Wayland MS Mural

Wayland MS Mural

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Cluster news update September 13th into next week

Hi all,

  Here are some brief updates for the coming week.

Thank you to all who have shared with us the Million Word Assignment. If you have not yet done this and would like to share a bit of information about your child from your perspective you can email it to me at richard_battaglia@wayland.k12.ma.us  - Thanks, Rich


1. HW Club - After a one week delay homework club will begin this week on Tuesday, September 18th and then again on Thursday, September 20th. HW Club will run through the year every Tuesday and Thursday from 2:30 until 3:15. It is an excellent place for students to practice putting their best effective effort and hard work into their homework. It also gives students an opportunity to check in one-on-one with many of their subject teachers. All students are welcome to attend.

2. Online HW Calendars - Students received training this past week on setting up their google calendars  and syncing them with each of their teacher's homework calendars. If students forget their planner in school or forget to write down their homework they can view their homework online by logging into their student gmail account and viewing their calendar. Each subject teacher in the cluster will update the homework electronically by the end of the school day. You can also view each teacher's homework online at the cluster HW calendar page off of the middle school website and through this link - King Cluster HW Calendars.

3. TAG/HR Time - I wanted to also share an activity the cluster homeroom teachers did this week in our TAG(Teacher Advisory Groups) as an example of the traits and positive environment we try and create among homerooms in the 8th grade. Each homeroom participated in a "Silent Conversation" where they went around the room silently writing their responses to several key questions about the role of our TAG time in the the 8th grade. They also silently went around and responded to their peers thoughts by silently writing responses on the same chart paper. Silent Conversations ensure that everyone has a voice and is given the opportunity to share their thoughts/opinions/feelings in a equal manner. Below our the images of the silent conversation in "Wordle Form" Larger words are words that appeared more frequently on the chart paper where students wrote their responses. Just wanted to share this to give you an idea of how we spend our TAG time in the 8th grade and also the thoughtfulness of the 8th graders.










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