WBMS Staff Newsletter
March 26-30
Dates To Remember
Mar 30- Passover and Good Friday- No Tests/Quizzes
Mar 30- Webster Awards
April 2-6- Spring Break
April 10- Testing Meeting in Grade Level
Important Upcoming Events
April 2-6- Spring Break
April 12-24- Milestones
April 20- Wacky Webb Day (taking place of TOWB)
May 10-11- Geobots 6th Grade
May 11- 8th Grade Dance
May 12- Relay for Life
May 17, 18, 21-Finals
May 22, 23, 24- The Clash of the Webb Heroes
May 21-24- Device Collection
May 22- 8th Grade Awards Ceremony @ 7:00pm at AHS
March Meeting Schedule
April Meeting Schedule
May Meeting Schedule
Milestones Testing
The Georgia Milestones Assessment System (Georgia Milestones) is a comprehensive summative assessment program spanning grades 3 through high school.
Georgia Milestones measures how well students have learned the knowledge and skills outlined in the state-adopted content standards in English Language Arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.
Students in grades 3 through 8 take an end-of-grade assessment in English Language Arts and mathematics while students in grades 5 and 8 are also assessed in science and social studies. High school students take an end-of-course assessment for each of the ten courses designated by the State Board of Education.
Our Fulton County Schools Assessment Department has released the official testing dates for the EOG and EOC Milestones Testing for the Spring.
April 12 – EOG Writing- 6,7,8
April 16- EOG ELA 6,7,8 (all students except students taking the 9th grade Literature Honors EOC course)
April 18- EOG Math 6,7,8 (all students except students taking an EOC Math course)
April 23- EOG Science 8th grade ONLY (except students taking an EOC Physical Science course)
April 24- EOG Social Studies- 8th grade ONLY
*Makeups for EOG will be rolling
April 25- EOC- 9th grade Lit
April 26- EOC- 9th grade Lit
April 30- EOC Geometry
May 1- EOC Physical Science
May 3- EOC Algebra
For additional information and resources regarding the Georgia Milestones Assessment System (EOG and EOC), please follow this link:
Action Items and Important Links
3/27 Leadership Minutes- Click here to view
3/9 Faculty Meeting PPT- Click here to view the ppt
3/6-9 Leadership Minutes- Click here to view minutes
Please take some time to complete the following items:
- Irma Hours- Log here: bit.ly/irma12hours
Bell Schedule for 2018-2019
Google Classroom
We are happy to announce that we now have access to Google Classrooms!
Here is the information to log in:
Your Google Apps For Education (G Suite) account has been created. In order for you to login to your new account (FCSUserID@fcsgaonline.org) you will first need to change the password for your current FCS account (FCSUserID@fultonschools.org). That new password will also be the password for your FCSUserID@fcsgaonline.org account.
* FCS Password Reset: https://pwreset.fultonschools.org/pm or while on your pc type CTR+ALT+DELETE and select “Change Password”
If you are interested in Google Classroom Nan Brown and Katie Pardee will be available to help.
Classes for Microsoft Teams
If you have any questions you can contact Mindy Ramon or Katie Pardee
You can sign up for the free "Learn Teams Conference" - great online PD to learn about @MicrosoftTeams. Both class & staff relevance http://www.learnteamsconference.com
Reminder About Homework
Spring 2018 Finals and The Clash of the Webb Heroes Dates
9th - PBA for 8 th grade for all WL
10th - PBA for 7 th grade for all WL
15th No meeting – help session for either ELA/WL
17th - ELA and WL/Reading
18th - Science
21st - Math and Social Studies
22nd -load grades
23rd -verify
The Clash of the Webb Heroes
22nd- 7th Grade
23rd- 8th Grade
24th- 6th Grade
Device Collection
21st- 6th Grade (1st part)
22nd- 8th Grade
23rd- 6th Grade (2nd part)
24th- 7th Grade
2018-2019 school year Release Days
8/31/18
10/9/18
2/4/19
3/7/19
General Transfer Window
The General Transfer window will be from February 23, 2018 – April 13, 2018. Below is the link to the General Transfer Form, which is located on the Talent/Human Resources portal. The guidelines and directions are at the top of the form. Current principals/department heads must sign the form to indicate the employee’s eligibility. Their signature does not indicate approval, as the process is governed by Board Policy GBM.
Interested/eligible employees (including assistant principals) should print and complete the form, have it signed by your current principal/department head and submit it along with a letter of interest directly to the desired school principals/department heads. Do not submit the form to Talent/Human Resources.
If you have questions regarding your eligibility or the process, please direct such to your principal or department head. Be mindful that receiving a transfer is not guaranteed.
Please click the link below to print the form.
ESOL Endorsement
The deadline to apply to the program is Friday, April 21st. Applicants accepted into the program, will receive a notification of acceptance email mid-May.
Join our Relay for Life Team
Autism Speaks
What: Autism Speaks Walk
When: 4/29/18
Where: Downtown Atlanta
Time: 9:00
Its that time!! The annual Autism Speaks Walk will be held on 29 April, 2018 in beautiful midtown Atlanta! Our school will have a team, the Webb Bridge Builders- and we need YOUR help to continue the tradition of supporting our autism community in the greater Atlanta area.
Last year, our school raised nearly $2,700. Wow! If you would like to become a part of team planning/activities during April, please let Jennifer Ward know by Friday, 9 March.
Wowzers
Don't forget to submit a Webb Way Wowzer to Katie Pardee by Friday for the Staff Newsletter the following Monday.
WOWZERS:
- I’d like to send a Wowzer to Janelle Consola. Her smile and enthusiasm are so contagious- and much needed over this past busy week! She takes the time to notice and greet students with a compliment each and every day- making our hallway such a positive place to work!- Jennifer Ward
Thank you so much to the talent show committee for all of your hard work and dedication. I could not have done it without you all.- Jenna Allenson
Thank you to Mr. Stroud for having your Percussion Ensemble perform in the Talent Show! They were great. -Jenna Allenson
Thank you to Carmen Hurst for hosting the Talent Show. You did awesome!- Jenna Allenson
Thank you to Dr. Barket for running the sound at the Talent Show. It was amazing!- Jenna Allenson
Kudos to Jana Bernhardt for manning the concessions and facilitating Jr.Beta helpers during the Talent Show- Katie Pardee
Talent Show Committee Members and others who assisted – Jenna, Christian, Abriana, Carmen, Bailey, James, Kirk, Jenna, Betsy, and Neeta –Thank you for supporting our students and giving them an opportunity to shine! It was a wonderful event!- Rebecca Perkins
- Kudos to Jenna Allenson for leading the Talent Show Committee. It was a fantastic event for our community!- Carmen Hurst
Thank you to all counselors for all of their hard work in ensuring that our students are emotionally safe! - Carmen Hurst
WOWZER to Lindsay Amos for attending so many IEP and Transition meetings to prepare our rising 9th graders for high school. Your insight is always so helpful and you know all of your students so well. Thanks for all of the hours of dedication to our shared students. - Julianne Hunter
WOWZER to Lauren Mintz for being such an incredible and patient co-teacher. Thanks for picking up my slack, sharing the load, and for understanding that I can’t be cloned. I am so happy I get to work with you and I cherish our working relationship. - Julianne Hunter
WOWZER to Melanie McCutcheon for the MANY, MANY IEP minutes you have taken for me and the kiddos on my caseload over the past two months. I appreciate you being such a proficient typist who can keep up with my fast talking and lengthy meetings. It’s not an easy job, but you do it very well. I’m so grateful. - Julianne Hunter
A wowzer to Katie Pardee for lending us a helping hand!- The WBMS Counselors.
Kudos to the WBMS Counselors for creating Signup Geniuses to help organize student registration. - Katie Pardee
March
6 Rosalind Cedeno 13 Fredina Anderson 13 Matt Sell 19 Salimah Karim 20 Daniel Clark 20 Maria Adamkiewicz-Sochacki 21 Joanna Gillespie 21 Rebecca Perkins 23 Michelle Garner 26 Nancy Ann Martin 29 Sarah Boltz
April
4 Sarah Hendrick
10 Mary Natelli
16 Roseline Saint-Louis 20 Nathaniel Amrine 26 Caroline Goldstein 29 Brandon Rhodes
See a Bug? Report it!
Anonymous Feedback to Ms. Perkins
Send feedback anonymously to Ms. Perkins by following this link: bit.ly/toperkins
NOT ALL WORKSHEETS ARE CREATED EQUAL
(excerpt from Cult of Pedagogy "Frickin' Packets")
Let’s start by agreeing on some terms.
First we need to define what we mean by “worksheet.” Technically, a worksheet is anything printed on copier paper and given to students to write on. And since you can print just about anything on a piece of paper, we really can’t say that worksheets per se are good or bad. That would be like saying “books” or “movies” are good or bad. It’s a medium. A delivery system.
And there are plenty of instructionally rich things you can do with a worksheet: A graphic organizer is a wonderful tool for research, pre-writing, and notetaking. An excerpt from a primary source can be printed on a worksheet for close study and annotation. Worksheets can be used for analyzing data (like this collection from Maria Andersen), as scaffolds for notetaking, as tools for reflection, or as formative assessments. They can also be used as recording tools alongside more active experiences: data sheets for labs, planning sheets for group projects, and so on.
In my experience, when people criticize worksheets, they are referring to a specific type of worksheet, what I will call a busysheet, the kind where students are either doing work that’s fairly low-level recall stuff–filling in blanks with words, choosing from multiple-choice questions, labeling things–or work that has no educational value at all, like word searches, word scrambles, or coloring stuff in cases where coloring adds no extra layer of understanding.
Sometimes the difference between a busysheet and a quality learning tool is obvious, and other times it’s a judgment call. After talking to lots of educators about how they use worksheets in their classrooms, I think it’s most accurate to say that every worksheet falls somewhere on a continuum: Some worksheets are clearly nothing but busysheets, while others, like note-taking sheets or data collection tools, directly support student learning; I’ll call these powersheets. I think a lot of worksheets fall somewhere between the two. Because there is such a range, the only person who can really make the call is you.
Read the rest of the article here- Cult of Pedagogy "Frickin Packets"
bit.ly/ToolsForEngagement
See the list HERE.
And something to make you laugh...
Work Life Balance
Atlanta Gladiators- Hockey
Watch the Atlanta Gladiators play a home game at Infinite Energy Center in Duluth.
Science festival March 9 - 24, 2018
Atlanta Science Festival features hands-on activities, performances, presentations, and facility tours in dozens of locations to celebrate local science and technology. See the events list or booklet.
Cherry blossom festival - Macon March 16 - 25, 2018
International Cherry Blossom Festival includes 80 events, a parade, arts & crafts, concerts, food trucks, a street party, and 300,000 flowering cherry trees.
Colonial reenactment March 29 - April 1, 2018
See life in 1790s Georgia at the 18th Century Colonial Market Faire, including historical crafts, games, military drills, music, and treats at Fort Yargo State Park in Winder.
Taste of Forsyth March 31, 2018
Buy tastes from 25 restaurants for $1 to $4 at Taste of Forsyth, which has a kids’ zone and Easter egg hunts on the lawn at Cumming Fairgrounds. Free. The Warbington Farms EGGstravaganza is 10 miles away.
Family fun in the museum March 31, 2018 (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)
Meet baby animals, play games, and collect eggs at activity stations during Spring Egg-stravaganza at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History.
Easter at Callaway Gardens March 31 - April 1, 2018
Easter Weekend events at Callaway Gardens include a 5K race, a kids’ race, an Easter Bunny, egg hunts, and entertainment on Saturday. Sunday features a sunrise service, brunch, and lunch.
2017-2018 School Year
First Semester
August 1 – 4 ........................................... Preplanning for teachers
August 7......................................................... First Day of School
September 4........................................Labor Day (schools closed)
October 6 ......................................Teacher Workday (students off)
October 9 ......................................Columbus Day (schools closed)
November 20 – 24.............. Thanksgiving Holidays (schools closed)
December 21 ....................................... Last Day of First Semester
December 22 – 29 ...........................Winter Break (schools closed)
Second Semester
January 1 – 3.....................................................................Winter Break (schools closed)
January 4.......................................................................Teacher Workday (students off)
January 5................................................Professional Development Day (students off)
January 8...........................................................................First Day of Second Semester
January 15...........................................Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday (schools closed)
February 16*..................................................................................... Snow Makeup Day
February 19 ....................................................President’s Day Holiday (schools closed)
March 9*.........................................................Snow Makeup Day- Digital Learning Day
March 12.............................................................................................Snow Makeup Day
April 2 – 6 ..........................................................................Spring Break (schools closed)
May 24.................................................................................................. Last Day of School
May 25.......................................................................................................... Post Planning
May 28...............................................................Memorial Day Holiday (schools closed)
* Designated as inclement weather make-up days (if needed).
Our School Release Days
These are the dates approved through the RFF process as part of School Governance. WBMS students will NOT attend school on the following dates:
September 1, 2017
October 5, 2017
January 16, 2018
March 8, 2018
Community Balance Days 2017-2018
September 20
October 25
February 21
March 21
The idea is that students will go home right after school to create balance in their lives. Staff members and students alike will take a night off. Club sponsors and coaches and directors may hold meetings and practices and games as needed. We feel students release stress through these extracurricular activities.
Please plan to enjoy yourself and work your assessments around these dates this school year.