TWKDMS 2020-2021 Update

Dear Students, Parents, and Guardians,

These are challenging times, and it seems like things change every single day. We still do not have enough information to know exactly what the start of school will look like, but we are working hard this summer and strive to have our students safely back in the school this fall.

Throughout most of the country, we learned during emergency remote learning that communication, organization, and instruction were all areas needing improvement. Part of the problem for TWKDMS came from our schedule, where each student had 6 or more teachers and therefore most teachers had over 100 students. Once regular attendance was disrupted, there were simply too many connections needed for everything to run smoothly.

To simplify communication, promote greater consistency, and improve instruction through collaboration, TWKDMS is adopting grade-level teams for the 2020-2021 school year.

This means that each team of 3 teachers will be able to focus on the needs of the 60 students whom they share. It also means that each student only has to communicate with 3 teachers, which I know will be a welcomed relief for many of our young people.

I am asking our faculty to collaborate with each other more than ever before and to invest time into planning for this approach, but the staff’s feedback has been enthusiastic and positive. We truly believe that by adopting grade-level teams we will be able to provide a better education for our middle school students no matter what happens due to COVID-19.

Grade 6 Team

Mrs. Stacey Gilbert (ELA and SS)
Mr. Griffin Graves (Sci and Arts)
Mrs. Yami Hamalainen (Math and PE/Health)

Grade 7 Team

Mr. David Buck (Sci and Arts)
Ms. Emily Cote (ELA and SS)
Mr. Nathan Schultz (Math and PE/Health)

Grade 8 Team

Mrs. Lisa Hutchins (ELA and Sci)
Mr. Josh Wilcox (Math and PE/Health)
Ms. Abby Wood (SS and Arts)

Special education staff will be connected with each team as well. More information will be shared later in July. Thank you and have a safe summer!

Go Cougars!

Mr. Long