The Week At WHMS (parent edition) Week of March 8, 2021

Thought for the week:

“It is not our differences that divide use. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” - Audre Lorde

Weekly Calendar: WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH BEGINS Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Sat/Sun 3/8 3/9 3/10 3/11 3/12 3/13-3/14 Day 2 Day 1 Day 2 Day 1 Day 2 Cohort Cohort B Cohort A Cohort B Cohort A

10:14a – Team 7:55a – Team 8:45a – PST 2:45p – All day – 7/8 meeting 7 meeting meeting Homework Writer’s Center, room Workshop PD 12:29p – Team 9:29a – Team 2:45p – 16 or online 8 meeting encore Homework 8a-1p – meeting Center, room 2:45 CLUB “Hackathon” 2:45p – 17 or online MEETS: competition – Homework 1:14p – Team Coding & Room 33 Center, room Special Ed 2:45 CLUB Robotics 257 or online meeting MEETS: (room 30); 8:45a – RTI Art (remote Mathletes - meeting 3:00p – Site- 3:00p – students only); CONTEST based meeting Department Comic Book & (room 35); meetings Graphic Novel Yearbook (room 30); (room 27) 7:30p – Board DAT (room 33) of Education meeting: second budget discussion (link available on website)

Instructional tips: (from Edutopia) rerun as this is very valuable information

3 Strategies to Help Students Move from in PBL by Michael McDowell (excerpt) Between the launch of a project-based learning unit and the final presentation, targeted instruction and feedback are crucial for student success. The project launch and the project presentation are two unique aspects of the project-based learning (PBL) methodology. The former is the time for presenting a formidable challenge that students will need to solve. The latter is the culminating experience where students solve a problem, perform, or share their product. The time in between the launch and the end is all about preparation. Here students need to develop and refine core knowledge and skills to answer the PBL problem and prepare for the culminating presentation. The 3 Strategies: 1) Direct instruction. When students are first learning something, they need direct input, frequent checks for understanding, guided practice, and opportunities for independent practice. While parts of a project require teachers to take more of an inquiry stance, the middle is associated with teachers taking an active role by providing targeted instruction and feedback.  Early direct instruction should be linked to ensuring that students learn key facts and skills, which include direct modeling, spaced practice, and targeted teacher-led feedback.  Later direct instruction should be linked to consolidating facts and skills to better understand the underlying principles of the subject. Practices should include collaborative activities that involve student and teacher discussions (e.g., Socratic seminar, jigsaw). 2) Monitoring learning progress. In a swimming practice, swimmers are constantly monitoring their pace by looking at a clock and assessing if their technique and effort are at the level needed to sustain or improve performance. Students need to do the same in the middle of the project.  Provide students with multiple work examples to evaluate levels of performance.  Ensure that students keep drafts or copies of their iterative work so they can compare and contrast the differences in their performance.  Set up a time and a process for students to reflect on their performance and next steps they need to take in light of performance data. 3) Reading, writing and talking tasks. In the PBL classroom, students need to develop their thinking through cognitive tasks that are laden with academic reading, writing, and talking (as opposed to cutting, pasting, and scrolling). Moreover, those tasks should be centered on building student knowledge in the discipline. One way to link these three cognitive tasks together is to use methods or protocols that require all three sequentially. For example, in the Four “A”s protocol, students are tasked with reading an article or passage, writing a reflection or addressing a set number of questions related to the article or passage, and then discussing the article and their reflection with others.  Select protocols that enable students to give and receive feedback on reading, writing, and talking tasks. These feedback protocols include the tuning protocol, critical friends, and the consultancy protocol.  Ensure that students are developing learning strategies that enable to navigate reading, writing, and talking tasks, including concept mapping, outlining, underlining and highlighting, and note-taking.

For full article see: https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-strategies-help-students-move-start-finish-pbl

“COVID Corner” Information:

- I cannot say how vital it is that if your child, or anyone in your , feels , your child MUST REMAIN HOME FROM SCHOOL. Call the nurse or Mr. Murray for advice on when it is okay to return to school.

- that spring is approaching, please discuss with your child the importance of mask wearing and social distancing even outside of school. As students socialize more in the nice weather – EVEN OUTSIDE – they should adhere to distancing and mask wearing for health and safety. - The only way for to limit the spread of COVID-19 in our schools, and to remain open for learning, is for anyone who is ill, or has been around someone who is ill TO STAY HOME. - Please remember to submit your PowerApp COVID health screening before heading to school. I realize that many students are completing the app themselves. Parents MUST REVIEW the questions each morning and ensure students are answering correctly. If families do not answer the questions honestly, it makes it harder for us to keep the school safe.

Other items of importance:

- Snow Day calendar adjustments: o April 6th will be a day of school (Cohort B attends) – to make up for 2/2 o May 27th will be a day of school (Cohort B attends) – to make up for 12/17 o May 28th will be a day of school (Cohort A attends) – to make up for 2/1 - If you are unsure of what day your child should attend school the Cohort Calendar is available at: http://www.whufsd.com/Assets/MS_Links/110220_Ins_Day_Calendar_Gr_7- 12_FINAL.pdf?t=637399244920270000 - Counselors began meeting with students to develop course schedules for next year. These appointments will generally take place during PE classes and will run through March. - Let me know when you have exciting learning taking place that I can tweet out and be sure to tag @WH_MSRAMS if you tweet yourself

Other items of interest:

- The extra help schedule and Meet codes have been posted to our website @ http://www.whufsd.com/Assets/MS_Links/020821_extra_help_2021-2- 5.pdf?t=637483967376500000. Students can receive in-person extra help (limited to room capacity) or remote extra help through a dedicated extra help Google Meet. - Please consult the “FAQ & Good-to-Know” document @ http://www.whufsd.com/Assets/2_Reopening/FAQ_Good-to-Know_2020-9- 25.pdf?t=637368766251130000 - Get involved! Our most up-to-date club calendar can be found at: http://www.whufsd.com/Assets/MS_Links/111220-club_meet_dates_2020-11- 12.pdf?t=637407939784200000 - The Homework Center is open school on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Looking ahead:

Monday, March 15: Day 1 Cohort B - “Beware the Ides of March”

Tuesday, March 16: Day 2 Cohort A - Writer’s workshop PD – all day - Select Department meetings, 3:00pm - Board of Education Meeting (3rd in series of budget discussions), 7:30pm (link on website)

Wednesday, March 17: Day 1 Cohort B - Happy St. Patrick’s Day! - PST meeting, 8:45am

Thursday, March 18: Day 2 Cohort A - Counselors join teacher team meetings

Friday, March 19: Day 1 Cohort B - RTI meeting, 8:45am