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The Western Wayne Middle School started a new tradition on the last day of school which was Friday, June 18, this year. It is called the 8th Grade Final Walk. As a final activity before leaving the building to move on to the high school, 8th grade students took a walk through the hallways appropriately led by two of their teachers that have led them through their middle school years Cynthia Bianchi and Sharon Giombetti, who are retiring.
Bianchi and Giombetti led the procession through the hallways of the middle school and received flowers from 6th and 7th grade students along the way. The two ended up with beautiful bouquets at the end along with many well wishes from students, faculty, and staff who lined the hallways and met them outside of the building to celebrate.
Giombetti has been a gym and health teacher at Western Wayne for 18 years. She is a high school graduate from Coughlin High School in Wilkes-Barre.
“I felt honored to be given such a send off,” Giombetti said. “It was such a surprise.”
Fellow retiree Bianchi agreed.
“This was wonderful,” she said. “I was totally blown away by the love of the faculty and students.”
Bianchi has been a sixth grade teacher for 34 years. She taught math every year with some other subjects on occasion throughout her time in the district. Bianchi notes that she also was a Western Wayne student who began her time at the school in Head Start which means she spent 14 years as a student at the district before eventually beginning her teaching career. In total as both student and teacher, she has spent 48 years at Western Wayne.
Western Wayne faculty, administration, staff, and students wish Bianchi and Giombetti the best in the future.

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“You have conquered so much this year,” Lillian Maros, Western Wayne’s 8th grade student council president, told all in attendance at the annual 8th Grade Moving-Up Ceremony.

In her speech, Lillian addressed the many challenges that students, teachers, and their families faced in school both last year and this year due to COVID-19.  She expressed her gratitude for all she and the other students were able to do this year both academically and in extracurricular activities.  

Of course the culminating activity of 8th grade year has always been the annual Moving-Up Ceremony which serves as a final milestone for our middle school students.  The event looked a bit different this year being held at the football stadium instead of the middle school gym, but it was just as meaningful, if not more, to all of those in attendance.

All 8^th grade students received awards in various categories for excellence or improvement in all academic and unified arts classes.  In addition, students received awards for good citizenship, excellent work habits, and for a variety of high academic achievements such as making the honor roll for 11 quarters in middle school from 6^th through 8^th grade.  After all of the students received their initial awards, the class of 2025 stood up, and the entire stadium filled with their family and friends gave them a standing ovation.

It is also a Western Wayne Middle School tradition for many years that two outstanding students, one male and one female, are recognized for their patriotism and leadership among other qualities.  The local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the local American Legion present these awards.   

The Daughters of the American Revolution Award was presented to 8^th grader Lia Hartman.   

Lia received the good citizenship medal from the Daughters of the American Revolution for being an outstanding student in the 8^th grade class who exhibits the qualities of honor and honesty, service, courage, leadership, and patriotism. 

George Schaffer presented the American Legion Award to 8^th grader David Elias.  

David received this annual award for being an outstanding student in the 8^th grade class who exhibits the qualities of honor, scholarship, Americanism, leadership, and courage. 

Both Lia and David felt extremely honored to receive their respective awards.  They also both, at first, felt shocked to learn the Daughters of the American Revolution and the American Legion had chosen them for these high honors. 

David is a hard-working young man who believes that a strong work ethic is the key to success.  He is most looking forward to his introduction to business class in his freshman year.

“I was really intrigued by the course description,” David said. “I look forward to taking it on as a challenge of something new next year.”

Lia agrees that the new variety of classes she will take in high school is what she looks forward to the most.

“I’m so excited for new experiences,” Lia explained.  “I can’t wait to start working with the Western Wayne High School Marching Band this summer where I will play the flute.”

As a new tradition this year, students and their families made poster boards of pictures of favorite memories of their students.  In the past a slideshow had been done, but since the ceremony was held outside it seemed fitting to add the personal touch of posters hung on the fences that line the stadium.  

Western Wayne faculty, administration, and staff wish the class of 2025 the best on their new journey to the high school.

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Cheers filled the Western Wayne Middle School Gym as the 8th grade class cheered on their classmates and teachers in the annual Student vs. Faculty Basketball Game on the afternoon of Thursday, May 27.

The students felt thrilled to get to participate in this school tradition for 8th graders and their teachers that they were unable to have last year due to COVID-19.

Eighth graders Aliya Fiorella and Raegan Palmer planned the event with the permission and assistance of the principal and staff.  Both girls play on Western Wayne’s Girls Basketball Team.

“It was a really cool experience to see our teachers out of the classroom and in a different element, not being so serious,” Raegan said.

The entire 8th grade class had fun and were glad to be a part of an annual school event in such a uniquely challenging school year.

“I was really glad to be able to plan something my classmates and teachers could enjoy,” Aliya said.

Picture One:  From left, the Western Wayne student team for the annual Student vs. Faculty game, standing:  Adam Bartholomew, Sean Owens, David Elias, Ethan Lamberton, Hayden Mundrake, Tony Donnini,  and Evan Ronchi.  From left, kneeling:  Raegan Palmer, Grace Langendoerfer, Madison Stiffler, and Aliya Fiorella.

Picture Two:  From left, Raegan Palmer and Aliya Fiorella, 8th grade students who were event organizers for the annual Student vs. Faculty Basketball Game.

Lillian Maros, Western Wayne 8th grade student, has been recognized as a Promising Young Writer by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

This past spring Maros researched the program and asked her English teacher to help her enter.  She had to submit two samples of her original fiction writing– one that she considered her best piece and another piece that focused on a strong theme.

The Promising Young Writers Program represents NCTE’s commitment to early and continuing work in the development of writing. The school-based writing program was established in 1985 to stimulate and recognize writing talents and to emphasize the importance of writing skills among eighth-grade students. Schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, American schools abroad, and the Virgin Islands are eligible to nominate students.

This year, schools nominated 90 students. Of that number, 56 received the highest award, Certificates of Recognition, and 34 received Certificates of Participation. Each student submitted two pieces of writing. Two independent judges evaluated each submission holistically on content, purpose, audience, tone, word choice, organization, development, and style.

Maros’ pieces received the highest award of a Certificate of Recognition.

She has always enjoyed writing and was thrilled to have this chance to share her writing with the National Council of Teachers of English.

“I was a writer from a pretty young age. When I was really little I used to carry around a notebook and pen, and I would write down cool things I saw or ideas that I had,” Maros explained. “When I was around 10 I began actually attempting to write books.”

Maros explained the inspiration for the piece called “Emma” that she submitted as her best work.

“My inspiration for “Emma” is a book called Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie. It was a book that I had to read for the reading competition [hosted by NEIU 19] and it was centered around a boy with cancer. When the competition said it’s theme for this year was “change” one of my first thoughts was cancer,” Maros discussed. “ But I wanted to do something different than the same old story of the person surviving and forgetting all about the experience because it was so hard. I wanted my story to be a reflection of what actually happens in the real world. I didn’t want to portray death as a horrible thing all the time. In fact, I personally think that we should never have funerals, but instead celebrations of life, and I wanted  to show that in my story.”

Maros further discussed her inspiration for the piece she submitted for having a strong theme called Azara and the Seventh Realm.

“I started writing Azara and the Seventh Realm  last year. My inspiration came from my dreams. I would dream of scenarios and swordfights and villains and I just became captivated by the ideas, and I had to write them down,” Maros explained. “The book is about a girl named Azara who runs away from home with her best friend, James. Neither of them knew that the universe was bigger than just their realm. They are taken to one of the other realms and their adventure begins.”

When Maros isn’t writing fiction she can be found participating in a variety of activities at the Western Wayne Middle School.  She serves as Student Council president and is a member of the Color Guard, Drama Club, and Middle School band.  In high school, she hopes to also become a member of the Political Science Club and FBLA along with continuing to work on her writing.  Maros feels humbled to have been recognized by the National Council of Teachers of English for something that she enjoys doing so much.

 “The best part about writing fiction is that I get to create a circumstance better than my own. I can write about how I wish my life would work and adventures I would love to have. I can envelop myself in a world that no one can touch me in,” Maros explained. “I usually base my characters off of some of my friends because I know their tendencies and feelings. However, I do have some characters in my story who are unlike any friend I’ve ever had, which makes them the most difficult characters to write about.  You have to step outside of your own body and tendencies and imagine what you would do or say as a completely different person.”

For more information about the Promising Young Writers Program, see http://www.ncte.org/awards/promising-young-writers/.  The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is the nation’s most comprehensive literacy organization, supporting more than 25,000 teachers across the preK–college spectrum. Through the expertise of its members, NCTE has served at the forefront of every major improvement in the teaching and learning of English and the language arts since 1911. www.ncte.org

Western Wayne Middle and High School students participated in the NEIU-19’s Virtual Reading Relay this past May.  The students got the chance to virtually participate with students from other local districts in a book competition similar to how they had done so for years when the competition had taken place in person on Western Wayne’s campus. Students read books from a shared list and competed in rounds on their knowledge of the stories. The students were thrilled to share their love of reading with students from other districts in this new virtual format and look forward to many reading competitions in the future.  Back row, from left, Western Wayne Middle School students: Luckus Balmer, Katelyn Nunez, Kayelin Martin, Audrey Agnello, Maggie Kotchessa, Samantha Duval, Grace Moser, Jeremy Brophy, John Catania, and Brooklyn Sutton.