I've written many messages over the last year and a half about hard work, perseverance, and the rewards associated with that hard work. I've also written emails expressing my gratitude for staff, parents, and community.

During the month of December, all three Eagle Express messages will have an element of "Gratitude for Grit." Thank you to our students and staff for all their hard work this fall; it has truly paid off and students are learning at high levels. As Dr. Rudolph, Mrs. Westra, and I have been in classrooms through formal observations and informal walkthroughs, we have seen students learning at high levels and working hard in their classes. They're able to articulate their learning to us and demonstrate their understanding through projects and assessments, some proudly hung on the classroom and school walls and I'm sure others proudly hung on refrigerators at home. All of this has occurred in spite of what might be considered challenging circumstances. We've endured two windstorms and have not lost power or learning opportunities. We've endured additional growth and facilities challenges and yet we continue to work through those scenarios and achieve at high levels. This shows great grit on the part of all involved and for that we are grateful. One of the themes we began discussing this fall with students and staff was Growth Mindset and being on a continuous journey for and of learning. We remind students to focus on work ethic and grit and provide opportunities to persevere through difficulties all the while supporting their learning.

So please continue to encourage your student to work hard these last two weeks and show their Grit. And soon we will have an opportunity to rest and for that we are Grateful.

Please know it is a true pleasure coming to school each day. We are so grateful we have an opportunity to learn and grow with your students.

As always, please let us know if there are additional ways we can support you and your student.

Wishing you all our best,

Robert Johnson

Principal

Evergreen Middle School

425.936.2320

"A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty."

IMPORTANT DATES

Mon., 12/7 - Fri., 12/11 - EMS Clothing & Toy Drive

Fri., 12/18 - Last Day to Order an EMS Yearbook

Fri., 12/18 - LWSD Survey Ends

Mon., 12/21/15 - Fri., 1/1/16 - NO SCHOOL: Winter Break

COUNSELING CORNER: DECEMBER 2015

Welcome back to the EMS Counseling Corner! This month we will review some of the information we received from our 2015 Parent and Student Needs Assessment, highlight key points from our 8th grade "Future Ready" presentations, and discuss some ideas for helping your student be successful this month.

At the beginning of each school year, the counseling team at EMS organizes a needs survey for both our students and parents. The goal of this survey is to learn how we as counselors can best support the students and families at Evergreen. Similarly to last year, we learned that the majority of our students plan on graduating from high school and most of our students plan on attending college. Many of our students have visited a college campus, and over 70% of EMS students have researched a career that interested them. We are thrilled to see that so many of our students are thinking about their future!

To encourage this 'future ready' thinking, the counselors spent the day with our 8th grade students and discussed high school graduation requirements, how to calculate a grade point average, and how to develop good habits now in 8th grade. Some key points from our presentation are listed below:

* LWSD requires 24 credits to graduate from High School

* A credit a numerical value awarded when a class is passed with a D or higher

* 1 Semester class = .5 credits, 2 Semester class = 1.0 credits

* A grade point average is a scale from 0.0 to 4.0 based on the grade awarded

* Many of your students may be taking a high school class now! All world language classes, Algebra and Geometry are high school level classes.

Even though our 6th and 7th graders will not hear this presentation for another year or two, we encourage all our families to think 'future ready' and discuss strategies for being success in school. Below are some questions to ask your child to help them stay on-track.

* What did you write in your agenda today for homework?

* What assignments are listed on Haiku?

* When is your next test and how are you studying for it? Is there a study guide?

* Tell me about your last test, what was easy and what was challenging?

* What is your most challenging class and what do you need help with?

* Have you checked Skyward today? If not, let's look now!

As a parent or guardian you always have access to your student's grades, assignments, and academic history through parent access. Your student's academic history will list all their past grades from previous academic years. If you have any questions please contact your child's teachers and/or counselor at any time! Remember, the Counseling Corner is only once a month but you can check the Counseling Haiku page for resources at any time!

Thank you!

Sarah Parnell A-G

Christy Walter H-N

Denise Ozeri O-Z

SCHOOL NEWS

EMS CLOTHING & TOY DRIVE *new*

Attention All Eagles:

It's time for our annual clothing drive! Evergreen ASB/Leadership students have held an annual clothing drive in December. This year we are collecting toys as well. All new and used clothing AND toys can be donated in the commons before school, Monday through Friday of next week. Students will be working together with their homeroom classes to earn a class party. If your homeroom students want to donate items, they can earn points for all items turned in any day, but double points will be earned when their donated items match the daily theme.

Daily Themes:

� Monday 12/7: Legs and Legos - Pants, skirts, Legos, blocks, & other building things are all worth double points.

� Tuesday 12/8: Board Games and Blouses - All shirts and tops, all board games and card games are worth double points.

� Wednesday 12/9: Coats and Cars - Coats, hats, scarves, gloves, mittens, snow gear, and all cars, trucks, & trains are double points.

� Thursday 12/10: Dolls and Diapers - Double points for all baby clothes, Barbies, action figures, American Girl, Polly Pocket, etc.

� Friday 12/11: Stuffies and Sleepwear - Stuffed animals, PJs, robes, slippers, and blankets are worth double points.

All items will benefit Northwest Center. http://www.nwcenter.org/

Come on Eagles! Let's see how many items we can donate to Northwest Center!

WE VALUE YOUR FEEDBACK

One of the goals of Lake Washington School district is to engage our communities. We welcome and value parent and community feedback, and each year we administer two district-wide parent and community surveys:

1. An annual climate survey
Each year we survey parents and community members to seek feedback about school learning environments, academic standards, communication, student support and more. This district and schools carefully reviews the feedback collected each year to help inform our continuous improvement processes. It helps us to understand what we are doing well and how we can continue to improve. This survey was last administered in spring of 2015. You can see the results from last spring's survey by clicking here.We are now moving this survey to the fall, as we have another survey in the spring that focuses on specific program efforts.

2. An annual program survey

Each spring we survey parents to seek feedback about specific district programs and initiatives. The district carefully reviews the feedback collected each year and uses it to help inform our strategic planning processes. Look for this survey in spring 2016.

In addition for many years our district has had an ongoing telephone poll in place. Pacific Market Research places calls on behalf of the Lake Washington School District to seek feedback from parents and community members. We regularly review the feedback collected and analyze the data trends over time.

Fall climate survey launching now: Since we are moving the annual climate survey to the fall, your chance to weigh in is happening now. In order to participate, Click on this linkor past this link into a web browser: http://www.k12insight.com/k/SsWYVTsQRURsPsPsP

Please feel free to forward the link to friends and neighbors. We would also like to hear from community members who do not have students in our schools. It survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes. The survey will close on Friday, December 18.

We appreciate your time. District-wide results from the survey will be shared on the "Your Voice" page of the district website. School-wide results for selected questions will be published as part of each school's annual report, which will be distributed to all parents next fall.

YEARBOOK

Evergreen Eagles: We will have our last Yearbook sell date starting November 1st, 2015, running through December 18th, 2015. The cost for Yearbooks are $30.00. They can be purchased at the cashier window with cash or check made out to "EMS." (There is currently not an online option.) Don't miss out on the opportunity to purchase this great keepsake!

PRE-ARRANGED ABSENCES AND ATTENDANCE POLICIES

If you know in advance your student will be missing school, please call our Attendance Office at 425-936-2321 to pre-arrange the absence. Then we can enter the event into Skyward as an excused absence and you will not receive a phone call indicating your student was absent.

Also, please note we can only excuse absences for the following reasons:

� illness

� medical appointments

� family emergencies

� religious holidays

� school-related field trips

� suspensions and absences created by the school

� other planned absences

All other absences will be considered unexcused, and students who accumulate too many unexcused absences will be subject to the Becca Bill and the King County Juvenile Court System.

Please see the Attendance Policies on p. 20-21 in the EMS Student Handbook for further explanation.

EVERGREEN ATHLETICS

2ND SEASON SPORTS

2nd Season sports (Boys' basketball - 7th & 8th and Girls' basketball - 6th, 7th & 8th) started on November 12th and goes through January 15th.

Please click here to see the 2nd Season Sports Schedule.

PLEASE NOTE: On the days a team has late practice they will be in the library until their practice starts.

PTSA

DECEMBER STAFF APPRECIATION LUNCH *new*

Let's help our awesome, hardworking Evergreen Middle School staff end the year on a sweet (and savory) note. Please sign up for next Staff Appreciation Lunch on Wednesday, December 9th.

EPREP PARENT VOLUNTEERS NEEDED *new*

We are looking for parents that can help inventory our emergency backpacks and buckets on Wednesday, December 16th at 9am until we are done. We only expect this to take a couple of hours as some of these bags have already been inventoried.

The purpose of the inventory is to assure that each bag and bucket has the required items and that nothing has expired. If you are able to help, please sign up.

PTSA MEMBER BENEFIT HIGHLIGHTS
Wild Waves Holiday with Lights

In December, Wild Waves Theme Park transforms into a shimmering nighttime wonderland of rides, lights, and holiday fun! Your admission ticket into Holiday with Lights includes over ONE MILLION dazzling lights and astounding light displays. Purchase Holiday with Lights tickets here.

Pacific Northwest Ballet

The Washington State PTA has collaborated with the Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) to offer WSPTA members a 10% discount off all performances of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker™! Purchase The Nutcracker tickets here.

MyForce

Never Walk Alone ™

WSPTA has joined with MyForce to offer special WSPTA member pricing. MyForce is a complete personal security system used through your smartphone. MyForce provides you the ability to instantly notify a live response team member by the touch of a button. Visit the WSPTA designated webpage for details.

HOLIDAY SHOPPING WITH AMAZON? DON'T FORGET TO CHOOSE EMS PTSA!

Please use Amazon Smiles when doing ALL your online shopping! Amazon gives 0.5% of your purchases to the charity of your choice... so choose the Evergreen PTSA! Use

http://smile.amazon.com as the URL to get to Amazon.com. When you "Select Charity", choose "Evergreen Middle School PTSA" (Tacoma, WA) and it will remember us as your selected charity for next time. It's easy to earn money for Evergreen by shopping with Amazon Smiles!

EVERGREEN PTSA WEBSITE

The Evergreen Middle School PTSA website is up and running! For the latest news on EMS happenings, please visit http://evergreenptsa.org.

JOIN THE EMS PTSA FACEBOOK PAGE

EMS PTSA invites you to join our discussion on Facebook. Click here for up-to-date notices about school activities and communicate with other Evergreen families.

EXTRACURRICULAR

1ST ANNUAL MUSTANG HOLIDAY BAZAAR *updated*

Saturday, Dec. 12th, 10am-4pm @ Redmond High School

Items for sale include jewelry, hand-made soaps and lotions, greeting cards, purses, handbags, stained glass ornaments, hand-made wooden pieces, Mary Kay, Glassybaby, flameless pillar candles, baked goods, clothing, hand-made toys and many more.

Entertainment will be supplied by the wonderful RHS band and Santa will be making an appearance. There will be some great raffle prizes including a 3 night stay in Whistler, a 1 night stay in Lake Stevens, 3 months storage rental at Red-Way Storage and cupcakes from Pinkabella. It will be a great place to support local businesses and buy your holiday gifts.

Come check us out and finish your holiday shopping. See our Facebook page 'Redmond High School's Mustang Holiday Bazaar' for more information.

EASTSIDE SKI & RIDE *new*

The Summit at Snoqualmie, 8 Saturdays beginning January 9th, 2016

Skiing/Boarding lessons and transportation for all abilities for 2nd-12th grade students.

Deluxe Coach Transportation from convenient parking lots at Redmond & Juanita High School. Buses equipped with bathrooms and movie screens.

Click here to view the flyer for more information.

TOYS FOR TOTS

Sat., December 12th, 11am-2 pm, Bella Bottega Shopping Center

Bring a new unwrapped toy and have your picture taken with the Marines & Redmond Fire Department!

Drop off: Coldwell Banker Bain

Bella Bottega Shopping Center

8862 161st Ave NE, Suite 103 * Redmond

GOT ROOM FOR ONE MORE?

You don't need to be a super hero or even save the world...but just maybe you could find room to make the difference in the life of one more child.

Get licensed and ready to help when a child in our school district needs a foster family. For more information, please call 1-888-KIDS-414 (1-888-543-7414) or click here to view the flyer.

NON DISCRIMINATION POLICY

The Lake Washington School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, gender, marital status, creed, religion, honorably discharged veteran, military status, sexual orientation, including gender expression or identity, the presence of any sensory, mental or physical disability, or the use of a trained guide dog or service animal by a person with a disability, in its programs and activities and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups.

The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policies:

Director of Human Resources

16250 NE 74th Street

Redmond, Washington, 98052

(425) 936-1266

Eagle Express is published by parent volunteers of Evergreen Middle School. Click here to contact us about the newsletter. For more information about the PTSA you can visit the Evergreen Middle School PTSA website at http://evergreenptsa.org.