End of Year Reward

On May 20th we will have an end of the year Reward for those students who earn it. We will be looking for parents who would like to help with this activity. If you are interested in helping please let the office or one of your child's teachers know and we will make sure to contact you with more information.

Pages Updated

Sorry I was late this week. Mr. Lazechko's and Mrs. Liberty's pages are now updated.

Conferences

Conferences will be held this week on Wednesday April 20th, and Thursday April 21st. The times for both nights will from 4:00 to 7:00. Please do your best to make arrangements to visit during these times. We are looking forward to talking to all of you.

Mrs. Liberty will only be available on Wednesday night. If you need to talk with her please do your best to be there on Wednesday.

ISAT's (Revised)

It is that time of year and you will find that the Idaho Standard Achievement Tests are upon us once again. Our students will begin taking these tests next week. All 6th grade students will be taking their tests on Mondays. They will test with their 1st period teacher. It does not matter if the teacher is scheduled to test later in the day, they will still go to that teacher for the test during the teacher's scheduled time. If your child misses a test they will take a make-up either later in the week or at the end of the schedule. Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday our schedule will shift slightly to accommodate the 7th and 8th grade testing schedules and we will eat lunch during their scheduled lunch times. On Thursday we will have 1st lunch and 5th and 6th periods will be held after lunch. On Tuesday and Friday 6th period will take place before lunch and 5th period after lunch. We will do our best to make sure all the students know what is going on but please be aware of this if you try to make appointments over your child's lunch break. If you have an appointment for your child scheduled for Monday please let us know so we do not have them start the test if they will be pulled out in the middle.

Please make sure your child is getting a healthy breakfast, snack & lunch to give them that burst of brain power they will need for the test. The Language test will be April 11th, the Reading test will be April 18th, and the Math will be April 25th.

Testing Times are:
8:20 - 10:20- Liberty, Worthley, & Special Ed. (1st period classes)
10:25 - 12:25- Brock, Lazechko, & Special Ed. (1st period classes)
1:00 - 3:00- Lavin, Alsager, Warwick, & Special Ed. (1st period classes)

The scores are as follows:

Language:

≥ 227               Advanced

214 – 226        Proficient

206 – 213        Basic

≤ 205               Below Basic

Reading:

≥ 223               Advanced

208 – 222        Proficient

201 – 207        Basic

≤ 200               Below Basic

Math:

≥ 231               Advanced

218 – 230        Proficient

209 – 217        Basic

≤ 208               Below Basic

Penny Wars- Bring on the Change!

Our annual Penny Wars is taking place Tuesday April 5-Friday April 8th. Funds generated are donated to the IEA Children Fund, a non-profit endowment fund. IEA members can access the funds for the needs of public school children. Examples of past uses of the fund are acquiring glasses, coats, shoes and medical supplies. In fact one year a family was provided with airfare to Seattle so a specialist could perform a medical procedure on their child. Each class competes against other classes, trying to collect the most pennies in their jar, while avoiding silver and bills (all money goes to the endowment, but silver/bills counts against a classes total). We hope you encourage your child to participate in this fun, worthwhile event that benefits the more needy children of pubic education.

Lazechko and Liberty updated

Sorry for any inconvenience last week with the blog. Both Mr. Lazechko and Mrs. Liberty's Blogs will be caught up by Tuesday morning. Please keep checking back. We appreciate you helping your child be successful in this way.

New Trimester- New Start

It is the start of our third and final trimester and we are hoping it will be the best yet. As spring is approaching, slowly but surely, we wish to remind you of a few things.  We do still have homework. Please be checking your child's work each day. Please do not hesitate to ask to see any work they might have had throughout the day. It may help to keep track of what they are doing and help prevent homework form getting missed. Even if they say they finished it, ask to see it anyway. Make it a goal for this Trimester to get at least 90% of everything turned in completed and on time.

We usually have a reward at the end of the Spring Trimester for all students who are passing their classes and have no missing work. Please encourage your child to work hard for this final trimester and try to qualify for the activity at the end. (We don't know exactly what this will look like because of budget cuts this year, but we will come up with something fun.)

End of Trimester 2

The end of the second trimester will be here before you know it. February 28th is the offical last day. Many teachers require any missing work or made up assignments and quizes to be in several days prior to that end date. Accelerated Math and Accelerated Reading points are also due by the end of the Trimester. Please be checking Skyward and watching for missing work and tests/quizes that need to be retaken. Remember that failing grades start to stack up and Credit Recovery will be required for those with 3 or more Failing subjects. Those that received a failing grade 1st Trimester and continue to receive a failing grade second trimester in the same subject are headed for credit loss. At leat one trimester of a subject must be passed to move on.

What is the future of education in Middleton?

Parents, as you may have heard there is a roaring debate taking place at the Statehouse right now about the future of education in Idaho. State Superintendent Tom Luna has put forth a plan that includes many changes that would affect your child. We encourage you to become familiar with the proposed plan and how it might affect our schools here in Middleton. We also encourage you to contact your state representatives with your thoughts and feelings regarding the proposed changes. Whether you agree or disagree it is important that you take the time to speak about what you want for your child's future education.

Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee
House Education Committee
Senate Education Committee

AR Points Due

The 2nd half of AR points are due to Ms. Worthley February 22nd!

Potato Bar

Our annual potato bar is coming up next week on Wednesday, Feb. 2nd. We hold this lunchtime feast to help celebrate the end of our Inca and Earth Units. We are in need of many ingredients as well as volunteers to help us with this feast. If you click here you can access the letter that is being sent home with your child later this week. We are asking for all letters to be returned by Friday, Jan. 28th. This has always been a great way for us to celebrate the work that has been accomplished so far and we hope that it will be again this year for each of our students.

School Supplies

The students are OUT of school supplies. Please check with your child and see what needs to be replenished so that they can be successful. The majority are out of pencils, paper and they need their spiral notebooks. We also are on a very tight budget this year and have not had classroom supply money this year. Our supplies are also dwindling rapidly. My pincil sharpener for my classroom has been broken since we returned from Christmas so the students having a hand-held one is very important. I had 20 fine-tip flairs, now am down to 1. The students really do need to have supplies in hand each and everyday. They should have:

Binder - preferably one that zips or has velcro
Spiral Notebooks
Paper
Pencils
Red Pens
Blue/Black Pens
Scissors
Glue
Erasers
Ruler
Personal Pencil Sharpener
Colored Pencils
Markers
Pencil Bag
Calculator

The students also need a fine tip flair pen. These can be found at any store, including the dollar store. They are made by Paper Mate, Sharpie, and others. They simply are a pen with a very fine tip that the students use to outline their writing. We no longer have any for the students to borrow, yet these are essential to their projects. These pens come in many colors, we would prefer black for their written work.

If you are out shopping and happen to come across a great deal, we are in dire need of Kleenex and Clorox wipes.

Thank you for helping your child be successful!

Thank You!

We just wanted to say thank you to all the parents and students who attended Parent/Teacher Conferences last week. It was nice to meet so many of you and have a chance to discuss your child's progress. We hope that you found these conferences helpful as well.

If you were unable to attend but have questions about your child's grades please do not hesitate to email or call their teachers.

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES

Parent Teacher Conferences will be held next week. We are going back to our old format that is open to everyone. For those of you that are new to MMS know that there are no appointments. All the teachers will be located in the main building. The Core teachers will be in the cafeteria. It is kind of like an open house. You come, talk to a teacher and then move on to the next. Please make plans to attend one of the two nights. It is always helpful if your child can be there as well to discuss their grades and where to go from here.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 - 4:00 to 7:00
Thursday, January 20, 2011 - 4:00 to 7:00

We look forward to seeing you all there!