February 24, 2014

Have you checked out the Stories of Kindness on the Hixson Kindness Challenge site? It's exciting to see this initiative begin to take shape. Please consider ways you might start a chain reaction by using the kindness cards given to you earlier this term. A recent Hixson tweet received national attention when Rachel's Challenge re-tweeted a story of kindness.

Fourth Monday Tech Development
I will provide more information on Monday about where and with whom you will meet. You will be organized based on your responses to the survey sent out last week.

March's Thinking Strategy
Proficient readers:

• spontaneously and purposefully create images using all five senses and their emotions as they read.
• create images that help them engage and make text more memorable.
• use images to make interpretations from the text.

Click here to access the resources to support March's Thinking Strategy: Sensory Images. Leveraging images is good for student learning and relates to Marzano strategy 12 Recording and Representing Knowledge as non-linguistic representations have been shown to enhance student understanding, engagement, and memory.

HR Update

• I suspect that we will be receiving an HR update from Linda Holliday soon regarding iObservation. Some changes were suggested by the PBTE (Performance-Based Teacher Evaluation) Committee.
• First round interviews for the next principal of Hixson are early this week.

Third Trimester

Conferences and Spring Break are just weeks away, and then the year will settle into a more predictable rhythm (weather and water mains holding steady, hopefully). For me, the pace of the year always quickens at this time; this can be stressful. Dr. Martin Seligman, author of Flourish and Learned Optimism, suggests an intentional practice of gratitude to maintain an optimistic word view. It's not just thinking of something about which to be intentionally grateful; it's also about reminding ourselves about why we are grateful for whatever recalled in the first place. This "why" is sustaining.

I am grateful that all of you have been so resilient and steady this fourth term. I am grateful because it supports a steadier environment for our students and because it makes the work more joyful for me because I can count on you.