Cougar News
Week of October 17, 2022
Letter from Mr. Nelson
Cougars-
Today is Staff Development day here in the hallowed halls of Smallville, and I thought I would share with the masses what it is we do when the cat is away. We love days like this as they not only allow us to learn new techniques to help with the art of teaching but, more importantly, these days allow us to reconnect with one another. We love coming together as a group of over 80 mice so we can speak with our comrades who we may not get to see daily or weekly. In a dynamic ecosystem like ours, a 3rd-floor teacher may not come across a first-floor teacher for days due to assignments and schedules. This is why we start each Staff Development with a communal breakfast and allow for as much mingling and camaraderie as possible.
After food and fellowship are shared, our teachers will attend three different sessions to help them better deal with our students’ goals. Here is what our staff will be learning today:
TBRI (Trust Based Relational Intervention) Training: is an attachment-based, trauma-informed intervention designed to meet vulnerable children's complex needs. TBRI uses Empowering Principles to address physical needs, Connecting Principles for attachment needs, and Correcting Principles to disarm fear-based behaviors. While the intervention is based on years of attachment, sensory processing, and neuroscience research, the heartbeat of TBRI is connection. The leaders of today’s TBRI session are our amazing counseling team, who specialize in making those necessary connections with our kiddos.
Bullying vs. Belonging: This session will be led by our counseling team with support from the AISD SEL department. In this session, we will learn how to recognize bullying behaviors and address them appropriately. We can’t always rely on students to self-report or for others to speak up, so we make sure our staff is keenly aware of what to look out for and create an environment where all feel accepted and acknowledged in hopes of stopping these behaviors before they present themselves.
Sheltered Instruction: Sheltered Instruction, also referred to as the 7-step process here on campus, is a teaching style founded on the concept of providing meaningful instruction in the content areas (social studies, math, science, electives) for Emerging Bilinguals (EBs) as they work towards fluency in English. However, these techniques are not only beneficial for our emerging bilingual students, and they’re best practice for all learners regardless of their level of fluency. We need all students to learn the academic vocabulary associated with their classes and use the newly acquired vocabulary in their speech and writing. These sessions are being taught by our fantastic ESL teacher Dual Language teachers, and AP.
Pickleball: When the cats are away, mice play pickleball. In between afternoon PLCs we have the pickleball courts ready to go. If you excuse me, I believe it is my turn on the courts.
Have a great weekend, and stay out of the kitchen! (pickleball reference)
Matthew Nelson
Pickleball Enthusiast
matthew.m.nelson@austinisd.org
(512) 841-6705
Save the Date
Website/Calendar
Parent Counselor Committee
The Small Parent Counselor Committee is looking for monetary donations. These funds will be used to pay for teacher appreciation events, snacks, and goodies. We will provide you all with a cost analysis of how funds donated are used in future newsletters.
Our Parent Counselor Committee Teacher Appreciation Secretary is Mandy Levy. All funds will be sent to her Venmo. https://venmo.com/code?user_id=2290085370265600522&created=1664923040.6180968&printed=1
Thank you!
Smalloween
Save the date for our annual Smalloween Haunted House/Dance - October, 28th 2022
Sign up here to Volunteer to chaperone\sell tickets for the event: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080c4eaba92fa31-csms
Smalloween Swag is for sale. We have limited edition Smalloween Tshirt for Sale for $15 dollars. See Mr. Tabares, the Art Teacher to buy your t-shirt today.
Update A/B Calendar
Girls Basketball Try-outs
Oct 13th and 17th until 5:30
Please have:
Physical on file with the coaches
UIL Rank one Completed
Boys Soccer Try-Outs
AISD Bond Information
Counseling Corner
PTA Give Away
Chargers
Every chromebook comes with 1 charger. If your student loses that charge, you must purchase a new one. We do not have extra chargers in the office to loan or give out.
Click here to purchase or see what charger you need for the school chromebooks.
Link To Enroll: www.eftours.com/2572518rd
Clint Small Middle School
Email: jennifer.newell@austinisd.org
Website: https://small.austinschools.org/
Location: 4801 Monterey Oaks Boulevard, Austin, TX, USA
Phone: 512-841-6700
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057069836221