Inauguration Day!
I was so inspired by the Inauguration last Wednesday, and I know many of you were as well. It means so much to me to see a Black and Southeast Asian woman become Vice President of the United States. When I was a kid, the thought of a woman of color being Vice President never crossed my mind because I was taught, directly and indirectly, that it simply was not possible. I was taught that people of color did not belong in those positions. However, today I am cautiously optimistic about the steps we continue to make as a country to become a more inclusive society. Now, I know that inclusion is not enough, but please understand how much representation matters. If, as an adult, I feel validated by having a woman of color as Vice President, then imagine how this is impacting our students...every last one of them.
I am not going to ignore the elephant in the room. I know many of you were disappointed with the video and prompt provided to us by the district earlier this week, but I hope you were still able to have substantive conversations with your students on Wednesday. I also encourage every one of you, regardless of your curriculum, to have conversations with your students about the Inauguration and other related topics. Please do not hesitate to show any and all parts of the Inauguration. If you have any questions or if you want someone to run ideas by, then please reach out to admin. We are here to help.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention President Joe Biden. Wednesday was a big day for him too, and I wish him all the best in his new presidency because there is a ton of work to do.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I will be spending my time this weekend looking for an outfit like Michelle Obama's, and looking at Bernie Sanders memes! :-)
Important Dates
January 25 - 29 - Elementary Virtual School Visits/6th & 7th grade Course Selection Talks
February 1 - Department meetings, 3:35 pm to 4:45 pm
February 1 - 5 - School Counseling Week
February 8 - Faculty meeting with Alive & Well, 3:40 pm to 4:40 pm
February 12 - Professional Development Day - ABAR EdCamp
February 15 - No School - President's Day
DOMAIN 1: HIXSON & COVID-19
Revised plan for supporting students who are quarantined
Click HERE to view the final version of our revised plan for supporting students who are quarantined. If you need to change your plan down the line, please let me know as soon as possible so I can update the plan. Be sure to let your students know about the change.
Remote teaching
If you ever have to teach remotely, please make sure you review the protocols below and let me know if you have any questions.
Protocol for teaching remotely
Click HERE to access the protocol for teaching remotely.
Protocol for substitute teachers who will cover virtual classes
Please read the information below regarding how we will handle/support substitute teachers who need to cover virtual classes.
IF we have a sub who needs to teach via Zoom:
The classroom teacher must add Sarah Magruder as a co-host to the Zoom so that she can start the Zoom classes, if necessary.
Sarah Magruder will assign a hixsonsub1(through10)@wgcloud.org to the primary teacher.
The primary teacher needs to then make the hixsonsub(NUMBER ASSIGNED)@wgcloud the cohost on Zoom.
Sarah Magruder then assigns the sub covering for the virtual class the sub wgcloud email address
and password to login to Zoom with. The sub will log into Zoom using the hixsonsub(NUMBER)@wgcloud.org assigned to them by Sarah Magruder.
example: username: hixsonsub1@wgcloud.org password WGSD2021!
IF more than one sub will be teaching via Zoom for the primary teacher then the primary teacher will
need to add the appropriate hixsonsub(number)@wgcloud.org as co-host to their Zoom sessions.
We have a total of 10 Sub accounts setup in wgcloud to use.
DOMAIN 2: HIXSON & EQUITY
I'm not sure if anyone is reading or has read Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, but I am currently reading it at home and I simply must share how amazing this book is. Wilkerson explains how a caste system works by comparing three caste systems: Nazi Germany, Jim Crow America, and the caste system in India. If you are looking to deepen your understanding of how oppressive systems operate, and our roles within those systems, then I HIGHLY recommend this book to you. It may be worth a book study...
DOMAIN 3: HIXSON & STEGER
Do you think you would enjoy helping create the building map for next school year, which includes determining room assignments? If you are interested, please email Dr. Mayes. The Hixson admin team is trying to see if there is interest in participating in this work. If so, we will form a work group after course requests are due, and we will work on creating the building map together.
The Rebranding and Campus Beautification work group of the Transition Task Force is currently seeking ideas for new team names. If you have an idea or a theme for team names, please submit it to Dr. Mayes by January 29, 2021. Please, no colors or constellations. Those themes are already in place at Hixson and Steger, and we need to pick team names that are inclusive of both schools as one.
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