MMS Principal Newsletter
October 7, 2019 @MMSCougarPride
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6th Grade Social
Week of Respect
-10/8 Assembly from Superintendent of Schools Dr. Taylor for 6th and 7th graders and 8th grade assembly with Rutgers Professor Dr. Falaise.
-10/10: I Am Poems from students
-10/11: Advisory activities. Who do you see when you see me?
Greetings and Updates from Ms. Gronau
Greetings MMS Families,
This week is the NJ Week of Respect. The focus of the week of respect is for students to engage in age appropriate activities to prevent harassment, intimidation and bullying. Our social worker and anti-bullying specialist has organized a great week of activities. At MMS we seek to teach children to connect with one another, serve as upstanders, and show empathy for one another in our advisory program. We aim for our children to engage in positive self-talk and to know that they are loved at cared for at MMS. Our first advisory session will take place on Friday, October 11, 2019.
CHIK PEA in Maplewood has chosen to support Maplewood Middle School! This means that you can select MMS when you purchase at Chik Pea and some of the proceeds will fund MMS Donors Choose grants! Thank you Ms. Colleen Miller for making this happen for MMS!
Today our ELA, Social Studies and Special Education teachers received top notch professional development from Columbia Teachers College. Our school-wide academic goal this year addresses informational text and cross-content literacy in ELA, Math, Health, Science and Social Studies and this was our area of focus today. Scroll down for a few shots from our amazing day of learning! Ms. Gronau, Mr. Brown, district social studies supervisor Mr. Preston, and district ELA supervisor Dr. Bean-Folkes learned alongside our teachers in their sessions.
Last week I served on a panel sponsored by the Community Coalition on Race. We discussed talking to our children about race with focus on elementary and middle school students. I was so impressed with our CHS students on the panel and some were MMS alums! It was great to see our MMS families there and Spanish teacher Sra. Cavagnaro there with her family!
The school district has partnered with the Hetrick Martin Institute to support LGBTQ students and their families. HMI staff will be at DeHart community center. Stay tuned for upcoming information on their October 2019 programming.
The Hub/Family Connections is a wonderful resource we are fortunate to have at MMS through a Maplewood Municipal grant. If you would like your child to participate in individual and group sessions during the school day or in the social support through recreation after school programming, please contact Ms. Candice at cebbesen@familyconnectionsnj.org.
IMPORTANT NOTES
-Reminder to please send Ms. Gronau your good news/recognition worthy events of your child's academic, social, social activism, community service, and artistic achievements. We would like our MMS kiddos to be recognized at upcoming board meetings! Email at dgronau@somsd.k12.nj.us!
Congrats Student Council! #studentvoice
8th Grade Staff at TCRWP!
TCRWP lab site
The 5 Keys to Middle School Child Resilience and Success
The 5 Keys to Middle School Child Resilience and Success
The MMS faculty and staff ask that you support our work with your child in the following ways:
1) Encourage a Growth Mindset-Having a growth mindset fosters resilience. Use the language of yet. I don’t understand this “yet.” Emphasize the importance of hard work as opposed to innate intelligence. “I did well because of my effort. I’ll do better next time.”
2) Encourage 1-2 Good Peer Relationships-Friends should be a source of support. Often our middle schoolers try to maintain large groups of close friends and that is challenging for anyone of any age! Encourage your child to have 1-2 solid and supportive peer friendships and keep it light and simple with the larger groups.
3) Ensure 9-11 Hours of Sleep Please! Sleep is the best way to foster resilience. Research shows that kiddos this age need 9-11 hours to be at their best. When your child is well-rested, everything is better. Technology is the #1 enemy of sleep! As a school community, we recommend that you keep technology out of your child’s bedroom at night to encourage healthy and consistent sleep.
4) Encourage Coping Strategies-Coping is personal. Everyone does it differently. Encourage your child to think about healthy ways to relax and give them permission to do it!
5) Facilitate Time/Connection with a non-familial adult-Good connections with non-familial adults are very important for your child. They hear things differently from non-familial adults. Encourage your child to participate in a club or activity. Children need our perspective. They are always changing and growing. As adults we can attach a growth mindset to their personality development and their peer interactions.
Maplewood Middle School Remind App Code @k92d29
This year, the MMS Principal has added a school-wide "Remind App" as another way to communicate with families. Many of your child's teachers will share Remind class codes for you and your child to stay up to date about class events and assignments. As needed, the MMS Principal will periodically use the Remind App to share important info with our school community. Our Maplewood Middle School school-wide code Remind code is listed above (@k92d29). The link below explains how to begin getting notifications. It's a simple way to stay in touch. Join us!
https://help.remind.com/hc/en-us/articles/203179887-How-do-I-join-a-class-