Weekly Wildcat

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Dear Western families,

I am writing this letter as I am sitting in Memorial Day weekend traffic on the bus coming back from the trip to DC with our 8th graders. Overall, it was an extremely successful trip, and the children should return to you very exhausted (although they really don’t seem exhausted at this moment). I wanted to share a few observations, realizations and funny moments we had with your children. For sixth and seventh grade parents, this will give you a little insight into what to expect when it is your child’s turn to go on the trip.

• According to the students, our staff checks bags way better than the TSA security at airports. Personally, I take pride in that.

• Your children CAN wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast and get on a bus by 7:45am, which is 15 minutes before school starts!

• Justin Beiber is still a fan favorite when a DJ is playing music...

• If you want students to turn down their mind-numbing music on the bus, all you have to do is turn on “We Are the World” at a high volume on the bus speakers with the chaperones singing along. Our students got the message really quickly and kept their music quiet the rest of the trip!

• The souvenir store and food courts are still highlights of the trip for the kids. We are sorry. We tried really, really hard to inspire your children with all the historical sights, but it is hard to compete with a souvenir shop when dealing with 13 and 14 year olds.

• We learned that you children must not have paid attention in Social Studies classes (or in general) over the years, which is evident by some of the questions they asked or answered, such as:

• Is New Jersey a country?

• Is that the White House? (when we saw any white building with pillars)

• We are going to Washington state, right?

• Who is Oprah?

• When asked what river we were on for the boat ride, one student said the Mississippi and another said the Nile.

We like to think the students were just messing with us. In all seriousness, this trip made us realize how much we are going to miss this group of students. They learned many things on this trip and filled their journals to capture what they learned (picture evidence below). They were able to meet with U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and represented Western very well (see picture below). Watching how seriously they took so many of the places we visited, especially the Holocaust and National Museum of African American History and Culture made us very proud. When it counts, your children know how to behave, be respectful, and represent Western and all that we have worked hard to instill in them over these last 3 years.

With that said, they are all yours for the next three days!!

I hope you have a wonderful long weekend and get a chance to have your first barbecue of the year if you haven’t already!

Suzanne Coyne

suzanne_coyne@greenwich.k12.ct.us

(203) 531-5700

• Monday, May 27th: No School- Memorial Day
  

• Tuesday, May 28th: Darfur Day, 7th grade

• Wednesday, May 29th: Math LinkIt

• Thursday, May 30th: Spring Music Festival at GHS, TBD time

• Friday, May 31st: All Library Media Center books due back for end of year processing

• Friday, May 31st: 8th Grade Orientation, GHS Counselors Visit

• Friday, May 31st: Sudell Sprint

So, it seems like my plea to help me beat Eastern helped improve our survey numbers greatly. We now have 26% of our families having completed the district survey, which is 100% growth from last week. However, we continue to be tied with Central, and Eastern is still beating us with 30% of their families having completed it. We CANNOT let this happen. The district is giving families until the end of Tuesday to complete the survey. Please, please take 2-3 minutes out of the long weekend to complete the survey.

Check for an email with the subject line “Greenwich Public Schools Family Survey” from Dr. Jones via k12insightllc.com. Besides beating the other two middle schools, I really want to hear from you all so we can make Western the best it can be.

While it seems we just finished SBA testing (we actually just finished our last makeups today), the district benchmark assessment will be starting next week. These assessments provide us with information on how well your children mastered the grade-level skills for their grade. Here are the dates for each test, so you can remind your student(s) to come with a charged Chromebook and a full belly.

• Wednesday, May 29th: Math

• Monday, June 3rd & Tuesday, June 4th: ELA

As we prepare for the end of the school year, please remind your students that all books from the Library Media Center are due back on Friday, May 31.

If a book is lost, please send in cash or a check (payable to Western Middle School) so we can replace it! Thank you...

If you have not yet done so, TUESDAY is the LAST DAY to purchase your ticket/t-shirt to participate in the fun! Please bring $20 to sign up on Tuesday If there is a financial hardship we will accept $10 for your entry. The goal is that 100% of our 8th graders participate.

Claire Yu, Greenwich resident, sister of a former WMS student, and current junior at RCDS, started a nonprofit called Girls in Golf to provide underserved middle school girls with the opportunity to learn about Golf. This past Monday, she hosted a completely free event at the Griffith E Harris golf course for the girls in the AVID 7 and AVID 8 elective classes. All girls were provided with a refurbished or donated set of clubs they could keep for future use as well as introductory lessons on how to putt, chip and hit off the tee. This was such an incredible opportunity to expose students to a new sport and concluded with a meal in celebration of their trying something new!