October 21, 2019

Family Math Night Brought to CMS by Mrs. Warner & the Math Dept. - An Incredible Success!!
Our Principal of the Day, Mayor Wilson Rocks!
Student of the Month Names for RESPECT are DUE
We are missing a LOT of names! PLEASE submit your selection of a student that HAS NOT already been chosen HERE!
This Week is Spirit Week!! Please count participants for 4th period and document on the form.
  • Monday 10/21 - Crazy Hair Day
  • Tuesday 10/22 - Twin Day
  • Wednesday 10/23 - Sports Day
  • Thursday 10/24 - Wacky Tacky Day
  • Friday 10/25 - Costume Day
Fall Fundraiser This Week
Students will receive fundraiser packets and information on Wednesday October 23rd - see schedule from Kiana sent on 10/17/19
See directions on supporting ASB from Stella HERE
Friday is the Harvest Dance!!
Thanks to all that have signed up for the dance duties....but we need at least 3-4 more adults.  Please review the highlighted spots on the shared document.
This Saturday, October 26th - The Cougar Chess Club will be hosting a Quad Tournament at the Solano Town Center.  The tournament will be on the lower level of the Mall in front of Dick's Sporting. Registration on the day of the event can be found HERE begins at 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM.  Rounds are 1pm, 2pm, 3pm. 
Please join the CMS PTA!! $10 goes a long way for our school and sign up for PTA McTeachers Night!!
 Our PTA is going to have our first fundraiser event of the year at our local  McDonald's on 109 Sunset Ave in Suisun City on Wednesday, November 13th, 2019 from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Crystal Middle's PTA will receive 20 percent of the sales between those times. Please sign up and support our school Here!
Let’s hook up parents on Parent Portal!
From TSS is great info with Parent Portal information on how to hook it up!
Check out the list of books that have been ordered for our AWESOME library here.
Mrs. Patricia Adkins also will be the CMS Battle of the Books coach this year! Let her know which students you think want to “battle” with other schools in the district.


Teaching is HARD, but don’t forget!! You are Making a BIG Difference in Student’s Lives!
In this Education Week article, Arkansas second-grade teacher Justin Minkel says he used to think the job would get easier “at some point on a shimmering horizon – five or 15 or 25 years into teaching… Once that distant day arrived, my face would no longer flush with awkwardness and self-doubt each time my principal walked into my room to observe a lesson. I would never again see glazed boredom settle over each student’s face like a limp rubber mask. I wouldn’t once lose my temper, no matter how many times my students refused to listen or work quietly at their desks.” 
Now he realizes that teaching doesn’t get easier for anyone; these and other struggles persist. But he knows the job gets better, because teachers keep learning and growing. How?
  • Looking at your class and seeing each individual
  • Balancing responsibility with delight
  • Learning when to follow your instincts and when to question long-held beliefs
  • Bringing your hard-earned experience to bear on each new dilemma,
  • Being less negative about tests, rubrics, and standards, seeing them as important tools for teaching and learning
  • Learning, “that the trials of a day, year, or an entire career can become sweet in the telling”
From the October Faculty Meeting: What Text Level Is Best for Struggling Readers in Small Groups?
In this article in The Reading Teacher, Laura Beth Kelly (Rhodes College) ponders the question of how difficult the books used in small reading groups should be. What is the rationale for having students read texts matched to their current levels? That they need practice working with material they can read successfully. One researcher said “no one ever learned how to be good at anything (especially reading) by doing it poorly every day” (Cunningham, 2013). Kelly conducted a study in which below-level third graders read matching and more-challenging books as they worked in small groups with their teacher.
The findings:
  • Students reading more-difficult material talked more about print and more about ideas.
  • Students reading difficult books had a much higher percentage of inferential talk. 
  • Students reading matched books produced literal talk that often addressed the pictures in the text. 
  • Text difficulty didn’t consistently affect any students’ comprehension.
  • Students retold ideas from difficult and matched books at similar rates.
  • Half of students read matched texts more fluently than harder texts; the other half, after spending 30 minutes reading and discussing difficult texts, were equally fluent as they were with easier texts.

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