Washington Middle School Counseling

The College Success Foundation has funded a full-time college awareness and career coach at Washington for the second straight year. This year, we are lucky to have Sydney Williams working with our students.

Ms. Williams works with Middle School staff to provide college readiness programming with the overall goal of creating a college oriented culture within Washington Middle School. She works with the 8th grade general education classes once a week delivering college preparation curriculum. Her overall goal is to get students to make thoughtful decisions about their future.

Ms. Williams also co-facilitates an 8th grade girls group.  The purpose of this group is to discuss the transition from middle school to high school, explore the obstacles that may arise in middle and high school, share and learn from their experiences, and develop academic and leadership skills.

Finally, Ms. Williams will be coordinating this year’s Career Fair, for all students. When students have a positive vision for the future, it helps them to focus on their work and be more successful. We at WMS are lucky to have Ms. Williams aboard this year helping our students toward those long-term goals. Welcome, and thank you!

Here are the tour dates for families and incoming students for the 2012-2013 school year:

• Thursday, 2/2,  8- 10 AM
• Thursday, 2/9,  8-10 AM
• Thursday, 2/16,  8-10 AM
• Thursday, 3/1,  8-10 AM

• Open House for incoming families will be held on Monday, January 30th, from 7-8:30 PM

No reservations required for any of these events.

With the first quarter of the school year now over, parents and students have a chance to see where things are going well, and what needs to improve. Thanks to our PTSA, teachers and parents will have two opportunities to briefly discuss students’ performance. On Wednesday, November 16, from 3:30 to 5:30pm, and Thursday, November 17, from 6:00 to 8:00pm the gym will be open and teachers will be lining the walls, waiting for parents to visit for a 5-minute chat. Longer consultations will be available by appointment. This is the only open conference time of the year, so don’t miss it!

Don’t miss this school-wide, all students and families event. Besides a wide variety of inexpensive foods from different countries available for purchase, there will also be tables of community organizations working with WMS present with staff and literature to answer your questions. Families will be able to meet and greet their student’s teachers, administrators, and support staff. And of course, there is the WMS Olympics, where each grade competes in fun and unusual events with an eye to taking charge of the BIte trophy for the upcoming year. It’s all in good fun, and quite a scene.

We’re happy to announce that all three grade level counselors will return to WMS this coming school year. This is no small feat, given the number of layoffs occurring in the District, and we had some anxious moments right through the end of the school year. Mr. Bilides will become the 6th grade counselor, and Ms. Jackson and Mr. Goldstein will move up to 7th and 8th grades respectively.

Washington Middle School’s Tutoring Program is now three years old, and it remains one of the most visible and sought-after academic student intervention programs in the school. The program as a whole has been quite successful, thanks again to the efforts of the Tutor Coordinator, Susan Huntley. Her report for this school year follows.

My fourth year of coordinating the tutoring program at Washington has come to an end.  Once again this year, at least 70 volunteers worked for thousands of hours with our students individually and in classrooms.  These included parents and grandparents of current and former students.  We also had many volunteers from Seattle University’s Children’s Literacy Project, as well as a cohort of six SU sophomores in a special program for those considering a teaching career.  In addition, there were volunteers from University of Washington’s Pipeline Project, and Seattle Central Community College service learning program.  Finally, there were several candidates for Masters in Teaching programs who totaled many required hours working in classrooms and observing experienced teachers.

Between 60 and 70 Washington students received one on one tutoring from these volunteers for at least part of the school year.  These students are referred by their grade level counselors, who may be asked by parents, teachers or the students themselves for more academic support.  Once a week, tutors meet them in the library during their elective (non-core) class time.  They may work on missing homework or classwork assignments, binder organization, research projects, or reading practice.  Tutors are encouraged to stay in touch with the student’s teachers and to keep up with the student’s current grades on Source from the Tutor Coordinator’s office.