It's time to spring forward.

First off, I have to apologize for the radio silence over the last month. It has been a month of ups and downs for the middle school, and I am just finding some time to sit down and write for a bit about the various happenings in the middle school right now. The strength our school and community has shown in the last month has been incredible, and I am so proud to be part of a community that continues to come together and support one another regardless of what is going on in our community, country, or world.

Recently, our middle school parents have been engaged in a middle school parent cohort on Tuesday nights. We are entering week five (out of seven) of our cohort and it is going great! We have had various experts come in each week to talk about the development of our teens and pre-teens. So far, we have had presentations on brain development, 21st century learning, healthy life style and nutritional needs, and social emotional health and development. This week, our focus will be on social media - the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you are interested in being a part of this cohort, we are running our second session in April, and there is still time to sign up! Follow this link and sign up by March 23rd and we will make sure you get a spot in our next cohort.

Speaking of social media, it is that time of year when I tend to give my PSA on social media trends for our teens right now. Recently, I have learned of three new apps or add-ons in apps that I think that we should all know about and make sure to talk to our teen about!

• House Party - this is your typical video chat application, and it has been very popular with our teens this year. Much like Skype, students can go on and video chat with one another. The difference is that with House Party you can chat with up to 8 people at once creating a true "party" feel. More information about House Party can be found by reading through this article about what all parents should know about the app.
• My Eyes Only - Somehow I missed this one! I am being told by our teens that it has been around for a year, but I never caught wind of it. It is an extension to the app Snapchat. It allows students to hide snaps on their Snapchat file by using the "My Eyes Only" extension. To get into this part of Snapchat you even need a separate code. This is definitely one to have a family conversation about as it is a hiding place for all images/videos that go on with Snapchat. 
• Sarahah - If you are familiar with the now outdated ASKfm, this is very similar. It is an anonymous app in which students have been using it to say mean things to one another. It is meant to be a "friendly" app where strangers say kind things to each other, but I believe it is being used in a negative way with many of our teens. Good news though, looks like Apple and Google have dropped this app, or are at least getting some pressure to do so due to the bullying issues! Check out this article for more information on that.

And to go along with the trending apps PSA, it is also important as we "spring forward" to continue to have the conversation about appropriate exchange of digital images. So many of our teens do not realize the consequences of sending an inappropriate (ex. nudes) picture of themselves to others, and I cannot stress the importance of continuing to have family conversations about this. Not sure what to say to your teen/parent about the pressures there are out there to text in inappropriate ways? This article is a great starting point for conversations for both parents and students. I know many of our teens are pressured regularly to engage in various forms of "sexting", and continual reinforcement of what to do when this situation arises is vital to keeping our students safe in the digital world.

Finally, we recently had a Crisis Incident Management community session that brought about some great discussion with our middle school parents about how we can continue to provide the safest possible environment for our students at FMS. Due to discussions at this meeting, we are adjusting our visitor check-in procedures a bit. Please read below for details if you have not already received the email about this: 

• In order to make certain our students are in a safe/secure environment when you buzz in from now on you will be asked to give your name, the student you are wishing to see (if applicable), and why you are coming into the building. Once buzzed in, please come directly into the main office and have a photo ID ready to present to the secretary. Additionally, we ask that every person entering the building buzz in. Please refrain from letting others into the building who have not buzzed in yet. Thank you for your help and support with making sure our building is safe and secure for students.

Be on the lookout for another blog this week in regards to our 8th grade PSAT. We have lots of parent and student information in regards to individual PSAT scores. Recently, Mr. Duley provided all results to students, and got them connect to Khan Academy and College Board, and we know there may be some questions as students and parents begin to look into these results. Later this week, I will be posting an entire blog dedicated to all things PSAT! 

Have a great week!

Student Qualifies for State Geography Bee!

Marcus Bader is one amazing student. Early on in his educational journey he discovered that he loved Geography, and he happened to be really good at it too! Since his elementary school days, Marcus has spent time learning about the world. He is interested in studying the world, learning facts about different parts of the world, and remembers just about everything he learns!

Last year, Marcus was our only student to qualify for the state level Geography Bee put on by National Geographic. This year, with the help of Mr. Schwedler who hosted the bee, Marcus once again qualified for the state bee. He took the state level test last week, and we should get the results for this test sometime in early March.

Marcus, and all students who participated in the bee this year, congratulations on all of your hard work!

Second Semester - Changes and Updates

We have arrived! Our students persevered through their first semester of the 2017-2018 school year, and today starts their second semester. This is an opportunity to reflect on how things went first semester, make necessary changes to better our school environment, and keep on doing great things here at Freeland Middle School.

Some changes you will see second semester, and some additional updates are below...

Technology Changes

We have noticed some concerns with academic dishonesty on technology devices that we need to address. We are showing this video to all students in 7th and 8th grade this week just to continue to reinforce academic integrity and what that means here at FMS.

Additionally, we have many Chromebooks that have been damaged due to misuse this year. We are showing this video to all 7th grade students to reinforce Chromebook care. Starting next week, if our students have broken hinges on their Chromebooks, they will spend time during lunch helping our tech support team fix their hinges. This is a great life skill for these students, and also shows our students how much work it can be to fix these devices! We hope that this will reinforce care for our 1:1 Chromebooks.

Finally, our building is struggling with device misuse, and we need to make sure we clean things up when it comes to how our 7th and 8th grade students use their devices. Please make sure you watch this video or view this PowerPoint presentation to understand our expectations moving forward. If our students get sent to the office for technology misuse they will be looking at after-school detentions. This will take some coordinating for our parents, and we appreciate your support with this. We want to make sure we are teaching students skills for success when it comes to technology, and right now, we are seeing many of our students not understanding how to use their devices appropriately at school.

Cafeteria Changes

I am sure you have heard frustrations about our cafeteria when it comes to days when we have to "lock down" the cafeteria and not let students move due to cafeteria messes and overall behavior in the cafeteria. For second semester, we want to try to change things up a bit. We are going to be running a "Clash of the Cafeteria Clans" competition in our cafeteria. This will be a fun and positive way to reinforce appropriate cafeteria behavior. Please take a look at this presentation to better understand the game we will be playing with our students this marking period! 

Honor/Merit Roll

This is the week our students will find out if they made the Honor/Merit Roll. Honor/Merit Roll lists will be printed Thursday morning and posted in the halls for students. On Friday, anyone who made the Honor/Merit Roll or is being recognized for being a Student of the Marking period will attend a dessert banquet in the cafeteria during our assembly schedule time at the end of the day. For students who did not make the Honor/Merit Roll this semester, we have set up some goal setting time for them so that they can set themselves up for success second semester! Review this presentation for all information on our Honor/Merit Roll recognition at FMS.

Have a great start to second semester!

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!