Ready to Go

Nothing gets me more energized and excited about the start of the school year than starting to reconnect with our students, parents and teachers. Last night was Locker Night at West Genesee Middle School. Like the arrival of the New York State Fair, Locker Night is a sure sign that summer is coming to a close. We had a tremendous turnout of new and returning students, as well as their parents and families. Everyone on hand was eager to find their locker, practice the combination, connect with their friends and take another step towards the start of school next week. As excited as our students were, words cannot describe the delight on the faces of their parents. The adults are definitely ready for school to start!

Steady flow of students and parents for Locker Night

Locker Night is a great opportunity to talk to students and parents to answer questions, frame the start of the school year, and help to ease the transition to a new building for our incoming 6th graders and new students to the building. We are fortunate to have such an involved, interested and engaged school community. Our PTA was on hand signing up new members and getting volunteers for the many different events that we have throughout the year. I can’t say enough about our PTA and their incredible dedication and commitment to our students and staff. If you are not a member of our PTA, please consider joining and/or getting involved in any way that you can. Use the link below to access the membership form. Let's get 100% participation from our parents and staff!

2013-2014 PTA Membership Form 

The custodial staff has the building and classrooms looking incredible! Our teachers have put in a tremendous amount of time and energy over the summer to learn, grow and prepare for the upcoming school year. The guidance staff has worked tirelessly with building administration to create a master schedule that meets the wide array of needs of our nearly 700 students. We are ready to go! All that we need now are the students to bring this building back to life.

Look for a post early next week about Interaction Time and another with my thoughts on Homework. Thank you for your continued support of our students and staff. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. It’s going to be a great school year!

Continued Success,
Steve Dunham
sdunham@westgenesee.org
@Sdunhamwgms

Summer Groove

Even though the building is extremely quiet without the energy and enthusiasm of our students, it is an exciting time to be back at work preparing for the opening of the 2013-2014 school year. We are poised to build upon all of the many wonderful things we accomplished last year as a building and as a district, in an effort to make this an even better school year than last.

For teachers and administrators, the summer is our offseason. Like an athlete, it is a time to reflect, learn, and grow in an effort to come back stronger and better! Many of our teachers have been involved in Professional Development throughout July and August on continued implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards, vocabulary instruction, writing in the content area, Literature Circles, and a variety of technology workshops. This isn’t mandatory PD, but rather, it is a choice that our teachers make to better themselves and the experiences that we provide our students. The amount of time and effort that they put in to grow professionally both during the school year and over the summer is incredible. As a parent and an educator I am very appreciative of their efforts.

As we move through August and into the new school year I encourage you to stay connected to know what is going on at West Genesee Middle School. Twitter is a tremendous tool for getting a behind the scenes look at what is happening at WGMS, but it is also a great resource to connect with other people and other interests that you may have. Before last year I did not have a Twitter account and it is now the cornerstone of my professional learning and a terrific vehicle to connect with parents and the West Genesee community. For those of you without a twitter account go to http://twitter.com. From the main twitter page you will create a profile which includes your name, e-mail address and a password. Once your account is created go to @connect and enter the account @Sdunhamwgms to follow me. For those of you with a twitter account, from your existing account click on @connect and enter the account @Sdunhamwgms to follow me.

Part of being connected is knowing the important dates of different events and activities that we hope you will be a part of throughout the year. Please note these important dates as we get ready to kick-off the year:

Wednesday, August 28^th is Locker Night from 3-6 PM

Wednesday, September 4^th is the first day of school and it is a half-day for our students with the middle school dismissing at 10:10 AM

Friday, September 20^th is Picture Day at WGMS for all students

Thursday, September 26^th is Open House from 7 to 9 PM

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact any of us here at WGMS. Thank you for your continued support of our students and staff.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

@Sdunhamwgms