RMS Weekly Bulletin
02-24 -2020
Check Us Out!
Email: ymcnulty8711@pcssd.org
Website: https://www.pcssd.org/o/robinson-middle-school
Location: 21201 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, AR 72223, USA
Phone: 501-868-2410
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JTRobMid
Twitter: @JoeT_RMS
Thank You For All You Do!!!
Senator-Nation Rises Because of You!!!
Principal's Message
Good Evening Team!
I am hopeful that you all had time to recoup from our tough week of testing. Thank you for your flexibility as we tried to simulate our testing process for ACT in the Spring. Our instructional coaches will plan to review our testing data and determine the students still needing make-ups as well as identifying/supporting the rapid guessers. Please remember that we are holding our rapid guessers accountable; if they were at 30% rapid guessing or had a substantial decline in scores from previous testing (see the criteria below for other reasons to retest). ELA Teachers and Math Teachers should review classroom data and if any of your students meet the retest criteria, we will need to fill out a google form for them to be retested. It is the responsibility of all ELA & Math Teachers to review the data and submit a list of students needing to be retested by 4:00pm tomorrow as we need to retest this week in order for the data to count. Send your list of students and reasons to both Ms. Cheryl Brown and Dr. Laura Strickland, so they can fill out this link to the district office. After approval, students will be retested. Thank you for your support.
NWEA Retest Request Criteria:
Reason for Retesting Request
student showed a “substantial” decline in score between the current and previous testing period (more than 10 points)
student rapidly guessing on more than 30% of test items
students testing duration decreased 10+ minutes from prior test event
student rushed to complete the test items or was observed responding without actually reading the item
student refused to take or complete the test or became overly anxious
student became ill during the test
there was a significant disruption or interruption
the student started an assessment without text to speech
Looking Ahead…
With testing out of the way, our administrative team will plan to conduct walk-throughs this week. ELA, Math, and Science Teachers are looking for elective teacher support from now until the Spring Assessments. Remember that our students performance is not based on one department, but the collective work of our team. So, as an elective team / departments review and implement plans that will help our students rise to the standards. In Senator-Nation All Hands Are On Deck!
Student Leadership- Celebration of Black History Month
A few weeks ago, a group of our students came to ask if they can coordinate a Black History Celebration. I was not only impressed with their passion, but their willingness to do this for our entire school community. The celebration will be held on Friday, February 28, 2020 in the school Cafeteria. Celebration time will be from 9:20am-10:30am. If any of our teachers would like to be involved, please let me know. If you can sing, play an instrument, read an influential poem, dance etc.. We welcome all talents! I will be visiting with the students on Monday to see the progress on the celebration of African American History, so we can send out the program by mid-week. Please see the morning assembly schedule shared by Ms. Berry below. Thank you for supporting this as Black History is truly a celebration of all of our history.
Leadership Team Meeting
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Agenda
Data Meeting Planning for (March 3rd & 4th)
Entering SIP Artifacts
PBIS & AVID Implementation Check
Required Special Education Teacher Training (Stipend Provided)
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Media Center- 4:00pm-6:00pm
Agenda
Special Education Data Collection
Q& A
New Faces! Welcome Mr. Anwar Fairley (ELA Substitute / District Coach) and Mr. Gary Hinton (ELA Long-Term Substitute). Please make them feel welcomed! :)
Advisory Teachers: Please monitor student usage on Lexia and Imagine Math. Our data is down and we need to increase the usage. Thank you for your support and let’s have a great week!!!
RMS Black History Celebration
February 28, 2020
9:20am-10:30am
RMS Cafe
Modified Schedule Below
Celebrating Black History Month- Integrate Into Curriculum...
To help you integrate Black History Month into your classroom, we offer a selection of lesson plans that cover a variety subjects and that can be adapted to fit grades 6-8.
Lesson Plans & Activities
LESSON PLANS
In Motion: The African American Migration Experience
Students in grades 6-8 participate in lessons and activities organized around thirteen defining migrations that have formed and transformed African America and the nation.
Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask
Students in grades 6-8 analyze and compare visual and poetic works by Jacob Lawrence, Helene Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar and consider how they represent changing roles of African Americans.
The Poet’s Voice: Langston Hughes and You
Students in grades 6-8 investigate “voice” in Hughes’s poetry, develop their own distinctive voices in journal entries, and write an original poem or critical essay on an aspect of Hughes’s poetic voice.
Students in grades 6-8 investigate both genetic and societal consequences of the often-artificial and evolving classifications of race and ethnicity. Student and teacher materials are included.
ACTIVITIES
Students in grades K-12 can explore a jazz timeline, world map, and a virtual mixer that lets them listen and observe the elements of jazz.
Notable African Americans from the 18th-century to the present
In this Jeopardy-type quiz game students in grades 5-12 can choose from three levels of difficulty to test their knowledge of famous African Americans. Spelling counts, for example Billy Holiday rather than Billie Holiday would be marked incorrect.
The Underground Railroad: Journey to Freedom
To play, install free software. Play as a slave escaping from a Maryland tobacco plantation.
Background Resources
SOCIAL STUDIES
African American History Month Exhibits & Collections
Resources covering art and design, baseball, civil rights, culture, folklife, military, music and performing arts, religion, slavery, and resource guides.
EDSITEment's Guide to Black History Month Teaching Resources
Investigate the contributions African Americans have made in the history and cultural development of the United States.
W. E. B. Du Bois: Online Resources
Includes digital materials related to W. E .B. Du Bois and links to external Web sites.
Stories, interactive maps, activities and tools, and lesson plans and activities for grades 6-12.
Lessons and links on the life histories of people whose struggle was part of a larger social and economic movement to improve the lives of the working class.
Separate Is Not Equal - Brown v. Board of Education
History, images, and other resources covering the historic Supreme Court ruling ending segregation and ensuring opportunity in education.
Images, documents, stories, biographies, and commentaries. The site provides teacher’s and youth guides. The four part series may be in local libraries.
Black History - Biography - Celebrate Black History Month & People
Biographies, timelines, photos, video, game, quiz, and 101 fast facts.
ARTS
Poems to Celebrate Black History Month
Poems and articles by African-Americans.
Online activities and biographies, transcripts of many interviews with musicians, K-12 lesson plans, and a music study guide for grades 5-8.
Students in grades 5-12 can read this interactive timeline about the development of jazz (about 30 minutes) and listen to imbedded audio clips.
A collection of interviews from National Public Radio (NPR) that chronicle the seminal people and events in the hip-hop movement.
African American Visual Art and the Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement (BAM) began in the mid-1960s to provide a new vision of African Americans. This site provides images galleries a theoretical essay, timeline, and links to other online art sources. Note: the top banner links are dead but the bottom links are functional.
A brief look at the life and work of Gordon Parks, novelist poet, painter, composer, pianist, and photographer. The site includes a brief biography, image gallery, and interview video clips.
The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed
African American History by region.
SCIENCE
African Americans in Science and Technology
Links from the Library of Congress.
Brief biographies of African American inventors.
SPORT
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum: Electronic Resources for Teachers
Before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball there was Negro League Baseball. This site features history, a timeline, photos, and teacher resources, including lessons for grades 9-12.
Brief biographies and film clips of outstanding African American athletes. Don’t miss the links to legal and political figures, scientists and educators, activists, artists and writers, entertainers, and musicians and singers.
Quizzes
The Internet African American History Challenge
Three quiz levels with 7-10 questions
Printables
Timeline (Separate Is Not Equal) ( PDF, 40.3 KB, 3 pp)
A timeline of segregationist laws and court rulings.