Westwood Intermediate/Middle School
Westwood Families,
Homecoming week was filled with spirit at Westwood. A majority of the students participated in the theme days. It was great to see many of our students at the football game as well.
This week is a short week for students. Please remember there is no school for students tomorrow, Thursday, October 3 or Friday, October 4. Our staff will be engaging in professional learning, learning design and conference preparation. Our professional learning for grades 5 and 6 is focused on the instructional strategies in the area of reading along side the core components of reading. Grades 7 and 8 will be focused on designing engaging work for students and implementing community building circles. School is back in session for students on Monday, October 7.
We appreciated hearing from so many of you last week in our first pulse check. We heard from 296 of you. Of those responding, 93% are happy with Westwood. Here are a few of the things we heard:
- Overall, there was appreciation for the frequency and quality of communication from the Westwood teachers and administration
- There was praise for the quality of academics.
- There were questions about backpack procedures – see information from the September 11 newsletter along with some feedback on the timing of that communication
- We saw a collection of comments on a variety of topics that reinforce the importance of the work we’re doing with our staff to build, create, and respond to a learner-centered environment.
We read every comment and take all of your feedback and ideas into consideration for our future planning and follow-up. We hope to hear from you again through our next pulse check!
Teachers are available to conference in October. Sign up for a time if your student in grades 5 or 6 or stop by for a drop-in conversation if your student is in grades 7 or 8. Here are the times:
- October 15: 4–7:30 p.m. – click here to schedule conferences
- October 16: 8-11:30 a.m. / 12:15 - 3 p.m. - click here to schedule conferences
In the newsletter today is a feature with some fun and real examples of competency-based learning that were captured late last spring from third grade. This may help make competencies more concrete – whatever grade your child is in. Expect to hear more from your child's teachers about the academic and career and life competencies they are working on throughout the year.
We’ll look forward to seeing students back here next Monday!
Tom Larson
Principal
C.E.R for the Orangutan
On one of our Orange Team flexible days, we had a mascot competition. Students have been practicing CER (claim, evidence, reasoning) paragraphs as a team. For this activity they learned some history about mascots, created a mascot for our team, and wrote a CER paragraph explaining why their mascot should get chosen by our team. The Orangutan was the winner, but it was a close competition!
CER for the Orangutan:
This orangutan represents our team by being orange and makes us show our wild side sometimes. The orangutan has our team color, orange, which means optimism, enthusiasm, happiness and youthful connections. Orangutans are also placid, deliberate, ingenious and persistent. All of these reasons show why the orangutan represents our team color and shows that we are sometimes lazy but ingenious - Fernando, Calvin, Boden and Gael.
A day in 3rd grade: Competency-based learning in action
Third graders enthusiastically welcomed a video crew into their classrooms to follow along in their learning for one day last May. As we start a new school year, short video stories from that day provide tangible examples of competency-based learning in action. From collaboration to math to science to digital literacy, a series of brief videos provide a peek into student learning across a day.
As a reminder, Spring Lake Park Schools has defined academic and career and life competencies. Academic competencies are aligned to different subject areas (Math, English Language Arts, etc.) and to Minnesota state standards for those areas. Career and life competencies are skills and mindsets needed for success in school and beyond. Last year was the first year elementary learning was entirely competency based. So, what does it look and sound like during a day in third grade? Take a look (and listen) to a day in third grade.
Catch the "After Hours Big Band" Show Tonight!
Tonight is the night to catch the live performance of "After Hours Big Band" at the Fine Arts Center, 7 p.m. Student tickets are only $5! This is a great way to introduce your children to a live musical performance, right here in our Panther community.
"After Hours Big Band" is led by one of our SLP dads! Our audience loved their holiday show last year and now we welcome them back to kick off season three. You will be sure to recognize favorites from Disney, The Beatles and more. Once again, Reed Grimm of American Idol and Shoeless Revolution will be joining the band. Get your tickets here and avoid the long lines at the box office.
