Week Ahead: Sept. 28-Oct. 2

| September 27, 2020 | Week Updates | No Comments

It has been such a gift to have a bit of time to walk through classrooms this past week. I have had an opportunity to visit most of you (and if I didn’t see you last week, I’ll see you this week) and every time I walk into a room I am humbled to see the talent on display by our team and by our students.

There is one particular observation that I’d like to share. I was in Mona’s classroom observing a small whole class discussion. A student was called on and calmly, deliberately said “I want to add on to what XXX said …” and then proceeded to make a direct connection to a fellow student’s comment. This is the photo I had taken when I sat down in the room:

The very next day, I was attending an SSIS parent education session on Mental Wellness in our children. In this meeting, Hillary was asked a question. As she began her answer, she said “I am going to add on to what XXX said because …” Though sometimes practicing skills at a basic level is a bit awkward or stilted (a common observation from our work in implementing Talk Moves), it’s clear that we have targeted an important skills that will impact our students’ ability to have meaningful discourse as adults.

These moments combined with Andrew’s comment about the discussion skills of our G8 students (mentioned in the Week Ahead Sept. 7-11 blog post) reinforces the importance of our intentional practice with Talk Moves. Broadening this out, what we intentionally teach and practice as an entire division gives so much more leverage and transferability to the skill, content, and/or disposition that we are trying to develop and instill. Thank you all for your work as a team, and the for the positive impact it is having on our students.

Here is what’s up this week:

Monday, Sept. 28
Day 5, CDAB
3:15-4:30 MS Leadership Team (agenda)

Tuesday, Sept. 29
Day 6, GHEF
*Hang out in the AM, Anne O’Hare subbing
7:15-7:45 / 3:15-3:45 New Faculty Mtg

Wednesday, Sept. 30
Day 7, DABC
9:40-10:40 MS Principal Coffee (off site, Crystal Palace)
3:15-4:30 Divisional Mtg (Tentative; comment bank tutorial in library; various locations for report writing)

Thursday, Oct. 1
Day 8, HEFG
*Deadline for early notification of resignation for 21-22 school yr

Friday, Oct. 2
Day 1, ABCD

Upcoming (on the radar):

  • Oct. 6 – announced evacuation drill, 2:00
  • Oct. 7 – End of Quarter 1
  • Oct. 8 and 9 – Parent Teacher Conferences
  • Oct. 12-16 – Fall Break
  • Oct. 21 – Author Virtual Visit (see schedule below)
  • Oct. 29 – PSAT for G8
  • CTP – will be in April

Morning Cafeteria Duty This Week:

Monday: Andrew Ward
Tuesday: Jacob Scott
Wednesday: Rebecca Jardin
Thursday: Alis Gorcea
Friday: Mona Schraer

Q1 Reading Challenge: As we close out Q1, please remember the Q1 Reading Challenge.

  • Update the spreadsheet with totals
  • Claire would love to get a picture of your advisory poster and/or send her an electronic document if that’s what you are using 
  • Students (or teachers) who have been waiting on a Dragon book may substitute a library book (or really any book), they just need to tell their Advisor this so it can be entered into the spreadsheet 

Clarification – Field Trips:  Field trips within HCMC are possible! This has been an on-again / off-again goal for the MS. If you have a field trip opportunity, please work with Roxanne to make it a reality!

Author Virtual Visit:  We are so excited to host Margaret Peterson Haddix, author of The Greystone series, The Shadow Children series, Children of Exile series, The Palace Chronicles, Under Their Skin series, and many young adult stand alone books. This virtual visit will be on October 21 at 8:00am. We will adjust the schedule for that day to move Dragon Time to the morning.

Talk Moves Refresher: Here are links to previous Talk Moves PD sessions. Unfortunately, the MS Common Teaching Strategies folder is missing. We are working to try to recover it. I have found a few documents with samples and have linked them here.

MS PD sessions:

PDFs / Websites with Talk Move Stems:

Talk Moves Videos, Articles:

In case you missed it: There have been several MS stories posted to the website and social medias. Here are links to them:

Communications / Marketing are currently working on stories other stories featuring MS. Their goal is to view the event/topic over time rather than just highlighting the end product. They are very open to suggestions. Email Tanya Olander if you have ideas!

For ease of access: This is also listed at the side in the Quick Links section of the blog. September Advisory and Dragon Time planning

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