Miner Minutes
December 13, 2015
Expectations for this Week
Holiday Celebrations at CMS
Dr. Lowder installed as CCS Superintendent 12/7/15
Messier's students showing what they know!
8th grade basketball
Announcements from PTSO
Box Tops Completion-
· December 7th – January 15th , School-wide Competition in CORE 1 classes
· CORE 1 Class that turns in the most Box Tops will receive free time & technology time on January 26th during Miner Time.
Faculty/Student Basketball Game
· February 19th (We will follow a Fun Friday Schedule this day)
· Students can enter to play using minerbucks as their raffle tickets. (the more minerbucks they turn in, the more chances to play they have)
· Cost of student admission to the game is $2
· Students who do not pay to attend will remain in the classroom with one of the teachers on their team/pod.
Student Perception Surveys from NCDPI this spring!
NCDPI is excited to announce the implementation of Student Perception Surveys during the 2015-16 school year. In his research, Dr. Gary Henry of Vanderbilt University found that “both teachers and principals want more information on how teachers can improve their practices.” Student Perception Surveys offer teachers unique feedback from students with hours of direct classroom observation.
Testing Released Items from NCDPI
- Released forms of EOCs, Science EOGs, 8th Grade ELA/Math EOGs, and recently expanded NCFE released item sets are available in the NCTest Chrome App.
- 7 ELA/Math, 4 & 5 Social Studies NCFE, and 4 Science NCFE will be available in the spring.
- Please share this information with your teachers so that they may use with students as appropriate.
Ms. Childress's students' display
Doing some decorating!
Mr. Lord modeling on the NEW conference room table!
Positive Principal Phone Calls
Please take a moment to submit a name to this list! I will make calls every Friday. The parents have been so thankful to hear a "good thing" when they least expect it. Thanks to those who have already submitted!
Various Announcements - important!
Miner Math Lab: It's READY for use!! Please see Ms. Brewer if you're interested. Also, ALL math teachers need to sign up for a day to take their students in the math lab for an introduction (Co-taught with Brewer). This needs to be done by February 1.
Literacy credits for licensure renewal: You must have 3.0 literacy credits when renewing. This is already in effect. There are several opportunities online in the PD modules in NCEES as well as CCS items. As they become available, we will be sure to share them.
It's FINALLY happening... after much hemming and hawing with our technology department at the central office level and our finance representatives, we have officially ordered more laptops so that we can be 1:1. YAY!!!!! We sincerely hope they will be ready for student use at the semester, and we are pushing as hard as we can to make that happen. We have also placed the order for document cameras. Special shout out thank you to Ms. Redmond for all of her help and communication to make this happen for us! We will keep you updated as much as possible! (and special shout out photo cred to Ms. Horgan for the rockin' parking lot pic at the end of the newsletter!!!!)
Student Expo Action!
Learning soccer in PE
More student expo action!
Words to Ponder
"Children need to hang around a teacher who is asking bigger questions of herself than she is asking of them.” - Donald Graves (article “Teacher: A student told me I ‘couldn’t understand because I was a white lady.’ Here’s what I did then.”)
Calendar Items
December 15: leadership team meeting (behavior and academic teams); grade level meetings; chorus concert
December 16: Staff Christmas Luncheon
December 17: Mentor/mentee meeting 730am; Band concert 7pm
December 18: dodgeball game (pep rally schedule)
December 21: teacher workday
January 5: School leadership team meeting 7:30am
January 7: PTSO Meeting
January 12: Faculty meeting at 7:30am
January 15: End of 9 weeks; early dismissal and professional development
January 18: Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday
March 19: Teacher workday/professional development (uncapped); grades due
January 25th week: winter spirit week
January 26: grade level meetings; report cards go home
January 27: winter pep rally at 3:15pm
January 29: Krispy Kreme Sales
February 1: Book fair all week
February 2: school leadership team at 7:30am
February 5: honor roll ceremonies (schedule similar to November)
February 9: faculty meeting at 7:30am
February 15: uncapped teacher workday
February 23: SLT academic/behavior teams; grade level meetings; progress reports
February 16: SIT meeting
February 19: Student/Faculty ball game
February 22 through March 4th: Benchmark testing
March 8: Cabarrus Arts Council "I Have a Dream" Performance 2:45pm 8th grade
Big 3 Goals for the Year
- Student learning
- PLC alignment
- powerful instructional strategies we haven’t tried before
- Capture the hearts of students and staff
- Structures for student success (MTSS, Behavior, Discipline procedures, Facilities, Communication internally and externally, CULTURE)