The Firebird Flash
August 6, 2021
NEWSLETTER HIGHLIGHTS
- Principal's Update
- Landing Pages
- Back to School Night & Athletics Parent Meeting
- Hearing & Vision Screening
- Athletics Update
- Student Handbook Reminders
- Traffic reminder
- Chromebooks & Checkout
- Remote Learning Offering
- Student Lunches
- PTSA
- Purchase Firebird Gear
Updates from our Principal
Greetings Firebird Nation Families -
Wow! What a great first week! It was so awesome to see all of our Firebirds in the building this week as we launched the 21-22 school year!
Our 6th graders had a great first day! They participated in our WEB Assembly, met their core teachers, and learned how to earn those Firebird RISE points through our PBIS Rotations. During these rotations, we take the students to different places around the school and teach them about how to be a Firebird in this area of the school while conveying our overall expectations. I will say, they exceeded my expectations when they came to my station! I reviewed overall expectations about how we treat staff, treat each other, and respect everyone at the school along with lunch room expectations. The students were able to answer each and every one of my questions and clearly showed an understanding about what being a positive Firebird is all about. Way to go 6th grade...I was super impressed!
When all students attended on Tuesday, it really rejuvenated the staff! They were so excited to see all of their students around the halls and in their classrooms! Our teachers have really worked to create innovative learning spaces with flexible furniture and comfortable atmospheres. I have heard lots of chatter from our students about how much they like the new classroom set ups! I think you will be impressed when you see the classrooms at Back to School Night next Wednesday!
We had our first Firebird assembly in the Gym on Tuesday and there was definitely a lot of Firebird Pride on display! The 7th graders won the class competition and now own the Firebird "Excalabird" (our traveling sword trophy) until the next assembly. They also saw our entire staff display some awesome school spirit in their introductions. Students learned the myth of the Firebird through the annual lighting of the Firebird Egg, which you will definitely want to ask your student about! We also had the loudest Firebird Nation cheer the staff has ever heard from our students! It was awesome!
As we move into next week, please remember that we always have three goals each year to enhance excellence at Firebird nation. We focus on the academic achievement of our students so that they are prepared for any direction they choose in their future. We promote student involvement in clubs, activities, athletic teams, etc. It is our priority that students find something to get involved in while at FMS. We also work to engage further with our community to promote parent and community involvement in all aspects of our school. It takes one Firebird Nation Community all working together to help ensure our students have the best experience possible! Be watching for additional information and opportunities in the near future for how you can get involved at FMS!
Because engaging with you is such a priority for us, I wanted to make sure to emphasize the importance of proactive communication. If at any time you have a question, concern, or positive aspect that you would like to share, please reach out to us! We value the personal communication opportunities to celebrate or problem solve together to ensure we are doing the best that we can. I always enjoy hearing the positives about our staff and students and I work to see that they are recognized for a job well done!
If there is ever a question or concern, please utilize the chain of command structure to ensure we are resolving your concerns at the appropriate level. Always reach out to the teacher, team, or party involved first to seek understanding. This helps everyone work toward a positive solution quickly. If the issue is not resolved there, then please reach out to the Grade Level Counselor or Administrator as they oversee all aspects of what takes place within their grade. If that has not resolved the issue, then please reach out to me. Please know, I am always happy to help and answer questions at any time, while at the same time helping to ensure connections at the appropriate level take place so that we find an appropriate resolution. We truly appreciate the personal collaboration in all aspects of our school!
Thank you so much for sharing your students with us! I can tell that this is going to be an amazing year at Firebird Nation! I look forward to getting to know all of our new Firebirds while further developing connections with all of our returning students as well. As always, Let's RISE Together!
Sincerely,
Brian Smith
Executive Principal
Falcon Middle School
Landing Pages
Falcon Middle School will again be utilizing Landing Pages this year as a daily way of communicating with our families. This is where all teams and classes post their daily classwork, team announcements, and homework assignments. It is very important that students check their Landing Pages every day. We encourage parents to do the same so that they know what is going on in their student's classes.
Landing Pages are also a way to know what work was missed if your student was absent. They can even get a jump start on it while home since everything is posted in once place. Teachers also archive previous days at the bottom of the page and continue to do so throughout the semester. This ensures that students and families could go back to any date during the semester and see what work was completed/due for that day.
Teachers and teams will be updating landing pages daily. Go to www.d49.org/fms and click on "Staff Landing Pages" at the top of the page. You can then navigate to the appropriate grade level, team, explore class, or program. All of our information is contained in one easy place for you to access during the year. We have included a button to this site below for quick access as well.
Contact your team of teachers if you have any additional questions about their Landing Pages.
Communication Reminders
- As always, we allow teachers 24 hours (next business day) to respond to correspondence from parents and families.
- We do ask our teachers to also sign off of their computers at the end of the school day to recharge for the next day. So, it is likely that if you email past 4pm, that you will not hear from them until the next day.
- Team announcements, school announcements, and other communication will all be posted through our Landing Pages. This helps provide a one stop area for parents and simplify the process overall from what we had in the past.
Back to School Night
Wednesday, August 11th
4:00pm - Food Trucks Available by Commons to purchase Dinner
5:45pm - Follow Student Schedules
7:15pm - Athletics Parent Meeting in Main Commons
This is a Firebird Community Event! Come to FMS, follow your student's schedule, meet the teachers, and learn what your student's year will be like. Collaborating with community is always a priority at Falcon Middle School; this is a great way to start this collaboration off right! We hope to see you there!
Families will follow their student's class schedule and attend each class for a few minutes.
Please see our schedule for Back to School Night below:
Athletics Parent Meeting
We have been presented with transportation challenges this year due to a decreased number of bus drivers in our district. We will be discussing ideas presented to us from other parents to help navigate these challenges and ensure we maintain all of our scheduled competitions. We look forward to coming together as a Firebird Nation Community to address these challenges.
Wednesday, Aug 11, 2021, 07:15 PM
Falcon Middle School, Towner Avenue, Peyton, CO, USA
Hearing and Vision Screening
It is time for Annual Hearing and Vision Screenings at Falcon Middle School!
Next Wednesday, August 11, and next Thursday, August 12, the D49 Hearing and Vision Screening Team, along with Nurse Nelda, will be seeing students in all grades. Typically, we only screen 7th graders in middle school, but this year’s 8th graders missed their chance last year due to COVID-19 restrictions. This year’s 6th graders missed their 5th grade screening also. Students in some center-based special education programs may be screened on different days that work best for the students and program. Nurse Nelda and our Health Room Assistant Wendy will conduct these through their office directly.
A vision screening, also called an eye test, is a brief exam that looks for potential vision problems and eye disorders.
Hearing screenings in schools play an important role in identifying children who may have hearing loss, putting them at risk for poor academic performance unless intervention and appropriate management is provided. Even a minimal hearing loss can make it hard for a child to listen and learn in a classroom.
Please make sure your child wears their glasses or contacts, or brings their glasses with them, next Wednesday and Thursday.
If you do not wish to have your child attend these free screenings for some reason, or if there is information that the team needs to be aware of (such as known hearing loss or perhaps legally blind in one eye, etc) please call the FMS Health Office at 495-5227.
If your child does not pass a screening with the minimum requirements, in some cases they might be rescreened at a later time to see if it was a temporary issue that caused them not to pass (such as eye strain or fatigue for vision, or allergies affecting hearing, etc). If they do not pass the rescreen, or if an issue is detected at the first screening, you will be notified that a referral for eye exam or hearing evaluation is recommended.
Thank you for your assistance!
Athletics Update
Our Fall Athletic Season for Volleyball, Football, and Cross-Country begins
Monday, August 9th!
---------------------------------------------
rSchool is up and running!!
This is the new document management system for Athletics that both Falcon Middle School and Falcon High School have moved to.
Below is a link to rSchool. Please copy and paste the link to create an account and register your student. Once this is completed, you will be able to upload student physicals.
ALL STUDENT PHYSICALS MUST BY UPLOADED BY AUGUST 16TH.
https://falconhs-ar.rschooltoday.com/home
---------------------------------------------
Please check out our Athletics Pages for Additional Information
Coaches can be contacted through their team pages.
They will also be updating their individual sports page with information
about practices and competitions.
Each Grade Level Administrator will be conducting a student handbook assembly this next week with their grade level to review our expectations. Major topics include:
- No Electronic Device Policy
- Dress Code
- Appropriate Language
- PDA (Public Display of Affection)
- Timeliness to Class
- Appropriate Firebird Behaviors
- Consequences for poor choices
Each Grade Level Counselor will also be meeting with the grade level teams to discuss our No Tolerance on Bullying policy and protocols for students to report any instances of bullying. Counselors work to teach students the difference between peer conflict and bullying along with what to do in either of these situations.
It is vital that students talk with a teacher, administrator, or counselor immediately if any instance of bullying has occurred to ensure that it is addressed right away. This allows our administrators and counselors to conduct their investigations immediately to ensure situations are resolved according to district policy.
Students can also report situations through Safe2Tell with the information on the back of their Student ID or at Safe2Tell.org.
Reminders on Dress Code
Learn about our Traffic Pattern at FMS
As the week progressed, the efficiency of our traffic flow improved. We reduced the time to cycle all traffic through the loop by half as of Thursday, 8/5/21! As athletic practices begin next week, the traffic immediately after school will also reduce as many students remain at school for their practices.
Don't forget...our peak traffic times are from about 7:30am - 7:45am in the morning and again from 2:45pm - 3:15pm in the afternoon. If you travel to FMS outside of the windows, you will not experience much, if any, traffic at all.
Key Reminders to help keep the traffic moving:
1. Please pull all of the way forward when picking up or dropping of students against the sidewalk at FMS. Please do not stop when you see your student. Pull all of the way forward so that we can get as many cars as possible along the sidewalk. Then your student may enter or exit the vehicle.
2. Please ONLY cross at the designated crosswalks where staff members are assisting with crossing. This is for everyone's safety and ensures we do not have people walking in between traffic, which can slow the traffic pattern as well.
3. Please use slower speeds when traveling around our campus to ensure everyone can travel to and from FMS safely.
Don't forget to watch our traffic animation below for additional information:
Chromebooks & Checkout
A user agreement will be sent home with students in the next week to have signed and returned. We must have this returned to the student's 3rd period teacher so that we can check them out a chromebook.
Remote Learning Offering
Student Lunches
PTSA (Parent, Teacher, Student Association)
We want everyone to get involved! PTSA is a great way to help out the Firebird Nation Community. Would you like to volunteer at the school? Would you like to help out at athletic or special events? Want to help problem solve issues that arise or create new programs at the school? If you answered yes to any of the questions and/or you just want to know what all is happening at FMS...then PTSA is for you! Our Principal really values the partnership with our PTSA and wants to continue to network with this group to continue to improve FMS. We hope you will join this important community group at our school.
Looking for Firebird Gear?
Falcon Middle School
6th Grade Assistant Principal/Athletic Director: Elena Forehand
7th Grade Assistant Principal: Tim Scheck
8th Grade Assistant Principal: Joy Kovanda
6th Grade Counselor: Lisa Murdock
7th Grade Counselor: Carrie Clay
8th Grade Counselor: Amber Villani
**************************************************
FMS Summer Office Hours (July 19-28)
8:00am-2:00pm
Normal FMS Office Hours (starting July 29)
7:15am-3:30pm
Email: fms@d49.org
Website: https://www.d49.org/fms
Location: 9755 Towner Avenue, Peyton, CO, USA
Phone: 719-495-5232