Happy Holidays!

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to take this opportunity to send everyone off to your vacation with a wonderful story I heard on WBUR’s Only a Game last weekend.  Perhaps you have heard it already because it has gone viral since its initial broadcast.  The story was told by a young journalist about her father – a cat litter scientist and a Chinese immigrant – who befriended Charles Barkley, former NBA superstar and current basketball analyst and TV personality.  These two human beings could not be more different, yet they developed a deep friendship and were there to support each other's families during the darkest hours of their lives.  It is a touching story, and I hope you will take a listen when you have a moment (please click here). 

The friendship between Lin Wang and Charles Barkley made me think of the relationships we have with each other and with our students.  We can never predict who is going to come into our lives, but when they do we have the capacity to impact those individuals positively and perhaps even bring great joy to them.

A year ago it never occurred to me that I would be part of the Winchester community and that all of you would be part of my life.  I am glad it turned out this way.

I wish all of you a wonderful vacation!

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

December 16 Update

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope you are well.  On behalf of all the McCall staff members, I would like to thank the McCall Parent Association as well as all the parent volunteers for putting together such a wonderful spread of holiday treats for us.  We would especially like to thank Adrienne and Mai, our two MPA Presidents, for the leadership, organizational skills, creativity, and energy they exhibited in order to put this event together.  We appreciate knowing that the parent community supports the hard work we do, and we thank all of you for giving up your valuable time during the busy holiday season to be kind to us.

 

 

As we head into the last week of school of 2018, I would like to remind everyone that Friday December 21st is a full day of school and students will be dismissed at the regular time of 3:07 pm.  On that day, McCall staff is planning to do our annual Scavenger Hunt activity with all of our students.  We believe this a valuable exercise because it brings the entire school community together and promotes positive teacher-student relationships.  The scavenger hunt will take place during the last period of Friday.  During that time, students and staff will have the opportunity to work together in small groups and as an entire class with the end goal of accurately answering as many questions as possible. The questions and tasks are varied to respond to different learning styles.  Some of the questions require knowledge about McCall Middle School – the staff, building, how the school operates, etc…  Other items test one's ability to solve puzzles, brain teasers and riddles.

I am looking forward to the Scavenger Hunt.  Most of all, I am looking forward to seeing staff and students bonding over this activity.

Lastly, I would like to wish Ms. Galatis a happy retirement as she embarks on her last week of teaching this coming week.  Ms. Galatis concludes a remarkable thirty plus career working as a public school educator and educational leader.  We will miss her leadership, humor, friendship, and dedication to the students and families of Winchester.  Thank you Ms. Galatis!

 

Thank you and enjoy the upcoming week!

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

December 9 Update

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope this message finds you well.  I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our instrumental teachers Mr. and Mrs. Costello, Mr. Galvin, Mr. Hachten, and Ms. Snodgrass for teaching and preparing our students so that they could perform at such an outstanding level during this past Wednesday's winter concert.  I would also like to congratulate Ms. Sebastian for preparing our Solo Voci singers to sing so well during the Festival of Lights performance at the Jenks Center this past Tuesday.  I once heard a comedian joking about how middle school music teachers are like animal-lovers who work at a slaughterhouse.  This certainly is an exaggeration, but I am always impressed by the patience our music department colleagues need to possess in order to get our students to advance from being novice musicians to high level performers.  The skills that our music teachers teach our students go beyond being able to play music.  They also teach our students critical life lessons such as self-regulation and the value of practice.  I thank all our music teachers for their continued hard work and I also thank all parents and guardians for your continued support of our music programs.

As some of you know, this past Wednesday morning Ms. Madden, our Special Education Supervisor, and I did an one hour presentation on the Middle School Special Education program during the monthly Parent’s Coffee.  Quite a few of you contacted me asking if it could be rescheduled because they could not attend due to work.  Since there is a high level of interest for informational session like the one Ms. Madden and I presented this past week, we will schedule an encore performance in January after the holiday madness is over.  We will schedule that session in the evening in order to accommodate for working parents.

Lastly, I would like everyone to know that our Lost and Found area in the cafeteria is getting to be quite full.  I encourage all of you to remind your students to stop by and claim any lost items before the winter vacation.  We are planning to donate all remaining items to charity during the upcoming break.

Thank you and enjoy the upcoming week.


James Lin
Principal
McCall Middle School

December 2 Update

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Happy December!  I would like to begin by reminding everyone that the December Parent Coffee is scheduled for this Wednesday from 9:00-10:00 am.  Our topic for this session will be Special Education at the Middle School, and I have invited Ms. Mary Ellen Madden, the Middle School Special Education Supervisor to join us.  We are planning to discuss the following:

• ·      What are some of the special education services that the middle school provides?
• ·      How does a student qualify for special education services?
• ·      What does an IEP (individualized Education Plan) do or do not do for a student?
• ·      What are the differences between an IEP and a 504 accommodation plan?
• ·      What are the differences between an accommodation and a modification?
• ·      How does the school work collaboratively with parents and guardians when a student continues to struggle while he or she is on an IEP?

I welcome all parents and guardians who are interested in this discussion – regardless whether their students are currently receiving special education services – to join us.  Please note that we will not be discussing specific cases, families, or students during this session.  I also like to thank the McCall Parent Association for sponsoring the Parent Coffees.

Secondly, I would like to let everyone know that every day our main office staff receives quite a lot of requests from parents to pass along messages to their students or to remind their students to pick up items such as lunches, music instruments, cell phones, or assignments that the family members have dropped off for them.  Please know that the office staff works very hard not to interrupt the class time, so we work to minimize the amount of PA announcements or calls into the classrooms.  With that being said, we also understand there are circumstances when parents need to pass along important messages during the day or give students items they may not be expecting.  In order to meet both demands, the office staff will be making “call down” announcements during morning announcements at 8:30 am, right before the first lunch at 11:10 am, and at dismissal time which is 3:07 pm.  We will refrain from interrupting instructions by making PA announcements or calls into classrooms in between those three times unless extremely urgent matters arise.

I also hope I can count on everyone to help the school create an disruption-free learning environment by asking our main office staff to call down students only for urgent matters.  As for forgotten lunches, please note that our food services staff will always provide students with nutritious lunches if they do not have one for any reason.  Thank you for your cooperation with this matter.

Lastly, I would like to remind all parents that we have created a Quiet Lunch space in the library for all students who would like to eat lunch in a calmer and less energetic environment.  If you feel your students can benefit from this resource, please encourage them to see Ms. Henchey, the librarian, and she will help them access the Quiet Lunch space.

Thank you and enjoy the upcoming week,

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School