The Firebird Flash
August 13, 2021
NEWSLETTER HIGHLIGHTS
- Principal's Update
- Yearbooks
- Athletics Reminders
- Lego Club
- Landing Pages
- Student Handbook Reminders
- PTSA - 1st Meeting on Monday, August 23rd at 5:30pm!
- Purchase Firebird Gear
Updates from our Principal
Greetings Firebird Nation Families -
What a great second week! I am been very impressed with our Firebirds these past couple of weeks. They have been doing an excellent job working through their Class Visions, Class Codes, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's) in their classrooms. Students are showing dedication and ownership towards establishing a strong learner centered culture in each of our classrooms.
I was also so impressed with the turn out at back to school night! (Side Note...we apologize for the warm temperatures in the building...something in our AC System did not kick on properly). It was the highest attended back to school night FMS has had! Parents, thank you for attending and partnering with us! We look forward to continued collaboration and a very positive year at Firebird Nation!
My Assistant Principals hosted their grade level team handbook meetings this week. 7th Grade took place on Tuesday; 8th grade was on Wednesday, and 6th grade met on Thursday in our main commons. This was an opportunity for my grade level administrators to review the expectations at Falcon Middle School. We set a pretty strict tone in these assemblies as we want to ensure students know what we expect of our Firebirds each and every day. We also talked with students about our no tolerance on bullying, harassment, and discrimination along with the proper protocols to follow if any of these situations were to occur.
Next week, our grade level counselors will be visiting their grade levels teams and conducting their lessons on peer conflict versus bullying. They do an excellent job helping students develop resiliency skills, learn how to problem solve social conflicts when the occur, and what to do to if a situation happens. Each counselor takes a different day with each team and visits all classes for a specific subject so that students can participate in these lessons in smaller groups.
Our athletics teams have been practicing hard each day. We are excited to see our first games taking place in the next few weeks! I appreciate all of our parents for their collaboration and dedication to help ensure we have positive seasons in each of our sports. We had several parents volunteer to be the lead team parent for the team to help coordinate support efforts in a variety of capacities. Be looking for additional communication from these team parents in the coming weeks to learn how you can further support your Firebird teams!
We will begin handing out chromebooks next week! We are fortunate to have enough devices to be 1 to 1 at Falcon Middle School. This helps teachers provide blended learning experiences in their classrooms while providing students a tool to access and use information for their classes. Teachers will be sending home the technology user agreement from their 3rd period classes either today or Monday (8/16/21). We need for students to get these forms signed and bring them back next week so that we can check them out a chromebook.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! It was awesome to have a little bit of rain yesterday to wash some of the smoke out of the air...we could see Pikes Peak from FMS again today! See everyone next week!
Sincerely,
Brian Smith
Executive Principal
Falcon Middle School
Purchase your 21-22 Firebird Yearbook!
8th Grade Ads - 8th Grade Parents may also purchase 8th grade ads for their students using the link below.
Athletics Reminder
Our Fall Athletic Season for Volleyball, Football, and Cross-Country has begun!
Don't forget to get your rSchool account set up and documents uploaded by MONDAY!
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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
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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.
Lego Club
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.
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
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
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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