Hello Knox Families!

Welcome to March. We have a busy 3 weeks coming before Spring Break. This school year is just flying by. This month, we will be unveiling our new library upgrades thanks to the Jimmie Johnson grant of over $63,000. Students will all have an opportunity to check out an independent reading book during their first visit to the library with their Advisory class. Our new furniture and many new reading books have already arrived. Check out the pictures below.

Last month, we celebrated our student's successes during the first semester with a Pep Rally. Thank you to the Ballet Folklorico group from Chavez Elementary for their exciting performance.

All of our AVID students had a chance to visit Finance Park to learn about careers and real world applications. Our 6th grade students also took a trip to Safari Park, and our Engineering students visited the Midway for some hands-on STEM activities. Our 2 Knox robotics teams (Robotic Rascals and Bionic Bulldogs) competed at the First Lego League Tournament at Legoland. Our 6th grade AVID students also took a college tour to Point Loma Nazarene University. Our students with responsible attendance also attended the Sea World Ocean Link project with Ms. Watkins and Ms. Dickey.

Thank you parents for attending our Coffee with a cop event this Wednesday.

8th grade parents, a letter has been mailed to your home regarding the criteria for participation in the 8th grade promotion ceremony.

Supporting your middle school student with reading at home:

Parent's Guide to Guided Reading

All Knox students will have nightly math homework. Homework is assigned from a math packet that is given to the students at the start of each chapter. Math tutoring is EVERY Tuesday in room S4 from 3:10-4:10. The late bus departs at 4:15 pm.

Please check your child's planner nightly. They should be recording their homework assignments there.

Please log into Power School Parent Portal to monitor your student's grades.

Thank you for all of your support and collaboration!

Sincerely,

Principal Potter

GO BULLDOGS!!

Meet our Special Education team!

Ms. Rawson

Ms. Gould

Ms. Bird

Ms. Bermudez

Mr. Johnson

Mr. Jones

Mr. Balo

Ms. Hodge

Ms. Helewa

Mr. Edwards

Ms. Mesa

Ms. Edwards

Our Knox ELA team has just about completed a coaching cycle with the district ELA coaches. In addition, we are still supporting our ELA team with our Gear Up grant. On February 23rd, our ELA teachers in all grades had a chance to join the ELA teachers from MTM, as well as the ELA teachers from Lincoln, in a morning of collaboration. During this time, the team had the opportunity to review strategies and plan for next steps in supporting literacy in the classroom.

Our Knox teachers also participated in a 5-part balanced literacy professional development learning more about reading behaviors and reading strategies to support students.

We are completing our Advisory read aloud of Milkweed this week. Students will participate in the Butterfly Project in their History class beginning on Friday.

We encourage all students to read for 20 minutes a night independently. Students can check out books during Advisory or lunch time.

Ms. Lapp has also started a book club before school on Thursdays. The students are starting their next novel now. Please reach out to Ms. Lapp if you would like your student to take part in this special opportunity (elapp@sandi.net).

To support literacy at home, read articles together with your child online:

Readworks.org

Newsela.com

Helping your student with the Common Core Writing Standards

Our Knox focus for the year will continue to be engaging all of our students as readers and writers in all classes.

Current Units of Study:

6th Grade-Bud, Not Buddy

7th Grade-Pygmalion

8th Grade-To Kill a Mockingbird

Knox ELA teachers implement the Engage NY Common Core Curriculum in their classes. Please click the links above to learn more about what your student is learning in English Language Arts class.

On February 22-24th, our Knox Math team, along with Administration attended the CPM conference in San Francisco. The weekend was filled with lots of learning for our math team and tons of strategies to support student collaboration in the classroom.

Each student is given a math packet at the start of the Chapter. Please ask your student to show you their math work in their journal and their packet. As a reminder, students have math homework every night. Math tutoring is offered on Tuesdays after school in room S4.

On time daily attendance is an extremely important factor in promoting student success. School starts at 8:15 every morning. We highly encourage all students to make up missed days (for any reason) on a Saturday. When students are absent, they miss 6 different class lessons. Saturday School can help provide students the time to make up missing assignments. Please ensure if your child misses a day of school, you call the main office.

We will continue to provide incentives to students that clear all of their missed days, showing responsible attendance!

School is open Saturday and Sunday!

We are open this month on these weekend dates:

3/2

3/9

3/10

3/16

3/23

3/24

Each session will clear 1 full day absence and 3 tardies.

3/1-Read Across America

3/1- Butterfly Project Begins

3/6-Knox V Montgomery Middle Basketball @ Lincoln Old Gym @3:30pm

3/10-Kindness spirit week

3/13- Parent circle, Food Pantry

3/13-ASB to Chavez Elem. March

3/22- Pep Rally

3/25- Spring Break Begins

Please remind your student to stay on the sidewalk when walking home from school. This is very important for student safety. Also, all students that ride bikes, skateboards, and scooters must have a helmet. In addition, students may not ride Bird scooters or any other electronic scooters to or from campus. Per Bird Company policy, riders must be 18 yrs old.

Electronic scooters are not permitted near campus. Students are not permitted to ride electronic scooters.

Principal-Heather Potter- hpotter@sandi.net

Vice Principal- Angelica Hueso-Garcia- ahueso@sandi.net

Head Counselor-M-Z- Lori Watkins- lcruz@sandi.net

Counselor- A-L- Sherri Penaloza- sbaildon@sandi.net

Restorative Practices Coordinator-Jeff Ponsford- jponsford@sandi.net

Registration/Attendance-Leticia Alva Sanchez- lalvasanchez@sandi.net

Site Tech- Power School Parent Portal- Kristen Ojetti- kojetti@sandi.net

Admin Assist-Linda Dozier- ldozier@sandi.net

Parent Liason- Oneida Barrera- obarrera@sandi.net