Teen Read Week:Scary Story Contest

I am looking forward to some great scary stories by WMS students!  More information can be found on the Walton Home page.  Mr. Lacy

 





Good afternoon Wildcats!

     Today, we are celebrating Unity Day and taking a stand against bullying!  By wearing orange, we are making a choice to prevent bullying in our schools, community and on-line.  October is National Prevention Bullying Month.  Yesterday's guest speaker, Mr. MOJO, gave our students some tips to help prevent bullying:
~ Believe in yourself and be proud of who you are.
~ Find the good in others and if you're posting on-line, post only positive comments.
~ When you see bullying occur, MOJO UP and take a stand!
~ If you cannot solve the problem, tell someone who can.
~ Be willing to reach out and help others.  Don't be a bystander and let bullying happen. 

Remember to be a leader, not a hater!  Take pride in being a Walton Wildcat and help put a stop to bullying!

Ms. Page
7th Grade
Language Arts

Hello Wildcats!

This morning the halls echoed with cries of “MOJO UP! MOJO UP! MOJO UP!” as students took a stand against bullying. This increase in enthusiasm is due to a visit from Mr. MOJO himself, Travis Brown, a motivational speaker from Indiana. He captivated students with a game of “Mr. MOJO SAYS” that started as innocent fun but showed how easily joking around can turn serious and hurt another person. Students were challenged to respond to negativity with a positive comment, and learned that a bully is anyone who repeatedly uses physical, verbal (including spoken and written language), and/or cyber forces in a negative manner toward or in regard to another person. We had a great time coming together as a school and making the commitment to stand up for one another.

Go Wildcats,

Mrs. McElroy

Some Big (and Small) Things at WMS

       I just want to take a moment to give a few shout outs to my amazing students this year. I am so grateful to have a strong, dedicated crop of young adults who constantly push themselves (and me) towards success. They make the work I do enjoyable every day.

       It doesn’t hurt that it’s easy to be excited at this time of year. The weather’s cooling down and the leaves are starting to turn. That signals to me that it’s time to begin my favorite project of the year.

One of the hardest things to cope with in math is the fact our number system is incredibly large. Not only does it span from infinitely positive to infinitely negative, but there are infinitely many conceivable numbers between any two numbers you can name. Trying to put all of that into a mental picture is tough work! It’s exactly that work that my students will be focusing on over the next two weeks. 

       Using the work of Cary Huang as a starting point my students will work together to create a graphic organizer depicting the sizes of important objects in the universe. We’ll work with things that are immeasurably small, like a quantum string (which is trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a meter). We’ll then work our way up to the size of the universe, which is just under a trillion trillion trillion meters wide. 

       Digesting all of these huge (and small) numbers is tough, and if you’re interested on giving it a shot feel free to start small (http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/) and work your way up to the real deal (http://scaleofuniverse.com/). I hope you enjoy. I know my kids (and I) will.

Mike Remchuk

Happy Rainy Monday@WMS

I have been away from WMS for two days now while attending the EDLeader21 Conference in Chicago.  It has been a great conference and I have had the opportunity to gather many takeaways!  I know WMS has had a busy schedule with parent/teacher conferences, clubs, sports and other activities.  This upcoming week will be filled with many more activities.  The classrooms have been filled with many interesting activities.  Just to mention a few items: 7^th grade Math creating the Solar system down the hallway, Language Arts interpreting Poetry, Science investigating the Atom and Energy, and Health/Guidance discussing Conflict/Anger Management.  Our teachers continue to challenge students with RIGOR each and everyday.  WMS is a great place made that way by the people that enter the doors each and everyday!!

Keep up the great work Walton!

Go Wildcats

Mr. Vrhovac

Ripped From the Headlines

DC TRIP IS OFF - I wish I could report all good news in today’s blog, but unfortunately we had to cancel the 8th grade’s annual Washington, DC trip on October 10^th.  It was a tough decision and one that required a lot of deliberation on our part.  We held out as long as we could to wait and see if some sort of funding would be passed by Congress.  Finally, we had to cancel because we were holding on to payment checks and the bus company had to know if we were going sign a contract or not.

On the positive side, the students had real life experience with the budgetary process and the lawmaking process which are part of the 8^th grade Civics & Economics curriculum.  Several have also exercised their First Amendment right to petition their government in order to let them know how they feel about this situation.  We are in the midst of our Constitution unit, so the daily headlines become part of our instruction each class.

Coming Soon To Our Classroom:  Some of our upcoming events in Civics & Economics class are the Living Constitution Project, the lawmaking simulation where students get to write, debate, and vote on bills to submit for President Plumb’s signature, and a trip to the Virginia Capitol in November.  This is a highlight of our class because students get to tour the Capitol and have a legislative session where they will get to do the same thing in the House of Delegates chamber.

Locker Rumors

Rumor has it that our Guidance Department will be paying a visit to our 6^th & 8^th grade health classes.  They will lead our 6^th graders in conflict resolution activities and introduce our 8^th graders to stress management techniques.  We are fortunate for their willingness to share their expertise.

Don’t worry, our 7th graders will not miss out:  they will be creating an imaginative replica of one of the six body systems we’ve discussed.

Besides wrapping up our first health units, we are trying to squeeze in some softball when we can.  Students can rest assured that once they successfully complete their health work, we’ll create our own softball “Fall Classic”!

Another rumor has it that our boys & girls basketball teams and our tennis team will be competing with teams from the other middle schools, beginning October 3.  Check the “Schedule” section of the Walton home page, http://www2.k12albemarle.org/school/wms/Pages/default.aspx , pick a game, and come out to support our students.

GO WILDCATS!!!

Mrs. Archer