Dr. A’s Principal Coffee was a pretty straightforward affair. Read on to hear what’s upcoming for our little middle school angels.
Better, Not Bitter Assembly
As part of Cedar Park’s anti-bullying week, motivational speaker Jesse LeBeau and his team visited Cedar Park to spread the message of taking action and becoming “better, not bitter.” Watch Jesse’s story here, or better yet, check out the pictures of our kids ACTUALLY ENJOYING an assembly.
Other anti-bullying activities included students adding their handprints & personal pledge to 12-foot banners, stating what they’ll stand up against. Teachers also brought in cultural identity lessons to help educate students.
Middle School Boundary Roadshow
The 12 applicants to sit on the middle school boundary advisory committee have been chosen (two from each existing middle school). Those meetings have started and at least half are open to the public and will be live-streamed on youtube.
This BSD boundary road show will be at Cedar Park on Thursday, 12/5 from 6:30-8:30pm. A full listing of events, FAQs, videos and other documents can be found at the BSD Middle School Boundary webpage.
Testing Takes Over: But Does it Matter?
8th graders will be taking the Pre-ACT8 on November 20th. This is a district switch from the prior test, the PSAT, meaning we are back to finding baseline data. Cedar Park had been seeing year over year growth in the PSAT. The Pre-ACT measures English, math, reading, and science, and includes information on plans and goals after high school as well as college readiness skills.
Currently in BSD, students will take the Pre-ACT again in 10th grade and the ACT in 11th grade. Students can also opt to take the SAT. More info about assessments can be found at BSD’s Assessment homepage.
TAG testing will also be taking place in November, on the 12th & 15th. Forms for parents to fill out to have their student tested were sent home in the newsletter and are available in the office. However, TAG is different from Summa, with different levels of distinction. Summa students are sent to a different program at Meadow Park. TAG students have their learning differentiated in the classroom.
But does it really matter? Well, this led to quite a discussion about Summa, TAG, and taking higher level classes in high school. The general consensus agreed that while Summa and TAG identification can be helpful in middle school, they are not necessarily required to take honors, AP, or IB classes at Beaverton or Sunset.
Since Beaverton & Sunset have distinct programming and offerings, it’s easier for parents to check out the individual schools themselves to see the various prerequisites, pathways, honors, and AP or IB options.
Sunset Academic Program Planning 2019-20 (pdf)
Beaverton Academic Planning Guide 2019-20 (website)
Other Interesting Nuggets You’d Know if You’d Been Here:
The PACK store is on its way back! Two generous parent volunteers have offered to chair this CPMS tradition. Students receive tokens from teachers & staff for good behavior & positive qualities. Students can then use those tokens to purchase fun stuff at the PACK store, open a couple days a month. Because token hoarding is a real thing, Dr. A is offering pop-up donut shops and whole pizzas every now and then.
BSD is committed to creating a more comprehensive middle school experience, meaning middle school are working to better align their programming and grading practices. Being an MYP schools means we have an 8-point grading rubric, which allows for nuance in grading scale something other middle schools do not have. BSD will continue to work toward equitable offerings at all their neighborhood middle schools.
The Parentvue/Canvas/Google Classroom conundrum continues. Just a refresher: teachers are not mandated to use a specific platform to share classroom info. While all must upload grades into Parentvue, any other online class management choice is up to them. While Canvas & Google Classroom are nice for updates & assignments, look to Parentvue (especially now after last week’s grading day) for updated scores.
Our new Cedar Park sign is in the works! Mock-ups will be heading to Shannon soon.
See you all Thursday, 12/12 at 9am for the next exciting session with Dr. Anderson!