Middle School Principal’s Letter
Dear Parents,
Thank you for taking the time to read this week’s edition of News and Views. We are aware that the start of the school year is busy; therefore, we highly encourage you to stay informed. You can do so, by reading the daily morning announcement, and the weekly news and views. It was great seeing many of you at our New Parent Principal Coffee Morning, and then at our annual Middle School Back to School Night event on Tuesday. We always enjoy Back to School Night. It is a great evening that firmly nurtures the home/school partnership and cements those vital relationships between parents and teachers. Successful schools rely on the bond of sacred trust between all stakeholders. Trust is built on a foundation of honesty, openness, competence, and reliability. Trust is vital to every facet of relationships within the school. An event like Back to School Night, where the relationships between teachers and parents take hold, is critical to building that lasting partnership. Again, we want to thank you for making an effort to join us.
We have had another productive week of learning in the Middle School. As I have been walking around observing classes, students have been experiencing an array of learning activities. During the in-service week, the MS/HS teachers attended a Harkness training session. I want to thank Ms. Torky and Ms. Morris for introducing our students to this form of learning.
Teacher-led approaches are a vital step in a student’s learning process, but they should not be our sole focus in the classroom. As educators, we also have to enable our students to develop skills that help them to adapt, manipulate, and actively apply new information. We want to encourage higher levels of thinking and allow students to gain access, long-term understandings of educational material. Therefore our classrooms must be tailored to promote these learning behaviors, and the dialogical classroom – Harkness – plays a fundamental role in this.
MAP tests will begin on Sunday, September 8. Please see below for more details about MAP testing and the middle school test schedule. We need your help, make sure your child is well-rested and eat a good breakfast before their Language, Reading, and Math test.
All 6th, 7th, and 8th graders will be testing at the same time during their advisories.
Math — Sunday, September 8, 2019 — F Block
Language usage — Tuesday, September 10, 2019 — G Block
Reading — Wednesday, September 11, 2019 — D Block
Make-Ups — Thursday, September 12, 2019 — After School
I am sure you are aware that laptops were distributed to six, seven, and eighth-grade students last week. I want to reiterate what I communicated in my new parent orientation meeting to incoming grade six parents. Grade six students will not be allowed to take their laptop home, until after Spring break.
Our after-school clubs and activities program will begin next week. With a wide variety of different offerings to choose from, many of our students will be actively engaged in both sport and hobby-related activities after school. Coupled with the start of high school sports and age-group swimming, the CAC campus is now alive again with students engaged in many activities after school. You will find the sign-up list for After-school-activities in the morning announcements. Here is the link.
Thank you for your continuous support of the middle school.
Courtney Bailey
From the MS/HS Library
Parent Orientation to the Libraries
New and returning parents, please join us for a session on the CAC libraries’ print and digital resources on September 18, at 8 am and at 2:15 pm, in the ES Library. Both sessions will be the same so pick the one most convenient for you.
We will be going over our new ebook app, the Sora app. This is available to all CAC parents, students and staff. You just need to download the app to your mobile device before the session, and you’ll need to remember your CAC single sign-on to access.
From the Middle School Announcements
NASA Astronaut Ricky Arnold Visiting CAC
MS Assembly, Monday, September 10th 11:40am, MS Hall
About Ricky:
Richard R. Arnold II (Ricky) was selected as an astronaut by NASA in
May 2004. The Maryland native worked in marine sciences and as a
teacher in his home state, as well as in International Schools abroad in
countries such as Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia. He
accumulated 12 days, 19 hours and 29 minutes in space during the
STS-119 mission. The mission objective for the Space Shuttle Discovery
was to deliver the final pair of power-generating solar array wings and a
truss element for the International Space Station. While onboard station,
he conducted 12 hours and 34 minutes of spacewalks. Arnold most
recently served as Flight Engineer on the International Space Station for
Expedition 55 and 56.
Also, Check out THIS VIDEO!
Three Cheers
Three Cheers to the IT department for their support with the update of health records during BTSN.
Three Cheers to all parents who attended the Principal Coffee Morning.
Three Cheers to all parents who were able to attend the Back to School Night.
Three Cheers to our janitorial staff for their efforts with the set-up of BTSN.