Parent Newsletter

It is hard to believe there are only three weeks left in the nine weeks. We are going to focus over the next three weeks how to help students finish strong:

- A look at the week ahead

- Helping students finish strong

- Teacher Feature

- Homework Help to share with students

- Understanding College and Career Ready

- Developing CTE awareness for students

- What is PBL?

- Counselors Corner

Thanks for all of your support of JMS,

Phil Cox, Principal

Chris Layton, Vice Principal

Jenifer Laurendine, Dean of Students

Parents,

We are pleased to announce that you now have access to the Versatrans My Stop App. The My Stop App provides parents mobile access to bus information. This app displays the location of the user’s assigned school bus, as well as the estimated time of arrival to their stop. Students can plan for the late or on-time arrival, and prevent missed pick-ups or being left outside in inclement weather.

Check out the picture below to learn more about how to access and use this app.

Monday-3

B day

Written Spelling Bee Test 5-8 in Language Arts Class

Environmental Club 2:45-4:00

Chess Club 2:45-3:45 Library

First Lego League, Atomic Eagles, Meeting 2:45-4:45

Basketball vs. Northview Middle School at Northview MS

Girls JV 5:00, Girls V 6:00, Boys V 7:00

Tuesday-4

A day

Homework help for 5th/6th graders 7:00-7:30-Room 219 (Corrigan)

Library Club 2:45-3:45

First Lego League, Atomic Eagles, Meeting 2:45-4:45

Lego League, Mater Builders, Meeting 2:45-4:30

Interact Club

Science Bowl 2:45-4:00-Room 317 (Little)

Homework help for 5th/6th graders 2:45-3:30-Room 319 (Martin)

Homework help for 7th/8th graders 2:45-3:30-Room 301 (Hondorf)

Girls Basketball Practice 3:00-4:30

Wednesday-5

B day

Girls Basketball Practice 1:00-2:00

Cheer Practice 1:00-3:00

Thursday-6

A day

Homework help for 5th/6th graders 7:00-7:30-Room 219 (Corrigan)

Math Club Practice 2:45-4:00-Room 203 (Tracey)

Homework help for 5th/6th graders 2:45-3:30-Room 319 (Martin)

Franco Lego League Team Meeting 2:45-4:00

Lego League, Mater Builders, Meeting 2:45-4:30

Basketball vs. Soldier’s Memorial Middle School at JMS

Girls JV 5:00, Girls V 6:00, Boys V 7:00

Chorus Holiday Concert 5th/6th grade 7:00-JPAC

Friday-7

B day

Youth for Christ 7:00-JPAC

Cheer Practice 4:30-6:00

Girls Basketball Practice 5:15-6:45 @ ORHS Wildcat Arena

Saturday-8

Basketball vs. Robertsville Middle School at ORHS

Boys JV 1:00, Girls V 2:15, Boys V 3:30

The Jefferson Middle School FIRST LEGO League teams competed in the Marble City Qualifier in Saturday, December 1, 2018 at Hardin Valley Academy. The Atomic Eagles received the 2nd Place Champions Trophy and the 3rd Place Robot Performance Trophy. The Radioactive Brix received the 3rd Place Champions Trophy and the 2nd Place Robot Performance Trophy. The Jefferson Middle School Master Builders received the 1st Place Robot Design Trophy. All three teams will advance to the East Tennessee State Championship at Tennessee Tech University on February 9, 2019. Please congratulate the following students:

Atomic Eagles

Aaliyah Herron

Aaron Fiscor

Alex Pickel

Ben Dallas

Brian Qu

Hailey Thompson

Lindsey Fiscor

Radioactive Brix

Abby Ellis

Christopher Gorsuch

Colby Lawson

Colin Suddeth

Henry Landau

Jonas Davis

Roxanne Farahi

JMS Master Builders

Aubrey Robinson

Electra Wadley

Jacob Mohr

Patrick Kerekes

Stella Scott

Sadie Thomson

Sydney Blanchard

We need your help! The next PTO sponsored teacher luncheon is this Thursday, December 6. We are looking for parent volunteers to bring in food/drinks for our wonderful teaching staff. Click here https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f044aada62da0fc1-holiday1 to sign up for a dish. Please be sure to deliver your dish to the teacher lounge by 9:30am on Thursday.

Fundraiser Spotlight: Are you curious about how your fundraiser dollars are being used? Each week, the PTO section of this newsletter will feature a different department or classroom from JMS that was helped with money from our annual direct drive fundraiser! This week the spotlight is on a joint project between the science department and art department at JMS. Students studying the structure of plant and animal cells as well as microorganisms then used their lessons on color theory and abstract, realism and non-objective art to create these drawings of Microscopic Worlds which were framed with money from PTO and are now displayed in the new American Museum of Science and Energy. Thank you JMS families!

1. Remember, the midterm is just an update for progress at that point in the nine weeks. It means that at this point, this is your grade. The goal is to help students get a better idea of their grade and work to improve their grade over the remainder of the nine weeks.

2. Most failing grades are because of failure to complete assignments. Talk to your student about effort and submitting every assignment. We will continue each week on our TVs and through the newsletter to emphasize how a 0 on an assignment carries a big impact on a grade.

3. Check Skyward for grades weekly. The midterm is simply students grades as recorded in Skyward at the 4.5 weeks mark. Check Canvas weekly to see what assignments, major tests, quizzes, projects etc. your student has upcoming.

4. Contact teachers and work to get feedback on how your student can work to improve their skills.What steps can they take at home? What routines can they have to immerse themselves into the learning process outside of school?

5. Spend time speaking to students about the importance of YET! Promote a growth mindset and work to help them understand Grit. The resources below are great reminders as to how important our effort can be in the learning process. As stated above, it is often the lack of submitting work that penalizes students. Often students who are failing do not submit any work. Keep in mind, teachers want and need the work as a way to assess, "do they understand?" To simply omit this step in the learning process is cheating yourself. Give it your best effort and if it's not perfect, learn from those mistakes.

6. Take advantage of your resources early and often. In many cases, we will have students ask "what can I do to help my grade?" two or three days before the nine weeks ends. Often the answer is, nothing! It is important for students to take advantage of resources and opportunities as they are given to them. For example, will the teacher allow for corrections on a test or quiz to earn more points? Does the teacher allow you to submit work late? Does the teacher offer help before school, during lunch or after school? Ask those questions and find out how you can empower yourself to improve.

7. Use the picture below with your student to help motivate them to work on resolving their understanding of their school work. The steps below allow students to take reflection steps and learn and understand how to go through the learning process.

Remember as we head into the second part of the second nine weeks that checking Canvas and Skyward are critical to help support students. Each of these tools provides parents and students with a weekly look at grades as well as assignments. Check out the information below to learn more about Canvas and Skyward.

Let's start with Skyward......

Skyward (This is worth checking weekly)

Skyward -

For the 2018 - 2019 school year parents will be able to check out student grades in Skyward. Teachers will work to keep the grade book up to date weekly. This will help to have a better idea of student's progress weekly. Around 4.5 weeks into the nine weeks, students will get a midterm report sent home and at the end of the nine weeks.

Canvas (This is worth checking weekly. Also look at information below to learn more about how to set up Canvas to make it easier to monitor)

1. Canvas is the best place to find out information about what is going on in your child's class.

When we were students, someone may have asked us, "what did you learn in school today?" Sometimes we had an answer and sometimes we simply stated, "nothing", as a strategy to move on. However, our students today along with parents have access weekly as to what is being taught and the expectations for each week. It is a great idea and practice to log in or have your student log in once per week to look through their teachers Canvas pages. This will allow you to keep up with the following:

A. Dates of important assignments

B. Dates for quizzes and tests etc.

C. Important tools, resources including access to OneNote

Start the Canvas 10 Challenge at home

1. Ask your student to log in to Canvas

2. Take 10 minutes to review all of their classes

3. What assignments are due this week? When do they have tests? What resources are being provided by the teachers to help?

4. Design a calendar for students to look at in the house with these dates. It's a great organizational and life skill

OneNote (posted in previous newsletter)

Imagine being able to see the notes shared, discussed and provided for students in class. OneNote is being used by many of our teachers and they are literally sharing the daily lessons, notes, and information for students here. It is a great resource to keep up with what is going on in your student's particular classes.

Have you heard your student talk about OneNote? Have you wondered what it is and how it can be used? Check out the following information about OneNote and how it can help students stay organized, stay informed and have access to class information to be better prepared. The video below gives a great description as to all of the tools that can be utilized in a classroom through OneNote.

Remember the days of taking notes? Did you ever miss some items? What if you had access to them again after class? OneNote allows teachers to post notes to their Canvas page and allows for students to have access to information on their devices as it is being given to them. One goal of this is to allow students to have deep discussions, ask questions, and work to review as they learn content.

Check out the video resources both above and below to get a better idea and feel for how you can check with your student and their OneNote in order to get a better feel for materials from their classes. In addition, if you have questions you can contact Ms. Henderlight our Instructional Technology Coach to learn more about how you can engage with OneNote to help support student learning. Her email is hvhenderlight@ortn.edu

Chandler Sprouse

I’ve been teaching now for 18 years and, happily, the excitement of it has yet to wear off. I was inspired to become an educator first by practical concerns: I’d finished my English Literature degree at UT and realized I was qualified for very little other than a career in education, at some level. I pursued and received my Masters Degree in Special Education and added on my ELA certification, and away I went. I believe that education is noble work of the most important sort. To be engaged in work that involves connecting with, getting to know, having the opportunity to mentor and teach kids is an awesome and rewarding responsibility. Further, I think public education is one of the noblest pursuits our society has ever undertaken. I am privileged to have a job where I come to work each day and young adults present themselves to me, asking (implicitly), “what are you going to teach us today?” That’s heady stuff.

I advise my students to strive for three qualities in everything they think, believe and do: kindness, honesty and diligence. With those three things as your guiding principle, it is difficult to go too wrong in life, and being a teacher of the written word provides unique opportunities to illustrate and model all three. Middle School, particularly, is an incredibly challenging and exciting (and bewildering) time for these kids. I remember being both inspired and confused by my growing and increasingly independent understanding of the world when I was in Middle School, and I try to never forget that as I deal with these young people daily. So much of what can seem frustratingly incomprehensible to us in what they do is, in truth, just the occasional fumbling efforts young people finding themselves. I remember that, and it informs how I try to approach my job.

I try to remind them that the process they have really just begun (self discovery, the pursuit of enlightenment) will—and should—be an ongoing one, and that lifelong learning and curiosity is one of the most important goals for which they can strive. My short time with them, I hope, will help both model and facilitate that as they grow up.

James Mitchell

Initially I graduated college with a degree in Finance from Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC. Upon completion of my degree I had a desire to coach football and make an impact on young individuals. Many of my past teachers and coaches were an inspiration to me and as a result I decided to obtain my teaching license and coach high school football. My first teaching job was at Farragut High School where I taught Personal Finance, Virtual Enterprise, and Financial Planning to mostly juniors and seniors. After my first year teaching a Business/Computer Applications teaching position opened up at Jefferson Middle School. I gladly took this position and I’m not entering my 8th year teaching 5th-8th graders in the classes of Keyboarding, Computer Applications, Document Formatting, and Personal Business, and Drones/Coding.

- I chose to enter into teaching because of the impact many of my teachers and coaches made on me as I was growing up. Many of them taught me the value of hard work and pursuing a career you love.

- The best advice I can give to my students is the world constantly changing and you as an individual can help change it for the better. One of my favorite quotes is “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” My goals are to teach my students to develop their own opinions and always attempt to find a positive in anything they are involved in.

- In my spare time I enjoy spending time with my family, hunting, and going to the lake.

- My favorite unit of study is in my Business class. We have a budgeting unit where the students are given a certain amount of money they will earn from a hypothetical job they are given upon graduation from high school. Once the students are given this job they have to budget for all their individual wants and needs. Housing, buying a car, groceries, buying clothing, and any entertainment expenses all have to be budgeted for an entire month. It’s very important to me develop good financial habits in students as early as possible. Learning to live within your means is the first step to financial success.

Mackenzie Taylor

After graduating from Maryville College, I began my teaching career here at Jefferson. I currently teach 5th Grade Social Studies, but my first two years at JMS I taught 5th Grade Math. Jefferson has been a wonderful place to grow as a teacher because I am surrounded by the best of the best. I have already learned so much in my three years as a teacher, and will continue to soak in every bit of knowledge other teachers share with me.

Teaching has been a goal of mine since I was young. In 2nd grade, I dressed up as a teacher for Career Day. When I played "school" with my friends, I was always the teacher. Some considered that being "bossy," but I say it was destiny. My grandmother is one person that pushed me toward education. She always bought me the best school supplies, and willingly let me be the teacher when we played together. Even today, she loves to hear stories of how my students are learning, and the things I am learning from them.

Teaching Social Studies creates many opportunities for students to make connections with the past to the present. I love seeing my students engage with curiosity about the past, and many of their questions have taken me on a path of learning as well. My goal as a teacher is to give my students a safe place to be themselves, and learn something new. Middle School can be a difficult time in a student’s life, and I hope my classroom is a place where they feel safe and important. One piece of advice for my students would be to do things the right way, even if it is the harder way. This will set you up for success in the future.

Outside of teaching, I enjoy all things “basketball.” I played basketball at Maryville College, so I love to support the Lady Scots any chance I get. I also love to cheer on the Kentucky Wildcats, despite living in “Vol Country.” After getting married this past summer, I have learned many new hobbies from my husband. Although I have always loved to hike, my husband has helped me add camping and fly- fishing to my resume. We love the outdoors, and spend time in the Smoky Mountains any chance we get. I also sing on the Worship Team at my church in Maryville, and love to play my guitar in my spare time.

Homework Help

Students attending afternoon homework help will need to arrange their transportation from school according to the schedules below. Transportation must be pre arranged before staying for homework help after school.

5th/6th grade homework help

Mr. Corrigan and Mr. Martin will offer homework help on Tuesdays and Thursdays

AM session

7 am - 7:30 am for 5th and 6th graders in Mr. Corrigan's room in the 5th grade second floor wing

PM session

2:45 pm - 3:30 pm for 5th and 6th graders in Mr. Martin's room in the 5th grade third floor

7th/8th grade homework help

Mr. Hondorf will host afternoon homework help on Tuesdays

7th and 8th grade homework help will be on Tuesdays with Mr. Hondorf from 2:45 - 3:30

We are bombarded each and every year, month, week and day with new ideas, resources, strategies in education. It feels as if there is a constantly moving target. As we continue into testing we often see student frustrations rise, anxiety increase and overall stress peak for students and staff. Often as the new ideas for education particularly those in technology unfold we often forget to apply a critical question, "why?". This week we wanted to share the following video below as a glimpse of the future workplace and economy that many believe is inevitable for our students. The video itself helps to show "the why?" and helps to explain the need for the amazing things you do as educators every day.....the things well beyond a standardized test!

You challenge students to think, design, innovate, collaborate, communicate, think critically, creativity, pursue new ideas, solve problems etc. The video highlights what industry leaders and companies envision the future of work force with the advent of AI and Machine Learning. At first glimpse, the appearance is that many jobs will be replaced and human beings will be out of work. However, one perspective to keep in mind is that we have seen shifts in society due to technology before and often where one market closes a new one is created. Many company owners, corporations, industry leaders and market predictors have compiled the skills needed for future employees as we often discuss "the 4 C's of 21st century learning".

As you watch the video, on the surface you see things that show replacement of human jobs. However, beyond that we can begin to see that much of the AI and machine learning will need humans with new skills in order to make it all work. As Henry Ford once discussed as he worked to design a vehicle, he referenced the fear that horse shoe fitters would lose their jobs. His comment to that idea was that horse shoe fitters could learn to fix engines. The video highlights this idea as it shows the Easter Parade in 1900 vs. the Easter Parade in 1913 and the growth of automobiles as the main mode of transportation.

When we were students we often asked the question, "when are we ever going to use this information?" As adult we have probably found times that we did and still probably other times not as much. One of our goals as we work to increase STEM awareness and 21st century education is to help build skills for our students for their success in the future. Although the acronym STEM stands for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics the skills we look to highlight include the Four C's (Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Critical Thinking.

In this newsletter, we are going to focus on these skills and the skills that employers report they are currently looking for from employees and predict will be valuable in the future. The jobs of tomorrow are often unknown as technology makes drastic changes, but the skills for those jobs are beginning to unfold in a more common theme. The 4 C's along with having a growth mindset, and soft skills are vital to success for our students. The resources below will give more details about these skills and how we can work to help our students expand these skills through their time in school.

Check out this great site to learn more about STEM careers and how education now can impact those skills: http://www.stemjobs.com/

You may have heard about PBLs or even possibly read about PBLs, but we want to take some time to help you learn more about PBLs. The acronym PBL can really be attributed to two different terms in education, Project Based Learning or Problem Based Learning. Both ideas are becoming a growing idea and concept in education as they work to help increase student engagement and application of knowledge into real world issues and problems.

One of the leading educational institutes that promotes and works to help students and teachers with PBLs is the Buck Institute. They promote PBLs as the following:

Project Based Learning’s time has come. The experience of thousands of teachers across all grade levels and subject areas, backed by research, confirms that PBL is an effective and enjoyable way to learn - and develop deeper learning competencies required for success in college, career, and civic life. Why are so many educators across the United States and around the world interested in this teaching method? The answer is a combination of timeless reasons and recent developments.

• PBL makes school more engaging for students. Today’s students, more than ever, often find school to be boring and meaningless. In PBL, students are active, not passive; a project engages their hearts and minds, and provides real-world relevance for learning.
• PBL improves learning. After completing a project, students understand content more deeply, remember what they learn and retain it longer than is often the case with traditional instruction. Because of this, students who gain content knowledge with PBL are better able to apply what they know and can do to new situations.
• PBL builds success skills for college, career, and life. In the 21st century workplace and in college, success requires more than basic knowledge and skills. In a project, students learn how to take initiative and responsibility, build their confidence, solve problems, work in teams, communicate ideas, and manage themselves more effectively.
• PBL helps address standards. The Common Core and other present-day standards emphasize real-world application of knowledge and skills, and the development of success skills such as critical thinking/problem solving, collaboration, communication in a variety of media, and speaking and presentation skills. PBL is an effective way to meet these goals.
• PBL provides opportunities for students to use technology. Students are familiar with and enjoy using a variety of tech tools that are a perfect fit with PBL. With technology, teachers and students can not only find resources and information and create products, but also collaborate more effectively, and connect with experts, partners, and audiences around the world.
• PBL makes teaching more enjoyable and rewarding. Projects allow teachers to work more closely with active, engaged students doing high-quality, meaningful work, and in many cases to rediscover the joy of learning alongside their students.
• PBL connects students and schools with communities and the real world. Projects enable students to solve problems and address issues important to them, their communities, and the world. Students learn how to interact with adults and organizations, are exposed to workplaces and adult jobs, and can develop career interests. Parents and community members can be involved in projects.
• PBL promotes educational equity. All students deserve PBL, since a great project can have a powerful effect and help them reach their potential, and even be transformative for young people. A project that makes a real-world impact can give students a sense of agency and purpose; they see that they can make a difference in their community and the world beyond it.

Our teachers are working to learn more about PBLs and finding ways to implement them into their curriculum and lessons. In addition, as our teachers work to learn and grow through modeling a growth mindset one major topic for many of our teachers is to find ways to build a PBL into the state standards they teach.

This is a message to Save the Date for STEM Night which will be from 6 pm - 8 pm on Tuesday February 19th at Jefferson Middle School. The goal of STEM night is to invite our families and students in to our school to learn more about STEM, careers in STEM and applications both at JMS and the world in which our students will work, live, and thrive in their futures.

If you have any resources or you work for a group that may want to be a part of the STEM night, please contact either of our STEM coaches Callie Painter at clpainter@ortn.edu or Alex Goldberg at agoldberg@ortn.edu.

We will keep reminding everyone of this date as we hope to have a HUGE turnout!

There is an alternate date in case of inclement weather that will be set for Feb. 21st

Good evening from the counseling office! We hope that you have had a nice weekend and that you are continueing to think about the holidays as a time for giving to others and showing acts of gratitide. We will continue our theme of “Gratitide and Acts of Kindness” during the holiday season. This week we need to think of different ways we can give back to others that are in need. Have a great week!

Whether you're a fast food junkie or a health nut, you won't be able to help smiling at these young guys who start a generosity chain reaction by paying for the car behind them at the drive-through window.

https://youtu.be/EsqtFyEo1-Y

Begin a campaign to collect socks for the homeless during the month of December by collecting people on the internet to participate.

https://youtu.be/pWBRKP3K_cA

Start your own business like the nine-year old Canadian girl that donates half her profits to a local hospice that serves elderly people. She has donated $8,000 so far.

https://youtu.be/VQM74tlTOCU