Friday Memo - 10/28/22

Important dates
November 2 - 4 - Mayes, Vogt, Lee, James, Garwood OOTB for AMLE Conference
November 8 - HXMS & WGHS PLC Mini Conference
November 10 - Orchestra Concert, 6:30 pm
November 11 - Veterans' Day; Rock n' Roll Bingo
November 14 - Late Start Day
November 16 - Hixson 7th & 8th Choir Concert, 6:30 pm
November 17 - Hixson Parent University: Mental Health and the Adolescent Brain presented by Hixson counselors during PTO meeting
November 14 - SIT Team meetings
November 22 - Mike Hazelton OOTB
November 23 - 25 - Thanksgiving Break
November 28 - Late Start Day; Mike Hazelton OOTB
November 30 & December 1 - Hixson School Play, 6:30 pm
December 5 - Faculty Meeting
December 12 - Late Start Day, SIT Team meetings
December 22 - January 3 - Winter Break
January 4 - School resumes

127th issue of Hixson Happenings

A Tough Week
I know this was a tough week for us all, but I would like to thank you for your continued support and care for each other, for our students, and for this school. Dealing with threats to school is never easy, to say the least, and it is very difficult to know the best way to respond outside of investigating the threat. With that said, I do think that there are some things we can put in place as a school that will allow us to take a pause when something significant has happens. The admin team will be working with counselors and hopefully some of you who are willing to create a specific and easily activated plan that we can use for situations like what occurred earlier this week. Our goal is to create a plan that has supports in place for students and staff. Here is one way that you can contribute.

1. What do you do in your classroom with students if we have school the day after a tragedy? How do you talk to your students about it? How do you let your students know that we love and care for them? If you are willing to share those ideas, then put them HERE. We will collect ideas from the experts in the building (you) to help us create a Hixson specific pool of resources.

More information on this will come at a later time. Thanks!

Instructional Focus
Looking for ideas for closure activities? Click the link below to read an article from Edutopia called 22 Powerful Closure Activities!

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/22-powerful-closure-activities-todd-finley

Summer School Administrators
Tracy Lee and Amirah Garwood will be our summer school administrators. You will start hearing from them soon about planning for summer school. If you are interested in teaching summer school, please start thinking about what you want to teach. They will launch the process for collecting that information soon!

Newline Board
Dawn Meyer is no longer using her Newline Board. If you would like it to be moved to your classroom, please let me know. 

New Elective Courses
Just so you're aware, the following new courses are being proposed for next year.

• Computer Science 2 - taught by Chantell Mason; she will no longer teach Tech Ed
• Robotics - taught by Destiny Davis; she will not offer Makerspace 2
• Middle School Thrive Program - the district wants to expand the Thrive program to the middle school, and we would be happy to offer it!
• Tech Ed 1 & 2 will no longer be offered at Hixson. Robotics and Computer Science 2 will help fill the void.

Possible Service Project for your Statesman Time
Engaging students in service learning is a meaningful way to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate our core values of respect, positive relationships, and teamwork. Please read the opportunity below and let me know if your Statesman Time would like to participate. This would be an awesome Veteran's Day activity!

Write letters to veterans who participate in the Greater St Louis Honor Flight. 

• For more information on the organization: https://gslhonorflight.org/
• Every veteran gets a packet of mail on the flight home - from family, friends, members of the community, etc and we write letters because some don’t have many family. 
• Copy of Mail Call Description.docx
• Mail Call Photos.docx
• Letter Templates

Message from PTO
This year, your PTO is working hard to create a sense of community. A big part of that is introducing ALL of you to our families in the "Getting to Know You" series. If you are interested, please take a moment to answer some of the questions on the Google form (below) so that Kelly Dunsford can write a profile about you and post it on the Hixson PTO Facebook page. You do not need to answer every question. These posts are loved by our families, and many parents have commented about wanting to see more! Thanks again for your time and work with our Junior Statesmen!

Google form (if interested)