NO SCHOOL MONDAY: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
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Schooling in a Surging Pandemic
Our larger city, state and national communities are in the midst of the largest covid case spike yet in this pandemic of ours. I am hopeful that this spike in cases will be on the triple diamond downward slope soon. In the meantime, I just want to give you a short glimpse into what schooling looked like at Hamilton Middle this week.
Teachers and staff members continued to engage students and to provide access to the educational programming that meets their needs. And while students were being challenged to reach goals, there was also much laughter, person-to-person connection, and room for the lovely goofiness that is middle school. We had and continue to have staff members staying home for various covid related reasons. That said, we are fortunate at Hamilton where we have a group of substitutes who are committed to being here for us whenever we call. In addition, our own staff members used their planning and break times to fill in for colleagues when we did find ourselves short on subs. We are doubly fortunate at Hamilton given the high levels of professionalism, skill, and flexibility that define our collective staff.
All in all, it was a good week. Photos throughout this newsletter give a window into the learning, connection, fun, and yes, goofiness that defined our week at Hamilton.
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8th Grade: National Assessment of Educational Progress
This year, Hamilton Middle was randomly selected to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) at 8th grade. In turn, fifty 8th grade students were randomly selected to participate in the assessment, scheduled to take place on February 10. NAEP is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what students know and can do in various subjects. NAEP is different from our state assessments because it is a common measure of achievement across the country. The results are released as The Nation’s Report Card, which provides information about student achievement to educators, parents, policymakers, and the public.
Students selected will take one assessment, either a math or reading assessment. The assessment itself takes most students about an hour.
The students randomly selected for the assessment were told today of their inclusion in the assessment. If your child was selected and you have concerns about their participation, there is an opt out process. When students are opted out, we do seek to replace them with alternate students. See the below linked letter in English and Spanish for additional information.
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Headphone & Earbud Request |
Our students should be bringing headphones or earbuds to school to use with their Chromebooks. It seems that many of our students have lost their headphones/earbuds or no longer have a working pair. Please be sure that your child has a working set of headphones/earbuds that are compatible with their Chromebooks. Thank you! |
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Reminder: Affinity Meeting for Parents Interested in Learning More About and Supporting Each Other Around Special Education in our Community
A reminder that our first meeting of a new affinity group for primary caregivers of middle school students with disabilities and advanced support needs is coming up on Friday, January 21 via Zoom. This meeting, the first in an ongoing series, is open to all interested parents, not just parents of students with identified special and advanced support needs. The purpose of the affinity group is to offer connection for parents, and to help grow understanding and advocacy in our Hamilton community around the inclusivity of all people with special needs.
Our first meeting is scheduled for Friday, January 21 at 7:00pm and will take place on Zoom. The link to the Zoom for this first meeting is below and will be shared again in future editions of this newsletter.
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Contact Tracing And Covid Notification Letters
In case you missed the notice sent by the district, please know that we are no longer doing contact tracing when we become aware of a positive covid case on our Hamilton campus. The City and County stopped contact tracing many months ago. In addition, those letters that I as principal was sending out to all families when we became aware of a positive covid case here at Hamilton will no longer be sent. These changes are not meant in any way to mislead you, and are more a reflection of the recommendations of health experts used by the school district. That said, with over 700 people on our campus each day and given the current infection rate in Dane County, you should more or less assume that there is active covid on our campus at any given time. That statement is not meant to scare you, but is simply the reality of things at the moment. The good news is that data strongly suggest that vaccines and masks protect us really well from contracting and experiencing severe cases of covid.
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Spelling Bee Results
Adding to our fun, we also had our Hamilton School Spelling Bee this week. No one seemed to mind that the Bee fell on an A Day. Anyway, congratulations to all our classroom representatives who participated in our school bee; it's something they will never forget! It took 21 rounds, and in the end, our top three finishers were:
First: Clair P.
Second: Evan S.
Third: Freya S.
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Upcoming Dates of Interest |
Mark your calendars for these upcoming dates:
January
- 17-Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
- 21-No School: Grade Reporting
- 21-End of First Semester
- 24-Beginning of Quarter 3
February
- 11-No School: Parent-Teacher Conferences
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Photo Finish
Six more pics of the learning, connection, fun, and goofiness that defined our week at Hamilton
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