WPS Newsletter

October 3rd- No School

October 13th- Parent Teacher Conferences 4-7:00

October 16th & 17th - No School

October 20th- Parent Teacher Conferences 4-7:00

October 22nd- Flu Shots

We would like to invite you to our upcoming Parent-Teacher Conferences for students in grades 5–12. Conferences will be held on Monday, October 13th, and Monday, October 20th, from 4:00–7:00 p.m.

During these evenings, teachers will be available in their classrooms. Families are encouraged to stop in at a time that works best for them to visit with their child’s teachers. This is an excellent opportunity to discuss your child’s progress, ask questions, and strengthen the school-home partnership. No scheduled appointment is necessary for these fall conferences.

In the spring, we hold student-led conferences, which differ from the fall format. These conferences are scheduled in advance and are led by your child, with staff guidance. This approach allows students to take an active role in sharing their learning, growth, and goals. We highlight this difference so that families, especially those new to our middle school or high school understand what to expect throughout the year.

We look forward to seeing you on October 13th and/or October 20th and appreciate your continued involvement in your child’s education.

Thank you for an amazing start to the school year! Here are some fun things to look forward to in the School Counseling program:

PreK-12

We have a school counseling internship student this year! His name is Anthony Sester, and he has already been a wonderful addition to the team. He is in our building 3 days a week and will be a huge strength to the program this year. There is nothing better than being able to have one counselor in the classroom and one running groups at the same time. We are working our way towards that as he is still new to the building and still learning!

Minute Meetings are almost completed! A minute meeting is where the counselor pulls kids from class for less than 5 minutes to ask some basic questions to try to create a one-on-one relationship with them. It is a great time to check in and get to know the student body individually.

College Application Month will be much more prevalent in our building. We are doing announcements all month and have events planned for everyone! It is so exciting to watch our seniors begin to make decisions for after high school, and I am excited to have the AVID classes to assist me in celebrating!

Kindness Week will be a larger event in the building as well. I partnered with the student council to come up with the best way to move forward with this in our building. We have a lot of ideas and are excited to roll this out!

Mr. Sester and I have met with MANY students individually already. If you feel this regular meeting may be something a student could benefit from, please do not hesitate to reach out. I am also pleased to announce that we have been able to create a partnership with Northland to get another mental health counselor in the building, so if this is something a student would benefit from, let me know!

Secondary School

The number of schedule changes and dual credit class issues was greatly minimized due to the fantastic teamwork that Mrs. Hilzendeger and I have created. There were still PLENTY! But the surprises of needing certain things for graduation or state scholarship requirements were taken care of last school year. This consistent prevention of being able to plan will help us to see improvements every year. Any student can request an academic meeting with me at ANY point!

The Mining Into Careers events will continue. This is a career exploration event where students have the option to attend during Flex. I invite someone from that career to discuss their personal or company knowledge. There are various individuals already on the calendar all the way to December. I am basing this year’s requests on what I received from students last spring.

The college and career fairs will continue. The confidence shift I have seen from the students is BREATHTAKING. The new space can hold many more students and has created an environment that can house more people to attend. Our students have these opportunities starting already in the 5th grade as middle schoolers. This opportunity is available because we are actively trying to move college and career exploration to a younger age, so we have more time for preparation in high school. The first fair had over 100 students attend, with over 21% of these students talking to EVERY SINGLE BOOTH!

Elementary School

Elementary counseling lessons have begun in each grade and will continue. I am working on the creation of a school counseling website so that all parents or guardians can look at some of the various things that are being taught and use the same language at home.

We are going to continue doing the movie recommendations! This month's movie, Elemental, is on Disney+. Here are some social/emotional discussion questions:

• Ember doesn’t always believe in herself. What helps her start to feel more confident?
• Wade is very different from Ember. How does he help her feel more confident in being herself?
• Wade shows his emotions very openly — do you think that’s a good thing? Why or why not?

Greetings from the library! October is National Cybersecurity Month. Since libraries deal with technology information, we will be doing lots of “how to be safe on the internet” lessons this month.

I’d like to take this opportunity to give you some food for thought about your home internet security, too. Sure, we all know about using passwords or pass phrases and we all know that we should be using a different one for every account we have. We should be using a password manager of some sort, not writing all our passwords in a notebook that someone can find. Check out these websites for further insights to keep your personal information safe.

www.defend.nd.gov A website that talks about cybersecurity, yes, but focuses on North Dakota. Click on the Citizen Lab tab at the top, scroll down the page a bit and you will see a map of cyber attacks coming into North Dakota from their place of origin. Just keep in mind anyone can purchase an IP address and pretend that their computer really exists in a different place than it actually does. There is also a home internet security training slideshow and some short, to-the-point security videos you can watch.

http://www.cisa.gov/secure-our-world A website that lets you watch short videos (less than two minutes) or click a link to learn more about each topic such as Multifactor Authentication, Strong Passwords, Updating Software, etc. The website listed next is a portion of CISA that helps parents talk to their children about staying safe on their technological devices.

https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/resources/chatting-kids-about-being-online-booklet This has a disclaimer that some of the information may be out of date. I am guessing that would pertain to the information about cell phones and the features they have because the brochure is dated 2020. However, the overall ideas they give are good: How to begin discussions with your kids of all ages about being safe on devices (phones, tablets, computers, etc.).

https://www.aliciakozak.com/ This one is pretty scary. I say that as a mom. Alicia was abducted by an online predator at the age of 13. She was lucky and was rescued. If nothing else, I would encourage you parents to click the tab THE ALICIA PROJECT, then read the Internet Safety Tips. Nobody wants to believe this will happen to them, but as the saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Sometimes I think the students do not realize that the avatars they play against on some of the online games are really people and they definitely do not realize that those people are not always the same age as them.

To end this on a much lighter note, keep an eye out for the October Family Night, hosted by the school library. It will be toward the end of the month, closer to Halloween. But it will be a free event, with the goal of bringing families together for an evening of togetherness.

Happy Halloween and stay safe! ~~Heidi Quinn

Check out this awesome resource on strategies for reading at home with your children!

https://www.readingrockets.org/literacy-home/reading-101-guide-parents

As our students grow into the middle and high school years, they face new challenges, opportunities, and responsibilities. One of the most important skills they can develop during this time is organization. Staying organized helps students manage their assignments, balance extracurricular activities, and reduce the stress that often comes with a busy schedule. Tools like planners, digital calendars, or even simple checklists can make a big difference.

Alongside organization, clear expectations play a critical role. When students understand what is expected of them—both at school and at home—they are better prepared to take ownership of their learning and rise to the occasion. Setting routines, reinforcing study habits, and celebrating responsibility all help build a strong foundation for success.

Thank you for partnering with us to support your student’s growth. Together, we can help our learners develop skills and habits that will serve them well throughout their lives.