GMS Principal's Corner
Sarah Shannon
Welcome Back GMS!
Dear Galvin Families!
Welcome to the 2019 - 2020 school year! We are so excited for the school year to begin! We have been working hard this summer to get the building ready for your return. Teachers have also been meeting at school this year to develop new curricula and to welcome students to new teams!
Last year we announced that we would have pure middle school teams at GMS. This means that all students on a team will have the same teachers. They will no longer have teachers that are “off team” or “cross-teamed”. I believe that students, parents and guardians will all benefit from this model and am very excited to reveal our new team names. Imagine a drum roll playing now…
GMS 2019 - 2020 Priorities
Last year our staff worked to define who THE GMS LEARNER is. We identified the skills, qualities and dispositions we want our students to have by the time they leave us and head to high school. On Student Speak Up Day, our students contributed to who the GMS Learner is, as well. This learner profile along with the data we received from our student survey guided the creation of the Galvin Middle School School Improvement Plan. I am excited this year to dig in to the work that will help us achieve our goals and foster GMS Learners, all in alignments to the district Strategic Framework. Highlights of our work this year include:
Increasing the number of students who feel connected to an adult at school
Defining and creating measures of success for our students and our school
Launching grade-level, interdisciplinary learning opportunities
Working to make GMS a school where everyone feels welcome and that they belong
Creating a technology plan that will increase access to technology for GMS students
Technology & Cell Phone Update... "Away for the Day"
With respect to technology, we understand many students have cell phones. Cell phones are not ideal tools for an educational setting. Our school currently uses Chromebooks for educational purposes and we are working to increase access to technology for all students. Research, as well as experience, tells us that cell phones at school, for young adolescents, serve more as a distraction than a learning tool. There is a growing movement across the world for schools, middle schools especially, to be “Away for the Day” schools. As an “Away for the Day” school, students are allowed to bring their phones to school but should keep their phones in their backpacks and in their lockers for the day; this is the mindset to cell phones that we will be taking this year at GMS.
The research (awayfortheday.org and screenagersmovie.com) strongly supports that students are more engaged socially and academically when they do not have access to their phones during the school day. Survey data also reveals that even having a phone in a pocket distracts students from learning and their mental focus is on the phone rather than what’s happening in class. We know that putting their phones in their lockers will be a change for our students and we want to work with them to build new, healthy habits.
This year, students will not be permitted to use their phones during the school day, including at breakfast. We feel that this will greatly enhance the learning environment and cut down on inappropriate use of phones. We have school phones in the office and teachers have phones in their classrooms should your child need to reach you during the day and we encourage parents to call us with any message you’d like us to share with your child. We would rather hear from you and pass along news about a doctor’s appointment or a change in afterschool plans, for example, than have students checking texts throughout the day. As students become familiar with this shift in practice, if we see them using their phones we will remind them of the rules and give them a gentle warning. Come October, students using their phones will be assigned a consequence according to the GMS Student Handbook.
Our goal at GMS is to create a positive learning environment where students can thrive academically, socially and emotionally. We firmly believe that by limiting access to cell phones, we can better reach this goal and we appreciate your support in helping us there.
8th Grade Trip Update
I’d also like to share the results of our 8th Grade Trip committee work. While the details of the committee's work are specific to this year's 8th graders, I am sharing this with everyone as it is a great example of collaboration among students, staff, parents and administration. The charge of this committee was to define the goals and objectives of an 8th grade trip experience and to make recommendations for an experience that would be more accessible to a majority of our students. After several months of meeting, we had student, family and staff data that helped us decide that yes, we should continue to offer an 8th grade trip. Based on the data we narrowed the experience down to three options and surveyed the seventh grade families. Our committee’s work and the survey responses have resulted in us offering this year’s 8th grade students two trip options: a 4-day, 3-night trip to Washington, DC and New York City or a 1-day option to New York City that will run with the students who chose the 4-day option. I am grateful for the members of this committee for their work and time. For those of you who would like more details about the process and the data, you can find that in the letter that was sent to incoming 8th grade families.
Enjoy your Labor Day weekend and welcome back!
Sarah Shannon
Principal