Ram Nation News
Week of February 11, 2019
Vision
#OnANewLevel
We continue to make great strides toward our vision of creating catalyst of change, life-long learners, and competitors in a global society as we are racing OnANewLevel.
As part of ACE, we have 3 core values, Growth Mindset, High Expectations, and Inspiring Relationships. These core values work together so that we can be beacons of hope for our students and community. We know that, when we provide our students access to rigorous learning opportunities as well as support their academic, social and emotional needs, their career and life possibilities are limitless. I am very appreciate of your work and collaboration removing barriers every day and giving our students the chance to expand opportunities.
We have 4 instructional days left before we take our next Common Assessment... Let's hit our end of the year goals now! We are all focused more than ever on ensuring every minute is spent on great instruction making sure our students are ready for the next grade level.
As we continue full force making an impact in the lives of our kids, let's make sure that we....
- commit to not let excuses cloud our goals and daily work.
- stay focus on the high leverage TEKS, implement action plans, and use data to drive our instruction.
- actively participate in our PLC sessions. Collaborate with our teams; we know that success in education is powered by effective teams and effective practices.
- challenge students through academic rigor. Let’s make students use reasoning beyond initial thinking. Let’s ignite in them the desire to know more and apply new learning
leverage the positive relationships we have built so that students trust teachers and teachers trust administrators
- greet students, narrate the positive, and inquire about their interests and weekend – making these connections with our students shows that we value our kids as people increasing the likelihood that they will in turn show interest to the course materials.
- congratulate accomplishments to help students sense their mastery of the materials and to encourage further learning.
Attendance Review
The following is the percent for attendance for the week of 2/4 - 2/8:
- 6th Grade - 93.26%
- 7th Grade - 94.03%
- 8th Grade - 95.32% an increase of 0.79% from the previous week and takes 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
- Ms. Minter, Ms. Maloy, Ms. Vargas, Ms. Rocha, Mr. Geiger, and Ms. Davis for their leadership, support and collaboration during CILT. We appreciate the impact that each one of them has in their respective teams.
- Ms. Perez, Ms. Molla, Ms. Vasquez, Mr. Martin, Ms. Iberosi, and Mr. Raymond Rivera for their dedication and support as they attended Saturday School. They provided small group support as they addressed low TEKS and areas of improvement. Also, kudos to Mr. Ramirez for opening the building and making sure the building was ready for our teachers and students.
- Mrs. Mooty and Ms. Maloy for leading and sharing valuable information with our staff during the TELPAS overview and designated supports session. These pieces are critical to our accountability and impacts some of our neediest children.
Growth Mindset
Exemplar
Announcing Laps
Feedback
High Expectations
Ms. Minter
Games
Ms. Cooray
6th grade hall
Hallway
Inspiring Relationships
Ms. Michael
8th Grade RLA
Robotics VEX
REMINDERS FOR THE UPCOMING WEEK OF SCHOOL
- Aggressive Monitoring should be done at least with students' independent practice and DOL. Remember it checks for understanding where no Ram is left behind. You announce your laps, create the pathway and provide feedback to students in the moment using the Coding System your team has agreed on. Students should receive written and verbal feedback. If you see an error or misconception clear it up immediately using show call (TEI 2.2 and 2.3).
- Teachers have to acknowledge in Cornerstone for a submitted spot to be marked complete and show up as complete on our tracker; if you have not acknowledged previous SPOTs, please do so to ensure accuracy and plan accordingly. (TEI 4.2)
- 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)
- It is critical to be prepared with lessons and materials to avoid having issues with students. When we are not prepared, our students can tell and will find their own way of entertainment. (TEI 3.1)
- We must have 100% presence in the hallway during transition times. Our students notice when there is a lack of adult presence in the hallways and will take advantage of it.
- 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 6:00 p.m. (TEI 4.2)
DAILY EVENTS
Monday, February 11-
- B - Day
- TELPAS Writing - Present Tense RLA teacher responsible for administering and collecting the writing samples. Please, refer to e-mail sent by Mrs. Mooty for more details.
- We will be checking for exemplars and aggressively monitoring in action! Ensure trackers have students listed, color-coded by band, and noting whether they are in bucket or out of bucket.
- Meet with your grade level teams to align your Lesson Plans, determine misconceptions, create exemplars, and analyze data for your students.
- 4:45 - 5:45 p.m - Grade Level Meeting
- A-Day.
- Special Education Campus Audit - Special Education Department
- Meet with your grade level teams to align your Lesson Plans, determine misconceptions, create exemplars, and analyze data 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.
- TELPAS Writing - Social Studies teacher is responsible for administering and collecting the writing samples. Please, refer to e-mail sent by Mrs. Mooty for more details.
- Complete Spring Class Enrollment Verification - Follow Ms. Araujo's directions on how to complete this task. If you have questions, please stop by room 118.
- Calibration Walks - We will be walking classrooms checking for alignment, exemplars, and aggressively monitoring. Ensure trackers have students listed, color-coded by band, and noting whether they are in bucket or out of bucket.
- Meet with your grade level teams to align your Lesson Plans, determine misconceptions, create exemplars, and analyze data for your students.
- 4:30 After school program continues - Let's be very purposeful in our lessons and our recruitment of students.
- Remember to clock out at or after 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, February 14-
- A-Day.
- Weekly PLC: Common Assessment - Testing meeting, script, and material setup
- 4:30 After school program continues.
- 6:00 - Lesson plans due.
- Remember to clock out at or after 6:00 p.m.
Friday, February 15 -
- No School for Students. Based on feedback collected from our monthly staff meeting, please see proposed agenda for our time together.
- RLA Instructional Materials Adoption - Deadline to VOTE. Please, access the link to access videos of materials offered, ballot, and other important information. Only RLA teachers can vote.
- Deadline to complete the 2019-2020 Plans form sent by Mr. Cordoba.
Upcoming Events
Week of February 19
- Common Assessment Window
February 20
- Annual Ram Nation Soul Food Unity Luncheon - During 3 lunches. Requesting small donation of $10
February 19-20
- TELPAS Writing - Science
February 21-22
- TELPAS Writing - Math
February 23
- Saturday School Continues - Adults 8:30 - 1:00; Students 8:45 light breakfast 9:00 - 12:30
February 25-26
- TELPAS Writing - Past Tense Narrative RLA 6th and 7th
- TELPAS Online Reading - 8th Grade
February 27-28
- TELPAS Writing - Past Tense Narrative RLA 8th
- TELPAS Online Reading - 7th Grade
March 2
- Saturday School Continues - Adults 8:30 - 1:00; Students 8:45 light breakfast 9:00 - 12:30
March 19
- Deadline to input designated supports
Open Transfer
The Open Transfer application will be available starting March 4, 2019. Eligible employees must apply via the open transfer application online at https://www.dallasisd.org/careers within the time frame established. Principals will have an opportunity to submit open transfer recommendations no later than March 29, 2019. Transfers are not final until an approval email notification has been sent from Human Capital Management. All notification will be completed by April 12, 2019. I will be sending a form where you will have an opportunity to let me know of your plans for next year; however, if you know that you are planning to transfer or leaving the district, please let me know as soon as possible so that we can plan accordingly.
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