Student & Family Update

I hope that you have had a great week. Please read on for news and updates related to MTRS this week and beyond!

VOLLEYBALL ADVANCES TO WMASS CHAMPIONSHIP!

With a 3-0 sweep of Ware High School on Tuesday and a brilliant 3-1 victory against rival Turners Falls on Thursday, the Mohawk Trail Volleyball team has punched a ticket to the Class D WMass finals this Saturday against Lee High School! The game will be played at 10:00 at West Springfield High School. All tickets must be purchased online through GoFan. The link can be found HERE. Come out and support our Warriors as they compete for the first WMass volleyball title in Mohawk Trail history!

Bus 13 news: Oct 29th there will be 15 minute delays on Jacksonville Rd in Colrain due to a movie filming. This will be between Cal Coombs Rd and Thompson Rd.

Oct 31st: Thank you for reminding students NOT to come to school in costumes or masks. If Halloween is something you celebrate, thank you for doing so outside of school.

Can you help? We are looking for caregivers who might be interested in being paid to help monitor school lunches between 11:10am & 12:40pm. Please email me for more details: cbuckland@mtrsd.org

Sustainability updates: Attached is the October update for the 2districts8towns Sustainability Study. We appreciate your ongoing interest and encourage you to attend or tune in virtually to a progress report that will be provided on November 14 (details in the update) and also check out the most recent reports on 2districts8towns.org.

Mary Lyon Resource Fair & Student Led Conferences for grade 8,9,10,11 & 12 are next week!

10-30-24

Please see the Teaching and Learning section below for more information. In the meantime, here are the quicknotes:

Advisory is a graduating requirement for a high school diploma at MTRS.

Students need to complete their SLC in order to pass Advisory.

Grade 7 has 1 per year. Everyone else has 2 per year.

Advisory teachers are reaching out by email to set up 15 minute meetings between 12 - 3:30pm on 10-30-24.

Here are the following options for students and families:

• Students are dismissed at 11:30 and can stay in school, doing supervised activities (12-2:30) until it is time for their SLC. Caregiver comes in and student and caregiver meets with advisor in-person. Please note, buses will run at 11:30 but not 2:30. Please consider this when planning out your SLC.
• Students are dismissed at 11:30 and can stay in school, doing supervised activities until it is time for their SLC. Caregiver joins the SLC virtually while student and advisor meet in person
• Students are dismissed at 11:30 and go home on the bus. They come into school with caregivers at the appointed time for their SLC. Student, caregiver and advisor meet in person
• Students are dismissed at 11:30 and go home on the bus. Student & caregiver join the SLC virtually from home and the advisor joins virtually from school.
• If a caregiver is unable to attend, the student and advisor will complete the SLC either in-person or virtually at the appointed time.

Finally, we would love to see as many caregivers and students as possible attend the SLC and then come to the Mary Lyon Resource fair, eat some free food at the Kiwanis hut and then watch our MS football team play a home match!

Please read on for information and news related to our busy school. This includes:

• Student-led-conference information for October 30th, Grades 8-12, 12-3:30pm
• Athletics Updates
• Winter Play news
• AP Brault's Culture Corner
• Student Voice
• Lava Centre Exhibition at MTRS
• Community involvement and outreach opportunities
• District updates
• SEPAC updates
• Welcome to MTRS... Jessica Choiniere

If you are reading this newsletter on a phone or laptop, don't forget to click on "read entire message" in order to see the complete newsletter.

Finally, we do our best to convey information to our community from a variety of sources, lots of them community rather than school based organizations. Unfortunately we are not able to share images and posters with live links through Smore but always ensure there is an email for inquiries. If you would like an e-copy of a poster with live links, please feel free to reach out to the office directly.

See you next week!

Best

Chris

Upcoming dates

• October 30th: SLC for Grade 8-12 & Mary Lyon Resource Fair
  
• November 5th - Staff PD, no school for students
• November 11th: Veterans Day, no school for students
• November 14th: Grades 5-8 STEAM Fair
  
• November 20th: Photo retake day
• November 27th: 11:30 release (Thanksgiving break, 28th & 29th November)
• Dec 13 & 14th: Winter Play 6:30pm
• Dec 19: Winter Concert 6:30pm
• December 21st: Last day of school - 2:20 release
• December 23 - 31st: Winter Break
• January 1: No school
• January 2nd: School starts again
• April 2nd: SLC for grades 7,8,9,10,11,12
  
• April/ May:TBD Capstone Community Celebration (The new version of Celebration of Learning)
• May 29th: Senior Awards
  
• May 30th: Class of 2025 Graduation

MCAS and AP schedule for 2024/25

Bell Schedule

District (Calendar for 24/25)

Student Handbook

Live course catalog 2024/25

Food Services Information

Live Solar Panel Energy Information

Twin Lakes has taken over from Suzor as our IT company. support@twinlakesconsulting.zendesk.com

Quarter 1 45 days

First Day: Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Last Day: Thursday, October 31st, 2024

Q1 progress report grades close on: Friday, September 27, 2024

Q1 progress report grading window: Weds, September 25 - Weds, October 2nd, at 11:59 pm

Q1 progress reports will be distributed on: Thursday, October 3rd, 2024

Q1 grading window: Tuesday October 29 - Wednesday November 6th at 11:59 pm

Q1 report cards will be distributed on: Thursday, November 7, 2024

Students prepared homemade tortillas and quesadillas last week in Spanish class with Ms Adlersmith

Congratulations to Grade 10 who tallied the most points during Homecoming week! Seniors tied with Grade 7 for second place.

Thanks to the Student Council for organizing a great week and fun activities on Friday and Saturday night.

The Junior class is already planning for Booster Week '25...

Director Paul and the cast and crew are pleased to announce that the Winter play will be And Then There was One, by Micheal Druce.

The play is about Ten people who are brought together by mysterious invitation to a tiny, isolated island. Not one of them knows the host, who is nowhere to be found. One by one, the guests begin to die one by one. Luckily, Inspector Miles is among the guests, but even he is stymied as to who the murderer could be.

Caregivers, students and fans of drama are encouraged to come to a performance on December 13th or December 14th.

As a reminder for Cast and Crew, here is the rehearsal schedule moving forward: https://mtrs.mohawktrailschools.org/Performing-Arts

I originally started the 24-25 school year as a substitute before being offered the role of a teacher for special education in ELA, so I work with some students on building their English Language Arts skills, as well as helping out in two blocks of seventh grade ELA.

In my free time, I love to read, play Dungeons and Dragons, and play video games. I'm greatly looking forward to connecting with my students and helping them build necessary language skills throughout the rest of the year.

We are pleased to announce that the LAVA Center exhibit, indiVISIBLE, a part of MassHumanities’ Expand Massachusetts Stories program is now on show to students and staff in the MTRS library.
IndiVISIBLE, guided by Alfonso Herrera-Neal and Lindy Whiton, documents the lives of indispensable yet too often invisible agricultural workers in Western Massachusetts through images and stories.
The display will be in the MTRS library during October and November before it moves to another MTRS school. Members of the public can see the exhibition in the lobby at MTRS as part of the Mary Lyon Resource fair.

Explore more here:https://indivisiblegreenfield.omeka.net/

Mohawk Trail SEPAC Member and Parent

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Do you have a question about your child, their services, or resources specific to your needs? If you or someone you know would like to be added to the private list and receive emails and event notifications, please send an email to: MOHAWKSEPAC@gmail.com Please indicate your email, title (such as parent of a student with IEP/504), District, Interested Party or other)

Disclosure: SEPAC maintains the list of contacts and keeps the information private. This email is maintained by a parent and volunteer. Our goal is to respond in a timely manner. We will get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

October 30th will be a busy day...

• Student-Led-Conferences 12 - 3:30pm
• Mary Lyon Resource Fair: 3-7pm in the gym at MTRS
• MTRS Football game under lights with food served at the Kiwanis hut

An important part of our shift to SBTL is to have students reflecting on their progress in their classes.

The SLC allows students to reflect on their learning to date and help map out their next steps for semester 2.

Information about the Student-led-conferences

Advisory teachers will start to reach out to families and care providers to schedule a Student-Led-Conference from September 30th

• S1 Student Led Conferences for 8-12- Early dismissal for all MS and HS Students at 11:30. Buses will run at 11:30 after lunch has been served

• Conferences will take place between 12:00- 3:30pm

• Students are encouraged to remain in school so that they can participate in person in their SLC, however, if they don’t have transportation to get home, they should take the bus at 11:30

• Caregivers are encouraged to attend in person but can participate remotely if that is more convenient. Please communicate this to your child’s advisor when they reach out to schedule a time with you

• Students who stay, must sign up in their advisory block on 10-30 for different supervised activities to do during the time 11:30-2:30 when they are not in an SLC. These activities include: Sports, Academic support, Study hall, Movie in the auditorium. There will not be student supervision from 2:30-3:30 but students will be able to wait in the lobby at MTRS

General information about SLC

What is a Student-led-conference?

• Student-led-conferences (SLC) are at the heart of our shift to standards based teaching and learning. They provide students with more ownership of their learning experiences at MTRS.

• Rather than reviewing letters/ numbers on a report or progress card, SLCs provide students with an opportunity to lead a 15 minute conversation about their progress towards proficiency in habits of learning and content-based skills.

• Students will be using the assessment criterion that we shared earlier in the year.

• They also enable students to reflect on their learning experiences to date and to set goals for the rest of the school year.

Does my student have to do an SLC?

• SLC are based in an advisory class, which is scheduled for each student every day. Advisory is a graduation requirement and student participation in SLC is expected and contributes to the pass/fail (credit/no-credit) for the course at the end of the year.

• SLCs are scheduled 1 x a year for grade 7 and 2 x a year for grades 8-12 Students must participate in SLCs in order to pass the Advisory class, in addition to attendance and participation.

• If a student is absent or unwell when their SLC is scheduled, they will make this up when they return.

Who will be at the Student-led-conference?

• Students will lead their own conference as it is their opportunity to talk about their experiences at MTRS as well as their goals for the rest of the year and beyond high school.

• We would like to invite care providers and families to be an integral part of every student’s journey and to try to be present at the SLC - in-person or virtually.

• Your student’s advisory teacher will be present. As advisory groups meet every day for a year, advisory teachers have the best overall insight into habits of learning and academic progress of each of their students. They can help support students as they lead their conference.

When will the Student-led-conferences take place?

• For grades 8-12, SLC #1 will take place on October 30th. SLC #2 for Grades 7-12 will take place on April 2nd, 2024

Where will the Student-led-conference take place?

• If you are in-person, please arrive at school 10 minutes before your scheduled time and someone will bring you to the advisor’s room.

• If you are meeting virtually, please log in to the google meet 5 minutes before your scheduled time.

What is the difference between SLS #1 and SLC #2?

• SLC#1: A chance for the student to reflect on their strengths, growths and challenges in the first semester, to reflect on their discoveries as a learner during the year so far and to set some habits and academic goals for the second semester. It is also an opportunity for students to talk through current post-high school plans.

• SLC #2: A chance for the student to reflect on challenges and successes of the year, to set goals for the year ahead and to revisit and possibly change post-high school plans.

What is the schedule for the S1 Student-led-conferences?

• Students will be dismissed at 11:30 am after lunch. The schedule for the 11:30 day is here

• Students must sign up in their advisory block on 10-30 for different supervised activities to do during the time 11:30-2:30 when they are not in an SLC. These activities include: Sports, Academic support, Study hall, Movie in the auditorium

• Students will go to their advisor’s class at the time of their scheduled SLC. They will return to their activity afterward.

• Activities will end at 2:30 and students and families are encouraged to attend the Mary Lyon Resource Fair, eat food courtesy of the Kiwanis club, and watch the Middle School Football game on the main field.

How do I schedule my SLC?

• From next week, advisory teachers will reach out to caregivers and families by email to schedule conferences of 15 minutes per student (in-person or virtual) on the above days.

What if I have children in multiple grades?

• We will start to schedule appointments so care providers will be able to arrange times convenient for them during the SLC window.

What if 15 minutes is not enough time?

• Advisors can help care providers/ families set up a subsequent appointment to meet with themselves or specific content teachers at a later date.

What will happen if I am unable to attend in person or virtually?

• We understand that not everyone can be available in-person or virtually during the school day. If you are unable to attend, your student will still conference with their advisory teacher.

• As we continue to develop our Student-led conference process, we will look at ways to have early afternoon/ early evening conferences as a way for all families and care providers to have the opportunity to be a part of the process.

What if I have more questions?

• Please reach out to your students' advisor in the first instance. Your grade-level guidance counselor will also be able to help:

Grades 7 and 8: truggeri@mtrsd.org

Grades 9-12: ldessaro@mtrsd.org

MTRS is hosting Amy Proiette, Coordinator of Financial Aid, GCC on Monday, November 4th, 6:00 PM in the auditorium. Juniors and Seniors and their careproviders are warmly invited to attend.

Quarter 1 Report Cards

The last day of quarter 1 is Thursday, October 31st. Reports will be available in Aspen after November 7th. If you need help logging into Aspen, please email support@twinlakesconsulting.zendesk.com

2025 Big Y Scholarship

Big Y Foods, Inc. is one of the largest locally owned supermarket chains in Southern New England. A family-owned and operated corporation, Big Y has represented excellence in the food industry since 1936. In tribute to both its employees and customers, Big Y offers an annual scholarship program. Established in 1981, the program includes a series of scholarships that honor the late Paul H. and Gerald E. D"Amour, brothers who founded Big Y in 1936. Big Y awards over 300 scholarships each year totaling more than $250,000. All Big Y scholarships recognize academic merit and achievement. They are awarded to the most academically outstanding students in the Big Y market area. Visit the scholarship page of our official website to access our scholarship portal to fill out application: https://www.bigy.com/community/scholarships

A complete application with required supporting documents must be submitted via scholarship portal by February 1st, 2025.

Explore the student services updates for more information!

Have a look at the latest news from the MTRS library, here

Local Education Council (LEC)

This meets virtually every second Wednesday of the month between 3:45 and 4:30pm. More information can be found here. The next meeting will take place on November 13th

The virtual joining information is as follows:

Meeting ID

meet.google.com/gzo-toke-ibz

Phone Numbers

(‪US‬)‪+1 813-435-9650‬

PIN: ‪741 012 215#‬

Principal Drop-ins

As was the case last year, I will hold regular virtual office hours. You don’t need an appointment to come and talk with me and share your thoughts on what goes on at MTRS. I will try to be available for the whole 60 minutes but can't always guarantee it at our busy school. The next drop in will take place on November 22nd- the fourth Friday of each month!

Fourth Friday of each month: 8:00 to 9:00 a.m.

Meeting ID: meet.google.com/jtz-yhet-ipo

Phone Number: (US)+1 (813) 773-5581

PIN: 636 883 303

Email: cbuckland@mtrsd.org
Website: www.mtrs.mohawktrailschools.org
Phone: 413-625-9811
Facebook: facebook.com/mohawktrailregional