Milwood Weekly Newsletter Master
August 13th, 2025
Dear Families,
As we continue working together to support your child’s growth and success, I want to take a moment to share a few core principles that guide our classroom environment every day: active engagement, consistent effort, and academic rigor.
1. The Power of Active Engagement
Learning is not a passive activity—it requires active participation. When students ask questions, contribute to discussions, and collaborate with their peers during instruction, they retain information more deeply and build critical thinking skills. Encouraging your child to stay present, listen carefully, and actively participate during class time is one of the most effective ways to ensure their success.
2. Giving Best Effort on All Assignments
Whether an assignment is a minor daily check-in or a major project, every piece of work serves a purpose. Consistently putting forth full effort builds strong habits, discipline, and pride in one’s accomplishments. We continually remind students that mistakes are part of the learning process, but giving less than their best effort holds them back from discovering what they are truly capable of achieving.
3. Embracing Academic Rigor
Rigorous coursework is designed to challenge students to think beyond surface-level answers. Struggling through a difficult problem or analyzing a complex idea is where true intellectual growth occurs. When students are pushed out of their comfort zones, they build resilience, problem-solving skills, and academic confidence that will benefit them far beyond this school year.
How You Can Support at Home
Ask Open-Ended Questions: Instead of asking "How was school?", try asking "What was something challenging you worked on today?" or "What was a question you asked during class?"
Encourage a Growth Mindset: Remind your child that difficulty is a sign of learning, not failure. Celebrate their perseverance and effort rather than just the final grade.
Review Work Together: Take a few minutes each week to look over completed assignments and encourage your child to reflect on areas where they can stretch themselves further.
Thank you for your ongoing partnership, dedication, and support. When school and home align with high expectations, our students achieve remarkable things. Please feel free to reach out anytime if you have questions or if you would like to discuss how we can continue supporting your child together.
Warm regards,
Ms. Stiver
Safety First!
To prioritize student safety, drop-off and pick-up location is located at the front circle loop off Konkle Street (see aerial view below).
Car Riders: Drop-off and dismissal pick-up will occur exclusively in the Konkle Street circle loop.
Buses Only: Please do not use the staff parking entrance. Also note that the back lane (near basketball courts) is strictly reserved for buses only!
Hallway Behavior and Safety
We are writing to ask for your partnership in reinforcing our schoolwide hallway expectations with your child. Recently, we have observed a rise in unsafe behaviors in our hallways, including play fighting, physical contact, horseplay, and running. Additionally, it is critical that students remain in their designated areas throughout the school day—such as their assigned classrooms, cafeterias, or designated passing zones—and refrain from wandering or gathering in unsupervised spaces.
We have discussed these expectations directly with students on multiple occasions, emphasizing that maintaining an orderly environment is necessary to protect the well-being of our entire school community. To support these efforts, we have begun contacting families directly and assigning lunch detentions for repeated infractions.
Moving forward, disciplinary responses for continued non-compliance will be progressive, as ensuring a safe, secure, and structured environment in our building remains our highest priority.
We greatly appreciate your continued support and collaboration in helping us maintain a safe learning environment for all students.
Mr. Knack's 6th grade Science class is comparing saturation points of different paper types.
Mr. Knack's 6th grade Science class is using microscopes to look at the finer structure and determine why some paper is better than others at absorbing water.
Ms. Dennany's "Magic of Electrons Class" learned how to draw schematics for series, parallel and combination circuits. Then, students practiced building each circuit.
Ms. Dennany's students love learning!
