2022.4.29 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

April 29, 2022

Dear Saxe Family,

It may seem hard to believe that this is the last week of April, already, but we are looking forward to celebrating all that comes with the final quarter of the school year. We will have concerts, fun days, field days, field trips, walk to school day, orientations, transition meetings, and various end-of-year activities. This is in addition to the continued studies and culminating experiences that bring this learning to life. Our students have grown, in all domains, over the course of this school year and they should be proud of all that they have accomplished!

This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at Administrative Assistant Appreciation Day, Latin Day, lots of STEM, our PTC/NC CARES presentation, some good advice, Happy Hawks, Saxe’s Shadow Man, continued work on our schedule for 2022-23, a sneak peek at Chorus, outside the box thinking, a huge thanks to our custodians, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Be Well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

May 2 – 6 – Staff Appreciation Week

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve done before.” -Bonnie Blair

“Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you.” – Mary Lou Retton

“Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”– Paulo Coelho

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” – Denis Waitley

One Second Everyday

Back again for this week – the latest Saxe Middle School 1-Second Everyday! “Life is made of seconds.” Showcasing so much of what makes Saxe Middle School great! This will be a recurring, bi-weekly feature. At the end of the year, we will have a full version that includes every single day of the 2021-22 school year. Enjoy! (pro tip: to enjoy the video at a slower pace, change your viewing option to .75 speed).

Celebrating our Administrative Assistants

This week, we celebrated our Administrative Assistants for the role they play in our school community. Their day to day (minute by minute) operations, that are always in action, are what keep us moving in the right direction. And, all done with a smile 🙂 A special thank you goes out to: Ms. Andren, Ms. Benware, Ms. Carmichael, Ms. Chila, Ms. DiMeglio, Ms. Jarosik, Ms. Randall, & Ms. Sherwood!

The PTC and Saxe Faculty showed their appreciation with a thoughtful gift. We are so fortunate and appreciate all they do for us on a daily basis!

Stay tuned as we celebrate our teachers for teacher appreciation week next week! Our fabulous PTC has a great line up and we look forward to sharing all about it next week…

Latin Day

This week, 8th grade Latin students were able to enjoy all that Latin Day MMXXII had to offer. From athletics to academic contests, workshops and presentations, the students had a wonderful experience.

A day of wins: The certamen (quiz bowl) team (featured below) below, beaming with well deserved pride! They placed first among at least ten schools and were the only middle school to participate! Our students also placed second in the soccer tournament, (beaten only by our own high school).

In the afternoon, some of the Saxe students took to the net to have their own friendly competition. Some students faithfully attempted to play volleyball in tunics.

Students gearing up for the tug of war.

In other exciting Latin news, both 7th and 8th grade Latin students participated in the National Latin Exam last month. More than half of the students at both levels scored higher than the national average.

More Latin Day Festivities:

STEM Club

Spring brings birdhouse projects, tower building, and a shout out to John from Scooters of New Canaan for helping us with our electric go-kart!

Tweet Street

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

Grateful to have parents in our building to hear from members of our staff, PTC, and New Canaan Cares. We are so fortunate to have such great partnerships to support our students and our entire learning community! To learn more about the topics that were covered, which include, student safety and wellness, school transitions, and understanding adolescent anxiety, please check out the slides that were used for the presentation, here.

Very informative Annual Saxe PTC/NC Cares meeting this morning at Saxe.

Sometimes the daily calendar has the best advice… The one from the weekend was a “two-fer” (both great) & this has been a consistently solid week of great quotes!

Our 5th Grade Happy Hawks Challenge is underway and already almost half way to achieve their first goal for living our Saxe Charter.

Ms. Biondi gives a group of students an overview of some of the useful resources in the Saxe library.

There was a Saxe “Shadow Man” sighting this morning! Ms. Rende has her 5th-grade students checking readings on the shadow that is cast in the early morning sun.

A snapshot of some of the work Ms. Birdsall’s STEM students have been working on. Whether it is birdhouses or electric powered go-karts, our students are lucky to have these learning opportunities!

Grateful for our Saxe scheduling committee and their commitment to the process as we prepare for our shift in school start times next year. There is still work to do, but we are excited about the opportunities the challenge has presented! Thank you to all involved!

Caught a glimpse of some Saxe Chorus students beginning class. They may have just been warming up, but they sounded great!

When Vivian Birdsall mentions her students are 3D printing some pieces for their project with the NASA Tech Rise Challenge, you take pics to share with the Saxe community!

Utilizing all spaces in our Saxe learning community! Thanks, Ms. Hafkemeyer, for thinking outside the box (i.e., classroom)…

Grateful for our Saxe custodial team who take such great care of our building and ground. Grass cutting season is back and our outdoor learning spaces look great!

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)