This Saturday at 7pm join us for a magical concert with performances from our talented students, alumni, faculty and friends.
Songfest has been one of our biggest community events at Middle School for over 40 years and our students and community have worked so hard on making this incredible night of music for us.
We know this is a hard time for everyone, especially our black communities and we don't want to lose touch with the struggles and fights going on right now. Music is what brings us together and now more than ever, we can't wait to share this special night with you.
Details can be found here
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It's the SCOOP for June 5, 2020
Your weekly news from Santa Barbara Middle School
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The Journey of Discovery - 2019-20
Show Up. Dive in. Share Your Gifts.
Begin Again.
"What if 2020 is the year we’ve been waiting for?
A year so uncomfortable, so painful, so scary, so raw —
that it finally forces us to grow,
A year that screams so loud,
finally awakening us from our ignorant slumber.
A year we finally accept the need for change.
Declare change. Work for change.
Become the change."
A year we finally band together,
instead of pushing each other further apart.
2020 isn’t canceled,
but rather
the most important year of them all."
- Leslie Dwight
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Dear SBMS Community,
We recognize that these are truly historic times. Middle School's mission to "c
ultivate in our student’s passion for life and life-long learning, a deep sense of trust in themselves, strength and courage to succeed at life's challenges, and compassion and respect for others" has never been more important. As we approach our last week of school together filled with sunrise swims, Songfest, adventure days and our many Rites of Passage,
we hope everyone takes time to read through
our statemen
t
regarding recent events and our commitment to learning, listening, educating, and voicing support for the struggle against prejudice and injustice, so that we all may become agents of change.
Looking ahead to next year, our primary goal is to begin in August and bring as much of our full program forward as possible. This includes cohort models with a new creative schedule and health and safety precautions to maximize our
academic, elective, and outdoor education opportunities while enhancing life skills and advisories for building authentic relationships with our students. Our
robust program will be different from what we are used to, but we will ensure that all our learning targets are met while making the safety of our students our number one priority. With our dedicated staff and small class sizes, we will provide two-way blended learning opportunities for our students with our on-campus program and our remote learning options. With our protocols and adjustments in place, we will start early and stay open as long as possible into flu season with guidance from our COVID-19 committee and public health officials. We plan to take full advantage of the time at the beginning of the year when students can be on campus together. This means we will be starting a week earlier than originally scheduled. Please calendar the week of August 24th for orientation activities, bike rides, cohort trainings, and community education related to our new coronavirus protocols.
Our secondary contingency, should we have to transition back to online learning during flu season, will include an enhanced Distance Learning Program designed to help us pivot back to on-campus learning at the earliest possible date. We will continue to communicate regularly over the summer with additional details and updates beginning with our major summer packets arriving in mid-June.
Let us keep reminding ourselves that t
here are many ways for each one of us to continue to show up, dive in and begin again - today, tomorrow, next week and into next year.
To Becoming Better,
Brian, Bianca & our SBMS Staff
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EOY EVENTS SCHEDULE
This week coming up is a busy one! Remember to read through the
detailed breakdown of events planned
to wrap up this school year and read through messages from your Deans. We can't wait to see you out on the road for adventure days and tomorrow's sunrise swim!
DAY OF SERVICE TUESDAY, JUNE 9
School-wide, we are all coming together for one final service opportunity to help those who have had no shelter in which to “shelter in place” these past few months. We are teaming up with our Community Action Club to support two local organizations, “
Purse Project
” and “
Adam’s Angels
” to provide needed essential hygiene items to those in our community without access to a stable home. (See
last week’s Scoop
for a sample list of items to collect)
Here are the details…
RITES OF PASSAGE
We are so excited to have a finalized location for Rites of Passage. The event will be held at
Godric Grove
on Friday, June 12, by invitation only. For those of you who can't attend in person, we will be broadcasting the event so you can join in on this special ceremony. Please look out for further details on timing. We look forward to celebrating this 9th grade class and all of their accomplishments over the last few years.
THE SBMS LIBRARY
Please note that the SBMS Library will not be open this summer to lend out books. We ask that during our end-of-year pick-up on campus (details to come) you return all library books that are currently checked out. Note that the Santa Barbara Public Library will begin sidewalk services for book holds made online starting June 8.
Learn more here.
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BIANCA'S BLURB
I don't know about you, but sometimes when I see a long list of resources, I end up clicking on nothing rather than reading something. When drafting the Black Lives Matter message to the community, I recognized that it was a long list. It felt important, however, to provide as much support and resources as possible for such a critical moment in our lives. I decided to use this blurb to highlight one resource:
Common Sense media
.
They have great articles including the
top black history movies that tackle racism
as well as the
top books you might encourage them to read this summer about diversity and inclusion
(scroll down in this article to find teen appropriate books). In today's blurb, I'd like to highlight some key points from Common Sense Media about how to talk about race and racism with your child. Here are some solid tips to begin the conversation.
- Check in with yourself first. The pandemic has been hard enough. And then you layer racial injustices, protests, and riots on top of that and you may be feeling overwhelmed as a parent. Find a time to talk to your child when you are feeling the most calm and centered about it all.
- Create a safe space. Make sure there are no distractions, no pressing events to get to and sit next to them. Ask them how they're feeling and look for signs of distress.
- Listen. Many of our children are acutely aware of what's going on and are probably following many of their favorite artists, actors, etc on social media and see what they are posting and saying. Listen to their thoughts and ask them to tell you more to clarify their thinking.
- Bite size pieces. We need to talk about this. But, "if we are so lucky and privileged, then we can dole out the information to them in safer doses." We don't need to talk about every single incident and watch a video of every protest. Choose a couple and talk about those.
- Encourage empathy and look for resilience. Ask them to think about how others feel or have felt. Then push them to find the resilience in the communities that have been affected.
- Take Action. Begin to talk about what your child and your family can do. Some bigger actions might be protesting, petitioning, etc. But there are other ways to take action. Listen to your friends of color. Ask them how they're doing. Read a book. Watch a movie. Follow an activist on Instagram. Listen to a podcast. Just encourage your child to commit to some sort of action.
Read the rest of Bianca's Blurbs
here
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THE WEEK AHEAD
Saturday, June 6
Sunday, June 7
4-6pm Lick the Plate (see details below)
Monday, June 8:
All School Adventure Day
7pm 6th & 7th Grade Campfire
7pm 9th Grade Campfire Honorings on Campus
Tuesday, June 9:
7pm 9th Grade Campfire Honorings on Campus
Wednesday, June 10:
Last Day of School
10am Final Town Meeting
4-6pm Lick the Plate (see details below)
7pm All School Fire On-Campus (for 9th grade only) and ZOOM (for everyone else)
Thursday, June 11:
7pm 8th/9th Grade Final Fire on ZOOM
Friday, June 12:
Rites of Passage
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FAMILY ACTIVITIES
LICK THE PLATE WITH PA
Lick the Plate this Sunday (June 7) and Wednesday (June 10) will be getting sweet and then savory. This Sunday we are going to be making Ice Cream! I scream for ice cream and I hope you do too. We'll be making a classic vanilla stracciatella. And Wednesday I am thinking of making Lebanese Kefta Kebabs, a tahini sauce and tomato salad. I'll be cooking my kebabs on my fire outback. For ingredients email
pa@sbms.org.
Sunday Zoom
Wednesday Zoom
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PHOTO CONTEST
Camryn is our winner of last week's "self-portrait" photo contest. We love the magnification of the bottle.
Thank you all for participating over the last few weeks. We loved seeing your creativity and inspirations while shooting at home.
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COMMUNITY
SBMS CARES
On behalf of the SBMS family, thank you to everyone who generously donated to SBMS Cares this past month. Your contributions, words of encouragement, and the outpouring of support during this time of need have been nothing short of inspiring.
In just one month, we raised over $85,000! This was achieved through the collective effort of dozens of current and alum families, our board of trustees, teachers and staff, and dedicated community supporters. Thank you all for upholding our resilient school community during this time of need, allowing us to increase our financial aid capacity, adapt programs to meet our students' needs, and move into the coming year from a place of strength. We are so honored by what you have made possible.
SBMS SUMMER CAMP
SBMS is offering “Build Your Own Experience” Summer Camps. Camps will run in blocks starting at 9am, 11am, and 1pm. Depending on the activity, blocks will be 60 or 90 minutes long. This leaves 30-60 minutes between blocks for snacks and lunch. Each camp/block runs for one week, Monday through Friday.
Learn more about the program here and email
summercamp@sbms.org
for questions or to register.
Camps Offered
- Watercolor (Materials included) - 90 minutes - $175/Week
- Nature Art: Painting & Drawing (Materials included) - 90 minutes - $175/Week
- Bike Mechanics (Some materials included) - 90 minutes - $175/Week
- Beginning Guitar (Guitar’s available) - 60 minutes - $145/Week
- Ukulele (Ukulele available) - 60 minutes - $145/Week
- Yoga - 60 minutes - $125/Week
- Photography (Camera or phone with a camera required) - 60 minutes - $125/Week [NEW!]
CUPS AND QUESTIONS
Thank you to everyone who joined our final Cups and Questions of the school-year this morning. We'll be hosting meetings here and there throughout the summer, so keep an eye out for invites. You can catch up on the discussions with the
recorded meetings in the HUB here.
KARA'S DATA DETOX
Hi Everyone,
Wow. What a year. I am so grateful for this community and I'll miss you all this summer. One thing that made this year so different is the amount of time we've spent on our devices. So when one of my colleagues at the Family Service Agency shared this
Data Detox Kit
I thought it would be especially helpful. As the sun sets on this school year, it's a perfect time to take a pause and think about how we want to interact with our devices over the summer when we don't need to access zoom classes every day. This website can help you understand how you're using your device and give you suggestions for how to adjust your usage. The four sections include worksheets to download or print on these topics:
- Digital Privacy, which focuses on reducing data traces and understanding online profiling;
- Digital Security, with tips on creating strong and secure passwords;
- Digital Wellbeing, which deals with the addictive nature of smartphones;
- Digital Misinformation, a guide for consuming and sharing information online.
With love,
Kara
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FROM THE PARENT ASSOCIATION
It’s hard to believe the school year is coming to a close. Although we’ve experienced frustration, uncertainty, anxiety, social withdrawal, and so many difficult emotions these last several months, the kids have grown in so many ways. I’m so proud of our daughter, Ella, for becoming a stronger more resilient teenager. She is looking forward to what next year will bring and being back on campus in the Fall.
To wrap up, I encourage everyone to participate in our Community Service Day this coming Tuesday. Help us reach our goal of donating 200 purses/bags to The Purse Project and Adams Angels. If we reach our goal, Brian and several teachers will shave their beards and possibly be in for another surprise!
Sixth and eighth grade parents, keep your eyes out for an email from the PA in the next couple of days to sign up to help with Rites of Passage next Friday, June 12th. We need all hands on deck to get Godric Grove at Elings Park ready to celebrate our 9
th
grade graduates. We will need help with supply pickups, decorations, parking attendants, etc. Thank you in advance for your help!!
It’s been a pleasure serving as your PA Chair this year and I look forward to Melissa Renda’s leadership next year. Have a great Summer!
Stay healthy and safe,
Debbie Popovich
PA Chair
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SBMS ACTS OF GRATITUDE
Here are a few stories from our school's do-gooders who have been spreading gratitude in our community. Check back weekly for more!
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Some good things that I have seen people doing are: Writing inspiring messages on the pavement w/ chalk, people mailing more letters, drive-by parties, and more gratitude expressed toward others. Something that really caught my eye was a kid in my neighborhood dropped off some delicious cookies on our doorstep! - Sam B
I went over to play a card game called Snake Oil in my friend's driveway with her family. We sat 6 feet apart to be safe and we each brought our own set of cards. I gave my friend a stuffed animal giraffe which is a little bit of an inside joke between the two of us. My friend brought me a delicious box of Skittles and we had a lot of fun. We sat in their driveway and played Snake Oil until we had to go home for dinner and it was really nice to see my friend in person.
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ON THE HORIZON
*Please note that dates and events are subject to change*
Start Dates
August 24: Plan on coming back to school for a soft launch
August 31: Diamond Day for New and Returning Families
September 1: 9th Grade Orientation
September 2: First Day of School
September 3, 4: Orientation Trip
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