Bobcat Broadcast
August 27, 2021
A Message from Mrs. Caudill
Dear Bobcat Families,
I am excited to welcome you to the start of another school year! I am so appreciative of the outpouring of support and kindness. I know we didn't think we would be in this position again this fall, but we are going to have an AMAZING year no matter what and we could not have gotten this far without you. The Amerman staff is so excited to welcome our students back to school on September 7. Our focus has always been to educate and to inspire a lifelong joy for learning. We know our students will Aspire, Achieve and Amaze!
Additionally this year, more than any other year, with 40% of our school population returning to in-person school for the first time in 18 months, we know we need to focus on our students social and emotional health first and build classroom connections and communities. We know that without those positive connections we will never be able to achieve academic excellence.
We know you have many questions about the start of the school year. This newsletter will answer some of those questions, and classroom teachers will be sending additional communication home to families with pertinent information to begin the school year.
I imagine many of you (and your children) may be feeling a sense of anxiety at the start of this school-year. That is okay. There is nothing wrong with feeling nervous. It is important to recognize the feeling and talk about it. Please be assured we are here to help you and your child. We are here to love them and make them feel safe. Together we can do anything. Don't worry, we got this!
Stay well,
Devon Caudill
Mark Your Calendars
September 2 - Open House for K-2 students 5:30 - 7:00pm
September 7 - First Day of School
September 9 - Open House for 3-5 students 5:30 - 7:00pm
September 17 - Virtual PTA Meeting 7:00pm
September 21 - PTA Bonaventure Skating 6:00 - 8:30pm
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Teacher Assignments
I know students (and parents) are anxiously awaiting the posting of who they have for a teacher this school-year in the parent portal. The work of placing students in classes usually happens in the spring and then is double checked and finalized in August. It is a complex process that requires us to take into account a variety of factors.
This year, teacher assignments will be viewable in the parent portal Friday, August 27 at 4:00pm. Thank you all for your patience!
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Welcome to the Amerman Staff!
We are excited to welcome several new staff members to the Amerman family. Mrs. Sarah Hanes took a position as our Elementary Literacy Coach for the district and our incoming 3rd grade ALPS class is larger than in the past. As a result, we have hired two new ALPS teachers. Mr. Aric Spott (3rd grade) and Mrs. Courtney Robinson (4th grade) are excited to join the ALPS team.
Additionally, we are excited to add STEAM (Science, technology, engineering, art and math) to our Humanities rotation. Please help me welcome Kim Chenoweth to the Amerman Staff. Amerman will have STEAM the first marking period and World Language the 2nd and 3rd marking period.
Lastly, please help me welcome Ms. Carly Larkin as our new Speech and Language Pathologist. Ms. Larkin comes to us with several years of SLI experience and we are excited to have her on our team.
Mr. Aric Spotts
Ms. Courtney Robinson
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We are excited to offer two seperate Open House events!
- Thursday, September 2 Kindergarten - Second Grade
- Thursday, September 9 Third Grade - Fifth Grade
The purpose of these events are to welcome students and families into our buildings. They are informal events. There will be no formal presentations. Feel free to come in anytime between 5:30 - 7:00 to meet your child's teacher and see the classroom. You can drop off any supplies your might have at this time too!
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arrival and dismissal procedures - please watch
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COVID Mitigation Plan
Please see the letter from Superintendent Gallagher regarding the district's COVID mitigation plan. It shoud be mentioned, that as noted in the communication below, Amerman does fall under Oakland County Health Department's mask mandate.
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Morning Loop Volunteers Needed
Volunteers are needed every morning to assist students with exiting their vehicles during drop-off in the Amerman loop. Volunteers are needed 8:30 until approximately 8:45 a.m. We'd love your help for 15 minutes each week to keep things running smoothly - especially if you regularly use the loop. Please join us!
If you are unable to commit to a regular time slot, please consider signing up to be a back-up volunteer. Back-up volunteers (our "subs") are needed to fill slots when regular volunteers are unable to work, and occasionally when we anticipate higher than usual traffic in the loop
Please sign up by using the link below!
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Medication Drop Off
If you have medication to drop off to school you can do so at the times listed below. Please be sure you have all forms completed with physician and parent signatures. Place the form and medication in one bag that is clearly labeled with your child’s name. We cannot take medication without a completed form.
- Tuesday, August 31st from 9 AM - 1:00 PM
- Wednesday, September 1st from 9 AM - 3:30 PM
- Thursday, September 2nd from 9 AM - 1:00 PM
If the above times are not convenient for you, please call the school office at 248.465.2100 to make other arrangements.
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Suggested School Supplies
If you are interested on getting a jump on school supply shopping, please see the link below for our suggested school supplies. The supply lists are simply suggestions of helpful items and are strictly voluntary, as we provide the necessary supplies and materials for your child’s successful school experience.
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hot lunch program for interested students
Families must preorder lunches for preschools and elementary students. Orders must be in by 8:30 AM for elementary students to receive a lunch that day. The system will not allow you to order after the time listed above. For your convenience, meals can be preordered up to 30 days in advance. To avoid any issues, we recommend ordering the night before.
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School-Wide Theme - On your mark - get set - lead!
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HEY 5th grade BOBCATS!! Seeking any and all creative, fun, and energetic 5th graders to record video for our first two weeks of school!
All videos would need to be sent to Mrs. Vertrees anytime on or before September 3rd at vertreesbl@northvilleschools.org.
Depending on how many videos we get, yours may or may not make the first week. And if you loved it, you can become one of our permanent video announcers!
When you are going to record yourself, remember to speak slowly, loudly, and with energy! Also, choose a platform that you are comfortable with and can be emailed.
Examples include but are not limited to; YouTube, Zoom recording and screen sharing, iMovie, or Camtasia. Record yourself and feel free to edit in any transitions, text, or images that would be appropriate for viewers kindergarten through 5th grade.
Our first two weeks of morning announcements will need all of these:
The Pledge of Allegiance and Pride Pledge.
You may record just your voice with an image or feel free to ask friends, neighbors, family members to join you!
A habit review.
You can name all the habits or focus on just Habit 1- Being Proactive. You can define it, give examples, and/or act it out. Remember that this may be the first time students are hearing these habits.
Announcing our 2021/2022 School theme for this year.
On Your Mark-GEt Set-Lead! - A year of encouragement, perseverance and teamwork
You might say something like “We are excited to remind you and look forward to finding ways to celebrate our theme this year. On your mark On Your Mark-Get Set-Lead! - A year of encouragement, perseverance and teamwork
An Announcement about making sure to wear masks appropriately which demonstrates support, encouragement, and teamwork.
You could even model ways NOT to wear it. Then show how to cover your nose and mouth with the mask.
Personal Missions
Follow the script for this one.
“What makes you thrive? What do you want to be remembered for? Be thinking about what your personal mission is this year. What words describe you and how you like to live your life. Is it to love, live, and laugh? Is it to have a growth mindset? Is it to persevere or show others kindness? This first month of school you will be writing one to remind you of how to lead and carry yourself this school year. We look forward to seeing and hearing from you!”
Announcement team member call
Follow the script here too
“This year we will be opening up our announcement team to any and all of those willing to create and send in videos kindergarten through 5th grade. So just like the ones you are seeing here, we invite you to send in daily, weekly, or even monthly videos to Mrs. Vertrees. Videos we need are habit reviews, important messages, the pledge of allegiance and/or pride pledge. And any and all ideas you may have. Remember if it is too long to send via email, send a link in its place. Send all videos to vertreesbl@northvilleschools.org. You can email her for more ideas.”
(It might be nice to edit in text here to the video with my email)
If you have attempted to send in any videos from #1-6 Feel free to send in additional important ideas you want to share with Amerman that may be applicable and appropriate.
Have fun and remember that we NEED you for our Amerman Announcements!! So if you can help in any way, we would love and appreciate it!
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Schoology Information
Northville Public Schools is continuing to use Schoology, an integrated learning management solution that provides course management, mobile learning, and support for system-wide communication. Schoology enables our students, parents and teachers to engage with learning materials and their school community from the classroom and beyond. We look forward to continuing to use Schoology in our classrooms this year to enhance connectivity and communication across our district.
You will use the same login credentials you did last year. If you are new to the district, you and your child will be given login credentials prior to the start of the school year once schedules and class assignments are finalized to access the district’s Schoology system. Please make sure that your email address is accurate and updated in your student’s MiStar account.
Students - Check out Schoology
Please take a few minutes with your child to review this student video that provides a basic overview of Schoology, instructions for accessing and using Schoology, a video tutorial specific to NPS on getting started with Schoology and other important information to get students acquainted with the platform.
Parents - Check out Schoology
A video introduction to how NPS will use Schoology is available online. Parents can test out the platform by logging into Schoology using the following sign in credentials:
username: npsparent
Password: student1
Select Northville High School in the “School Code” dropdown
Parent intro video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz1VX20PtmQ
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Annual Online Information Confirmation
Every year, all families are required to fill out the digital Annual Registration for each student. Families may complete these forms through ParentConnection. Through this process you will be asked to update your student’s emergency contact information, home address and health information, review our technology use policy and student handbooks, learn more about PTSA/PTA, access the web store and much more.
This process needs to be completed on a desktop or laptop computer, unless you download the MiStar App available in the App Store.
ANNUAL REGISTRATION MUST BE COMPLETED BY ALL FAMILIES
PRIOR TO THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
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Are you ready to join a Robotic Team in Amerman?
We would like to launch a Robotic team in Amerman. It would be part of the FIRST Robotic program.
https://www.firstinspires.org/
For Amerman, we would have 2 programs:
Grade 2-3 (FIRST LEGO LEAGUE EXPLORE) is based on LEGO WeDo 2.0 or Spike Essentials.
This is a non competitive program, but all teams will show their work during an EXPO in December, probably around DEC-11 in our area (Northville, Novi or Livonia).
- The team will meet from September -27 until the EXPO event is scheduled on Mondays from 6-7pm. Every week the kids have to complete a small challenge based on this year's theme this year is CARGO CONNECTSM .
- (Please check out https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/fll/game-and-season.)
- It will be a LEGO build and the robot will be built with Wedo 2.0 or SPIKE componenets. For example make a LEGO lift moving up and down or create a LEGO car driving on a board.
- Each coach will receive a meeting guide and each student will receive an engineering book for the season.
Grade 4-5 (FIRST LEGO LEAGUE Challenge). This is a LEGO SPIKE based competitive League and the kids will join a competition in November probably around Saturday, Nov-13 or Nov-20.
- This year's theme is CARGO CONNECTSM . (Please check out https://info.firstinspires.org/class-pack/firstlegoleaguechallenge).
- For the competition, the kids have to program some challenges and to prepare a project. This project has to be presented during the competition. One project example in the past was, what the kids would build in their community and why).
- The other challenges will be to program the SPIKE to run over a challenge mat built out of LEGOs and to perform certain things like drive over a bridge, etc.
These teams will meet on Monday from 6-7:30pm and will start on September-20. 4-5 weeks before the competition the teams will meet twice a week. The other meeting will be Thursdays, 6-7:30pm. All kids are expected to join the competition.
We are offering an informational meeting on
Thursday, September-02 at 5:30-6:30pm on the Amerman Playground.
Any Questions? amerman.robotics@gmail.com
We need coaches!!!!!! EveryTeam of 4-6 students needs two adult coaches.
So please consider volunteering as a coach. It's fun to build and explore with your child and teammates with the Lego Challenge set. If you can follow a LEGO instruction and you can load an app on Chromebook or tablet, you can coach! Have fun with your child and try something new.
Any questions? amerman.robotics@gmail.com
Help wanted!
We don't have kids in the younger age group. So we are looking for some help from parents in Grade 2-3 to help to launch Robotics in Amerman.
Are you interested? Please send us an email amerman.robotics@gmail.com
Grade K-1
Unfortunately FIRST changed his rules for the 2021/2022 season. The Grades K-1 are no longer part of the WeDo 2.0 challenges. We can't offer a program for this age group. We are hoping for another change in the future.
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Amerman PTA News:
Welcome back Bobcats! The 2021/2022 PTA board is excited for the coming school year. We are working hard to roll out programs for our students, staff and families. Below is our back to school checklist, and forms. We look forward to meeting our new Bobcats and seeing familiar faces soon!
- Join PTA, as a member you will be able to participate in all the work we do and make your voice count.
- Invest in Your Child. This is our main fundraiser for the year!
For items 1 & 2 go to amerman.memberhub.store to find a bundle that works for your family!
- Join our Memberhub site so that we can communicate with you throughout the year, and also be included in our directory. Go to: amerman.memberhub.com/join/70f75
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Northville Public Schools is hiring the following part-time positions:
- Food Service Assistant: Please visit www.northvilleschools.org click on the "Employment Tab" and select "Current Job Openings" for more information.
- Lunch/Recess Monitor: Please contact the school principal for more information.
- Substitute Teachers, Paraprofessionals, Para Educators: Substitute employment opportunities can be found through educational placement services at EDUStaff. Northville Public Schools uses this service for placement of teachers, K-12 Paraprofessionals, Para Educators and Office Support. If you are interested in becoming a Substitute, please visit www.edustaff.org/ or call (877)974-6338 for more information.
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Spotlight on our Amerman Bobcats Excited for School to Start!
Amerman Elementary
Email: caudillde@northvilleschools.org
Website: amerman.northvilleschools.org
Phone: 248-465-2100
Twitter: @amermannv