Principal's Corner
October 23rd, 2016
Welcome Back!
I hope you all had a wonderful Fall Break! I want to welcome you all back to school tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to a great 2nd Quarter ahead of us.
Congratulations to Mrs. Hayhurst's Student
Congratulations to Mrs. Hayhurst's 6th grade student who was nominated as Wilson Middle School Student of Character for CHARACTER COUNTS! Week.
"Winter Kirk” was featured Saturday, October 22 in the Visalia Times-Delta or the Tulare Advance-Register in the 2 page color insert Mr. Vidak purchases during CHARACTER COUNTS! Week.
"Winter Kirk” was featured Saturday, October 22 in the Visalia Times-Delta or the Tulare Advance-Register in the 2 page color insert Mr. Vidak purchases during CHARACTER COUNTS! Week.
Quarter 1 Benchmark Data
This week during Thursday's T & L, we will be reviewing our benchmark data for Quarter 1. As a reminder, please make sure that all of your assessment data, including writing scores are in EADMS by Wednesday morning, so we can begin running reports. For ELA and Math, I know that many of you were discussing preliminary data as you were reviewing your scores before we went on break. I recommend that if your scores were below 20 percent that you spend time reteaching and reassessing Quarter 1 standards before moving on to Quarter 2 standards. This may mean creating a new assessment, or using the same assessment. This is something you can discuss as a team. It may also mean that some classes are ready to move on and others are not, so as you finalize your data in EADMS, please work do to develop reteach lessons for the standards in Quarter 1 if there is a need to reteach
Data Chats
On Tuesday, November 1st and Wednesday, November 2nd, we will be having our Quarter 1 data chats. For this process, teachers will bring their Report Builder scores and Item Analysis scores and we will reflect on Quarter 1 assessment data. This will be a 20 minute process, and we will have a roving sub scheduled to cover your class. I will be sending out a schedule later in the week and also the form we will be using.
WMS Carnival
Our Fall Carnival is just around the corner and is scheduled for this coming Friday, October 28th. If you haven't had a chance to sign up for a booth yet and you would like to do so, please let Mr. Thompson know. More details about the event will be coming out early this week, so stay tuned.
Teach-To's
Just a reminder that on Monday, October 24th and Tuesday, October 25th, all classes will be re-teaching the Teach-to lessons for the school and campus. Please make sure these lessons are completed during the first 10-15 minutes of class, and students should be involved in the process. As a reminder, please have students practice the appropriate behaviors and take them to the designated common areas during the campus teach-to day. The administrative team will be checking in during our focus walk throughs on Monday and Tuesday to assess our progress and provide feedback to the team in this important area of our school wide discipline system. Thanks in advance for your time.
Staff Meeting/Parent Contact
This week's PLC is scheduled to be our Staff meeting/Parent Contact time. We will be discussing the All-American Classic during our staff meeting, and/or any other items that staff would like to discuss. The meeting will begin at 7:45 and finish at 8:15 with the rest of the time remaining for parent contact.
Dr. Alvarado
Dr. Alvarado called me this past week and we were able to speak, at length, about Wilson's progress with the Time to Teach system. The reason he called me is that he saw our SBAC scores and he wanted to compliment us on a job well done. He said that when he was looking at comparable schools, he felt ours was good! This was great to hear:) I was able to share with him the spike in suspensions that occurred for us and the types of incidents that we were experiencing in September. He was excited by our response to the incidents and the effect that this had on our suspension rate in October. He also shared that some of what we may have experienced could have been relate to the system being new for our incoming 6th grade students and the rest of our students wanting to test the boundaries. He continues to be a champion for us and the work we're doing, so I wanted to make sure I passed this along to you!
Eating Outside
Starting this week, we will be allowing students to eat their cold lunch outside in the area located at the entrance of the cafeteria and Rm 1. You will notice there are picnic tables and umbrellas set up for students to enjoy their lunch outdoors.