Front SCMS Sign

As some of you may have noticed, we are missing the letter "A" on our St. Clair Middle School sign by our main front driveway. Not sure where it went or why it was taken but it has been a huge pain to find a replacement. With the help of Mr. Aspenleiter who is the district's head of building and grounds, we have found a company that can make another one. In order to make another one they need to a sample of what they need to duplicate, so we had to remove another "A" from the sign to send to them. I'm told it should be done in a couple of weeks. Until then we'll be A-less.

No....We Weren't TP'd

If you pass by the middle school, at first glace, it looks like someone threw some toilet paper in our trees. If you were to take a closer look you'd see that they are streamers with messages. Mrs. Biernot's Art Classes have participated in a global art project where kids create images of peace and send them to a school to share. Our participating school is a British School from New Delhi, India. We have received art posters and long streamers with positive messages to hang on trees as a reminder of our unity as a human race. The posters are displayed on blue boards down by our main office. If you get a chance, stop and take a look.....it's a neat idea.

Full Moon-itist

Wow.....it could be the weather...it could be the full moon....it could be the time of year. Bottom line is that I'm not sure what it is but seems like the average age of a good number of our students dropped into the 3 to 4 year old range. Some of our kids are acting like a bunch of caged monkeys. Anything you can do at home to re-focus them would be greatly appreciated. This isn't anything out of the ordinary for middle school and the time of year, but it is an opportunity to do some "molding" at home. Topics for conversation could include, effort, dress code, behavior, no put downs.....those topics should easily take you a month and a half and then school's out.

May the Force be with us.

New No Zero Homework Policy

As I hope everyone who is reading this knows, we have a No Zero policy here at SCMS. We have certain procedures in place to help students finish assignments and keep their grades up. Unfortunately some students for a variety of reasons still fall behind. Once they fall behind it tends to have a snowball effect and before long they find themselves in a hole that is very difficult to get out of. For that reason, we're going to try something a bit different from now until the end of the year. Anyone that has two or more missing assignments on Thursday will be assigned a Saturday School/Homework Recovery Session with me from 8:00 am until 10:00 am. Here is how I see this working. On Thursday, anyone with two or more missing assignments will be getting a letter to bring home. Depending on the number of students involved, I hope to make phone calls home giving parents a heads up. If by Friday they turn in all the missing work, in an acceptable fashion (not just a bunch of chicken scratch) then they do not have to attend Saturday School. If there is some situation that makes attending Saturday School impossible (being out of town, family obligation, etc), give me a call and we'll work out something else...possibly some time before school. Our goal is to get work completed and to stay on top of things. This is not meant to be a punishment. These Homework Help Saturdays will be run about every two weeks starting this weekend. I say about every two weeks because Memorial Day weekend is in the mix and that throws my every two weeks off. The Students will be notified of this tomorrow. I'll be using this Blog to notify parents of the upcoming dates.

Career Day Highlight

During our Career Day last week I had a personal highlight. As some of you know, my oldest son is a Federal Agent. As part of Career Day he came in to talk to the kids about being a Federal Agent. After he left I had a number of students come up and ask me if the speaker was my brother. You can take that one of two ways...either my son came across very mature or I look very young. I took it as looking very young. Life is good.

7th Grade DC Parents

Don't forget that our Little Caesar Pizza Kits are being delivered today. Please make arrangements to have them picked up before 5:00 pm today (in our Aux Gym)

I'm a Slacker

Blogs/updates have fallen off in the last few weeks....sorry. That changes today. This time of year we have a ton going on. Keep checking back as I try to be more on the ball.

More Congratulations

Current 8th grader, Nicole Denny competed at the USGWA (United State Girls Wrestling Association) National Championships over Spring Break. Nicole wrestled 4 matches and recorded 4 pins. She pinned a gal from South Carolina in the finals in 1:14 to capture the USGWA National Title in the Middle School Division at 100 lb division. Congratulations Nicole...awesome achievement.

St. Clair Art Association Awards

Three SCMS students won awards from St. Clair Art Association for their art that were entered.

The Johnson Award went to Nicole Conigliaro for art titled Green Turtle
Honorable Mentions went to Nick Alexander for art titled Night Fishing and to Tristan Unger for art titled Puffin

Congratulations to all students who participated and to Mrs. Biernot our SCMS Art Instructor.