Please look for this letter that was mailed home to all GWMS families. It should be arriving today or early next week!
August 24, 2015
Dear
Parents/Guardians,
I hope everyone had a relaxing, safe and fun summer. I
had a very nice summer spending much of my time camping across southern
Manitoba with my family. This is a picture of my wife Erin, son Bennett and dog
Meeko camping at Birds Hill Park early in the summer (Meeko tends to be a bit
camera shy!).
School is quickly approaching and I thought I’d send
you a short letter welcoming you to George Waters Middle School or back for
another year! We have many exciting
things planned this year for all of our students. We are participating in Dot
Day to kick off the year. Dot Day is all about being yourself and making your
mark on the world. Later on in the year we will once again participate in The
Great Kindness Challenge. This is a weeklong event where schools across the
world focus on kindness and making the days of others better. This has been a
focus of George Waters Middle School for the past few years. Our school day has
been altered slightly as well. Start time and end time remain the same (8:30 AM
and 3:20 pm) but our entrance times have been changed to maximize our daily
reading after lunch and the length of all of our classes (All Sharks Read).
Areas of focus for everyone at GWMS are literacy,
numeracy, and relationships. We will concentrate on learning more about the 21st
Century Learning Skills. These include six big skills that are: Critical
Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, Citizenship, and Character.
These skills are intended to give all people the opportunity to fulfill any
goals they set their mind to. Teachers and students will use technology,
paper/pencil, and a variety of other resources in all of our classes to
encourage growth in all of these areas.
All students at George Waters will continue to send
home ‘Daily Reflections’. Daily Reflections are meant to give all parents an
insight into what happens everyday at school and it allows your children to
communicate the good things they are doing at school and things they may need
help with. Please read these as you can as they allow you to ask good questions
about your child’s day at school and see what they are learning about everyday.
We will also continue with our JAWSS Classes (Joint Activities with Staff and
Students) where students will work closely with their homeroom teachers and
classmates to talk about what’s happening in our school and in the world.
Students also create their ‘Chomp’rehensive Growth Portfolio (We are the Sharks
after all!) that parents can view at any time they pop into the school, or
during one of our Portfolio Cafés throughout the year. The goal of JAWSS is to
ensure each child at George Waters MS has a positive connection with at least
one adult in the building. JAWSS usually happens two times per month.
We have some new initiatives at each grade in the
classroom as well. At the grade 6 level, students and their teachers will
participate in the Daily 5 everyday after lunch. The Daily 5™ is a framework
for structuring literacy time so students develop lifelong habits of reading,
writing, and working independently. At the grade 7 and 8 levels, all students
will get the chance to learn how to code in one class per cycle. Coding is the
method of making programs to run
apps or programs. The late Steve Jobs of Apple stated, “Everybody in the
country should learn how to program a computer... because it teaches you how to
think.”
We
will talk about the ‘Three Levels of Sharkdom’ everyday at GWMS. These are the
expectations for everyone at our school. We expect, at the grade 6 level, for
all students to ‘Get Involved’. Getting involved means attending everyday, asking
questions in class, making mistakes, trying again, playing on teams and/or joining
clubs. At the grade 7 level students are expected to ‘Stand Up for Others’ (and
Get Involved). This means that our grade 7s should make sure everyone is
feeling safe, to be helpful bystanders and to be positive role models for new
students to our school. At the grade 8 level students are expected to be ‘Be a
Philanthropist’ (and Stand Up for Others and Get Involved). This means to help
make the days of others better by helping out around the school, thinking about
making the world better. To watch a short clip that explains this well please
follow this link: http://bit.do/gwphilanthropy.
We have a variety of ways for parents to stay
connected to George Waters throughout the year. We don’t expect you to follow
all of these but please use the one(s) that you are most comfortable with. Our
daily news feed is on our blog (http://gwmssharks.blogspot.ca). This also
includes our school calendar and daily announcements. Our social media feeds
include Instagram (@gwmswpg), Twitter (@GeorgeWatersMS) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GeorgeWatersMS).
Our school website is at http://georgewaters.sjsd.net. This too has lots of
helpful information on it. To get text message updates to your cell phone about
important events happening at our school please text @gwmsa to (204) 800-2782.
Triad meetings to open our year (parent, child,
teacher) are on September 9 and 10. This
is a great chance to get to know your child’s homeroom teacher and see where
your child will be spending much of their time over the next 10 months. Also,
parents can make sure that all forms are signed, pay student fees, get locker
information and share important information about your child to ensure everyone
has the chance to have a successful start to the school year. Registration for
triad meetings begin on September 1, 2015 by visiting http://bit.do/gwtriad or
by calling the school office at 204-888-4898.
I am looking forward to a great start to a new school
year. More important information about the new school year that was sent home
in June can be found here: http://bit.do/GW_1516. Keep in touch by following
our blog and/or our social media feeds. Your children and the GWMS staff will
do amazing things everyday all year long. Everyone, at some point, will also
make mistaks as well. It is important that we all respond in a positive manner
when faced with difficult decisions and we keep the lines of communication open
to make sure we give the most important people of George Waters Middle School,
your children, the best chance for a successful school year,
Sincerely,
Andrew Mead
Principal
amead@sjsd.net
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