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TRANSCRIPT
SUSAN B. ANTHONY MIDDLE SCHOOL
An International Baccalaureate World School
Mai Chang P. Vue, Principal 5757 Irving Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55419 612.668.3241
February 4, 2015 Dear Anthony Families, Students and Staff, It feels like yesterday that I welcomed you to a new academic year and asked for your sup-port and participation in helping to define it. Your response has been overwhelming and for that I thank you all. My experience so far has been wonderful and I owe it to you. First, before I provide you with an update on how and what we are doing, I would like to congratulate Mr. John Haugen on his retirement. He taught thirteen years at Anthony and eighteen years in the district. Replacing Mr. Haugen is Ms. Kirsten Taylor who comes with a broad range of knowledge and experience in education. Since the fall semester, we have also welcomed Ms. Roxanne Peyton, Social Worker; Ms. Tami Jenkins, Associate Educa-tor; Mr. Jamah Farah, Somali Associate Educator; Mr. Travis Smith, School Dean; Ms. Kim Gordien, Office Assistant and Mr. Chris Powell, Building Engineer. We are proud to have these fine individuals join our Anthony Family. Anthony Celebrations We have had many great achievements happening since the start of the school year. Although I won’t be able to list them all, I would like to recognize the following students, staff and groups for their hard work and success.
2015 Minnesota Teacher of the Year Nominees: 6th grade Math Teacher, Ms. Penny
Pickard and 6th grade Individuals and Society teacher, Ms. Teri Ricks
2014-15 Patriot Pen winners: 1st place winner was Lauren Smith, 2nd place winner was
Charlie Vaaler and 3rd place winner was Grace Gens
2014-15 School Logo winners: 1st place winner was Roberto Catano, 2nd place winner
was Bella Ellstrom and 3rd place winner was Amani Samuels
2014-15 District Spelling Bee Champion second time in a row, Josie Spanier
2014-15 Annual School-Wide Geography Bee winners: 1st place winner was Lucie
Allen, 2nd place winner was Mike Woodhouse, and 3rd place winner was Charlotte Zahn
2014-15 Nordic Ski state qualifier and first time Anthony student to compete at state level,
Lily Richmond
Anthony Girls Basketball and Coach Bishop for making it to the Championship– 2nd place
Anthony Boys Basketball Team and Coaches Nolen and Edwards for making it to the
Semi-Final Game
Anthony Girls Volleyball and Coach Vang for making it to the Championship—2nd place
Anthony Debate Team: Novice Division Individual Speaker Award winners were Carson
Kindred, William Bercaw, Saheli Patel and Henry Bubula; 3rd place in the Junior Varsity Divi-sion was Bella Ellstrom and 2nd place Varsity Division were Anikka Johnson and Amani Samuels
Ms. Peyton and the Anthony Dance Team for their performances at school functions
School Improvement Plan (SIP) Mid-Year Update As we move through the second semester, our focus will continue to focus on the following three areas: academic achievement, school climate and family involvement. Academically, we continue to provide rigorous programs and diverse methods of teaching and learning as part of our IB-MYP philosophy. Teachers continue to develop and implement MYP units of inquiry and exploration while incorporating benchmark assessments across disciplines to monitor student progress. Students are challenged to examine their own learning and use AVID reading strategies, the IXL math program and explicit vocabulary development meth-ods to further advance and support their learning. All students have completed taking the Reading OLPA (Optional Local Purpose Assessment) and the Math OLPA.
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Upcoming School Events
Feb. 19 Anthony Talent
Show and Soul Food Dinner 5pm-7:30pm
Feb. 26 AVID Family Night
Mar. 12 Eighth Grade Guth-
rie Field Trip
Mar. 18-20 Scholastic Book
Fair
Mar. 26 Activity Day
May 14 Sixth Grade Rocket
Launch
May 8 Eighth Grade Dance
Jun. 5 Eighth Grade Com-
pletion Ceremony
Anthony Family Night - will
be held in May; please stay tuned for more details.
Site Council Meetings:
Mar. 25 & Apr. 19
Morning Coffee with the
Principal - 3rd Tuesday of every month from 8:30am-9:30am in room 108. Morn-ing Coffee topic on February 17 is on school policies such as the dress code and cell phones.
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The OLPA is a practice exam of the MCA (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) in which students will take in the Spring. As part of the district’s Acceleration 2020 plan, our building goal is to increase from 63% to 68% of students meeting or exceeding on the Reading MCA and from 60.4% to 65.5% meeting or exceeding on the Math MCA. We are very proud of our Reward School status this year and would like to maintain this prominent standing. Through your support, we know we can make this happen.
In regards to school climate, we want to create a culture where every student has the opportunity to thrive. When students are engaged and challenged in the classroom, students are focused on learning and there are fewer opportunities to misbehave. An-thony developed a PSWE (Positive School Wide Engagement) team from this summer to closely examine cause and effect of student behavior and to provide training and support for staff. Strengthening cultural competency is also central to this work. The Anthony Equity Team has also been providing staff professional development to build understanding of the students and families we serve to help share our practices to lead to improved student outcomes. We recently started a boys group called the Col-lege Bound Brothers and we are in the midst of creating a girls group that meets week-ly to do goal setting and build student confidence. Also, we have assembled a CARC (Collaborative Action Research Cohort) at Anthony to study the student achievement gap, especially the gap among our African American students, specifically our black males. The Anthony CARC will share their findings at a summer institute with other CARC groups in the district to develop a plan for the coming school year.
Family Involvement is an area that we continue to work on. We want you to know that we want and need your participation in the school. From assisting and attending school events, sharing your thoughts and ideas, helping in our main office to chaper-oning field trips, we appreciate your involvement. Please continue to read our Panther Post on upcoming events that you can assist with or attend. Or, simply contact our Family Liaison, Ms. Charlette Hawkins ([email protected]) or our PTA (Parent Teacher Association) Chair, Ms. Julie Flaskamp ([email protected]) on how to get involved. Listed on page one are upcoming events and opportunities on how you can get involved.
Auditorium Renovation We are truly excited for the renovation of our auditorium. The project has been ap-proved by the city and construction will start during the week of Spring Break and is scheduled to be completed by the Fall of 2015. Some of the renovation will consist of new lighting, new seats, new sound booth, updated flooring, and a new rigging, electri-cal and audio-visual system. The renovation will also consist of turning one of our classrooms by door number three into a lobby for events and display student artwork. Due to renovations, we are looking at various venues and options for our spring choir and band concerts and our 8
th grade completion ceremony. Please read our weekly
Panther Post to stay informed (http://anthony.mpls.k12.mn.us/pantherpost). For a hard copy, please contact our main office at 612.668.3240.
Ways to Support Anthony Students and Staff Enclosed with this letter is a GEMS card. For every time you shop at any of the partic-ipating businesses, use the enclosed GEMS card. Other ways to donate to Anthony is through the Target RedCard or Amazon Smile program. You can also purchase An-thony Spirit Wear in which portions of Spirit Wear sales go directly back to the school.
Thank you! The success of the school does not fall upon one person, but a collective group of dedicated individuals. I would like to thank our amazing teachers, school support staff and parents, more specifically our students, for making the impossible, possible. It has been busy. It has been challenging. It has been satisfying in ways that translate into the pulse of school life in all of its incredible dimensions. Second semester prom-ises to be equally gratifying as first semester. Please accept my deepest appreciation for all you do to support and enrich students and staff of Anthony Middle School.
Go Panthers!
Mai Chang P. Vue
Patriot Pen Essay Winners
Logo Design Winners
AMS Dance Team
Nordic Ski State Qualifier
AMS Debate Participants
Geography Bee Winners
Spelling Bee Champion
AMS Girls Basketball
AMS Boys Basketball
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnthonyMiddleSchool Follow us on Twitter: AnthonyPanthers
2015 Minnesota Teacher
of the Year Nominees
Ms. Penny Picard and Ms. Teri Ricks!
Little Mermaid Jr. Musical Show Times
Wednesday, March 18 6:30pm Thursday, March 19 6:30pm
Friday, March 20 7:00pm Saturday, March 21 2:00pm
Anthony Scholastic Book Fair Room 108
6th Grade classes will attend on Wed. March 18 7th Grade classes will attend on Thu. March 19
8th Grade will attend on Fri. March 20
Thank you
Anthony Parents for your
involvement and
generous support!
5 Easy Ways You can
Donate to Anthony Middle School
Save Your Box Tops:
There is a pink collection box in the main office for you to drop off box tops.
Use Your Target Red Card:
Target will donate 1% of your REDCard purchases made in-store or on-line when you enroll in their
“Take Charge of Education” program. Just go to target.com/tcoe and follow the directions to sign-up
from there. You will need to enter your REDCard number and designate Anthony Middle School as
your school choice.
File Your Kowalskis Receipts:
Place your Kowalskis receipts in the labeled Anthony bin at the front of the store. Donations are made
quarterly based on the total number of receipts collected in each school’s bin.
Go to giveMN.org:
Donate or raise funds through giveMN.org
Purchase through Amazon Smile:
Anytime you purchase from Amazon, 0.5% of your purchase could go back to the Anthony PTA.
Just follow this link for your next purchase and don't forget to Bookmark it. At the top of the
Amazon order page you will see in red: "Supporting: PTA Minnesota Congress Anthony Middle
School PTA". http://smile.amazon.com/ch/65-1262307