April 4, 2025 
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
Posted by jmarcotte On 03 April, 2025 at 9:53 AM  

 
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