Internet Safety Seminar

There will be a community seminar on Tuesday, November 2nd from 7:00 to 8:00 at our Central Office on Meisner Road. The seminar will be run by the Michigan CSI (Cyber Safety Initiative)and will discuss protecting children from Internet predators.

There's a Bear in My Pool

Over the years I've had a number of angry parents contact me for one reason or another. Sometimes it's because I've messed something up and when that's the case, I apologize and make it right. More times than not, once the dust settles, everyone realizes that it had something to do with misinformation. The reason I bring this up is I just had a situation where the parent told me what I had said.....and the reason they knew what I said is because another child had told them what I said. Here's some breaking news.....middle school kids don't always say what really happened. It's not necessarily a lie, but sometimes they just draw conclusions, or hear part of something and then just fill in the blanks. Just because your son/daughter tells you something doesn't mean it's fact. I remember one time my son said he saw a bear in our backyard by our swimming pool. I love my son but I didn't totally believe him. I guess what I'm asking is, if you ever hear anything that is upsetting, please come talk to me with an open mind and we will figure it out.

Anti Bullying Committee

Here's the plan. I am meeting with our Counselors tomorrow (Friday). At that time I hope to set a date for our first committee meeting next week. At the meeting we will discuss a plan of attack for our school wide policy. I will use this Blog as a means of keeping everyone in the loop with what we discuss, our goals, plans, etc. If you are a parent that has volunteered to help out on the committee and can't make a meeting...not a problem. I still want your input (matter of fact, I want every one's input).

On somewhat the same note....I've received a couple of e-mails that basically said that they are glad that we are finally doing something about Bullying. That really could not be further from the truth. What we are attempting to do is to change how we are approaching the problem. I could go on and on but then you'd have no reason to check back

More to come.

Bullying...Looking For a Few Volunteers

No, not volunteer bullies. What I'm looking for is a few parent volunteers that would like to serve on a SCMS Anti-Bullying Committee. If you've read some of my previous blogs, you know where I stand on bullying. We are working very hard but it's obvious to me that we need to keep looking for ways to deal with the problem. My plan is to get parents, students and teachers together to discuss all aspects of bullying. What bullying is, what we can do to prevent it, what to do if you're being bullied and what we can do school wide to help educate everyone on this problem. My goal is that we get to a point where everyone understands that all aspects of bullying is unacceptable. If you are interested in being part of this committee, please shoot me an e-mail.

Might as Well Laugh...

This has absolutely nothing to do with SCMS...so those of you that are all business stop reading now. I'm putting this on our Blog to hopefully put a smile on your face if you're having a bad day/week....not as an attempt to get sympathy. As some of you might know, I've been down for a few weeks with pneumonia. I started at around 223 lbs before I got sick. I was at 215 by the time I went to the doctors and now I'm at 207. For those that haven't ever had pneumonia (thank your stars), I couldn't even climb a flight of stairs without being out of breath. Monday I finally thought I was on the mend and decided to get Murphy's pizza for dinner(which is a great deal on Monday's). As I was biting down on my first slice I heard my jaw pop. It really hurt and still hurts two days later. Being too embarrassed to go the doctors to explain that I hurt myself while eating pizza, I decided to tough this latest "owie" out. This morning has been the best I've felt in three weeks...I really feel like I'm on the upswing. I just got done e-mailing my wife to tell her that I'm finally getting my energy back and I get a nose bleed for no reason what so ever. I've decided that every body part I have is having it's own little rebellion. It's tough getting old.

Calling All Calculators

Tuesday is our Math MEAP. On a portion of the MEAP calculators are allowed. Unfortunately we don't have 650 scientific calculators. In the past we've flip flopped the portions of the MEAP (calculator/non calculator) and moved what calculators we do have from room to room. You can ease some of my stress by sending a scientific calculator in with your student if you have one at home. You can tell that it's a scientific calculator if you type in 4 + 3 X 2 and you get 10 (in the order of operation you always multiply before you add...a scientific calculator does that for you). Please make sure your name is on it. If you don't have one laying around the house, no big deal....we'll make it work.

MEAP...So Far So Good.....

Well.....week one of the MEAP is behind us and I'm impressed with the way our kids are attacking the test. In talking to some of our students I really liked what they had to say. Parts were a little tough but I worked through it. I thought it was easy. I gave it my best. All things that I was hoping to hear. One more week to go. Keep doing what you're doing at home....it seems to be working.

E-mail Problems

Those outside the East China School District might not know that we went through a HUGE (I'd write it in bigger letters if I could) technology change over the summer. As a matter of fact we are still in the midst of change (I'm sooooooo happy I don't have our technology department's job). One of the changes has been our e-mail system/server/host (I'd through a few more technology terms in there to try to make me look smart but it would just be a waste of time). Anyway....I just heard from a parent, in a very nice way, that they have been trying to contact a staff member since the second week of school. Four e-mails have been sent with no reply. After a little research we found out that the wrong e-mail address was being used. It wasn't getting kicked back to the parent, so it's out there somewhere....it just isn't here. If you ever have a problem getting in contact with a staff member and it goes on for a few days, don't hesitate to pick up the phone.

MEAP'ing

It just doesn't get any better than this. We've got GREAT kids...and I mean that, but this MEAP testing scares me. If someone is having a bad day, or stayed up late, or is a Wolverine fan...all of those things can effect how they do on this test. Every year we have a handful of kids that fail the MEAP by a question or two. Every year when we look at the test results, the last 20% of the test is the part we do the poorest on. It's not because the MEAP gets tougher as it goes on, it's because the kids lose their focus and give up on the last few questions. Please help by stressing the importance of finishing strong....which applies to life, not just the MEAP It's a speech they are hearing at school....hearing at home will only reinforce it.

DC Survey

Thanks to everyone that filled out this year's Washington DC survey. Some of the results, and a few comments, I've posted on our Washington DC link off of our main webpage. We'll be having a meeting for this year's 7th graders within a month to expalin the trip, costs, etc...

No Posts?

For those of you whose day revolves around reading my Blog, I need to apologize for the lack of entries lately. I've been a tad under the weather...matter of fact, when I went to the doctor's I was diagnosed with a condition that I thought only old people get (pneumonia ?????). Still not sure how that happened. Anyway, things should start to pick up now that I'm back to working a full day (which is tougher than I remember it)

MEAP ....Need Some Help

Every year I plead for help. I plead to our staff, our parents and our students. Please, please, please finish strong. The MEAP is a test that is hard to prepare for. Students aren't used to sitting for a 2 hour block to take a test. If you look at our scores, every year, we do the poorest on the last 20% of the test. It's not because the test is progressive (starts with easy questions and gets tougher as it goes along), it's because the kids get tired/bored. If we can get the kids to take their time and finish the test with the same focus as they start with, our already good scores would be outstanding. Anything you can do to promote this at home would be appreciated.

New Saturday School Procedure

I tried to post this earlier with zero luck but I was able to post it to my (Mr. Alley) webpage. It can be found under Staff Directory/Teacher Web Pages on our main SCMS website. Sorry for all the bouncing back and forth...I have no idea why it would let me post it here (???)