Ram Nation News
Week of September 30, 2019
Vision
#EXCELLENCE, Back At It Again
As we work on analyzing the results of our common assessments, see our students' work, and students work on profiling, it is crucial for us to reflect on their work and our teaching practices. We all have worked hard the last few weeks; however, we know that our students have had different experiences in the past few years and have many gaps. Therefore, it is critical for our students to know, and for us to keep in mind, we must continue to stay focused, set goals, and work hard to make progress.
- We know that commitment and hard work are crucial for everyone to succeed in any area of life. We must have focused and consistent work. We must be willing to say no to distractions for a long time, we must be patient and believe in the process; embrace growth mindset and changing our approach and strategies, and trying new things while being rooted in our core values, initial vision and always keeping them in mind.
- Success does not happen by chance!!! It takes strategic actions in the right direction to get there. It does not happen overnight either. We know that there are many failures during the journey and how we react to those failures will determine our course and final result.
- At the end of the day, it is all about how hard we have worked on the right thing, the one which will get us closer to our goal. But to be willing to invest our precious time, energy and focus, we all need to truly understand exactly why hard work matters.
Our mission is to empower our students to become college and career ready! We want to ensure that our students have a life of opportunities. I am proud of your hard work and the results accomplished so far! Let's stay the course and continue to make a difference in the lives of our kids.
Attendance
- 6th Grade - 97.46%
- 7th Grade - 97.30%
- 8th Grade - 96.96%
Way to go 6th grade team!!!! Nice way to come back and take the lead.
Let's continue to encourage our students to be present and on time on a daily basis. It really makes a huge difference when our students are present learning
Thank You
- Mr. Brown, Ms. Maloy, Mr. Morshed, Ms. Adams, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Harris, and Ms. Garcia for their flexibility and support during common assessment as they provided our students with small group and oral administration during testing.
- Nurse Surber for her dedication and support in ensuring we are meeting our immunization goal. We are the only school at 100%. We have improved from 50% compliance at this time when we started ACE and to 94.5% last year. Congratulations!!!
- Ms. Perez, Ms. Wells, and Ms. Ford for their leadership as they presented to teachers in the cross network collaboration at SWAG. We are proud of their work and for representing our school very well.
Instructional Practices
Collaboration
Engagement
Review Time
Let's Review
Manipulatives
High Expectations
Ms. Rendon
Mr. Halsell
Ms. Minter
Climate and Culture
Inspiring Relationships
Bowling
Volleyball Challenge
Student Council
REMINDERS FOR THE UPCOMING WEEK
- During transitions, let's make sure to have 100% participation and hold each other accountable to be present in the hallway supporting students. Our goal is to narrate the positive and have at least 10 positive interactions each transition. APs, CICs, and counselors will be working with each one of you to provide individual support. (TEI 3.3 and 3R Positive Attitude/Enthusiasm).
- Conduct conferences with each student so that they know what their strengths are and what mistakes they made as they took the common assessment. Also, set goals so they know what they need to do to achieve and make significant progress - use the profile sheet shared with you (email sent on September 20, 2019) and see the video below for the impact of incorporating this practice in our classrooms. (TEI 1.2).
- As we work on documenting the progress our students are making, remember our policy regarding failure rates and the various opportunities needed to ensure our students are successful. EIA (Regulation) (TEI 2.2, 4.2, 4.5)
- 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 (TEI 2.1)
- 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
- Submit lesson plans by Thursday at 8:00 a.m. (TEI 4.2)
DAILY EVENTS
- B Day
- Staff members who have completed their compliance videos (takes approximately a total of 3.5 hours), send e-mail with certificates to Ms. Miranda and Copy Mr. Cordoba on e-mail, can wear jeans.
- We will be walking classrooms checking for alignment, exemplars, and aggressively monitoring.
- Meet with your grade level teams to align your Lesson Plans, continue the analysis of the common assessment, and analyze data profiles for your students.
- 4:45 - 6:00 p.m. - Accountability Training - Mr. Glowney and Mr. Kastl - Library
- Football Game Vs. Cary @ LOOS 7:30 p.m.
- A Day.
- We will be walking classrooms checking for alignment, exemplars, and aggressively monitoring.
- Meet with your grade level teams to align your Lesson Plans, continue the analysis of the common assessment, and analyze data profiles for your students.
- 4:30 p.m. After School Program Continues. Let's make the best out of this time being very purposeful in the material covered with students and the students who must attend your sessions. We need to work on the recruitment of students for our after school program since it impacts student growth, our school performance, progress, and, ultimately, part of our stipends are tied to the attendance of our students to our tutoring/enrichment sessions. As a reminder, students do not have the option to opt out; if you need assistance with parents, please let anyone from the leadership team know.
- Remember to clock out at or after 6:00 p.m. during the 2 days that you will stay after school.
- B Day
- National Custodial Workers Recognition Day
- We will be walking classrooms checking for alignment, exemplars, and aggressively monitoring.
- Meet with your grade level teams to align your Lesson Plans, continue the analysis of the common assessment, and analyze data profiles for your students.
- 4:30 p.m. After School Program Continues. Remember to clock out at or after 6:00 p.m. during the 2 days that you will stay after school.
Thursday, October 3-
- A Day
- 8:00 a.m. - Lesson Plans Due
- We will be walking classrooms checking for alignment, exemplars, and aggressively monitoring.
- Department Collaboration PLC - AP and CIC/ILT.
- 4:30 p.m. After School Program Continues. Remember to clock out at or after 6:00 p.m. during the 2 days that you will stay after school.
- 4:50 p.m. - 5:50 p.m. Grade Level Chair Meeting - Room 115
- 6:00/7:00 Volleyball Game at Cobb Vs. Spence MS.
Friday, October 4-
- B Day
- Breast Cancer Awareness Month Kick Off - Wear Jeans with a pink shirt or sweater.
Upcoming Events
October 8 -
- 5:00 - 8:00 Parent Conference Night (Dinner - Sandwich Box- will be provided compliments of SMART)
October 10 -
- Principal for a Day - Ernestine Key of Communities Foundation of Texas
October 11-
- Professional Development Day - No school for students
October 17 -
- North Dallas High School - Middle School Night
- Deadline Compliance Video Deadline and Annual Policies Acknowledgement
October 18-
- Fair Day - No school
October 21-
- 8th Grade PSAT Testing
Character Counts Week -Week of October 21, 2019 - email and flyer from our counselors is forthcoming for details about activities.
October 28 - November 1-
- 2nd Common Assessment Testing Window
Red Ribbon Week -Week of October 28, 2019 - email and flyer from our counselors is forthcoming for details about activities.
November 7-
- 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Fall Preview Night - Hispanic Heritage celebration. Club, After School Programs, and Sports highlights
November 13 -
- 8th Grade Field Trip to North Dallas HS
Happy Birthday -
We want to wish you the best and many blessings for the years to come.
- Ms. Herrera - 10/1
- Ms. Alanis - 10/2
- Ms. Vasquez - 10/8
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