Banks Trail Middle School
Teamwork, Responsibility, Ambition, Integrity, Leadership
BTMS IS GOING FOR THE GOLD!
September Follow Up Newsletter
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Hello Timberwolf Families,
We have had a few questions come up recently and I just wanted to send out a quick September Newsletter Update to hopefully answer some question.
Middle Years
This year, we have subscribed to a monthly newsletter that we hope might be helpful to you as parents of middle school students. In all honesty, many of the articles and suggestions are great, but every once in a while there is an article that may not make sense, so just use what you want and ignore the other information. We would love to hear if this is something you find interesting.
Here is the link to the September edition:
https://drive.google.com/a/fmsdmail.org/file/d/0B4lAAsxNzVTNYVZ0TS1nUF9fbkU/view?usp=sharing
Afternoon Car Rider Pick up
There has been a little confusion at pick up in the afternoon so I hope I can try to clear things up. The big question seems to be one line or two? The answer is two lines around the baseball field that then merges together to form one line where pick up occurs. So parents, as you come in to the car rider pick up line, please even up both lines. Then as dismissal begins, allow cars to merge together (like a zipper) to form one line. This helps keep cars off of the bypass and also will keep the line moving. I hope this will clear questions up and we can continue to have a great year.
What is an R-Card?
My child keeps coming home talking about R-cards. What are they and do I need to know about them? The R-card is the short name for what we call the Responsibility Card. At the middle school level, we understand the importance of helping our students learn to take responsibility. The R-Card program focuses solely on homework and if a student took responsibility for it or not.
So how does the program work? Ideally, every student would complete all of their homework all of the time, but who are we kidding, they are in middle school. In each student’s agenda are located 4 papers that say “R-Card”; one for each quarter. When a teacher checks for homework, if a student does not have it, they receive an “R-card” which means the teachers signs the agenda sheet for the subject where the homework is missing and writes the date the homework was missing. We understand students need some wiggle room, so nothing happens until a student misses homework for the 4th time. When they receive their 4th R-card*, the teacher will send you an email to let you know your child has received their 4th R-Card, the student will then be seen by the administrator working with that grade level. The administrator will work with the students to see if there is a reason for missing homework, or if a plan to help them be successful needs to be developed. The student will also receive a lunch detention.
Students who do not have any R-cards at the end of the quarter will be treated to a special incentive as a way to say thanks for being responsible.
*If a student does not have their agenda, or have lost it, it will be counted as the 4th R-card automatically.
As students move through school we want them to develop more and more responsibility. It is our hope that by having this system it will help foster more responsibility with all of our students.
Banks Trail Middle School
Email: munns@fortmillschools.org
Website: http://btms.fortmillschools.org/pd/FMSD_BTMS/index.html
Location: 1640 Banks Road, Fort Mill, SC, United States
Phone: 803-578-2990
Twitter: @BTMStimberwolf