Friday, September 27, 2019

Open House Re-Cap 2019


Last night was our WGMS Open House & Title I Information night. As a teacher and administrator I have always loved Open House. It’s one of those rituals that makes up the ‘circle of life’ of a school year. As a school it is our opportunity to open our doors, show off and promote our brand - who we are, what we do and how we do it. Last night was my fifth year in a row as being both a parent of a student in the building while also wearing my administrator hat.

I was really 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 had a lot of conversations with people that wanted to share what a great start to the school year their kid(s) was having. It’s especially satisfying to hear from those 6th grade parents about how well the transition to middle school has been for their children.

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 at the start of evening over the PA while getting situated in homerooms. Hopefully it helps you to get a feel for the tone of the night and for school year ahead. Below is part of the welcome message that I gave everyone at the start of our Open House minus some bad jokes (I’m told it’s time to update my material a bit!) 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 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. 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 has been a very busy place already this year. To date, just over 1,300 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. 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. 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.

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 other activities.

You can expect us to support our students, 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.

I’ll end this as we do each morning on the announcements:

“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. It’s going to be a great year, a wonderful evening, and it’s always A Great Day To Be A Wildcat!!”

Thank you again for the great turnout last night and continued support of our students and staff at WGMS. The “Wonder Years” of middle school are not always easy and the road can be challenging at times, but when we work together and we keep our focus on what is best for kids and what matters most, the results are worth it. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Continued Success,
Steve Dunham
Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms