Beginning the Year: 2013-2014

There is much to share at the beginning of the school year.  Please give yourself enough time to be thorough as you read and complete the tasks in this post.  You will need to login to your WGcloud account to access the links in this post.

The Hixson Staff Calendar on the Network has dates, times, and other information regarding our opening three days. Click here for more specific information about the meetings on 8/9.

Teacher Observation and The Art and Science of Teaching
This first year with the new observation instrument will require more time on the front end than in subsequent years.  If your Growth Plan is shared with me before 8:30am on 8/9, you will be excused from an hour of the faculty meeting that morning.  Ultimately, your Growth Plan is due to Dr. Heisserer before school begins on 8/13.  Click here to read more.

Click here to read some FAQs about the WGSD Performance Based Teacher Evaluation process and instrument.

Grading and Retake/Redo Practices
Beginning with the 2013-2014 school year, Hixson Middle School will implement

• consistent, across-the-school practices for retaking assessments and re-doing homework and other assignments, and
• consistent grade weighting practices.

I made this decision after several thoughtful conversations initiated by teachers and parents.  I also reflected on feedback collected last year with post-its on my wall and on my own beliefs as a leader and educator.  Click here to read more background and to review this expectations.

Other, Year-Long Development Opportunities
Three ongoing learning opportunities are available for faculty this year.

1. Fourth Monday Faculty Meetings will run from 3:30-4:30pm.  You will be able to choose how you use that time.  Please plan to stay for the entire time period.  More details will be published prior to each fourth Monday faculty meeting.
2. A Critical Friends Group designed to provide ongoing collaboration and feedback among faculty members who choose to participate.
3. A justice and equity cohort designed to provide opportunities for ongoing conversation and learning about a variety of identities from a personal (or stance) perspective.

Click here for more information about all three.

A New Room
The shape of our building as changed, somewhat.  A wall has been built upstairs next to the elevator door creating an addition room.  As of right now, I am not quite sure how I will allocate that space; however, for now, it can serve as a much-need conference room.

Required Staff Training
We must engage in required staff training annually around some very specific topics. I rely on you to review this information on your own. The PowerPoint is lengthy, so Mrs. Teter divided it into six sections so you can review it more easily over time.  We will review aspects of this staff training via the Network and at faculty meetings throughout the year.

• Click here for the PowerPoints.
• Click here for the Training Tracker.  The training tracker is due to Mrs. Edwards by October 4th, 2013.  I am giving longer this year given how much time setting up iObservation may take.

Building Hours

The building will be open from 7am to 5pm the week of 8/5-8/9.  On 8/12, the building will close at 3:30pm.

Other Information
Click any of the links below to get more information about that topic:

• Meeting and Release Dates and Topics for 2013-2014
• Discovery Expectations
• Teaming Expectations
• Department Expectations
• Master Schedule
• Student Handbook
• Faculty Handbook (Or click the digital briefcase button on the dock above)
• School Improvement Plan: 2013-2014 (draft)

April 15, 2013

After several conversations in the building, I can tell that we, as a school, may have benefited from a weekend as beautiful as this one.  These past two weeks have been challenging, I understand, and your diligence and attention are both appreciated and valued.  Thank you.

Hixson High Five Awards
It's time to begin thinking about whom you might nominate for the Hixson High Five award.  Please take sometime out of your busy schedule to recognize students, who may not otherwise be recognized, for their readiness, respect, and responsibility.  Students really do value and benefit from this personal feedback.  Click here to read more information about the High Five Award.  Click here to e-mail Mrs. Davis your nominee.

8th Grade Recognition
This year, the plan for 8th grade recognition is changing somewhat, and I will need your help.

• Essentially, we will only be recognizing students during the program who receive awards and recognitions from Hixson only (e.g., the Franey Award).  In order to recognize all students and to account for recognitions beyond school (e.g., participating in an all-suburban band or a Destination Imagination competition), Mr. Anderson and Mr. Heisel have created a PowerPoint in the WGCloud with a slide for each student.  
• I will send an e-mail soon with instructions for how you might add to this presentation which will run twice before the event begins and once after; the presentation will be open to all faculty and staff.  Click here to see a sample slide; I'll do my best to answer any questions you might have.

. . . from an earlier blog post:
Art and Science of Teaching: DQs 7, 8, and 10
Given that our faculty meeting time is running short, you will be left on your own to review Design Questions 7, 8, and 10 in The Art and Science of Teaching. I do not anticipate that review the following chapters will be difficult or take a long time:

• Recognizing and Acknowledging Adherence or Lack of Adherence to Rules and Procedures,
• Communicating High Expectations for All Students, and
• Developing Effective Lessons into Cohesive Units.

If you are interested in the PowerPoints provided by the district, you may click here to review them.  Reviewing the action steps in the text will also be helpful.  Taking some department or team time may expedite the process as well.  

 . . . and thank you, Dr. Miller, for arranging THIS for us!

April 1, 2013

We begin MAP testing this week.  Although we offer many culminating experiences that demosntrate the learning of our students, it is this test that is the most public.  It can sometimes be difficult to balance our accountability to these scores with other, perhaps better, indicators of achievment.  But here we are, having turned the corner in the year toward MAP.

I believe in our teaching and our collective influence on the learning of our students, and I believe in the ability and optimism our students bring to school.  I know that we will see evidence of this in our MAP scores this year.

April's Thinking Strategy: Synthesizing
April's thinking strategy is synthesizing. Since it doesn't seem to be posting (yet), I will forward the information to your e-mail in the meantime.

Art and Science of Teaching: DQs 7, 8, and 10
Given that our faculty meeting time is running short, you will be left on your own to review Design Questions 7, 8, and 10 in The Art and Science of Teaching. I do not anticipate that review the following chapters will be difficult or take a long time:

• Recognizing and Acknowledging Adherence or Lack of Adherence to Rules and Procedures,
• Communicating High Expectations for All Students, and
• Developing Effective Lessons into Cohesive Units.

If you are interested in the PowerPoints provided by the district, you may click here to review them.  Reviewing the action steps in the text will also be helpful.  Taking some department or team time may expedite the process as well.  We will talk more about this during Monday's department chair meeting.
One of the reasons I am relying on you and your colleagues to complete the review of these last three questions is that Dr. Riss has asked for some of our faculty meeting time.

April Faculty Meetings
On April 8th, Dr. Riss, per her request, will visit with us about the WGSD Foundation for the Future.
On April 22nd, we will spend our faculty meeting review the whole of The Art and Science of Teaching.

May 2nd PD Time
I am committed to giving the faculty time as needed on 5/2.  We will enjoy lunch together (from Qdoba) and then I will need about 30 minutes of faculty meeting time that day to complete some surveys. 

January 7, 2013

Happy New Year and Welcome Back!  I hope Friday was productive for you and that you are ready to begin the second semester.  For me, everything seems to speed up from here.

January Meeting Dates

• Monday, 1/7: Department Chairs will discuss and offer recommendations for how best to use our remaining faculty meeting and development time. Click here to review the dates as they are currently listed if you are interested.
• Monday, 1/14: Team teachers will meet to brainstorm/discuss/share strategies around Discovery.  This was at the request of teachers from a previous opportunity this year to have a similar discussion.  Other teachers are welcomed, of course.  I will work with SSD and elective teachers to discuss how they might use this time.
• Monday, 1/28: Design Question 3 from The Art and Science of Teaching is on the table.  More information about that will be coming.

 

MAP Testing

Please consider the following questions from the counselors regarding MAP testing:

• Would you prefer our test schedule to be a half day schedule or a similar schedule to previous years where testing times are rotated throughout the day?
• What feedback do you have that might help us create a more consise and consistent schedule for students and staff?
• Is there anything, in general, you would like us to consider or keep in mind?

Click here to e-mail your responses or click reply on the e-mail Mrs. Peterson sent on Friday.

 

Other Reminders

• Please remember that the grading window closes at 11:59pm on 1/8/13.
• Determining Importance is January's thinking strategy. 
• I have December disicpline statistics to share; I'm just having trouble getting them posted.  So more on that at another time.

Best wishes for a successful second semester; as always, I have great expectations.

Jason

November 19, 2012

I have had some opportunities to meet with teams and individual teachers these last couple weeks.  As always, I learn about (and am reminded of) parent demands on your time, energy, and planning.  Recently, I have been strategizing with teachers about setting limits and keeping boundaries with parents in terms of meeting times, communication, and other demands.  If I can be helpful to you, your department, or your team with strategies for communicating with or meeting the suggestions/demands of parents, please let me know.  

As for this week, we can do three days confidently, successfully, for sure! I hope your Thanksgiving break provides you time to get perspective of the many things for which you might be grateful.

Faculty Meeting: November 26, 2012

The topic of our 11/26 meeting with Design Question 2: "What will I do to help students effectively interact with new knowledge?" from The Art and Science of Teaching.  Please take an opportunity before then to read, skim, or at the very least review the action steps in chapter two.

Flipping through the slides of this PowerPoint will help prepare you for some of the thinking and activities of the faculty meeting as well. Click here to view this quick (11 slides) presentation.

In addition, this protocol (click here), albeit simple, may be helpful in thinking through each strategy specifically in terms of how you will plan to use them.

Focus Groups

Last  Monday, department chairs surfaced some highlights from the report generated from the focus groups conducted last month. Here are some highlights from the student group:

• Students cite the teachers, electives, friends, and the SRO as some of the top things about Hixson, and those in the focus group rated 40% of our teachers as excellent and 50% as average.
• Students feel that their experiences vary largely by team and teacher.
• Students want more hands-on and more interesting work and less lecture.
• Based on what they know, students felt prepared for 7th and 8th grades and anticipate being prepared for high school.

If you are interested in reading the entire report, click here.

It's always gratifying to learn that students value their teachers so much and feel prepared by the work they do in class.  Obviously we migh expect some variety among teams and teachers; however, the range of experiences was, in some ways, indicative of inconsistencies rather than by other, more subjective observations.  Our work toward consistent expectations for teams, Discovery, and departments and our study of the The Art and Science of Teaching will, in many ways, even out some of these incosistencies over time.  The next three chapters of The Art and Science of Teaching will remind and/or reinforice the value of a variety of teaching strategies beyond the teacher talk that students mention.

 

November 12, 2012

Monday's Faculty Meeting

We will meet in the cafeteria Monday afternoon to continue our series on developing accommodations for students who come to us with a variety of labels and challenges.  I hope that many of these strategies are generalizable over more of our student population than just those with specific diagnoses. 

Monday's faculty meeting will focus accommodations for students with social/emotional issues. 

Conference Statistics

The month of October is a busy one with conferences and other parent contacts.  This year, as a building, we conducted conferences with the families of 632 students.  That's 96% of our October student population. This is fantastic. Thank you.

Focus Groups

On Monday, department chairs surfaced some highlights from the report generated from the focus groups conducted a couple weeks ago.  I will be sharing them over next three weeks.  Here are some highlights from the two teacher focus groups:

• Teachers recognize that their colleagues are committed to providing a quality education and have the autonomy at the building level to do so.
• Teachers are concerned about the stress of implementing edline.net, learning Marzano, and implementing department, team, and Discovery expectations.

If you are interested in reading the entire report, click here.

The first bullet stands alone as a point of pride.  We have a great deal of talent and good intellect in our building.  This is to our benefit and the benefit of our students.

The second bullet is a point of concern, and I know all of us are working very hard. On Monday, department chairs and I decided on a revision that reduces departmental expectations.  And remember to please let me, or any colleague, be helpful when it comes to understanding and meeting expectations for departments, Discovery, and teaming.  It is challenging to learn by doing, and it is our progress toward these expectations, not our perfect implementation, that is important.

I would like to share the following as it relates to edline.net:

• Unforutnately, many of the frustrations with edline and its implementation are beyond the scope of the building. 
• However, in the meantime, if you want or need support, you should schedule a time with Jason Heisel as a group or as an individual so that you can receive support that you need. 
• Jason formed an LMT sub-committee dedicated to edline and supporting you with it.You'll hear more from them in time.

Our work with The Art and Science of Teaching is valuable, and although we are ahead of the district in many ways with our learning around certain aspects of the framework, it is something additional to what we were already working on as a building.  I know that this sense of "one more thing" alone can be stressful, and I hope we are able to take these things one step at a time over time.

 

October 15, 2012

Thank you for your commitment, your energy, and your focus during parent teacher conferences. In general, parents were impressed, appreciative, and are looking forward to the rest of the year.  There are, I am sure, exceptions, and from my observations, you handled these with grace and professionalism. Thank you.

Monday, 10/22 Faculty Meeting: DQ 5 What will I do to engage students?
In the interest of compacting the learning for DQ 5, please make sure to review the Action Steps in Chapter 5 (pp. 103-116) before Monday's faculty meeting.  We will be focusing on three of them, and I am confident that you utilize some of these action steps already.

Focus Groups
This year, I am interested in collecting feedback through a series of focus groups with teachers, parents, and students.  I am interested in gathering focus group feedback on how rigorous, challenging, interesting, and engaging our teaching and curriculum are.  I am also interested in gathering focus group feedback on how safe, included, recognized, and fairly treated students feel.  I am interested in how alike or different teacher, student, and parent perceptions are around these topics.

Because I am interested in a cross-section of the faculty and because I am interested in faculty voices that I do not always hear, I will be inviting members of the faculty to participate in one of two teacher focus groups.

I will not be present during these focus groups, and I will share all the focus group data once I have it from the community member who will be facilitating this groups on behalf of this project (Glenn Detrick, who donated money for the Chelsea Center at the HS).

Successful Strategies
As you read the strategies that teachers shared, you'll notice that some seem familiar and that you might use these strategies even though did not list them.  I have added some notes and the number of teachers who shared the strategy.  So the list did not become redundant, I combined some of the strategies.

I did not add Discovery or before- and after-school related strategies at this time.  Generally, we are still learning what strategies might be best for Discovery, and generally, teachers use before- and after-school time to support student achievement.

These strategies are an excellent baseline for our collection.  It is encouraging to read, I hope.  I also hope it encourages us to think further because if we are doing all of these things and students are still demonstrating patterns of poor achievement and failure, we must continue to brainstorm, to collaborate, and to work on behalf of our purpose as educators: to cause learning.

I am still collecting data on strategies that support student achievement.  However, you may read what teachers have shared so far by clicking here.

Missouri's Educator Evaluation System
I spent Thursday at a meeting with other district representatives regarding Missouri's Educator Evaluation System.  It is not required that we adopt the system as it presented on the MO-DESE web site.  However, we are in an excellent position to respond to the requirements of this system as a result of our work with The Art and Science of Teaching.  MO-DESE has created a cross walk between what it is requiring and what Marzano's system provides.  You can find this information and more by clicking here.

The work on this evaluation system at the state level is a result of SB 291 and includes Essential Principles that you can find by clicking here.  Among other things, you will notice required training and calibration on behalf of evaluators and measures of students learning as a piece of the evaluation. As a district, we are looking at how this might look (e.g. some combination of common assessments, pre- and post-assessments, district assessments, and state-level assessments).  The focus is very much on documenting improvement for every teacher every year.

Given what I am learning, we can add another compelling why to our work with Marzano.  In addition to how it supports student learning and includes actions that are a part of a quality teaching practice, this work aligns with State and (therefore) district expectations and evaluation of teachers and administrators.
There are four domains to Marzano's work. DQs 1-9 represent domain 1 (Classroom Strategies and Behaviors). DQ 10 represents domain 2 (Planning and Preparation).  Domains 3 and 4 are Reflecting on Teaching and Collegiality and Professionalism.

If you have questions, let me know.  I will give you updates as I learn about them.

October 8, 2012

Thank you to those teachers who were to reply to the Successful Strategies with Students e-mail.  I have not had an opportunity to gather them in one place to publish on the Network, so I will do this this week.  If you have not replied to this e-mail, please do as I expect a reply from each teacher in the building.  We often have more time to brainstorm as teams or departments than as a whole school.  This is an, albeit rather limited, first opportunity to do this this year.  I plan on creating other opportunities as well.
There are several links in this update.  Do your best to scan the information and prioritize so can make a plan for coming back to this update and follow up on the information herein.
School Improvement Plan
Last Monday, department chairs reviewed, asked questions, and offered suggestsions for revisions on a draft of the this year's School Improvement Plan (SIP).  There comments and suggestions were very helpful, and I am proud to present it to you (virtually, by clicking here).
You will notice that it uses the same revised template for unit design that I have shared.  It also has four proficiency scales that we will use to track our progress toward the goals.  I have a plan for how we will use these.  In addition, you will notice that, rather than MAP and AYP data, the data that are quoted are referred to as MAP index scores.  Since Missouri received its No Child Left Behind waiver, AYP and discrete, year-by-year scores no longer exist.  I previewed this with department chairs this summer.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  I can visit with individual teachers or departments.
Monday's Faculty Meeting
Our 10/8 faculty meeting will focus on students who are on the Autisum spectrum; this is part of our faculty meeting series on supporting students who come to us with a variety of needs and/or diagnoses.  The plan is that the presenter will give some background information on spectrum and then moveint some basic support strategies and their applications. 

Morning Announcements
All school-wide announcements should be submitted digitally from now on; this will streamline the process of reading and posting our morning announcements for parents.  Click here to do this.
Tech Updates
As a reminder, you may receive updates from the Tech Department by e-mail, text message, Twitter, or Facebook.  Click here and follow the steps in Jason's blog. Obviously, when internal systems are down, e-mail will not work.
Students and wgcloud.org
Wgcloud.org is a cloud-based backup to which students can save their work.  Students can save work here at school and go home or to the library and continue to work.  It also allows for student-to-student and student-to-teacher collaboration and is a single point for any device across platforms to produce presentations, reports, etc.
Please take some time during Discovery, GEMS, or Learning Strategies to help log students on to the cloud. It is important that all students be able to login because several elective teachers are using the cloud and, because students are from across teams, not all students have access.  In addition, students who are using their own devices benefit from backing up to the cloud.
Click here to view an instructional video for logging students on to wgcloud. It's a YouTube video, so you will have to show it from your teacher computer.  This should not take more than 10 minutes; most of the problems with logging in have been user error, so please make sure students are following instructions precisely. All students should be logged into the cloud by October 19th, 2012.
Being Proactive
If you have not yet completed the Google reporting observed ALLY, BULLY, BYSTANDR, and VICTIM behaviors, please click here to do so.  It is in the best interest of our students for you to respond;  it also protects you against being personally named in any potential law suit about bullying.
Upcoming Dates

• We have conferences from 4-8pm on Tuesday and Thursday.
• We have a half day and conferences from 1-5pm on Wednesday.
• I will be out on Thursday for a DESE-led, day-long meeting about state requirements for teacher evaluation (which, because of our No Child Left Behind waiver, requires the use of measures of student growth in learning . . . more on this next week).
• And, Friday, 10/12, we do not have school.

Stay the Course

Thank you for your participation in Monday's faculty meeting.  I appreciate your participation and the intentional way you bring your attention to the learning.  I know that some (or much) of The Art and Science of Teaching may be familiar and may be a part of your teaching practice already.  Still, I think it is valuable to review, particularly since the coming new evaluation instrument is likely to be explicitly connected to the text and to the information in these presentations.
As I said at the beginning of the meeting on Monday, I believe that we are having a very successful year.  One of the many reasons is that, as a faculty, we are responding diligently to what is new, different, and challenging.  This is hard work. Sometimes, what is new, different, and challenging can become frustrating and rather daunting.  At these times, I ask that you stay the course, that you believe in the value of your work, that you seek help and support if you need it, and that you trust the process of learning by doing.
Keeping Our School Safe: Being Proactive
I also mentioned on Monday that I would be publishing a way for us to gather information on students who demonstrate bully, victim, ally, and/or bystander behaviors.  This is so that we can be proactive and gather information we may not have known otherwise. This is in response to legislation that school staff members can be named personally if they "knew or should have known" of bullying behaviors and did not report them.
When you are ready click, on the link below to share your observations.  I have characteristics of bully, vicitm, ally, and bystander behaviors listed.  Listing a student's name prompts a follow up that is, most likely, non-punitive; rather it gives counselors and principals an opportunity to follow up, to teach, and to support so that our school can remain safe. Also, listing a student's name does not imply judgment or labeling as you are listing based on behaviors you have observed.
Although I ask for your name, it will remain anonymous to students and parents.  Each of you must respond by Friday (so please do not respond as teams or departments).  If you have not observed any of the behaviors or anything like the behaviors listed, enter your name and click submit.  If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.
Click here to access the Google form.
Other Notes

• October's Thinking Strategy is posted on the Quick PD blog.
• We have a department chair meeting on Monday after school.
• Tuesday, I will be out of the building to work with our district TLA.

September 24, 2012

I hope you were able to enjoy the beautiful weekend.  It's already second term! Have an excellent week.
Faculty Meeting
We will meet in the cafeteria after school for our monthly Art and Science of Teaching faculty meeting.  I apologize for not getting the PowerPoint to you any earlier; I will remedy this for next time.

• Click here to review the PowerPoint.
• Click here for the handout. We will use this during the faculty meeting, so you may either download, print and bring this to the meeting or you may download and make use of it on your own device.

You may always consult the schedule of meeting topics published in the brief case to know where we are in The Art and Science of Teaching.

Parent Conferences
I published the link for parent conferences on Friday.  Our consistently high conferences numbers are a point of pride of Hixson Middle School.  Please remember, that during conference "season", conversations by phone, comprehensive updates via e-mail, team and other meetings meet the standard for having held a parent conference.  Click here for the link to the conference scheduler.

Thinking Strategy for October
All students can benefit from asking questins before, during, and after their reading.  Questions help clarify ambiguity and deepen understanding.  Although the update in the Quick PD section is mainly focused on instruction for Discovery, all students can benefit from asking quality questions in any subject area.  Please take some time to read this update and consider how you will implement this in your teaching.

Out of the Building
It is always difficult to be out of the building, and although I will be out of the building on Wednesday (for Yom Kippur) and Thursday most of the day (for professional development), I do not have the same number of out-of-building commitments this year as I did last year.
Other Dates
Join the Hixson Middle School Community on

• Friday, September 28, Hixson Middle School band students will play at half time during the football game against Parkway West, and
• Friday, September 28, the same date as above, is Hixson Middle School Family Night at the Webster Groves Dairy Queen

. . . so have dinner, grab dessert, and stop by the football game to cheer on current students (in the band) and past students (on the field)!

September 17, 2012

On Thursday and Friday I had time to visit each classroom and stay longer than my usual walk through time.  This was a luxury.  Being able to spend 3-7 minutes in each classroom was a rewarding experience.  It was a great reminder of how excellent we are as a staff.  Thank you for all of the interesting and strategic ways you are teaching our students.
Collegial Learning Walks
If you are ever interested in visiting the classrooms of your peers, I encourage you to participate in a collegial learning walk with me.  This week, four teachers and I visited three classrooms and debriefed each short visit.  We were all impressed by and were able to learn from what we observed in each classroom.  Collegial Learning Walks are about positive observations only.  If you would like to read more about these, click here.
Edline.net
From now on, you will be able to access my Principal's Update from the calendar on edline.net.  You will be able to do this from the staff calendar on the Hixson Network Beta site and on the combined calendar as well.  Both are available from the My Edline button in edline.net.
I will keep the School Center Hixson Network up and running until the end of the school year.  Both the Hixson Network and the Hixson Network Beta feature the dock at the top of the page.  In addition, once you click into the Principal's Update link from the calendar, you can navigate to the other Network blogs: Learning Designs and Quick PD.  Unfortunately, the Hixson Network Beta site is still glitchy and inconsistent, but we are working to stabilize the feeds.
Conferences
Conference sign up will be online again this year.  I will send the link to parents on 9/21.  In the meantime, team teachers are scheduling meeting with parents with whom they have not met or with parents with whom they (may) need to meet again.  We are doing this so that parents have more equitable access to our limited conference times.
Out of the Building
Next week, the assistants and I will be out of the building for several reasons:

• Monday: Dr. Heisserer, all day, for Rosh Hashana
• Tuesday: Dr. Roberts, all day, for restraint training; Drs. Miller and Heisserer, afternoon, for restraint training
• Wednesday: Dr. Roberts, all day, for restraint training; Dr. Heisserer, afternoon, for work with a district committee
• Thursday: Dr. Heisserer, morning, for a administrators meeting

DQ
Friday, 9/28, is Hixson Night at the Webster Dairy Queen.  This is a small fundraiser that this DQ is excited to host for us.  Please consider taking some time to enjoy DQ . . . that's not associated with Marzano!

Have an excellent week!

September 10, 2012

Monday's faculty meeting will focus on adapations for all students.  This meeting is in response to several requests I have received from the faculty for support in this area.  This is the first faculty meeting in a series designed to increase our instructional repertoire with a variety of students.  It will support deparmental work on units as well as we think about ways of differentiating for our students. Click any of the following documents for more information:

• Accommodations, Interventions, and Modifications (A document I have shared in the past with some slight revisions)
• DESE's Definition of Accommodations and Modifcations
• Adaptations

Sharing Student Computers
In order to allow for more student access to computers in the building, I am asking that core and elective teachers share devices.  This will require some advance planning for scheduling and moving equipment.  Please work together on this.  click here to see with whom you have been paired. The pairings are complementary so that electives can borrow when team teachers are not teaching core classes.
The Hixson Network Goes Edline! (on 9/17)
All faculty will be using the edline.net calendar by Monday, 9/17.  This includes me as well, so beginning on 9/17 will be moving to a Hixson Network Beta (because it's still in development) site.  You will access this site from your edline.net account.  Log in, go to My Edline, and click Hixson Network Beta.  When you do this on 9/17, you will notice the following:

• The dock at the top of the screen should be familiar,
• My principal update will appear on each Monday as "Principal Update",
  • Go to either the staff or the combined calendar,
  • Click on Principal Update each Monday morning,
  • I will still send an e-mail reminder,
• The Learning Designs and Quick PD blogs will still be accessible from the site,
• Jason is working on including the Tech feed and another feed as well.

On another note, the Hixson Middle School Main Page will get a new look when the district-required template is implemented for that site.
District Committee Invitation
Dr. Simpson has asked that I extend an invitation to our staff to serve one either or both of the following committees:

• Acheivement Gap (meets 4/5 teams a year at 5:30pm)
• Curriculum Coordinating Council meets 4 times a year at 5:30pm).

Let me know if you are interested.

September 4, 2012

Thank you, all, for your contributions to Open House.  Parents had many positive things to say about teams, about teachers, about the format, about their student's excitement . . . some parents said they had "so much fun" walking the building.  Many shared how impressed they are with you, our faculty.  All totaly, I have received 15 e-mails, all positive.  Our parents believe in your dedication and passion.  Thank you for sharing this.  If you have feedbak or suggestions on Open House, click here.
Based on the feedback I have received from our PD day, it seems that all of us will be ready by 9/17 to be using the calendar function in edline.net.  Wherever you are posting your homework, just make sure there's a link on the edline.net calendar to that place. I will do my best to provide more time for development on our new web software.
September is here, and I am looking forward to students benefitting from regular reading time in Discovery and the other benefits support for implementing Discovery expectations bring.
A few more notes follow:
Learning Goals
I have updated Learning Designs with a proficiency scale for this year's expectations for posting learning goals.  Hopefully, this will be helpful to our learning.  I am always available for questions and feedback.
Your Input
This summer a small group of teachers met to discuss to discuss how we might better implement RtI (response to intervention) and a Care Team in the building.  Having shared data and expectations with the team, we need to discuss next steps for the building. If you are interested in continuing to be a part of these discussions or becoming a part of these discussions, please let me know by clicking here. You may use the same link if you have any comments or questions. I will schedule a meeting in September.
The above builds expectation and process for students academically, we can also apply this process in somewhat adjusted ways to behaviors. Due to some changes in district expectations, we are able to do our PBIS work somewhat differently.  Therefore, I am also interested in how some of the data aspects of PBIS might become a part of this RtI work and discussion.
Upcoming Dates: Don't forget you can always view upcoming Faculty Meetings and Release Dates and Topics by bookmarking this link.

• PDPs and Required Staff Training Tracker Due:  Monday, 9/10
• Faculty Meeting: 9/10
• AST-Focused Faculty Meeting: 9/24

August 27, 2012

On Friday, 45 parents attended the PTO-sponsored Parent-Principal Coffee.  This is the most attendees we have ever had.  The parents who attended overwhelmingly agreed that their students were excited about middle school.  Thank you for all the ways you contribute to this.
Things are already feeling busy, so I am glad that we will have time on Friday to do some catching up and some thinking ahead.
Open House
Open House will be this Wednesday, August 29th, 2012, at 7pm. Parents will follow their student's schedule as they did last year (please do your best to remind your parents and students of this).  Click here for more notes about this event.
Thinking Strategy for September
Connecting to the text is important for students in any subject area. Although the update in the Quick PD section is mainly focused on instruction for Discovery, all student can benefit from this thinking strategy.  Please take some time to read this update and consider how you can implement this strategy in your teaching.
PD Day: 8/31
Friday, 8/31, will be a full day of PD: 8:30am-3:30pm. If you did not participate in any edline.net training this summer, you are in the A Group; if you were able to participate this summer, you are in the B Group.  You will need your laptops for the day; all meetings will be in the cafeteria.  Here is the plan:

• 8:30: Brief Faculty Meeting
• 9:00-11:00
  • The A Group (plus any interested B Group teachers) will participate in edline.net training.
  • The B Group will work together or alone on the following:
    • View an "Adding Students to Classes" video,
    • Work on your calendar, groups, and/or folders, and
    • Post any questions for Jason to answer on a TBD site.
• 11:00-12:00: Lunch
• 12:15-1:15
  • The A Group will work alone or in groups to practice their new traning.
  • The B Group (plus any interested A Group teachers) will meet in the cafeteria to discuss the video and any questions.
• 1:30-3:30: Meet as departments and/or teams to:
  • Practice with edline.net,
  • Review building data (to be shared this week alon with directions, explanations, and expectations), and/or
  • work on team or department business.

Edline.net
Click here to read a blog post I shared with parents on our web site transition.
Due Dates

• Begin implementing Discovery expectations: Tuesday, 9/4
• PDPs are due: Monday, 9/10
• Required staff training sheets are due: Monday, 9/10
• All staff using edline.net's calendar feature: Monday, 9/17 (this is a new date)

August 20, 2012

Last week was remarkable.  Thank you.  Your powerful actions contribute in so many ways to our success, and I am energized and excited for what is to come.
We must work together to stay well-paced, connected, and optimistic.  So, please, if you have questions or concerns, are confused or frustrated, or just need support, contact me so that you can be heard.
More notes follow:
Open House
Open House will be on August 29, 2012, beginning at 7pm. Parents will follow their student's schedule as they did last year.  Click here for more notes about this event.
Learning Designs Update
I have some quick clarifications about learning goals posted here as well as a table that charts our progress this week.  I apologize in advance for its being a bit longish.
Quick PD Updates
How to Use Your Reading Specialists

We have talented reading specialists who want to be helpful to us. See the "How to Use Your Reading Specialists" post under Quick PD. Click the "view fullscreen" link to enlarge the table.
Thinking Strategies for Discovery
The reading specialists have also posted a list of the Thinking Strategies used for the year in Discovery.  Next week, they will post the background, one-pager, bookmark, and strategies to be used in September to frame the month's reading.

SSD
This year we have slightly less staffing than last year for our SSD staffing.  This makes it difficult to have every IEP or parent meeting during team or planning time.  Therefore, please be prepared for the occassional before- or after-school meeting.
Blackboard Engage (Edline)
Please be explicit with parents and students as we navigate this transition from School Center to Blacboard Engage (Edline).  You may consider using the parent portal to post homework, or you may consider having all team homework posted using Edline or School Center until the transition is smoothed out.  Whatever your plan, please communicate this to parents.  They are very interested in accessing our homework pages.
Collegial Learning Walks
This year, I would like to invite you to participate in Collegial Learning Walks with me.  The focus of a collegial learning walk is to look for what is working in a classroom. The whole process will take one class period, each visit lasting 5-10 minutes followed by a short debrief outside the classroom. We will learn the process together and improve on it as we practice it. Please click here for more information about Collegial Learning Walks.
Due Dates

• Begin Implementing Discovery Expectations: Tuesday, 9/4
• PDPs: Monday, 9/10
• Required Staff Training: Monday, 9/10

The First Day of School

It's Monday morning, the day before school.  I sit down at my desk, and, already, it is covered with papers, bulletins, books, a DVD, sharpies, pens, and post-it notes. Sigh. I was determined not to begin the school year in this way . . . cluttered, seemingly unorganized, and with my favorite pencil burried . . . somewhere. So rather than pursue the pen and begin to work, I am thinking about our staff and updating the Network.
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "Out of clutter, find simplicity," so I am trying to think beyond my desk(s) and into the year.  I am trying to consider how the nuanced and complex practice of teaching could ever be made simple.  And I am trying to think of ways to support and attend to us as we navigate all that is new or different this year.
The principle is simple, I suppose: academic and personal success for every student.  The methods, however, are many.  The strategies for effective teaching can be collected into a 221 page book, but the art of connecting the right strategy to each student requires a precision that can render simple strategies complex.  This can be daunting.
And so to find simplicity in the clutter, we must rely on and learn from and with one another. On Friday, we engaged in a prime example of this as we learned about design questions 1 and 6.  You were also invited to learn about and to share strategies for using Discovery better. This will take all of us, within departments and teams and across the faculty as well.
If the year seems big, if you feel like you are begininng in the middle of chaos, if you wonder at all how we will manage this, I ask that you rely on what I rely on: the commitment and talent of our teachers and the principle that every student will find success.
My thoughts, support, and best wishes are with you as you lean into the 2012-2013 school year!
With great expectations,
Jason
P.S.Two more things:

• I divided Friday's PowerPoint into five sections and posted them under the Quick PD section of the Network.
• You may still access the Welcome 2012-2013! and the Beginning of the Year Business, 2012-2013 posts by clicking the links.  Don't forget that you can subscribe to updates to these "From the Principal" posts so that they come right to your inbox.

Welcome to 2012-2013!

Although I said, or  tried to say, that I wasn't much of a risk taker in my summer letter, clearly, I was willing to risk not doing one last proofread before I sent it . . . Still, I hope the spirit of my message was not too marred by my over-zealous final highlight-and-cut revision.
I am looking forward to seeing all of you in the building once again.  Following is a very nuts-and-bolts list; however, the information and reminders are important.
First Three Days Schedules
Opening Day, 8/8:

• The district opening ceremony will begin at 8:30am in Roberts Gym at WGHS,
• We will gather as a building community at 11am in the Hixson Cafeteria for
  • A brief, all-building meeting,
  • Lunch (provided by Hixson),
  • A brief meeting with the assistant principals for team teachers, and
• The rest of the day is devoted to you and your classroom.

7th Grade Orientation and 8th Grade Visitation, 8/9:

• These are planned for 8/9 from 9-11am and 1-2pm, respectively, and
• The rest of the day is devoted to you and your classroom.

Professional Development, 8/10:
We have a mandatory staff development meeting from 8:30am-12:30pm for

• Discussing The Art and Science of Teaching, design questions 1 and 6,
• Reviewing new expectations and supports for Discovery time, and
• Reviewing some new procedures in the faculty handbook.
  

Other Items:
As you being planning for the school year:

• Here is a copy of the 2012-2013 Master Schedule.
• Here is a copy of the Daily Schedule.
• Here is a copy of the Student Handbook. There are two new sections:
  •  p. 17--Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying, and
  • p. 19--Misuse of Electronic Devices.

Regarding facilities and equipment:

• If you keep food in your classroom, please
  • Limit the amount to just what you absolutely need, and
  • Keep all food in sealed containers at all times.
• Limit the number of refrigerators, coffee pots, etc., to one of each per team,
• Keep our building windows and doors shut at all times (this is for building safety and for helping to regulate the building temperature),
• Please keep trash inside of your room rather than in the hallway (Mr. Townsend assures me that they will get the trash out of the classrooms),
• The building will close at 4:30pm on 8/8-8/10 and at 3:30 on 8/13.

(If you have the energy and focus to keep reading, please check out some Beginning of the Year Business as well.)

Beginning of the Year Business, 2012-2013

This post is dedicated to some beginning of the year business. There's a lot of information, all of it important, so please take your time and read carefully.
1.  Building Development: Collegial Learning Walks (CLWs)

This year, I would like to invite you to participate in Collegial Learning Walks with me.  The purpose of Collegial Learning Walks is to build capability and collegiality in our teaching community.  The focus of a collegial learning walk is to look for what is working in a classroom. Participants refrain from judgment and criticism and instead look for possible responses questions like these:  

• what is working in the context of this classroom?
• what might I learn from my colleagues?
• how might I transfer this to my classroom practice?

The whole process will take one class period, each visit lasting 5-10 minutes followed by a short debrief outside the classroom.  We will learn the process together and improve on it as we practice it. Please click here for more information about Collegial Learning Walks.
2.  Professional Development Plans
Each teacher in the building must complete a professional development plan (PDP) and have this turned into to me on or before Monday, September 10, 2012.  This year, given our district-wide study of The Art and Science of Teaching, you will write your PDPs around one of the ten design questions in that text.  Please take some to review the chapter that interests you before your draft your PDP.  You have these options for your PDP:

• You may write your own based on your own interest, or
  
• Your department may decide to write and engage in a professional development plan together.

Either option requires that I meet with you or with your department to review what you have written, for a copy of a blank PDP click here.  For a sample of what a PDP might look like this year, click here.
3.  Evaluations
If this is an evaluation year for you, you will be hearing from your primary evaluator.  Your primary evaluator is the principal with whom you will meet to discuss your summative evaluation at the end of the year.  The observations contributing to your summative, however, may be completed by one or more of the principals.  Your primary evaluator will let you know which of us will be completing classroom observations with you.
Our district study of The Art and Science of Teaching will move us toward understanding expectations for a new evaluation instrument to be implemented next year (if all goes as planned).
4.  Required Staff Training
There are some revisions to the Required Staff Training.  In order to be timely about completing one aspect of the training in particular, we will have a mandatory faculty meeting on August 27, 2012 from 3:30-4:30pm in the Auditorium.  Dr. Riss and Mrs. Holliday will be present for part of this meeting.  However, it will not be comprehensive, so you will still need to take some time to review the other Required Staff Training.  Please click here for the link to the PowerPoint and to the Training Tracker.  Once you've completed the PowerPoint, please complete the Training Tracker, print it off, and turn it into Ms. Edwards in the office.  You must have this completed by September 10, 2012.
We may review other aspects of the required staff training as necessary throughout the year.
5.  Scheduled Workshops
The Art and Science of Teaching
We will begin the study of The Art and Science of Teaching on August 10th from 8:30am to 12:30pm (there are some other agenda topics for this time as well).  We will begin with the introduction and design questions 1 and 6. In order to accommodate our study of this text, we will hold a required second faculty meeting a month.  These will be on the fourth Monday of the month.  Given the important nature of this text and how it connects to a future teacher evaluation instrument, these meetings are mandatory.  If you miss, we will schedule a time to make it up.

Blackboard Engage
Blackboard Engage is our new web software.  Many of you attended training over the summer; however, Dr. Simpson has scheduled a building training for the morning of 8/31.  If you did not attend a summer training, you are required to attend this one.  If you attended the summer training and would like to attend this one, you may, or you may work in a structured setting on implementing Blackboard Engage in your classroom.
Although the district has set December 2013 as a deadline for when we all must be using the new software, I expect that all teachers will be using the calendar function of Blackboard Engage by 9/17/12.
Other Dates, Times, and Topics
Last year, I received some great feedback on my anonymous survey regarding meeting planning, so please click here for a list of meeting dates, times, topics, and possible venues.  This is definitely a work in progress, and I will do my best to update it often.
6.  Hixson List Servs
This summer, I worked with Jason to update our Hx List Servs since many were out of date.  Most have been revised (e.g. teams), some have been eliminated (e.g. departments), and some have been replaced (e.g., electives, PE, and SSD are now by department).  Please review these in Outlook, they all begin with "Hx", and submit a tech req if you would like to revise or add a list serv.
7.  The Hixson Network
There will be changes to the Hixson Network made through the year as we transition from School Center to Blackboard Engage.  I will also be using the calendar function for the Network on or before 9/14.  I do not anticipate that this changes will cause too much of a disruption; however, I wanted you to be prepared for a more dynamic site than the sites I have used previously.

Teaming Expectations, 2012-2013

Click here to read the most up-to-date draft of teaming expectations for the 2012-2013 school year. 
I do not anticipate anything but slight revisions and clarifications to these expectations.  As we learn more about the plan for Discovery, RtI, and Care Team, many of these expectations will make more and more sense.  Several of your teaching peers have been working on ways to support teams in these areas.  We will work together to implement these this year.

Please let Dr. Heisserer know if you have any questions or if you need support in any way.

Anticipating 2012-2013

Academic year 2012-2013 will be a year of many changes for Hixson Middle School.  This is both exciting and daunting.  We will work together on how to manage these changes, how to support one another during these changes, and how to innovate them as well.
To summarize, we will:

• Flip the master schedule,
• Return to four lunches due to an increased student population and a decrease in available teachers for lunch supervision,
• Work with different team members (those of us on team),
• Implement expectations for Discovery (click here to see a draft of these),
• Learn to use new software for our web sites (time for this learning is already being planned with Dr. Simpson),
• Develop a bring-your-own-device environment for student-owned technology,
• Participate in a district-wide book study of The Art and Science of Teaching in anticipation of a new evaluation instrument (hopefully, you will receive this text before the end of the school year),
• Receive three new copiers in the building mid-year (our current contract ends mid-year, so we will have brief, new-copier-related PD on 1/4/13),
• Introduce a new role: Building Curriculum Facilitator (Mrs. Jill Right will serve in this role), and
• Welcome some new teachers to the building.

In addition to what is above, we will continue:

• Learning about and drafting unit plans,
• Moving forward with PBIS,
• Working on responsive teaching, interventions, and implementing a Care Team,
• Meeting for an hour monthly as departments (times to be determined by the department), and
• Engage in some of our annual required staff training together.

In order to accomodate these changes, we will

• Work an additional contract day before school begins, 8/10 (this day will be used primarly for PD),
• Meet twice a month as a faculty (on second and fourth Mondays),
• Engage in district-provided PD on the Common Core State Standards,
• Engage in district-provided PD for our new web software, and
• Continue to devote as much release time as possible to our work together.

I hope this list is exhuastive, but please be patient with me if it is not.  Many of these projects are ambitious.  Ambitious projects call for powerful actions.  I believe in the power of your work and the power of our work together.  This collective effort and support can ignite collective enthusiasm, particularly as we watch our remarkable results unfold.
The key is to start small, to work collaboratively, and to think BIG.
I have great expectations . . .