Parent Handbook January 24, 2012
Dear AMS Families,
Our Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Friday, February 10th. Please note that this is not a school attendance day for students. The primary focus for this round of conferences is to share our Plan For Success for each student who is in danger of not being successful this year.
We will contact families to schedule conferences. Parents of students not scheduled for this round of conferences should feel free to contact individual teachers with any questions related to a particular class. Parent portal grades are available to you online by clicking on the link that is provided on our webpage.
Please feel free to call your child’s counselor if there is anything that you feel we can help you with.
Sincerely,
Michael Cornell
Principal
“SHARE YOUR CARE” PRESENTATION SUMMARY:
“Share Your Care! Care about your friends, family & school!”
School spirit is caring; so Share YOUR Care! Care is a word that freaks out some teens. They think it means they have to be a loud, crazy, hugging type school spirit fanatic. No! Care comes in so many forms: being attentive in class, going to the play, attending the dance or bringing in a can for the food drive. Teenagers have no problem caring! Well, they love to care about "stars" on their favorite teams or singing their favorite songs. Bring that care to school! For only four years the "stars" of your school teams, events and stages share something incredible with you! They go to your school! They are in your home and community! They are your family, friends and schoolmates! "Care about yourself, your friends, family and school the same way you care about millionaires from your favorite bands and teams" is my challenge to your students.
Release Your “Recess Attitude”
Remember recess in elementary school! Remember all of the fun and friends you had as you played the games and participated in all of the activities! Your “recess attitude” inspired you everyday to learn and have fun while at school. “Recess Attitude” prevented you from having a fear of caring. Yes, caring can hurt, cause disappointment and let you down. Recess attitude inspires you to get back up after caring hurts you so you can care again! Bring that grade two energy back into your life!
The Rewards of Caring: Learning, Changing the World, Friends, Health Happiness & Fun Memories!
When you let out your “recess attitude” and “dare to care” to be yourself and get involved in class and school activities, you get four amazing rewards. The first reward of caring is learning. How do you care about learning? Try your best. This means to always get a “98%” average in showing up to class (no skipping), arrive on time, get ‘er done (complete your assignments), with a good attitude. If you do that, but get a “65%” in marks … oh well, you did the best you can! Yes, universities & colleges “hire” by marks, but employers hire workers who show up, on time, get things done with a good attitude. Caring about your time in class teaches you WORK skills, not just math, science or geography. Employers hire hard workers, not marks. Caring leads to learning, and learning leads to your dreams after school!
The second reward of caring is that it changes the world. Your time, your encouragement, your energy and your donations of money make a difference! Bring in a can for a food drive, attend a school group’s fundraising event, offer to help at a school or community charity event, or donate a dollar! Small acts of caring equals large results for those on the receiving end of your care. It is so exciting to know that while you not be able to travel to every place that needs help in the world, you care has no limits on how far it can go! Just ask the local family helped by your school’s holiday canned drive, the cancer patient getting a new treatment because fundraising paid for new research, or the child at the other end of the world who is sponsored by someone who cares.
The third gift of caring is friends. Think about it … how do you become friends with others? Being fun, interested, listening, encouraging, inviting, honest, trustworthy … caring! Many of my closest friends to this day, over 15 years after graduation, I met in school. When I cared enough to get involved in sports, events and student council, I became friends with many great people.
Finally, caring creates fun memories! Make sure that your yearbooks are a chronicle of all the great times you had at your school. Friends, events, activities, smiles, memories! Please, make sure that the yearbook is not a hard cover book of all the events you missed, the people you made fun of, the people you did not get to know, or the activities you wanted to do ... but did not. Middle school is about learning and having fun with your friends! By caring enough to get involved, you will get these ultimate rewards of being in school!
SOME QUESTIONS THAT YOU CAN ASK YOUR CHILDREN ABOUT ANDY’S PRESENTATION:
1. What were some of the messages that seem to “hit home” in Andy’s presentation?
2. Why do some people not get involved in school activities? What can we do to make it easier for people to get involved and care?
3. What was great about going to class in second grade? Why were we so excited to care? What can be done to bring that back into our middle school classrooms?
4. Do you like school spirit? What are the benefits of a school with spirit?
5. What the rewards of being involved and caring? What have you done to get any of these rewards?
6. What was so much fun about elementary school recess? Can we bring this back into our lives? How?
7. List three ways that you can “share your care” with others at school.
8. List three ways that you can “share your care” with your family at home.
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