MST Tiger Trainer News
August 15-19, 2022
December 12th-16th, 2022
#MST5Houses1Family
Weekly Motivation
Staff Highlight
Congratulations to Yenifer Rivera Ramirez, our kindergarten inclusion paraprofessional! She was selected as an RISD Believes Staff Award winner for the month of November. She will be honored at the upcoming Board of Trustees meeting on 12/8/2022.
This is why Yenifer was nominated: "Yenifer is new to MST this year, and new to the role of Kindergarten Inclusion Aide. She truly has a gift that is witnessed each day by our staff and students. She is able to remain calm in the most difficult situations, and build such strong relationships with our students. She is such a support to our two KI teachers, Kate Anderson and Bianca Esquivel. Her smile and her positive outlook is contagious, and she makes MST a better school because of her commitment to our students and her support of our staff. Any time she receives training, suggestions, or feedback, she promptly puts it into action to better address the needs of our KI students. Her job is a very difficult one, yet she makes it look so easy! We are blessed to have her as part of our MST family!"
Again, Congratulations! We look forward to honoring you at the upcoming Board meeting.
Amazing Choir Performances
Thank you to Emily and Cristina for all of your efforts to create an incredible choir! The students performed beautifully both at MST and on their singing field trip this week. Our students represented the greatness of MST in large part due to the leadership of our amazing music teachers.
Upcoming Events
Early Release December 16
Students will be dismissed at 1:10pm on December 16th. Students across the district will be dismissed 2 hours early. Please make arrangements to pick your child up early on this day.
We will be operating on an early release schedule on this day, so lunch times will be different. If you plan to have lunch with your child on November 18th, the lunch times are as follows:
1st grade:
Payne/ McAlinden 10:30
Brown/ Janak 10:35
2nd grade:
Cantu/ Templin 10:45
Puente/ Trachta 10:50
Kinder:
Esquivel/ Rasmussen 10:55
Anderson/ Knoth 11:00
4th Grade
Pulido/ Salcedo 11:10
Wooten/ McLeroy 11:15
3rd Grade:
Watson/Azab 11:20
Cupples/ McDonald 11:25
Edney 11:30
5th Grade:
Kelley/ Vaughan 11:40
Koudelka 11:45
Korakianitis 11:50
6th Grade:
Pata 11:50
Ariza 11:55
Slade/ Mauldin 12:10
News You Can Use
Even Newer MST White Tiger
Eleazar Montelongo Jr. is our new 5ht grade Science/Social Studies teacher! I cannot wait for you all to meet him. He attended orientation today, and came over to campus to meet the students and some staff. He had an opportunity to enjoy the choir performance as well. As soon as he entered the building, he immediately jumped in to help build a piece of furniture in the front office. He really gets the family feel here at MST! If you see him in the halls next week, give him a warm MST welcome!
New MST White Tiger
I am so excited to welcome Sophie-Claire Wilhelme to our MST family as our 1st grade ESSER teacher. She has proven her passion and talent for education as Ms. Edney's student teacher. If you see her in passing, give her a warm MST welcome.
Campus Construction
You may have noticed that some sections at the front of the school have been closed off, and the front playground is currently closed. The district is currently working to fix some drainage and flooding issues at the campus. French drains have been added at the front of the school, and new sod has been laid down. These steps has been taken to prevent mud from covering the parking lot and sidewalks after significant rain.
French drains are being added to the front playground to assist with the water flow there. Sod will be laid, and a concrete walking path will be added around the play area. Students will now be able to participate in walk and talk without walking through the dirt and mud. This will also prevent the mud from covering the sidewalk alongside the playground.
I am so thankful for the efforts the district is taking to assist with the drainage and elevate our campus.
Are You Using Smore for Class Newsletters?
If you are using SMORE, here is a link to some tips for using the resource.
Click the image above to see some of our MST White Tiger scholars in the Fall Connect Magazine.
Tips & Tricks for STAAR 2.0
We will be posting resources and suggestions to assist with the transition to STAAR 2.0. The campus and district expectation is that students of all grades are exposed to the STAAR 2.0 question types in their daily activities in their core content and specials classes. Click on the document below to access some examples that can be used currently for multiple content areas.
Kudos to the staff that have already been preparing students for the STAAR 2.0 question types. Resource teachers were working with their groups during tutoring last week on STAAR 2.0 questions. 3rd grade has been working with their students to use Google Docs/Slides and Google Forms to create side-by-side forms with STAAR 2.0 type questions.
RISD Acute Clinic is Now Open
The RISD Acute Clinic is now open. I would recommend that you add this contact information to your phone for easy access. The cost for appointments is $10.
RISD Acute Cline
1500 International Pkwy
Suite 200
Richardson, TX 75081
214-484-1524
Specific feedback that I received from someone who has been:
If you call to get an appointment, choose menu option 1 instead of 2. It says 2 for RISD employees, but for this employyee it kept looping them. When she chose 1, someone answered immediately.
Staff Development
Apple Teacher Certification
We believe that the Apple Teacher certification is essential to our ability to understand and support iPad integration in the classroom, and is therefore a requirement to support our growth as a Magnet Campus. As an Apple Distinguished School, we are committed to having a staff that is well versed in the effective use of our digital tools to enhance the learning of our students.
Kate will be sending information out to staff who have not completed the Apple training. Kate and I are happy to schedule a time to work through the trainings together with any interested individuals. Several of our new staff members are also doing TRA, and we will work with you on the deadline for Apple Teacher as a result of the multiple requirements.
Happy Birthday to You!
December Birthdays
- Linley McClendon-December 1st
- Stephanie Huynh-December 2nd
- Sophie-Claire Wilhelme-December 10th
- Yenifer Rivera-December 21st
- Amanda Spear-December 23rd
- Elizabeth Celis-December 24th
Dates to Remember
- December 12-Specials Grades Due
- December 13-Teachers' Grades Due
- December 14-Principal Meeting, Report Cards Drafts Due to Yeager
- December 16-Early Release, 2nd Grading Period Ends, Winter Parties
- December 19-January 2- Winter Break
- January 2-No School
- January 3-Student Holiday/Staff Development
- January 4-Report Cards Go Home
- January 4-31- 1st-5th CoGAT
- January 4-20- mClass MOY
MST STEM Magnet
Email: mst@g.risd.com
Website: https://schools.risd.org/MSTMagnet
Location: 450 Abrams Road, Richardson, TX, USA
Phone: 469-593-7300
Twitter: @MSTMAGNET