March Newsletter

Dear Parents,

It’s hard to believe that spring break is upon us! Believe it or not, we are already planning for next school year. This month I’d like to ask for our parents to complete an online survey. The link can be found on our website or you can request a paper copy by contacting Mr. Baumer at the school.  Your input is important to us as we continue to strive to be the best middle school! Thank you in advance for completing this important survey.

We all know that middle school students are leading digital lives. As parents, we must make sure that we are talking to our children about what they can and can’t do online. I feel strongly that we must monitor what our children are doing on the information highway. Please take a few minutes to review the following guidelines with your child in regards to internet safety:

• Spend time with your children on-line. Have them teach you about their favorite on-line destina-tions.
• Keep the computer in a common room in the house, not in your child's bedroom.
• Utilize parental controls provided by your service provider and/or blocking software.
• Use of chat rooms, in particular, should be heavily monitored.
• Always maintain access to your child's on-line account. Be up front with your child about your access and reasons why.
• Teach your child the responsible use of the resources on-line.

Ask your child to show you what’s cool. Have them show you great websites for kids and fill you in on areas that you might benefit from as well. Make "surfing the net" a family literacy experience. Use it to plan a vacation, pick out a movie, or check out other family activities. Make this one area where you get to be the student and your child gets to be the teacher. These simple guidelines will keep you in the loop of what is happening with your child online, while also providing quality time together.

Once again, thank you for your support and I hope you have a wonderful spring break!

Respectfully,
Trish Douglas

***To read more from the March Newsletter CLICK HERE. :)