Slow It Down

This time of year it's easy to get lost in the laundry list of things that need to get done - the shopping, baking, decorating, wrapping, sending out cards, attending parties and the list goes on and on. Making the holidays a season of chaos is a choice, but it doesn't have to be that way.  It's important that we all - regardless of your faith, background, political affiliation, or traditions, slow it down and take the time to enjoy the moment. With that, we need to stop and enjoy the people that surround us - our friends, family, colleagues and the people that we cross paths with each and every day as we go about our lives. It is those people and relationships that matter most. We all need to make sure we continue to celebrate and fortify our relationships even in the hustle and bustle of the Holidays.

We continue to focus on building relationships and making connections with our students and one another. I don't recall where I read this quote, but I absolutely love it: "Relationships are the most valuable currency we have." They are the fabric and foundation for everything else that we do. We will all be wealthier if we take the time each day and make it a priority to build relationships.

Positivity Project
P2 has been an important part of building and strengthening relationships here at school. The past two weeks we have been focusing on two character traits that go hand in hand: being HUMBLE and KIND. At home we encourage you to have a conversation with your child about KINDNESS and HUMILITY and think about the different ways that we can live our lives demonstrating both traits. To help you make connections here are the links to the Positivity Project Character Trait Card for KINDNESS and Character Trait Card for HUMILITY.

Students of the Month

Staying on the theme of positivity and celebrating those that carry themselves in a way that we can all be proud of, we recognized our new ‘Students of the Month’ as we turned the calendar to December. We continue to have students, who through their actions and character, help to create a positive school environment. Choosing ‘Students of the Month’ isn’t about grades and athletic or musical prowess, it’s about demonstrating all of the qualities that we value and celebrate - exemplary work ethic, citizenship, character, compassion, honesty, trustworthiness, responsibility, optimism and/or leadership in creating a positive school environment. As a school community we are extremely grateful for students who day in and day out show up, work hard, do their best, and make our school a better place.

This month we recognized 6th graders Samantha Casson, William Schneid, Randal Smith, and Gabby Stanton; 7th graders Karolina Lata, Anthony Mangano, Chalie Searle, and Hannah Sparks; and 8th graders Michelina Colapaolo, Margaret Dalgety, Jacob Dubar, and Romeo Donaire. Well deserved and congratulations to all!

6th Grade Students of the Month

7th Grade Students of the Month

8th Grade Students of the Month

We are grateful for your continued support of our students and staff. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Encouraging all of you to slow it down this time of year and have a happy and healthy Holiday season! 

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Email: sdunham@westgenesee.org

Being Grateful

This past week and next leading up to the Thanksgiving Break it is fitting that our focus is on the character trait GRATITUDE. As a building we have been discussing what GRATITUDE is all about:

“GRATITUDE is the quality of feeling and expressing thankfulness and appreciation. It is an affirmation that there is goodness in other people and the world. GRATITUDE is not ignoring the negative aspects of life; it's simply being aware and thankful for what is good."

"The single greatest thing you can do to change your life today would be to start being grateful for what you have right now"

- Oprah

"When you have an ATTITUDE of GRATITUDE you wake up saying 'THANK YOU'."

- Maya Angelou

At home we encourage you to have a conversation with your child about GRATITUDE and think about the different ways that we can express our gratitude for the things and people that we are grateful for. To help you make connections here is the link to the Positivity Project Character Card For GRATITUDE.

Students of the Month

Staying on the theme of positivity and things we are grateful for, we recognized our new ‘Students of the Month’ as we turned the calendar to November. We continue to have students, who through their actions and character, help to create a positive school environment. Choosing ‘Students of the Month’ isn’t about grades and athletic or musical prowess, it’s about demonstrating all of the qualities that we value and celebrate - exemplary work ethic, citizenship, character, compassion, honesty, trustworthiness, responsibility, optimism and/or leadership in creating a positive school environment. As a school community we are extremely grateful for students who day in and day out show up, work hard, do their best, and make our school a better place.

This month we recognized 6th graders Garrett Bleskoski, Gracie Burns, Tori Hulbert, and Chris Watkins, 7th graders Gary McLane, Claire Petty, Benjamin Pietrafesa, and Leah Todeschini, and 8th graders Jaden Mattimore, Nani Ross, Caleb Williams, and Yingyuan Zhang. Well deserved and congratulations to all!

7th Grade Students of the Month for November

8th Grade Students of the Month for November

6th Grade Students of the Month for November

6th Grade Student of the Month for November

We are grateful for your continued support of our students and staff. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Email: sdunham@westgenesee.org

Closing Out the Month

This past Friday was our annual Halloween Spooktacular and it was AMAZING! We had a record-breaking night with over 400 students (that's a lot of kids!!) participating. A majority of students dressed in their Halloween costumes and had a blast dancing, singing, playing BINGO, running around the gym, talking to one another (face to face without their phones) and generally just having fun. The kids were outstanding. The parent volunteers were incredible. A lot of our staff showed up to take part in the evening’s activities and connect with students. Our custodians were unbelievable in their efforts to clean up after such a huge event and have our building clean and shining as it always does to start the week on Monday morning.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who was involved in the planning and execution of this kid-centered event. The time and enthusiasm that our WGMS PTA puts into our students and staff is greatly appreciated. We couldn’t pull off events like this without an amazing team. Thank you!

The Monster Mash

Only took me 3 minutes to solve this cube

Positivity Project

This week our focus at WGMS is on the character trait CREATIVITY. As a building we have been discussing what CREATIVITY is all about:

“CREATIVITY is experimenting, growing, taking risks, making mistakes and having fun. CREATIVITY exists in all of us! There is no such thing as creative and non-creative people, only people who use their creativity and people who don’t. The key is that you have to not be afraid to fail. When it comes down to it, CREATIVITY is the POWER TO ACT and the power to

THINK BIG!" 

At home, think about different opportunities where you could have a conversation with your child about CREATIVITY to help reinforce what we are talking about here at school.  To help you make connections here is the link to the Positivity Project Character Card For CREATIVITY.

Thank you for your continued support of our students and staff. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Happy Halloween!

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Email: sdunham@westgenesee.org

It's a Spooktacular October

This Friday is our annual Halloween Spooktacular from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. This is an awesome event sponsored by our WGMS PTA that gives our kids an opportunity to show up to dance, play BINGO, shoot hoops, sing karaoke, and eat a lot of foods likely not found on the 'whole-30 diet'. It really is a terrific evening of fun! Pre-sale tickets are on sale today through Friday for $3 and are also available at the door for $5. To pull off this type of event off you need great planning and you need people willing to step up and volunteer their time. With that, I want to give a HUGE shout-out to our PTA for making it happen. If you are available and would like to help please let us know.

Halloween
Students and staff at the Middle Level do dress up for Halloween. We work hard and we like to have fun as well. Throughout the day staff will nominate students for their costumes and then during 9th period we hold our annual Halloween Costume Contest. Students that were nominated for their costume are invited to compete and possibly be recognized in one of our costume categories including Scariest, Best Homemade, Funniest, Most Creative and Movie/Book Character. Halloween is a fun day and we encourage everyone to get into the spirit if they choose to. 

Positivity Project
This week our focus at WGMS is on the character trait PERSPECTIVE. As a building we have been discussing what PERSPECTIVE is all about:

"Truly LISTENING to others, working to UNDERSTAND different points of view and trying to SEE THE BIG PICTURE is what PERSPECTIVE is all about." 

At home, think about different opportunities where you could have a conversation with your child about PERSPECTIVE to help reinforce what we are talking about here at school.  To help you make connections here is the link to the Positivity Project Character Card for PERSPECTIVE.

Thank you for your continued support of our students and staff. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Best of luck finalizing your Halloween costume!

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham
Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms
Email: sdunham@westgenesee.org

Keeping It Positive

We all have two weeks left now to secure our Halloween costumes. Each year I wait later and later to lock in a final decision and each year my costume gets progressively worse. My goal right now is to finalize my costume prior to Wednesday, October 30^th so if you see me at Party City or Spirit at 4:30 PM on the 31^st please remind me that waiting until the last minute rarely pays off.

We are a full month into the Positivity Project at WGMS. We have had some terrific conversations and we have seen students stepping up and embracing the idea that ‘Other People Matter.’ I know that families are eager to partner with us in increasing your child’s character strengths and in helping them to continue to develop positive relationships. Each week I will provide an overview of our character trait of the week, as well as resources to help you reinforce what we are doing here at school.

This week our focus is on the character trait INTEGRITY. As a building we have been discussing what integrity is all about:

"INTEGRITY is choosing COURAGE over comfort, and choosing WHAT IS RIGHT over what is fun, fast or easy. It’s choosing to be a LEADER rather than being a follower. Integrity is doing the right thing when nobody’s watching and it’s knowing that nobody is going to know whether you did it or not. At the end of the day, no matter how educated, talented, rich or cool you believe you are, how you treat people and how you act 

TELLS ALL."

INTEGRITY IS EVERYTHING!

Here is the link to the Positivity Project character card on integrity.

You can view the calendar of when we study each character trait by clicking here.

Students of the Month
Staying on the theme of positivity, we recognized our new ‘Students of the Month’ as we turned the calendar to October. We continue to have students, who through their actions and character, help to create a positive school environment. Choosing ‘Students of the Month’ isn’t about grades and athletic or musical prowess, it’s about demonstrating all of the qualities that we value and celebrate - exemplary work ethic, citizenship, character, compassion, honesty, trustworthiness, responsibility, optimism and/or leadership in creating a positive school environment. 

This month we recognized 6th graders RJ Bartholomew, Samantha Bullock, Devin Dantuono, and Bella Vallely, 7th graders David Desko, Bridget Dunham, Joe Paoli and Nicole Vasilev, 8th graders Ryan Considine, Michael Herrington, Ella Thome, and Isabelle Wells. Well deserved and congratulations to all!

8th Grade Students of the Month

7th Grade Students of the Month

6th Grade Students of the Month

Thank you for your continued support of our students and staff. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Reflections On Open House 2018

I absolutely love Open House. I loved it as a teacher and I continue to love it as a parent and administrator. As a school it is our opportunity to show off and promote our brand - who we are, what we do and how we do it. Last night was my fourth year in a row as being both a parent of a student in the building while also wearing my administrator hat. By the time all four Dunham kids make it through the middle school it will be nine consecutive years with one of them in the building. Wow! We are just about halfway there.

I couldn't be more impressed with what I saw sitting in classrooms and what I heard from teachers throughout the evening. Teachers set a tone that was welcoming, supportive and caring while making it clear that we have high expectations. As a parent I couldn't be more proud to say that my kids go to school here. Throughout the evening I shook a lot of hands and had many conversations with people I have known for many years and with new families to the building that I was just meeting. All of those conversations included positive comments about our staff, what they do for our kids and how they do it. Hallways were crowded, classrooms were full and some people easily got their 10,000 steps in just walking from their car several blocks away - all reflective of our outstanding community support and involvement. 

We know that not all of our families are able to make it to Open House so a few years ago I started posting the comments that I made to families to kick the evening off. Hopefully it helps you to get a feel for the tone of the night and for school year. Below is part of the welcome message that I gave everyone at the start of our Open House last night minus some bad jokes and some of the logistics we covered: 

"Thank you for being here tonight. For those of you that are new to our building welcome to the WGMS family. We are excited to have you here! For those of you that are returning, welcome back. We have an incredible community here at West Genesee Middle School made up of a dedicated and talented faculty and staff, as well as involved and supportive families. Your presence this evening and your ongoing involvement with your child’s education is a testament to the commitment you have made to make education a priority. And it needs to be. We thank you for that. The journey from a young child in elementary school to a young adult in high school is not an easy one and we certainly need to work together as a team in order to maximize the potential in all of our students as they make that challenging journey through the middle years.

I encourage you to stop by our library. It is open and has been a very busy place already this year. To date, just over 1,100 books and magazine have been checked out which is awesome so please help us continue to encourage our students to get into the library, to read, and to take advantage of its’ many resources. In all three grades reading is a significant component of all classes  - our students need to read like historians, scientists, mathematicians & engineers each and every day. Literacy is a part of everything that we do, not a stand-alone skill - so please help support us by encouraging and hounding if needed our kids to read! We also have over 450 items in our digital library, and over 2,400 titles of audiobooks available for our students to download. Great stuff!! Please stop in and talk with our librarian about how you can utilize audio resources to foster even more success in your child’s reading. While in the library this evening you can pick up a list of the different databases with logins and passwords that we use so you can assist your children with research and you can also pick up a list of books with reading levels that are new to our collection. 

We also have our PTA located in the main lobby on the first floor. We have a tremendous PTA at West Genesee Middle School that is incredibly supportive of our students and staff. Please consider joining and/or volunteering your time. Your membership and involvement in the PTA helps to make us a stronger community. Please consider joining. If you don’t join prior to leaving this evening your car will be towed. So again, please consider joining. 

In the cafeteria we have some information on the Positivity Project which we are excited to be including as part of our instructional program at the Middle Level. In all classrooms you will see Positivity Project Word Walls featuring the 24 Character Traits that the program is built on. Based off of these 24 positive character traits, we are working to help create citizens and leaders who will enhance our communities, country and world by embodying the belief that Other People Matter. We all have the incredible superpower to lift others up, to do what is right, to be selfless, to be accepting and to be tolerant. The world could use a lot more of that right now. Look for information on a Positivity Project presentation for parents at our next PTA meeting in October. 

Again thank you for being here tonight. We are passionate about what we do here at WGMS, we care about your children, and we all want this to be the best year that they have ever had in school. A focus of ours is continuous improvement; trying to get better at everything that we do, constantly reflecting on our practices, listening to feedback and having a willingness to evolve and grow.  We ask the same of our students. We continually talk with students about the role that they play in doing the things necessary to be as successful as possible and we try to build a capacity in them to have a willingness to try new things, strive to get better and continue to work hard especially when things get difficult. Together we need to continue to encourage them to get involved with sports, music, clubs, and everything else that we have to offer. We talk to them about the importance of doing these three things each day: Be Nice, Work Hard, and Think Big. What you do and say to people matters – so Be Nice. Things are not always easy & things don’t always go as you planned, sometimes you have to do things that you don’t want to do, but we need to step up and do it anyway…life is about continuing to grind in the face of adversity– that’s Work Hard. You can be anything you want to be in life IF you work for it – So Think Big – anything is possible, and lastly, you have to show up and be on time for things in life – school is no exception. We need all of you to help reinforce that our students need to be in school and they need to be here on time. This is not a dress rehearsal..this is a critical time in their development.

Simple, but effective. Each day: Be Nice, Work Hard, Think Big. That’s what we expect. That’s who we are. That’s the message we all need to be communicating to our middle schoolers.

You can expect us to support them, but also to push them to be their best; to not accept “not doing” as an option or doing just the minimum, to challenge them and encourage them to be extraordinary. Your role as parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles and older brothers and sisters is vitally important. Your involvement and commitment to making your child’s education a priority is crucial. We can’t do this alone, we have to do it together. The job is just too important and the stakes are too high. The time is now to help our middle school students build positive relationships, establish effective study skills and lock in healthy habits for the rest of their lives. We look forward to working with you and getting to know all of you throughout this school year. It’s going to be a great year, a wonderful evening, and it’s always a great day to be a Wildcat!! Thank you and enjoy your night."

Thank you again for the incredible turnout and continued support of our students and staff at WGMS. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

Email: sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Big Week Ahead

This a big week for all of us. Yes, a 4-0 Syracuse University football team travels to #3 ranked Clemson to take on the Tigers in “Death Valley” this upcoming Saturday. And yes, our very own 4-0 West Genesee Football Wildcats host a 4-0 Cicero-North Syracuse team in a huge battle Friday evening in Camillus. It's not just the football match-ups that makes this a big week.

What makes this such a big week for us is that we host our WGMS Open House on Thursday, September 27th from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. This is THE event in September if you have a student at WGMS. Open House is your opportunity to “check us out” and it is our platform to share with you all of the incredible opportunities our students will have throughout the school year. Students will bring home a copy of their schedule on Tuesday and on Thursday night, parents and guardians will follow their student's schedule throughout the evening. I encourage everyone to arrive early as we anticipate a huge crowd, parking is always tight and we do start right at 6:30 PM. Think 6:15 PM arrival to be safe.

To help you to stay informed and keep track of everything going on during the day and at night, we put all of our daily announcements on the WGMS web page for you to access from your computer or mobile device. From the West Genesee home page select ‘West Genesee Middle School’, scroll down to ‘School Links’ and select ‘Announcements’.

Under ‘School Links’ you can also access a lot of very useful information specific to WGMS. Another useful place to stay connected is the ‘Connect’ section of our home page to the left of ‘School Links’. Check out my Twitter feed (@Sdunhamwgms) to get an inside look at some of what goes on throughout the school day. Also, make sure you are signed-up for the West Genesee App and that you are receiving notifications that we send out routinely.

Thank you for your ongoing support of our students and staff. As always, if you have any questions or concerns please give me a call or send me an email.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee,org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

We Could All Use A Little Positivity

Interaction Time has started, all of our modified sports teams have their first games of the season this week, and with the first full week of school in the rearview mirror we are off and running. Of all of the terrific things happening to start the year, we are most excited about kicking-off the Positivity Project (P2) at WGMS last week.

On Monday we officially joined every other school in the district and became a partner school with the Positivity Project. The mission of the P2 is to empower America’s youth to build positive relationships. No matter who you are Relationships Matter and the research is clear: you are more likely to live a happy and healthy life by making connections with other people and living with high character.

Simply put: Other People Matter.

Check out this video of Mike Erwin explaining the Other people Matter mindset that all of our students saw as part of our kick-off event. This could be used as a great prompt for a discussion with your child about the Positivity Project and what it means to have an Other People Matter Mindset. 

Every Monday morning we will be extending homeroom for 15 minutes so that we can have meaningful discussions about each of the 24 character strengths that P2 focuses on and that research has proven to build powerful behaviors and increase our ability to live in a positive manner. Our goal as a school is to help all of us make connections with one another to develop and foster the Other People Matter mindset, as well as 24 P2 characteristics in all of us.

We know that families will be eager to partner with WGMS in increasing your child’s character strengths and in helping them to continue to develop positive relationships. You can view the calendar of when we study each character trait by clicking here.

In a world which could use a lot more kindness, teamwork, humility, fairness, integrity, open-mindedness, self-control, tolerance and love (just to name a few character traits), you can see why we are so excited about the Positivity Project. Relationships matter. Other people matter. By empowering our students with the ability to build positive relationships and develop strong character, we are helping to prepare them to be successful now and in the future.

Thank you for your continued support of our students and staff. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter:@Sdunhamwgms

Roll With The Changes

As we prepare for a new school year, regardless of your role, it always has the feeling of “I’ve done this before,” and in many ways we have. There is certainly a Circle of Life to a school year; the way it moves and flows, the repetition that comes and goes like the change of the seasons. From the outside looking in the jump to a new school year might appear to be as easy as simply changing the dates and off we go. The reality is that each year, although strewn with some year to year consistency, is nothing like the year before. Education is in practice, an exercise in “Roll with The Changes”. Students change, practices change, standards change, and society and the world around us continues to change for better or worse. And as much as we may fight it, we all get a year older year after year which changes how we look at and respond to things. For a twenty year veteran it isn’t doing one year twenty times, it’s doing twenty different years one year at a time. Roll with the Changes.

This year is no exception. As we send approximately 210 rising 9^th graders to the High School, we welcome a fresh new group of 205 incoming 6^th graders to WGMS. A new year with new students, and some new staff. It feels like previous years in many ways, but it will be very different. The one underlying constant is the idea of continuous improvement in what we do and how we do it in an effort to maximize student learning and achievement. That has to be our focus.

In one week we have the pleasure to open our doors to our students and get the 2018-2019 school year officially started. It feels familiar, but it will be like no other year we have ever had. We are excited to have these hallways and classrooms once again filled with the energy and excitement of our students. 

In the meantime, here are some important dates to make note of in the month ahead:

Locker Night, Wednesday, August 28^th from 3:00 to 6:00 PM.

Picture Day, Thursday, September 13^th

6^th Grade Dance, Friday, September 14^th from 2:15-4:00 PM

Kick-off PTA Meeting, Tuesday, September 25^th at 6:30 PM

Open House/Title I Night, Thursday, September 27^th from 6:30 to 8:30 PM

In the next few weeks look for a blog outlining two very successful summer programs that we held at WGMS to support some of our students and an overview of bringing the Positivity Project to the middle school. Thank you for your ongoing support of our students and staff. As always, if you have any questions or concerns please give me a call or send me an email.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Carry the Torch

Yesterday, all of our 8^th grade students from both Camillus Middle School and West Genesee Middle School had the incredible opportunity to hear the story of perseverance, determination, faith and hope from Holocaust survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan. If you don’t know about her you should set aside a few minutes and check out her life story and work here: www.fourperfectpebbles.com/ It truly is remarkable and speaks to the human spirit and ability to survive and get through incredibly difficult and catastrophic times.

This is the last generation that will hear these stories from the people that lived through them. It is on all of us to continue to share these stories and to study and teach about the horror of the Holocaust to make sure that it never happens again.  In addition to experiencing her firsthand account of this dark period in history, our students were challenged by Mrs. Lazan to carry the torch of justice and freedom with them throughout their lives:

“We must live with love, respect, compassion and tolerance towards one another. It starts with each of us. We all must look for similarities and respect our differences.”

At a time where hatred unfortunately continues to show its' ugly face, having our students learn from the past and continue to keep watch to speak up and stand up whenever they see intolerance, injustice and hatred is incredibly important. 

Students of the Month

As we turned the calendar into May we recognized our new ‘Students of the Month’. We continue to have students, who through their actions and character, help to create a positive school environment. Choosing ‘Students of the Month’ isn’t about grades and athletic or musical prowess, it’s about demonstrating all of the qualities that we value and celebrate - exemplary work ethic, citizenship, character, compassion, honesty, trustworthiness, responsibility, optimism and/or leadership in creating a positive school environment. 

This month we recognized 6^th graders Hannah Sparks, Bridget Dunham, Charlie Searle, and Michael Hess, 7^th graders Michael Dedrick, Ryan Considine, Nani Ross, and Mariya Kostiv, 8^th graders Cameron Hovater, Connor Jacuk, Ella Robertson, and Anna Caruso. Well deserved and congratulations to all!

6th Grade Students of the Month

7th Grade Students of the Month

8th Grade Students of the Month

Thank you for your continued support of our students and staff. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms