Muskego Lakes Family Newsletter

Dear Muskego Lakes Families,

Our school is scheduled to take the Forward Exam the mornings of Tuesday, April 18 through Friday, April 21, and make-ups as needed the following week. Students in 6-8th grade will start in complete the TDA (Text Dependent Analysis) on Thursday, April 13 in their literacy classes.

The Forward Exam assesses student performance in the areas of English Language Arts and Mathematics for students in Grades 3 through 8, in Science in Grades 4 and 8, and in Social Studies in Grades 4, 8, and 10. The Forward Exam is an online assessment, which utilizes multiple-choice and written responses to assess student knowledge. To minimize time out of class, during the testing window identified above, it is very important that your son or daughter be in school. Please avoid making any appointments on these dates. Students not in school on testing days will be scheduled for a make-up test prior to the close of the testing window, which will result in them missing class.

The Forward Exam measures the knowledge and skills your student(s) should have acquired by the time they reach each grade level. Their performance on the assessment will not affect any of their current grades. Please encourage your son or daughter to take the test seriously and do the best they can. The results of these tests may be used to help school staff make determinations or placement in classes to best support your child(ren).

In addition, we are sharing a brochure from the state, which provides additional detailed information about the assessment including its purpose, what scores will be provided, and how the scores will be used.

Wisconsin Forward Exam: Information for Families

In partnership,

Rachel and Nancy

Muskego Lakes Principals

• April 7 & 10: No School

• April 17-22: Forward Testing

• May 9-11: Literacy iReady Testing
• May 11: Band Concert
• May 15-17: Math iReady Testing
• May 24: Choir Concert
• June 8: Last Day of School

Shown below are the upcoming co-curricular events at Muskego Lakes!

If a change occurs from the date of this newsletter, we post on Infinite Campus in the announcement section. We commit to letting students/families know about changes and updating Infinite Campus announcements as soon as possible once we've been notified of a change.

Check out all MLMS events here which includes more detailed information!

Request for Upcoming Forward and iReady Testing Dates

Muskego Lakes students will take the WI Forward Assessment and the spring diagnostic iReady Exam in a few short months. We ask that families check the dates of these assessments below and communicate with us if you know your child has a pre-planned reason/vacation to be out during those times, so we can plan accordingly to ensure testing can be completed.

Wisconsin Forward Testing Dates: April 17-21, 2023

Spring iReady Dates:

• Literacy: May 9-11, 2023
• Math: May 15-17, 2023

If you do have a pre-planned absence during these dates, please reach out nancy.pasch@muskegonorway.org

Students are asked to bring corded headphones on all testing dates. Bluetooth headphones, such as AirPods, are not permitted to be used during testing. Please ensure that your child has a pair of headphones that works with their chromebook. If obtaining a pair of headphones is an issue, please reach out to us, so we can ensure your child has what they need during testing.

We know that testing can be overwhelming and lead to a sense of worry for some students. This is normal, and we want to make sure that we are supporting our students with those feelings, so we are sharing a DPI resource on helping students with test anxiety linked HERE.

In addition to using this resource, we encourage your child to get a good nights rest, eat breakfast, charge their chromebook each night, and bring an allergy friendly snack to have with them.

The 8th grade promotion committee has been hard at work planning to ensure the night is memorable for all. The students have voted and the theme will be Hawaiian! All are welcome to attend the next planning meeting on May 2nd at 7pm at Becky Sawallich's house.

More information about the details of the night, cost for students, volunteer opportunities, and donations will be shared in future newsletters.

Each year Muskego Lakes hosts a breakfast celebration for the 8th graders during the last week of school. During the breakfast, we plan to have a slideshow running with pictures from 5k to 8th grade of all the students. To make this slideshow a success we need your help, specifically your pictures (printed or digital). They can be single shots of your student, but group pictures are strongly encouraged. And don't forget to go WAY back in your photos - the students always get a kick out of seeing pictures of themselves and their classmates from years ago. The preference would be to get 5-15 pictures per family.

We are looking for the following kinds of photos:

• Pictures from 5K to 8th grade
• School field trips
• Sporting events / team photos
• Selfies with friends

Please send all your pictures by March 31st.

• Digital pictures – email MLMSClass2027@gmail.com
• Printed pictures – send in mail to Tina Marine, S97W13893 Stonebridge Way, Muskego

We asked Mrs. Milton to share a little about herself and her career, in addition to what what makes her proud to work at Muskego Lakes and she said:

"I have a degree in Music Education from UW-Oshkosh. I am proud of the fact that I have achieved many of the big milestones in my field. I have had the opportunity to have a choir highlighted at a state level choral convention chosen through a blind audition; I have been invited and served as the soprano coach for the state middle level honor choir project; I've been invited to share my experience of musical theater making in the middle school at a conference; I have had an opportunity to collaborate with a nationally recognized middle school composer to write a piece for our 8th grade choir; I've had multiple students go into the field of music and successfully perform, teach and share their love and passion for music with the world; I've successfully developed/implemented sight reading programs that help break barriers for students trying to learn to read music without an instrument; I'm most proud of my ability to see the possibilities that each child is capable of (many times without knowing it themselves) and helping them grow to believe in it and themselves and then achieve it."

Here is a little more to help you get to know Mrs. Milton

Favorite coffee drink - I love the smell of coffee, but never drink it...I'm a diehard WATER fan!

Favorite subject when you were in middle school - I loved to read. I couldn't read enough. I also loved social studies. But my favorite thing of all things was my pull out piano lessons! I could play for hours and I'd be content!

Fun fact about yourself that may surprise students and families - I have a dual patella which means my knee caps are split. Very rare.

My Dream vacation - HAWAII! I am working on convincing my husband to go on a trip next year to Hawaii.

Students & staff describe me as - Kind. Passionate. Inspiring. Generous of time. Patient. Caring.

Muskego Norway welcomes Addiction Resource Council, Inc YourChoice Prevention Education on April 12, 2023 from 6 - 7:30 PM at the Muskego High School Performing Arts Center for their Wake Up Call Presentation which is a 1.5 hour presentation that provides practical information on current drug trends, a walk-through of a teen bedroom with more than 20 red flags that could indicate substance abuse, and proactive parenting strategies to keep your child substance free. Please click here for more information.

We are proud to continue to partner with Clinical Psychology Associates (CPA) to offer on-site counseling services at Bay Lane Elementary, Lakeview Elementary, Mill Valley Elementary, Muskego Lakes Middle School, Lake Denoon Middle School, and Muskego High School. For information about CPA’s services and therapists or to get started with an appointment, please visit our website.

A friendly reminder that when you notify school of your child/children being out ill/sick, it's important that we get the reason that they are out as we keep track of illness to monitor outbreaks.

Reporting of Illness

If your student is ill please keep them home and notify us at 262-971-1860 ext 5000. You may also use the Campus Parent App to report the illness.

Reporting of COVID

If your student has a positive COVID test please keep them home and Report your student's COVID ISOLATION using the COVID-19 SYMPTOM OR STATUS NOTIFICATION.

Please refer to the Health Services website for additional information.

Please consider joining the Muskego Lakes PTO. We meet monthly in the MLMS library at 6:30pm. We always welcome new faces and would love to hear your ideas in how we can make this an amazing school year ahead!!

MLMS PTO Meeting Dates for 2022-2023

• April 19
• May 17

The MLMS PTO wants to thank the excellent staff for everything they do by providing midweek munchies. Every Wednesday, you have an opportunity to sign up to bring in munchies for the staff to help them make it through the week and brighten their day. If you are interested in supporting this, please sign up here.

You may make a report by visiting the website, using your smartphone by downloading the SPEAK UP, SPEAK OUT app from the Apple Store and Google Play, or by calling 1-800-MY-SUSO-1 to speak to a resource center analyst.

We encourage you to follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

Website: https://www.muskegonorway.org/schools/muskegolakes/
Location: W124 S8009 North Cape Rd.
Phone: 262-971-1860
Twitter: @MLMSmuskies