Friday Memo - 9/3/21

Important dates
September 6 - NO SCHOOL - Labor Day!
September 13 - School Improvement Team meeting
September 17 - half day professional day (PLCs); dismissal at 12:32 pm
September 19 - Hixson Community Open House, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
October 4 - Picture retake/make up day
October 19 & 20 - Parent Teacher Conferences, 4pm - 8pm
October 21 - Parent Teacher Conferences - 9am - 4pm; NO SCHOOL for students
October 22 - NO SCHOOL (comp day)

84th issue of Hixson Happenings
Click HERE to read the most recent Hixson Happenings!

Staff Picture Directory
Ready to start putting faces with names so that you can learn who your new colleagues are? Click the link below to access the Hixson Middle School Staff Picture Directory!

HXMS Staff Picture Directory

Secret Mission
To help with our efforts to build relationships and establish a positive school community, I will share a "Secret Mission" every once in a while throughout the school year. You won't know when it's coming. You won't know what it is. Just watch for an email that says "Secret Mission" in the subject line, read the email, and do what it says. Participation in the Secret Mission is encouraged, not required. 

I am being vague on purpose. Keep an eye out for Secret Mission #1! It's coming soon!

Parent Teacher Conferences
We will hold virtual Parent Teacher Conferences in the fall. We will revisit the idea of having in person parent teacher conferences in the spring, depending on the status of COVID-19. Please let me know if you have any questions about this. 

Newsletters
This is a reminder that today is the last day that Sarah Magruder will assist with updating team/department newsletters. We are now fully transitioned to teams/departments updating their own newsletter. Moving forward, Sarah and I will just check newsletters every Thursday/Friday morning to make sure they are updated before I hit send on the Hixson Happenings. Here are two reminders about updating your newsletter each week.

• Please make sure you hit "Publish changes" after you make changes. If you don't, it will lock your newsletter.
• Please update the same newsletter each week. By doing this, we can avoid having to re-link eighteen different newsletters each week. 

Professional Learning Communities update
We will have development on Professional Learning Communities for all staff on Friday, September 17, which is a half day PD day. This will be our official kick off/re-launch, and it will be led by Hixson administration, Jill Right, Christy Cox, and Hope Strasser. We will no longer work with DCI. 

For those of you who have never been a part of a PLC before, you may be wondering what it is. I prefer the following definition from Solution Tree:

It is the way the adults in a school decide to act and work together to ensure high levels of learning for all students. It is a commitment to continuous improvement that requires a shared vision of the kind of school we want to create, along with a clear understanding of the mission or reason we exist. 

Solution Tree explains that the entire school is the PLC. Collaborative Learning Teams are the engines that drive the work of the PLC. You have all been placed in Collaborative Learning Teams. Some of you have worked together before, and some of you have not. Some of you have experience with CLTs, and some of you do not. This is all okay. We are going to work very hard to get everyone on a productive path towards establishing a strong Professional Learning Community at Hixson.

A foundational piece to establishing a strong Collaborative Learning Team is to understand each other's strengths from the beginning. In preparation for September 17, each member of your team needs to complete the High5Test (click on sign up with email; takes about 15 minutes), meet one time whenever you want during your CLT time, and discuss your results with your team. The purpose of this is to start getting to know each other's strengths, which will serve as a precursor for how you will work together as a team. This is the one and only task that you and your team are required to do between now and September 17. We will reference the quiz during our development, so please make sure you get it done.

Collaborative Team  List + Weekly Schedule

Community Open House - September 19, 2021
Hixson will host a community Open House and ribbon cutting on Sunday, September 19 from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm. During this time, community members will have the opportunity to tour the building, view the ribbon cutting, listen to a few short speeches (Dr. Simpson, BOE, etc), hear Cbabi Bayoc conduct "artist talks" about our murals, enjoy refreshments, take fun pictures at a Hixson photo booth, and more! 

Since this is a Sunday, your attendance is not required. However, please consider attending because we have been asked to offer teacher-led activities around the building such as games in the gym, STEAM activities, music (band/orchestra/choir) etc. More details on the community open house will be forthcoming.