Good Afternoon Parents,
What a wonderful first week! I have said it before but I think it is worth repeating: your kids are great. I so enjoy catching up with our 8th grade students and getting to know our new 7th graders. Hopefully, your child is coming home with great stories about our wonderful teachers and has been able to catch up with friends. During this first week, students have had a chance to organize their lockers, learn (or relearn) the building, and pick up textbooks from our LMC. As I tour classrooms, I am pleased that our teachers and students are already hard at work with the business of learning. I am confident that this is going to be an awesome year at WJHS!
For those of you who have children that have gone through junior high or are a parent of an 8th grader, you may notice we have revised the format of my weekly email. Welcome to Highlights version 2.0! The feedback that we received from parents was that the format of the weekly email was not user friendly. Having the Highlights in a PDF format didn't work well for those of us who view emails on our mobile devices. This version not only stands out better due to the color, but is more mobile phone friendly. At the bottom of the introduction you will find a link to our school website where you can download the information in a PDF format. This will give you the opportunity to get more detailed information if you need it. As always, we will continue to look for ways to improve our communication.
Just a reminder that photo day is September 16th. Students should come to school dressed and ready to be photographed. The photo day form is available on our school website under the "Important documents" tab on the right of your browser. If not already turned in photo forms and checks should be given to the photographer on picture day.
At WJHS, communicating student progress is an important goal. As such, we have established an online parent portal where student progress can be monitored. Our Parent Portal can be accessed on our school website or on team websites. The Portal is currently open. As a school, we have established times when it will be officially updated. This will occur about every 5 weeks. You are able to login to the system using the same password that was used for student registration. Additionally, each student is given a password so they can take responsibility for monitoring their own grades. If you are having difficulty accessing the Parent Portal, please contact Cindy Sporn at spornc@wilmette39.org.
Yesterday we held our annual expectations assembly with our students. The purpose of the assembly is to acquaint students with our school rules and to make sure that they fully understand our expectations. Please have a conversation with your child about this important assembly. Additionally, we have been talking and will continue to talk to our students about our acceptable behavior policy. Each year we ask children and parents to review this policy and sign off that they have read and understood it. The policy and form can be found in the front of our student planner or can be downloaded off of our school website. Simply access our site and select Important Documents from the menu on the right. Please return a signed form to your child's homeroom teacher. Finally, your children were introduced to our village school resource officer, Julie Parisi. Officer Parisi will be working with all village junior high and middle schools and will surely serve as a great resource for you, your children, and our school.
8th graders received their TI-NSpire calculators yesterday and today in math classes. In an effort to reduce loss and theft of calculators, we have students use engraving pens to write their names on the back of each calculator. If you still need to purchase a calculator for your child, we have a limited number available in the office. The cost of the calculators is $125 and checks can be made out to Wilmette Junior High School.
Yearbook Photos: Yearbook is looking for pictures of students in action during the 2010-2011 school year! We're looking for photos of activities at school. We'll take anything from sports, music, drama, clubs, or just hanging out! To share pictures, go to www.hjeshare.com and enter the school code 7026553. Once you set up an account, it's easy to upload pictures! If you have any problems, email Katie Mayle at maylek@wilmette39.org
Our annual curriculum nights are right around the corner. Seventh grade curriculum night will be held on Tuesday, September 21st and eighth grade parents are invited to curriculum night on Thursday, September 23rd. The timing of curriculum night is the same for both 7th and 8th grades and will be held from 6:30 to about 9:00. You will be receiving a more detailed email about curriculum night soon.
Dance team tryouts will be held in two weeks. The coaches, Stephanie Nuspl and Lynn Bocinsky, will hold two dance clinics (attendance at one session is required attendance at two sessions is encouraged) on September 15th and 16th at 3:00 in the cafeteria. In an effort to accommodate our in season athletes, we will also hold clinics from 4:30 to 5:30 on the same days. Tryouts will be on September 17th at 3:00 in the cafeteria. In the past, we have taken 18-22 girls on our dance team. This year our dance team has been invited to perform at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee on New Year’s Eve. This is an exciting opportunity for our girls. The fee for the dance team is $125 and there will be an additional charge for the Liberty Bowl trip. To help us run organized clinics and tryouts, we ask that you please click on the below link to RSVP for your daughter. If you have specific questions regarding either dance team or the Liberty Bowl trip, please contact Ms. Nuspl at nuspls@wilmette39.org or Mrs. Bocinsky at bocinskl@wilmette39.org.
RSVP for Dance Tryouts: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SDLNKJ6
Link to PDFs: http://www.wilmette39.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=79&Itemid=152
GO WOLVES,
Dave |
