October Celebrations!

We are proud of our school!  We have had a lot to celebrate recently.  We held our first school-wide gathering on Friday to highlight filling up the cube-tube as well as to recognize fall sports.  Of particular note is the fact that the Girls Cross-Country team, coached by PA High School Science teacher, Matt Yaskowitz, won their Middle Level Championship, beating some highly competitive schools, to include: 

MOUNTAIN DIVISION

Danville, Harwood, Hazen, Lake Region, Lamoille, Lyndon, Montpelier, North Country, Northfield, Oxbow, Peoples, Randolph, South Royalton, Stowe, Thetford,, U-32, Vergennes

                  

{School-wide Gathering - 10-25-13 Celebrating Sports and ML X-C Girls win!}

We are celebrating having had two nice mentions in the Stowe Reporter recently. An article about our 1:1 iPad program was written.  If you didn't see it, here's the link:  

A is for App

The second article was about our own Mr. Paige being honored as Morristown School District's choice for UVM's Outstanding Teacher award.  He was recognized for his commitment to his students and his passion for teaching.  Here's the link to this article:

High Honors for Mathematics Teachers

6th grade had a successful Family Night on the 24th.  In addition to the teachers teaching the families about the technology practices in their classrooms, the parents had a wonderful conversation about what it means to be parenting their children in a digital world.  Future Family Nights are on the PAML website calendar. 

Please spread the word about the blog, and add your email address to the right, so that you are notified of new blog-posts.  Thank you for all that you do for the PAML community.

Karen Weeks

Communications!! What we are doing at PAML?

                                                                                         

October 22, 2013

Dear PAML Families,                                                                        

As we move forward in this 2013-2014 school year, we are continually working on ways to improve communication with our PAML community.   I would like to share with you the many ways in which you can expect to hear from the school and, also, ways in which you can be in touch with the school.

Quarterly:  You will receive a report card in the USPS mail.  In this mailing there may be additional information that comes home.

Monthly:  This year your student will receive a paper menu and a list of upcoming events

PAML Website:  Our PAML Calendar lists sports games as well as events, notice of vacation time, etc.  located at http://www.morrisville.org/PAML/PAML_home.asp.  I highly suggest you always start here to connect to the individual grade level websites as there may be whole school information located on this site.

This Blog: If you are reading this, you have already found it!  Sign in with your email to the right, and you'll receive update notices when the blog is updated!

Grade level websites have information about classes, homework and units of study.  They are useful and friendly to viewers.  Remember - always start from the PAML website as mentioned above.

Paper progress reports are handed to your student bi-weekly.  (Dates are listed in the PAML Student Handbook & Calendar you received at the start of school.)  Remember, you can access the PowerSchool Portal from our website at any time for academic and behavioral checks of how your student is doing.  If you do not have the user name and password for this, please be in touch with Linny Curtis at 888-1401.

Calling PAML:  Our hope is that, between the hours of 7:30am and 3:00pm, you will reach a live person and, often times, someone will answer until 4:00pm.   Should the line be busy during these hours, you may leave a voice mail message in the general mailbox, and your call will be addressed promptly or forwarded to the appropriate person. 

Thanks for all you do for the PAML community!

Family Technology Presentations

Hello!

I wanted to put out a quick reminder that we have an upcoming Family Technology Night tonight at 5:30 – 6:30 being presented by the 8^th Grade Team.   The topic this evening is Code of Conduct (Safety/Digital Citizenship), iPad Tour, School Work Flow and Apps. 

On Monday Oct. 14^th the 5^th Grade Team will host as session from 5:30 – 6:30 entitled 5^th Grade Core Apps and Work Flow. 

On Wednesday, October 23^rd the 7^th Grade Team will present Healthy Habits with an iPad. 

Thursday, October 24^th the 6^th Grade Team will present Setting Limits at Home for Screen Time.

Future Sessions include Dec. 3^rd by the 8^th grade entitled Issues and Concerns, Sharing of New Apps and on January 16^th, 6^th Grade workflow will be presented.  All sessions are from 5:30 – 6:30.

We hope you plan to join us!  These sessions are to support families in gaining understanding in the the learning the concepts of a 1:1 digital environment.  What you learn will help you help your child!!

Fall Conferences!

Dear PAML Community,

On Oct. 17^th we will be having conferences.  The parents/guardians in 5^th and 6^th grade will meet with the Core Team teacher, and the 7^th and 8^th grade parents/guardians will meet with the student’s Teacher Advisory (TA) teacher.  The conferences will be for 20 minutes between 8:00 – 3:30.  Please call the office at 888-1401 to set up your conference.  We'll do our best to find times that work well for sibling conference times as well.

Some tips for preparing for the conference:

• Talk with your students about school.  Ask them about the classes and let them know you’ll be attending the conference.  Ask them if there is anything you’d like to be sure to talk about, or better yet – BRING your student along.
• Be prepared – review your child’s grades and behavior information available on the parent portal.  Please call Mrs. Curtis in the office if you don’t have a password to log on to the parent portal yet.
• Think in advance about questions you might have, and jot them down.  Ask the most important ones first.  Bring the list with you and feel free to jot down notes while at the conference.
• Know that the teachers are interested in your child’s success at school.  If there is any information you think you should share with the teacher that will help your child, please do so.  Be sure to ask for specific suggestions to help your child to succeed during this school year.  A strong partnership between home and school is important for your student.