Welcome back to school! This time of year always brings the suggestion to commit to a New Year’s resolution. Running with that theme, below I have listed a few activities to do with your middle schooler that can have long lasting, positive effects.

• Show your kids you love them

• Ask your child each night about homework and take time to discuss his/her work

• Set some short term academic/social goals and reflect on progress

• Help your middle-schooler take personal responsibility for his/her learning

• Play a game together as it is a great platform for laughter and conversation

• Enjoy your child’s middle school years; they will be gone before you know it.

As we begin the new year, we are looking forward to a productive, meaningful winter season at Thompson.

Upcoming Non-attendance Days

Schools will be closed on Monday, January 17th in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Also students will not have school on Tuesday, January 18th due to a School Improvement Day.

Thank You to the PTO

A big thank you goes out to the PTO and Thompson families for providing the staff snacks and drinks this week to start 2022! What a great surprise!

Grades are posted in the Home Access Center (HAC)

Just a reminder that second quarter grades are now posted in the Home Access Center. Please monitor your student’s 3rd quarter academic progress using HAC and contact your child’s teachers if you have any questions about school work.

Have a great weekend!

~Steve

In October our 8th grade students and A.V.I.D. students participated in the PSAT. The results of this assessment are being sent home with your child TODAY, Friday, January 7, 2022. Please be on the lookout for your child’s results as these will be carried home by your child. Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s counselor or one of the assistant principals. Thank you.

Attention All Parents/Guardians:

The i-Ready Winter Diagnostic Reports for both Math and Reading are being sent home with your child on Friday, January 14, 2022, so be on the lookout. You will find the following information included with the two diagnostic reports:

• A letter from Mr. Dave Chiszar, Director of Assessment and Accountability, that explains the i-Ready diagnostic report and what is being included in the documents sent home.

• A “How Do I Read the Diagnostic Reports” document that will support you as you look at the data.

Should you have any additional questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s counselor. Please click here to access the counselor information.

Every year, Thompson students publish a Thompson yearbook. Students who decide to purchase a yearbook are given this keepsake at the end of the school year. Buying a yearbook is optional and not all students choose to own one. The price of the yearbook is $25.

iGen: Understanding the Smartphone Generation presented by Jean M. Twenge
February 9, 2022 at 6:30pm via Zoom
Click here to register - If you cannot attend, you will be able to view a recoding of this presentation which will be posted on the District website.

With generational divides wider than ever, parents, educators, and employers have an urgent need to understand today’s rising generation of teens and young adults. Born after 1995, iGen is the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone. With social media and texting replacing other activities, iGen spends less time with their friends in person. But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them; they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. As this new group of young people grows into adulthood, we all need to understand them. Members of iGen also need to understand themselves as they communicate with their elders and explain their views to their older peers. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation—and the world.

Jean M. Twenge, is the author of more than 140 scientific publications and six books, the latest of which is iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood.

Dear Parents of 8th Graders Attending East,

Peer Leadership is an extracurricular program that matches selected incoming freshmen with juniors and seniors who make the transition into high school fun and easy and mentor them throughout the year. Because this program meets during the school day, it has to be put into a student’s schedule when registering for next year’s classes. Although we would like to be able to offer this to all interested incoming freshmen, our numbers are limited by available classroom space and our budget. Therefore, in order to start the selection process, interested students should apply using the application found at the bottom of the Friday Forecast.

If your child is interested in the program, please fill out the application and e-mail it to Jim Reed, the Peer Leadership Coordinator (James.Reed@d303.org). Completed applications must be received no later than Tuesday, January 11, 2022. For more information about Peer Leadership, please attend Future Saints Night in January.

We hope to hear from you!

The School Board has approved an E-Learning plan that gives the district the option to offer remote learning in place of emergency days. Currently, our last day of school is Tuesday, May 24, which is the week before Memorial Day. As we move into the winter months, we want to update you on the plan for how the district will manage emergency days and e-learning days.

• If we experience inclement weather, the first three days will be “snow days” that will be made up at the end of the school year on May 25, 26, and 27 as needed.

• Subsequent emergency days will be remote days so the last attendance day will still be before Memorial Day.

• If there is a long stretch of inclement weather (blizzard, polar vortex, etc.), we may split the days into “snow days” and e-learning days so as to not have too many non-attendance days in a row.

• Monday, January 17 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
  

• Tuesday, January 18 - School Improvement Day (No school for students)

• Wednesday, January 26 - MS Early Release Day