April 1, 2013

We begin MAP testing this week.  Although we offer many culminating experiences that demosntrate the learning of our students, it is this test that is the most public.  It can sometimes be difficult to balance our accountability to these scores with other, perhaps better, indicators of achievment.  But here we are, having turned the corner in the year toward MAP.

I believe in our teaching and our collective influence on the learning of our students, and I believe in the ability and optimism our students bring to school.  I know that we will see evidence of this in our MAP scores this year.

April's Thinking Strategy: Synthesizing
April's thinking strategy is synthesizing. Since it doesn't seem to be posting (yet), I will forward the information to your e-mail in the meantime.

Art and Science of Teaching: DQs 7, 8, and 10
Given that our faculty meeting time is running short, you will be left on your own to review Design Questions 7, 8, and 10 in The Art and Science of Teaching. I do not anticipate that review the following chapters will be difficult or take a long time:

• Recognizing and Acknowledging Adherence or Lack of Adherence to Rules and Procedures,
• Communicating High Expectations for All Students, and
• Developing Effective Lessons into Cohesive Units.

If you are interested in the PowerPoints provided by the district, you may click here to review them.  Reviewing the action steps in the text will also be helpful.  Taking some department or team time may expedite the process as well.  We will talk more about this during Monday's department chair meeting.
One of the reasons I am relying on you and your colleagues to complete the review of these last three questions is that Dr. Riss has asked for some of our faculty meeting time.

April Faculty Meetings
On April 8th, Dr. Riss, per her request, will visit with us about the WGSD Foundation for the Future.
On April 22nd, we will spend our faculty meeting review the whole of The Art and Science of Teaching.

May 2nd PD Time
I am committed to giving the faculty time as needed on 5/2.  We will enjoy lunch together (from Qdoba) and then I will need about 30 minutes of faculty meeting time that day to complete some surveys. 

2013-2014 Online Digital PO

Login to WgCloud

Click this link 

Then click the Use this template button:

Re-title the document with the name of your Department( and grade level if applicable) then fill out the form and click share (found at the top right of the screen)

Enter in Kathy’s wgcloud email address and Todd’s

And then click save and share (edwards.kathy@wgcloud.org and roberts.todd@wgcloud.org)

March 25, 2013

I really want to begin this Welcome-Back-from-Spring-Break post with something clever, something better than, "This is snow way to end spring break," but, really, I am at a loss.  I did not suspect that I would be watching the snow fall all day the Sunday before our return to school.  I had planned to be writing this from Hixson but was stymied by an unexpended, 48-hour illness, and today . . . snow.  So, please be prepared for any updates this week that might arrive via e-mail.

Still, I hope you were able to enjoy spring break in the best way possible for you and that you are rested, energized, and focused for the remaining days of school.  I anticipate these last days will go by quickly (as the rest of the year seems to have done.

Here are a few other notes:

• Thank you for your attention to and prepartion for parent-teacher conferences.  I only heard positive feedback from parents and visitors to the school, in person and via e-mail.
• Our Food Truck fundraiser, inspired by Sarah Bodi, was very successful, and I'll be able to share exactly how much money we raised soon.
• We have a faculty meeting scheduled for Monday, March 25th; this is our annual, required MAP preparation meeting.

And, believe it or not . . . 

• As a faculty, we have used 5000 staples from the faculty lounge copy machine in the first month that we have had it.  Staples for the mahine are very expensive, and given how precisely Dr. Roberts and Ms. Edwards account for every penny in the budget, I do not anticipate being able to purchase any more staples at this time. All of us are responsible for the conscientous use of our resources; I can get copy counts from the machine, but not staple counts, hence the reminder to us all.

I am looking forward to all of us returning to Hixson . . . Monday . . . Tuesday . . . whenever that might be. ;-)

Mindfulness/Yoga Handouts

Meg from Masterpeace Studios passed along these attachments in reference to our professional development.  Please let Linda or Sarah know if you have any questions, thanks. 

 

                       

 

Masterpeace Teacher Training & Students.doc Download this file

3-minute Breathing Space.doc Download this file

Definition of Mindfulness.pdf Download this file

March 11, 2013

This will be a busy week with a well-deserved Friday and Spring Break off.  Please take good care of yourselves.  Conferences are important for our students' progress and our relationships with parents, and I know the long days are challenging.

Here are some reminders for the week:

• Our PTO will be providing food for us both conference nights,
• Sarah's Meltdown and Sarah's Cake Stop will also be on our campus both nights (this is a fundraiser for our school, so we stand to benefit from everyone's suggestion that families grab a cup cake or eat a sandwhich while they're here), and
• If you didn't take an opportunity last week to view the complete list of Marzano strategies, please click here to do so (eventually we'll be polled about which we perceive to be strengths and which we think we might need more development on).

As I've mentioned earlier, the department chairs and I reorganized some faculty meeting dates and topics, Monday would have been a regular faculty meeting; however, it is designated as department time this week.

Take care and let me know if you need anything.

Staying Connected (with tech, a repost)

It was recently requested that I re-post this for all of those who would like to get tech updates via text message or email. Again, all posts are also shared on the left hand side of the Hixson Network blog if you want to keep up to date or check the status of all things technical in the building. - Heisel

Hard to keep track of all the new things technical going on in our district and around the world?

Here's a simple solution!

Send a text to (949)482-4356 with the message: @techreq in it. From here on out you will be able to receive text message updates anytime new information about tech changes, updates, news, etc comes from the Hixson Tech department.

Prefer to get your messages via email?

Not a problem

In addition to tech news you can also receive information shared by Dr. Heisserer by texting @hxstaff to 979-2562467

Stay connected!

March 4, 2013

I've heard several people in the building comment on what a long week it has been (and irony in the shortest month).  Friday afternoon, I heard two students debating how many more days until spring break . . . they decided it depended on whether or not they counted Friday.

List of Marzano Strategies

Click here for the complete list of strategies from Design Questions 1-9 from The Art and Science of Teaching.  I am sharing these for the following reasons:

• This list can be used as a review of the strategies covered in the text, our meetings, and other documents posted on the Network.
• The district will be surveying us to get a sense of with which we are most comfortable and on which we might need more development.
• These segments, questions, and strategies use the same language as the observation instrument.

Department Chairs and I will talk more about this and the DQs 7, 9,.and 10 at our meeting on Monday.

Intruder Drill FAQs

Once again, thank you, all, for your excellent work with our intruder drills this week.  Parents offered a great deal of supportive and appreciative feedback.

I wanted to answer a few questions that teachers asked me in such a way that all of us could read the answer:

• Is it possible to announce that "this is just a drill" as part of the intercom announcement?

Current best practice suggests that we use the same language during a drill as we do in a real-life event.  This is why it is important to check your e-mail during a modified lock down drill.  You can share that it's a drill with your students.  Given the intensity of an intruder drill, it's probably important that I announce those to you (as I did this week).

• Will we ever get a buzzer system on our door?

The district has a buzzer/video system on order for each school.  When these arrive, we will install them and share the new procedures with everyone.

• In the event of an actual intruder, who makes the announcement?

Whomever is the first to suspect that there is a dangerous person in the building should make the announcement.  Pick up the phone, dial 3892, and announce that there is an intruder in the building.  I trust that all of us will use some discretion here.

We are also working on consistent information to leave for subs, working out details of how to communicate with subs in the event of a crisis, and some other details.  Your feedback, questions, and ideas are very important to our safety, so please keep sharing.

Collegial Learning Walks with Jill Right and the Core Curriculum Coordinators

From Mrs. Right: "The Learning Walks that Susan Bergman, Liz Majino, Chris McGee, and I participated in at Hixson a week and a half ago were beneficial to us all.  The goal to identify what was working in each of the 35 classrooms that we were able to visit was readily apparent.  Click here for a list of what we observed."

Food Trucks for Conferences

Click here to learn more about the vsiting food trucks during our spring conferences.

Out of the Building
This next will be a crazy week for me.  I will be out Tuesday afternoon for TLA, part of Wednesday for a(nother) personnel meeting at Central Office, and Thursday and Friday for personal reasons.

Collegial Learning Walks (with Jill Right and the Core Curriculum Coordinators)

The Learning Walks that Susan Bergman, Liz Majino, Chris McGee, and I participated in at Hixson a week and a half ago were beneficial to us all. The goal to identify what was working in each of the 35 classrooms that we were able to visit was readily apparent. Here is a list of what we observed.

· Feeling of care and compassion for students
· Students presenting to the class
· Activities that connected to posted learning goals
· Reference to learning goals to direct/redirect discussions
· Real life applications
· Good questions posed to students
· High level of student engagement
· Students articulating what they were doing in the lesson and why
* Content vocabulary being used by students
* Wide variety of effective instructional strategies

We came away from the experience with ideas that we can take to all curricular areas and an appreciation of the good teaching and learning that occurs throughout Hixson every day.

(Thank you, Mrs. Right, for facilitating this glimpse into our building and for offering this feedback to us.)