Happy Friday to All of You!
Battle of the Books
Sign up deadline for Battle of The Books is December 15th, 2012. See Mrs. Blanchard in the Library for details and registration forms.
Link to our web page regarding this year's Battle of The Books:
http://www.newberg.k12.or.us/chehalemvalley/battle-books-2012-13
Come Join The Lacrosse Team!!
Newberg Youth Lacrosse is having a parent meeting on December 10th @ 6:30 PM. The meeting will be held at Chehalem Valley Middle School commons. The youth program has both girls and boys teams, and currently includes grades 5th thru 8th grade.
We will cover the following items:
• Season (Length, Tentative Schedules, Games, etc..)
• Gear
• Cost
• Answer any questions parents have
Looking forward to seeing you and your youth at the meeting. For more information please visitwww.newberglax.org or www.cprdnewberg.org.
Toy Drive
I want to thank all of you who donated a toy or toys for our toy drive. It is always amazing to see the generosity that comes about during the holidays. Thanks to all of you and thanks to the Leadership kids for planning and organizing all of the activities this week.
Start of the 2nd Quarter
I do want to remind all of you that we are not sending home paper copies of 1st quarter grades as they are only progress grades. It is our hope that with Edline that all of you have been kept up to speed about the current progress of your student(s). However, if you would like a paper copy, please do not hesitate to call our counseling office or just come by and we can print one out for you. At the end of the 2nd quarter we will average the two quarters in calculating 1st semester grades which we will then mail out. The semester ends on January 31st.
First Mini-Incentive
Our first mini-incentive for no missing work is scheduled for 12/21. We plan on serving hot cider and hot chocolate to students with no missing work in 6 of their classes. Please remind your student(s) to keep up with their school work.
Working Hard is Important to Us!
Given that we have just started the 2nd quarter it is important to note that we are also starting over in regards to student accountability for missing work. We address lack of work completion as a behavior with minor incident reports (MIRs) and behavior referrals. Please check out the link regarding our MIR (Minor Incident Report) policy regarding homework completion.
http://www.newberg.k12.or.us/sites/default/files/fileattachments/mir_policy_for_parents_2012-13_1.pdf
CVMS Volunteer Opportunities
If you are interested in volunteering for CV you can sign up online on the attached link or contact our volunteer coordinator, Stephanie Carstensen, home 503-538-6102 or stephaniec@c-ware.com. We have the following immediate volunteer needs:
>Homework club help 2:30-3:30 PM (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday)
>After school student supply store (Thursday)
FAQ's about standards/proficiency based grading
As all of you know we are transitioning to standards/proficiency based grading. I encourage all of you to read the information on the attached link if you haven't yet to gain further information. The link includes FAQs about our new grading, a rationale, and a summary of our plan. If you have further questions please do not hesitate to call the office. I would be happy to sit down with any one of you or to simply speak by phone if you have questions.
http://www.newberg.k12.or.us/chehalemvalley/graduation-starts-today
Weekly FAQ about proficiency grading:
What are the benefits of this change?
This change supports our district mantra of “High School Graduation Starts Today!”
Learning targets provide consistency, clarity, and truth about individual student progress. The learning targets for each subject area are the same across the middle schools. So, a student in a Pre-Algebra class in one school is held to the same standard as an Pre-Algebra student in another school. Students, parents, teachers, and community members know what is expected from students to demonstrate proficiency of each learning target in each subject area.
Classroom assignments are linked to learning targets, which means students know what it is they need to learn. This removes the guessing game for students. The emphasis is on learning skills and understanding concepts. Learning Targets and Proficiency gives students, parents, and teachers more information to provide focused interventions/extensions for students to ensure academic success for each student.
Student/Parent Handbook
In case you were wondering, our student/parent handbook is located on our website.
http://www.newberg.k12.or.us/chehalemvalley/chehalem-valley-parent-handbook
Chehalem Valley Middle School Improvement Plan
If you want to learn more about our school improvement goals and steps we will use to meet these goals please click on the link to our School Improvement Plan.
http://www.newberg.k12.or.us/chehalemvalley/chehalem-valley-school-goals
Absences
Every year we see more absences for trips and personal vacations. Although I understand that vacations do happen during the year, we ask that if at all possible you look to schedule extended vacations during our regular school breaks. Students can always make up work, however it is difficult to replace the loss of instruction.
Please be cognizant that we are extremely vigilant in regards to attendance. The following is the list of reasons the state provides as excusable absences:
-Student illness
-Illness of an immediate family member
-Emergency
-Doctor/Dental Appointment
-Death of an immediate family member
-Court summons
-Satisfactory arrangements, made in advance with the school for other reasons
*Absences for reasons not noted on this list will be marked unexcused.
Visitor Check-In
If you are visiting the school for any reason please check-in at the main office. If you are visiting a student or a classroom you will need to sign-in and retrieve a visitor's badge.
Facebook
You can now "Like us" on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/ChehalemValleyMS
Upcoming
PTO: 6:30 PM 12/13
Holiday Concert: 7:00 PM- 12/11
Site Council 12/12
Last weekend we put up the lights and the tree in my home. Maybe we will get snow sometime soon. One can only hope :)
Have a great weekend!
