Hornet Herald

News and notes for the week of 12/6/2021

A - Week!

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Principal's Message to Hornet Families for the week of December 6th, 2021

Principal's Message to Hornet Families for the week of December 6th, 2021

Great evening fantastic families,

Welcome to the penultimate week before our winter break. We are looking forward to high school finals this week, the combination of our December Principal's Coffee & PTA meetings, Hornet basketball vs Bedicheck, and the Orchestra Winter Concert. Please pay close attention to the semester finals bell schedule for this week. Advisory will only take place on Friday. Please work with scholars to assure all assignments are complete and credits have been recovered this week if necessary. I'd love nothing more than a smooth transition into 2022 without the mad dash of semester close out. Kudos to both our Basketball and Soccer teams for victories this past week. We truly are having a great year both academically and athletically. Thank you for choosing Kealing Middle School and Austin ISD as your child’s primary educator. It is truly my honor to serve the Kealing Community.

#BEGREATmentality

#ProgressNotPerfection

Principal's Message to Hornet Families for the week of December 6th, 2021
PTA Corner!

PTA Corner!

Hornet Families,

Please join us for the December PTA meeting in the library on Tuesday 12/7/2021 @ 7:30a. This meeting will be combined with our December Principal's Coffee. In person and virtual attendance is encouraged. Click here to join virtually.

Also, A big thank you to the 10 parents who come out to deliver coffee, tacos, savory & sweet treats to all of the teachers and staff at Kealing on Tuesday morning. The PTA would also like to thank the parents who donated food and other items for the coffee cart and Travis from Barrett's coffee who donated and delivered the hot coffee & cold brew early that morning!


- Do you want to get gifts for teachers for the holidays? We have the perfect way to do that! The Young Scientists program and the PTA are hosting a holiday appreciation luncheon for all Kealing staff on Dec 10. In order to send the staff home with a holiday gift/show of appreciation, we are looking for volunteers to gift $20 or $25 gift cards and people to bring desserts of all kinds. We want every staff member to be able to take home a delicious treat and a gift card. Desserts can be homemade or store bought. If you'd like to help, sign up here:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70a0e4aadac29abfd0-holiday1

-Beth Reyburn, PTA President


Not a Kealing PTA member, yet? Click the link below to join Kealing PTA.

https://www.kealingpta.org/

Happy Holidays!

The Kealing PTA Executive Board

PTA Corner!
2021-2022 Initiatives and Goals

2021-2022 Initiatives and Goals

Instructional Initiatives

1.) Daily Formative Assessment

2.) Literacy in Every Classroom

3.) Standards Aligned Instruction

4.) Progress Monitoring


Academic Goal

Utilizing an array of assessments (MAP- Measure of Academic Progress, SCA - AISD Short Course Assessment, and STAAR - State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness), the percentage of each demographic/special group of students performing at the meets level in Math & English will increase by at least 5% - 10% from August 17th, 2021 to May 27th,2022.


Social Goal

- TBA (we are still working on this but planning to look at the types of counseling visits our students are requesting)

2021-2022 Initiatives and Goals
KMS Safety Protocols as of 12/5/2021

KMS Safety Protocols as of 12/5/2021

All Day

Mask wearing is mandatory

Before School

All staff, students, and visitors are encouraged to self screen for COVID 19 symptoms before entering into a campus or other Austin ISD Facilities each day

Arrival

- We will maintain outdoor markers to social distance

Transition

- we will encourage moving halls where students are encourage to not stop while transitioning to classes

Classrooms

- We are space seating/desks at least 3 feet apart when feasible

- Each classroom will have a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filtration unit

- Personal Protective Equipment will be available in each room

- Plexiglass dividers available

- Additional outdoor seating

-Volunteer lunch monitors

Breakfast & Lunch

- Assigned seating

- Students are allowed to eat lunch both inside the cafeteria and outside in the courtyard

- Plexiglass accordian dividers.

Dismissal

- we will have staggered dismissal where scholars will be dismissed by areas of the building to reduce traffic.

KMS Safety Protocols as of 12/5/2021
High School Credit Class Semester Exams/Semester Exams Bell Schedule

High School Credit Class Semester Exams/Semester Exams Bell Schedule

Our Kealing Hornets who are enrolled in a high school credit class (Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, World Languages, and CTE courses) will participate in semester exams the week of December 6-10. This week, the entire campus will operate on Semester Exams Bell Schedule. You can find the schedule by clicking the button below.


It is important that our Hornets participating in high school credit classes, perform well on their semester exams, as they will count towards a percentage of their semester grades. To help prepare, please have your student attend teachers' Office Hours. Reach out to you student's teachers or Program Directors if you have any questions.

High School Credit Class Semester Exams/Semester Exams Bell Schedule
Fall Final Exam Lunch Schedule

Lunches will be a bit different this week .Click here and use the tabs to see the lunch schedule for classes taking finals each day.

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Upcoming Dates

Monday - December 6th - A Day


Tuesday - December 7th - B Day

December Principal's Coffee & PTA meeting @ 7:30a - 8:30a, click here to join if you choose to attend virtually

Virtual Principal's Coffee 5:30p - 6:00p, click here to join

Magnet Application Support Night 5:30p - 6:30p


Wednesday - December 8th - A Day


Thursday - December 9th - B Day

Kealing Vs Bedichek Basketball @ 6:00p

Winter Orchestra Concert 6p - 8p, The cafeteria will also be used as concert space starting at 5:30.

Think tank will be relocated to the library


Friday - December 10th - A Day


Saturday - December 11th

KMS Soccer vs Burnet M.S at Burnet Middle School @9a

Admission Testing, 9a - 10a & 11a - 12p

December Service Day Event, 10:30a - 11:30a (Painting Base Coat) & 12p - 1:30p (Painting Creative Design)

Please click here to submit Hornet Herald entries

Entries must be submitted by Thursdays weekly to be included in the upcoming week's communication.

This Past week on Campus!

Announcements!

Last chance for Spirit Wear this year

On campus Spirit Wear Sales days were this week. There is one final chance to order Spirit Wear for your student or donate a hoodie to a student in need. We are now offering Parent Pickup on December 8 noon-1pm or Delivery to Door for $5 during the week of December 6th. Go to the Order Form to place your order now.
Boys Basketball Info Meeting

Boys Basketball Info Meeting

Boys Basketball Info Meeting:
When: Thursday Dec 9th 3:15 pm
Where: Large Gym
Who: All 7th and 8th Grade Boys interested in trying out for the Kealing Basketball Teams
Why: To get all the information needed to participate in tryouts in January
*If you cannot attend this meeting, contact Coach Gardner by email at justin.gardner@austinisd.org to get the information for tryouts
Boys Basketball Info Meeting
Kealing Girls' Soccer Try outs!

Kealing Girls' Soccer Try outs!

Are you a 7th or 8th grader interested in trying out for the Kealing Girls' Soccer Team? If yes, please fill out THIS form and join us for an information meeting on Tuesday, December 14th in Room 225 at 3:10pm. The meeting will last approximately 30 minutes. If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Fernandez at kiersten.fernandez@austinisd.org or Mrs. Jones at shannon.jones@austinisd.org.
Kealing Girls' Soccer Try outs!

PTA Membership

Kealing PTA has 448 members(including 3 community members and 14 student members); We need 195 members(643members )in November, to receive a three-year all-time high award from Texas PTA!!


If you haven't joined the KealingPTA, now is the time. Kealing PTA is responsible for many positive changes happening on our campus, and by joining the Kealing PTA, YOU are part of the positive changes.

Your membership matters, Click the link below to join:

https://form.jotform.com/KealingPTA/join-donate


Please contact Kealing membership VP, Shannan Riemer, vpmembership@kealingpta.org, with any membership questions, comments, or concerns.

LASA Application Assistance - Principal Crescenzi

LASA is sponsoring four opportunities over the next two weekends for families to ask questions about the school and the admittance process and for students to have someone review or give helpful advice for any part of the either the AISD Common Application or the LASA supplemental materials. These help sessions are virtual and will be facilitated by trained volunteers. All the volunteers completed the APIE approval process. Please let your students know that this opportunity is available to them.


They can sign up at https://form.jotform.com/213146389134153


Signing up is not required but will help us know how many volunteers to have log-in so that all the students can get personalized responses and feedback. This will also facilitate families getting the zoom link. Info about these sessions and zoom link can also be found on the home page of our website lasahighschool.org.


Here are the dates and times:


December 4th 9:00 - 11:00am

December 4th 1:00 - 3:00pm

December 11th 9:00 - 11:00am

December 11th 1:00 - 3:00pm

Community Donations

Thank you for all your generous contributions to our campus! We appreciate you and all the many ways you show up for our Kealing Community. We have started a Community Donates spreadsheet in order to repurpose household items to our campus. There are two ways to contribute--1. Drop off the requested item to the front office labeled with the requesting teacher's name. 2. If you have item(s) to offer that might have a second life on our campus, please add a description to the spreadsheet. Teachers can then go in and claim the item. HERE is a link to the spreadsheet. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IOK7cMk99UZtIQcClIWNQ8Wgc3_nBQ0tBrj7amKXLro/edit?usp=sharing

A.I. Enrichment Program Opportunity

Inspirit AI is a 25-hour enrichment program that introduces young students to fundamental artificial intelligence concepts in order to work through socially impactful projects in areas including art, healthcare, education, and more. Developed and taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford and MIT, students receive a personalized, interdisciplinary learning experience with a student-instructor ratio of 5:1, and custom curriculum appropriate for complete beginners to more advanced students. Applications for our Winter 2021 programs are now open– due December 4th. Please contact Program Manager, Aidan Goltra at arg2198@columbia.edu or call our team at +1 (240) 226-1366 with any questions. Thank you!
Nature Rocks Austin - Community Updates

Nature Rocks Austin - Community Updates

Greetings Nature Lovers!

This week we have a selection of job openings, volunteer opportunities, and upcoming summits/conferences to share. Read to the end for some fun family tips on having a more eco-friendly holiday season!


COMMUNITY EVENTS

Connect | Adapt | Share - Programs Conference: educational and enrichment session proposals are now open for the 2021 Programs Conference. Running from Dec 13-15, the Programs Conference is an opportunity to learn best practices within and outside the City of Austin's Department of Centralized Programs.

INSPIRATION

How to Have a Green Holiday Season: from our friends at the Office of Sustainability, learn how you and yours can have a more ecologically friendly holiday experience.

Have a beautiful weekend, everyone!


Julia Hill (she/her)

Program Coordinator – Cities Connecting Children to Nature

City of Austin | Parks & Recreation Department | Park Planning Division

+1 512-974-9466 | julia.hill@austintexas.gov

http://www.austintexas.gov/CCCN

Nature Rocks Austin - Community Updates

Amazon Wish List

Thank you, community, for your ongoing support via the Amazon Wishlist. Students are using the supplies for organization, collaboration, and creativity! Teachers continue to update the list as needs arise. "Thank you, community, for your ongoing support via the Amazon Wishlist. Students are using the supplies for organization, collaboration, and creativity! Teachers continue to update the list as needs arise. https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/B7BQHNMLAOP/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_2?_encoding=UTF8&type=wishlist

"

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