Ram Nation News
Week of January 22, 2018
Vision
#AlltheWayUp
As we continue to prepare our students for the next grade level at the appropriate level of rigor, one of the crucial aspects to improve instruction is how we implement student progress monitoring. The information below was taken from How Schools Improve Pages 81-83 by Nancy Safer and Steve Fleischman,
- School success is defined as ensuring achievement for every student. To reach this goal, educators need tools to help them identify students who are at risk academically and adjust instructional strategies to better meet these students' needs.
- Student progress monitoring is a practice that helps teachers use student performance data to continually evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching and make more informed instructional decisions.
- To implement student progress monitoring, the teacher determines a student's current performance level on skills that the student will be learning that school year, identifies achievement goals that the student needs to reach by the end of the year, and establishes the rate of progress the student must make to meet those goals. The teacher then measures the student's academic progress regularly (weekly, biweekly, or monthly) using probes—brief, easily administered measures.
THANK YOU
- Ms. Michael for her initiative and desire to improve parent involvement. She led the second semester math parent meeting for her classes and the response from the parents was amazing. She had 45 parents who received updates of the content that students will be learning during the 4th six weeks. Shout out to Ms. Galvan who supported with logistics and translation during the parent meeting. Also, Ms. Saucedo for supporting with translating the letters for this meeting; we know that it takes a team to make everything work well.
- On Saturday, our Girls Soccer Team played a tough game against Long MS. It was an exciting and tough game!!! Our girls had a great season under Coach Crawford's leadership; they finished 2nd at the District level. Thank you to Ms. Blanks, Ms. Baker, Ms. Addison, Ms. Araujo, Ms. Galvan, and Ms. Guerra for attending and supporting our team.
- Our Debate Team had an opportunity to compete this weekend at Zan Holmes MS. They did a great job under Ms. Iberosi and Mr. Johnson's leadership and guidance.
- Mr. Geiger for his leadership and dedication during the freezing cold temperature days as he was the lead person opening the building by 7:10 a.m. By doing so, our students had the opportunity to come into the building and stay warm. Also, shout out to Mr. James and Ms. Zuniga who supported the early intake.
- Ms. Perez, Ms. Molla, and Ms. Rocha for their dedication and desire to improve their craft by attending the Writing Academy on Saturday at Hernandez. I know that the learning and collaboration will support our students.
- Ms Guerra, Ms Calderon, and Ms Shelby for their leadership and coordination of the 8th grade transitional high school meeting with the North Dallas HS counselors. Our students and parents learned about endorsements and class selection as well as the importance and impact of this selection.
Basketball
Cheerleaders
Basketball 6th Grade
7th Grade Editing Camp
DAILY EVENTS
Have you completed your technology inventory? Anybody with technology assigned in office, classroom, laptop, or any other device must complete. We are at 20% completion.
- 8th grade choice sheets - reading classes
- Planning Meeting with CIC/AP - 6th Grade (Math, SS), Science follows schedule communicated by Ms. Guerra, and 7th / 8th Grade RLA. Refer to the Planning Expectations to ensure your IPC and LP have the components to reach proficiency.
- 3:30 - 5:30 SEL Principal Meeting at Buckner - Ms. Woods
- 4:40 - 5:30 Faculty meeting in preparation for parent conference.
- Tentatively continue choice sheets for 8th grade
- Planning Meeting with CIC/AP - 7th Grade (Math, SS), Science follows schedule communicated by Ms. Guerra, and 6th Grade RLA
- 3:00 Master Schedule Meeting - Ms. Guerra, Ms. Calderon, and Mr. Cordoba
- After School cancel due to parent conferences.
- 5:00 p.m - 8:00 p.m Parent Conference Night - Taco salad dinner and other snacks will be provided.
Wednesday, January 24-
- Planning Meeting with CIC/AP - 8th Grade (Math, SS), Science follows schedule communicated by Ms. Guerra, and 7th / 8th Grade RLA
- 4:30 - 6:00 After School Resumes
Thursday, January 25-
- All day- technology team will be on campus. See email sent by Mr Cordoba for details.
- 1:00 Accountability Meeting - Selected Members
- 4:30 - 6:00 After School
- 5:00 Lesson Plans Due
Friday, January 26-
- 9:00 - 11:00 a.m. ACP Rountable Presentation - Leadership team with Ms. Healey.
- 8:00 - 1:00 Tentative Saturday School
Open Transfer
The Power of Metacognition
It’s the end of January and we are nearing full blown test mode. This time of year can be extremely frustrating as students continue to make the same careless mistakes and have yet to make the connections in comprehension after we have told them nine hundred ninety-nine times. Well, let’s show them! Metacognition, the ability to think about your thoughts with the aim of improving learning, can be learned when it is explicitly taught and practiced across content and social contexts. Thinking aloud is always in order. When we, as instructional leaders, make our thinking and thought process public, students will make the connections. See the link below to access the article on Metacognition.
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