Honored to Call Plymouth Home

If there is one thing that I have learned during this past week it is that Plymouth is a special, special place.  In the face of adversity and the unfortunate loss of a great kid, student, son, brother, athlete, and person our community has rallied around each other and supported one another like I have never witnessed.  I am proud to raise my own kids in this community.  I am proud to send my children to schools that have teachers and coaches that care for each student as if they are their own.  My vision for Lincoln Junior High has and will always be for it to be a great place for kids, to be the best place for kids.  I believe Lincoln is a great place for kids because of each of you.  The investment that each of you put into educating the students of our community is impressive and it was revealed during this difficult week.  I am proud that we have staff that spend hours upon hours building relationships with students.  All of the extra time that you put into building these relationships with our students does not go unnoticed.   As we close this week thanks for all you do.  Go Rockies!

News and Notes:

Monday- Craig and I are taking a team of teachers to visit Westlane Middle School in Indianapolis.  Westlane is a designated School to Watch.  We will being looking at what makes them a School to Watch.

We are almost a month away from our first Fall Festival Fundraiser.  Cheryl Caine and Leslie Stec have been busy working with our student council and NJHS students to plan a successful event.  They will be emailing everyone to ask for volunteers to help with various things.  Please consider being a part of this event.  Any help will be much appreciated.

On Wednesday next week we will be calling students down to the auditorium during the days to introduce them to the Fall Festival.  Here is the schedule.

An identified group of 40 student leaders will be traveling to Five Star's Summit Camp next Friday to participate in various leadership activities and challenges.   The goal of this trip is to build leaders through Five Star's core values of Respect, Responsibility, Integrity, Courage, and Sacrifice.  These students will be expected to help other students throughout the year to be the best they can be.  Craig will share the final list with everyone in the next couple of days.

Acuity testing-  After a year with ACT Aspire we will move back to Acuity.  Students have been uploaded into the system and testing will need to happen in the next two weeks.  Students are tested in math and language arts.  The test is neither predictive nor diagnostic but a test of college and career readiness.  More information will come about the procedures and length of the test.

Questioning in the classroom-  As you are checking for understanding and questioning students during lessons don't forget the options for not letting students opt out.  

What to Say Instead of I Don't Know... May I please have some more information? May I please have some time to think? Would you please repeat the question? Where could I find more information about that? May I ask a friend for help?