9th Grade Academy
October 2026
Tiger Families,
Happy October! Students are settling in, making progress, and have experienced their first Homecoming Week showing incredible school spirit! This month, we're focusing on the O in ROAR: Optimism.
Optimism isn't toxic positivity or pretending everything is fine. Optimism is about agency. You can't always control what happens to you, but you can have a say in what happens next.
Here's a way we've been talking about it with students: think of your heart like a garden. Your heart is the soil, words are the seeds, feelings are the water, and beliefs are what grow. The words we repeat to ourselves can eventually become beliefs. "I failed" can become "I'm a failure." "This is hard" can become "I can't do this."
But feelings don't have to become beliefs. Instead of "I'm a failure," we can try "I failed at something, but I get to decide what I do next." Instead of "I can't do this," try "I can't do this yet."
That's optimism. You may not control every seed that gets thrown your way, but you can decide which ones you continue to water. So pay attention to the words you repeat and the words you believe, because the words we plant today can become the beliefs we carry tomorrow.
As we head into October, here are a few important dates and reminders:
October 30 - End of Quarter 1: First quarter grades — Keep an eye out for these. This is a great time to sit down with your student, review their progress, and make a plan together—a perfect tie-in to our optimism theme of deciding "what happens next."
October 14 & 15: Parent-teacher conferences — Details and sign-up information will be shared soon. We'd love to see everyone there.
Attendance/tardies check-in — October is when habits really start to stick (good and bad). If your student is missing class, please reach out so we can help get things back on track early.
We also have events coming up that are highlighted below and we could really use some extra hands for our Harvest Fest event. Please sign up if you’re available to help!
Best regards,
Ms. Lazarean
AP - 9th Grade Academy
