MARGRE DURHAM CONCERTS FOR YOUTH

The fourth grade students at Washington Intermediate will be attending the Concerts for Youth on Friday, February 22nd, at the Holland Performaning Arts Center in Omaha. The students will join the Omaha Symphony as they explore “The Composer’s Craft.” Through interactive and directed listening, students will explore how composers put all of the notes together. Whether it’s joining the orchestra on stage, answering questions from a seat in the audience, or working together to compose a piece of original music, the Omaha Symphony’s Concerts for Youth acknowledges that students learn by doing.

Thank you to PTO for helping provide this opportunity by paying for the cost of the transportation and a portion of each student's ticket.



From the Omaha Performing Arts website...


Omaha, Neb – Join the Omaha Symphony and 10,000 area elementary students as they
participate in Concerts for Youth, February 21, 22, and 23 at the Holland Performing Arts Center. The Omaha Symphony Concerts for Youth performances feature an exciting repertoire and interactive student activities throughout the concert created to engage the students and follow this year’s theme of “rhythm.”



“With each performance, students gets to explore and experience the sounds of a full
symphony orchestra – some for the first time,” said Jennifer Boomgaarden, director of education and community partnerships with the Omaha Symphony. Students will get to be a part of the final song as the Symphony will have the students use an unusual instrument for the first time in history!

This year’s Concerts for Youth are supported by First Comp and the Omaha Symphony Guild.
Performances will be held each day, February 21-23, at 9:45 a.m. and 11:10 a.m. at the Holland
Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas Street.

Meet Mr. Maurer

Olivia sits down to interview Mr. Maurer. Learn more about Mr. Maurer by clicking on the video below. Continue to check our website for more student interviews and videos!

From the Desk of Mr. Barry

From the February 2008 Washington Intermediate Newsletter (click to visit)

Starting 2008 Off On the Right Foot!
If your house is anything like mine after the holidays, it may be hard for everyone to get back into a routine! Students return to school after being on different sleeping, eating, studying and playing schedules. It usually takes a week or so to get back on track and get focused on the task at hand. I was very impressed with how our students returned from the holiday break and got back to work so quickly and so efficiently! They deserve a pat on the back!

Mid-Year Testing
The students took our mid-year (winter) reading comprehension and fluency (rate and speed) assessments the first two weeks of January. We measure these two reading areas three times a year to monitor progress. As a building, we saw an average growth of over 8 months since September. This was twice the normal growth for 4 months time between tests and I am proud of the students and teachers work with their reading comprehension skills. Your child’s individual growth will be shared with you during our February Parent-Teacher conferences on February 25th and 28th.

After School Math
A note came home this earlier in January with the final 6 dates for the After School Math program and an explanation of our year end Math Celebration and Contest. We are asking students who want to participate in the May math contest to attend 4 of our final 6 after school dates. All students will be welcome to attend the celebration in which we will hand out certificates, awards and crown our Washington Math Team Champions. Last year the students had a blast and we hope to repeat the success and fun this year! Remaining dates as of now are Feb 12 & 26; March 11 & 25 and the May 6th Celebration.

Pain Free Fundraiser!
Before break, we received a $15 check from the Goodsearch.com. This money came from searching done from the www.goodsearch.com site by staff, parents and anyone else who indicated “Washington Intermediate” as the charity of their choice. The $15 may not seem like much, but it was only for 3 months time. We hope to increase our numbers this year! This is one fundraiser that does not cost anyone a dime! Visit the site, search and bookmark it for later use! More information is listed on our website (http://wistigers.blogspot.com). If you have questions, do not hesitate to call, email or stop in my office.

Student Advisory
The students at Washington Intermediate collected, organized and delivered nearly 600 food items to the local food pantry the week before break. It was quite a group effort as every class collected over 30 food items and one class, Ms. Linn's, collected nearly 200 food items on their own! The November and December Student Advisory groups helped load the food items into Mr. Barry and Mr. Maurer's vehicles. Then, the 5th grade Student Advisory students helped take the items to the food pantry near the Square and unload all the items. Mr. Barry is extremely PROUD of each and every student at Washington Intermediate for taking part in this program. It is a very CARING act of kindness before the holidays.

The Lost Word in Today's World: “No”

I recently read a very interesting and useful article written in the School Administrators of Iowa monthly newsletter. Below, we have reprinted a large portion of the article with the permission of Dr. Dan Smith, Executive Director of SAI. I would be interested in hearing your feedback, thoughts or "success stories." Call, send or email them to me! ~ Mr. Barry


The Importance of “No”
By Dr. Dan Smith

I recently had the privilege of hearing Dr. David Walsh speak on the topic of “Say Yes to No.” He is a Minnesotan who has written a book titled No: Why Kids-of All Ages-Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It.

Dr. Walsh believes that many young people today suffer from what he calls Discipline Deficit Disorder (DDD) because our society has become focused on Four Cultural Values:
1. More
2. Easy
3. Fast
4. Fun

As a result, our students lack a key success trait, which is self-discipline. Dr. Walsh cites “The Marshmallow Story” to illustrate the importance of self-discipline. This story comes from a research study done at Stanford in the 1960s and involved four-year-olds where an experimenter gave each child a choice. Basically, each child was presented with a marshmallow and told that if they waited to eat the marshmallow at a later time that they would receive an additional one.

Some of the kids couldn’t resist the temptation and ate the marshmallow. Others were able to delay their gratification in order to get a second marshmallow. They sang songs or looked away from the marshmallow.

Interestingly, all of these four-year-olds were followed until they were 18. The students who were able to delay gratification were happier, they were more successful in school, and were more popular. The moral of the story is that setting limits and the skills of self-discipline that we teach our kids early in life equip them with the competence needed for success later in life.

Dr. Walsh’s book presents information to parents and educators on strategies to develop self-discipline. It talks about the myths of self-esteem which are based on feeling good, and beliefs that self-esteem comes before success and that stress or disappointment damage self-esteem. He believes that true self-esteem comes from overcoming challenges and successfully dealing with failure and disappointment.

Carson & Leatha Interview Mr. Barry

It takes two determined 4th grade students to ask Mr. Barry the tough questions! Leatha & Carson came up with some great questions for Mr. Barry and they were able to catch up with him right before break. Click above to watch the video.

Continue to visit our webpage for more staff interviews and student created videos.

Sleep: The Secret Weapon for School Success

Lack of sleep is a national epidemic for today's children, and the consequences are serious.

By Lisa Rosenthal, GreatSchools Staff, GreatSchool.com

Is your child having behavior problems and trouble in school? Making sure she gets enough sleep may be the solution.

Lack of sleep is a national epidemic for today's children, and the consequences are serious. Sleep deprivation can affect cognitive skills and academic achievement. A continuing lack of sleep is linked to serious health problems including diabetes, obesity, heart disease, depression and a shortened life span.

(To read the rest of this interesting and useful article from GreatSchools.com, please click here.)

Stop Bullying Now

Students & Parents - visit http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov for fun games, cool videos and tips on how you can help Stop Bullying Now. More information on how we will use this at Washington Intermediate will be coming! Until then, let us know what you think of the site by posting a comment below.