Welcome Back to WMS!
EXCELLENCE*EQUITY*COMMUNITY
And So It Begins... :)
I am looking forward to seeing all of you next week for our three professional development days! Dr. Galdston sent out the schedule yesterday, and our specific schedule can be found here: WMS Opening Days Agenda. As you can see from the schedule, the first two days are mainly building-based days for us to focus on classrooms, collaboration, and our turnaround and SEL work. I know you will truly enjoy hearing Jon Saphier speak at both WHS on Tuesday morning and at our faculty meeting later in the day. If you haven't heard him before, he is inspiring and motivating, to say the least, and he will be specifically talking with us about our instructional focus for the year. On Wednesday when we meet as a faculty, one item we will discuss is the Responsive Classroom training that 23 teachers received in late July (see picture below). We are excited to share this learning with you and begin implementing the RC practices throughout the school during the year. On Thursday, we will have a day of Equity training led by the organization Facing History and Ourselves, with whom I am sure many of you are familiar. Their PD is also extremely engaging and will help us to kick off the year thinking about equity in our classrooms and schoolwide. I believe we will leave our three days of PD feeling re-energized and ready to begin the 2019-2020 school year on Tuesday!
There have been many, many projects going on at WMS all summer, and I want to thank Tony, Allal, Chuck, Walter, and all the other WPS custodians/maintenance who helped out, for working tirelessly around the projects to get the school ready to be opened next week! I know it will be shiny and clean and ready to welcome the WMS Community! I would also like to thank Laurie and Anne-Marie, as well as Kathi, Michelle, Anne, and the guidance counselors for getting students registered and their schedules completed! Thank you to Jason and everyone who participated in hiring committees this summer - we have several amazing new faculty members this year!
Welcome!!! And some job changes...
Grade 6 / Cluster 1 Social Studies - Megan DiDuca
Grade 7 / Cluster 3 Mathematics - Cristina Spicer
Grade 7 / Cluster 3 Special Education - Patrick Dayton
Grade 8 / Cluster 6 Science - Swathi Sivasubramanian
Grade 8 / Cluster 6 ELA LTS - Aine Dirrane
Connections - Elizabeth Espinosa
Music - Laurie Ellington
Reading - Courtney Braese
WMS/Lowell Social Worker - Brooke McInerney
Literacy/SS Coach - Kellie Spillane
Math/Science Coach - Jane Evans
IAs - Jay Gonzalez, Carley Brogan and Laura Meduna
Door Monitor - Ruth Beauvois
School Resource Officer - Emily Doss
**Upcoming Dates**
August 27-29 - Professional Development Days - Agenda is here
September 3 - First Day of School
September 4 - Faculty meeting
September 5 - Fall Sports Information Meeting - 6 pm
September 5 - Parent Chromebook Information Meeting - 7 pm
September 6 - One School One Book assignment due
September 6 - Parent Chromebook Information Meeting - 9 am
September 7 - Before School Supervision begins (**these have not been posted yet, but if you are interested in continuing or starting this year, please shoot me a quick email - thank you!**)
September 10 - Grade 8 Safety / Expectations assembly in Advisory
September 11 - Picture Day
September 11 - Department / Grade level meetings
September 13 - Grade 7 Safety / Expectations assembly in Advisory
September 17 - Grade 6 Safety / Expectations assembly in Advisory
September 18 - PLT
September 25 - Early Release Day - Professional Development
September 26 - WMS Back to School Night
***TURNAROUND PLAN INFORMATION***
Members of the ILT:
Heidi Baildon
Eddie Cafua
Jason Del Porto
Jim Duffy
Megan Griffin
Jim Kirkcaldy
Kerri Lorigan
Donna Martin
Chris McDermott
Kellie Spillane
Karen Stern
Alison Tammaro
The Turnaround Plan is attached for you to read. We have not received feedback yet from the state, but hope to by the end of August. There is quite a bit of information in the TP, and we will be walking you through it next week. We are excited to introduce our Instructional Focus for the 2019-2020 school year:
Instructional Focus: As a way to improve teaching and learning at WMS, we will all consistently utilize Learning Targets to focus our instruction and improve student mastery of the standards.
On Tuesday 8/27, both Jon Saphier and the ILT will discuss this Instructional Focus (IF) in much greater detail. I have attached other documents which were previously shared for your perusal as well. Much of our faculty meeting and professional development time this year will be spent on our Turnaround work, supported by building administrators, the ILT, coordinators, coaches, and district administrators. To quote one of my favorite movies, High School Musical, "We're all in this together!"
Please enjoy these final days of summer - the weather looks like it will be stunning this weekend! I look forward to seeing you on Monday morning (new educators) at Lowell Elementary School or Tuesday morning (new and returning educators) at WHS. :)