Wm. Adams Middle School
Faculty and Staff Newsletter • Sept. 26, 2016
Morning Duty This Week - September 26-30
Please remember to be at your duty station by 7:58. Morning Duty ends at 8:12.
Gennie Lopez - Station 1: Outside main entrance
Nino Mendietta - Station 2: Corridor to the gym
Ric Mireles - Station 3: West entrance
Destiny Pena- Station 4: 100 wing between 112 and 114 (monitor from 112 to 116)
Roel Ramon - Station 5: 200 wing between 207 and 209 (monitor from 207 to 216)
Francisco Rios- Station 6: Outside Library by tables
Cindy Gutierrez - Station 7: 300 wing between 303 and 306 (monitor from 303 to 301)
Andrea Harder - Station 8: 300 wing between 312 and 314 (monitor from 312 to 316)
Dennis LaPlant- Station 9: 400 wing between 404 and 406 (monitor from 406 to 401)
Becky Lutzke - Station 10: 400 wing between 409 and 414 (monitor from 407 to 416)
Brittany Mathews - Station 11: Outside 400 wing by east entry
Melinda Mejia - Station 12: Bus Stop
*If you know in advance that you will be absent, please alert administration in order to have someone monitor your station in your absence.
Afternoon Duty This Week
Afternoon Duty This Week
Gennie Lopez - Station 1: Flagpole
Nino Mendietta - Station 2: Outside near the gym doors that face east
Ric Mireles - Station 3: Outside near the covered walk
Destiny Pena - Station 4: Outside near the covered walk
Roel Ramon - Station 5: Outside near the covered walk
Francisco Rios -Station 6: Outside the cafeteria
Cindy Gutierrez - Station 7: Outside the cafeteria
Andrea Harder - Station 8: Outside the gym on the south side
Dennis LaPlant - Station 9: Bus Stop
Becky Lutzke - Station 10: Bus Stop
Brittany Mathews - Station 11: Bus Stop
Melinda Mejia - Station 12: East Exit
Pep Rally on Tuesday
Have you conferenced with your appraiser yet?
Exam Schedules
1) to keep students from having too many exams on the same day;
2) to close out the exams with a day to spare for grading and entering grades into the gradebook.
For students who are involved in UIL activities, be they athletics, band, or whatever, grades are final at the sound of the last bell of the school day. For this reason, no exams were scheduled on Friday. Students mentioned having exams last Friday as late as 8th period. Please stay on schedule with your lessons so that you can follow the schedule provided to you. Please let Dr. Holmgreen know if you need a copy of the exam schedule for the second and third six weeks.
Chart Student Progress
When beginning a trip by car to places we've never traveled to before, we usually locate a map so that we can chart the best route. We look at our starting point and our final destination, and then we examine the roads and highways that can take us from one point to the other.
Teaching is very much like these trips. We may assess students to get a starting point, and we know our destination (state assessment scores) and then we plan the routes and side trips (lessons and activities) to get students to that final destination.
As we go about teaching and assessing through our unit tests and benchmarks, please have your students chart their progress. Now that students have an entire six weeks behind them they can chart their progress thus far. You can use bar graphs, or any other method, and have students keep it in their journals. Be creative! Then, why not have a contest between your classes and chart each class's progress? This might start some healthy competition!
Building Self-Efficacy in Your Students
- “People's beliefs about their abilities have a profound effect on those abilities. Ability is not a fixed property; there is a huge variability in how you perform. People who have a sense of self-efficacy bounce back from failure; they approach things in terms of how to handle them rather than worrying about what can go wrong.”
From Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control, 1996
Many of our students lack a strong sense of self-efficacy. Far too many leave home each morning without hearing a positive word of encouragement. If we want our students to be successful, we must help build their self-efficacy such that they feel empowered to reach beyond their potential and believe that they can accomplish the impossible.
Next week, I will close out the announcements by having the students repeat the following (or something similar) after me. It will be critical that you ensure the students do this:
"I am somebody;
I am better than nobody, and nobody is better than me;
I will be respectful;
I will help others;
I will be kind;
I am talented;
I am strong;
When I fall down, I get back up;
I am amazing!
W-A (they will say M-S)"
We will do this every day. Eventually, I want you as their teacher, to end your advisory period doing this so that they begin their classes in a positive frame of mind.
Congratulations to...
Trainings to be completed by this Friday:
Don't Forget!
There are 3 required trainings that you must complete online:
Food Allergies at http://allergyready.com/
Child Abuse Reporting athttp://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Training/Reporting/default.asp
- OR -
Sexual Abuse Prevention Training at www.D2L.org/TXEd (this is a 2 hour training with 2 credit hours approved by TEA
Suicide Prevention at https://texas.kognito.com/
All trainings must be completed by Sept. 30, 2016. Please print 2 copies of the certificates and give one copy of each to our school nurse, Anissa Nunez.
Energy Conservation
In addition, please refrain from bringing personal items to charge at school and do not allow your students to charge their phones and electronic devices at school. If you are using your phone or electronic device for school purposes, you may plug it in, but if it is strictly used for personal business, please do not recharge it at school. Consider this: Would you want all of your students coming to your house and plugging in all of their phones and devices to recharge on your nickel? Thank you for your cooperation.
Red Folders
--------------------Teachers' PD Section--------------------
Let's Grow Some Dendrites!
She goes on to say that research professionals say that a person needs 12 positive interactions each day in order to thrive. Why not be one of the first of 12 positive interactions for your students?
Tate offers 20 strategies to engage the brain:
1. Brainstorming and Discussion
2. Drawing and Artwork
3. Field Trips
4. Games
5. Graphic Organizers, Semantic Maps, and Word Webs
6. Humor
7. Manipulatives, Experiments, Labs, and Models
8. Metaphors, Analogies, and Similies
9. Mnemonic Devices
10. Movement
11. Music, Rhythm, Rhyme, and Rap
12. Project-Based and Problem-Based Instruction
13. Reciprocal Teaching and Cooperative Learning
14. Role Plays, Drama, Pantomimes, and Charades
15. Storytelling
16. Technology
17. Visualization and Guided Imagery
18. Visuals
19. Work Study and Apprenticeships
20. Writing and Journals
Incorporate some of these into your lessons and see how your students respond.