Cardinal Family Newsletter
It's A Great Day to Be a Cardinal!
January 20-24
Dear FFMS Students, Parents and Guardians:
I hope everyone had an enjoyable three day weekend This week students will be taking the Pro-Core B assessments during their academic periods. It's important that the students do their best to be able to evaluate their growth from the beginning of the year when they took the Pro-Core A assessment.
Next week will start our Great Kindness Challenge week. Students will be bringing home a checklist with ways they can display kindness and there will be different dress up days each day of the week. See the information below.
Yearbooks are on sale! This year each building will be having their own yearbook. Please see the link below to order. Order by March 1st to save money.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Hiler
Mark Your Calendars
January 18-24- Pro-Core B Testing
January 22- Basketball Boy's home ( NR) ( Girl's game only starts at 5:30 pm.)
January 24- Pep Assembly
January 27-31- Great Kindness Challenge Week
January 28- Family Break Out Night
January 29- HS Scheduling Fair
Cardinal Communication Vol.2
Cardinal Escape Room Challenge
What is an Escape Room?
An escape room is a physical adventure game in which players solve a series of puzzles using clues, hints and strategy to complete the objectives at hand. Players are given a set time limit to unveil the secret plot which is hidden within the rooms. They are increasingly popular as team-building exercises as well as a fun leisure activity.
YEARBOOKS FOR SALE
High School Scheduling Fair- 8th Grade
On January 29th, 8th grade students can attend the High School Scheduling Fair from 5pm-8pm. During this time, students can learn about course offerings, and pathways as well as schedule their classes for their freshman year. The eighth grade teachers will be there to help guide your child. There will also be information on the College Credit Plus Program.
Middle School Help: 3 Parenting Tips For Middle Schoolers
Middle School Help: 3 Parenting Tips For Middle Schoolers
A bad grade. A forgotten assignment. A missed bus. An extracurricular screw up. Whatever it is, failure isn’t easy for the struggling middle school student. It’s pretty tough for the parents too. Still, learning to deal with life’s ups and downs is important. In fact, our adolescents must experience these challenges.
Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair, clinical psychologist and author, has advice. She knows how to guide parents to raise strong, savvy, and resilient children. Steiner-Adair offers three effective parenting tips for you to consider when it comes to middle school help.
Three Middle School Tips for Parents
1. Let Them Deal With It
Today, parents are trying to shield their kids from experiencing failure. In fact, kids need to learn to deal with disappointment. If your child does poorly on a test—because they were sick or didn’t prepare—then they need to deal with the consequences. When parents fear that one low grade will ruin their child’s future, they do crazy things. (You probably have a friend with a crazy story.) But your children will not learn to be resilient if you constantly take the bumps out of the road. And, you definitely want a child with resilience.
Kids need to learn that the choices they make have consequences. They have to make repeated mistakes. And, parents cannot obsess on the D or F. Repeating tenth grade geometry is not a disaster. Even though you suffer when your kid is miserable, this is how your child will build character, independence, and maturity.
Even twenty years ago, if a kid got a D on the test, parents would have said, “Study harder next time.” Today, many parents will call the teacher and complain that the test wasn’t fair or ask if their child can get extra credit. This generation of parents is extremely anxious. They don’t like their kids to get mad at them, or to be upset at all. But we are not helping our children by not holding them accountable for their choices.
2. Set Limits
Some parents are afraid of setting limits, and that is very damaging for children. Parents must set limits even though your child will resent you. Sometimes your child will say, “I hate you,” or “You’re the worst parent ever.” You’ll also hear the “Everybody else has a smartphone in sixth grade. Why can’t I?” Without any limits, our children feel like the rules don’t apply to them, that they are entitled, and that they deserve special treatment.
3. Value Hard Work
One of the most important traits you want your child to develop is a really good work ethic. We want our kids to learn to work hard, and that hard work pays off. When you pave the way for them, you are depriving them of very important social and emotional tools for life. Make them get a job. Encourage them to take care of other people and not just themselves. The most important key to success, by far, is not your GPA, or your SAT, or what school you go to—it’s social and emotional intelligence.
So how do we do that? Well, we might need to learn some new responses. When we praise, we need to value our teenager’s effort versus the outcome (the grade, the win, etc.). If your teenager gets an A, you can say, “Wow, you worked hard and the results show.” If it’s a poor job, you could, say “Wow that grade really seems to be upsetting you.” Or, with empathy you say, “That really stinks, you tried hard and you didn’t get what you wanted.” If they didn’t try hard, you can say, “What choices did you make? Did you try your best? To me, going out with your friends all day Saturday and Sunday doesn’t look like you maximized your study time.”
4. Teach Resilience, Perseverance, and Grit
Research from the field of positive psychology tells us what successful people look like. They have self-control and communicate their feelings respectfully. They’ve learned know how to be a team player and have a strong work ethic. Most importantly, they show resilience, perseverance, and grit. Successful people know how to completely crash and get right back up. They are optimistic and experience joy and gratitude. These are traits we know that kids need in order to succeed. Truthfully, shielding your child from rejection, disappointment, and failure will never teach those traits.
Thriving Learning Communities
Character Trait for January- Honesty
Kicks for Kindness
Final Forms
If you and/or your child haven't had the opportunity to complete your final forms please try to update them as soon as possible.
Box Tops
Charge the Chromebooks!
Please make sure your child gets in the habit of charging their chrome books each evening. It is important that they come to school prepared and the chrome books are as important to class as bringing paper and pencils. They will need their computers to fully participate in instruction in most classes.
2019-2020 School Calendar
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To Contact Me
email- hilert@felcityschools.org
Phone- 513-362-5382