Christmas Scene Investigators

We are looking forward to seeing our students showcase their Drama skills at our Winter Theater Production of “Christmas Scene Investigators - Who Stole Santa Claus”? The production will be on Friday, December 6th and Saturday, December 7th. The show will start at 6:00 and students will serve desserts! We hope to see you there! 

Ring the Bell - Saturday, December 7th from 10-2

Please sign up to support the "Ring the Bell" initiative. We still have 4 slots available.  

Lockdown Drill - Monday Dec 9th - 9:00

Lockdown drill planned for the first day back from Thanksgiving break. 

This drill will be coordinated with our local police department. Admin or police officers will clear rooms by unlocking doors. Once doors are unlocked, wait for the all clear announcement over the intercom before leaving classrooms. 

ELEOT Observations

During November + December will have administrators from within our district visit and evaluate JMS using the ELEOT inventory which is attached for your reference. This is the second week for admin to complete their observations so be prepared to have people in your rooms this week, most likely on Monday or Tuesday. Admin are observing the active engagement of your students.  

Visits started on November 20 and will continue till December 20. Admin are looking for classroom environments conducive to student learning. 

Burro Block 

Please see what we recently shared with parents about advisory and our Burro Block. Thank you for developing our offerings during our Burro Block and extended advisory! 

The Importance of Advisory - Burro Block

Advisory is the first period of the day for Middle School students. The purpose of this time is to provide academic and social-emotional support, create a sense of belonging and school community. This is a time where students work with advisory teachers to develop behavior and academic goals. At Jenifer Middle School, we also use advisory for academic interventions and extensions through our “Burro Block” that happens every Friday. For example, in grade 6 Ms. McLeod ran an ELA lesson focused on parts of speech through Bingo. Ms. Hudson in grade 8 worked with students to develop respect for our Veterans by writing letters of appreciation to community veterans.  It is important that students are coming to school on time and attending advisory so they do not miss out on these learning opportunities.

November 18-22

Cognia Survey

This Friday during extended advisory, we will have students complete the Cognia survey. The Cognia survey assess students engagement (Cognia). 

Three Engagement Domains

• Behavioral Domain—Students’ efforts in the classroom

• Cognitive Domain—Students’ investment in learning

• Emotional Domain—Students’ emotions or feelings about their classroom and school

Three Types of Engagement

• Committed—Students find personal meaning and value in tasks

• Compliant—Students strive to meet learning expectations, follow rules, and actively avoid consequences

• Disengaged—Students are unmotivated, actively avoid completing tasks, and have low participation

Our school goal connected to student learning goals is directly connected to the Cognia survey. More information about the survey will be shared this week. 

Ring the Bell - Saturday, December 7th from 10-2

Dear Team,

This year JMS will “Ring the Bell” at Albertsons on Saturday, December 7th from 10-2. If you would like to volunteer your time for this event please add your name to the list below. If you have any questions, please contact Aaron. Thank you!

Professional DeVelopment

Thank you for your participation and support during our November PD. We are working to spiral our PD to build on strategies that support the implementation of our behavior, engagement, and achievement school goals. 

Thank you presenters to the presenters, Justin, Quinn, and Guiding Coalition Members. Additionally, thank you Heather for the awesome snacks! I loved the ranch taco bites!

Please complete the feedback from the PD sessions if you have not already completed: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdwq8VjESf5mkoAS18CRi8uwzSJEnaUffa0wBt5FEF_L_YWvA/viewform 

Attached below are the resources used from PD. 

Well-Being Survey

Attached is the opt-in letter for students to complete to take part in the Student Wellness Survey. The deadline for the permission slips is October 25, 2024. Letters were shared on October 14th. 

All resources connected to this survey can be found here:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cfiM8l7M1NRu_caZux6W4VLeIhBmgFEd?usp=sharing 

A copy of the assessment was available to parents at conferences. Some parents took home the assessment sample. 

Amanda shared an advisory spreadsheet to track returned letters. The office will need to follow up with families who do not return the letters. We need to have 65% of total enrollment complete the survey. 

Please submit all letters with tracked advisory lists on Friday, October 25th. 

Teacher feedback from conferences

Dear Jenifer Team,

Please complete this feedback form to provide feedback on the fall conferences. This will help with improvements for the spring conference, which is also scheduled for 1 day. Also, this feedback will be shared with our district calendar committee members to support their calendar planning conversations. 

+ What went well (What needs to be repeated) 

- What needs improvement (What needs to be changed)

?/! Comments, questions, suggestions  

https://forms.gle/9rqKDTRt3wHBY6Tq6 

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

“Breast cancer screening and early detection play an important role in your health.  Screening tests can help detect breast cancer at an early stage when the chances of survival are highest.  Whether you’re ready to get your first screening mammogram or want to know more about follow-up tests after an abnormal finding, learning about breast cancer screening tests and the importance of early breast cancer detection can help you take charge of your health”.  To learn more, visit:  https://www.komen.org/breast-cancer/screening/ 

As a way to continue raising awareness about the importance of breast awareness, each person wearing pink on Wednesday during the month of October is asked to take pictures (individual, small or large groups) and send them to Katie Babino, Communications Specialist for posting on the District’s Facebook page.   

October 7-11

Fall Conferences Update

We had 80% overall attendance for our Fall Conferences (444 of 565). In addition, we had 92% of scheduled conferences show for meetings. For comparison, JMS and SMS attendance is nearly identical. For LHS the attendance was 23% with THS at 19%. 

Thank you for your efforts to make our Fall Conferences a successful experience for our JMS community. It was a very busy day full of productive and meaningful conversations focused on student learning. 

Reminder for Vector Solutions

Attached is the link to Vector Solutions: https://lewiston-id.safeschools.com/login 

The link will take you to the two courses on Bullying and Cultural Bias that need to be completed by December 31st. Once completed, please print your certificate and leave a copy in my mailbox. 

Let me know if you have questions.