Hixson Network

MONDAY MEMO WEEK OF 2/13/2017

Morning Announcement and Pledge Schedule this week:

2-13  Mrs. Day

2-14  Mr. Cahn

2-15  Mrs. Oliver

2-16  Mrs. Pettid

Innovation hour: Please remember we expect the same behavior of students in IH as we do during other classes and times of the school day.  Please follow your regular expectations/consequences for students during this time.

Faculty Meeting this afternoon: Please bring Carrots and Sticks book for Chapters 1 and 2

Team meeting schedule, second semester:

Team meetings are this week- all day Wednesday and 2 and 7 hour Thursday.

TEAM MEETING AGENDA: I will go over each schedule prototype with teams in person and ask for the positives and negatives of each schedule

8th grade Junior Achievement field trips this week

February 17th PD day:  morning- district PD and afternoon Carrots and Sticks at Hixson

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL: If you are interested in assisting with planning the last day of school activities for this half-day, please email Dr. Smith.  We need volunteers to help plan this half-day.

*Note: When you send something to the copier to print, it only stays in the “cue” for 3 hours, if you are going to retrieve it past 3 hours you will need to print it again.

STAFFING MEETING: same status

I met with Dr. Simpson and Dr. Wiley regarding our staffing needs for 17-18.  Below are the items on my list I took for discussion (I take everything I think we could need/utilize, even if some may not be realistic)  At this point, John and Sandy are meeting with all principals to discuss needs, ideas, solutions, etc.  They will then look at staffing district-wide and meet again with each principal.

• considerations to offer GEMS to meet the minutes and not have to have GEMS students miss a PE class to meet their minutes
• eliminate Discovery from the schedule by adding PE/Health/Wellness staff
• reinstate library aide
• additional days for aides to assist with Chromebook distribution before school begins (during registration)
• additional days for counselors to work registration
• Additional.2 for orchestra to offer 3 sections at each grade level as enrollment increases

SCHEDULING UPDATE:  There are 2 tentative schedules at this time that are viable options for next year at this point

• Schedule A: “Current Schedule Flipped w/elective changes”
• Keeps full middle school teaming with the 4 blocked hours of core and blocked electives
• Allows for Semester electives, 7th grade electives will come off of the wheel
• WIll “flip” 7th and 8th grade core classes.  In 17-18, 8th grade will teach in the morning and 7th grade will teach in the afternoon.  It has been 3 years since the schedule was flipped.
• No mixed grade electives and therefore, no mixed grade lunches
• PE and Band blocked: 8th grade classes back to back and 7th grade classes back to back
• Elective team period
• Schedule B: “Prototype 6”- more drastic changes
• ⅞ grade mixed electives
• ⅞ grade mixed lunch
• Allows for Semester electives, 7th grade electives will come off of the wheel
• Elective team period
• PE blocked
• Teaming: teams have 2 consecutive class periods on team instead of 4
• Student day is somewhat more broken up to give more of a mix of cores and electives
• Order of scheduling:  a lot of effort and thought by many has been put into the order in which we schedule.  Here are the findings at this point:
• SSD
• Teams (ensure diversity and equity)
• Electives, math/gems/gfa/PE and discovery

This results in the least amount of cross teaming.  This also helps us to not track students and make sure teams and classes are comprised of diverse populations

COMMUNICATION FOCUS-PTAC (Principal-teacher advisory council): https://padlet.com/smith_stacie/lp5pgr3brg18

Please contribute to the padlet using the link above to share what transparent and consistent communication looks like.  Our next meeting is February 22.  

ASA

Teachers, please remember to continue to walk your after school activity students out to the main entrance after ASA has ended.  Thank you for keeping up with this, it is having a huge impact on student supervision.

Please remind students they should be off campus by 3:45 on Mondays and Fridays and by 4:15 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays

Monday 2/13

Dr. Smith - appointment in morning

Observations in afternoon

3:30- faculty meeting- bring Carrots and Sticks book please

Tuesday, 2/14 HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

7:45 Mrs. Edwards

Observations

10 am- Cathy V. and Pat W. meeting, Dr. Smith’s office

Observations

1pm- Jason Heisel, weekly meeting

Observations

Wednesday, 2/15

Team meetings- Dr. Smith: every hour 1-7

Thursday, 2/16- Happy Birthday Emily Martin!!!

9 Gail T  

2nd hour- team meeting

Observations

7th hour-team meeting    

Friday, 2/17

PD DAY

District in am

Building in pm