October 3, 2016

Irmo Middle School

6051 Wescott Road
Columbia, SC 29212
(803) 476-3600

The Buzz at Irmo Middle School

www.lexrich5.org/ims

Creating successful students for the challenges of tomorrow

School Hours:
8:20 a.m.3:35 p.m.

Robert S. Jackson, Ed.S., Principal

rsjackso@lexrich5.org

https://twitter.com/IMS_Principal

Inside this issue:

Student Led Conferences
Staying Connected
I Grow Global
Task Force Fall Grams
School Dance
Report to Parents
Administrative News
PTSO News
Athletic Schedules
8th Grade NY Trip
D5 Celebration
Health Card

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Dates to Remember:

Tues10/4

C Team Volleyball game @

Carolina Springs 5:30
G40 Installation 6-7 PM
Wed 10/5
C Team Football game @
Chapin Middle 5:30
Thurs 10/6
Fine Arts Performance
Rehearsal 2:30 Caf
Pre-Student led
Conferences 3:45-7:30
C Team Volleyball game @
Meadow Glen Middle 5:30
Fri 10/7
Wear Neon Day
PTSO Dance 3:45-5:45 IMS
Cafe

School Board Candidate Forum

As part of the District Five School Board Elections, the Teacher Forum and School Improvement Councils co-sponsor Candidate Forums. This year, the Forums are
scheduled for
October 11, 7:00 pm on at Irmo High School
October 20, 7:00 pm at Chapin Middle School.
This is a great opportunity for families and community members to gain a better
understanding of the candidates and issues at the district level. Also, if you would like
to submit a question for the candidates to answer, please email your question to:
d5candidateforum2016@gmail.com.

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"Shout Out" to 6th grader

Seth Cooley!
Seth participated in the SC Double Bass Workshop on
September 23-24 in Greenville at Wade Hampton High
School. He had the opportunity to study with some fine
musicians and teachers and gave a performance with
many other student bassists. Seth, we are very proud of
you for all of your hard work!

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If you have news for the

Buzz, email Allison Redick
at aredick@lexrich5.org.

Date:
Location:
Time:
Cost:

PTSO Dance

This Friday, October 7th

IMS Cafeteria
3:45 pm -5:45 pm
$5.00

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Student-Led Conferences at Irmo Middle!

Do you have questions about how your student is performing at Irmo Middle? Perhaps you often wonder, what
things are they doing well and how can you assist them with the more difficult concepts. We we have a wonderful way that you can get answers to all of your questions. Student-Led Conferences are on the horizon at IMS.
Keep scrolling below to learn all about this process.

What is a student-led conference (SLC)?

Student-led conferences are conferences in which students communicate their progress towards academic
learning targets, habits of scholarship, and academic and behavioral goals. Student-led conferences will occur in
late March/early April (after MAP testing and before State testing). Crew leaders will help students prepare for
their student-led conference during Crew. Content teachers will assist in choosing portfolio pieces for students
and helping students to reflect on their successes and failures.

Pre-Student- Led Conference

When?
Oct. 6th (5:00-7:30pm) & Oct. 10th (8am-4pm)
What will we talk about?
Your childs grades last year, test scores, MAP
goals, 1st quarter interim grades, strengths/
challenges, and Habits of Scholarship.
What if we need to speak to one of my childs
teachers?
Conferences will be scheduled (as needed) for
the night of Oct. 27th (5:30-7pm)

Student-led Conference
When?
Late March/early April (after MAP testing and
before State testing)
What will we talk about?
Students will communicate their progress towards academic learning targets, habits of
scholarship, and academic and behavioral goals.
What if we need to speak to one of my childs
teachers?
Crew leaders will contact teachers if a conference is requested.

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Staying Connected to Your Student

Parents often ask how to stay connected to a childs progress and have some controls with assignments
on the internet. We at IMS we are committed to helping you accomplish this. We have several ways that
you can actually keep an eye on your students academics and their digital footprint.
Currently we have three options. Parent Portal, Student Google Log In, and Google Classroom Guardian
Email Summaries. I have outlined the benefits of each in the table below.
IMS currently would like to suggest that you sign up for parent portal and learn how to log in to your childs
Google Account. The Google Classroom Guardian is also a great tool but may be redundant if you log
into your childs account regularly. We request that you log into your childs account regularly. If students
are aware that parents can look at email correspondence, classwork and other activity regularly, it helps
them make the better choice in a difficult situation.
As you are aware District 5 uses students birth dates as a password. We choose not to reset these
passwords so that parents can easily access student accounts regularly. The benefit of not having lost
instruction time for forgotten passwords is invaluable as well as students knowing that parents and
teachers can access their accounts, helping them stay on task and making good choices.
If you have any questions regarding how to sign up for any of this information please contact our Digital
Integration Specialist, April Garrett at agarrett@lexrich5.org or 803-476-3750.

Staying Connected Options

Log into student Google Account

Power School Parent Portal

Google Classroom Guardian

Go to www.google.com

powerschool1.lexrich5.org/
public/home.html

As a guardian, you must receive

and accept an email invitation.

Create an account & link to your

student using credentials provided by your students school.

Contact your students teacher for

receipt of these email updates.

Provides access to student

grades entered into the
teachers gradebooks.

Track progress through daily

or weekly emails which you
can unsubscribe at any time.

Ability to click link to email

individual teachers.

Includes missing & upcoming

work and other class activities.

Can view history of grades

and academic achievements.

https://support.google.com/edu/
classroom/answer/6388136 for

Sign in using students school issued

email and password.

This allows full access to student

email, Google Calendar, Drive,

History and Classroom.

Can view all class assignments,

due dates & comments between

the student and teacher.

more info.

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Administrative News
** Reminders **
Early Dismissal Cut-off is 3:00:

Students WILL NOT be signed out from 3:00-3:30 p.m. Parents arriving during this time will be required to pick up their students in the car rider line.

Change of Transportation:

For the safety reasons, please DO NOT call the front office to
change mode of transportation home. Arrangements should be made in advance. If an event is canceled it will be announced and the students will have time to call the parent for other arrangements.

Drop-offs for Students:

Please limit bringing items to the main office. We are trying to instill
"Ownership" and Responsibility in our students.

PTSO News
** Reminders **
DONATIONS
Food donations for the WHO AM I? dance. We need: single serving packs of potato chips, canned
soda (ex: grape, orange, cola), and candy (any size, any kind). You may drop these items off at the
front desk of IMS.

VOLUNTEERING
IMS Greenhouse needs extra hands and garden savvy people to help with the IMS garden. If interested, please email Ms. Wierzbinski at cwierzbinski@lexrich5.org

FUNDRAISING
Grocery Shopping:

Shop at Krogers or Publix? If so, go onto

www.krogercommunityrewards.com & select IMS or stop b Publix Customer Service
&sign up for a grocery tag.

Eating Out:

1st Tues of each Month Grouchos gives 10% of sales to IMS.

4th Tues of each Month Zaxbys gives 10% of sales to IMS.

Events: PTSO dance Oct 7th.

IMS Cafeteria from 3:45 - 5:45.

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Athletic Schedules

Volleyball
Date

Opponent

Time

Sep 6

Chapin

5:30

Sep 8
Sep 13
Sep 15

Dutch Fork
Carolina Springs
Meadow Glen

5:30
5:30
5:30

Sep 20

Lexington (DoubleHeader-2/3)

5:30

Sep 22

@ Dutch Fork

5:30

Sep 27

@Chapin

5:30

Sep 29

@ Pleasant Hill (DoubleHeader-2/3)

5:30

Oct 4

@ Carolina Springs

5:30

Oct 6

@ Meadow Glen

5:30

Oct 11

White Knoll (DoubleHeader-2/3)

5:30

st

Oct 13

1 Round Play-Offs

5:30

Oct 15

PAC Tournament

5:30

Football
Date

Opponent

Time

Aug 27

@ Chapin (Scrimmage)

9:00

Aug 31
Sep 7
Sep 14

@ River Bluff (Jamboree vs Gilbert)

@ Brookland Cayce
Meadow Glenn

5:30
5:30
6:00

Sep 21

Pleasant Hill

6:00

Sep 28

@ White Knoll

5:30

Oct 5

@ Chapin

6:30

Oct 12

@ Lexington

5:30

Oct 19

Dutch Fork

6:00

Oct 26

Tournament (TBA)

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8th grade expedition to New York City

April 4-7 2017 (the week before Spring Break) Absences will be excused.

You can find information at www.explorica.com/irmocioffi-2017.

Open to 8th graders of the 2016-2017 school year only.

Fund raising will be discussed!

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IMPORTANT HEALTH INFORMATION

This year, District Five transitioned to an online registration system called Registration
Gateway. The student Health Card was included as par of the online registration. However, a review of the student Health Cards in the Registration Gateway has revealed that
many parents did not provide complete information for their child(ren). We know that some parents completed
the online information accurately. However, we cannot determine the Health Cards that are deficient. At this
point, the most reliable solution is to ask all parents to complete the copy of the health card below, so that we
have confidence that all Health Cards are accurate.
Please remember that we will use the online Registration Gateway system for Health Card information next
school year. We apologize for any inconvenience. But, our goal is to have the most accurate health information for our nurses. Thanks for your support.

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