Pawprints - October

PawPrintsYour source for Moundridge Middle School news and information

OCTOBER 2013

It’s hard to fathom, but the same children sitting behind our desks at the middle school, will

someday be the people sitting behind the boss’s desk talking to us about our poor performance or our inability to get along with others.

With this in mind, has there ever been a better time to begin teaching our children how to talk through challenging moments or difficult conversations?

Those of you who know me understand that I’m extremely dedicated and passionate about teaching our students about the importance of responsibility and character development.

For the past three years, the middle school has been implementing a behavior management program appropriately coined “Respons ib i l i ty-Centered Discipline.”

During pre-service professional development earlier this year, the staff took part in a quasi-review of the process we use when dealing with and addressing student behavior and discipline.

As a consultant for RCD for the past decade, I’ve had the opportunity to witness the extraordinary strides that schools and/or districts make when properly implementing

this strategy. Schools I’ve helped train have seen dramatic decreases in office referrals, significant gains in student achievement and shifts in school climate that are nothing less than extraordinary. Moundridge is no different in this regard and our data is beginning to show it.

Ironically, I trained our middle school staff a little over three years ago. The strides that this staff has made with students are evident and worth noting. I certainly credit them for their willingness to take on this challenge and to remain focused on the goal --leading students through undesirable behavior during challenging moments.

How we manage student behavior and discipline can often have a direct impact on our school culture and the relationships that we attempt to build with your child. What we do as teachers, students and even parents during challenging moments can have lasting effects on future behaviors and overall effort in any relationship.

We recognize the importance of this fact as we attempt to model emotional-control and intervene with integrity when students don’t meet our expectations behaviorally .

Success with your child can’t be

expected if we’re not dedicated to lead positively through these difficult moments and hold each other accountable. Thus, our approach must be done in a manner that encourages rather than discourages, engages rather than avoids, and brings dignity rather than shame to your child.

On one hand, our goal is to build a relationship with your child so that when challenging moments occur, he or she knows that we care about their success academically, socially and emotionally. On the other hand, your son or daughter may very well be talking to us in their office someday. My hope is that what we model them today, would be the way they treat us tomorrow—with dignity and respect.

- Mr. [email protected]

Your Student TODAY, MAY BE YOUR BOSS TOMORROWFrom the desk of the assistant principal

THIS MONTH:

Oct. 3

Volleyball with Ell-Saline @ home

4:30 pm

football with Ell-Saline @ home

6 pm

Oct. 10

Volleyball with Inman @ home

4:30 pm

OCT. 14Board of education

meeting

Oct. 17

Volleyball @ Marion4:30 pm

football @ Marion6 pm

OCT. 22Site Council Meeting

7 am

OCT. 22HOA League Volleyball tourney @ Bennington

Visit us online @ www.usd423.org OR Find us ON FACEBOOK @ “Moundridge USD 423”

Moundridge Middle School526 E. Cole

Moundridge, KS 67107Phone (620)345-5500

Fax(620)345-5307

Principal: Clark [email protected]

Asst. Principal: Eric [email protected]

Athletic Director: Vance Unrau

[email protected]

Counselor: Tammy [email protected]

Secretary: Janet Ortman

[email protected]


We’ve known for some time that creating groups in our classroom that are both heterogeneous and personality diverse, yield unique and positive results both academically and socially.

With this thought in mind, students were drafted by their respective seminar teachers in an effort to diversify the class roster both by sex and by grade.

In its second year of existence, the PRIDE (Promoting Respect In Our Daily Environment) team, a leadership group of middle school students 6th-8th grade, are using seminar groups to help promote positive school culture through a variety of team-building activities, games and challenges throughout the

Connecting students and teachers using MMS Seminar

English/Language Arts teacher Heather Ferralez reads one, of many clues, to her seminar class the first week in October during the second-annual Seminar Scavenger Hunt. MMS seminar classes compete in seminar challenges throughout the school year for a chance to win an all-day field trip to All-Star Sports in Wichita.

school year. These activities typically occur on Fridays.

While much of the excitement of seminar grouping centers around the “team” aspect, an important part of this concept is that teachers become student advisors and advocates for each student in their seminar.

Teachers are encouraged to visit with their students regularly about the progress they’re making in their classes, or the lack thereof. When necessary, students are requested by teachers during this time for additional support when students are struggling with content-related concepts or assignments.

PawPrints Your source for Moundridge Middle School news and information

OCTOBER 2013

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PawPrintsYour source for Moundridge Middle School news and information

OCTOBER 2013

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Pawprints - October