2024.3.15 – Saxe Weekly – The Saxe weekly

March 15, 2024

Dear Saxe Family,

It seems like a month has passed since we “sprang forward” with the time change and I hope you have finally adjusted to the darker mornings, but “longer days”. We have been getting a taste of spring this week, which brings a fresh level of excitement and energy to our school community. It is my hope that your week was filled with as much wonder, joy, and unique experiences as our school was able to fit into the past five days.

This week in the Saxe Weekly, we take a look at St. Patrick’s Day, the latest 1-Second Everyday, a parent coffee and tour, Science, Physical Education, ELA, NC Cares presentation on social media, STEM in the news, Math Team, Just Games Club, Sustainability Club, Middle Level Education Month, some gratitude, Saxe Spirit, Pi Day, recess, a Library lesson, Saxe SRO in the classroom, some more championships, Pets of Saxe (staff), Dogs of Saxe, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Be Well,

Dave Gusitsch

Principal, Saxe Middle School

Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:

3/17 – Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

3/21 – World Down Syndrome Day

3/22 – PTC Parent Coffee (more info below)

3/22 – 7/8 Musical – Bye Bye Birdie

3/23 – 7/8 Musical – Bye Bye Birdie

3/23 – NCSF Color Drop (more info below)

Have a Happy St. Patty’s Day weekend!

*Quotes that resonated with us this week:

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”—Jimmy Dean.

“Action is the Foundational Key to Success”-Pablo Picasso

“80% of Success is Showing Up”-Woody Allen

“PI reminds us that life is full of infinite possibilities”-Unknown

“Don’t settle for average. Bring your best to the moment. Then, whether it fails or succeeds, at least you know you gave all you had.” —Angela Bassett

Jokes that brought a smile to our faces this week:

What do you call cheese that isn’t yours? Nacho cheese

I hear they’ve made a new artificially intelligent Oreo? It’s one smart cookie

Why was the broom late for school? He over swept!

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).

Parent Coffee & Tour

Saxe is one of the largest middle school learning communities in the state of CT. We recognize many have not had an opportunity to see many parts of the building and we invite you to join in a brief guided tour with one of our administrators on Friday, March 22 at 10:30 a.m.. Arrival will begin in the main entrance lobby at 10:15. Following the tour, you are invited to join for an informal “Coffee… gathering” in one of our common areas to answer any questions or continue conversations from the tour. If you are interested in attending, please complete this brief survey to allow us to plan for the appropriate personnel and tour routes. Thanks!

Science

Students in 8th-grade Science classes are investigating forces and motion. As seen here, students were conducting experiments in order to determine the rate at which all objects accelerate due to gravity, g. Students dropped similar size balls with different masses and used slow-motion footage in order to determine the acceleration values.

Physical Education

Learning at Saxe takes place in many forms. This week, students continued their Project Adventure unit in PE with the Flying Squirrel, Dangling-Duo, and rock wall climbing. Benefits (and, life skills) include communication, collaboration, patience, problem-solving, and persistence. Oh, and fun is definitely a positive byproduct (look at those smiles)!

Project Adventure – Dangling Duo:

Students participate in the Flying Squirrel!

Rock Wall Climbing:

ELA

6th grade ELA students are investigating the “Power of Play” in their latest argument unit. Today, in preparation for a vocabulary quiz, students put what they’ve learned about the benefits of play into practice! A brief pictionary-style game to get their juices flowing before the quiz session…. proved successful! Their scores do attest!

NC Cares Presentation

REGISTER HERE
April 4th, 7:00 PM in the Saxe Middle School Auditorium. Learn how social media is designed to be addictive, and gain parenting tools to limit its negative impact on your children. This program is intended for all community members – including parents, grandparents, teachers, and administrators! To learn more about Max, visit socialawakening.org or follow him on YouTube – @maxstossel

Grade 6 Chelsea Piers Field Trip

An email was sent out to all Grade 6 Parents on March 15th about a field trip for 6th graders to Chelsea Piers on April 3rd/4th. Students will leave at 9:30 am and return at 1:20 pm. Payment should be made by March 27th (by My SchoolBucks here or by check made out to the Saxe Activity Fund). If this trip’s cost is prohibitive, please do not hesitate to contact your student’s school counselor.

Saxe in the News

The New Canaan Sentinel published a story on Honoring Women in STEM across Generations. Enjoy the story!

Math Team

Last week during Math Team, they worked on problem-solving skills with rational numbers.

Just Games Club

“Just Games” Club in action Friday morning!

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.

Sustainability Club

This week, students in the Upper Division Sustainability Club moved the tomato plants that were sprouted inside under the grow lights into our greenhouse. Students also went searching for worms to add to their homemade compost bin.

March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day!

Staying Connected with NCPS

New NCPS Facebook Page

The district’s official FB page can be found HERE. Follow and give them a like for an inside look at student activities, upcoming events, and all the happenings across our NCPS schools!

Making Connections

Walking around Saxe this week, I noticed this fine piece of artwork and realized it is the same lighthouse that my daughter Ellie and I visited over February break! For those wondering, it is the Portland Head Light up near Portland, Maine… (below is the artwork and a photo we took while visiting at sunrise on 2/17).

Twitter/X

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

Saxe continues to celebrate Middle Level Education Month by providing opportunities for our student’s voices to be heard! Stay tuned for updates & share outs…

Saxe 8Red reflects on all they have to be grateful for… Thanks for sharing with our Saxe learning community! #AttitudeOfGratitude

Not to be outdone, 8Green also brought their March “A-Game”!

Some of our Saxe Hawks were in the “BC Eagles” spirit for College Day at Saxe today!

March 14th – Happy Pi Day from Saxe! Thanks to Ms. DIMeglio for keeping us laughing each morning, the “Joke of the Day” is on point for today! “What do you call a snake that’s 3.14 meters long?” A pi-thon.

We also had some interesting Pi-related facts and quotes:

Today, March 14th or 3/14, we celebrate Pi day, the day that corresponds with the first three digits of pi (and is coincidently the birthday of Albert Einstein). Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, and is always the same, no matter what size circle you use. One of the most well-known facts about pi is that it doesn’t end after a certain number of decimal places. It just keeps going and going and going.

“PI reminds us that life is full of infinite possibilities”-Unknown

40-50 mph winds on Monday? No problem! Our Saxe students weren’t phased one bit & enjoyed some blue skies & fresh air to start the week!

Saw a few “weathering walk” crews go by on this beautiful day at Saxe. Only caught one pic, but they were all observing & engaged in applying their classroom learning in the real world (our campus)!

Ms. Stilwell conducts some book reviews/overviews in the Saxe Library this week. It was fun to see the students engage & respond to her questions about different stories or moments in history!

Mr. Gillan’s Social Studies class gets a firsthand account about civics & community structure from our Saxe SRO. Thanks for adding to their learning experience, Officer Blank!

Following the “home” win for our 8th-grade girls last Thursday, we had some more championships for our Saxe students! Congrats to the 7th-grade girls & 8th-grade boys for bringing home the hardware!

Pets of Saxe (staff)

Last week, we began featuring the pets who reside at the homes of some of our staff members. Thanks to Mr. Gillan who coordinated this effort to provide this opportunity to get to know each other a little better and further unite our school community! Thanks to all who have contributed as well… If you are a staff member and would still like to participate, you are welcome to access the slideshow and enter your pets!

Dogs of Saxe

Frankie was a new visitor this week. He was as excited as we were with the nice weather!

I believe this qualifies as a record! That’s 3 big #DogsOfSaxe in one seat right there! What a great way to start the day!

Moose was excited to say hello at Saxe’s arrival today!

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)