Mariner Memo
January 24, 2020
This Week at Marine City Middle School...
First semester is done, dusted, and in the books! This week students completed their exams for their first semester classes. On Monday, our second semester classes will start, with many students in the building having new electives. Please ask your son or daughter to check their schedule in Skyward before school on Monday!
Monday also brings the beginning of the winter administration of the NWEA. This nationally normed assessment allows us to evaluate the progress of our students toward both their own learning goals as well as their placement in both district and national comparisons. It helps us to determine the needs of our learners and make adjustments to our instruction in support of those needs. Though this assessment is not graded, it is very important that students give their best effort. To promote that best effort we are doing a couple of things this go around of the test: 1. our teachers are meeting with each student to make them aware of their score from the Fall and to show them their goal for the year, encouraging them in this meeting to give their all 2. we are recognizing the students that make improvements on their score with a small treat. Students that improve one or two of their assessments will receive a sucker at lunch. Students that improve their scores in Reading, Language, and Mathematics will receive a voucher for an ice cream or cookie from the cafeteria. As I mentioned, we will be beginning testing on Monday. All testing for the NWEA will take place during the regular hour of instruction for that subject, either in ELA or Math.
With the transition into 2nd semester comes an increase in the pace of the school year. Before we know it we will be talking about summer vacation as it seems that the spring flies by. Please make sure that you are checking out the Memo weekly for updates about upcoming events and student recognition ceremonies. Thanks for reading.
I wish you and your family a wonderful weekend.
-Mr. Ming
MCMS Attendance
Regular school attendance is a major component of academic success at all levels, but especially at the middle school level. With this in mind, Marine City Middle places a high impetus on good attendance and we do so in a number of ways. Here is our process:
Daily attendance is taken in each class, every day within the first 10 minutes of the period
When students are absent from one or more classes, without a call-in to excuse the absence, an automated phone call goes out to families.
Letters are produced and mailed home to families when a student reaches the 5-day, 10-day, and 15-day mark in one or more of their classes.
Students who exceed 10% absences are considered chronically absent and are referred to truancy services of St. Clair County.
To assist with the record keeping and high attendance rate of our students in school we ask a few things of our families:
All absences should be called in to our Attendance Line, (810) 676-1266.
This automated line has instructions for parents on what information to leave when calling a student in absent.
If a student has been absent for a funeral, legal appointment, or doctor visit, parents should supply a note verifying that appointment. These absences are not counted against a student’s total.
When a student has had a fever for two or more consecutive days, we recommend they go to the doctor (and bring in a note).
AttendanceWorks.org is a great resource for not only understanding the importance of regular school attendance, but also for finding strategies to address some of the barriers that students may have to attending school. One interesting article on the site specifically outlines "5 Key Findings from Middle Grades" from Looking Forward to High School and College. The entire article can be found here, but here is a quick summation of the key findings.
- Middle grade attendance and GPA provide the best indication of how students will perform in high school classes.
- Students who are chronically absent or receiving Fs in the middle grades are at very high risk of being offtrack for graduation in ninth grade, and eventually dropping out of school.
- College readiness depends on very strong grades in middle school, as well as high school.
- Improving grades and attendance in the middle grades can have a large pay-off for high school success; even more so than improving test scores.
- High school selection matters for whether students graduate and earn the credentials needed for college.
Thank you for sending your sons and daughters to us everyday for their learning!
Congratulations to Heather Segura. She participated in the Knights of Columbus Christmas Writing Contest and was awarded a $25 gift certificate to Meijer.
Congratulations to last weeks Positive Rewards winners!! These students were passing all 6 classes for the entire week!!
MCMS Staff Member of the Month
We are quickly approaching the end of January and it is the perfect time to recognize one of the fantastic staff members of Marine City Middle School.
Congratulations to MRS. HEATHER ROSS, an excellent teacher at MCMS. Mrs. Ross is passionate about her social studies instruction, teaching both 7th grade Ancient History and 8th grade U.S. History. Mrs. Ross has selected a $25 Target gift card from our recognition basket for her prize.
Thanks go out to the incredible MCMS PTO for supporting this monthly staff recognition program.
This Week in the Positivity Project...
Next week, students will learn another important lesson on overcoming struggles, the character strength of PERSEVERANCE. P2 defines PERSEVERANCE as the ability to handle significant, and sometimes repeated, setbacks in pursuit of goals.
This week’s example is Inky Johnson. Inky’s dream since being a young child was to be a professional football player. And, he was on track to fulfill that dream as a standout cornerback at the University of Tennessee. Then his life changed in an instant. While making a routine tackle, he suffered a life-threatening injury that paralyzed his right arm. However, he didn’t let that discourage his spirits. Instead, he persevered through the surgeries and the pain, earned his master’s in sports psychology and is now inspiring millions with his story