Silver Team Update - November 17, 2017

Greetings!  We hope everyone had an eventful and/or restful Thanksgiving.  Please see below for upcoming events and team news.

Culture of Caring

This Thursday Renfroe students will be celebrating the third annual Culture of Caring day.  During this special day, students will focus on three areas related to caring: Caring for Oneself, Caring for One’s Surroundings, and Caring in the World.  To address these areas, students will engage in unique activities that are designed to bring awareness and encourage growth.

Caring for Oneself:

Students will inquire into the notion that we must care for ourselves before being able to care for others.  We will explore exercises related to Mindfulness and attending to one’s physical, emotional and social needs.

Caring for One’s Surroundings:

Students will learn about osoji, the Japanese tradition of “big cleaning” projects within school.  In order to develop respect and appreciation for our surroundings, students will work with peers to spruce up specific sections of the school.  Click here to learn more. All osoji tasks will be conducted using safe, kid-friendly materials.

Caring in the World:

Visiting speakers will be teaching students about service opportunities in a variety of contexts.  Visitors include Ahimsa House, The Atlanta Food Bank, Compassion in World Farming, El Refugio, L’Arche, the NAACP, Habitat for Humanity, Re: Loom, Refugee Women’s Network and many, many others.  

If you are interested in supporting this special initiative, please consider giving in the following ways:

• Do you represent a service organization that supports a cause?  Would you be interested in teaching a group of kids about your organization?  If so, please contact IB Coordinator, Kristen Karably by emailing kkarably@csdecatur.net
• Do you have extra osoji supplies to donate?  We are collecting:
• cleaning gloves, non-toxic cleaning wipes, “green” cleaning materials, electronic device cleaning wipes, washrags, dusting supplies etc.  
• If you prefer to donate money for purchasing supplies and materials for service projects (such as meals-to-go for the homeless shelter), please make your check to Renfroe PTA.  Any amount will help to support our efforts and our community!

  Tutoring Times

Almost all of our students could benefit from tutoring.  Please see below for specific times that students can get help with their core subject areas.

All Classes -- EVERYDAY during homeroom

Math -- Tuesdays & Wednesdays after school

Science -- Wednesdays after school 

ELA -- Thursdays after school


Dine Out and Renfroe Day

Renfroe PTA is looking to host "Dine Out" and "Renfroe Day Out" events around Decatur and we are in need of your help! We've made great progress in talking to restaurants and some local attractions (bowling etc.) in the area, but we're looking to keep it in the family. 

If you have any connections to restaurants or fun locations in the area that would like to contribute to sponsoring RMS for a Dine Out night or a Renfroe Day Out, in which PTA would receive anywhere from 5%-15% of sales, we would greatly appreciate it! 

We are looking to stick to Tuesday nights or even times during the weekend when RMS staff can attend as well! 

Please reach out to Megan Buck at mbuck@csdecatur.net with any information that you might have regarding participating locations in the area. 

Thanks for all of your support! The staff and PTA greatly appreciate your efforts! 

Update - September 12, 2017

The Silver Team teachers hope you are staying safe during Hurricane Irma.  We will see you at school on Wednesday.

RMS has adopted a school in Houston and students are able to donate clothes and other supplies to their first period teachers (for 8th graders, that means connections teachers).

Houston Donations

Please view the Slides presentation for additional details about what items are needed most.  Thank you so much for your efforts. We think this is a great opportunity for the kids to give back and make an impact.

Upcoming Dates

Thursday, September 14th ---  Picture Day 

Pre-order your pictures online at shop.legacystudios.com.  Click on the link and then enter school code 6078F18E.  After you complete your purchase, print your receipt and send it with your child on Thursday.

Monday, September 18th - Friday, September 22nd --- Fall Break

Curriculum Night is TONIGHT

Greetings!

As you may know, tonight is our 8th grade curriculum night. Parents are expected to start in their child's homeroom class.  You will receive your child's schedule, walk to each class and hear information from each teacher about curriculum this year.

Mrs. Vaughn -- Room 1202

Mr. Driver -- Room 1204

Ms. Black -- Room 1206

Mrs. Grossenbacher -- 1208

Other locations:
--Spanish will be in the media center 
--Arts (drama, photography, and art) will meet in room 2107
--Business will be in room 2102
--Engineering and International Perspectives will be in room 2108

Curriculum night is scheduled for 6:30pm-8:00pm.  If you're unable to make it, I've attached a link to my ELA presentation below.  

Have a wonderful day and thank you for all of your amazing support.

Parent Update - August 16, 2017

Greetings Silver Team Parents!

We have gotten off to a great start this year!

1. Thank you all SO MUCH for all of your incredibly generous donations of hand sanitizer, markers, paper, pencils, post-its, clorox wipes, and tissues. We are so grateful!

2. Reminders and general team info: 

*Envelopes with important paperwork will come home periodically. Please do not seal the envelope as we will use it throughout the year. You may take all paperwork out to keep, but please sign the front of the envelope indicating receipt of materials and send it back with your child to his/her homeroom class. 

*MAP testing. ELA and Reading testing is taking place in Black's class M-W this week.  Math will take place Thursday and Friday in Ms. Vaughn's class on Aug. 17-18. All makeups will take place next week and Ms. Glenn (our assistant principal over 8th grade) will pull students from connections classes to ensure all MAP testing is complete. 

*Managebac. Please be patient with us! We are adding classes and should have everything up and running in the next week or so. 

 *Be prepared for class! Please remind your child to always have his/her materials for class (pen/pencil and paper with binder if applicable). Please encourage your child to bring a snack to third period. The 8th graders have the very last lunch, and it helps to have a bit of energy before their day. If you ever would like to donate to those who may not always have a snack, let us know! Please be mindful of peanut allergies :-)

      

3. Communication

For grades, Managebac is the best place to check your child's upcoming assignments and grades. We will also all have Google Classroom set up for classwork, feedback for the students, class notes, and handouts. Google Classroom is available through your child, who will join in his/her classes using his/her Decatur email. 

For a conference with our team, please email Cassandra Black to set it up. We leave our Friday planning periods (1st and 2nd) for this purpose, but if this is not a convenient time for you, let us know. 504 and IEP meetings will be scheduled by our counselor Dr. LaVerne Ware. 

4. Solar eclipse information: Click here!

Thank you so much for your time and we look forward to having an amazing year with your children!