News

Extended Learning Time (ELT) Changes for Next Year

Next year we are going to improve our ELT (Extended Learning Time) schedule.  After a review of data, much deliberation, and input from our Site Council and PTO, we have decided to offer extended opportunities to students in 7th and 8th grades.  Each of the "electives" is offered on A day or B day and the length of the offering is between a trimester and the entire year.  In addition, the Band, Choir, Orchestra classes which are the entire year, students will be able to sign up for a trimester of Creative Writing, Math Problem Solving, Advanced Science, Visual or Performing Arts and much more.  We are excited to be able to offer these electives to our students.  We are hopeful that it will expose them to new and exciting options before they go to high school. 

Perhaps the biggest change for our students besides the offerings will be lunch.  Students in 7th and 8th grade will go to lunch with students from other houses and grades (6th graders only will go to lunch with their peers in their house).  After our discussions with Site Council and PTO, parents felt that this would work out well for their child since they would be going to lunch with students with similar interests.  Additionally, they felt like it might help their child's transition to high school in a year or two. 

 On March 14 &15, Mr. Burns will be meeting with 6th and 7th graders about ELT next year.  The only graded courses are Band, Choir, and Orchestra.  Keep in mind that these
new offerings are elective club activities.  The clubs are designed to be non-graded, positive activities for the students to explore an area of interest more deeply.  

Please take some time to talk the club activities over with your child.   The students will be selecting their ELT clubs between May 21 and May 31 during 5th period ELT. We have attached a 3-page description of the elective offerings to this email so that you will have a chance to discuss the next year's ELT with your students.

Click here to access 2012-2013 ELT Offerings

It has been one week since GWMS started composting at all lunches.  We’d like to extend a special thanks to Mrs. Klein and all of the student compost gurus for their leadership in getting this initiative started.  In only one week, we have collected over 450 gallons of compostable material, which means it has all been diverted from the sanitary landfill.  Check out the video of the GWMS Composting Kick-Off Assembly:

Click here for Assembly Part 1

Click here for Assembly Part 2

Click here for Assembly Part 3

Check out Follett Shelf, which is a virtual library that hosts an abundance of e-books. Follett Shelf has been brought to the school through Keystone Area Education Agency.  Each student at Washington has been given a username and password to access Follett Shelf. You can get to the virtual library by simply clicking on the Learning Center button on the left side of the screen.  You will then see the link to Follett Shelf.  You must have Internet access to the e-books.  The books must be read while you are online; you are not able to download the books to e-reader devices (Kindles, Nooks, etc.).

If your son/daughter has misplaced his/her username and password for e-books, please email Mrs. Mozena at amozena@dubuque.k12.ia.us to request it.