GMS Weekly Newsletter

Good Afternoon Wolf Pack Families,

It was a really fun week at GMS! Our staff and students enjoyed the Halloween festivities. It was great to see so many creative costumes! Best of all, student behavior was excellent on a day that can be a challenge to stay focused on learning.

Parent/Teacher conference information was emailed to families earlier this week with directions on how to schedule conferences with your student's teachers. Conferences will be held on November 14. We will be offering both in person and virtual conferences in order to accommodate more of our families. Directions for scheduling conferences are given in this email as well. We value a strong partnership between parents/guardians and teachers. Parent/Teacher conferences are a great way to discuss your student's strengths and goals for continued growth.

Wising you all a fantastic weekend,

Stuart Riley

Principal, Geisler Middle School

Upcoming Events

11/4-7th and 8th Grade Band Concert @ GMS-6:30pm

11/5-No School-Voting Day

11/7-Boys Basketball vs. Smart MS-HOME

11/8-1st Marking Period Grades available at 5pm

11/11-Boys Basketball vs. Mason MS-AWAY

11/13-Boys Basketball vs. Muir MS-AWAY

11/14-1/2 Day-Parent Teacher Conferences

11/18-Boys Basketball vs. Pierce MS-AWAY

11/19-6th Grade Orchestra Concert @ GMS-6:30pm

11/20-6th Grade Band Concert @ GMS-6:30pm

11/20-Boys Basketball vs. Oak Valley MS-AWAY

11/21-Boys Basketball vs. Millennium MS-HOME

We are so excited that we will begin FREE before and after school tutoring for Math and ELA starting on Monday, November 11. If your student struggles in either/both of these subjects or iReady, this is a great opportunity for them to get additional support. Consider asking your student's math/ELA teacher if tutoring might be good for them when you meet at conferences on November 14. You may register for tutoring at anytime from now through the end of the November. Our tutoring sessions are led by GMS teachers!

Students MUST be registered in order to attend. They must also be dropped off and picked up on time in order to continue. See the QR code below to register

Be sure to pick up your copy of the latest issue of our school newspaper, The Geisler Chronicles! Just in time for Halloween, there are some festive recipes, history of the holiday, tips to stay safe, and a lot more in this issue. Check it out online at http://bit.ly/GeislerChronicles or pick up your copy in front of the attendance office.

WHAT’S COMING UP IN NOVEMBER

11/5: NO SCHOOL - Election Day

11/7: Board of Education Meeting at 7pm

11/11: PTSA Meeting at 7pm

11/14: ½ Day - Conferences

11/16: Dining to Donate Fundraiser at BIGGBY Coffee on Welch

11/19: ½ Day of School - Staff PD Day

11/27: ½ Day of School - Thanksgiving Break

11/28-29: NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Break

CONFERENCES - Help Feed Our Staff!

The LONGEST day of the year is upon us – Conferences! Let’s make it easier on our staff by keeping them well-fed and hydrated. Use the SignUp Genius to provide food, donate your time, or help off-set the cost with a monetary donation.

Sign Up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080C45AEAE23A6F94-52032587-food#/

Monetary donations can be made by cash, Venmo ( @Hillary-Glaser ) or by PayPal

(https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/hlglaser )

FUNDRAISER AT BIGGBY COFFEE - 11/16

Stop by BIGGBY Coffee all day on November 16th and order your favorite snack and drink to support Geisler Middle School PTA.

Website | Facebook | Email | Become a PTSA Member

Parent/Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Thursday, November 14th from 12:15-8:15 p.m in a hybrid format. Half of the day is formatted for virtual conferences and the other half is allocated for in-person conferences. The times listed below are the format for both types of conferences, and are consistent at all four district middle schools. When you sign up in Skyward for your conferences, the virtual or in-person formats will be listed. At the middle school level, once spots are taken in each format (in-person or virtual), there will not be additional times available to sign up through Skyward.

All individual Parent/Teacher Conferences need to be scheduled online, in advance, through your parent Family Access account. You may sign up for time slots beginning on November 4th @ 7:00 a.m. All conferences, regardless of core or encore teacher, must be scheduled online.

• Virtual Conferences: 12:15 - 3:45 PM

• In-Person Conferences: 4:00 - 8:15 PM

Important Details for Scheduled Conferences

• Online sign up in Family Access will only work using your parent login. If you still need a username and password, please email FamilyAccess@wlcsd.org or contact the Family Access hotline at 248.956.2190.

• Online sign up will be available November 4th @ 7:00 a.m. and stay open until November 13th @ 7:00 AM

• Parent/Teacher Conferences will take place virtually via TEAMS and each individual conference will be 5 minutes in length for general education classes. Special Education Resource Room Caseload workers will offer 15 minute conferences. Teachers will monitor the TEAMS waiting room and will remove parents and admit parents at the scheduled time.

• Prior to conferences, parents will be provided with a master list of teachers and the teacher’s corresponding TEAMS Link.

• When scheduling consecutive conferences, you must leave one five-minute conference gap between appointments. Ensuring you have a five-minute gap will allow you time to move from one teacher’s conference to the next..

• Scheduling a conference with your counselor is not required, however, if there is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed at conferences you may schedule a conference with your child’s counselor. Due to the number of students they serve, if you do not have a pressing issue then you do not need to schedule a conference.

• If you feel you need a longer conference with any teacher, we are happy to schedule a separate conference. All staff contact information can be found at our school website.

Tutorials: Conference Scheduling on Skyward

• A video tutorial showing the process for scheduling conferences can be found at this How To Schedule Conferences Online link.

• Written directions can be found at the Secondary Parents Conference Sign Up link.

Tutorials: Attending Conferences via TEAMS on November 14th, 2024

• Video directions for how to attend your conferences on November 1 can be found at this Video Directions Link

• Written directions can be found at this Written Directions Link

Order your GMS yearbook today! Click here to order your yearbook and any additional upgrades. Yearbooks cost $40 and will be delivered to school in June.

We invite our 8th grade GMS families to write a well wish to their 8th grade student that will be printed in our yearbook. The cost is $12. Click here to submit your message today!

Mrs. Hernandez is starting an after school Game Club beginning on November 6. This is a great opportunity for students to have some fun, meet new friends and learn some new board/card games! Please see the information below including the permission slip that will need to be signed in order to attend.

Registration for the 8th grade trip to Washington, D.C. is now moving to our third bus, which means Corporate Travel moved us to a “waitlist” status. We have about 20 seats remaining on the third bus and guaranteed registration will be open until these seats are filled. Click here to join the waitlist and pay the $50 deposit to hold your spot on the trip. Families will be asked to pay the remainder of their deposit once the third bus officially opens.

More trip information and required forms can be found in this newsletter. Email Mr. Yu with any questions you may have at TorryYu@wlcsd.org.

If you are a family that could use additional food over the weekends and are having difficulty finding the finances to do so, let us help! GMS and Hospitality House have partnered together to provide food to many of our students/families in need. Sometimes the need is temporary and others need it consistently throughout the year. Either is ok! Please contact your child's counselor, Mrs. Hart or Ms. Garvin if you have questions or would like to sign up for this program.