Medford Area Middle School Parent Night was a huge success

This fall, on September 30, Parent Night was held. Our goal for Parent Night was to get parents to come in and better understand what a normal day looks like at Medford Area Middle School (MAMS) for their child.

Parents and students were invited to a meal at 5:30 p.m., followed by parent night activities from 6:15-7:30 p.m. We had 300 people who attended the meal and 400 who attended the parent night activities that followed. Thank you to our MAMS parents who made time for their kids by attending. This is another great example of how fortunate we are to have active supportive parents in our school district.

The experience that parents had during parent night was intended to be different from open house or parent/teacher conferences. At Parent Night, parents experienced life as a middle schooler. In fifth grade, parents learned step by step all the important things that students and their parents need to know. Students showed their parents how to check grades, navigate through their teachers’ classroom websites, and all of the technological programs that they use in their core subject areas. Parents with children in grades sixth-eighth were able to pick and choose from 10 minute seminars they wanted to attend. Teachers ran seminars covering a range of topics such as what illustrative math is, how to access Google calendar as an assignment notebook, using Google classroom, and how heart rate monitor watches are used in PE to monitor student’s heart rates and achieve fitness goals. As parents left for the night, we asked for feedback. A few of the comments made were: -Thank you so much for helping me feel more comfortable about what my child is doing every day. -I loved the format. I can go wherever I want, and leave when I’m ready.

-It was so nice to be able to speak with the teachers. Thank you.

-As a parent, I love this. I work here and still learn a lot from this opportunity. I like the new topics too.

Our staff at MAMS did an excellent job of organizing Parent Night. As a result, parents overwhelmingly told us that they were impressed with the amount of information they got in a short amount of time! We are busily planning next year’s version of Parent Night with expanded offerings including but not limited to social media use/abuse, human trafficking, and vaping among our youth. If you have other suggestions to include for topics please feel free to drop us a call or email.

— Al Leonard, Medford Area Middle School principal

School corner

Al Leonard