posted Apr 2, 2019, 11:23 AM by Steven Smith
[
updated Apr 2, 2019, 11:29 AM
]
Waimea
Middle School eNews - December 2018
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Did
you know it took Edison 5,000 tries to get the carbon filament to
glow?
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Given
this, we’re very pleased to share that - as we approach the holidays -
Waimea Middle School is aglow with good things since the school year
began:
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Great
experiences for kids.
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Teachers
taking risks.
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New
partnerships.
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State
Charter Commission confirmed our Value Added Measures (VAM). You will
be hearing a lot more about this.
·
Blue
Zones Project Certification for health/wellness commitments.
With
this eNewsletter, we hope to continue connecting the dots...and we
thank you again for being a part of our WMS ‘ohana!
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We're In The News - for great reasons:
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Truths About Vaping
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Big Island Video News captured a
recent hands-on science lesson presented to all WMS students that
explored known health impacts of vaping, and how and why
manufacturers target youth with their advertising. It's all about
making good choices, said Principal Janice English about her vaping
lesson.
https://shar.es/aaprd9
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We thank our students for their
bravery and hard work -- teachers, too!
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Our Community Honors All Teachers!
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The 2018 Waimea Christmas
Twilight Parade honored all of the community's teachers as
"Guiding Stars at Christmas and Always." Grand Marshal
was none other than our own Mrs. Patricia Rice, a 43+-year WMS
teacher, counselor, curriculum coordinator, VP, Principal (4x) and
now grant coordinator. Several dozen teachers, staff, students and
families walked to salute the dedicated team here that serves the
children of Waimea.
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As important, great work in classrooms
led up to our recent Student-Led Family Conferences that included
sharing individual student electronic portfolios, which involves
students setting goals, mastering technology and providing specific
evidence of progress. Conferences are always a little scary for
kids and parents, but are essential to ensuring continuous
growth. We appreciate that they were well attended!
We’ve also have hosted more than a dozen workshops in
the Keaoākea STEAM Learning Center, including:
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An
intense teacher training to engage students as “citizen scientists” to
help prevent rat lungworm disease.
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An
all-day hands-on Vog workshop coinciding with the eruption.
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6th graders
exploring archaeoastronomy as they dig into ancient civilizations’
understanding of the stars and universe.
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Mala’ai
garden Work & Learn days to explore how and why worms and bees are
our best friends.
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Additional
workshops to support food self-reliance for this island and the coming
voyage of the Makali’i canoe.
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Learning
more about HA:BREATH strategies to strengthen Belonging, Responsibility, Excellence, Aloha, Total Well-Being,
and Sense of Hawai'i,
to prepare to co-host the statewide HA conference with DOE here in our
STEAM Learning Center in March 2019.
These are all important partnerships facilitated by the
$15 million STEAM Learning Center, which was funded by the Legislature
to help our students and school-community be prepared "to
successfully navigate high school and beyond."
The building is clearly making a big
difference.
But what goes on inside our classrooms is what really
counts. Collaboration is at the heart of good teaching and growth,
and teams of WMS teachers are deeply involved in this, including a
group of our teachers continuing to participate in a Kamehameha
Schools-Ho’okako’o Corp. (HC) partnership called Hawaiian Community
Based Education (HCBE) that took them to Moloka’i for a day to work
with fellow HC teachers. Also, our staff participated in a
full day of professional collaboration Nov. 19 that included our EA’s
attending a training on Social Emotional Learning to better support
kids.
Most everywhere we turn, there’s new
curriculum and new ways of teaching, so there’s much to learn about and
adjust to. Sometimes new is frightening. As a staff we have
talked about being outside your comfort zone. In education it’s
called the zone of proximal development. It’s like a
bullseye. When you stay in the center, you don’t take
risks. At WMS, we are taking risks and then analyzing success or
failure. Education is messy, and we learn from things that work
out and things that don’t. Yes, we’re back to the Edison
lesson…and reminded of our Core Value of:
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Snack Shop Entrepreneurship & Blue Zones Certification:
We are piloting a once a month snack shop where
Leadership students serve their peers a delicious, healthy attendance
award. We invited Blue Zones staff to come see first-hand. It
was one of the criteria that put us over the top for BZ certification. Look
for our banner soon!
Career Exploration Day:
More than 55 different career options were offered by a
huge cadre of community volunteers. Students got to probe deeply
into what it means to be a doctor, lawyer, merchant or chief (of police
or fire). Or a veterinarian, astronomer, helicopter pilot, engineer,
etc. We thank all of the presenters.
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IKAIR Field Trips:
Students learned about community service, caring for
kupuna and families, our forests, steams and ocean, and our
cultural legacy. Our 6th graders
did such great work that Waimea Outdoor Circle praised them in a
Letter-To-The-Editor!
Suicide Prevention - Peace Tree Planting:
September was Suicide Prevention Month, a concern that
has touched our community. In the green space between the garden
and Keaoākea STEAM Learning Center, facing the mauna, aclass of 7th
graders planted a new 'ohi'a sapling near the tree Gov, David and Mrs.
Ige, Sen. Lorraine Inouye and Rep. Cindy Evans planted in January for
the building dedication. According
to Kumu Ku’ulei Keakealani, this area was once an ‘Ohi’a
forest. We thought it a perfect space to place a peace legacy tree.
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After-School Tutoring, Robotics, Athletics, 21st Century
Classes:
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From VEX and First LEGO League Robotics, to jazz
dancing, 'ukulele and taiko drumming, from coding, "STITCH"
and sewing, to Cross Country and Volleyball, we are indebted to
generous partners for ensuring there are many learning opportunities to
explore new ideas, learn new skills, get homework done, have fun and be
safe!
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