Monday Memo Week of August 17th, 2015- Welcome Back!

Essential Information                 

-  15-16 Open House Schedule and Information: Thursday, 8/20 6:30-8:15

During our middle school open house, parents will have the opportunity to "live" a sample version of their child's daily schedule.  Student schedules will be disseminated for open house through the following methods:

• Parent portal access to SIS.  Parents are able to view and print student schedules via the portal in the SIS system
• Students can copy their schedules into their student handbook planners for parent use, or write a copy for their parents
• If you do not have your child's schedule from the parent portal or your student, back-up copies of schedules will be available at the main entrance of the school at 6:00 pm before open house begins at 6:30.  We anticipate most parents having the schedule ahead of time, so back up schedule lines should not be too long.  

Hixson Open House Schedule:

6:00- lines begin for back-up schedules
6:26- Use your child's schedule to navigate your way to his/her 1st hour class
6:30-6:45- 1st hour- you will hear a message from our Superintendent, Dr. Riss and the Hixson principals.  The remainder of the 10 minutes will be used for learning all about your child's first hour class.
6:49-6:59- 2nd hour
7:03-7:13- 3rd hour
7:17-7:27- 4th hour
7:31-7:41- 5th hour
7:45- 7:55- 6th hour
7:59- 8:09- 7th hour
8:09-8:15- Wrap-up

Special Open House Notes:

• If your child's schedule has PE/Discovery listed, please report to PE and not Discovery.  Your child's team teachers will be able to give you a brief overview of Discovery time.
• If your child has GEMS listed on his/her schedule, please report to GEMS with Mrs. Gavin 
• If your child has GEMS listed on his/her schedule, please report to GEMS with Mrs. Gavin in the cafeteria before open house begins
• 5:30-6:00 pm 7th grade GEMS parents
• 6:00-6:20 pm 8th grade GEMS parents

If your child is in GFA, please make sure to visit with Mrs. Stewart, our GFA teacher


-  Principal Talk Schedule: Tuesday through Friday 2nd hour for 7th grade and 7th hour for 8th grade.  Tuesday- Dynamic and Journey, Wednesday-Synthesis and Innovation, Thursday- Unity and Synergy, and Friday- Harmony and Quest.  The revised 15-16 discipline grid you received at our first faculty meeting on the 12th is in each student handbook after pg. 15 for reference.  We also emailed the handbook to all staff Monday as well.

-  Team meetings.  I need to have the date and hour your team will set aside to meet with me each month beginning the week of August 24th by Wednesday the 19th.  As soon as I have dates, all team agendas will be located on the Network Blog.  Agenda for the first team meeting is below and under the team tab on the blog as well:

1. Team token distribution
2. SSD- Autism Study
3. Bullying reporting procedures
4. Field trip: procedures and consistent offerings for students
5. Fall conferences: schedule and conference procedures
6. MAP data
7. Evaluations/PLC
8. Professional goals 15-16
9. Open Agenda

-  Pat Weaver will be at Hixson on Wednesday stationed in the library to assist anyone with ensuring your Edline page is up and running with the required components.  She will arrive at 7:30 and stay through the afternoon to help.

-  Please remember to view this year's required staff training power point presentation.  It is pinned to the top of the Hixson Google Community for you to view.  I emailed it out as well, however, my Outlook was seriously impacted by the recent issues so it may or may not have appeared in your inbox.  I am awaiting word on the yearly viewing of Smarter Adults/Safer Children and will get that information to you as well.

-  Open House is this Thursday the 20th at 6:30 pm.  We will follow last year's format with a longer 1st hour to incorporate the video from central office.  A detailed schedule will be shared with you Monday afternoon/evening.  

Good to Know                              

- Welcome back Breakfast in the lounge Monday morning from our amazing PTO!!  Thank you! Wishing everyone a great first week with our students!

- PTO meetings will have a "speaker series" this year for parents for relevant topics to middle school children.  The first meeting is Friday, a coffee with me and the agenda will be an overview of our goals at Hixson for this year.  Below is a tentative schedule of dates and topics- speakers are still being selected.  Thanks!

1. Friday August 21^st Parent principal coffee:  Dr. Smith discusses HMS goals for the school year 
2. September 16th, 6:30-7:30 pm - Internet Safety 
3.  November 20^th Parent Coffee 8:45 am Navigating the Teen Years - 
4. December 11^th 11:30 Parent principal lunch - Keeping Your Teens off Drugs
5. February 19^th 8:45 am The Adolescent Brain 
6. April 15^th  8:45 am - Understanding Anxiety and Depression in Teens 
7.  May 4^th 6pm PTO planning committee and - Resiliency