March 2, 2018

We, at GVMS, do our very best to ensure that our students are safe at all times.  We practice fire drills, intruder drills, review safety protocols and more.   Please talk with your students about where the exit routes are from their classrooms and where to evacuate if necessary.  Should we need to evacuate campus completely, GVMS offsite meeting and pick-up locations are #1: Cordelia Community Park and #2: Ridgeview Park (next to Oakbrook Elementary).

We are currently in the process of increasing our video camera coverage and installing an additional gate in front that requires being buzzed in and increasing our volunteers through our Watch DOGS program.  We can always use more eyes and ears!  We have our amazing campus monitors (and all adults) constantly patrolling our huge site and communicating to all Admin and office when anything goes on. 

We know that many of our students are talking about the national school walk out on March 14.  We are currently meeting with student council and student leadership to discuss ideas on how students can get involved in ways that do not violate school rules and board policy.  The specific board policy on student disturbances can be found here.

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We continue to be very concerned about the amount of students that are dropped off at school in the morning (sometimes before 7 AM!!) and then choosing to WALK to Tower Mart.  This is extremely unsafe and we cannot chase after them to have them return to school.  Please remind your student NOT to do this!

Did you know that colleges and employers make the time to search tweens and teens to see what their "digital footprint" looks like?  Take a look at the video to help you, as a parent, monitor your students social media presence every week/month in less than 5 minutes!

Intra-murals are COMING!!!  GVMS is starting after school intra-murals for students who are interested!  These are FREE, open to ALL students, and will be FUN!  There is a after school meeting from 3-3:30 PM on February 27th for parents and interested students!  Information, contract information, and more will be discussed at this meeting!  We are super excited to have Mrs. Keffer and Mr. Peila be able to offer this to our students!

Every SINGLE day, over our loud speakers, we make lots of announcements to our students.  These include: events coming up, clubs to join, sports activities, grading windows, and more.  PLEASE make sure that you all, at home, bookmark this page HERE so that YOU don't miss out on what's happening at GVMS!  We have a LOT of exciting activities coming up that you won't want your student (or YOU!) to miss out on!

Additionally, we review our school rules.  EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Including keeping our hands to ourselves and no play fighting/slap boxing.  PLEASE encourage your student to follow our school rules!!

The SPRING FLING IS COMING!!  We are gearing up for our 4th Annual Spring Fling at GV Cellars on Saturday, April 28 from 4-8 PM and WE NEED YOUR HELP!  Do you have connections for tickets to sporting events, time shares, winery tours, limo tours, etc?  Tickets will be on sale FEBRUARY 1st for $25.00 and the Sign Up Genius has gone out!  Click HERE to see if you can donate! Please reach out to your connections and help us make this year's event even more fun and successful than last year's (that may be hard as last year was a TON of fun!).  More details, donation letters, and Sign Up Genius links will be sent at the beginning of February!  You DON'T want to miss this!

HAVE YOU HEARD?  We are SO excited that our own Green Valley Parent-Teacher Club is signed up for Amazon Smile, where a portion of purchases comes back DIRECTLY to GVMS!  As you are doing your shopping on Amazon, remember to log into Amazon Smile and click Green Valley Parent-Teacher Club to help support GVMS!  Thank you!!

*CHECK OUT OUR PROJECTS!!*  THERE ARE MANY NEW ONES TOO!! 

We are ALWAYS thinking outside the box to create effective ways to reach all of our students!  Want to be a part of this??  All donations are TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!  Check out THIS LINK to see ALL OF the different ideas that our VERY OWN GVMS teachers have come up with!  NEW PROJECTS HAVE BEEN ADDED!!

February 23, 2018

All GVMS and FSUSD students COMPLETED the MAP Test.  MAP measures a student's growth throughout the year and they take the test three times a year.  In most cases, MAP helps us determine placement for classes for the following year.  We are seeing a TON of growth in our students and we are THRILLED!  Still a little lost when it comes to MAP?  Take a look at THIS Parent Guide to MAP and what it means!  Each student earns a RIT score, which can help our teachers determine where they are at, academically.  Take a look at THIS PARENT TOOL KIT for an easy guide to also help understand MAP testing.  
We use these results to help us place students into classes for the next school year!  

Intra-murals are COMING!!!  GVMS is starting after school intra-murals for students who are interested!  These are FREE, open to ALL students, and will be FUN!  There is a after school meeting from 3-3:30 PM on February 27th for parents and interested students!  Information, contract information, and more will be discussed at this meeting!  We are super excited to have Mrs. Keffer and Mr. Peila be able to offer this to our students!

I am SURE you have heard of SnapChat.  Who hasn't really?  Have you heard about the new updates?  Take a few minutes to watch the video above to make sure you, as a parent, completely understand what the app is and what it actually does, and what the new updates mean to YOU, the parent!  There is even more information HERE so please read it!

Every SINGLE day, over our loud speakers, we make lots of announcements to our students.  These include: events coming up, clubs to join, sports activities, grading windows, and more.  PLEASE make sure that you all, at home, bookmark this page HERE so that YOU don't miss out on what's happening at GVMS!  We have a LOT of exciting activities coming up that you won't want your student (or YOU!) to miss out on!

Additionally, we review our school rules.  EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Including keeping our hands to ourselves and no play fighting/slap boxing.  PLEASE encourage your student to follow our school rules!!

The SPRING FLING IS COMING!!  We are gearing up for our 4th Annual Spring Fling at GV Cellars on Saturday, April 28 from 4-8 PM and WE NEED YOUR HELP!  Do you have connections for tickets to sporting events, time shares, winery tours, limo tours, etc?  Tickets will be on sale FEBRUARY 1st for $25.00 and the Sign Up Genius has gone out!  Click HERE to see if you can donate! Please reach out to your connections and help us make this year's event even more fun and successful than last year's (that may be hard as last year was a TON of fun!).  More details, donation letters, and Sign Up Genius links will be sent at the beginning of February!  You DON'T want to miss this!

*CHECK OUT OUR PROJECTS!!*  THERE ARE MANY of THEM!

We are ALWAYS thinking outside the box to create effective ways to reach all of our students!  Want to be a part of this??  All donations are TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!  Check out THIS LINK to see ALL OF the different ideas that our VERY OWN GVMS teachers have come up with!  NEW PROJECTS HAVE BEEN ADDED!!

February 16, 2018

All GVMS and FSUSD students are in the middle of taking the MAP Test.  MAP measures a student's growth throughout the year and they take the test three times a year.  In most cases, MAP helps us determine placement for classes for the following year.  We REALLY need our students to take it seriously as it may be the difference between an AP class or not going into high school!
Sometimes, we can see negative growth as well.  There are many factors for this, and THIS ARTICLE can help parents understand what that might mean and reasons why.....

Do you know what a JUUL is?  I certainly didn't.  And I still wish I didn't, however, JUULs are becoming more and more popular, especially among teenagers.  They are also SUPER easy to purchase.  While you are supposed to be 18, there are MANY places near us (711, Power Mart, and more) that have no problem selling to our Vikings.  What is a JUUL you ask?  Take a look at THIS SHORT VIDEO and informational piece about what they are, how addicting they can be, and why our kids may have their hands on them.

Do you have gently used equipment at home that is looking for a new home?  We are going to be starting after school activities open to all and need equipment to get them going!  We are looking for Frisbees, foam bats, badminton gear, whiffle balls, whiffle bats, hack sacks and more!  Please look around and send in anything that can help us get these activities up and running for our Vikings! 

Every day, over our loud speakers, we make lots of announcements to our students.  These include: events coming up, clubs to join, sports activities, grading windows, and more.  PLEASE make sure that you all, at home, bookmark this page HERE so that YOU don't miss out on what's happening at GVMS!  We have a LOT of exciting activities coming up that you won't want your student (or YOU!) to miss out on!

The SPRING FLING IS COMING!!  We are gearing up for our 4th Annual Spring Fling at GV Cellars on Saturday, April 28 from 4-8 PM and WE NEED YOUR HELP!  Do you have connections for tickets to sporting events, time shares, winery tours, limo tours, etc?  Tickets will be on sale FEBRUARY 1st for $25.00 and the Sign Up Genius has gone out!  Click HERE to see if you can donate! Please reach out to your connections and help us make this year's event even more fun and successful than last year's (that may be hard as last year was a TON of fun!).  More details, donation letters, and Sign Up Genius links will be sent at the beginning of February!  You DON'T want to miss this!

*CHECK OUT OUR PROJECTS!!*  THERE ARE MANY of THEM!

We are ALWAYS thinking outside the box to create effective ways to reach all of our students!  Want to be a part of this??  All donations are TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!  Check out THIS LINK to see ALL OF the different ideas that our VERY OWN GVMS teachers have come up with!  NEW PROJECTS HAVE BEEN ADDED!!

February 9, 2018

Have you ever uttered the words to your tween/teen, "you just put so much pressure on yourself"?  Honestly, many young adults today are more burned out and stressed by the pressure that others put on them, including parents.  How can that be, you ask.....Well, take a look at THIS ARTICLE to see what's going on and ways that you can support without adding pressure to your Viking!

Do you have gently used equipment at home that is looking for a new home?  We are going to be starting after school activities open to all and need equipment to get them going!  We are looking for Frisbees, foam bats, badminton gear, whiffle balls, whiffle bats, hack sacks and more!  Please look around and send in anything that can help us get these activities up and running for our Vikings! 

Every day, over our loud speakers, we make lots of announcements to our students.  These include: events coming up, clubs to join, sports activities, grading windows, and more.  PLEASE make sure that you all, at home, bookmark this page HERE so that YOU don't miss out on what's happening at GVMS!  We have a LOT of exciting activities coming up that you won't want your student (or YOU!) to miss out on!

The SPRING FLING IS COMING!!  We are gearing up for our 4th Annual Spring Fling at GV Cellars on Saturday, April 28 from 4-8 PM and WE NEED YOUR HELP!  Do you have connections for tickets to sporting events, time shares, winery tours, limo tours, etc?  Tickets will be on sale FEBRUARY 1st for $25.00 and the Sign Up Genius has gone out!  Click HERE to see if you can donate! Please reach out to your connections and help us make this year's event even more fun and successful than last year's (that may be hard as last year was a TON of fun!).  More details, donation letters, and Sign Up Genius links will be sent at the beginning of February!  You DON'T want to miss this!

*CHECK OUT OUR PROJECTS!!*  THERE ARE MANY of THEM!

We are ALWAYS thinking outside the box to create effective ways to reach all of our students!  Want to be a part of this??  All donations are TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!  Check out THIS LINK to see ALL OF the different ideas that our VERY OWN GVMS teachers have come up with!  NEW PROJECTS HAVE BEEN ADDED!!

February 2, 2018

Have you taken the time to sit down with your tween or teen and truly ASKED them what they wished you (as a parent) about social media?  I have to be honest....I haven't.  Reading THIS ARTICLE was truly an Ah-ha moment for me, as a parent.  Many, including myself, didn't even realize that most have two Instagram accounts.  One that is fake and one that is real.  Many tweens and teens don't just use their phones for social media: once you take a phone away at night, some just pull another to get back on.  Take some time to read this.  It's worth it, I promise.  

As we start the last semester of this school year, we want to remind all parents and students that this is a fresh start.  Parents, please stay on top of your student by monitoring Parent Portal, downloading the "Grades" app, signing up for Remind texts from the teachers that use it, asking to be connected to Google Classroom and checking out teacher websites.  Please ASK your Viking to show you what they are working on.  Please, oh please, don't wait until May to see what they are missing or what their grades are.  Need help with any of the tech tools we use?  PLEASE reach out to our office at 707-646-7000, email your Viking's teacher directly, check out our website here, or email us!

The SPRING FLING IS COMING!!  We are gearing up for our 4th Annual Spring Fling at GV Cellars on Saturday, April 28 from 4-8 PM and WE NEED YOUR HELP!  Do you have connections for tickets to sporting events, time shares, winery tours, limo tours, etc?  Tickets will be on sale FEBRUARY 1st for $25.00 and the Sign Up Genius has gone out!  Click HERE to see if you can donate! Please reach out to your connections and help us make this year's event even more fun and successful than last year's (that may be hard as last year was a TON of fun!).  More details, donation letters, and Sign Up Genius links will be sent at the beginning of February!  You DON'T want to miss this!

HAVE YOU HEARD?  We are SO excited that our own Green Valley Parent-Teacher Club is signed up for Amazon Smile, where a portion of purchases comes back DIRECTLY to GVMS!  As you are doing your shopping on Amazon, remember to log into Amazon Smile and click Green Valley Parent-Teacher Club to help support GVMS!  Thank you!!

*CHECK OUT OUR PROJECTS!!*  THERE ARE MANY of THEM!

We are ALWAYS thinking outside the box to create effective ways to reach all of our students!  Want to be a part of this??  All donations are TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!  Check out THIS LINK to see ALL OF the different ideas that our VERY OWN GVMS teachers have come up with!  NEW PROJECTS HAVE BEEN ADDED!!