Hello Wedgwood Families!
Welcome to the 2008-09 school year. We have been busy this summer getting ready for the start of the year. We have new classrooms, new teachers, two new PTA presidents, and a new principal! All of these additions have brought a renewed energy and excitement to our community.
In order to welcome more students, the district and our teachers have been hard at work to ready two new and exciting learning environments for our incoming first grade classes. Ms. Denney will be in Portable 3 and one of our new teachers-Ms. Wolfe, will be in Portable 1.
I would also like to welcome Ms. Rudisill our new Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Cox, our new 5th grade teacher, Ms. Sokolow our new enrichment teacher, Mr. Cooper our new special education teacher, Ms Harmeling who will be with us while Ms Tice is on maternity leave and Ms. Amar-Strugo our counselor. Our new teachers bring a wealth of knowledge and a passion for teaching, learning and our students.
We know that enhancing teacher learning positively impacts the learning that goes on in our classrooms. Thanks to the generosity of the PTA and the generous monetary support that our families provide to Wedgwood, our teachers were able to have an educationally enriching summer filled with learning and professional growth. For example, a cohort of four Wedgwood teachers were able to attend professional development on literacy instruction and had the opportunity to collaborate with each other about extending the literacy practice in and across their classrooms. Another teacher went to New York to study writing instruction at Columbia Teachers College, which is one of the nations leading institutions for the study of writing instruction. Another teacher received a full scholarship to attend the University of Washington for a summer science institute. Other teachers took classes on integrating theater and the arts into classroom, integrating yoga techniques to assist with focus, and one of our teachers spent time learning about how integrating Chess into the curriculum can extend instruction around literacy, math and critical thinking, as well as social skills and sportsmanship.
Our teachers are refreshed, renewed and ready to begin this year of learning with our children. Through PTA support the staff was able to go to the Center for Wooden Boats to learn about enhancing our curriculum and instruction to encompass environmental and experiential education. This week we worked intensely to strengthen our programs to focus on supporting the learning necessary to produce high academic achievement as well as rigorous instruction that will prepare our students to be global citizens. Our growing population means that we have the opportunity to meet and learn from a larger group of people. We know that this increase will have its logistic adjustments, but we teachers, students, staff and families will be working together as community to ensure that each and every child continues to have the high quality education that a Wedgwood student has always had. We know that all of this would not be possible if not for the generosity of the PTA and we are extremely grateful for such supportive families.
I would like to invite each of you to learn more about what is going on at Wedgwood by attending our monthly “Mocha Mondays.” The first dates of these informal, once a month meetings, to “talk story” with the principal will be on September 3rd and then on October 6th.
I am looking forward to meeting each of you soon!
Denise Espania
Principal of Wedgwood Elementary
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