The Bingham Bear Newsletter

Beginning in January, our 8th grade students will begin the process of enrolling for high school. We wanted to provide you with some information and dates about this process. This information can also be found on our website.

• January 10th: Freshman Enrollment Information Parent Night @ 6:00 p.m. (Bingham Middle School)
• January 24th: 8th grade students will participate in the Freshman Jamboree at Bingham Middle School during the school day.
• January 30th: Students begin completing a hard copy for their course selection.
• February 2nd: A copy of the enrollment form will be sent home to parents.
• February 6th: Students will enter course selections into PowerSchool.

On Wednesday, January 10th we want to invite 8th grade parents and students to attend our Freshman Enrollment Information Parent Night. This event will provide information to parents about the enrollment process, provide an opportunity for parents to ask questions, and provide resources for parents to access to learn more about high school courses. We hope that you are able to attend!

Please be aware that school will be in session on Monday, January 8th. This will be a five day week for students.

Help us raise funds to support our students and teachers!

We are excited to announce that we will be kicking off our PTSA sponsored Candy Bar Fundraiser this month. More information will be sent home this month regarding the fundraiser, but we would like to provide some initial information. Students/guardians can take a box of candy bars to sell. Each box contains 60 candy bars and are sold for $1.00 each.

• January 12th - information will begin coming home about our upcoming fundraiser.
• January 12th - Permission slips will be sent home with students to participate in the fundraiser. Parents/guardians will need to complete the permission slip before a student can take a box of candy home. The permissions will need to be returned to school.
• January 16th - January 31st - Fundraiser window

Students will earn incentives for selling 1 box, 3 boxes, and 5 boxes.

Our next PTSA meeting will be January 17th at 5:30 p.m. in the Bingham Library. We would love to have more parents involved in our PTSA meetings.

Please consider joining our PTSA this year! Our PTSA does so much to support our parents, students, and teachers! Cost to join is only $6.00 for an individual membership. Memberships can be purchased with cash/check or you scan the QR code to pay with PayPal. PTSA will have activities throughout the year that students can participate in with a PTSA membership.

Each school year, the Independence School District develops an assessment plan to monitor student academic achievement and growth. The utilization of the assessment plan, followed by thoughtful data analysis and decision making is the way the district can make decisions to best meet the needs of students and raise student achievement.

Along with ongoing formative assessments administered in all subject area classrooms, we have assessments that are administered throughout the district at various grade levels and courses. We are quickly approaching the administration of the aReading and aMath assessments for our 7th and 8th grade students. The purpose of the aReading and aMath assessments is to serve as a formative assessment that provides teachers and administrators data to monitor student progress. Both aReading and aMath assessments are approximately 35 questions and are adaptive to determine the students' achievement level.

It is important for our school to share this performance with students, parents, and with our instructional staff. In order to do so, we are requesting for all students, both virtual and in-person, to participate in each assessment. Bingham Middle School has identified the date of Monday, January 22nd to serve as our virtual student testing date. Testing will occur at 9:00 a.m or 1:00 p.m. Students must be in attendance at Bingham in order to access the assessments. Virtual students will need to bring their Chromebook, charger, earbuds, and writing utensil.

Please take a moment to review these requirements and go over them with your child. We appreciate home-school partnerships to encourage the success of all students!

7th Grade Credit Requirements

Earn 4.5 credits out of 6 possible credits

At least 3 of the credits must come from core classes

Core classes: ELA, math, science, social studies

Elective classes: any other class

How do students earn a credit?

Receive an A, B, C or D. An F means no credit is earned.

What Happens If Students Don’t Earn Their Credits?

Students will be required to attend middle school summer school. As long as they meet the summer school requirements, students will be able to choose their elective classes for 8th grade.

If students don’t attend summer school or don’t meet the summer school requirements, they may be retained and enrolled in Essential Literacy or Essential Math instead of their chosen elective.

8th Grade Credit Requirements

Earn 4.5 credits out of 6 possible credits

At least 3 of the credits must come from core classes

Core classes: ELA, math, science, social studies

Elective classes: any other class

How do students earn a credit?

Receive an A, B, C or D. An F means no credit is earned.

What Happens If Students Don’t Earn Their Credits?

Students will be required to attend middle school summer school. As long as students meet the summer school requirements, they will be able to attend their assigned high school next fall.

If students don’t attend summer school or don’t meet the summer school requirements they may be retained or attend the Bridge program at Independence Academy the following school year.

Did you know...a big part of AVID is helping students learn to be organized? Two ways that you will see this with your student is by using their AVID Binder and agenda. Students should be filling in their agenda for each class, each day. This is one communication tool that will allow you to see what your student did in class and what homework they may have. Students use their binders to keep and organize their work. At any time, your student should be able to show their binder and the work they have been doing in class. Each class has its own tab and any important work, notes, etc. will be behind that tab.

Did you know...that you can find information about financial aid and scholarships at Federal Student Aid, an office of the U.S. Department of Education? AVID focuses on college and career readiness. While our students are still a few years away, we do focus on college and career readiness with our students. If your student is already thinking about college or maybe you have a high school student looking at going to college, you can find information about scholarships and financial aid at studentaid.gov.

The Independence School District will move to a four-day instructional week beginning in the 2023-2024 school year.

Please continue to use the Four Day Instructional Week Information Center for information.

Our priority is the safety and education of ISD students, and we appreciate our families, staff, and community groups who partner with us in this goal. Thank you for all you do for the students of the Independence School District.

Please email us with questions, concerns, and feedback.
fourdayinfo@isdschools.org

January 22nd

February 5th, February 26th

March 4th

April 8th, April 15th, April 22nd, April 29th

May 6th, May 13th

Bingham Middle School - Spring Sports Information

Spring Sports will begin at the end of February. More details to come.

Track & Field

Head Coach: Tearle McCray

Baseball

Head Coach: Scott McKinley

Girl's Soccer

Head Coach: Orban Ramos

Boy's Soccer

Head Coach: Justin Beamer

Boy's & Girl's Swimming

Head Coach: Trevor Tomney

Student Physical

• All physicals will now be valid for 2 years from the date of the physical, unless indicated differently by physician. Pre-Participation information will still need to be updated annually on PRIVIT.

• Athletes must have a current physical uploaded on PRIVIT before any type of participation.

• Please go to this website to create and/or update your PRIVIT account: wcbears-mo.e-ppe.com

• For additional PRIVIT instructions, please click here.

• Blank physical forms are located in the office at Bingham Middle School or at www.wcbears.com. If you have any questions, please contact us at 816-521-5427.

Age Eligibility

• Students must meet other MSHSAA requirements to participate in activities including residency and age requirements. To participate in 7th grade activities, students must not have reached 14 years of age prior to July 1st preceding the opening of school of their 7th grade year. To participate in 8th-grade activities and/or athletics, students must not have reached 15 years of age prior to July 1st preceding the opening of their 8th-grade year.

Academic / Citizenship Eligibility

• In order for students to participate in Missouri State High School Athletics Association (MSHSAA) sponsored activities and athletics at the beginning of the school year, students must have passed six (6) of seven (7) subject area classes during the last grading period of the preceding school year. During the school year, students will become ineligible if they fail more than one class at the end of the grading period. Students would remain ineligible for the duration of that grading period. His/her status would be determined the next grading period based on his/her new grades.

• Athletes represent their school on their athletic team and at contests. In order to participate in school activities and after-school events, students must attend the full day of school. Participants in interscholastic sports must attend a day in order to be eligible for that day’s athletic event unless permission is gained from the administration.

Please take a few minutes to review the ISD Game Day Attendance Policy.

If you were not able to attend our Open House, we have included information from our Title I Parent Information meeting.

• Title I Parent Information Slide Show
• Title I Parent Information Slide Show (Spanish)
• Title I Parent Information Video

We ask that all families take time to view the slideshow or video over Title I. Once you have viewed the presentation, please take a couple of minutes to complete this FORM to let us know you have viewed the information and if you have any feedback or questions.

Purchase your Bingham Bear Yearbook for $25. To purchase, please login to your www.myschoolbucks.com account and select yearbook in the school store section.

It is important to connect to your student's learning, ensure assignments are being completed, and help monitor your student's grades. As a parent/guardian, you can link to your student’s Canvas account via desktop web browser or the Canvas Parent app available on both iOs and Android devices to track your student’s homework and grades. Create your parent/guardian account using the following steps:

1. Visit www.isdschools.org/canvas/
2. Click “Login for Parents” followed by “Click Here for an Account” to create your free Canvas parent account. Enter your name and email address, create a password and enter the student pairing code provided by your student’s teacher or generated from your student’s Canvas account. Click “Start Participating” to create your Canvas parent account.
3. To generate a new pairing code, students should log into their Canvas student account, select “Account”, click “Settings” followed by “Pair with an Observer to generate a code. The pairing code will expire in seven days or after its first use.

• You can find step-by-step directions to download and login into the Canvas Parent Mobile App by clicking HERE.
• You can find step-by-step instructions for pairing with multiple students accounts using the iOs app HERE.

• You can find step-by-step instructions for pairing with multiple students accounts using the Android app HERE.

December 23rd - January 2nd: Winter Break

January 3rd: Students return to school

January 8th: School in Session (Monday)

January 10th: Freshman Enrollment Parent Meeting @ 6:00 p.m.

January 15th: No School (Martin Luther King Jr. Day)

January 17th: Freshman Jamboree (during school)

January 22nd: Monday 5th Day Option

January 23rd: 8th Grade hard copy enrollment

January 26th: 8th Grade hard copy enrollment form sent home

January 31st: 8th Grade enrollment in PowerSchool

Please use the link provided below to access the 2023-2024 ISD School Calendar.

https://www.isdschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2023-2024-Student-Calendar.pdf

Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) is a learning system that provides students with real-world strategies to accelerate their performance to succeed in college and life. Students learn how to ask questions that go beyond memorization and encourage higher-level thinking, providing students with an educational advantage. AVID layers on existing curriculum, allowing teachers to implement AVID strategies into any lesson or subject. Students utilize the Cornell note-taking process to organize their notes and create powerful study tools. They learn to recognize the most important parts of a lesson, create questions to guide their studying, and revisit and refine their notes to solidify learning. Students also learn soft skills, including public speaking, self-advocacy, time management and organization. The ISD is proud to offer AVID to all 6th, 7th and 8th grade students.

Students will continue to use AVID binders to help with their organization this year. During homeroom, teachers will be working with students on their individual organization and preparedness for learning. Organization of materials, in particular, improves the frequency of work completion and ensures that assignments are turned in according to deadlines. The organization of materials, thoughts, and time is a foundational component of an AVID classroom.

Each student will be responsible for maintaining a student binder. The student binder is an effective organizational tool used by students to support independence and larger educational success. The organizational tool provided a system for storage and organization of materials, notes, and student work in order to support learning at school, as well as at home.

A student's AVID binder will consist of:

• 3" 3-ring binder
• Student agenda
• Pencil pouch (containing pencils, pens, earbuds, erasers)
• Divider tabs
• Homework folder

Developing solid, long-term organizational habits for material management is essential for enduring student success and we are excited to continue to provide our students with this support.

How can you help your student with organization and the AVID binder? Each day your student should bring home his/her AVID binder. Ask your student to show you the binder and walk through the different components. Check your student's agenda each day to see what went on in class and if your student has homework. The agenda is a great communication tool for school and home. Each hour students are asked to write in the in-class assignment and homework assignment. Check your student's binder to see if it is organized and that your student has the supplies needed to be successful and productive at school.

Latitude is our after-school childcare program housed at Bridger. If you would like to learn more about the Latitude program, follow the link below.

http://sites.isdschools.org/before_and_after_school/index

• School hours for Bingham Middle School are 8:05 AM – 3:50 PM.
  
• Students may not be dropped off before 7:55 AM (doors do not open until 7:55 AM).
  
• Office hours are from 7:30 AM – 4:25 PM
  
• Car riders MUST be picked up in front of the building by 4:00 PM

Bingham Middle School is a positive, safe environment that promotes academic and interpersonal skills for success in the global society.

At Bingham Middle School, our staff, students and community support one another by:

encouraging collaboration and perserverance,

setting high expectations,

creating and promoting a growth mindset,

embracing diversity and individuality,

and treating everyone with dignity and respect.

Our Vision:

All students at Bingham Middle School will be prepared for success in the global society.

Home of the Bingham Bears

Website: sites.isdschools.org/bingham
Location: 1716 South Speck Road, Independence, MO, USA
Phone: 816-521-5490
Facebook: facebook.com/BinghamMiddle
Twitter: @BinghamBears