November 11, 2022

Dear Beagle Middle Parents, 

Here are some updates that we wanted to share with you at this time:

Conferences:  We thank our parents for attending conferences this week; your support is much appreciated!  If you were not able to attend conferences or missed a conference for any reason, please be sure to send an email to your student’s teacher, and they can connect with you via email.  Again, thank you for your support! 

MSTEP Reports Coming Home: Last spring’s MSTEP reports will be coming home next week to parents.  These reports will be provided to students in Check and Connect Class Monday and Tuesday next week.  We apologize for the delay in providing parents these reports.  

Continued Behavior Conversations At Home Appreciated:  We wanted to take this opportunity to thank our parents for continuing to have conversations with their children at home regarding behavior and treating others with respect.  While we understand that tweens are driven by emotion, impulse, and peers and that this is a very challenging time for children because of the physical and emotional changes taking place, we need to continue to be proactive in our conversations with them regarding socially appropriate behaviors, regulating emotions, and how to consistently treat others with respect.  Overall, we have seen some decrease in the behaviors we discussed last week during passing and lunch/recess time; however, this past week, we have had to address several instances of inappropriate language, including inappropriate language at our sporting events after school.  The language being used is often out of ear-shot of adults supervising, and–in a few instances–this language has been derogatory in nature.  We will continue to address these behaviors proactively at school through Comet PRIDE refresher lessons in conjunction with targeted lessons in Check and Connect Class, and we will continue to address misconduct administratively as necessary.  While poor decision making at school can result in school discipline, we always use these incidents to reteach expectations and facilitate restorative sessions between peers as we fundamentally believe that behavior is the result of an unmet need, and it’s our duty as adults supporting children to ensure that needs are met.  We help meet those needs by explicitly teaching students appropriate social and self-regulation skills to use in the future. 

After School Athletic Event Expectations: Over the past few weeks, we have been announcing to the student body that Comet PRIDE and school rules apply when attending after-school athletic events.  During our last few basketball games, we have had some complaints regarding language and student behavior.  If students are going to watch an after school event, the expectation is that they go home after school and return to school at the time of the event.  Students are also expected to be in the stands and seated, use appropriate language, and keep the cheering positive–not distracting in nature towards the opposing team.  In an effort to keep students safe, we also expect students to remain in the building until they are ready to leave for the evening.  We appreciate parent support in reiterating these expectations as well.  

Girls Who Code: At this time, Mrs. Grass, a GL elementary teacher, is looking for girls interested in working together as a team to explore the world of coding and computer science.  Please click here for more information: GWC_Clubs_Student_Recruitment_Flyers_English__6-12_blue_ (1).pdf 

Volunteers Needed for Career Pathways Presentation in May:  A huge thank you to parents that have already signed up for our Career Pathways Presentation later in May!  If you are interested in supporting this event, we could use use more volunteers at this time. We will be hosting a career day on Monday, May 22, 2023 (half-day) from 7:30am - 11am. We are seeking volunteers from as many career pathways as possible in order to expose our students to the different opportunities available. The requirements would be:

• A 20 minute slideshow or PowerPoint presentation to present to students.
• This presentation will be presented 5 times to a different group of students in a teacher's classroom with the teacher providing supervision.
• Volunteers will need to fill out the online volunteer registration form through the link on the Grand Ledge Public Schools website, but this can be completed later in the year.  

Please consider bringing freebies or swag or any other fun thing to help students remember your career.

Please fill out the Google Form below by Wednesday, November 30, 2022, if you are interested and someone will contact you with more information.

 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeM0HP5vBvtBMKWEl6zdLoRZnOilbEmDOH7nwjjVjlTjijcGw/viewform

Joint Hayes/Beagle PTO Meetings: Joint Hayes/Beagle PTO meetings are being hosted in a hybrid-fashion this year with the in-person opportunity being hosted here at Beagle in our media center.  Meetings are the second Tuesday of each month from 6:30-7:30pm.  Our next PTO meeting will be on Tuesday, November 15th.  We welcome parents to attend our PTO meetings either in-person or virtually.  If interested in attending virtually, here is the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82744686994

Students’ of the Week, Community, and Extra Curricular Resources:   To view our students of the week or to review additional community/extra curricular information on our webpage, then please click https://www.glcomets.net/ourschools/beagle-middle-school/ and then click on the appropriate icon on the left side of our homepage.  Please note that due to the half-day today, we will celebrate our Students' of the Week on Monday next week. 

Half-Day--Friday, November 18th:  Friday, November 18th marks the end of the first trimester, and there is a half-day for students.  Students are released at 10:50.  In next week's newsletter, we will send some reminders about how elective rotations will work at the beginning of trimester two, which is the first day back from Thanksgiving Break, Monday, November 28th. 

These are all of the updates that we have at this time.  Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.  

Take care,

Dave and Eric