Parent Newsletter
Jan. 29th - Feb. 2nd
Congratulations to the Girls and Boys basketball teams on great seasons
Midterm is Feb. 7th and midterm grade cards go home Feb. 9th
Midterms are soon approaching
- A look at the week ahead
- Focusing on Soft Skills
- Developing 21st century skills
- 30 Days of Kindness Challenge
- Focusing on Academics
- Understanding Social Media and Snapchat
We hope you have a great week!
Phil Cox, Principal
Chris Layton, Vice Principal
A Look at the Week Ahead
January 29-February 2
Monday 29 - B Day
Tuesday 30 – A Day
Wednesday 31 - B Day
Ski Club to Gatlinburg
Thursday 1 - A Day
8th grade AVID interviews, 8:00-2:00
ORHS ROTC, 8th grade PE
Friday 2 - B Day
Youth for Christ JPAC 7:00 A.M.
8th grade AVID interviews, 8:00-2:00
Saturday 3
Science Bowl-Kingsport
Focusing on Soft Skills
However for our students, we are going to continue to help present them with opportunities in middle school to develop and hone their soft skills. Above is an infographic that lays out qualities and skills beyond basic skills of memorizing content knowledge, information and being able to take tests etc. While content knowledge is important and vital, so are the abilities to apply your skills through 21st century skills like the 4 C's and soft skills.
In a recent article for the Association of Middle Level Education entitled, "Soft Skills: Preparing kids for life after school" the author makes several points to help identify some of the soft skills that will help students well beyond school. The author of the article highlights, "Today's employers perceive a lack of soft skills among recent graduates. Soft skills, sometimes called key skills, core skills, key competencies, or employability skills, are those desirable qualities that apply across a variety of jobs and life situations—traits such as integrity, communication, courtesy, responsibility, professionalism, flexibility, and teamwork."
The author goes on to explain, "While these soft skills are cited as integral to workplace success—according to CareerBuilder, 77% of employers say that soft skills are just as important as hard skills—college professors identify the same characteristics as important to college success. Young people who transition successfully from high school to college show an ability to manage their time, meet deadlines, get along with classmates and roommates, and deal with setbacks."
#30DaysofKindnessChallenge
30 Days of Kindness
Here's how it will work:
Beginning Jan. 29th we will have exactly 6 weeks left until spring break, 30 school days. In that 30 days, we will have a different challenge each day for students. The challenge may be something like, "Compliment three of your friends today on something they do that is awesome!" or "If you see someone who needs help, give them your help today (i.e. dropped backpack, books, just looks sad) etc.
The goal is to help promote kindness over the final 30 days of the nine weeks. Also, we will focus these daily kindness goals on our TVs along with other resources to help kindness at school, outside of school and also online. In our parent newsletter, we will work to communicate the challenge along with resources to help reinforce our goals of promoting kindness. In addition, we will tie our kindness challenge back into 21st century skills needed by our students including "soft skills".
Challenge for Monday Jan. 29th
Developing skills for the jobs of the 21st century
It is important for us to help students develop both hard and soft skills as we work to prepare them for the jobs and opportunities of their future. The reality for many careers of the future is that they will require a lot of skills found in traditional models of school, but also in a blended learning model that promotes the 4 C's and more soft skills. Below are some resources that share more about skills that employers see as assets for students in their future endeavors in both college and career readiness.
Of those skills, we also work to highlight the importance of being a lifelong learner, being gritty, promoting a growth mindset and learning how to persevere. For our students, they have access to abundance of information and communication opportunities that literally stretch the world. Our students will truly compete in a global economy where technology has made a major impact. It is critical for our students to work on these 21st century skills in order to combine their content knowledge with these skills to be competitive for great careers.
Check Canvas Daily to see what is due in your classes
Checking Canvas daily for students
1. Every day....CHECK Canvas. Check the Calendar. Check class announcements. What assignments are due? When is the next test? Quiz?
2. Utilize the digital tools for your classes like the online textbooks, MyOn reader, TenMarks, Prodigy, Discovery Ed Techbooks for Science and Social Studies etc.
3. If you miss an assignment, speak to your teacher to see what you missed. If you miss school, take the time to find out what you missed.
Focusing on Academics.....Resources and Opportunities are Critical
Do you have 10 minutes per week? To get organized, Check Canvas Calendar
Make it a household goal each week to have ZERO ZEROES for your work in ALL classes. You may fall short and you may miss an assignment, but if you start the week with a short meeting about your grades, it may make a noticeable difference in your grades.
Getting Organized: The Canvas 10 Challenge
Spend 10 minutes each week with your student and do the following:
1. Ask them to log on to their Canvas Account
2. Check the Canvas Calendar to see what assignments they have upcoming
3. Check their grades in the Canvas grade book
4. Check the announcements for each class in Canvas
Zeroes cost you more than you know
Effort, Grit, and Perseverance are Key
Anything is better than a 0
What are basic social media rules for middle school students?
Here is the response:
The reality is that most kids start developing online relationships around the age of 8, usually through virtual worlds such as Club Penguin. By age 10, they've progressed to multiplayer gamesand sharing their digital creations and homemade videos on sites such as YouTube. By age 13, millions of kids have created accounts on social-networking sites such as Facebook. Here are the essential safety and responsibility guidelines for middle schoolers:
- Follow the rules. Many social sites have an age minimum of 13 for both legal and safety/privacy reasons. Encourage kids to stick with age-appropriate sites.
- Tell your kids to think before they post. Remind them that everything can be seen by a vast, invisible audience (otherwise known as friends-of-friends-of-friends). Each family will have different rules, but, for middle school kids, it's a good idea for parents to have access to what their kids are doing online, at least at first, to be sure that what's being posted is appropriate. Parents can help keep kids from doing something they'll regret later.
- Make sure kids set their privacy settings. Privacy settings aren't foolproof, but they can be helpful. Take the time to learn about default settings and how to change privacy settings on your kids' favorite sites, and teach your kids how to control their privacy.
- Kindness counts. Lots of sites have anonymous applications such as "bathroom walls" or "honesty boxes" that allow users to tell their friends what they think of them. Rule of thumb: If your kids wouldn't say it to someone's face, they shouldn't post it.