Letter from the MC Principal
Hello MC families,
We are off to a great start this school year. Our 8th graders are showing up as leaders, we’ve seen growth from our 7th graders, and our 6th graders are moving comfortably through the space. I encourage you to check in with your student to see how the year is starting off for them. If they need some support, no matter what grade they’re in, feel free to reach out.
We begin MAP testing tomorrow. Students will take the MAP Math test tomorrow and they will take the MAP Reading test at the beginning of the day on Friday the 21st. Please encourage your students to get a good night’s sleep and to try their best on the test – that’s all that we ask for!
Last week we held grade level town hall meetings for each grade level in which we played games for connection (rock, paper, scissors in 6th; an oreo cookie challenge in 7th; bottle flipping in 8th) and talked about our shared expectations (both adults and children contributed) for what learning and interaction should look like in our building. We do similar work in classrooms when we develop classroom agreements. It’s important that students have a voice in our agreements. It helps to build interest in being involved.
This is our second year engaging in our cell phone collection process in line with our (and the state’s) no-distraction policy. The cell phone collection process has been going smoothly during Advisory for the most part. Students are turning in their phones and we are seeing less distractions and less of the bathroom trips that were simply phone checking trips in the past. However, we do have some students that are not turning in their phones. Please encourage your student to follow our policy. Sometimes people bring up things like communication and safety (although students having access to cell phones does not make us safer) as reasons to not follow the policy. If at any point you need to pass along a time-sensitive message to your student that cannot wait until after school, you can call the main office at 678-904-0051, or you can call OR text the following number: 470-825-5165. Our technology commitment form lays out commitments related to student cell phones. Additionally, as an aside, if you need to borrow a Chromebook from the school for students to do homework at home, please fill out the linked technology commitment form if you have not already done so.
In the beginning of the school year we do various drills to prepare for different types of situations. A Reverse Evacuation is when there is a threat of some sort outside of the building and we come back inside to be safe, as opposed to a fire drill in which we leave a threat inside and go outside. There were two times in the last several years that I can recall, where we have made use of this process when there was a storm cell dropping rain on our building right before dismissal. In these cases there was so much rain that you could barely see and it was not safe for students to walk or bike home. The kids wouldn’t be able to see and drivers would not be able to see them crossing the street. In those cases we “Reversed” the students into the gym, had them sit by Advisory just like we do in Morning Meeting, and we had walkers and bike riders call their parents to come pick them up since it was not safe for them to leave on foot or on a bike. Adults were on walkie talkies radioing inside to let students know when they could walk out to their cars.
Last Tuesday we had clear skies at 3:08, rain at 3:09, and a downpour by 3:12. At that point we pivoted to using walkie talkies in the car line and having kids come out when called. We dismiss in the rain all the time so please encourage your students to be prepared for the weather. However, we had to adjust on the fly for this past Tuesday’s dismissal.
Finally, to wrap up our summer reading program for this summer, students discussed the book that they read for their grade level during Advisory last week. In order to support our students with some of the stressors of middle school and to help them build skills, we read books from the Kid Confident series. Sixth graders read portions of Kid Confident #4, “How to Navigate Middle School.” In Advisory they did activities to explore the power of their thoughts, practicing “Reframing Thoughts” and “Positive Self-Talk.” Seventh graders were assigned portions of Kid Confident #1, “How to Navigate Social Power in Middle School.” In Advisory they created concept maps to explore “Social Power” and “Assertiveness.” Finally, 8th graders read Kid Confident #3, “How to Handle Stress for Middle School Success.” Part of their Advisory work processing this text included playing “Stress Signals Charades.” In small teams, one person acted out either a physical sign of stress (e.g., tense shoulders or fidgeting) or a coping strategy they learned from the book, while their teammates guessed what was being acted out. We will continue to leverage these books as another resource in our toolkits to help students to navigate middle school.
As always if you have any questions feel free to reach out.
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.
