Knight Notes
March 14, 2016
Happy Monday!
I hope you had a great weekend.
Conferences are this week. Best of luck as meet with parents. I know you will show them how much you care about their children.
Spring Break is fast approaching. I know you are ready for a break, and so are most of the students you teach. However, please understand that this a time that is difficult for many of our kids, as they become very anxious about not being at school every day. They may act out because of this. Please let a counselor or administrator know if they can help in any way.
Thank you for all that you do to make FHN a great place to grow and learn. Have a great week!
--Andy
Conferences
Good afternoon!
On March 15rd and 17th, we will have our Spring Parent Teacher Conferences from 4:00 to 7:30 p.m. All teachers will be in their classrooms during both of these nights. Please make sure your name and class schedule is posted outside of your classroom door. Thank you to Donna Malkmus and Angie Mason for having some of their NHS students volunteer during the evening to assist parents. This is a time for you to meet parents and share valuable information regarding their student’s work in your classes.
TIMES FOR CONFERENCES AND FOOD:
Tuesday:
· The PTO will be providing food for all staff before conferences beginning at 2:15 or 2:30.
· Teachers need to be in their classrooms by 3:45.
· Conferences will be held from 4:00-7:30 p.m.
Thursday:
· A “Knight” of Italian Cuisine will be offered for those interested in supporting our Culinary Arts students!
· Flyers have been placed in your mailboxes to sign-up for your dinner. Also, be on the lookout for the culinary arts students who will be requesting your business for this fundraiser. Please return the forms to Becky Just if you are interested in participating. Forms will not be accepted past Tuesday, March 15th. We appreciate your support and enjoy the dinner.
ATTENDANCE PROCEDURES FOR STAFF:
We look forward to everyone being at Parent/Teacher Conferences, but if you are unable to attend you will need to notify your supervising principal in writing. It will be necessary for you to make arrangements to place a sign in your conference area informing parents of the time(s) you will not be available and requesting parents to leave information regarding how you can contact them. Parents have informed us that notifying your students ahead of time of what night you cannot be present is helpful.
INCREASING PARENT ATTENDANCE:
As we did first semester, we would like to continue our efforts to increase our attendance on both of these evenings. If you could please take a few minutes, we would like each teacher to extend an e-mail invitation to at least 5 parents to remind them of Parent/Teacher Conferences. We greatly appreciate your efforts in strengthening our communication and connection with students’ parents.
An example of this type of e-mail is listed below. Please feel free to use this e-mail or develop your own.
Example:
Hello, my name is Steve Moorman, and I am Cara McHaffie’s Communication Arts Teacher. Next week on Tuesday, March 15th and Thursday, March 17th, we will be holding our Fall Parent/Teacher Conferences in the large gym from 4:00-7:30 p.m. This is a great opportunity to meet your student’s teachers and learn valuable information about their education. I look forward to meeting you next week!
Sincerely,
Steve Moorman
SIGN-IN INFORMATION AND ATTENDANCE FOR PARENTS:
We will be using the sheets from prior years for parents to sign in to your classroom. This information was placed in your mailbox on Friday, March 11th. If you need extra copies during the night please call Cara McHaffie at x5068 and we will bring you extra copies right away.
Yellow Form: Please have parents sign-in on Tuesday evening with this form
Blue Form: Please have parents sign-in on Thursday evening with this form
Pink Form: This sheet will need to be filled out and returned to Cara McHaffie or Mr. Moorman to assess how many parents we had in attendance on both nights. Please, ONLY TURN IN THE PINK SHEET.
TEACHER PACKET:
Your Parent/Teacher Conference Teacher Packet was placed in your mailbox on Friday, March 11th. If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me or stop by the main office.
The following items will be Included in your packet:
· Yellow Form – sign-in sheet
· Blue Form—sign in sheet
· Pink Form—totals from both evenings attendance
1. Married to Dawn and have 2 Children, Mackenzie (14), Kennedy (12)
2. I grew up in south St. Louis, but now I live in St. Paul and own a tractor
3. I have a Boxer named Miley (yes, named after Miley Cyrus)
4. I love to hunt, fish and pretty much anything outdoors
5. am a “Walking Dead” fan.
I nominate Kim Sulzner to go next.
Acheivement
Tools for your Toolbox:
Ranking:
1. Select items that can be ranked.
2. Give groups of students a specific criteria in which to rank the items.
3. Students will provide a justification for they way they chose to rank the concepts.
Higher-Order Thinking:
Here are some ideas: most to least or least to most -important, influential, changed, affected, likable, etc.
Attendance
The Attendance Committee met last week and discussed the progress of our new program Attendance Allies. This program pairs caring adults with students who are struggling with attendance. If you would like more information please see Mr. Blankenship or any attendance committee member for details. The committee also discussed ideas for a final push to raise our attendance at the end of the year. FHN currently has 89.9% of students present 90% of the time. Please help us get to 90% by sharing with students the importance of being here every day!
Behavior
When completing a discipline referral, please be sure to use the updated triplicate referrals and leave the pink sheet attached. If you need these, they are in the main office.
Climate
The spring staff survey will be coming out today around noon. Please take a few minutes to let us know how we are doing.
Technology
The next Lunch and Learn will be on 4/3; the topic will be using the message feature in Infinite Campus to communicate with students and parents.
EOC and ACT Testing Window
4/11- 4/19 ELA, Alg 2, and Gov
4/19 ACT
4/25- 5/3 Alg 1 and Bio