Week Ahead August 24

It’s very hard to describe last week.  It was a good week full of exciting instruction, the kick off of DEAR and House Leagues, and the pleasure of seeing all of us settle into new routines.  It was also a tragic week with our community facing a very difficult loss.  As we get set for this coming week, be aware that many parents have shared the news with their children.  Any type of loss will bring out many unexpected feelings; loss of one so young increases that impact.  Bonnie will be sending out information to assist us as we work through this personally and as we help our students do the same.  With Dan Keller and Barbara Reynold’s absences, I will continue to be the lead admin for ES (sorry that I didn’t mention that last week to our division … it didn’t seem worth mentioning as we expected no real need for me to provide anything but cursory assistance).  Dan returns on Wednesday.

Here is what’s up this week:

Sunday, August. 23
Happy Birthday Jeff Nesmith!

Monday, August 24
Day 8 HEFG Advisory
1:30-3 Sr. Admin Team Mtg
3:00 MS Swim officially begins

Tuesday, August 25
Day 1 ABCD DEAR
*Tech sessions in ELA
8:30 Fire Drill
3:00 MS Basketball officially begins

Wednesday, August 26
Day 2 EFGH DEAR
*Tech sessions in ELA
3:15-4:30 Full Faculty, Auditorium (Assessment for Learning)

Thursday, August 27
Day 3 BCDA Advisory
9:30-11  Academic Leadership Team (Molly out)
6-8pm MS Curriculum Night

Friday, August 28
Day 4 FGHE DEAR
4-7pm PTA Blast!

Upcoming (on the radar)
Aug. 31, ASAs Start
Aug. 31-Sept. 4, MS School Photos
Sept. 2, No School
Sept. 5-6, EARCOS Weekend Workshop, Tech/Cofino
Sept. 7, No Students; PD Day
Sept. 11, Mid-Quarter, emails to parents of students earning C- or below, significant negative academic change, other concerns, + positive emails are always welcome too
Sept. 15, 16, 18; MAP testing, special schedule with MAP testing 1.5-2hrs in AM

Update on Peter Reynolds:  Peter is continuing to improve under care of his doctors and new medications.  However, he does not anticipate returning prior to January 2016 (so that he can continue under the care of his current doctors).  Because of this, we will need to re-hire his position.  We have posted the position on our website and on Search Associates site.  Word of mouth is one of the best ways to find a qualified person this late … do you know of someone here in HCMC that might be interested?  If so, you can either ask them to contact me, or give me their contact information.

Fire Drill:  We have our first fire drill on Tuesday, August 25 (sorry for writing Wednesday, Aug. 25 last week).  Please review your classroom’s exit route with all classes on Monday (if you haven’t already).  I realize that some of the maps list 2 or 3 different routes without showing which is the primary.  I was unable to get that fixed in time for our first drill.  Please select the route marked on the map that appears to be the most direct.  I will be working with Maintenance to clear up the maps (clearly mark primary and secondary routes).  If you have questions, please ask your Team Leader, me or Ms. Sang.

Wednesday, Assessment for Learning:  This will be a continuation of our PD on Assessment for Learning.  Please bring:  Copy of Ch 1 and 2; writing utensil; laptop.  More information will likely be sent out by Tina.

Curriculum Night: We reviewed this at our faculty meeting last week.  Here is the link: 15-16 Curriculum Night.  This is a great night for us to meet/greet parents as well as celebrate the work we will do this year.

School Photos:  We will be taking school photos next week.  I am still trying to work out a schedule for the photos that will be least disruptive.  I should have a finalized plan by Monday afternoon.  It is likely that all teachers will face a 15-20 minute interruption during class to get the photos completed.

New Subscription Tool:  We have installed a new subscription tool for this blog (and for the new HS, ES, and HOS blogs).  We hope that it will be a better user experience for you.  Please subscribe using the new feed tool.  You will get an email response that requires you to click a link to confirm your subscription (don’t just throw it away … I did that and then had to go back and resubscribe).  Please let me know if it works better than the old subscription tool.  ALSO:  The addresses for the blogs have been altered slightly.  Please check your bookmarks to make sure they still work.

Cool Instructional/Assessment Tip:  As we begin to dig into new work in each content area, remember that there are some great resources in our divisional Teaching Strategies folder in the divisional google folder.  New vocabulary is coming for students in all classes – think about using the Frayer model to assist students with learning vocab.