S.P. E. A.W (Special. Education. At. Walton) A look into collaboration in a new environment

Change is an inevitable reality in the professional world.  As educators, we get familiarized with a routine and essentially become unified with the components of that routine.  This routine includes: schedules, and the development of relationships with colleagues as well as students. The shock of change shakes up that routine and provides a bit of uncertainty for us as educators.  How do they run the school?  Will my students learn from me?  Will my Colleagues welcome me to the family?  The world of Special Education and collaborative teaching is no different.  Special Educators are asked to “wear many hats” as collaborative teachers.  Such responsibility in a new environment can be unsettling for a newcomer. Having supportive collaborative partners and faculty makes the transition happen at a smoother pace.

It can be just as challenging to develop a rapport with a collaborative partner, as it can be to develop a rapport with students.  Adding two different teachers with completely different philosophies can create a barrier in the collaborative classroom environment.  My new collaborative teaching partners have been an “open book” from the first day we began working together.  We have been able to share ideas with each other, and trade off pieces of each other’s techniques in order to provide instruction to our students.  Having such collaborative partners has given me big boost in tailoring lessons to meet the needs of my students.  I learn something new every day during 6^th and 8^th grade Language Arts, as well as in Civics.

It is refreshing being new to a teaching environment and having an umbrella of support, in my respective teaching content area, or department. As, Special Educators, It would be easy to consume ourselves with our multiple roles of teacher, case manager, and collaborator. The Special Education team at Walton has made my transition into this family awesome. We all work together in many ways to meet the needs of our students. Just the other day, I found myself scratching my head, trying to figure out a way to complete a special education document correctly. Before I could finish my sentence, I had two other special education teachers sitting with me. We all worked to solve the problem together as a group.

I am excited about the opportunity to be a part of what we have going on here at Walton. The staff here have been very open and supportive. I hope that I am as helpful to my fellow collaborators as they have been to me. I am hopeful that we can continue to work together in order to impact our students here at Walton.

A Day in History

This year Walton’s seventh grade students in US History II are discovering a World Power in the making while also learning how a nation split by civil war becomes a global superpower. The change did not come without major hurdles, both worldwide and within our borders. Students will also soon discover how a nation that wanted to remain an isolationist country got involved in world politics.

Currently, classes have covered Reconstruction and Segregation, Westward Expansion, and took a few days to remember 911. The students watched and discussed a National Geographic documentary and “Flight 93: The Flight that Fought Back”. After viewing these films, the students wrote their thoughts about Sept. 11, 2001. There were some really insightful and emotion-filled essays.

Mr. Hansell’s classes are now heading toward their study of Industrialization, Urbanization, and Immigration. America will indeed become a world power. Seventh graders will also work with the librarian during their twenties unit to better search online, discover the most appropriate online sources and create final research products.

Everyone is excited about the new on-line textbook. No more turning to page whatever!  The text does some pretty awesome stuff and should be a great tool for the classroom. It can even read out loud!

The kids are great and the year is flying by.

 Mike Hansell

What’s happening in the Walton Counseling Office??

It’s been an exciting start to the school year.  We have several new folks that are supporting students alongside Mr. Bloor and me (Mrs. Long).  We have a School Counseling Intern, Josie Boehlert (Ms. B), through UVA’s counseling program.  Peter Schmidt and Curt Gleeson are joining us through Safe Schools/Healthy Students.  Karen Ferrer, our school psychologist, and Renee Lundgren, our family support worker, are still active members of the counseling team. 

Mr. Bloor and I have gone in to all grade levels to discuss what counselors do and how we can support Walton students through the counseling office.  We followed that presentation up by going into PE classes at each grade level to do a Needs Assessment.  The Needs Assessment is a student survey where students can sign up to meet with a counselor one on one or through a counseling group.  The survey is done on their laptops through a link that allows it to be completely confidential.  Mr. Bloor and I will be meeting with students that were interested in some level of support in the next few weeks.  If students are interested in participating in a group with their peers, a permission slip will be sent home.

A letter was sent home this week about the School Climate Survey.  Students will be taking the first part of the survey Oct. 15 during their homeroom classes.  The first part is a brief survey asking students about bullying at Walton and suggestions they have for making Walton an even better place.  

Lastly, we are working on adding to the Counseling website.  There is now an Announcements section for upcoming events and we now have a Twitter account.  The twitter feed is also shown on our counseling page for easy access, but we would love to have you follow: WMS Counseling 1.  

~Mrs. Long

School Counselor for students with last names A-L

Marvelous Math

Hello Walton Family!

I can’t believe we are already almost halfway through first quarter! This year has been flying by. The sixth grade math students have been very busy and have smoothly made the transition to middle school.

In standard math the students are wrapping up their first unit on number sense in which they studied real number properties, exponents, perfect squares & square roots, order of operations, and patterns & sequences. Students have been learning how these math topics relate to real life situations. For example, students were asked if they had to wash the dishes every night for 2 weeks would they rather get paid $5,000 total or get $2.00 on the first day and double the amount each day for 2 weeks? Ask your child what option they would choose and why. After learning about exponents and patterns, many students quickly changed their decision. It was neat to see the surprised look on their faces once they used their new math skills to work through the problem and find shortcuts.

The honors math students are also discovering numerous ways math is used in everyday life in their unit on fractions, decimals, and percentages. On Tuesday the students set up a store or restaurant that they created the catalog or menu for. Seventh grade students visited their store or restaurant as the customers and the sixth graders waited on them, took their order, then calculated their discount, tax, and tip. The students worked very hard on their project, had many creative ideas, and some of their restaurants even served real food! One of the customers commented that some of the students should start up a business for real. 

In math class the students are constantly exposed to real life applications and I encourage parents to continue doing this at home. When you go out to eat have your student calculate the amount of tip you should leave, or have them figure out how much change you should get back when you go shopping.  I look forward to hearing stories from students about how they used math outside of school.

~ Mrs. Deering

Musings From a First Year Wall Fly

Many times this year I have made myself as a fly on the wall, quiet and unseen.  I’ve stood back, blended in, and filled my hungry eyes and ears with observations about Walton Middle School.  I am new to Walton this year.  Like our incoming sixth graders, I am learning as I go, finding out the norms and campus culture on the fly, hoping I fit in, and wondering what my contribution to this place will be. 

What I have found is that this is a place of enthusiasm.  Every person I’ve come in contact with—students, parents, teachers, administrators, custodians, and counselors—is sincere and helpful.  Ideas are shared and cultivated like seeds, and already we are seeing the first green shoots of exciting learning experiences emerge from the ground. The most common phrases I hear aren’t grumbles or complaints about what isn’t working or what roadblocks are in our way.  What I hear as a refrain from both students and adults is  “How can I help?” “I can fix that,” and “Do you have what you need?”   

Students in my Language Arts classroom have already written gripping stories, evaluated the merits of their own work, applied abstract notions to create their own multimedia products, and taught one another how to use the technology and the platforms they all have access to.  They have been enthusiastic participants our classroom and in the larger community of Walton Middle School. 

In the coming months, we will continue to write, read, think and create.  We will do these things in many formats, using a wide range of media.  We will thoughtfully consider topics and pursue authentic audiences.  And I am confident in the strength that will come from the satisfying struggle we are experiencing in class.  My confidence is built on the observations I’ve made since coming to Walton.  We are a special campus, and we are going to have an exciting, transformative year.

Shannon Cruthirds

7th and 8th Grade Language Arts

Hello Walton Wildcats!

Welcome back to another full week of school! I am so excited by the learning that I see students doing in several classes.
 

As we get into the full swing of school, many of our students need our support. Please be mindful to check your student’s agenda and to look over assignments if you are able. I realize that as our students get older this can become more difficult, but I have found that the more involved that I am as a teacher the better prepared my students seem to become. Likewise the more involved the parents are the better off the students are as well!
 

Almost every night a student have some form of homework -30 minutes of reading homework or working on that math spiral or studying hard for that next test. I find it especially important to remember the basics. The basics are take time to read and discover, ask questions, and look for the patterns in our lives.
 

I was recently reminded how all of 6^th grade seemed to working on identity as a theme. Students in science were making observations and inferences about their teacher, based on their observations. In language arts students were reading and discussing how each of us has an identity that makes us unique. In math, we have the identity property!
 

This is a time of learning and growth when our students are becoming more aware of how to navigate the middle school years and how to balance work and play. I urge all of us to continue to pay attention to how our role makes an impact on all of our students.  We all need encouragement and reminders to keep us on a positive track as the school year progresses! Be that word of encouragement in your family and in our school. Please know that your interest and support is welcome!
 

Sincerely,

Cheryl Knight

Hello Wildcats -

What a terrific week here at Walton Middle School! The week has been active and fun as we continue to push forward into Fall. Many of our students have been taking the MAP tests this week which has given me the opportunity to visit multiple classrooms. Being new to the building, I like getting the sense of the atmosphere of a room. What I look for, ideally, is the sense of comfort that the students feel within the class; their ability to share their ideas without fear of repercussions from their peers; the ability to answer questions or to ask new ones…these, to me, are the signs that the year is truly underway. Even with testing going on, I sensed a lot of positive energy in the classrooms. In Mr. Doar’s room, I saw students actively engaged in math. They joked back and forth with the teacher, worked hard to figure out solutions to new problems and smiled the entire time. In Ms. Graham’s class, I watched students multi-task between assignments with ease. I saw students cheering on their peers as the PE classes ran the pacer in Ms. Archer’s and Mr. Steger’s classes. Perhaps the best indicator that the year has really started on a positive note is the tone in the hallways or at lunch. We have ecstatic students that are working hard, helping peers and producing great work!

It was great to see so many parents at Back-to-School Night on Thursday evening. Just as a reminder, we had parents sign up for Parent/Teacher Conferences. If you did not get a chance to stop in, you can call the office to schedule an appointment with your son’s or daughter’s teacher(s). Conferences are on Thursday, September 19^th and again on October 1^st. This week, we also have Picture Day on Tuesday, September 17^th. Going to be another busy week, Wildcats! Looking forward to it!     

 

~ Mr. Guy

Greetings from 8th grade science

Hello Walton family!

We have been busy in the 8th grade physical science classroom this quarter.  Students have been busy refining their measurement skills and learning how to effectively use them in communicating lab data.  We have had many opportunities to conduct lab experiments which offer practice using the metric (SI) system.  Reviewing the metric prefixes and converting between metric units is a necessary skill for comparing data with other scientists throughout the world.

Through laboratory experiments, students have been using scientific tools such as triple beam balances, rulers and graduated cylinders to find mass and volume.  Once the mass and volume are calculated, students are then able to solve for the density of various substances.  In one particular lab, a hypothetical crime had been committed and the suspect had left substances at the scene with various densities.  Students then used their density calculations and data to determine which suspect had most likely committed the crime.  Although learning to measure correctly sounds very basic, it is a skill that is necessary to master which will enable students to compete scientifically in the 21st century.

Another student favorite is the density column. Students are shown 8 different liquids and asked to predict where each liquid will layer within the large 1000ml graduated cylinder. This challenges students to think critically as they combine their prior knowledge along with their new understanding of density in making a prediction. As a teacher I know it is an engaging lesson when students ask for permission to take out their phones and take a picture.

We are now beginning to study various aspects of matter which will lead us into the study of the atom, Periodic Table and bonding.  One student commented to me the other day "Mrs. Kepple, why would anyone not want to stay here all day and learn science?".  I have to agree with him.  I hope the students are learning what I already know- chemistry is fun!

Heather Kepple

8^th grade science

Hello to all you Walton folks,

I was excited as my time to blog rolled around. It made me think and reflect about all of the responsibilities that are on us each and every day.  As students, we had rules to follow and lessons to learn.  As that child in that classroom, we began to believe that so many things we are learning were irrelevant for anything other than to get through that one class.  Then we grew up and oh my my. 

I watch day in and day out as my band students work together in large and small settings.  They are singing and counting.  They are clapping and playing.  They are using proper posture and hand positions.  But what they are really using is their heart.  With heads joined together over a particularly difficult passage in a sheet of music, I wonder if they are realizing the life skills they are learning.  I wonder if they are thinking, “I will never use this again in anything else I do."  My answer to myself is that they are thinking none of that.

What they are thinking is how cool this music is going to be, and if I “play the sunshine” it will be the most beautiful thing in the world.  I hear the students that say, “I do not like this piece of music,” yet work up to the bell to get it right because it is a team effort.  I watch as they leave no one behind and come in at lunch to help a friend or an unfamiliar classmate do a better job.  Before you know it, they wonder why they were not friends in the first place.  I see them learning about cultures and differences and how to accept.  And then…

...I hear the music. 

Not just from their instruments but from their hearts. 

You are welcome to come into the classroom any time.  If you play an instrument, bring it along and share in our sunshine. 

Musically yours,

Peggy Haluska

One-Pagers

           A few years ago, Walton Middle School began using the AVID program, which helps students learn college readiness skills.  As we embarked on this new venture, a group of teachers were sent to a conference during the summer to learn how to use the AVID program in all classrooms.  I was selected to attend as the representative for the Language Arts Department and when the conference was over, I had taken away a lot of great activities and ideas to use in my classroom.

            The activity that I started using immediately was called a One-pager.  It is a different way for students to summarize and respond to what they have read.  After reading, the student chooses something from the story they read that they would like to illustrate.  After completing the illustration, they choose two quotes from the story that either stood out to them or go with their picture.  Finally, the student writes a response to the story, which can go from whether they liked the story or not to a character or event in the plot that really stood out to them.

            At the beginning of this year, my classes read “Charles” by Shirley Jackson.  It is a narrative nonfiction story about her son’s experience the first few weeks of kindergarten.  After completing the story, the students were asked to complete a one-pager.  Here are some examples:

           As you can see, the one-pager helps reinforce the strategies that good readers use, such as visualizing, summarizing, and supporting opinions with text.  We will continue to use this strategy throughout the year.

                    

Will Matics

7^th Grade Language Arts