Friday Memo - 10/29/21

Important dates
November 1 - Hixson Staff Retreat at Camp Wyman, 8:30 am - 3:00 pm
November 5 - Hixson Spirit Wear Store closes
November 8 - School Improvement Team meeting
November 11 - Principal's Council meeting, 2nd hr, Orchestra Concert, 6pm
November 17 - Choir Concert, 6:30 pm
November 24 - 26 - Thanksgiving Break
December 1 - School Play
December 5 - Hixson PTO Holiday House Tour
December 6 - Faculty Meeting, 3:35 pm to 4:35 pm
December 8 - 6 - 8 Band Concert, 6:00 pm
December 10 - Hixson Choir Tour
December 15 - Sounds of Hixson Concert, 6:30 pm
December 21 - Quarter 2 ends/end of 1st semester

Happy Halloween everyone!

91st issue of Hixson Happenings
Click HERE to access the newest issue of Hixson Happenings.

6th grade camp
We have new dates for 6th grade camp. It is our goal to ensure that our 6th graders get the overnight camp experience. Therefore, we picked the latest dates we possibly could in order to get the best chance at attending overnight camp. However, this depends on the status of the pandemic. We will keep close tabs on this, and will have back up plans just in case we can't attend overnight camp due to the pandemic.

The new 6th grade camp dates are listed below.

• 6 Unity: April 11 - 15, 2022
• 6 Integrity: April 18 - 22, 2022
• 6 Bravery: May 2 - 6, 2022

Summer work requests
I am being asked to submit summer work requests. If there is work that needs to be done in your classroom, please let me know as soon as possible. I will be working on submitting our spreadsheet next Wednesday. Thanks!

Summer school
Please let me know if you are interested in being the summer school admin intern this summer. The position can be shared. The dates for summer school are June 9 - July 1, 2022. 

Hanging up signs in the building
Before hanging up a sign in the building, please get it approved by a Hixson administrator first. We will initial the sign in one of the bottom corners or on the back. Thanks!

Hixson Spirit Wear Store
Interested in purchasing Hixson spirit wear? Click HERE to order! When you place your order, you can choose to have your items shipped directly to your home for an additional fee, or you can choose to have your items shipped directly to Hixson for free. The spirit wear store will close on November 5!

Need a break?
As we approach Thanksgiving break, your admin and instructional support teams would like to give you some time to yourself. While we don't have the power to call school off for a day or make other changes to the calendar, we are in the position to give you some time off during the school day!

There may be times coming up in the next three weeks that you could use to take a break. Maybe your students are taking a test. Maybe they are having a work day on a project. Or, maybe there is an easy activity you can leave for someone else to facilitate. You may choose a 24 - 48 minute break. You could choose to use this as a mental health break or an extra plan period. It's up to you, but please take a break!

To ensure there is someone available to cover your break, please sign up HERE!

The Work of CLTs/SLOs

The work of a CLT is the same as choosing and documenting the Student Learning Objective (SLO), a requirement in the teacher evaluation process. As we become proficient in working with CLTs, we will get to a point where the work is creating SLOs throughout the entire year; once a CLT finishes a SLO, a new one will be started. 

In the 19-20 school year, the requirement at Hixson was for each CLT to do two SLOs. Before we were quarantined, the plan was for each teacher to then choose one SLO to submit for evaluation purposes. We will be returning to this requirement as many CLTs are still in the beginning stages of working together. Before the SLO due date of February 21, each CLT should have completed two SLOs. The members of the CLT may choose to submit the same SLO or different SLOs for their evaluation. Directions on how to submit the SLO and how the SLO will be scored may be found here. 

When the SLO process was first introduced to the district, elective and PE teachers were given the option to choose one class from which to collect SLO data. This has changed; all teachers should collect data on all students who are taught the objective. 

Principal's Council update
I am so excited to be launching Principal's Council on November 11, 2021! I think this will be a great opportunity to bring student voice to the forefront and involve them directly in improving our school! You can click HERE to read the Principal's Council letter that the students received yesterday. I've also included the list of meeting dates below. If you ever want to attend a Principal's Council meeting, you are more than welcome to do so! You can observe or get involved in the activities. It's up to you!

• Thursday, November 11, 2021, 2nd hour (9:17 am - 10:05 am) in Library Classroom

• Thursday, December 9, 2021, 3rd hour (10:09 am - 10:57 am) in Library Classroom

• Thursday, January 13, 2022, 4th hour (11:01 am - 11:49 am) in Library Classroom
  Lunch will be provided for Principal’s Council this day. 6th graders should report to Principal’s Council instead of the Cafeteria for lunch. When Principal’s Council is over, 6th graders will report to their 4th hour class (ends at 12:21 pm, 7th graders will report to lunch, and 8th graders will report to 5th hour).

• Thursday, February 10, 2022, 5th hour (12:25 pm - 1:13 pm) in Library Classroom

Lunch will be provided for Principal’s Council this day. 8th graders will leave their 5th hour class and report to Principal’s Council by 12:25 pm. When Principal’s Council is over, all students will report to their 6th hour class. 

• Thursday, March 10, 2022, 6th hour (1:17 pm - 2:05 pm) in Library Classroom

• Thursday, April 7, 2022, 7th hour (2:09 pm - 2:57 pm) in Library Classroom

Here is the list of students who received an invitation to Principal's Council yesterday. Thank you so much for your recommendations!

6th grade (9)

Rahmon Johnson

Morgan Hall

Chase Williams

Natalia Frisella

Ethan Rahmoeller

Xavier Kirksey

Elsa Hoyer

Patrick Magee

Tobin Crawford

7th grade (11)

Kareem Saffaf

Sania Hill

Daniel Sullivan

Zariah Brandon-Thomas

Makayla Beasley

Timothy Kelly

William Johnson

Alexandria (Zan) Smith

Dianna Nguyen

Myles Thompson

Kareema Ali

8th grade (10)

Lia Fairbanks

Kiran Bergfeld

Khobie Hicks

Nylla Trevino

Ruby Bond

Harry McGuire

Kaden Williams

Joanna Funk

Ciziayah Lang

D’Alva Ingram