Lively Middle School
March 26, 2021
Greetings Falcon Nation,
We had another great week at Lively Middle School. The first week back after Spring Break is always fun and full of activity. My favorite part of the week was getting an opportunity to dance with our Lively students during Coach Stuart’s PE class. I not only watched our students dance but joined in the fun. Check out our dance moves by going to @LivelyFalcons on Twitter!
iReady Class Winners and Update
This week we announced the winners of the extended advisory i-Ready competition. This competition was designed to engage all students in personalized instruction utilizing the i-Ready Math and Reading programs. We calculated the total minutes of i-Ready engagement, and the top 3 winners are as follows:
1st Place: Ms. Delmar’s Advisory Class- 5,944 minutes
2nd Place: Ms. Springer’s 6th Grade Advisory Class: 4,963 minutes
3rd Place: Coach Perry’s 7th Grade Advisory Class: 4,456 minutes
Congratulations goes to Ms. Delmar’s Advisory class for winning first place! All students in Ms. Delmar’s advisory class will receive a $10 gift card, and Ms. Delmar gets to enjoy lunch from Torchy’s. Honorable mentions go out to Ms. Springer and Coach Perry’s classes for earning a close 2nd and 3rd place.
This week we also kicked off our next i-Ready competition. Every student has a new opportunity to win! Students who work on i-Ready Math and Reading for an average of 30 minutes per week, per subject for the next three weeks will earn a special prize. The best part is that students can access i-Ready from home at any time to get their minutes! Good luck, everyone!
Reminders
Friday, April 2nd is a Staff Development and Student Holiday and there is NO SCHOOL for students.
Monday, April 5th there will be no after school activities, or late buses due to STAAR testing occurring the next day.
Friday, April 9th, which had previously been scheduled as an asynchronous day, will now be a regular instruction day. We will follow our regular Friday schedule for Lively MS.
Continued Use of Masks at AISD
Austin ISD will continue to require all students, staff, and visitors to wear masks on District property and at District events. Our decisions have been and will continue to be based on guidance provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics. We appreciate everyone's efforts to keep safe by wearing masks, maintaining social distancing when possible, and washing hands frequently.
Clifton’s Annual Spring Plant Sale
Clifton’s Annual Spring Plant Sale will be held Saturday, March 27, from 9 am-2 pm. Please share our flyer with staff, students, and families. For questions, please submit through our social media pages @cliftoncds or by calling the Clifton CDS main line at 512.414.3614.Pick-up and After School Reminders
All car riders should be picked up on the Mary St. side (north side) of the building during school dismissal. We’ve noticed an increase in students being picked up on the Leland St. side, which is our bus loop area, and this creates an unsafe environment for our students and traffic congestion for our buses.
Students may stay on campus after school with a teacher or an activity that is previously arranged. While our security guard does check the campus after school, students on campus and not in an activity are not continuously supervised.
PLEASE NOTE: THERE WILL BE NO LATE BUSES OR AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES MONDAY, APRIL 5TH DUE TO STAAR TESTING THE NEXT DAY. THANKS!
Seeking Party Planners: 8th Grade Celebration
In preparation for the 8th grade celebration at the end of this school year, we would appreciate your thoughts and ideas on things we can do to make this year’s celebration a memorable occasion. Please click on the link below to submit a form with your ideas. Mr. Wiggins will review your suggestions and begin the process of scheduling meetings to plan with students, parents, and teachers to make this event a great success. This is a very unique year so let’s think outside the box. We welcome all of your ideas to consider and discuss in the coming weeks.
Online Registration Now Open
Online Registration for the 2021-2022 school year is now open. Please log into your Parent Portal and locate the Registration Tile. For additional information regarding online registration, please visit our Parent Portal website at www.austinisd.org/enroll. If you need assistance, please call the Parent Support line at 512-414-9187. Early registration helps us plan for the new school year.
STAAR
In an effort to plan effectively and efficiently for the upcoming administration of the STAAR assessment(s) in April and May, we are requesting that you please choose the appropriate grade level survey posted below to indicate whether your student(s) will be coming to campus to take the STAAR assessment(s). The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has not mandated that parents send students to campus to take the test. Parents have discretion to decide if their students participate in STAAR.
For those students currently enrolled in Algebra 1, a STAAR EOC (End of Course exam) is required for high school graduation. If you choose not to take the STAAR Algebra 1 EOC this year, you will still need to take the EOC exam to meet high school graduation requirements, however you will not have to take the course again. The Algebra 1 STAAR EOC will be given on May 4, 2021.
All surveys have been re-opened, please click on the appropriate grade level survey below:
Schedule & Procedures for Remote Students on April 6, 2021 during 7th Grade STAAR Writing
Remote students who are not testing on April 6 at all grade levels will still attend school and have learning activities to complete while the 7th grade students are testing.
On Monday April 5, 2021 remote 7th graders who are not testing will be assigned to a Zoom classroom, so they know where to report on Tuesday.
All students in 6th and 8th grades who are not testing on Tuesday April 6, will log in to their Advisory class as usual on that morning.
Remote learners will resume their regular schedule at 1:30 which is 8th period.
The school day ends with Advisory as regularly scheduled.
I received this wonderful email from Katie McKay, Secondary Bilingual Curriculum Specialist with the Multilingual Education Team, about one of our former students and wanted to share it with our community:
I just wanted to write a quick note to share what a beautiful job Mireya Gonzalez, former Lively DL student and current Travis DL freshman, did speaking on a panel this morning for the AISD Multilingual Education Team. She was the student representative on a panel of African American Dual Language parents, teachers, staff, and students. Our Dual Language teachers, especially Ms. Amador, advocated for Mireya to be the student representative on the panel and it was clear why! Mireya was eloquent, honest, thought-provoking, and inspiring as she shared her story as an Afro-Latina bilingual student/human. She challenged our thinking and called us to action to create stronger connections and invitations to African American and black students to participate in Multilingual programming. Congrats, Mireya!!! Great job. Such a tribute to you as a strong young woman. Lively and Travis are lucky to be able to boast that you're one of ours!! I hope you will also share with your parents and friends the positive feedback you received from your audience of more than 50 AISD Multilingual Education Team members.
Stacie Holiday, Principal
GARDEN CORNER
VOLUNTEER WORKDAY TOMORROW!
March 27th from 9:00-10:30 AM
We will be covering the pathways with mulch and planting spring crops! We hope you can join us!
To RSVP, go to: bit.ly/thelivelygarden
For any garden questions, please email Ms. Morgan at brittany.morgan@austinisd.org
YEARBOOK CORNER
The 2021 Yearbook is for sale ($30) and can be purchased online at www.balfour.com.
The yearbook will not be distributed until August 2021 in the hope that they can be handed out and signed in person (including an 8th grade reunion to receive yearbooks). We still have 2020 Yearbooks for sale at $30 or you can buy a combo of 2020 and 2021 yearbooks for $50.
Instead of school portrait photos this year, we are using selfies for each student. If you haven't sent in a selfie yet, please send one to bethena.griesmer@austinisd.org or text them to 281-944-5441. All guidelines for selfies and request for other photos we would love to get can be found here.
Any questions can be directed to Beth Griesmer at bethena.griesmer@austinisd.org.
KEYBOARDING CORNER
The dates for the keyboarding exam are April 13th and 14th. Included below is the information letter and study guide for the exam for those interested in participating.
Effective this school year (2020-2021), Keyboarding is no longer a mandatory middle school course. The Keyboarding Proficiency test will show whether a student is proficient in Keyboarding, but they do not earn high school credit by passing the test. Therefore, students are not required to take the exam as in previous school years.
LIBRARY CORNER
Lively students have checked out 1732 digital books this year! In person students are checking out books for pleasure and for Capstone projects. Come on by!
Curbside Delivery
Please email me directly at yvonne.steckel@austinisd.org and I will help you check out a book!
Free Books
If you are on campus, please come by the library and see if you want any of the books we are removing from the collection. Many different nonfiction titles are available.
Women’s History Month Choice Board Challenge!
There is so much to learn about women’s contributions to the world!!
Original by Laura Fernandez, Paredes MS librarian
Happy Reading,
Yvonne Steckel, Lively Librarian
PTA CORNER
We have Nominations for PTSA Executive Board and Committee Chairs for 2021/22!
You can support Lively Middle School by serving on the board of the PTSA!
Please fill out form below and the nominations committee will get in touch with you.
Expectations: Attendance at a one-morning Executive Board meeting and one PTSA general meeting every month. Otherwise, your commitment time will vary throughout the year.
Nominations are due by April 5th.
Click on the link below to nominate someone or yourself.
https://forms.gle/uVMcVfbEYTPjW6WV6
Thank you!
Any questions? Email Maureen at president@livelymiddleschoolptsa.com
Your Lively PTSA
#LivelyStrong!
OTHER INFORMATION
Lively MS
Email: priscilla.hernandez@austinisd.org
Website: https://lively.austinschools.org/
Location: 201 East Mary Street, Austin, TX, USA
Phone: (512)414-3207
Twitter: @LivelyFalcons