2021.2.5 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

February 5, 2021

Dear Saxe Family,

So far, winter has not disappointed those who love the seasonal New England weather! I hope the snow days that began this week brought some relaxation, fun, and enjoyment. These are moments in time that create lifelong memories and are a traditional part of growing up in this part of the country. For me, they were also a time to reflect on how much we have to be grateful for. Knowing people in different districts locally, regionally, and nationally, I could not be more proud of our accomplishments and the fact that we have been able to serve our students and community in the manner that we have since the beginning of the school year. Thank you to each and every one of you who has followed the necessary mitigation strategies and supported us every step of the way. This truly has been a tremendous team effort!

This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at Math, a safety tip from our SRO, National School Counselor Week, celebrating Black History Month, World Language, Saxe Library, Saxe Spirit, February Food Drive, a virtual field trip to Jamestown, Soaring Hawks, a baby Yoda zoom appearance, Employee Wellness, NC Color Drop, snowy scenes, and much more… Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Be well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

2/8: Virtual Daytime Open House – 8 Purple, 7 Green, 6 Blue

2/9: Virtual Daytime Open House – 8 Blue, 7 Red, 6 Red

2/10: 1/2 Day for students; Professional Learning for staff

2/11: Saxe Spirit Day

2/12: No School; Staff PL Day – Happy February Break!

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.” – Malala Yousafzai

“Intelligence plus character, that is the goal of education.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” – Maya Angelou

Math

As we celebrate the recent appointment of Ms. Zoe Robinson to the position of Assistant Principal at South School, we congratulate and thank Ms. Nicole Graham who has stepped in to support and lead the 5th through 8th-grade Math program. Serving as a Math Specialist for the past four years at Saxe, Ms. Graham has also taught middle-level Math for over a dozen years and holds bachelors, masters, and administrative degrees from UConn, Fairfield, Post and Sacred Heart Universities, respectively. We are grateful and appreciate her leadership during this transition time period!

Mrs. Pelatowski’s 8th-grade Geometry Class is working with special right triangles and using the relationships between the legs and hypotenuse of these right triangles to solve problems. Students are collaborating and working together. They are so passionate about their math work that they even end up debating about their math problems!

The students in Mrs. Sanborn’s 6th-grade math classes are using a variety of tools to review for their upcoming midterm. Students use the rating system in pink and self-reflections to help identify topics that they need to work on. Online collaboration tools such as Nearpod allow students to maintain social distancing while still enjoying the benefits of working together.

Safety Tip from Officer Deak

When dropping your child off at Saxe it is vital that you use designated drop off areas in the rear of the building. Increased traffic and drop offs in the front of the building become a safety concern with buses and traffic flow. In the future, please continue to drop your child off in the rear of the building to eliminate any possible traffic/safety issues. Thank you and stay safe.

National School Counselor Week

This week we celebrated National School Counselor Week, and we are grateful for our amazing team who do so much for our @SaxeMS community! On “We are Kind Wednesday,” School Counselors share an act of kindness they committed or witnessed. On “Thrive Thursday” our school counselors showed us how they take care of themselves. How do YOU take care of yourself? On “Fair Minded Friday” our counselors shared how they build an equitable and inclusive school community

Grati-Tuesday

Below is a graphic representation of the responses to the “what are you grateful for?” prompt from Grati-Tuesday. Such great responses and we all have so much to be grateful for…

World Language

Sharing the warmth in Madame D’s 7th-grade purple French class… Keeping “warm” from left to right are: Chloe Perkins, Anna Vertin, Natalie Hamilton, & Maddy Peterson.

Celebrating Black History Month

Saxe Library: Supporting Classroom Learning
The Saxe Library has been busy connecting students to library resources for the nonfiction informational units in English Language Arts (ELA) across classes and grade levels. For example, in January, the library staff pulled and delivered over 450 books to grade 8 ELA classes alone. Furthermore, in addition to print, the library provided digital options for students to read an eBook on their topic with this unlimited copy digital collection of titles.

Ms. Pallisco’s students are celebrating Black History Month by learning about important African Americans who impacted US History. Ms. Pallisco’s students are also practicing kindness in celebration of Valentine’s Day:

Saxe Spirit

We look forward to seeing the “Classy” bunch of students who participate in the next Saxe Spirit Day next Thursday!

February Food Drive Collection for Filling in the Blanks

Filling in the Blanks fights childhood hunger by providing children in need with meals on the weekends. They partner with 63 local schools delivering their Weekend Meal bags to food-insecure children in Bridgeport, Fairfield, Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk, Stamford, Westport, CT, and Bedford Hills, NY. To learn more about Filling in the Blanks and how they are fighting childhood hunger in your community, visit: www.fillingintheblanks.org.

We will be collection the following food items:

Grade 8 6-7.25 oz. Boxed mac & cheese
Grade 7 4 oz. Individual fruit cups
Grade 6 10-19 oz. Canned soup
Grade 5 15 oz. Canned corn

Drive Details: There are three ways to donate food items.

Students can bring in items to school- Collection bins will be placed in the front and back of the school.
Parents can drop off items at the school door- Please call 203-594-4500 to let staff know you are dropping off goods, hours 7:15am – 3:00pm. Leave items at the door and a campus monitor will put them in the collection bins inside the building.
Order online – Go to Saxe’s Amazon Food Drive here. At checkout, make sure to select Filling in the Banks as the designated shopping address, and all items will be shipped directly to the Filling in the Blanks warehouse in Norwalk, CT.

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Grade Five’s Virtual Field Trip to Jamestown

Today was the first of two-day virtual visits to Jamestown’s Historic Archaeological site. Mr. Mark Summers is a historical document analyzer who works with archaeologists and he shared detailed accounts of the science of the archeological site, many artifacts, and more than a few stores of the plights and plunders of the “First Permanent English Settlement” in North America. We look forward to part 2 on Monday!

Saxe Soaring Hawks

Ms. Demers shared her latest issue of Saxe Soaring Hawks with students and staff: This month’s issue is full of remarkable work! It will amaze you, move you, and make your jaw drop to the floor! Truly, there is remarkable work going on everyday here at Saxe and we are proud to share just a few examples with you in this edition. If you are as amazed as we are by this work, please let the authors and artist know by email, an “air high five,” or a congratulatory comment! Click here to see the latest issue!

Just one of the many great samples from this edition:

Around Saxe

Who doesn’t love when Baby Yoda joins a zoom?!

Thanks to Ms. Ryan for sharing this inspirational post…

Employee Wellness

The #BeWellNCPSCalendar is designed to offer tips, reflections, and facts on how taking care of your wellness will help you thrive and grow professionally and personally while at NCPS (and beyond). As we embark upon a new year and a new month of February, think about embracing new opportunities, new challenges, new beginnings. A healthy lifestyle is made up of a whole collection of small, daily decisions. A little progress each day adds up to big results. Check your calendar daily to see what little thing you can do to Be Well!

NC Color Drop at Waveny

In lieu of the annual NC Color Run, the New Canaan High School Scholarship Foundation has organized an exciting new fundraiser, the NC Color Drop! On Wednesday, March 31, a helicopter will release more than 1,000 golf balls over a target at Waveny. The golf balls will be numbered individually and the participant whose ball lands closest to the target will be the winner of the grand prize, a Peloton Tread. Other prizes include an amazing NC Gift Basket and Kidzone Electric Bumper Cars. 100% of proceeds will be donated to need-based college scholarships for NCHS graduates. Click HERE for more information. Due to Covid, no spectators will be allowed. The event will be livestreamed at 10:00 a.m. for all residents to watch.

Special Moments

Celebrating a birthday at the “exact time” of birth… Angelo was born at 8:20 a.m. on 2/4, so we took a moment to celebrate at 8:20 on his way into class yesterday!

Snowy Start to the Week

We hope you all enjoyed the snow days on Monday and Tuesday! Here are a couple of shots that show how our campus was transformed following the storm.

We are grateful for the hard work that our custodial and maintenance crews put into keeping our grounds clear and safe for all to access our building!