Important Dates
Wednesday, November 1 ... No School for Students (Staff PD)
Friday, November 3 ... End of Marking Period
Friday November 10 ... Report Cards Go Home
Wednesday November 15 ... No School
Thursday & Friday November 23 & 24 ... Thanksgiving Break
Thursday December 14 ... 6th Grade Holiday Band Concert @ GHS 7PM
Friday December 15 ... Progress Reports Go Home
Monday December 18 ... 4th & 5th Grade Holiday Concerts @ GHS 9AM (5th Grade to follow)
Tuesday December 19 ... Back Up Holiday Concert (If Original is Canceled Due to Weather)
Friday December 22 ... No School- Holiday Break Begins
Tuesday January 2 ... School Resumes
Counselor Corner- Digital Citizenship
Parents and caregivers play an important role in teaching children how to make healthy choices regarding digital use and citizenship. It’s important to remember that our children’s brains are still developing, specifically their prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for critical thinking, judgement, problem solving, and impulse control. When a child or adolescent views content that shows violence harmful stereotypes, or not age appropriate it has an impact on their own ideas, behaviors and feelings. As our children are “growing up digital”, the following tips may be helpful to them and to you:
- Limit the amount of screen time to 1-2 hours a day (or less if you notice it is negatively impacting your child).
- Keep your child’s bedrooms free of screen media, including tv, game systems, laptops, iPads, cell phones, etc.)
- Preview media that your child is interested in before you allow them to view/play it.
- Co-view media (if appropriate) with them to discuss the content. This will help them to develop critical thinking skills.
- Create a family media plan that everyone follows. This plan will ensure that media does not displace many important activities, such as, face to face interaction, outdoor activities, exercise and sleep.
The benefits of media and digital devices, if used in moderation and in an appropriate way can enhance our children’s experiences. Research shows that face to face time, with family, friends and teachers, plays a more important role in promoting our children’s learning and healthy development. We all have to do our best to make sure our children have a healthy balance of both.
Math Monster Challenge
For the last 3 weeks of October we had a school wide behavior incentive for our cafeteria and playground. When our students meet the goal we hope to hold an assembly where students will be introduced to the Gaylord Fight Song that is played at athletic events as well as the Principals being "pied in the face". The Math Monster Challenge is how students can be eligible for potentially throwing a pie at a Principal. We know that certain parts of the math challenge were more difficult for our students. Please know that our intent was to stretch our students’ thinking and build resilience in their learning. When writing our Math challenge we wanted to make sure to support our students in the following ways:
- Provide “real world” math concepts for students to see the value of math.
- Bolster resilience and self confidence by trying the challenge outside their comfort level.
- Create new opportunities for students to talk about math.
- Ignite a new curiosity in solving problems while having students look for answers and think in new ways.
The last 2 weeks we have also provided students "hints" to the challenge in an attempt to support student success. Below is a link to our Math Monster Challenge. We are still accepting answers in the main office. Keep a look out for new and upcoming challenges for our student body. The next challenge will revolve around a logic puzzle to help support reading comprehension, deductive reasoning, as well as providing an alternative way to exercise the brain for critical and analytical thinking skills.
OKAY2SAY Program
GIS Contact Information
