001good evening everyone welcome um welcome to this presentation I'm really happy to have all of you here I'm gonna as I be in the start I want to just have uh the opportunity to make sure that all of you are seeing uh and hearing me clearly and I just wanted to welcome all of you uh as I begin this presentation this evening uh I'm going to be providing some information about the registration process for your Rising 7th grade students who are going to come to Arms uh in the fall of 2023 coming sooner then you'll imagine I'm sure uh we're all excited and uh and hopefully I will provide you with some information that'll be beneficial and we'll answer a lot of your questions uh and so I'm going to share some of that with
002you in just a moment uh once again I'm just waiting for a few minutes and I'll introduce myself in just a moment and I'll share a little bit of information about the middle school and uh I'll also be sharing some really valuable resources this evening um that will give you the opportunity to learn more about the middle school and uh it'll be something that you'll be able to view and look at and even access as a resource as you continue to make your decisions about registration for your students registration for next year and then finally of course we'll be including the link to the actual registration form I will be sharing the link to this video as well with the different schools so that they can access this information as well so those of you
003who are watching live will be able to access the information obviously but also uh we'll share this link to this uh recording uh with it uh to all the schools tomorrow so that they can share it out to uh all the families of sixth grade students who will be registering for seventh grade uh it's a little bit after our start time so I'll go ahead and begin my name is Diego Sharon I am the principal at Amherst Regional Middle School and I am really happy to welcome you and all of your family all the families and in particular the rising 7th grade students to the middle school for next year it's an exciting time and obviously we had the beginning of Spring this year and so there's a lot of new energy and there's a
004lot of excitement as we begin to look forward into the rest of this calendar year we also want to take and look at this school year that's upcoming uh when we'll be uh those of you who are watching this as as parents but also as students uh hopefully some of you are joining us as well you're certainly welcome to uh you'll be able to get information about uh that transition uh I'm going to be sharing a document and I'm going to be putting that document uh as a link in the chat uh and so if you're able to you can click on that link and that will share a document with you uh with you that will have three pieces of information um so that's a good question thank you there was a question that
005just came up is this for parents or for children and and actually um this is for parents and for children but in particular it's important for parents to be watching and uh and taking note because one of the things that will be shared with you all is the link for registration for courses uh and that'll be important because it'll give you uh the opportunity to share with us your students preference in terms of important things like language and Ensemble classes and I'm going to talk about some of that in just a moment so uh hopefully I'll be able to clarify some of those things but children are certainly able to uh watch this presentation although I can't guarantee that they'll be engaged or entertained however there are some materials that I'm going to be sharing
006that will be more entertaining and engaging and I'll talk about those in just a moment okay so the registration process for seventh grade kicks off this week uh over the course of this week our guidance Department uh and and some of our students have been going to some of the uh to visiting all the elementary schools actually uh and uh and sharing with them a little bit about the school uh showing images from the school and also sharing Impressions and experiences that students have had in the school and so that's all part of trying to introduce the school to students this is part of the process as well and in addition to this students will have the opportunity to step up into the um there's a seventh grade step update and on that day in
007May students will be invited to visit the school and will actually spend part of a day in the school and we'll get a tour of the school and be able to walk around the school with students and also be able to have a meal at the school and so that's part of what we do in the in May to help students step up and we'll also be in contact throughout the registration process sharing updates about things like uh scheduling and any updates related to Staffing and those kinds of pieces which might be important for some of you to know um again the document that I shared with you uh has important information about the program of studies which will give you information about the courses uh and not only the courses but also the scope
008and sequence of the courses in seventh and 8th grade for students uh in the Middle School uh and and then the other document that's linked there is the rising seventh grade orientation document and so in that document is a PowerPoint or a slideshow a slide deck that has information from all our departments and in particular information from our exploratory departments uh with links to courses and information about the courses so that as you're learning about the different courses you can get more information not only about some of the instructors but also what some of those spaces look like in some cases and what the work looks like uh in the in courses and then finally there's going to be a link to the registration form okay and so the hope is that we can have
009the registration forms for all of you in by the end of the month so it's it's March 23rd uh we're targeting uh getting all these back by March 31st which is next Friday um because we want to start working on scheduling students and getting everything ready so that we can have um everything prepared for them in good order and so uh the 31st of March is when we'd like these returned and we'll be sharing that information with you all through emails but also through the school that your child currently attends uh so that they can be aware of that and share that information and regular Communications um when you uh one of the things that I I really do want to stress is that the experience of students in the middle school is is something
010that uh well okay let's see um oh I'm I'm just addressing a question that was that is in the um someone is asking for access to these so let me just make sure that that's uh um my apologies um I will handle that right away um again um I think it's been fixed uh yes uh it should be fixed now so if it hasn't again my apologies please let me know if you're able to access them uh now uh hopefully you're able to thanks so much for that and hopefully I was able to take care of that um one thing I wanted to explain and again this is uh an important programmatic point that is worth making and emphasizing um in the Middle School students have the opportunity to take their core curricular classes in
011addition to that the students take exploratories are similar to but different than electives which is what students will have the opportunity to take in high school and so I want to explain that difference because it's a it's a subtle one but it's an important one and I also just want to stress that it's a it's a intentional one and it's purposeful for a very important pedagogical reason we understand that students at this developmental stage are yes I will repost the link thank you so much let me see if this should work um thank you the link is reposted in this developmental stage we really want students to have the opportunity to explore a number of different topics of study uh in the course of their learning and so there are opportunities to learn in the
012visual arts and the Performing Arts uh there are opportunities to learn in music there are opportunities to learn languages and uh and and and and movement physical education dance so there are lots of ways that students have the opportunity to Explore Learning uh through their exploratory classes in the Middle School one of the things that often happens is that students and families misunderstand the difference between exploratories and uh and electives and and and our goal with exploratories is to give students the opportunity for a quarter of the year to explore a area of study an area of Performing Arts an area of music and in doing that also learn that there are certain things that they might not expect to find pleasure in to learn to do but through doing those things and trying them
013they have the opportunity to experience them and learn about themselves in the process and so it's a little different when students get to high school because they'll have the opportunity to really focus in on an area of of that they choose as electives and sometimes students in high school can choose to explore one area of elective in uh and because they have a very particular interest and say Visual Arts and so that's appropriate at the high school a little different at the middle school so I just wanted to really clearly explain that and ask that you start thinking about it in those terms because what will happen is that you're student will sign up for a language and they'll have the opportunity to take a language and they'll have the opportunity to also participate in
014one of our fabulous Ensemble programs that we have I really want to encourage you to uh to think about participating in either chorus I banned or orchestra and and those are really fantastic programs because they also include the opportunity to play together as a group of students and to perform which is always a really fun and exciting thing we just had a performance of the orchestra and band from the Middle School at the high school earlier this week it was a fabulous event really enjoyable and and I always like going to those events because we get to see students in a different light so The Ensemble programs the foreign languages and then there are also so other exploratory classes in the Visual and Performing Arts that I mentioned we also have a a new exploratory
015that we're launching in library studies which is has been really interesting and for some students a really a new and exciting interest area and we're also looking to expand our offerings as we move along but really a dynamic exploratory program the students have the possibility or the opportunity to be involved in and those are all the different documents so you'll have access to um before I move on I just want to make sure that that I repeat the primary points which I wanted to share which is that the registration form is at the bottom uh um of the document that I shared with you I'm going to repost it one more time just in case people are joining um now and haven't seen it I haven't seen the link but uh if you um go
016on there the that form I'm going to request that people uh try to get it back to us by March 31st the end of the month next Friday so that's a week from tomorrow uh if you do have any questions uh please feel free to reach out uh to us uh directly and what I'll make sure to do is that I'll put uh at the bottom of the um of the document um the contact information for our office staff and also our guidance counselor and that is also included on the Forum so if you do have questions you could reach out to any of them uh via email or call the school and we'd be happy to address any of those questions um uh so that's a good question uh the uh one of the
017questions I just repeated is uh um would I please explain how students elect or are placed in either math 8 or algebra 8. uh so the way it works at the middle school and the math program is that we have a heterogeneous math class in seventh grade meaning all students are in the same math class together we do that very purposefully uh and uh and then from those classes students go on to an eighth grade class that is either a math a class or an algebra a class um and and students are the criteria for those which include uh extra assignments and and uh and uh there's a certain percentage uh score that students are to maintain throughout the year in order to be to be uh to qualify for algebra 8. and those criteria
018are established and communicated to students and family at the beginning of the year uh and uh and for students who are who indicate an interest in in being in the algebraic uh they're certainly supported in doing that and that's and that's something that that um is is not usually a a challenge in any real way hopefully that answered your question I think uh if you do have uh more specific questions related to some of these things I think it might be worthwhile to reach out for further discussion uh but I'm happy to answer general questions like that if if there are others that people would like to share um uh so again um great well I have really enjoyed the opportunity to share some of this information with you uh I'm gonna repost the link
019once again so that uh anyone can access it and again those three pieces of information there uh are the program of studies uh the rising seventh grade orientation presentation which includes links to specific information about different courses and uh and departments in in our Pro in our school and then of course finally the link to the registration form uh that is available or I'm sorry that will be due uh turned in through the Google form uh on March 31st which is one week from tomorrow great okay well it's been a real pleasure I hope you have a fantastic rest of the evening and I wish you well thanks