Friday Memo - 11/11/22

To Lisa Rodriguez and Thomas Bamvakais (pictured below), and to all other veterans out there, happy Veterans Day, and THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!

Important dates
November 14 - Late Start Day
November 16 - Hixson 7th & 8th Choir Concert, 6:30 pm
November 17 - PD Huddle with Jill Right, Hixson Parent University: Mental Health and the Adolescent Brain presented by Hixson counselors during PTO meeting
November 14 - SIT Team meetings after school
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 13 - Hixson Music Showcase, 4pm to 6pm
December 22 - January 3 - Winter Break
January 4 - School resumes

128th issue of Hixson Happenings

Hixson Staff Recognition Form

PD Huddle - November 17

Are you interested in raising the level of discourse in your classroom?

Do you have effective strategies or prompts that others could benefit from regarding class discussions?

Can you carve out 10-15 minutes of your personal or team plan time for some quick PD?

Stop by the library classroom anytime on Thursday, 11/17, for a PD Huddle! Immediate takeaways and food are incentives.  Attending this huddle gets you one chance in the drawing for me to cover a school duty in the next few weeks. Attending and wearing any sports team related garb gets you two chances.

Hope to see you Thursday!

Coach Right

Jordan Lewis is Receiving an Award!
I am so happy to share that Ms. Jordan Lewis, PE & Health teacher at Hixson Middle School, will be receiving a very prestigious award this weekend from the Missouri Society of Health & Physical Education (MOSHAPE)! Ms. Lewis will receive the Dr. James Herauf Young Professionals of the Year Award for 2022. This award is given to those who have made significant contributions to the profession and to the association in the early part of their career. Ms. Lewis started her career at Hixson Middle School last year as a first year teacher, and she truly has done amazing work with Hixson students by building meaningful relationships, bringing creative and innovative health and physical fitness instruction to the classroom, and being a caring colleague.

To Ms. Lewis, thank you for the many contributions you have made and continue to make to the Hixson Middle School community. You are a passionate and dedicated professional, and you are so deserving of this award!

Safety and Security Update
If there is ever a situation that creates the need for you to make an all call from your classroom to alert others in the building of potential danger, please dial the code 3892 then speak directly into the receiver of your phone. We will be testing every phone in the building soon to ensure that every phone functions in this way. We will submit work orders for phones that do not work properly. Also, if you ever need to call 911 from a classroom phone, you do not need to press the outgoing call button. Just dial 911. 

Mike and I have submitted several work orders since our 4E training in the summer. Most of those work orders came directly from the worksheets you completed during the training that asked you to identify areas of concern in the building (I don't remember the exact wording of the question). As always, if there is a safety and security issue that you think needs attention, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

Team Activities!
An important feature of the middle school model is having purposeful plans in place to build meaningful relationships and positive community with the students and staff of your interdisciplinary teams. There is money available to support team activities. If you would like to organize a fun, community building activity with your team (including the elective teachers associated with your team) between now and the end of the year, please have your team leader share your idea via email with the Hixson admin team by November 28. Ideas for fun activities could include:

• Private movie screening at a local movie theater
• Day at the park
• Service project
• Team retreat at Camp Wyman (during the school day)
• Team or grade level mixer
• Silent Disco party
• Guest speaker
• field day

We are looking forward to hearing your ideas!

More Newline Boards
Please let me know by Friday, November 18 if you would like to have a Newline board in your classroom. The Newline boards would be on a cart just like the ones you see throughout the building. 

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)