MCMS Staff Update - December 11 - 15, 2023

Good Afternoon MCMS,

Thank you to everyone for your strength during a very challenging week.  We dedicate our lives to our students and part of that is guiding them during difficult times.  We will never have all of the answers, it is sometimes just knowing they have someone they can come to for support.  Thank you for being #Mid-CarolinaStrong!

It was great seeing the amazing growth on iReady this week.  Our students continue to make positive academic progress thanks to your targeted instruction.  Be on the look out for more information about ways we are celebrating our student success.

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, December 11 - 15. 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!

Happy Birthday! We wish a very happy birthday to those who celebrate this week!

• Katie Waters (December 9th)

Weekly Reminders

Discussion with Dobyns - I look forward to meeting with you to discuss your ideas, feedback, and improvement suggestions as we close out our first semester.  If you would like to meet with me, please sign up using the Discussion with Dobyns Sign Up form.  Please let me know if we need an additional time to talk.

Enrichment Planning - Thank you to our Literacy and Math teams for providing feedback about 1st semester and 2nd semester enrichment time.  We will work with those teachers to present our tentative 2nd semester enrichment plan to the leadership team on Wednesday.  Please let your team leads, Jared, or myself know if you have any suggestions for how we use enrichment time.  We want to make this time purposeful and targeted toward our student needs.

2024-2025 Budget Request Ideas - As we are preparing to discuss our 2024-2025 school budget, please let me know if you have any needs or ideas that I can use in planning our MCMS proposal.

SLO Mid-Conference Meetings - We will start our SLO Mid-Course Conference Meetings when we return from winter break on Friday, January 5th.  I will send additional information before winter break on the details of those meetings and what you need to have.

Faculty/Student Basketball Game - We will be having our Winter Pep Rally on December 13th.  At this Pep Rally, we will be having a Faculty/Student Basketball game.  Please reach out to Coach Meetze if you would like to play in the game.

A Very Merry- Mid-Carolina - We have had a lot of fun during our first four dress days, thank you to our Sunshine Committee for putting this together and the fun awards!

MCMS Schedule- December 11th - 15th

• Monday (12/11) 
• 7th Grade Field Study to Camp Thunderbird
• MCMS PTO @ 5:00 PM in the Media Center
• Girls/Boys Basketball AWAY @ Pelion
• SDNC Board Meeting
• Tuesday (12/12)
• Team Meetings @ Planning
• Wednesday (12/13) 
• Winter Pep Rally - Faculty/Student Basketball Game!
• MCMS Leadership Team Meeting at 3:30 PM in the Media Center
• Thursday (12/14) 
• MCMS Band Concert at 6:00 PM
• Girls/Boys Basketball AWAY @ Newberry
• Friday (12/15)

Sneak Peek at 12/18 - 12/22:

• (12/18), Positive Behavior Celebration (12/19), Half Day - 11:30 Dismissal, MCMS Holiday Social @ 11:45 AM, and Girls/Boys Basketball AWAY @ Sandhills (12/20), No School Winter Break (12/21), and No School Winter Break (12/22) 

Professional Learning - Second Quarter

• Below are the remaining Wednesday Professional Learning dates for the second quarter.  The dates highlighted in yellow will be full faculty.  I will send additional information and reminders.
• December 13th - Leadership Team
• December 20th - MCMS Holiday Social! 

Ellevation Training Reminder

• After completing your module, implement one of the strategies and then reflect on that strategy.
• The module completion and reflection should be on different days.  
• Below are the Ellevation Training modules you will need to complete this school year:
• Semester 1: Pathway- Understanding Multilingual Learners: 
• Intro to LTELs (Q1)
• Intro to Multilingual Learners (Q1)
• Intro to Newcomers (Q2)
• Intro to SIFE (Q2)
• Semester 2: Pathway- Developing Academic Language (4 modules in this pathway):
• Intro to Develop Academic Language (Q3)
• Develop Academic Language with Meaningful Messages (Q3)
• Develop Academic Language with Strong Sentences (Q4)
• Develop Academic Language with Weighted Words (Q4)
• If you have any questions, please reach out to Mrs. Carpenter for more information.

7 Mindsets Schedule

• Thank you for continuing to teach the 7 mindsets curriculum and infusing it within your daily teaching.
• Mindset of the week- We are Connected
• 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