SHARK MAIL
Saturday, October 24th 2020
Saturday Message:
Happy Saturday, Sharks!
We here at SMS hope the week has gone well for you. It has been another busy week with round two of teacher conferences, ICA, and MAP testing in Language Arts classes. We want to thank everyone once again for their flexibility with MAP tests. They are a great source of information, but we do recognize the screen time needed to accomplish them is significant. Please reiterate with your kiddos that we are proud of them. Thank you to Ms. Rakness for organizing these tests online.
It was good to see so many families took advantage of Teacher Conferences this week. If you missed both sets, don't hesitate to reach out to a teacher via email to check-in.
ICA was a blast as well this week. While we could not hop around to all the activities as we normally would at ICA, it was neat to see so many kids participate in the different offerings. Hats off to Ms. Davis and Ms. Shiflett for organizing this event. We don't have a lot of announcements this week, so we hope you have a terrific weekend and start getting ready for whatever format Halloween may look like this year.
That's all for now. Have a great rest of your weekend!
Grade Level Newsletters
News from SMS:
Cloud Computing Form: In addition to the resources already provided by ACPS, our teachers have selected more tools to further enhance learning throughout the school year. Some of these tools require parent/guardian permission for students to create accounts.
Each of the tools listed below has been thoroughly reviewed by the Department of Technology to ensure student safety, age appropriateness, and data privacy. For a detailed look at the criteria they use to review the technology resources and to learn more about the Children’s Online Protection Act (COPPA), please visit this informational guide bit.ly/ACPStechReview. Click here to complete the form.
Schoology Help
Here are two videos that should help families better understand how Schoology works.
1. This first video is a tour of what features Schoology offers. It is a great introduction to Schoology features and should help you navigate the different classes.
2. Ms. Percival has made an additional quick video for how both students and families can access work reports on Schoology. This is an excellent way to learn more about checking to see your student's grades, what work has not been turned in, and what work has been turned, but has not yet been graded. This is a great way to learn more about keeping up with student work.
From Ms. McCullough:
I am Diana McCullough, the Talent Development Resource Teacher here at Sutherland, and wanted to let you know about four opportunities that will be starting soon. I will be advertising these to your children via morning announcements, but as they are extracurricular activities, I wanted you to know about them ahead of time. All activities will be virtual.
The first for sixth and eighth graders only is the Writer’s Eye Contest, which will take place on Friday, October 23rd, from 2:15 to 3:15 PM. (Note that seventh grade ELA teachers plan on having all their students attend at another time.) Every year the UVA Fralin Art Museum hosts the Writer’s Eye Contest where students write a story or poem based on an inspiring work of art of their choice. This year we will be taking a virtual tour of the museum where students will learn about the art pieces selected for the competition and complete their entries before the submission deadline in November. Winning entries will be published in the yearly Writer’s Eye anthology. As we have a limited number of available spots at this time, I am only taking requests directly from students. If your child loves creative writing, please encourage them to email me at dmccullough@k12albemarle.org.
Next is the Piedmont Regional Science Fair (PRSF) which Sutherland attends annually. Middle school students from central Virginia compete in any number of categories from psychology to botany to engineering. Projects can involve either the scientific or engineering process. If your child has a passion for science, they may be interested in participating. This activity will require that they complete their project outside of school hours. We will also be meeting after school on Tuesdays from 4:45 to 5:45. Initially, these meetings will be used for me to guide students through the process, and then for one on one or group conferences similar to teacher office hours on Fridays. Any interested student can participate in this process. The fair is usually in March but I don’t have the exact date yet.
National History Day is for those students that love history and learning about the past. NHD is somewhat like a science fair, but for social studies. Students choose a topic fitting the year’s theme, which for 2021 is Communication in History: The Key to Understanding. They can choose topics from any time and place as long as it is historical, fits the theme, and has available sources. This activity will also require time outside of the classroom and involves research followed by the creation of a project in the form of a paper, website, documentary, exhibit, or performance. Meetings for this group will be after school on Thursdays from 4:45 to 5:45 and will be similar to the science fair meetings in that at some point they will be used as office hours to discuss projects. Any interested student can participate in this process. NHD usually takes place in the spring but I haven’t seen a specific date yet.
The final opportunity another one for those students that enjoy creative writing, Writers’ Groups. In this activity, we will be doing brief writing exercises, discussing writing tips, and sharing and receiving feedback on current writing projects. If your child is always working on their latest story idea, there should be no extra work. Otherwise, they will be required to bring current writing samples to our meetings. This group will meet on most Fridays from 12:00 to 1:00 PM. On ICA Fridays, we will not have a Writers’ Group meeting. Any interested student can participate in this group.
I will be advertising these activities to all students over the next few weeks, so they can email me if they are interested in participating. If you have any questions as a parent, please email me at dmccullough@k12albemarle.org. Thank you.
Social Media
Email: cguy@k12albemarle.org
Website: https://sms.k12albemarle.org/
Location: 2801 Powell Creek Drive, Charlottesville, VA, USA
Phone: (434) 975-0599
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sutherlandpto
Twitter: @SMSSharks