Welcome to Washington

Don't forget! We go back to regular schedule after Labor Day. Students get out at 2:30pm.

Have a great 3-day weekend with no school for Labor Day, September 2nd. Will you be cooking out?

September 25th is a SIP day. Buses will leave Washington at 10:30am to take students home, or parents may pick students up at that time.

We are asking for parents to volunteer at the entrance to all games. Also, ask about coaching a WGMS team this year.

The lunch menus (breakfast and lunch) can be found for each school in district by going to the www.psd150.org site, click on students/parents site, where a full range of choices come up. Click on "breakfast/lunch" menus, and the two month menu can be selected.

Applications for the RHS International Baccalaureate program will be posted on the Richwoods website interested 8th graders.

The Big/Littles Sommer Park trip is coming up.

The Book Fair needs volunteers, so please let us know if you are available.

Help-a-thon is the WGMS fall fundraiser. Students collect donations/pledges in return for volunteering in the community. WGMS will make arrangements with the organizations students and their families will help.

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Headlines & Features

Middle school STEM Saturdays starts September 7

DAPCEP - a free Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program for Peoria Public School 5th - 8th grade students will run Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., September 7 through October 5. This is the third year the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP) has brought its STEM program to Bradley University, the only DACPCEP program offered outside Michigan.

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Exploratory

Exploratories is enrichment one Friday afternoon a month during school hours at WGMS. The parent organizers are looking for parent volunteers or community partners to share their hobbies and talents with the students. Examples from last year were Chess, Photography, Bread Making, Wilderness Survival, Vet Life, Graphite Drawing, Health Careers, Public Service, Knitting, and much more! Students will get to experience two exploratory themes for the year. The first session dates are Sept 20, Oct 24 (Thurs), Nov 15 & Dec 13. The second session dates are Jan 24, Feb 21, Mar 20, & Apr 24. The times are from 1:00-2:30PM. A community partner can do one or both full sessions; or it can be 1-2 dates that can fall under a pathway for art, science, or other (such as games, sports, etc). We are also looking for chaperone help during exploratories too. Please email Gina Isada at gina_isada@hotmail.com or Mrs. Martin, if you can share your time with the students.

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Student Pick-up and Drop-off Guidelines

7:05-7:30am and 2:00-2:40pm, CARS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE FRONT PARKING LOT and students may only be picked up and dropped off in the North Parking Lot located near the ball fields. For student safety, only buses may drive in the Main Parking Lot during these times. Thank you for your cooperation in helping keep our students safe. After these times, students must enter or exit the building from the foyer near the Office. Students may not wait for rides at the Crossroads or outside, but instead need to stay in the foyer until they see their pick-up person or the Activity bus.

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Study Skills

Knowing how to study is an important skill to have. Students who use strategies to understand and remember what they read, such as underlining important parts of the texts or discussing what they read with other people, perform better in class and on tests. One of the biggest differences between top students and everyone else was that when they study, they take practice tests. Only 11 percent of students do this, but they perform better because they are studying in a way that goes beyond memorizing material. Also helpful is to create a study timetable & stick to it-- first include things you like/need to do on your schedule and then work study time in after. This method naturally ensures that you are doing things you like to do every day in addition to studying, so you don’t burn out and give up. These kind of balanced schedules are easier follow. Here are some ideas and strategies to help students learn more:

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Betina Fleming Wins PNC Classroom Grant

Washington Gifted School 5th/6th grade teacher Betina Fleming won $1,000 for Curious? Research and Write On!! The grant money will be used to upgrade classroom technology so students can conduct research and process materials for written assignments.

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7th Grade Students at Washington Learn from Community Mentors

Washington hosted a variety of community mentors who helped 7th grade students with their cross-curricular research papers on Peoria issues. These generous individuals met with students and explained the ins and outs of various local problems and projects including school safety, transportation and roads, environmental concerns, business development, Peoria Park District initiatives, and funding both for the city and for the school district. After meeting with their experts, students used the information they learned in their Peoria Issue research papers and listed their interviewees as one of their information sources. Thank you to our community mentors: Mr. Cesar Suarez, City of Peoria; Mr. Steve Montez and Mr. Tom Miller, Peoria Park District; Ms. Anna Ghidina, IDOT; Mr. Josh Joseph, Soil and Water Conservation; Ms. Denise Moore, Peoria City Council, Mr.Joe Dulin, City of Peoria; and Ms. Dickerson, Peoria Downtown Development Corporation. They all illustrate how by working together we can make our home of Peoria even better. Thank you for helping our students research and solve a Peoria Issue!

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Learning Anywhere and Anytime Process

In the event of inclement weather or emergency situation, Peoria Public Schools has put into effect "Learning Anywhere and Anytime". Students were sent home with letters explaining the process in January 2019. Please emphasize with your student the need to complete assigned work from teachers, whether through teacher websites, learning log, assignment notes, packets, or tasks that every teacher gives to students. These assignments are required to be turned in to each teacher in advance or upon return to school in order to count towards attendance. If work is not turned in, the dates will count as an absence. If you do not have internet access these days, written work is sufficient. Teachers are available on-line between 9:00-2:30 for any clarification or assistance needed. Students who do not check in electronically or do not return their learning logs will be counted as absent. Please click for detailed information.

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Dress Code Update

All special "College Colors, spiritwear, or uniform-free" day information will come from the principal. We have reviewed our code, investigated other equivalent schools, received feedback, and assembled a panel of students, parents, staff, and teachers to update the Dress Code. Parents and students, please review the updated Dress Code from the handbook. The updated Dress Code will be effective beginning November 2017. Any violation of the code results in a referral to the principal. Repeated violations will warrant parent contact and loss of privilege/referrals. We have had a lot of confusion and questions about the jean policy at Washington and want to make the policy straightforward. Policy on jeans is as follows: - Jeans are not allowed to be worn at school with the following exceptions: individual picture days in fall and spring, spirit week and designated-free dress days. If in doubt, always clear with home room teacher or principal before jeans are worn. - On the days jeans are acceptable, absolutely no ripped jeans are to be worn. - If jeans are worn on a day that is not listed in exceptions above, students’ parents will be called to bring uniform pants, shorts, or skirt to school for student to change into. - If ripped jeans are worn any school day, parents will be called to bring uniform pants, shorts, or skirts to school for student to change into.

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Former Washington Student Opening for lovelytheband!

On March 26, 2019, Peoria's own Blank Stairs will open for lovelytheband at the Monarch Music Hall 8102 N University St, Peoria. This is part of lovelytheband's finding it hard to smile tour. The Blank Stairs are a rock band consisting of 5 high school students from Central Illinois playing an awesome mix of pop and rock tunes. Cami Proctor is a singer/preformer in the Blank Stairs and went to Washington for all four middle school years, participating in Speech, Drama, and more. She is now in high school at Richwoods. The Blank Stairs performed at Washington this year and we were all really impressed!

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Renaissance Home Connect for Parents

Parents- We are hoping that you will soon begin using Renaissance Home Connect as a way of monitoring and encouraging your child’s reading practice. It can be a valuable tool for monitoring your child’s progress. Research confirms that parental involvement in a child’s education is a strong predictor of student achievement. Thank you for your involvement in your child’s education. What is Renaissance Home Connect? Renaissance Home Connect is a tool that connects the school and home to keep parents informed of their child’s progress in Accelerated Reader, and encourages the child to practice reading at home. How does Renaissance Home Connect help me improve my child’s reading progress? • You can view your child’s progress toward reading goals and view all books that your child has read and quizzes your child has taken. • You can access an online search tool, AR BookFinder, to search for books using various criteria, including author, subject, or reading level. • You can receive emails that reveal results for Reading Practice Quizzes and provide links to the website where you can check progress. The same login and password that your child uses at school will work at home with Renaissance Home Connect.

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Veterans and Active Duty Military

Thank you once again to the Veterans and active or past service members who came to Washington last Thursday to speak to our classes. We truly appreciate the time you spent with us, and the opportunity to learn from all of you. Thank you so very much….and thank you for your service! We welcomed members of our Armed Services, past & present, to speak to small groups of students about the significance and importance of Veteran's Day. We had a speaker for each of our classes during first period that day. We began with a small welcoming reception at 7:40 in our conference room and then a student escorted the speaker to the classroom. Washington thanks you for your service!

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ISBE School Report Card Results

Students at Washington Gifted Middle School once again performed better than the district and state average on the Illinois PARCC tests. While our results are lower than the previous year, Washington is still proud of our scores, and very excited that many of the other district schools had great gains on their PARCC scores! At Washington, 77% of students are considered Ready for the Next Level according to PARCC scores. Almost 90% of 8th grade students leaving WGMS are considered proficient in Algebra I skills. Let's make sure we are all learning and trying our best all year long!

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Student Technology Information

Click this article to learn more about laptops, iPads, Streams, and student email accounts.

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Jumpstart Washington: What it means to be a Wildcat

Advocate for yourself! Organization will save your life! Social Skills for Success are Important! Remember you are awesome! Have fun, dream big and make good choices!

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The role of productive struggle-from the Remarkable Times

Preparing students for their future isn’t about helping them to earn A’s or getting high GPAs. It is really about making sure that students are prepared for the workforce. The phrase “productive struggle” is used to describe the process of learning and the work that goes into it. To give an example that most people relate to is when one is learning to ride a bike. This is hard work and takes practice. There is often a little bit of help initially and support along the way but at some point, the bike rider needs to do all of the pumping of the pedals and maintaining of balance.

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