WHS 9th Grade Center News 2021-22
Week of January 10th - 15th
Mustang 9 News
Acceleration will continue along with interventions in preparation for our End of Course exams beginning in April. You will see administrators walking your classrooms to see all the great things that are happening and even joining in sometimes by co-teaching along with you. When you see us enter the room please make sure that you just keep on giving the excellent instruction and we will do our best not to be a major distraction.
It is important that we continue with the implementation of our SpringWay Systems and Routines and everything we have learned during EPLT sessions. Instruction is our priority and we are charged with giving our scholars our best everyday.
Going above and beyond
Christmas Selfies
Home Access Center
Technology Tuesday: Tech in 10!
SpringWay Systems and Routines
- Threshold - Greeting students and welcoming them into your classroom, providing positive feedback to scholars that are on task, and directing scholars that are in the hallway.
- Strong Start - Establishing a routine for scholars once they enter the classroom to ensure that instructional time is maximized.
- Do Now - 5-7 minute activity reviewing previously taught information. Scholars should be able to complete this on their own. Within the 5-7 minutes the teacher should review the Do Now with students.
- Cold Call - Teachers cold call on students to ensure 100% engagement in lessons. Students are called on randomly. This isn't used as a tool to "catch" students who aren't paying attention, but as a tool to ensure all students are engaged in the learning.
- Exit Tickets - A quick measure of the learning objective at the end of class. This is a piece of data that the teacher collects to determine if scholars are mastering the content or if re-teaching needs to happen.
- Board Configurations - A teaching tool that can be used by students to know what they should expect to learn during class and helpful to help keep the teacher on track during his/her lesson delivery. Teachers should practice "closing to open" to ensure their board configurations are up to date. "Closing to open" is when the teacher updates his/her board configuration at the end of each day in preparation for the next day.
Third 9 Weeks Instructional Focus: T-TESS Instruction Dimension 2.1 - 2.5
Remember:
- Utilize documents such as the Lead4ward Field Guides, textbooks, district Scope & Sequences and Unit Guides to help identify the academic vocabulary students must know in order to be successful in the unit.
- Students should have multiple opportunities to engage with vocabulary.
- Students need to have the opportunity to discuss content not only with the teacher, but with other classmates in order to hear other points of view.
- Provide students with the opportunity to read about content. When allowing students to read about the content, be sure to set a purpose for their reading. Pose a probing question or ask students to annotate for specific information. Don't solely allow for students to depend on PowerPoints to get information regarding your course.
School Store
Next semester, Ms. Grant will be spearheading the (re)opening of a school store for our kiddos. For those of you that were here right before Covid-19 rocked our worlds, we had already started the WHS STAAR Store that was partially incentive based using "STAAR" bucks that students could earn in class from their teachers.
Our goal is to once again create a space for students to earn the chance to purchase items from the school store. (Items will also be for purchase at the store as well!)
My Ask: Please donate items to the school store!!
Examples of items to donate:
- snacks (drinks, honey buns, Takis, hot fries, candy, etc.)
- gift cards (small denominations)
- movie tickets
- clothing items (new)
- games
- monetary donations towards the purchase of items are also welcome
These are just a few things that can be donated! Please reach out to me if you're in a giving spirit and would like to donate items towards stocking our school store! Let's catch some of those Black Friday sales. Thank you!
Important Dates
- EPLT Wednesday, January 13th - Mandatory testing training. It will be virtual.
- January 14th - Middle of Year Goals due
- Lesson plan submissions - Remember lesson plans are to be submitted each week on Thursday to the lesson plan folder via Google Drive.
Strive
Aggressive Monitoring
Learning Passport
Teacher Checklist
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sEFMyJMUErWvNBTMx2HAGObNtBu0jC3aqTkr9nbQbxo/edit#gid=0
We are here to help!
Mrs. Parker
9th Grade Center Principal
Mrs. Robinson
Mrs. Parker's Administrative Assistant
Mr. Hobbs
(A-K)
Darla Fuente
Mr. Hobbs' & Ms. Rose Administrative Assistant
Kimberly Rose
Counselor (A-K)
Ms. Malveaux
(L-K)
Ricci Scurlock
Ms. Malveaux's & Mrs. Francis Administrative Assistant
Brandy Francis
Counselor (L-Z)