School Events

Important date reminder:

9/23  
Back to School Night 
6:30-8:00 p.m.

Since Back to School Night
is intended for parents to meet their child's teachers, and staff will not be
available to monitor students, we ask that any student or siblings who attend, are accompanied
by an adult at all times.

9/23 
AVID potluck
(AVID parents & students), 
Cafeteria
5pm 

Shuksan Events Calendar

Students, please take this message home to your parents! 

We are now in our third week of school. The start of school went very well. We welcomed back students, teachers and parents and started working with learning targets in each class. This is going to be an exciting year here at Shuksan, our last year in the old school building.
Here is an overview:

1. Learning Targets - When you ask your child at the end of the day how their day was, the term Learning Targets can help. In each class students and teachers are using Learning Targets as a way to focus attention on the learning that should take place that day. Learning Targets are "I can" statements that give students a clear idea of the objective for that day. Example: I can convert US units to metric units and metric units to US units.  At the end of each class students should be able to easily state whether they met the learning target or not.  For middle school students, this focus is often essential for clarity and understanding.  When asked what they learned in school today "nothing" or "I don't know" is not a valid answer.

2.  School Focus - This year Shuksan will focus on building a positive climate for learning. Students, teachers and parents are all invited to help us achieve this goal. Shuksan has suffered too long under the false impression that it is a school of lower academic standards and low expectations for students. We want to change that opinion of the school and give every child, regardless of economic status or family situation, the opportunity to prepare for college, career and citizenship. Over the next few months we will prepare for the opening of the new Shuksan. As part of the process we will revisit our school mission, vision and strategic plan. We will engage in productive dialogue concerning what the new Shuksan will offer to the Bellingham community.  We need your help. Please volunteer your time to serve on one of our committees. They range from a student and staff celebration committee to the strategic planning committee.  This is your chance to help reshape Shuksan for the future. 

New building Planning 
Strategic Planning 
Community Engagement  
Student Staff Celebration
Diversity Celebration 
Safety Planning
Technology Planning

3. Make Your Day - There is still a great deal of confusion about Make Your Day. Let us try to clarify some of the issues. I urge you to contact your child's teachers or the office for more clarification of MYD expectations and procedures.

Thank you for all you do for your child. Together we will make their education at Shuksan a successful experience. Please stay in contact and stay involved.

Thank you

Andrew Mark
Principal, Shuksan Middle School