Sandstone Middle School

 Don't miss out on these dates..

• 5/9 – 5^th Grade visits to SMS
• 5/9 – 5^th Grade Transition Parent Meeting, 6:30pm
• 5/23 – Career Exposure Afternoon, 12:45 – 3:15pm
• 5/23 – Spot Light on Sandstone, 4:00 – 6:00pm
• 5/23 – Spring Outdoor Band Concert, 6:00pm
• 5/27 – No school – Memorial Day
• 5/30 – 6^th Grade Field Trip
• 5/30 – Spring Choir Concert, 7:00pm
• 5/31 – BEST Reward Activity
• 5/31 – Healthy Choices Day
• 6/3 – 6^th & 7^th Grade Year End Assembly, 2:20pm
• 6/4 – 8^th Grade Recognition Assembly, 9:30am
• 6/4 – 8^th Grade Celebration, 6-8pm
• 6/5 – Benchmark Carnival – Student’s Last Day        

Congratulations go out to three Sandstone middle school teachers who were awarded HEF grants a few weeks ago!  Tracy Hodges (ELL Teacher) and Amber Utter wrote their grants for IPads.  Wendy Ross (Life Skills Teacher) wrote a grant for a garden for her students.  We really appreciate the time and effort these great teachers put in to improving their classrooms and learning experiences for their students.  Congrats!!!

The office is getting quit a collection of glasses turned into them. If you are missing yours or know of another student missing theirs please stop by Mrs. Wilson's window and see if any of them belong to you.

 Structured Learning Teacher at SMS has been selected as our 2012-13 Educator of the Year.  Jill exudes patience, kindness, and compassion which is proven in her daily interaction with her staff and students.  She has an amazing gift for finding and developing every student’s talent and strengths.  She makes the classroom a positive learning environment, and inspires the students to want to do their best.  Her position requires her to coordinate with many different departments and ESD entities, and she does so with great professionalism.  Jill never hesitates to communicate with parents with positive feedback as well as problem solving.  She does a great job of making sure her Instructional Assistants feel they are an important part of their team.  She is an all-around, complete package teacher.

Our students proved, once again, how phenomenal they are by exceeding our expectations for the annual canned food drive for the Hermiston Christmas Express.   Our goal was 5430 items which was 10 items per student. Our students brought in a total of 6742 food products to give to the great program ran by the Hermiston Police and Fire Departments.  Our top three food providers were:  Maribel Marin (1000 pounds), Madelyn Juul (800 pounds), and Ivana Pena (199 items).  SMS Social Studies Teacher, Lance Hawkins’, class won the class competition by bringing in a total of 1317 items which was 54.9 per person. 

We are really proud of our students and their thoughtfulness in helping to support those in need in our great community.  A big thank you goes out to SMS Leadership Teacher, Sandy Wise, for organizing this year’s Canned Food Drive again!

Chess Club started the year off with THE RIGHT MOVE!  Sandstone’s chess club gained momentum last year as we sent three students to compete in the state tournament, in Portland.  Two of those students have returned this year and we can definitely feel their leadership and experience pushing us to a new level.  Students from any grade level can participate in chess club and we have players who are just beginning to those who have many years of experience.  Sandstone’s chess club meets every Tuesday after school and our players are motivated by their enjoyment of the game and sharing their interest with one another. 

We are really excited about our three new Sandstone Middle School staff members this year.  Please help me in welcoming:

Lisa McElroy has joined us as the Science Teacher for Team Mazama.  She will be teaching 7^th & 8^th grade students Science and Exploratory here at SMS.  Before she came to us she taught 11 years for the Umatilla School District as a Science and Elementary teacher.  

Morgan Wilson is a new Educational Assistant in our Life Skills program.  She will be working with Teacher, Wendy Ross, to help our 6^th – 8^th grade Life Skills students to not only build their academic skills but their skills to be successful in life.

Caleb Salmond, our new counselor has been an excellent addition to our office staff at SMS.  Will be focusing this year on student emotional and academic success, career education, drug/alcohol use & bullying/harassment prevention, and other duties as assigned J.

ALMS and SMS joined forces for the Oct. 12^th State In-Service again this year to create a fabulous morning of learning how to hone the professional practices of our teachers.  We started out our morning with department meetings where our teachers discussed their curriculum maps and generated ideas on how to incorporate more Constructing Meaning and C.L.E.W. strategies into their lesson plans.  Our Counselors and Deans of Students worked on how to create a more comprehensive drug, alcohol, and tobacco prevention program at the middle school level.

            The rest of the morning the teachers were given the opportunity to choose which trainings they would like to participate in.   With the help of our HSD Educational Services & Special Education Departments, IMESD, and our own teachers we were able to offer 10 different trainings to choose to take in three 45-minute sessions.

            Trainings included:

·         Putting a Face on Learning Disabilities  -- Arta Jones (HSD Special Education)

·         Promethean Board Flip Charts – Rob Doherty, Sandra Rice, Brooke Palzinski, and Royceann Taft (ALMS Science Teachers)

·         Writing & Implementing Functional Behavior Assessments and Behavior Support Plans – Clint Kittrell (HSD Behavior Specialist)

·         EasyCBM Reporting Tools – Tani Houk (HSD TOSA)

·         Working with Students Identified with High Functioning Autism – Susan Rodgers (ESD Autism Specialist)

·         New Technology in Social Studies Adoption – Rich Harshberger (ALMS Social Studies Teacher) & Lance Hawkins (SMS Social Studies Teacher)

·         Literacy Strategies – Sharon Dunlop (Retired HSD Language Arts Teacher)

·         Data Tools for Tracking Behavior in the Classroom – Clint Kittrell (HSD Behavior Specialist)

·         Working with Habitually Disruptive Students in the Classroom – Clint Kittrell (HSD Behavior Specialist)

·         Active Expressions –  Rob Doherty, Sandra Rice, Brooke Palzinski, and Royceann Taft (ALMS Science Teachers)

It was a great day for our teachers and we have had a lot of positive feedback about how great the presenters did giving their pupils valuable tools to take back and implement in their classrooms.

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