RMS Weekly Bulletin
11-04-19
Check Us Out!
Email: ymcnulty8711@pcssd.org
Website: https://www.pcssd.org/o/robinson-middle-school
Location: 21201 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, AR 72223, USA
Phone: 501-868-2410
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JTRobMid
Twitter: @JoeT_RMS
Principal's Message
Happy Month of November, RMS Team! Time flies when you are working hard. However, I heard from a friend that it is important to be tired from doing the right work rather than the wrong work. I believe that we are working hard to do the right work. As we finished last week, I reflected not only on how far we have come as a staff, but also how far our students have come. Our awards assembly is a tribute to the growth made this year. It is a great thing when we can celebrate approximately two hundred students achieving academically and recognize students from each grade level going above and beyond to demonstrate the Senator STRONG Way!
Please review the data from walk-throughs completed below. Celebrations include classroom climate/ culture! Opportunities for continued growth is in the area of rigor/ depth of knowledge. Our team is still relying heavily on teacher-centered strategies which emphasizes lecture, practice, and review and this type of instruction will not help students succeed in mastering the standards. We need to shift to student-centered strategies that support learning by scaffolding content from foundational knowledge to the complex application of knowledge. Students must learn to use their knowledge to solve problems and teachers need to plan for scaffolding student autonomy. Again, this requires risk-taking and our administrative team is ready to support staff who are willing to try new things that increases the number of students who master the standards (grade level skills). Review the slide presentation shared above and the resources attached. There are some excellent strategies to try to increase rigor in your classroom and also increase engagement.
PCSSD Middle School Reading Challenge is underway and boy do I love a good competition that has purpose, and also, can yield positive rewards! Beginning the week of November 11, 2019, the RMS administrative team and Social Studies teachers will collaborate on the best way to organize the reading challenge and ensure that students are reading nightly, logging the information, and having guardians sign off on the logs. At the end of the 7 week challenge, the school with the most minutes read will receive a field trip of their choosing to celebrate (Movie Tavern, Dave &Buster’s, Trampoline Park etc…). While we plan to initiate this through the Social Studies classes, it is our collective responsibility to support and encourage students to read on a nightly basis as this is the best way to improve comprehension skills. After meeting with Social Studies Team and Admin, we will pitch this competition to the student body. I look forward to disaggregating the grade level data to determine the grade that reads more as well as the students that go above and beyond the expected minutes! This should be fun!!!
The monthly RMS Newsletter will be sent out by Tuesday night. If you, your organization, or department want to communicate anything to our families, please submit before noon on Tuesday to be added. Also, remember that announcements are being read in the cafeteria every morning. If you have information needing to be shared, it should be communicated by email to Ms. DeLoach the day prior, so she can have it ready to be read in the morning. Announcements are to be read by Mentors, Ms. Appiah-McNulty, Ms. Banks and in the absence of an administrator, a teacher on duty. Please make sure the pledge is also completed at that time. Thank you and have a great week!