October 3, 2016

Post date: Oct 3, 2016 4:40:52 PM

Parent Teacher Conferences

October 13 will be our next parent teacher conference night.

The link to sign up will go live on Friday October 7 at 7:00 AM.

You will be able to access the link from this Middle Seat post at 7:00 AM, the Middle School webpage, and it will be emailed out as well.

HMS Activity Night

This is a social event for your middle school student in a safe, unstructured, fun environment. The evening is for Highland Middle School Students ONLY! Please, NO elementary or high school students and NO VISITORS. There will be free games with prizes in the cafeteria, dancing with a D.J. in the West Gym, Basketball in the East Gym, and the Computer Lab will be open - if volunteer positions are filled.

Food will be available for purchase for a minimal cost and items range from $.25 to $3.00. Items available will be pizza, cookies, chips, water, candy, Gatorade, and propel. The vending machines will be inoperable during the evening.

Admission to Activity Night will be $5.00 per student and the student can purchase a color coded by grade wristband during their lunchtime on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday the week of the event. The wristband will be put on the student's wrist at the time of purchase.

You can volunteer at this link - HMS Activity Night October 13, 2016

Online Educational Tools

The Highland Data and Privacy Committee meets twice a year to vet online educational tools and products to ensure they meet the standards set forth in COPPA and FERPA laws protecting your student's privacy. Three additional tools were approved for Highland Middle School at the recent meeting:

These tools are open for all teachers to use in their classrooms if they wish, however the teachers listed submitted these tools for their specific use in their classroom. If you have any questions or concerns with these tools, please contact the teacher listed or Mr. Henry.

Student Signatures on Final Forms

We are nearing 100% completion of Final Forms by parents. Thank you. Students also have a few forms to sign.

From the Final Forms log in page - https://highlandmedina-oh.finalforms.com - students can try to log in as a student using their student email address (Astudent11@hlnd.org) and a password. If a student has not logged into Final Forms before, which is usually the case, they can resend the Confirmation Email to their student email.

All student emails are technically a Gmail account. Students should then log into gmail.com using their email address and password they use to log into Chromebooks at school. In their Inbox will be a confirmation email from Final Forms. Clicking the link provided within the email will prompt them to create a Final Forms password. Once that is complete, they will see the forms page. The forms they need to sign will be listed in yellow. After reading the information, students will need to type their name at the bottom of each yellow form and hit the blue Submit button.

Online/Cell Phone Activity

It is fairly normal this time of year for me to begin to hear rumors and find incidents of students making poor choices with the use of their cell phone or technology. The best defense against these situations is a good offense. Check you child's phone regularly - text messages, pictures, Snapchats, Instagrams, etc. Mr. James, Dr. Gilbert, and I will always inform the parents of any improper activity we encounter and our hope is to head off these situations prior to a necessary consequence for a student's actions.

Middle School students are in the process of figuring out who they are. It is completely normal for a child to behave completely different at school, at home, and online. We can easily see with our eyes what occurs at school and at home. It takes another step to make sure a child's online self matches the expectations we see everywhere else. Thank you for helping close this gap with your child.

This is a link to a presentation by Josh Ochs to middle school students regarding social media https://youtu.be/O-KoV581Cls

Also put on your calendar the Jesse Weinberger meeting below.

5 PARENT MEETINGS for your calendar

1. World Academic Summitt

As many of your are aware, our HHS Intercultural Program will host all (3) of our sister schools simultaneously in early October. Students and faculty from China, France, and Spain will be here for a unique educational, cultural, and social experience. Students will attend classes here, visit our other district buildings, visit our career center, and engage in our students' educational worlds. In addition, we have a large number of cultural and social excursions designed for our guests to live the life of the American student. I want to invite all of you to an event we are having at our high school on October 5. We are calling that night our "World Academic Summit". Attendees will discover the role that the Intercultural Program has played in the lives of all of the participating students. We will have presentations from each country, and we will include an open forum at the end of the night where students and adults can ask questions to faculty and students from all of our schools. The Highland community has always welcomed our sister schools with open arms; thank you. Please consider attending this unique event on October 5 at Highland High School at 7 PM.

~Dana Addis, Principal, Highland High School

2. Rachel's Challenge

October 20 at 6:30 PM in the Middle School West Gym. All 5-8 grade students will participate in this assembly during the day.

3. College Credit Plus Informational Meeting for the 2017-2018 school year

Oct 27 6:30 PM in the Highland High School Auditorium

College Credit Plus is the program that took the place of Post Secondary Option. College Credit Plus programs are open to all 2017-2018 school year 7th through 12th graders. If you are not familiar with College Credit Plus and think your son/daughter may try to take some college classes prior to graduating from HHS, I would recommend you attend the meeting to receive the information.

4. Internet Safety for Parents (see above)

Jesse Weinberger January 23 7:00 PM in the Highland High School Auditorium

Mrs. Weinberger will be reviewing criminal cases in the news and their tragic outcomes. Parents interested in attending should be alerted in advance to make arrangements for childcare. This presentation reviews specific platforms: which to avoid, which to allow with privacy settings, and what to watch out for in general. Parents will be given a sample family digital use policy which can be edited to suit any family dynamic. Other topics include How do your kids connect?, Cyberbullying, Sexting, Sexual Predation & Sextortion, Social Media, How to become an engaged digital parent.

5. 8th Grade Parent HHS Orientation

Feb 16 6:30 in the Highland High School Auditorium