Back Pocket

Dec 8 - Interims Issued

Dec 9 - WKMS Spirit Day - Wear WKMS Gear/Colors

Dec 16 - WKMS Spirit Day - Super Hero Day

Dec 19 - UHS Academic Night for Rising 9th Graders

Dec 23 - School Closed - Winter Break Begins

Jan 3 - School Re-Opens - Winter Break Ends

Jan 6 - WKMS Spirit Day - 1980's Retro Day

Jan 10 - Term 2 Ends

Jan 11 - School Closed for Students - Teacher Work Day

Jan 12 - Term 3 Begins

Jan 16 - School Closed - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

At our first set of parent focus group meetings, the suggestion was made that we share school concerns with you, so you can reinforce our messages and talk about these issues with your children. For this Back Pocket issue, we focus on WKMS bathrooms!

Issue: Our bathrooms have had their fair share of issues. Over a year ago, it was a place for Tic Toc challenges with missing sink faucets and soap dispensers. It has been a place where occasionally you might find images and words on urinals and stalls written in permanent marker. You might find a random pencil sharpener in the toilet or paper towels shoved in the sinks. You might see a plume of water coming from a broken faucet. And unfortunately, you might even find urine in the middle of the floor.

Our Response: This year we instituted an online hallway/bathroom sign out form to help monitor students in the hallway and in case of an emergency. Staff/Teachers try to monitor students going in and out of the bathrooms during classroom transitions. We reinforced our expectations during the advisory lesson on Monday, November 28th about the importance of following these rules. Pieces have been ordered to replace and repair broken hardware.

Our custodial staff spend time each day cleaning and disinfecting our bathrooms. We encourage students to say something if they see something. Consequences are given and phone calls are made home for students who are not using the bathrooms appropriately.

You Can Help: Please have a conversation with your child about this. Our school is home away from home for our students, and it should be treated that way. Please encourage students to reach out to an adult if they see something. With the flu, COVID, and the rise of RSV infections, we want to limit the spread of germs. Our custodial staff are amazing people, but they should not be spending time cleaning up after these issues. Thank you in advance for helping us with this. We appreciate the collaboration with our families!

Dealing with Grief During the Holidays

Dealing with loss is so difficult, especially during the holidays. Local licensed psychologist Alison omba has shared 5 tips that can help adults and children deal with the loss of a loved one during the holidays. Click on the following link: 5 Tips for Dealing with Grief

WKMS Giving Tree

We still have tags available! Please help WKMS and the Greater Urbana Area Food Bank support local families during the holiday time. A Giving Tree is now located in the WKMS front office. Stop by and pick up an ornament to purchase an item for a family in need in our school community. Please remember that all wrapped items are due to WKMS no later than December 7 with the tag securely fastened to the package. Items can be dropped off at WKMS from 7:45 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Thank you for supporting families in need in our area during the holidays!

Resources

Academic Night

Rising UHS 9th graders are invited to come to Urbana High on Monday, December 19, from 6:00 - 7:30pm to learn about courses and programs offered at UHS and within FCPS, as well as course sequencing and preliminary registration information for the 2023-2024 school year. A special Rising 9th Grader information meeting will be held in the Auditorium beginning at 6pm. If you would like to submit a question prior to the presentation, please use this form: Question Submission

College and Career Opportunities

Interested in what’s available after middle school? Check out this College/Career link to view the many opportunities that FCPS offers for students to explore career pathways, increase the rigor and value of their high school education, and prepare for college.

Greetings from the English Language Arts Department. Believe it or not, midterm for second term has passed. The end of the term is January 10th. During this term, all students will take the first FCPS English Language Arts Benchmark in their ELA classes. Specific details and dates have been shared with students in their English Language Arts classes. Students in Mrs. Buckner's Read180 classes are continuing their work in small group, independent reading, and software rotations. Read180 students will take their next Reading Inventory once schools reopen after Winter Break in January. As always, please reach out to your student's ELA teacher, Read180 teacher, or to the WKMS Literacy Specialist, Ginny Hines, with any questions or concerns.

The Math Teachers would like to share how thankful we are for your students and all the family support we are getting as we are now back in the swing of school. We know that everyone is busy now through the new year but we hope that you will be able to take some family time together to enjoy some of the traditions that make this time of year special. In the math classroom we are working through the second term with formative and summative work. We know that math work can be challenging once your student is home and not in the familiar environment of the math classroom. To best support all learners there are multiple opportunities for support. We have Tutor Me available twenty-four hours a day through the Clever platform and ELT with their classroom teacher or Mrs. Wurster during the school day. If you have any questions about any of these math supports please contact Mrs. Wurster at heather.wurster@fcps.org.

In the coming weeks all students will be taking computer based standardized assessments that will allow students to demonstrate their math progress thus far in the school year. These assessments will be part of the student data profile that allow us to best help students engage with mathematics both through enrichment and with supports. These assessments are also indicative of what students will see on the state standardized assessments in late spring. As always, any questions or concerns that arise may be addressed to Mrs. Wurster, the math specialist, at heather.wurster@fcps.org .

Enrichment Trip

The IFLY indoor skydiving and physics exploration trip originally scheduled for December 1 had to be reschedule. The new date will be given to students in the next few weeks.

Spelling Bee! WKMS will once again participate in the National Spelling Bee. A Schoology group is in place for all interested spellers. Interested spellers should see Mrs. Saylor get more information and to be put on the ELT list for study groups and competition. Announcements will be made for students to pick up their study words during an upcoming ELT. The school Bee will be announced in mid-December. The WKMS school Bee will be during ELT in January. The winner of the school Bee will need to be available on Saturday, March 11 @1PM to compete at the county level at Hodson Auditorium on the campus of Hood College.

National History Day

Students who have elected to participate in National History Day on March 11th at Rose Hill Manor have started their research on this year’s NHD theme Frontiers in History: People, places and ideas. This is a challenging academic contest that has students doing research, conducting interviews, visiting historic sites and using primary and secondary sources to conduct research about their topic. This contest was open to all students. Students will decide how they want to present their information to judges. They can write a paper, do a documentary, produce a performance, construct an exhibit or design a website. All are challenging and the topics are broad! I am so proud of this group of researchers! I will be sharing information about their topics in upcoming Back pockets!

Tech Tuesdays are back! Scholars sign up if they are interested 2 days prior to the activity and participate during ELT and/or lunch. Announcements will continue to be made on the Schoology group page. We have a mixture of low tech and high tech. happening. Students designed and made buttons and also enjoyed working with droids. Over 150 free books were distributed in the Great Book Giveaway and we will have another one in the spring.

Yoga will occur on Wednesdays for students during ELT. They need to bring a yoga mat if they would like to participate. The "Share your story" book fair was a success! Thanks so much for your support!!

The winter is a great time for everyone to read and discuss what they are reading. Reading enhances learning capacity, boosts memory, expands vocabulary, develops analyzing skills, increases verbal intelligence, improves concentration and empathy, and reduces stress. Scholars should read a minimum of 20 minutes every day. Keep asking students questions about their reading to build comprehension and literacy. (Scholars are highly encouraged to log the books and amount of time they are reading on Beanstack.)

Email: WKMS.Attendance@fcps.org
Website: https://edu.fcps.org/wkms/
Location: 11150 Windsor Road, Ijamsville, MD, USA
Phone: 240-236-5000
Facebook: facebook.com/WindsorKnollsMiddleSchoolFCPS
Twitter: @FCPSWKMS