What's Happening at Western
Some thoughts for the starting school year
10/3/25
Dear Western families,
We are at the halfway point of the first quarter and it is a good time to check grades in Aspen. Below, I have included a tutorial on how to use Aspen effectively. This past Wednesday, we started helping your child take more ownership of their performance through our Flex Day activities.Your child took a close look into their Aspen gradebook to record their grades for each class. They identified areas they are proud of, as well as areas set goals and action steps around in order to improve. You should have received an email letting you know they were bringing home a progress monitoring reflection form to be reviewed and signed by you. This form is located in their student planner. If you did not receive an email, ask your child to show it to you. Believe it or not, we have had students incorrectly put in their parent’s emails on purpose. I know, it was as shocking to us to believe a middle schooler would do that! There are some who just made a harmless mistake by getting the email incorrect, but those students were in the minority. We want to make sure you received this email, so that you get the remaining seven emails this year on our Flex days. Many students also come home on Wednesday with awards recognizing them for their accomplishments so far, such as citizenship, a growth mindset, AVID student skills, kindness, effort and more. Don’t worry, if your child didn’t get an award, there are seven more ceremonies this year!
I would like to welcome our new nurse, Andrea Valdovinos. She will be starting on Monday and will be a great addition to Western. Her email is andrea_valdovinos@greenwich.k12.ct.us. I would like to thank the district’s head of nursing, Jessica Wieneke, for making sure we had a least one nurse at Western every day as we waited for Ms. Valdovinos to start.
You are probably wondering why I have not mentioned my Penn State Nittany Lions. It is just too painful for me to relive the game on Saturday night. At least my Giants won a game and my Yankees are up two games to one against the Red Sox in the Wild Card series. I forgot to mention one of our most important Western rules…no Red Sox gear allowed at any time!
This is our birthday weekend for my three daughters, with my twins turning 16 yesterday and my oldest turning 18 next week. Both my twins passed their permit tests yesterday (thank goodness!). Being a parent of twins adds an additional worry about one passing something while the other fails. I was happy to be able to take each one out driving for the first time in our neighborhood, but we have a lot of work to do!
I hope you all have a nice summer-like weekend.
Sincerely,
Suzanne
- Monday, October 6, 2025: 6th grade Red Team to Soundwaters
- Thursday, October 9, 2025: ESOL Parent Meeting, 7:30am-8am, Library Media Center
- Monday, October 13-Friday, October 17, 2025: Pink Week (more details to come)
New Legislation on E-scooters and E-bikes
Our First Difference Maker of the Year!
If you have ever been lucky enough to get help from Western's Administrative Assistant, Taryn Weiss, in person, by phone or by email, you know why she was chosen as our first Difference Maker of the year.Not only does Taryn support our administrative team with our schedules, systems, communication and follow through, but Taryn keeps all of our Western community afloat. She has magnificent memory, lots of patience and a kind and welcoming demeanor. Taryn is our go-to contact for our PTA and staff. She knows our students and parents by name, has a handle on not only Western systems and protocols, but those of the district at large as well. And she does this all with a smile on her face ALWAYS! She has an answer to most questions, or a connection within the district to be able to find the answer. We would all be lost without her and cannot thank her enough for the loyalty, work ethic and care that she pours into her job every day. Congratulations, Taryn!
Aspen Support for Parents
With it being mid-quarter, we want to help you better access the Aspen portal so you can monitor your child’s performance and provide support as best as possible. We (meaning, Mrs. Rizio) have created a document that explains how to access and use Aspen, including how to set up notifications to help you better monitor your child’s performance. The link to this document is below:
Aspen for Parents (English and Spanish)
Make sure to use the following email to request any support: support@greenwich.k12.ct.us
8th Grade DC Trip Update
A reminder to all 8th grade parents to use the links below to register for DC. The deadline to register is October 15th. The deadline to request financial aid is October 31st.
Click here to register for D.C.!
Click here for the presentation
Click here for information on how to help fundraise for D.C.
Western’s Upcoming Halloween Dance
So, our students and PTA have finally broken me, and I have agreed to the first school dance at Western in almost 10 years. To be honest, I am actually excited for it and believe our group of students will handle it well and it will be a huge success. The dance will take place on Friday October 24th from 6:30-8:00 and will be open to all grades. Students will be allowed to wear their costumes while enjoying music from a DJ, a photo booth, pizza and drinks. More details will come from the PTA about buying tickets. As you are planning your child’s costume for the dance and school on October 31st, the following guidelines must be followed:
Nothing too cumbersome that would seriously inhibit movement, block classrooms/hallways or make it hard to sit in a chair (i.e., those blow-up sumo wrestlers or dinosaur costumes).
No additional skin showing than wouldn’t be permitted on any other day.
No fake weapons or additional handheld items that can be used to poke or trip someone… keep the swords, scythes, magic wands, etc. at home.
No facial coverings which conceal your child’s identity. We must be able to tell who we are looking at.
All costumes must be on the children when they get to school or arrive at the dance…there will be no ‘dressing room’ time. This includes makeup, hair spray, etc. Nothing may be applied at school.
The only sports attire allowed are Penn State, Giants, Jets and Yankees.
Now that Open Houses and Parent Coffees are done, we want to make sure all parents have the chance to learn about what makes Western so special and the best middle school to prepare your children for Greenwich High School. This week, I will focus on our AVID school-wide initiative and one of the organizational strategies we pride ourselves in teaching our students.
What is AVID?
For those of you unfamiliar with the AVID program, AVID which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination is a college readiness and executive functioning program designed to help all students achieve their goals and reach their full academic potential. Your child will be exposed to a variety of instructional strategies, many of which all students began to learn about last year, such as critical reading strategies, focused note-taking, Socratic seminars and philosophical chairs. These strategies are designed to help them grow as readers, thinkers, collaborators and writers. In addition to these instructional strategies, students will also be taught a variety of executive functioning strategies to help them learn how to plan and prioritize tasks, organize their thoughts and materials, and reflect on their learning and goals. Through Advisor Base, our Flex Days and the instruction and routines within all our classrooms, students will learn numerous academic and organizational strategies to help them learn the necessary student skills to help them be successful in middle school and beyond.
What is the AVID One-Binder System?
The AVID One-Binder System is not new to WMS, but we have altered the rubric after collecting lots of feedback from our students and staff last year (see new rubric here). All students at Western follow the One-Binder system in order to help them learn and maintain an effective organizational system. During two days in Advisor Base, called WIN (What I Need), your child will have time called MUSTARD, KETCHUP and PICKLES. These days are when students complete tasks they must do each week, catch up on missing work, and pick instructional activities to support their success. Cleaning out and organizing binders (as well as backpacks and lockers) is listed under MUSTARD, since we stress the importance of remaining organized. While we’d like to think this is enough time for all students to remain organized, any organizational expert will tell you that dedicating a little bit of time and effort each night will ensure an organized day tomorrow. Each content area teacher will be making a greater effort to provide students with time to clear out their assigned section of the binder more frequently, hopefully prolonging the life of the binder! They will also be doing spot checks of their binder to have students show them something that is required in their binder (e.g., pencils, highlighters, labeled sections, no loose papers, etc) and count these checks as responsibility grades. We ask that you help your child create a routine at home to help them regularly organize their materials, so we can get them to doing this independently before heading to high school.
Kindness Color Run Fundraiser
Don’t forget to order some mum plants to support our Sudell Sprint, which is our 8th grade Color Run in honor of Steven Sudell. Steven was a student of Western who lost his battle to cancer in his freshman year in November of 2018. This helps us raise money towards the Kindness Scholarships we give to WMS alumni graduating from GHS and who exemplify what it means to be being kind to others. That was Steven’s mission and why he continues to be our Kindness Crusader.
Use this Mum order form to request plants at the cost of $8 per plant or 4 plants for $30. We will be accepting cash or check (made payable to Western Middle School) upon pickup next week. Thank you for your support.
After school activities
Continue to check out our after-school Club Catalog as more clubs are starting each week. Take a look with your child to see what they may want to get involved in. Remember, they are FREE!
Attendance Line
When your child will be absent, coming in late to school from an appointment, or needs to be dismissed early, please call the attendance line at (203) 531-5678 prior to 8:45 am and leave a message. Please be sure to include your child’s name, grade and the reason for their absence, tardy or dismissal.
Western Yearbooks
I know school just began, but it is time to order your child’s yearbook so that you can pull it out in 15 years and make fun of these awkward years. You can use the QR code or link below to buy a yearbook for the lowest price of the year $30.
