Summary - WGS "Telling Our Story"
WGS - Telling Our Story
1. Steady decline in discipline reports over the last seven years: 365-171
2. Large Subgroup of IEP students because of the outstanding education our staff provides our students. Many families move to the district for this reason.
3. Pre-K received a “Gold Circle of Quality” from ISBE for our outstanding Pre-K program.
4. Monthly parent training sessions provided by our Pre-K program: Reading, Emergency Services, Happy Bear, and P.S. It’s my body parent information.
5. Pre-K float in the Christmas parade is designed to collect toys for underprivileged children at the Outreach Center.
6. Home visits with each child in our Pre-K program.
7. Classes work together to transition students from Prek to Kindergarten and Special Education to Regular Education.
8. Jr. High STEM classes are studying and building reaction engines (rockets), computer science, and roller coasters. These hands-on activities require students think outside of the box and provide enrichment for our students that need pushed to the next level.
9. Volunteer 8th grade safety patrol and supervisor (Mrs. Ator). These students arrive well before school starts and stay well after school is dismissed to ensure our students are safe.
10. WGS has collect over 400 pounds of plastic caps in under 9 weeks. These caps will be recycled into 4 benches that will provide seating for students, staff, and guests at WGS. These caps were weighed by our 5th grade students as part of their math class.
11. The new Jr. High schedule allows for a wide variety of hands-on activities and experiments in the classrooms.
12. 3rd-8th grade students are starting their second round of fitnessgram testing. The first round was a baseline and the results were very good. The ultimate goal is for the students to improve their scores each quarter.
13. The newly provided WIN (What I need) periods have provided our IEP population with one-on-one or small group time to get better organized. This WIN time also provides RTI (Response to Intervention) time for those students in regular education classes but need more support to help keep those students out of special education.
14. Co-taught sections of core subjects where a special education and regular education teacher collaborate to bring the most effective instruction and support to both regular and special education students is also an added benefit of the new schedule.
15. Teachers attend many conferences and training sessions to bring best practices back to the classroom to enhance our students’ learning. Often times, teachers spend their own time and at least part of their own dime to attend these trainings.
16. Community Events: Grandparents Day (breakfast), Muffins with Moms, Doughnuts with Dads, Food drives for the local Outreach Center, Halloween parade, Christmas program, Band/Choir concert.
17. Kindergarten field trips to Fire Department, community businesses, Sangamon Auditorium play, U of I Extension office to learn where food comes from and seasonal plays.
18. Different grade levels partnering up to provide peer lead groups and instruction.
19. Every student Kindergarten through 4th grade will receive one free book per month this school year. Also the WGS reading night through our Title 1 department.
20. New remodeled building, new handicap accessible playground turf (PAT sponsored) and Promethean Boards in every classroom (PAT sponsored). A lot of parent and grandparent volunteers at school and in our school lead organizations.
21. Early Interventions -- Screening students as early as Kindergarten. Also providing Math and Reading interventions to our most needy students this year for the first time K-8.
22. Performance on October 31 on the square for the community during our Halloween parade.
23. 4th grade just created museum exhibits of the “I Survive” books. They showcased the worst disasters of history such as Titanic, San Francisco earthquake, 9/11, Pompeii, Eruption of Mt. St. Helen. They also learned and sing multiplication songs to help memorize facts and strategies.
24. Technology upgrades: eliminating Box TV’s and VHS players in favor or Promethean Boards and Chromebooks. Greater wireless internet access and speeds. These upgrades have allowed us to create interactive lessons and various enrichment activities in the classroom.
25. Relying on Fountas and Pinnell interventions to help our staff focus on reading comprehension and fluency.
26. Our newly purchased Journeys Reading Curriculum provides students with more individualized learning options and a wide variety of resources. We also work closely with our great Title 1 teachers and have support staff to help all students receive appropriate instruction that benefit ALL students.
27. The WGS family takes pride in providing all of our students with a quality education, but more than that, we go out of our way to make sure our students feel loved and love coming to school everyday! The WGS family and community are always ready to be a champion for any student or staff member in need!
28. As a school, we are always striving to improve and move our school forward. We feel schools cannot be stagnate so we continue to forage for the strongest curriculum, strategies and research based interventions.
29. We have been working on aligning and updating curriculum with new math and new reading series.
30. Our K-2 classrooms still focus on phonics and phonemic awareness to improve reading. 1-8 classes use the AR program to create class and individual goals. Our Title 1 staff and PAT have purchased items students can buy with the points they have earned.
31. 2nd grade teachers begin teaching our students how to use Chromebooks so they are used to this type of technology to make it easier when taking the PARCC test in 3rd grade.
32. Mrs. Ator has created a Breakfast Club that meet 2-3 times per week to talk about social/emotional issues that have an impact on their school day.
33. Multiple classrooms have implemented flexible seating in their classroom to help students find a comfortable way to learn. Yoga balls, swivel stools, rockers for movement, low sitting tables, pillows for stretching out and/or chair cushions for softer seating areas.
