Moorhead Faculty Weekly News
March 2, 2020
Mission Statement: Moorhead Junior High believes in its students, supports their achievements, and builds a positive learning community. Moorhead Junior High is a student centered school where learning comes first.
Core Beliefs
• We will build relationships.
• We will meet our students needs.
• We model Dignity.
• We believe everyone is Valuable.
JOIN THE MOORHEAD BOWL-A-THON TEAM!
The date is March 21 from 12pm to 2pm at the Bowlero in The Woodlands. We will be competing against teams from the other 63 CISD schools!
Last year we won the tournament. The year before we took second! Yes, you can be part of a winning team!
Mr. Garcia is buying the drinks and food!
Moorhead Chili Cook-off
Chili Cook-off is BACK!
Get your team signed up TODAY!
When: Friday, March 6 (set up when students leave)
Where: MJH Cafeteria
Sign up HERE!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jE002r1NpZhM1RphAJBzgZVoqZCjKBIf85uNeFN5UvM/edit?usp=sharing
More information to come!
20 Tips for a Positive New Year (Added TIPS #16 - #20)
1. ENJOY THE RIDE - You only get one ride through life so make the most of it! Enjoy what you do! Enjoy the quirky 12 and 13 year old students you are surrounded by! Enjoy the people you are around! You have a mission to make a difference in children's lives.
2. STAY POSITIVE - You can listen to the cynics and doubters and believe that success is impossible or you can trust that with faith and an optimistic attitude all things are possible.
3. REMEMBER YOUR WHY - Live your purpose. Remember why you do what do what you do. We don't get burned out because of what we do. We get burned out because we forget why we do it.
4. DON'T SEEK HAPPINESS - Instead live with love, passion, and purpose. Happiness will find you.
5. GET BACK UP - The next time you "fail" remember that it's not meant to define you. It's meant to refine you.
6. SMILE AND LAUGH MORE - They are natural anti-depressants.
7. FOCUS ON "GET TO" VERSUS "HAVE TO" - Each day focus on what you get to do, not what you have to do. Life is a gift not an obligation.
8. READ MORE - Read more books than you did in 2019!
9. NO COMPLAINING RULE - Implement the No Complaining Rule. If you're complaining you're not leading.
10. HAVE TRUST- Trust that everything happens for a reason and expect good things to come out of challenging experiences.
More goals to come!
11. Take a daily "Thank you Walk"- You can't be stressed and thankful at the same time. Feel blessed and you won't be stressed.
12. Eat Healthier Foods - that grow on trees and plants and less foods manufactured in plants.
13. Talk to yourself - instead of listening to yourself. Instead of listening to your complaints, fears, and doubts, talk to yourself with words of truth and encouragement.
14. No Energy Vampires Allowed - Post a sign that says "No Energy Vampires Allowed." Gandhi said, "I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet"
15. Be a Positive Team Member - Being positive doesn't just make you better, it makes everyone around you better.
16. Don't Chase Success - Decide to make a difference and success will find you.
17. Don't Waste Your Energy - Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or thing you cannot control.
18. Love, Serve, and Care - You don't have to be great to serve buy you have to serve to be great. Look for opportunities to Love, Serve, and Care.
19. Love the Process - Remember there's no such thing as an overnight success. Love the process and you'll love what the process produces.
20. Have Trust - Trust that everything happens for a reason and expect good thing to come out of challenging experiences.
Congrats Mrs. Brown
Kagan Online Discussion Board
SDC Food truck project
Our students have been working hard and will be displaying their projects with samples on Friday March 6th. They would like to invite staff to come by and see them, check off a rubrics, vote on their favorite and try a sample.
Thank you
Crystal Haley
What's up this week?
Monday
Admin / counselor meeting 7:30am
ILT at 4:15 in PLC room
Tuesday
Wednesday
PTO President meeting
Thursday
Pay Day (March 15 pay date)
Friday
Early Release for students (1pm)
Full day for staff
End of 3rd 9 weeks
CHILI Cook off
A Word From Mr. Garcia
Five school days to Spring Break!
21 school days to 7th grade Writing STAAR!
21 school days to 8th ELA STAAR!
22 school days to 8th Math STAAR!
Robert
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Brenda Craig 3/3
Nina Morrison 3/3
Molly Manon 3/7
Sonja Kelly 3/8
Kala Ganapathy 3/9
REMINDERS
ROAR team meets the first Wednesday of the month in the PLC room after school from 4:30-5:15.
Come eat lunch in the PLC room on Mondays and get to know some folks!
Food Truck Schedule
March ???
Upcoming Teacher Appreciation Meals
April 7 - Pie in the Sky (King Ranch Chicken)
April 8 - Brisket sandwiches
May 7 - Brisket sandwiches
May 8 - Divine Dogs
May 12 - Pizza Hut
May 13 - Sub sandwiches
March Super Staff!
Want to Advertise your club or organization?
BIG QUESTION 2019-2020
How are we tracking individual student data in order to ensure that we move students from failing to approaches, approaches to meets, or meets to masters?
MTV Highlight of the Week
Teachers and Staff,
If you would like to highlight one of your outstanding students or a colleague please write up a brief summary and email it to Mr. Kelly. We would like to highlight a student and/or teacher once a week on MTV.
You can highlight in school, extracurricular, or non school related achievements. Include positive character traits about the student or a good deed done. Get creative! Let's celebrate our best!
Notes for Next Year
1. Announcements (MTV) will be recorded the day before and will play at 8:40am daily.
2. Lunch will be structured for students
Looking Long Term
February 22 - Saturday School!
February 24 - Lockdown Drill
February 25 - TELPAS Test (Listening and Speaking)
February 27 - Choir Concert 6pm
March 6 - Student vs. Staff Basketball game / Early release (hosted by The Dazzlers)
March 6 - MOORHEAD CHILI COOK OFF
March 6 - End of 3rd 9 Weeks
March 17 - PTO SONIC DRINKS for the staff!
March 18 - Faculty Meeting - 7:30am or 4:15pm
March 21 - Saturday School
March 25 - District UIL Meet
March 28 - Saturday School
April 1 - APs off campus
April 4 - CISD Job Fair
April 7 - STAAR 7 Writing / STAAR 8 Math
April 8 - STAAR 8 Reading
April 9 - Student vs. Staff Soccer game (hosted by PTO)
April 10 - Good Friday Holiday (No School)
April 20 - No referral program starts for EOY Dance!
May 4 - No referrals start for 8th grade Field Day
May 5 - Algebra 1 EOC
May 7- STAAR 8 Science / 7 Science Benchmark
May 8 - STAAR 8 History/ 7 History Benchmark
May 12 - STAAR 7 Math / STAAR 8 Math (retest)
May 13 - STAAR 7 Reading / STAAR 8 Reading (retest)
May 15 - Choir End of Year Field Trip
May 15 - Orchestra Field Trip
May 15 - End of Year Dance 6pm - 9pm (hosted by school)
May 19 - 7th grade popcorn reward day in the library
May 20 - 8th grade popcorn reward day in the library
May 20 - Baby shower in honor of the Wheeler family
May 21 - 7th Grade Awards Ceremony 9:15am - 10:00am
May 21 - Incoming 6th Grade Parent Night
May 22 - 8th Grade Awards ceremony 9:15am - 10:15am and 8th Grade Field Day 11 -3pm
May 25 - No School - Memorial Day
May 26 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd period Finals
May 26 - Yearbook signing party
May 27 - 5th, 6th, 7th period Finals
May 27 - THE CROSSING - 7pm @ CCHS
May 28 - 4th Period Final / Early release
May 29 - Work Day
New Computers!
Please remind your staff of this:
The most important thing is to make sure that the teachers/administrators verify they have no files saved on the computer(Desktop, C:, etc), once we take the old computer anything stored on it can not be restored, saved, recovered etc. It will be gone for good.
All teachers are getting new computers. Office staff and admin will get reimaged teacher computers if you are still running Windows 7.
Please be aware of the following that will need to happen in order to make this a smooth transition:
All teachers and administrators will need to verify all the files they want preserved are located on their U: drive.
Anything that is saved on their existing PC (desktop, C:, etc) will be gone and not able to be recovered.
Monitors are not being replaced.
Spring Sports Schedules
The 4 PLC Questions
What do we want our students to learn?
How will we know if our students are learning?
How will we respond when students do not learn?
How will we enrich and extend the learning for students who are proficient?
Team Lead / Instructional Leadership Team Meeting Notes
NOTES 8/19
-
Distinctions, comparison schools, and quadrants were discussed.
Dr. Tamika Taylor praised MJH teachers for the excellent job they are doing. She also gave her recommendations on the PLC process. Our homework is to:
- Set student goals and track them all year - "I can" statements are a great way to use kid friendly language - my challenge is for this to be a campus wide expectation!
- Teacher led PD as on ongoing cycle - based on instructional needs, admin walkthroughs, and data. This is going to be such an amazing asset to the 5 day PLC structure!
Discussed quadrants. Our lowest performers are ELL and SPED.
When planning think about what we want students to learn and how to reteach if needed.
Discussed what instruction should look like when moving students from meets to masters. Approaches to meets, etc.
Notes 8/26
- Discussed the importance of Bell to Bell instruction.
- Discussed Open House - Sept. 23rd (8th Grade) Sept. 24th (7th Grade)
- Discussed Federal Accountability (Reading/Math) Achieving "meets" levels
- Discussed "I can" trackers by team. Discussed Student tracking vs. Teacher tracking
- Discussed - Teacher Led PD - Look at data before hand - Have teacher who was most successful demonstrate the lesson prior to teaching the lesson.
Notes 9/6
Mrs. Fuller and Dr. Taylor talked STAAR structure. We will focus on student growth. We looked at data from May 2019 and we looked at individual student data. We now know where our students are now and we can start interventions early instead of waiting. We know that we need to focus on and target specific students (sub groups) to move up to the meets level. We looked at examples of "I Can" charts and student tracking. Math teams shared what their student trackers. The district math coaches were very impressed by what they developed.
No Meeting 9/9
Notes 9/16
- PSAT 8 and ELA 7 Benchmark are on Oct. 17 in the morning.
- Discussed the bond. Prop A (new schools) Prop B (Turf).
- Employees can provide factual information by phone, email, newsletter, or Professional social media account.
- As a private citizen, on your own off duty time, you can give your opinion or advocate for or against the bond on Personal social media, Personal email, your yard, etc.
- We will have sack lunches that day and a guest speaker in the afternoon. (Pep Rally Schedule)
- Professional Dress for Open House - Pick a jeans day later in the week.
- ROAR team needs a science and history representative
- Oct. 26 (Sat.) Please talk to your team lead if you would like to volunteer to hand out factual information on the bond to the CCHS community.
- Discussed courses eligible for UIL waiver. (All Pre AP courses and Alg. 1)
- Pantherpalooza (Formerly known as Community Night) is coming up on Nov. 9th. - Teams will each sponsor different games. Mohr will create a sign up for team leads.
- Nov. 20 - 50 of our students have been selected to take the NAEP test, a 90 minute reading and math exam.
Notes 9/23
Team leads discussed:
Discussion Questions for Team Meeting during staff development week.
- Curriculum alignment – What is the differentiation between level and Pre AP?
9/30 No Meeting
Notes 10/7
We discussed
- Grading policy for your PLC/Team.
- Re-test policy
- Curriculum alignment – Differentiation between level and Pre AP
- Kagan Day 1 vs. Day 4 in January
- Morning Late Bus Pass
- Upcoming events
10/14
No Meeting
Notes 10/21
Debbie McNeely discussed ways to differentiate between Pre AP and level in ELA.
Notes 10/28
Richard Woodruff and Amy Rogers discussed ways to differentiate between Pre AP and level in History.
Agenda 11/4
No Meeting
Notes 11/11
Discussed Schedule Change process
Discussed and planned Friendsgiving and tailgate party
Discussed NAEP test
Received input on Finals ScheduleDiscussed Team Christmas Parties
Homework:
TLs emailed BM data and assessment dates
Bray and Lucario will looking into No Place for Hate
Jan. 8 - Student presentation with APs and Principal
Notes 12/3
Moorhead has Assessment Calendar on Outlook
Finals Schedule discussed and finalized
Schedule Change Procedure discussed and finalized
Holiday Reminders (remain neutral)
12/10 Project Lit - reminder
Discussed retirement party on 12/11
Discussed dance on 12/12 (Pep Rally Schedule)
Discussed TELPAS
1. We must move kids. We had 14% growth. Target is 36%
2. Students are expected to Script response on speaking
3. How are we accommodating? How are we incorporating listening and speaking into lessons? A way to practice - Flipgrid
4. Change testing set up.
a) Separate boys and girls
b) no more than 15 kids per room
c) test over 2 days Day 1 Listening and Speaking Day 2 Reading
d) Turn off Bells
Notes 1/21
1. Ben Franklin not available. Checking to see if "Fredrick Douglas" is able to present.
2. No staff will work on Feb. 17. Teachers will do TELPAS rating or team planning on own time. Professional staff will also do a Kagan book study. Teachers should be prepared to share with their appraiser what structures they plan to use and how they will implement Kagan structures this semester.
3. Fire drill this week.
4. ISS Binders
5. Course selection Night is Feb. 11. 8th grade 6pm and 7th grade at 7:15pm. Team leads should be present.
6. Power Saturdays anyone can work.
7. Questions from Dr. Taylor.
Notes 1/27
1. Reviewed Data for each tested area.
2. discussed intervention plans for each tested area.
Notes 2/3
1. Discussed Be a Champion - Free food for sports teams and tutoring
2. Looked a number of referrals per staff member
3. Discussed Baby Shower gift per team
4. Discussed building campus Cohesiveness
a. Monday Munchies in the PLC room / Tuesday Tummies
b. We host:
Back to School Bash
Two Tailgate Parties
Dept. Christmas Parties
End of Year Swim Party
c. Will take 1/2 a day of staff dev. for team building
5. Discussed What Staff Dev. we want to do in Aug.
6. Teacher Appreciation Meal on 2/13
7. PTO Sweets and Treats for staff in the breakroom on 2/14.
8. Schedule Information Night for 7 and 8 (will have pizza for 16)
Notes 2/10
No meeting due to TLs having to stay Tuesday night.
Notes 2/17
No meeting - Holiday
Agenda 2/24 (TUESDAY at 8:00am)
1. Dr. Taylor will be discussing campus data with Team Leads
Agenda 3/2
1. Discussed What Staff Dev. we want to do in Aug.
2. Campus Walk Through Form
3. Math and ELA teachers can pull from ISS / Students in ISS for tardies will report to Math and ELA.
4. Language and Content Objectives
5. Dance Schedule
Moorhead Schedule Change Procedures
Teacher Initiated:
Step 1: Talk to all teachers that would be affected. Everyone must approve.
Step 2: Call and inform the parents
Step 3: Get approval from asst. principal or principal.
Step 4: Email changes to counselor
Parent Initiated:
Step 1: Parent/Teacher conference or phone call
Step 2: If both feel a change is needed, teacher will check with other teachers that will be affected. All teachers must approve.
Step 3: Get approval from asst. principal or principal
Step 4: Email changes to counselor
Student Initiated:
Step 1: Get schedule change form from grade level office.
Step 2: Fill out and get signatures needed (teachers, parent, APs)
Step 3: Turn in form to counselor
Moorhead Jr. High Decision Making
Decisions Made With Teacher Discretion
1. Classroom set up
2. Classroom rules and Procedures
3. Lesson Planning and Activities
4. Dates and Times to Meet with Teams
5. Classroom Management
6. Techniques including Rewards and Consequences
Decisions made with Teacher and Administration Collaboration
1. Campus and District Calendar
2. Curriculum Purchases
3. Classroom Maintenance
4. Scheduling
5. Student Placements
6. Personnel (Hiring Panels)
7. Materials and Major Purchases
8. Discipline
9. PLC Agenda Items
Decisions made with Administrator Discretion
1. Budget
2. Effect Campus as a whole
3. School Policies
4. Personnel Management