We are back and better than ever! This will be a full week of school with many amazing opportunities for families to participate on campus! We have PTO on Monday night at 5:00, Local School Council Wednesday morning at 8:00AM, and our Title One Information Night on Thursday at 5:00. We also have a home football game on Thursday and we are ExExExCited to have our boys get the opportunity to play at home. We have more boys on our football team than ever before! The energy is contagious!

I also want to take a minute and thank Officer Collins for his dedication to our community! BCMS and BCHS was the Command Center for Pembroke and the North end of the county during Irma. We were so pleased to work with them and to be able to offer them the space as they worked to make sure we all stayed safe during the hurricane! We are very proud of this partnership!

One new practice that we want to begin is setting a cut-off time for student check out. We are asking that parents and families do not sign out or pick up their children after 3:00. It is very difficult for us to manage the end of the day business and find students that close to dismissal. We realize sometimes this is unavoidable, but we ask that you do your best to honor this! Call the front office with questions!

Please make sure that you are signed up for my REMIND, as well as the grade level REMINDS so you don't miss a beat! We are about to get into the busy time of fall with school pictures, games, dances, and activities at school! You definitely want to be in the know at #BeBCMS!

This is a very busy week at BCMS! We hope to see you on campus!

• #CelebrateMonday- PTO 5:00- Parent Resource Room
• #TerrificTuesday- Softball, HOME, 4:30
• #WinWednesday- Local School Council 8:00 AM
• #ThankfulThursday-Pep Rally for scholars, DANCE and Football game ticket $6.00 ,Home Football Game, Title 1 Information Night 5:00, Softball Away
• #FocusFriday- 7:40 AM Come and congratulate our Teacher of the Year Ms. Blaine Ennis! We are so proud of her!

If you have questions about the information on those reports, please call us at BCMS. You can also click the link below for a Parents Guide created by the Georgia DOE.

https://www.gadoe.org/Curriculum-Instruction-and-Assessment/Assessment/Documents/Milestones/Parents/Parent_Guide_EOG_Brochure_2016.pdf

• September 18th- Progress Reports
• September 18th- PTO- Join Us for elections and fundraising planning! Softball game- HOME
• September 19th - Softball game HOME
• September 20th-8:00 AM- Local School Council
• September 21st HOME football game, Softball AWAY, Title 1 Parent Information Night!
• September 21st DANCE immediately after school, $6,00 for the dance and football game!
• September 22nd- 7:40 AM Staff Celebration for our Teacher of the Year, Ms. Blaine Ennis
• September 29th- Kona Ice!

Map Testing continues

Scholars will be using their ELA MAP Reading RIT Score to set goals for themselves in WIN time on Monday! Please look for MAP reports to come home as soon as we wrap up testing.

MAP testing is a great way for our scholars to show how much they have grown and an awesome way for us as teachers to use this data in our planning and lesson designs. MAP tests are designed to measure growth over time, so that makes them very different than our "state tests" known as Georgia Milestones. MAP tests give you tons of great information in regards to achievement at this moment. Here is a great article to read that will give you more information in regards to MAP testing.

https://www.nwea.org/blog/2016/answers-to-the-top-6-questions-parents-ask-about-the-map-test/

We will test our scholars three times a year in the areas of Reading, Math, and Language Usage. These scores will help us determine growth, mastery, lesson designs, and class choices. We will send home reports with scholars once we have concluded the testing.

My favorite day of the week is on the horizon! Monday!! We have worked hard to set the mindset throughout out building that Monday's are the BEST day of the week! This week, we are setting goals in WIN using our Reading MAP data! Increasing our Literacy and becoming better readers and scholars who love reading is a school wide goal and a building wide focus! Here are some great tips that you can do to help support us as we work on this goal together:

What does research say about ways parents can help their children with reading?

Here are some ideas and some I do with my own two middle schoolers at home:

• Provide a good role model — read yourself and read often to your child.
• Provide varied reading material — some for reading enjoyment and some with information about hobbies and interests.
• Encourage activities that require reading — for example, cooking (reading a recipe), constructing a kite (reading directions), or identifying an interesting bird's nest or a shell collected at the beach (using a reference book).
• Establish a reading time, even if it is only ten minutes a day.
• Write notes to your school-age child; encourage written responses.
• Ask your child to bring a library book home to read to a younger sibling.
• Establish one evening a week for reading (instead of television viewing).
• Encourage your child in all reading efforts.

With so many events happening this week, I am sure to run into lots of you! I can't wait to see you and I thank you in advance for supporting our school and our passion work! I am proud to be your principal and would love to hear from you! If you have a concern or a comment, please do not hesitate to email or call me: eraeburn@bryan.k12.ga.us or 912-626-5050 or 912.255.0630.

Thank you for your partnership and commitment to making #BeBCMS the best middle school on the planet!

Over the Hurricane "break" I read the book "Wonder" by RJ Palacio. It was an amazing read! My own middle schooler is reading it at her school and I thought if I read it too, it would give us an opportunity to share and talk about it together! I have bought three copies of this book and am giving them away this week to one 6th grade scholar, one 7th grade scholar, and one 8th grade scholar. I don't watch movies, but it is going to be a movie soon! I highly recommend it!

WIN period is an elite time for our scholars to work on goal setting, grade checking, acceleration of curriculum, and enrichment.

CLUBS will begin this week! Students will be offered the choice of clubs during WIN time on Wednesday and will be placed and assigned to clubs on Friday. We are excited about the opportunities we will be able to provide during CLUB time and we will make every effort to make sure scholars get their first, second, or third choice in CLUBS.

The current WIN Schedule looks like this:

Monday- Goal setting and Grade Checking- Goals are set based on Reading RIT MAP scores

Tuesday- Enrichment and Remediation Rotations begin!

Wednesday- Enrichment/Remediation/Kindness Rotations

Thursday- Enrichment/Remediation/Kindness Rotations

Friday- Clubs !

Look at our ELITE new BC spirit shirts! Ms. Kroymann and the Bryan County Athletic Booster club will be making and selling these awesome shirts! BCMS will also be selling new ExExExCellent Spirit Wear in our school store-- a new club that Miss Shelby and Ms. Crosby are running! For more information on the NEW spirit wear, stop in to school or see us on at the football field for Friday Night Lights!

Also, mark your calendar for the Bryan County Athletic Booster Clubs "CHICKEN-Q" on November 4th! More details coming!

Mr. Keith Wright, Assistant Principal and Director of Athletics

Mr. Abram Scott, Assistant Principal

@BryanCountyMS

Email: eraeburn@bryan.k12.ga.us
Website: bryan.k12.ga.us
Location: Pembroke, GA, United States
Phone: 912-626-5050
Twitter: @missliz31