What's Happening in School Today? JAWSS

Today at GWMS we have a special class called JAWSS. This stands for Joint Activities with Staff and Students. The point of JAWSS is relationships. 

Every teacher, including administration, at GWMS has a JAWSS group. Throughout the year in JAWSS students learn about character education and they also develop their Comprehensive Growth Portfolio. Students start these portfolios in grade 6 and develop them throughout their time at GWMS. JAWSS groups are small with at most 14 students in one group. The groups include students from grade 6-8. 

In the picture below a grade 8 GWMS student explains to his JAWSS classmates why he like George Waters. Each grade 8 student explained to their class their best memory of their time so far at GW. 

At the end on the school year at our year end awards ceremony all grade 8 students receive their completed GWMS growth portfolio. Each member of individual groups wrote a nice or kind message to each grade 8 student on a piece of paper. This paper will eventually turn into the title page of portfolios for each grade 8 student. 

This exercise has two outcomes:

1) it gives each child the opportunity to do something kind today!

2) each grade 8 student gets to read amazingly kind comments from students they have spent up to the last 3 years in JAWSS together. 

We practice kindness at George Waters as much as we possibly can. We give our kids the chance to be kind. We focus on kindness because we feel that what you focus on you get in return. 

JAWSS is a great way to build strong relationships with students and staff. If kids are connected to at least one adult at George Waters they feel safe and take chances in their learning.