2024.1.19 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

January 19, 2024

Dear Saxe Family,

Winter finally arrived! It may have been a weather-related shortened week, but there was still much to share and celebrate. This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at Winter Daytime Open Houses, Science, Mandarin, 7Purple, supporting other schools, additions to our new artwork, snowy scenes around Saxe, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Be Well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

1/19 End of Quarter 2 (Grades 6, 7, 8)

1/24 Clash Day

1/24 Saxe Orchestra Concert: 7:00 p.m. (No Homework)

1/26 Portal Opens for Grades 6 – 8

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.” — Seneca

“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” —Paulo Coelho

“Don’t say you can’t until you prove you can’t.” —Les Paul

The Weekly Humor Highlights!

“Want to see a documentary I made about construction? I’m still working on it!”

“How do you borrow a camera? Someone lens it to you!”

“Did you hear the rumor about butter? Yes, I did, but I’m not going to spread it!”

Save the Date

We will be inviting our 6th, 7th, & 8th-grade parents into Saxe as we prepare to host our 2024 Saxe Daytime Winter Open Houses on February 5th, 6th, 9th, & 12th. Teachers will give an overview of the second semester in their respective content areas, provide snapshots of the learning that takes place in their classes, and share some of the successes and celebrations so far this school year! We will send specific grade-level/team information and dates out early next week, but wanted to put the general dates/times out in advance. (Grade 6 will meet at 10:10 a.m.; Grade 7 will meet at 8:55 a.m.; Grade 8 will meet at 11:20 a.m.)

6th Grade Science

6th grade begins to look into S.M.A.R.T Goals (S = specific M = measurable A = achievable R = relevant T = timely) and think about what goals they have for themselves!

Mandarin

Although the Chinese New Year is still three weeks away, the 6th-grade Mandarin students are busy preparing for the celebration by creating a Chinese calendar. There are two sets of dates in a Chinese calendar: the Gregorian dates and the Lunar dates.

7 Purple Family Meeting

To celebrate the end of Q2, the whole 7 Purple Family gathered in the auditorium, and students watched a slideshow of pictures from the last couple of months, heard about some reminders and challenges, played Scattergories, and found out this quarter’s “Charter Champion” recipients.

New Artwork

Staff members are enjoying (they’re smiling on the inside!) the new artwork near the Gymnasium spaces. 🙂

Schools Supporting Schools

Click here to purchase your golf ball.

SLOBS at the High School

For current Grade 8 boys – if you don’t already know about the Service League of Boys (SLOBs), we invite you to learn about NCHS largest club! SLOBs is a wonderful philanthropic organization whose mission is to initiate and promote educational and charitable endeavors that foster community responsibility and leadership, as well as strengthen the parent-son relationship. Members currently work with 50+ philanthropic organizations with more than 70 different events each school year, and have served our community with over 35,000 volunteer hours. Please follow our Instagram page @nchs.slobs and check out www.newcanaanslobs.org to see a sampling of all the great work accomplished.

Saxe & South Collaborative Activity

Each quarter, students in Mr. Young’s workshop class walk to South School and meet with a group of elementary students so they can share a children’s book they (each) wrote. During this visit, the kindergarteners we partnered with also had written stories to share as well, so it was a great experience for everyone involved!

Saxe Shoutout!

5th grade student, Gideon, has published an anthology of poetry, A Dash of Mistake! Gideon’s new collection of poems is a testament to his dedication, creativity, and literary talent. We are so proud of this accomplishment and hope you will be in attendance for his book signing at Elm Street Books next weekend!

Twitter/X

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

A little Saxe trivia… “Did you know” that Saxe used to be NCHS until 1972? Check out this classic piece of NC art that hangs over at NCHS… Can you recognize Saxe & the fields off South Ave as they looked over a half-century ago?! Very cool…

Our recently hung artwork pieces at Saxe are now accompanied by an “info sheet” about each featured person, with a QR code link to “read more”. Thanks to everyone involved in setting these permanent displays & for our ever-supportive Saxe PTC!

7 Purple holding a “family meeting” in the Saxe auditorium today… Fun activities, recognizing classmates, & celebrating their team!

“Snowy scenes” have been the norm around Saxe this week. Great for all those New England winter lovers out there! A special “thank you!” to our custodial and maintenance staff and the NC Department of Public Works for having our campus cleared and safe for all to drive/walk safely following the storm. They are the best!

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 Melissa DiMeglio for the continuous stream of positive, optimistic quotes!

Saxe Resources (live links)