WMS Bulletin
12-9-19 Faculty and Staff
A busy time of year!
I hope everyone stayed warm this weekend! And now it will be 50 on Monday and Tuesday! You have to love New England!
It is definitely hectic these next two weeks before winter break! Please continue to watch your hallway zones in between classes and keep students on their regular routines as much as possible. All students should continue to sign out and have hall passes when they leave your class. I know this is often a time for celebration and food in classrooms, but please try to keep this to a minimum so as to keep unwanted guests out. Thank you for your help with this!
The special schedules for this week and next week are linked - there were a couple of glitches in the first ones I sent out on Friday, but I believe they are all set now. :)
Have a terrific week! Happy December! Go Pats!
Duties This Week:
AM: Cafeteria / PM Waverley and Bemis: H. Altalli
AM: Cafeteria / PM Bemis and Westminster: S. Gilmartin
AM: Waverley Entrance / PM Waverley Driveway: H. Smith
Bemis St. Crosswalk: B. Donato
The full Bus/Breakfast duty schedule can be found here:
Bus and Breakfast Duty Schedule
Lunch Duty this Week: None! Please keep asking around and let me know if you know anyone who might be interested! We need to fill 1-2 more spots.
**Upcoming Dates**
December 10 - ILT meeting 7:15-8:15 am
December 10 - School Site Council meeting 6:30-8:00 pm
December 11 - Department meetings
December 11 - Anti-Bias Coalition event
December 12 - In-school Winter concert - special schedule
December 12 - PDT meeting 3:15 - 5:00 pm
December 12 - Evening Winter concert 7:00 pm
December 13 - Geography Bee preliminaries / Hour of Code - special schedule
December 18 - PLT meetings
December 20 - Geography Bee finals - special schedule
December 23 - January 1 - Winter vacation
January 3 - Progress reports distributed
From the Marshall Memo:
“Instead of asking, ‘Does anybody have any questions?’, I now say, ‘Ask me a question’ or –
better still – ‘Ask me two questions.’ This seems to elicit a greater frequency and quality of
questions than my previous attempt.”
Craig Barton in The ResearchED Guide to Education Myths (John Catt, 2019, p. 15)
*** Upcoming Maintenance Work - please read ***
- Floors installed in the second half of the 2nd floor (6th grade) rooms
- All furniture and other items will need to be removed
- We will do a walkthrough with the teachers in those rooms on December 6th to confirm which floors will be replaced
- We will provide boxes for items that need to be temporarily moved
- All lockers need to be empty - we will meet with you to figure out a plan for this
- Everything needs to be removed off of the walls
- Bottom floor (garden level) small hallway painting
- Everything needs to be removed off of the walls
- Cafeteria painting
- Bemis entrance way painting
- Nurse's office flooring repairs
- Room 121 Closet Abatement
Regarding the move of the faculty room to 121, which was discussed in liaisons, a few additional details to clear up any confusion based on some feedback I received:
- The move was voluntary.
- The closet could stay as is, have the floor be covered over, or be abated, and we elected to abate it.
- Room 121 was chosen as the faculty room because of its central proximity. The other option was BG 07, the current coordinators/coaches room. If you feel like that is a better choice, please let me know and we can discuss.
- If you have any other questions, please let me know.
WPS Computer Science Education Week!
Welcome to Computer Science Education Week 2019! It is a global effort to boost interest, awareness, ability of all learners to envision themselves in computer science education, and employment opportunities. The annual Computer Science Education Week focusses on Equity, Creativity, Inclusion and encourages all learners to Create with Computer Science! At WPS we actively seek out opportunities to engage our students and families in a holistic, interdisciplinary CS-rich educational experience throughout the year.
WPS has a variety of interdisciplinary curricular opportunities for you to infuse Computational Thinking and Computer Science into your lessons. Please visit the WPS Computer Science Education Week Website for more information about What is Computer Science? Why is it important? links to CS Ed Playground activities, Hour of Code activities, Student Contest along with words of wisdom from President Barack Obama, Malala Yousafzai, Bill Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, Steph Curry, and our Superintendent Dr. Deanne Galdston,
Here is a link to the WMS Computer Science Education Week Curriculum Page that hosts Hour of Code, CS Ed Week Playground activities, CS Ed Week Literature in the library, along with the Student Contest information.
Upcoming WMS CS Ed Week Events:
Monday (12/9): WMS CS Ed Week Playground
CS Ed Week Arcade Game Challenge WPS CS Ed Week K-12 Student Contest Challenge CS Ed Week Literature in the Library
Friday (12/13): Hour of Code @ WMS
More information about the events mentioned above and much more will be sent out during the course of the week.
As per request, I have added the link to the WPS CS Ed Website under the student resources section of the school websites for quick access. Please do let me know if you would like to add to the website.
We are very excited about working with you!
Thank you and Happy Computer Science Education Week 2019 and beyond!
-Rashmi, Dan, Justin, Leah, Sarita & WMS Faculty (with guidance from Donna and Jason)
Meeting times
As the contract was ratified, our after school meeting times will change to three, 1-hour & 20-min meetings. For December, the following 1-hour & 20-min meetings will take place:
- December 4 Faculty Meeting
- December 11 Department/Grade-Level Meeting
- December 18 PLT Meeting
Attendance Issues
Thank you!
Important ESL Information
Also, one new highlight is that we should have the PHLOTE (Primary Home Language Other Than English) category in Power School to say if the family requires interpretation. They have dedicated much time to marking this field. If you find that the families marked do NOT require interpretation please let Kate or me know. In the same vein, if they haven't marked someone as needing interpretation, please also let Kate or me know.
WPS Digital Learning/Library and Computer Science
Respecting one another's classes
Thank you!
No Backpacks to Period 7 please!
***They may also need a reminder by their lockers that they can't pack them up either. Taking the time to pack their bags will also make them late!***