Monday, October 22, 2012

Spartan Blog, Week of October 22-26, 2012


Spartan PRIDE
Supporting our school community core values.
Parents as Partners

Our first Parent Advisory Meeting was held on Monday, October 15th in the Spearfish Middle School Library.  The group of twenty students, teachers and parents had a very productive meeting.  The students and I share a PowerPoint presentation that all students heard and discussed as part of classroom conversations with Mr. Baier, Mr. O'Dea, Ms. Bell and Ms. Doll-Dunn.  It is our desire to build a strong school community where everyone is committed to excellence.  The group also began to discuss the role of Parents and Partners in our school.  We identified topics of interest, explored organizational structures and agreed the role of parents in our school is critical to our students' success.  The notes and questions below were gathered during our meeting.  We plan to meet on Monday, November 5th (date change) at 6 p.m. in the middle school library to continue developing a plan of action for parent involvement.  All are welcome to attend!

What is the Purpose/Mission?
How do we accomplish our Mission?
What will be our organizational structure?  (meeting times and frequency, leadership structure)
·       Alternate Meeting Location?
·       How to be involved as a parent at the Middle level?
(Education & Training)
·   Create process for constructive feedback between parents & school (Structure/process communication)
·       Safety – How to maximize community empowerment
(Education in training & collaboration)
·       Student Learning
·       Dialog is key “collaborate”
·    Committee Assignments –Parent volunteers to serve on school committees (technology, building leadership team, etc...)



Upcoming Activities:

Nov. 5                         Parent Advisory Meeting, SMS library from 6-7 p.m.
Nov. 7                         2 pm – EARLY RELEASE
Nov. 12                       NO SCHOOL Veterans Day
Nov. 21                       End of First Trimester
Nov. 21                       12:50 pm – EARLY RELEASE
Nov. 22-23                  Thanksgiving Vacation

The difference between the bottom and top, between success and failure, between mediocrity and excellence is often very small.  A single insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.  The accumulation of a lot of little things isn’t little.  So breathe in experience.  Remain a lifelong learner.  Fine-tune your skills and sweat the details.  Constantly be on the look-out for the little difference that can make a big difference.

                                                                     -Whatever It Takes, A Journey Into the Heart of Human Achievement
 

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