FMS Parent Information SMORE
February 27, 2024
FMS ANGELS - THANK YOU FOR DONATING!
Thank you to United Way for helping us this year - we truly appreciate you!
**We have a special need for hoodies, coats, leggings for girls, new underwear for girls, and athletic pants for boys. All donations can simply be dropped off in the main office. Thank you for helping us to help our students!
HEADS UP 8TH GRADE PARENTS! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR HIGH SCHOOL REGISTRATION!
Fast Track (registration from 4:30pm-7:00pm) and the FHS Showcase (from 5:30pm-7:30pm to meet teachers/coaches, check out information booths for classes, athletics, clubs, etc.) are at Franklinton High School on March 7th from 4:30-7:30. You don’t need to be there the entire time! ALL 8th Grade students must be signed up for a time slot at Fast Track to register for 9th grade classes! Here’s the link for your parent/guardian to sign up: https://bit.ly/FHSFastTrack2024
Blank registration forms will be distributed to 8th grade students this week. Students and parents will complete the registration form together and take it to Fast Track registration on March 7th. ALL 8th grade students must register for 9th grade classes at FHS. If you end up going to another high school for 9th grade, these classes will just be deleted. It’s better to choose your classes now, or they will be chosen for you in the event your plans change.
This is a change from last year. ALL student registrations must be done at FHS on March 7th.
SAY SOMETHING ANONYMOUS REPORTING SYSTEM (SSARS)
On 2/15/24, FMS students participated in the annual training provided by Sandy Hook Promise regarding the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System. This program teaches middle and high school students to recognize the warning signs of someone at-risk of hurting themselves or others and how to say something to a trusted adult to get help.
The Say Something program aligns seamlessly with any school’s existing social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, instruction, and programming. Students build essential SEL competencies, including how to empathize with others and seek help when needed (relationship skills) and how to identify problems and analyze situations, as well as solve problems in an ethically-responsible manner (responsible decision-making). This is a proven, life-saving program available nationwide at no cost. Students learned the importance of three steps to help save themselves and others from harm.
3 Steps of Say Something:
Recognize The Signs: Learn about different types of warning signs or threats and how to spot them, especially on social media.
Act Immediately, Take It Seriously: Understand strategies to take action and overcome potential barriers to being an “upstander” rather than a “bystander.”
Say Something: Learn how to intervene by telling a trusted adult or using the anonymous reporting system.
Students usually know more about threats of violence from other students than adults do. Our students are empowered to stand up and report information so a timely response to a potential crisis can be made. It is NOT “snitching” when students are trying to help someone avoid harm.
Here at school, students, parents, and community members can report threats of harm to Ms. Boardman, our principal, Ms. G, our assistant principal, or Ms. Gilbert, our school counselor, or any teacher or adult working at the school, by talking to us in person, calling or emailing us, or by using our Counselor Request Form or this Anonymous Tip Report from our website.
Students, parents, and community members can also use the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System by calling 1-844-5-SAYNOW or by going online at www.SaySomething.net or by using the new Say Something App. Our school, as well as local Law Enforcement, will receive notification from SSARS so an appropriate and timely response can be made. SSARS is especially helpful after school hours during nights, weekends, and breaks from school. Look for the posters and stickers around campus.
SOCIAL STUDIES: MR. CALDERON
Dear Parents and Guardians,
I hope you are having a great week. Here in Social Studies we are completing the Ancient Rome section of our school year. In the last couple of weeks we had finished in Japan where the students had the opportunity to learn how to learn the story of Origami and were able to do a couple of different ones. In the next couple of weeks we will be covering the history of the Barbarians, Christianity and Islam. The students are really learning a lot and they are always engaged in class.
Communicate
Every day in class we have work to be done, but we still have students that are not completing their work not even when I give them extra time. I will please ask you to communicate to them to work on these so they are completed by the end of the week. It's imperative for them to do this so that way it can be reflected on their grades.
Perform:
Class performance and participation is important and while most students do there are some who do not, I try to ensure that everyone feels comfortable with reading and talking in front of their peers by not only praising them but by giving them props for their effort.
Finally, like always please talk to your children about school behavior, respect and to come prepared for class. We still have students who are coming to school without the basic needs of the class (pencils, notebook, and charged chromebook). In addition some of the chromebooks are in very bad conditions and they might need to be replaced to complete their work.
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at luiscalderon@fcschools.net
Very respectfully,
Mr. Calderón
MATH: MR. MITCHELL
Dear Parents/Guardians,
I hope this message finds you well. Here are some important updates from our 6th-grade class:
Academic Progress:
We are currently conducting Check-In 2 assessments to gauge students' progress. It's encouraging to see a range of outcomes, from remarkable progress to areas where additional support may be needed. Encouraging consistent completion of the two iReady lessons per week at home will greatly contribute to their success.
EOG Preparation and Unit 7 Test:
Our focus remains on preparing students for success in the upcoming EOGs. Weekly "From the Jump" assignments, which review previous year's EOG questions, are essential for deeper understanding. Additionally, mastery of topics covered in the upcoming Unit 7 test, including the four-quadrant coordinate plane, is crucial. In case students encounter difficulties with the coordinate plane, they can utilize Khan Academy for additional assistance.
Assessment Strategy:
To reinforce learning, students participate in a From the Jump Quiz every Friday, supported by weekly notes. Consistent practice through these quizzes enhances their preparedness for assessments.
Class Expectations:
Students are reminded to complete 60 minutes of iReady lessons weekly to enrich their education. I'm pleased to note their excellent behavior and consistent engagement in schoolwork.
General Reminders:
To maintain a focused learning environment, students should bring charged Chromebooks, notebooks, and writing utensils daily.
Should you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at brandonmitchell@fcschools.net. Your collaboration is invaluable to us.
Thank you for your continued support.
Best regards,
Mr. Mitchell
ELA: MS. CRUDUP
Greetings families,
The students are diving into Argumentative Writing, focusing on how BUD's rules helped him either thrive or survive. Stations are engaging them in different areas every 20 minutes. Encourage reading at home to boost vocabulary. Let's gear up for the End of Year Test with I-Ready practice. Ensure students complete two lessons weekly on their pathway. Request a tutoring permission slip if needed. March 6 is Media Center Day, so remind your students to bring books that day. Thank you for partnering in your child's education.
Warm regards,Ms. Crudup
MATH: MS. JENKINS
Hello FMS Families! We have successfully completed Unit 4 and are currently working on Unit 5, where we are reasoning about equations and inequalities. In this unit, students extend their understanding of expressions to solve equations and find the solution to the variables. This week we are exploring the algebraic steps and structure of equations to solve real-world problems. Students are encouraged to take good notes in class, and record examples of problems completed to review the material at home.
We recently completed the second NC Math Check-In. I will conduct data discussions with students over the next two weeks. I-Ready is a useful tool for math remediation and enrichment. Students are encouraged to complete two passing lessons of I-Ready each week. Students who complete this task are eligible for a prize drawing each week. We will continue to remediate daily to prepare students for the EOG exam.
Things to remember:
~Class attendance is important ( If you miss class you are expected to make up the assignments. Class assignments serve to prepare students for each unit test )
~Remember the school and classroom rules. (Exhibit responsible behavior at all times)
~Bring your materials (Chromebooks(charged), notebooks, and pencils) to class daily.
~Get a good night's rest and come to class prepared to work.
~Math I-Ready assignments are important. Believe in yourself, you can do it!
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at litishajenkins@fcschools.net.
Thank you for your support. L. Jenkins.
SCIENCE: MS. BRACKETT
Dear Parents,
I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to take a moment to update you on what your child is currently learning in our science class. We are diving into an exciting unit on "Forces and Motion," exploring the fundamental principles that govern how objects move and interact in our world.
Here's a brief overview of some key concepts we'll be covering:
1. Speed vs. Velocity: We're discussing the distinction between speed and velocity. While speed is the measure of how fast an object is moving, velocity also includes the direction of motion. We'll engage in activities and experiments to help students grasp these concepts and understand their real-world applications.
2. Mass and Motion: Understanding how mass affects motion is a crucial aspect of this unit. Students will explore the relationship between an object's mass and the force required to set it in motion or bring it to a stop. This will involve hands-on experiments and observations to solidify their understanding.
3. Magnetism: - We'll be delving into the fascinating world of magnetism and its influence on motion. Students will explore how magnets can either attract or repel objects, and we'll discuss the role of magnetism in various everyday scenarios.
4. Gravity: Our exploration of forces would be incomplete without a thorough understanding of gravity. Students will learn how gravity is a force that pulls objects toward the center of the Earth and explore its impact on the motion of objects both on Earth and in space.
5. Friction: Friction is another force we'll be investigating. Students will learn how friction acts as a resistance to motion and discover ways to reduce or increase friction in different situations.
Throughout this unit, we aim to make learning engaging and interactive, allowing students to develop a strong foundation in the principles of forces and motion. Encourage your child to share their experiences and insights with you, and feel free to ask them about the exciting experiments and activities we have planned.
Thank you for your continued support in your child's education. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Best regards,
Ms. Brackett
Science Teacher
SOCIAL STUDIES: MR. JONES
Hello Parents and Guardians! We are trudging right through the slump in the middle of the year and working hard to maintain expectations. Please remind and reinforce classroom expectations at home so that students are not confused if there are ever disciplinary issues. In class, we are continuing to learn about the Great Depression and Roaring 20’s. This unit should end in the next week and we will begin working on World War 2.
Students have been made aware and consistently reminded of their rapidly approaching due date for their Q3 project. This project consists of two parts and all the rubrics for the assignment can be found on canvas. The official due date for all parts of their project to be submitted is March 14.
Thank you for all of your continued support and if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at hunterjones@fcschools.net
ELA: MS. BAECHLE:
Good evening students and families as we approach the second half of Q3. Overall we had some solid growth in some categories, though we want to still focus on overall reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skill-sets. We continue Q3 and each day/week this week with a fresh start and an agreement I would like both students and parents to partake in for continued growth and success for the remainder for the school year and beyond!
Growth Accountability Agreement:
I will complete daily work (assigned in class)
I will finish any work that was not completed in class for homework
I will come to class prepared (work completed and a charged chromebook)
I will not disrupt the learning environment, or others
I will check Canvas daily for updated assignments and due dates
I will check Powerschool regularly for grades and missing assignments
I will always try my best
I will ask for further support from my teacher is I don't understand an assignment (tutoring)**
I will maintain a growth mind-set for my academic and personal growth and goals!!
Expectations:
Update: We have been working on improved behavior in ALL classes. Students are to come to class on time, prepared and ready to work. If they are not following the non-negotiables, they will receive a warning to correct their chosen behavior before they are sent to ALC with a write-up and a parent contact. I have seen improvement in behaviors the past week and expect that to continue with consistency and daily practice.
Overall, students have done a solid job with maintaining a positive behavior in class, as well as keeping up to date with their work. I appreciate you speaking with your students about their personal and academic goals on a regular basis. Remember that each quarter every student begins with a 100% in their classes. What they decide to do with their grades and achievements are up to them.
Curriculum: We recently began our final novel of “A Long Walk to Water.” Students are focusing on: symbolism, character point of view, and analysis of textual quotes. This is done through utilizing classroom anchor charts, various graphic organizers and station work to enhance challenging standards including: teacher led, vocabulary, I-Ready, and comprehension.
This Week: we are working on the conclusion section of their research papers, as well as practicing the skill of ‘error analysis’ among prior challenging check-in questions/standards. Students will also experience weekly (2x) station rotations to enhance various language skills/standards, as well as working collaboratively with peers.
Next Week: we continue our new text of “A Long Walk to Water,” while making deeper connections among character POV, content vocabulary, and comparing and contrasting character journey’s and what resources were essential to survive challenging situations. Students continue to utilize a series of skills including: color-coded annotation, a strong focus on content vocabulary, a variety of written responses, utilizing a variety of graphic-organizers, anchor texts, etc.
Q2/3 Project: Throughout Q2 and Q3 students will be writing a research paper from a series of pre-selected Social Issue topics. This week students will select a topic from those provided to them on a series of ‘Social Issues.” The next two weeks we will be focusing on the structure of body paragraphs 1-4 including the when/where, and the why/how of their chosen topic, as well as at least one piece of textual evidence from their online sources. The project rubric and letter of intent to be signed are included below: The project due date is due on Friday, March 1st. Students have had several months both in and out of class to complete this project and will not receive additional time**
Q2/3 Project Info: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x1SbVnRixJHN4lBKpBEhfi45lsYePFUHlBWFDzQqMic/edit?usp=sharing
Letter of intent:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oPykoLE60SbiP-SF25OJlv2Ec8th7YXb_V5StmBP_a4/edit?usp=sharing
Homework: Students should expect homework two to three times weekly in order to continue to develop their skill-sets and to see growth. Please ask your child what work they have for homework, or have not completed on a regular basis to help keep them on track. Work is updated regularly for access on Canvas. Grades are also updated weekly and viewable on Powerschool. Students should expect classwork (homework if not completed) and study guides to maintain an understanding of reading both inside and outside of class on a weekly basis.
Grades: Student grades are present on Canvas, and are now viewable to students and guardians on Powerschool. Students are expected to check their grades on a regular basis and reach out to their teacher for make-up work, or additional time to complete an assignment if they have been absent. I allow a one week timeframe to make up work before an assignment becomes a zero.
I-Ready: Is a proven and resourceful data-driven program that allows teachers to see tri-annually where a student is at in their comprehension level by grade lexile. It also allows teachers to view the data and see where students have mastered a skill, and what areas need additional practice. A students growth or lack thereof on their pathway is a factor in potential summer learning or even retention ol their grade, which is why it is so essential to their weekly learning**
Students are expected to complete two passing lessons from their pathway each week. In addition, they will be assigned “teacher assigned lessons” at times to enhance what is being taught in class, which is to be completed by the end of the week for a grade. The teacher chosen assignment will focus on a skill-set currently being taught or reviewed in class in order to strengthen a specific skill.
We are currently utilizing I-Ready incentives for every two passing lessons per ELA and Math each week. This incentive began right before the holiday break. Students have an opportunity to receive an incentive of their choice for their hard work. See the image below for more info…
Tutoring: Tutoring occurs weekly each: Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 3:30-5:00 pm in the cafeteria. Please ask your student about a tutoring contract to view and return attached below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KHba-Ciy9XIx3mbAu6Ki7mwwocNfgA1dOxvI7Qcg3V8/edit?usp=sharing
I will be there on Mondays and Thursdays for additional support in ELA.
Students have worked hard thus far during Q3 and their efforts and growth have shown! The goal is to maintain that focus and effort for the remainder of the school year! Keep up the good work :)
Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any further questions or concerns: kimberlybaechle@fcschools.net
MATH: MS. CUNNINGHAM
I am so excited to be back in the building with the students.
We are moving forward and will be testing on unit 2b- Reasoning About Equations and Angles on Thursday. All students should be able to:1: identify congruent angles on two parallel lines cut by a transversal and use them to determine missing angle measurements and 2) observe that the sum of the angles in a triangle is 180 degrees and solve for a missing angle.
Grade alert forms for the third quarter will be sent home by Friday of this week- please be on the lookout for that. If your student is in danger of failing one or more classes this quarter, you will be receiving a grade alert form to the email address that we have on file to make you aware of which class(es) and the reason for the failing grade(s). Please be sure to speak to your son/daughter about his/her grades and to get in any make-up work that is still able to be turned in to help raise those grades.
Our next unit will be Functional Reasoning/Systems. In this unit, students are introduced to the concept of a function as a relationship between “inputs” and “outputs” in which each allowable input determines exactly one output. Students work with relationships that are familiar from previous grades or units (perimeter formulas, proportional relationships, linear relationships), expressing them as functions. Students are then introduced to the term “function” as describing a relationship that assigns exactly one output to each allowable input. Students connect the terms “independent variable” and “dependent variable” (which they learned in grade 6) with the inputs and outputs of a function. They use equations to express a dependent variable as a function of an independent variable. They work with tables, graphs, and equations for functions, learning the convention that the independent variable is generally shown on the horizontal axis. They work with verbal descriptions of a function arising from a real-world situation, identifying tables, equations, and graphs that represent the function, and interpreting information from these representations in terms of the real-world situation.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions michellecunningham@fcschools.net
SCIENCE: MS. HEAD
In Science, we are working on a short unit on Molecular Biology and Nutrition with an end unit test Tuesday, March 5th. I will be encouraging students to bring home their notebooks and add to them at home this next month. Please encourage students to check over their work in Canvas for completion and study the vocabulary words in Quizlet. In the Second Step lessons, we are working through a unit on “Thoughts, Emotions & Decisions”. Please let me know if any questions come up (my email: nadinehead@fcschools.net). Thank you!
SOCIAL STUDIES: MR. DOWNUM
We have finally reached the end of February, and it has been a long month. I want to say welcome to all of the parents/guardians of the new students we have added to the FMS family since the last SMORE was released.
In class we are covering Westward Expansion, which encompasses topics like immigration, Industrialization, and urbanization as well as monopolies and the responsibilities of the factory owners to their employees. We will probably take the exam for this unit next week sometime, and like always I will email a copy of the exam to you so that the kids will have an opportunity to study.
I have been sending students to Mrs. Perry’s room to get caught up on missing assignments for those students are failing. I want to give the students all the opportunities to pass that I can. It seems to have worked for many of the students as I have gotten the fail rate down by quite a bit. If you have any questions about how your student is doing in class please do not hesitate to email me at daviddownum@fcschools.net.
ELA: MS. FROST
Students, overall, are actively participating in “Station Rotations” and students seem more engaged with multiple transitions within one class period. I am proud of the students for responding positively to learning in new ways. Again, there are four stations; novel study, comprehension, vocabulary, and I-Ready participation with teacher assigned lessons.
I am pushing students to complete all assignments and on time. This continues to be an uphill battle. I have data talks with individual students regarding academic concerns, and I greatly appreciate all the parent support I have received. The protocol for submitting assignments is to send me an email with the titles and I will update grades in PowerSchool.
Please contact me with any questions.
ART with Mrs. CLIFTON
Our artists have been learning what a contour drawing is and how to create them. They have learned that artists need to train their eyes to draw what they see, not what they know. They have worked on upside down drawings which helps them disconnect from the image and break it down to lines and shapes. They have contour drawn faces, vases, their hand, and a still life of several objects. This week they will finish their lesson by contour drawing their book bags and writing about the things they carry. This is their final project and will be a test grade.
Artists have also studied Jean-Michel Basquiat, analyzing 6 of his paintings and writing down thoughts about what they think his art work means. Several of the classes also created their own Basquait style artwork. We also have art journaling Friday where artists are given several different art supplies and are able to create their own art.
Library News!!
Kim Faulkner, Media Specialist
Check out my Canvas page here!
*I am at FMS on Wednesday and Thursdays and every other Friday.
If your student has told you they are on the Battle of the Books team feel free to check out this book list. Please encourage them to read the novels.
FMS will be hosting the event this year!!
Did you know that your student can check out actual physical books from the Franklin County Public Library just by using their powerschool number? Go check it out!
