November 11, 2013

There was a lot to make last week interesting and several points of pride stand out to me as the principal of Hixson Middle School regarding our work; things like:

• The use of both faculty and team time on Tuesday,
• The prototypes you generated as a part of Tuesday's meeting, and 
• The data meetings of which I was a part on Friday.

Thank you for your energy and good thinking.  

Prototypes

I was not able to get through all of the notes and ideas from last week in such a way that I can present all of them here, so part of our faculty meeting will be devoted to giving feedback on one of the more concrete ideas: a different conference schedule.  The assistant principals and I will take a look at the prototype for a new referral together, and I will do my best to share other ideas for your feedback this week. 

11/11 Faculty Meeting

Dr. Riss and I scheduled her time for a faculty meeting after winter break.  I will use Monday's faculty meeting time to gather feedback on the conference schedule prototype and to address a couple of other ideas. One of these will be a post-it that appeared on my door from last week regarding back packs.  Another of these will anticipate our faculty service project that will take place during our December meeting.

Attendance
In general, teacher attendance tracking has improved somewhat.  Thank you.  I am trying to give feedback when I notice patterns.  This time of year presents many unique challenges, and slowing down intentionally to take care of tasks like attendance is both important and a value.

Out of the Building
I have permission to take half of a personal day on Tuesday afternoon, so I will be out of the building.  Next week, I will be a part of the National Safe Schools Roundtable discussion in Portland, Oregon, so I will miss three days (11/19-22).