2024.2.15 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

February 15, 2024

Dear Saxe Family,

Happy February break! While students and families head into a well-deserved break, our staff will be taking advantage of some terrific Professional Learning opportunities tomorrow. We look forward to collaborating, learning, growing, and even celebrating, together. As we enter the break, it is a great time to reflect on all that we have to be grateful for and it is my hope that you are able to find some time to enjoy whatever it is that makes you the happiest, with those you care about the most. Enjoy each moment!

This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at our Saxe & NCPS SROs, Winter Daytime Open House resources, Shark Tank, local Super Bowl champ, some serious snow day fun, Saxe in the News, Photography, positive messages, 6Red town hall celebration, a big shout out to our custodial and maintenance teams, Trout, Legos, recess, Science, snowy scenes around Saxe, Dogs of Saxe, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful February break!

Be Well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

2/16 – February Break – Enjoy!

2/26 – welcome back 🙂

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“The more that you read, the more things you will know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” —Dr. Seuss

“Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” —Gloria Steinem

“Success will be within your reach only when you start reaching out for it.”― Stephen Richards

The Weekly Humor Highlights!

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Summer wasn’t too bad either

What do you call a shoe made out of a banana? A slipper

Where do math teachers go on vacation? To Times Square

Salute to our SROs

Happy SRO Appreciation Day! We are grateful for our Saxe SRO, Officer Blank & the rest of the NCPD team – Officer Gibson & Officer Deak! Thank you all for your collaboration, care, professionalism, & teamwork – you are appreciated!

Saxe Winter Daytime Open House

We held our last Daytime Open House and Monday – thank you to everyone who joined us! If you were not able to attend, you can use the links below to access your child’s team presentation.

Monday, 2/5	Tuesday, 2/6	Friday, 2/9	Monday, 2/12
8:55 a.m.G7: *Red Team* Presentation slides	8:55 a.m.G7: Green Team Presentation slides	8:55 a.m.G7: *Purple Team* Presentation slides	8:55 a.m.G7: *Blue Team* Science, Social Studies, ELA, Math
10:10 a.m.G6: *Blue Team* Presentation slides	10:10 a.m.G6: *Red Team* Presentation slides LA Red Team	10:10 a.m.G6: *Purple Team* Presentation slides	10:10 a.m.G6: *Green Team* Presentation slides
11:20 a.m.G8: *Red Team* Presentation slides	11:20 a.m.G8: “*Blue*” Team Presentation slides	11:20 a.m.G8: *Green Team* Presentation slides	11:20 a.m.G8: *Purple Team* Presentation slides

Shark Tank

The 7th-grade Shark Tank program is grounded in the Launch Cycle, a STEM framework used to promote inquiry-based learning and foster creativity. During this Workshop, students utilize an Engineering Notebook to brainstorm and problem-solve as they work through the various iterations of their idea(s). The notebook was created to guide students through that process, by breaking down the Launch Cycle into manageable steps, and serve as a place for students to document all their work.

Saxe Science students are “back at it” collaborating & designing for their Shark Tank projects! There are so many great ideas being discussed & we look forward to seeing the finished products next month… Good luck to all!

Local Super Bowl Champ (again)!

Congratulations to Saxe and NCHS alum, Lucas Niang on being a member of the back-to-back NFL Champion, Kansas City Chiefs! Amazing…

Here is Lucas following the AFC Championship game (in Baltimore) proudly ‘repping some NC gear!

Winter Fun!
Thank you to everyone who took the time to share some of their “snow day fun!”. It was a good ‘ol fashioned New England winter storm and lots of fun was had by many… Enjoy the pics!

The height standard for which all future snowmen will be measured has officially been set – wow!

Mr. Gusitsch and his son, Nicholas, got out and had some fun in the snow, too! Sledding at Huntington State Park…

Science

Thanks to Ms. Rende and her students for trying some new “student engagement” collaborations and creating these amazing posters!

Saxe in the News

We like to recognize our Saxe students who have achieved newsworthy accomplishments. While we have shared some of Saxe 5th-grader Vanessa Delev’s recent swimming accolades, it is worth noting that these state records that have been broken, have stood for 10+ years and were precioysly held by some of the fastest swimmers in the country. This past week, Vanessa set another state standard in the 100y butterfly. Congrats, Vanessa, and may your records stand for 10+ years, or longer!

Spotlight on Photography Club Artwork

Kendal Borner (in Red) and friend with her work, “Fred”. Great eye, Kendal!

Calling All Photographers!

The Wilton Arts Council has their 24th Annual Photography Exhibition with a special youth division! Last year, one of our very own students, Zachary Weiss, entered and won! If you have a photographer who would like to enter a photo, please see the flier below for further details.

Twitter/X

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

Some amazing positive messaging out of 8Red this month! Nice work & thank you for the great reminders of simple ways to make someone’s day! Some impressive accompanying artwork as well…

Ms. Jarosik got to share some of her unique & interesting stories during the 6Red Town Hall celebration. The students were fascinated by the firsthand accounts of shark encounters & spotting rare owls/birds. Great pics to help tell the story, too!

Good morning, Saxe! Welcome back from the snow day & a HUGE shout out to our custodial/maintenance teams & NewCanaan DPW for having our campus & parking lots clear & safe for everyone. Thank you!

The Saxe Trout are thriving! Neat to see them hatch & grow & even better seeing our Saxe students learn from them along the way!

The new Saxe Lego Robotics Club is underway! We had a great time today getting to know our Lego Spike Prime kits and thinking about all the creations we can invent.

Thank you to ALL of the parents who came out to our Saxe Winter Daytime Open Houses this past week – there was a great turnout! Couldn’t make it? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Team slides are above & you are always welcome to reach out w/any questions.

Final hours before the February break & hundreds of students are out enjoying some fresh air & activity during #SaxeRecess before heading back in for the last few classes of the day. Have a great break, All!

Snowy Scenes around Saxe

Thanks to Custodian, James O’Leary for capturing these terrific “in storm” pics (and, for the clean up afterward!)…

Dogs of Saxe

Daisy braved the cold to say hello at Saxe drop off this morning! #DogsOfSaxe

Ollie was visiting & helped celebrate Biggie’s 2nd birthday today… We’ll celebrate any birthday at Saxe arrival, even our #DogsOfSaxe! Happy bday, Biggie!

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)