Friday, September 28, 2012

  Here are a few updates for you for the coming week:

1. Back to School Night - 8th Grade Back to School Night for parents and guardians is scheduled from 6:45 PM until 8:50 PM next Thursday, October 4th. The cluster is looking forward to meeting all of you and to give you a brief overview of our respective classes and our collective mission socially and academically for all the kids in our cluster. Your child will be bringing a schedule home with them on Wednesday which will outline how the night will unfold.  See you on Thursday!

2. DC Trip Information Presentation at the end of Back to School Night:
After your last class of the evening next Thursday we would like to invite you to an important presentation about our Washington DC Trip scheduled for this coming April. The presentation will run from 8:55PM until 9:30PM in the middle school theater. We will be providing you with a folder with general trip information and the registration form so that you can register your child with Worldstrides, our travel agent. Worldstrides is a student travel group we have worked closely with for several years with planning and organizing this trip. All students going on the trip must register with Worldstrides. More information about the trip will be shared with you at this presentation such as itineraries, pricing, accommodations, and pre-trip steps for students and parents.

As usual, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Martin Cluster Update

Hello everyone,


Thanks for visiting our new blog.  Hopefully this blog will provide you with useful information about the happenings of the Martin Cluster.

On the right side of the page you will find a place to enter your email address.  Please enter your email address so that you can receive a message each time the blog is updated.  We plan on updating the blog a few times each week throughout the school year.  It is our goal that this will be a useful tool for families.

Below you will find some information about Martin Cluster News.

Thank you to all who have shared with us the Million Word Assignment. If you have not yet done this and would like to share a bit of information about your child from your perspective you can email it to us at kevin_farley@wayland.k12.ma.us


1. HW Club - After a one week delay homework club will begin this week on Tuesday, September 18th and then again on Thursday, September 20th. HW Club will run through the year every Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30 until 3:15. It is an excellent place for students to practice putting their best effective effort and hard work into their homework. It also gives students an opportunity to check in one-on-one with many of their subject teachers. All students are welcome to attend.

2. Online HW Calendars - Students received training this past week on setting up their google calendars  and syncing them with each of their teacher's homework calendars. If students forget their planner in school or forget to write down their homework they can view their homework online by logging into their student gmail account and viewing their calendar. Each subject teacher in the cluster will update the homework electronically by the end of the school day. You can also view each teacher's homework online at the cluster HW calendar page off of the middle school website and through this link - Martin Cluster HW Calendars.

 4. Picture Day - Forms for Picture Day will be coming home with your child today. You can look over the order forms this weekend. Picture Day. Picture Day is Wednesday September 19th.  Students should bring their picture forms and payment with them to school on the 19th. Thanks

3. TAG/HR Time - We wanted to also share an activity the cluster homeroom teachers did this week in our TAG(Teacher Advisory Groups) as an example of the traits and positive environment we try and create among homerooms in the 8th grade. Each homeroom participated in a "Silent Conversation" where they went around the room silently writing their responses to several key questions about the role of our TAG time in the the 8th grade. They also silently went around and responded to their peers thoughts by silently writing responses on the same chart paper. Silent Conversations ensure that everyone has a voice and is given the opportunity to share their thoughts/opinions/feelings in a equal manner.