Friday Memo - 1/29/21

Black History Month
A few memos ago, I mentioned an HBCU tour that I had the privilege to attend back in 2017. It was during that tour that I started my collection of HBCU hoodies and sweatshirts! So far, I have collected sweatshirts from North Carolina A & T, Howard University, Spelman College, Hampton University, Florida A & M University, Morgan State University, Fisk University, Tennessee State University, Tuskegee University, and I'm waiting on a sweatshirt to be delivered from Clark Atlanta University. We are going on a family vacation to Savannah, GA this summer, so I will be adding a hoodie from that school to my collection as well. My dream is to have a hoodie/sweatshirt from all 107 HBCUs! 

Throughout the month of February, you will see me wearing items from my collection in honor of Black History Month. Please feel free to ask me where the hoodie is from and about my experience at the school. I've had the opportunity to visit some of the schools, and I ordered the rest of the hoodies from the schools directly or bothered a friend/colleague to pick me up a hoodie from one of their school visits.

Fisk University - one of my favorite visits!

We will have a door decorating contest to honor Black History Month through Statesman Time. Details for the contest will be shared next week!

Important Dates
February 1 - Department meetings, 3:35 pm to 4:45 pm
February 2 - Transition Task Force meeting
February 1 - 5 - School Counseling Week
February 8 - Faculty meeting with Alive & Well, 3:40 pm to 4:40 pm
February 12 - WGSD Virtual Conference 2021 (ABAR focus), 8:15 am - 11:00 am (Click HERE to register)
February 12 - Session 3 of district ABAR workshop (12:00 pm - 3:00 pm)
February 15 - No School - President's Day

DOMAIN 1: HIXSON & COVID-19

Seating Charts - UPDATE IMMEDIATELY
All teachers need to make sure that their seating charts are updated and uploaded to the seating chart folder. We have had to quarantine multiple students since we returned from winter break. Sometimes this quarantining process carries over into the evenings or weekends. There have been times when we have gone to look at seating charts and they were not updated. This simply cannot happen. If your seating charts need to be updated, please do so immediately. 

Statesman Time
All teachers are required to teach the Statesman Time lessons. If you have not been teaching the Statesman Time lessons, please do so, as this is an expectation. We will be surveying students and staff eventually about their experiences with Statesman Time. We will use the feedback to inform Statesman Time planning for next year. This feedback will not be helpful to us if the lessons are not being taught. 

I would like to send a special thank you to the staff members who have contributed to planning and organizing Statesman Time. Your work does not go unnoticed.

Revised plan for supporting students who are quarantined
Click HERE to view 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 document. 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
Click HERE to access the protocol for substitute teachers who will cover virtual classes.

DOMAIN 2: HIXSON & EQUITY

State of Black Educators Symposium!
The inaugural State of Black Educators Symposium was created for people/organizations interested in coming together to discuss better ways to recruit, develop, support, and mentor Black educators.

SBE21 will focus more on practical solutions to address inclusion, diversity, equity, anti-bias, and anti-racism within schools and organization. SBE20 was nearly at capacity (1,600). With SBE21 being online, we anticipate over 2,000 attendees from all across the world! Register now for this two day event.

DOMAIN 3: HIXSON & STEGER

Building Room Assignment Work Group
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.

Transition Task Force Updates

The Equity work group of the Transition Task Force is seeking feedback on progress that Hixson and Steger have made on equity work thus far in both buildings. Please click HERE to take their brief survey. They really need your feedback to help them move their work forward!