Westridge Family Notes
Westridge Elementary School | October 1 , 2021
Learning Highlights
The students of 5B have been learning about how plants can make food with energy from sunlight and how plants and animals interact within a forest ecosystem. Students were asked to bring a favorite fruit and seeds. We planted the seeds and are providing water and a sunny place for the seeds to grow.
4th graders took a field trip to Jester Park to learn about life on the prairie:
We found grasshoppers, caterpillars and butterflies on our insect hike.
Fall Conference Information
Fall Conference Dates:
Monday, October 25th (no students / full day for conferences) 8:15am - 4:15pm
Tuesday, October 26th from 4:15 - 8:00pm
Thursday, October 28th from 4:15 - 8:00pm
This fall we will offer virtual conferences and then will only hold in-person conferences for extenuating circumstances.
Conferences will be 20 minutes long.
Families will receive communication on October 8th on how to sign-up for fall conferences.
We look forward to connecting with you through our fall conferences. Please remember you can always reach out to your student’s teacher any time you have questions about your student’s learning.
Crosswalk Information
Message from PTA:
The Westridge PTA will be holding their second meeting of the year on Friday, October 8 at 9:15 am. In order to comply with the Return-to-Learn plan, the meeting will be held outside Westridge, at the picnic tables facing 56th St. (between the 3/4 and 5/6 pod doors). PTA sign-ups will be available — a yearly membership is just $5.
District Information: Reporting on Essential Lifeskils and Reporting for 6th Grade
Shifts in Reporting
All students in grades K-12 will now receive feedback related to our Essential Life Skills. The Essential Life Skills are aligned with our district’s Portrait of a Graduate. These skills represent the skills students will need to embody to be college and career ready by their senior year. The Essential Life Skills will replace Learner Behaviors on the pupil progress report. The Essential Life Skills are:
Communicator: Conveys ideas and information respectfully, purposefully, and effectively
Collaborator: works effectively and respectfully with others to accomplish goals
Critical Thinker: Synthesizes information to develop solutions to challenges
Global Contributor: Applies learning to real world challenges in a variety of situations
Innovator: Explores and experiments to learn, build resilience, and try new ideas
Continuous Learner: Considers feedback and works towards goals
Prepared Learner: Shows readiness for learning through self-regulation and responsibility in a variety of settings
An Essential Life Skills rubric will be used to help students, teachers, and parents/guardians in determining next steps in developing Essential Life Skills. This information is intended to inform instruction, feedback for students and families, as well as goal-setting.
As a district, we have decided to shift our grading practices at 6th grade to be more in alignment with our K-5 practices. Starting this year, 6th grade students will no longer receive letter grades; rather they will receive feedback around their demonstration of understanding at a specified level of proficiency toward the prioritized standards in all content areas. The decision to provide feedback in this way was made for a variety of reasons:
Currently, 6th grade students receive feedback around learning progress in a variety of ways with some content areas receiving letter grades and others receiving feedback related to PPR statements using beginning, progressing, and meeting. Shifting to all reporting done in a similar matter will provide greater consistency for students and families.
Shifting our practices will help us to more fully implement our first three WDMCS effective grading practices of- grades reflecting the standards in the Iowa Core (or equivalent standards), the use criterion referenced grades in which students can demonstrate understanding at a specified level of proficiency, and achievement and behavior will be reported separately.
Currently, our secondary teams are working to provide more standards aligned feedback to students through the use of tools such as proficiency scales, which is more aligned to our elementary grading using beginning, progressing, and meeting.
1st & 3rd Wednesday
The third Wednesday of the month, we encourage staff and students to wear Westridge attire or school colors.
Early Dismissals
Don't forget...every Wednesday is an early dismissal at 3:10 pm. This includes the first day of school. Please make necessary arrangements.
Upcoming Dates:
October 8: Fall Parties: We will not have parent volunteers for the Fall Parties. To keep the spirit of fun & community - we will have Fall Parties in each classroom beginning at 3:15pm.
October 25, 26, 28: Fall conferences
Westridge Elementary School
Beth Brewer, Principal
Jeannette Barnes, Assistant Principal
Website: https://www.wdmcs.org/schools/westridge/
Location: 5500 E.P. True Parkway, West Des Moines, IA 50266
Phone: 515-633-5400
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wdmwestridge