True Champions

What a week. We had the State of the Union on Tuesday evening followed by the State of the State on Wednesday. I won’t give you my official reaction to what I heard and later read because this would become a novel. The bottom line is that politics and money are unfortunately the two biggest factors in decision making when it comes to public education by people that have little to no experience in education. The next few months the debate will rage on about how to ‘fix’ public education. It will be important for everyone in education and everyone else who are defenders of our children to stand up, speak up and let their voices be heard for what should be decisions making based on what is right for our children, not to please corporate interests or get re-elected. Those of us in the trenches working with students and their families each day will keep our focus on doing our jobs as effectively as possible as we always have. 

 

Sometimes the one thing that gets lost in debates about education is the one thing that is most important: making connections with kids. The following is something I shared with our staff in our weekly newsletter a few weeks ago. My discontent with our political leaders has me re-energized and focused more than ever on what matters most. 

“They don’t care what you know until they
know that you care.” 

“No significant learning can come without a significant relationship” 

We started our school year as a faculty watching a TEDTalk from Rita Pierson, ‘Every Kid Needs A Champion’. (http://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion) If you have never seen it you need to. It is a ‘must-watch’. We spend a considerable amount of time focused on our building culture.  We have had on-going conversations about the importance of making connections with students and letting them know that we care about them as people. It is so important that we keep that in the forefront of our minds all of the time regardless of the situation. Middle school students are a unique breed. At no time during a human’s life, other than infancy, do we develop more physically, psychologically, socially, and cognitively, than during the age of ten to fourteen. Throw a whole bunch of them together in one building and you have a truly energetic, enthusiastic, fun and sometimes unbelievable setting. For educators and parents, these middle school kids can drive us crazy, make us upset, annoy us, and disappoint us. But in the next moment they can inspire us, motivate us, energize us and leave us in complete awe. In some of those situations it can be difficult to not hammer someone or jump all over them for their behavior. But even in those situations where our patience is truly tested, our kids (students) need our empathy and patience! 

For some of our students school is their safe place and the only meaningful connections that they have is with many of us. As adults we cannot forget how powerful our actions and words are. As with our own children, we can and will be disappointed with their behavior or decision making from time to time, but the most important part of our jobs as educators and parents is the guiding, shaping, reinforcing, modeling, teaching and supporting that we do all the time to help foster growth in our kids (students) to become good, caring people. They need that even more when they screw up! When they need a kick in the rear we should give it to them, but we should do so in a manner that leaves no doubt with them that we care about them. We don’t yell. We don’t scream. We don’t humiliate. We don’t single out. We may not even like them at the moment – but they should never know it. We have high expectations, we hold them accountable and we tell them that we care about them. A culture of caring will produce incredible results and we can help shape behavior, hold them accountable and let them know that we care all at the same time – they are not mutually exclusive. Once they know we care, anything is possible. 

 

"We can do this. We're educators. We're born to make a difference."  – Rita Pierson 

This is what we value as educators and we work to continually improve and make connections with our students. It isn’t always easy, but it is worth it. I wish those decision makers in Washington and Albany could step up and be True Champions for our students like the thousands of people across the country and state who are proud to call themselves educators.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

@Sdunhamwgms

Impressive

That’s the one word that I have said to myself several times over the last month and a half at different events that our students have been involved in. From concerts and sporting events, to our school musical and First Lego League, I am blown away by how talented, poised and committed our middle school students are in a wide variety of activities outside of the classroom.

First Lego League (FLL)

West Genesee Middle School students took part in West Genesee School District’s first ever First LEGO League (FLL) competition. Our FLL team, West GeNXT, is a group of 7^th and 8^th grade students that strategized, designed, built and programmed autonomous LEGO robots to perform a series of tasks in competition with other schools. Over the course of several months the West GeNXT team focused on real-world math, technology and science concepts in preparation for their first tournament. We are looking forward to adding some teams at the middle level down the road and hopefully getting some of our elementary schools involved as well.

FAME Jr. 

In November 125 students worked together to put on three amazing productions of FAME Jr. There were 90 students performing on stage as musicians, dancers and actors and 35 students behind the scenes working lights, sets, curtains, security and as ushers. We also had at least five former WGMS students from the high school on hand helping in a variety of ways at each rehearsal. The high-energy show focused on the last years of New York City's celebrated High School for the Performing Arts, telling the inspiring story of a diverse group of students who commit to four years of grueling artistic and academic work.  

Concert & Athletics

November and early December saw all of our performing groups in all three grades take the stage at the high school, while our winter sports teams have their seasons well under way.  As impressive as they are in concert or on game day, the most impressive thing to me is the time and effort that goes into all of the countless hours practicing without an audience. It’s easy to get excited about a performance or a big game, but it takes true commitment and dedication to show up and work hard every day.  

Our teachers and coaches deserve a great deal of credit and appreciation for all of their time and effort in working with our student-performers and student-athletes. The passion and enthusiasm of our teachers and coaches shines through in our student’s performances. It really is impressive and it is all of these opportunities, in conjunction with the incredible things that take place in our classrooms, that really make the middle school experience so special.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

@Sdunhamwgms

Every good coach is a GREAT teacher

6th Grade Chorus taking the stage at the High School

Listening to Understand

This past Friday our students had a half day. The half day schedule at the middle level can be a scheduling challenge; do we have super short periods or do we cut certain periods out of the day? Essentially, how do we maximize the time we have and make it meaningful and relevant? On the half-day our focus was exclusively on strengthening our positive school culture with a morning program dedicated to an Olweus Classroom Meeting which included an assembly and classroom activity. Our building level Olweus Anti-Bullying Team has worked incredibly hard over the course of the last three years to incorporate terrific activities and classroom meetings for all of our students and staff. Friday was no exception. It was terrific!

The overarching theme of the morning was that all of us need to start doing a better job of listening to people. And not just listening to what they say. We often listen to others in an effort to form a response to what they say, but we really need to all do a better job of listening to understand. We need to listen with our eyes, listen with our ears and listen with our hearts. As we start to listen to people and develop a true understanding of their perspective and how they feel, we start to build empathy. That is incredibly powerful. And that results in more students and adults standing up and speaking up when we hear, see or feel that something isn’t right or when someone needs help. We are making a difference and our students are stepping up more than ever.

 

Friday Night Hoops

 

On Friday night we had a PTA sponsored school dance and 3 on 3 basketball tournament. It was a terrific evening and a great opportunity for our students to be active and have some fun on a Friday night.  Yes, it is possible to have fun without looking at a screen! We had 27 teams participate in the basketball tournament and an equally large group of students in the cafeteria dancing and jumping around to DJ ‘J9’, one of our physical education teachers who volunteered her time. I am very appreciative of the great turnout of volunteers who helped make this night a success. We had parents, teachers and former students involved in chaperoning, refereeing and doing anything else we needed.  As a school community we will continue to create opportunities for our students outside the scope of the school day.

 

Family Fun Night

Next Friday, November 7^th is our annual Family Fun Night at West Genesee Middle School. As we have done the last several years, our West Genesee Middle School staff will be playing basketball against some of our Camillus First Responders representing the Camillus Police, local fire departments and WAVES ambulance. Doors open at 6:30 PM and we jump it up at 7:00 PM. The good news is that emergency responders are actually playing in the game should anyone, like the building principal, need emergency assistance. This has evolved into a wonderful community event to not only bring our parents, students and staff together, but also to recognize and thank the men and women that help to protect and keep all of us safe. We hope to see all of you next Friday.

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

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

@Sdunhamwgms