Olympia Middle School

Join us Tueday 3/19 at 7:00 for our next FREE event! You need to register to have the Zoom link sent to your inbox. This is a topic you don't want to miss! We will be giving away 3 copies of "Growing up Social: Raising Relational Kids in a Screen-driven World" book.

How much time does your student spend on screens? Join us for this hot topic on screen time next Tuesday, March 19th.

This is a tax swap, which means the tax rate will remain the same at $5.50 if the referendum passes or fails. If the questions fail, the district won’t be able to use funds in the most efficient way. The tax rate will be the same because the district will need to take out new working cash bonds and continue to use variable rate funds to cover operating expenses. Learn more about the March 19 referendum at www.olympia.org/referendum #MaintainRetainInnovate #TaxSwap #VoteMarch19

Sixth graders used a brainstorming technique to imagine the person who would wear these randomly selected shoes. The students then used this technique to develop their own Desk Pets as protagonists for an upcoming narrative writing.

Spartan Nation is so thankful for our School Social Workers - this week and every other week during the school year. The support they provide to our students and staff is amazing!

For those who could not attend our Virtual Information Session on February 29, you can view the meeting in full by visiting: https://www.youtube.com/live/w3a-92joeFY?si=g3qC8BcHQ2SaAMKb #MaintainRetainInnovate #TaxSwap #VoteMarch19

Both IEPs and 504 plans support students with learning challenges, but how are they different? What plan is right for my student? Join us for a 30-minute message and learn how these plans might support your student. Register today! https://t.e2ma.net/click/mjrzli/6iwimkp/6u1eg3

Our brains are great at using past experiences to make quick decisions on the fly, but these shortcuts can also lead to bias. "Confirmation bias" is our brain's tendency to seek out information that confirms things we already think we know. Help your students learn to recognize this when they encounter news online, as a way to examine competing opinions and ideas and to avoid drawing questionable conclusions.

Mrs. Jennings (OWE 4th Grade) and Mr. Keith (Bus Driver) were the recipients of the last Fresh Cookie Friday celebration. Congratulations to these two staff members!

Family Tip Sheet: bit.ly/OlyNMFR2 Wikipedia.org is where millions of people stop first for information. Tools like it are what make the internet so valuable. But they also teach an important lesson, one you can start teaching your kids now: don’t believe everything you read.

Check out this list of trustworthy resources to help you learn what's true (and what is not!) on the web. You can even use one of them to look back in time and what was on a website in the past!

Show your children how you get news and information from different places, and explain how you make your choices. Use words like "credible," "trustworthy," "respected," and "fair." Ask them where they get their information, and if they think about those same words when choosing. As kids get older, introduce the ideas of bias, satire, and clickbait. Is generative AI, like ChatGPT, a trustworthy site for news and information?

If a picture's worth a thousand words, do the words always tell a true story? One way to find out is through a reverse image search. Search with an image instead of a keyword and see what you discover!

Congratulations to our 'Fresh Cookie Friday' recipients - Donna Anderson (ONE Cafeteria) and Brent Shedd (OMS Math). We appreciate you!

Talk through the kind of content you and your tween or teen pass along to friends online. What types of things do you like to share? Do you always check to make sure something is true before you share it? How do emotions factor into your decisions to share things? Have you ever shared something and later found out it wasn't true?

The Olympia baseball store will be open now through next Wednesday, February 21st. Follow the link to gear up for the upcoming season! https://orders.minervapromotions.com/olympia_hs_baseball/shop/home

Video: bit.ly/OlyNMV1 Family Activity: Decoding Images. bit.ly/OlyNMFR1 Kids find and read news in lots of different ways. But studies show they're not very good at interpreting what they see. How can we help them get better? Teaching your children about the structure of online news articles is an important place to start.

The Olympia Board of Education approved naming the OHMS baseball field the 'Ron Smith Field'. The District is working with OPBA to plan a dedication on OPBA Day - April 6th. Thank you Coach for the positive impact you have had on so many student athletes!

Today at Olympia

Use real-life examples to help kids understand how people can view the same situation with totally different perspectives. One child might experience a game on the playground as fun, while another might feel like the rules are unfair. Sibling conflict can be a great example of how two people can have wildly different opinions about the same event. With older children, talk through controversial subjects and take turns arguing for different sides to help kids understand various viewpoints.