Transforming The Middle Level Experience

Last night we had the opportunity to meet with the parents of our incoming 6^th grade students. Many of them have had older children come through our doors, but the majority of them were first-time parents to the middle school. Some of them are just as nervous about making the transition to the “Wonder Years” as their children are. Hopefully after last night they are a little less nervous and excited about the experiences and opportunities that await their children as we prepare them for their future.

A focus of our presentation was on everything that is right about education today and where we are going. When you block out the negativity surrounding Teacher and Principal Evaluation and State Assessments and focus on what matters most – the daily instruction and learning experiences of our children – you realize that this is the most exciting time in education probably in the last 50+ years. There is a transformation that has been underway and continues to build momentum in classrooms and schools throughout our district, State and country. The transformation originates from teachers and leaders willing to make decisions and present a vision for what schools can be that strays from what ‘school’ has been for the last 100 years. There isn’t a master plan coming from someone in Albany or Washington. As it has throughout history, meaningful change comes from groups of passionate, dedicated individuals who roll up their sleeves in the trenches day after day and get it done. The transformation of middle level education at West Genesee is underway and you could see the excitement on the faces of our 6^th grade parents last night as we walked them through our vision.

 The transformation really starts with us looking at WHAT we teach and HOW we teach in 6^th grade. We have created some flexibility within the schedule to allow teachers to work more collaboratively in instructional planning, helping us break out of our content silos and allowing teachers to move and group students based on what they need, when they need it, rather than trying to meet needs within the constraints and limitations of the traditional schedule. Authentic literacy and opportunities to read and write will be a larger part of each school day; there is nothing more important than building in time to read and write throughout the day. Our teachers have already started receiving professional development around Project Based Learning and are designing meaningful and engaging learning experiences for students that will challenge and engage them in ways that they have not experienced. In addition, we are changing some of our courses at the middle level and offering electives to meet the needs of our students today.

As we think about what our students truly need in order to be prepared for their future our focus is on skills rather than stuff. Our students need skills that transcend all content areas, all situations, and can continue to evolve and grow as they develop as young men and women. Leadership, digital literacy, communication, emotional intelligence, entrepreneurship, global citizenship, problem solving and teamwork are the essential skills that our students need for their future; whatever that future looks like.

The most dangerous phrase in the world is “we have always done it that way.”  We are fortunate at West Genesee to be surrounded by passionate, creative individuals who are willing to think differently about how we do things, to try new things and to make decisions based on what is right for kids.  

As the world continues to change at an ever increasing rate, we need the courage to think about doing things differently. Here we go.

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

@Sdunhamwgms

March Madness 2015

Looking out the window of the main office at the 7 foot snowbank occupying most of the view it doesn’t look or feel much like March, but according to the calendar it is. And with the arrival of March comes an incredibly fast, exciting and very memorable time of the school year. I want to highlight three large events that are taking place at WGMS in the month of March.

 

Battle of the Books

This month we are kicking off our first ever Battle of the Books at West Genesee Middle school. During the months of March, April and May, 61 students at WGMS will be participating in our inaugural 'Battle of the Books' competition. This year's theme is "Journeys," with the first phase of 8 novels focusing on stories in which the main character(s) experiences a journey of discovery. Sixteen teams will compete in the preliminaries of 2 matches per team; then 12 teams will enter the playoffs, with the top 8 scoring teams entering an "Extraordinary Eight" competition. The top four teams will then compete in a "Final Four" playoff on an evening in May with spectators and a lot of fun and excitement. The “Final Four” battle will be based on 3 biographical works. A big thank you to our librarian, Jan Chemotti (@jtchemotti), for all of her hard work and leadership in making the Battle of the Books a reality at WGMS. This is great example of our ongoing efforts at continuing to offer new and exciting opportunities for our students.  

The list of books is available on our WGMS Library page. Check them out and see what our students are reading. Better yet, read them yourself!

http://www.westgenesee.org/PDFs/Libraries/WGMS_Battle%20list_1%20page.pdf

 

St. Baldrick’s

On March 20^th WGMS is hosting our second St. Baldrick’s event in an effort to raise awareness and money to fight childhood cancer. This was a student initiated effort last year which began with some simple conversations and quickly evolved into a terrific community building event at WGMS. This year eleven of our staff members (yes, I’m one of them!) will be going bald in front of our students at different times throughout the day. We have had a lot of fun growing our hair for the last few months, trying out various hair products, experimenting with different hairstyles and we are really looking forward to having it all shaved off. Keep calm and go bald!

 

Here is the link to our event: https://www.stbaldricks.org/events/WestGenesee2015

 

 

Talent Show

On March 26 at 6:00 p.m., 27 students will perform in 20 acts in the 5th Annual West Genesee Middle "These 'Cats Have Talent" show. Singers, dancers, and pianists will bring their best artistic talent to our cafeteria in a celebration of music and performance. Tickets are $5.00 and the entertainment is well worth the price of admission. We hope you can come out and see some of the amazing and talented students we have.

 

It's a great month to be a Wildcat! Thank you for your continued support of our students and staff.

 

Continued Success,

Steve Dunham

sdunham@westgenesee.org

@Sdunhamwgms

 

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