Westwood Intermediate/Middle School
September 23, 2020 Newsletter
See translation information below / Consulte la información de traducción a continuación.
Westwood Families
Welcome to week two at Westwood. All of us – students, staff, and families – are adjusting to the new school year.
Students who are Modified Campus (hybrid) are adapting to the schedules in their teams and fluently and safely moving through the school during elective times on their learning at school days. I am so proud of how well they are stepping up in both the safety part of school as well as the academic part of school.
As students learn from home, they are refreshing their navigation skills in Schoology, our primary learning platform, and connecting with teachers and each other.
In these first few weeks, we have been in virtual classrooms and providing feedback to staff for the learning experience in both of our current learning models. We continue to improve the experience each day.
If you have specific questions about assignments and what is happening in the classroom, please contact your child’s teacher. Our office staff also have been helping students with access and navigation in Schoology. If you/your student need assistance, call us at 763-600-5300.
Westwood is currently in the process of hiring bilingual paraprofessionals. If you – or someone you know – is looking to work with kids alongside a classroom teacher to engage students in learning and help each succeed, then Westwood is the place. Each day, we are striving to work together in a positive and creative way for kids. We encourage innovation and support staff through professional development and a culture of caring. More information on how to apply can be found on our website. Please share with others who may be interested.
Finally, as we all work through the health and safety guidelines and new ways of doing school, we are grateful for our food service staff. We’ve now added additional lunch options for students. With the extension of the federal summer food program, students eat for free. Thanks to them for keeping our brains fed. Here you can find the menu for the rest of this month.
Tom Larson
Principal
What to expect if teachers need to be absent
Absences are going to occur as they do in any school year – for all kinds of reasons. Fall allergies, colds and flu are on our doorstep as we also continue to see COVID-19 cases in our communities. We expect teachers will have days when they aren’t at school or are not able to fully engage in learning. We will honor a teacher’s right to privacy, and we want families to know what to expect as teacher absences occur this year.
For Modified Campus (Hybrid) Learners:
- If a teacher needs to be absent and is unable to teach, your student will have another teacher in the classroom. We will communicate a plan with families any time a teacher's absence will exceed a week.
- If a teacher needs to be absent and is still able to teach, they will continue to teach from home using our technology tools with support in the school classroom provided by other staff members who are onsite.
For Extended Flexible Learning (distance learning), if a teacher needs to be absent and is unable to teach, your student will have an adult who checks on the class and establishes the plan for self-guided (asynchronous) learning for the day. If the absence is extended, we will communicate a plan with families.
If you have questions about the approach for supporting the continuation of learning, please contact the school office.
Music: Learning, Health and Safety
We continue to offer meaningful and safe music education opportunities for students in both the Modified Campus Schedule (Hybrid) and Extended Flexible Learning (Distance Learning) learning models. Our music educators and health staff have spent significant time developing opportunities and reviewing health and safety guidelines to support deep learning and protecting health.
If your student participates - or is considering participating - in music opportunities, please take a moment to learn more about how we're approaching the learning and health and safety protocols on the Music: Learning Approach and Health and Safety page.
Register for Grade 5 Student Band
Calling all 5th Graders! We Want You! Registration for 5th grade band is taking place NOW through Friday, September 25. Even though this school year looks a bit different, 5th graders still have the opportunity to learn a band instrument, so sign up now. To learn about this exciting opportunity, visit the website to:
- Learn about Band!
- Learn about the Instruments and which one to play!
- Learn about how/where to get an instrument!
- Register for Band!
Band Instrument Rental Fee Payments
Band teachers will talk about rentals in band classes with students. Please, do not pay for a rented instrument until your child talks to a band teacher first.
Rental fees for band instruments is $100 for the school year and may be reduced based on your family's free/reduced lunch application.
To pay for the instrument rental fee, please visit this website and follow the steps to create a parent account.
Classroom Behavior Expectations
We are looking forward to working with all of our parents and families this year to support the staff and students at Westwood.
Visit the PTO Facebook page: Westwood Intermediate and Middle School PTO
- Click here to receive email notifications about Westwood PTO.
For the convenience of our families, we are incorporating our "Wednesday Folder" flyers into our newsletter. Our students in grades 5 and 6 will not be receiving any more paper flyers for this year, instead, families can use our newsletters as the one-stop place to find all upcoming activities and opportunities available to our students. These are the flyers available this week:
In case you missed important information from last week's newsletter, check out the topics below and click to learn more.
- School meals this fall
- Technology Tools, Resources and Log Ins – find technology support, tutorials and FAQs.
- First Days of School Flickr Album
Translate This Newsletter / Traducir Este Boletín
To translate this newsletter information to another language, please click anywhere on the newsletter to open it in a web browser and at the top of the page, select your language from the dropdown menu.
Para traducir este boletín de noticias a otro idioma, por favor presionen en cualquier lugar del boletín para abrir el boletín en un navegador web y en la parte superior de la página seleccione su idioma del menú.