Ram Nation News
Week of September 11, 2017
Vision
#AlltheWayUp
As I shared previously with you, it took us about 5 months to recruit the best of the best across the district, the state, and the U.S. I am very proud of the team that we were able to put together. Therefore, as we work to become a more cohesive, highly effective team, let's continue to purposefully plan for engagement from teacher to student and from student to student. Highly effective teaches make sure that students talk through rich discussions and justifications at a high cognitive thinking level. Also, a great lesson takes planning and organization; the execution of such lesson ensures the implementation of the lesson cycle and differentiation. Furthermore, highly effective teachers plan and implement the use of hands-on items, such as index cards, sticky notes, white boards, graphic organizers and other tools so that the knowledge is internalized by our students.
Let's continue to do a great job of highly effective delivery of instruction to our remarkable rams. By doing so, it will make a difference for you and will support our students in getting the best education possible. I know that we are making of this year the best for our students!!!
THANK YOU
- All the grade levels who have updated bulletin boards or have displayed student work; I have noticed many appealing and purposeful displays reflecting what is taking place in our classrooms.
- Ms. Guerra, Ms. Wells, Ms. Vargas, Ms. Thrasher, and Ms. Lewis for their commitment and passion for learning. They attended the workshop led by Paul Bambrick on leading effective PLCs; we look forward to hearing about their experience and the implementation in the various departments.
- Ms. Perez who worked with her students in the respect agreements and had them sign this document. It is a very good practice to involve the students to ensure buy in from the them.
- RLA team for their implementation of the balanced literacy. We know that this is a big piece of our CIP and directly supports all of our subjects.
- Ms. Davis for making sure that all of our students got tested for their language proficiency. By doing so, we will ensure that our students are placed in the correct classroom and will support us in being 100% compliant with the 20-day rule for identification and placement of ELLs.
- Ms. Hoskins and her team for their flexibility and support during Breakfast in the Classroom and lunch. Let's continue to do follow their instructions so that our students will benefit from having meals at no cost to them.
Student Assemblies
Home Visits
Mr. Patel
Love Learning!!!
Ms. Blanks
Mr. Proctor
Ms. Cooray
REMINDERS FOR THE THIRD WEEK OF SCHOOL
- Submit your attendance after 10-15 minutes of class. Also, make sure that you submit all of your classes even if you are showing a class with 0 students.
- Greet students with smiles and consistent firmness
- During transitions remember WALQ, Walk to the right, All hands, feet, and object to self, Quick pace, Low voices
- Engage learners throughout your lessons. It will support the increase in student achievement and reduce disruptions
- Continue to analyze students' data and look at the students' performance in your classes; tutoring will begin on the week of September 18th.
- Students will begin to use computer, laptops, and calculators more frequently during classes. As you use this technology with your classes, please make sure you discuss expectations and show our students the proper way to take care of these learning tools.
As we continue our SPOT observations, please be very consistent in the effective implementation of various practices discussed during our TEI orientation and lesson alignment conversations. With regards to Alignment (learning objective), the proficient rating states: Focuses students at the beginning and throughout the lesson, by clearly stating
- What they are learning
- Why it is important
- What mastery looks like
- How to connect it to prior knowledge and their own lives and explaining to students
DAILY EVENTS
- Weekly PLCs - Room 103. Please, bring your technology to access the Coaching Scope and Sequence
- 4:45 Grade Level Chair Meeting - Library
- 4:45 Department Chair Meeting - 103
- 6:00 and 7:30 p.m. - Volleyball games at Medrano MS.
Tuesday, September 12-
- CIC/AP Planning and preparation with 6th grade
Wednesday, September 13-
- CIC/AP Planning and preparation with 7th grade
- 4:45 - 7:00 p.m. Back-to-School Night - Dallas ISD is sponsoring a districtwide “Back-to-School Night” to welcome families to the new school year. Teachers are asked to provide families a brief overview of students’ courses and class expectations and answer their questions about bus routes, lunch schedules, and school rules.
Thursday, September 14-
- CIC/AP Planning and preparation with 8th grade
- 5:00 Lesson Plans Due
Friday, September 15-
- TEI Scorecards released
- Grades for Progress Reports need to be updated by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. We will printing progress reports on Monday morning.
Saturday, September 16
- PREP U Super Saturday - Districtwide after-school and extracurricular activities fair from 9:00-1:00 p.m. at Conrad HS. We will be sending a flyer home with our students to promote this event.
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, September 19
- After School Program Begins
Friday, September 22
- SLO and PDPs Due. When drafting the PDPs, remember that the first goal is from TEI Domain 2 and the second goal can be from any domain. Also, please write a short explanation of why you selected that goal and the impact you expect to see in your classroom by having focused in these domains.
Day of Discovery
In partnership with Garland Independent School District, Discovery is hosting a Day of Discovery on October 7, 2017! This is a fantastic opportunity for you to network with educators across Texas to share best practices and to learn about how Discovery Education is impacting 21st century learning!
Please find details below and REGISTER HERE!
Location: Rowlett High School (4700 President George Bush, Rowlett, TX 75088)
Date: October 7, 2017
Time: 9am-3pm (registration opens at 8:30am)
Rusk Middle School
Email: jcordoba@dallasisd.org
Website: www.dallasisd.org/rusk
Location: 2929 Inwood Road, Dallas, TX, United States
Phone: 972-925-2000
Twitter: @RuskAllTheWayUp