MCMS Staff Update- October 2 - 6, 2023

Good Afternoon MCMS,

Happy Friday and LAST school day of September!  It has been another great week at MCMS and I appreciate your ongoing dedication to seeing our students reach their unlimited potential.  I hope you are able to use this weekend recharge your batteries and get ready for the start of October.  

Thank you for your ongoing feedback this year.  This communication is important for us to improve our school and your support.  Please reach out to me or any of the administration team to let us know how we can help.

Make sure you are looking over the 2023-2024 MCMS Calendar for current activities and events on campus.  If we have any changes to the calendar, we will make sure to let everyone know.  

Below are updates and reminders for this coming week, October 2-6. Please let me know if you have any questions about this email, upcoming events, classroom supplies, or anything else.  We are here to support you!

Cognia Student and Staff Survey- Monday, October 2nd

• Thank you for having students complete the Cognia student survey this week, we have had great participation thus far.
• After your mindset on Monday, please allow students who have not completed the survey to do so during Enrichment.
• Staff Survey- I also appreciate you completing the staff survey.  Unfortunately, I don't have a way to know who has or hasn't completed the survey but we are missing a couple.  Please take a few minutes to complete that survey if you have not.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

• Please refer to the email from Jared about Parent-Teacher conferences.
• I will put a reminder in this weeks parent email to look for communication from grade level teams for signing up for conferences.
• Please let us know if you have any questions for this day.

Grading and Parent Communication

• Thank you for providing timely feedback to your students, this information allows them to make corrections and grow in their learning.
• We also appreciate having a variety of assessments and methods in determining student mastery.
• As a team, continue to look for those struggling students and let us know if you need any additional resources to help.

Instruction

• Continue to utilize student focused instruction, this approach is vital in maximizing engagement in your classroom.
• Thank you for having clear objectives and rigorous assessments, this helps students demonstrate mastery of the material.
• Over the next couple of weeks, we will be completing classroom observations using the districts Feedback Protocol form and the Eleot Observation tool.  The Eleot Observation tool is connected with districts accreditation.  We are required to observe each teacher on our staff once with this tool.

Ellevation Training- First Quarter

• Below are the modules you should complete during the 1st semester of school:
• Pathway: Understanding Multilingual Learners: Intro to LTELs (Q1). Intro to Multilingual Learners (Q1), Intro to Newcomers (Q2), and Intro to SIFE (Q2)
• If you have any questions, please reach out to Mrs. Carpenter for more information.

Teacher Absences

• We have several new substitutes in the building this year, please welcome them and see if they have any questions.  We are grateful for their help and we thank you for supporting them!
• Core Content Teachers, please communicate absences with your Related Arts team member during planned absences.  This is especially needed on Monday's with Mindsets.
• If you have a planned or unplanned absence, please have work posted in Schoology for students to complete.  Take time with your classes to go over your expectations of them if you are out.  Having posted work for your students is very helpful for the substitute and if your classes have to be split.

Facility Updates/Needs 

• We will have a hallway lighting upgrade to the 7th grade hall in the next few months.  This work will be completed during non-school hours.  We do not have a start date and it will not impact any classroom.
• Please let us know if you have any additional classroom or facility needs.

MCMS Schedule- October 2nd - 6th

• Monday (10/2)
• Lunch & Learn (8th Grade)
• Volleyball Practice
• Football Practice
• MCMS PTO @ 5:30 PM
• Tuesday (10/3)
• 7th Grade Anti Bullying Assembly (Enrichment)
• Team Meetings @ Planning
• Volleyball AWAY @ Newberry
• Football Practice
• Wednesday (10/4)
• PEBA
• 8th Grade Anti Bullying Assembly (Enrichment)
• Professional Learning 3:30 PM - Assigned Rooms
• Football HOME vs. B. L. @ 6:00 PM
• Volleyball Practice
• Thursday (10/5)
• PEBA Visit
• Football AWAY @ Sandhills
• Volleyball HOME vs. Pelion @ 5:30 PM
• Friday (10/6)
• Club Day (PM Activity Schedule)

Sneak Peek at 10/9 - 10/13:

• (10/9), Team Meeting (10/10), End of 1st Quarter, Leadership Meeting, and FB Home (10/11), Positive Behavior and Attendance Celebration, SGA Meetings (10/12), Parent-Teacher Conference (No Students!) (10/13), and Fall Break- No School (10/16)

7 Mindsets Schedule

• Thank you for starting our students off with our 7 Mindsets Curriculum, we are excited to jump into Everything is Possible this week.
• 7 Mindsets Schedule 2023-2024

Please let me know if you have any questions about this week's updates or any other topic.  

Have a great day!

Dr. Dobyns