Week Ahead: September 14

It’s very exciting to see things getting into full swing.  Classes are clipping along; events are coming together; and the skies sure look clear (well, figuratively at least).  I appreciate all the time each of us are taking to ensure good communication between colleagues and between teachers/students.

This Saturday is the PTA Family Fun Day from 9-1:00.  I hope to see many of you there!  It’s sure to be a great time.  For those of you heading to Mui Ne, safe travels and have a great trip!  Basketball games start this week.  Take a few minutes to cheer on our Dragons!

Here is what’s up next week:

Monday, Sept. 14
Day 5 CDAB
9:35 SRT Mtg
1:30-3 Sr. Admin Team Mtg
3:15-4:30 MS Leadership Team Mtg

Tuesday, Sept. 15
Day 6 GHEF (Special Schedule – MAP)
8-9:30 MAP Language Usage
3:15 B Team Basketball Game v. SING @ SSIS; A Team Boys BBall v. TIS @ SSIS

Wednesday, Sept. 16
Day 7 DABC (Special Schedule – MAP)
8-9:30 MAP Reading
3:15-4:30 Divisional Mtg (Library)

Thursday, Sept. 17
Day 8 HEFG
3:15 A Team BBall v. ISHCMC @ SSIS; C Team Boys and B Team Girls @ ISHCMC

Friday, Sept. 18
Day 1 ABCD (Special Schedule – MAP)
8-10 MAP Math

Upcoming (on the radar)

• Sept. 21-23 Molly Out at Embedding Formative Assessment Conf.
• Sept. 22-24; Author visit (special schedule on Sept 23)
• Sept. 25; MS Dance, 5-8pm
• Sept. 29; Early Dismissal; PD 1-4:30 Teacher Teaching Teachers
• Oct. 7; Grades/Comments due by 3:00; verification reports ready by 3:30
• Oct. 8; Verification Rpts due by 12:15, End of the Quarter, and Parent/Teacher Conferences from 4-8pm
• Oct. 9; Parent/Teacher Conferences, 8-1:00

MAP Testing:  Thank you in advance for your work with MAP testing this week.  The testing plan and student groupings have been published.  Please be sure to communicate any concerns as quickly as they emerge.  We will all be on hand to address testing abnormalities or glitches.  With the HS and ES going first, we are hopeful that most of that has been worked out.

ADDED:  Divisional Meeting Wednesday:  We will be discussing the Transformational Technology Lesson or Assessment requirement on Wednesday.  Make sure to come to our faculty meeting this week with an idea/plan for the 1st semester.  We will be sharing our ideas for feedback and support.

Review Homework Each Block:  Just a reminder that our divisional expectation is that homework must be reviewed with students prior to their departure from class.  Assigning homework after class has left (and hoping that they see it on Moodle; or telling them to look for it later) is not a practice that supports student learning.  Thank you for helping ensure students have adequate opportunities to be successful on homework.

Repeat – Reminder about Student Announcements: Please read the morning Moodle announcements to your students during the first couple of minutes of your first block class each day.  This is essential to getting out information to our students.  Thank you for your attention to this duty. One strategy to help remember this is to assign one student to be the Announcement Queen/King.  That student’s job would be to connect to the airplay when they are in your class and display the announcements for students.  Need to put something in the announcements?  Just email them to Sang by 3:00, and it will be added for the following day (if received after 3:00 it will be added but won’t appear until 2 days later).

Google Doc Issues?:  Just a reminder that ICT put out a tip to helping Google Docs run better.  If you haven’t done this yet, take a minute to do it now:

Disable QUIC Protocol

1.  Type chrome://flags in the address bar.
2.  Search for the QUIC protocol
3.  Select Disable
4.  Click the relaunch now button (Bottom of screen)

From the SSIS Link article – Troubleshooting Gmail loading issue

Booking Flights for Winter Holiday:  Some faculty are already booking flights for the December Holiday.  There has been a clarification of expectation for departures on Dec. 18th.  Though students are released at 12:15 that day, the faculty work day is a regular work day (3:30pm).  If you are departing on Dec. 18th, please leave yourself enough time to get to the airport AFTER a 3:30 pm departure from campus.

Assessment/Instructional Tip of the Week:  Found this great article on my SmartBrief feed.  After the EARCOS Weekend Workshop and our Monday PD day, I thought the message of this article is timely (plus it’s written by a middle school teacher currently teaching):

5 ways to use technology effectively in class
Much of the discussion at the International Society for Technology in Education conference this year focused on the best ways to use technology effectively, says middle-school teacher and tech enthusiast Patti Grayson. To celebrate this gradual shift from “apps” to “application,” Grayson offers five examples from her own classroom of the best times to bring out the digital tools. Read more.

BTW:  Hitting the Friday posting goal was a bit tougher this week.  But getting to bed before midnight is good, right 🙂