Worthingway Updates: 8/19
The following is an update for the coming week:
Weekly updates are also posted at the school website
Welcome to the 2013-14 school year! We are excited to begin. I will send an email
every Friday outlining important dates and programs for the upcoming week, as
well as listing important events for the month. You can also follow me on Twitter
(@nkellenberger1) to receive important updates regarding Worthingway and
Worthington Schools. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any
questions.
Mr. Kellenberger
Monday, August 19th: First day of classes for all students.
- We will have a regularly scheduled day for our students. Our time
schedule will be adjusted a bit in order to help our students through
the lunch lines.
Tuesday, August 20th: PTA 6:30pm in the Worthingway Library
Monday, August 26th: Curriculum Night 6:30-8:30pm
- We are going to do our Curriculum Night in a much different manner
this year. In the past families have “walked” their students’ schedules
on a 12 minute rotation
- This year we will have 7th grade families in three different classrooms
in one wing of the building and 8th grade families in three different
classrooms in another. Families will remain in their assigned
classrooms while our department staff members will rotate to speak to
each classroom. For example, all math staff will visit each classroom
and speak about their specific content area and expectations.
- We feel this will be a more effective way to share our curriculum with
you.
Needs Assessment:
It is our goal to know as much about your student as we can. To help us do so,
Mrs. Morgan, our school counselor has put together a Student Needs Assessment
survey. This survey will allow you the opportunity to share information
regarding your student’s talents, strengths, and goals, as well as provide us with
information regarding ways that we can better support your student’s needs.
Please take time to complete this important survey:
Needs Assessment
Expectations:
Please read and discuss our student handbook with your student. The student handbook
is posted at the school website. We have included an additional document here outlining
the areas that we most often have to address with our students (tardies, respect, dress
code, and electronic devices). We will also be discussing these items with your student
during the first week of school.
Your student will bring home a document to sign, stating that you have discussed our
expectations. That document will need to be returned to school in order for your student
to attend after school events such as canteens.
Thank-you for your support.
Mr. Kellenberger and Mr. Mosca
Upcoming Events:
8/26: Curriculum Night 6:30-8:30pm
School Guidelines
Welcome to Worthingway Middle School home of the “CARDINALS.” To our
returning 8th grade families welcome back. To our 7th grade families welcome and we are
excited to have you join the Worthingway School Community.
The Worthingway student handbook is available at the school website. We would like to
draw your attention to the items that we will be emphasizing this year in our school
community. Our Core Values are: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe. Values that
we believe will help our students be successfully academically and throughout their lives.
We have developed a plan for success in implementing our Core Values. Your support as
we implement our expectations as they relate to these Core Values is essential in making
these guidelines a success.
We will meet with our student council president and vice president to discuss our plan to
gain feedback. We will have an assembly the first day of school to talk to our students
about our expectations for the upcoming school year.
Tardy Policy:
Punctuality is a life-long skill and ties in with the core values of our school community.
Our tardy policy will focus on getting all students to class and school on time every
period, every day. We will utilize the plan below in order to achieve that goal.
We will give the students the first 4.5 days of school to get used to their lockers and to
their schedules. On Friday, August 23 starting with period 6 and ending with period 3 on
Monday, 26th, the first phase of our plan will take place. Teachers will close and lock
their doors as soon as the tardy bell rings. We will account for the number of students in
the hallway and assign a 30 second loss of community time for all students, based on the
number of students in the hallway after the tardy bell.
Starting week 3, Tuesday, September 3rd, teachers will keep track of student tardies in
their individual classes using the following strategy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
First Tardy-Teacher Warning
Second Tardy-Teacher will speak to student, email or call home
Third Tardy-Loss of Community Time, report to CARDS, email or call home
Fourth Tardy-Loss of Community Time, report to CARDS, email or call home
Fifth Tardy-Lunch and Community Time in CARDS, email or call home
Sixth Tardy-Lunch and Community Time in CARDS, email or call home
Seventh Tardy-Parent conference
Respect:
Respect is a core value that we will emphasize and model as a staff. We will emphasize
student to student, student to staff, and staff to student interactions. Examples of
disrespect include raising one’s voice, inappropriate comments, leaving a classroom
without permission, not following a staff member’s expectations and/or direction,
disrupting a class with unnecessary attention-seeking behavior. Incidents of disrespect
will follow these guidelines:
1. First Incident of disrespect-teacher/student conference and email home
2. Second Incident of disrespect-teacher/student conference, phone call home
3. Third Incident of disrespect-Office referral
*The first incident may be serious enough that an office referral is warranted.
Lunch Room
Students have the first two weeks of school to determine seating choice in the cafeteria.
Once choices are made, Mrs. Hill (lunch room monitor) will record seating charts.
Students may not change seats unless approved by Mrs. Hill. Each student is responsible
for cleaning his/her assigned area. Mrs. Hill assigns students cleaning jobs each week.
One student is responsible for sweeping under the table; one student is responsible for
wiping off the top of the table. No student is permitted to leave the cafeteria until both
jobs have been completed, checked by one of the adults on lunch duty, and dismissed by
that same individual.
Students will not be permitted to switch assigned lunch periods, except in extreme
situations. Having friends in a different lunch period is not an extreme situation.
Frequent Bathroom Breaks
Students have 3 minutes between classes and a 43 minute lunch period in which to use
the restroom. Our expectation is that students utilize these opportunities throughout the
day so as not to lose valuable instructional time. We recognize there are special
circumstances and ask that in these cases we have a doctor’s note.
If we find a student is abusing restroom breaks throughout the day, we will require that
student to use the nurse’s restroom in the office.
Student Self-Referral to CARDS
Students are not permitted to self-refer to our CARDS room, unless a written plan is in
place. Students that do so will be referred to the office by our CARDS Director, Mr.
Riffee for a conference with Mr. Mosca or Mr. Kellenberger. Repeated offenses will
include a conference with the student, staff member, family members, Mr. Mosca, and/or
Mr. Kellenberger, and will result in increased discipline consequences.
WCDs (Wireless Communication Devices):
We value WCDs as instructional tools at Worthingway. Our staff defines how WCDs are
to be used in individual classrooms for educational purposes.
WCDs are not to be used in the hallway; listening to music in the hallway is not
permitted.
WCDs may used during lunch and/or community time to listen to school appropriate
music or to play school appropriate games. Devices must be stored upon transition to
classes after the lunch period.
Texting and/or filming students or staff is not permitted unless doing so is directly related
to a class project or activity. Students are not permitted to text or film other students or
staff during lunch or community time.
WCD Consequence policy:
1. First Incident: Device confiscated from student, sent to office, student may pick
up device at the end of the day.
2. Second Incident: Device confiscated from student, sent to office, student may
pick up device at the end of the day, parent contact.
3. Third Incident: Device confiscated from student, sent to office, family member
must pick up device.
4. Fourth Incident: Device confiscated from student, sent to office, family member
must pick up device.
5. Fifth Incident: Office Referral for repeated offenses.
*The first incident may be serious enough that an office referral is warranted.