The Seahawks Call
Weeks of November 1st and 8th
Important Dates to Remember:
(Monday) November 1st -
Livestreaming continues only in classes impacted by bus protest
Pizza Hotline Fundraiser from 2-9 pm
Dance until 3:30 pm in the gym
La Plata Youth Soccer from 5-8 pm
LPBK Cheer from 6-8 pm
(Tuesday) November 2nd -
Archery Tryouts until 3:20 pm
Drama Club until 3:30 pm
Student Council until 3:30 pm
La Plata Youth Soccer from 5-8 pm
(Wednesday) November 3rd - First Marking Period Ends
VEX robotics until 3:30 pm
La Plata Youth Soccer from 5-8 pm
(Thursday) November 4th - Second Quarter Begins
Newspaper until 3:30 pm in room 206
Sea Perch until 3:30 pm in room 203
La Plata Youth Soccer from 5-8 pm
LPBK Cheer from 6-8 pm
(Friday) November 5th - 2 hr ED
(Saturday) November 6th -
LPBK Football from 7 am - 7 pm
(Sunday) November 7th -
La Plata Youth Soccer from 5-8 pm
LPBK Football from 7 am - 7 pm
(Monday) November 8th -
Virtual Book Fair Starts today through Nov. 21
Parent Letters of Support for Ms. Barrett as Teacher of the Year Nominee due!
Dance until 3:30 pm in the gym
La Plata Youth Soccer from 5-8 pm
LPBK Cheer from 6-8 pm
(Tuesday) November 9th -
Drama Club until 3:30 pm
NJHS until 3:30 pm in room 101
All County Middle School Choir Rehearsal from 8 am - 1:30 pm @ Somers
Board Meeting
La Plata Youth Soccer from 5-8 pm
CTE Virtual Parent Night @ 6 pm (See flyer below)
(Wednesday) November 10th -
VEX Robotics until 3:30 pm
La Plata Youth Soccer from 5-8 pm
(Thursday) November 11th - Schools closed for Students
La Plata Youth Soccer from 5-8 pm
LPBK Cheer from 6 - 8 pm
(Friday) November 12th - Schools and Offices closed
Last Day for La Plata Youth Soccer from 5-8 pm
Career Technology Education (CTE) Informational Night for 8th Graders - Save the Date!
.........From the Library
THE BOOK FAIR IS COMING! THE BOOK FAIR IS COMING!
Our virtual fall book fair begins November 8th and runs through November 19th. Titles ordered online will be delivered to your home address. This is a great way to stock up on new reads and even begin your holiday shopping! Watch for more information to follow. Your purchases help us add new popular titles to our library collection for all students to enjoy.
Somers Reads!
Our students have logged 46,149 minutes of reading for our October Hallow-Read challenge and earned 1,141 badges. Way to read SeaHawks! They have checked out over 1600 books from the library in the month of October. Research shows that reading self-chosen books is correlated to academic and work success.
Laptop Reminder
Please remind your student to shut down their school laptops weekly. This helps reset them and keep them in best working order.
Steps to Update:
- Before updating your laptop, make sure the laptop is fully charged.
- Type 'update windows' in the search bar on the bottom left side of the laptop. 'Check for updates' will pop up and students would then click on 'open'.
- Once 'windows update' is open, click on the gray box 'check for updates'
- Sometimes there will be a link under the 'check for updates' gray box that says, 'view optional updates'. If you see that link, click on it. This will take you to the 'optional updates'. (This is the driver updates). Click on the arrow next to 'driver updates' to open the menu, then select all that are listed below to be updated. Click download and install.
Mrs. H-J
Kristen Barrett is Somers' SY21 Teacher of the Year Nominee! Need Parent Support Letters!
Nomination Criteria for Parent Letters of Support
We are so excited to announce that the staff voted to nominate Ms. Barrett (7th and 8th grade SS teacher) as our SY21-22 Teacher of the Year. The nomination packet is due to Central Office on November 12th. The nomination packet must include letters of support from parents and that's where we need your help. You can assist the Somers' staff by sending in a letter of support explaining how Ms. Barrett exemplifies one or more of the criteria below:
- Instills in students a desire to learn and achieve.
- Understands the individual needs of students, encourage their talents, and foster their self-esteem.
- Demonstrates a thorough knowledge of subject matter and the ability to share it effectively with students.
- Fosters cooperative relationships with their colleagues and the community.
- Demonstrates outstanding leadership
All letters/statements of support must contain a signature; physical signature is preferred.
Please email all signed letters of support to Principal Taylor at staylor@ccboe.com no later than Monday, November 8th!
Livestreaming Clarification
Last week due to the bus driver protest, many students were impacted due to a lack of transportation. We also saw a significant increase of car riders. To address this transportation issue, the Deputy Superintendent mandated livestreaming (video feed of instruction) which began on Friday, October 29th.
The main purpose of livestreaming is to benefit students who are missing school due to a lack of transportation because of the bus drivers' job action. Schools were told if all of your school's buses show up or a class has all students present, that means students are not missing school due to a lack of transportation. In those cases, there is no need to offer a video feed of instruction.
If a class does have a video feed and other students who are absent happen to join the video feed to watch the class, that is fine. Teachers do not need to go through the list of video participants and determine who is absent due to transportation, who is absent due to quarantine, who is just absent, etc.
In order for a student to be marked present, they should be visible on camera. If a student turns their camera off or aims it at the ceiling fan, they will not be considered present.
I'm glad to report that all of our buses ran their routes for arrival and dismissal on today, Monday, November 1st. It is our hope that this may be an indication that we are on the up swing and students' various modes of transportation are back to normal.
Please know the school will communicate if there are several buses that choose to not run their routes in the future.
SCHOOL SUPPORTS
Matthew Newcamp - 6th Grade VP - mnewcamp@ccboe.com
Marlon Walker - 7th Grade VP - mwalker@ccboe.com
Cynthia Panizzi - 8th Grade VP - cpanizzi@ccboe.com
Zachary Ortolano - zortolano@ccboe.com
COUNSELING SUPPORTS
Mike Simms - 6th Grade Counselor - msimms@ccboe.com
John Craddock- 7th Grade Counselor - jcraddock@ccboe.com
Nancy Franklin - 8th Grade Counselor - nfranklin@ccboe.com
INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP TEAM
Andrea Johnson - Reading Resource Teacher (Reading) - afjohnson@ccboe.com
Jennifer Branham - Instructional Resource Teacher (Math) - jbranham@ccboe.com
Suzanne Johnson - Learning Resource Teacher (Gifted Education and Testing Coordinator) - srjohnson@ccboe.com
Email: somersms@ccboe.com
Website: https://www.ccboe.com/schools/somers/
Location: 300 Willow Lane, La Plata, MD 20646
Phone: 301-934-4663
Twitter: @miltonsomersms