10/25-10/29 - Family Outreach Period (see info below)
10/26 - Blake Student Council Meeting
MCAP Meeting
10/29 - Half-Day for Students
Professional Afternoon for Staff
11/1 - School Committee Mtg
11/3 - Blake Student Council Meeting
11/8 - SEL Task Force Meeting (3:30 p.m.)
11/11- Veterans Day (No School)
11/16 - Half-Day for Students
Professional Afternoon for Staff
11/18 - Blake Site Council Mtg (3:30 p.m.)
11/24 - Half-Day for Students and Staff
11/25 - Happy Thanksgiving!
11/26 - No School
Question of the Week
To encourage dialogue and reflection about understanding our own needs and the needs of others, our question for the week is: What are the ‘things’ that matter most to you? What Matters Most to You (Week of 10/24/21) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
Term 1 Family Outreach Period - 10/25-10/29
The week of 10/25-10/29 is the Term 1 Family Outreach week for Blake Middle School. During this week, teachers will send an e-mail to families to notify them if their student is consistently not meeting the standard in an area OR if they do not have sufficient data to assess their student at that point in the term due to absence or missing work. If students are meeting the standards, families will not receive an e-mail from teachers. No news is good news. Please know that you may reach out to teachers or your child's guidance counselor if you have questions or concerns about their progress.
Feedback and Reporting Update
This year the Blake faculty is continuing and expanding our work and efforts to provide effective methods of formal and informal feedback for students. The purpose of reporting on academic progress is to provide feedback on a student’s progress and to help direct future efforts. Effective feedback to students during the learning process is essential to a healthy and productive learning experience. Formal grade reports are issued at the end of each trimester. In lieu of traditional grades, students at Blake receive feedback in the form of Standards Based Reporting (SBR).**
Students will receive feedback in two major areas: (1) Content Standards and (2) Learning Skills. The Content Standards feedback provides information on the student's progress on meeting content area curriculum standards addressed by each department. Learning Skills feedback gives information on the student's progress on acquiring skills important for life-long learning that we strive to foster and help develop in our students. SBR has enabled us to provide:
- more descriptive and actionable feedback to students and families
- more meaningful and personalized grading practices
- greater calibration of expectations and assessment practices between teachers
** In the spring of 2021, the Director of Instruction and Innovation shared an 'Analysis of Standards-Based Reporting Assessment Practices' at Blake Middle School. The report made several recommendations, including some adaptations to the system for grades 7 and 8. A cross-discipline/grade level team was established to explore and collect potential strategies and models to bring to the greater Blake staff and community for the fall of 2021. The research team was tasked with exploring, researching, and brainstorming various methods to address the recommendations within the report. This will help to lay the foundation to guide and structure the work going forward. Updates to our system of reporting will be shared with families throughout the 2021-2022 school year. Our overarching goal remains to continue steadfast efforts to provide meaningful, actionable, learner-centered feedback for all of our learners.
Seasonal Spirit week coming up the week of October 25-29
MON - PJs or comfy cozy day- wear your coziest outfit to welcome FALL
TUES - Crazy Mask Day - wear your craziest or favorite nose & mouth mask to school
WED - Wear pink for October to recognize Breast Cancer awareness month
THURS - Costume day - Thursday 10/28
FRI - Wear Black/Orange for Seasonal Spirit
Guidelines/Rules:
- NO full-face costume masks/paint
- No weapons (fake or real)
- No fake blood
- School Appropriate
- ***NOSE & MOUTH-COVERING MASKS MUST STILL BE WORN***
Reminders about Outdoor Attire and Lunches/Mask Breaks
It is our hope to continue to eat outdoors as long as the weather cooperates-- we have had a great stretch of nice weather so far. As it starts to get colder, please remind your student to dress appropriately ( long pants, jackets, hats) for outdoor lunch and mask break, as well as recess and PE, to ensure their comfort. Please put names on all items including water bottles, as they are frequently left out on the fields and can be returned if we know who they belong to.
New Student Club Offering!!
Recently your student viewed the Say Something program in advisory. The program teaches middle and high school students to recognize the warning signs of someone at-risk of hurting themselves or others and how to say something to a trusted adult to get help.
A student club is being offered, at the middle and high school levels, to allow for ongoing discussion with students about building and nurturing inclusive welcoming environments for all. Part of the club will include opportunities to learn about being empathic, increasing social skills, how to identify problems and how to engage in responsible decision making.
Advisors for this club include Medfield Outreach mental health clinicians, Kathy McDonald, M.Ed, MSW, LICSW and Chelsea Goldstein-Walsh, LICSW as well as Medfield’s Substance Use Prevention Coordinator, Meri Haas.
If you think your student may be interested in joining, please have them fill out this google form. Parents/guardians will be asked to sign a permission form if their child expresses interest.
Blake's STEM WEEKS: Oct. 18-29
See Yourself in STEAM is taking place the third week of October. However, Blake will celebrate over a 2 week period of time: from Oct. 18-Oct. 29. Visti the Blake STEM Week Padlet for A collection of STEM/STEAM career videos for students to explore. In addition/optional, advisories are invited to the LMC/ Makerspace for a special Festive Lantern Making activity. Use this Google Doc to sign up for a date/time.
During the week of Oct 18-22, Massachusetts will celebrate STEAM week. This acronym represents the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. The theme for this year is “See yourself in STEAM” as groups all over Massachusetts work collaboratively to encourage students from all backgrounds to engage in these fields. See below for resources describing and linking to a variety of events occurring in our area.
Events and Activities for Stem Week
Metrowest Stem Education Network
Stem Week design Challenges
MHS Theatre Society
The MHS Theatre Society is hard at work preparing to perform A Wrinkle in Time on November 19-20. The play follows the story of a teenage girl named Meg Murry. In this staged retelling of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved young adult novel, A Wrinkle in Time, Meg embarks on an extraordinary adventure through time and space. Along with her younger brother Charles Wallace, their friend Calvin, and the guidance of various mysterious celestial beings, Meg attempts to locate her father and, perhaps, to save the world from a force of darkness beyond recognition.
"We Are All Connected" is the theme to this year's Lion's Club Peace Poster Contest. This international contest encourages children to express what peace means to them. If you are interested in entering a submission to this year's contest, (and are 11-13 years old), please see one of the art teachers at Blake for an entry form.
Blake Affinity Groups
The purpose of an affinity group is to provide a forum of support for students who may feel a disconnection relative to identity to their larger school community. Such disconnections to identity may include, but not be limited to, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, ability, and sexual orientation. An affinity group’s goal is to play a vital role in ensuring an inclusive environment where all are valued, included, and empowered to succeed.
An affinity group is open to students across every grade level. It is arranged for students in an affinity group to meet at least once a month during a mutually agreed upon time and the meetings are supervised by at least one staff member at Blake.
As the need for an affinity group may stem from a lack of or weaker connection to the larger Medfield community, efforts will be made to strengthen connections to the community. To this end, members of the community are welcome and at times will be invited to attend affinity group meetings.
For more information about starting or joining an affinity group at Blake, please contact Matt Marenghi, Guidance Counselor: [email protected] or 508-359-2445.
Every October, artists all over the world take on the INkTOBER drawing challenge by doing one drawing a day the entire month. ANYONE CAN DO INKTOBER, JUST PICK UP A PEN AND START DRAWING!!! Listen to the announcements every AM for the prompts! Post your work to social media with the hastags #bmsed #inktober2021 #medfieldinktober
Want to join Student Council but have missed the first few meetings? There's still time to join! We meet every Wednesday from 2:15-2:45 in Mrs. Ruminski's room. Please join us this week. Reach out to Mrs. Ruminski or Mrs. Shaw if you have questions.
Message from Medfield Nurses - Pooled Testing Update
Covid pooled testing for Blake Middle School students and staff will be held on Mondays. If your children have already been participating in the testing, then they are all set to continue.
If you haven’t signed your child(ren) up for weekly pooled testing yet for the current school year and are interested in having your child(ren) participate, then please use the following link to register your child(ren) and provide consent for testing.
Covid Testing Consent Form
Please note, we update our consent testing lists once a week on Fridays.
If your child has tested positive for COVID-19 within the past three months, then please let me know as your child should wait 90 days after their diagnosis before participating in the pooled testing program.
Blake Battles Bias Update
Come join us for some great discussions and leadership opportunities! Interested 7th and 8th Graders we look forward to seeing you. If you know that you can't make meetings in the fall, but are still interested, please let Ms. Thress or Mrs. Gelormini know!
Blake GSA Update
The Blake GSA has had a great turn-out for our first few meetings! We're looking forward to a great year of learning and talking about LGBTQ+ issues, making friends, and supporting each other. Meetings are every Thursday from 2:15-2:45 in Ms. Malone's room, room 502. Everyone is welcome!
Middle School Winter Athletics Info for 8th Grade
Registration for Blake Middle School winter athletics is now open on FamilyID.com. There is a direct link off the Athletics page (under Activities) on Blake Middle School site. To complete registration, I will also need a check for $225 (Made out to “Town of Medfield”). If you have any questions, please contact Eric Scott ([email protected]).
*Blake Middle School Sports offered for the winter season are:
- Girls Basketball (8th grade Girls).
- Boys Basketball (8th grade Boys)
Blake’s Virtual ‘Info Night’ Videos - Coming Soon
Our ‘Info Night’ videos are being finalized and will be shared soon. They will be shared via a virtual, asynchronous format with recordings/videos of presentations from staff shared with families and posted on the Blake Website. Although it is certainly not the same as seeing Blake families in person, we hope that you find this information/format meaningful and helpful.
Substitute Applications
Blake is always looking for substitute teacher applicants. Applicants need not have teaching licensure but should be energetic, flexible and enjoy working with children. For more information or to apply, please visit Medfield Public Schools - Employment Opportunities and look under ‘Substitute Teaching’. Please contact Kelly Campbell at [email protected] with any questions.
Challenge Success Update
Challenge Success Medfield Parent Group is working on identifying initiatives for the 2021-2022 school year across all grade levels (PreK-12). If you have an idea or you are interested in being on one of the planning or implementation committees, please reach out to Eric Baacke (HS), Kristen Careau (MS and upper elementary), and Nicole Hall (lower elementary). Challenge Success is always open to new ideas and new faces!
Medfield Outreach
Medfield Outreach is available for consultation appointments. E-mail [email protected] to sign up for a free confidential specific time slot via telehealth.
Webinars of Interest
Measuring What Matters
Thursday, 10/28 at 1:00 p.m.
Join Educate Texas, Getting Smart and the Learner-Centered Collaborative to discuss competency-based assessments, certifications and credentials. This session will be recorded and posted on the TxLx.org site with resources on using it for your own professional learning session. This session is the second of four TxLx professional learning initiative sessions that will be hosted in Fall 2021.
Designing for Care: Building Trust and Community in the On-ground and Online Classroom
Monday, 11/1 at 12:00 p.m.
With Jesse Stommel
Our BIG Question: How might we find more ways to involve students in the design of their own learning, designing with students and not for them?In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire argues against the banking model of education, “an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor.” In place of the banking model, Freire advocates for “problem-posing education,” in which a classroom or learning environment becomes a space for asking questions -- a space of cognition, not information. How can we create the necessary trust for this work to happen? How do we bridge the artificial divide set up between students and teachers? How do we dismantle the hierarchies that keep students from being full agents in their own educations?
The technologies and bureaucracies of schooling attempt to flatten our differences—reducing teachers and students to rows in a spreadsheet and our work to columns. Teachers are meant to imagine that students are interchangeable—that whether they are food insecure, queer, or homeless is of no real consequence to a system (of grades, tests, and credentials) that attempts to rank them tidily against one another.
We need to find more ways to involve students in the design of their own learning, designing with students and not for them. We have to design for the least privileged, most marginalized students, the ones more likely to have felt isolated even before the pandemic: disabled students, chronically ill students, BIPOC students, international students, LGBTQ students, those facing food insecurity, etc. We need to write policies, imagine new ways forward, for students already struggling, already facing exclusion.
At the same time, we need to find ways for institutions to better support educators, many of whom are working precariously. And, where they aren’t being adequately prepared or supported by our institutions, we need to find ways to balance the labor of teaching with the need for self-care.
In this free 45-minute webinar, educator, author, and speaker Jesse Stommel will provide some starting points for thinking about creating powerful communities and cultures of care, both for students and for teachers. Join us!
Nothing About Us Without Us: The Disability Rights Movement
Wednesday, 11/3 at 7:00 p.m.
Hosted by Spark Kindness
For high school students and educators, parents/caregivers and community members
Celebrated activist Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins will discuss the extraordinary efforts that led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and her role in that history-making event. We invite educators, students, and community members to learn this important history of disability rights and how to be more involved.
ASL interpretation will be provided at this event.
About our Presenter
Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins is a passionate advocate and activist for disability rights.
She joined the disability rights movement at age six and at age eight she participated in the famous "Capitol Crawl" protest to support the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act. In 1990, she received the Americans With Disabilities Act Award from The Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of Americans with Disabilities. Jennifer received her GED in 2002 and an Associate of Arts Degree in 2008 both from Arapahoe Community College before earning a B.S. in Family and Human Development from Arizona State University in 2017.
Today she’s an educator and a motivational speaker; and together with her new illustrated biography “All the Way to the Top: How one girl’s fight for Americans with disabilities changed everything," she does educational speaking presentations to teach children the importance of the ADA, the Capitol Crawl, and the disability rights movement in American history with a emphasis on education, advocacy, and empowerment. Jennifer is the subject of an art sculpture commemorating the 30th anniversary of the ADA, “All the Way to Freedom” by local artist Gina Klawitter that is currently on display at the Colorado History Center. Jennifer is the brand ambassador for Mobility of Denver and Vantage Mobility International. She is also owner of Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins LLC.
You can learn more at https://jkclegacy.com/ and can follow Jennifer on Twitter @JKClegacy and on Instagram @JKClegacy.
How to Have Difficult Conversations (with Kindness)
Tuesday, 11/16 at 7:00 p.m.
Hosted by Spark Kindness
For parents, caregivers, educators and community members of all ages
Though conflict is part of life, many of us struggle with how to communicate during challenging situations. In this program, Roxy Manning, PhD, psychologist and expert in Nonviolent Communication, will offer strategies to address conflict (and stand up for ourselves and others) with a compassionate approach.
ASL interpretation will be provided at this event.
About our Presenter
Roxy Manning’s life experience as an Afro-Caribbean immigrant to the US combined with her academic training and professional work as a licensed clinical psychologist and CNVC Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication have cultivated a deep passion in her for work that supports social change at the personal, interpersonal, and systemic levels. She is a collaborative Trainer with BayNVC, a Lead Consultant with the Center for Efficient Collaboration, and a member of the Educational Services Team with CNVC.
Roxy is delighted whenever she is helping opposing voices hear each other and see past individual hurt and struggles to the structures that contribute to those challenges. Visit roxannemanning.com to read Roxy’s articles or view several brief videos of her teaching.
Spirit Store Info - Blake PTO
Medfield K-8 PTO Announces A Year-Round MEDFIELD SPIRIT WEAR STORE! Thanks to local business Day St Sports, we have answered the question – where can I find Medfield Spirit Wear? Over 100 options currently listed, all proceeds will be donated to the individual school K-8 PTOs. Shipping takes about 3 weeks, so please plan ahead for the holiday season. Medfield Spirit Wear
Link (Hyperlink to https://ts020252.prospherefanshop.com/)
Blake PTO Update - Hospitality
Please join us as we kick off our 2021-2022 school year at Blake! As part of the Hospitality Committee, we will be hosting several staff and Student Appreciation events this year. One of the recurring events we will host is a snack table for our wonderful faculty at Blake this year as we have done in the previous year. We will be setting this table up for every Faculty Staff meeting this year! Please use this sign up (Blake PTO Sign-Up Genius Form) to donate funds or gift cards for the purchase of snack items and drinks to set up a nice snack bar for these faculty meetings! You can also drop off gift cards at 2 Pueblo Road or 25 Cole Drive! We plan on using these cards or funds for the snack bar events as well as for future appreciation events at Blake this year. BUT if you don’t have time to grab a card and want to donate, feel free to Venmo a donation. Any amount is appreciated and will be used throughout the year. You can send your Venmo donation here: @MedfieldBlake-PTO (5428 if it asks you for last 4 #'s). Please indicate in the comments section that your donation is for the Blake Middle School Teacher and Staff Appreciation.
MCPE Update
Fall Fest is less than two weeks away - Friday, November 5, 2021! If you ordered Fall Fest merchandise it will be waiting for you at the event. If you ordered but can't make Fall Fest, a pickup location will be sent to you after November 5th. Fall Fest is officially sold out but visit our website to get onto the waitlist - www.medfieldcoalition.org
Medfield Music Association’s Annual Wreath & Amaryllis Sale
Order your winter décor and holiday hostess gifts and support the Medfield Music Program!
20” Mixed Greens Wreath - The noble fir wreath features incense cedar, juniper, and ponderosa cone accents. Made in Oregon, this high-quality wreath is known for excellent needle retention. The cost is $30 each.
Amaryllis Bulb Kit - The amaryllis flowers will bloom in one of six assorted colors – maroon, red, red/white, white, pink, or pink/white. Unfortunately, we are not able to control which color you get--so part of the fun will be waiting to see what appears! The cost is $15 each.
• Please place all orders online at: https://www.medfieldmusicassociation.com/shop
• Wreaths & bulb kits will be delivered to your home in Medfield the Saturday following Thanksgiving (Nov. 27, 2021).
Proceeds from our wreath and bulb sales will help the MMA support the Music Department’s needs across all five schools.