Colts Chronicle
Cimarron Middle School Newsletter - May 19, 2018
Colts Chronicle provides information to parents, students, staff, and community.
Principal Notes:
It is hard to believe that the end of the 2017-18 school year is coming to a close. What a great year it has been! Here is some information to help you stay informed as we wrap up the last few weeks with students. Please note that information differs depending on the grade level.
8th Grade Information:
- Thursday, May 24th
- 7:30-11:30am - Abbreviated Schedule: all classes meet for shortened time
- 11:30-2:45pm - 8th grade party
- Bring only a pen. No backpacks.
- Friday, May 25th - No School
6th/7th Grade Information:
- Friday, May 25th
- Dismissal at 10:45 am
- Last day of student attendance
- Bus transportation provided
- Yearbook distribution and signing
- Bring only a pen. No backpacks
Yearbook information for all grade levels: The following are guidelines shared with students prior to yearbook signing.
Outstanding fines including missing textbooks, athletic uniforms etc., must be paid to receive a yearbook. Please see the bookkeeper, Melissa Everett to take care of fines.
Yearbooks will be labeled with names, and students will sign to receive their yearbook.
Always use appropriate language when signing a yearbook. Do not use inappropriate language at any time. Students who write anything inappropriate in a yearbook will be responsible for buying that student a new yearbook.
Any student not here on the last day, will not be allowed to pick up yearbooks early and/or have friends pass it around for signatures. Yearbooks will be available after school Friday, May 25th or during summer break in the main office.
Also, check Lost and Found for any missing items. All remaining items are donated on May 28th.
Have a great summer.
Sincerely,
Chris Zimmerman, Principal
Fortnite - What's a Parent To Do?
If you talk to American teens often, as I do, then you are aware that the video game Fortnite is sweeping the United States in a way which really has no parallel. It's bigger than Grand Theft Auto. It's bigger than Minecraft. It's sucking in girls as well as boys, although boys are still more likely to be truly addicted to the game than girls are.
The New York Times published two articles in just the past three days on the Fortnite phenomenon. In one, Lisa Damour encouraged parents to chill: after all, Damour writes, videogames "cultivate the spatial skills needed in advanced math and engineering." Damour does not mention, and shows no awareness of, the many studies showing that playing video games excessively undermines social skills and increases distractibility. And, playing video games where the objective is to kill people - games such as Fortnite - over time, leads to gamers becoming less patient, and more likely to depersonalize other human beings. Neither article in the New York Times mentions any of this research, which I cite at length in my book Boys Adrift.
The second article, by Nellie Bowles, begins with the assertion that "video games are beginning their takeover of the real world." Bowles notes that "over the last month, people have spent more than 128 million hours on Twitch just watching other people play Fortnite." You read that right: 128 million hours just watching other people play the game.
Neither Damour nor Bowles have the courage or the perspective to say: This is not a good thing. Kids need to learn face-to-face social skills. They need to be physically active, outdoors. They need to get a good night's sleep. A teen obsessed with Fortnite is doing none of these things. The growing epidemic of American kids staying up past midnight to play Fortnite is not likely to end well.
In the comments on Damour's article, a teacher reported that she had emailed a boy's mother, to let the mother know that the boy was using his school-issued computer to play Fortnite at 2 am. The mom emailed the teacher back saying "this is what 12-year-old boys do."
review the relevant research on video games in my books Boys Adrift (2016) and Why Gender Matters (2017). Here are evidence-based guidelines for your son or daughter playing video games:
- No more than 40 minutes a night on school nights.
- No more than an hour a day on weekends.
- Your minutes do not roll over: if you go three weeks without playing, that does NOT mean that you are allowed to spend seven hours on a Saturdayplaying video games. That's binge gaming, and it is harmful.
- NO games where the objective is to kill people. That means no Fortnite, no Call of Duty, no Grand Theft Auto. NBA Live is fine. Madden NFL Football is fine. Candy Crush is fine.
- No games until all the homework is done and all the chores are done.
-Leonard Sax MD PhD (author of Why Gender Matters, Boys Adrift, Girls on the Edge, and the New York Times bestseller The Collapse of Parenting)
DCSD Free Summer Lunch Program
Doug Co Speak Now
How to SPEAK NOW! with Your Teens, about Alcohol, Drugs and Mental Health!
Tuesday, May 15th
5:30 p.m. – 6:50 p.m.
Castle Pines Library Branch
360 Village Square Lane
Castle Pines, CO 80108
Tuesday, May 22nd
5:30 p.m. – 6:50 p.m.
Highlands Ranch Library Branch
9292 South Ridgeline Blvd
Highlands Ranch, CO 80129
Thursday, May 24th
5:30 p.m. – 6:50 p.m.
Parker Library Branch
20105 East Mainstreet
Parker, CO 80138
Cimarron's Summer Programs
As you plan your summer, be thinking about Cimarron’s Summer Programs which are now open for registration to students going into 6th, 7th, and 8th grade in the 2018-2019 school-year.
Great Strides is a 13-day opportunity with both academic and elective programming designed to help students get the best start possible to the school-year. This program runs July 9-25, 2018. There are several courses from which to choose. Session 1 is 8:00-9:30am and Session 2 is 9:30-11:00am. Your student may enroll in one course in Session 1 and/or one course in Session 2.
Colts Corral is a transition program for students new to Cimarron – there are 3 sessions from which to choose.
Please see our website for specifics with the link to RevTrak for registration. Once you connect to RevTrak, you will need to set up an account in RevTrak if you do not already have one. If you have ever enrolled in a sport, club, or field study (field trip) you will already have an account.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Counseling Office at 720-433-1365.
Shine Girl Summer Camp
2019 DC Trip
Cimarron Middle School
Email: dlkapeller@dcsdk12.org
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/dcsdk12.org/cimarron-middle-school/
Location: 12130 Canterberry Parkway, Parker, CO, United States
Phone: (720) 433-0120
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Official-Cimarron-Middle-School/206852646034074
Twitter: @CIMSCOLTS