Hello Wilson Community: post updated January 2010
Welcome to the year’s first issue of the Wilson Messenger.
This interactive newsletter serves to update the school community on “goings-on” and show students and teachers hard at work.
Wilson is a vibrant community and we look forward to giving you the details of this first trimester of the school year. This year at Wilson and across the district, we strive to focus our work on three key areas:
–writing across the curriculum
–integration of technology into classroom experiences and routines
–collaborative work through our middle school model and professional
learning community protocols in support of student learning.
So far in the school year, children have participated in numerous writing prompts across disciplines, including one formal writing composition, involving all steps of the writing process, at each grade level through language and literacy classes (Core Writing Assignments). By the end of the school year, students will accomplish 6 formal writing pieces per subject area for full-year courses, and set numbers for courses that do not meet a full year. Grade 5 students will complete 3 pieces per full-year academic subject, as we work to transition our 5th graders from elementary writing output expectations and those of middle school.
Please view our student work showcase to see, in particular, our writing samples from 8th grade Earth Science. I chose to highlight these pieces because the work is evidence of the kinds of writing infused across the curriculum. Writing is a high-leverage instructional task that reinforces and maximizes student learning. Enjoy these writing samples, “Postcards from Japan,” that students write as one in a series of many postcards. As students study different regions of the Earth and the manner in which the Earth’s crust behaves in this region, students are asked to compose postcards discussing their “field trips” to these locations. I always enjoy reading them!
Please also enjoy our Student Podcasting section. Podcasting literally means (P=personal O=on D=demand) viewing or listening to of content. As a result of the teacher laptop initiative and training this past fall, both students and teachers are using and creating podcasts as just one of many technology rich instructional experiences at Wilson.
All students participate in some sort of formal technology class at Wilson–either through technology literacy classes with Ms. Norton, Media Literacy with Ms. Neel, Ms. Bloom or Ms. Reulbach, Technology Education with Mr. Souza or Video classes with Mr. Steiner. That said, we strive to utilize technology in our day-to-day teaching in a way that maximizes student engagement and learning. We hope you have enjoyed our teachers’ websites and work so far this year.
Finally, we chose to do our “Feature” section on the arts and field experiences because of the power of the work conducted in these areas so far this year. In the current educational buzz/lingo, “21st century skills” are always in the conversation. While technology and computers first jump to mind for such skill, so do skills around composing, observing and a student’s on-his/her-feet learning. Our fall was rich with arts and field experiences we wanted to share with you.
This issue gives only glimpses of all that occurs in our school daily, but hopes to spur you to comment (see rules of engagement below) and celebrate the student and teacher writing, projects and experiences contained here.
On that subject, it is important to mention that the Wilson Messenger is composed of writing conceived of and written by student writers.
If your child is interested in writing, please have him or her stop in the office to let me know.
Blog Format–What does that mean?
Just a few reminders about our Messenger format and communication. Each section allows you, the reader, to respond to the content via a blog format. It is the hope that the blog format will allow community members to engage in dialogue about school happenings and interact with student writers. Please scroll down through each page you visit as many links are listed lower down out of sight of your first glance at the page. Links from previous issues of the Messenger are stored at the bottom of each section.
Rules of Engagement
There are rules of engagement for posting to the site, as this is a community document and is read by all of our families and many of our students aged 10-14. If you intend to post a blog comment to the messenger site, it is subject to approval from a moderator and must include a recognizable first and last name with the comment. The content should be something appropriate for everyday conversations–as if you were giving that comment to the writer herself/himself–face to face.
So, with that, I’ll let you enjoy this review of events September through January at Wilson.
It is a privilege to work with your family,
Anna P. Nolin
Principal
