Ram Nation News
Week of October 23, 2017
Vision
#AlltheWayUp
As we have conducted instructional audits and having conversations during PLC, we have noticed the need to focus on alignment paying close attention to our learning objectives. We have spent time looking at the alignment to the TEKS, ensuring alignment to end of the year and end of the unit assessments, and making sure that we know what our students need to know and be able to do to master the selected TEKS. We have also spent time creating exemplar to give us a clear picture of what we are looking for when we know that our students have mastered a particular concept.
The following bullets come from "Never Work Harder than your Students and Other Principles of Great Teaching" by Robyn Jackson.
- "Imagine that you needed to drive from California to New York by next Friday. What steps would you take? You probably will start by taking out a map and planning your route. You may decide how far you need to go each day in order to make your deadline. You would probably need to figure out where you would stop each night to rest. And, you would have to decide where to eat, how much money you will need, and what you will pack.
- Now, imagine that your students had to reach certain standards and benchmarks by the end of the year. What steps will you take? It is helpful to think of the standards as your final destination. They represent what students need to know or be able to do by the end of their time with you. They are your learning goals. We need to unpack the standards into smaller objectives that will guide your day-to-day interactions with students. These objectives represent the various steps towards mastery and the criteria and evidence you will collect to ensure that students are making progress.
- Master teachers spend more time unpacking standards and objectives than they do planning learning activities because they understand that clear learning objectives will drive everything else they do. They begin by determining whether the TEKS emphasizes learning content or a process. They also look to see what other knowledge and skills are implied by the TEKS. From there, master teachers try to state the learning objective as concretely as possible in terms of what students should know or be able to do and the criteria for mastery."
We know that we have to use the TEKS to guide our planning, assessments, and our teaching; therefore, we need to understand what it is that students need to know and be able to do to master a particular TEKS. I know that each one of you is considering the third way so that together we can ensure success for our Remarkable Rams by having a clear focus.
This week's planning review by the leadership team will focus on reviewing the alignment of the LO and DOL, we will look at the actual DOL, and the level of rigor as compared to the STAAR. In classroom visits, we will be looking for teachers using exemplars for DOLs and implementing aggressively monitoring during instruction.
THANK YOU
- Ms. Lewis and Coach Addison for their leadership, support, and mentoring of our volleyball girls as they are culminating the season. We know our students enjoyed the season and got stronger as a team.
- Ms. Woods for her leadership with ACP testing. It was our first round of testing and it went very smooth. Thank you to Ms. Rocha, Ms. Minter, Ms. Miller, Ms. Iberosi, Mr. Geiger, Ms. Rendon, Ms. Trent, Ms. Zuniga, Ms. Buitron, Ms. Maloy, Mr. Willis, and Ms. Villalobos for being our testing administrators.
- All of our football coaching staff under Coach DeLeon's leadership for their dedication and support as our teams have done a remarkable job this season. Mr. Kelly said, "We made our students believe that they can win and they believe it; now, we are winning games. It has made a huge difference"
- Ms. Turnbull for her open-mindedness and life-long learning as she continuously implements the learning from PD sessions into her instructional practices.
- Mr. Proctor for his leadership and support with the implementation of Dallas ISD Goal # 6. Our students had the opportunity to participate in a Chess Tournament last Saturday and they represented our school very well.
Character Counts
- to know what each character pillar means
- to learn what to do to be a person of character
Each one of our staff members nominated students for their character and those students were highlighted with certificates and popcorn. The feedback and reaction from our students were incredible!!!!
Thank you so much for the hard work and recognition of our students.
DAILY EVENTS
- Wear your favorite crazy socks
- Planning Meeting with CIC/AP - 6th Grade (Math, SS, Science), and 7th / 8th Grade RLA
- 4:40 Department Meetings - Department Chair's room
- 4:40 AVID Site Team Meeting - Ms. Baker (Room 405)
- Soccer Practice Begins - Coach Crawford
- 6:00 Volleyball Vs. Tasby
Tuesday, October 17-
- Wear your craziest tacky outfit
- Planning Meeting with CIC/AP - 7th Grade (Math, SS, Science), and 6th Grade RLA
- 4:30 - 8:00 Teaching Trust ED Fellows Session - Ms. Miller and Ms. Michael
- 6:00 Football Vs. Marsh
Wednesday, October 25-
- AVID Mock Demo Day - This is the day that will run like Nov 30 to see if we make it once again as an AVID National Demonstration Site.
- Dress in your favorite decade (40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s)
- Planning Meeting with CIC/AP - 8th Grade (Math, SS, Science), and 7th / 8th Grade RLA
- 4:25 p.m. After school
Thursday, October 26
- Dress like your favorite Celebrity or character
- PSAT Testing - 8th grade
3:00 - 6:00 Teaching Trust Session - Ms. Lewis and Ms. Michael
4:25 p.m. After school
- 5:00 Lesson Plans Due
Friday, October 27-
- Dress in floral, bright colors
- Weekly PLCs - Room 103 - "Show Call" - Exemplar and Aggressively Monitoring review as a foundation to an effective implementation of "show call"
Saturday, October 28-
- 9:00 a.m. Girls Soccer Game
Employee policy and compliance acknowledgment
In compliance with state and federal laws, Dallas ISD requires that all employees complete an Annual Policy and Compliance Acknowledgment at the beginning of each school year.
Between Oct. 9 and Nov. 17, using their EAD user name and password, employees are required to log into http://PolicyAcknowledgement.dallasisd.org/ to access, review, and acknowledge compliance with the following:
Annual Employee Notification of District Policies
State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) Reporting Notice
For more time and flexibility to review these documents, employees can read them by clicking on the links above before logging into the application. Go here for FAQs and more information.
TEI Teacher and Administrator Perception Survey
Rusk Middle School
Email: jcordoba@dallasisd.org
Website: www.dallasisd.org/rusk
Location: 2929 Inwood Road, Dallas, TX, United States
Phone: 972-925-2000
Twitter: @RuskAllTheWayUp