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Hello, Oak Creek East Middle School Families,
The month of September at EMS was full of positive energy, relearning routines, building a strong sense of community and of course learning! Throughout September, we focused on what it means to follow the EMS Cougar Code: Critical Thinkers, Positive Community Members, Take Responsibility and Make Appropriate Choices. We all worked together to create posters of common expectations for everyone in all environments at East: Hallways, Restrooms, Cafeteria, and Recess. Students engaged in our schoolwide Cougar Way Kickoff, where they learned about expectations within all areas of the building. Teachers led the learning at stations throughout the building. Classrooms also all worked on developing mission statements and classroom expectations to create shared ownership of our learning environment at East.
At Oak Creek East Middle School we continue to use a digital hall pass system, SmartPass. SmartPass replaces traditional hall passes such as sign-out sheets, wooden blocks, passbooks, lanyards, etc. SmartPass provides staff with an accounting of which students are outside of the classroom during the school day. In case of emergencies such as fires, severe weather etc., administrators have real-time access to this critical information. Overall, the pass-history of a student will lead to more effective and informative parent-teacher conferences, as well as ensuring students are where they should be - in the classroom learning.
This month, we will have parent-teacher-student conferences on Thursday, October 12 IN-PERSON, and Thursday, October 19 VIRTUAL. In addition to conversations about students’ academic, social skills and executive function skills, we encourage students, families, and staff to review SmartPass data as another way to understand student engagement in the classroom. Available statistics include number of passes created, time spent out of class, number of passes over the time limit, and more.
In addition to building a sense of community and practicing positive social skills, our students completed their initial STAR Literacy and Math testing to guide teachers to meet the individual needs of our students within the classroom environment. Students are also setting learning goals based on their individual test scores. As always, we will use student STAR data to inform our intervention groups and provide appropriate support and extension opportunities for students during 6th period. You will receive your student’s STAR information in the near future.
During the month of September, all students learned how to keep themselves safe at school and the consequences of unsafe behavior at school. This information was presented by principals Mrs. Leatherman, Mr. Wegner, Ms. Thompson, our Dean of Students Mr. Bastian and our School Resource Officer, Aaron Hausner. Click here to view the presentation that was shared with your child.
As we all get back into the routine of school, it is important to remember to pay close attention to your student’s academic growth and achievement by monitoring their Infinite Campus account and our weekly House Update that is emailed every Friday. Both of these tools are essential in us working together to support your student’s academic and social/emotional needs.
If you do not have your parent account set up in Infinite Campus or forgot your login, please contact Sue Wanninger at Helpdesk@ocfsd.org or visit the OCFSD parent information page at http://www.ocfsd.org/parents/infinite-campus-login
We are extremely proud to say that all our efforts are aligned to our staff and learners growing, learning and working towards getting better at getting better each and every day.
Thank you for your continued support and partnership.
Sincerely,
Sue Thompson, Principal
Sarah Leatherman, Associate Principal (A-L)
Mark Wegner, Associate Principal (M-Z)
Paul Bastian, Dean of Students
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