ARMS Legend
Excellence Without Boundaries
Excellence in Leading. Teaching.Learning
Improve Student Achievement
Improve the Quality of Instruction
Create a Positive & Supportive Campus Culutre
Principal's Message
All hands on deck for the optimal testing environment this week. We set the tone and this is an exciting time and also can be nerve wracking. As we always do, reminder to meet and greet students with positive disposition and encouraging words.
At ARMS we are committed to a testing environment that brings the best out of our students.
Please remember highlights from the testing meeting:
- Testing item pick up @ 7:15, first come first serve
- Test Administrators - Print name(s) on Testing Booklet, (large print)
- Remember to post Do Not Disturb Testing Sign AND Seating Chart outside of your door
- Make note of students who complete test in 3 hours.
- Testing monitors please be mindful of when breaks are taken and timing of breaks.
- Turn in testing materials in the correct order and manner.
- Double check emails and know procedures for the day (double check lunch process and instructional rotations for non testers)
- Start when announcement is made to begin testing.
Be encouraged yourself for where our students are at this point and know that you have contributed to their success!
We all have 1300 students testing over the course of these 4 days. Treat your test group as though they are your own students, because they are- they are RANGERS.
Proudest Principal in DISD!
F. Taylor-Glenn
One Band. One Sound
P.S. Staff jeans are allowed for this week.
STAAR Round 2
Tuesday - 6th & 7 Grade - Reading / 8th Retesters
Wednesday - 8th Grade Science,
Thursday - 8th Grade Social Studies
May 8, 2017, Week 4 of the 6th Six Weeks
TEAM
GRIT
GROWTH
STAAR Info
ARMS Updates
SLO's are due soon!!
Summer PD SchoolNet Catalog is Open
Individualize P2LD Form:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10A3SWnGxd3XsT0WOBjmnewJzaZas9TUG84TiGBBHWl8/edit
Summer Catalog (main website- Forms listed on the left side)
http://www.dallasisd.org/Page/41528
ARMS Reminders (Worth Reminding)
Legend Pictures- Do Not Text
Visuals make the Legend, LEGENDARY!! I love the pictures that I do received. At the same time, I have repeatedly asked for pictures to be EMAILED to me, to lessen the process of assembling the Legend.
From this day forward, text pictures will no longer be accepted.
I appreciate everyone's help with this seemly small request, and it makes a major difference in the process.
8th Grade EOY Celebration Info Flyer
Our 8th graders are in the final days of their time with us and their is much planned in their honor. It is very exciting and so much to celebrate.
Another way to support our 8th graders is to check in with any of our 8th grade team members in regards to students who may benefit from financial support toward the cost of the EOY ticket.
ARMS Rangers, take a moment to nominate a Ranger for this very deserving and service oriented position. Cultivating Student Leadership is a focus at ARMS for 2017-18, YOUR INPUT IS NEEDED.
2017-18 ARMS Ambassador Committee
Current 6th Grade & 7th Grade Teachers please take a moment to consider the criteria when nominating a student:
- Evidence of a collaborative nature,
- commitment to learning / growing oneself,
- appropriate/sound decision making, leadership qualities,
- and overall student behaviors indicate being an ARMS Ambassador would be seen as a welcomed opportunity and position would be respected.
Please complete the survey link to submit your nomination. Once initial list is reviewed, second round would be interviews with myself and other Rangers staff members.
https://goo.gl/forms/LWxhbwxB4mQwkIii2
I thank you in advance for your time. This group of young people can not be assembled without you.
2017 -2018 Committee Ideas
UPDATE on STAFF Committee Survey
- Staff Band
- Staff Step Team
1 or more staff members:
Fun- 2
STEAM - 4
Social / Emotional - 4
Staff Appreciation - 1
Hispanic Heritage - 1
African American History Month - 1
Women's National Month- 1
ARMS Ambassador - 4
College / Career - 1
0 Staff members:
Character Counts / Red Ribbon
Breast Cancer Awareness
National Anti Bullying Week
Winter Celebrations
Autism Awareness
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS TAKEN THE TIME TO REVIEW AND SELECT A WAY IN WHICH THEY WILL CONTINUE TO IMPACT ARMS BEYOND THEIR CURRENT ROLE
In addition to teachers....Administrators, Counselors, Support Staff, Teacher Assistants, AND Instructional Coaches - sign up for a committee
The goal is 100% of all staff will be connected to a committee.
Please take a moment and complete the survey on committees that you may want to contribute to next year.
Next year the areas one can connect to have been broadened in a hope that the investment can be spread throughout many people. Find what you are passionate about and what brings joy to you and jump right in!!
https://goo.gl/forms/Rb3bat85aqexP7Lh2
May 15th, Monday - Unplugged Teacher Team Work Session
Please make sure your review the follow up email sent to the team and bring your laptops. Work session will kick off in the library @ 4:30pm. Outlook invite has already been sent.
Operation Excellence: TG2 Spotlight
Spotlight on Mr. George,Ms. Remikie, Ms. A. Lewis, and Ms. Harris- Operation Excellence: Team & Grit!
I am incredibly thankful to Mr. George, Mr. Remikie, Ms. A. Lewis, & Ms. Harris for working diligently with our 8th students who are taking their 2nd administration of STAAR Math & Reading tomorrow and Tuesday.
In addition to laser focused instruction, all teachers continuously try to foster confidence and empowerment with our students. The past 10 days have been intense SSI and I spotlight their efforts and unrelenting spirits.
Spotlight on Ms. Brown, Ms. Klein, and Ms. Santos - Operation Excellence- Leading & Teaching
Kudos to our Math teachers who shared their learning with their peers during Math PLC.
- Ms. Brown presented on how to help students with mathematical misconceptions.
- Ms. Klein presented on Number talks
- Ms. Klein presented on Math Tasks for Formative Assessments
Each teacher provided examples and time to discuss practices and strategies. Each teacher left the PLC with resources to refer to in the future. Thank you all for your continued support of educator growth and development. Way to go!!!
Spotlight on Mrs. Hawkins, Mrs. J. Miller, Ms. Williams, Ms. Remikie, Mr. White, Ms. Craig, Ms. L. Williams, and Sgt. Salter
Thank you to this awesome team that pulled together a wonderful opportunity for a STAAR kick off and honoring of Cinco De Mayo!! Mexican heritage was celebrated and beautifully done!! Students were reminded that STAAR success is right around the corner. I truly appreciate the hard work and positive spirit that each of you gave to the pep rally!!
Spring DISD Climate Survey
Junior League Grants for Innovation in Teaching
Rice University Opportunity for our 8th Graders
Next Year Contract Dissemination Memo
Resignation Guidelines
Last day is July 14th. This is over the summer months and I am always accessible. Please call or email me if there is a change in your plans during the summer months. Thanks in advance for your consideration.
Summer PD Opportunity!! - Pre - AP training
As a reminder DISD teacher are to have 14 hours of PD completed prior to the start of school. Please consider this as an option to expand your learning.
2017-18 Learning Theraphy Cohort- PD Opportunity
This opportunity would allow us to develop stronger knowledge of how to best serve and teach students that have dyslexia.
Click here for more information.
TEI Roster Verification Inforamtion
2017-2018 Calendar Start and End Dates
Accommodations, Modifications, and Interventions
In this article in Kappa Delta Pi Record, Greg Conderman, Lisa Liberty, and Stephanie DeSpain (Northern Illinois University) say that well-intentioned educators are sometimes unclear about the distinction between accommodations, modifications, and interventions and how they are used to meet students’ needs. They note some common problems:
- Over-accommodating students;
- For high-stakes testing, not preparing accommodation materials in advance;
- Identifying interventions that are really accommodations;
- Believing that accommodations necessarily lower standards for students.
Here are the authors’ definitions:
• Accommodations – “Accommodations are small changes in how teachers present content or how the student demonstrates knowledge,” say Conderman, Liberty, and DeSpain. “Accommodations do not alter learning outcomes for students, and they do not teach students new skills, but rather they provide students access to the curriculum or assessments. In other words, accommodations even the playing field and offset or correct for the disability.” They come in several flavors:
- Presentation accommodations – Helping students access material by presenting it in a format that accommodates their disability – for example, large print or digital text;
- Response accommodation – Allowing students to demonstrate knowledge or skill in a different way – for example, typing or dictating responses;
- Setting accommodations – Providing an alternative location or equipment for completing an assignment or assessment – for example, having a student work alone to avoid distractions;
- Timing and scheduling accommodations – Stretching the time allowed to complete an assignment or assessment, or breaking the time into small segments with breaks.
A key consideration with accommodations is that the intellectual difficulty of the task doesn’t change, only the way it’s handled with the student. Thus, it’s inappropriate to allow accommodations when what’s being assessed is fluency or rate, or to give clues to answers through voice intonation, allow peers to read test items to a student, or not provide adequate supervision in an alternative setting. It’s also important to work with students so that accommodations can be tapered off over time when possible by teaching the skills involved in being successful in regular settings.
• Modifications – These involve substantial adjustments in the difficulty level of the content being learned (to below or above grade-level expectations) because of a student’s disability. “Because modifications often lower standards, they should be used sparingly, especially for students who take state or district assessments,” say Conderman, Liberty, and DeSpain. “Students with disabilities should receive a different curriculum than students without disabilities only when it is unrealistic for them to benefit from the general education curriculum.” Students who are above level might get above-grade-level acceleration or enrichment activities. In any case, teachers should prepare a menu of instructional activities and assessments to ensure that students with disabilities get meaningful support that’s not just cobbled together on the fly. Some possible modifications:
- Changing the task from recall to recognition;
- Allowing students to answer only main idea questions;
- Including fewer options in multiple-choice questions;
- Testing only big ideas;
- Testing students above or below grade level.
Teachers should decide on modifications as early in a curriculum unit as possible, use the smallest modification needed to help students work toward their goals, communicate modifications to parents, and ensure that the modification is associated with the same skill area or instructional topic.
The distinction between accommodations and modifications is important. For example, if the outcome of a unit is for students to write an essay, allowing the student to type rather than hand-write the final assessment is an accommodation, but allowing the student to dictate answers is a modification.
• Interventions – These are the “how to” of supporting students to reach their learning goals – for example, providing clear and explicit instruction; modeling a new skill; teaching metacognitive skills and appropriate social behaviors; providing enough practice time; giving feedback; organizing peer tutoring; and providing frequent review. Some key considerations: Implementing interventions with fidelity; allowing enough time for an intervention to work; reflecting on the effectiveness of an intervention for future reference; and, when possible, getting students involved in collecting data on what’s working and what isn’t, graphing their individual progress toward their learning goals.
Here’s an example of the three layers – accommodation, modification, and intervention – for a class learning to write a persuasive essay with at least three reasons for a position:
- Accommodation: Allow the use of a thesaurus; allow the use of adaptive devices such as pencil grips, special pen holders, erasable pen, color-coded lined paper; allowing extra time.
- Modification: Allow outlining instead of writing; provide multiple-choice questions or fill-in-the-blanks; change the number of reasons required.
- Interventions: Teach a mnemonic to remember the components of a persuasive essay; have students use a writer’s notebook; model brainstorming to break the “idea” logjam; have students self-monitor and graph results to increase writing fluency.
“Understanding Accommodations, Modifications, and Interventions” by Greg Conderman, Lisa Liberty, and Stephanie DeSpain in Kappa Delta Pi Record, April-June 2017 (Vol. 53, #2, p. 70-75), available for purchase at http://bit.ly/2qoMisW; the authors can be reached at gconderman@niu.edu, lliberty@niu.edu, and sdespain@niu.edu.
Week of May 8th - 12th
Math 6 & 7, 8th Retesters
Tuesday, 5/2
Reading 6 & 7, 8 Retesters
Wednesday, 5/3
8th STAAR Science
6 & 7 Instructional Rotation
Thursday, 5/4
8th STAAR Social Studies
6 & 7 Instructional Rotation
Friday, 5/5
$1 Student Jean Day
GT EOY Ceremony
May 15th - 31st Review Calendar
ARMS Staff Appreciation Week!!!
Monday Munchies!
Lunch on the Go - Thank you ARMS Staff
Thank you Math & Social Studies Teachers!!
ELAR Team - Loved the Potato Bar!
ARMS Photo Booth - Smiles are Contagious!
Thank you,
Taylor-Glenn
HCM Thanks ARMS! J. Williams DISD Staffing Specialist
ARMS Feast- Thank you to our PARENTS!!
ARMS Gets Creative!
ARMS Ranger honored by DISD Public Library
Ms. Scally, Mr. Getz, and Centrya Echols at the Dallas Public Library Express Yourself Poetry Contest. Centrya was a finalist.
Mrs. Scally would like to thank Mr. Getz for going with me and supporting Centrya and her family at this event.
STAAR Fiesta Friday!
ARMS Facility Request Google Doc
This is how all facility requests are to be made moving forward.
ARMS Safety Drill Staff One Pager
The Most Important Work of our Time! Always remember YOUR IMPACT!
Ann Richards Middle School
At Ann Richards MS, our vision is to be a flagship middle school at the hub of the community, nurturing diverse leaders, and empowering intelligent trailblazers.
Email: frataylor@dallasisd.org
Website: www.dallasisd.org/annrichards
Location: Ann Richards Middle School, North Prairie Creek Road, Dallas, TX, United States
Phone: 972 -892-5400