Monday Morning Blog on Tuesday this week!

April 18th - 21st

The SEMI is Friday, the 21st at 7:00pm. Students have been buying tickets during lunch.

Here are some expectations to follow for our evening to be a success for all:

1. Dress Expectations:
1. School appropriate
2. COWBOY BOOTS PREFERRED
3. Collared shirts, slacks or dark jeans are expected for boys
2. Only WMS students may participate
1. Their parents may attend if they sign-in and register at the dance entrance
3. Students must be in attendance the entire school day to attend the the dance
1. ISS or OSS (Social Probation) will exclude a student from the dance
2. Guests may not leave and return to the dance
4. Library fines must be paid by April 20th to attend
5. Snacks will be available; no outside food or drinks will be allowed
6. Students are expected to be Respectful, Responsible and Safe while in attendance

The week of April 18th - 21st

BLOCK SCHEDULING BEGINS

Students will NOT have every class every day.

Fewer classes mean longer periods.

Monday - April 17

• NO SCHOOL - EASTER MONDAY

Tuesday - April 18

• Block Scheduling begins today
• RED/Odd Day
• Review Dance Expectations in AC LAB
• Books due to the Library this week
• Last Day to Sign up for Six Flags
• BestChoicestl.org for 8th graders*

Wednesday - April 19

• BLACK/Even Day
• ACT Test at the High School - No ISS
• BestChoicestl.org for 8th graders*

Thursday - April 20

• RED/Odd Day
• Chess Club - Mr. Utlaut’s room
• Library Fines Due - Students will not be allowed to attend the SEMI with outstanding Library fines
• BestChoicestl.org for 8th graders*

Friday - April 21

• BLACK/Even Day
• BestChoicestl.org for 8th graders*
• SEMI-Formal Dance at 7:00 - 9:00 pm in the Gymnasium and Cafeteria

#EasyReaders

Just a quick and subtle shout out to this bus load of #EasyReaders who earned a

trip to the CITY MUSEUM in St Louis.

Well done crew!

Upcoming/Ongoing

• Block Scheduling begins April 18th through 28th
• BestChoicestl.org for 8th graders*
• Step Up Days for the 5th Graders
• We have worked these days into a different type of event this year. We are working on a plan to maximize our learning as well as set the minds at ease of the incoming 5th graders.
• TBD:  May 15th or 16th
• All 5th grade students will visit the building together
• They will travel, tour, explore lockers and eat lunch in small groups
• Details will follow
• Summer School Registration until April 26th - ALL STUDENTS WELCOME
• BOGO Book Fair - April 24 - 28
• Bestchoicestl.org gives #thattalk to our 6th graders April 24th -28th*
• NJHS Induction - April 25 at 6:30 pm in Middle School Gym
• Spring Choir Concert - May 2nd
• Middle School MAP Testing - May 4th - 11th
• Please follow Test Taking Suggestions
• Plenty of rest, exercise and stress free activities
• SIX FLAGS TRIP - MAY 12
• Senior Clap Out - May 12th
• Field Day - May 15th - The Consummate Ac Lab Challenge
• Spring Band Concert - May 16th
• Six Flags - Due, Tuesday, April 18th
• Last Day of School - May 17th
• High School Graduation - May 21st at 2:00 PM
• 2017-18 6th Grade Back to School Night - Thursday, August 10, 2017

Award Winners, multiple years running!

Again, Winfield Middle School is #onthemap, earning #hardware after the #hardwork! Seventh grade students entered an annual writing contest sponsored nationally and hosted by our local VFW Post #5517. Students wrote and staff organized to participate in this prestigious opportunity expressing a citizen’s perspective on the military, citizenship and patriotism. Monetary Prizes were awarded to students and our staff sponsor, Ms Guile, won their Teacher of the Year Award, complete with an appropriate trophy, recognition and approbation to commemorate the event!  Well Done!

#Inspirational for all!

#ThatTalk might be embarrassing but it is vital for our future! *

Here's the outline of the 6th and 8th grade BESTCHOICESTL.ORG talks and an opt-out form for ANY parents who would rather give #ThatTalk themselves. They are also ON FACEBOOK too. This week (April 18-21) the 8th graders will participate in their version and the 6th graders next week(April 24-28) get their version.  Students or families wishing to opt out will received an alternative book assignment covering the same content.

Opt out here:

Print and send this in or call the school to opt out.

An alternate assignment also aligning with DESE curriculum will be assigned for the student to complete from a text book.

In other news:

Published Young Adult author, Rebecca Jaycox came to Winfield Middle School. She inspired our 8th graders, sharing stories about her life, practices and career as a writer, living in New York City and chasing her dreams. She set up “camp” in the library and every 8th grade class popped in for a visit.

Here is how we compare to the past five years in Discipline:

Good Discipline does NOT Diminish Hope!

Daily discipline counts are also below years’ past. This chart shows the average number of Office Discipline Referrals per day. Teachers attribute this to their best efforts at keeping students in classrooms, leading class discussions, guiding and redirecting excited students, immediate interventions and improved consistency between classrooms. Well Done!

Attendance Comparison:  Making the turn!

One of the worst cold and flu seasons in a while…

We are battling back to recover from the rough illnesses we faced in recent months. Scooters, lunch line placement, daily contests for classes with perfect attendance...

Middle School Department Reports

8th Grade ELA: Students are currently working on a culminating project to write an Evidence-based Argumentative Essay over the effects of playing violent video games; this is from our Lucy Calkins’ materials. We have high expectations as writing was one of our top scoring areas last year on the MAP. Regarding MAP and eValuate, there has been a dip in eValuate’s overall scores. We are working to address those standards with students,  as well as congratulate those who did increase,  and even reached the proficient and advanced columns. We will end the year with one final literature book study for all eighth graders.

7th Grade ELA: In 7th grade English/Language Arts, we are so excited about the direction our scores are going. We’re finding that familiarizing students with academic language and test structure through a Question of the Day translates into consistently solid skill growth. In other news, we just completed a mystery unit that focused on inferencing skills. The students were extremely engaged in the process of solving the mystery, while strengthening their ability to connect details, characters, plot and setting.

Mathematics: The math department is pretty impressed with the progress our students have made. Our big change for the year was reordering our pre-algebra curriculum. We moved around several units and teach new skills earlier in the year to allow more time for practice and application to real life situations; This has made a huge difference in both co-taught and regular classes.

6th Grade ELA: In 6th grade we have been working on data walls pertaining to our NEWSELA scores.  The students are working on a persuasive paper in language arts and they are incorporating various writing techniques along the way. In 6th grade reading the classes are focusing on book clubs, in their book clubs they are concentrating on predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing.

In science….

Here is a blip of what we have had going on in science:

1)      We have been working on constructing, spiraling and aligning our curriculum with the Next Generation science standards as well as the performance modeling it will require. (Main 8th grade Curriculum and three of the standards unpacked are attached.)

2)      We have worked in small parts of chemistry into the seventh grade in our Rock & Minerals unit and again in Earth’s Weather and Atmosphere unit so we can spiral into 8th grade to be more successful in these standards.

3)      We are germinating plants in 8th grade so we can use our Pasco sensors/technology to measure the rate of photosynthesis. (Afterwards, we will plant our plants around the school and at home!)

4)      We have a been preparing for the MAP assessment by beginning our Final Exam review that consists of activities, experiences, labs and other educational enrichment opportunities. (This also gives us teachers opportunities to strengthen areas we have performed poorly on in years prior.)

Social Studies: Since going one to one with Chromebooks this year, Social Studies has seen a huge increase in many areas of student success, specifically in student engagement and digital literacy. We made an early push to go fully digital in our classrooms and have since continued to incorporate apps, extensions, and strategies that allow students to interact with our content in new and exciting (for us and for them!) ways. Along with the increased interaction, we have also found many tools that allow us to differentiate on the fly by using things like speech-to-text in Google Docs, multiple Lexile level readings, and the ability to assign differentiated materials to specific students in Google Classroom.

Middle School PE: We are excited to see how one of our new strategies during our warm-up can help improve  our cardiovascular fitness scores on our year end fitness tests. We will be doing a data cycle with 6th grade students on volleyball skills and rules during the next two weeks. We are also glad to welcome back the Best Choice program by Thrive to all of our middle school students over the next three weeks. Our Webpage contains the updates:

Even our PE Dept has a homepage dedicated to curriculum and exercise and athletics! Well Done.

Wrap up…

Readers might see a theme flowing out of our Middle School Blog posts. We hope it appears to readers that we like what we are doing,. We enjoy working with our students. Our days are busy yet conversations are always welcome and encouraged. Adults listen to students and students listen to adults. A few years ago, there were stretches of discipline with over ten office referrals A DAY. Currently, we are holding steady at about 2-3/day. This allows all of us to work on content, learning, achievement and improvement. This also may contribute to some of the growth and progress we have observed on our eValuate results. Our MAP test is coming up within a month and we are excited to have it reveal so much more! Together, we can all achieve greatness!.

Honored to walk among you all,

Tom McCracken