Christa McAuliffe Middle School

Parents and Guardians, Part of our return to learning plan requires us to administer benchmark assessments on all of our students in the first nine weeks of school and during the last nine weeks of school. We wanted to inform all of our parents that our students will be using a familiar assessment in NWEA to meet this testing requirement. Beginning the week of September 21st (next week) your child will be remotely participating in the NWEA assessments in the core subject areas of ELA and math. ELA testing will take place during the week of September 21st and math testing will take place during the week of September 28th. For more information on NWEA testing please check your email that is linked to Skyward for a parent letter and see the link below for the NWEA family tool kit. If you have any questions about NWEA testing please contact the main office at 686-7640. https://www.nwea.org/the-map-suite/family-toolkit/

CMMS girls interested in playing Volleyball, tryouts will be held at the CMMS gym this week at the following times: Thursday 5-7 pm Friday 4-6 pm All levels are the same times @CMMS. Please make sure to have your physical or health questionnaire if you turned in a physical last year. Participation fees will be collected after the teams are selected. You must bring your own labeled water bottle and you must wear a face mask the entire time. Only student athletes and coaches will be allowed inside the gym.

CMMS Pompon tryout information: Tryouts begin Monday (8/14), Tuesday (8/15), from 5:30-7:30 and Wednesday (8/16) starting at 5:45 all behind CMMS by the tennis courts. Any questions about tryouts and for a tryout packet can be sent to christamcauliffepompon@gmail.com.

With Bobcat Pride, Christa McAuliffe Middle School announces Honors ELA student, Kaya Clickner, as one in only ten winners of Scholastic’s nationwide “Bilan Writing Contest!” Kaya’s writing was a response to the nonfiction article, “I Live in a Refugee Camp: Come Into My World.” This powerful article shares the story of fifteen year old Bilan, a refugee who left her home in Somalia and moved to the Kobe refugee camp in Ethiopia. The article focuses on the reasons Bilan and others have become refugees and how their lives have changed because of their experiences. In response to the article, Kaya composed an essay describing how Bilan became a refugee, what her life is like in the Kobe camp, and what’s being done to help refugees like her. Kaya received a letter from Scholastic over the summer that congratulated her as being a winner of the contest and included the message, “We loved your detailed and well written essay regarding Bilan’s experience in the Kobe refugee camp. You wrote in such a way that the reader was really able to understand and empathize with Bilan’s situation. Furthermore, you included a strong introduction that really hooked the reader! Excellent work!” Kaya’s prize for winning the Bilan Writing Contest was the book Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga. Congratulations to Kaya! The dedication you have shown in researching, drafting, revising, rewriting, and editing your essay demonstrates many of your strong character traits and talents. We look forward to watching you continue to grow and leave your legacy as a leader at Christa McAuliffe Middle School.

Students interested in CMMS Sideline Football Cheer, We are having tryouts Friday Sept. 11th from 5pm -8pm 6th grade from 5pm - 6:30pm, and 7th and 8th grade from 6:30pm - 8pm. And then, Saturday Sept. 12th from 9am-Noon 6th grade from 9 am - 10:30 am, and 7th and 8th 10:30am - noon. We are holding tryouts behind the middle school building. All girls must register for tryouts by emailing us their name and grade level to cmmscheerleading@gmail.com before tryouts.

This is just a friendly reminder that we will be following the regular remote block schedule for next week (September 8-11). So please make sure you are following the Tuesday block schedule to start next week on the 8th. If you have any questions please reach out to a teacher or call the main office at 686-7640.

FYI...the CMMS office will be closed all day on Friday, August 28th and reopen on Monday, August 31st from 8:00 to 3:00.

The links to CMMS teachers' online lesson plan books are now available in the staff section of our school website. Click on the link below to go directly to our staff directory. These online lesson plan books will be updated by 11:59 pm on Fridays for lessons that will take place the following week. Teacher Planbook links will be listed directly below their email address. https://www.bangorschools.org/o/cmms/staff

We understand that not everyone was able to login and access our parent informational meeting tonight. We apologize for that inconvenience, but the good news is that we recorded the meeting. Please click on the link below to access the recording of tonight's meeting. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dn5HvkMNSqc7ZI7Pmd1vhL2QSOm6Cw2f/view?usp=sharing

CMMS Parents and Guardians: We wanted to let you know that CMMS Principal, Kevin Biskup, and Assistant Principal, Renee Mrozinski, will be hosting a parent informational Zoom meeting on Wednesday, August 26th at 5:30 pm. This meeting will cover several topics including how to login to the district Chromebooks, how you CMMS student will access their teachers Google Classroom Page and Google Meet meetings, how to understand the daily schedule, where to access the online lesson plan books for teachers, and a host of other topics. We will also answer any additional questions you may have about the start of this new and unique school year. This meeting will be geared towards our 6th grade students and any new students in the district but is open to any CMMS family. Please see the Zoom meeting details below. Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88699101306?pwd=dHBsV0c4d3ZsVXlRQ0ZoaHA1dVRxQT09 Meeting ID: 886 9910 1306 Passcode: 7A2U39

CMMS Students and Parents: Please see the attached daily schedule that we will be using while we are in remote learning. The times for the class periods will be when teachers are delivering their live instruction through Google Meet. We also ask that all students check their email in order to accept invitations to their teachers' Google classrooms. Please note that due to the fact that the first week of school is a three day week, we will be following the Monday/Friday schedule on September 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

CMMS Students: We would ask that you please do not put stickers, decorations, or make any permanent marks or changes to your school issued Chromebook that you received at registration last week. You will be returning these computers at the end of your 8th grade year and will be issued a new one when you become a freshman at John Glenn. The reason high school students are able to decorate their Chromebooks is because they will be keeping those computers when they graduate. The same will be true for the Chromebook you are issued as a freshman.

6th Grade Students and Parents: We wanted to let all of you know that you should now be able to login to the Chromebooks that you received at registration last week.  Students will use their Bangor email address as their username (first name, middle initial, last name @bangorschools.org) and their password will start with cmms and then their student ID number with no spaces (ex: cmms12345).  If you have any additional questions or are having difficulty logging in to your Chromebook, please call the main office at 686-7640.

CMMS Parents: Several of you inquired about purchasing insurance for the Chromebook that you received at registration this week. Please click on the link below for all of the information and directions on how to purchase insurance on the district issued Chromebooks. If you have additional questions please call the main office at 686-7640. https://www.bangorschools.org/o/JGHS/page/1-1

CMMS Chief Science Officer’s (CSOs) Aubrey Beson and Emma Dabrowski showed their leadership skills at the CSO Leadership Institute over the last 2 days. Great job representing CMMS girls! #STEM

This is just a friendly reminder that 7th and 8th grade registration will be taking place tomorrow from 9-11 & 1-3. There will also be an all grade levels registration from 4-6. We would ask that you bring your own pen as there will be a few items of paperwork for you to complete. This will help us reduce the number of sanitized pens that we will need to have available. Also, if you have chosen to move your CMMS student(s) to the Virtual School, you do not need to attend this registration. You will receive all of your materials and Chromebook directly from the Virtual School.

Parents of Incoming 6th Grade Students: This is just a friendly reminder that 6th grade registration will be taking place tomorrow from 9-11 & 1-3. We would ask that you bring your own pen as there will be a few items of paperwork for you to complete. This will help us reduce the number of sanitized pens that we will need to have available. Also, if you have chosen to move your CMMS student(s) to the Virtual School, you do not need to attend this registration. You will receive all of your materials and Chromebook directly from the Virtual School.

Good news! We will have Chrome Books to distribute to all CMMS students at registration next week. Just a reminder that registration takes place on the following dates and times: 6th Grade Registration Monday, August 10th 9:00-11:00 & 1:00-3:00 7th & 8th Grade Registration Wednesday, August 12th 9:00-11:00 & 1:00-3:00 All Grade Level Registration Wednesday, August 12th 4:00-6:00

Dear Parents of Incoming 6th Graders, Normally at this point prior to the start of the upcoming school year we would host a 6th grade orientation night for our parents and students. Due to current restrictions and circumstances we are unable to have this face to face presentation to introduce you and your 6th grader to all of the great things they will experience at Christa McAuliffe Middle School. So for that reason we put together a virtual presentation to walk you through all of the items that we would normally talk about during our 6th grade orientation night. Here is the link to that presentation. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BJSIgS-kRBZf7FE7MLMdYd7QglRJ7eok/view We realize that you may still have many questions about the upcoming school year and some of the things that will be different. There is a parent question and answer document on our district website that may help answer many of your questions and it can also be accessed via the link below. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mvbe8GoF_XzheLEcBD1VIuBG_CV9BRze-DPXsv8H0uo/edit?usp%3Dsharing&sa=D&ust=1596571550459000&usg=AFQjCNHTGKyBaoU4cpCwJtj1fX34FNnAXQ If you have additional questions please feel free to reach out to our building administrators via the contact information below: Kevin Biskup – Principal biskupk@bangorschools.org 686-7640 x3204 Renee Mrozinski – Assistant Principal mrozinskir@bangorschools.org 686-7640 x3205

Registration at CMMS will be on the following dates and times: 6th Grade Registration Monday, August 10th 9:00-11:00 & 1:00-3:00 7th & 8th Grade Registration Wednesday, August 12th 9:00-11:00 & 1:00-3:00 All Grade Level Registration Wednesday, August 12th 4:00-6:00 Students will receive a copy of their schedule and their yearbook, if one was ordered this past school year. Parents of 7th graders will also need to bring a copy of their immunization record. We will also verify and update all student emergency contact information with you. Registration will take place using a drive-through method in the bus lane directly in front of the school.