OUR VISION

• Lilburn Middle School will become a Professional Learning Community committed to working collaboratively to engage students in learning in order to actualize student potential.

OUR MISSION

• Lilburn Middle School is committed to engaging all students in learning the Academic Knowledge and Skills through research-based best practices with mastery being measured by local, state, national, and world-class standards and re-teaching/reassessing students as needed to actualize their potential.

OUR VALUES

• We use research-based best practices to engage students in learning.

• We build healthy relationships with our students, parents, and community members.

• We provide appropriate interventions to support students in actualizing their potential.

• We collaborate with our colleagues toward building a Professional Learning Community.

Quality Plus Teaching Strategy: Technology

With our current teaching model in place, we can all agree that teachers have been trying their best to quickly master the art of teaching in-person and online students simultaneously. If you have found moments where you were uncertain of the best way to address the challenges that come up, you're not alone. Please read the article to find some answers to commonly asked questions about concurrent instruction.

• https://www.weareteachers.com/teaching-online-and-in-person/?MvBriefArticleId=55993

• GCPS QPTS Gone Digital is another great resource that can be used to get additional information:

  • drive.google.com/file/d/17M9guCNqx7_W5rCCpbJjUzPSJdUkNd_p/view?usp=sharing

NEW:

Brief Observations

• • The second round of Briefs began last week. All certified staff will receive two 10-minute Brief Observations during the 1st semester and two 10-minute Brief Observation during the 2nd semester. Administrators can rate and provide feedback on any of the 10 Performance Standards. Each Brief Observation will receive ratings and feedback on at least 4 of the Performance standards.

Early Release Conferences

• Early Release Conferences will be held the week of October 19th with two Early Release Days (10/ 21 and 10/22). See Dr. Maresh's email on 10/16/2020 to get specific schedule information for the days.

• You will need to set up a Zoom Meeting link for your conferences. Make sure the Zoom Meeting is set as recurring meeting. This way you can use the same link for all your conferences. See Diane Brown's email on 10/16/2020 for specific directions. Each meeting should be about 20 minutes. You can also schedule a telephone conference with parents if necessary. Make at least three attempts to contact the parent for a conference. Please record all conferences and attempts as you will be asked for that information soon after Early Release "season" has ended.

• For safety reasons, all conferences should be a Zoom Meeting or by phone. If you have a parent requesting a face to face conference, please let your grade level administrator know before scheduling a conference.

• Conferences will be held on campus at LMS. Wednesday is our late day (last conference is at 7PM). You may leave right after buses on Thursday.

HR Compliance Videos

• If you have NOT completed the HR Compliance Training Videos, please make sure you have completed them before October 30th.

SEI Survey

• Survey Time is here. From September 21st to October 23rd, students will complete the SEI Survey. This survey is to better understand students' well-being and connection to school. Due to low participation rates, this year's surveys will be completed online during students' SC class. More information will come.

Students Returning

• As of 10/14/20, we have had students returning to the building. The option to return based on failures is now limited to parent or teacher request and admin review. Please make sure that grades are updated in the gradebook as that is a major part of the admin review process. Please communicate with Mrs. Markitan if you need assistance with furniture in your classroom. Check the arrangement of your classroom to space students as much as possible. Remember to go over safety expectations with students (wearing a maks, not sharing materials, walking in the hall, lunch behavior, etc.). Reach out to parents to share any information you may have shared with your other in person families.

PRIOR WEEK'S REMINDERS:

Mustang Mastery Intervention Program:

• • Lilburn Middle School is excited to have the opportunity to provide interventions for students who have excessive NTI’s, gifted learners, and students who struggle to demonstrate mastery. Students with different learning needs require different intervention approaches, so this intervention program will be targeted to support the needs of learners at Lilburn Middle School. There will be three different options offered as follows:

  • Mustang Mastery Math/ELA Remediation: Students who require skill development in the areas of ELA and MA require direct instruction in the areas of their skill deficit.

  • Mustang Mastery Gifted Learner Skill Development: Gifted learners need explicit instruction in the skills needed to tackle more rigorous tasks and apply their learning in new and different ways.

  • Mustang Mastery Academic Assistance/Study Skills: Learners who have excessive NTIs on major assignments that result in a negatively impacted grade. These students have demonstrated standard proficiency, but struggle with work completion. They can use this opportunity to obtain assistance in completing those outstanding assignments.

Please begin to identify students who could benefit from the program. Make your recommendations to your administrators by indicating this recommendation on your failure report. As discussed in CLT last Tuesday, completed failure reports are due to your grade level admin by October 7th.

• • If you are interested in teaching a section of the Mustang Mastery Program, please complete an application. Teacher selection will begin soon. Applications are due on October 9, 2020. Notification of selection will be made as soon as possible. The application can be found at the link below.

  • https://forms.gle/YRNGjzZZk1k3MHEJA

Attendance Protocol

• Please review this protocol to obtain guidance on accurately marking students' attendance.

PLC Schedule:

• https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wlYcUsPfE41WDhokn4GymRaz46I_jv_qA5WyXheKMWo/edit?usp=sharing

Links to School/Department/Academy Meetings

• Some of us were having trouble with finding the links for meetings that we needed to attend. To help with this, admin has now worked to include these links on the calendar. If you have a meeting, check the calendar and you will be able to get to the link by clicking on the event and the link can be found by going to the event description.

Lost Keys

• Losing your assigned keys brings a security risk to the school and an added expense. Please be aware that there is a $15 fee to replace each key that you lose. You will need to let Mrs. Markitan know if you need to discuss a lost key.

Dress Code

• Please remind student of our school dress code that is in place. If students are out of dress code, please remind them of the appropriate dress code and follow through the disciplinary process.

• Now that students are back in the building, we return to our professional dress. All LMS staff should adhere to the school dress code policy that is outlined in the Staff Handbook. This includes making sure that clothing are the appropriate length, transparency, and fit and that professional attire is worn each day. Spirit wear may be worn with jeans on Fridays. This includes "LMS" or "Mustang" specific clothing, not just clothing that is within school colors.

Morning arrival

• To ensure that we have adequate supervision, teachers should plan to be at their door greeting students. This can be done safely by reminding students to use the directional traffic flow and by keeping a safe distance as students arrive.

HR Compliance

• If you have not completed your HR Compliance videos, LMS Sign-Off, and Safety Awareness Training, please complete these required tasks ASAP.

Tutoring

• • The return of students to the building means that we will need to resume our tutoring. We will continue to offer tutoring at 8:10AM. The following days are still assigned for each content:

Tuesday: Connections

Wednesday: MA/SS

Thursday: LA/SC

Have a MIGHTY MUSTANG Week!