Dear WMS Families,
We are having a beautiful weekend here. I hope that all of you have a chance to enjoy.
WMS was excited to host the district's first Learning Walk of the year this past week. Participants included Dr. Galdston the superintendent, Dr. Henry the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Kathy Desmarais the Director of Student Services, and all principals and curriculum coordinators in the district. We saw WMS teachers working hard to implement lessons with supports for students such as graphic organizers, student choice, and using manipulatives to make learning concrete. We will continue to improve our differentiation strategies to increase access and engagement for all learners this year.
Something else that parents/caregivers may notice this year is that many teachers are moving towards keeping their grades in PowerSchool. This is intended to be a tool that lets students families know what each student’s current progress is. Grades are intended as a tool to communicate mastery of content, and are not intended to make students feel good or bad about their progress, rather as feedback about how they are doing so they can take next steps to ensure a successful academic year. Teachers need a reasonable amount of time to provide grades and feedback to students, so checking PowerSchool about every other week rather than constantly, is a good practice to get into.
The 8th grade Student Leadership Team has been choosing themes for each Friday. This past Friday was Watertown Pride day, and students were dressed to impress! If you are looking to add some WMS Gear to your wardrobe, check out the spirit shop that we are launching below.
Be well and take care of one another.
Respectfully yours,
Ms. Jennifer Chen Fein, Principal
Ms. Jennifer Sarmiento, Assistant Principal (Clusters 2, 4, 6)
Mr. Patrick Dayton, Interim Assistant Principal (Clusters 1, 3, 5)
8th Grade Washington D.C. Trip Information
We had a great turn out on Tuesday night.
Thank you to Mr. McDermott for planning and leading the slideshow presentation to caregivers for the Washington D.C. Information Night. We are linking it here for any families who missed the information. The registration form will be sent out soon.
Please email christopher.mcdermott@watertown.k12.ma.us with any questions.
WMS Peter Clough Memorial
Mr. Peter Clough was a former Global Studies Teacher and Assistant Principal of WMS who died from Lymphoma in 1995 at the age of 32. Mr. Clough made a significant impact on WMS students, encouraging them the value of character, service, allyship, selflessness, and sacrifice. A picture of a contract that Mr. Clough asked his students to sign is still in his classroom at WMS, and is shown at the right.
There is also a memorial art installation for Mr. Clough in the main lobby of WMS, which portrayed the gifts he gave to the world, and continents hanging in the center. More than twenty years later, the WMS school community is beginning the process of reimagining the images portrayed on the hanging mobile to reflect the culture and the people that walk through our doors every morning at WMS. With students attending from across the globe, we seek to portray our diverse community in a way that respects Mr. Clough’s memory and contributions to WMS while creating a sense of belonging for all members of our WMS of our community.
The images portrayed on the hanging continents represented a more limited view of the contributions of people from around the world that currently attend our schools. Twenty years ago, students worked with the artist Mr. Joshua Winer to research those images using resources such as National Geographic; who has since addressed and apologized for its racist past. Much has happened in the world over the past twenty years, and what may have seemed acceptable then no longer does, nor was it ever.
Over the course of my interview process last spring, it was shared that students who currently attend WMS in 2022 did not feel the sense of belonging and community with the mural hanging as it was, so the WMS Leadership Teammade the decision over the summer to temporarily remove just the continents before the school year started, while leaving the ring with all of his gifts, and the center ring with his initials and words that describe him are still there. The auditorium that is used day and night also remains named in honor of Mr. Clough's contributions.
In the past few weeks, I have been in conversation with Ms. Kerri Clough, the widow of Peter, as well as Mr. Josh Winer, the artist who helped students create the original mural. They are both in support of this process. There are teachers at WMS, including those who knew and loved Mr. Clough, who are excited to work with students this year, perhaps in conjunction with Mr. Winer as an artist in residence. It is our hope to also include the WMS community in our process to reinstall the continents when they better capture the sense of belonging that Mr. Clough would have wanted.
There will be a zoom meeting on October 19th at 7:00pm for members of the WMS community, including those who considered Mr. Clough a mentor, who have further questions or comments, or would otherwise like to share their ideas of how to honor Mr. Clough while ensuring all people feel welcome when entering the middle school.
Watertown Middle School
Website: https://www.instagram.com/watertown_middle/https://wms.watertown.k12.ma.us/
Location: 68 Waverley Avenue, Watertown, MA, USA
Phone: 617-926-7783
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/watertownms
Twitter: @middlewatertown
