
Archived MMS Weekly Newsletter
week ending 11/10/23
A note from our principal
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8th Grade Thanksgiving Baskets
It's that time of year again! We will be delivering boxes to the Millis Food Pantry this Friday. If you would like to donate to the cause, we need Potatoes, Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce, Canned veggies, gravy, boxed desserts. Thank you for those of you who have already dropped off food items to us, we really appreciate it!
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Community Kudos: Our Exemplary Students
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Thank you to Mr. Kramer, and to all our Veteran's, for their service and sacrifices for our country.
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Super Staff Members of November
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Show the Laney Family Our Support!
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Handbook Highlights - Lost and Found
We urge all students to put their names or some mark of identification on any and all articles of clothing. Each year we accumulate 5-10 cartons of unidentified clothing. Unclaimed clothing is donated to charity at the end of each trimester. We have tons of belongings already! Please have your student check out the Lost and Found to collect any belonging that may be theirs. There are a few lunch boxes and water bottles as well as clothing items. Thank you!!
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Progress Reports and PowerSchool Info
We have arrived at the midpoint of our first trimester and we would like to share a progress report to let you know how your child is currently performing. We have several educational tools and platforms that we use to track student learning. Google Classroom is a learning platform for organizing assignments and sharing learning materials with students. PowerSchool is our Learning Management System that houses essential student information such as schedules, contact information and grading information. We are moving toward a paperless reporting system so you will access your child’s progress reports and report cards via the PowerSchool Portal. Detailed instructions for navigating PowerSchool are included below!
Standards-Based Learning, Assessment, and Grading
Using the PowerSchool Parent Portal
The parent portal screens have been customized to better communicate learning progress and show standards that are connected to assignments.
To view your child’s midterm progress report:
Log in with parent account access information.
In the upper left corner select your child to view
Click Student Reports- this will take you to a printable report of all of your child’s teachers comments and feedback at midterm. Please be sure to click the blue button on the upper left to digitally sign off that you’ve seen this information.
To find the parent PowerSchool Portal, look for PowerSchool under the “Parents” tab.
If you need help using the portal, please call the Middle School office at 508-376-7014.
To view your student’s performance on Academic Standards and Learner Expectations:
You will see a list of courses on the "QUICK LOOKUP" tab
Click on the "Standards Grades" tab for a different view of "Current Sections"
This will display each of the courses your student is enrolled in. You may click each course's name for additional information or click the button “Expand All” to open all scores for Learner Expectations (E, S, NI, C) and Progress on Academic Standards (1, 2, 3, 4). On this same screen, you may click the icon which will reveal all of the personalized teacher comments as well.
The score shown is a summary score for the trimester, which reflects the average of the three most recent scores for the standard. (Currently specific standards are listed in PowerSchool for Math, ELA, SS, Science, and Spanish courses.) The Y1 score is an average for the year. The trend column is an indication of progress.
To view individual assignments and assessments in PowerSchool
You will see a list of courses on the "QUICK LOOKUP" tab
Click on the [ i ] next to a course name in the appropriate trimester column. (T1, T2, T3)
You will see a list of assignments for the course. Click on the blue box under the “FLAGS” heading to open the standards that are attached to the assignment and scored.
Also look in the "Flags" column for icons to show assignments have been completed, or are missing, late, incomplete, exempt, or if a student was absent.
See the "Legend" at the bottom that explains the icons in the flags column. For example, Red circle = handed in late; Orange circle = assignment missing; Green circle = collected and handed in on time.
Look in the far right column for the word “view”, which indicates that the teacher has added a comment on that particular assignment or assessment. Click on “view” to see the comment box.
In Millis, we honor each student as an individual learner, recognizing that each student has his or her own learning styles, interests, passions, challenges to learning, strengths and skill levels. We engage, support and challenge all students through varied instructional approaches that help students take ownership of their learning. Students are afforded voice, choice and flexibility in how they learn and are allowed to demonstrate their understanding in various ways to improve student well-being and ensure that they are "future ready".
Interested in more information about our process and Standards Based Grading?
Check out the resources here on our website tab for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment.
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Private School Applications
To request a copy of a transcript for your child, please email cmullally@millisschools.org or have your child bring the needed paperwork to the front office to the attention of Mrs. Cheri Mullally. We will be happy to help you with these requests. Please be sure to provide ample time prior to deadlines for us to ensure all materials are prepared in a timely manner. A minimum of two weeks is required. If your child needs a recommendation letter, please share that request through the provided platforms (such as Ravenna) and follow up with a personalized request to the desired author of the letter. Again, please be considerate of time and provide ample notice for these materials.
Tri-County Vocational School is having their Open House this weekend, Saturday, November 4th, 10AM-2PM, click here to register, and Tri-County applications can be accessed here.
Norfolk Agricultural School is also welcoming applications for next year which are accessible here.
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A note from Ryan Camire, Director of Digital Learning and Innovative Educational Technology
Thank you Millis families for making it out to the Middle/High School auditorium for the "Navigating the Digital Jungle: Things you should know because your child already does…" presentation. If you were unable to attend, the slides are linked above, as well as a video recording that can be found here. Please take some time to review the slides or watch the video to hear a little more about how you can work with your children/our students to create a safe online space for learning and living in this digital age.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
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Mandatory update required in PowerSchool for emergency contact information for all students
All Millis Middle School families have been sent an email to update their emergency contact information. It is very important that all phone numbers and emails are up to date. This information is used for contacting you in the event of an emergency, attendance and other school related correspondence.
Unfortunately, if you have multiple students in the district you will need to update each student separately.
If you haven't done so, please update your student (s) information with the most current, accurate information in PowerSchool.
If you have any questions or log in issues, please contact cliberty@millisschools.org.
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late bus
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Athletics news
Preseason - meet the Coaches night - Millis High School
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Millis Middle School Sports Schedules
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Enhanced 9-1-1 services available to citizens
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security has updated information on enhanced 9-1-1 services available to citizens.
"Text to 911" allows a person who is unable to speak or hear to communicate via text with a 9-1-1 dispatcher.
The second feature is the "Silent Call Procedure," which allows a person who is unable to speak to call 9-1-1 and when the call is answered by the dispatcher to press the following digits on their phone:
1 for police
2 for fire
3 for ambulance, so the dispatcher can immediately send help.
The slides listed below provide more information on these 9-1-1 features...