WMS Family Newsletter

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Quick announcements:

• As we approach October 31, we would like to remind our students and staff that students must continue to follow the dress code on all days. Students should not come to school in costume. That also means no inappropriate attire such as items that cover the face, display profanity, or that promote drugs, alcohol, violence, intolerance, or are sexually explicit. Please see the WMS Family Handbook for more information on the school dress code.

• The Fall Dance is quickly approaching and the Leadership Club is searching for donations of fall decorations, activities, and individually packaged snacks and drinks to have at the event. Some examples of decorations and activities we are searching for are decorative fall leaves and pumpkins, cornhole, ring toss, etc. If any families are able to donate any of these items, please reach out to Courtney Braese courtney.braese@watertown.k12.ma.us, Susan Carle susan.carle@watertown.k12.ma.us, or Jen Sarmiento jennifer.sarmiento@watertown.k12.ma.us

  
  

• Attention all 8th grade caregivers! The final day to register your child for the Washington D.C. trip is THIS Friday, November 3rd. Please follow this link to do so. Please email christopher.mcdermott@watertown.k12.ma.us with any questions.




• The Watertown SEPAC invites everyone to attend a training on: Basic Rights: The IEP presented by Federation for Children with Special Needson Wednesday, November 1st from 6:30 -8:30 PM on zoom. Registration Required: https://fcsn-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsceiurTItH9Frq1jevzx7VweiAd6mi3_V#/registration

  For more information on the training and the Watertown SEPAC click here: https://www.smore.com/e8zrh
  

  
  

• Some caregivers have been wondering why there were two school adults in the caregiver conferences this year, which is a great question. In the past, conferences were run through 5-6 cluster teachers. This year, we shared that responsibility with 8-9 staff per cluster, and wanted to ensure there was a cluster teacher in every conference, so we paired up. We hope the experience strengthened the relationship that caregivers and students have with school staff, and how to continue working together to support our students in their middle school learning.

• Community Service Announcement: Our Coats for Kids drive is officially underway! Every year we collect lightly used winter coats to donate to families in need. We accept all sizes of coats, but not other winter clothing including jackets, hats, gloves, etc. Please have your child drop off donations in the main lobby
  

• The Watertown Recreation Department Winter I Registration will begin on Sunday, October 29th at 6:00pm. Winter I begins on Monday, November 13. Please select this link for our "Winter I Program Brochure."

Upcoming Dates:

• October 30-November 3: WMS Library Book Fair
• November 3: WMS Fall Dance (6:00-8:00PM)
• November 7: No School for Students - Professional Development Day
  

Respectfully yours,

Ms. Jennifer Chen Fein, Principal

Ms. Susan Carle, Assistant Principal (Clusters 1, 3, 5)

Ms. Jennifer Sarmiento, Assistant Principal (Clusters 2, 4, 6)

Click on the links below to find a monthly update from your child's teachers*

Cluster 1

Cluster 2

Cluster 3

Cluster 4

Cluster 5

Cluster 6

Specialists

World Language

Reading

Multilingual Learners

LB Math

Wilson Reading

Nurse Update

The Book Fair is coming to the WMS library! The fair will run from Monday, October 30 through Friday, November 3. The online version of our fair will run for an additional week after the physical fair is over.

25 percent of all purchases made on the online fair will benefit the WMS library and orders are sent straight to your house! The online fair is a great option for securing copies of any books that sell out in person!

Families can find information for accessing the online fair and setting up eWallets for digital payments by visiting the WMS book fair homepage.

Here is the schedule:

• Monday - 6th Grade ELA
• Tuesday - 7th Grade ELA
• Wednesday - 8th Grade ELA
• Thursday - ELD, Connections, LB English, LSP, Reading
• Friday - Half day for students who forgot money. Fair will be packed up second half of day

Donate to your students’ classrooms:

This year, in lieu of classroom wishlists, our teachers have created eWallets for shopping the fair. Please consider donating so that they can purchase books for their classrooms! There is also an option available for families to donate to a school-wide eWallet. This eWallet will be used to ensure all students are able to purchase a book at the fair. Book fairs should be a fun, exciting experience and we want to make sure no student feels left out. You can find links to your child’s English teacher and the whole school’s here.

Please reach out to Ms. Cabral with any questions at paula.cabral@watertown.k12.ma.us

We would like to partner with you to keep our students safe on social media.

Recently it has come to our attention that students, particularly in the 6th grade, are “adding” or “following” anonymous requests. This can be harmful to young adolescents for many reasons, including, but not limited to: inappropriate content; cruel and unkind messaging; communication with unknown persons.

We engage students in conversations about the Internet and Social Media safety throughout the school year. Here is an example of an advisory lesson our staff has led with our students. We urge you to have follow up conversations with your children to reinforce ways to have positive social media experiences.

This year, our 6th and 7th-grade teachers will be piloting engaging, inquiry-driven, resource-rich curriculum units from Investigating History, developed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in collaboration with Watertown's own Primary Source. Our teachers will be participating in ongoing professional development focused on the Investigating History materials throughout the year. As a strategic partner in this work, Tufts University may be conducting brief site visits and sample assessments in order to inform future modifications in preparation for state-wide implementation in 2024. Your child's Social Studies teacher will be providing additional information about this initiative in their next Smore.

On Monday, WMS began our day with a scheduled off-site evacuation drill. Students and teachers did an excellent job evacuating quickly and quietly, following directions, and staying safe. Thank you Officer Margaryan and the WPD for helping with traffic. Thank you to the Watertown Free Public Library for hosting us as our off-site evacuation Site.

An off-site evacuation drill is similar to a fire drill except we leave our school and move to a secondary location. This may be necessary if we experience an emergency where it is safer to be away from our building. We practice these drills, including the off-site evacuation drill, so that our school community knows the protocols for safety whether there is an emergency in school or outside of school.

We were thrilled to welcome author Megan E. Freeman to WMS last Friday! Ms. Freeman shared her One School, One Book presentation for the book Alone - our 2023 summer reading choice. We heard about the story’s inspiration, why she chose to write it in verse, and how she made decisions about the story. Several students had their books signed by the author. It was a great day to celebrate reading!

Thank you to our Literacy Coach, Chris Cochran, for facilitating this visit on behalf of our students!

We had a great Site Council meeting last Wednesday. At the most recent meeting, we talked about Caregiver Conferences. Overall, conferences went well. Site Council members share that when students were prepared, it was nice to see their children take the lead and facilitate the conference. It was mentioned that the timing feels short, and that they would like for the conference to be led, if possible, by two teachers who are connected with their child.

We went on to discuss how WIN is going this year. We are gearing up for round 2, and are happy to say that we have new teachers offering intervention (literacy focus through science and social studies texts, for example) and extension choices. Finally, we shared updates about one of our newest and most helpful structures - FLEX Fridays. We suggested that families could check in with their child on Thursdays to ask about their plan for Friday’s FLEX time. This is a helpful structure that is allowing students to take ownership and to advocate for themselves when they need extra time for retakes or when they need some reteaching.

The WMS Site Council is a body of students, faculty, parents, and caregivers that plays a strong role in the vision and direction of our school. Site Council meets on the following Wednesdays from 4-5pm in person (WMS art room, A128)/virtually (zoom), as we try out this hybrid model of meeting.

• November 29
  
• January 3
• January 31
• March 27
• May 1
• May 29

Reach out to Principal Chen Fein at jennifer.chenfein@watertown.k12.ma.us with any questions or to express interest in joining next year.

The WMS PTO meets on the second Tuesday of the month, with a mix of virtual and hybrid meetings. We will meet at 6:30pm.

Date for the year include:

• November 14 (virtual)
• December 12 (virtual)
• January 9 (in person - WMS Art Room/virtual)
• February 13 (virtual)
• March 12 (virtual)
• April 9 (in person - WMS Art Room/virtual)
• May 14 (virtual)
• June 11 (virtual)

We have postponed our 90s Themed Party, as the WMS dance is the same date. Stay tuned for more updates from PTO soon!

Are you interested in being on the WMS PTO? Reach out to our new co-PTO Presidents Elena Poillucci <elenapoillucci@gmail.com> and Melissa Parker <melissapisces@yahoo.com> with any questions or to express interest in joining next year.

The WMS Diversity & Belonging Council is a forum for caregivers and other community members to work toward more equitable practices at the middle school by encouraging accountability, raising awareness, and fostering community engagement.

Here are our slides from our September meeting. We hope you will join us at our next meeting.

We will usually meet the third Monday of each month, virtually here at 6:00pm.

You can reach out to Sarah Seldomridge at sarah.seldomridge@watertown.k12.ma.us with any questions. Thank you!

There are many events we have at WMS throughout the year where we welcome caregivers to help us chaperone. Usually this is for a field trip or a school event such as the upcoming dance. We ask that chaperones complete the CORI process through Human Resources.

If you are interested in volunteering to chaperoning for future trips or WMS events this year and would like to be added to our CORI'ed chaperone list, please email our assistant principals at susan.carle@watertown.k12.ma.us and jennifer.sarmiento@watertown.k12.ma.us

If you are you a registered nurse or know someone who is, our district also has PAID nurse positions for these trips, and we can fast track you through the hiring process. You would only have to come on whichever trip(s) you're available for - no need to commit to more than that! If you are interested in chaperoning as a paid nurse for an upcoming trip, please email our principal at jennifer.chenfein@watertown.k12.ma.us.

WMS is having our first dance of the year on November 3 from 6:00-8:00PM.

Students who are interested in attending need to have their permission slip completed by their caregiver and returned. We have copies of these permission slips in the main office, or families can print their own from below:

English Fall Dance Permission Form

Portuguese Fall Dance Permission Form

Spanish Fall Dance Permission Form

Nepali Fall Dance Permission Form

Armenian Fall Dance Permission Form

Turkish Fall Dance Permission Form

Japanese Fall Dance Permission Form

Persian Fall Dance Permission Form

Urdu Fall Dance Permission Form

Thai Fall Dance Permission Form

Russian Fall Dance Permission Form

Arabic Fall Dance Permission Form

WMS Clubs Fall 2023 are here! We also have Learning Lab every day after school, free of charge! Looking for extra help with schoolwork? The WMS Learning Lab meets in the WMS Library Monday-Friday 2:15-3:45pm.

Students will pay $50 one time to participate in any sports or clubs all year; if it is a hardship for a family they should reach out to the guidance counselor to inquire about a scholarship.

Students may participate in any enrichment activities for free (Student Leadership, GSA, Yearbook, and Learning Lab).

Students and families will receive the club sign up form in the next week or so.

The late bus runs Monday-Friday at 3:45pm.

• November 3: WMS Fall Dance (6:00-8:00PM)
  
• November 7: No School for Students - Professional Development Day
  
• November 8: Youth Wellness Community Forum (Lowell Elementary School, 5:30pm)
• November 10: No School - Veterans Day (Observed)
• November 14: WMS PTO (6:30pm, virtual)
• November 22: Early Release
• November 23-24: No School - Thanksgiving Holiday
• November 30: Picture Retake Day
• December 4: Trimester 1 Ends
• December 5: Trimester 2 Begins
• December 12: Trimester 1 Report Cards, MCAS 2023 Results, i-Ready diagnostic updates, and Yardstick Caregiver Guide for 6, 7, 8th graders mailed home
• December 12: WMS PTO (6:30pm, virtual)
• December 14: WMS Winter Showcase Performance (7:00-9:00PM)
• December 22: Early Release
• December 25-January 1: No School - Winter Recess
• WMS Bell Schedule and Trimester Dates 2023-2024
  

• Watertown Public Schools Calendar 2023-2024
  

• WPS MCAS schedule Spring 2024
  

• Watertown Community Resources - English
• Watertown Community Resources - Spanish
• Watertown Community Resources - Portuguese

Let us know how we are doing with our communication from WMS here.

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Website: https://wms.watertown.k12.ma.us/
Location: 68 Waverley Avenue, Watertown, MA, USA
Phone: 617-926-7783