April 2025 - Posts
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
I hope you are doing well. As I write this, we are within a few hours of beginning our April vacation. While I still wore my winter gloves at morning drop-off today, some positive signs of Spring have emerged. Today, we benefited from a hardworking group of high school seniors on their Senior Community Service Day. They were able to move and spread about four yards of mulch in our cafeteria courtyard. When I chatted with them during their work, they remembered that during their 7th grade year, we closed for Covid in March. And in their 8th grade year, we had all sorts of lunchtime arrangements to allow for physical distancing. They never got to enjoy the courtyard they worked so hard to spruce up today. We will open up our cafeteria courtyard for lunches when we return from vacation. Weather and student behavior will always determine if it's open for student use on a daily basis, but it's another sign that spring is here and the end of the year is fast approaching.
The Acton-Boxborough Student Activity Fund (ABSAF) is looking to recruit student and adult board members. ABSAF works to raise money to support the student activities at RJ Grey and ABRHS. ABSAF raises money through ABSAF Pass sales, donations, and fundraisers, which are gifted to the Jr. High and High School to subsidize the cost of student activities like music, drama, athletics, academic teams, and community service. Some examples of how ABSAF funds have been used include: donations to Proscenium Circus (the High School Theater group), purchase of band uniforms and instruments, new stage curtains and sound system for the Junior High, supplies and equipment for all athletic teams, study guides and league dues for academic teams, athletic uniforms, and transportation to events for all the groups mentioned above.
If you are interested in learning more about ABSAF, or are interested in applying to be on the board, please check them out. I serve on an education foundation in my own town, raising money to support innovative teacher projects. I can tell you, raising money for schools is hard, but worthwhile work. I hope you'll consider learning more about ABSAF.
I hope that if you're traveling this week, all goes smoothly. If you're staying close to home, like me, I hope you get some valuable time with your kids. My family will spend a night in a local hotel so that my kids can swim in a pool. They don't ask for much, but they do love cannonballs! I joked with the staff earlier that they should ask me how many of my three kids end up with ear infections by this time next week! The things we do for fun!
I hope you have a good week,
Jim
jmarcotte
Good afternoon, RJ Grey Families:
Welcome to April! As of today, we have about 48 school days left until summer. As you are making plans for summer, please know that our last day of school will be Friday, June 20th. As is typical for our last day, we will dismiss at 11:10 am. We are in the process of scheduling our end-of-year field trips to Mel's Funway (7th grade) and Canobie Lake Park (8th grade) for the last week of school. You'll hear more about these trips when we return from April vacation.
Last week, I referenced that we'd be holding "reset" assemblies for students over the next few weeks. This week, we've met with all four 7th grade teams and reiterated some of the great things that have been happening and some areas where we need to recommit to our best practices. We'll meet with 8th graders next week. In the assemblies, we talk about attendance and timeliness, hallway behavior, and appropriate language and actions (link to slides here).
A strong pet peeve has emerged for me as I've observed classes over the last few weeks. When the teacher has introduced the lesson or a concept, and sets students loose to take notes, write down their homework, or fill in a paper-based activity, there have been at least one, sometimes several, students in each class without something to write with! In a few cases, I have approached the student to quietly whisper, "How did you plan to manage class today without something to write with?" We are using the assemblies to remind students that their primary job is to come to school and class prepared to learn. That means bringing a writing utensil, a charged Chromebook, and class-specific materials (vocab list, binder, folder, etc.). A huge majority of our students are more well-organized than some adults I know, so they should keep doing what they're doing! Thank you for checking in with your own child about their readiness for learning each day.
We start our MCAS testing next week. Students in both grades will take the English Language Arts MCAS on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thank you for helping your child remember to charge their Chromebook the night before testing. We want our students to do their best and show us what they've learned - doing so is complicated with a weak battery. Thank you for your help with students coming prepared and on time for each day of testing!
Next Tuesday is also the start of our 4th quarter. Students will rotate into a new PE or Health class. Our exploratory classes (art, engineering, etc.) operate on a semester basis, so there is still another quarter of learning coming their way. However, we take the opportunity to shuffle up some classes when necessary to create more balanced class sizes. We'll be in touch with some students and families next week with any necessary schedule changes. Students will still have all of their classes, but may just switch from a class on an odd day to a class on an even day or vice versa.
Finally, congratulations to our winners of the March Madness Advisory Competition! It was a close contest the entire time, but one advisory pulled ahead after earning 60 points throughout the tournament, and then bringing in ELEVEN Missing Marcotte points! With 60 points, a three-way tie for third place goes to Ms. Giannetto, Ms. Manto, and Ms. McVey! In second place, with 68 points, is Ms. Gildea's Advisory! And in first place, with 71 points was Mr. Charig's Advisory! Congratulations to all participants!
Take care, and I hope you have a nice weekend.
Jim
jmarcotte
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