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Welcome to McClure Middle School
Debra Carter,
Our Newst SPOTY!
 Congratulations
to Ms. Debra Carter on her award of Support Professional of the
Year! Ms. Carter, our school secretary, is the longest
serving member of the McClure faculty and staff. She
started even before the school officially opened! Whether
she is answering phones, buzzing in people at the front day, or
making sure the entire staff is dotting all the i's and crossing
all the t's, McClure wouldn't function without Debra's support.
Thanks for all that you do Ms. Carter!
Substitute Job Fair
The School District will host TWO
Substitute Job Fairs on Tuesday 4/22/14 from 9:00 am until 11:00
am. For applicants interested in substituting for the
North Area Schools (North of Powder Springs including North
Marietta, East Cobb, Kennesaw and Acworth) the job fair will be
held at Piedmont Baptist Church located at 570 Piedmont Road,
Marietta, 30066. For applicants interested in substituting
for the South Area Schools (Includes Smyrna, Powder Springs,
Austell, and Mableton—South Marietta area), the job fair will be
held at Skyview Elementary School located at 5805 Dunn Road,
Mableton, 30126. To attend applicants must complete the
following REQUIREMENTS:
1-RSVP by sending an email to EITHER
jobfairnorth@cobbk12.org OR
jobfairsouth@cobbk12.org. You can only RSVP to one
fair and this should be the geographic area you plan to work
as a substitute. You must RSVP by 4/15/14.
2-Bring a resume with you to the fair detailing all of your
work and educational experience.
3-Be prepared to briefly meet with
an Administrator.
We appreciate your interest in positively impacting our Cobb
County students and teachers! We look forward to meeting
you at the job fair.
Recognize
your Student's Birthday
The
McClure
Foundation is excited to offer birthday posts
beginning January 20th.....The McClure Foundation will
post the honoree's name (student, teacher, staff, etc.) on
the McClure school sign to wish them a Happy Birthday - Monday
thru Friday only, for a $20 donation to the Foundation - Click
here to learn how you do it!
School/Parent Survey- Your Help
Needed
We are asking for your support in filling out the parent portion
of the State School Climate Survey. The information we
receive from this survey is used to develop our school wide
plans for the next school year. If you would like to have input,
please open the following
website and answer the questions. The survey should
take no longer than 5-8 minutes to complete.
Thank You McClure Community
January 30, 2014
Dear Parents and Community members,
I wanted to express my appreciation and
gratitude for the way that students, parents, staff and
community responded and came together to help keep our students
safe during Tuesday and Wednesday’s snow event.
 McClure
students are the best!
The way they handled the disrupted school day with eating
lunch in their classroom, not being dismissed at 2:15 and then
being consolidated into large groups to quicken the dismissal
process did not fluster them at all.
Students listened and followed our directions to ensure a
safe dismissal process which is what we stress during our safety
drills.
Our parents really helped us by getting
their students home and often taking many of their neighboring
students home as well for those parents stuck in traffic.
I cannot thank you enough for working with us as we tried
to make sure our students went home safely.
 The
staff was great in helping with dismissal and keeping order as
we tried to expedite the dismissal process.
So many of our teachers and staff stayed late or spent
the night to help ensure that students were delivered safely
home or had a good time at our first ever McClure sleepover!
I cannot tell you how many phone calls I
received from parents and community members offering to take
students and staff home if buses were not available.
Over and over again we were offered assistance with
anything we might need to help make our situation more
comfortable. Many
of these good Samaritans did not have students who attend
McClure, they just wanted to help.
I
would encourage students to write a thank you note to their bus
driver. These
employees deserve our gratitude for a job well done on Tuesday.
Bus drivers take student safety very seriously and this
training allowed them to get many students home safely that day.
As stressful as events such as these can
be, it is important to see
what we can learn from them.
We will be discussing as a school what we did well and
how we can improve.
One thing that I learned, or had reinforced, is what a wonderful
school community McClure has.
The way all of us; students, parents, staff and community
came together is a testament to what is good and great about our
school.
My deepest thanks to you all,
Kelly Metcalfe
Principal
Don't Let Bullying Go Unnoticed
On
Thursday, January 16th, Ms. Metcalfe introduced a new
Bullying
Incident Report form to the student body. We will
conduct three more lessons on bullying prevention during the
rest of this school year. Please contact
Dr. Daniel with
questions or for more information about bullying prevention. You
can also click on the link to the left to learn about more
school district resources. Please help us make McClure a
bully free zone. If you are aware of a bullying situation,
please download the form and return it to an adult at school.
New Safety Measures Added
The school district has installed new safety measures to the
current surveillance system at McClure. Effective
immediately, we have a "buzz in" system on the front doors.
From 9:15 until the end of each day you will need to ring to
buzzer next to the front doors. Some one from the front
office will ask your to identify yourself and indicate the
nature of your visit before you will be allowed to enter.
A letter with full details was sent home with students on
January 8, 2014. You can also
read it here.
Tutoring is Available
 If
you find yourself struggling in one of your core classes, we
have a program for you. We are offering before and after
school tutoring in math, science, language arts, and social
studies for all three grade levels. The tutoring is run by
McClure teachers and ias available for free. Parents are
responsible for dropping off and picking up students at the
appropriate times. Go to our
tutoring page for times and
locations.
Important Message About
ParentVue
Parents and students, each time you
log on to
 ParentVue/StudentVue,
you will need to select the current grading period on the upper
right corner of the grades screen. The default is to show
Progress Report 1 and we are currently in Progress 2. If you do
not click on the current term you will not see an updated grade.
We are working with the vendor to address this issue.
McClure Middle School Foundation
The McClure Middle School Foundation's mission is to help
support the instructional program of our school. You can visit
the
Foundation's page to learn more about upcoming programs.
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary
of the "I have a dream" speech
Click here to listen to Dr.
King's, "I have a dream" speech and to read Ms. Metcalfe's
message from the morning announcements. How can you help
Dr. King's speech affect the future?
A Public Saftey Reminder about
Fire Lanes at McClure
Per the Fire Marshall's Office, no one is allowed to park in a
Fire Lane, whether there is a driver in the vehicle or not,
at any time other than the following:
-
30 minutes prior to the end of the school day and 30 minutes
after the end of the school day (this does not include the
After School Program nor any other activity at the school)
- passengers actively loading or unloading during the
day (this would cover students unloading in the morning at
the beginning of the school day)
We need to
reemphasize that the only time a vehicle would be allowed in a
Fire Lane would be to actively drop-off and/or pick-up a
student when there is no waiting. Other times, such as
after school activities would not be included. If you
are in violation of the ordinance, you run the risk of being
ticketed.
Should you have questions or concerns, please contact the
Department of Public Safety (678) 594-8620.
Instructional Coaching at McClure
As part of the school district's initiative
to increase student achievement local and district
administrators will be spending more time in classrooms this
year. Read an important message from Dr. Hinojosa about
instructional coaching (English/Spanish)
Magnet School Information for 8th
Grade Parents
Eighth grade parents, if you are interested in
information about the different magnet programs available
through the CCSD, please visit the
magnet school website. The link will also answer many
of the questions you might have about the magnet programs
we have available.
ParentVue & StudentVue are Live!
ParentVue and StudentVue are the new
replacements for Pinnacle and they are both live! Click on
the link to the left to access your grades, attendance reports,
and schedules.
Students, you will log in using your
normal school computer log in (lunch number and the password
that you set up). Now that your log in is tied to your
grade reports it is very important that you keep your log in and
password secure. You should not share your log in for any
reason.
Parents, in order to set up your account you will need to
come to school to fill out the necessary forms. Once
complete you will be given your family specific activation code.
Please note, you will be given a family account that will work
with all the students in your family that are enrolled in grades
4 through 12. If you have already set up an account for
high school or elementary students you will not have to set up
an additional account.
Your information can be picked up during
normal school hours.
 WE
DID IT!
In case you missed the
broadcast this morning, Fox5 has us online too!
Click to enjoy our segments. We all enjoyed being on
air this morning and there is a lot of Maverick Pride around
here today!
Maverick Pride has been strong
this week! Your efforts really paid off, with more than
68,000 votes, we won a visit from Good Day Atlanta on Thursday,
March 14th. Make sure you tune in on Thursday to see live
shots and segments that show off the great things that are
happening here at McClure!
Perhaps the best part of the week was watching McClure
exhibit our four words:
- We were Encouraging to each other to
get the vote out!
- We showed great Enthusiasm as the
excitement built throughout the week.
- Our Excellence shined, especially as we
made suggestions about what programs we should highlight on
TV.
- The Ingenuity soared as administrators
stepped out of their usual roles and showed up on the
serving line at lunch or that teacher who dyed his hair blue
because we reached the 65,000 votes level. There are
rumors that even the Harlem Shake might make an appearance
one day next week!
Most of all we are proud that we pulled together and made
this happen! Good job McClure- we have a lot to be proud
of!
GIMME 5 is Back!
 This year, McClure is once again participating in the GIMME 5
campaign for the Cobb Schools Foundation. Did you know that if we raise
more than $750, 50% of whatever we raise will go directly to McClure projects? Please visit the
Foundation's GIMME 5 page to learn more. Remember to
specify McClure if you donate to make sure we earn the credit! As always, thank you for your generosity in support of McClure!
CRCT Preparations are here!
Each April, McClure students take the Georgia Criterion Referenced Tests to show what they have
mastered during the school year. Preparations are already underway to help ensure that our students do the best they can
on the tests. You can help increase scores at home through practice, we recommend the following websites for additional
practice and tutorials:
The Words You Should Know!
Research shows that students who have a rich vocabulary achieve at higher levels than those who do not.
On questions that do not specifically test vocabulary, students are often expected to understand the meanings of the
words they encounter within passages, questions and answers on sections that involve reading.
But because vocabulary knowledge is useful for all reading comprehension, an increased vocabulary is not only
beneficial on standardized tests, but in all content areas. (Read More)
BYOD Has Arrived at McClure!
If you weren't able to attend last week's BYOD/Common Core meeting you can download the PowerPoint
presentation and learn more at the new BYOD Resource page.
Is Your Child a Car Rider?
Please view this video on car rider pick up procedure.
This informative video provides assistance for you to pick up your student in the safest possible manner.
We want all of our students to depart from McClure with as little delay and risk as possible. (The movie will take a while to load.)
Common Core Coming to McClure
You may have heard about curriculum changes coming to our schools next year. The shift to Common Core Standards will help
our student be more competitive in our ever changing society and ushers in some exciting changes for all of us.
Click here to learn more about Common Core.
Welcome to our new 6th Graders!
Thank you to the families that were able to make the Sixth Grade University program on May 7th. If you weren't able to make
it, you can download the PowerPoint presentation.
Also check out the Sixth Grade University
blog for more information.
New Registrations
If you are moving into our attendance zone and need to register
your student please call the guidance office at 678/331-8131 to
make a registration appointment. Please note that
appointments are at 9:30 each day. For more information
about what you will need to register your child, please visit
the
CCSD Enrollment page.
Get Involved
McClure students, do you want to be more involved with the McClure community? Are there untapped skills and interests
that you want to explore? There are lots of clubs and organizations here at McClure that want to meet you!
Download a list of our clubs and organizations and check the McClure
calendar at the left to see meeting times and locations.
Back to School Dress Code Information
Please take a few minutes to review the McClure dress code.
Additional information can be found in the student handbook.
Sixth Grade University!
Parents of rising sixth graders, do you have a question about next year?
Visit our new Sixth Grade University blog.
Learn great tips and suggestions for how to make your student's transition into
middle school a success.
Performing Arts
The purpose of the Performing Arts program is to provide opportunities for our students to experience uniquely rewarding
performing arts that might otherwise be unavailable to them. We try to spark curiosity, broaden awareness of the arts,
stimulate minds and emotions. The program is entirely dependent on your donations. For more information, please
visit the Performing Arts program's website.
Internet Safety
The Internet offers students a wealth of opportunities to communicate, socialize, and explore the world. These
benefits come with certain risks. Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online
is a new guide with practical tips to help parents help their kids navigate the online world. It's produced by
the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and covers a variety of topics- from cyber bullying to using mobile phones safely.
Copies will be available during conference week or you can download your own PDF copy.
Need to ride a different bus home?
If your student will be riding home with another student there are some important
guidelines that must be followed. All bus changes must be approved through the attendance office before a
student will be allowed on a different bus. More Details.
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