MS Life

Back to School Night offers parents an opportunity to get acquainted with the inner Middle School workings.

• Technology used to support our academic program: First Class (our Academy-wide email system), eBackpack (our electronic classroom binder program), and PowerSchool (our electronic grading system program)
• Specials (Art, Health, Music, & PE), World Language Programs (French & Spanish) and classroom teachers of Humanities, Math, & Science.
• Classroom visits with a mock daily schedule

This is an open event for sharing information and not the time for parent-teacher conferences, which are held during Family Weekend.

There are times throughout the school year when all Middle School students take a break from campus for ventures out into cities and woodlands. Some trips are day-long, while some are overnight. Examples of such trips are: Washington, D.C., Acadia National Park in Maine, Camp Shepard, and Nature's Classroom at Lake George, N.Y.

At the end of the school year, students come together for friendly games and activities. This is also the time of year, students sign each others' yearbooks and tie-died event T-shirts.

The Looking Back/Moving Forward MS Parent Meeting coincides with our Spring Semi-Formal Dance Friday. While students are enjoying the dance, parents meet with the Middle School Director to hear about the concluding year, as well as the upcoming school year.

Newly enrolled families are also invited to attend and this meeting is a good venue to welcome new families to WMA Middle School!

One way a people remember the past is by building monuments that honor its heroes or commemorate its tragedies. In creating any memorial, the individuals involved must ask a variety of questions. Some deal with the purpose of the memorial; others focus on its audience; and still others consider who will be remembered and why. Is it possible to make people think about the unthinkable? Memorials and monuments reflect our values. They speak to what we think is important and what we choose to remember.

Students choose an event, person, or theme connected to their studies. Some monuments are directly connected to the events in the Holocaust, while others are connected by theme: courage, choosing to participate, the impact of words we use, bullying, labels, etc.

The lesson culminates with a showcase event in Binney Gallery where students are prepared to give a presentation to guests answer questions about their projects. Families and the WMA community are invited.

An extraordinary cap to the school year, the Middle School Closing Ceremony incorporates musical performances, academic prize presentations and Grade 8 class speaker and diploma presentations. The event begins and ends with our esteemed Grade 8 students in procession, dressed in their best and Middle School families are our honored guests.

The Grade 8 Moving Up Program is for current Middle School students who will be WMA freshman the following year. Parents are invited to attend part of the program.

Part One: Families are welcomed to our Innovation Lab for refreshments and a presentation by key Grade 9 personnel. After the presentation, families and students visit major classroom functions to learn about what is covered in each discipline.

Part Two: To further facilitate the transition Grade 8 students students spend two class periods in the Upper School, giving them an opportunity to meet more of the faculty and students and get a sense of the difference between the Middle School and Upper School.

At the start of the school year, all families come together to become familiar with the school and the new school year.

• New families meet current families and teachers
• Faculty showcase their classrooms and curriculum
• Technology and login credentials are introduced
• Students locate their lockers and try out their lock combination
• Music instruments and lessons are explored
• Athletics options are presented
• Parents part with their children as students go off to get acquainted through fun activities

Toward the end of the school year, students perform their musical talents for family and the WMA community. Our music directors work with students all year to prepare selections from classical, jazz, rock and pop genres.

Additionally, student artwork is on display including pottery, watercolors and ink.

Students come together dressed in semi-formal wear in a decorated Campus Center to enjoy a night of food, friendships and dancing. Organized by the Student Council, this event is usually well-attended by the eighth grade class since it's the final dance of their Middle School career.

Grade 7 Humanities class dives deep into the Civil Rights Movement. Students are "guest speakers" in these four-minute presentations. Families and the WMA community are invited to attend.

• 1950s Thurgood Marshall (Early Cases)
• 1955 Moses Newsom (Reporter)
• 1955 Claudette Colvin (Bus Protest)
• 1957 Terrence Roberts (Little Rock Nine)
• 1960 Diane Nash (Sit-Ins)
• 1961 James Peck (Freedom Riders)
• 1960s Sargent Shiver (Community Service)
• 1963 Malcolm X (Black Nationalism)
• 1963 Addie Mae Collins (16th Street Church Bombing)
• 1963 Cynthia Wesley (16th Street Church Bombing)
• 1964 Andrew Goodman (Freedom Summer)
• 1964 Malcolm X (Taking Action)
• 1965 John Lewis (Voting Rights)
• 1965 Sheyann Webb (Edmund Pettus Bridge)
• 1888 W.E.B. Dubois (Harvard Univ.)
• 1905 W.E.B. Dubois (Niagara Movement)
• 1936 Thurgood Marshall (Univ. of Maryland)
• 1952 Medgar Evers (NAACP)
• 1954 Claudette Colvin (Bus Protest)
• 1955 Moses Newsom (Reporter - Emmett Till)
• 1957 Elizabeth Eckford (Thoughts about Daisy Bates)
• 1957 Terrence Roberts (Experiences at Central High)
• 1960 John Lewis (Sit-In Movement)
• 1961 James Zwerg (Freedom Riders)
• 1961 James Peck (Freedom Riders)
• 1961 John Lewis (Freedom Riders)
• 1961 Sargent Shriver (Community Service)
• 1964 Andrew Goodman (Freedom Summer)
• 1965 Malcolm X (Mecca)

Each winter, the Student Council organizes a dance event, allowing students to socialize and have fun together.