The Mighty Cub Newsletter
October 1 - October 5
#PurposePassionPride
Our Mission
Our Vision
Our Cultural Vision
Week at a Glance
- STUCO Fundraising Week
- Football - vs. Holub 7th grade teams - Crump
Tuesday 10/2
- Team Leader Meeting - 7:30 am
- Football - vs. Holub 8th grade teams - Crump
Wednesday 10/3
- PLC - District
Thursday 10/4
- Volleyball - vs. Albright - "A" teams
- NJHS Induction Ceremony 5:15
Friday 10/5
- ILT Meeting 9-11:30 am
Important Dates
October 5 - Deadline for SLOs - Due to your supervisor
Shout Outs!!
Shout out to Ms. Tran for organizing and coordinating an excellent and eye-opening ESL department field trip to the new Alief Center for Advanced Careers! The students were the first group in the district to see the state-of-the-art career training center that opened this fall.
Shout out to Mrs. Kasmarek for organizing our now annual custodian appreciation celebration. Thank you!!
Shout out to Mr. Khowja and Mrs. Morrison for running a positive, productive and meaningful 8th grade meeting last week. #Positivityisbetter #NoEnergyVampiresAllowed
Shout out to Ms. Raeon and Mr. Cesar for chaperoning the Echo Enchanted Garden field trip and posting our fun on Twitter.
Shout out to Mr. Bracy for posting the Echo field trip on our website. He has been doing an awesome job with his additional responsibilities. #PurposePassionPride
Shout out to the 8th grade Math team for taking care of Ms. Blanco's students when she had to go to the ER. Special shout out to Mr. Hachicho for getting her work together! #Teamwork #synergy
Shout out to Mrs. Reyes and Ms. Fitzgerald for getting color copies for the Art room! #fitzrocks #reyesrocks
Shout out to Ms. Young for her dedication to our SPED students. She went above and beyond to make sure all of Mrs. Robertson's students received their services for the CCA.
Shout out to Mr. Rieck for holding after school tutorials for the Social Studies team. He is doing an amazing job! #dedication
Do you have a "shout out" you would like to share with the staff? Send it to Mr. Lopez via e-mail or text! Subject line: Shout out!
Nominate a colleague for Mighty Cub of the Week Award
Attendance Update
Our attendance rate for the first six weeks of school is at 96.78%! We will continue to have attendance incentives for our students monthly so that they will be at school daily and motivate each other to be present. Please be sure to take attendance accurately every period, every day so that our data is valid and correct. Changes to attendance need to be made by the end of the day and is especially important at 3rdperiod when the district and state tracks attendance for funding.
Contact Ms. Branch whenever a student has been absent for 3 consecutive days so that we can determine if a home visit or attendance contract is necessary.
AP Corner
Nominate a Student for Mighty Cub of the Month!
Content Feature
Social Studies
It’s All About Differentiated Instruction in Social Studies
I am excited to say that our AMS Social Studies department is off to a great start this school year. The first 6 weeks of school the social studies department focused on getting to know our students. Research has proven that building lasting relationships with our students will enhance the learning environment and maximize the learning potential of every student in our social studies classes. Classroom management will be key to differentiated instruction. Literacy is still our big rock this year, but we will incorporate differentiated instruction by using AVID and SIOP strategies in our classrooms. Our social studies classes have numerous mix ability of students, so we are committed in differentiating instruction. Differentiation is a way of teaching; it’s not a program or package of worksheets. It asks our teachers to know our students well by building relationships, so they can provide each student with experiences and tasks that will improve learning. As Carol Ann Tomlinson has said, “differentiation means giving students multiple options for taking in information. Differentiating instruction means that you observe and understand the differences and similarities among students and use this information to plan instruction (1999)”. Teachers lesson planning will be key to our success in social studies. Here is a list of some key principles that we are using in our classes that form the foundation of differentiating instruction.
· Ongoing, formative assessment: Teachers continually assess to identify students’ strengths and areas of need, so they can meet students where they are and help them move forward.
· Recognition of diverse learners: The students we teach have diverse levels of expertise and experiences with reading, writing, thinking, problem solving, and speaking. Ongoing assessments enable teachers to develop differentiated lessons that meet every students’ needs.
· Group Work: Students collaborate in pairs and small groups whose membership changes as needed. Learning in groups enable students to engage in meaningful discussions and to observe and learn from one another.
· Problem solving: The focus in classrooms that differentiate instruction is on issues and concepts rather than “the book” or the chapter. This encourages all students to explore big ideas and expand their understanding of key concepts.
· Choice: Teachers offer students choice to their reading and writing experiences and in the tasks and projects they complete. By negotiating with students, teachers an create motivating assignments that will meet students’ diverse needs and varied interests.
Here are pictures of our classes with our 1st project from 6th, 7th, and 8th grade that promoted choice that motivated students’ needs and interest. Great job Social Studies teachers on a good start of an awesome school year.