Semester Exams

It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of first semester. To better prepare for semester exams, below are several exam study tips, presentations, and videos.

Semester Exam Schedule - January 17th-19th

Wednesday, January 17th        7:40-7:55 1st hour exam review

                                                            7:55-9:30 1st hour exam

                                                            9:30-9:40 Break

                                                9:40-10:38 report to 2nd hour to review for

upcoming exams

                                                            10:38-11:13 Lunch

                                                            11:13 -12:47 2nd hour exam

                                                            12:47-12:53 break

                                                            12:53-2:28 3rd hour exam

Thursday, January 18th 7:40-9:20 4th hour exam

                                                            9:20-9:35 Break

                                                            9:35-11:15 5th hour exam
Student Dismissal at 11:15am

Friday, January 19th         7:40-9:20 6th hour exam

                                                            9:20-9:35 Break

                                                            9:35-11:15 7th hour exam
Student Dismissal at 11:15am

Exploratory classes not giving an exam and do not have a test/exam to provide will have a regular day of instruction.

Semester Exam Supports

Here are some of the resources you can utilize to prepare for exams.

• Exam Study Resources
• Exam Study Tips Video

Finally, to help students prepare for their exams, our Falcon Parent Support Organization (FPSO) will be hosting their 4th annual Exam Cram. Below you will find details for this event:

• When is it? Friday, January 12th from 2:30-5:00pm
• Where is it? Freeland Middle School (starts in the cafeteria)
• What is it? A great space for students to have 20-30 minutes per class to study with peers in a fun but productive way!
• Where do I sign up? Sign up by Wednesday, January l0th in the main office
• What if I have questions? See Mrs. Wulff, or email her at wulffr@freelandschools.net

Additional Announcements

• Our parent/teacher conferences will take place on Thursday, January 25th from 4:30-7:00pm. 
• Our Middle School Parent Survey is still open - we appreciate your feedback!
• If you are interested in joining our middle school parent series please check out the information below - this is a great opportunity to meet once a week for seven weeks to learn more about how our middle school students grow, develop, and learn! 
• Middle School Parent Cohort Series Description
• Middle School Parent Cohort Series Registration

Reflections at the start of a new year.

Although this break was a bit more chilly than I would have liked, it was still a great time to relax and enjoy the company of family and friends. I hope that all of you also had some much needed time to rest and relax with your families. With the start of the new year, I took time to reflect on how things are going at the middle school, and am so proud of the work we have done this year.

When it comes to reflections, it is very important that our parents and students also provide us feedback on how they think the year has gone. Click on this link to access a simple 5 minute survey we are asking parents to fill out to give us valuable feedback about your thoughts with how we are doing serving your child this year. We know we aren't perfect, and we want to do whatever we can to continue to improve our student experiences  here at school! If you don't have time to fill it out right now, you can always access the link on our Freeland Middle School district page - it is labeled "parent survey" on the right hand side of the page. Our students will also be filling out a student survey in their English classes sometime during the month of January.

Our students continue to SOAR above the line at school in both behavior and academics. With the honor roll and merit roll recognition coming up quickly, I am proud to say that our students continue to work hard and take school seriously, and know that we will, once again, have the vast majority of our students with a 3.0 or above for the first semester of the year. If you would like information on how we run our honor roll at Freeland Middle School, make sure to check out this presentation.

As we continue into the new year, I think it is also best to reflect on some of the greatest highlights we have had so far. One of my favorites is definitely the 3rd annual Feliz Navi-Dodgeball tournament that we hosted right before break. This event is by far one of my favorite events of the year, and is chalked full of fun for all students whether playing in the tournament, or watching others participate. We had a great year once again, and a huge thank you goes out to our middle school student council and their advisor, Mrs. Gotts, for putting on this tournament for us!

Below are a few pictures from the dodgeball tournament, but if you want to check out all of the pictures we took just click on this link!

And of course, a big thank you to our teachers for once again participating.... and once again, losing in our dodgeball tournament. Maybe one day we will actually beat our students. :)

Some of my other favorite memories so far this year include all of the times we have gathered together to do something great for the community. Recently, we ran our giving tree program and our donations were used to provide Christmas presents to those in need in our local community. In addition to this, we also sent our Choir to Baynes Apple Farm to carol the night away for visitors at the apple farm. Finally, we wanted to celebrate our students right here at FMS, so we wrote each other Christmas grams to post all over the school, and recently had a locker elf visit clean lockers to give candy canes away to any student that kept their locker clean for the marking period.

What a great semester to reflect on; we cannot wait to see what 2018 brings to FMS! Happy New Year!

Robotics Team - Michigan State Championship Results

Congratulations to the Freeland Middle School robotics team for earning runner-up at the Michigan State Championship for FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC).  The team performed exceptionally by winning all of their qualification matches during the 2-day event at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek, held December 15-16th.  They earned the 2nd rank captains spot in the Edison Division of the tournament.  Each of the divisions, Edison and Franklin, consisted of 48 teams from across the state of Michigan.  These 96 teams were the best-of-the-best from more than 400 teams in Michigan competing in the 2017-2018 FTC Relic Recovery game.  After selecting robotic alliance partners from Kalamazoo and Troy, Freeland proceeded into the divisional playoff rounds.  Their alliance won every match including a win against the #1 ranked divisional alliance.  Those wins secured their alliance's spot in the final match against the Franklin Division winner, which was lead by 2-time state champion, The HexaSonics of Allendale.  The Fabricators' alliance lost the first match of the finals, but rebounded quickly by winning the second.  Going into the sudden death final match, Freeland's finest put up a great effort, but their partner from Kalamazoo had difficulty with a scoring element, and their opponents had just too much offense.  Freeland finished as runner-up in the event.  However, their performance in the Michigan State Championship did earn them a nomination to the next level of competition.  That event, the FTC North Super Regional, will be held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on March 15-17, 2018.  The team will be busy the next several months raising the necessary funds to make the trip, as well as improving their robot.  They will be competing against high school and middle school teams from across a 12-state region.  Best of luck to the Freeland Fabricators.  Thanks to all students and mentors for their dedication and hard work!

Tackling the big question... what will my child's future look like?

I am not sure if you have noticed recently, but our schools are changing. The focus is no longer on memorization tactics and how to get an "A" on the next science test. Instead, you should see some of the following things happening in your child's classrooms.

1) More focus on collaboration. Students are being put into various groups, for many different purposes, and are asked to solve problems together rather than in isolation.

2) Critical thinking is now the primary focus instead of just memorizing facts. Our students are being asked to think about the big questions in a classroom instead of attempting to become a human encyclopedia. Questions like "why" and "how" are much more common in our classrooms today.

3) Creativity is king. Our students are being asked more and more to think outside the box about solutions to real-world issues. Whether it is tackling constitutional rights in social studies, or analyzing a phenomena in science, our students must have the creativity to think of solutions, and work through problems in their current classroom setting.

4) Today, our students must learn how to effectively communicate to be successful. We are working on communication through our project based learning experiences where students have to present to authentic audiences on an ongoing basis throughout their projects. Additionally, teachers work on communication skills through day-to-day digital communication with Google apps and email, and we are even working with our students on becoming effective communicators through various technical support lines that support our students in the use of their digital tools.

The big question is... why the change? Freeland Middle School, and Freeland School District firmly believes that we need to continue to promote the "4 C's" of 21st Century Learning. In this ever changing world, our students need to be able to effectively communicate, create, critically think, and collaborate to truly be successful. Our world is changing quickly, and we are currently preparing students for jobs that do not exist yet, and our educational setting needs to represent an institution that is thinking forward into the 21st century. Our system does not look like it did 20 years ago, but that's the point isn't it? We should continue to adapt and change to meet our student's needs to ensure they will be able to tackle their future with confidence and success.

I know that time is a precious commodity, but if you have five minutes, please take the time to read this article, (and the inspiration for my blog post today) "Students Must be Prepared to Reinvent Themselves" which has a focus on the world our children are about to enter, and what we can do to help support them with planning for their future.

Happy Friday!

November Happenings

The month of November has just flown by hasn't it! We have had a busy month of celebrating, learning, and growing together at Freeland Middle School.

After each marking period, we always celebrate with a SOAR assembly that brings our student body together to share successes, honor students, and have some fun! During our assembly this month we were able to honor two students who received the Optimist Club award - Jackson Vlassis and Ryleigh Roberts.

We also celebrated several students for being students of the month/marking period! Students are chosen for this honor when they continually show effort in their academics and follow our building wide SOAR expectations.

The Choir was able to serenade us once again with a few of their beautiful songs. We are super excited for their upcoming Choir Concert featuring many class Christmas carols on December 12th at 6:00pm in the auditorium. Immediately following the Choir Concert our Band will also be performing some holiday tunes for us!

There was also an opportunity for staff and students to have some fun together with games that the student council planned.

Our students have also been hard at work with many project based learning experiences. This is a building and district initiative we started a few years ago to make sure our teachers were equipped with the tools and knowledge to engage students in 21st century learning that focused on collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and creativity. Mrs. Gotts' class did an incredible job with their project based learning experience and are showcasing their work in the pictures below. 

And, this month got even more amazing today when we had a HUMAN giving tree show up to kick off our sharing tree event. Every year, FMS students give back to local families in need by participating in the Giving Tree project. Thank you Mrs. LaFond for helping us to kick off this great event! 

What a great November our school has had, we cannot wait to see what December brings. 

Robotics

Freeland Middle School Robotics, FTC Team #5386 The Fabricators, competed on November 18^th in Marysville. The team went 4-1 in pool play earning the 3^rd place alliance captain in the playoff round. They won both semi-final matches against the #2 alliance and made it into the finals against #1. Although they did not win in the finals, their performance did earn them a spot in the state championship in Battle Creek on December 15-16. Congratulations to a great group of students from FMS!

Good Luck at States FMS Robotics Club!

Student-Led Conferences

On November 9th, our Freeland Middle School students and parents will experience their first student-led conferences of the 2017-2018 school year. Each year, Freeland Middle School hosts three different parent/teacher conferences. Two of these conferences are structured around a "student-led" conference, and one conference, in January, is a more traditional looking parent/teacher conference.

In preparation for the student-led conferences this year, our teachers have put together several helpful documents so that our students and parents understand how these conferences are structured.

If you are interested in a snapshot of what our student-led conferences look like, please watch this video which is a great example of how a student walks his/her parents through the conference to showcase strengths and weaknesses throughout the grading period.

To prepare for conferences this year, our students will have three homeroom sessions on November 7th, 8th, and 9th to finalize their portfolio of work, complete self-reflections on each of their classes, goal set for the next grading period, and practice their conference with one another. Students will follow this adjusted schedule on November 7th-9th to allow time to practice and prepare for these conferences. Students will complete a goal setting reflection form prior to the conferences to provide them a guide for talking about their progress this marking period. Additionally, on the night of conferences, they will utilize a student-led conference checklist to make sure they do not miss anything that needs to be discussed with parents.

This year, we have also created parent preparation documents to help all of our parents better understand their role in the conferences, and to help prepare for how they can support students as they walk parents through their work. We ask that parents review the parent checklist for student-led conferences prior to November 9th to better prepare for how to help your child with the student-led conference process.

We are so excited to partner with parents and students throughout the school year and hope that you enjoy the process of student-led conferences. If you have any questions in regards to the conferences please contact Mrs. Wulff at wulffr@freelandschools.net or 989-692-4032.

Parent/Teacher Conference Dates/Times:

• Thursday, November 9th 4:30-7:00pm (student-led conference)
• Thursday, January 25th 4:30-7:00pm (traditional conference)
• Thursday, April 12th 4:30-6:30pm (student-led conference)