March 1, 2024
Dear Saxe Family,
Happy March! It is hard to believe that we were just on February break and I hope everyone had a great first week back. Staff and students jumped right back in without missing a beat and it was impressive to see all the neat learning experiences that took place throughout the week.
As we head into March, we recognize and celebrate the importance of these crucial middle school years through Middle Level Education Month (MLEM). This is a special time in the development of our students and we put great effort into making Saxe Middle School the best, most well-rounded experience possible for each child. It takes the terrific partnerships that exist between students, staff, parents, and everyone who makes up our entire learning community to navigate these “under construction” years of adolescence, but there is no place that takes greater pride in doing so!
This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at Leap Year, the latest 1Second Everyday, MLEM, 7Blue Team Celebration, ELA, a SS/STEM Collaborative, Student Leadership (with a visit from Dr. Luizzi!), Art, PE, Science, the return of our resident superhero “Shadow Man”, Math, Social Work Week, welcoming a new staff member, Sustainability Club, Chess Club, Photo Club, Professional Learning, Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, Dogs of Saxe, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!
Be Well,
Dave Gusitsch
Principal, Saxe Middle School
Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:
3/4-8 Social Work Week
3/7 Grade 8 to Grade 9 Orientation at NCHS
*Quotes that resonated with us this week:
“It is only when we take chances that our lives improve. The initial and the most difficult risk we need to take is to become honest.” —Walter Anderso
“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. ”― Coco Chanel
“There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there — you must go beyond them.”–Bruce Lee
“Great Things Never Come From Comfort Zones”-Unknown
“Don’t Wait for Opportunity, Create it” -George Bernard
The Weekly Humor Highlights!
What did one potato chip say to the other? Shall we go for a dip
Why did the students study in the airplanes? They wanted to get higher grades!
What’s orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot!
What’s a frog’s favorite day of the year? Leap Day
Why was the student’s report card wet? Because it was below C level
In the spirit of Leap Day, here’s a fun fact to get those number-loving gears grinding!
US Presidential elections and Summer Olympic Games are both held every four years and occur during leap years…
One Second Everyday
Back again 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 is a recurring, bi-weekly feature. At the end of the year, we will have a full version that includes every single day of the 2023-24 school year. Enjoy! (pro tip: to enjoy the video at a slower pace, change your viewing option to .75 speed).
Middle Level Education Month
“We know that young adolescents are special. And that’s why the month of March is devoted to celebrating the wonderful things that happen each and every day in middle level education” (amle.org).
Did you know that 10-15 year-olds are experiencing the most rapid, significant changes of their lives other than from birth to age 3? They are developing physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively as they discover new vistas, form relationships with peers and adults, and explore their developing identity. As educators and parents, we have the tremendous opportunity to help support them as they form the attitudes, values, and dispositions that will form who they become as adults. The research tells us that young adolescents thrive when they are provided with learning environments that are:
As we enter the month of March, we continue to focus on our most important asset, our students. The Association of Middle Level Education (AMLE) has teamed up with several other organizations to declare March the official month to celebrate middle level education. The key messages to celebrate “Middle Level Education Month” are:
- The importance of parents being knowledgeable about young adolescents and being actively involved in their lives;
- The understanding that healthy bodies plus healthy minds equal healthy young adolescents;
- The realization that the education young adolescents experience during this formative period of life will, in large measure, determine the future for all citizens; and
- The knowledge that every young adolescent should have the opportunity to pursue his or her dreams and aspirations, and post-secondary education should be a possibility for all.
New Canaan exemplifies what it means to provide the best education possible and Saxe Middle School is proud to be able to play a critical role in the overall educational journey that our students make. Thank you for your continued support! Feel free to check out #MLEM and more information/resources at: http://www.amle.org/ or Nat’l Assoc of Elem School Principals
7Blue Celebration
The seventh grade Blue team had its monthly “Blue Team Celebration” at the end of February celebrating students who exhibited being trustworthy, polite, inspirational, and innovative. These students were awarded some gift cards, certificates and ribbons of excellence, and, of course, loud applause from their classmates and teachers! After the recognition portion of the celebration, the entire Blue team was engaged in team-building activities including a good game of Name that Tune! The monthly “Blue Team Celebration” is a true illustration of what we value here at Saxe… celebrating our learning community through caring, communication, and commitment. A big thank you to Ms. Korman, Ms. Thomas, Ms. Prinz, and Ms. Walsh for all of their efforts in organizing and providing an engaging and authentic celebratory experience for their students. Go 7 Blue!
ELA
As a culmination of the sixth grade ELA study of Greek Mythology, students worked in groups to closely read a myth of their choice and design a museum “exhibit” to highlight the essential components of the myth and teach others about it. Students showcased their creative design thinking skills in many ways using paper, pencil, and technology! Some examples included 3D printing, visual representations, graphic novels, poems, podcasts, and more! Check out some of these great creations!
Throughout the week, the 6th-grade ELA classes took advantage of the full suite of resources in the library, Upper Mezzanine, and Design Lab to bring their imaginations to life!
Social Studies STEM Collaborative
Ms. Nelson and Ms. Nicholas hold class in the STEM lab to apply Design Thinking to the Cultural Hearth project. It is great to see students go through the process of identifying, defining, ideating, prototyping, testing, and launching their work. Great life skills!
Student Leadership
This week, the 5th-grade Leadership Team was excited to welcome Dr. Luizzi in to speak to them about Leadership. Students asked great questions and were fortunate to be able to hear about Dr. Luizzi’s own educational journey, who inspired him, challenges that he has faced, who he is as a person, and so much more. Thank you to Dr. Luizzi for taking the time to meet with this special group!
Students even got to make the connection that Dr. Luizzi is the ACTUAL person who “calls the snow days”! It was priceless to see them light up when they realized it…
Dr. Luizzi even made their day by signing their hall passes to return to their next class!
Art
7th grade is in the building stage of their pop art sculpture unit! After a class of strategic planning and communication with our partners we have some fun mass produced items from popular culture coming into play including but not limited to: a Rubix cube, a bucket of KFC, a Gatorade bottle, a Sharpie, Hubba Bubba gum, and more!
Physical Education
Students in Miss Goodman’s PE classes are in their net unit where we started with volleyball. Students have been watching skill videos on the bump, set, spike and both serves as well as the rules needed to play in a volleyball game. Students had many opportunities to practice their skills with a variety of partners and then put those skills into gameplay. Students were focusing on working with all different classmates while providing feedback and taking on a leadership role to help build their skills. Next up…. Pickleball for grades 5&6 and Badminton for grades 7&8!
Science
The 6th grade Blue, Red, and Purple teams have spent this week solving this mystery of the Cape Cod Car. They used stream tables as a way to recreate the type of erosion they believe to have caused the event.
Shadow Man is back! 5th-graders check in on the different seasonal sun angles this week…
Science Workshop
Students put on their “design thinking hats” in Science Workshop this week. Each student was assigned a specific role (fisher, construction worker, firefighter, etc.) to design a hat. They first did some research in order to gain empathy for people in these roles and gain insights into what design features they might need in a hat before brainstorming and prototyping their ideas.
Math
Here are some photos of the math team this week. We were working on problem-solving skills with rational numbers!
Social Work Week
March 4-8 is Social Social Work Week! A huge “thank you!” to our Social Workers – Ms. Wasserman, our Social Work Intern, Ms. Miceli, Ms. Greto (Teen Talk Counselor) and Ms. Pesce.
Welcome, Mr. Mercure!
Name: Raymond Mercure
Position: Band
College(s) attended: Western Connecticut State University
Hometown: Naugatuck, CT
Hobbies: Video Games, marching with the CT Hurricanes Drum and Bugle Corps.
Favorite Genre of Music: Classical, Movie and Video Game soundtracks.
One interesting or fun fact about your summer: I spent a week with my dad who is a truck driver, in his truck.
Sustainability Club
5th and 6th grade Sustainability Club is currently working on several projects. Some students are working on researching supplies needed to create our vegetable garden while others are working on programming an automatic watering system for this garden. Some students are reaching out to high school students interested in partnering on a recycling/composting initiative. Others are creating an announcement to go out to staff when our hydroponic garden has been harvested and crops are available for staff to take home.
Professional Learning
A couple of pictures and work samples from our PL day at Saxe going into the February break… Staff had some tremendously deep conversations on how best to continue to learn about & engage our students. Proud of their work!
Here are some pics from our Math team engaging in PL in a similar fashion to how their students learn at the vertical whiteboards!
Work hard, play hard… Thanks to our ever-amazing Saxe PTC, our staff was able to enjoy some delicious lunch from the Pizza Truck. They also had a chance to get active and enjoy some recreational (or, competitive! 🙂 ) time with colleagues during the lunch break. Thanks to our PE department and custodians for helping coordinate this fun opportunity!
Chess Club
Students flex their mental muscles as they strategize and socialize during Chess Club!
Photography Club
The group took advantage of the incredible weather this week to get outside and snap some nice shots!
NCHS Color Drop
The NCHS Color Drop is right around the corner and you will once again have a chance to win some amazing prizes (including a truck!) while supporting NCHS students through the NC Scholarship Foundation. Thanks for considering and good luck to all who participate!
Click here to purchase your golf ball.
Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month
The Theme for DD Awareness Month 2024 is “A World of Opportunities.” We are celebrating people and working together to remove obstacles. Our goal is to build a community that’s committed to creating a world where everyone can do well and succeed. Join us in making a world where all kinds of people have the chance to thrive. You can follow the below social media accounts for more information and celebrations throughout the month:
Twitter/X
Below are photos and phrases that were included on our Saxe Middle School page (@SaxeMS) this week. Enjoy!
Happy March! Spring is almost here… Know what else March brings? Middle Level Educ Month! This is such a developmentally important time in the lives of our students (&, families) & we embrace the learning & growth that takes place during this “under construction” phase! #MLEM
Say, “what?!” – February 29th?! That’s right! Happy Leap Year to everyone in our Saxe Hawks community – have a great day, All!
Dogs of Saxe
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)
Website: https://www.ncps-k12.org/saxe
Saxe Middle School
Celebrating Our Learning Community Through Caring, Communication, & Commitment
