Open House Re-Cap

Packed hallways and limited parking = good problems

One of my favorite nights of the year is our Open House.This is an opportunity for parents to "check us out". As a parent myself, we (parents) are less interested in hearing about every "thing" that is taught and every "policy" that we have, and more interested in the belief that our kids are in good hands and being cared for. Parents want to know about us as people, our willingness and ability to connect with kids, our efforts at preparing students for their future, how we  communicate, our focus on higher level thinking, and important literacy skills of reading, writing and speaking that are embedded in all that we do. Open House, and anytime we connect with our parents, is our opportunity to show people that we are caring, supportive, flexible, committed professionals.

Unfortunately some of our parents were unable to attend and several had asked me for an overview of the evening. Below are some highlights of the welcome that I gave everyone in homeroom at the start of our Open House. 

"First of all, thank you for being here this evening. 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 parents. 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 your support in helping us to maximize the potential in all of our students as they make that challenging journey through the middle years."

PTA table was busy all night

"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 and strive to get better. Together we need to continue to encourage them to get involved with sports, music, clubs, and other activities and to stay connected with other events like our dances, Family Fun Night, 3 on 3 Basketball tournaments, and everything else that we have to offer. We talk to them about the importance of connecting with other people, about putting down their phones once in awhile and looking up from their screens to connect with others. Speaking and listening are still essential skills." (link to clubs and activities: WGMS Clubs & Activities)

"You can expect us to support them, but also to push them to be their best; to not accept 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. We look forward to working 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 a big thank you to our teachers and staff for being Champions for our kids!!

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

@Sdunhamwgms

Simply The Best!

The Queen of Athens
& the Heart of our building

One of our beloved teachers and friends, JoAnn Macaluso, died yesterday morning. Ms. Macaluso, or Miss Mac as we called her, has touched the hearts and minds of our students, staff and our entire school community for over forty-eight years. She was a mentor, a friend, a teacher, a leader and a member of the family for thousands of students and colleagues over her career. Miss Mac is loved and respected by so many not just because of what she did as a teacher, but because of how she did it and how she made us all feel. She made you feel like you were the most important person in the world because to her, you were. Miss Mac lived her life with passion, grace, humility, class and a contagious energy that filled up a room. She was my mentor when I started my career in the classroom, she was my role model for the kind of teacher I wanted to be, and she was one of my biggest cheerleaders and advisors when I stepped into administration. We are all better people because we had her in our lives.

As you can imagine this is going to be a very difficult time for many who were touched by her. This morning at school we had the opportunity to share our feelings and memories of Miss Mac as we work through our grief. As students and staff were talking, telling stories and sharing their greatest memories of her, our tears are beginning to turn to laughter and our heavy hearts are slowly becoming a little lighter as we reflect on all of the happy times with our dear friend.   

Miss Mac lived her life doing what she loved with the people that she loved. And we all loved her.

Steve Dunham

Summer Reading?

I am sure by now all our students have completed reading one book from the summer reading list. But what would really make me happy is if all our students read every book on the list and then some! I honestly don’t think it is too much to ask; daily reading of all kinds of literature should be the norm. The most important skill that students can acquire is the ability to read critically and for meaning. If we (school and home) want to develop students who are truly college, career and civic ready, then daily reading MUST become a habit; it isn’t an option and schools can’t do it alone!

Fifteen years into the 21^st century has produced the first generation of children who are Digital Natives. Our students have more information at the swipe of a finger or the click of the mouse – a positive change – but only if they can navigate through all that text and use it to become more engaged in the world around them. Critical and meaningful reading matters more today than it ever has in the past.

Summer reading? It’s just not enough. Here at school we are making some changes to our expectations to create the space for more reading each day. At every grade level homework should consist of at least 20 minutes of reading selected by each student – anything they find of interest and it deserves as much attention (if not more) than other things like dance, football practice, piano and everything else our active kids are involved with! At the middle level we are challenging each student to read 10 books over the course of the school year. There are no prizes or ribbons. There won’t be an awards ceremony or trophy. The reward is simply (or greatly) being a more informed and literate citizen. Students who have a daily study hall will be asked to read if they have finished their homework. We will have classroom libraries available and are working on getting e-readers for access to national magazines and newspapers.

Parents and guardians often ask how they can help at home. Here are some suggestions:

Let your child know what you are reading. It could be something work related or for pleasure. Discuss the main idea or something interesting related to the text. The Common Core Learning Standards even suggests texts such as manuals, legal documents and financial information; those are the types of things that many of us read daily in our given professions.

Get a daily newspaper. It is sad fact that our local paper is no longer available on our doorsteps each morning – a fate that has plagued many small town papers. The New York Times is available for daily delivery and a subscription includes digital access as well. Most of the articles are well within the reading level of middle level students. And talk about high interest…just last week there was a big article on the video game industry and a synopsis of the new fall television season. The human interest articles in the Sunday edition are excellent. Is your child interested in sports? There has been a series of terrific articles around the playoff push for both the Yankees and the Mets. Have a budding scientist? The Science Times section on Tuesdays includes both long and short articles on a whole variety of topics. Pick up a copy the next time you are grocery shopping…you won’t be disappointed.

Get a library card and head down to one of our local branches. Talk to one of the librarians who are simply the best resources for what book is hot in the young adult genre. They can also make suggestions for book titles that pique your child’s interests and help you get digital access to many national newspapers and magazine through their sites.

http://maxwellmemoriallibrary.org/

http://fairmountlibrary.org/

http://solvaylibrary.org/

http://mflib.org/

Ask questions about what your child is reading. Open ended prompts like: What did that remind you of? Or What was the best part so far? can help get the discussion started.

All of us here at WGMS look forward to seeing your children back here next week and jumping into the new school year. And you can be sure we’ll be asking about their summer reading!

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

@Sdunhamwgms