#sparkinfo. Weekly Update
Week #30- April 1st-5th
Let's finish how we started...Strong!
In the April newsletter, I shared with parents the importance of maintaining high expectations for our students and to keep striving for improvement even with Spring Break looming. My reflection on the letter to parents was very positive. The high expectations and positive climate you all began the year with has really been sustained. The March/April window can be challenging, but the energy in the building still seems very positive and I appreciate your effort to maintain it. To stay positive even when things get a bit tougher reflects on character!
Speaking of positive, we are very excited to announce that on Friday, we will have Jon Gordon in the building! Jon Gordon has been the focus of discussion surrounding The Power of Positive Team and One Word. I believe this will be an incredible opportunity for both students and teachers! His schedule is very tight and so he could not be here for morning assembly. We will have to be flexible as he can only be at our school at 10 AM. Thank you to Butch and Jennifer in this effort!
As always, I will remind you to keep the positive rolling out with good news, excel cents, and positive reinforcement! Have a great week!
Our Robotics program is growing!
Nurse Hickey presented at the career cafe'!
Pickens Middle represented us well!
Instructional Focus
As we are finishing SLO conferences and are getting into testing season, please remember to focus on best practices with instruction. As time allows, I am hoping we can do some instructional rounds between teachers and leadership. We want to work to always improve our craft, and instructional rounds can be a great way to do this.
Please remember to continue teaching for mastery of the power standards. Thank you for your work to make sure our students are well-prepared for state testing.
Also, thank you for all of the feedback regarding the fourth period schedule and instructional play. We hope to finalize this schedule very soon.
This Week's Agenda!
Monday, April 1st-
7th Grade Field Trip- Georgia Aquarium
Tuesday, April 2nd-
7th Grade Field Trip- Georgia Aquarium
Wednesday, April 3rd-
Robotics Meeting (3:15-4:30)
6th Math MAP
Thursday, April 4th-
Momentum Bike Club (3:30-5:00 PM)
6th Math MAP
Friday, April 5th-
Spanish Club Field Trip
John Gordon is coming to speak at 10:00!!!
SPARK SPOTLIGHT!!!!
A shout out from your colleague!
Here are the spotlights from the last two weeks.! Thank you for recognizing great things from your peers! If you know something incredible, spotlight them!! Thank you for building each other up! We have so much to spotlight everyday, and we are building a winsome culture. Pickens Middle is truly a great place to work and learn!
Penny Mellett- Penny is a mentor! She shares things with me that sometimes changes my perspective, strengthens my resolve or encourages my spirit! So glad to be apart of her team! She is so good with detail, catches things that I don't even notice. Maybe is the math mind!
Jan Spivey- She offered Penny and I a break as we were manning the inflatables! Her act of kindness brightened me up! It was encouraging! Offering to relieve a teacher who is doing an undesirable task, such smelling stinky shoes and making sure Wrestle Mania doesn't happen in the bouncy house) is like the best gift, I'll try to pay it forward! Thank you Jan!
Melissa Hernandez- Melissa has done a terrific job on this year's annual! It was a pleasure to help her with editing as she was always calm and easy going even though a deadline might had been looming in the near future! You could not tell this was the very first annual she has ever done! A testimony to her hard work is how many students are applying to be on staff for the 2019-2020 year! It will be a hard choice for her, but she will have an outstanding annual staff to make the next year's annual even better!
Click on the link below as you see and hear great things happening in the building. Please let us know about them by filling out the form. You may want to bookmark the link as we will be "Spotlighting" teachers and staff all year.
From Sparks of Knowledge Grow Flames of Success
Email: jamesking@pickens.k12.sc.us
Website: http://pms.pickens.k12.sc.us/
Location: 140 Torch Lane, Pickens, SC, 29671
Phone: (864) 397-4100
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pickensms/?scrlybrkr=85865011
Twitter: @pmssparks