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West Middle School |
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September 2003 Volume 2003, Number 1 |
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In This Issue · Principal’s News · Superintendent’s Sounding Board · SAIL We’re on the Web Other Community Links Pikes Peak Library District’s catalog, including access to their online databases and homework helpers in the Teen Zone. Contact Us Main Office 328-3924 1920 W. Pikes Peak Ave. Colorado Springs CO |
Principal’s News
As principal at West Middle School I would like to
welcome every one to the 2003-2004 school year! This school year will present many wonderful and exciting
opportunities for student learning.
This school year will also provide us with many challenges as we
strive for quality student learning in a sound educational environment. We have some new staff and changes in our educational
programs. These changes were made to
better serve the educational needs of our students. West Middle School is on a continuous improvement plan for
ultimate goal of increased student performance. This means that we will continuously work to improve processes
in our school to have a well functioning educational organization. This also means that we will periodically
be seeking input from parents, students, and staff on improving processes at
school. This may happen at Open
House, Parent/Teacher Conferences etc. West Middle School is your community school and we value
your input and participation. The
BAAC (Building Accountability Advisory Committee) is designed to provide
representation of the school community at large. This is a vehicle for communication and bringing West Middle
School to a higher level. We look
forward to seeing you at our next BAAC meeting on October 15th at
4:30 PM. Also, keep in mind our partnership with the West
Intergenerational Center and the services they provide to Westside
families. "Teen Night"
offer supervised activities such as dances games and recreation. Please check with The West
Intergenerational Center for updated information. Once again, we are looking forward to an outstanding
year filled with fun and learning and we look forward to your support. Sincerely, Joe Torrez We have made changes to our process for student pick-up
and drop-off at West Middle School. Students should be dropped-off before
school and picked-up after school at the curb in front of the school on Pikes Peak Ave. This is for better student safety and convenience for
parents. This eliminates the need to
drop-off students in the middle of the street…a dangerous no-no! CONGRATULATIONS ! Parents and students have done an exceptional job of picking up and dropping-off students in a safe manner. As seen in the chart we have reduced "unsafe pick-ups" from an average of 15 per day to 5 on September 8. We did this in one day. Let's work together to make every "pick-up" and "drop-off" a safe one!
Superintendent's Sounding Board is seeking parents to represent views from our area. The meetings will be held on the 3rd Tuesday of the month (except December and May) from 5:00-6:30 p.m. at Tesla, 2560 International Circle. The first meeting will be held September 18, 2003. CHILDCARE IS PROVIDED. Please contact the West Middle School office 328-3900 to sign up as representative.
Please read the new West Middle School Student Handbook. There are some changes in the dress code and student appearance standard. This policy will be enforced. Students are required to complete and bring back to school the Signature page. Thank you. A Thank You to Bethany Baptist Church, a community partner, for providing additional parking for West.
For those parents who want to see their student’s assignments, attendance, grades or standardized test scores, Zangle Parent Connection provides online access to your student(s)’ records. You will need an Internet connection and a PIN and password to use Zangle ParentConnect. For you PIN and initial password, please contact Mike Barentine, Library Technology Educator at barenmw@d11.org. You must be on the student’s contact list ro receive the login information for your student. Colorado Springs School District 11’s home page, www.cssd11.k12.co.us contains a link to Parent Connection, as does West’s home page, www.cssd11.k12.co.us/west . Once you have logged on, you can save the logon page in your favorites. Call Mr. Barentine at 328-3924 or e-mail him if you have any questions.
The 6th grade students are now full-fledged middle school students! Their teachers have been working hard to help them learn the West Middle School culture and the academic expectations. High standards are Expected of all our students. It is essential that every student have an agenda. They are expected to write what is happening in each class including the homework. You can see what needs to be done for the evening so you can help your child organize his/her time to complete the homework. If at anytime you have questions or concerns you can call us or write a note in the agenda. 6th Grade Social Studies is focusing on the geography of the Earth for the first quarter. We have been studying and drawing various types of maps, land forms, and geographical features of the Western Hemisphere. Second quarter we will be traveling to Canada. Language Art classes are taught by all the sixth grade teachers except for Mrs. Alt, who is our Math guru. We are encouraging our students to read, read, read in preparation for Accelerated Reader and Battle of the Books which takes place in the Spring. Autobiographies and self-portraits helped us to get acquainted with one another and polishing up rusty writing skills. The sixth grade science teachers are currently teaching the scientific process and experimental design in the life sciences through hands on laboratories and investigations, projects, small and large group discussions, simulations, role plays, readings, and written and oral presentations. We are incorporating literacy within science through the use of student science notebooks as students keep track of data and build scientific writing skills. Cooperative learning skills are being learned as students complete labs in small groups.
We wish to thank all of the parents that were able to make it to Open House. It was great to see all of you. If you were unable to make it, the CSAP scores and the Ute Guidelines went home with your child. Please make sure that you saw these. This year the 7th grade is collecting Box Tops for Education. This helps with the cost of the charter buses that we take to Elitches at the end of the year. We would like to beat the 3,000 that we collected last year. Mrs. Berkeland’s Math News. We started the first book, Variables and Patterns to work on coordinate graphs. Later in the book we will get into basic algebra. You will be hearing about the bike trip that we are using. If your child has a problem with their homework, ask them what they did in class that day. That should give them a starting point to get the work done. They might want to have a “study buddy” they can call and ask questions, or get the work that they miss. Language Arts. Seventh grade has gotten off to a fantastic start. The students are a great bunch to work with. On August 25th, we spend the day studying about watermelons. We ended the day with a watermelon seed spitting contest. Robert Mason won with a distance of 36’9”. The district will show film of our day on Channel 16 sometime in October. On October 9th we will be taking a field trip to Evergreen cemetery. We need approximately ten parents to help chaperone this trip. Please contact Mrs. Graven if you would be willing to chaperone. We are busy writing autobiographies. Next we will be doing a grammar unit and 3rd period will be working on biography writing. Your child should have something to study every night, even if it is going over their spelling words and definitions or reading. Social Studies. In Social Studies students were introduced to the Eastern Hemisphere and the countries that will be covered over the year. We covered the standards that relate to geography. The students learned about the five themes of geography. The students put into practice the five themes through homework and a class activity assignment, “Five Theme Geography Brochure”. We are off and busy. Homework can be expected at least 2-3 times a week. Science. This year’s emphasis (and the practice to date) is on science through technology, group exercises/work, and experimentation. So far we have had two group science labs (one completed, one in progress): (1) identifying the contents of a box using the scientific method, (2) watermelon plant growing manipulating three separate variables. Much of the material is presented in a multi-media format including PowerPoint presentations. A major focus is on classroom atmosphere, including the playing of classical music throughout much of the class period. Reading. In Mrs. Guttner’s seventh grade reading class, the students have been involved in learning about syllables, and what letters are included in syllables. The students have also begun reading an autobiography about Russell Baker. Although the task has been arduous given the forty-five minutes period, the students are learning new vocabulary and will be able to use those words in their own autobiographies in Mrs. Graven’s language arts class.
Literacy.
All 8th grade teachers are using Math Mates, a Math
enrichment program developed in Australia, on Mondays. The students are given Math worksheets
that contain simple Mathematics, some Algebra, Geometry, and other thinking
problems. They are asked to take
these home to have the parents sign the worksheet. The students then return them on Tuesday. If they don’t complete these in class,
they are considered homework.
Calculators cannot be used on these worksheets as they are used to
build basic Math concepts. The 8th grade teachers are also going to start
using the Day Books during Literacy.
These books will help enhance their reading and writing skills through
a variety of activities. The teachers
will also be incorporating some of their own ideas in the classrooms to help
increase the reading and writing skills of our students. Language Arts – Ms. Turnipseed. We are focusing on basic paragraph
structure using the Step-Up-To-Writing method. The students are learning what green, yellow, and red stand for
in their paragraphs. They are also
learning how to advance their technical writing skills in the areas of
organization, grammar, and usage. Reading – Ms. Smith.
At
this time, the students are reading various Folk Tales and will be seeing the
video, American Heroes along with Davy Crockett. Once this is completed, we will begin
reading the novel, My Brother Sam Is Dead to coincide with the
Revolutionary War being studied in American Studies. They are also learning how to find and
underline important facts in stories to help them answer comprehension
questions without having to reread the entire paragraph or story. This will be a strategy that can be used
on the CSAP in March. We will also
read Johnny Tremain to help better understand the Revolutionary War
along with seeing the video and the Biography Channel video on George
Washington. American Studies – Mr. Bell. In American Studies, we will be studying
the first English Colonies in America.
We will compare and contrast the New England, Middle, and Southern
colonies. Eighth graders will examine
the lives of people, such as John Winthrop, William Penn, and Benjamin
Franklin. We will then look at the
events leading up to the American Revolution. Science – Mr. Summers. The eighth grade Science students are currently studying
Chemistry. We have discussed Atoms,
Elements, and Molecules, and have completed a few experiments regarding
chemical and physical changes. In the
upcoming weeks, we will look at laws on conservation of mass and matter and
discover where energy for reactions comes and goes. Math – Mr. Wakino. Our Math classes are currently pursuing knowledge of linear
models. We have reviewed how to use
tables to plot graphs, learned how to estimate a graph model for experimental
data that is not perfectly linear, as well as how to use the graph model to
predict additional information. We
have also learned to discover patterns or trends in a set of data with
respect to the variables X and Y. For
example, students can look at a chart and determine “as X increases by 1, Y
increases by 2, therefore it is a linear relationship”. The students are now using this knowledge
to further understand graphs and linear equations in the form of an equation: y = mx + b. They are learning to relate not only variables, but also real
life units of measurement that are shown on graphs, using slop and the
Y-intercept. In upcoming weeks, we
will explore non-linear relationships and other patterns.
Images of Greatness by Ms. HahnAll SAIL students are participating in a research project entitled Images of Greatness. This year each student chooses a person of historical note (last year they choose people of scientific greatness) and studies their lives developing a big picture of why this person was famous, what started them on their way to success, what obstacles they encountered in life and their impact on the world. Each student then writes an in depth paper in autobiographical or biographical style. Next comes the fun part! Each student must create a learning center to portray their “eminent one,” dress in costume and answer interview questions as though they have actually become the famous person of their research. Each student must also create a time line, find a related quote, write a bio riddle (and perform it on stage) as well as cook a favorite food of their eminent person. The culminating event is called Night of the Notables and will be on Thursday, October 9, 2003 from 6:30-9:00 p.m. beginning in the auditorium, moving to the gymnasium and finally to the cafeteria. All West students will have the opportunity to see the displays and discuss the lives of these famous people with their portrayers during the day.
Gateway to Technology – Mr. Rich. West Middle School has implemented the Gateway To Technology (GTT) curriculum as an elective. This is an activity-oriented course designed to expose students to a broad overview of the field of technology. The curriculum is comprised of four units, each independent of the other. They are:
The four units were designed specifically for middle school. The units are taught to seventh and eight grades. Seventh grade does the first and third units, while the eighth grade does the second and fourth units. Each unit takes a quarter, so a student taking the entire grade level course will be assigned to this elective for a semester. The middle school program leads into a high school pre-engineering program called Project Lead the Way (PLTW). GTT and PLTW are basically hands on science courses.
They are a great way to develop a foundation for engineering courses in
college. Or, they are a way of learning more about our increasingly
technologically oriented society. West
Students Bring Home Trophies -
Ranganath Weiner The 13th Annual
Junior Solar Sprint, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy's National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, gave students the chance to design, build and race vehicles
whose only energy source was sunlight. Each team started with a motor and a
silicon solar cell, which converts light into electricity. Advanced eighth
grade students from West's Space
and Technology Program, STS West, under the guidance of program director Ranganath Weiner, took first and third places in the technology,
craftsmanship and innovation category.
Every student from West who entered the competition brought home a
trophy. The first place team
included Nick and Tommy. The third place team included Eric, Nico , Ian and
Chris.
AVID Today - Bonnie Alexander Welcome back to a new school year! Our AVID classes have been filling up, and we are all ready for the next school year. Our seventh grade class is completely filled now, and we are still adding new students to the eighth grade class since we lost so many students to moves and schedule conflicts. Our tutor training is set for the middle of September and we are thrilled to have four brand new tutors joining us from UCCS. Our tutoring sessions will be twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday. Please remind the students on Monday and Wednesdays to get their questions ready for the Tutorials. I did the first binder check of the school year, and they are really beginning to look like AVID binders. Please, if you find a paper that your student did at school, please don’t throw it away. We are keeping all of our homework, test, and class notes in our binders for the entire quarter. At the end of each quarter, we put the papers into a file folder and keep them for the rest of the year so that we can go back and refer to them. Please check once in a while that there are no papers just “stuffed” in the pockets of the binder. That will help all of us! We have guest speakers and field trips lining up, and I’m really looking forward to a great year |
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