Thursday, January 22nd, 2021, Volume 15 Issue 75
Schoolwide Enrichment Model Update!
Principal Katie May Our Fourth and Fifth grade teachers and specialists have now had four sessions of professional development on the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) and I wanted to share a little more about this as we get closer to implementing this model with our students. You may have attended one of the SEM presentations held earlier this year with the district Advanced Learning Department. If you were not able to join us, the Schoolwide Enrichment Model is a process for students to get to explore a topic that is outside the typical school curriculum for a number of weeks, creating a product of some kind at the end of the cycle.
Why add this into our school program? Our team was excited to learn more about and adopt this model for a number of reasons: we see that many of our students come to school passionate about particular topics and this gives them a way to explore more deeply, SEM gives students the opportunity to mix together by interest in different ways regardless of their program or classroom teacher, SEM increases student engagement for school, and SEM teaches students the skills they can use to explore interests and passions throughout their lives. Schools who use the SEM also show improved staff attendance, decreased negative behaviors, increased parent involvement, increase in teacher nominations for advanced learning programs, and relationship building across grade levels. Here is an outline of what the planning for a six-week SEM program would look like:
Pick a topic based on student interest
Develop a 6-week outline
Plan the first few meetings
Collaborate with co-workers
Get excited to teach! Let the kids drive the learning
Evaluate after 6 weeks – what worked well? What can we improve?
Our students will be filling out interest inventories towards the end of next week. They will have a week or so to let us know their interests. After this point, our Enrichment Team will take the data from the student surveys and break it down into a number of main topics of interest. From here, teachers will decide what clusters each will offer. (Note: We will be looking for a few parents to join our Enrichment Team to help guide our project planning – be looking for more information on this to come!) Our Enrichment Groups will get started in mid-March and meet once a week over a 6-week period. Groups will begin with activities to find out what students already know about the topic and then provide them with more information. This might look like mini lessons, guest speakers, virtual field trips, and YouTube videos. The next couple weeks, students will move into thinking critically about the topic and engaging in exploratory activities. In this phase, the teacher is guiding, but students are taking on more ownership. Students may be deciding what type of “product” they want to create to show their learning. For example, students learning about human rights might decide that they want to create a book or presentation to teach others or they might want to learn how to raise money for a human rights organization. In the third phase of the project, students are creating and presenting the product. This could be designing a boardgame, a song, a cookbook, a poem, a podcast, or an event such as a fundraiser, etc. The goal is to produce something to teach or help others. Stay tuned for more information on our progress as we get started!
Washington Middle School PTSA is trying to build a robust translation network and is in search of community members who want to make money doing occasional translation jobs (written and/or live). We're in need of Spanish, Chinese, Oromo, Amharic, Tigrinya, Soninke, Khmer and Vietnamese translations and would like to offer this paid opportunity to members of our school community before reaching out to the wider community. If you know anyone interested, please send an email to Keyonna Saloy and Jen Drain at info@wmsptsa.com.
Grown-ups and Kids Together: Let’s Examine What We Consume and Create on Our Screens This one-hour professional development course will engage elementary educators and their families in a personally meaningful experience with media literacy. What better way to learn about students’ thinking than with a young learner by our sides? Adults/caregivers and their elementary age children are encouraged to join together for an interactive and investigative experience. Please note that educators joining on their own are welcome, and will find the experience meaningful as well! Together, we will explore different strategies for thinking critically about what we consume, share, and create using our screens. Each family will be asked to bring an example of digital media that your family views (website, news article, social media post, digital advertisement, etc.) to the Zoom class to use when learning how to practice media literacy. Click here to register or for more information: https://education.uw.edu/programs/courses/grown-ups-and-kids-together-let%E2%80%99s-examine-what-we-consume-and-create-our-screens
Could any of your students use some extra one-on-one support? Then Tutor.com is for you!
What is Tutor.com? A service that provides free academic support, test prep, and job and career assistance through 1-1 trained tutors and career coaches and on-demand resources.
When is Tutor.com available? Live tutoring is available 7 days a week, excluding holidays.
2-10 p.m. English and Spanish
4-7 p.m. Vietnamese
How to connect to Tutor.com?
1. Go to www.spl.org/VirtualTutoring
2. Click on
3. Enter your library card and PIN or Library Link number and PIN.
Curated How-to and Informational Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsfPyukV1bQ25ew2ayxNe4xAhIe27l0fz
Neighborcare Health and Seattle Public Schools Present: Community Covid-19 Testing
Covid-19 testing is available for all students, staff, family, and community members in this outdoor event. Everyone is eligible to receive a test regardless of insurance or immigration status. Testing is also FREE for everyone. We will bill your insurance if you have it, but will not charge a fee if you do not have insurance or your insurance does not cover testing. On-site interpretation services available through phone.
Date: Tuesday February 2nd, 2021 from 12:00-4:00pm
Location: Madison Middle School: 3429 45th Avenue SW, Seattle, WA 98116
For questions, please contact:
Neighborcare Community Access Team at 206-333-2524
Spanish:
Neighborcare Health y las Escuelas Públicas de Seattle presentan: prueba comunitaria Covid-19
La prueba Covid-19 está disponible para todos los estudiantes, el personal, la familia y los miembros de la comunidad en este evento al aire libre. Todos son elegibles para recibir una prueba sin importar su seguro o estatus migratorio. Las pruebas también son GRATIS para todos. Le facturaremos a su seguro si lo tiene, pero no le cobraremos una tarifa si no tiene seguro o si su seguro no cubre las pruebas. Servicios de interpretación en el lugar disponibles por medio del teléfono.
Fecha: Martes Febrero 2, 2021 de 12:00 a 4:00pm
Lugar: Escuela Secundaria Madison: 3429 45th Avenue SW, Seattle, WA 98116
Si tiene preguntas favor de comunicarse a:
Equipo de Acceso Comunitario Neighborcare al 206-333-2524
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