Weekly Junior High Update
August 23, 2019
Culture of Contribution
This year, across the Odyssey district, our schools are focused on developing a Culture of Contribution. Our goal is to ensure that every single scholar, staff member, parent, and volunteer on our campuses understand that they possess unique and essential qualities that can help us build a positive, supportive, caring, engaging, and challenging environments on each campus. At the junior high, we are blessed to be able to watch our scholars mature, become more independent and responsible, figure out who they are as individuals, make friendships, and learn new skills everyday. This time can be challenging and exciting for our scholars and their families. We want all of our scholars to know that they are a vital piece of our community and they contribute every single day in every single classroom. The choice is up to them for what that contribution will be, and hopefully that their contributions will help build a positive school environment for everyone!
We hope and encourage our scholars to contribute their ideas, unique perspectives, and life experiences to class discussions. We want them to contribute to their peers by offering a kind word of encouragement, constructive feedback on assignments or projects, and a helpful hand when they see a need. We want our scholars to know they are powerful and that they can make a difference in the lives of their friends, their teachers, and their families. Our goal this year is to empower them to choose to contribute positively whenever, wherever they can.
Culture of Contribution doesn’t just end with our scholars! Families, you are an essential part of our community and your contribution is essential as well! Some of you are able to contribute by being physically on campus volunteering in a variety of ways. Others are able to contribute by providing snacks, goodies, or supplies for our staff so they feel loved and supported. Still more families contribute everyday by supporting our teachers in the classroom from home - encouraging their scholars to do their best, holding them accountable for respectful and kind behavior, and allowing scholars to grow from the challenges they will face this year. Thank you for the unique ways you all contribute!!! This is going to be a phenomenal year!!
Traffic
Speaking of Culture of Contribution, thank you to all our families that contribute positively by following traffic procedures and offering a smile, a kind word of encouragement, or even cold water to staff members helping traffic flow more smoothly! Your cooperation and support is greatly appreciated!
Please remember that traffic procedures are not put in place to inconvenience anyone, but instead to keep EVERYONE, but especially our scholars and staff members SAFE. When you make the choice to disobey our traffic expectations for your own convenience, you are putting everyone’s safety, including your child’s, at risk.
You can help contribute to a safe environment by making sure to comply with the following:
Enter campus from the correct lanes and direction
Do not cross lanes
Do not make u-turns on Verrado
Do not drop scholars off or pick up on Verrado
Pull forward as far as possible before allowing your child to exit or enter your vehicle
Encourage your scholar to watch closely for your vehicle
If you are picking up at the high school - if your scholar is not in your vehicle by the end of the line, we will move the cones to allow you to park and wait for your scholar. Do not block the flow of traffic.
Collaboration
This week in 8th grade Language and Literature, scholars worked in groups to complete a character study of the narrator Hà from their first novel Inside Out & Back Again. Scholars used their inferencing and communications skills to find and cite evidence from the novel as well as continue to form relationships with their peers.
Communication
Mrs. Ybarra our Dean of Students and Officer Lumadue, our school resource officer (SRO), visited all our 6th and 7th grade classes this week to introduce themselves to scholars, review our school-wide rules and expectations, and to begin to build relationships with our scholars. They covered topics such as the importance of attendance, safety, bullying, and what to do if you have a problem or concern. Officer Lumadue will be visiting our 8th grade classes soon!
Exploration
ParentVue ~ Video Tour
Now that teachers have spent time developing strong classroom communities, norms, and procedures, many of them are jumping into their content specific lessons. With that, some teachers have started to enter the first assignments of the year into the grade book.
ParentVue is a very helpful tool for all our families as a way to stay informed on how your scholar is doing in school. Starting in 6th grade, scholars are also given their own StudentVue login, so they can begin to take ownership over their own learning. Besides just being able to see grades, there are a lot of other helpful tools on ParentVue so please check out the video tour below to see all of the features available to you on ParentVue.
New Families - ParentVue Login
Many of you have been asking about ParentVUE activation. If you completed the online registration for your scholar, then you already have an account. You will simply need to log in using a different link for ParentVUE, which is included below:
https://opa.edupoint.com/login_pxp.aspx
Your browser may automatically try to push you to the URL used for online registration. Be sure that the link above is the only thing in your browser bar. If you see the letters OEN anywhere in the link you will end up back at online registration. I also recommend downloading the free ParentVUE app for your mobile device available for both Apple and Android products. When prompted for the district URL, it is https://opa.edupoint.com
If you do not have a ParentVUE account and would like to set one up, please email info@topamail.com to make the request. Please include your name, your scholar's name, and campus. If you have a ParentVUE account and are experiencing difficulty logging in, please email info@topamail.com
Please be patient with requests for new accounts or assistance. There are many requests at this time of year and they take some time to work through.
Junior High IB Grading Scale
As teachers begin to enter assignments into the grade book, parents will want to ensure they understand what each grade represents and our philosophy of grading at the Junior High. As an IB, International Baccalaureate, school we implement the Middle Years Programme, or MYP. This program is what gives us our advanced and rigorous curriculum that focuses on developing a global mindset in each of our scholars. As an IB school, we utilize the IB grading scale of 1-8.
This grading scale focuses on measuring growth across a wide range of skills. Every time a scholar is graded on something, they are given a rubric describing exactly what the scholar needs to do to achieve a score of 1-8. This intentionally makes grading transparent so the scholar knows EXACTLY what they need to do to achieve success on a given skill before they even put pencil to paper. This style of grading shift the responsibility for a scholar’s grades into their hands so they can EARN the grade they want instead of feeling like the teacher “gave” them a grade.
On the grade scale, a grade of 4 is considered mastery, with anything above a 4 showing a deeper level of understanding and proficiency. A score of 3 shows a scholar understands the skill, but may need more practice in order to be considered proficient. A score of 1 or 2 indicates a skill in which the scholar needs more practice. Please see the attached IB grading scale for a detailed description of what each grade of a 1-8 represents.
Lunch Program
Thank you to all the parents that have completed our lunch survey the past couple of weeks! We have now been able to estimate approximately how many meals to make each day for our scholars. The lunches are delicious and we are very grateful for Mrs. McNelley for providing great tasting and nutritious food for all our scholars.
Moving forward, you will no longer need to complete a survey each week. I will continue to attach the monthly lunch menus to our weekly newsletter.
Thank you for supporting our goal of getting more technology into the classrooms for our scholars! Every lunch purchase contributes to help us move closer to achieving our goal!
OIAIS Junior High
Culture of Contribution ~ Supported and Valued. Every scholar. Every staff member.
Email: attendancejrhigh@topamail.com
Website: odyprep.com
Location: 1495 South Verrado Way, Buckeye, AZ, USA
Phone: 623-777-1740
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OIAISJuniorHighCampus/