our students. Too many of our students are receiving failing grades in one or more of their classes. In talking with staff and looking at recorded grades for a sample of students, most students fail because they do not submit their work to be graded. This is a terribly bad habit to get into and students will feel the full wrath of this when they enter high school. The habit we want to grow is that no matter what, I will submit something for a graded assignment. Partial credit is much, much better than no credit. A zero in the grade book is extremely hard, nearly impossible, to overcome. Parents, please help your child by being up to speed on Powerschool so you know what assignments are due and if your student has submitted them.
We have moved into Block II of our athletic offerings and the concert season will be happening in just a few weeks. Providing opportunities for our students to shine in the public arena is something I am very proud of. Our students do such a great job in this regard. Thanks to our coaches and directors for their work with our students in this extension of the classroom.
Warm regards,
Todd Selk
Picture Retake Day
Turkey Bingo
Valley Middle School Student Leadership Proudly Presents
Turkey Bingo
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
5:00-7:00
$5 per Bingo Card
Doors Open at 5:00 PM
First Game Starts at 5:30 PM
Prizes from local businesses and restaurants!!!
Concessions will be available!!!
Dragons News
In October, students on the Dragons team engaged in many different activities throughout their school days. During RT, or Royal Time, students windup, and get ready for the school day full of learning can begin. Every student has their own school schedule that informs them of what classes they are going to throughout the day. For (insert sixth grader name here), their first class is (insert class here). The students are educated subjects like music, language arts, reading, social studies, phy ed, science, math also their quarter classes, such as tech ed, art, innovations, and health.
Students in music class learned basic piano notes, and played many songs including “hot cross buns,” while students in language arts learned many different writing and grammar concepts, such as using irregular verbs, and latin roots, and began brainstorming ideas for paragraphs they are writing.
Students in science class were educated about ecosystems, different cycles, various scientific terms, and the extinction, and endangerment of animals, while also doing fun activities like constructing a stable structure out of marshmallows and spaghetti noodles.
Students in gym class played football, and began playing volleyball, meanwhile, students in literacy class gained an understanding of plot diagrams, and the plot, characters, conflicts, themes, settings, rising actions, climax, and falling actions of a story.
Students in social studies learned of the species that roamed the earth before us, and what problems we faced on 5000 B.C, and students in math had learned about integers and rational numbers, how to determine their absolute values, and how to use them in all four quadrants of a coordinate plane.
In conclusion, October for the Dragons was full of learning, and also activities and experiments.
Wizard's 1st Quarter Summary
The Wizards have been very busy with plenty of activities to do. Not only during school but after and before as well! I mean we have Student Leadership, Speech and Debate, the school Newspaper, the YORS group, SOS group, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to name just a few. Oh, and don’t forget about VMS’s sports and intramurals such as football, softball, volleyball, and more. Then there’s our awesome band, orchestra, and choir. Mrs. Eylands is the 6th-grade band director here at Valley. She is a great director who helps make the music we play to sound like actual music! Mr. Johnson is the Orchestra director here at Valley. He is the best!
Social Studies
In our various social studies classes, we have learned about Early Hominids and how they went from hunters and gatherers to having a stable food supply. Next, we learned about the rise of Sumerian City-States, and lately, we are learning about Ancient Sumer.
Math
In Mrs. Scott’s math class we are currently learning about integers and plotting positive and negative integers on number lines. Before that, we were learning about multiplying, dividing and subtracting decimals. At the beginning of the year, we reviewed some things like the long division that we maybe possibly have forgotten during the summer.
Science
In Mr. Gregoire’s science class we learned at first about Ecosystems, habitats and natural resources. In lesson two we are currently learning about: atoms, isotopes, and the periodic table. We are also lucky to have a great student-teacher from UND Ms. Hettwer.
Language Arts
In Ms. Boegel’s language arts class, we kicked off the year with prepositional phrases. We had a test every week where you had the option to sing a section of the preposition song to the tune of Yankee doodle or write them down. Some of the kids even memorized the whole song(53 prepositions) for extra credit! We have learned about some parts of speech all while doing some paragraph, narrative, memoirs and creative writing as well.
Reading
In Mrs. Carl’s reading class we read the book “The Limit” by Kristen Landon and made a movie poster. We also had the choice to make the first chapter of a second book, a children’s book version, or the correction centers floor plan, they go to in the book. Now we are learning about making inferences, and how they help us in the real world.
Health
At the beginning of Mrs. Thompson’s health class, we learned about controlling our emotions in a positive way. After that, we learned about peer pressure, how it can affect your social life, how to say no, and to do the right thing.
Tech & Engineering
In Mr. Kennedy’s Technical engineering class we started the year off writing a futuristic paper, where we wrote what we thought our life would be like in twenty years. You can imagine our funny responses. We also picked an item and showed how it evolved over time through a slide show. We all made work wanted posters recently where we made up a business advertisement. Then after that, we made a design on a google drawing and printed it onto a T-shirt. There were lots of cool designs. Just recently we made paper rockets and launched them off in the cafeteria.
Innovations
In Mrs. Roger’s class, we are challenged to make different structures and inventions made of several materials such as paper clips, pipe cleaners, index cards, toothpicks, and finally, tape can’t forget the tape. This helps be creative and it is interesting to see our creations and how they do. That sums up Innovations for this quarter.
Art
In Ms. Bergen’s art class we had been painting fantasy landscapes, like the sun setting on a mountain range. After that, we were able to draw things in the way in which we saw them. This is called perspective drawing. It was cool to see how things looked so different in a different person's perspective. Next, we printed by engraving styrofoam sheets then covered them in ink and pressed them on paper. Finally, for the end of quarter one, we all made two cupcakes one for us and one for our mentors, they were so good.
Submitted by: Jack Berry, Nate Osborn, Luke Riley, Joseph Sprenger
Wolf Pack Report
The Wolves team is still going strong! Our first quarter is winding down, we can’t believe it’s already done!
A fun thing our students were able to do this quarter was experiment with an Augmented Reality Sandbox. A Geography professor from UND and a few of his students brought the ARS in for students to play and learn with. An ARS is a sandbox (literally) that uses a re-programmed Xbox to make topographic maps on the sand in real time as students change it. It was a great way for them to learn about a complicated mapping style in a hands-on way. They loved it!
We are still looking forward to and planning for our Wolfridge trip coming up in April. We just finished our second fundraiser of the year and we saw many students who went above and beyond to raise money for their trip. Super proud of them. We still have one more fundraiser to help our students raise money for the trip. This one will be undoubtedly the most popular...PIZZA! This is the last chance for students to raise money for their trip so please make sure you’re reminding your student to take advantage of this opportunity to raise money for their trip. These are a great seller, so it can really help them out.
Eagles Update
In US History, we've already covered from Columbus to the beginning of the American Revolution (270 years)! We've also covered modern history topics like 9/11, and the Iraq/Afghanistan wars. In the next 9 weeks, we'll be covering how America was able to beat the British using guerilla tactics and compare it to modern history (Vietnam/Afghanistan).
In Pre-Algebra, we have been touching on a few different topics from rational and irrational numbers to scientific notation. As the first quarter is ending, we are switching gears to solving equations and are inching towards slopes and linear equations! This is a very exciting time in pre-algebra. In Trans-Math, we have been balancing equations, solving proportions, and working with ratios. We are heading towards inequalities and unit rates! In geometry class, we are in the beginning stages of writing proofs. This is a very exciting and challenging time for geometry students! We will continue to write proofs throughout the year and we are headed towards linear equations!
In Tech Ed we have been cruising along this quarter. We have completed Paper Towers, Egg Crash Cars, Land Yachts, Measurement, Dimensions, sketching and have been focusing on 3D modeling and design the last two weeks. We are just about to start our final projects. Students will create a 3D model of a backyard, a house interior, or creating their own item to 3D print and/or assemble. Coming soon we will have robotics begin and our robotics club will be recruiting soon, students should listen for an announcement in the morning if they are interested.
For English, our two major assignments were their personal narrative and global read aloud. Next quarter, we are doing literature circles with Kwame Alexander books. Alexander is an author who writes in verse, and came to speak to students at Red River and Central.
Science is working on our gravity and motion learning goals right now. Looking at the universe and the solar system. We will be specifically working with moon phases, eclipses, and seasons moving forward through November.
Mustang Team
Computer Applications
Students have been working in Microsoft Spreadsheet. So students have been learning formulas and charts. This coming week we will be working in a more creative way to use software. In two weeks, we will begin to create phone apps using MIT App Inventor.
Earth Science
In science we are learning about all things astronomy! The students are learning about the differences between comets, asteroids, and meteors. They even had the chance to hold and observe some real meteorites! Coming up we will start learning about how our Earth Sun and Moon all work in together and how it affects our lives.
English
Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are alive and well in our classroom! As a team, we have now read over 300 books - kudos to these readers! Be sure to ask your children about the books they’ve chosen, and check out their personal reading goal taped in their planners. Students have also completed their personal narratives. Many did a wonderful job examining some very meaningful memories. It was nice to get to know them even more through this writing, and some are considering submitting their work(s) to the upcoming Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Up next: informative writing!
Math
In TransMath, we just finished our review unit on fractions, decimals, and representing data. We will now be beginning a unit on variables, expressions and unit rates. Our pre-algebra classes are learning many different methods to solve equations and will also be learning about linear relationships. Finally, our algebra class is getting in depth with linear relationships, slope and unit rates.
US History
The tides are turning in US History with students gaining knowledge about the original 13 colonies including the reasons for settlement, geography, climate, and the economy. As we begin quarter 2, students will immerse themselves in the daily life of colonial America, examine the rights of the colonists, the Salem Witch Trials, and the Great Awakening. We are inching closer and closer towards rebellion and independence!
Counselor Corner
The Valley Middle School Counseling Department visited all 6th-8th grade students over a 3 week period to teach lessons on stress management and resiliency. We discussed topics on stressor that middle school children face, heard inspirational stories of resiliency, and practiced coping strategies. The counseling department conducted a survey that indicated one out of every 4 students at VMS said they have a difficult time dealing with stress. The students were identified by using a five-point scale and roughly 25% of them ranked themselves as a four or five. The counseling department will continue to work with students in small group and individual sessions to instill skills that could be helpful in coping with stressful situations.
Meet our new Counselor!
Hello,
My name is Andrew Glaser, and I am excited to say that I am the new school counselor at Valley Middle School. Being new to the school, I would like to tell you a little bit about myself.
I was born and raised in Valley City, North Dakota. After I graduated high school, I decided to attend Valley City State University. During my time at Valley City State University, I was lucky enough to have an internship with the school counselor at Litchville-Marion Public Schools. This internship not only allowed me to experience working in a school environment, but also sparked my passion for school counseling. I graduated from Valley City State University with a B.S in Psychology and Human Services with a Concentration in Criminal Justice, and a minor in Sociology. After graduation, I went to North Dakota State University, where I graduated last May with an M. Ed. in School Counseling.
With the time I have outside of school I enjoy being outdoors. During the summer you can find me out on the water fishing, kayaking, and swimming or out in the country taking photographs of nature. I also enjoy watching different sporting events both in person and on TV.
I am extremely excited to be at Valley Middle School and am looking forward to a great school year!
Andrew Glaser
Sources of Strength
"In November, the Sources of Strength program will focus on the Spirituality strength in the wheel of strengths. In public schools, Spirituality is often talked about in terms of Gratitude and Thankfulness. Your student will have the opportunity to do a 21-day Thankfulness Journal. Research has shown that young adults and teaenagers who kept gratitude journals for 21 days had increases in attention, enthusiasm, and energy! If you are interested in keeping a Thankfulness Journal too, please email aweston210@mygfschools.org to receive one too!)
November Social and Emotional Learning:
Every month Valley Royal students have the opportunity to study one social or emotional skill. In November we will focus on PERSPECTIVE: a person's point of view. Students will learn how to purposely consider another person's view point in order to better understand them. Middle schoolers are at a developmental stage when taking perspective can be a challenge! Focusing on this skill at home this month, as well as in school, will really help your student succeed!
Music Calendar
Valley Middle School's PTO
Top 10 Communication Tips
Vaping & Juuling FACTS
Nurses Notes
KnightRiders Boys Swimming & Diving
Dates to Remember
- November 11 - NO SCHOOL - Veterans Day
- November 13 - Picture Retake Day
- November 19 - Orchestra Concert
- November 21 - Band & Choir Concert
- November 26 - Turkey Bingo
- November 28-29 - NO SCHOOL - Holiday Break