A new NEW year!

Last year, I wrote about starting as a CTE teacher. In my 17th year as a teacher, having only experience teaching "liberal arts" subjects, I was asked if I wanted to teach technology. I was thrilled, daunted, and anxious ... and that was just answering the question. I agreed enthusiastically!

As the year went on, I helped take a lead role in redesigning Albemarle County's Middle School CTE curriculum and bringing our CTE classes to the cutting edge! We renamed classes, changed the descriptions and challenged each other to do more.

This year, rather than Keyboarding, I teach Programming and Coding to 6th graders.

This year, rather than Computer Solutions (including learning about Microsoft Office), I teach Digital Media Communications to 7th graders.

I'm teaching Mechatronics to 8th graders, which is a LOT like building robots!

Mechatronics

And that's just 3 of my classes. Needless to say, I'm really excited! I've already gotten the opportunity to experiment with new technology with our morning news crew, WLHW, and it looks like this year will be filled with green screens, virtual sets, and experimenting with our new Tricaster!

(I talk with my hands) at Tricaster training over the summer!

The back room at WLHW is fully
 utilizing our new Tricaster this year!

The view from our green screen wall

Mr. McElroy watches as our anchors review the script.

It's going to be a great year!

-Jon Barber

ARE WE READY FOR SCHOOL?

OH, YES! WE’RE READY FOR SCHOOL!!!

Our building’s in tip-top shape!

The busses are ready to go!

Delicious, nutritious meals are planned!

Classrooms are decorated!

Our outdoor classroom is available!

Morning Announcements are waiting on WLHW!

Computers are issued!

Computer Boot Camp has begun!

Caring, passionate teachers and staff are ready to go!

WHAT DO WE NEED?  STUDENTS!!!

Meeting new friends and reacquainting with old ones!

Always prepared with computer, notebooks, agenda, and pencils!

Always prepared for P.E. with athletic attire!

Being active, curious, energetic learners!

OH, YES!  WE’RE READY FOR A FABULOUS YEAR!!!!

GO, WILDCATS!!!!!

Diane Archer

Health & P.E. Teacher

The Nature of Technology at Walton

Today at Walton we distributed a powerful resource that students have to help them learn. Ms. Dwier-Selden and I recalled today that when we were in Middle School “in the dark ages’ (her words) we relied on textbooks as our primary go to for accessing content not directly taught. Students now have laptops and access to the worldwide web. The power of these tools cannot be overstated, but we must also recognize that they far from being the most powerful resources that students have to access learning.

The most powerful resources they have are their brains and their drive to succeed. These must be activated by related resources, their teachers and their classmates, who must engage, encourage, challenge, and generally help them to uncover the concepts and ideas that they discover and explore in their classes. Individual minds interacting with the minds of others is what leads to exponential learning. It always has and it always will. And schools are built on this. Good ones, at least. Ones that trust students with some freedoms through the encouragement of collaboration among students. Ones that embrace ordered chaos and recognize that a boisterous and lively classroom is more often evidence of engagement rather than poor classroom management. Ones that encourage students to bring questions to their teachers even if those questions are not necessarily in the pacing guide.

I have seen these things at Walton in these first two days in session. But they were there before the students arrived as teachers collaborated to explore big ideas such as, “What does it mean to be rigorous? What does it look and sound like? What does it not look and sound like?” Teachers are the chief learners in a school and at Walton these teachers take it seriously. Their ability to carry this over to their students is evident.

So if we know that textbooks and laptops are just tools to help support our more important resources of having amazing brains and being able to interact with the amazing brains of others then why don’t we just issue textbooks like we always have? The answer is that our world is a very different one than the “dark ages” in which Ms. Dwier-Selden and I (and many of our staff) grew up. It is a world that recognizes that the interaction between brains for learning is not limited to staying within a school building, but instead is open to the whole world through the worldwide web. We are at a tipping point in learning and our students deserve to be part of it. And here’s the other thing-they are ready. They know the expectations. They know the responsibility. They know the power of learning that they carry with them in their laptops. And they know the world out there is an exciting one that their teachers will help them to discover with safety and responsibility always at the forefront.

Our teachers also know that sometimes the best way to learn is to shut that computer down and to rely on the power of our minds. Our teachers know that the laptops are not the primary go to for our students, but one of many. Our teachers know that sometimes students need to hike down to the Hardware River, which runs through our awesome school grounds, so that they can hear the birds sing and water babble over the rocks to remind them that the awesome power and complexity of technology is no match for the awesome power and complexity of nature-of which we are all a part. 

Josh Walton, Assistant Principal

Just this week our students reminded me of a lesson that a colleague periodically tells me about secondary students: if you need the student body to understand a rule, bring a group of students in and ask for their help in explaining it.

 

Students in both our drama classes and media classes have been creating public service videos to air on WLHW in the morning showing students appropriate uses of personal technology at school. This week, these students created videos reminding students when cell phones can be out and how they can and cannot be used when they are out.

 

We adults can tell students what the rule is and for the most part, a given rule is followed. But students conveying rules to one another in creative ways that speak to them peer to peer has far more clout for adolescents and often reaches that last segment of the population that chooses to challenge rules a little before they follow them.  

I am proud of the students for deciding to produce quality videos that are both funny and informative. Their work shows a definite commitment to wanting to be part of a quality environment at Walton and a clear commitment to producing quality products. They have given me yet another reason to praise the Walton student body.

Alison Dwier-Selden

A teacher recently suggested that this would be a great time of year to re-read the many Friday messages I have sent to families, making  a mental inventory of the many accomplishments of our students. What a splendid idea! While this is a very busy time of year in the life of schools and families, it is also a marvelous time to celebrate how much students have accomplished. Sometimes remembering all the good that has occurred fuels our passion to keep up the good work, especially if we feel a little tired.

Walton has been able to celebrate students for second place finishes in the Destination Imagination competition, placing regionally in the spelling bee, and placing first, second, third chairs in band and strings competitions. We have also celebrated student athletes who have excelled on and off of the field and courts.

Each nine weeks we have awarded honor roll certificates to numerous students who have achieved either all A or all As and Bs in their classes. We have also recognized students who have made exceptional progress in order to remind students that progress is born of hard work, the key ingredient to success.. At that same time, we have presented certificates to students who demonstrate extraordinary citizenship qualities on a daily basis.

Our SCA has led spirit weeks, anti-bullying presentations, and soon, a fundraiser for charity. In addition, a student prevention team has spearheaded  activities highlighting making positive personal choices at this important time in adolescent life.

As we approach the time of year when students take SOL tests and other assessments designed to gauge what our students know, I look forward to reminding our children on our daily newscast of all that they have accomplished. They have proven all of which they are capable and  as we approach our last weeks of school, they can easily take their work to the next level. They clearly have what it takes.

Proud to be a Walton Wildcat!

From the WMS Band!

Greeting Walton students, families and faculty,

        I always enjoy my time to blog and this time, there is so much to tell you about.  What a year!  We have just come back from our Spring Trip and it was wonderful.  The students were awesome.  I think it would be cool if all of you could have seen the way they represented Walton first hand.  I saw many adults with tears of pride, myself included that weekend.

        We did not travel far this year.  We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, performed at Jamestown High School and finished with awards at Busch Gardens.  Our two concert bands were both awarded second place in their division with a rating of Excellent.  Our Drum Line received a superior rating and first place.  Great times were had by all.

        As we roll into the last weeks of school I want to remind everyone that the work is not over.  We have our spring concert on May 20^th and the band will perform for the 8^th grade celebration.  As we move along to the end of the year, ask your child to play something for you and see if you are as amazed as I am with the progress they have made this year. 

        Thanks to all of you for sharing your school year with me and enjoy the rest of the semester.  See you at the concert.  Peggy

Happy Wednesday!

Greetings from Physical Science,

We are well into the fourth quarter now and students are actively engaged in studying physics.  We have been studying motion and with that Isaac Newton’s contribution to physics.  We began the unit by making measurements of distance and time and using them to calculate speed.  Students were tasked with chewing bubble gum in order to calculate their chomp speed.  We then moved quickly into topics such as velocity, acceleration, and momentum.

 This week we have been studying Isaac Newton and his 3 laws.  In studying force and Newton’s 2^nd Law, students timed how long it took to blow a golf ball a distance of 2 meters.  Using their average time, they then calculated the speed of the golf ball, followed by the acceleration.  With these calculations they were able to use Newton’s 2^nd Law to determine the force with which they blew.  There were prizes for the team with the “most hot air” or the team who used the most force when accelerating the golf ball.

I’m sure this quarter will fly by just as fast as the 3^rd quarter.  Students will take their 8^th grade science SOL on June 3.  This SOL will cover all 3 years of middle school science.  There will be a period of 6^th and 7^th grade science review in late May when Ms. Cabrera and Ms. Rigby will each take a turn reviewing with the 8^th grade science students.  We will then finish out the year by completing a fun project with paper cars.  As we finish out the year, it will be important for students to finish strong as they prepare to make the jump to high school in the fall.