Feb. 10 Update

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Happy Year of the Pig to those who celebrate the Lunar New Year!  I hope all of you who celebrate this event had the opportunity to be together with your friends and loved ones and I wish you a prosperous year.  I would like to thank the Winchester School of Chinese Culture (WSCC) and the Chinese American Network of Winchester for inviting me to this morning's New Year celebration at Winchester High.  While growing up in Taiwan, I remember the Lunar New Year being a time of great fun and excitement.  It was wonderful to be with folks who also celebrate this event and be connected to my roots and my culture.

This past Wednesday morning, Ms. Judy Crocker, Coordinator of the Massachusetts Safe Routes to School Program of the Department of Transportation, came to speak to parents during the monthly parent coffee.  I am including the PowerPoint slides she used during the presentation here.  Ms. Crocker proposed a series of action steps at the end of her presentation, and I would like to discuss some of them now.  The first is conducting Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety training.  Currently, Ms. Crocker is working with our Student Council students to create and deliver a Pedestrian Safety presentation to their elementary classmates at Lincoln Elementary School.  This opportunity allows our students to practice their leadership skills and to reinforce safe pedestrian practices for themselves as well.  Ms. Crocker will be working with our PE department during the spring to reinforce safe bicycle practices (e.g., how to wear helmets appropriately) to all of our middle school students .

Secondly, Ms. Crocker recommends that we reduce the amount of traffic during arrival and dismissal times by encouraging more students to walk or bike to school.  I will be working with the MPA to purchase more bike racks in preparation for the spring when we anticipate more students will be biking.  Ms. Crocker and I will be working to figure out how to increase more parents to choose the “park and walk” method.  That is, asking more parents to park their cars and drop off their students at remote locations and then asking the students to walk to school.  This approach is complex since it will impact the traffic in the school’s neighboring areas, so we will be involving our School Resource Officer in this discussion as well.

Lastly, I would like to continue to ask all parents to please obey the traffic and parking signage posted around the Lincoln and McCall areas and exercise safe driving practices so all pedestrians and drivers coming to or leaving McCall can do so safely.

Ms. Crocker will provide me with a written report of the observations she made of our arrival and dismissal processes as well as her recommendations.  I will share that information as soon as it is available.

I would like to conclude this message by reminding all 8^th grade families that the 8^th grade moving-on ceremony is scheduled in the evening of the last day of school.  Currently, that day is June 17, 2019.  If we have snow days or other school closing events that will cause the last day of school to be pushed later into that week, the moving-on ceremony will be held in the evening of the new last day of school.  I understand many students will be leaving for summer camp or other summer activities on June 22.  Therefore, if the last day of school is pushed out to June 24 or beyond, we will still keep the moving-on ceremony on June 21 in order to ensure as many 8^th graders are able to attend the event as possible.  The moving-on ceremony date  and time are posted in our school website calendar.

Thank you and enjoy the upcoming week, 

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

Feb. 3 Update

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope you are enjoying the weekend.  I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of a couple of things.

Parent Coffee – This month’s Parent Coffee will be held this Wednesday from 9:00-10:00 am.  I have invited Ms. Judith Crocker, the Outreach Coordinator from the Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School Program, to present to you.  Ms. Crocker has conducted a few observations of our school’s arrival and dismissal processes in December and will be presenting her findings as well as her proposed next steps.  I understand many of you may not be available to attend the Parent Coffee, so I will make sure notes from the meeting is made available to all of you.

Early Release Day Tomorrow – Please do not forget that tomorrow, Monday, Feb. 3 is an early release day.  Dismissal time is at 12:00 pm.

6^th and 7^th Grade Dance – The MPA will be sponsoring a 6^th and 7^th grade Dance for this Friday from 7:45-9:30 pm.  The entrance fee is $10 and snacks and drinks will be available for sale.  All 6^th and 7^th graders are invited to attend the event however, but please do not forget that we will not be able to accommodate 6^th and 7^th grade students who are not Winchester residents.

Thank you and enjoy the Super Bowl!  I hope it sparks joy for everyone!

James Lin
Principal

McCall Middle School

Jan. 27 Update

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope this message finds you well.  Thank you to everyone who came out this past week to conference with our teachers.  I hope you find the experience to be helpful.  Regardless of how well your students are performing at this point of the school year, it is important for all of us to continue to help them to develop perseverance.  I am including the following article for your reference.   This piece from Parent ToolKit made the compelling point of students who has acquired the ability to persevere is directly linked to their ability to graduate from high school, stay married, and keep a job.  It is such an important skill for students to acquire that one can argue it may be more important than learning the various contents a school teaches.

I think the key point that the author made is the importance of rewarding the students’ efforts and the strategies they utilized in order to achieve success instead of praising the students’ intelligence or innate abilities.  Consider two different ways a parent may respond to her child receiving an A on a big math test.  The first is to praise her by saying, “I am really proud of how well you organized your time this week so that you could put in the effort you needed to study for the test.”  Compare that to the second response where a parent says, “I am so proud of the A on the test because you have a good math brain.”  The first response draws the student’s attention to the strategies and effort she used and would increase the likelihood for her to return to them the next time she encounters similar challenges.  The second response linked a student’s success to her innate ability – something she has no control over.  By focusing the praise on intelligence and innate abilities, it may cause the student to think the struggle she faces in her next challenge is beyond her control, and thus there is not much she can do except to give up.  I hope you find the article to be helpful.

On a separate note, I would like to remind everyone that tomorrow, Monday, January 28 is the start of Semester 2.  Since some of your students' Exploratory Classes are semester long courses, your students’ schedules will change on Monday.  The school is not planning to print out paper schedules in order to conserve valuable resources.  Therefore, we ask all parents and guardians to access your students’ schedules through Aspen’s Parent Portal and remind your students where to go for their Exploratory classes on Monday.  The students themselves can also log onto the Aspen Student Portal in order to check what their Semester 2 Exploratory classes are and where their Semester 2 Exploratory classes are located.  You can do so by taking the following steps after you log in to the Portal:

· Click on the “Family” top tab.

· Click on the student’s name if you have multiple students in the district.

· Click on the “Schedule” side tab.

· Select “S2” on the drop down menu located right above the student’s schedule.

Please see this attachment if you need clarifications on the above instructions. 

Please note that most of your student’s schedule will not change for Semester 2.  Only the semester-long Exploratory Classes will change.

Lastly, please note that we have made a few adjustments to our MCAS Administration schedule.  Please click here for the updated MCAS schedule.  The MCAS dates are also posted on the calendar on our school website.  I urge everyone to plan ahead to make sure your students are in school during the testing dates.  We will make every effort to help your students make up the tests if they are absent for any reason.  However, taking make-up tests will cause your students lose additional instruction time.

Thank you and I wish you a great upcoming week!

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

Jan. 21 Update

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope everyone fared well through this cold and stormy weekend.  I would like to focus this week’s message on the upcoming parent conferences.  As you may know, all four school days this coming week are early release days, and dismissal will be at 12:00 pm.  Buses will arrive at that time to pick up students who typically utilize this mode of transportation to get home.  The afternoon time are scheduled for parent-teacher conferences.

I urge all parent and guardians who have scheduled conferences with your students’ teachers to arrive on time.  Since finding parking around McCall can be challenging, I encourage all of you to plan for that as well.  By now, all the conference slots for the team teachers are likely taken.  Therefore, please do not expect the teachers will be able to meet with you the same day if you miss or are late to your scheduled conferences.

I ask all parents and guardians to please contact your students’ teachers if you are unable to schedule a conference during the four conference days.  Due to the limited amount of meeting time that the teachers have available during the school year, they not be able to schedule a meeting with you in the near future.  The teachers may suggest that your students’ progress be discussed through phone conferences, email reports, or meetings with specific teachers as opposed to the entire team.

I would also like to remind everyone that the main purpose of the conferences is for teachers to provide you with an update of your student’s progress up to this point in the school year.  Due to the limited amount of time scheduled for each conference session, it is possible the teachers may not be able to answer all your questions or give you an in-depth response to your queries.  If that is the case, I encourage you to follow up with the teachers after the conferences are over to discuss the matter you were unable to discuss.  I am sharing with you the attached article from Understood.org (please click here) to help you prepare for the conferences.  It provides readers with some good advice about how to make the best use of your short parent-teacher conference time.  I hope you will find it to be helpful.

Lastly, I would like to share with you some announcements from our Student Council and The Garden Club.  Please see below:

Spider Plants On Sale 

The Greenhouse Club members will be selling spider plants during the week of parent-teacher conferences.  Spider plants make a great house plant and might be a nice addition to your kitchen or family room!  Plants will be on sale for $5.00 and all money raised will go toward monarch butterfly larvae sets as well as gardening tools for the greenhouse.  The students will be selling at a table near the main office. Cash only please. Thank you in advance for your support!

Cradles to Crayons

McCall is currently running a donation drive for Cradles to Crayons until Friday, February 1st. Cradles to Crayons is an organization where you can donate any high quality or gently used clothes for kids (ages newborn to 12 years old) living in low-income households. There are labeled boxes outside the main office where these much appreciated clothing items will be collected by the student council members. All donations must be bagged and labeled. Thank you in advance for your support!

Enjoy the upcoming week!

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

Jan. 13 Update

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope this message finds you well.  As you may know, this past Tuesday evening Superintendent Evans delivered her presentation on the FY 20 budget and the proposed Proposition 2 1/2 override process during the School Committee meeting held at the High School.  She discussed in detail the vision for McCall and the entire district as well as how we are planning to meet those goals.  Since both the school district as well as the entire municipality are currently facing significant budgetary challenges, Dr. Evans outlined the consequences that will occur if the town and the district do not receive an influx of revenues.  The PowerPoint presentations she used during the School Committee meeting are posted on the district website, and you can also access it here.  Dr. Evans will also be attending the monthly McCall Parent Association (MPA) meeting to be held this Tuesday at 9:00 am in the McCall Cafeteria to discuss the FY20 Budget.  I highly encourage all of you to attend this meeting so you can stay informed about McCall as well as the entire district.

Here are some reminders about two upcoming events.

Parent Conferences – Please do not forget Parent Conferences will be held in the afternoons of Tuesday, January 22 through Friday, January 25.  All four days are early release days with dismissal time scheduled at 12:00 pm.  You should have received the conference sign up information from your students’ teachers through email by now.  If you cannot locate those messages, please contact the Team Leaders directly (please click here if you do not know who your students’ Team Leaders are).  Please also note that we will not be able to meet all conference requests during those four afternoons due to the limited amount of slots available.  If the teachers are unable to schedule a conference during the week of January 22, they may suggest that your students’ progress be discussed through phone conferences, email reports, or meetings with specific teachers as opposed to the entire team.  Thank you for your understanding on this matter.

Semester Schedule Change – Please note that the first day of Semester 2 will be Monday, January 28.  Since some of your students’ Exploratory Classes are semester courses, your students’ schedules will change that day.  The school is not planning to print out paper schedules for your student in order to conserve valuable resources, so we ask all parents and guardians to access your students’ schedules through Aspen’s Parent Portal.  You can do so by taking the following steps after you log in to the Portal:

• Click on the “Family” top tab.
• Click on the student’s name if you have multiple students in the district.
• Click on the “Schedule” side tab.
• Select “S2” on the drop down menu located right above the student’s schedule.

Please see the attachment below if you need clarifications on the above instructions.

Please note that most of your student’s schedule will not change for Semester 2.  Only the semester-long Exploratory Classes will.

Thank you and enjoy the upcoming week.

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

Jan. 6 Update

Dear McCall Parents and Guardians,

I hope this message finds you well.  In addition to updating the McCall Principal’s Blog, I am also emailing you the following two important pieces of information directly because I am attempting to reach as many of you as possible. 

The first topic I would like to discuss with you pertains to vaping or juuling – a behavior that has become a serious health risk among adolescents across this country in recent years.  We at McCall Middle School recognize Winchester students are not immune to this problem so we are teaching them the most up-to-date information about vaping as well as appropriate refusal skills during their Wellness classes.  In addition, this year we will be implementing SBIRT (i.e, Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral, Treatment) to our 7^th graders in order to prevent – or at least delay – alcohol, tobacco, or drug use.  The SBIRT protocol will also allow our staff to reinforce healthy decisions and address concerns about substance abuse to our students.  However, our efforts will not be successful without your support from home.  Therefore, with the help of Mr. Jason Levene, the District’s K-12 Administrator of Counseling, Health, and Wellness, the attached letter has been written to help all of you familiarize themselves with the resources that are available to address the problem of adolescent vaping and substance abuse.  I hope you will take the time to review it (please click here).

Secondly, I would like to let everyone know that we have finalized the MCAS testing dates for this spring.  That information is included in the school website calendar (please click here) and is also attached to this message (please click here).  Please take a moment to make note of the testing dates that pertain to your students.  I urge you to make every effort to ensure your child attend school during their scheduled MCAS testing dates.  We will certainly do what we can to help your students make up any missed MCAS tests, however, taking the tests during make up sessions will cause your students to lose additional instructions on top of what they already missed due to their absences.  I encourage you to plan your April and May schedules with the MCAS dates in mind.

Thank you and I wish you a wonderful week!

James Lin

Principal

McCall Middle School

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