February 13, 2015
Good afternoon.
I hope our scheduled
district-wide professional development day today did not cause too many
complications in your day related to making provisions for your kids. I attended some fantastic sessions this
morning related to integrating technology into instruction, as well as some
vertical teaming meetings that provided teachers extended periods of time to
collaborate on curricular items.
CONGRATULATIONS
and THANKS
Fresh
off their tremendous win at last Saturday's regional competition, the LMS
Science Olympiad teams traveled to the Chicago area to compete in an
invitational that included several top teams from IL. Every student who
participated in the competition medaled in at least one event. The JV team
earned a 4th place overall, while the varsity team placed first.
JV Team
Fazyan Ali: Bottle Rockets 1; Akshay Govindan: Anatomy 1, Crave
the Wave 2, Experimental Design 1; Felix
Hu: Meteorology 1, Green Generation 1, Road Scholar 3; Boran Li: Road Scholar 3; Kevin Li: Crime Busters 4, Crave
the Wave 2; Louis Li: Bottle
Rockets 1, Can't Judge a Powder 3; Jack
Madden: Experimental Design 1, Fossils 1; Joji Sherman: Solar System 2, Experimental Design 1, Entomology 4;
Michael Wayne: Can't Judge
a Powder 3; Alexander Ye: Anatomy
1, Crime Busters 4, Green Generation 1, Fossils 1
V Team
Justin Chen: Green Generation 2, Simple Machines 1; Gavin Giuliani: Elastic Launch
Glider 1, Bottle Rockets 1, Green Generation 2; Nevan Giuliani: Meteorology 1, Crave the Wave 2, RoboCross 2,
Elastic Launch 1, Dynamic Planet 4; Max
Kornfeld: Air Trajectory 2, Simple Machines 1
Albert Liu: Dynamic Planet 4; Annie Liu: Disease Detectives 3,
Can't Judge a Powder 2, Entomology 3, Meteorology 1; Raj Paul: Bridge Building 3, Bottle Rockets 1, Air Trajectory
2, Anatomy 1; Kate Prablek: Can't
Judge a Powder 2, Crime Busters 2, Entomology 3; Katie Shaw: Picture This 1, Experimental Design 1; Cindy Wang: Experimental Design
1, Picture This 1, Fossil 2; Ethan
Wang: Anatomy 1, Crave the Wave 2, Bridge Building 3, RoboCross 2; Christopher Ye: Fossils 2,
Crime Busters 2, Disease Detectives 3
On
Saturday, ten LMS students participated in the MathCounts St. Louis Chapter
competition at Florissant Valley Community College. Those students were
Moses Schindler, Akhil Kondepudi, Seema Patil, Kevin Jiang, Jackie Zeng, Anna
Zhong, Jeremy Ouyang, Stephen Jiang, Michael Tu, and Jason Ding. The LMS team of Moses Schindler, Seema Patil, Akhil
Kondepudi, and Kevin Jiang scored 1st in the team competition. In
the individual contest, Moses Schindler - 1st, Seema Patil - 3rd, Akhil
Kondepudi - 4th, Jason Ding - 5th, and Kevin Jiang - 11th. In addition,
Akhil finished 2nd in the Countdown competition. All of these students
will move on to the state competition in Columbia, MO on March 14th.
Congratulations to Liz Petersen (Science, grade 7) for her
recently-published article entitled “My Secret Weapon: How I Use the 5E Inquiry Model with Multiple Intelligences
to Motivate Students in Science.” This
article appears in the February 2015 issue of the online newsletter Multiple
Intelligences Network: Intelligence Connections (ASCD), volume 21, number
5.
CALENDAR ITEMS
Monday, 2/16
No School; Presidents Day
Friday, 2/20
Hidden Valley Ski Trip
Friday, 2/27
Hidden Valley Ski Trip (makeup date)
Thursday, 3/5
End of After School Activities for
Quarter 3 (3/10 Activities at the option of sponsors)
Friday, 3/6
Early Release Day; 12:40 pm
Tuesday, 3/10
LMSPA Board meeting; 1 pm
Wednesday, 3/11
Student-Led Portfolio Conferences;
Please see below
Thursday, 3/12
Last day of Quarter 3
Student-Led Portfolio Conferences;
Please see below
Friday, 3/13
No School; Conference Compensation Day
for staff
Monday, 3/16 through
Friday, 3/20
No School; Spring Break
CORRECTIONS/ADDITIONS
NEW ITEMS
Spring Student-Led
Portfolio Conferences
Spring Portfolio Conferences are scheduled for March 11 (3:50 – 7:10 pm)
and March 12 (1:20 – 7 pm). A
handout with specifics is attached to the Blackboard Connect update email and
will be sent home with students on Tuesday of
next week. Information will also be posted
on our school website.
Sign ups are online
and can be accessed through the following website: https://www.myconferencetime.com/laduems/
Please sign up
ASAP as appointments fill up fast. The deadline for signing up is March 6, 2015.
To ensure
your conference runs smoothly here are a few reminders:
1. Plan to be at conferences for at least an hour. Your child will review his/her portfolio for a total of 20 minutes with a brief check-in provided by the team teachers. The other time will be spent meeting with the elective and/or off team teachers following a similar format. Plan to arrive on time. If you arrive late, we may not be able to accommodate you.
1. Plan to be at conferences for at least an hour. Your child will review his/her portfolio for a total of 20 minutes with a brief check-in provided by the team teachers. The other time will be spent meeting with the elective and/or off team teachers following a similar format. Plan to arrive on time. If you arrive late, we may not be able to accommodate you.
2. Please bring your child with you, as he/she will be leading the
conference. Teachers do not facilitate the conference as
in the fall.
3. Upon arrival, please stop at the table in the lobby to pick up a Conference Room
Location sheet. This will help you know where you are going.
4. Note the meal break
for teachers/staff and plan accordingly. All teachers will have a 40-minute dinner
break on 3/12 from 2:40 - 3:20 pm.
Ladue Athletic Booster
Club
A new group has been launched to raise funds for the athletic
programs at all Ladue schools. Fundraising
efforts have begun, via the sale of t-shirts and other logoed merchandise, half
court shots at the basketball games and an upcoming party where all parents,
teachers and coaches are invited to mingle while watching the Final Four basketball
games.
In order to generate awareness (and funding) for the club, organizers
have created a document, which can be found on the PeachJar website.
UPDATED ITEMS
MAP testing
All MAP testing will be
completed online, using laptops in our building this spring. A portion of the exam will utilize audio
files/components. As such, all students
will be encouraged to bring their personal headphones or ear buds to school on
their assigned testing date(s), if possible.
If this is not possible, we will have a supply of headphones available
for student use.
Just as a reminder, our
scheduled testing dates for MAP are:
8th
Grade: April 22, 23, and 24
6th
Grade: April 27
7th
Grade: April 30
REPEAT ITEMS
LMSPA
Nominations For 2015-2016
The Parent Association is beginning
to plan for 2015-16. If you would like
to nominate yourself or another person for a position on the LMSPA Executive
Board, please print out and complete a nomination form and return it to the LMS
Welcome Center by Friday, March 6th. Paper copies are also available
in the LMS Welcome Center. Board
position descriptions are also included on the Nomination Form, which can be
accessed through the LMSPA website at
http://mylmspa.com/online-forms/
(Jodi
Blucher will provide updated/correct form link.)
LMSPA/California Pizza
Kitchen
LMSPA is holding a “California
Pizza Kitchen Dine to Donate Week Long Event.”
From Monday, February 9
through Monday, February 16 treat yourself to a meal out and contribute to the
LMSPA at the same time. Simply bring in the LMSPA flyer, present it to
your server, and California Pizza Kitchen in Creve Coeur will donate 20% of
your check to the LMSPA. Qualifying purchases include dine-in,
take-out, catering or beverages. A PDF of the flyer was attached to the previous
LMS Principal Update email sent through Blackboard Connect. Please share
with your friends and family! The LMSPA uses all funds raised to support
the education and community of LMS students, staff, parents/guardians. Thank
you and ENJOY!
Girl Scout Community Take Action Projects
One of our students
has started a middle school kids book blog as part of her Silver Award project.
Book reviews will be posted each week, along with information about new books
by favorite authors, author visits to the St. Louis area, and guest posts from
other middle school kids. There is a place on the blog to subscribe to
updates by email. Here's the link to the blog:
http://www.thereadingramsbookblog.blogspot.com/
A second Take Action project is entitled
“Kids Knitting It Forward.” This project
involves knitting
items like baby socks, hats, and scarves for charities such as Newborns in Need
of Eastern Missouri and HavenHouse St. Louis. Knitters of any age and skill
level are welcome. More information can
be found at kidsknittingitforward@gmail.com and meeting dates/times can
be accessed at http://kidsknittingitforward.blogspot.com/
Current 7th grade students/Immunizations for next
year
Students
entering 8th grade in the state of Missouri are required to receive the TDaP
(tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis) immunization. This is usually given by a doctor at age 11
or 12. If your child has not received
this immunization, please consult your physician. If you have records showing that your child
has received it, please provide them to the nurse's office.
8th Grade Video
An 8th grade video will be shown at the Semi-Formal on May 1 and
at the Farewell Assembly on May 22. The parents making it (Amy Walker,
Amy Hobbs, Ben Schilders) need photos from elementary and middle school.
They may be uploaded to the site below, emailed to the address below or hard
copies may be labeled and sent to Mrs. Worthington in the LMS Welcome Center.
To access the gallery and upload photos:
http://dropevent.com/gallery/lmsphotos
Please put your child’s name as the caption
after upload.
To email photos:
lmsphotos@dropevent.com
Please put your child’s name in the subject
line of the email.
Yearbooks On Sale
Yearbooks
are on sale now.
Orders
can be placed by going to www.yearbookordercenter.com
and
entering #8647 to order (or there is a link under the Activities tab on the LMS
webpage). Phone orders can also be made
by calling 1-866-287-3096. Please email any questions to Sharrie Cognac,
one of our yearbook sponsors. She can be
contacted at scognac@ladueschools.net
LMSPA eBlasts
If you are
not currently receiving LMSPA email news blasts but would like to, please click
on the following link to subscribe:
Board Briefs
Information
regarding Ladue Board of Education meetings and work sessions can be found on boardbriefs.blogspot.com
I hope you enjoy your
weekend and Happy Valentine’s Day tomorrow.
All my best,
Greg
