October 2012 News from Southeast Middle School

Dear Parents,

The school year is cranking into full gear with many events happening at school now.  How to keep up?  Follow us on twitter (  https://twitter.com/seastmswsfcs ) and like our Facebook Page too.  

In other news, Ms Gentry is sending home a copy of her October Newsletter in Wednesday folders.
Click here for a copy of the October Newsletter in electronic form.

It contains all the important October Dates and events you need to keep informed.  Speaking of events, our PTA fundraiser this year is better and easier than ever!  Who doesn't love discounts and coupons?  Well this year, you can save money on the things you like and help our school all at the same time. 

PTA fundraiser begins on Oct. 12th! We are selling Jaguar Cards for $10 each. These cards will offer discounts to many local restaurants and businesses such as Kimono’s, Zack’s Yogurt, Feeney’s, Xpress Lube, East Coast Wings, and many more! Please help support your PTSA by buying and selling these cards!

Don't forget it's time to think about purchasing a yearbook for your student and family. Get a great deal by ordering today! Visit the SEMS website and click on the Yearbook link to order. The current price, including tax, is only $37.36.  Here's a direct link where you can order and pay online!  http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Page/18629

Finally, our GYRLS club is sponsoring a yard sale on Saturday, October 13th in front of Southeast Middle School.  Please plan to attend and give your support to our girls.  Click here for all the details

Thanks for your continued support!

John Downs, Technology Facilitator

Parent Assist

Parents,

On Friday, September 6th, teachers gained access to their grade books for the first time this school year.  Shortly thereafter teachers started entering student grades. What's the easiest way for parents to see their student's progress? The answer is "by accessing Parent Assist" at:
https://pa.ncwise.org/dc9/

If you have had access to parent assist in the past, you should still be able to use the user name and password you had previously.  If you DO NOT  have access, please read this site for more information:

http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=18632

Don't forget if you are confused about how your child's grade appears on parent assist, the first best thing to do is to contact your child's teacher. Either call the school at 996-5848 and leave them a message or email them.  They will get back with you usually within 24 hours.  Here is a listing of teacher's email addresses:
http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Page/17992  
You might also look on the class webpages on the Faculty and Staff webpages.  Often looking at the class webpage will give you more information on homework assignments, projects, due dates on calendars, etc.

Finally in looking at student progress on Parent Assist, please consider the following points as written in this "clarification on grades":  http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=18638

Last but not least, Parent Assist will be down on scheduled weekends during the year.  Here ls a list of those dates when you WILL NOT be able to log on Parent Assist:  http://www.ncwise.org/documents/maintenance/NC_WISE_Maint_Weekend_Sched.pdf

Thanks for your support, and please help us help your child by keeping up to date on their academic progress!

John Downs, Technology Facilitator

Year End Notes

Dear Parents and Families of SE Middle School,

The end of the school year is upon us!  The last day for students is June 7th. There are many activities and important events happening until that date, and we want everyone to be aware.

First, the May/June Newsletter has a nice listing of all the important dates.  Here is a direct link, but for future reference you can find it on the Parents channel of the SE Middle School webpage

Secondly, the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School wants to hear from Parents.  Please take the time to provide feedback to help SEMS be even better in the future.  Click here to complete the 2012 parent survey

Lastly, we hope everyone has a safe and relaxing summer!

Here are some links for summer activities for kids:

• Want to get out and about town with your kids?  Check out everything from the Children's Museum, to Sci-Works and YMCA camps in this DOT blog:  http://wsfcsintouch.blogspot.com/2012/05/learning-through-summer.html
• WSFCS Summer enrichment:  http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us//Domain/60
• Summer ideas from teacher vision:  http://www.teachervision.fen.com/summer/teacher-resources/6668.html
• Summer Reading from Forsyth County Library:  http://www.forsyth.cc/library/summer_reading.aspx
• Summer reading from Scholastic:  http://www.scholastic.com/summer/
• Websites to keep your child mentally active:  http://wsfcsintouch.blogspot.com/2010/06/webistes-to-keep-your-students-mentally.html
• Reading lists from Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools:  
• Drivers Ed at Mount Tabor:  http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/domain/875
• Drivers Education Information from SEMS Counseling Center
• Atkins Summer Program
• KEC-Tech camps at Mount Tabor:  http://keccamps.com/

Other Reading Sites:

• • American Library Association: Great Websites for Kids (lots of categories):
  • http://www.ala.org/gwstemplate.cfm?section=greatwebsites&template=/cfapps/gws/default.cfm 
  • Teacher vision-summer reading lists : 
  • http://www.teachervision.fen.com/summer/reading/6099.html
  • Battle of the Books lists for 2012-13 :
  • http://www.ncslma.org/uploads/8/4/7/0/8470189/boblist2012-13.pdf

Math Resources:

• Winston-Salem Forsyth County School Math Resources including pacing guides

Other Math Sites:

Free Rice.com	Math Land
Math.com Practice sites	COOL MATH4 Kids
Mensa For Kids	MATH FORUM   Interactive Algebra   Virtual Math Manipulatives
Math Forum	A+ Math Games
Practical Math	Math Hunt
Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles	EOG MATH REVIEW
Math.com	Grade Seven challenge problems
Figure This--Math Challenges for Families	Math Games and Puzzles

TEST PROCTORS NEEDED

Here is a copy of our proctor letter asking for help during our end of grade testing coming up in May.

April, 2012

Dear Parents/Guardians/Grandparents/College Students:

We are already making preparations for the NC End of Grade test at Southeast Middle School. The EOG test will be given on May 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th. The Department of Public Instruction requires a proctor (that means a person helping the teacher pass out pencils/paper and being a second set of eyes) be in all testing classrooms. This is a huge demand on personnel. After placing our encore teachers, guidance and classified staff as proctors, we still need about 32 more volunteer proctors each testing day.

If you can help, please fill out the information via the link above and return it to the office. You will be contacted by Mrs. Pitt to verify dates and times. We need proctors here at 7:15 A.M. and proctors will be done no later than 11:00 A.M. If you can proctor on one or more days, we would greatly appreciate the help. Please ask grandparents, your college student, aunts, uncles and neighbors too.

Fill out the bottom form (linked above), detach and return to your child’s homeroom teacher. If you have any questions, please call 996-5848 and ask for Mrs. Sharon Pitt or Mrs. Deb Neal. Thank you for your support of our students at Southeast Middle School.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Deb Neal

Curriculum/Testing Coordinator

Spring Break

Dear Parents,

It's been a long haul from coming back to school in January until Spring Break.  We appreciate you encouraging your students during this time.  The next big hurdle will be making it through spring testing and closing out the school year.  We thank you in advance for supporting your child during this important time.  Please help your child stay focused on academics until the end of the school year.

Recently we updated our PTA website with the PTA Board meeting minutes and the School Newsletters for this year.  Please know that these resources are available to you and will stay there as a reference to you anytime you need to check a date or an event that you might have a question.  It's also a good way to keep informed of important decisions being made at the school.

In terms of navigating to the PTA website, simply go to the Southeast Middle School Website ( http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/sms  ), and click on either faculty and staff and find the PTA site there,  or  click on Parents and your will find a link to the PTA website there as well.

Finally, another way to stay informed of important decisions at our school is by reading our School Improvement Team Blog.  It is linked here:   http://semssit.blogspot.com/

It is also linked off of the main Southeast Middle School website on the left set of links.

Thank you for everything you do to make our school successful and part of that is staying informed!   

"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government."   Thomas Jefferson 

John Downs

Southeast Middle School Support Drive

Dear Parents and Friends of Southeast Middle School,

With recent deep cuts to education, our school needs your help more than ever to maintain supplies and improve technology enhancements for classrooms.  Everyone likes to shop online, right?  Why not pick up something for Mother's Day or Easter?  Go to the following link:

http://www.gaschoolstore.com

Enter the group ID# for Southeast Middle School:  1202316

(You do not need to enter a student name if you don't have one, just hit submit after you enter the group id # )

Please share this link with out-of-town family and friends.  Customers can pay with a credit card online and have items shipped directly to their homes.  It's so easy and a significant percent of your purchase will go to essential supplies for our school.

Every purchase no matter how small will help, so please do what you can!

Here are some of the categories of on-line purchases available--Check them out.  Thanks!  John Downs, Technology Facilitator

February 2012

Dear SEMS Parents and Families,

It's a new year, and school is churning with all kinds of activities.  As you are probably aware, we send home monthly Newsletters written by Ms Gentry.  We have now put those on-line for your convenience.  Here is the direct link to February's Newsletter, and we will keep an archive on the Parent Page linked off of our SEMS Web page, click on the "Parent tab" at the top then Newsletter archives on the left.

In Other news, spread the word about our rising 6th grade open house on Thursday, February 16th from 6:00 PM until 7:30 PM.  This will be a great opportunity for parents of current 5th graders to see all the great things happening at SEMS.

Here's a note from our Builders club:  

The annual fund raiser for the Builder’s Club is happening now at school.  All the money goes to our Red Cross penny campaign.  Teachers are selling pencils in homerooms for 25 cents.  Also,  a change container is being passed around in the cafeteria after lunch.  Monies collected will be counted and reported at the builder's club March meeting. Thank you very much for supporting our campaign.  Many of our students (and some teachers) have benefited from the Red Cross and we feel this is a great cause!  Sincerely, The Builder’s Club.

Here's an important notice:  Teacher email will be unavailable starting Friday, February 17th and will not return until Tuesday, February 21st.  This means teachers will not have any access to their school email during that time. So, please consider this if you are communicating with teachers via e-mail around that time.    The school district is transitioning to a new e-mail platform, and this down time is necessary during that transition.  The new platform should be much improved, and should result in better communication for all parties involved! 

Our media coordinator Lisa Turner was reminding me of a resource available to all students called Learn 360.  Learn 360 is an educational site that our district has paid for and provides access for our students to a wide array of video, audio and pictures.  Students can even log-in at home with the following user name and PW:

user:  wsfcsstudent#  for example (wsfcs123456)
PW:  student # , for example (123456) 

So, if a teacher were to show a video from Learn 360 in class and a student would like to watch it again, show a parent, etc. they have the ability to do that with any computer with Internet access.  Students who are absent on a day a video is shown could also take advantage of this access!

Finally,  speaking of on-line access,  I have come across a very good manual for parents trying to navigate the world of Face-book with their children:  http://www.connectsafely.org/Safety-Advice-Articles/facebook-for-parents.html

It's more important than ever for parents to understand social media since students are increasingly making themselves accessible on-line!

Thanks!  and have a great month,

John Downs, Technology Facilitator 

January 2012, CHANGE IN PROGRESS REPORT PROCEDURES

Dear Southeast Middle School Parents and Families,


Beginning in the second semester, SEMS will be changing progress report procedures. Currently, we send home paper progress reports three times per quarter for core classes and one paper progress report for encore classes.  In addition, parents have full access to the Parent Assist Module (PAM), where student progress can be viewed at any time during the quarter. In an effort to save paper and to be consistent with the technology that our school system utilizes, we are going to reduce the number of paper progress reports being sent home. 

For the second semester, all students will receive one paper progress report for each class in the middle of each quarter:

Quarter	Start/End of Quarter	Paper progress report date
3rd	January 24 – March 29	Wednesday, February 29
4th	April 9 – June 7	Wednesday, May 16

Parents may continue checking Parent Assist at any time for student progress.  Teachers will continue to stay in communication with all students and parents for those who are struggling academically. 

What is the Parent Assist Module (PAM)?  https://pa.ncwise.org/

PAM is an online program where parents can check their students’ academic progress in any subject.  Teachers update their online grades approximately once per week.  Parents can access this information with a user name and password from any computer with Internet access.  In addition, parents are welcome to visit the school for Internet access if there is none available.

In order to sign up for PAM, please bring a photo ID to our Data Manager, Cindy Wilkes.  She will assist you in accessing this program. 

We appreciate your support and feel that this change will benefit all students, parents, and staff.  

Winter Weather:

Winter weather is finally here!  In case of inclement weather, you can check the status of school by tuning to WXII-12, going to http://www.wxii12.com/closings/index.html  or visiting the WSFCS website for updates:  http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/

In addition, students are reminded to review the dress code policy for winter coats: 

OUTER WEAR:

"Any heavy or bulky coats, jackets, or other outer wear may be worn to school.  Upon classroom arrival, they must be put in the student’s assigned locker, or assigned area.  Heavy coats, jackets, coats/jackets; with hoods or pockets may NOT be worn in the classroom. Students should dress in layers during winter months for their comfort for the instructional day.  Other items may be deemed inappropriate if it is a distraction to the learning environment.  Teachers may use discretion if cool temperatures warrant using outer wear in class (i.e., power outage, heat maintenance problem, etc.)."

Quarter Testing:

The quarter testing will take place on January 17 & 18.  Algebra students will also take his or her mid-term exam during this time.

School Fundraiser:

Information will be coming home soon in Wednesday folders for our school fundraiser.  Be sure to check out all the cool spring items for sale!

School Calendars:

Check out this year's school events on our school calendar.

http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Page/17985

Also, a complete listing of sporting events is available on the athletic page calendar:

http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Page/18656

Other calendars:

• A Day/B Day Calendars:  http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/cms/lib/NC01001395/Centricity/Domain/37/Calendars/2011-12%20A-B%20Day%20color.pdf

A-B Schedule Change!  Due to the high school exam schedule in January, there have been two changes in the A-B day encore schedule.  All schools are to follow this schedule:

Thursday, Jan. 12 - A day
Friday, Jan. 13 - A day
Monday, Jan. 16 - Holiday
Tuesday, Jan. 17 - A day
Wednesday, Jan. 18 - B day
Thursday, Jan. 19 - B day
Friday, Jan. 20 - B day

• Information on Make-up days and other WSFCS Calendars:  http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/site/default.aspx?pageid=535

• Information on five days added to the 2012-2013 calendar: