8/30 Faculty Meeting Information

We will meet in the cafeteria tomorrow, 8/30, from 12:30 to 1:30pm.  You will have between 11am and 12:30pm for lunch on your own. 

We have three agenda points to cover:

•  A briefreview of Hixson’s 2013 Annual Performance Report Summary,
• Time to give feedback on our School Improvement Plan using a SOAR protocol, and
•  Some general updates.

You can prepare for this meeting by:

• Previewing the 11-slide PowerPoint by clicking here.
•  Clicking here to read or skim the School Improvement Plan; you might also consider   
• Downloading it onto a device of your choosing or  bringing a hard copy, and
•  Focusing on the three goals, primarily, for feedback as I gave a brief summary of the first three pages during my opening remarks.
• Bringing a pen or pencil in case you want to make or take notes.

Your feedback is very important to me, and I want to make sure that I used the information I collected last spring to create the best goals for us.  You may recall that I based these on what might be possible for Hixson Middle School, ways we might strengthen our relationships, and how might we create a more just and equitable school.

The remainder of the afternoon is dedicated to department work.

August 26, 2013

The March on Washington occurred 50 years ago this week.  I appreciate the synchronicity of recalling Dr. King's words during our Rachel's Challenge assembly immediately before such an anniversary: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."  

Monday's Faculty Meeting: You Choose
Many of you have indicated how you will spend your Fourth Monday Faculty Meeting.  If you have not, click here to do so, please.

Open House will be on Wednesday, August 28th, beginning at 6:30pm.  You can look at the schedule and some notes by clicking here.  Open House is important to our relationships with parents/guardians and is never perfect, so please be flexible, as you always are.  I know you are diligent with what and how you present to parents.

August 30th

• Morning: Friday, August 30th is a district PD day. Dr. Simpson will be sharing information regarding the morning sessions: these will take place at the high school and will involve a deeper consideration of design questions 2-5 from The Art and Science of Teaching.  
• Lunch: You will have lunch on your own (from 11am-12:30pm).
• Faculty Meeting: We will meet as a faculty in the cafeteria from 12:30-1:30pm.  My goal for this meeting is to present a little of our MAP data as a whole and as it relates to our School Improvement Plan.  It will be helpful if you skim the current draft of our SIP by clicking here as I also plan to gather some of your feedback before my final revision and presentation to Dr. Simpson.
• Afternoon: You will have from 1:30-3:30pm to work as departments.  Because there have been some changes with department leaders, I am asking that department leaders e-mail me by clicking here to confirm their leadership role, please.  I will share more information about 8/30 in my response to that e-mail.
• The building closes at 4:30pm.

September's Thinking Strategy

Proficient learners use background knowledge to connect to new information.  You can find more information about September's Thinking Strategy (making connections and building background knowledge) by clicking here.  

Previewing new content is one of our Marzano strategies, the desired effect of which is that students will be able to link prior knowledge to new content.  All of our classrooms will benefit from this month's thinking strategy.

New Information: Field Trips
Faculty must deposit all funds collected from students.  The teachers should complete the deposit slip and document student name, amount paid and cash/check number.  Faculty may not take the cash to pay for any portion of the field trip.  The purchase order for the trip and the bus must be processed prior to the field trip.  Teachers may elect to pay for items/events and turn their receipts in for reimbursement.  We can use the MasterCard to pay for reservations, but only if a purchase order has completely cleared our routing system.

District Benefits Meeting
Generally, we spend an hour at the beginning of each year reviewing benefit updates and information with JoAnn Kite or another central office representative.  This year, we will not have such a meeting.  Much of this information is online; click here to view a PowerPoint presentation about our district benefits and how to access the information online.

Hixson Day at the Ballpark was both fun and hot. I am glad Dr. Miller facilitated this opportunity for our staff and our community.

I will be out of the building Wednesday afternoon to meet with curriculum coordinators and part of Thursday morning for a doctor's appointment. Have a great week!

Mid-Week Update: 8/21/13

This mid-week update is brought to you by Juror #592 . . .

Fourth Monday Faculty Meetings are designed with you in mind.  You will choose how you will use that hour of time.  This month your choices include:

• Tech Training Option 1: Grade Book Revisited
• Tech Training Option 2: Edline Setup
• Tech Training Option 3: WGcloud for Beginners
• Working independently in your classroom*
• Working with your team*
• Working with your department*

Choose one by clicking here and entering your name and indicating on your choice. I'll add room numbers as soon as they are confirmed.

*If you choose one of these options, you will need to share artifacts from your work (e.g., an agenda, notes, the test you might have modified, etc.); Dr. Heisserer can clarify if necessary.

Open House will be on Wednesday, August 28th, beginning at 6:30pm.  You can look at the schedule and some notes by clicking here.  Open House is important to our relationships with parents and is never perfect, so please be flexible, as we always are.  I know you are diligent with what and how you present to parents.

Based on a few conversations, I would like to clarify the Edline Teacher Site Requirements.  Click here to review Dr. Simpson's requirements.

We will be sending MAP results home with students Friday of this week.

Classroom Printers

What you need to know:

• Teachers may print 25 pieces of paper to a classroom printer, daily; students do not have a limit. 
• When you reach your printer limit for the day you will receive an e-mail stating how many prints you have made/sent to the classroom printer.  
• The e-mail will read as if you have money in an account.
• This is a limitation of the software; you are not limited by the amount of money, but by the number of prints you send.
• This email is strictly to let you know that you've reached your limit for the day. Nothing more, nothing less.

The details: 

• The system is designed to allow you a total cost in printing. In order to make the system work simply, each piece of paper was given the "cost" of $0.10 (even though we know it costs $0.037/print to print).
• Each teacher, therefore, has an "allowance" of $2.50 for each day. 
• So 25 pieces of paper per day to classroom printers. 

Please remember:

• This does not apply to copy machines.
• The cost and the allowance do not represent actual monetary value.
• Students do not have printing limits.

Next year,

• Classrooms will be equipped with laptops that connect to the print server so students can print because
• Google Chromebooks cannot print at this time.

August 19, 2013

As I said on Friday, thank you for many, many jobs well done this week.  One can never underestimate the value of a good rest after a strong first week of school.

I will do a mid-week update regarding our first fourth-Monday faculty meeting so you know what choices there are and how to indicate your choice.  I'll also include some information on Open House, which will be on Wednesday, 8/28, and will begin at 6:30pm.

Other Notes

• The counselors worked hard to bring Rachel's Challenge to our school.  This effort toward a culture of caring in our school community will benefit all of us and our relationships.  I hope you are able to attend the community event on 8/22 at 7pm.
• Growth Plans are still coming in and looking very good.  Thank you. I have been making comments that you might not be able to see if you do not expect the "Element Questions" section on the Growth Plan.
• Jason is still waiting for TLC to install the necessary software on our printers.  If the software isn't installed by Monday morning, he will do his best to get them connected and working in your classrooms.
• Although it's not due until 10/4/13, I wanted to remind all of us about our required staff training.  Click here for the tracker and PowerPoints.

Teacher-to-Teacher Resources

Teacher sharing and collaboration affects student achievement, so thank you to those of you who shared so many resources via Outlook this week.  I have compiled them all in a Teacher Resources folder in our Faculty Handbook.

Out this Week
I have jury duty on Monday, so I will be out of the building on 8/19 (maybe longer).

I have great expectations for all that is possible during week two!
Jason

Rachel's Challenge

Our counselors have worked diligently to provide an opportunity for Hixson Middle School students and staff to participate in Rachel's Challenge this year.

We are very excited about this experience, and this email will explain the program and the schedule of events for next week, particularly, August 22.

Rachel's Challenge is a national program started by Rachel Scott's parents as a result of her tragic death at Columbine High School.  The message from her code of ethics about creating a culture of kindness within schools has since reached millions of students and staff members.  Rachel’s challenges are things like:

·         Dreaming Big and Believing in Yourself,

·         Being Kind to Others,

·         Practicing Positive Gossip,

·         Showing Appreciation to Those You Love, and

·         Being the Answer.

We invite you to visit www.rachelschallenge.orgfor more information or view this video to gain a better understanding of the work of the group.

On Thursday August 22 we will be hosting grade-level assemblies in the auditiorium.

• 7th grade-8:45-9:45
• 8th grade-10:15-11:15

In addition to the assemblies we will further our development with a Friends of Rachel training event during 6 & 7 hours that day.  This training incorporates 50 7th grade and 50 8th grade students with 10 staff members to receive training on what Rachel's Challenge might look like at Hixson. The 10 staff members will receive a separate notification for training purposes.

We will also host a community event that evening at 7pm to invite parents to play a role in our work at Hixson.  You are encouraged to attend.  Your presence will be a visual reminder to parents of our commitment to work on this together.

Tech Update: Tech Talks, Team Laptops, Edline Sites, Printers

Tech Talks
This year tech talks have been digitized. Simply show the video below to your students and assign each student to a computer and post it to your team laptop tracking sheet found below in the Team Laptop Assignment section.

7th grade teachers may also want to show their students the WgCloud setup video to their classes as not every student at Steger has logged in for the first time.

Please remind every student at the beginning of the school year to NOT click on the +You when they are inside WgCloud. If they setup a Google+ account and are under 13 years old, they will lose all of their data and their account will be automatically deleted.

Team Laptop Assignment sheet
Each class which uses laptops will need to have the data posted to the respective workbook in the spread sheet. One member of your team should download the template, rename it with your team name, and share it with the other team members to complete. After each computer is assigned to each student for each class, share the spreadsheet with Jason Heisel inside WgCloud (do not print and deliver a copy). Once these things are done we will deliver your team cart keys to the tech liaison on the team.
Team Laptop Assignment Template

Edline Sites
This year each teacher has a single website. Your site address is: http://hixson.webster.k12.mo.us/pages/Hixson/classes/lastname
Students or parents searching for your sites will be able to find it off of the main page under the School Info header link; Teacher Contact/Websites (pictured below):

If you wish to separate out your sites for any reason, please make a Group page within this site. By creating it inside of this site both parents and students can navigate to your sites with ease and without having to log in to find the right section. If you need assistance with this please enter in a technology request so that we can schedule time to meet with you or your team. We will also be offering a Web Work session Monday, August 19th in the Hixson Technology Center all day.

You will notice when you go to edit your Edline pages that they have been changed. Each year Edline has a "Roll-over" to the new year. During this time old class data is stored and new sites replace the old ones. Your data can be restored to your pages following this video tutorial: Click here to view the video on restoring content.

Please note that every Edline pages has 2 elements that have been added:

1. A box of text in the middle of the page that states what you need to have on the page, as stated by John Simpson. This box is designed for you to edit and replace the information listed with your information.
2. A set of links on the left hand column of the page. These links need to not be altered and need to remain on your page. They are there so that as parents navigate around the different sites they have the same access one each page.

The two above mentioned items will cover your requirements for your Edline sites. If you would like to work on further development of your site you can enter a tech req for such. The Building LMT group will also be offering sessions on Edline this school year.

Classroom Printers
Printers will be placed in classrooms when TLC is finished installing new software for them. Printers are in classrooms primarily for student use, so students will be able to print as needed to them. Faculty will be limited to 25 prints per day. Printing to a printer costs $0.37/print; printing to the copy machine costs $0.01/print.  You can see how overages might add up quickly, so please be respectful of this.

School Begins!

Learning is our work, and our attention to the learners in the building will make us better learners ourselves. Last week I saw this in action when some of you were able to participate in two "pop up professional development" opportunities in the building. I believe strongly in the value of these opportunities and hope more of them become available as we consider what might be possible for Hixson Middle School.  

I hope you have an excellent first day and successful first week; how you begin affects how you end. As I said on Wednesday, our students and our community believe in us. You and what you do to ensure that all of the young people at Hixson learn matters. You and what you are doing to continue your own learning and to support the learning of your colleagues is important, selfless, and noble work. Each of us contributes. You matter to our students, to their families, to one another and to me.

I have great expectations,

Jason

Growth Plans in iObservation

The Growth Plans I have approved so far (and I think I am caught up as of this post) are really very excellent.  Thank you for being so thoughtful and student-centered.  I am looking forward to reading the others, due on 8/13.

(Unless we have already had a conversation about a circumstance that might prevent you from completing this by 8/13, I expect that Growth Plans will be ready for my review on the first day of school.)

RtI and Discovery Presentations
If it's helpful, the two presentations Ms. Vogt and Mr. Fick gave on Friday are linked below:

• RtI at Hixson
• Discovery Expectations and Support  (This presentation has been updated to support your planning for Discovery in August.)

Beginning of the Year "To Do" List

There are several things mentioned in the Beginning-of-the-Year Post that you may still need to attend to (e.g., required staff training), so please do not forget to follow through with those obligations. 

What's New on the Hixson Network Blog

The Hixson Network Blog is a dynamic communication and information system, and there are some small revisions to it this year.  Teachers on the Discovery and RtI leadership teams advocated for these changes:

• "Discovery Resources" and "Hixson RtI" are now tabs on the navigation bar above the doc.
• "Differentiated Instruction" is a new button the doc (all the way to the right).
• The "Digital Briefcase" now links to an improved (and improving) Faculty Handbook.
• And the "Labels" section to the far right (below the "Updates by E-mail" box) is more up-to-date and relevant to our current work.

And please be thoughtful about participating in the two ongoing afternoon development opportunities I mentioned in an earlier post and on our Opening Day.  I will be able to offer salary credits and/or a stipend for these experiences.  I know they might be scheduled at a difficult time, and I am confident that you will find either or both of them valuable.  Your interest and commitment will determine whether or not I open these up to other teachers in the district.  Click here for more information.

Marzano Evaluation Process for the Webster Groves School District

Click here to see the PowerPoint from this morning's presentation.

Click here to read the FAQs to which I referred regarding our new PBTE.

iObservation Self-Assessment and Growth Plan

I would like to respond to a few questions I have received regarding the iObservation Self-Assessment and Growth Plan.

• The Self-Assessment is confidential to you; Drs. Miller, Roberts, and I will not see this.
• At the very least, rate yourself on the proficiency scale.
• If you it is helpful to you, you may check evidences and make comments.
• Do not think about the evidences as "add up" to a certain rating.
• Do not think about the evidences as all receiving a separate rating.
• Think of the evidences as examples of how a teacher might demonstrate a strategy.

• You will need to choose three elements for your Growth Plan.
• You want your responses to the prompts iObservation offers to be complete, but this does not mean they must be lengthy.
• You will have an opportunity mid-year to revise your growth plan if necessary.
• When a principal visits your class, we are able to see which elements you have included in your growth plan.  This will help us give you feedback on it.
• You do not receive a score for the degree to which you accomplish your Growth Plan; however, the principals offer feedback on your growth plan (as a rating on each element's scale) which will be made a part of your summative evaluation.
• You will end the school year with a revised Growth Plan already in place for the next school year.

If you have other questions, please click here to e-mail me so I can respond and add the information to this post.

Dr. Heisserer's Opening Remarks

Some of faculty have expressed an interest in seeing the PowerPoint from my opening remarks again, so I am including links to the PowerPoint and to the speech (including a few errors I caught as I read it).  If you're interested, it's here.  If you're not, that's okay, too.

Opening Remarks
PowerPoint

Opening Day

I am looking forward to seeing all of you on Opening Day! 

Opening Day Reminders

Our first three days are always busy, and I know that many of you are ready to get into your classrooms to prepare for students on August 13th.  So, in addition to the calendar on the Network, I wanted to share a few reminders to help you plan for your time:

• The district opening ceremony will be at Roberts Gym at the High School. The program's official beginning is 8:30am.  Carpool and arrive early to secure better parking.
• We will have lunch as an entire Hixson community in the cafeteria at beginning at 11am.  I will take some time to introduce new faces, our LMT will share a few things, and Drs. Miller and Roberts will need to share some information, briefly, as well.  
• This year, I will give an opening address to the faculty in the auditorium immediately after lunch.  This should take around 20 minutes.  I am hoping that everyone is able to get to their classrooms for the afternoon no later than 12:30pm.
• The building is is open from 7am to 5pm this week.

PTO Breakfast

Our PTO will provide breakfast snacks in the faculty lounge Thursday morning. Take some time to fortify yourself before students visit! 

Friday's Professional Development

Click here for the schedule for Friday's professional development.  

Network Updates

If you have not taken an opportunity to read the following, please do so:

• Beginning the Year: 2013-2014
• State of Technology
• From WGSD Human Resources: AST / PBTE / iObservation

 If there is anything missing or any other information you need, please let me know.

State of Technology

The Hixson Technology Center
This school year the Hixson Technology department has moved. Now when you are in need of technical assistance, are working on  media rich projects, or looking for a place to work in a technology rich environment, we invite you to come to the new Hixson Technology Center located on the 2nd floor in room 216.

Technology Requests

Many teachers have asked for a list of technology available to them, and so I thought this blog post would assist in this process. As always, if you ever need a piece of equipment all you need to do is fill out a tehcnology request. To do so simply click the Tech Req button in the dock at the top of the HxNetwork page which looks like this:

Then enter the organization number: 681433059

And fill out your requisition with as much information as possible so that we can provide the best service possible. 

Tech reqs can be used to: 

• Request a piece of equipment
• Report/Request service/repairs on equipment
• Request software install/service/repair/training/development
• Request for in class assitance with technology

Available Devices
The following devices are available for checkout: Document cameras, digital cameras, scanners, iPod touches, iPads, Apple TV's, Chromebooks, laptops, various adapters, and a portable audio recording booth. All equipment is checked out for 1 week at a time unless otherwise specified in the technology request. This is done to assure maximum use of the equipment and to allow others plan on its availability. Technology request are addressed in 2 business days. Please keep this in mind when requesting equipment; the more time we have to plan, the better we can support you.

LMT-Supported Technology PD
This summer the building LMT (or Tech committee) members have developed PD sessions which will be offerd the 4th Monday of every month. These sessions a geared to help prepare you for the 1:1 initiative/goal we plan to implement during the 2014-2015 school year.  The sessions offered will also be repeated  the 3rd Monday of  every month.  The areas the sessions will focus on are: Cloud-based file management, Online Classroom management tools, and communication tools.

Copying and Printing
In addition to developing PD, the LMT (or Tech committee) had many conversations around other technological aspects of our building. One primary conversation focused around copy limits and goals. The set version of this conversion is that overages on the copy machines or printing directly affect the amount of computers we will be able to purchase for our 1:1. The overall consensus  of our conversation was two fold:

• We would like everyone to have a better understanding of how often they are copying/printing so they can become more self aware and conscience of their printing, without setting a limit.  We realize that this is the transition year and in such we are not quite prepared to go without copies, but we also need to be aware that overages will cause issues in achieving a 1:1. We shared this information with Dr. Heisserer and he too agreed that it is difficult to make this transition and very much wanted to rely on the staff to be responsible with their copy/print jobs instead of setting a limit.  
• So, this semester there will not be copy/print limits to the copy machines, and there will be more detailed information published weekly about our overall copy/print counts as well as regular sharing of individual copy/print counts privately so staff can keep better track of their numbers.
• You may notice that printers are not yet back in the classrooms. They will return to the classrooms once TLC has installed the upgraded printing software.