Where some see problems, we see opportunities!
Winfield Middle School Parent Blog
Winfield Middle School
January 19, 2016
There are no shortcuts…
Middle School teachers were asked what areas still needed focus and attention for the second semester.
Their answers were compiled then tallied and listed together.
This is a “wordcloud” of those terms.
The larger words were mentioned more frequently as necessary by our teachers.
Dear Winfield Readers,
Let me open a brief window into the thoughts of a middle school teacher. The teachers were all asked what was good at WMS. We celebrated many great attributes,several of which have been mentioned previously in this blog, such as student behavior, parent involvement, assemblies and special events. Conversely, they were also asked to share areas still needing attention, so that we can attain our fullest potential. All those responses were entered into an internet app called www.worditout.com, which creates these things called WORDCLOUDS. Words repeated the most frequently appear larger in a wordcloud. As observable above, the teachers really consider students and instruction their top priorities and attention grabbers. Teachers want to teach!
CELEBRATION:
National “Patriot’s Pen VFW Essay Contest”
“What Freedom Means to Me”
Fifty students from Winfield Middle School submitted entries to a national writing contest, sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, USA. The theme was “What Freedom Means to Me.” The first round of judging the essays was completed by members of our local Old Monroe/Winfield VFW Post 5517. Three top prizes were awarded: third place went to 7th grader Nathan C., second place went to E. Wallace, and first place went to a young man who attends homeschool in the area--his essay was forwarded on to the district level contest. We could not be more proud of our young authors, and the time, thought and skill they invested in their writing.
Nathan C. also earned a cash prize and acknowledgement of his earnest and reflective writing skills with his third place win.
Everyone who entered the essay contest was invited to a pizza lunch at the district Central Office, sponsored by the Old Monroe VFW Post 5517. Together, the students, administrators and veterans enjoyed pizza, soda, conversation and an awards ceremony.
Staff Progress Reports
The following notes list some of the varied approaches to teaching used by teachers at Winfield Middle School. Each department shared details from their areas of focus in front of the entire building staff. Revelations, insights and new ideas, along with a newly gained respect built stronger camaraderie and esteem based on shared challenges.
ELA
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Use eValuate testing to determine weaknesses and strengths of a student's academic ability and modify the curriculum accordingly.
Continually modify the scope and sequence for the year to ensure all standards are taught, tested, and re-tested.
Write a ‘living’ ELA curriculum.
Use the school’s existing assessment tools to allow students to hold themselves accountable for their learning. (ie: Evaluate testing; Scholastic.com’s Reading Counts self-assessment)
Take a grade from specific eValuate test questions that have been covered to add some accountability.
Have students graph their own progress on test scores in a folder.
Constantly re-evaluate the focus and direction of learning objectives.
Teach students to access their own information, even from home.
Provide incentives… Mix Bucks or McCracken Money for increased scores.
Use an additional planning and collaboration day for ELA teachers prior to the MAP testing.
Use Scholastic.com’s Reading Counts self-assessments to monitor independent reading as well as reading comprehension, instead of weekly Independent Reading Logs
Go over/Discuss a new set of words weekly, to enhance student vocabulary
Utilizing the A+ tutor(s) from the High School. They can pull students for additional review over a certain concept. We will use eValuate testing data for this intervention.
Mathematics
Use data from post tests to determine if reteaching is necessary--if more than ½ the class misses a question, find a review activity or mini lesson.
Use an additional planning and collaboration day for math teachers prior to the MAP testing.
Pull reviews and mini-lessons from the Classroom Connectors resource.
Have students graph their own progress.
ELA and Math both graph individual student progress.
Design bellwork based on eValuate testing scores.
Give Mix Bucks or McCracken Money to kids who increase their monthly scores on eValuate.
Use released items as bell work to give students practice with specific test questions and vocabulary and reinforce previously learned material
Science - WMS Science Department Goals 2015-2016
Objective: Increase student proficiency from last year’s 27% to 35%. To do this, we have an action plan focusing on 5 essential areas:
1. Encourage more individuals to come in for tutoring sessions in the morning or afternoon.
Morning to begin, Tuesday & Thursday after 6:30, then tutoring in the PM for those that can’t make it in the AM.
2. Incorporate technology in assessments as well as give instant feedback.
3. Create assessments that use formats compliant to next generation science standards.
4. Using pre, mid and post assessments to build/ revisit content based on proficiency.
5. Students use critical thinking skills as they develop labs to test hypotheses or demonstrate principles.
Social Studies
Primary Source Analyzation
Focus on Content Reading strategies for understanding
Use facts to form independent opinions
Form note taking skills for subject comprehension
Evaluate? Potential for Social Studies
GRAPES: Geography, Religion, Accomplishments, People, Economy, Society
Reduce use of “It, they, things, etc”, non-descriptive support
Creative writing and& Social Studies and work into any lesson
Use a class read to support the Social Studies curriculum
PE
Class readings at beginning of a new unit on history/rules of activity with a quiz
Post rules and guidelines to help reinforce student understanding
game rules
PE website (parent communication)
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Fitness tests pre and post, monitoring growth and progress
Art
Daily Art Activities that encourage personal opinion
Art History connections that spark debate
Art Critiques (weekly or biweekly) to instigate discussion about art elements and art history
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Gain experiences with new materials and designing projects that spark interest and excitement
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an expert… Pablo Picasso
SPED
Adjust eValuate testing to ability level instead of grade level to increase student confidence
Modifying school-wide PBiS to accommodate the needs of individuals (i.e. wallets, intangible classroom items for sale)
Increase positive communication with parents to establish rapport and celebrate student success
Extra help outside of class or Ac Lab (i.e. plan, after school, during electives)
Library Science
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Books Read in MS
8. Lit sets-
Getting more books, replacing old ones
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Dividing sets by grade level
Moving sets to Intermediate that are lower lexile
Trying to get at least 1 non-fiction set per group
Expanding Small Group set
QR Codes to let students get a summary of the book
9. Bookfair
Works as fundraiser for books and other items
Puts books in students’ hands to promote reading
2 per year- next one in May is BOGO
10. Goals
More fundraising to get more chairs in back of library. Kids love them!
Get tablets to hook to the card catalog so it is easier to access book lookup
Keep adding to book room and library choices
Continue to support technology
Finish back office for book processing
Building Accountability Discussion
xi. Ongoing Building Accountability plans designed to raise academic awareness
Student Planners
Six Flags ?
Limo Event
After/Before School Tutoring
7th grade to write for the Lincoln County Journal
Student of the month candidates
Bowling for ALL and ANY students achieving Advanced or Proficient on the MAP test or climbing out of a category to the next in Sept 2016
Incoming 5th Graders
6th and 7th Graders
8th Graders who go to the High School and earn the privilege
Attendance
We would like at least 90% of our Middle School Students to be here 90% of the time.
100% attendance winners -
PBiS and Discipline
The number of Discipline Referrals is trending positively, with our number of discipline situations less than any year in recent past.
MIX BUCKS
Students earn positive commendations from staff for various, random and teacher-led initiatives. Students then redeem the Mix Bucks or McCracken Money for prizes on alternating Fridays during lunch.
Total 1st Semester = 1447 total coupons redeemed in approximately one quarter
Average redeemed coupons per teacher 42 each
Parent Communication
Parent Contacts via Technology
As a little side note: Since the inception of this MONDAY MORNING MEMO BLOG to report some of the goings on at Winfield Middle School, there have been over 1400 contacts made. Below is a list as reported by the blogging service that records the number of views per published essay. Thanks for taking the time and interest to stay involved with student education!
This list shows the number of contacts made by parents since September on our Middle School Parent Blog for a total of 1405 verified connections in this venue alone.
Additionally, Remind 101, individual blog sites, email and text msgs are all used heavily to strive to be “that” school that has too much communication. We want our communication to matter, to contain intentional and deliberate details useful for parents and necessary to ensure our students’ success--and omit redundant or distracting information.
163 OF OUR PARENTS ATTENDED THE MIDDLE SCHOOL OPEN HOUSE
163/317 = 51%
Many stayed at school and visited teachers for an additional
676 STAFF/PARENT CONTACTS
Schedule for the Week beginning January 18th, 2016
Monday - MLK Day - No School
Tuesday
Board of Education Meeting at 6:30, Central Office
Wednesday - Early Release Day
As noted in other media, the www.harlemwizards.com are coming to Lincoln County at the end of February. To prepare the community for this awareness / fundraising rally, the Harlem Wizards send out an abridged team to allow the community to preview the event. WMS is HONORED to host this shortened version on the morning of Jan 20, at 9:00 am. We will welcome the Primary and Intermediate students as well as interested parents to our very own Middle School Gym. A few of our own staff have already been “voluntold” that they will get to defend our Lincoln County Baskets from these invading Wizards. Be sure you check out this plug on the 20th, then get your tickets from Winfield Central Office before the event to support the Lincoln County Education Foundation!
Thursday
Staff meet to continue ourdiscussion of areas of discipline and behavior. We call this team the Positive Behavioral Intervention Support (PBiS) team and focus on our referral data, including integrity, student drama and relational aggression.
Friday
This is the last day of this 5th Progress Reporting Session. Please ensure your students are getting all their assignments completed AND submitted to their teachers today. Teachers will compile and process student grades so we can email and send home report cards next week. Few feelings are worse than completing an assignment, spending time at school and at home, then finding it later, completed but crumpled in the bottom of a backpack a week or two after the due date!
Like an electric bill must be paid, our assignments must be completed and turned in. Just because we are late doesn’t mean the company will excuse it, or that a teacher does not want you to turn it in.
On a positive note…
...eValuate Cycle A of Content Tested
...and...
...the Cycle B of Content Tested
Conclusion
These circle graphs, although hard to interpret, give us an overview of the entire building. They can be confusing when looked at from a month to month perspective, but clear when we examine the tested material.
There are a lot of things our Middle School students are being asked to know--so much, in fact, that it takes 2 months to cover all the items. This means the test really has two parts, an A and a B part. For instance, September compares with November and when we look at these two scores together, we see growth. Similarly when we look at October and compare it to December, we still see growth. These are some of the first positive yet authentic academic trends we have seen in some time. Please ally with us to support all our students in doing their very best on every opportunity, turning in only work that matters, and not “just enough to get by…”
We are honored at Winfield Middle School to carry the torch to the next generation. Education, teaching, training and preparing for the future through relationships, connections and building success remain our top focus at WMS. Great Expectations might describe our current posture as we watch reports coming back and wait for details in the future.
Sincerely,
Tom McCracken
On behalf of The Winfield Middle School Faculty, Staff and Students
