What's Happening at Western

• Monday, November 17, 19, 20 2025: Musical Auditions, Auditorium at 3:00 pm

• Tuesday, November 18, 2025: Teacher PLD- Early Release at 1:00pm

• Tuesday, November 25th: Winter Sports Registration Deadline

• Wednesday, November 26, 2025: ESOL Thanksgiving Potluck, 9:51am-11:24am, Small Cafe

• Wednesday, November 26, 2025: Early Release

• Thursday, November 27 & Friday, November 28, 2025: NO SCHOOL- Thanksgiving Recess

Well, our student volleyball team came out on top at our Student-Teacher Volleyball game for the first time in many years. While there is a question as to whether those controlling the scoreboard favored the students, we can’t prove anything! The game was close the entire way, and the students pulled ahead in the final moments to win 68-67. You should have seen the students in the gym when the score was tied 67-67, which is like a dream for middle school students who can’t seem to stop with this 6-7 craze. My entry into the game resulted in 4 quick points for the students when the ball was served to me over and over and I couldn’t come close to returning the ball. However, my competitive nature wouldn’t let me give up and I eventually got a few over the net. Here is the video capturing the 67-67 moment and the students winning in the last few moments. Enjoy the pictures below as well. You will see I included one of me trying to return a serve, yet the ball is going in the complete opposite direction. I am not above making fun of my weak volleyball skills.

On Thursday, all of our students participated in an assembly led by Scott Driscoll, a former Connecticut police officer, that focused on ways teens can be safer online. I want to share that he said our students were the best behaved he has seen ,and he is looking forward to coming back again. He shared personal stories from his 30+ years as a youth officer and provided students with important information and tips to help them remain safe on Social Media and the internet. Below are the topics covered:

• Online privacy protection (password protection, privacy settings, risks of password sharing, risks of sharing location on apps)
• Safe gaming (sharing of personal information, screen names)
• Picture sharing (what not to share, avoiding details that can identify you)
• How to treat others online (use of memes, group text chats)

Please take some time to discuss these topics with your children and ask what they learned. In between the eye rolls, we believe they gained some new learning that will help them think twice about what they do online and how they can ensure they remain safe. Thank you to the WMS PTA for sponsoring this assembly for our students.

The WMS Math & Science Club will be hosting two major competitions:

School-level MATHCOUNTS competition: November 19th during period 3.
The top 4 scorers will represent WMS in February at the Chapter level competition.

AMC-8: In January (date TBD - generally held in January).

The National Science Bowl Regional Competition will take place in February in Glastonbury, CT. All interested students are welcome to participate, but must attend practice sessions on Thursdays after school for Science Bowl only.

If you would like your child to participate in these competitions, please contact Ms. Ramadass at: yamuna_ramadass@greenwich.k12.ct.us.

If you are anything like me, I resort to asking my daughters, “How was your day” when I get home. You would think after getting one-word answers most days that I would change my line of questioning. One of our 6th grade parents shared a great article from CNBC that identifies more thoughtful questions that will help spark meaningful conversations with your child after they come home from school. The author of the article is a psychotherapist, clinical social worker and instructor at Northeastern University. She wrote that “when kids reflect on their experiences, they practice skills like emotional awareness, problem-solving, and empathy, and develop a growth mindset.” As I have shared, helping your children develop a growth mindset is something we aim to do at Western. I wanted to share the 7 questions highlighted in the article, because they are so simple and I can see how they would generate more meaningful conversations with our teenage children.

1. What was the best part of your day?

2. What’s a mistake you learned from today?

3. Who were you proud of today?

4. What’s one thing that would have made today better?

5. Who did you help today?

6. What was the most interesting thing you learned today?

7. What’s something new you’d like to try?

Here is the article that explains how each question promotes more meaningful conversations. I am going to fight through the eye rolls to use them with my daughters.

Families who applied for financial aid for the 8th grade D.C. trip should have received their award email from Ms. Traina yesterday. Please check your email for this. If you did not receive this email, please email Ms. Traina at olivia_traina@greenwich.k12.ct.us.

Please see the Flyers for the Filling in the Blanks 2026 Mobile Food Pantry at Stamford (Flyer) and Norwalk (Flyer). They include locations, hours, and dates.

A quick reminder for December: The pantry dates will move up one week for just the month of December due to the holidays.

Norwalk: December 6th

Stamford: December 13th

The Stamford Pantry will change its location starting next week to:

Saint Mary Parish - parking lot

566 Elm Street, Stamford, CT. 06902

The Norwalk Pantry remains at the same location as before.

With the new government policies, each of your children can get a Weekend Meal Bag; it is one per child.

Note taking is an important skill for middle school students to learn. Western uses an AVID approach to note taking, called Focused Notes. Focused note taking is a process that involves more than just writing down notes. For learning to occur most effectively, students should revisit their notes multiple times and in a variety of ways. There are five steps to the focused note taking process:

1. Taking Notes - Students take notes from a source (video, reading, presentation, etc). Teachers often will select the format (i.e. Venn diagram, Two or Three Column Notes, interactive notebooks) that students are taking at first, to expose them to a variety of note taking options, with the goal being for students to be able to set up/organize their notes on their own
2. Processing Notes - Students revise their notes by underlining main ideas, circling key terms, adding or deleting information
3. Connecting Thinking- Students analyze their notes by making connections to prior knowledge, asking questions to make connections and deepen their content knowledge or identify points of confusion.
4. Summarizing and Reflecting on Learning- Students write a summary of their notes or reflect on their learning and how it helps further their understanding

Applying Learning-Students use their notes as a resource or learning tool for a project, paper, test or quiz

Our students will use Focused Notes across many of their classes to help them learn new information and interact meaningfully with the notes they take. This is another advantage of having your child attend an AVID school.

We are tied for 7th place with 2 other schools out of the 20 public and private schools for the biggest team so far. That is pretty good, but I know we can do even better! I am going to force my college freshman to wake up early and participate to get one more on the team. I am promising breakfast at the diner after as an incentive. You have my permission to force any of your other children to be on our team! The event will be held on Saturday, November 29th, and we will be doing the 5K Fun/Walk. Please register to help our school WIN the Turkey Trot Trophy! The last day to sign up to join a team is Thursday, November 27th. Here is the link and password to register:

Register Here!

Password: Western2025

’Tis the season to wrap and make a difference! Visit our dedicated Charleston Wrap Store link HERE for festive gift wrap and personalized gifts that spread cheer. Ships directly to your home. Try it now - it's good stuff!

A meaningful portion of every purchase supports the GPS 8th Grade D.C. Trip Scholarship Fund — ensuring that EVERY 8th grader who wants to go to DC can - regardless of cost.

Please share the magic with family, friends, and neighbors! Store closes on 11/28 so don't delay! Wrap it all up this holiday season!

Please support the WMS PTA by purchasing a digital gift card from Garden Catering from November 17th - November 28th. You can use this gift card yourself the next time you order food or give it to someone else as a present. 25% of your gift card purchase will be given to Western Middle School.

We have gotten a few Halloween costumes, but would love more that we can provide for our students next year in need. We are accepting costume donations for ages 10-14, and they can be dropped off in the Main Office. Thank you for your support!

The food donations are coming in! Our annual Food Drive continues until November 24th. The food drive supports Neighbor to Neighbor, an organization that supports many families in our community. Help our school best the other two middle schools in donating the most. Food is being collected by Advisor Base classes, and the AB that collects the most items from each grade will get a pizza party lunch!

In addition, we are also hosting a virtual food drive for those that cannot participate in person. Here is the link to make a donation.

The Western Middle School's WINTER Sports Registration form is Now Open for boys and girls basketball. Tryouts will be held on December 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th. Please complete the Final Forms registration prior to NOVEMBER 25th. NO registration will be accepted after NOVEMBER 25th.

Even if you have previously registered on Final Forms, you MUST log in and choose a Winter sport and make sure that your child's physical forms are updated prior to NOVEMBER 25th. The only form accepted is the CT-HAR.

For those who are new to Final Forms, this PDF document provides detailed instructions on how to register your student-athlete for winter sports. If you require any support during the process, scroll to the page bottom in FinalForms and click “Use Support." A parent or legal guardian must create an account first and then add your children. When adding your children, you must use their Greenwich Public School email. Once this is done and verified, and a sport is selected, then both parent and student must log in to fill and sign their document. If you have any questions or encounter issues during the registration process, there is a “Get Help” button at the bottom of the page.

We encourage you to complete the sports registration as soon as possible to ensure your student-athlete’s participation in the upcoming season. If you have any questions regarding registration, please email sportsphysicalwms@greenwich.k12.ct.us

A reminder that this year only one staff member from each school will receive the Difference Maker Award each month. I am asking for our staff and parents to help in nominating staff for this award. If you or your child believe one or more staff members make a difference in our school community or in your own lives, please use this link to nominate them and explain why they are deserving of this award.

Below are the Homework Hubs for each grade-level team and World Language teachers.

8th grade: Orange Green

7th grade: Purple Yellow

6th grade: Red Blue

World Language