South Middle School
Staff Weekly Newsletter: September 30th - October 4th
Week at a Glance
- Annual IEP for KC (Room 4, 7:45 a.m.)
- Speech IEP for BH (Room 3, 7:50 a.m.)
- MS Admin Meeting (DO, 8:30 - 10:30 a.m.)
- 8th Grade Vision Screening (PE/H/C classes, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.)
Tuesday, October 1
- Annual IEP for DB (Room 4, 7:45)
- Bus Evacuation Drill (PE/H/C classes, 8:30 - 11:00 a.m.; 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.)
- All Admin Meeting (DO, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.)
- Board Meeting (District Office, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.)
- Annual IEP for HL (Room 4, 3:15 p.m.)
Wednesday, October 2
- Staff Meeting (Room 6, 7:37 a.m.)
- Site Council (Barret's Office, 8:30 a.m.)
- Staff Forum for Student Success Act (GPHS Library, 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.)
Thursday, October 3
- 3 year Eligibility IEP for PH (Room 4, 7:45 a.m.)
Friday, October 4
- 3 year Eligibility IEP for AL (Room 4, 11:45 a.m.)
Supervision Schedule
Supervision Schedule (8:10 - 8:25 a.m.) - 15 minutes a day as assigned.
Team 1:
6th Grade Hall: Blank
T @ 7th/8th Grade Hall: Ransom
8th Grade Hall: Petty
Large Gym: Bigelow/Baertschiger
Parking Lot AM: Lingo
Parking Lot PM & Buses PM: Pieper & Hanson
Daily Supervision Schedule:
Parking Lot/Exit AM: Aguilera, Huerta, Karbowski & Admin
Parking Lot/Exit PM: Aguilera, Kindrick, Karbowski & Admin
Cafeteria AM: Miller/McCarty & Hopkins
Bus PM (3:09 - 3:25): Hopkins, Admin & Team Teacher
Staff Shout-Out
Math - for some folks - is an inherently fun endeavor. For others, it is not. This past Friday in preparation for an upcoming quiz, even those that do not find math "fun," Ms. Thompson had her annual "Glow Games" in her 7th and 8th grade classes. A lot laughter and re-inforcement of the learning that has been happening in class! Perhaps we'll have a "Glow Games"-esque Staff Meeting in her room this Wednesday...
Weekly Article
A Teacher Keeps Up with His Students’ Lingo
(Originally titled “Confronting Inequity: Learning the Language”)
In this article in Educational Leadership, Matthew Kay tells how sociology teacher James Callahan keeps a Google spreadsheet of his students’ ever-evolving slang – for example, slaps means of good quality, low-key means not obvious, and a snack is an attractive person. One of Callahan’s students tweeted his admiration for the dictionary and the comment was retweeted over 170,000 times.
Kay loves this teacher’s “authentic personal enthusiasm about his students’ language and customs… Words new to him were not ugly, or lazy, or wrong – but intriguing. It’s not hard to imagine him feeling the same way about students’ ethnic names, or gender pronouns, or religious practices. If we seek to lead our students through inclusive, equity-focused instruction, we must first be genuinely interested – not publicity-seeking, faux interested – in who they are.”
Kay is struck by the fact that Callahan constantly revises his slang dictionary, adding new terms and deleting ones that have fallen out of favor. “Just as software requires frequent updates,” he says, “so too does our familiarity with students’ cultures and shifting identities. Ground gained last year is not necessarily ground held this year – and woe to the teacher who leans too heavily on last year’s understandings.”
“It’s especially hard,” Kay continues, “for teachers who have long-developed reputations for being culturally responsive to accept that current students might not see us that way… We must never accept a static understanding of who they are, where they come from, or where they want to go… It’s about developing substantive, honest relationships with our students, so that we can trust each other in the work that lies ahead.”
“Confronting Inequity: Learning the Language” by Matthew Kay in Educational Leadership, September 2019 (Vol. 77, #1, pp. 90-91), https://bit.ly/2munqCv; Kay is the author of Not Light, But Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom (Stenhouse, 2018).