WHS 9th Grade Center News 2021-22
Week of December 6th - December 10th
Mustang 9 News
Giving Thanks
Officer of the Month
Where would we be without you?!
Technology Tuesday: Tech in 10!
SpringWay Systems and Routines
- Threshold - Greeting students and welcoming them into your classroom, providing positive feedback to scholars that are on task, and directing scholars that are in the hallway.
- Strong Start - Establishing a routine for scholars once they enter the classroom to ensure that instructional time is maximized.
- Do Now - 5-7 minute activity reviewing previously taught information. Scholars should be able to complete this on their own. Within the 5-7 minutes the teacher should review the Do Now with students.
- Cold Call - Teachers cold call on students to ensure 100% engagement in lessons. Students are called on randomly. This isn't used as a tool to "catch" students who aren't paying attention, but as a tool to ensure all students are engaged in the learning.
- Exit Tickets - A quick measure of the learning objective at the end of class. This is a piece of data that the teacher collects to determine if scholars are mastering the content or if re-teaching needs to happen.
- Board Configurations - A teaching tool that can be used by students to know what they should expect to learn during class and helpful to help keep the teacher on track during his/her lesson delivery. Teachers should practice "closing to open" to ensure their board configurations are up to date. "Closing to open" is when the teacher updates his/her board configuration at the end of each day in preparation for the next day.
Second 9 Weeks Instructional Focus: T-TESS Instruction Dimension 2.1 - 2.5
Remember:
- Utilize documents such as the Lead4ward Field Guides, textbooks, district Scope & Sequences and Unit Guides to help identify the academic vocabulary students must know in order to be successful in the unit.
- Students should have multiple opportunities to engage with vocabulary.
- Students need to have the opportunity to discuss content not only with the teacher, but with other classmates in order to hear other points of view.
- Provide students with the opportunity to read about content. When allowing students to read about the content, be sure to set a purpose for their reading. Pose a probing question or ask students to annotate for specific information. Don't solely allow for students to depend on PowerPoints to get information regarding your course.
School Store
Next semester, Ms. Grant will be spearheading the (re)opening of a school store for our kiddos. For those of you that were here right before Covid-19 rocked our worlds, we had already started the WHS STAAR Store that was partially incentive based using "STAAR" bucks that students could earn in class from their teachers.
Our goal is to once again create a space for students to earn the chance to purchase items from the school store. (Items will also be for purchase at the store as well!)
My Ask: Please donate items to the school store!!
Examples of items to donate:
- snacks (drinks, honey buns, Takis, hot fries, candy, etc.)
- gift cards (small denominations)
- movie tickets
- clothing items (new)
- games
- monetary donations towards the purchase of items are also welcome
These are just a few things that can be donated! Please reach out to me if you're in a giving spirit and would like to donate items towards stocking our school store! Let's catch some of those Black Friday sales. Thank you!
Final Exam Exemptions
- Grade of 85 or higher
- No more than 3 absences (excused/unexcused)
- No discipline (except D-Hall)
Once the window is closed, The following will occur:
- a spreadsheet will be shared with you to enter the grades of those students that chose to exempt your class.
- Grade Entry will be due Wednesday, December 9, 2020. PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THE SPREADSHEET WITH STUDENTS AS IT WILL CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.
- AP Administrative Assistants will enter the attendance and discipline information for every student based on their alpha-split.
- Students that are eligible to exempt their final exams will be published for staff and students, Friday, December 11, 2020.
Please share the following links with students that are currently eligible to exempt your final exam. These links are grade level specific. Therefore, issue the links according to the students' grade level. Please inform students that they only need to complete the form ONCE. However, if the student completes the same form more than once, we will remove the duplicates:
Important Dates
- December 6th - Progress report distribution during 1st period
- December 7th - TELPAS training modules need to be completed.
- December 8th - Algebra I EOC (we have 11 Algebra I EOC re-testers)
- December 13th - Beginning of semester final exams.
- EPLT - No EPLT this week. Prepare for the closing of the semester.
- December 17th - 1/2 day for students
- Lesson plan submissions - Remember lesson plans are to be submitted each week on Thursday to the lesson plan folder via Google Drive.
Strive
Aggressive Monitoring
Learning Passport
Teacher Checklist
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sEFMyJMUErWvNBTMx2HAGObNtBu0jC3aqTkr9nbQbxo/edit#gid=0
Equal Opportunity Schools
Staff Survey:
- Staff should use their email address to login to complete their surveys.
- The lists of staff programmed to do the survey can be downloaded on the Portal under the “Surveys” icon, by clicking the dropdown below “Staff Survey Progress” and then clicking on the download CSV button.
- Staff survey link: https://eos.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_djzKVojXBkNbF1Y
Survey Resources
Here is the link to the Fall Survey Guide. This guide contains:
- Sample emails and scripts to communicate with students, staff, and parents about the survey
- Sample Survey flyers
- Sample lesson plans with videos for students in English and Spanish
- For a guide to monitoring survey progress and downloading lists of students/staff who have not yet responded, you can watch this short video. The lists of students and staff who are programmed to take the survey or provide recommendations can be downloaded on the Portal under the “Surveys” icon. Click on the hyperlinks associated with the student survey or staff recommendations, and then the download CSV button next to the school’s name.
We are here to help!
Mrs. Parker
9th Grade Center Principal
Mrs. Robinson
Mrs. Parker's Administrative Assistant
Mr. Hobbs
(A-K)
Darla Fuente
Mr. Hobbs' & Ms. Rose Administrative Assistant
Kimberly Rose
Counselor (A-K)
Ms. Malveaux
(L-K)
Ricci Scurlock
Ms. Malveaux's & Mrs. Francis Administrative Assistant
Brandy Francis
Counselor (L-Z)