From the harsh and relentless winter weather to the flurry of
activities in the building, March is living up to the term typically used for
describing the excitement of the NCAA basketball tournament. Whether a casual observer of March Madness or
a fanatic, the tournament and this time of year, are extremely exciting.
National
Foreign Language Week
March 3rd through the 9th was National
Foreign Language Week. One of our greatest strengths as a nation and state is
the diversity of our people and multicultural population. This was a terrific
opportunity for us at WGMS to foster an appreciation and awareness of the
different languages and cultures represented in our building. Each day we had
students make announcements in a variety of languages, we played music from all
over the world, and our Foreign Language Clubs had a poster contest for
students to reflect this year’s theme of “Don’t Let Learning a Language Slip
Through Your Fingers”. All in all it was a great week celebrating and sharing our
cultural differences by bringing all of us together.
Talent
Show
This past Friday we held our annual Talent Show at WGMS. Our
Student Council ran the entire event and we saw performances from students in
all three grade levels singing, dancing, playing instruments, and performing
skits. I think the thing that amazes me the most about our student performers
isn't just their diverse talents, it’s the courage and confidence that they
have to perform in front of their peers and a packed house. Beyond impressive!!
St.
Baldrick’s
On March 28th WGMS is hosting our first St.
Baldrick’s event in an effort to raise awareness and money to fight childhood
cancer. Our students got this off the ground in January and it has evolved over
the last few months into a terrific community building event. Nine of our staff
members (yes, I’m in!) will be going bald in front of our students at different times throughout the day. We have had a lot of fun growing our hair for three months
and are looking forward to having it all shaved off. Here is the link to our
event: http://www.stbaldricks.org/teams/mypage/90369/2014
Olweus
Meeting
Tomorrow we will be holding an Olweus meeting for our
morning half-day with students. Each grade level will be watching a movie tied
to the themes of tolerance and standing up. Prior to watching the movies each
group will discuss the following quotes and make connections with the movie, different events in history and in our everyday lives:
“In the end
we remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Silence in
the face of evil is evil itself. Not to speak is to speak, not to act is to
act.
– Unknowm
Of all the things that we do in school with our students,
having meaningful discussions about tolerance, standing up, acceptance, and compassion
are the most important. Our students make a difference when they act with
bravery, compassion and empathy on a daily basis. We are surrounded by heroes
and many of them our are kids!!
Thank you for your continued support of our students and staff. Best of luck to all of you with your brackets. It's a Great Day to Be a Wildcat! Let's go Orange!!
Continued Success,
Steve Dunham
sdunham@westgenesee.org
@Sdunhamwgms
