What's Happening at GCMS

Cougar Staff:

There has been frost on the pumpkin this week as the cooler weather of fall has arrived.   It’s been a busy week to say the least at dear old GCMS!  With everything from anti-bullying to KMSA to high school band, there has been lots of activity this week.  I have just a few notes to share as we wrap up and head off to the weekend.

Personnel:

We are glad to have Karen Van Metre back to school returning from surgery.  I know that Karen is still not at 100 percent, and we hope that she continues to get feeling better each day.

Please continue to remember Ellen Thomas and her husband Mike.
We wish Kevin Butler a safe and successful journey as he travels with a mission trip to Africa next week.  This is an exciting opportunity and a great work that Kevin is taking part in!  We will have other technicians here at GCMS on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays the next two weeks until Kevin returns.

EXPLORE Scores:

We received our EXPLORE scores this week, and our students have made strong progress.  We will be going over the scores in detail very soon, but I wanted to let you know that our 8^th grade composite score has risen 4 tenths of a point to 15.4, and all subject areas saw improvement compared to 2012.  This reflects the hard work of our students and staff to improve in the area of college and career readiness.  This will also help improve the CCR component of our school accountability score.  We have also received our 7^th grade scores back, and intervention plans will be developed and carried out to assure that each of this year’s 7^th graders performs as well as possible on next  fall’s EXPLORE.

EXPLORE 2012-13	EXPLORE 2013-14
Composite 15.0	Composite 15.4
Science 16.5	Science 16.6
Reading 14.2	Reading 14.5
Math 15.0	Math 15.7
English 13.7	English 14.1

Thank You:

I enjoyed visiting our related arts classes for showcase lesson day earlier this week.  I observed highly engaged students and teachers in a variety of settings and learning activities!  Thank you for opening up your classrooms for your colleagues to observe, learn new strategies, and share feedback.   Keep up the great work!

Great Job!

I appreciate the team 4 teachers who shared information about standards based grading with yesterday’s visitors at the KMSA workshop.  I also want to brag on Shane Decker for recently being invited and presenting at two different state conferences!  Word is getting out about the great things going on at GCMS.

I want to thank Mr. Parker and Mr. Duvall for their hard work with our band students.  Our GCMS band does an outstanding job, and to think that about one fourth of our high school band that has advanced to state competition this year is actually comprised of middle school students is awesome!  Virtually all of those high school students in the GCHS band came through the GCMS band program, and I know that Mr. Duvall and Mr. Parker had a great part in their development as musicians and great young people!  

Congratulations to Lea Ann Frank and her CCR class for winning a $700 grant from Warren RECC for an energy conservation project.  The project will involve installing motion sensors for lights in some of our restrooms to save on the energy consumption used in rooms that are empty the vast majority of the time.  Great idea!

PLC Day on Friday, Nov. 1:

We have another busy day planned for next Friday’s PLC day.  Our tentative agenda will include:

·         Continuing our orientation to the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System

·         The Importance of Student Learning Targets

·         Growth Mindset

·         CSI Time

·         Potluck Lunch (please bring your favorite dish)

·         Wrapping up our look at KPREP data

·         Standards Based Grading

·         Team Time

Engagement Walk-throughs:

The district team of principals and central office staff will be continuing our “engagement walks” around the district.  I’m not sure when we will be doing the walks again at GCMS, but it is important to always strive to plan your lessons in a way to allow for high levels of student engagement.  If the students are doing hands on, and more importantly, minds on learning activities, they are going to be learning more than if they are just listening to the teacher or filling in a work sheet.  I am glad to say that I am seeing more and more engaging lessons as the year progresses at GCMS.  I also want to continue to stress the importance of student learning targets.  The learning target for each lesson should always match the standard that it comes from and match the learning activities observed in the lesson.  Just posting the target so Mr. Blain will check it off on a form would be worthless… but when the learning target really drives student learning, that is powerful!

Heating and Cooling:

We are having some issues with our air conditioning at GCMS.  Right now, with the cooler temperatures, we are actually blessed because the air is not needed much this week.  Next week is supposed to warm a little, but remain in the 60’s.  Next Friday, maintenance will be completing some work on our cooling system that will hopefully restore us to full capacity after that.

Computer Network:

If you have not already done so, please read the email from Eric Foster that was sent out yesterday afternoon about a computer virus threat that has been going around.  Eric explains how to open certain applications that you may have trouble opening in the typical way.  As always, please never open any emails or attachments that are from senders that you do not know.  Thanks.

Quote of the Day:

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” ~Aristotle

Coming Right Up:

Oct 28-31……….Red Ribbon Week 

•  Monday….......…Wear Red 
• Tuesday…......…Wear Camo, Jack! 
•  Wednesday..........Wear Orange and Blue 
•  Thursday…....…..Costume Day (no charge/not a fundraiser)

Oct 30……………Picture Retake/Makeup Day

Nov 1…………….PLC Day (no students)

Nov. 11…………..Veterans Day Program, 7:45 am

Nov. 20……….….6th Grade Back to the Future Day

Nov. 25-29.............No School, Thanksgiving Week