Thankful for Opportunities

The priorities of our schools should be as follows: #1. Equip students with the skills they will use in life. #2. See number 1. Many of the greatest experiences that our students have in preparing them for their future take place outside of the walls of the classroom. In addition to the academic skills needed, students need opportunities to work as part of a team, to adapt to situations on the fly, to problem solve, to resolve conflict, to struggle, fail and figure things out on their own.

We had two outstanding opportunities for some of our students prior to Thanksgiving Break that put them in situations to stretch themselves and get them out of their comfort zones.

What a performance!

Annie, Jr.

We had over 100 students involved as part of the cast and crew in three amazing performances of the musical Annie Jr. which is based on the popular comic strip and adapted from the Tony Award-winning Best Musical. What you see as an audience member at ShowTime is middle school students running and performing a musical with great confidence like seasoned veterans. The singing, acting, timing, scene changes and organization feels more like an off-Broadway production than that of a musical put on by adolescents. It was astonishing!

What you don’t see as an audience member at Showtime is the amount of work that went into this on the part of our students. It’s practice, practice, and more practice. It is at times a series of rehearsals that can look like a clunky mess of poor timing, self-doubt, and bits & pieces that surely will never be connected into anything meaningful. Yet, students continue to work. Students continue to grind, to practice, to persevere. And in time, self-doubt fades into great confidence, and what once seemed impossible to pull off becomes this amazing experience that we see as members of the audience. All of the skills that our young people need to be successful in their future were taking place behind the scenes at each of those rehearsals and on stage in front of our very eyes as the curtain went up. We should all be impressed with their performance, but we should be even more impressed by what took place to get to that point.

Students listening to the Mayor outside of City Hall

Enterprise America

Our entire 7^th grade class had the opportunity to spend a day at WCNY’s Enterprise America. Enterprise America is a hands-on co-curricular program for middle-school students. The first of its kind in New York State, the program involves classroom instruction aligned to state and 21^st century learning standards followed by the Enterprise America experience, with students spending a day in WCNY’s Enterprise America city, which they were responsible for operating.

Accountants busy managing the books

All of our students became business entrepreneurs and employees, consumers and citizens in this city for the day and were put in challenging and uncomfortable situations as they learned to manage money and time, and work with others to run a successful business.  Students were absolutely uncomfortable and somewhat stressed as they worked through the day, but they rose to the occasion. In fact, on the second day, our 7^th graders had the most businesses pay off their business loan and become profitable than any other school to date at Enterprise America. Pretty impressive! Perhaps some of them could take their financial management skills to Albany and Washington.

Hard at work in the Cafe

We were very fortunate to have adult volunteers in each business to assist, support and guide students as needed. Teachers, teaching assistants, administrators, members of the Camillus-Solvay-Geddes Rotary Club and WESTAR Federal Credit Union employees were on site both days to support this experience. The hardest part as an adult volunteer was to step back and allow students to struggle and figure things out for themselves. This is true as a teacher in the classroom or as a parent at home. The greatest gift we can give our kids is the freedom to struggle, make mistakes, and empower them to persevere through adversity. We need to be there to help pick them up and/or offer advice along the way, but we can’t do things for them – the best lessons learned in life don’t come via a lecture or conversation, they come through real experiences. Step back and let them struggle. 

Both Annie Jr. and Enterprise America were invaluable experiences that helped to teach some of those important life lessons and allow our students to develop and foster those essential skills that they will need for their future.  In the end, that is our number one priority as a school and it is something that I am so grateful for and proud that as a District we can provide those opportunities for our kids. 

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms  

The Race Is On

It seems like in the blink of an eye we have gone from warm September days and the beginning of the school year to frost covered cars in the morning and talking about Thanksgiving. As we start to think about Holiday shopping just realize that it will be Memorial Day before you know it. The days are long, but the weeks and months fly by!

Over the last month of school we have had some terrific opportunities for our students. On the Friday before Halloween our PTA sponsored our first ever “Wildcat Spooktacular” featuring a movie in the cafeteria, open gym, Halloween BINGO, a photo book, lots of food and a costume contest. We had over 300 students attend!! This event speaks to the creativity, flexibility and willingness of our PTA to do great things for kids. Our students and school community are very fortunate to have such a strong partnership.

A large majority of our students and staff came to school in costume on Halloween Monday. Students were outstanding throughout the day and showed a great deal of creativity with the costumes that they wore. Even Donald Trump showed up to help us "Make Halloween Great Again." And it truly was!

We ended Halloween week with our annual 8^th Grade Career Fair on Friday. Students had the opportunity to connect with and ask questions of professionals in a wide array of careers. The biggest takeaway for our students was seeing how the skills and knowledge that they are developing now as students connects to where they may be in the future.

Tomorrow is a half-day for our students. It is our expectation that students attend school on our half-days. We work to maximize all of the time that we have with our students. Tomorrow will be no exception.  With Veterans Day later this week we are going to use the morning as an opportunity to demonstrate our patriotism and unyielding support and appreciation for our veterans. Throughout the morning veterans from various branches of the military with be speaking with our students and answering questions about their experiences. As a school community we have raised money for Clear Path which is Upstate New York's Veteran Resource Center. Tomorrow is an opportunity for us as a school community to give back to those who have made incredible sacrifices for our freedom and to express our gratitude for their service.

Looking forward here are some important dates as we look at the rest of November:

Friday, November 11th - Veterans Day: No School
Thursday, November 17th and Friday, November 18th: 7th graders to WCNY Enterprise America
Thursday, November 17th: Opening Night for WGMS Musical: Annie Jr.
Friday, November 18th and Saturday, November 19th: Annie Jr.
Wednesday, November 23rd through Friday, November 25th - Thanksgiving Break

Thank you for your ongoing support of our students and staff.

Continued Success,
Steve Dunham

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms
Email: sdunham@westgenesee.org

Keeping It Simple

I’ve had the pleasure of getting into classes throughout the building over the last few weeks to talk with our students about a few simple, but essential concepts that are the foundation for being successful. If Middle School is anything, it is a challenging period of time for students. They are caught between being a young adult and being a little kid. Other than infancy, there isn’t another period of time in which they are going through more substantial change. This period is referred to as the “The Wonder Years” for a reason. If you live with any of them you know exactly what I am talking about.

So as we connect with students we want to outline a few simple principles to help guide them and frame our expectations of them as they make their way through this three year journey. We talk to them about the importance of doing four things each day:    

Be Nice

Work Hard

Think Big

Be Present

Be Nice: All of us, students and adults, need to remember that what we do and say to people matters. We all have the incredible power to make or break someone’s day by how we treat them. With that power comes the responsibility and the obligation to be a positive presence in our world: to say hello to people, to hold doors, to lend a hand, to show empathy, to smile, to give compliments, to exude positivity. I’d like to see a little more “Be Nice” from our Presidential Candidates, but I’m not holding my breath. In the end people will always remember how you made them feel. We all need to do a better job here and work at being nice.

Work Hard: Working hard is about giving your best – whatever that is - all of the time. Things are not always easy and 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. The harder we work, the less likely it is that we will give in and quit when things get difficult. As adults we need to step back and allow our kids to struggle. In the end it is their effort that matters most not their grades. Helping students learn what it is to ‘work hard’ might be the most important gift we can give them.

Think Big: If anyone ever told you as a kid that you can be anything that you want to be in life they were lying to you. It isn’t that simple. You CAN be anything that you want to be in life IF you work for it. As an 11, 12 or 13 year old no doors are closed for our students yet. They can be anything that they want to be – a teacher, doctor, professional athlete, musician, police officer….anything is possible, but doing the right things along the way and putting in the effort are part of the process. Being a nice kid who smiles and does their work is wonderful, but it isn’t going to magically make your dreams come true. Thinking big is about having a dream, even one that at the moment might seem really distant. That dream can be achieved if you believe and you work for it.

Be Present: You have to show up and be on time for things in life – school is no exception. Our students need to be here to be successful. There is no substitute that can emulate the learning opportunities that take place throughout the day in school. The other part of being present that is important is students being invested in classes and the work that they are being asked to do. We all need to be plugged into the moment with the people around us. Most of us and our kids have schedules that are so crammed with stuff that we can’t enjoy the ‘now’ because we are worried about what comes next. Right ‘now’ matters more than anything else. As adults we can’t give ‘being present’ lip service. Many of us talk about how important school is and yet we allow our kids to frequently sleep in or miss a few Fridays for different athletic tournaments or blow off reading each night because we have our kids so over-scheduled. We communicate what is important by what we focus on, where we spend our time and what we allow. Collectively we need to help our kids be more present in everything that they do. To make that happen, we all need to step back and reevaluate how much “stuff” we have them involved in. You can’t be successful if you are not present – physically and mentally. And of all the "things" on the list of "things" our students are involved in, we need to make sure school is on the top of that list. 

None of this is overly complicated, it doesn't cost any money and we don't need superpowers to make it happen. It's an approach to life and a philosophy that is pretty simple, but effective. Each day: Be Nice, Work Hard, Think Big, Be Present. That’s what we should expect from ourselves, from others and from our students. 

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Undefeated For Now

There is nothing like the start of the school year in a middle school. Middle school students bring with them an eagerness and excitable energy that is hard to explain, but easy to feel as you walk down the halls, spend a few minutes in the cafeteria or listen to the buzz of conversations in a classroom. A building that was relatively dormant over the summer (with the exception of some major renovations both inside and out), suddenly bursts back to life with nearly 700 adolescents. It should be on your bucket list if you’ve never experienced it!

There are several parallels between the start of the school year and the start of the NFL season. Maybe it’s the timing, maybe it’s the incredible energy, but the thing that I always think about at the start of both is that everyone is undefeated. At the start of the season, every football fan has optimism that this is the year that their team goes all the way to the Superbowl. No wins, no losses – anything is possible! Even if you’re a Browns fan. The same holds true for the school year. The first day of school brings with it the optimism that this is going to be a great year. We are undefeated as well; the schedule works, transportation is seamless, everything is perfect.

Somewhere along the way, and maybe its game 1 for the Browns or Day 2 for us, something isn’t going to go as planned. We are going to have to deal with some adversity. Little bumps in the road are bound to happen even with the greatest scheduling and planning. It isn’t a question of IF something is going to happen, it’s a question of WHEN and then most importantly, HOW are you going to respond. Are you going to be a Tigger or an Eeyore? Will you focus on the positive and find the silver lining even in a negative situation, or will you wallow in misery and find the worst in things. There is much in life that is out of our control, but we all have the power to choose our attitude. Be a Tigger! 

As important as choosing your attitude is the need to embrace a mindset that fosters success. Each summer all middle school staff at West Genesee reads the same book, usually on a topic related to instruction. This summer we broke from our traditional focus and everyone read Mindset by Carol Dweck, Ph.D. Dr. Dweck’s research focuses on motivation and the characteristics of a fixed versus growth mindset. Her conclusions on the inherent benefits of developing a growth mindset in our young people are compelling for both families and schools alike. The book is full of real-life examples about how these mindsets develop in early childhood and what adults can do to build more resilient children. Working with nearly 700 young adolescent student-athletes, students-musicians, and their parents on a daily basis, I can assure you that we need to build more resiliency in our kids.

Dweck’s work aligns closely with our belief that it is about the learning process, not the grade on a report card or a name on an “honor-roll” list that is most important. Are students being challenged? Are they growing? Are they willing to try new things? How do they respond to setbacks? Those are the questions we should be asking and the conversations that we should be having. It is more valuable to build curious students who have a passion for knowledge and are not afraid to make mistakes, than it is to develop students solely focused on grades and content with remaining in their comfort zones. We need to cultivate students who are willing to take risks and find setbacks motivating, not crushing and debilitating.

I encourage you to read this book and share it with your child. I’ll continue to discuss Dweck’s work both through the lens of an educator and as a parent of four. Helping our young people develop and foster a growth mindset might be the most important gift we can share with them.

We are incredibly excited about this school year and we look forward to working with all of our students and their families.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Climate of Possibility

Last year I posted a blog about transforming MS. (Transforming the Middle Level Experience) We were and continue to be focused on breaking away from the traditional factory model of education with each content area in a separate silo. The idea of Math only occurring 4^th period and reading & writing only rearing its’ head during 8^th period English in a student’s schedule is an antiquated philosophy. In the real world the lines between disciplines are blurred and everything is interconnected. Knowing that we are preparing today’s students for an economy and future that looks nothing like it does today, we have to provide students with a different school experience than what most of us had.

With great foresight and vision the district has made an investment for teachers to receive Project Based Learning training; we have implemented a plan to re-invent the middle school schedule by re-working some existing courses and we also started a three-year rollout to bring some High School courses to the middle level. With that foundation and a staff with incredible creativity and willingness to grow, we are creating a climate of possibility: a building culture in which creativity and trying new things is celebrated and encouraged, with a belief that even in failure our students and staff learn and grow in the process.  The results have been outstanding. We have started to see some significant shifts in instructional practices and growth in student achievement just in the last year and a half.

Every civilization needs a gov't...

6th grade students have been involved with several Project Based Learning experiences this year which had students engaged in ways that we haven’t seen before. Most kids are not going to remember the names of the pharaohs from the Old Kingdom in Egypt or explain the rock cycle in detail, but the experience of working as a team to research and develop a civilization to stand the test of time or research and work to solve real-world energy issues will stay with them and endure. 

...and an economy

Students need opportunities to be creative & to think big!

Hands-on engineering

For the second year in a row, we had a group of 6^th grade students involved with an underwater robotics competition called SeaPerch. The SeaPerch Program provides students with the opportunity to learn about robotics, engineering, science, and mathematics (STEM) while building an underwater ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) as part of a science and engineering technology curriculum. Throughout the project, students learn engineering concepts, problem solving, teamwork, and technical applications. The looks on their faces say it all; excitement, engagement, enthusiasm, and wonder. This is an experience that we need to continue to provide and hopefully bring to scale with our entire middle school population.

Underwater ROV

Throughout the building the walls that separated our different content areas for years are starting to crumble. Teachers are working and planning together around the most essential skills and concepts in order to provide students higher-level, real-world experiences. We are starting to let go of some of the long held practices that many of us experienced as students; looking up answers in a book, regurgitating facts stored in short term memory and filling in packets - those are not skills that our students need to thrive in their future.

The world continues to move on. Our economy continues to evolve. Technological progress and global integration continue to increase the rate of change of everything around us. The transformation of our schools needs to mirror that level of change or at the very least make an effort to stay relevant. The obstacles of the schedules, contracts, the school calendar, certifications, budgets, the mindset ‘but we’ve always done it that way’ and the over-involved hands of State and Federal government are considerable, but not insurmountable. Our kids deserve a climate of possibility.

As a district and a building we need to maintain our focus and investment, both financially and philosophically to give our students what they need for their future. Complaining about obstacles is useless and a waste of time. Finding creative solutions is leadership.

Please remember to get out and vote today and support your school budget wherever you live. For those of you living in the West Genesee district, thank you for your continued support of our students and staff as we strive to create a climate of possibility.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

Email: sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Buckle Up!

Spring brings with it a renewal of life and energy. Hopefully the week off for students and staff gave everyone a chance to recharge for the home stretch. Now that we are back and open for business spring modified sports are well underway, final concerts dot the calendar and many other year end events are scheduled for May and June. The next seven weeks are going to fly by. Buckle up!

At WGMS this spring brings with it a great deal of physical change as part of our Capital Project. Over break new bleachers were installed in the gym, on the East end of the building a concrete pad and preparation for a generator to be hooked up was finalized, and we are preparing for significant work this summer featuring new lockers throughout the building and brand new locker rooms. The front circle may currently look like a scene from The Lorax as some trees were taken down in preparation for what will be a smaller circle with room for all of our buses. The new layout will help with the congestion of morning traffic and make it much safer for our students, parents and staff. Part of the new layout will feature high efficiency lighting, new sidewalks and curbs. In time we look forward to adding more trees to highlight our green spaces. Hopefully we can have our technology classes or Tech Club design and create some outdoor seating for learning spaces and for students and staff to eat lunch outside. 

With all of that on the horizon and terrific weather right around the corner (we hope!) we continue to encourage students to get outside and move. In addition to physical education class and our efforts to get students outside the last part of lunch each day, everyone should be moving for at least an additional hour each day. For those that live close enough, consider walking or riding your bike to and from school. Now that it is so much lighter earlier in the morning, walking or riding a bike really is a great option for anyone. We have a bike rack behind the school and if that fills up just bring your bike into the main office and we'll find a safe spot for it. We know that getting the body moving to start the day gives us boosted productivity and increased metabolism. And we could all use some more of that.

I look forward to seeing you at one of our many events over the next few months. As always, if you have any questions or concerns please let me know.

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

HOPE

HOPE. It is defined as ‘the feeling of what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best; to want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen or be true.’ Hope is optimism; it is positive energy that things will work out for the best. For children and families dealing with childhood cancer it is hope that keeps them moving forward. And it is hope that gives them strength and courage.

In the spring of 2014 some of our students were looking for a way to support and stand with fellow students and members of our community who have been impacted by childhood cancer.  We have had a number of students who are childhood cancer survivors, and unfortunately we have lost some members of our community to childhood cancer.  The students that I spoke to were well informed, passionate and determined to make a difference. Needless to say they were incredibly inspiring. The piece of information that continues to stand out the most for me is that in the United States, more children die of childhood cancer than any other disease. And yet, all types of childhood cancer receive only 4% of the U.S. federal funding for cancer research. That conversation in 2014 became an idea and that idea has now become an event. Through our efforts as a school community we are hosting our 3^rd Annual St. Baldrick’s Event at West Genesee Middle School tomorrow to raise awareness, raise some money and have some fun all in an effort to help fight childhood cancer.

Our staff, students and their families have generously made contributions to #TeamWildcat over the past three years. This year twelve of our staff members and three of our students have stepped up to grow their hair for the past several months and will have it shaved off tomorrow. This year we are honoring a beautiful 3 year-old named Addi who is battling stage 4 Rhabdomyosarcoma. Addi lives in Florida and members of #TeamWildcat are also part of “Addi’s Army”.

Please support #TeamWildcat and “Addi’s Army” in any way that you can and help us make a difference in the lives of children across the country. The day will come when we will be able to cure all types of cancers. In the meantime, we will continue to work to raise awareness and help to spread HOPE to not only the children and families impacted by childhood cancer, but for all of us. It’s all about “The Power of WE!”

Here is the link to this year’s event: https://www.stbaldricks.org/events/WGMS

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Email: sdunham@westgenesee.org

Little Things Matter

In schools we focus a great deal of time and attention on academic endeavors; reading, getting homework done, studying, organization, and prioritization of work. All of those are incredibly important and part of the foundation for being successful as a student and lifelong learner.

As educators and as parents we also need to start thinking more explicitly about other factors that have an incredible influence on our student’s ability to be successful; nutrition, sleeping habits and their daily schedules. All three factors work in conjunction with one another to either help or hinder the performance of our young people as students, musicians and athletes. What we know for sure is that students who are hungry or lack nutrients, students who are dehydrated or students who are tired cannot learn or perform to their full potential.

Nutrition

There has never been a time when we have had so much information about food and the impacts of what we put into our bodies has on us. Despite this incredible amount of knowledge, many of our kids go through an entire day without consuming real food. They eat, but they are eating a great deal of manufactured and processed food that isn’t giving them the nutrients that their bodies need. There are some terrific books on this subject that will really get you and them thinking: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, 100 Days of Real Food by Lisa Leake, and Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss.

A really good resource on nutrition is this terrific blog from OCM BOCES on heart healthy kids: https://ocmbocesis.wordpress.com/2016/02/16/heart-healthy-kids/

Another excellent source of information is the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The link below is to several National Nutrition Month handouts and tip-sheets.
http://www.eatright.org/resource/food/resources/national-nutrition-month/nnm-handouts-and-tipsheets-for-families-and-communities

Food is only one part of the conversation. Way too many of our kids are drinking large quantities of soda and Gatorade instead of water, and the majority of them are dehydrated. In addition, many of them have no idea just how much sugar they are consuming or the impacts that it has on their body systems. In a 20 oz bottle of Coke there is 65 grams of sugar! A 20 OZ bottle of Gatorade has 34 grams of sugar! Anything in small doses is reasonable, but when the drink of choice of many of our middle school students is laden with sugar we all need to take the responsibility of informing them and limiting their intake of high sugar drinks. In the case of Gatorade very few of them are actually involved in strenuous physical activity which requires them to replace important electrolytes. Many of them think that they are and believe that they need it – it isn’t a need, that’s just good marketing! Drink your water!!

Sleeping Habits & Busy Schedules

Sleeping habits and busy schedules go hand in hand. We have our children involved in more extracurricular activities than ever before. Between dance studios, travel teams, indoor facilities and local community groups we can have our kids involved in something 8 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Some nights it can be two or three activities back to back to possibly back. Our kids then get home later, get to bed later, and do it all over again the next day. As a result, many of our students arrive to school in the morning tired. They are not tired because its 7:40 AM, they are tired because they are not getting enough sleep.

I’ve read it before that sleep is like food for the brain. During sleep both our body and brain recharges themselves and gets them ready for all of the challenges that await us the following day. Sleep impacts our learning and memory, our emotions and behaviors, and our overall health. Yet the total amount of sleep that children and adolescents are getting is continuing to decrease. Think about how we feel when we don’t get enough sleep as adults; we are moody, cranky, unmotivated – certainly not ready to perform or learn. Add to that lack of sleep the incredible amount of social, emotional, physiological and physical change happening in our middle school students and we have a recipe for disaster. Parents and students need to make getting enough sleep a priority. Put away the screens earlier and as adults we shouldn’t allow our kids to bring their devices to bed with them. Instead, grab a book. Research shows that they will actually sleep better.

The over-scheduling leads to late nights, which leads to lack of sleep, which leads to rushing out door with a poor breakfast, which leads to…you see the pattern. We have choices in all this. In the busy schedules we create, school needs to be priority number one with everything else a distant second. It isn’t easy, but by setting priorities, establishing limits, and saying no we are establishing the framework for setting our kids up for success. Getting enough sleep, staying hydrated and eating a healthy, balanced diet are all incredibly important and powerful factors in setting our kids up for success in everything that they do. Let's not overlook the little things that really matter.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

Email: sdunham@westgenesee.org

Changes All Around

Capital Project Updates

We have a lot of exciting changes coming to West Genesee Middle School as part of the current Capital Project. Some of the items on the list are things that people won’t necessarily see including plumbing, electrical, and HVAC work. All of that is essential to keep the building running efficiently and effectively, but may not necessarily have you saying “wow!” In addition to those items we do have some very visible changes that students and parents will start noticing in the very near future.

Our gym will have brand new bleachers that will be installed over April Break. By the time students come back to school in the Fall both of our boy’s and girls’ locker rooms will be getting complete makeovers with new lockers and bathrooms. Students will also be happy to hear that the entire building is getting new, larger lockers in the hallways which will be ready for your backpacks on opening day in September.

Anyone who drives their child to school in the morning at WGMS knows that between 7:20 a.m. and 7:35 a.m. our traffic pattern, which involves buses, parents and our staff, rivals downtown Atlanta during rush-hour. For all of you that do drop your children off, thank you for your patience, alertness and safe driving. In an effort to make our traffic pattern even safer and more efficient for everyone, we are redesigning our front circle to create some separation between the three groups all vying for access to the building. The redesign will allow all of our buses to park at WGMS on the front circle rather than being split between the middle school and Stonehedge Elementary School. Our staff will continue to use the back parking lot and parents will continue to loop around the parent circle at Stonehedge and drop their student(s) off along the driveway just as they do now. The new design will add a sidewalk that parallels the driveway at Stonehedge to connect to the middle school sidewalk so students will be able to more safely make their way to our front doors. Parents will then be able to 'drop and go' without having to wait for three groups of buses to work their way to the Middle School. The new design will also likely eliminate the need for me to play rodeo-clown in a neon vest each morning. It's actually an exciting start to the day!

In order to accommodate all of the buses on our front circle, the width of the current circle will double in size and we will need to remove a few trees from the existing circle. That work will begin over February Break so when students return the front of the building will undoubtedly have a different look to it with fewer trees.

I will continue to provide you with Capital Project updates specific to WGMS through this blog, our PTA meetings and Twitter as the work progresses. 

New York State Testing

You may have read or heard that there will be some positive changes to grades 3 through 8 testing in ELA and Mathematics Assessments that will be administered this April. For starters the tests will now be untimed. This means that any student who is working productively to complete any portion of the test may have as much time as they need to finish. There will also be fewer questions and reading passages for students to work through. Those changes are a good start! These assessments are part of the ‘circle of life’ in a school. Each year different events and activities come and go and we work through them. The assessments are no different. We don’t do anything special in preparation for them and we have no need for ’test prep’. The daily instruction that takes place is outstanding and the planning of our different units of study are all aligned to the standards. As a result our students are well prepared to sit and take these assessments. Please note the administration dates:

Grades 3-8 ELA                                 April 5-6-7

Grades 3-8 Mathematics                     April 13-14-15

As always, thank you for your continued support of our students and staff.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

The Power of Reading in the New Year

With the warmth and sunshine of December behind us we have finally seemed to jump into winter with the arrival of the New Year. Perhaps all of us can work together to convince our middle school students that when the temperature dips into the single digits it is “cool” to wear a hat and gloves! They may not listen, but we can keep preaching!

The New Year brings with it our continued focus to make reading a priority at the middle level both within and outside of school. We know that books are the fundamental engines of advancement, illumination, and wonder.  We need to get books in more of our children’s hands much more often than we are. And by ‘we’, I am referring to school and home. We can’t do it all at school between 7:45 AM and 2:15 PM. Making reading a part of who our children are is essential for their lifelong success regardless of what their interests are or what they decide to pursue after high school.

In school we talk about literacy in broad terms, across all grades and disciplines. People are more cognizant of providing daily opportunities for our students to read and write with a purpose; to teach content through reading, writing, and inquiry. Reading is the magic bullet for maximizing student achievement and growth. It’s not just about reading books, but newspapers, magazines, blogs, journals, web posts, directions, word problems, lyrics, recipes, music, etc. Getting those in the hands of our students is essential. We continually reflect on our instructional practices: how much time are we spending each period, each day, each week, each unit, reading and writing? What are the tasks associated with the various texts that students engage with? Reading and writing should be an essential component which everything else that we do is built around. We must ensure that we are giving our students what they need for their future, not simply walking them through a bunch of content in order to pass tests. The ability to read and write well are gifts. As we prepare our students for their future there is nothing more valuable that they can take with them.

Frank Bruni wrote a wonderful OP-ED for the New York Times in which he eloquently captures the importance and power of reading: “Reading fuels the fires of intelligence and imagination, and if they don’t blaze well before elementary school, a child’s education — a child’s life — may be an endless game of catch-up.” I encourage you to read the entire article here.

One way that you can help promote reading at home is to encourage your children to get involved with our 2^nd Annual ‘Battle of the Books’. The Battle is about to get underway with competition between teams beginning in March. Last year was our inaugural Battle, with 68 students competing on 17 teams, answering questions about 8 books which were focused on a theme of "Journeys." Students had a great time using electronic buzzers, answering questions, and wagering points to defeat their competitors. They had fun reading and discussing great books!

This year's competition promises to be even better with a visual Jeopardy-style electronic gameboard, and book titles that have won several awards for quality writing and content in middle-school fiction. The titles for this year can be found here.

The ‘Battle of the Books’ is a great opportunity for your child to be on a team, in a school-sponsored activity, developing their skills of teamwork, cooperation, communication, all in a very fun environment! Competition will take place during IT and there are still openings for teams and for individuals who would like to be placed on a team. Please have your child see Mrs. Chemotti in the library for more information.

Let’s continue to support and encourage our students to read as we enter the New Year. Wishing all of you a happy and healthy 2016!

Continued Success,

Stephen R. Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

Follow me on Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms