Jackson Hole Middle School

 February 2010

Please come to our annual spelling bee on Wed., Feb. 10 at 1:20 in the large gym.  Each homebase has conducted a spelling bee to determine the two spellers that will compete in the school wide competition.   The top three winners will go on to the state competition, and if a student does well there, he/she will be sent to Washington D.C. to compete in the national spelling bee!

As you have probably already heard, there is a dance tonight at the Middle School from 7:00 – 9:30 p.m. The cost is $3.00 and the proceeds will go to Haiti as part of the student council fund raiser. As always, we will be emphasizing to students our three (plus one) major expectations for all Middle School activities: to be safe, respectful and responsible, and appropriate, and have several teachers and administrators monitoring the dance.   The kids have a lot of fun!

We are also looking at expanding beyond dances for evening activities for students.  Our parent volunteer coordinators, Teresa Nye, Trish Mayer, and Deb Wagner are looking for interested parents to help organize these events.  We are aiming for one in the spring, and then expanding the opportunities for next year.

We are JHMS!  You have probable noticed our various banners and posters around the school celebrating the students, staff and parents of JHMS.  There is a lot of pride at JHMS, and we want to celebrate our great students and staff as we continually strive to be better. For the next few months we will have a strong focus on student responsibility to their own learning; by being prepared for learning, taking pride in their work and by asking questions when they don’t understand something.  Watch out for new posters, and help your child understand that it is their education and their responsibility.

Another way we keep JHMS a great place for learning is by continually re-teaching our expectations for behavior.  This is part of our Positive Behavioral Support system, developed at the University of Oregon.  For instance, soon after the winter break Bo Miller, Jeff Parrott and I visited all the classrooms to talk about lunch cleanup, cell phones, coming to class prepared, “PDA” – or public displays of affection (romantic in nature), and snowballs.  Student council will be coming up with our next reteaching activity, and will put together some skits to be video taped.

Yearbooks are on sale now, and if you buy them before spring break you will save three dollars!  Ask your child for the form!

ATTENTION 8^th grade parents!   Dr. Scott Crisp, the new principal of Jackson Hole High School will have monthly open house sessions for any 8^th grade parent from 12:00 – 1:00pm on March 2, April 13, May 4, and June 1.  Feel free to drop in JHHS to meet our administration, counselors, or specific teachers.

 

Parent-teacher conferences will be on Monday March 8, and Tuesday March 9 from 3:00 – 7:00.  We will be sending home more information closer to the conferences.

PAWS testing also begins on March 8^th, and will continue through March 26^th.   These tests are required by the No Child Left Behind Law.  We continually do well on this test, and use this data to help up set school improvement goals and to monitor student achievement. We need all students here!

As always, we appreciate your help and support of your child’s learning!  Parents Involved in Education meetings are the first Wed. of each month at 12:00.  I hope to see you there!