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