Next week is spirit week in honor of Homecoming week at ESSD. We are dressing up every day and you can be counted whether it is a virtual day or an in class day. The following are the days:
Monday, September 28 - Fan Fest Day - dress to represent your favorit team like the Chiefs or the Royals. Tuesday, September 29 - Hawaiian Day Wednesday, September 30 - Comfy Cozy Day Thursday, October 1 - Team Color Day Hippogriffs - white Kraken - Red Dragons - Black Thunderbirds - Blue Gargoyles - Grey Phoenix - Purple Narwahls - Burgundy Friday, October 2 - Tiger Spirit Day Wear your black and gold Support our team and dress for the occasions!! Homecoming week is right around the corner, from Monday the 28 of September to October 2nd! So we are celebrating with spirit week! Monday is Fan Fest day, so don’t forget to dress up in your favorite sports team gear. Tuesday is Hawaii Day. Come to school in your favorite Hawaiian shirt and lei! Wednesday is a cozy day. So do your virtual day right and just stay in your PJ’s. Thursday is team color day! Support your middle school team by wearing the colors below:
Kraken- Red Hippogriff- White Thunderbird- Blue Dragons- Black Phoenix- Purple Gargoyles- Purple Electives- Burgundy Friday is Tiger gear day! So don’t forget to support your E.S. Tigers by wearing your black and gold! Let’s all dress up and have a great week no matter if you are at school or virtual! Go Tigers! by Willa Schreier So we finished weird and now we are starting weird. I am so proud of the kids for all they are doing to keep us safe and follow the rules of social distancing and wearing a mask. Our school district has started us with a hybrid schedule for most of our students. The students are extremely happy to be back and seeing teachers ad friends.
We have deployed devices to all Virtual and Hybrid students that requested one. We have had some issues but I think we are now running a lot better. We may have a few issues here and there but overall, most students are working. If your child is still having issues, please call and let me know so I can help. The Techsperts are starting some amazing projects. We will again be working with administration on features for the FaceBook page. We are working on blogs for our page. Just so much to get going here at the beginning of school....but we are super excited! Homecoming spirit week is coming up September 28 - October 2. Monday - Fan Fest (wear your favorite sports attire) Tuesday - Hawaiian Day Wednesday - Comfy Cozy Day Thursday - Team Spirit Day Friday - Tiger Pride Day Whether you are face to face or virtual those day, plan to join us to build excitement for our special day! Thank you to all the staff, students and parents for their patience while we work through getting technology into the hands of our students. I believe every student that requested a device has been issued one. We had some wifi issues but I believe those have been resolved. Again, thank you for your patience. Let's continue to be diligent in wearing face masks and hand sanitizing so we do not have any issues. Well I hope this finds everyone well. I know the circumstances for us now is very stressful. I am here to help in any way I can. Please feel free to email me questions or ways I can help. I have had the Techsperts working on getting reading lists from Overdrive so students know what is available. It can be overwhelming if you have never used it before or do not have anyone to guide you through. If you need help, please email me and I will try to walk you through it. I am already looking into my ordering for next year so if you have any requests, please let me know that as well. I am missing the students and staff and the connections we were making I am looking forward to getting us back to our "normal" routine. I appreciate all the patience you are giving us to work through this. We will return the same to you. We are all in this together! Have a great day and I will try to post here more to update you on information I know.
It seems so hard to believe that we are almost done with third quarter. Time is certainly moving along.
We are in the process of selecting WEB Leaders for next year. The 7th grade students are writing essays and turning them in with an application by March 6th. On March 13th we will announce the leaders for next year after we complete the process of looking at attendance, behavior, leadership skills, etc. The students are excited to have the opportunity to be leaders at ESMS next year. Techsperts are helping to wrap up the year. We have weeded out old books and are straightening shelves. It is a messy and tedious process. Teachers have been offered the opportunity to come select deleted books for their classrooms. I have order a bunch of new books this year and we are processing those as well. Techsperts are also working on their leave their mark projects. Lots of neat things being discussed. Next year several of the Techsperts are going to go out and explore some of the other electives. I am excited for them to have this opportunity. My Techsperts classes will only have 3 or 4 students per hour. I am excited for those students to stay with me and help me make the LC a better place. Spring break is fast approaching. It is March 16-20. After that we will start MAP testing. We are getting new carts and iPads to make that process happen. Following that. we will have one last in-service day, April 9 which will be half day for students and in-service in the afternoon. No school will be held on April 10. With all of the snow days, our last day of school is scheduled for May 19. It will be a half day for students. The original date was May 7. I just hope we do not have many more. It will still be a long summer as we do not start back up unit August 24. The message yesterday in WEB was to keep positive thoughts and messages in your head as we approach the change in season and try to get through until winter break. I hope by planting these thoughts in the students and staff it will make the next few weeks easier. I believe in positive reaps positive.
The first quarter is over and the second is getting close to be half over. Time this year seems so busy and quick. We are working hard in the LC to make the space neater and less cluttered. We are working on making the space more comfortable and user-friendly. We are going to start working on weeding books and materials to make room for the new materials we need. I appreciate the help of the Techsperts to make this happen. A few adults have also been donating time to make the space better. Today, Mr. Findlay brought his class in to use the VR Goggles. I really appreciate the effort our teachers give towards using the materials that I purchase to enhance the curriculum. The VR Goggles are super cool for the kids as it makes them feel like they are in the environment the teacher wants to create....today it was space. As we approach Thanksgiving Break, I want to tell all that I am thankful for the staff that I work for and with. I am thankful that they keep an open mind and are willing to try new things. I am thankful for the students who are also open to trying new things plus for the most part are here to focus on the learning. They are willing to give me ideas on how to improve the learning environment in the LC. I want to make it a place that is conducive to collaboration, communication and learning. I am thankful for the parents who support the learning process. Without them, it would be a much more difficult job! I am thankful for my family as well who support my job! So, thank you everyone and I hope you enjoy your break! It is scary how fast this year is going. It is scary that it has snowed before Halloween. I am not sure which scares me more. Please everyone be safe out tonight and come back to school tomorrow ready to learn.
Hard to believe we are already a couple of weeks into the second quarter. Time just seems to be flying by. The Techsperts are busy working on the upcoming book fair which is about a month away. It will run from December 2 to December 13. We will have family night on December 10 from 4 to 6:30 PM. Hope to see the public come out and support our book fair. The theme of our fair is AND THE WINNER IS.... The Techsperts are getting ready to decorate for the event. Our overall theme for this year is encouraging reading. We have book recommendations and displays in the LC that work towards this theme. I have a Google Classroom where I communicate with the students plus I put things out on Twitter, Instagram and on this website. The classes come in every couple weeks to check out books. Students also have access to eBooks that they can read on their iPads. I love it when a student comes in asks for a recommendation. I will say Happy Halloween for today and before I know it I will be saying Happy Thanksgiving! The first quarter has come to an end and we are starting the second quarter. We are starting Boost Tutoring for reading and math. Tuesdays is for math and Thursday is for reading. We have teachers ready to help our students. We will be offering this program until April 7th.
Techsperts have completed reading encouragement bulletin boards. Our big focus this year to encourage our patrons to read our books. The Techsperts are completing book recommendations. These are being posted on our Google Classroom and on our blog. esmstigersblog.blogspot.com is where you will find our blogs and book recommendations. Next week is Parent Showxase. I am looking forward to seeing parents and being able to brag about our students and our space. Wednesday from 4-7 and Thursday from 1-7 you can come to the Middle School and visit me in the Learning Commons. See you there! I am introducing new things for the Techsperts to try. This past week I introduced Powtoons. Some of them have used it in Computers class but others have not and it is taking them out of their comfort zone. I believe this is the way I am going to proceed from here on out. I want them to be willing to try new things which should then spread to others in the school. As other students see them presenting with different formats, they too will want to try out the new items. Teachers will sometimes ask me to have the Techsperts try something, but I think I need to also be asking on a regular basis. This will keep me on my toes as well because I will need to find new formats and ideas to have them try.
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Kathy Kimsey
Library Media Specialist Excelsior Springs Middle School |