Cruisin Down the St. Clair River

Looking for something fun to do on August 21st? The East China School District Supporters Fund will be hosting a Cruise down the St. Clair River on the Duc d’Orleans departing from the River Crab at 6:30 p.m. Music onboard will be performed by the Rivertown Gents and hors d’oeurves are provided by the River Crab. Tickets are $50 per person and are available in our main office. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me. It’s a great way to support our kids and enjoy a summer night on the water.

8th Graders to SC4

This Friday our 8th graders will be traveling to St. Clair County Community College for a series of presentations. Lunch will be provided. Permission slips were sent home last week. If you're a parent of an 8th grader and haven't seen the permission slip, or if your student was out ill last week, please ask them to grab another one and bring it home. Additional permission slips are available from their ELA teacher or in the main office. We'd like every 8th grader to attend.

Improtant Reminder For Everyone

As parents we've all said this 1000 times...maybe so many times that it falls on deaf ears. Please re-remind your child not to talk, approach or take anything from strangers. We just got word from Marysville Middle School that they had a vehicle approach a group of girls after school with the driver offering the girls candy. This message (be smart, be safe), can't be mentioned enough.

Looking For Some Summer Writing Ideas?

Check this out Bright Ideas For Summer

Funny Story

This past weekend I went up north to visit my mom. After a nice visit, I continued up north to participate in a 50 mile bike ride. For those that are not avid bike riders…and I am not….50 miles is a long way. The ride was anything but flat and for someone that hadn’t been on a bike yet this year it was more than a challenge. Here comes the funny part. On one of the downhill runs, at about mile 35, I was pedaling fairly hard when my left pedal came off. Not come lose, but gone, missing, broken. After I came to a stop, I spent 15 minutes looking for the pedal in the weeds. After I finally found it, I walked back to my bike and tried to screw it back in. After about 20 minutes of trying I realized that the threads were stripped and there was no way I was going to be able to put it back on. I was disappointed but it is what it is, so I decided just to pull out my cell phone and call my wife to come get me (she rode just the first 25 and had our vehicle). No cell service…..great. The next part you really have to have a mental picture to appreciate. Me (6’7”), on a bike, one pedal, trying to ride one footed. This went on for about 2 miles…and it was a long 2 miles. At various times during my adventure, I had a number of other cyclists slow down to see if I needed help. Everyone had the same reply…”oh….that’s too bad” and then they rode off. After a while a helper vehicle drove by that was picking up bikers that had either broken down or had just run out of energy. I waved them down so they could give me a ride to the finish line. We loaded my bike on their trailer and the guy told me that his Jeep Cherokee was full but there was room in the back. This is where it really got funny. He lifted up the hatchback and I squeezed my 6’7” body in with the spare tire, folded my legs the best I could and he shut the hatchback. Along the way I got a cramp in my calf which I couldn’t stretch out. To make things even better, as I was trying to sit up to stretch out my legs, I got a cramp in my abs. OK…to re-cap. My back end is sore, I failed to finish the 50 miles, my bike is broke, I’m wedged into the back of a Jeep Cherokee leaning against a spare tire and I have a cramp in my calf and my abs. Hope that brightens your day.

DC Parent Rooming Lists

Your son or daughter will be bringing home (hopefully) a rooming signup sheet for you if you are chaperoning the DC trip. If you have no idea who is going or who to room with, don't worry, we'll pair you up with someone. Any questions give Janice Schweihofer a call in our main office.

Student of the Month/Tiger's Game

Thanks to everyone that made the trip down to Comerica Park to watch the Tigers last night a success. Great night (not so great outcome for the Tigers). On a bit of a side note, every year I let the group know that around 9:15/9:30 we will be leaving the game so we can get back at a halfway decent hour. This year when I let the group know our departure plans, I had a couple of dads say "we're not staying to the end of the game?", followed by a couple of students that said "that'll probably be after halftime, right?" Thanks for sending us great kids

SCMS PTO

WHAT???? I bet those three letters, PTO, is just what our future SCMS parents wanted to hear. The plan is get a PTO started here at SCMS for next year. Now, before you push the panic button (I thought once we left the elementary we were done with PTO's????), here's my thought. If you're a current parent you know that we have a very active parent group. We have parents that help with selling snack, with making copies, with selling items in our book store, with putting together our welcome back packets, helping with our Washington DC fundraisers, being involved with our anti-bullying program, etc. My thought is that we could combine/organize all of these efforts and run it out on a single group....a PTO. Meetings would be few and held to a time limit. Fundraising (which every parent loves) wouldn't change from what we are already doing. More info will follow as I put this together for next year.

SCMS AWARDS

Wanted to send out a quick thank you to all the parents and students that attended our SCMS Awards Monday night. It's always a very enjoyable evening for me when we get to highlight all of our students for their hard work. Parents, as I said last night, you're doing a great job. Odds are that there will be a few bumps in the road in the years to come but hang in there. Life is full of small bumps in the road but enjoy these years....they are over in a blink of an eye (speaking from experience. Thanks again for sending us great kids.

Don't Hang Up!!!!!!!

Many of you have probably gotten one of our automated phone messages regarding missing assignments. We also use the same system, with the same intro, to send out other information. Sooooo...when the phone rings and you hear "Here is an important message...." don't assume that it is regarding missing homework and hang up the phone. You could be missing out on some really good info.

7th Grade DC Parents

For those of you that haven't signed up for the Texas Hold'em fundraiser, the deadline is this Friday. It's a very easy way to defray some of the costs. If you're like me, the sign up sheet very well could be under a stack of papers on the counter. Please fill it out and send it in to the office. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, ask your child where the info sheet is that they were supposed to give you. I've also put it on our main SCMS webpage...click on the Washington DC link. Any questions, don't hesitate to give me a call.

For Those That Don't Get the Newsletter

Here is part of what I wrote in the current Newsletter. Sort of a re-cap of the year. Wow…this year has flown by. Hard to believe that it’s May already. It won’t be long and this year will be in the rear view mirror (but if any students are reading this, all of our school rules still apply right up to 11:48 on June 12th). In September I asked the eighth graders to be leaders. I explain that the success of our year will be determined by them. They have done an outstanding job setting the tone of the building. That’s not to say that we didn’t have a few bumps along the way but all in all, it’s been a great year. For our eighth grade parents I’d like to take a moment to wish you and your student all the best in the next four years. You’ve done a great job so far raising your child and even though they might at times say and act like they don’t need your help, the next four years are critical as they will be faced with many challenging choices. Making sure that they hear (over and over) that every choice has consequences…some good and some bad….will pay dividends as they cross the stage in four years and head out into the real world. For my seventh grade parents, next year I will be expecting even more from your student. They will be my leaders of the school. How they except that leadership role will determine how much more grey hair I have at this time next year. For my sixth grade parents, the transition to adulthood will continue. Your student will be given more opportunities to fall and learn from their mistakes. It’s painful as a parent, but sometimes learning from failing is the best learning. I’m already looking forward to next year.

Math Clarification

For those of you that were at the incoming 6th grade parent meeting last night, this post has to do with the question of math credits at the high school. If you weren't at the meeting, stop reading now...it'll just confuse you. Here is my answer. As a Mathematics major and a former instructor of math, every student should take math for all four years of high school, whether you took Algebra I in 8th grade or not. If you were given the opportunity to take a year off, when would you take it? The state mandates that you take a math class your Senior year. Not taking math as a Freshman seems silly (you'd forget or lose the momentum you had from middle school). Do you want to take off a year as a Sophomore or Junior right before the MME's? Sooooooo, my answer is, regardless if I was right or wrong with what the requirements are at SCHS, take the four years of math. (How was that for a roundabout, politically correct way of saying something without saying who was right and who was wrong)

6th Grade Orientation Parent Meeting

Thanks to everyone that was able to make it to the parent meeting last night. Hopefully it answered a few questions. Raise your hand if you found the meeting helpful (OK...put your hand down, no one can see you. That was a test). We have been dealt a pretty good hand here at SCMS and one of the reasons that we have a good thing going is because of the communication bridges we've been able to build. If at any time you have any question or concern, please don't hesitate to shoot me an e-mail, pick up the phone or stop in. My door is always open. On a separate note.....had a question regarding high school math credits. I'm still hunting down the correct answer. As soon as I get a 100%, this is the way it is answer, I'll post it on this Blog. Thanks for having great kids...looking forward to the next three years.

Typical Dress Code Conversation

If you've read many of these Blogs or my newsletter or listened to me speak, then you know I hate dealing with the dress code. Being an older (some would say much older) and larger male, puts me in a bad spot in talking to young females about our dress code. Here is a conversation I just had with an 8th grade girl at lunch. She was walking by me with some rather large holes in her jeans. Me "Kiddo....come here for a second" Student "Sure...whatz up?" Me "I'm not sure those pants are appropriate for school" Student (shocked look on her face) "why????" Me "can you reach down and touch skin?" Student reaching down(even with crocodile arms) "well....sort of" (her hands went all the way past one of the larger holes) Me "Then you can't wear them to school" Student with a slight smirk on her face "ok......" as she is walking away Me, noticing that her shirt has slits in the back, "hey....come on back here" Student, turning back around and walk back "yes?" Me "that shirt isn't school appropriate either" Student "why not????" Me "does it have slits in the back?" Student...smirk returning to her face "yes...." Me "then you can't wear it to school......but I do like your shoes...they're ok to wear again" This is only going to get worse as the weather gets warmer.....

6th Grade/Half Day Confusion

Gotten a few phone calls from our 6th grade parents about our upcoming half days....Here is what's happening. As I hope you’ve heard, tomorrow, Wednesday May 2nd, is our annual 5th Grade Orientation. Because of that, current 6th graders will be dismissed at 11:30. It just so happens that we also have a district wide Professional Development Day on Thursday, May 3rd. All students will be dismissed at 11:48. That’s two half days in a row for our 6th graders. Sorry for any confusion that this may have caused.

7th Grade Scheduling

As you probably have heard, there is a boat load of graduation requirements that are mandated by the State. One of those requirements is that you must have two years of a foreign language. We offer the exact same Spanish I that is offered at SCHS. Same course, same exams, same class. It counts as one of the required years and this coming year (for the first time) the student's grade will count toward their high school GPA. If at all possible....do your child a favor and sign them up for Spanish in 8th grade. I know there are some other things to consider. Maybe you want them to have French (the other option at SCHS), maybe you feel that they aren't quite mature enough yet to handle a very rigorous class. But if at all possible, taking this class at SCMS helps to open up their schedule (a little) once they get to SCHS. Talk it over with your child, but again....if at all possible, taking it now will help in the long run.