April 23, 2018
A Communication Tool for the Seven Hills Staff
NISD Professional Learning Expectations and Opportunities:
NISD offers teachers comprehensive and highly regarded professional learning opportunities. I have tried to capture the key components here, but if you would like to peruse a little on your own, the following links might be of interest:
- NISD Professional Learning Website: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pHjJQTJSTVIW9mAVNJu0fpm7ApbfroRshrP4-heeBg0/edit
- NISD Professional Learning Framework: https://www.nisdtx.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=232201&pageId=7912537
Staff Development Flex Days:
Each professional must accumulate a minimum of three flex days (18 learning hours) between July 1, 2018 and March 10, 2019 to be used for the November 21, 2018, December 21, 2018, and April 19, 2019 staff development days. Classes offered in June may be used with principal approval.
All professional development applicable to flex days must be taken during off-contract time.
Prior approval from the principal is required for all sessions and must be documented on the Flex Days for Staff Development form.
Any changes to the form must be approved by the campus principal.
Core content teachers are required to attend a 3 hour content institute as part of their 18 hours.
ALL Instructional Staff (Everyone except Paraprofessionals) will complete 6 hours of FLEX on August 10 during our Leader in Me Empowering Instruction learning.
9 of your required 18 hours will come from Leader in Me required PD in August and the Required Content Institutes offered this summer.
FLEX Approval Form: http://www.nisdtx.org/departments/professional_learning/flex_days
Required Annual Training Updates:
NISD has developed a series of annual updates that meet district, state, or federal guidelines for employees. Each campus shall provide expectations regarding timelines for completion and verify staff compliance. A complete list will be available in August 2018. You may begin completing these courses through Eduphoria on July 1st.
General Summer Dates:
August 1-3, 2018 ENGAGE Professional Learning Conference
August 13-15, 2018 New Teacher Professional Learning
August 16-24, 2018 All Staff Professional Learning
The chart pictured below outlines the All Staff Professional Learning Schedule. This schedule is subject to change based on campus needs or scheduling. Report to your home campus on August 16, 2018.
CONTENT INSTITUTES
Content Institutes are required for all Pre-K-5 teachers, Dual Language Teachers, Secondary ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies teachers, World Languages teachers and Special Education teachers. If you have questions, please verify with Kim Blackburn which Institute you should attend. DON'T WAIT TO SIGN UP! COURSES FILL UP FAST!! You can find the dates that these required courses are offered here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pHjJQTJSTVIW9mAVNJu0fpm7ApbfroRshrP4-heeBg0/edit#
ENGAGE
- Need a babysitter? Alphabest will be open for school-age children. If you are attending ENGAGE, Alphabest is FREE to you!!
- You will not want to miss the great sessions at ENGAGE this summer. We have fantastic featured presenters as well as over 150 other amazing sessions to choose from. The following sessions will be offered at ENGAGE as well as others.
- A final ENGAGE Schedule will be posted in June.
- Opportunities listed under all contents are geared to support teachers that teach all subjects. Courses are listed under one Domain, but most crossover and support many of the T-TESS Domains.
DO NOT WAIT TO REGISTER FOR COURSES YOU ARE INTERESTED IN!
COURSES FILL UP FAST!
Seven Hills is Managing the Whirlwind and Focusing on the Wildly Important!
SST & Curriculum Updates from Hayley:
Curriculum: Link to Summary Write up with VALUABLE math games, problem solving problems and extensions- March 2018 issue- https://docs.google.com/document/d/15ZxOQr9W4H3d3m_KO2qKtpplKbRswWA9AIyf0qcqI0U/edit?usp=sharing
Let me know if you would like to check this March issue out! Stay tuned for April write up!
SST: I Wanted you to be aware of a few little changes in the last round of SST meetings. I have sent calendar invites to all teachers ( weeks ago) and checked the purple calendar. I wanted to make sure you had the dates as well.
SST C- April 27
SST D- April 30
SST E- May 3
Habit Focus for the Week: Habit 6
Habit 6 and Respect Agreements:
Please Share With Your Parents:
NISD Curriculum Audit:
Thank you so much for your engagement in the audit process.
Student Artifacts:
- A completed student work sample/project that has been assigned between April 6-April 25, 2018, and is intended to demonstrate to the teacher mastery of a TEKS skill/s. This is not to be an assessment, but a sample of student work.
- One completed student work sample/project should be collected from each core subject area teacher (including teachers of Special Education, ELL, Gifted, etc.)
- K-2 teachers, please work as a team to determine which content area you will represent. There should be 1 ELA, 1 Math, 1 Science, and 1 Social Studies sample from each grade level.
- 3-5 teachers will each submit one work sample each:
- ELAR/SS will submit 1 ELAR and 1 SS sample – please determine which teacher will be responsible for which core content area
- Math/Sci will submit 1 Math and 1 Science sample - please determine which teacher will be responsible for which core content area
- You may include a scanned color copy or color photos of student work should technology be used to achieve the assignment.
- Please upload all artifacts into the campus Google Presentation linked here by Wednesday, April 25: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1glyaxJJCYVi0fHomq45c59bfQbM7ZcKNOiO7OyS5CeM/edit?usp=sharing
Please do not worry or stress over the selection of the artifact, but please make sure it is represents a high quality task. I am certain there will be questions about this, so please ask! I shared some of the details with ILT and LHT this afternoon as well. Thank you so much for your engagement in this process…I know it is an incredibly busy time of the year!
Curriculum Audit Survey for PARAS and TEACHERS:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FZ3WDMS Classroom Teacher Survey
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F5G9YF9 Instructional Support Personnel Survey
Northwest Independent School District leaders have contracted with an external evaluation team from Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) to complete a Curriculum Audit. The team will be on site the week of April 30-May 3, 2018 and will be visiting campuses during that time as well as conducting interviews. However, the team will not have the opportunity to speak with everyone in the district. We would like to use the following survey to gather input from as many people as possible. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey so your opinion can be represented.
All answers will remain anonymous and survey information will only be reported in aggregate. Please complete this survey by April 26, 2018.
Thank you very much for your assistance. Your input will provide valuable information for the
STAAR Updates From Your CTCs...Leslie and Hayley!
Our next round of STAAR will be here in 3 weeks! Mark your calendars for STAAR Testing Training on May 1st. This training will be for all staff who will be administering STAAR tests in May.
All testing accommodation recommendations will need to be brought to this training. Please be discussing with your team, 504-ELL-RTI-SPED program coordinators, and testing coordinators if you have questions about appropriate and allowable accommodations.
Please share the information about STAAR testing and closed campus pictured below with your parents.
Night of Wonder!
Please mark your calendars for a Night of Wonder! Seven Hills, Prairie View, and Chisholm Trail are partnering for an exciting celebration of literacy. SHE students will be presenting, there will be awesome prize giveaways, bingo for books, and even a book fair! You won’t want to miss this exciting event. Please communicate this with your classroom parents as well. Thank you!!
Campus and District Announcements and Updates:
Have you read the latest edition of the C&I Newsletter? https://www.smore.com/295r8
End of Year Writing Assessment April 23-27:
K-3 will record one whole number representing the student’s stage of development. Campuses should choose one of the district writing prompts. K-3 will use the Analytic Writing Rubric and district anchor papers to determine scores. All of these resources can be located in the Literacy Assessments document on Moodle. At this time, we will not scan papers into Edugence. Please keep these papers to upload to the student portfolios. All scores should be entered in Edugence by May 4. 4th grade takes the STAAR writing as their EOY assessment. 5th grade writing assessment also falls in this window. Students will write an expository composition on the a prompt from the list on pg. 13 of the Literacy Assessments document. The directions for administering this assessment can be found in the Literacy Assessments document on pg. 11. Papers will be scored with the STAAR rubric. At this time, we will not scan papers into Edugence. Please keep these papers to upload to the student portfolios. All scores should be entered in Edugence by May 4.
- FLEX Days: Have you completed the required hours for your 2017 - 2018
FLEX agreement? Do you have documentation of completion of these hours? Leslie and Kim will be confirming these with teachers. Please be prepared to share evidence of completion or your plan to complete the requirement. Remember, if the hours are not completed, the employee is docked pay at the daily rate for the number of hours not completed.
- Save the Date for Campus Based PD in August: Seven Hills staff will complete The Leader in Me Empowering Instruction professional learning on August 10, 2018. All instructional staff are required to attend, and because this is a non-contract day, this will count toward FLEX credit. The location is TBD, as we may opt to have this off site for a more engaging PD.
Attendance Snapshot Time: Staff, it is imperative that attendance be completed DAILY at the 9:30 reporting time. Funding is connected to this reporting, and should the district/campus be audited, failure to report attendance at the snapshot time could result in loss of funding for all of the students in your classroom on each day that attendance was not completed at the reporting time. Please be advised that reporting attendance is connected to T-TESS discipline 4.
Save the Date:
Book Fair This Week!
April 23:
- TLIM Visitors from Abilene and CTMS 8 -11:30 (Kinder and 1st Grade eat lunch in classrooms)
- "PS Its My Body" guidance lessons (see schedule from Jen Morales)
- 5th Grade Field Trip
- Leadership Teams Meeting, 3:30 - 4:30
- Elementary Art Show at Admin Building
April 24:
- Grade Level PLCs
- Kim off campus at Principal PLC - AM only
- Elementary Art Show at Admin Building
April 25:
- Math planning with coaches
- Wear jeans and black polo as part of PTA fundraiser reward
- NISD Curriculum Audit Due in Google Slides
- Administrative Professionals Day
April 26:
- Leslie and Hayley off campus in morning - AP PLC
- Employee Recognitions, 3:30 pm cafeteria
April 27:
- Northwest Reads
- SST C
- CIS Banquet (Kim, Jen Morales, Idalia off campus in afternoon)
- PTA Carnival, 5:30 - 7:30 pm (This is one of the largest fundraisers for the PTA, and staff participation in and support of this fundraiser is encouraged and appreciated. The
PTA does so much for our school, and staff participation in this event is not only a community relationship builder, but also an indication of appreciation for all they do. So many fun things planned for this year's carnival!) - Staff wear jeans and "World Changer" shirt
Save the Date:
- TLIM Tours: Tuesday, May 1
- Night of Wonder: Tuesday, May 2 (Staff participation in this event is strongly encouraged)
- Kinder Round Up Night Event: Thursday, May 3
- Senior Legacy Walk at Seven Hills: Friday, May 4
Happy Birthday to You:
Whitney Beck 4/25
Lauren Grady 4/25
Missy Wood 4/27