Dear Mustang Families,
Team Mill Creek – Leading the charge of life-long learning!
Week 4 of the new school year and what an honor it is to continue to serve our Mill Creek community! Each year we welcome students with a fierce passion and commitment to learning! And although learning models look and feel much different this year and we have spent time at the beginning of the year practicing routines and commitments to our learning environment, the one thing that never changes is our relentless focus on students learning. Students have kicked off this school year taking pride in their learning, showing excellence in ownership, courage in trying new things, and most important the desire to be vested learners - excited about the opportunities of new ways to engage with their peers.
Throughout classrooms in recent weeks students learned how to collaborate using technology as a modality of learning, they engaged in critical thinking activities in STEM where they had to solve problems with little direction from the teacher, promoting risk-taking and students produced artifacts that were a product of how they viewed their own learning. In addition, we built a single school culture – K – 8 - teaching, modeling, and practicing common learning and behavior expectations from classroom-to-classroom! These common, predictable school-wide structures give students the ability to focus on learning so, “all the unpredictable thinking” can occur!
We constantly remind ourselves of the opportunities we have been given to touch the lives of our students! Our commitment remains strong, unfailing, and relentless as we guarantee that we will continue to meet the needs of every child, every day!
As we have settled into the school year there are a few key parent communication modes that will keep you updated on the current events and learning practices throughout the year:
Mill Creek webpage – Mill Creek’s webpage! The most current information and updates can be found at https://www-mca.stjohns.k12.fl.us/. It is a great tool for you to visit regularly for learning and event updates. Please never hesitate to let us know if you view information on our website that is not updated!
Weekly Messenger – The Mill Creek Messenger is the weekly school newsletter. I use this platform to educate our parents of instructional practices, deepen the understanding of our instructional practices, learning goals, and standards for our parents and families, and keep you updated on current events. In addition, I use the newsletter as reminders, safety tips, and frequent communication that is important to the Mill Creek community as a whole.
Social Media(Twitter) - @MustangsMill – Twitter is where we like to showcase the day to day highlights, celebrating student and staffulty greatness. We do not use Twitter at this time to post events, those are updated on our webpage and sent directly to families.
Finally, I wanted to extend my appreciation for your patience, flexibility, and support as we have worked through our arrival and dismissal times. Your effort has been noticed and has helped tremendously as we ensure the safety of our students during this time.
A final reminder, we do request that parents please continue to honor our arrival time. Please do not drop students prior to 8:00AM. With your continued support we continue to become more efficient every day. Thank you for your understanding!
Our goal is for Every child, Every Need, Every Day to be served in an environment of excellence. We encourage you to become an active participant in your child’s education and look forward to serving as your teacher and leader. I feel completely blessed and honored to lead at Mill Creek and as a Mighty Mustang Team we are committed to LEARNING FOR ALL… Leading the charge of life-long learning!
Sincerely,
Amanda L. Riedl, Learning Leader
