Mariner Memo
January 10, 2020
This Week at Marine City Middle School...
We returned from our winter vacation this week to the year 2020 and it was great to see all the smiling faces of our students. With no time to lose before the end of the semester (more on this below) we got right back into the swing of teaching and learning.
The end of first semester and the halfway point of the school year is rapidly approaching. Next week is a full week of teaching and learning as we prepare for the mid-term exams during the week of January 20-24th. That week we will have three half-days of school (7:30-10:53). More information about exams is posted later on in this newsletter.
One great thing that students can do in preparation for their exams is attend our After-School Help Room on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Students can work on completing their homework, review sheets, and getting organized for the end of the semester. Here's the schedule and staffing for the helproom for the next two weeks:
- Tuesday, January 14th: Mrs. Smith (Science) and Mrs. McComas (Math/ELA)
- Thursday, January 16th: Mrs. D'Hondt (ELA) and Mrs. Frederick (Social Studies)
- Tuesday, January 21st: Mrs. Frederick (Social Studies) and Mrs. McCulloch (ELA/Social Studies)
- Thursday, January 23rd: Will not meet due to half-day schedule
As a reminder, the help room runs from 2:30-3:30 each session and their are student helpers from both the middle school and the high school at each session to assist with ELA, Math, and organization.
Happy New Year Everyone! Have a delightful and hopefully dry weekend!
-Mr. Ming
Attention 7th grade parents! The deadline to register for the Washington DC Trip has been extended to today. Please login to the Student Adventures website and register today!
Reminder: Wednesday, January 15th is an Early Release Day. Students will be dismissed from school at 12:24 pm
End-of-Semester Exams
Exams at the middle school run on a half day schedule and will be held Wednesday, January 22nd through Friday, January 24th. On these days, students will only attend 2 of their 6 classes with exam periods lasting approximately 90 minutes.
- Wednesday, Jan. 22nd: 1st and 2nd hour exams
- Thursday, Jan. 23rd: 3rd and 4th hour exams
- Friday, Jan. 24th: 5th and 6th hour exams
On these days of school, breakfast will be served at the normal time of 7 am, but lunch will not be served. The testing sessions will be from 7:30-9:09 and 9:14-10:53 each of these days. School will end at 10:53 and all students are expected to leave the building at this time.
Basketball Tryouts.......
Attention all families, the class Penny Wars will start on Monday, January 13th and will run through the end of exams on Friday, January 24th. Do you have the pennies to out-compete the other grades AND the staff? Bring in your loose change and put your class pride to the test. Pennies are good and should go in YOUR class bottle. Silver coins and paper money do damage to your opponents so put them in the bottles of the other grades and the staff. A prize will be awarded to the winning grade (or the staff!) Let's see what you're made of Marine City!
Before the break, we had an assembly with "Reindeer Games" and the annual 8th Grade Volleyball vs. the Staff game
A new face around Marine City Middle School
Below is a short introduction that Mr. Schneider has prepared. WELCOME TO MARINE CITY MIDDLE MR. SCHNEIDER!!!
My name is Mr. Schneider and I am excited to share that I am starting the first major part of my teaching journey here at Marine City Middle School. Being that I grew up in the area, I was especially excited when I found out that I would be completing my student teaching here at MCMS in Mrs. Gangwer’s classroom. Over the next couple months, I plan on not just learning a great deal about teaching from Mrs. Gangwer, but from the students as well.
Within the few days that I have been here at MCMS, I have already been welcomed by both the students and the staff. Although I have already introduced myself to the students in Mrs. Gangwer’s class, I figured I could take this time to share a little about myself. Like I mentioned before, I am from the local area. I was born and raised in St. Clair (I know boo). However, now that I am here at MCMS I now consider myself to be a Mariner. I am currently a secondary education student from Saginaw Valley State University, and I hope to be graduating at the end of the semester with a major in history and a minor in physical education. Once again, I am excited to be given this amazing opportunity here at MCMS.
This Week in P2...
This week in Positivity Project learning students learned all about a new character strength, that of HOPE/OPTIMISM. More than just looking at the sunny side of this, optimism hits on the belief that good thoughts and feelings replicate themselves and bring about more good feelings. It is often very easy to see the negative aspect of a situation. In reality, almost everything that happens, is said, or is done, includes both positive and negative elements. While it is important to note things that fall into the negative category, it is the character strength of HOPE/OPTIMISM that teaches us to pull out the positives, the learning points, the life lessons, or even the most difficult of happenings. This is such a powerful character strength as it emphasizes the control that people have in their own lives; control in the sense that though they cannot create all of the outcomes that they desire in their life, they do have the ability to determine how they are going to react to those outcomes and use them.
To quote author, salesman and motivational speaker Zig Zigler,
"It is not your APTITUDE, but your ATTITUDE, that determines your ALTITUDE."
The video below features someone that most people are familiar with, a person that embodies HOPE/OPTIMISM through her charitable acts and positivity. Check out the video below highlighting this character strength in Ellen Degeneres.
Next week, we will change our direction on our learning to a new character strength, PRUDENCE. This strength is essentially the ability to do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason and can be a particularly difficult concept for students to learn about. It speaks to students' ability to be less impulsive and is certainly something even the wisest people would benefit from working on.