April Assessments

As you are aware, April is assessment month in New York State. Our students at WGMS, along with all students in grades 3-8 across New York State, will take the Common Core Assessments in English-Language Arts from April 16th -18th and Mathematics from April 24th – 26th.  Our students and faculty have been working very hard all year; focusing on making sure that every child is becoming a better reader, writer, and mathematician. The state test gives us an opportunity to demonstrate the students’ learning and growth. 

The NYS Education Department has explained that this year’s assessments will differ greatly from assessments that our students have taken in previous years. The following link provides a terrific explanation for parents on the overall changes with the state assessments: http://www.ocmboces.org/tfiles/folder874/ParentExplanationAssessmentChanges.pdf

The best way for you to help your children is to simply encourage them to do their best, ensure that they get a good night’s sleep, and a nutritious breakfast each morning.  Testing will take place each day at 8:00 and run until approximately 10:00 on each of the six days of testing.  It is important that your child is present and on time. Students tend to do much better on these tests when they take them as scheduled, in the order they are given as opposed to taking them on a make-up day when their classmates are involved in other activities.  We are also encouraging parents to have their child leave all electronics (cell phones, DS's, ipods, mp3 players, etc.) at home during testing days.  Test administration rules require that any such device must be turned over to school staff and cannot remain in a student’s pocket or desk during the exams. If brought, students must keep these devices in their lockers.

As I have talked about in previous posts, in order to truly evaluate instruction you need to be in classrooms with students and teachers. As building administrators we are in classrooms every day and are confident that all of the hard work by our students, faculty and families will come shining through on these assessments. Regardless of what we think of them, let’s look at the next two weeks as an opportunity to showcase the tremendous amount of learning and growth that we have all been a part of.

Please email me or call with any questions, comments or concerns. Your feedback is always appreciated. Thank you for your continued support of our students and staff.

Steve Dunham
email: sdunham@westgenesee.org
Twitter: @Sdunhamwgms

 

Knowledge is Power

“The more I know the less I understand.” It may have been Socrates who first coined that phrase, although it sounds an awful lot like Yogi Berra, but it is how I often feel living in the always changing landscape of education.  Just when I think I have it figured out, I realize that I don’t. In a strange way that is what I like about my job; it’s constantly changing and requires you to continually learn and grow to achieve success.

A key to being successful is staying on top of the latest trends, but it is also about being aware of areas that you need to improve in. In order to know you have to ask. I would like to get feedback from members of our school community on a number of different areas to help me to grow and improve how we do things at West Genesee Middle School. If you read my blog you know that I routinely talk about continuous improvement. Your feedback and voice is an important part of that process.

I would appreciate your input and honesty. Please click on the link below to take the brief survey.  I do not shy away from negative feedback, but rather, I see it as an opportunity for growth. So please, be honest.

Click here to take survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HVLCCRT



Backstage at the Talent Show

 March has been a blast at WGMS! Students have been involved in two Olweus Classroom meetings, several amazing band, orchestra and chorus concerts, the Optimist Speech Contest, our WGMS Talent Show, guest speakers in different classes, and tremendous opportunities in classrooms that challenge and stretch our students. Spring Break is just what everyone needs as we gear up for the home stretch.


Pre-concert jam



Collaboration in Math







Mr. Sweeney facilitating learning in Health.



Thank you for your continued involvement in our school community and for your support of our students and staff.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

Tourney Time

March Madness has us all immersed in college basketball and the possibilities that a new season in the form of the NCAA tournament offers. That energy and excitement is hard to define, it just is. It’s a special time of the year when the months of hard work, long hours, careful planning, and commitment come together for teams across the country. Anything is possible. I equate it to the school year in many ways. Not that our year is just about over or that we’re playing for a championship, but it is the time of year when all of the planning from the previous summer, the hard work, long hours, and commitment of everyone connected to our students begins to shine and payoff.

The best part of my job is being in classrooms seeing both our teachers and students in action. It’s here that one sees our collective efforts coming together. Regardless of the classroom or grade level, one begins to see and experience the work occurring in an effort to maximize student achievement and learning; to connect concepts across disciplines and engage our students in learning opportunities that challenge and stretch them, not in isolation, but as a part of an entire educational experience. Like many of the teams in the tournament, we have hit our groove and are at our best. 





Pre-concert jam session.





The energy and excitement associated with that high level of performance from our students and staff is inspiring. I get that feeling walking into our classrooms seeing our students collaborating with one another, or seeing them struggle to solve a challenging problem in mathematics.

I get that feeling watching our students engaged and contributing to our Olweus Classroom Meetings or seeing our teachers connect and collaborating to make their instructional practices stronger. I got that feeling listening to our Optimist Speech Contest participants earlier in the month (amazing!) and I also got that feeling watching our students perform at different concerts over the last two weeks (they could charge money!). That energy and excitement is hard to define, it just is. And it is that time of year where you start to see all of our efforts at supporting our students come together here at school. Truly, anything is possible.

Please email me or call with any questions, comments or concerns. Your feedback is always appreciated. Thank you for your continued support of our students and staff.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham