This has been another great week at Smith Middle School. This week we welcomed our Smith Knight Parents to our annual open house. It was wonderful to see all of our parents and have a chance to share with you all of the great things planned for the year. This week also saw some changes in our courtyard and around the front of our building. Many hands make light work and when it comes to volunteering and putting in some hard work around the school we have some dedicated staff and incredibly helpful students to get the job done! Our picture above and our stories in this Knightly News highlight some of that work.
Meet your Smith Middle School Counselors
Meet Mrs. Hartenburg and Mr. Denyes, our Smith Middle School Counselors. Our counselors work hard to ensure that our students are on track academically, and serve our students needs in a variety of ways. Mrs. Hartenburg and Mr. Denyes's counselor's corner weblink is positioned below if you have the need to contact your child's counselor. Mrs. Hartenburg serves last names (A-L) and Mr. Denyes serves last names (M-Z). We appreciate all they do to serve our students!!!
Smith Service Learning
Over the course of the last week students and staff have volunteered their time, muscles, and green thumbs to clean up and beautify our school. Both the front of our building and our courtyard have seen some gardening and truly look amazing. Thanks to Mr. Koneval, Mrs. Hartenburg and our student council and connectors. In addition thanks for Mr. Mele and his sixth hour class for their help. Those boys moved quite a bit of mulch!
Rubik's cubes and Mathematics
Mrs. Maher uses Rubik's cubes as a team-building activity at the beginning of the year to encourage students to help each other, learn from each other, and be brave enough to admit when they need help. It also develops problem solving skills, perseverance, grit, and the importance of practicing new concepts until they stick. In addition, we are developing 3-D spatial relations and geometric concepts such as surface area. We are done with the active phase of learning, but we’ll keep coming back to it all year.
Mrs. Bonnell's Class Escape Activity
Mrs. Bonnell's classes learn about teamwork, lab safety, and problem solving with a fun activity. Students have to figure out how to get into the toolbox with available tools and their genius.
First Pep Assembly of the Year
Thank you to Ms. Brennan, Mr. Koneval, Mr. Torres, and everyone that had a hand in putting together one fantastic pep assembly this past Wednesday! Student Athletics and Clubs were introduced and students challenged each other in bubble soccer!
Open House and Little Library Dedication
Thank you parents!!! Thank you for stopping by Smith Thursday night and sharing your evening with your child's teachers. It was a wonderful evening and we appreciate our partnership with you in providing our Smith Knights with the education, support, and compassion they need to thrive!
ALICE Parent Meetings
The Troy School District is implementing the A.L.I.C.E. protocol during the 2018-19 school year. A.L.I.C.E. takes a more proactive approach in the event of a serious emergency/crisis. These protocols will eventually replace "Code Red" lockdown drills that have been conducted for many years. All district employees have started training and this training will continue during the school year.
We will also conduct informational parent meetings, which will be held at all four middle schools. The information below includes dates, times and locations for the A.L.I.C.E parent meetings. You can attend the session that is most convenient for your schedule.
Thursday, October 4th at 7:00pm – Smith Middle School
Tuesday, October 9th at 7:00pm – Boulan Park Middle School
Wednesday, October 10th at 7:00pm – Baker Middle School
Thursday, October 11th at 7:00pm – Larson Middle School
Schoology
The Troy School District uses Schoology (pronounced: Skool’uh-jee), a Learning Management System that offers course management, mobile learning, and a communications hub, all in one integrated platform! Schoology is different from PowerSchool so you will want both accounts.
PowerSchool is where you will see your student’s final grades, attendance, etc.
Schoology is where you will see coursework, assignments and progress along the way.
With your Schoology Parent Account you can view your child’s: Activities, Courses, Calendars, Grades, Groups, and Updates. If you have already set up a parent account for a middle or high school student in a previous school year and do not need to add another MS or HS student, please disregard this instruction. You are all set.
IMPORTANT: If you have an account from elementary school, you must delete that account and create a new one to access the more robust version of Schoology that we use at the secondary level. If you want to keep the current parent account for another elementary level student, then you must create a new account with a new email address for your secondary student.
If you don’t have a Secondary Schoology Parent Account, click on the link below and Sign Up.
Powerschool Parent Accounts
On September 11th, an email was sent to all families reminding you that it's time to create a PowerSchool Parent account. PowerSchool replaces Home Access Center and creating a parent account will allow you to see grades at report card time as well as attendance for your student(s.) If you already have a Schoology account, you will still want a PowerSchool Account, as this is the place you will find the final grades for your student.
You should have received an email with your student's access code and password. These are unique to each student, so if you have more than one child, check your email for more than one message. If you don't have the original instructions, can't find the codes, or are having any other trouble, please email parentportal@troy.k12.mi.us. This message is just a reminder and does not contain your student's access code or password.