The Middle Matters
OMS Oct. 12-23, 2020 Parent Newsletter
Inspiring Excellence. Every Learner. Every Day.
Calendar
Don't forget earbuds this week again for FastBridge Testing. They cannot be wireless.
Due to COVID, each student will need to bring his/her own.
Monday, October 12, 2020
Group 1 - A Day
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Group 2- B day
No Tech Tuesday in the Cafeteria
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
College Wear Wednesday
Thursday, October 15 & Friday, October 16, 2020
NO SCHOOL - MEA
Monday, October 19, 2020
Group 1 - A Day
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Group 1- B day
No Tech Tuesday in the Cafeteria
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
College Wear Wednesday
Thursday, October 22, 2020
Group 2 - A Day
No Tech Thursday in the Cafeteria
Friday, October 23, 2020
Group 2 - B Day
MEA WEEK SCHEDULE
Reminder for next week:
Monday is Group 1 A Day
Tuesday is Group 2 B Day
Conferences/Progress Reports
Due to restrictions we have on bringing outside people into the building, we will not be holding fall conferences as we have in the past. However, the week of October 26, we will send out a progress report (that can also be found online). This will be the only hard copy of grades we will send out this year; grades can always be found by using the Parent Portal, which we strongly encourage you to use. If you are not set up on the Parent Portal, please connect with one of the school counselors to get help in doing so.
For this first progress report, you will see grades for in-progress academics and scores for our new PAW life skills categories. PAW will be similar to what you have seen throughout elementary school. The three categories can be seen in the image below.
We believe life skills and behaviors are critically important in the overall development of our students. Therefore, we believe there is signifcant merit in reporting out against life skills that influence learning. We also ensure that life skills will not influence an academic grade and will be reported separately in our reporting structure. Students will receive a score of 1 (Rarely), 2 (Sometimes), or 3 (Consistently) in each of these categories. While it is still early in the year, we wanted to share what our teachers are seeing in the classroom with respect to these three categories. These scores will eventually be used for our Husky Pride Days (likely second semester since we are unsure if we will be able to celebrate our first Husky Pride Day in December).
Parents, as we end our first wheel classes and approach the end of the first quarter, teachers will be updating grades and adding in our first PAW scores to each class. As these grades are updated, you will be able to see assignments and scores in each class. Once our grading window is closed, you will then see the updated current grades, posted grades, and percentages. This is in an effort to minimize the number of notifications you receive as grades are being entered.
After you receive your progress report, please feel free to reach out to your child's teacher(s) if you would like to discuss progress in specific classes. All of the teachers contact information can be found online on the OMS website by following this link.
Grading Scale
A 100-94
A- 93-90
B+ 89-87
B 86-83
B- 82-80
C+ 79-77
C 76-73
C- 72-70
D 69-50
F 49-0
Saturday School
Last year, we started a program called Saturday School. This generally runs twice a month from 8:00-11:30 and is supervised by two teachers/OMS employees. Our intent behind this is to offer a safe place for students to work on schoolwork. We do not want this to be seen as a punishment; on the contrary, we hope students and families see this as a way for us to offer support outside the normal school hours in order to help students find success in school. In addition to academic support, we provide a light breakfast of fruit, donuts, and juice/milk for students. Teams work with administration to identify students who could use this support, but we also have students and families reach out to us to sign up. If you are interested in this for your child, feel free to reach out to the school at 444-8700. Upcoming dates for this are as follows:
October 10
October 31
November 14
November 21
Deember 12
Mask up
Masks are required each and every day. Please have your students bring their own masks to school.
We are unable to continuously provide masks for students that are not bringing theirs from home. We have a limited amount for loss or breakage but we do not have enough for students that repeatedly forget their masks.
Information below is old news (but still important)!
ATTENDANCE
Wednesdays are designated Distance Learning Days, a day for students to connect with teachers about school work. We have structured this day so A Day classes are available in the morning, and B Day classes are available in the afternoon. Each teacher has a Google Meets link in their Google Classroom for students to use if they want to connect with teachers. In general, attendance is not taken on Wednesdays; however, there is one exception.
Teachers may request students log in so they can reteach a skill/concept or help a student with class work. If a student's presence is requested by a teacher, the student will be notified by the teacher in class, through email, or through Google Meets. We are taking attendance for required meetings with teachers on Wednesdays. This will appear in the Early Bird portion of student's attendance and will be labeled as Wednesday Check-In. The notes column will indicate what class a student missed.
School work and schedule
Now that we are settling into a routine, your child should have work to complete on the days he/she is not in school or online with teachers. We encourage every child/family to set a routine in the "off days" that includes regular time to work on classwork. Students should be checking their Google Classroom and email for updates on work that needs to be completed when they are not in school or live with their teachers! There will be homework in each of the grades that needs get done. Thank you for your help with this!
Chromebook Usage
Every student must bring their Chromebook to school every day, fully charged.
Teachers will be using these on a daily basis; it is crucial your child brings his/her computer to school every day!
Hybrid Learners on Off Days
We have received inquiries as to whether or not we had a place for kids to go on the days they are not physically in attendance at the school; for example, a place for a student to go on Thursday/Friday when they are not attending classes in person. This would be for students who have chosen the hybrid model, not for distance learners. While we do not have that space or staffing at the school right now, we are curious to find out who might be interested in having a place for their children to go when not attending in person. It is likely it would come with a fee of some sort to pay for supervision (similar to SAC). Because space at OMS is limited, it would likely be housed off-site at another location in town. This could be a time/place for students to complete school work while under the supervision of adults. If you would be interested in something like this, please email Mrs. Sullivan at jsullivan@isd761.org.
No Visitors
During this unique time, we are not allowing visitors into the building unless it is under special circumstances or by appointment only. If you do have a scheduled appointment you will need to present a valid ID in order to enter.