R.J. Grey Junior High School

Good afternoon,

The volume and level of excitement at RJ Grey have grown steadily this week. In our classrooms, the halls, and the lunchroom, one can tell that something fun is coming! I bet you are experiencing the same at your home. I hope you are looking forward to next week with the same intensity as our students. If you celebrate a winter holiday, I hope it’s a fun one - even better if you get to have some time away from your own work routines.

I came across the poem below through some of my own professional learning this year. As is the case with most poems, the reader can interpret parts of it how they wish. In light of the vacation and a hopeful respite on the horizon, the idea of creating space in order for our flames to grow stronger resonates with me. Personally, some time away from RJ Grey will help to create the breathing space that will lead to a stronger fire in 2024. I know the same can be said about our staff and our students. 

FIRE

What makes a fire burn

is space between the logs,

a breathing space.

Too much of a good thing, 

too many logs

packed in too tight

can douse the flames

almost as surely 

as a pail of water would.

So building fires

requires attention 

to the spaces in between,

as much as to the wood.

When we are able to build 

open spaces 

in the same way 

we have learned 

to pile on the logs, 

then we can come to see how 

it is fuel, and absence of the fuel 

together, that make fire possible.

We only need to lay a log 

lightly from time to time. 

A fire 

grows 

simply because the space is there, 

with openings 

in which the flame 

that knows just how it wants to burn 

can find its way.

-Judy Brown

I hope you are able to relax with friends and family over the coming days. I look forward to the New Year and the new things that will come our way. 

Upcoming Dates

• Friday, Dec 22: Early Release at 11:10 am 

• Tuesday, Jan 2: School Reopens for 2024

• Monday, Jan 8: Library closed after school

• Tuesday, Jan 9: Ski/Board Club Session #1 after school

• Tuesday, Jan 9: School Council Mtg in RJG Library

• Monday, Jan 15: No School, MLK Jr Day

• Tuesday, Jan 16: Ski/Board Club Session #2 after school

• Wed, Jan 17: JH Winter Band Concert, 7 pm

Take care and have a great week!
Jim

Good morning,

I hope you are all doing well. We are in the busy stretch of school days before our upcoming vacation. As such, this will be a pretty short update! 

We’ve noticed an uptick in cases of Covid at RJ Grey in the past two weeks or so. Many of these cases have been with staff members, but we’ve also seen an increase in our students, too. When someone tests positive, the CDC and Mass Dept of Health require a 5-day isolation period. If your child tests positive, please be in touch with our nurses, and we can help give guidance about when your child can return to school. 

We have a full week next week, with an early dismissal at 11:10 on Friday, 12/22. If your travel plans include heading out of town before next Friday at 11:10, and your child will miss school at some point, please be in touch with our Main Office. While your child may tell their teachers that they’ll be out, it is important to let the Main Office know too, so that we know who to expect each day. You can write to us at [email protected].

Upcoming Dates

• Friday, Dec 22: Early Release at 11:10 am 

• Tuesday, Jan 2: School Reopens for 2024

• Monday, Jan 8: Library closed after school

• Tuesday, Jan 9: Ski/Board Club Session #1 after school

• Tuesday, Jan 9: School Council Mtg in RJG Library

• Monday, Jan 15: No School, MLK Jr Day

Take care and have a great weekend!
Jim

Good afternoon,

I hope you are all doing well. I want to start by putting in another plug for our annual Coat Drive and our Toys for Tots drive. Both are currently accepting donations through next Friday (12/15). If you have a used, warm coat that you’re looking to get rid of, we’ll take it! And the same applies for unused, unwrapped toys. Feel free to drop off any items, or send them with your children over the next week. We have drop-off locations in the main lobby.

This week in Advisory, we talked a bit about empathy. We defined empathy as the understanding of or the ability to identify with another person’s feelings or experiences. Each month, we have a lesson or two that shift the focus of the group to a learning or discussion topic. We find that some middle schoolers are the walking definitions of empathy - kind, considerate, thoughtful, and interested in others around them. Others could benefit from lessons on why empathy matters, especially as a member of a community.

After reviewing the definition, together we completed an empathy “quiz” where students self identified where they strongly agree, agree, disagree, etc. with a series of statements. Statements like “I easily feel sad when the people around me feel sad” or “When I’m upset at someone, I usually try to put myself in their shoes for a while” led to a good conversation in my group. We wrestled with the idea that it’s not always easy to think like someone else, especially when you’re upset with that person. I shared that I can strongly agree with many of these statements in my “work life” but may have a different response if I considered my personal life. All of this is to say that we continue to use our Advisory program to have fun and create strong relationships, and to also connect some social-emotional skills in small and concrete ways. If the topic of empathy comes up at home, you can expect that your 7th or 8th grader might have something to share!

With the upcoming vacation and holiday season, I know some of you have considered or have even already made plans for giving gifts to teachers. My own wife has done all the planning for small tokens of appreciation for my kids’s teachers, dance teachers, bus drivers, etc. However, I want to be clear that no RJ Grey teacher expects gifts and no family should ever feel obligated to provide one! I would recommend, if you have a few moments, that a kind email or word of thanks to a teacher goes quite a long way, whether around the holidays or at any time of the year! If you are committed to giving a gift, please know that there are state ethics laws that limit gifts that teachers, coaches, and staff are permitted to receive. School staff cannot accept gifts from a single family that amount to $50 or more in value for the entire school year. 

Upcoming Dates

• Friday, Dec 8: Report cards emailed home

• Friday, Dec 15: Formal Dress Day at RJ Grey

• Friday, Dec 22: Early Release at 11:10 am 

• Tuesday, Jan 2: School Reopens for 2024

Take care and have a great weekend!
Jim

Good afternoon,

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and long weekend. My family had plenty to eat over the weekend and decent weather to go along with it. We now have about three weeks of school until our first extended vacation of the year. 

Next week you’ll receive a Trimester 1 report card. Trimester one closed this week. Now we give teachers some time to calculate grades and provide comments for report cards. Then we take a few days to compile everything and prepare the actual documents that will be emailed to you on Friday, December 8th. When you see the report card, if there is a question about how something was calculated, or the meaning of a comment, I would ask you to start a conversation with your child. If that doesn’t yield an answer that seems right, please reach out to the specific teacher to check in. The first trimester at RJ Grey is a complicated one since we spend plenty of time early in the term getting used to routines, getting to know expectations for the grade levels, and taking several assessments. The subsequent terms likely include more grades that come as the result of assessments of reading, writing, and other learning.

As I’ve noted earlier this year, RJ Grey is a strong community that steps up when asked to help. Just today, we read our initial announcements about two collection drives we have started. Our student council hosts an annual Coat Drive to benefit Coats for Kids. If you have any gently used coats in your closets that would benefit from finding a new home, we’ll take them off your hands! Adults or students can bring coats to our Lobby from now through December 15 for donations. That same time period applies to our annual Toys for Tots drive where we collect new, unused, and unwrapped toys. Both drives are open through December 15 - thank you for considering how you might be able to contribute.

I have heard rave reviews from teachers who went to last night’s Rock of Ages musical at RJ Grey! I will be in the audience tonight. I’m hearing that if you like 80s music, you will love this show. We have performances Friday and Saturday night at 7 pm and on Sunday at 2 pm. Tickets are available at the door. Thank you to anyone who can come support our students!

Upcoming Dates

• Thurs, Nov 30 - Sunday Dec 3: Rock of Ages Musical at RJ Grey

• Mon, Dec 4: Early Release at 1 pm

• Mon, Dec 4: Coat Drive and Toys for Tots Drive begin

• Friday, Dec 8: Report cards emailed home

• Friday, Dec 15: Formal Dress Day at RJ Grey

• Friday, Dec 22: Early Release at 11:10 am 

• Tuesday, Jan 2: School Reopens for 2024

Take care and have a great weekend!
Jim