Weekly News
November 6, 2020
Calendar Items
Monday, November 9 - NO SCHOOL
Tuesday, November 10 - Green Day / Last names M-Z at school
Wednesday, November 11 - Silver Day / Last names M-Z at school
Thursday, November 12 - Green Day / Last names A-L at school
Friday, November 13 - Silver Day / Last names A-L at school
End of Quarter Information - Canvas Courses
At the end of each quarter, most courses in Canvas will conclude and will no longer be visible on the Canvas app. A concluded course is only visible through the Canvas website, by selecting All Courses on the Courses tab and scrolling down to “Past Enrollments” section. Courses for this quarter will conclude on November 5th, 11:59pm. Report cards will be generated and viewed on ParentVUE sometime at the end of the school day, November 13th after 4pm. Each new quarter, teachers will publish a Canvas course for the new quarter. As courses are published, students and families will again be able to see current courses on the Canvas app and Canvas website. For Canvas parent resources, visit www.bluevalleyk12.org/canvas.
*CANVAS TIP: Be sure you have downloaded the latest version of the Canvas Parent App (download in iTunes and Google Play).
Mathcounts
Math Counts will begin meeting on Monday, November 16. We will plan to meet every Monday that we have school from 3:00 to 3:30. Students are welcome to join in-person in room 313 or via Zoom using the following information:
Link: https://bluevalleyk12.zoom.us/j/98090235797
Meeting ID: 980 9023 5797
Passcode: MATHCOUNTS
Feel free to reach out to Mrs. Redlin (mredlin@bluevalleyk12.org) with any questions regarding Math Counts.
PSAT
Each year we offer the PSAT 8 to 8th grade students during the school day. The PSAT 8 is the 8th grade version of the PSAT National Merit scholarship test given to high school juniors, and further serves as practice for future standardized testing events. Click here to learn more about the PSAT 8.
Due to the hybrid schedule, this year’s test administration for our face-to-face students will work as follows:
“B” group students (last names M-Z) with last names M-Z test on Tuesday, November 17th at their home school.
“A” group students (last names A-L) with last names A-L test on Wednesday, November 18th at their home school.
If you have a VirtualED student, you would have received emails from Adam Wessel earlier this month detailing how to sign virtual students up for the PSAT 8.
If you have any questions, please contact Ryan Colburn at rcolburn@bluevalleyk12.org.
Please note that 6th grade electives may change at the quarter. Teachers shared information with students regarding how to see new Canvas tiles related to course changes. Students should continue to follow the elective schedule for Zoom meetings, and Zoom information should be available within each Canvas tile for all electives.
Contact Info for PSMS VirtualEd Teachers
- Donna Gerstner - Social Studies - dgerstner@bluevalleyk12.org
- Shannon Ferrerya - ELA - srferrerya@bluevalleyk12.org
- Amy Gabel - Science - aegabel@bluevalleyk12.org
- Kim Vail (ABMS) - Math - ksvail@bluevalleyk12.org
7th Grade Students attending ABMS and HMS
Contact Info for HMS VirtualED Teachers
- ELA- Erica Hurlbut ELHurlbut@bluevalleyk12.org
- Science- Trish Soper PSoper@bluevalleyk12.org
- Social Studies- Brennan Flanagan BFlanagan@bluevalleyk12.org
- Math - Melissa Canas (ABMS) mmcanas@bluevalleyk12.org
8th Grade Students attending ABMS and OMS
Contact Info for OMS Virtual Teachers
- Science- Ryan Bird rbird@bluevalleyk12.org
- Social Studies- Iain McKee IJMcKee@bluevalleyk12.org
- ELA- Amy Putman APutman@bluevalleyk12.org
- Math - Brad Cook (ABMS) - bacook@bluevalleyk12.org
· Invest in ABMS/PTO membership - Any and all support is very much appreciated!! Log into ParentVue to donate.
· AMAZON SMILE - Did you know you can support ABMS by shopping through Amazon Smile? It's an easy way to help, but you must shop through our link.
· "BE IN THE KNOW WITH ABMS PTO"- Be sure to follow us on FB (@AubryBendMSPTO) and twitter (@AbmsPto).
· VIRTUAL BINGO - THANK YOU to everyone who participated!! We are working with our committee to put together a couple more BINGO nights this year, so stay tuned!
· SPIRIT WEAR - Get ready to shop! Our ABMS online store is officially back OPEN!! Think winter birthdays, holiday gifts, mid-year growth spurt, etc.... so many reasons to shop. Place your order by midnight November 22 and we will have the items early December to distribute before winter break. https://mccwebstores.com/2522/shop/home
Book Fair
The Scholastic Online Book Fair has begun!
Fri, Oct 30th - Thurs, Nov 12th.
Our book fair is completely online this year. It’s a great way to safely shop, and with this method there’s so many more books available for all ages! Proceeds help our school and our library!!!
Over 6,000 products including Book Fair exclusives,
new releases,value packs, and more.
All orders ship home!
FREE shipping on book-only orders over $25*
All purchases benefit ABMS!!!
https://www.scholastic.com/bf/aubrybendmiddlesch1
Help fill the gaps!
We still have many books that have not returned from last school year. Please be looking at home, under the bed, in the car, or in backpacks for ABMS library books! We’d love to fill up our shelves!
ELA
ELA students finished Q1 strong by implementing all the elements of a short story that we learned to write their own Personal Narratives. We were very impressed with all the creativity and attention to descriptive details that the students used in their story telling. Ask your child to read their story to you! We also had the Media Specialist, Mrs. Cooper, visit our classes this week to preview the Virtual Book Fair. The fair is happening now and hopefully your children have started a list of books they may like to purchase. This is a great fundraiser for our library. Visit the library website to learn more about ordering books. The Book Fair goes through November 12th. Thank you for your support of our school’s Book Fair.
Book Fair LINK: https://bluevalleyk12.libguides.com/c.php?g=690933&p=7981182
Math
All math classes wrapped up Unit 1 – Geometry this week. We will start our Unit 2 – Rational Numbers next week. We will dive into the world of negative numbers and how they relate to our everyday life.
Science
Science classes worked through more of the Solar System unit and will be continuing this work into second quarter.
Social Studies
We have finished up our Mesopotamia and Egypt unit. We will start a new unit for second quarter including Ancient India, Ancient China, and the Silk Road trade route.
Math
7th grade math is looking forward to starting quarter 2 with our unit on expressions, equations, and inequalities!
Science
Science class is finishing our investigations of diffusion and osmosis and beginning our study of photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
Social Studies
Fairburn’s classes: We are beginning to assess the standards for the Five Themes of Geography. Fairburn’s classes are in a Zombie Apocalypse and evaluating the pros and cons of different locations for survival based on the Five Themes. Your student is designing a billboard for I-35 to let other survivors know what the best decision is based on the evidence!
Redford and Squyres: We are having an assessment over the 5 Themes of Geography and beginning to learn about map skills.
ELA
Students will start off Quarter 2 by completing a final draft of their informative essay. The notecard process of the paper has taught them how their notes really do pay off in the completion of the essay.
ELA
We will be exploring Quarter 2's essential question: How do people's journeys affect their understanding of the people and world around them? Our exploration will begin by listening to excerpts from This American Life's podcast about Harper High in Chicago. We will be analyzing how different media genres address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge, and we will be comparing the approaches the authors or media takes.
Math
Math 8: Complete the Road Trip Final project, begin "Functions" unit.
Algebra 1: Solving Multi-step equations. Diederich’s classes with have a quiz in-person starting Thursday
Social Studies
We have had some great discussion and predictions around this week’s election. This group is engaged and interested in the political future of this country at an exciting level. Social Studies classes will begin 2nd quarter in Unit 2 which focuses on Westward Expansion. Students will role play some of the events that led to territorial gain in the United States during the early to mid-1800s.
Science
Complete "Save the Penguins" Project. Will begin "Chemistry" unit with properties of matter.
Hooray! We successfully completed first quarter, and I am so proud of our students and teachers. I’m not going to lie; this quarter has not been easy, but with perseverance and grit, the kids and adults at ABMS found a way to get past obstacles and frustrations in order to learn and grow.
We learned that there are always going to be challenges that we have to overcome, and how we approach those challenges says more about us than the outcome. The way our teachers approached these new models of learning was nothing short of amazing. They rolled up their sleeves and found new ways to reach students, to build relationships and to teach content to multiple groups of students at once. I’m so thankful for their professional perseverance.
Our students learned the importance of time management both at school and at home. Our students have made incredible strides in managing both their time and their workload as they navigate two learning locations, and even though it can be frustrating at times, they persevere and have a great attitude. They have embraced the process of learning in many ways and are truly giving it their all. I’m so proud of their hard work and grit.
We know we have more work to do. The process and tools are not perfect, but learning is messy and SHOULD be messy. Some of the best lessons I learned in life came from failures and frustrations that taught me the value of the lesson and gave me confidence in myself.
Today during our professional learning meetings, we watched a video clip from Simon Sinek…he’s one of my favorites. In it, he talks about the power of teaching confidence. He shares that our responsibility as teachers, leaders, managers, bosses, and parents is to help others realize their strengths. He says that in order to teach confidence we need to support each other, educate each other, and have each other’s backs. If someone falls down, you encourage them to get back up. If someone falls down, you encourage them to get back up.
If someone falls down, you encourage them to get back up…until they figure it out themselves.
I liken this example to our current situation in education. We’re all going through a year of firsts. None of us has ever taught, learned or parented in a pandemic, and we have to support each other, educate each other, and have each other’s backs.
We recommitted ourselves today to this very task, and we want to help our kids learn and live self-confidence. The very best way to do that is to learn from mistakes and figure out ways to do wonderful things within our current situation. It’s going to take time, and it’s going to take patience. We are up for the challenge.
We will get through this together, and we’ll become better teachers, learners, parents, and humans in the process. We believe in our kids. We love our community. And, we want you to know that you can depend on us.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Sincerely,
Diana Tate, Principal
Aubry Bend Middle School
Email: AubryBendMiddle@bluevalleyk12.org
Website: www.bluevalleyk12.org/ABM
Location: 12501 West 175th Street, Overland Park, KS, USA
Phone: 913-624-2300
Facebook: facebook.com/Smore
Twitter: @smorenewsletter