Margaret Chase Smith School.
Weekly Update October 30, 2020
Happy Friday! Well, this week’s weather gave us a taste of winter. It will be important to have your child dress in layers so, as the day warms up they can remove a layer, such as a sweater or sweatshirt, to remain comfortable.
The Weeks Ahead –
Here are some dates and events I want to give you a heads-up about so that you can plan for them.
- Monday November 2nd, Progress Reports will go home.
- Wednesday November 4th – PTA meeting at 5:00 PM.
- November 19th and 23rd – Parent Teacher Conferences. Your child’s teacher will be sending out a form to sign up for a time.
- November is Kindness Month
- 12th and 13th - Spirit Days which coincides with World Kindness Day (13th) – The task is let your “Kindness Shine” so, students should wear something bright or shiny neon or metallic.
- 23rd and 24th - Kindness Assembly (Virtually) with Author Barry Lane
Might Cool Student -
Margaret Chase Smith School is starting something new this year. To encourage students’ efforts MCS is launching a new student recognition called Mighty Cool Student. Just like when recognized students as “Terrific Kid”, “Mighty Cool Students” are students who follow our core values – Respect, Responsibility, Honesty, Compassion and Courage. For October we focused on Responsibility. We are recognizing students who have consistently (90-100%) attended remote day morning meetings and completed 90-100% of assignments posted on Seesaw by their classroom teacher and specialists. Students received a certificate and a Spirit Stick that has been donated by our PTA. For the month of October, we recognized 200 students. In future months we will limit how many nominations from each classroom, and students will have their picture taken and displayed on our electronic signage in our school.
Remote Learning Day Expectations –
I am hearing that some students and parents made an assumption that assignments from specialists on remote days were optional. This is a wrong assumption as these are required courses by Maine Department of Education and therefore the lessons are assessed and graded.
a. As a reminder, all remote assignments are expected to be completed, as they support your child’s in class learning each day. I know it's hard, but it is part of their curriculum and are tasks students should be able to complete fairly independently at this point in the year. It's very hard to get students caught up on the days they are in class, as teachers have lessons and in class assignments to complete on those days.
b. This is also true for assignments posted by Specialists (Art, Music, Health and PE) as these subjects are important and graded. Assignments by specialists are NOT optional but are to be completed.
MCS Pilots Thermal Scanners –
In an effort to keep everyone healthy and safe the Sanford School Department acquired Ergotron thermal scanners that allows our schools to quickly and safely measure the temperature of students and staff. Margaret Chase Smith School is piloting the scanners and have found ours to be quite effective. As students and staff enter our lobby each person stops and looks at the scanner. The scanner immediately indicates a temperature for whomever is standing in front of it. If the scanner indicates that someone has a high temperature, the person is asked to step aside, then our school nurse takes a second reading with a handheld thermometer. Our nurse and assistant calibrate the thermal scanner to make sure its readings are accurate. Administrators and nurses from other schools have come to observe our scanner in action. At MCS, we feel fortunate to have this resource at our school.
Have a great week!
~ Chuck Potter