Letter from the MC Principal
Hello MC families,
This week our 6th and 7th graders are conducting their Portfolio Exhibitions. I saw some very reflective 6th grade Exhibitions yesterday. I’m looking forward to seeing these students’ growth over the next few years.
As our school year winds down I’d like to thank you all for your support over the course of the year. Middle school is a time of growth, facing challenges, and maturation. Our students need our guidance at this time, especially through the challenges, and especially when difficult decisions have to be made. This works best when schools and families work together. Thank you for partnering with us.
We will send off our 8th graders with the Eighth Grade Celebration on Wednesday, May 20th at 6:30 pm (6:00pm arrival for students) at Maynard Jackson High School Auditorium. On Thursday, Advisories are going on their Extended Advisory excursions and on Friday, May 22nd we will have Field Day and a noon dismissal. Sometimes people forget that school gets out at 12:00pm on the last day of school. Please make arrangements to have your child picked up at 12pm as there is no after care on Friday.
As for Field Day itself, students should:
- ALL be wearing their Field Day t-shirts (those will be distributed on Thursday and students should NOT rip or modify them)
- Students should be in dress code (no bathing suits, and shorts should cover undergarments),
- Bring a water bottle (we will not have individual water bottles in order to minimize waste)
- Wear sunscreen as we will be outside most of the day.
Summer reading books, yearbooks, and Milestones scores (6th and 7th may not have their ELA scores yet at that point) will also be distributed on Thursday so look out for those items when your students get home that day.
Speaking of the challenges of middle school, our summer reading this year will be focused on supporting each grade level through some of these challenges via the “Kid Confident” series. Eighth grade will read “How to Handle Stress for Middle School Success: Kid Confident Book 3,” seventh grade will read “How to Manage Your Social Power in Middle School: Kid Confident Book 1,” and sixth grade will read “How to Navigate Middle School: Kid Confident Book 4.” We are also setting up support and comprehension questions through Toddle. Toddle has an “AI tutor” feature that we will access. Students will be able to ask questions about their readings and answer comprehension questions by interacting with the AI tutors this summer. We will make sure that students know how to access these tools before they depart for the summer.
I hope that everyone has a fun, safe, and restorative summer break. It has been a pleasure working with you and our students this year, and I look forward to a great year next year. We will see you on Monday, August 3rd for our Open House/Orientation sessions and on Tuesday, August 4th for the first day of the 2026-2027 school year!
Kind regards,
Mark
Mark Sanders
Mark Sanders began teaching at ANCS in 2011. Before coming to the school, Mr. Sanders worked in New York City. He spent three years teaching 7th and 8th grade mathematics at Middle School 50 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and two years at Harlem Village Academies teaching Geometry and Algebra 2/Trigonometry. He taught 8th grade Math/Science/Technology at ANCS for five years.
