Brown MS Weekly Update

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Dear Brown MS Community,

This past Wednesday night we held our annual Back to School Night. I have been waiting to do this in person for 3 years, and was so pleased with the positive responses from teachers and parents to finally being together again. We tried a new format this year where teams did presentations together and the classroom visits were more informal and interactive. Anecdotally, I have heard very positive comments about the new format, but I certainly was not able to speak with everyone that night. In the spirit of always trying to improve, I am including a survey below to get feedback from you about the evening.

The energy from the night was electric. My favorite quote of the night was from my Assistant Principal, Julian Turner, who said, "It's like we're having a huge party, and we are the hosts!" This year a big part of our focus at Brown MS is to rebuild community, and what I saw on Wednesday night gave me hope that connections were being made! I moved from room to room (got my steps in as you can see in my Fitbit report here!) and saw parents and teachers smiling, laughing and engaging with one another. Many rooms had stations where parents could view and experience some of the material used during the school year. I was so impressed with the creativity of the teachers! Thank you to our PTO, teachers, librarian counselors, administrators and some volunteer students who made the night such a success!

I am incredibly excited about this weekend because it is family weekend at my daughter's college and we are flying down to see her. Unfortunately, we may encounter some obstacles because she goes to school in Elon, NC and hurricane Ian is going to provide some challenges. Keep your fingers crossed for me that my flights don't get cancelled! Regardless of the wind and rain, for me the eye of the hurricane is getting to see my girl and give her a giant hug! Hope you have something fun planned for your weekend, too.

Best,

Kim Lysaght, Principal

Please click here to complete our Back to School Night feedback form.

On our early release day this week all of our advisories engaged in anti-bullying workshops during an extended advisory session. Middle school can be a difficult time socially and having explicit conversations about how to navigate difficult scenarios is important. We want all of our students to have voice, to take care of each other, to learn empathy, and to acknowledge when they make a mistake or cause harm in order to build a kinder community.

• Our 6th graders learned about the concept of intent vs. impact and discussed a variety of scenarios. They learned to differentiate conflict from bullying and talked about strategies to respond to bullying when they see it happening as well as resources available to them at school.
• Our 7th and 8th graders discussed ways to give feedback when words have a negative impact. They also explored strategies around how to respond if they were given feedback about the impact of their own words and actions.

As I visited advisories this morning I heard many fruitful discussions about how to be an upstander and how to provide others with feedback in a productive and restorative way. The students impressed me with their insights and sincerity.

There are still a number of openings for parents to take on a role (big or small) with the PTO. Please consider helping out this year. Getting involved is a way to get to know other parents in the community. Please click on the link below for more information about how to get involved.

Brown PTO Committees - Click Here to Learn More

Questions? Please contact Denise Dandrea at brownpto@brownpto.org

In the coming weeks our 8th grade advisories will be creating posters about influential Hispanic Americans. An example of a poster from last year about Sonia Sotomayor is pictured here. Students will learn about the lives and achievements of their assigned person and design a visual that is hung up in our hallways for everyone to learn more. We look forward to seeing these posters displayed in the coming weeks!

After school Enrichment:

• Enrichment Information Link

• Direct link to view the schedule.

• There are late buses available if your child takes a bus in the morning. Note: If your child is staying for after school clubs or athletics and they plan to take a late bus, please be sure they know which bus they should take. You can go to this link to find the Brown MS bus schedule.

All Enrichment activities require a $60 one time fee to be paid which covers all enrichment activities for the entire school year.

• Fees can be paid through Myschoolbucks. Here is the myschoolbucks link

• Other fee information can be found using This Link

Athletics

Varsity sports have begun! Games/meets begin next week!

• Here is the link to the Game Schedule/Calendar

1. Brown MS SEPAC event

• "As the SEPAC Liaison for Brown Middle School, I will be hosting a Zoom session to give parents whose children are receiving special education services the opportunity to connect with one another and to share their experiences. In the meantime, you can always contact me directly with any questions or concerns about your child: Kim Gallaugher - momofiggy@hotmail.com - cell 857-800-3644"
• When: Thursday October 6 7:30 - 8:30
• Meeting ID: 796 742 0402
• https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7967420402

2. SEPAC Presentation for parents October 18 from 7-9 on Zoom

"Basic Rights: Evaluation and Eligibility for Special Education Services" - (link to flyer)

Families Organizing for Racial Justice (FORJ) is a group of diverse Newton families helping our children learn about issues of power and inequality and how to stand up for racial justice. You can find more information here: https://www.forj.org.

The FORJ chapter at Brown Middle School is a resource for our school community. We would like to hear from you about what kind of resources would be most impactful, and around what topics you would like to see families organize. Please take 5 minutes to let us know your thoughts here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MFJ8D58

Our next meeting is planned for Tuesday, October 18 at 7:30pm (THIS IS A CHANGE) and we hope you will join us. For more details, questions, or to join the mailing list, please email brownforj@gmail.com.

For more details, questions, or to join the mailing list, please email brownforj@gmail.com.

Please see the diagram below for drop off and pick up. The faculty parking lot located across from Oak Hill and Brown is not for dropping off or picking up students. We have had some near fender benders in that lot, and we ask that you not enter the parking lot during drop off or pick up times.

The joint PTOs from all four middle schools are sponsoring a talk by Catherine Pearlman, author of First Phone. Click here for more information about this book that is written for tweens and teens about how to be safe and appropriate with their first phones.

This talk will be on zoom the evening of October 26 at 7:00PM. It will be a helpful presentation on how to support teens and tweens as they begin to navigate the ins and outs of having a smart phone.

Catherine Pearlman is the author of First Phone which is a book written for kids to keep them safe and teach them what is acceptable and what is not.

Details and zoom links to follow.

If you have not already done so, please be sure to update your student information on Aspen. It is important that we have correct contact information for school to home communication. Click here for Student Information Update instructions.

School Hours:

8:20AM - 2:50PM - Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri.

8:20 AM - 2:05PM - Wed.

Click here for the NPS 2022-2023 school calendar.

Click here for the Brown Middle School 6-day rotation calendar for 2022-2023 with early release days and days of the cycle.

To report a student absence call: 617-559-6980

Brown Middle School

125 Meadowbrook Road

Newton, MA 02459

Absences: 617-559-6980

Main office: 617-559-6900