March 28, 2025
Dear Saxe MS Family,
As we round the corner on March and head into April next week, we have quite a bit to share and celebrate. Each edition of the Saxe Weekly is a snapshot of just some of the amazing learning, interactions, and experiences that our students and staff are lucky enough to be part of in this exceptional learning community. We appreciate you taking the time to scan, scroll, or read anything that catches your eye!
This week, we take a look at our latest morning video announcement, Middle Level Education Month, learning about the Holocaust, multisensory learning, Science, SpongeBob, World Autism Awareness Day, Special Education, Staff Spotlight: Tech Team, Paraprofessional Day, Q3 Saxe Shark Tank, Saxe SRO, Sustainability, Believe Wall, “What we love about Saxe MS”, Zeph on trombone, concept maps, Art, Music, Chess Club, positive reminders, scenes around Saxe, Dogs of Saxe, and much more. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!
Be Well,
Dave Gusitsch
Principal, Saxe Middle School
Upcoming Noteworthy Dates:
3/28 End of Quarter 3
3/28 Saxe 7/8 Musical – No Homework – 7:00 p.m.
3/29 Saxe 7/8 Musical – No Homework – 1 pm/ 5pm
4/2 Paraprofessional Day
4/2 World Autism Awareness Day (wear blue)
*Quotes that resonated with us this week:
“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.”–Joshua J. Marine
“Every day is a good day. There is something to learn, care and celebrate.” — Amit Ray
“One small positive thought can change your whole day.”-Zig Ziglar
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou
“If you believe in yourself, with a tiny pinch of magic, all your dreams can come true!” – SpongeBob’s motivational quote.
Saxe Spotlight Jokes of the Week:
What did Tennes-see? The same thing Arkan-sas!
How can you tell if a tree is a dogwood tree? By its bark!
Where do lizards go after their tails fall off? The retail store!
What do you call a biscuit that is more intelligent than you? A smart cookie.
Saxe MS Morning Announcements
We “went live” this morning with episode 3 of our latest Saxe MS video morning announcements! We are continuing to explore different & fun ways to share relevant information with our school community while getting some repetitions under our belts for it to be a natural way for us to communicate. Today we looked at middle school March Madness, Middle Level Education Month, SpongeBob, “Feel good Friday”, & more. Thanks to all involved!
Below are our very own Saxe MS staff members when they were in middle school. From staff who were in middle school within the last decade, to all the way back in the 1970’s, and everything in between… You can see the different styles, but the facts remain the same – middle school is a unique time in all of our lives! Can you recognize any of your teachers or trusted adults from Saxe? 🙂
Middle Level Education Month
As we wrap MLEM, we invite any interested students to review the information below. There is still time to participate!
Adult Advocate Awards
Each AMLE Member School is invited to nominate one educator/administrator adult advocate (teacher, counselor, assistant principal) and one support staff adult advocate (custodian, school secretary, food service personnel) who go above and beyond to build positive, trusting relationships with kids. In gratitude, AMLE will send a certificate and gift to each nominee, and we’ll shout out a few of their stories on the AMLE website at the conclusion of MLEM! Nominations are due March 31.
2025 Middle School Student Sound Off Contest
Now in its third year, AMLE’s Middle School Student Sound Off is a world-wide celebration of student voice. Open to ages 10-15, students are invited to sound off by creating submissions that share their experience as a middle schooler in 2025.
Connecting with History
This past Thursday, we had the honor of welcoming Susan Unrad back to our school to speak with all eighth-grade students. As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Ms. Unrad has dedicated her time to sharing her family’s powerful story following her retirement as a school counselor and teacher. She joined us through the Voices of Hope Center at the University of Hartford, offering students a meaningful opportunity to connect with history through personal testimony.
Some of the powerful messaging that students were able to be reminded of, and are great words to live by!
- “Don’t let hatred stand in any form.”
- “Be an upstander.”
- “Always do your best to make the right decisions, to do what is right.”
Note: there are more pictures in the “X posts”, below…
Multisensory Learning
Ms. Campbell’s classes have been investigating what determines a country’s stability as well as the factors that lead to instability. They began with a hands-on approach by playing Jenga! As they learned about Nigeria’s past and present, they reflected on what things bring stability to Nigeria’s “Jenga Tower” and what makes it vulnerable.
Leo and Agrim are playing a tense game of mini-Jenga
This is a wonderful representation of modern Nigeria by Katie Louie.
What better way is there to think symbolically and represent history than with old Legos and McDonald’s toys? Ms. Campbell dug into her childhood toybox to take her class through Nigerian history and evaluated how cultural and geographic diversity has led to both cooperation and conflict within the country.
To wrap up their look at Nigerian history, students pieced together vignettes of important points in Nigerian history. Students walked their classmates through the travels of Mansa Musa, the British theft and ongoing debate about the Benin Bronzes, and the Biafra Civil War.
Science
8Green has been busy solving a mystery by applying their understanding of forces and Newton’s laws of motion. They needed to solve puzzles with their new knowledge that provided clues to identifying the thief!
Saxe Theatre
The Sponge Bob dress rehearsal was last evening and the cast and crew knocked it out of the park! It was an amazing production and you would never know that you were watching middle school students perform (they “leveled up”, impressively!). The music, sets, story, characters, and everything in between were so fun to watch, and they are ready to start their official run of 3 shows this evening. If you are around and want to catch a terrific show, check it out! You won’t be disappointed…
Looking for something fun to do with your family this weekend? Why not bring them to see Sponge Bob and his buddies!
Performances will take place on:
Friday, March 28 at 7:00 PM and
Saturday, March 29 at 1:00 and 5:00 PM
Please click HERE to purchase tickets!
World Autism Awareness Day
On April 2, we invite everyone in our Saxe MS community to wear Blue in recognition of World Autism Day. When we wear blue, it’s not only about raising awareness and showing support, but it keeps the discussion going, and it also helps those with autism and their families not feel alone!
Special Education
Author PJ Tierney visited our Peer Buddies to read her book, Hamish the Hedgehog Cooking Classes, and cook with our students! P.J. Tierney’s books are inspired by her real-life hedgehog Hamish [HAY] + [MISH] and her desire to introduce children to cooking in an easy and fun manner. P.J., a publisher with 25+ years of trade publishing experience, including 10 years of publishing cookbooks, has created six easy and delicious kid-friendly recipes to make and enjoy along with Hamish. With the Hamish the Hedgehog series, she has created the first trade storybook cookbook for kids. P.J.’s sense of humor and whimsy appear on each page.
We celebrated World Down Syndrome Day on 3.21 by selling WDSD bracelets and wacky socks! We read a story in which the main character has Down Syndrome. Our Peer Buddies group then worked on two projects to increase awareness about Down Syndrome. They colored crazy socks which people wore on March 21st, and created posters to hang in school hallways.
We also visited the New Canaan Library for story time with Rebecca Fox. She read, Welcome Spring.
Staff Spotlight: Saxe Tech Team
We are privileged to have an amazing Technology Team here at Saxe! From the simplest need to the craziest questions, our outstanding team is always there to support us – thank you!
Ian McHugh, Sal Petrucci, Michael Suppe, James Feehley
Matt Schultz Melissa Giorno Monica Baranyar
Paraprofessional Day
Paraprofessional Day is Wednesday, April 2nd. We deeply appreciate our paraprofessionals for their dedication, hard work, and the invaluable support they provide to our students and staff every day. Their patience, kindness, and commitment make a lasting impact, ensuring that every student receives the guidance and care they need to thrive. They are an essential part of our school community and make a difference every single day!
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Below are photos and phrases that were included on our Saxe Middle School page (@SaxeMS) this week. Enjoy!
The latest round of Saxe Shark Tank did not disappoint! The “Handy Hook” grocery carrier & the “Quick Cleaner” pet wash system were both great ideas that could make people’s lives better… Thanks to our teachers who make this experience possible for our students. And, thank you to 8th-graders, Nairn and Evelyn for helping judge!
The Sponge Bob Musical dress rehearsal took place Thursday at Saxe MS, but you would have thought it was a primetime performance – bravo! To call it impressive is an understatement – it was phenomenal! Good luck to the cast & crew as they begin their 3-show run tonight!
The Saxe MS main lobby transformed into Bikini Bottom this week! Good luck to the Cast & Crew of Sponge Bob this weekend!
Shout out to the “behind the scenes” members who help make the play performances come together so nicely! It’s so neat to see current & former Saxe MS students running all the complicated equipment like pros!
Saxe SRO
Our Saxe SRO is so much more than a “cop on campus”. Ofcr Blank helps with the theatre program, runs extracurricular clubs, pushes into classrooms, & of course, helps keep us safe! Here are a few pics from today speaking about 1st Amendment rights & Q&A with our students.
A couple of our “sustainability minded” students are working on creating a tree out of recycled paper as a visual representation to remind us all to be mindful of how much paper we use. Stay tuned for updates in future weeks! ♻️
8Blue has their latest board updated with the topic, “what I love about Saxe MS” & there are some great responses! Not surprisingly, many of them acknowledge “the people”! Stay tuned as we wrap MS March Madness & #MLEM with some voting on what truly makes Saxe MS special…
The Saxe “Believe Wall” continues to expand with some terrific messaging for students & staff alike! Thanks to Ms. Orlando for consistently sharing each week!
The talent of our students never ceases to amaze me! As an “end of quarter” special, Zeph took requests & wowed his health ed class with some of his impressive skills on the trombone! Interested in hearing a few samples? Click, here!
Enjoyed listening to some great dialogue as our Saxe MS students discuss concept maps as part of the transition from WWI to WWII in Social Studies…
The Saxe Art projects are coming along nicely! Had a neat conversation with a SaxeMS student about the blue light saber… Some topics span all generations!
A few of Ms. Frazier’s students are hard at work updating the Saxe Music “Challenge Series” board… That’s a ton of stars, which means, we have some amazingly motivated students!
This week, we welcome the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Ms. Susan Unrad, to Saxe MS to offer students a meaningful opportunity to connect with history through personal testimony. We are grateful to be able to provide this collective experience to our students (&, staff)!
The Saxe MSChess Club was back in action this week & the group continues to grow! Such a great activity for students to participate in…
Positive Reminders
The following is not a “Saxe original”, but it does include messaging that we know is important for our students to learn and practice (great advice for adults, too!)
Many people stagnate trying to change what they can’t instead of growing by changing what they can. We don’t control how others treat us—we control how we treat them. We don’t decide what happens to us—we decide how we respond. Our reputation is not up to us. Our character is.
Credit: Dr. Adam Grant
Scenes around Saxe
We are so lucky to have caring parents who help keep our Saxe campus looking beautiful! Thanks to Ms. Jordan for helping get us in the Spring spirit this week!
A “behind the scenes” look at our 3rd installment of Saxe MS morning video announcements… Thanks to all involved!
Dogs of Saxe
Gorgeous morning to have some of our 4-legged friends visit for Saxe MS arrival!
You never know where Dogs Of Saxe are going to turn up! Not only at Saxe MS arrival, but also during a couple of Saxe Shark Tank presentations!
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
