Pages

Search This Blog

Monday, November 26, 2012

November 26, 2012

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday; I hope it was restful and energizing and that you are able to begin the week strongly.

Faculty Meeting: November 26, 2012

The topic of our 11/26 meeting with Design Question 2: "What will I do to help students effectively interact with new knowledge?" from The Art and Science of Teaching.  Please take an opportunity before then to read, skim, or at the very least review the action steps in chapter two.

Flipping through the slides of this PowerPoint will help prepare you for some of the thinking and activities of the faculty meeting as well. Click here to view this quick (11 slides) presentation.

In addition, this protocol (click here), albeit simple, may be helpful in thinking through each strategy specifically in terms of how you will plan to use them.

The Hixson Student Show

Click here to view the latest Hixson Student Show.  Please take some time in Discovery, or in another class, to share this with your studnets.

The Hixson High Five Award

Last week I e-mailed details for the Hixson High Five Award.  Please take some time out of your busy schedule to recognize students, who may not otherwise be recognized, for their readiness, respect, and responsibility.  Last year we had 57 nominations for first semester.  Let's beat that this year as a school!

Focus Groups

Following are the last few highlights department chairs surfaced from the focus groups conducted in October:

  • On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being high, parents rate Hixson's level of rigor at 7.4.
  • Parents are eager to more involved in the school and in their child's development.
  • Parents are concerned that we do not do enough for the average learner because we are best with those students at the top and bottom of the class.

If you are interested in reading the entire report, click here.

All of our work with The Art and Science of Teaching will help us maintain our current level of rigor (and, in many cases, help us improve it) and will help us differentiate further for students who come to use with a range of abilities. As for involving parents, I know that you often seek ways to keep parents involved and in the loop.  Department chairs brainstormed several ideas for ways of helping parents understand their middle schoolers development and support their middle schooler's learning while at Hixson.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.