Weekly News
January 15, 2021
Calendar Items
Monday, January 18 - No School - MLK Day
Tuesday, January 19 - Hybrid learning resumes
Thursday, January 21 - Boys basketball games
Hybrid Learning Resumes
We are looking forward to having students back in the building! We resume the hybrid learning model on Tuesday, January 19. Students will attend with their half of the alphabet in groups A-L and M-Z. We will use all of the same mitigation strategies we used during the last hybrid period. Click here to review the procedures and strategies for hybrid. Please note that students cannot be dropped off at school before 7:30 a.m. Please wait in the car lane (not the parking lot) until a staff members opens the front door and signals students in. Thank you for helping us with these important mitigation strategies.
Mental Fitness: Practical Applications of Distress Management
Blue Valley Southwest Feeder Schools K-12: 1/22/21 @ 10:30AM
This program is offered to all parents in Blue Valley. Parents and teens should attend this event if they would like more information about panic, depression and/or suicidality. Julia Harkleroad will be discussing the basic protocols in case of suicidal ideation and planning as well as managing impulsive emotions, intrusive thoughts and high stress environments She will introduce the biomechanics of stress and the differences between suicidal ideation and suicidal planning. Julia will share insight into breathing, heart-rate variability, pain management, relationships, drugs and alcohol, sleep, social media and mindfulness.
Registration is now open, click here to get started.
Registration Landing Page: https://www.bluevalleyk12.org/Page/35794
Mathcounts
Math Counts will meet on Wednesday, January 20th from 3:00-3:30 pm in person in room 313 or via Zoom using the information below.
https://bluevalleyk12.zoom.us/j/98090235797
Meeting ID: 980 9023 5797
Passcode: MATHCOUNTS
Cheerleading
Cheerleaders: Don’t forget to order your bow, mask, and other spirit wear items. The link to order is: https://mccwebstores.com/3659/shop/home. The deadline for ordering is Sunday, January 17th.
Spirit Wear
The ABMS cheerleader spirit wear store is up and running until Sunday. If you are interested in some new spirit wear, there are some items with just a wolverine print that might interest some of you. There are also some ABMS masks if you are looking to add to your mask collection. Here is the link: https://mccwebstores.com/3659/shop/home.
School Pictures
Winter MAP testing for all students
All PSMS virtual students will take the Winter Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) tests during the testing window of January 25th-28th. Students will take the math MAP test with their mathematics teacher and the reading MAP test with their English Language Arts (ELA) teacher. The data obtained through MAP testing measures each student’s progress on specific standards and provides PSMS staff members with information that allows us to better support your student(s).
- VirtualEd: VirtualEd teachers will communicate to students/families the day or days that will be utilized to complete the MAP tests within the January 25th-28th testing window. Some students will take both tests on the same day.
· Invest in ABMS/PTO membership - Make your tax-deductible donation! Any and all support is very much appreciated!! Log into ParentVue to donate.
· DONATION LETTERS - Stay tuned! Your donation receipt letter will be arriving via email and/or mail later this month.
· PTO MEETING - Our next virtual meeting will be January 22 at 9am.
· AMAZON SMILE - Did you know you can support ABMS by shopping through Amazon Smile? It's an easy way to help, but you must shop through our link.
· "BE IN THE KNOW WITH ABMS PTO"- Be sure to follow us on FB (@AubryBendMSPTO) and twitter (@AbmsPto).
· STAFF APPRECIATION - The staff appreciation committee has planned a coffee truck surprise for the staff to enjoy as they are wrapping up first semester on Friday.
· COMMUNITY SPIRIT - Our PTO friends over at BVSW have put together a couple of fun activities and are looking to include our entire "Five Schools One Family" community. Check out the flyer below or their FB page @bluevalleysouthwestpto to get more info.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iNFvom73w0&feature=youtu.be7th & 8th Grade ELA - Virtual Students
All virtual students may pick up a copy of their class novels for ELA in the ABMS main entrance vestibule beginning Tuesday, Jan 19th during school hours. Students will find their copy with a sticky note attached with their name. The books will be placed on a cart clearly labeled within the entrance vestibule. This is for Virtual students only! All in-person students will receive their books during in-person classes.
If virtual students have library books to return, they may place them on the cart as well, on the bottom shelf.
Please email if you have any questions.
Book Returns-Help Needed!
Many students utilized the library before going Virtual in November. When we return for the 3rd Quarter in Hybrid mode this will provide an opportunity for students to return those books. Please help your student remember to put those books in their backpacks and get them turned in. If any other books were found over the break from last school year we’d LOVE for those to be returned as well! Thanks in advance for your help!
ELA
ELA finished 2nd Quarter strong by completing an end of the unit “Assessment of Learning”. Students rocked it and showed us how much they learned during the quarter. We look forward to starting 3Q with Argumentative Writing.
Social Studies
We finished up our "virtual" traveling of the Silk Road. Ask your student how they did. Did their entire group survive? Did they get new items? Are they happy with the way their journey turned out?
Math
Math classes finished quarter two with finding ratios and calculating unit rates. We will continue our practice with ratios at the start of quarter three.
Science
Science will finish up the history of Earth at the start of the quarter.
Social Studies
Social Studies classes have spent their time looking at statistical data and trends on Quality of Life data around the world. We’ve narrowed that down to Guatemala, which has one of the statistically lowest qualities of life amongst the countries in Latin America, especially with its rural populations, and are watching a documentary about life in those mountain villages living on less than $1 a day.
ELA
Students are beginning a novel of the beloved novel, Where the Red Fern Grows. Students will be participating in Socratic circles to discuss the novel through deeper thinking. They will also pick out themes, figurative language, and symbols in the text.
- Virtual Parents received an email from Ms. Morris this week with details on how to pick up the novel from ABMS. Please refer to the email for information on the process.
Math
MAP testing is around the corner! Stay tuned for more information from your teachers! We can't WAIT to see you guys in person! Get ready for 2-step inequalities!
Advanced VirtualED:
Students will continue to write two step inequalities for real world situations, solve them, and graph the solution! After MAP testing, we will start the unit on proportional relationships!
Integrated VirtualED:
Students just finished up 2-step equations with a practice quiz! They can choose whether they want to reassess or count the practice as their assessment grade moving into 3rd quarter! We will have information about MAP testing coming soon! Stay tuned!
Science
Students just finished up our unit on the human body with a project! They did a fantastic job showing the interactions between body systems! Ready for an eyeball dissection? We hope so! Can't wait to see you in person!
Math
Algebra 1: We will be starting our unit covering linear relationships
Math 8: Starting geometry unit
Social Studies
Students are continuing their exploration into the topic of American slavery. We are looking at the realities of it, some of the reactions from the time period, and how it contributed to the Civil War.
Farris/Moss Science
Chemical reactions lab. Must wear closed toed shoes and have hair pulled back.
I cannot tell you how excited we are to have kids back in the building! Tuesday cannot come fast enough for me! I garner so much energy from those kiddos, and I look forward to that boost as winter sets in.
I included a little blurb above in the newsletter to help remind everyone of the procedures and mitigation strategies in place for hybrid learning. We are going to keep everything as consistent as possible during this hybrid period to make the transition easiest for students and parents.
The only “major” thing we changed is that this go-around the students have had some say in who they will sit with at lunch. Last time we were in hybrid, our teachers hadn’t met their students in-person and didn’t feel like they really knew them as well as they hoped, so we randomly chose the cohorts and asked students to trust us. It wasn’t perfect, but the kids were AMAZING and made some new friends.
We promised them that we would find a way to create lunch cohorts so that they can sit with at least one person of their choosing. Last week, students filled out a survey and listed 4-6 people they’d like to sit with. Our team has been working tirelessly to get those cohorts formed and ready for Tuesday. We know it may not be perfect, but we’re really proud of the way we were able to give ALL kids a voice in their lunch table during this highly unusual time. Thank you, in advance, for giving us some grace to make last-minute changes, if needed, to make all the lunch periods work with 4 to a table, 6 feet apart, assigned seats and mitigation strategies to follow.
If you’re like me, Oct. 5 was a loooong time ago, and when we moved to hybrid at that time, you had received about 859 emails over a 4-week period. J I have updated the Hybrid Details and Mitigation Strategies for your review. (It’s the same as the one above in the Weekly News)
I am so proud of our kids, teachers and parents for the successful completion of first semester! I know there were bumps along the way, but we handled those challenges with grace, understanding, and compassion. Thank you for supporting our efforts and for going above and beyond to take care of our kids and one another.
Have a wonderful weekend! We love our community and want you to know that you can count on us.
Sincerely,
Diana Tate, Principal
Aubry Bend Middle School
Email: AubryBendMiddle@bluevalleyk12.org
Website: www.bluevalleyk12.org/ABM
Location: 12501 West 175th Street, Overland Park, KS, USA
Phone: 913-624-2300
Facebook: facebook.com/Smore
Twitter: @smorenewsletter