Schwan's Food Fundraiser

Dear Families,

Last Friday, your student received a fundraising kit for Schwan's Food.  The proceeds from this event will go to the 8th Grade Boston trip.  You can order from your student using the order forms that were in their packet or you can do it online at www.schwansfundraising.com/ and use campaign ID # 36454.  Orders can be picked up on Sunday, October 9th, at 26 Bombardier Road.  All order forms need to be in by September 30th.

Thanks,
Joe Smith
jsmith3@mtsd-vt.org

9/19 Humanities Update

Hello everyone,

For those of you who were able to make it to Open House, it was wonderful getting the chance to meet you/see you again. It's always nice to put a face with the name and open the lines of communication.

As many of you have seen, the students have been working hard developing their personal learning plans for the year. The plans, which reflect the learning we've done around growth vs. fixed mindsets and multiple intelligence theory, consist of four goals which have been written within the framework of the four universal habits - managing self, relating to others, participating and contributing, and constructing knowledge. In the coming weeks, students will begin to self-assess their progress toward each goal and compile a portfolio of evidence of their growth. These will form the basis of their student-led conferences in the fall and spring. Stay tuned...

This week in humanities, we will work on the building blocks of reading (reviewing strategies of strong readers), writing (reviewing the 6+1 traits of good writing), and the social sciences (reviewing inquiry skills and qualities of being a historian).

I wanted to also mention that as we are now offering reading/writing clinic four days per week during our midday block, students are no longer receiving their 25 minutes of reading time that the state of Vermont recommends for all students. As such, I highly recommend that students get into the habit of reading at home every night (weekends, too!) As the growth mindset suggests, the more hours we spend on a pursuit, the better at it we will be. Please help encourage your child in this and let me know how I can support you.

Due Tuesday - the entire Personal Learning Plan (including four goals) should be typed on the wiki.
I will update you later in the week as I see how the writing activities progress in class. If any of the work needs to be completed at home, I will follow up with another post.

Enjoy the week~
Jana

After School Bus Starts September 19

The After School Activities bus will start running again this coming Monday, September 19.  The bus will depart the middle/high school at 4:15. This bus is for students who stay after school for homework clinic or other organized activities.

Come one, come all - Open House!

Hello families of Team Pyxis,

This is a reminder that our open house is scheduled for this Thursday (9/15) from 6:00-7:00pm in rooms 211 and 212 of the middle school. In addition to getting to meet each other or reacquaint ourselves, you will have the opportunity to learn about your child's Personal Learning Plan. This represents a culmination of the work that we have done during this first unit of the year and will help drive the work we do for the rest of the year.

Please let us know if you need any further information.

See you Thursday~
Team Pyxis

9/12 Humanities Update

Hello folks,

I wanted to let everyone know what our focus has been in humanities and let you know of some work that students should be completing this week. Team Pyxis has embarked upon a unit of study around the growth mindset and what adopting such a mindset can do for one's academic performance (among other pursuits). In humanities, we have taken this opportunity to practice some reading strategies (namely identifying main idea and supporting details) as we have read various articles about this topic. This week is going to be about summarizing the new learning and thinking about how this knowledge applies to us all as learners. Students are developing a Personal Learning Plan (PLP) that will be shared with you this Thursday evening during our Open House. To that end, here are some assignments for the week:

Due Tuesday - Parts I and II of the PLP Organizer
Due Wednesday - Part III of the PLP Organizer and the entire PLP Template (to be given out on Tuesday)
Due Thursday - Typed, edited Personal Learning Plan

Please let me know if you need any clarification on the above. I look forward to meeting/seeing you all on Thursday!

Be well,
Jana Fabri

Attention 7th Grade Parents

Dear 7th Grade Parents/Guardians,

At the end of 8th grade year, students go on field trip to Boston for three days and two nights. While in Boston, students visit historical sites, museums and take in the culture of a city. The cost of this trip is approximately $325 per student. To ensure that families only have to pay $100, we need to fundraise $23,000. The only way we can achieve this is through fundraising over a two-year period. I am putting together a committee of parents to discuss ways to fundraise this amount and to create a calendar of fundraising events throughout this year. If you are interested in being a part of this committee, please join me on Tuesday, September 6th, at 6:00 p.m., in the library. With a group of committed parents, I am sure that we can achieve our goal and give the students an experience of a life time in Boston.

Thank you,
Joe Smith

jsmith3@mtsd-vt.org

The First Day!

Our first day of school today was a success! Students started getting to know each other and their teachers. Students received their planners and an information packet to bring home to parents.

Parents - the first homework assignment is for you. Please complete the information packet sent home, or better yet, complete this online form instead: http://bit.ly/p8HXaR .

It's going to be a great year!