Weekly Update from Irving MS

Fairfax County Public Schools sent this bulletin at 01/26/2024 06:00 PM EST

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Yearbook pre-orders are open!

Pre-order your yearbook today! https://yearbookforever.com/schools/washington_irving_middle_school_320438/cLwxkvJ2bUUdlsILz2gm52Zx

Upcoming Important Dates
Jan 29		First day of the Second semester. Students will report to their 1st semester, 2nd period to receive a paper copy of their 2nd semester class schedule.
Jan 31		JROTC Interest Meeting, 1st block - After School (2:25pm - 3:25pm) Parents are welcomed
Feb 6		PTA Spirit Night at TACO BAMBA Springfield - for more details, see below
Feb 9-12		WIMS Students present the musical We Will Rock You! For tickets and showtimes, please see the information below.
Feb 21 at 6:00 pm		WIMS PTA and FCPD present: Kids in Today's Society - a MUST see presentation for every parent/guardian. Please note - due to the nature of the program - it is an adult only presentation.
Feb 28		Spring SEL Screener - students will take the SEL screener for the 2nd time this year. If you have already opted out your child, you do not need to complete the form again. If you would like more information about the SEL screener or to access the opt-out form, click HERE

Buy your tickets by scanning the QR code above or click here

Showtimes

Friday, February 9 – 7:00 pm

Saturday, February 10 – 7:00 pm

Sunday, February 11 – 2:00 pm

Greetings, Irving Families!

What a fantastic end to the first semester! I hope you have been able to enjoy the amazing weather today.

Due to an increase in enrollment, our Student Services staff have been working diligently today to balance classes and add 3 additional elective classes to our master schedule. As I shared last week, we are adjusting our 3rd period classes so we can provide more just in time support to students during the second semester.

In addition to 3rd period changes, some students may notice that their year long-classes were changed. This change was not made lightly and we worked to avoid making these changes as much as possible, however to ensure all students have the core classes and electives they need and requested (as much as possible), we had to make changes if we could not make a schedule work any other way. We know a mid-year schedule change is not ideal and if your child would like to talk about the changes, please have them speak to their school counselor. While students will be able to see their schedules in SIS today, our staff will need to continue to work over the weekend to ensure our classes are not over capacity.

On Monday, students will report to their 1st semester, 2nd period class to pick up a paper copy of their new schedules. After receiving their new schedule, those students who have a new 2nd period will be dismissed to their new class. We will send a reminder about this on Sunday afternoon just before the KC Chiefs game.

Take Care and go Chiefs!

Cindy Conley

Principal

SIS ParentVue & StudentVue Unavailable

SIS gradebooks will not be available in ParentVue and StudentVue during the 2nd Quarter grade reporting, from January 25 - February 5, 2024.

Caring for Our Computers

We are seeing a significant increase in cracked computer screens and damaged computers and we are in need of your assistance.

Please help us by reminding your child to

Carefully close their computer
Put the school computer in their backpack before moving throughout the building.
Let Mr. Snow know if their computer is not working properly
There are fees associated with repairing or replacing damaged or lost student laptops, as well as lost power cords. Those fees are in the MySchoolBucks school store:

Screen Replacement: $85
Laptop Replacement: $472
Power Cord Replacement: $23

Lightspeed Classroom Management

As part of our commitment to creating a safe and focused learning environment for our students, our school is using a classroom management tool that will help teachers better connect with student devices during classes. We are continuing to expand our use over the coming weeks. This tool will provide teachers with a number of helpful features:

Easily view student screens in real time from the teacher console to see which students may need guidance or support.
Focus student attention on a particular website on their device to minimize distractions.
Pause student access to the internet to focus on other classroom tasks.

We believe this classroom management tool will allow us to maximize class time to support your student’s learning while at school. Please note that student devices will not be monitored outside of school hours. The regular filters remain in place on school devices, but once they are home, teachers cannot monitor students. As parents, we would like to encourage you to sign up for your own Lightspeed reports, which will allow you to see how your child is spending time on the computer during and after school hours.

Yearbook Announcement

If you have not already preordered your yearbook please do so. We currently have over 400 yearbooks preordered, we only order based on the number of preorders with just a few extra, so there is no guarantee that you will receive one if you haven't preordered.

*****The deadline to order any name stamps on a yearbook is January 24th.*** This means you can still preorder a yearbook after this date but no name stamps will be available to order.

Go to www.yearbooksforever.com to preorder.

Thank you for your continued support this year!

Irving Stays After - After School Program Registration

The After School program at Irving Middle School provides students access to high-quality activities in a safe environment for all students. The Program strives to improve academic performance, foster social, emotional, and physical well-being, all while reducing the potential for risk-taking behaviors.

https://forms.gle/jj9RXegR3C85tJ6u6

Volleyball Clinic, athletic attire (including your shoes) and registering via the weekly sign-up are required. Volleyball is extremely popular, students will not be allowed to participate if they do not sign-up and/or properly dressed.

Updates on the following clubs:

Art Club, postponed until further notice
Back to Basics Leadership, postponed until further notice
Soccer Club, postponed until Monday, February 5.
MakerSpace/Robotics, added Thursdays first block until the end of February.
Open Gym, will be offered Mondays (2nd block), Wednesdays (both blocks) and Thursdays (2nd block)

Library News

Though it was another short week, things were busy in the Irving library. In addition to having 7th grade students finish getting their narrative nonfiction books, we hosted 8th grade English classes. The classes worked together in groups, and used our school’s new “Breakout Boxes,” from breakout.edu while answering questions about external text structures. Along the way, as they found the correct answers, they picked up codes to open up a series of locks, and to “breakout” a clue to a final prize. It is a fun way to get students engaged to review this topic in English; everyone was happy to finish and to claim their lollipop prize.

On Monday, January 29th, Readers Unite is jumping into its fourth book of the school year, after having finished a very long one. Newcomers are welcome to attend. And,the Battle of the Books teams are gearing up for the school tournament on March 15th that will determine which of our five school teams will move on to represent Irving in the county-wide competition!

Ms. Monk & Mr. Brizek

PTA News

RESTAURANT SPIRIT DAY EVERY THURSDAY - All Day at Papa John's (Rolling Road!). Order online using promo code IMS4010. You'll get 40% off all menu prices! See flyer on the PTA website - https://irvingms.memberhub.com. (copy and paste / links don't work!)

RESTAURANT SPIRIT DAY - 2/6/24 - TACO BAMBA Springfield! - Either mention the unique code (WIMS) or "Washington Irving Middle School" when ordering in-store for credit. When ordering online, enter the code: WIMS in the coupon code area at check-out.

TEACHER APPRECIATION - Stay tuned for the next event! - If you are interested in volunteering - please email us! - irvingmspta@gmail.com - or we're happy to take direct donations to support - you can donate here - https://irvingms.memberhub.com/store/items/62509 (copy and paste the link!)

NEW SPIRITWEAR / NEW LOGO - COMING VERY SOON!!February 21st IN-PERSON PTA MEETING @ 6pm! + "Kids in Today's Society" presentation (formerly "Hidden in Plain Sight") from our local Fairfax County Police in West Springfield. This presentation provides insight into a range of teen behavior, from risky to illegal, that the local police are currently dealing with. It is an adult only presentation. This presentation will be combined with our general PTA meeting. We'd love for you to join the PTA! $10 Parents/Guardians; $9 additional family members; $5 Staff/Faculty https://irvingms.memberhub.com/store?limit=21&live=true (COPY & PASTE SINCE THE LINKS ARE NOT LIVE)Feel free to reach out to learn more about the Irving PTA, or with questions you might have. Website: https://irvingms.memberhub.com (copy & paste link)Email: irvingmspta@gmail.com

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