Hawk Herald
News and Notes for Teachers- September 10th
Dear Staff
We had a good first week. You spent time on a very important part of learning for our students, making connections and setting expectations. The time you spend on that will set students up for success in the months to come. As you get to know your students strengths and needs you may be overwhelmed by the range of abilities you have. Your students can all learn and you are all talented teachers. Brianstorm with your colleagues, talk to a coach or case manager and try different strategies. The more we include all students the more supported and valued our students will feel and the more they will learn.They are all our students and they depend on us.
I will be in and out of classrooms focusing on your learning targets. My individual conversations with you will start next week.I will be sending invites to you.
Have a great week.
Mary
P.S. if you need to access the building on the weekend you can check out a key from Claudia and she will show you how to do the alarm.
Fire Drill
Talk to students about fire drills, what they do and where they go. We will have one sometime this week.
Picture Day-Tuesday
- Students will get their pictures taken during SS
Shared learning spaces
Team Meetings start this week
Cooperhawks (Harris)
Thursday-Royal Hawks (Carrero/Johnston)
Sparrow Hawks (Ferber/Johnston)
Wellness Center-(Hawks Nest)
Focus of the week
Passes
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aOnuAYD7wVOyqh28LIO4xc5IdDsVN9b7zRFG_r3h-S8/edit?usp=sharing
Remember students may not be in the halls without a pass, even if they are just going really quick to their locker.
SLGGs and Self Reflections
Meetings and Events
Monday-10-Check the advisory calendar on the staff site for daily lessons https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=barrazaj@hsd.k12.or.us
- Office Meeting
- Climate and Culture 3:30
Tuesday-11-Picture Day
- Team Meetings- Coopers and Red-tails 8:00
- Principal meeting-Mary out
Wednesday-12
- Academic Seminar-PLCs https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vMNp9gpY1XIfvbXhR2zGEbNrqpfPTI56-KoPGw_ymqk/edit?ts=5b85e130#gid=875085594
Thursday-13
- Team Meetings-Royals and Sparrow Hawks 8:00
- Coaches meeting 12:30
Friday-14
- SST
The Five Characteristics of Highly Effective Teams
In this article in re:Work, Julia Rozovsky reports on what Google learned from its two-year study of what makes some of its teams more effective than others. After conducting more than 200 interviews, they gleaned 250+ attributes and thought they could crunch the perfect mix of individual traits and skills – perhaps one Rhodes scholar, two extroverts, one expert engineer, and a Ph.D. “We were dead wrong,” says Rozovsky. “Who is on a team matters less than how the team members interact, structure their work, and view their contributions. So much for that magical algorithm.”
The conclusion of all their work boiled down to the following key dynamics demonstrated by highly successful teams:
- Psychological safety: Team members feel comfortable taking risks and being vulnerable in front of each other (this was by far the most important);
- Dependability: Team members get things done on time and meet a high standard of excellence.
- Structure and clarity: Roles, plans, and goals are clear.
- Meaning: The work is personally important to each member.
- Impact: People fundamentally believe that what they are doing matters.
Rozovsky says that any team can do a quick analysis of its internal workings by taking a close look at how it’s doing on each of these dynamics.
What Is Rigor, Anyway?
In this Edutopia article, New York teacher Brian Sztabnik notes how often the word “rigor” crops up in faculty meetings, educational conferences, and worried chats with colleagues (“Is this book rigorous enough?”). But what does rigor mean?
- Making students’ work more difficult?
- Giving them more homework and classwork?
- Assigning work further up Bloom’s taxonomy or deeper on Webb’s Depth of Knowledge?
Hold on, says Sztabnik. “Rigor is a result, not a cause… Rigor is not defined by the text – it comes from what students do. It is not standard across a curriculum – it is individual to each student’s needs. It is not quantified by how much gets crammed into a school day – it is measured in depth of understanding.”
Sztabnik describes how novelist David Foster Wallace taught his literary analysis course at Illinois State University. Wallace used seemingly middlebrow works like Lonesome Dove, Carrie, and Silence of the Lambs and said to his students, “Don’t let any lightweightish-looking qualities of the texts delude you into thinking this will be a blow-off-type class. These ‘popular’ texts will end up being harder than more conventionally ‘literary’ works to unpack and read critically.”
That’s the point, says Sztabnik: “Rigor is the result of work that challenges students’ thinking in new and interesting ways. It occurs when they are encouraged toward a sophisticated understanding of fundamental ideas and are driven by curiosity to discover what they don’t know… Let us aspire to something greater than making difficult work for our students. Let’s take them to that intersection of encouragement and engagement, where they confront ideas and problems that are meaningful. Let’s stretch their thinking. Let’s unleash their sophistication. And let’s foster a love of deep knowledge.”
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