We are upon the last nine weeks of school. These next couple of weeks will go by so fast, I can't believe it we are planning for the end of the year. Hopefully everyone had a chance to rest over spring break and we are excited to welcome the new students that spent their break moving! Here are some events that we want you to be aware of (newer items are in bold):
Friday, March 25: NO SCHOOL - Student and Staff Holiday
Tuesday, March 29: STAAR for 7th (writing) and 8th (reading)
Wednesday, March 30: STAAR for 8th (math) and 7th grade (pre-AP math only)
Wednesday, March 30: Soccer Tryouts begin
(boys- see Benjamin Hughes and girls- see Krista Robinson)
Monday, April 11: Window opens for 8th grade end of year trip payment (all money due by May 2)April 22: Little Mermaid Musical performance
April 23: Little Mermaid Musical performance
Thursday, April 28: 8th grade panoramic picture at 8:20 am
Monday, May 2: Last day to pay for 8th grade end of year trip
Tuesday, May 3: AP Spanish Testing (for applicable students only)
Wednesday, May 4: STAAR End-of-Course (EOC) for Algebra
Friday, May 6: 8th grade dance at 6:00 pm, "A Night in Paris"
Monday, May 9: STAAR for 6th (math) and 7th (on-level math only)
Tuesday, May 10: STAAR for 6th and 7th (reading)
Wednesday, May 11: STAAR for 8th (science)
Thursday, May 12: STAAR for 8th (social studies)
May 15: Last day to order yearbooks
Wednesday, May 18: Kickstart Belt Ceremony
Thursday, May 19: New Knights Visit (incoming 6th graders)
Thursday, May 19: Read it Forward Author Event
Tuesday, May 24: Beginner Band Spring Concert
Thursday, May 26: 7th and 8th Band Spring Concert
Friday, May 27: 8th grade end of year trip to Fiesta, Texas
Monday, May 30: NO SCHOOL - Student and Staff Holiday
Tuesday, May 31: Chalk Walk and Knight Out
Tuesday, May 31: 40-book challenge celebration
Wednesday: June 1: (early release) End of year grade level celebrations
Let's talk about phones....
Cell phones are a wonderful tool, both inside and outside of the classroom. As a parent, I love the ability to reach my children at any time. There is no doubt they are great but we are seeing some challenges with the phones at school and hope that you can reinforce best practices with your students.
- Continue to pay attention to surroundings, especially while walking. Believe it or not, the lunch lines are taking longer to process with the number of students on their phones. Additionally, students will often cross the street while typing or reading on their phones.
- Keep the phone in their possession at all times. We do our best to recover lost/stolen phones, but it negatively impacts students (and parents) when they are worried about lost/stolen phones. Unfortunately, there are situations when phones cannot be recovered or are not recovered in the same condition. Frequent things we see that students should avoid are: leaving the phone plugged into a wall/classroom to charge, leaving the phone on the desk in class/table at lunch, and lending the phone to other students. We also ask that students refrain from playing "keep away" with phones, or have practical jokes of hiding phones; these situations are causing issues between friends and disrupting the learning process.
- Use social media and communication apps for positive interactions with friends and family. We are experiencing an increase in the incidents of mistreatment and age inappropriate behavior. Students should refrain from: sending/posting mean or disparaging messages, threatening or suggesting participation in physically aggressive behavior, and sending/posting pictures that are provocative or revealing. Parents should be aware that some apps can contain secret photos or text messages (i.e., photo vaults).
As always, we appreciate and value the support we receive from the KLMS community and parents. This is a great place to be it's always a great day to be a knight!!
Regards,
Dina Schaefer