December has arrived! As always, school calendars fill up with concert practices and concerts, families become busy with shopping and family gatherings, and then there is the excitement of Christmas and the holidays that go along with that. And in the midst of all of that, we expect that we will continue learning at school.
We have just completed a month of learning about gratitude. Our allies, (two students from each classroom) planned activities for all of us at school to consider things for which we are grateful. We witnessed loads of gratitude, and ended the month with a celebration of gratitude by eating gratitude cake! Thanks to our allies and their teacher advisors for a wonderful month.
At Clearspring Middle School, we like to remind ourselves and our community of our promise from time to time.
WE PROMISE…
To teach students, not subjects
To believe the best, hope for the best, and cheer for the best in every person
To make learning engaging
To be proactive rather than reactive
To teach in ways that respond to our students’ needs
To meet students where they are
To keep in mind that learning is a process that takes time and commitment
To keep relationships at the core of how we work together
To help each student feel valued
To create an atmosphere that welcomes every student to belong
To dream big and to work hard
To challenge all students to learn at high levels
While we don’t always get it right, we are committed to this as our approach to building a strong school community. We have just completed parent-teacher conferences and report cards, which link to our commitment. As you know, our parent-teacher conferences take place before our report cards come out. One of our goals when we made that change was to shift our conversations toward learning rather than marks alone. Another goal is to provide a little more time for learning before the report card mark needs to be determined. Our hope is that as our work together with parents and students will result in high levels of learning for each student.
I want to thank all the parents of our school for your support. Our school is characterized by students who take their learning seriously and work hard, and also enjoy their work. When we have problems, we are generally able to work together to find resolutions. That is not to be taken for granted. We appreciate the opportunity to work with parents to address problem areas, so thank you.
As we look forward to the rest of this month, we know it will be busy, and maybe stressful, for most families. It is our hope that December can be a month of learning, and that the preparations leading up to Christmas can be filled with joy for everyone in the CMS family.
