I would like to begin this letter by sharing my sincere appreciation to all of the families who attended our concert on Monday evening. Thank you for showing up and supporting all of our students and staff that work so hard to bring an audience like we had a fantastic show. There are many valuable skills our students learn on a performance night including teamwork, etiquette in a concert setting, and showing their learned skills with pride to their family members. I know we were very tight on space and being able to hear all of the performers was a bit difficult at times and please know these are aspects we will continue to work on for our next choir performance which will be on Monday, November 11, 2024 in honor of Veterans Day and then the holiday concert, band and choir, to follow in December.
I would like to celebrate this week:
All of the family members who were able to attend the concert Monday night. You are the best audience we will ever have.
The middle school students for showing their school spirit at our home events and helping to cheer, as well as clean-up bleachers before the leave.
The Panther PTO for providing our staff with an amazing Olive Garden meal for the night of conferences.
Next week is going to be a very, very busy week for students and staff as we end the quarter on Thursday. Throughout the week we will be supporting our high school HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) organization as they recognize and raise money to assist those who battle breast cancer in our community. Students will be encouraged to bring in pennies to put in the jar of their Panther Time, this will be done each morning before school from 7:45am-8:05am. On Friday the winning Panther Time classes will have a student drawn to put a pie in the face of one of our teacher volunteers. The staff volunteers are sixth grade representative Mr. Smits, seventh grade is Mr. Gilles, and eighth grade is Mr. Hendricks. We are hoping this is a way to raise awareness and support for those affected by breast cancer in our community.
On Wednesday, October 30, 2024 the MS Student Council is planning a Halloween scavenger hunt during 9th period. Students will be allowed to dress-up if they would like throughout the day and my ask is to please make sure students are wearing costumes that are age appropriate and do not bring look alike weapons, make sure all body parts are fully covered, and we can still have faces to communicate with. Each grade level will be sharing their expectations with their students during Panther Time.
Finally, I want to share a bit about the day students have been working hard to have the opportunity to attend, Thursday, October 31, 2024-Positive Behavior Performance Activity Opportunity. This is the first of four days throughout the school year, one at the end of each quarter, that is set-aside to provide students who meet and exceed our behavioral expectations an opportunity to participate in a fun activity that takes their positives behaviors to a setting outside of our school, as well as earn throughout mindful work on making sure their behavioral choices meet and exceed our expectations. The opportunities are exciting for the students to attend and work towards having the opportunity to participate in. We all want our students to meet behavioral expectations and know that can be really difficult for students ages 11-14. Since implementing this one year ago we have seen a dramatic decrease in behaviors that can negatively impact learning and a motivation to have the positive behavior we need day to day work that is needed to be done with learning here at school. As you probably already know, being in a class with all of your peers and focusing can be just as challenging for our students to accomplish as learning the hardest of all content concepts. In our middle school we strongly believe that doing this successfully is worth celebrating just like an honor roll for academics. Thank you for your support and if you have any questions please let us know. All of the specific information for each grade level will be sent home with Panther Time staff and reviewed with students in Panther Time.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Sarah Sabelko
