Dean's Digest
Dear American Academy Parents,
I cannot believe March has arrived. This is a very exciting time of year for all of our students. Many of you may notice the students getting a bit wiggly at home as we often see at school. We will continue to remind and instill in the students all of our American Academy Characters and Manners.
What’s Happening Around Campus:
As the school year continues, students should, at this point, have established positive routines and study habits. The staff of American Academy Lincoln Meadows continues to encourage students to put their best foot forward.
American academy character:
During the month of March our character focus has been on Integrity. Over the course of the month, teachers will incorporate lessons on integrity into their planned lessons and activities. Staff throughout the building will encourage students to show integrity and model the behaviors we expect to see from our students.
Integrity
Integrity means that one is consistent and honest in following their values, beliefs, and principles.
To master this trait, one must start with the little things:
Practice what you preach
Adhere to high moral principles or standards
True to yourself
True to your values and beliefs
Wish Week @ American Academy- March 9-13th
We are excited to celebrate Wish Week, a special week dedicated to supporting our school ambassador, Everleigh. Throughout the week, students will learn about her story and take part in meaningful, community-building activities that raise both funds and awareness in her honor.
Students can participate in themed dress-up days by donating $1 per day or $5 for the entire week. All proceeds will support classroom Change Wars, with friendly competition across grade bands (K–2, 3–5, and 6–8). The highest-earning classroom in each group will win an extra dress-of-choice day on Tuesday, March 24th.
Daily Themes
Monday – Pink Out: Pink top with uniform bottoms
Tuesday – Kindness Rocks: Favorite music shirt with uniform bottoms
Wednesday – Kindness is Magical: Favorite Disney top with uniform bottoms
Thursday – Blizzards and Beaches: Beach or winter-themed top with uniform bottoms
Friday – Once Upon a Dream: Pajamas to celebrate Everleigh’s hopes and dreams
Please make sure pajamas follow dress of choice guidelines.
New This Year: Tattoo Takeover
Monday - Thursday of Wish Week, a temporary tattoo store will be open during morning carpool. Students may purchase tattoos for $1 each and place them in a teacher-labeled envelope. On Thursday, teachers will receive their envelopes — and on Friday, teachers will come to school wearing all of their temporary tattoos. Friday we will also host Everleigh at AALM with a sweet send off to Disney!
Wish Week is a meaningful opportunity for our school community to come together in support of Everleigh. We look forward to a week filled with spirit, generosity, and celebration. Together, we look forward to making this a joyful and impactful week for our school community.
If you are looking to make a difference through a donation, please click the link below.
CMAS Coming Soon
Colorado Measures of Academic Standards (CMAS) assesses 3rd-8th graders in English/Language Arts and Math; 5th and 8th graders are also assessed in Science. CMAS results are an important component of Colorado’s accountability system, which assigns performance ratings to schools and districts.
This year our students are taking the CMAS assessments on April 7th-9th and April 14th-16th. We have seen great results with this schedule and look forward to continuing that this year. The intention is to create a less stressful schedule and environment during the testing days which allows students to perform at their best.
During non testing times, our teachers will continue delivering math, literacy, history, and science curriculum. Students will continue to have in-class activities and assignments, however homework will not be given for the subject that the CMAS assessment focuses on that day or the next.
We will be asking for donations of snacks for our staff on testing days. The teachers work very hard to ensure the students feel prepared and relaxed when taking the assessments. They have been doing practice tests in the classrooms with the students for the last 6 weeks to ensure the students are very comfortable in the system. Our goal is to make the testing time as stress free as possible.
When sending your student to school on testing days, please make sure they have a healthy pick-me-up snack to enjoy. We also ask that you make sure your student is well rested and has a nutritious breakfast on testing days!
What’s Happening Outside of Campus:
As technology continues to advance, so do the outside pressures that our students face. From YouTube Challenges to marketing of hazardous items to today’s youth the only way to stay abreast of all of it is through daily research. My hope is that the information provided in this section can give parents a starting ground of what is going on and open communication lines in regard to social media, hazardous items, and how to lead by example versus following the “cool” new trend. By no means am I able to list everything that is going on through social media, but hopefully this acts as a starting point.
internet & Social media awareness
Currently, the internet has many different challenges that are tempting kids to make very unsafe decisions. Active conversations with your children regarding social media and internet awareness are a great starting point to protecting their personal information and the content they are exposed to.
Psychology Today article:
helpful tips and apps
Pinwheels for Prevention across the nation
Poison Center
The Poison Center is a free public service that people can call for help in determining if the challenge their little one did is harmful and needs immediate ER care, or if it's just irritating and they can stay home. We are very much up to date on the current challenges and get calls all the time. When people call this free number they are speaking to RN's and Pharmacists for medical advice.
Parents can Google Rocky Mountain Poison Center, or Poison Center to get more information on the services they provide.
Their phone number is 1-800-222-1222
Rethink App
This is an app that was created to assist in the prevention of cyber bullying. By installing this app, a new keyboard is utilized that catches trigger words before sending. When the words are caught a pop-up appears on the screen asking the user if they would like to “rethink” what they wrote. For more information click here.
OurPact
This app is a catch-all family locator and screen time management application. For more information click here.
Screen Time
For those families who are all iOS Apple families, the newest update to the operating system has an application built in called Screen Time. With this you can monitor your child’s usage, set permissions, and much more.
Screenagers Movie
An award-winning film that probes into the vulnerable corners of family life and depicts messy struggles over social media, video games and academics. The film offers solutions on how we can help our kids navigate the digital world. (runtime about 67-minutes)
Parents, I truly hope that this newsletter has been informative and helpful. If there is additional information that you know of that would be fantastic to share with families, please reach out to me via email with details, links, etc. and I will add them to next month’s newsletter. As we all know, it takes a community of partnership and communication to ensure the safety and success of our students.
Thank you in advance for allowing me to positively impact their educational journey.
Sincerely,
Mallory Silva
Dean of Students & School Assessment Coordinator