MacArthur Musings 3/3/23

MacArthur Musings

March 3, 2023

Principal's Welcome

Welcome to MacArthur Middle School, home of the Marauders!

Thank you for joining us in two nights of parent teacher conference. I hope that you were able to find a time to meet with the teachers, if you wanted to. We shifted to two person conferences at each team this time to provide more appointments. In this last round, we tried to consolidate virtual conferences to this past week and in-person conferences to last week. Please let me know how it was for your experience, we will begin planning for the fall conferences in June.

For morning arrival, we will be shifting to staying outside in the morning for the third trimester. All students arriving before 8:00am will wait outside between MacArthur and Sullivan. They will enter the building at door 8 by the cafeteria. After 8:00am, students can enter the main doors in the front of the building. This is returning to the practices and routines we had before COVID.

Also, we have a hot breakfast service available every day for our kids. This is in the cafeteria everyday.

We are closing in on our goal of 25% and we still need your voice! About 15 more responses needed, please be one of those people! We value your input about MacArthur! Please take a few minutes to take the survey below!

As part of our ongoing school improvement efforts, we ask that

all parents please take the Illinois 5 Essentials Survey.

http://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/survey/parent/

Prepared Respect Integrity Determination Engaged

MacArthur empowers all learners to thrive!

Save the Date - Referendum Informational Meetings

Mon., Mar. 6, 2023 10:00am Sullivan

Mon., Mar. 6, 2023 6:00pm Betsy Ross

Wed., Mar. 22, 2023 6:00pm MacArthur

As you’ve likely heard, D23 is asking voters to approve additional funding to improve safety and security, make repairs at every DIstrict school, and expand Eisenhower School, which is over capacity. This will allow us to offer full-day Kindergarten (FDK) for all resident students and create appropriate instructional spaces for programs that are currently being delivered in the library. The full library space will become available for its intended purpose and available to all Eisenhower students.

D23 will soon be one of the only D214 feeder districts without FDK. 79% of Illinois schools offered FDK as of 2015 and that number is increasing every year as communities including Palatine and Arlington Heights pass referendums to fund extending the kindergarten day from 2.5 hours to 5 hours.

FDK reduces the need for interventional services and helps narrow achievement gaps. Other educational benefits of FDK include:

Increased academic instructional time
Additional opportunities to individualize instruction
Enhanced social emotional and behavioral skills because there is more time for cooperative free play and experiential (hands-on learning).

Learn more by visiting the Building a Better 23 website.

Voting information, including options for requesting a mail ballot for the April 4 election can be found at https://www.cookcountyclerkil.gov/elections.

Report Card

The end of the second Trimester is next Friday, with spring and the final trimester on the horizon! Teachers are busy finalizing grades and comments for this learning and grading period, and report cards will be made available after school on Friday, March 10. Grades K-2 will come home with report cards that afternoon, and grades 3-8 will once again have report cards made available in the PowerSchool Parent Portal at 3 p.m. Here is what that access will look like! Do note, report cards are only viewable when accessing the Parent Portal on a desktop or laptop computer, not on the mobile app.

If you don't have a PowerSchool Parent Portal account or have forgotten your password, please do reach out to us in the office.

Parent Learning

Consider registering for this free Parent Education opportunity from Dr. Weiner. We have partnered with him for 6-7 of these types of presentations over the last couple years. This one looks to be another great topic for all of us with teens at home. Register with the QR code and I will see you then!

6th Grade Science

6th graders have been engaged in exploring our solar system. We started our unit by trying to understand just how large our universe is by scaling planets to various household objects. We then scaled our entire universe using AUs and unit conversion so it fit inside the classroom! We then put our modeling skills to the test using a ping pong ball and a string to prove that we need both forward motion and gravity in order for an object to stay in orbit. We will finish up our unit by looking beyond our solar system to different types of galaxies and how they form.

8th Grade Math

Our 8^th Grade Algebra students are finishing the first unit on quadratic expressions and equations. Students have been multiplying and factoring polynomials in preparation for the infamous Quadratic Formula. This is one of the most important topics in all of Algebra 1, so get ready to hear them singing that formula.

In 8^th Grade Pre-Algebra students are finishing the first unit on properties of exponents. Most students like this section because they can solve a lot of problems quickly, but beware! Slowing down, showing work, and taking time to think at each step gets them to the right answers faster.

Regional Champions!

We have 23 wrestlers headed to Johnsburg for the Sectional Meet after the team won the Regional Meet last Saturday. As Mr. Alms noted in a recent tweet: 23 wrestlers from D23 in the year 2023? The numbers are lining up!

Student Recoginition

Each year we nominate two 8th grade students to be recognized for their mark on MacArthur. We look for students that:

Show responsibility with regards to attendance and behavior
Demonstrate pride, dignity and respect in personal conduct and relations with others
Act responsibly and encourages responsible actions by others
Exhibit dedication to school, staff, and fellow students
Is a positive person to know

This year we nominated 8th graders, Blake Kuhns & Alondra Paredes!

We even ran into some former Marauders who were being honored as Wheeling Wildcats.

Current and former Marauders uniting at the Student Recognition Breakfast. Blake Kuhns, Dr. Nystrom, Christopher Rivera (WHS), and Kylie Delfosse (WHS)

iPad Cleaning

It's time for some spring cleaning with our iPads! Please take time to update your child's iPad over the next week or two. Attached you will find directions on how to update your child's device. If you have any issues updating, please have your child submit a tech ticket through the IncidentIQ app on their iPad. A member of the tech department will fix their issue at school. Thank you for all that you do at home!