KCS AVID NEWSLETTER
November/December Edition
KCS AVID November Student of the Month
Congratulations to the FIRST EVER KCS AVID Student of the Month from Karns Middle School, Calleigh Cheesman! Calleigh is an 8th grade AVID student who has a 3.5 GPA overall with a course load of 3 honors classes. She is also a leader outside the classroom through her work with Project U, student council, band, and National Junior Honors Society. Her teacher, Ms. Gilbert, wanted to recognize her for leadership skills in all she does. Congratulations Calleigh for being the legacy leader at KMS AVID.
KCS AVID December Student of the Month
Our December KCS AVID Student of the Month is Adrianna Barnard from Northwest Middle School. Adrianna is new to AVID this year, but is exceeding the expectations of an AVID student at NMS! She works hard and stays focused. She is an organized as a student athlete. It is evident she takes her future opportunities very seriously. One of Adrianna's most impressive characteristics is the thoughtful questions she asks of guest speaker and on college visits. Keep up the amazing work, Adrianna!
KCS AVID Professional Development Day 1
On November 13, KCS AVID hosted its first of two days of AVID PD for the school year 2019-2020. These are opportunities for AVID schools to train staff in WICOR strategies to support their AVID schoolwide implementation. These days help schools maintain their goal of 60% "AVID trained staff" per AVID certification standards. The focus of the first session was an introduction to WICOR, some history of AVID and the certification process, as well as an introduction to focused note-taking, one pagers, and many more AVID strategies. Highlights for the day included all participants getting to see WICOR in action by visiting classes at Northwest Middle as well as speaking with NMS AVID students about some of their favorite WICOR strategies. The day ended with a focus on building relational capacity through learning about the use of philosophical chairs, along side an exciting round of the famous Rock, Paper, Scissors Challenge. What strategies have been implemented in your building as a direct result of the learning on Day 1? When you have time, check with your teachers who attended to see what transfer has made it into the classroom.
Day 2 will be February 27 at SSPDC. Based on the feedback from participants and AVID coordinators, the focus will be to bring more content specific strategies and collaboration.
If you have any questions or more feedback please contact Michelle Staal.
Collaborating on a one-pager about AVID thought leaders.
AVID student explaining her Science interactive notebook.
Rock, Paper, Scissors Championship! AVID student wins!
AVID school highlights- Career Magnet Academy@PSCC
As part of their site team plan, CMA wanted to work on increasing college awareness in their school. The first step was the creation of their college mural. This was created by Brian Melton, ELA teacher, as a way to build college awareness for students as they walk in the building everyday. Another way the team is hoping to bring in more college focus is by having a weekly drawing for some college gear. Donated by Pellissippi and AVID elective teacher Jamie Scott, the gear is up for grabs to any student who wears their college t-shirt to school on Friday. Their names are entered in to be the lucky winner of college prizes. These are both great ideas to spread college awareness and build a college going culture at CMA. Keep up the great planning and hard work in support of your AVID schoolwide implementation!
Planning for Next Semester
January 27: Site Coordinator's Meeting and Tutor Reflect and Reset meeting
- Coordinators will meet from 4:15-5pm at NMS. Tutors and coordinators will meet from 5-6pm to reflect on last semesters tutorials, reset some expectations, and choose schedules for the semester. Any new tutors that are hired need to attend as well.
January 29: AVID Elective Teacher PLC
- Held at SSPDC from 8:00-11:15am
- All elective teachers are invited to attend to collaborate with other schools on implementation of the AVID elective
February 27: KCS AVID PD Day 2
- Held at SSPDC from 8:00-3:30pm
- Focus on content collaboration of AVID strategies
- This training will be an extension for those that attended November 13. It will allow those teachers to earn the 12 hours of district-level training needed for AVID certification requirements.
Happy Holidays!
Thank you for a great first semester in our KCS AVID schools. I truly am honored to be part of such an amazing group of schools. Please let me know what I can do to support your schools as we build an even better KCS AVID program.
Happy Holidays to you all!
Michelle
Michelle Staal
KCS AVID Facilitator
Email: michelle.staal@knoxschools.org
Twitter: @KcSavid
Casey Robison
Teaching and Learning Specialist
Email: casey.robison@knoxschools.org
Twitter: @KcSavid