WMS - Weekly Wauna Know

Greetings WCMS staff,

I hope your first few days of the school year are going well. As I have walked around the building, I have seen students busy working with each other, teachers helping students out during passing times, and overall pretty quiet hallways. Thanks for your efforts to keep students in the classrooms during learning time, and helping them to use their passing time wisely to meet their bathroom and water needs. If you are struggling with a few kids needing to constantly use the restroom during class, talk to the student, and see what the issue may be and how you can help them navigate their needs while minimizing the time they spend out of class. Additionally, you may want to consider the following instructional strategy:

Start class with a very brief warm-up activity that activates prior knowledge that may assist with the day’s lesson. If a kid really needs an extra few seconds to use the restroom before starting class, and they check in with you first, it may be better to have them arrive a few seconds late during the warm up and have them engage as much as they can with the warm up, than have them leave during instructional or collaborative work time.

This is a great instructional strategy general, but can give you some flexibility as well when trying to handle unique student situations where it may take some time for students to learn how to be efficient with meeting their daily needs. Occasionally a student here and there may try to take advantage of this, but that will be true regardless of our systems or practices. We’ll always have to address those situations - we work with middle school kids, it’s inevitable.

Ultimately, we want students in the classrooms and learning. However, students and adults alike have restroom needs that aren’t always as easy to manage as we would like. We have to have some flexibility as well, but our systems and practices can minimize the impact that meeting these needs have on our student growth and achievement.

If you have other ideas on how to handle restroom situations with a warm demander mindset, please pass them along! We have a lot of knowledge in this building, and we all benefit when we share with our colleagues. Enjoy the weekend!

September 18 - B4

Volleyball 8th Grade Purple 4:15pm @ Waunakee Middle School Gym

Volleyball 8th Grade White 4:15pm @ DeForest Middle School 7/8 Gym

Volleyball 7th Grade Purple 4:15pm @ Waunakee Middle School Gym

Volleyball 7th Grade White 4:15pm @ DeForest Middle School 7/8 Gym

Football 8th Grade White 5:30pm @ Warrior Stadium

Football 8th Grade Purple 7:00pm @ Warrior Stadium

Football 7th Grade Purple 7:00pm @ Middleton High School

September 19 - A5

Cross Country Meet @ Oregon High School

Football 7th Grade White 5:30pm @ Ahuska Park - Monona

September 20 - B6

8th Grade Washington DC trip Meeting 6pm-Middle School Cafe

September 21 - A1

Volleyball 8th Grade Purple 4:15pm @ Waunakee Middle School Gym

Volleyball 8th Grade White 4:15pm @ DeForest Middle School 7/8 Gym

Volleyball 7th Grade Purple 4:15pm @ Waunakee Middle School

Volleyball 7th Grade White 4:15pm @ DeForest Middle School 7/8 Gym

September 22 - B2

October 16 - Parent Teacher Conferences 4pm-8pm

October 17 - Picture Retake Day

This section will have reflections, resources, and links for further exploration in future newsletters. For this week, it is a reflection.

Changing culture, teaching, and trying to fix the many things that are wrong in this world can feel overwhelming. It is helpful to remember this quote:

“Do not be afraid of work that has no end” Avot de Rabbi Natan

Teaching is not a finite game, but an infinite one. There is no best school, perfect student, or perfect lesson. The work has no end. By the time you have “got it”, you have probably lost it!

The PLC process calls us to plan, deliver, measure our impact, intervene, extend…then plan, deliver, measure, intervene and so on and so forth forever. In reality, it’s the same process we follow in our lives outside of school!

This line of thinking can feel overwhelming…but it is actually liberating. It liberates us from the trappings of perfectionism and all the stress we put on inconsequential parts of our day. It helps us to approach the work with more attention, curiosity, and playfulness. It increases teacher and student engagement. We continue to look for ways to improve, and can tailor our craft and interventions for what is needed in that moment. Everyone benefits when we focus on the quality of the journey and not the destination.

Gahnz ---- **Flagpole - Direct students to the playground

Withrow ----**Bus Loop - Direct students to go to the back of the school to enter

Booms ---- **West Door #7 OR Entryway outside Gym (inclement or cold weather days)

Anich ---- **West Door #7 OR Entryway outside Gym (inclement or cold weather days)

Jeschke ---**West Door #6 OR Cafe (inclement or cold weather days)

Puntney---**West Door #6 OR Cafe (inclement or cold weather days)

Kinney ---- **Bike Racks

Schauf ----- **Bus Loop (near where the second to last bus lines up)

Marsh---**Schmitz (near the fire hydrant)

Zarzyski ---- **Flagpole (outside the main entrance)

Nitti Nicholas -9/18

Emmet Rademacher - 9/18

Gabriel Gonzalez-Antisdel - 9/19

Hunter Serres - 9/20

Mason Stein - 9/21

Madalyn Tisdale - 9/21

Aksel Rosenkvist - 9/22

Macyn Hebel - 9/22

Walker Spencer - 9/23

Alexis Thompson -9/23

Derek Zhang - 9/24

Nala Hampton - 9/24

Reese Simmons - 9/24

Paige Raymond - September 2

Sara Nolden - September 3

Kathy Cutts - September 4

Brad Burgess - September 8

Madison Sargeant - September 8

Shad Fanta - September 15

Kayse Lavin - September 17

Brooke Kinney - September 20

Alec Kartz - September 23

Terri Miller - September 29

Andy Moll - September 29

Each week you will receive 2 numbers. When you get a regular bingo (across, down, or diagonal) bring your card to the office for a prize. Look for your card in your mailbox. Good Luck.

This week's numbers:

I - 16

N - 44

In appreciation of your willingness to help cover classes, all subs who helped out this past week were entered into a drawing for a free sub. This week we had 9 names entered in the drawing. This weeks sponsor is Jimmy Johns.

Katherine Chabot-Boucher

Katherine has been with us for 1 year as a Health Teacher, and her favorite memory is Co-Advisory with Carol Cullen.

Congratulations Katherine, come to the office to collect your prize.

We appreciate your participation in our engagement survey + engagement sessions (Wednesday, September 20) as we initiate a search for our next Superintendent. The survey will close on September 22, 2023.

English Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KGHWXZ5

Spanish Survey: https://es.surveymonkey.com/r/7GD5J5S

Website: https://www.waunakee.k12.wi.us/board/superintendent-search

Join us on Wednesday, September 20th for a stakeholder engagement meeting. There is a full listing of engagement meetings on our website. We encourage you to attend a session that is scheduled for your group (students, staff, families, etc.). Thank you for your participation!

Together, we are confident that we can find an exceptional leader to continue to guide our school district towards excellence.