Winfield Middle School Staff Blog to tie up some loose ends...
Staff Blog 031716
#Twinning
“Nice shirt!”
“Ditto”
Serving others pulls the attention off ourselves and on to others around us. Serving with others tightens the bonds among friends and solidifies relationships. On Tuesday,Winfield Middle School sent a squad to serve at a St Louis food pantry, moving over 3 tons of product in preparation for disbursement. Their common challenge and overcoming of obstacles brought this group even closer together.
“Did you hear what she said about…?”
“Look at this Snapchat from…!”
Thanks for posting this article on EMOTIONAL or SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE. It seems to make sense when we think about the struggles our students carry with them, everywhere!
What is drama?
Why is it so prevalent?
How does impulse control fit?
What can we do as professionals to address it?
Read the article.
FLAT STANLEY
“The ELA teachers at Winfield Middle School would like to host a Flat Stanley Event. All students, AND STAFF at Winfield Middle School are welcome and even expected to play along. Three categories make up the project.
1. Geographic setting - How far away does your Flat Stanley get over the Spring Break?
2. Looks - How well does the Flat Stanley look in his Winfield Gear?
The best decorated Flat Stanley will win.
3. Character development: How developed is the Flat Stanley’s character?
4. A big MAP could grace our wall with locations and destinations.
Classes will host the preliminary choices and the best from each class could be entered into the finals. These finals will be entered to win big after we all get back from Spring Break.”
Probable Steps:
In class, decorate and begin to describe your Flat Stanley.
Take him with you over spring break, wherever you go.
Take SELFIEs with Stanley
Save and be prepared to send your selfies back after Spring Break.
Student Edition and Staff Version as well…
Any other thoughts or feedback?
Parent Communication
Update Gradebooks
End of the period is April 8th, the week we get back from Spring Break. Please update your teacher gradebook in SIS to give parents some notification over the break of how they might help their students.
Attendance Numbers
From the data, it appears the pizza has made an impact on our attendance. We are also focusing on those students in the 88-90% range as well. We expect this to have a limited impact and are looking for ways to support our wards while they are with us.
Speaking of Impact
Terri Steffes mentioned the https://kahoot.it/#/ program would motivate students to engage for a few months. Look on the website, sign up for free and see if there are pre-made surveys before you try and reinvent your own survey. At last count, it appears like there were over 6 million quizzes already created and ready to go. Use keywords to search for an appropriate survey.
Then, let me know when you are doing one in class. Pictures would be great.
“Screen shot”
Here is another one of the sites she referred to during Monday’s Binder Meetings: http://quizizz.com/admin
Thursday (like a friday ) March 24th- eValuate Picnic
Friday - NO SCHOOL - Spring Break March 25th - April 4th
- Middle School Track meet on Thursday at Home at 4:00pm
SPRING BREAK & Upcoming
See the flyer for details
- Our second Track Meet from 4-7 on Thursday, March 31st is at home. Field workers would be put to good use, I’m sure!
- With way too many connections to the area to ignore, we welcome Sgt. Chris Bosley of the St Charles Cyber Crime Task Force who will present to the parents and community of Winfield in our very own Middle School Gym. Celebrity Status right here at 6:30 pm.
- Early Release, April 6th, when we return.
Monday - APRIL 4th
- Binder Meetings
Tuesday - APRIL 5th
- Feel free to remind us if we still owe pizza to a specific hour for reaching their goals.
- After we come back from Spring Break and on Tuesday, the Middle School hosts Sgt Bosley
Wednesday - APRIL 6th
- Early Release - 8th grade
- Movie Time
- Poverty Issues
- Are we asking the right questions?
Thursday - APRIL 7th
- Steering Committee in Higgins Room
Friday - APRIL 8th
- Nominate Student of the Month
- The BOE Meeting is April 19.
Thoughts and discussion items for us:
Summer school - I have had a few people mention summer school. I am not exactly sure and don’t want to ignore anyone. PLEASE EMAIL ME ASAP TO EXPRESS YOUR INTEREST IN WORKING DURING SUMMER SCHOOL. I have one signed up. We have room for one more…
SIx Flags - May 12th
We are assembling a trip to invite ALL grades to spend a Leadership Day at SIx Flags. Here is our list of possible candidates. Students will be invited on Thursday, then have till APRIL 8th to pay their fees. They can get admission and meal ticket as necessary. Possible candidates will have had to reach and maintain their goals and benchmarks for March to be considered.
Looking at the CITY MUSEUM from the west, with the sun setting behind us, we managed to spend a few hours exploring the true repurposing of so much of St Louis.
Summer Planning
Continue to build an outline and framework for assessments,.
Connect the standards with DOK, SWBAT, meaningful activities,
ANOTHER VIEW OF eValuate DATA
In both these groups, nearly 25 students have climbed out of the Below Basic and up into the other categories. Well done, Team.
We do see our below basic population shrinking. The little blue stripe is an possible expectation of students scoring advanced or proficient on the MAP test in May.
Conclusion
We had a lunch discussion Wednesday about finding a wild fox and what it might say. We speculated over some options and what could happen if we took the wild animal home and tried to nurse it back to health and strength. Besides the legal implications of owning and keeping wildlife in the State of Missouri without a permit, we thought only of ourselves. We enjoyed the emotional or sentimental response that doing this good deed might illicit in inside ourselves. We thought bringing something back from the brink of impending doom held a certain mystique, or power behind it. Then we considered the fox and the necessary struggle it needs to grow, get strong, learn how to find water and food. It will also need to learn from its mother how to avoid predators, roads and civilization, including mankind and possible outcomes. At the onset, we felt like it would have been nice if we took care of it but at the end, all we did was postpone reality.
So how can we reconcile this cynicism and still teach school? Let's do this!
Tom
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