2022.2.4 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

February 4, 2022

Dear Saxe Family,

As we head into February, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and the winter weather pattern seems to be living up to his prediction. As we have done for much of 2022, we packed quite a bit into a “shortened” week. Despite the weather disruptions, our school community continues to be one that fosters an environment where our students are challenged to think outside the box, be comfortable being uncomfortable as they learn how best to learn, or collaborate with those who may not always agree to work together on a resolution. These are life skills that are being developed to serve them for the rest of their lives, in whatever path(s) they choose. The middle school years are formidable ones and the well-rounded experiences in the mental, physical, social, and emotional realms are ones that we are proud and grateful to be able to provide for our students!

This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at some of these skills in action as we celebrate our Math Team, Music, Math classes, Mandarin, the Lunar New Year (Year of the Tiger!), Clubs, and a sample of our emotional intelligence work. We also take a look at the yearbook, snowy scenes around Saxe, Groundhog Day, Virtual Daytime Open House, lost and found, Certificates of Gratitude, Faculty Senate, some words of wisdom, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful (long) weekend!

Be Well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

2/7 – Virtual Daytime Open House: 7 Green(10:50), 8 Green (11:40) & 6 Green (12:30)

2/8 – Virtual Daytime Open House: 7 Red (10:50), 8 Blue (11:40) & 6 Red (12:30); NCHS Music Department Collaborative Concert (at NCHS)

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“Just for the record darling, not all positive change feels positive in the beginning.” – S. C. Lourie

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew” – Cicely Tyson

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” – Langston Hughes

“Every winter has its spring” – H. Tuttle

Congratulations Math Team!

Congratulations to the following students in our math team, who will be moving on to the MathCounts chapter competition later this month!

Henry Buczkiewicz

Mairead Greiner

Aarna Gupta

Aksh Juneja

Cormac Kilkenny

Ian Lanning

Lia Lavin

Jason Lin

Nicholas Marti

Serra Savasoglu

George Wang

Leah Zhen

A special thanks to Ms. Andrews and Ms. Bohlmann for their continued leadership and dedication to our math team!

Lost and Found

Your items miss you too! Our Saxe lost and found has gained quite an inventory over the course of the winter. We will be working to get all items back to their rightful owners by the February break. Any items that remain will be donated to local charities to “keep on serving”!

Music

5th Grade Band students are learning to play rounds! Here is “Hey Ho, Nobody’s Home” as a round. These are 5th Grade Red Team students of Mrs. Rosen. Use the link below to view the students in action!

Mathematics

5th grade math students in Mrs. Harrington’s classes are working to understand volume. They investigated how many “minifigures” it would take to fill their handmade boxes. Hands on learning helps us learn best!

Students in Ms. Palazzo’s 6th grade M7 class worked on proportional relationship tables this week. They investigated two teams walking in a long-distance race and answered a series of questions with their partners given information about average walking speeds. Students will build off the discoveries made during this lesson when they begin graphing proportional relationships later in the unit.

Students in Ms. Link’s 8th Grade Pre-Algebra class are working on their understanding of slope and graphing with tables and equations. During group work time, students were able to get immediate feedback by checking their solutions on google sheets. If they were correct, a taco appeared!

Mandarin

Mandarin students in Ms. Wu and Ms. Smith’s classes celebrated the Lunar New Year this week. Students did paper cutting and origami along with blessing words. February 1st was the first day of the year of the tiger. This year, China also held the Winter Olympics in Beijing on February 4th. Both events will be celebrated for 15 days!

Best Lunar New Year Hair Style: 7th grade Cora Huang!

Happy Lunar New Year! 2022 is the Year of the Tiger!

Virtual Daytime Open House Continues

The schedule below depicts the specific day, date, and time for each respective grade/team. Grade 6-8 teams will host their entire program in one single zoom session, respectively. To access the team “classroom”, please keep an eye out for a zoom link that will be sent out on the morning of your scheduled session(s).

Teachers will review team progress made thus far in regards to meeting local and state curriculum standards, address initiatives that have promoted an emotionally and physically safe learning environment, provide updates as they relate to how our operations have continued to be responsive and evolve, and offer an academic introduction to the 3rd marking period. We look forward to “seeing you”, soon!

Monday, 2/7	Tuesday, 2/8
10:50 amG7: GreenTeam	10:50 amG7: Red Team
11:40 amG8: Green Team	11:40 amG8: Blue Team
12:30 pmG6: Green Team	12:30 pmG6: RedTeam

FREE Confidence Club | After School Tuesdays 3:00-4:15 | starts February 8

Confidence Club provides girls with a positive adult role model and creates a safe space for girls to develop self-esteem and social emotional intelligence. Confidence Club is a facilitated discussion group that creates a BRAVE SPACE for girls. The small group meets weekly with a teacher/mentor Ms. Katie Campbell (catherine.campbell@ncps-k12.org) to share concerns and interests. The curriculum-based program builds social emotional intelligence and self-esteem, the building blocks of a confident leader.

Yearbook Help Needed!

Interested in creating the yearbook? Join Ms. Pabon and Ms. Sotolongo on Wednesdays starting February 16th in room 219. 7th and 8th graders will meet from 2:10-2:55, and 5th and 6th graders will meet from 3:00-3:45.

Tweet Street

Below are photos and phrases that were included on our Saxe middle school Twitter page (@SaxeMS) this week. Enjoy!

Good morning! Thank you to our amazing custodial and maintenance team for having our campus cleared up and ready to safely welcome everyone back this morning!

Some snowy scenes from around Saxe upon our return from the recent storm over the weekend… Thanks again to our amazing custodial & maintenance staff for having everything cleared for us to welcome everyone back safely!

6th-grade students participating in, observing, & modeling effects of erosion using sugar cubes, plastic, stones, & a little physical exertion… Nothing better than the brain/body connection in action!

Good Morning!! Whether you look forward to more winter, or not, have a Happy Groundhog Day ‘22!

Meaningful lesson around the importance of using the “meta-moment” and imagining our best self in situations. Loved seeing the Saxe 6th grade teachers be vulnerable & open up to their classes of how this strategy has helped them to navigate through difficult situations.

Thank you to all of our Saxe parents who attended our first few Virtual Daytime Open House sessions this week! We will be holding the rest of them next Monday and Tuesday and hope to “see you” there!

Thank you to our Library staff who always keep up with fresh, inspiring displays to encourage reading!

Saxe is a huge building (about 260k sq ft), but slow and steady makes a huge difference over time… Here are a few “in progress” pics that show the ongoing project to freshen up various areas of the building with a fresh coat of paint (sticking with school colors, of course!). Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks…

This week, we got to hand out a bunch of “Certificates of Gratitude” to staff & students who have truly gone above & beyond, & exemplify the values that make our Saxe community special. Thanks to those who submitted names & to our recipients, keep up the great work! #SaxeCoG

Grateful for our #SaxeFacultySenate and their ongoing collaboration in caring for each other to maintain the best environment possible at Saxe! The focus for the meeting this week included strategies for physical, mental, social, & emotional wellness. Awesome! #SaxeCares

Dogs of Saxe

Words of wisdom for the weekend (and, words to live by)!

Have a great week, see you next Friday!

Thank you to all of our Saxe Weekly contributors! Each weekly edition is an example of collaboration in action. A special thanks to Lauren Sherwood for the continuous stream of positive, optimistic quotes!

Saxe Resources (live links)