WMS Friday Forecast

Recently, we’ve seen an uptick in online and social media bullying with our students. We’ve seen it increase in several areas:

• Students creating fake accounts for another student

• Students “dissing” other students to embarrass or humiliate them

• Students harassing other students, often in a sexual way or by making threats

• You can learn more about the different types of online bullying here

Also, it is important to know the difference between being mean, rude, and bullying. This is important and this article can help you understand the difference. Talking with your kids about this, and using the right vocabulary can help ease some fears. This student is being mean to me. Or That boy was so rude. Or I am being bullied because...

On this note, I only want to talk about online bullying and how we handle it at Wredling. Here are the steps we take:

• We identify the bully, the victim, and any witnesses

• Remember, by law we can only deal with bullying that impacts our school day. If there are issues in the neighborhood or online bullying that does not impact the school day, we cannot deal with it at school.

• We gather information about the event(s), including dates, times, screenshots from a device, and witness statements

• At this point, we decide on what route to take and what discipline to take. Our options include:

• We get parents of the bully and the victim informed and involved in the issue.

• For more severe cases, bringing in the St. Charles Police Department to help us manage the legal aspects of this case. (If the bullying is severe or ongoing, we encourage parents to make a police report to their local police department.)

• We look at discipline ranging from a minor consequence (detentions, office check-ins) to major consequences (in-school or out of school suspension).

• We also encourage parents of the students, both the bully and the victim, to remove their child from social media and technology for a while. This allows the victim time to recover and re-balance their emotions, and the bully not to bully or defend themselves.

• We also refer both the victim and the bully to our counselor. On the victim side, we want to offer support. On the bully side, we counsel regarding decision making and consequences.

• The law clearly supports school being involved in online bullying when it impacts the school environment. (Again, we cannot address issues that do not impact the school environment.) Click here to learn more about the bullying laws in Illinois. https://www.stopbullying.gov/laws/illinois/index.html

• This guide gives parents and students some great information about dealing with online bullying.

There are several things you can do:

• Parents: Use monitoring software to see what is happening with your child in their digital world. Also talk to them continually about respect, kindness, and about how they act online and offline. Keep lines of communications open, and ask them what they see or hear online. When in doubt, remove their access to technology and social media.

• Students: Remember what you post online never really goes away. Your postings today are our evidence tomorrow. And even more importantly, kindness matters. How you treat others in this world makes a difference in your life and the lives of others. Kindness always wins in the long-run!

If you know of someone being bullied, or you are being bullied, please email your grade-level assistant principal. Send us as many details as you can, including clear screenshots with no editing to the screenshot.

8th-grade students will be completing the Illinois Science Assessment on Wednesday, April 10th

All students will be taking the Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) during the dates April 16th, 17th, & 18th.

Please make sure your child is well rested, has a good breakfast and is on time to school for testing on these dates. This will help set them up for success as they take these tests. They will need to bring the following items to school with them for each day of testing:

• Chromebook FULLY charged and ready to go

• Earbuds - (check to ensure they are working, please)

• Water Bottle

• Healthy snack

Note: Students should have earbuds as requested on the school supply list. If your child has lost them or they no longer work, we do have a limited supply available for purchase in the LRC. The cost is $2.00 cash. You are also welcome to purchase some on your own.

Thank you for your assistance as we prepare for testing.

The D303 donation drive for Bernie’s Book Bank is from April 8th - 19th. Bernie’s Books is one of Chicago’s largest literacy programs. The organization process and distributes quality children’s books to at-risk youth throughout the Chicagoland area. Please consider bringing in new and gently used children’s books for birth through 6th grade to Wredling during the donation drive. Parents or students may place books in the collection bins located in the front hallway. D303’s goal for the 2019 donation drive is 20,000 books. Every contribution, even one book, will help us reach our goal! ***Unfortunately, the group does not collect activity/coloring books, video game guides, young adult, or adult books.

Any toilet paper tubes you would like to share to the WMS LRC. We are collecting for the upcoming D303 Maker Fair!

I am looking for a parent to help us develop an app for the Chromebook that would allow us to track student feelings on the Mood Meter. Ideally, they would have their own Google login for the app, and then track their emotion at the start and end of a period of time. If you have that skill or know of a local company who could help us, please contact Tim Loversky at tim.loversky@d303.org.

Do you have a student you would like us to
highlight in our RedHawk Spotlight?
Please email their story and a couple of photos
to Tim Loversky for consideration.

The last Wredling PTO meeting of the school year will be held off-site. On behalf of the PTO I’d like to extend an invitation to all parents interested in learning more about the PTO. Please join us on Monday, May 6th at 7:00 pm at Puebla Modern Mexican. Join us for an hour so we can say thank you to our graduating volunteers and welcome all new volunteers. Incoming 6th grade families for the 2019-2020 school year are welcome. Contact information and details are located within the e-vite invitation link below.

http://evite.me/9EpcErBtED

Sending a HUGE thank you for all of your hard work on this year's baskets. Schools, PTOs, Businesses. We couldn't do this without you. The money raised is so important for our Foundation to be able to give back as much as possible back to D303. To say your efforts are critical to our success is an understatement. :)

The baskets are now live and able to be bid on. A few of your baskets are going to be a part of the live bidding or are still being built on the site, so please keep that in mind as you take a peak. (a few details in the email below as well)

Link: click here

Spread the word if you can so that we can get your amazing baskets out to the masses! Any exposure (social media or emails) is much appreciated. More people bidding = more $$ for the D303 students! Note - that people don't need to be at the Gala to participate in the silent auction.

We would love to see you at the Gala as well so we can thank you in person! Link to tickets.

#edugala2019

Have a wonderful night. If have any questions at all, let us know!

~The Greater St. Charles Education Foundation Board

Karla Warsaw

Board Member - Basket Coordinator

Greater St. Charles Education Foundation

http://www.stced.org/

Join us on April 16 to learn strategies to assist and respond to your child when they are feeling anxious. A representative from Tri-City Family Services, along with D303 staff will offer insight on how to help your child deal with anxiety.

SIGN UP USING THE GOOGLE FORM BELOW

Tryouts for the 2019-2020 Dance Team will be held in April. A parent and dancer mandatory informational meeting will be on April 4th at 6:00 pm in room 302 at St. Charles North. Tryout dates will be April 8th, 9th, 15th, and 16th from 7-9pm in the Small Gym and the full tryout will be April 17th in the Mezzanine from 5-9pm. We hope to see you there! If you have any questions, please contact Coach Andrea at andrea.leith@d303.org. Make sure you follow us on Twitter: @SCNDT1 and on Facebook: @SCNDance

There's a copy of our flyer below:

Contact us on Twitter @ WredlingD303

#WredlingLearns

Website: Wredling.d303.org
Location: 1200 Dunham Road, St. Charles, IL, USA
Phone: 331-228-3700
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wredling-Middle-School-537757163011275/
Twitter: @WredlingD030