The Squawk!
Apopka Memorial Middle School Community Brief
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
AMMS Community Member,

This is our Thanksgiving break and I hope this issue of The Squawk finds you set to enjoy a Thanksgiving day tomorrow among friends and family. Classes will resume next Monday, November 28. If you have a student at Apopka, please remember that we did issue student progress reports last week. If you have yet to review your child's performance, please do so today. We only have 15 instructional days remaining in both the second quarter and for the first semester and we want all students to achieve the grades they are truly capable of. Daily attendance and assignment completion will be so important when classes start back on Monday.
One of our many blessings here at Apopka Memorial Middle are community members like these (others are also pictured at the very top of this issue with additional pictures below) who give of their valuable time to come out and speak with students every November for our annual Teach In. We are so appreciative for the gift of their time and the students gained so much learning from their varied life and career experiences!
Here at Thanksgiving I want you to know how happy I am to be serving as your new principal. Since my arrival this past summer, I have been very impressed by the devotion of our staff and their unique ability to teach and inspire our children. We have some pretty terrific students here at Apopka Memorial Middle and we are all working to make sure they receive the best possible education during their time as a Seahawk. Thank you very much to our parents and community for the support towards this common goal.

Enjoy the rest of the Thanksgiving break week and I am looking forward to seeing everyone back on campus Monday, November 28!

Happy Thanksgiving,

Mrs. Lisa James
Principal
Apopka Memorial Middle School
Dates to Watch For
Nov. 21-25: Thanksgiving Break
Nov. 24: Happy Thanksgiving!
Apopka Memorial Middle School remembers our troops who are deployed this Thanksgiving and cannot be home with their families. Thank you for your service. 
Nov. 28: Classes resume
Dec. 1: Start of Apopka Memorial Middle's Twelve Days of Christmas (below)
Dec. 7: NO EARLY RELEASE
Useful Links

* Looking for an email address? Click here to access our staff list, responsibilities and email addresses.
Meet Our New Assistant Principal!
Mr. Justin Yount
Meet & Greet for our new Assistant Principal, Mr. Justin Yount. Pictured are Ms. Gentile, Mr. Yount and Mrs. Pascarella.
Teach-In Highlights
November 16, 2022
Thank you so much to those members of our community who took time away to visit with the students about their careers and personal experiences during this year's Teach-In. Our Seahawks greatly enjoyed your presentations!
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Christmas doesn’t come from a store, maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more.
~ Dr. Seuss, author
Seahawk Athletics
2022-2023 Girls Volleyball Team. The girls just defeated Meadowbrook Middle School 25-13. Go Seahawks!
2022-2023 Boys Volleyball Team
OCPS News
Makeup days for both Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole:
OCPS Superintendent Vazquez's weekly video message:
Thanksgiving Motivational Moment!
GRATITUDE INCREASES HAPPINESS

The spirit of Thanksgiving is one of expressing gratitude for our blessings. What you may not know is that there is good evidence that gratitude increases happiness. As the Harvard Healthbeat newsletter reports, a number of studies have tested this.

Dr. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Dr. Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami designed a study in which participants were divided into three groups:

  1. The first was encouraged to record things that had gone well for them.
  2. The second took notes on things that irritated them.
  3. The third just wrote down matters that had affected them for good or ill. 

At the end of 10 weeks, those in group #1 who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. As a group they also exercised more and had fewer visits to physicians than the other study participants.

In another research project, Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania tested a number of interventions on a group of 411 participants. When they were tasked with writing and delivering a letter of thanks to someone who had never been properly appreciated for an act of kindness, their happiness scores shot up, and the effects lingered for a full month!

We leave you this week with a few thoughts tied to gratitude, blessings, family & friends, forgiveness, teacher appreciation and the kids' table on this day before Thanksgiving . . .
Dwayne Johnson On Gratitude
When you’re grateful for everything you have, it just leads to happiness.
~ Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, wrestler and actor

Willie Nelson On Blessings
When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.
~ Willie Nelson, musician

Dr. Seuss On Relationships
Sometimes you will never the value of something until it becomes a memory.
~ Dr. Seuss, author

Oprah Winfrey On Thankfulness
Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.”
~ Oprah Winfrey, media mogul

Mister Rogers On Forgiveness
Forgiveness is a strange thing. It can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love.
~ Mr. Fred Rogers, TV personality (Mr. Rogers Neighborhood)

Ken Blanchard On Teacher Appreciation
We go to the internet for information. We go to human beings to learn.
~ Ken Blanchard, business consultant and author

John Hughes On Conviviality
It's like being at the kids' table at Thanksgiving — you can put your elbows on it, you don't have to talk politics … no matter how old I get, there's always a part of me that's sitting there.
~ John Hughes, filmmaker
Happy Thanksgiving and please drive safely this week if traveling to see friends and family!
Mrs. Lisa James, Principal
Apopka Memorial Middle School
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Apopka Memorial Middle Leadership Team
Ms. Lisa James – Principal - lisa.james@ocps.net
Ms. Theresa Hearn – Assistant Principal of Instruction – theresa.hearn@ocps.net
Mr. Justin Yount – Assistant Principal – justin.yount@ocps.net
Ms. Daphne Lewis – Dean 6th Grade – daphne.lewis@ocps.net
Dr. Adrienne Sears – Dean 7th Grade - adrienne.coleman-sears@ocps.net
Mr. Carl Kolling – Dean 8th Grade – carl.kolling@ocps.net
This communication may contain information that is legally privileged, confidential or exempt from disclosure, and intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please note that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. Anyone who receives this message in error should notify the sender immediately by telephone or by return e-mail, and delete the message from their computer and any printout thereof. Please note that OCPS utilizes spam and junk e-mail filtration applications in its e-mail systems. That filtering process may prevent or delay delivery of certain e-mail communications. If you do not receive a timely response to an e-mail communication, please contact the intended recipient by phone.
Copyright Notice
Reproduction of this material, either written or electronically, including the general layout, graphics, analyses, and content topics without the express approval of Target Performance Systems, Inc., a Florida corporation, and OCPS - Apopka Memorial Middle School is forbidden without written consent. Thank you for your support of the Orange County Public Schools and especially Apopka Memorial Middle School. Please contact Ms. Lisa James at lisa.james@ocps.net with any questions related to the program.
Apopka Memorial Middle | Ms. James, Principal | 407.884-2208 | AMMS Website