Later start time for JAMS?

A couple of people have emailed the blog suggesting a later start time for JAMS. A parent raised this issue at a JAMS meeting and later started an online petition for an 8:30 start time to match that of Nathan Hale. Tracy's petition makes some great points. Please check it out!

The National Sleep Foundation points out in an article on later school start times that adolescents need as much sleep as children, but the changes in their bodies make their natural "fall asleep" time later.

So how does this compare with other schools? Most Seattle middle schools start at 7:50. (Denny is the only exception -- it starts at 7:40!) Hale starts at 8:30; Garfield and Ingraham both start at 8:00.

So, what do you think? Any downsides?

World Language Programming at JAMS

World languages have generated the most emails to this blog and also have been prominent in the comments to several posts.  Clearly this is a topic that lots of us care about!  Principal Montgomery has said that Karen Kodama, the district's International Education Administrator, is helping with planning and continuity for world languages at JAMS.

Ms. Montgomery earlier sent us the following: "Yes to foreign languages, starting for 6th graders. At this point, I can say absolutely Spanish and Japanese due in large part to preparing students for high school. I will need to see the number of current 6th graders in French before making a decision."

Choosing the languages won't be easy -- there are continuity issues for students transferring to JAMS from Eckstein, Hamilton, and Jane Addams K-8, as well as issues of preparing students for language study at the high school level at Nathan Hale, Garfield, and Ingraham.

	JA K-8	Eckstein	Hamilton	Hale	Garfield	Ingraham
Chinese	X			maybe in the works?
Japanese		X	X	X	X	X
Spanish	X	X	X	X	X	X
French		X		X	X	X

 Eckstein offers three languages starting in 7th grade. Hamilton has only 2 languages, but offers them for three years. 

KM pointed out in a comment: "From what I understand, two years of a World Language taken in middle school counts towards one year of high-school level World Language, so a student who has taken a World Language, for two years, in middle school could enter at the second year level in high school."  


Spanish: Definitely will be offered
Paula Montgomery has stated that Spanish will definitely be offered at JAMS.  

French: On the fence

As noted above, Ms. Montgomery will need to see how many kids would be interested in French before a decision is made about whether to offer French.  L. A. emailed us:

My son is a current seventh grader at Eckstein. Students are not able to begin a foreign language at Eckstein until 7th grade so if Ms. Montgomery is counting current 6th grade students taking French then Eckstein would have zero or none. I'm worried this will impact her decision on whether or not to offer second year French to incoming eight graders.

For Nathan Hale, two years of middle school foreign language classes allows a freshman student to start the same language at a second year high school level. My son would need to continue French in eighth grade in order to qualify for this two year deal. French is offered at Nathan Hale.

He loves his current French teacher at Eckstein, wants to continue French next year (and at the high school level), and is very disappointed to hear he may not have that opportunity at the new JAMS. 

Lori had previously commented and pointed out that this might be a place to use mitigation funds:

I'm curious how languages will be handled with kids coming in from Eckstein and Hamilton, which have slightly different offerings. Both have Spanish and Japanese, but only Eckstein has French. Seems those kids already studying French should be able to continue, but will there be enough to support a teacher? I hope this an area where the district can provide mitigation funds. That is, even if it's only a handful of kids, and such a low number generally wouldn't justify a position, they'll make a "hardship" exception so children can continue their chosen language. A school with 700 kids probably wouldn't normally offer 3 different languages, but this one should have to, given the circumstances.

Japanese: Continued from HIMS and Eckstein but possibly phased out

 Wedgwood Family commented: "Paula also mentioned three years of language being offered to every student and phasing out Japanese for new langauge learners and adding Mandarin. Will JAMS become an international school?"

Shannon commented: "For the Japanese Language program at HIMS they have an exchange program and end of the year trip for 8th graders who have had 2 years of Japanese. My son was looking forward to participating."

Ms.Montgomery has indicated that Japanese will be offered at JAMS; however, she has stated that Japanese might be offered only temporarily, until the 7th and 8th graders coming from Eckstein and Hamilton have moved on to high school.

Mandarin Chinese: A Possibility

At her meeting with Sacajawea parents, Paula Montgomery mentioned that Hale is actually encouraging her to offer Mandarin Chinese at JAMS. It sounded as though Hale was considering or instituting a Mandarin track.

Z. X. emailed us:  

"I would very much like to see that Chinese is offered as an option for foreign language at the new JAM middle school. Many students would have liked to taken it if it were offered at HIMS (or at least their parents would have liked their kids to take it). In fact, many parents lobbied the principle at HIMS, but it was not possible because the foreign language teachers were already hired there.  Since JAM is starting new, this will be a golden opportunity to start to offer Chinese. It would be a strategically smart move."

KM commented: "JA K-8 offers Spanish and Chinese/Mandarin (Mandarin is new this year). Historically, languages at the K-8 were only available for 7th and 8th graders, but I'm not sure if that still applied to this year's (large) 6th grade class."

As mentioned above, Ms. Montgomery has mentioned the possibility that JAMS and Hale could institute a continuous track for Mandarin Chinese.

Language travel opportunities?
A few commenters have written about how much their Eckstein or Hamilton students have been looking forward to traveling with their language classes in their 8th grade year. These do indeed sound like amazing opportunities that would be really hard for these kids to give up. 

Shannon commented: "For the Japanese Language program at HIMS they have an exchange program and end of the year trip for 8th graders who have had 2 years of Japanese. My son was looking forward to participating"

JoRo commented: "Please offer French. I hope you are able to pull together a language travel program for language students. That is the #1 thing my kid was looking forward to - for her 8th grade at eckstein."

Leanne G. commented:

For the Spanish program, Eckstein students travel to Costa Rica after the end of school each year...it is typically a combination of tourism and service projects, as well as home stays with host families. Ihave only heard good things about it...my daughter would have participated next year after her 8th grade year. I think the best way to learn about these programs is to have language leads/Paula schedule some time with the coordinating teachers at Eckstein or Hamilton. Apollonia Guerra is the Eckstein Spanish teacher who coordinates the Costa Rica trip.

JAMS Meeting tonight -- your thoughts?

If you attended the JAMS meeting this evening in the Jane Addams building, please share your thoughts and have a conversation about it!

Here are links to the materials: Dec. 11 JAMS Meeting Materials and JAMS Dec 18 Meeting Presentation Materials


They are available from the JAMS FusionPage: http://jams.www.seattleschools.org

As always, please review and adhere to our posting guidelines. 

Official JAMS website and new opportunities to get involved!

There is now an official JAMS website where Principal Montgomery can directly upload materials and information for the JAMS community! You can "join" the Fusion Page to be alerted when new materials are posted.  You do this by logging in with your Source login.  You do not have to join in order to read the page.  Here is the link:

http://jams.www.seattleschools.org/

In addition to the PTA/PTSA Steering Committee opportunity we posted about last Friday, there are two other new ways to get involved.

Apply to join the Parent Core Team

From the new JAMS Fusion website:

Parents, please consider being a leader in your community and be part of the JAMS parent planning team. The core team seeks 1-2 parent representatives from each of our elementary schools as well as Eckstein and Hamilton. This is an exciting time to help create an incredible new school. See the attachment for the application and send or email back to Principal Montgomery.

Principal Montgomery's email address is: p l mont gom ery at seattle schools dot org [remove spaces, replace words with symbols]

 

Join a Teacher Interview Team -- incoming students can do this too!

Principal Paula Montgomery has already posted six Lead Teacher positions in the district's internal hiring process. Interviews are coming up, and both parents and students can be involved. The same kind of interview teams will be formed throughout the spring as general hiring progresses. Broad representation from the different JAMS feeder schools is highly desirable. 

Here are the steps to get involved:

1. Complete the SEA Site-Based Interview Training.
You must have completed the SEA Site-Based Interview Training prior to being put on an interview team. Interested students must also attend the training in order to participate. Here is the schedule and contact info for registering for upcoming trainings; the next one is on January 9. They are held at the John Stanford Center in SoDo.

Ms. Montgomery is also working with HR to have a training take place at JAMS so that parents and students don't have to travel as far.

2.  After completing training, tell Ms. Montgomery about your interest.
Ms. Montgomery wants to bring in as many parent communities as possible. However, a caveat: an interview team must be of a manageable size, so any given team will likely include only one representative from each constituency.  You can reach her at: p l mont gomery at seattle schools dot org. [Remove spaces, replace words with symbols.]

There are two interviews coming up soon, for which Ms. Montgomery is reaching out to PTA organizations to put together interview teams. 
1. Head Counselor: Tuesday, December 17, 3:45-6:00, Jane Addams Middle School
2. Arts Team Leader: Wednesday, December 18, 3:45-6:00, Jane Addams Middle School

Jane Addams MS PTSA Steering Committee – Volunteers Needed!

An important message from John Rogers parent Kim McCormick:

 

A Steering Committee is currently being formed in order to navigate and complete the process of creating a PTA/PTSA charter for JAMS.  We are seeking 1-2 volunteers from the feeder elementary schools, as well as Eckstein and Hamilton.  Steering committee duties will include working with SCPTSA representatives to complete and submit the charter application, establishment of the JAMS PTA/PTSA Standing Rules, and PTA/PTSA Board structure; as well as planning for the initial JAMS PTA/PTSA Charter Meeting.  A separate nomination committee will be formed at a later date for the nomination of JAMS PTSA Board officers, to be elected by the JAMS PTSA as a whole.  The goal is to hold the Charter Meeting in Spring 2014.

 

Thank you to those who have already stepped up to help with this task!  We currently have enough volunteers from APP @ Lincoln, John Rogers, and Thornton Creek.  In order to complete the Steering Committee, we are still seeking volunteers from the following schools:

 

Eckstein

Hamilton

Sacajawea

Olympic Hills

 

Parents from schools other than the feeder schools, who will have a child attending JAMS (i.e. Jane Addams K-8, Wedgwood, View Ridge, Laurelhurst, etc…), are also encouraged to participate.

 

For more information, or to volunteer for the JAMS PTSA Steering Committee, please contact parent Kim McCormick:
kim mc cormick at com cast dot net  [remove spaces, replace words with symbols]

 

Thank you!

Tonight's JAMS Meeting: Your thoughts?

If you attended the JAMS meeting this evening in the Jane Addams building, please share your thoughts and have a conversation about it!

Here is a link to the materials: Dec. 11 JAMS Meeting Materials

If you missed the meeting, don't worry -- there will be another with the same agenda next Wednesday, December 18, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. in the Jane Addams building.

As always, please review and adhere to our posting guidelines. 

Open thread for your thoughts

REMINDER:  THERE ARE TWO MEETINGS at the Jane Addams Building coming up, in which Planning Principal Paula Montgomery will speak with prospective parents about JAMS.  Please plan to attend one or both of these meetings!

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11

and

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18 

Both meetings run from 6:30 to 8 in the Jane Addams Middle School library, and both will follow the same agenda.  More info about the agenda can be found here: Post: JAMS Meetings Coming Up -- Please Come!

The Jane Addams building is located at 11051 34th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98125.  The library is located on the second floor.

___________________________________
Share your thoughts about JAMS programming and facilities in the comments to this post.  Starting next week, we will have regular posts about specific areas of programming, incorporating the comments we have so far received from you on this blog and by email.

Please keep the following statement of our blog's focus in mind (this is posted on the right nav bar and on our Guidelines page):

This is a narrowly defined blog. It is about planning JAMS and facilitating community engagement. It is offered by parent volunteers. This is not a place to discuss school district policies, personalities, or politics. It is a place for constructive civil discourse. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or abusive comments without warning or comment.

In addition, we ask that if you post using the "anonymous" option that you choose some sort of handle or posting name, some kind of word that will help the others in the conversation refer to your comment. 

Please review our posting guidelines before commenting. Thank you!

Easing the transition for incoming 7th and 8th graders

In response to some questions about whether the upcoming JAMS meetings will be appropriate for incoming students to attend, Paula  Montgomery sent us the following.

I think that it's fine to bring current middle school students to the December meetings; however, I am thinking that the bulk of the time at the meeting will be to answer questions about programming.

Once we (Eckstein principal, Hamilton principal, and I) get a list of students making the transfer, we will have regular meetings with current 6th and 7th graders to include them in the planning in a way designed for student voice. All three of us want to make sure that all students transferring have a high degree of attention prior to the summer. Once we have teachers hired, those new teachers will also be involved in working with students.

It sounds as though the middle school principals have this question of  transitioning students from their current schools very much on their radar.  We've had some discussion in the comments on this blog about ways to help these kids, including meetups well before school starts.

If your child is one who will be re-assigned to JAMS from another middle school, what do you think your child is concerned about?  What worries you?  What would help your child feel more on board with changing schools?  What can the community do to help?

JAMS Meetings Coming Up -- Please Come!

From Paula Montgomery, the JAMS Planning Principal:
_________________________
While it is early in the process (we have not hired team leaders), I know that parents have many, many questions, want to meet me, and want to start to give input.

The agenda is the same for both meetings. And we will have monthly meetings after the school year, including a day time option.

Jane Addams Middle School Community Meeting
Jane Addams Middle School Library
(Same agenda both dates)

Wednesday, December 11 6:30-8:00
Wednesday, December 18 6:30-8:00
Agenda:
Overview of timeline , teacher hiring, and spring processes
Review of facility work
Q & A
Opportunity for parents and community to give first input into the educational design
Brief school tour
_______________________

EDITED TO ADD:  Paula Montgomery, asked about bringing kids to the December meetings, responded: "I think that it's fine to bring current middle school students to the December meetings; however, I am thinking that the bulk of the time at the meeting will be to answer questions about programming."  She added that there are plans to involve current 6th and 7th graders in the planning -- please see the next post.

Also, in response to questions about touring the JA building, she reminded us: "We will absolutely provide tours of the school, but they will need to be during the evening when school is not in session. And yes, no one should enter a school without permission from the current principal."