Friday Memo - 11/12/21

Important dates
November 15 - 19 - NEA American Education Week
November 17 - Choir Concert, 6:30 pm
November 18 - National Parental Involvement Day
November 19 - Hixson Staff Crock Pot Celebration! + National Substitute Teacher Day
November 24 - 26 - Thanksgiving Break
December 1 - School Play
December 2 - School Play, National Special Education Day
December 5 - Hixson PTO Holiday House Tour
December 6 - Faculty Meeting, 3:35 pm to 4:35 pm
December 8 - 6 - 8 Band Concert, 6:00 pm
December 13 - School Improvement Team meeting
December 21 - Quarter 2 ends/end of 1st semester

93rd issue of Hixson Happenings
Click HERE to access the newest issue of Hixson Happenings.

Hixson Middle School Warrior Wall in honor of Veteran's Day
Thank you to Lisa Rodriguez (pictured on the Warrior Wall) for your service!

Hixson Standardized Testing Procedures

Starting with the winter NWEA test in January, we will be changing our testing procedures from testing occurring only in ELA and Math classes to testing taking place at the beginning of the day. Currently, ELA and Math teachers use 3 class periods every time we take the NWEA, for a total of 9 class periods a year. With this new process, all classes will give up one period every time we take the NWEA. We hope that this process goes smoothly in January so that we are ready for MAP in May. 

For detailed information regarding testing procedures, dates, and schedules, please click here. 

Field Trip Checklist
As you are probably aware, the district is allowing classes to go on field trips this year. We have created a new field trip checklist to assist with your planning. The checklist includes an updated permission slip for your use. The checklist may also be found in the faculty briefcase. 

We have received recent communication from Central Office that outside (parent) volunteers should not accompany students on field trips. If you are planning a trip and need additional support with supervision, please let us know and we will see if we can coordinate this support with our current staff.  

Rock n' Roll Bingo

We still hope to have our Rock n' Roll Bingo as a fundraiser this year and it is currently scheduled for Friday, April 1. This event is a TON of fun and open only to adults. Gail Tumminello has spearheaded this event in the past but we are asking for some volunteers to form a committee to share the responsibility. The committee would shadow Gail this year to see how things are run and take over officially next year. Please contact Gail, Dana Mitchell, or Jordan Haddock if you are interested in helping. 

If we don't get any volunteers, this will be the last year we have Rock n' Roll Bingo. Bingo has helped keep our Social Courtesy dues low and helps offset the cost of several things Social Courtesy does in the building.

Need a break?
As we approach Thanksgiving break, your admin and instructional support teams would like to give you some time to yourself. While we don't have the power to call school off for a day or make other changes to the calendar, we are in the position to give you some time off during the school day!

There may be times coming up in the next three weeks that you could use to take a break. Maybe your students are taking a test. Maybe they are having a work day on a project. Or, maybe there is an easy activity you can leave for someone else to facilitate. You may choose a 24 - 48 minute break. You could choose to use this as a mental health break or an extra plan period. It's up to you, but please take a break!

To ensure there is someone available to cover your break, please sign up HERE!

Friday Memo - 11/4/21

Important dates
November 8 - Lunch & Learn, School Improvement Team meeting, 3:35 pm
November 11 - Principal's Council meeting, 2nd hr, Orchestra Concert, 6pm
November 17 - Choir Concert, 6:30 pm
November 24 - 26 - Thanksgiving Break
December 1 - School Play
December 5 - Hixson PTO Holiday House Tour
December 6 - Faculty Meeting, 3:35 pm to 4:35 pm
December 8 - 6 - 8 Band Concert, 6:00 pm
December 10 - Hixson Choir Tour
December 15 - Sounds of Hixson Concert, 6:30 pm
December 21 - Quarter 2 ends/end of 1st semester

92nd issue of Hixson Happenings
Click HERE to access the newest issue of Hixson Happenings.

Lunch & Learn

Please read the flyer below for information about the Lunch and Learn that will be hosted by Jill and Christy on Monday!

What to do if you are late for work
Life happens. Sometimes we are running late in the morning for a variety of reasons. If you are running behind, please call Sarah Magruder in the main office (314-918-4557) and send me a text (314-537-2765 - be sure to say who you are because I don't have all numbers saved) so that we can make sure your students are supervised, if needed. 

Reflections on staff retreat to Camp Wyman
I don't know about you, but I had SO much fun at Camp Wyman on Monday! When I shared that I was happy that we were getting an opportunity to experience joy together, I truly meant it. From what I observed, there were so many positive aspects about the retreat, and admin has received a lot of positive feedback. I am looking forward to us finding more ways to experience joy together in the future! The idea for a retreat to Camp Wyman came from teachers on the Transition Task Force probably around a year ago. I continue to be grateful for their creativity and thoughtfulness. If you ever have an idea for a future retreat or other relationship building opportunities, please share it with Hixson admin!

I am trying to collect as many pictures and/or video from the Wyman retreat as I can. If you have photos/video that you wouldn't mind uploading to the Google folder below, please feel free to do so. Some of you have sent me photos already, and if you have, then there's no need to upload the same photos to this folder because I will put them in there. My goal is to make an end of the year staff slideshow that will document the memories that we made together as a staff during our first year as a fully merged middle school. 

Camp Wyman Google Folder

Panorama survey summary data
Please take a look at the summary data from our most recent Panorama survey. 

857 out of 993 students responded.

Question 1: How well do people at your school understand you as a person? (854 responses)

• 58% of students responded favorably (understand quite a bit or completely understand). 
• Do not understand at all - 24 students, or 3%
• Understand a little - 88 students, or 10%
• Understand somewhat - 248 students, or 29%
• Understand quite a bit - 376, or 44%
• Completely understand - 118, or 14%

Question 2: How connected do you feel to the adults at your school? (853 responses)

• 36% responded favorably (quite connected or extremely connected).
• Not at all connected - 41 students, or 5%
• Slightly connected - 161 students, or 19%
• Somewhat connected - 341 students, or 40%
• Quite connected - 264 students, or 31%
• Extremely connected - 46 students, or 5%

Question 3: How much respect do students in your school show you? (855 responses)

• 46% responded favorably (quite a bit of respect or tremendous amount of respect)
• No respect at all - 25 students, or 3%
• A little bit of respect - 115 students, or 13%
• Some respect - 325 students, or 38%
• Quite a bit of respect - 325 students, or 38%
• Tremendous amount of respect - 65 students, or 8%

Question 4: How much do you matter to others at this school? (844 responses)

• 47% responded favorably (matter quite a bit or matter a tremendous amount)
• Do not matter at all - 27 students or 3%
• Matter a little bit - 137 students, or 16%
• Matter somewhat - 285 students, or 34%
• Matter quite a bit - 319 students, or 38%
• Matter a tremendous amount - 76 students, or 9%

Question 5: Overall, how much do you feel like you belong at your school? (856 responses)

• 59% responded favorably (belong quite a bit or completely belong)
• Do not belong at all - 33 students, or 4%
• Belong a little bit - 91 students, or 11%
• Belong somewhat - 228 students, or 27%
• Belong quite a bit - 334 students, or 39%
• Completely belong - 170 students, or 20%

Question 6: The goal of Statesman Time is to provide time for students and staff to build relationships with one another and learn about our core values of positive relationships, respect, and teamwork. In your opinion, is Statesman Time achieving this goal? (854 responses)

• 48% responded favorably (usually, always)
• No - 108 students, or 13%
• Rarely - 96 students, or 11%
• Sometimes - 240 students, or 28%
• Usually - 264 students, or 31%
• Always - 146 students, or 17%

Do you have a trusted adult at Hixson? (854 responses)

• 58% responded favorably (yes)
• No - 87 students, or 10%
• I don't know - 275 students, or 32%
• Yes - 492 students, or 58%

Percentile range

• When compared to middle schools across the country that utilize Panorama, Hixson Middle School falls near the 60th percentile in the area of Sense of Belonging based on our overall score of 49% for this topic.

We will dive deeper into this data and more at our December 6 staff meeting, but I am giving it to you today so that you can have an opportunity to start processing it before that meeting. I think that we can all agree that there are some things to celebrate, but there is also room for improvement, particularly in question 2. If you have any thoughts or questions about this data, please let me know. For now, please process it and be prepared to discuss in more detail on December 6. 

New part time technology specialist
Please join me in welcoming Trevor Cunningham to the Hixson staff! He will be here on Tuesdays and Thursdays to support Jason Heisel with our technology needs. His workspace is located in the room near the staff lounge. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Message from our counselors

The Counselors will be out Monday and Tuesday in order to attend the Missouri School Counselor Conference.  We have put protocols in place to still provide our students with mental health care support. 

Mrs. Banks and Mrs. Forsythe will still be in the Counseling office to support our students who frequently need our support. They have been provided with a list of students who may come to the office without signing up or may be called down once they sign up. 

We also have a Counselor and Social Worker on standby should we have a student in crisis. Mrs. Banks will be able to coordinate with them to provide care for the student. 

Lastly, we also provided a zoom link to the Counseling and Administration departments if we need to virtually meet with a student in need.  

Please let us know if you any questions/concerns. 

Update on course offerings
The following courses will be expanded to 7th and 8th graders for the 2022-2023 school year. We have received a ton of positive feedback from students and parents about the 6th grade versions of these courses, and there have been several questions about these courses being offered to 7th and 8th graders. Since we already have teachers for these courses who already have classrooms, these classes do not require any additional space. 

Makerspace 1, Computer Science 1, Engineering (Greg Kramer will select a Project Lead the Way course). 

The following courses will likely not be offered in the 2022-2023 school year.

Study Skills - this class is difficult to staff
Tech Ed 2 - the content from this course will be absorbed/reorganized into Comp Sci 1 and Tech Ed 1

Summer school
Please let me know if you are interested in being the summer school admin intern this summer. The position can be shared. The dates for summer school are June 9 - July 1, 2022.

Need a break?
As we approach Thanksgiving break, your admin and instructional support teams would like to give you some time to yourself. While we don't have the power to call school off for a day or make other changes to the calendar, we are in the position to give you some time off during the school day!

There may be times coming up in the next three weeks that you could use to take a break. Maybe your students are taking a test. Maybe they are having a work day on a project. Or, maybe there is an easy activity you can leave for someone else to facilitate. You may choose a 24 - 48 minute break. You could choose to use this as a mental health break or an extra plan period. It's up to you, but please take a break!

To ensure there is someone available to cover your break, please sign up HERE!