Pinnacle - 7th Grade

Britnie Bell teaches math on our team.  This will be her 9^th year teaching, fourth year teaching at Mill Creek.  Miss. Bell graduated from Central Michigan University and earned a Master of Arts in Learning Design and Technology from CMU.  Miss. Bell coaches 7th grade volleyball and is the sprint coach for the varsity track team.   In her free time, she enjoys spending quality time with family/friends, reading, watching sports, and getting outside.

Marianne Mutschler teaches science on our team.  This will be her 18^th year teaching at Mill Creek.  Mrs. Mutschler has a Master’s Degree in K-12 Educational Leadership from her alma mater, Michigan State (Go Green!).  She enjoys spending her time after school with her husband and her six sons, ages 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, and 3.  In her spare time, she enjoys running, reading, kayaking, hiking, and spending time outdoors. 

Laura Saulles is starting her seventh year teaching English at Mill Creek.  She has earned two master’s degrees: one in English from the State University of New York at New Paltz, and one in Education from the University of Michigan. Before she started teaching, Mrs. Saulles worked as a writer in the marketing and legal fields.  In her free time, she enjoys spending quality time with her family, reading, creative writing, traveling, and kayaking.

John Sperendi teaches social studies.  He earned a bachelor’s degree from EMU and a master’s degree in Education from Walden University.  This will be his 16^th year teaching in Dexter and his 13^th year at Mill Creek.  When not in the classroom, Mr. Sperendi enjoys spending time with family and friends, playing music (the bass), gardening, DIY home projects, yoga and fitness, and reading.

Danna Webber is one of the support teachers on the team.  This will be Webber's third year at Mill Creek Middle School and sixth year in education.  Webber earned a bachelor's degree in special education with an emphasis as a learning behavior specialist from Northern Illinois University.  Webber's hobbies include substantially overestimating the amount of plants needed per garden, reading, and spending time with family and friends.

Emily Xu is one of the support teachers on the team. This will be her eighth year at Dexter Community Schools. Xu earned a master's degree in Secondary Education and a post-master's degree in Educational Specialist in Leadership from Oakland University. Xu obtained her special education interim certification through Teachers of Tomorrow. Xu finds joy in traveling, exploring museums, going hiking, and spending time with her family and friends. 

1. Know your password to check PowerSchool. This will allow you and your student to keep track of grades and progress in all courses! 

2. Check your child’s progress often. We will help students create an organizational structure for the many demands on their lives. Please check in with your student and regularly have conversations about the curriculum, their progress toward completing focus skill assignments and projects. Bookmark our team homework calendar. 

3. Absences–Parents, please notify the office if your student will be missing class. Find out about things that were practiced or due in class by checking the homework calendar on our team website. 

4. Know how to contact your child’s teachers. Emails are listed on our main team website.

5. Know about Student Snap Shot.  Snap Shot Meetings occur every few weeks. During this time, team teachers, administration, and support staff review each child to note if he/she is doing well academically, socially, behaviorally, and if some support is needed. An action plan is developed if needed. An email is sent after the meeting to the student and parent with praise and/or concerns that the teachers have at that time. 

In Science we utilize the Summit Learning Platform, just like other teachers utilize Canvas for their classes, as a learning management system.  There are no tests on the platform for Pinnacle students; instead all tests will be given via paper/pencil.  Using the Summit Learning platform as our place to store project documents allows for all 7th grade science teachers to work collaboratively and create projects that all students can benefit from.

• Summit Learning Platform

Canvas LMS (learning management system) is a great resource for students who miss class, forget to fill out their planners, or misplace documents they received in class.  Parents and guardians can also create their own Canvas account and become observers to a student's account. 

• Canvas Login
• Instructions for Setting up a Parent Canvas Observation Account

GROWTH MINDSET INTRODUCTION  FOR PARENTS

Your school is teaching kids about Mindset. It is important for you to be aware of what it is, why it’s important, and how you can support it.

What is mindset and why is it important? Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck from decades of research on achievement and success—a simple idea that makes all the difference. Dr. Dweck realized that there are two mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.

• In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. They’re wrong.
• In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all people who have achieved top performance, had these qualities. Research shows that people with this view reach higher levels of success than people with fixed mindset beliefs.

Teaching a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports. It enhances relationships, and increases achievement.

How can you support a growth mindset in your children? No parent thinks, “I wonder what I can do today to undermine my children, subvert their effort, turn them off learning, and limit their achievement.” Of course not. Rather, we think, “I would do and give anything, to make my children successful.” Yet, many of the things we do boomerang. Our best intentioned judgments, lessons, and motivating techniques often, unintentionally, send the wrong message.

In fact, every word and action sends a message. The things we do and say tell children how to think about themselves. They can hear a fixed mindset message that says, “You have permanent traits and I’m judging them,” or they can hear a growth mindset message that says, “You are a developing person and I am interested in your growth.”

The most important thing you can do to help your child instill a growth mindset is to praise them for effort rather than for talent. Messages like, “You learned that so quickly! You’re so smart!” teach children that effort is a sign of weakness and that they are either smart or not smart. If these children encounter difficulty in the future, they may not know how to deal with it. Instead, messages such as, “I like the way you approached that problem,” or “Good job to hang in there and find a different strategy that worked,” or “Sorry, that seemed to be too easy for you; let’s do something more challenging.” teach kids that effort is something we can all benefit from to reach our full potential, and that we need to be working purposefully in order to grow. © 2013 Mindset Works, Inc. www.mindsetworks.com