Important dates
January 20 & 21 - students enter course requests for 22-23 SY
January 24 - NWEA Testing
January 25 - NWEA Testing
January 27 - NAEP Testing
February 7 - Faculty Meeting, 3:35 pm
February 14 - School Improvement Team meeting
February 16 - Orchestra Pops Concert, 6:30 pm
February 18 - No School
February 21 - No School; President's Day
99th issue of Hixson Happenings
WGSD Plan for School Closings due to Inclement Weather
List of 2nd Semester After School Activities
PTO Wish List
Since the PTO Wish List items were so well liked, the PTO has decided to send us more items. If you have something you'd like added to the wish list, please let me know and I will tell them.
PMIGA update
The Progress Monitoring, Intervention, Grading, and Assessment Committee of the School Improvement Team is examining current grading practices in the building in the efforts to create a universal grading policy at Hixson. Please take some time to complete the survey found at the link below by February 11th. You may choose to respond to this survey as an individual, CLT, or department.
Attendance update
Throughout this week, I have answered phones and gotten knee deep in the details of attendance! Wow that job is hard! I have so much respect and appreciation for Cindy Delaney, Nikita Hicks, Earline Banks, and Sarah Magruder! Our school would quite literally implode without them.
One of the most important things that can make attendance run efficiently and effectively is accurate and timely record keeping. If you have any involvement in taking attendance each day, please do your best to make sure it is done accurately and on time. We recognize the challenges that come with this, especially now with the increase in staff absences and simultaneously managing Zoom and in person learners, but attendance is our collective responsibility as a school. That is never going to change.
Statesman Time updates
Information about the PE rotation will be released by Jordan Lewis on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. After receiving this information, please review it with your Statesman Time classes to make sure everyone is on the same page. The rotations will start the week of January 24.
I also wanted to share the parent feedback that I collected about Statesman Time prior to winter break. Here are a few highlights.
- There are 109 responses. 53 are in favor of single grade level ST groups. 21 have no preference. 32 were in favor of multi grade level ST groups.
- Some parents report that their students are not being engaged by Hixson staff during Statesman Time.
- Some parents report that their student is having a great experience in Statesman Time.
- There are also some good ideas in the feedback!
Summer School
Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in teaching summer school this year. Jessica Greenberg and Alka Woodard will be our summer school admin interns this year, and we are considering a STEAM focus or cluster of courses for our summer programming, amongst many others.
Summer school will take place at Hixson Middle School, and it will run from June 6 to July 1, 2022. The hours will be 8:30 am to 12:45 pm. The rate of pay is $29 per hour. Retirement is deducted if certified summer school staff work more than 17 hours per week. Retirement is deducted if summer school support staff work more than 20 hours per week. More information will be released by Jessica and Alka next week. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Would you like to pilot something?
Are you interested in piloting a new and innovative idea in your classroom/in your work with students next school year? The Hixson administrative team is interested in hearing ideas from individuals and/or groups of staff members who are interested in trying something new next year. A school cannot move forward if it doesn't find time to try something new. Here are some examples of ideas to pilot.
- An individual or group of staff members decide(s) to pilot restorative practices, project based learning, experiential learning, or service learning next year.
Protocol for reporting COVID related absences
If you are experiencing COVID-like symptoms and therefore need to get tested, please send an email to Shenita Mayes and Human Resources (hrc@wgmail.org) explaining your situation, and enter the absence in Aesop as soon as possible. This same process applies if you need to care for a child or family member who has COVID or needs to get tested for COVID. I am trying to keep very close tabs on the progression of COVID in the building, and I need your prompt communication in order to do that.
Generally speaking, the sooner you enter an absence into Aesop, the better, regardless of the reason.
Essential information for when you have a substitute
Adding substitute accounts to a teacher's course
From Tim Brown--"If you need a substitute to open Zoom for students who are not present at school, then you will need to add the substitute account as a co-host to your Zoom session." Sarah Magruder will tell you which sub account to add. Tim Brown has created more sub accounts for us. Our sub accounts are listed below, along with the password, which is the same for each account.
hixsonsub1@wgcloud.org
hixsonsub2@wgcloud.org
hixsonsub3@wgcloud.org
hixsonsub4@wgcloud.org
hixsonsub5@wgcloud.org
hixsonsub6@wgcloud.org
hixsonsub7@wgcloud.org
hixsonsub8@wgcloud.org
Who is permitted to access live instruction via Zoom?
Here is the explanation for who is permitted to access live virtual instruction, and how you can respond to parents if they are choosing to keep their student home out of extra precaution, but NOT due to official quarantine or isolation.
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