2020.10.2 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

October 2, 2020

Dear Saxe Family,

Thank you to everyone in our community who has continued to support our mission of safely returning our students to school. The safety mitigation strategies that have been implemented and followed have helped us all remain healthy and well. We appreciate your partnership in what it takes to maintain the safest environment in school and around the community. These are certainly challenging times, but each week is a reminder that together, we can accomplish so much!

As we transitioned from September, we had much to celebrate this week. On Tuesday, we welcomed back our entire 5th-grade, as one, for the first time this school year (and, we look forward to doing the same with 6th-grade on Monday). We held our first-ever Saxe Virtual Open House. Celebrate Saxe 2020 officially kicked-off. The rain held off (mostly) and we enjoyed our fall Walk to School Day. You can read about and “experience” each of these below.

This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at Celebrate Saxe, attendance, Walk to School Day, Virtual Open House, welcoming 5th & 6th-grade back in-full, Health & PE, Art, Community in Action, Custodial Appreciation Day, Saxe cafe, Masks of Saxe, Dogs of Saxe, Math, Theatre, Student Leadership Team, Saxe outdoors, and much more… Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend.

Be safe and be well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

10/5 – Grade 6 returns full-time! – Grade 7/8 – Cohort X in school, Cohort Y remote

10/6 – Grade 7/8 Cohort X in school, Cohort Y remote

10/7 – Grade 7/8 Cohort Y in school, Cohort X remote (½ Day)

10/8 – Grade 7/8 Chort Y in school, Cohort X remote – Grade 5/6 Photo Day

10/9 – Grade 7/8 Cohort Y in school, Cohort X remote

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“Life is to be enjoyed, not endured. So follow your dreams, embrace change and live what you love.” –Aysel Gunar

“Don’t limit expectations of yourself and settle for anything less than what you are truly capable of achieving.” – David Goggins

“Either you run the day or the day runs you.” –Jim Rohn

“If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges.” -Pat Riley

Celebrate Saxe

From our fabulous PTC:

Introducing Celebrate Saxe 2020: simpler, streamlined, but just as vital! If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that our Saxe Community is something to support, nurture and celebrate! Whether in or out of the classroom, our school is a vital source of academic, social and emotional growth. Even in these challenging times, our teachers and staff have gone above and beyond to create the best experience possible for every student.

Celebrate Saxe is our annual fundraiser. 100% goes to PTC grants, programs and initiatives. Your contribution makes a difference in the quality of your child’s education and experience at Saxe.

For more detailed information or to participate, please visit the Saxe PTC Celebrate Saxe site.

You are welcome to check out the first video in the Celebrate Saxe video series, that includes the official introduction of our new Saxe Hawk mascot, below! We will continue to share each video which will ultimately end up being a fun series capturing much of what makes our learning community so special…

Here are a couple of pictures of our “well used” bike racks that were purchased through the PTC!

Attendance Reminder

Earlier this week, an attendance reminder was sent out to provide guidance regarding attendance and the temporary remote learning option that is available to students/families who would otherwise be participating in person at Saxe.

Walk to School Day

There is no better way to start the day than by arriving at school after a nice walk. Thanks to everyone who came out and participated this morning, there was a great turnout!

Saxe and NCPS tech pro Mr. Smith and his daughter cross under the watchful eye of NCHS SRO, Officer Lambert.

Molly and Paige Monohan along with Katie Schultz

Love the masks!

Fun for the whole family, including our favorite 4-legged friends! #DogsOfSaxe

Dr. Clapp and Dr. Ferreira joined in the fun as well!

Grade 5

We welcomed back both the X and Y cohorts in 5th-grade this week and it was wonderful to see our classes almost look “normal” again (with all safety measures in place).

Thanks to our Physical Education department for being adaptable and flexible as they have relocated to allow for the auxiliary gymnasium to be used as a cafeteria annex. This allows us to keep our team cohorts separate and help our custodians and staff clean/sanitize between lunch waves.

Grade 6

Classrooms are set and we look forward to welcoming back our grade 6 students, in full, on Monday!

Grade 5 Social Studies

Our fifth graders are continuing to learn about our government. Mrs. Berry’s class is currently engaged in a simulation about the separation of powers. The simulation, “What’s for Lunch?” was created by iCivics whose founder was Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on our Supreme Court. Thank you to Mrs. Berry’s classes for your respectful collaboration in this simulation.

First-ever Saxe Virtual Open House!

Nothing replaces the real thing, but our staff did an amazing job welcoming parents, virtually, into their classrooms to share about themselves, their class, their curriculum, and more.

A behind the scenes look at Mr. Gillan in action!

The PTC generously fed teachers that chose to conduct their open house from Saxe (thanks, again!) .

Saxe Health & Physical Education

Open your wings and fly through October with some fun physical activity as a family.

Saxe Math Team

Ms. Wolff is looking for Math Team members! If you are interested in joining the team this year, please fill out the Google Form link below.

Math Team Google Form

Request for Last Year’s Artwork

If you would like your child’s artwork from last year, please fill out the Google Form Link below before OCTOBER 15th. They will be sending out further information on pick-up shortly!

Request for Last Year’s Artwork Form

Saxe Theatre News

We are excited to announce the 5th & 6th Grade Musical this year is:

If you are interested in being involved check out our website at:

https://sites.google.com/ncps-k12.org/saxe5th6thmusical/home

Audition submissions are due this Sunday, October 4th by 10:00 pm! All guidelines are on the website.

Student Leadership Team

Saxe Student Leaders played a quick game of charades before meeting with Mr. Lepisto, Counselor, Mr. Bedard, Assistant Principal, and Dr. Bliss, Student Support Coordinator, to discuss their feedback and suggestions on the many changes they have experienced this school year. Student voice is one of the many things that makes Saxe so great!

“Community” in Action

Thank you to 7th-grader, Eleni Ivanov, and her 7-year old brother, Oscar for volunteering to pick up trash around our Saxe campus/playground. This was an unsolicited offer and Eleni and Oscar did this amazing job over the weekend on their own time. Thank you, Eleni and Oscar! Your generous gesture benefits everyone at Saxe and exemplifies our focus on one of our 5 Cs this year: Community! (Celebrating our Learning Community through Caring, Communication, & Commitment).