Week of October 2nd

Picture retakes are Tuesday, October 3rd.  All students who missed picture day, will have their picture taken on Monday.  If your student had their picture taken, and would like to have a retake, they need to bring their complete picture packet with them on Tuesday.  Pictures can be ordered online at www.mylifetouch.com.  Our picture day ID is CG217395Y1.

Students interested in wrestling or girls' basketball should attend an informational meeting with their family on Monday, October 2nd at 5:30 pm in the LMS cafeteria.  Wrestling is open to 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students.  Girls' basketball is open to 7th and 8th grade students.  All students must have an athletic physical, infosnap, and code of conduct form on file in order to practice or compete.  This only needs to be done once per school year, so if your student participated in volleyball, football, or cross country, they do not need another physical to wrestle or play basketball.  Practice for both activities begins Monday, October 9th.

The STEM club will have it's first meeting of the year on Thursday, October 5th from 7:15 am to 7:45 am in Mr. Miller's room. Students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades can join the STEM club.  They will meet once per week and will work on robotics and game programming.   If you have any questions please contact Mrs. Burkhart or Mr. Miller.

As a staff, we are focusing on incorporating high leverage practices into our daily instruction.  These  practices are recognized by educational researchers as improving student achievement through more effective instruction.  We have great teachers at LMS and we are always striving to improve our practice in support of student learning.  A few examples of the high leverage practices are: greeting students positively, tasks that require and foster collaborative work, modeling thinking aloud, providing oral and written feedback to students, and using questions that provoke and allow students to share their thinking.   Your student may have mentioned they've seen an administrator in many of their classes this year.  We are conducting frequent classroom walk-throughs to support teachers in using the high leverage practices.  We are committed to excellence at LMS and this work supports our quest for continuous improvement.

Upcoming Events:

●        October 2                            Girls's basketball and wrestling informational meeting

●        October 3                            Picture retakes

●        October 5                            PTO meeting

●        October 9                            Girls' basketball and wrestling practice begins

●        October 25-26                     Fall conferences

●        October 27                          No school-fall conferences 

Week of September 25th

It's Spirit Week at LMS in support of homecoming.  We are having a serious of dress-up days to boost school spirit and to support our teams.  The schedule for Spirit Week is as follows:

• Monday: No School-Professional Development
• Tuesday: Class Color Day
• 6th Grade-Yellow
• 7th Grade-Red
• 8th Grade-Blue
• Wednesday: Black Out for the LMS football team
• Thursday: White Out for the LMS volleyball team, Hat Day for a $1 donation
• Friday: Plainsmen Pride 

Celebration is an important part of our school culture and Spirit Week provides an opportunity to have fun and build community.  It's going to be a great week of learning and celebrating our pride in our school.  

During professional development on Monday, we discussed grading norms.  Grades are an important tool for communicating learning progress.  In order to communicate learning effectively, grading practices needs to be consistent across classrooms, grades, and subject areas.  Currently, all staff are weighting grades in the following way: 70% of the grade is based on activities that assess a student's mastery of standard, 20% of a student's grade is based on a student's progression toward mastery of standards, and 10% of a student's grade is based on practice, exposure, and engagement of standards.

In layman's terms that means 70% of a students grade is based on assessments, 20% on classroom activities, and 10% on homework.  That's an oversimplification, but provides the basic idea. Some teacher are weighting using total points others are using the settings in Powerschool.  The outcome is the same with both methodologies.  The reason for weighting is to make grades more reflective of what students know, understand, and can do.  Just like we don't judge the success of our favorite sports teams on how well they practice, we don't want to base too much of a students grade on practice and activities leading up to the game, or final demonstration of learning. 

Upcoming Events:

• September 25 No school-professional development
• October 2 Girls' basketball and wrestling informational meeting
• October 3 Picture retakes
• October 5 PTO meeting
• October 25-26 Fall conferences
• October 27 No school-fall conferences

Week of September 18

At LMS our fundamental purpose is student learning.   In support of our purpose, the Scout Learning Lab (SLL) has been developed to provide the time and support for students to complete work deficiencies and to gain understanding of the necessary concepts required for mastery of content.   

A deficiency might include, but is not limited to, incomplete or failed assignments, projects, or any assigned task important to the learning process.  SLL will be available before school, after school, during lunch, and on designated Saturday mornings.  We are committed to partnering with parents and students to ensure academic excellence.  If you have any questions or would like to request a time to meet about your child’s progress, please contact 307-721-4430.  The levels of support included in the SLL structure are outlined below.   

Optional Scout Learning Lab: before school 7:30-8:00 a.m. M-F in the teacher’s classroom and after school Monday-Friday from 3:00-3:30 in teachers’ classrooms.  Students may also choose to attend Saturday sessions. 

Required SLL: 

Based on habitual deficiencies and/or failure to effectively utilize optional SLL, students will be assigned to following: 

Lunch SLL: Teachers may assign lunch SLL to address learning deficiencies. Students are to retrieve their lunch and report to the appropriate classroom.  Students should go to the front of the lunch line.  If students complete their missing work satisfactorily prior to the end of their lunch period, they will be dismissed.    

After school SLL: from 3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday in the assigning teacher’s classroom.  Students will be assigned to after school SLL, based on habitual deficiencies.  Late buses are available and depart the school at approximately 4:00.  Students riding the late bus will continue to work in the cafeteria from 3:30-4:00. 

Saturday SLL: from 8:00-11:00 on select Saturdays.  Extended opportunity for students who have habitual deficiencies that have not been corrected during other times.  Students will be assigned by classroom teachers, in consultation with administrative team, to Saturday SLL.   

• For students who have continued deficiencies even after extensive use of SLL.  

• If students complete the outstanding deficiencies prior to the scheduled Saturday SLL, they will not be required to attend.  When students complete their deficiencies, they will be excused with parental consent. 

Note:  If students willfully refuse to engage in SLL in a meaningful way, we will respond with a required meeting involving the student, parent(s), teaching team, guidance, and administration to develop a plan.

We have also tweaked the procedures for students who wish to purchase a la carte items during lunch. Students will positive lunch balances will be able to use those funds to purchase a la carte items. Students with negative balances will not be able to charge a la carte items, but will be able to purchase a la carte with cash.  No student will be denied a lunch based on the status of their lunch account. 

Upcoming Events

• September 25       No School-Professional Development
• October 3              Picture Retakes
• October 5              PTO Meeting
• October 25-26       Fall Conferences 

Week of September 11

I'd like to begin this week's blog post by recognizing our students for their exemplary behavior at the dance on Friday.  We had approximately 400 students attend the dance and they were awesome.   Our students are truly a credit to themselves, their families, and their school.

Many LMS students choose to bring a device (BYOD: Bring Your Own Device) to school to access Schoology and other education related applications.  Others would like to, but are unsure of what specifications, requirements, or capabilities a device should have to be effective in our learning environment.  The technology department has put together these guidelines to assist students and families in choosing a device to meet their needs.  Students and families also need to be aware of the responsible use guidelines. Please remember, students are not required to have a personal device at Laramie Middle School.  If students do not bring a personal device, one will be provided for those learning activities that require one.  Here are the basic recommendations for personal devices:
     • A display of 10” or larger
     • System RAM of 2GB or more (for Mac, Windows, Chrome Book or Android devices)
     • System storage of 16GB or more (for Mac, Tablet or Windows devices)
     • Wireless connectivity supporting the 802.11n or 802.11ac standards
     • Directly connected keyboard (Wireless keyboards can be problematic in group settings)
     • Device operating system of Windows 10, Chrome OS, Android, or Mac OSX

The Laramie Middle School PTO is currently seeking new members and additional support.  Please review this information from PTO President, Nancy Bartholomew:

Are you looking for a way to support your school, teachers, and students? Do you want to wear our school colors at your child’s sporting events? PTO is selling school apparel so you can do just that. It is a great way to help support our PTO. The money we raise goes into programs and activities throughout the school year that support our school, teachers, and students.

We would love to have you join us at our next meeting on October 5, 2017, at 5:30 p.m. in the LMS Cafeteria. We will be discussing the meals we will provide the teachers at our next meeting and a link to the sign up sheet will be available in next month’s newsletter. If you would like to help provide food for our Parent Teacher Conferences on October 25 and 26, please let us know. Follow our activities on Facebook at LMS PTO (fb.me/laramiemiddleschoolpto). For more information please email Nancy Bartholomew at bartholomewnancy2@gmail.com.

Upcoming Events

• September 25        No School-Professional Development
• October 3              Picture Retakes
• October 5              PTO Meeting

Week of September 4th

The State of Wyoming has released school performance reports for all Wyoming schools.  School performance rating are based on our PAWS scores from last Spring.  There are four performance levels: exceeding expectations, meeting expectations, partially meeting expectations, and not meeting expectations.  Overall, Laramie Middle School earned a ranking of meeting expectations.  This rating is based on our performance on four indicators: growth, equity, achievement, and participation rate. Growth is the amount students improve on PAWS year to year, equity is the amount of growth for traditionally lower performing groups of students, achievement is percent of students earning PAWS scores of proficient or advanced in reading, math, and science, and the required participation rate is 95% or above.

LMS meet the targets or expectations in growth, achievement, and participation.  We earned a ranking of below targets in equity.  This means that LMS students who are members of traditionally lower performing groups did not do as well as their peers across the state.  We are going to examine this data in more detail to determine how we can not only support these students, but all LMS students, more effectively.

At LMS, students are allowed to carry water bottles throughout the day in most classes.  Some individual classes may have restrictions regarding water bottles due to safety or logistical concerns (for example PE or industrial arts).  Students are not to carry drinks other than water throughout the day.  Students may bring something other than water to enjoy before school or during lunch, however that drink must not leave the tiled area of the school and must not go into any classrooms.  Also, students are strongly discouraged from bringing energy drinks of any kind to school Research has shown these types of drinks are especially unhealthy for young people and we discourage any students from bringing them to school.

The first dance of the school year is this Friday after school until 5:00 pm. All LMS students in good standing are encouraged to attended.  Dances are a great time to connect with classmates and have fun.  Admission is $4 and can be paid at the door.

Upcoming Events

• September 6          PTO Meeting
• September 8          Back to School Dance
• September 25        No School-Professional Development