End of the year activities!

It’s amazing to think we are in the final stretch of the 2015-2016 school year! This year has been so jam-packed with fun and learning and it has just flown by! I know this time of year gets a little crazy, so I wanted to give you a bit of a heads up about some big events coming up, and what we will need from you!

8^th Grade Aloha High School Visit- Friday, May 13^th- The 8^th grade students and I are going to be visiting the ALC classroom at Aloha High School. They will get to meet the teacher, Mr. Massey, as well as some of their classmates. They will also get a tour of the classroom and the school. We will be walking over to Aloha at 12:45 and coming back around 3pm.

Special Education Track and Field- Thursday, May 26^th- This is the day where all the students in the district who are in a self-contained special education classroom get to showcase their athletic skills! Students will have the chance to run, jump, throw and win medals! There is also a school spirit competition, and this year’s theme is outer space! We’re making individualized t-shirts based on a space-themed image each student picks out, but if you’d like, feel free to send your student in some space themed gear of your own. You are welcome to come cheer your student on at Beaverton High School from 10am to 12pm. Permission slip coming home on Monday. Students will need to bring a sack lunch, running shoes and possibly a jacket.

Bowling Field Trip- Friday, June 10th- Our class will be going on a field trip to Sunset Lanes. The purpose of this field trip is to enjoy a group outing with our friends in the SRC classroom as well as celebrate the end of the year together as a class! It should be a ton of fun! Permission slip coming home soon. Students will need to bring $7 for shoe rental, 2 games of bowling and a pizza lunch.

Looking ahead…

Wow! I can’t believe we’ve made it past Spring Break and into April already! It has certainly been a fantastic year so far! Each and every one of our students has worked so hard, and accomplished so much! I am so proud of their growth, and so thankful for the wonderful support of my staff, specialists and, of course, families. “Our” students are doing most of the hard work, but it is evident by their success that they have a full home and school team helping them each step of the way!

Planning ahead….

As fast as this year has already gone, it’s about to pick up speed! I want to take a few minutes to give you a heads up of what to expect:

*Lots of hard work! Most of us have either just had or are about to have our annual IEP, which includes lots of challenging new goals in the areas of academics, social skills, behavior, life skills, study skills and communication. We wrote ambitious goals for your student because we KNOW they will rise to the challenge! J

*Field trips! Coming up, there will be an opportunity for 8^th graders to walk over to Aloha High School (Friday, May 13th) and meet their new teacher, Mr. Massey. They will get to visit the classroom, meet some of their new classmates and get a tour of the school. Parents are invited too, of course J  Also, later on in May (the 26^th, to be exact), we will be participating in the Beaverton School District track and field meet! This is an awesome chance for our students to meet new friends and show off their skills! And last but not least, as the weather continues to get nicer, we will be taking advantage of this and going outside for academic lessons. We have a lot of things we can study around Mountain View (bugs, weather, plants, etc.), as well as simply enjoying the weather as we work on our reading, math and writing work. This is something I’ve done for many years and it’s something everyone always looks forward to!

I am looking forward to a fantastic spring full of fun and learning! 

Mrs. Z

Quick update...

Wow! This year is just flying by! It’s amazing to think that we are in the final stretch of the 2015-2016 school year :-)

Here are a few important dates coming up:

Mar. 19^th-27^th  - Spring Break!

Mar. 28^th  - Staff Development Day, No School

Apr. 29^th  - Grading Day, No School

May 6^th – 8^th Grade Panoramic Picture

May 26^th 10:00am-12:30pm – Special Education Track and Field Invitational! The theme this year is outer space! Permission Slip will come home soon!

May 27^th – Staff Development Day, No School

May 30^th – Memorial Day, Schools Closed

Parent Teacher Conferences

I'm sure you have all seen in your mail from our principal, Mr. Pedersen, that Wednesday and Thursday, February 10^th and 11^th are parent-teacher conferences for Mountain View Middle School. This means that there is no school on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, and families now have the opportunity to sign up for conferences. Here is the link to sign up for your preferred conference time: 

https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/schools/mountain-view/

Conferences will be scheduled on a first come, first serve basis and are in 20-minute segments. You will be able to meet with me, as well as your student’s elective teachers (Mr. Grant, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Holland, Mr. Mitcham, Mrs. Miller or Mrs. Bauer) and core teachers if they’re in a science class (Mr. Wadnizak, Mr. Fisher, Mrs. Adkins/Sloan or Mrs. Redding).

The daily conference schedule is as follows:

 Wednesday, Feb. 10th - 8:20-10:20am, 12:20-4:00pm, 5:40-8:00pm

      Thursday, Feb. 11th ^- 8:00-10:00am, 12:20-4:00pm, 5:40-8:00pm

      I look forward to seeing many of you there!

      Mrs. Zaworski

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2016 everyone!

With the snow day, the 2-hour delay, and the crazy bus snow routes last week, we had an interesting start to the new year, to say the least! With everything going on and everybody getting back into 'school mode', there was the potential for a lot of craziness last week, but it turned out to be a really amazing week! Everyone was very excited to be back and quickly slipped back into their schedule without complaint. We also enjoyed drawing, writing and sharing about our fun winter holiday break!

Many of us have started new classes since returning from winter break, and while a new class is always a transition, so far everybody is enjoying their new science and math classes with their peers. I am so proud of how well everyone has handled the changes!


On another note... Unfortunately, I have talked to many of you lately about illness. The cold and flu season has hit our room (as well as the rest of Mt. View) hard this year! Many of the students, as well as some of our staff have been affected, and some have already started experiencing a second round of sickness. We are doing all that we can in the classroom--cleaning with disinfectant several times a day, washing hands, avoiding any physical contact we can and reteaching germ awareness. But we need your help too... What we're seeing is kids coming back to school too soon. In the last few weeks, we have seen kids and staff come back to school, thinking they're feeling okay, and then end up crashing within a few hours :( While this is sad for them, it also runs the risk of infecting and reinfecting others.  

Thanks for your support in this! I really hope that in the next few days we can all get well so that we have the energy for the exciting learning and fun events to come!

Mrs. Zaworski 
 

Spirit Week 2.0 is here!

Happy week-before-winter-break (aka Spirit Week 2.0)!

Here are the daily themes:

Monday - Pajama Day
Tuesday - Ugly Sweater Day
Wednesday - Superhero Day
Thursday - Disney Day
Friday - Decades Day, Bowling Field Trip!!

Other important dates coming up:

Dec. 19th- Jan. 3rd - Winter Break!

Jan. 18th - Schools Closed, Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Jan. 19th 5pm-8pm - McTeacher Night

Jan. 29th- Grading Day, No School

Feb. 10th 8am-8pm - Parent Teacher Conferences, No School (More information coming soon!)

Feb. 11th 8am-8pm - Parent Teacher Conferences, No School

Feb. 12th- School Closed

Feb. 15th- Schools Closed, President's Day

How you can help...

Hello Families and Friends!

Over the last several weeks, I have had many parents and friends ask how they can help support our classroom. In these uncertain economic times, we have been fortunate to maintain such a skilled staff, supportive administrators and creative solutions for lack of funding for supplies. However, this year has presented new challenges. With the funding being reduced district-wide, we are being asked to do more with an already limited classroom budget, including purchasing supplemental reading materials, such as classroom magazines. This is also true of individualized classroom technology, which is a much bigger purchase and outside the realm of our classroom budget. 

So this year I have created a DonorsChoose website to ask for assistance in purchasing various supplies, supplemental activities and curriculum, as well as classroom technology that we can use during both small and large group instruction. In case you aren't familiar with it already, the concept of DonorsChoose is simple. Teachers create a page, requesting specific items for their classroom. Donors from around the world read about the need, and donate money. DonorsChoose then purchases the supplies, and delivers them to the classroom. This is my first experience with DonorsChoose after seeing the positive impact it has made on many of my fellow teacher's classrooms both at Mountain View and other schools in the Beaverton School District. I am asking that you spread the word about our page to friends and colleagues who may be willing and able to donate. Thanks for all of your support!

Mrs. Zaworski

Mrs. Zaworski's DonorsChoose Website

Important Dates in November

Hello families!

Here are some important dates coming up in November:

Friday, Nov. 6th - Picture Retakes
Wednesday, Nov. 11th- Veteran's Day, NO SCHOOL
Wednesday, Nov. 25th- NO SCHOOL
Thursday, Nov. 26th- Thanksgiving, NO SCHOOL
Friday, Nov. 27th- NO SCHOOL
Monday, Nov. 30th- Grading Day, NO SCHOOL

Spirit Week

Spirit Week is here!

Here are the daily themes:

Monday - Sports Day
Tuesday- Black and White Day
Wednesday- Pink Day
Thursday- Hat Day
Friday- Costume Day

We're off to a great start!

Hello families!

 

Things are moving right along here in the ALC! I can’t believe that it's already October!

 

We have a few different areas of focus this month…

• In literacy skills, we are working on creative writing pieces as well as elaborating on our writing. In addition to composing paragraphs about various real-life subjects in our writing journals every day, we also write to thematic writing prompts.
• In math skills, we’ve been working on identifying fractions using visual representations, including manipulatives and pictures.
• In science, we’ve been focusing on space science, including creating Powerpoint projects on our favorite planet in the solar system. We will be researching our planet, collecting information and pictures, learning how to cite our sources of information, and practicing our typing skills. Then in a few weeks we will present our projects to the rest of the class! J
• In life skills, we’ve started our school-wide recycling program, which we use the profits from in order to supplement our weekly cooking budget. So far, we’ve made cheese quesadillas, bagel pizzas with pepperoni and cheese, and homemade applesauce with leftover apples from our school breakfasts. Yum!

Here is our weekly schedule of activities:
Monday- Reading Buddies
Tuesday- Recycling
Wednesday- Library and Shopping Trip
Thursday- Cooking
Friday- Recycling

Some special things are going on in the ALC this year!

• This year we started a school-wide peer mentoring program that gives regular education students an opportunity to come into the ALC during a variety of academic and leisure times, so that they can become familiar with the students in our class. This also allows our students to make connections with friends that they might not have made otherwise. During our peer mentor time, students come in and help out with daily reading and math activities. Then on Fridays, we have a free choice time where they can choose to play games, read together or do an art project with their friends. It's been so much fun!
• Another very special activity we started this week was visiting our Reading Buddies in Mrs. Johnson’s class next door. So far, we’ve paired up with our buddies, completed a few get to know you activities, and started picking out books to read or listen to, depending on the day. It’s been a really amazing thing to watch as our students are really getting energized and excited about reading with their peers. More on this to follow!

It's been a great start to the school year and I'm looking forward to all the fun things to come! Thank you for everything you do for our students!

Mrs. Zaworski