Hawk Herald
News and Notes for Teachers- Feb 11
Dear Staff
We had over 273 students on the honor roll last semester and I accepted compliments from parents on your behalf. Your hard work on behalf of students and their connections to you are a big part of their success.
Don't forget to go into perform and do your mid-year goal review and include your recent data.
Please check your advisory lesson everyday. We want to send a consistent message to students.
I have attached the policy for inclement weather just in case but as I look out my window and see bare pavement and the sun shining I have my doubts.
Thank you for your hard work for students ,
Mary
You can also find the newsletter on the staff site: Staff Site
Walkthroughs
AVID walkthroughs-Monday
Future Leaders walkthroughs-Friday 12:45-2:00
PLCs Wednesday
Leadership meeting
Meetings and Events
Monday-11
Check your :Advisory Calendar
- ELD meeting 1:30
Tuesday-12
Wednesday-13-Mary out AM
- PLCs
- Attendance 10:10
Thursday-14 Valentine's Day
- Team Meeting
- 6th to 7th math transition team AC218 12:00
Friday-15
- Leadership meeting 7:30
- Future Leaders in room 238 all day
- Coaches meeting 1:30
Mid-year Goal Reviews in Perform
Climate and Culture Update
AVID strategy: Language objectives
Data for Semester 1
#Ds and Fs 7th: Science-32; Social Studies-38; Language arts-25; math-49
#Ds &Fs ELs 7th: Science-10; Social Studies-15; LA-13; Math-24
# Ds & Fs SPED 7th: Science-5;Social Studies-5;LA-4;Math-9
8th Grade-Total students 359; ELs-55; SPED-64
#Ds and Fs 8th : Science-60; Social Studies-63;Language arts-33;math-50
#Ds & Fs ELL 8th: Science-11;Social Studies-13; LA-9;math-11
# Ds & Fs SPED 8th:Science-12;Social Studies-16;LA-7; math-7
Orchestrating “Flow” in the Classroom
In this online article, John Spencer (George Fox University) suggests five ways teachers can increase the chances of students experiencing “flow” – a zone of intense concentration and immersion that may be experienced by athletes, artists, authors, musicians, engineers – and yes, students – when time and distractions are almost completely tuned out and performance is at a higher level. “It’s a strange paradox,” says Spencer, “where time seems to stand still and yet it seems over in an instant. It feels effortless even though it’s an extreme challenge. There’s a sense of relaxation but it’s also intense. You seem more present than ever but you can lose your sense of self.” The idea of flow has been around for thousands of years, but Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi popularized the term in the 1970s and 80s when he observed artists so absorbed in their creative work that they lost track of time and even ignored the need for food, water, and sleep.
How do we increase the incidence of flow in classrooms? Spencer suggests five preconditions that make it possible:
• The task needs to be intrinsically rewarding to students. It has to engage their internal drive and fit their passions, interests, talents, or desires. It can be solitary or group-oriented, competitive or non-competitive, artistic or athletic.
• There need to be clear goals and a sense of progress. And students need a sense of agency: “You need to feel that you have a command over what you are doing,” says Spencer. “In the moment, it can feel effortless. However, it’s often an exceptionally challenging situation. You’re often doubtful of success ahead of time. But this uncertainty is part of what makes the challenge fun.”
• There needs to be clear and immediate feedback. “In other words,” says Spencer, “it should be easy to figure out what’s working and what’s failing… [and] modify and adjust what you are doing based on this instant feedback.”
• The challenge must match one’s perceived skills. If a task is not challenging, boredom and apathy can set in. If it’s beyond one’s skill level, anxiety and frustration might result. Flow is in the sweet spot of high challenge matching a high level of skill in that area.
• Flow requires intense focus on the present moment. Csikszentmihalyi said people in a state of flow “often stop being aware of themselves as separate from the actions they are performing.” But at the same time, these are the moments when they feel most alive.
So how can teachers maximize flow in their classrooms? Spencer has experimented with ideas when he was a middle-school teacher and now as a university professor and has these preliminary suggestions:
- Provide the right scaffolding for the task. For a writing project, this might be sentence stems, tutorials, or graphic organizers.
- Tap into intrinsic motivation. This means being creative with the required curriculum by asking big questions, posing interesting challenges, creating simulations – and sometimes just being goofy.
- Embrace student choice and agency. Maximize student-centered, creative projects. Ask, “What am I doing for students that they could be doing for themselves?”
- Minimize distractions. Creativity can be noisy, says Spencer. “However, this can also be distracting. It’s not a bad thing to reduce clutter or decrease noise and allow students to reach that state of hyper-focus. It can also help to slow down.”
- Help students with metacognition. Teach them to visualize where they’re going, assess the task, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, plan an approach, apply strategies, monitor progress, reflect on what’s working, and continuously make adjustments.
South Meadows Middle School
Email: mendezm@hsd.k12.or.us
Website: http://schools.hsd.k12.or.us/southmeadows
Location: 4690 Southeast Davis Road, Hillsboro, OR, United States
Phone: 503-844-1220
Facebook: facebook.com/SouthMeadowsMiddleSchool