UHMS Rising Phoenix
Uplift Hampton Middle School September 23, 2019
"Be Committed, Be Consistent, Be Courageous"
Encourage Scholars, Encourage Yourself!
Hello Phoenix Nation,
We are more than 25% through the academic year. As we enter MYP Unit 2 next week and the first round of Common Assessments start this week, we wanted to take the time to let you know how appreciative we are of all that you have accomplished so far. Thank you for being open to new ideas and strategies and doing everything you can to help grow scholars academically and socially. As a reminder, we need to continue to extend grace to ourselves and to monitor our own needs because we can't build relationships when we are dysregulated or not feeling our best. It is important that we take care of ourselves when the going gets tough and the tough gets tired. Encourage yourself! Only then, we can challenge ourselves to increase the rigor, our expectations, and our own beliefs about what is possible on our campus. Our scholars have proven time and time again that they are smart and capable. They believe in us. Let them know that that we BELIEVE in them, too! “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” –Albert Einstein
With Kind Hearts,
Priscilla, Chataqua, Chrissy, and Jabez
Walk-Through Focus
Scholar Engagement
- Turn and talks are purposefully planned into lessons at strategic times to deepen learning or stamp a key point.
- Consider how to weave in other techniques to increase scholar engagement - this resource from Dr. Marzano provides a few great tips: https://www.marzanoresources.com/resources/tips/hec_tips_archive
- Evidence of Similarities and Differences being used in the classroom.
- HERO is being used to track positive points
When administrators walk through your room, please do not stop instruction.
Two Weeks At A Glance
You Are So Appreciated!
Phillip for facilitating an engaging Owning Up Lesson (From Mr. Pascale)
Ranae for setting up a beautiful popcorn bar for PD Admin Snacks
Cynthia and Ranae for CA training and making sure CAs were ready to go
Javetta for creating Instructional guide teaching and learning
Marisha for tutoring scholar during lunch to ensure academic success
Ms. Candler for restorative practices that rekindled the young ladies’ friendship versus a fight
Kelly Anna for her patience with parents
Xavier for modeling questioning during Content
Brenda G for modeling how "perfect practice" should be done
Tammy for having a kind word and smile when people need it most
De'onna for teaching scholar athletes to be their own advocates
Stedmon for consistently monitoring the halls – everyone’s halls
Mark for springing into action in a moment’s notice
Cynthia, Ranae, and Javetta for stepping up when all the deans went to training
Trenese and Tiffani for becoming the leads of the Staff Culture Committee
STAAR Goals
Important Announcements and Information!
Attendance: It is extremely important that everyone is taking attendance on time every day as it is tied to the funding we receive. Please call each individual scholar’s name. Stop what you are doing at 10am and take attendance. Do not take it early and do not take it late. Email the front office if a parent calls, texts, or send a message that a scholar will be absent. If a scholar comes to school late make sure they have a pass from the office. Moving forward, not taking attendance on time may result in a written reprimand. Consider this a directive.
ROCKTOBER! - Rocktober is just around the corner, and that means ROCKTOBER PEER OBSERVATIONS! Peer Observations will start on October 1st. Each teacher will be tasked with finding time to do 5 peer observations. One observation must be outside of your grade level, and one outside of your content, and one must be of a primary or high school teacher. Forms are DUE OCTOBER 31st. If all observations are complete, you will earn AWESOME SWAG, so get observing!
Service of Hope: Uplift has developed a partnership with Services of Hope (SOH) to provide food assistance to families. SOH agreed to provide a food pantry and would love to do so at Uplift Hampton. Daniel Prescott, President of SOH, is a former Uplift parent and his son attended Uplift Hampton years ago so he’s excited about this possibility.
Additional Info:
- When: Saturday, September 28th at 9am.
- Cost: No cost to the families and community of Uplift Hampton.
- Audience: Our hope is that this would be marketed to all Uplift’s southern Dallas campuses and we can work on making sure Uplift Hampton families have the first opportunity to register for attendance.
- Volunteers: We need at least 5 Middle School volunteers present to help. If you are available to volunteer on Saturday let Priscilla know by Wednesday, 9/25th.
Common Assessment 1: The administration of the Common Assessment CA) #1 over the next two weeks provides us with an excellent opportunity to measure the progress that we’ve made in the first eight weeks of school, as well as provide each of us with data that can inform our future instruction in the upcoming months. The CAs are designed to monitor students’ mastery of the material that has been covered during the first eight weeks of school and to provide a benchmark of scholar’s progress towards college readiness. The data from the CA’s will provide each of us with a clear snapshot of what scholars are capable of doing and what concepts or skills scholars are struggling with. For this assessment to provide us with high quality data that we can use to inform our future instructional planning it will be critical that we:
1) Create and maintain a testing environment in each classroom and throughout the school that is distraction free and 100% focused on the CA. This will be achieved by actively monitoring during the test, redirecting any student that is not focused and working hard on the exam, and ensuring that hallways are silent.
2) Once the test has been administered, we must look at the data objectively. It is not acceptable to make excuses, rationalizations, or justifications as to why the data isn’t what we want it to be. Instead we need to examine and analyze the data closely to guide our future instructional decisions. Prize: Check in with your accountability buddy about how their turn and talks are going. Email Priscilla that you have completed this check in by Tuesday.
3) Come to the CA data meetings ready to strategically and intentionally plan re-teaches, reviews, and spiraled practice that will enhance mastery of weakest skills and concepts.
“It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever – the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it.”– Vince Lombardi
Repeated for Your Convenience
Covering Classes: Using teacher planning time to cover classes will always be our last resort when we do not have sub coverage. When it does happen, we appreciate your flexibility and willingness to give up your planning time to make sure scholars receive appropriate lessons. When a classroom teacher covers another classroom during their planning time due to a shortage of subs, we will provide sub pay once you hit a full day of coverage.
ESL: All ELA teachers must be ESL certified by October 31st. Getting ESL certified is not an option. If you have questions or concerns see your dean.
Picture Day formal uniform. Pictures will be taken in the library. We will send out a schedule by the middle of the week.
Gallop Survey: The Gallup Survey window closes this Friday.
Around UHMS
Marisha Tutoring
Rosa's Class learning Spanish
Phillip's Scholar Cuba Presentation
Lunch Bunch Tutoring
Born to be an Artist
Concentrating on Cake!
Phoenix Nation!
Here's How to Reach Us!
Priscilla Parhms 469.236.2900 pparhms@uplifteducation.org
Chrissy Cormier 214.326.3002 ccormier@uplifteducation.org
Chataqua Mangum 972.897.4659 cmangum@uplifteducation.org
Jabez Deacon 414.562.7592 jdeacon@uplifteducation.org
Website: https://www.uplifteducation.org/Page/13790
Location: 8915 South Hampton Road, Dallas, TX, USA
Phone: 972-421-1982