Good to be grateful...double update

Last year at this time, I was able to reflect on my gratitude for being welcomed so warmly into such a wonderful community as I started my first year at Stony Brook.  I am happy to say how good it is to still feel welcomed and appreciated as part of this dynamic school.  Our students are wonderful and they exhibit their positive traits regularly.  Sometimes we have to look a little harder to see as they might be masking their exemplary qualities under more questionable choices, but we know they are still there and for that I continue to be grateful!.  Yesterday, I was fortunate to have two opportunities outside of our building that reminded me how well our students are doing here.  A number of middle school principals from surrounding districts met to discuss issues and concerns facing our students and it was encouraging to be able to provide feedback from our successes here in Westford that could help students elsewhere navigate through these middle years as well as our students do.  In talking with others, it was clear to me once again how fortunate we are that our students have such tremendous support both in the classrooms and at home.  Additionally, I had the chance to visit Westford Academy and see many of the students with whom I was able to meet last year as 8th graders and appreciate how involved they are in life at the Academy and how successful their transitions have been.  The feedback I hear regularly from folks at WA is very encouraging as to how well our students are prepared.  With all of the recent acts of violence throughout the world, it is good to be grateful for all of the positive things here close to home which help keep us hopeful for our children's futures.

In the immediate future...first term grades will be available soon after the Thanksgiving break.  Grades closed on Friday and after they are completed and verified, they will be made viewable in iParent on Friday, December 4th at 2:30PM.

Parent Conferences will be held on Wednesday, December 15th from 7:30AM to 9:30AM and Thursday, December 16th from 2:00PM to 8:00PM.  There is a 2 ½ hour delayed opening on December 15th and no school on December 16th.  In an effort to accommodate all families interested in attending a conference, we offer a choice between one of two teacher groups: Math/Social Studies or ELA/Science.  Should you wish to schedule a conference we are asking families to sign up for one conference per student online as we have in the past via Sign Up Genius. The website will be open for families to access starting on December 7 at 9:00AM and closing on December 10 at 8:00PM.  Changes can be made by calling the office after that time.

These ten-minute check-ins with two of your child's team teachers provide an opportunity for you to share important information, stay informed of your child's progress, and discuss the first trimester report card. Parent conferences are not required, and many parents find a phone call, email or one of our available weekly team conferences meet their needs.  As I shared earlier, our students are well supported both here and at home and these conferences are only one of the many processes that we have in place that help foster the home/school communication which we know to be one the most critical elements for overall student success.  When the adults are all on the same page, the children are more likely to thrive.

Recently, one of our guidance counselors shared a valuable resource that is always a good reminder.  The cell phone companies created a parent's guide to adolescent cell phone use and while it is a bit lengthy...of course, who am I to talk...or better yet, wow, he thinks it's lengthy...watch out...at any rate, it is an excellent resource with which we should all have access.  Many of our families choose to provide their children with cell phones and while they are remarkable pieces of technology that many of us could never imagine as a reality when we were adolescents, they are tools that create a false sense of security for students in relation to what they perceive to be their privacy. We have a responsibility to help students learn how to use these technologies responsibly and safely.  As adults, we should actively know with whom our children are communicating and the manner in which it is being done.  Growing up it was not uncommon for our parents to hear at least our half of the conversations we had with friends on our land lines in the house.  Notes that were created and passed between friends could be intercepted and most people thought twice before putting something down in writing and sharing it with anyone else.  We saw it with email a while ago and how many adults struggled with communicating effectively even in the business world as the ease of communication also lead to an ease in misunderstanding.  Many adults are not aware of the text conversations their children are engaged in or the discussions that they are having online.  Our efforts to help model positive online communication with class discussions taking place in teacher facilitated and monitored online environments is a step in the right direction.  We encourage all of you to be actively involved in monitoring your children's virtual discussions outside the school environment, as well.  When students know that the are not operating in a private little world, they are more likely to develop and exhibit consistent skills of appropriate communication and keep themselves from getting into trouble for saying something they would not otherwise say in the company of others.  While children will claim they do not want parents snooping into their privacy, the majority of them do not own the devices or pay the bills associated with them and this is an excellent age for them to start understanding the relationship of their decision making authority and their financial independence.  If you wish to read it or save the link for future reference, I will share it with you here:  

http://www.connectsafely.org/wp-content/uploads/mobile_english.pdf    (if you have trouble opening the link here, simply copy and paste the address into your web browser)

Moving away from virtual reality and back to something requiring live human interaction, I was able to enjoy the WA performance of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN last night and saw a number of our former Stony Brook students among the incredibly talented students involved in every aspect of the production!  Congratulations to everyone involved!  That being said, save the dates for the Stony Brook Theater Arts upcoming production ofTHOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, JR. on Dec 11 & 12.  I was asked to share the following information regarding when tickets are available for purchase:

Rehearsals-last hour:  (Auditorium Lobby)

Tues  12/1    3:30-4:30pm

Thur  12/3    3:30-4:30pm

Fri     12/4    3:30-4:30pm

Sat     12/5    3-4pm

Production Week-Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs  12/7-12/10    7-8pm

During lunch:   (Stony Book Main Lobby)

Thu   12/3    10:15-12:00pm

Fri     12/4    10:15-12:00pm

Mon  12/7    10:15-12:00pm

Tues  12/8    10:15-12:00pm 

Wed  12/9    10:15-12:00pm

Fri     12/11  10:15-12:00pm 

At Performances:   (Auditorium Lobby)

Fri  12/11      6:15-7:00pm

Sat  12/12    12:45-1:30pm

Sat  12/12      6:15-7:00pm

As I will more than likely not send out an email next week over the Thanksgiving break, I also want to let you know that the Stony Brook Winter Choral Concert will be Dec 2 @ 7:00 in the auditorium.

Finally, I was going to update everyone on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's decision to adopt a hybrid assessment system that in essence combines PARCC and MCAS into a new yet to be developed MCAS 2.0 and administered in Spring 2017.  However, I had more important things to share :?)  In short, we will continue to use PARCC this spring and I will share the dates with you in the future, instead of two rounds of testing like we did last year it will only be one round of each content area similar to MCAS in the past so it will be a shorter overall assessment than last year for whichWE ARE THANKFUL!

Have a wonderful holiday!

Chris

A Paraskevidekatriaphobic Update

Honestly, I had forgotten that it was Friday the 13th for the better part of the day.  I can't say that I actually fear the day, but just like a full moon, this day seems to have an adverse effect on teenagers ability to control themselves.  Some of the choices made as the day progressed seemed to be abnormally strange which quickly reminded me of this special day on the calendar.  All of which was complicated by the fact that our phone system seemed to develop a ghost in the machine and calls were being dropped left and right and we still use land-lines!  To that end, I apologize for any frustration that might have been created for you if you had to make multiple attempts to get a call through today.  Thankfully, the phone company did not simply chalk it up to Friday the 13th and attempted to address the issues.  We shall see...

The rest of the week was relatively normal on the ever shifting scale of middle school dynamics.  

I was able to visit a number of math classes and was happy to hear students in each grade communicating with each other about the problems they were trying to solve and often testing multiple strategies to determine which was most efficient.  Some of our social studies students in 8th grade were actively investigating the spread of the Bubonic plaque...well, they were participating in an activity that simulated how the epidemic impacted families all over Europe...which doesn't sound much better when you type it out...but it was safe and no one actually got sick.  But rather than simply reading about it, they were physically traveling from multiple locations carrying pieces of paper that determined whether or not they were infected. Many of our 7th grade students were exploring the sea floor and collaborating on the development of models that exhibited how the sea floor spreads.  

As always...have a great weekend,

Chris

A Commercial Break Update

This week seemed to be filled with moments that interrupted our regularly scheduled programming...

Starting on a positive note, I would like to congratulate one of our 8th graders, Emily B., who has been selected to represent the Town of Westford in a special state-wide program called Project 351.  This program brings one 8th grader from each of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 351 communities together for a  year of service and leadership training through the Governor's office and various service organizations.  It is a tremendous opportunity and we are very proud to have Emily represent Westford as she continues to develop her leadership skills and collaborate with other 8th graders throughout the state.

A representative from the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC) located at Bridgewater State University joined us again this year as we have done successfully in previous years for presentations to both the 6th and 7th grades.  The entire 6th grade participated in a presentation focused on Internet safety, cyber-bullying, and digital footprints.  She reminded the students of the importance of keeping their passwords protected and communicating respectfully as the lack of facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language can often lead to misunderstandings with electronic communication.  Additionally, she met with the 7th grade girls about the unique behaviors adolescent girls can exhibit in their peer relationships and the importance of fostering healthy positive relationships exhibiting mutual respect and empowering them to avoid negative dynamics that seek to undermine their self-worth and confidence.   At the same time, Mr. McElhinney and I met with the 7th grade boys and had similar discussions along with some of their teachers about what respect in action looks like and the importance of consistently exhibiting respect for everyone in our community.  The focus of our conversation centered on the little things that we do on a daily basis and how they can culminate to create a wonderful environment grounded in respect that supports everyone or a collective apathy if we don't hold each other accountable and expect respect for everyone.  Towards the end of the conversation, without it becoming a political debate a few students expressed concern in how some of the current Presidential Candidates seem to struggle with modeling respect as they interact with each other.

We had these same conversations last year and knew that they would be beneficial to have with this year's group, as well.  Ironically, another struggle was identified this week in the unique challenge that the additional set of stairs seems to be creating for the majority of the 7th grade students traversing to the third floor multiple times during the day.  The biggest issue seemed to consistently arise returning from lunch.  So, the 7th grade teachers decided it would be prudent to meet the students outside after the students' daily opportunity to soak in some vitamin D and fresh air and have them return to the third floor together and calmly as a team helping to monitor the students choices while climbing the three flights of stairs. Hopefully, the escort will not be needed long and the grade will soak in the importance of being safe on the stairs.  The optimist in me is glad they are in a hurry to get back to class, but 253 students of varying levels of grace and dexterity climbing three flights of stairs can create issues if they are not paying attention and or looking out for each other.

Not to leave them out, I took the opportunity to remind the 8th graders that while 245 of them sitting in the cafeteria is bound to create an expected amount of noise, they can always afford to do a better job quieting themselves when someone is trying to make an announcement or simply get their attention to let them go outside after eating...they seemed to appreciate that.

With all of that, you might be surprised to hear that I was able to visit a number of classes this week which is by far the best part of the job!  Great things were going on throughout the building, as usual.  7th graders were all diving into the Epic tale of Gilgamesh while studying ancient communication and storytelling. Imagine the horror when they learned how difficult it would be to create 140 characters of text on a stone tablet.  6th graders were accessing modern technology and using laptops to compete against themselves and others on Kahoot as they practiced their emerging language skills.  They were also doing some cross-team collaboration in some of their social studies classes identifying the traits of developed and developing countries.  Some 8th graders were participating in virtual debates in ELA using poll everywhere to anonymously express their opinions before discussing the relationship between education and happiness.  Additionally, they were studying relative dating in science which was thankfully focused on identifying the ages of fossils based on supporting data rather than dating a relative.

As I said about an hour ago, there are a number of things included for your perusal at the end of this weeks message!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Chris