Morey Middle School

Hello Morey Families,

We have been busy these last few weeks getting our Remote Learning Plan up and running for the students, starting Tuesday, April 7^th.  As you all well know, these are unprecedented times and we are doing our best to provide quality learning experiences for our Morey kiddos. Please be patient and kind with teachers as we move into this new learning environment.

The overall learning plan:

Students will engage in daily learning through the Summit Learning Platform. Students have used Summit all year and should be very familiar with the platform.

Each class should have a 40-60 minute lesson, every day. Each day’s lesson will have an introduction/warm-up, mini lesson, an opportunity to practice, and some kind of product that needs to be turned in each day in Summit.  Each day’s lesson is a Checkpoint in Summit and labeled with the date.  For example, students should go to Summit and go into their Language Arts class. Click on the unit and find the checkpoint for Tuesday, April 7^th. In it there will be a link to a lesson that the teacher has submitted as a video or Google Slides. The student goes through the lesson and clicks on any other links to worksheets or exit tickets. When students are done working, they upload their product for that day’s checkpoint in Summit.

All Power Focus Areas (these are mini quizzes in Summit that kids were required to take and pass) are all going to be exempted and moved to “Challenge”. Kids will be able to access them and study for them on their own, but with the remote learning environment will no longer be a part of the child’s grade.

Office Hours: Every Morey teacher will offer office hours for students for 2 hours, each school day. The teacher will share the link to their office hours to students in their Summit daily checkpoints. Office hours are not mandatory for students, but rather a resource for students they get stuck, or develop questions at any time during their day’s lesson. Students should write down questions or places where they got stuck and go into the office hours during the scheduled times below.

Teacher Daily Office Hours:

*Special Educators will have their own office hours and are reaching out to students and families to work out their own schedules.

Attendance and Support:

Teachers will take attendance each day based on student’s work produced that day. If a student does not submit work in Summit, the teachers will mark them absent in our own attendance document and a member from our Support Staff team will call families the following day to see what support we can give to help get students learning.

Resources:

Technology: We passed out 85 Chromebooks to Morey families yesterday. If you are still in need of a computer, please contact the DPS Technology Service Desk. I heard that students may still be able to pick up computers at the DPS Food Distribution sites after Spring Break. If you did pick up a computer, please make sure you read this DPS Remote Learning Device Agreement.

I’m sure many questions and things we didn’t even anticipate happening will come up over the next few weeks. We are all in this together and will do our best navigating this new system. Have a safe and healthy Spring Break, Mustangs

In Partnership,

Hillary Niebauer

Principal

Morey Middle School

We will pass out Chromebook computers to families in need Thursday, March 26^th from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm at Morey. The two options to get the computers are listed below:

We will have a drive-up system in our large parking lot off Emerson, toward the blacktop:

1. People will drive up, stop at a Station #1, get a check out form
2. Drive to Station #2, turn in form, staff member updates form with computer #, hands over computer
3. Driver drives away

For walk-up families, we’ll have a tables out in our smaller parking lot off Emerson, right next to the Morey entrance doors:

1. Stop at Station #1, get a clipboard with check-out form
2. Turn in forms at Station #2, staff member updates form with computer #, hands over computer
3. Person takes device home

We will have signs displayed in our parking lot to direct the flow of traffic.

For internet and hot spot needs, Xfinity WiFi hotspots are free nationwide for anyone who needs them – including non-Xfinity Internet subscribers. Click here to view the Xfinity WiFi Hotspot map.

Comcast is offering its internet essentials package to low income families for free (normally $9.95/month) for the next 60 days. Details are at: https://corporate.comcast.com/press/releases/internet-essentials-low-income-broadband-coronavirus-pandemic

Finally, Denver Public Schools continues to provide daily grab-and-go breakfast and lunches for students at the following food distribution sites.

Thank you all for the patience and flexibility during our transition to remote learning. Our teachers are already in professional development sessions over the next three days learning about all the online resources and technology needed for remote learning.

In Partnership,

Hillary Niebauer

Principal

Hi Morey Families!

Looking ahead to next year, we would like to provide after school club options that meet the needs of our community. Please review our After School Clubs website and complete the survey link to let us know what clubs you are currently accessing, as well as what clubs you would like to consider next school year.

https://sites.google.com/dpsk12.net/morey-after-school-clubs/home

Dear Morey Families, 

Spring CMAS testing season is coming soon. We appreciate each family’s commitment to getting students to school on-time, every day, during this testing period and each student’s commitment to doing their very best on the assessments. Please consider our testing schedule before making any appointments or scheduling time out of town. It is extremely important that students are in attendance all day during our testing dates. 

The following table breaks down our testing schedule. 

*Students will test one session of ELA each morning and Math each afternoon. If students have extended time accommodation they will test one session of Math each morning and ELA each afternoon due to time constraints.

The benefits of spring testing include the following: 

• Students and teachers work hard all year, and these tests allow students to demonstrate their incredible growth. 
• The data testing provides on student’s mastery of the course content and standards is used to inform instruction; allowing teachers to provide the most rigorous access to content for students. 
• Taking standardized tests in any grade is great practice for SAT and AP exams, whose scores largely dictate where a student will be able to attend college. 

Knowing students will work so hard during CMAS testing, we would love to reward our students’ efforts with food and prizes. We are looking for healthy snack donations for snacks during testing. We are also looking for items we can raffle off for giving their best effort. Gift card donations to Walmart, Amazon, Target, popular restaurants or video game stores are great raffle items. Kids also would love prizes like sporting equipment (basketballs & footballs), tickets to sporting events, slime (ew!), or any other popular fad item right now. If you can donate food or prizes to the cause, please turn them into the main office before March 20th.

Thank you for your continued partnership with us in your child’s educational journey. We look forward to seeing the amazing growth and achievement of all students at Morey Middle School. Please contact the front office at (720) 424-0700 or send an email to jaclyn_schultz@dpsk12.org with any testing questions you might have. 

In partnership,

Hillary Niebauer

Principal

Morey Middle School

This month Morey is teaming up with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to do the Pennies for Patients fundraiser. Students have the opportunity to help Colorado kids fighting cancer by fundraising. There are two ways to donate:

1. Bringing in change to put in our classroom donation boxes

2. Going online to Pennies for Patients website and donating to your students Success Seminar class. A flyer will be sent home today with further instruction.

Thank you so much for you donations! Together we can beat cancer!”

Hi families,

I modified a Summit resource so families know how to have conversations with their students around their work in Summit. Here is that resource. Send me an email if you would like your parent login information. – Bertie_Fiz@dpsk12.org