ARMS Legend
Excellence Without Boundaries
Excellence in Leading. Teaching.Learning
TEAM
GRIT
GROWTH
Principal Message
Where did the month of January go! Time is certainly flying by and reinforces my message two weeks ago about increasing our sense of urgency and the importance of leaning in, to your team, your coach, your peers, and most of all being at 100%. Overall, take care of yourself and carve out time and practices that allow you to rest and and unplug from work. Students and fellow Rangers benefit from being well-- Mind, Body, and Spirit.
As you map out your days and weeks ahead, pay attention to the professional responsibilities side of what we do: Attendance, Grades, Team meetings, Planning, Daily Job specific responsibilities, Emails, etc...those things that at times can be overlooked, but are fundamental components of our job.
Have a wonderful week and I hope you enjoy the many Spotlights and Good News!
Proudest Principal in DISD,
Mrs. Taylor-Glenn
Operation Excellence - Excellence in Leading.Teaching.Learning
January 30, 2017, Week 4 of 4rd Six Weeks (7 Weeks, with 2 - 4 day weeks)
BY MAY 2017, AT LEAST 80% OF ALL STAAR EXAMS TAKEN BY ARMS STUDENTS WILL MEET THE PHASE II PASSING STANDARD.
Improve Student Achievement
Improve the Quality of Instruction
Create a Positive & Supportive Campus Culutre
Observation, Feedback & Coaching- GROUP B
- Leadership's goal is to conduct a minimum of 85% of our SPOT feedback sessions in person.
- 100% of Group spots are to be conducted each week.
- 100% of observation conference are conducted with both (leader and teacher) bringing necessary PRE WORK and document action steps and follow up.
Fall Administration Face to Face Feedback Rate: 81% Feedback Sessions Face to Face
ARMS Reminders
Send a Shout to our ARMS Counselors!
ARMS February Focus: Acts that Promote Kindess!
The Counselors will have activities that we will engage in during the Week of Feb. 6th.
Please feel free as a teacher, team, grade level to introduce your own efforts to promote kindness on campus!
Lets have this spread like wildfire!!
ARMS Institute PD Day - 2/20
During the PD sessions a few of the itmes will be
- Content Team Data Dig reviewing our #4 Common Assessment Data
- TELPAS training
Agenda is forth coming
ARMS 1st African American History Door Decorating Contest!
I would like to say thank you in advance to Ms. Lacy & Ms. Crabtree who are spearheading our honoring activities!
We will have our African American History Program on Feb. 28th. Be on the look out for more information.
Love Inspired Bake Off
The Winner this year will receive a collection a Love Inspired Goodie Basket!
Bring your Love Inspired baked goods in on Feb. 17th. Please provide enough samples of your baked goods so that staff members can taste test & vote during all three lunches.
Operation Excellence: TG2 Spotlight
Spotlight on Mrs. Addison- Operation Excellence - Team & Grit
Mrs. Addison has been unrelenting in her commitment to our students success! She has taken on the role of teaching our Math 8 students and continues to be a driving force as we try to find a new teacher to teach our students. She does so everyday with a heart for our kids and continuing to be supportive and available to our Math department!!! Your dedication does not go unnoticed and I am truly thankful for you!
Spotlight on Ms. Mathis - Operation Excellence- Team
Ms. Nix writes:
Mathis- Thanks to Ms. Mathis for hosting the 7th grade Paint and Potluck and helping with drawings and for donating her paint! She’s greatly appreciated
Spotlight on Ms. Ray- Operation Excellence - Team & Grit
Thank you Ms. Ray for always being willing to do whatever needs to be done to keep the instructional day going
Spotlight on Ms. Bagley - Operation Excellence - Grit & Teaching
Thank you Ms. Bagley for the patience that you have with our more challenged students. Your kindness and love is not overlooked
Spotlight on Ms. Linwood - Operation Excellence - Team
I would like to send a special shout out to our newest Ranger, Assistant Principal, Mrs. Linwood. She has stepped in and has a proactive attitude and has added value in the short time she has been here. Thank you for your commitment to your new school home and thankful for the addition to our team.
Spotlight on Mr. Kattan - Operation Excellence - Team & Grit
Thank you Mr. Kattan for stepping in in the mornings whenever we need to get the 7th Grade door in gear. I appreciate you.
Spotlight on Ms. Ward - Operation Excellence - Teaching
I would like to spotlight Ms. Ward for rewarding her students with a celebration for their ACP scores!
8th Grade Brunch Team Shoutout!
Ms. Walker writes:
On Saturday January 28, 2017... ARMS 8th Grade students were recognized along with their parents at the 1st ARMS "On Track" Brunch! 319 of the 440 students in the Class of 2021 are on track to be promoted to high school in June 2017!
They have maintained satisfactory academics and attendance thus far. A celebration of this size takes a small army of people to make it happen.
Thank you: Mrs. Taylor-Glenn, Ms. Zapata, Ms. Martinez, Ms. Cardenas, Ms. Luckey, Ms. Reddy, Ms. Burns, Ms. Husband, Ms. Santos, Ms. A. Lewis, Ms. Perez, Ms. Leake, Mr. Alexander, Ms. Roach, Ms. Calvin, Ms. Walsh, Mr. George, Ms. Crabtree, Ms. Jones, Ms. Hice, Ms. Horne, the ARMS PTO and Parent Volunteers, and Mr. Lloyd and the ARMS Custodial Staff.
This was a memorable event that students and parents will never forget on their road to graduation from high school in 2021!
Spotlight on Ms. Hasty, Ms. Martinez, & Ms. Zapata!
I would like to say a tremendous thank you to these three Rangers who have been so flexible and an example of teamwork! No matter what the need is, the team comes together and makes it happen.
We all have things come up and what I love about this example of teamwork is the fact that it exemplifies the attitude of support and being there for one another! I am truly fortunate to work with a team that supports our parents, students, and staff day in a day out and takes on the tasks that go outside of their daily scope of work because it is what we do here, ARMS WAY All Day!
Each week administrators and instructional coaches will highlight the growth in the instructional practices, creativity, purposeful and meaningful practices that promote student success. It is important that we recognize ALL the Excellence in Teaching we have in all of areas of our academic programs. The highlights are on a rotation and each content/department will be the focus for the week. The rotation will repeat itself throughout the year.
We would like to highlight two RLA teachers.
Ms. De La Rosa: 6th Grade ELAR
Ms. Deal Rosa has consistently been resilient in seeking best practices to meet students where they are to take them where they need to be! She engages her students in really understanding that the data helps they to know how they are growing daily to towards a larger goal. Ms. DelaRosa is growing because she trusts and implements feedback given. Awesome work Ms. DelaRosa!
Instructional PD Collaboration with Lang MS:
The ELAR Instructional Team has numerous members who have been attending PD after hours during the week. They are learning how to better analyze and align instructional resources to increase instructional effectiveness. Our students are benefiting from it too! Kudos to the following ELAR IL for attending the most recent training: Mrs. Jenkins, Mrs. Clewell, Ms. C. Lewis, Mrs. Gill, Ms. Hice, and Ms. Walsh!
Mrs. Clewell picture, coming soon.
ARMS Tardies 1/23 - 27 (New Process, Read Thoroughly)
At this time, to support an incentive that our students love, and at the same time ensure it is earned and continues to support our goal of 25 or less tardies a day by grade level - I will designate Free Dress days for the month in the Legend. Free Dress days will be updated in the ARMS Calendar by month.
February Free Dress Days:
Zero Tardies -Campus Wide Free Dress day on Thursday, Feb. 9th - Students with Zero Tardies Week of Jan. 30th - 3rd and Feb. 6th & 7th. Bands will be given out on the 8th.
4th Six Weeks CA Highest Grade Level Performance - Thursday, February 23rd
Fun Fridays will be remain for grade level that has the lowest number of tardies as of Thursday afternoon. This is announced at the end of the day.
Grade levels will not be issuing Grade Level Free Dress Days.
DISD STEM Expo
We will be announcing throughout the week to students and making a call home to promote the event. This is a phenomenal opportunity to expand our campus community of what STEM can offer!
I will be in another training all day on Saturday. I am asking if a cadre of staff members would be willing to go to the event and experience the many activities and pick up information shared during the EXPO. Please let me know via email if you will be able to attend.
DISD Open Transfer Period Approaching
United Negro College Fund DISD Campaign
Click here for more information.
You may set up a donation via Oracle. ARMS goal is $300. The campaign starts on Feb. 1st to March 31st.
TEA A-F Ratings
I included 2 this week, take what you can, leave what you want.
Fred Jones on Dealing with Nasty Backtalk from a Student
In this Tools for Teaching article, classroom management guru Fred Jones shares his advice on how to respond to nasty backtalk from students. “If we can think of discipline management as a poker game in which the student raises the dealer (you) with increasing levels of provocation,” says Jones, “then nasty backtalk is going ‘all in.’ The student is risking it all for the sake of power and control. What separates nasty backtalk from whiny backtalk is not so much the words, but rather, the fact that it is personal. The backtalker is probing for a nerve ending.”
The key, says Jones, is never taking anything a student says personally. If you do, you’ll probably feel wounded and respond emotionally, in which case the student has won.
The first kind of backtalk is an insult. Students have a limited number of options, all of which have been used through the years:
• Dress:
- Say, where did you get that tie, Mr. Jones? Goodwill?
- Hey, Mr. Mickelson, is that the only sport coat you own?
• Grooming:
- Hey, Mr. Gibson, you have hairs growing out of your nose. Did you know that?
- Whoa, Mrs. Wilson. You have dark roots! I didn’t know you bleached your hair. Ha!
• Hygiene:
- Hey, don’t get so close. You smell like garlic.
- Hey, Mrs. Phillips, your breath is worse than my dog’s!
“Take two relaxing breaths,” says Jones. “When the sniggering dies down, the kid is still on the hook.” The key is staying rational, not getting angry, not showing that you’re upset. Remember, Calm is power, upset is weakness.
The second kind of nasty backtalk is profanity. The words students use are all-too familiar to you, some low-grade and some “biggies.” Jones says the underlying agenda with student profanity is power. Power boils down who controls the classroom. And that boils down to who controls you. “Can a four-letter monosyllable control you and determine your emotions and your behavior?” Jones asks. “If so, then the student possesses a great deal of power packaged in the form of a single word.” If kids see the impact of these words on you, they will use the tactic repeatedly.
So what to do? Jonesadvises thinking of the response to nasty backtalk in two time-frames:
• Short-term response – Take two relaxing breaths, stay calm, and give the student “the look” – calm, almost bored, totally unruffled, while thinking of an appropriate long-term response. “Your lack of an immediate response is very powerful body language,” says Jones. “It tells the student, among other things, that you are no rookie. You have heard it all a thousand times. If the student runs out of gas and takes refuge in getting back to work, count your blessings, and consider getting on with the lesson.” How about what the other students think? They’ve just seen the backtalker try “the big one” and fail – and they saw you handle it with cool professionalism, and learned that profanity won’t work in this classroom.
• Long-term response – Talk to the student after class. It’s quite possible that the student’s outburst was related to something that happened outside your classroom. In that case, delivering a consequence might make the situation worse. You might start off like this: “Vanessa, what you said in class today was not at all like you. Tell me, what is really going on?” You’ve opened the door and really don’t know what the student will say. Be patient. “Silence is truly golden since young people have a very low tolerance for it,” says Jones. “If you wait calmly, the whole story will probably come spilling out. Do not be surprised if the lip starts to quiver. Have some tissues handy.” Vanessa might need a pass to visit the nurse and pull herself together before going to her next class. And make sure she knows you’re available to talk more. This might be the turning point in a year-long relationship.
A student who backtalks may very well be in an abusive situation at home, and lashing out at a teacher is a way of testing to see if you are as uncaring as other adults in his or her life and if you will respond as expected – with anger and another trip to the office. “What does surprise students in this situation,” says Jones, “is to find a teacher who says, ‘I can see that you are hurting. Tell me about it.’ It catches them off guard. Sometimes their defenses crumble because they are so unaccustomed to anybody caring about whether or not they hurt. Sometimes, healing is mediated by simply taking the time to ask and to listen. Without going that far out on a limb, you can answer the defining question in your relationship with the child, ‘Do you even care?’”
“Our calmness and skill,” Jones concludes, “allow us to say ‘no’ to backtalk while potentially strengthening the fabric of our relationship with the student rather than tearing it.” The more emotionally intense an interaction is, the more possibilities there are. “A student’s crisis in class, therefore, presents us with a rare opportunity… These heart-to-heart talks are some of the most precious moments between adult and child. They teach important lessons within a context that says that being ‘bad,’ while it leads to real consequences, cannot threaten the bond of caring.”
“Nasty Backtalk” by Fred Jones in Tools for Teaching, December 16, 2016, http://bit.ly/2jLsD3H
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Rethinking Homework
In this Education Update article, Alexandria Neason reviews the research on the impact of homework, which is decidedly mixed. One study showed a correlation between completing homework and better scores on unit tests, but the link was weaker in elementary schools. Other studies found no strong evidence of homework leading to higher grades. “We still can’t prove it’s effective,” said education professor Cathy Vatterott, author of a 2009 book on homework. “The research is flawed and idiosyncratic.”
What’s indisputable is that lower-income students find homework a challenge, and not completing homework has a disproportionate impact on their grades. Myron Dueck, a Canadian school leader and author, says one of the most serious effects of homework is “the exacerbation of social and economic inequities that already exist.” Students who are struggling with food insecurity, unstable housing, noisy and distracting home environments, inadequate computer access, after-school jobs or child care, and the normal challenges of adolescence often find homework too much to handle. And indeed, studies of high-school dropouts cite homework as one of the top reasons for throwing in the towel.
Given this gap-widening effect (“We are basically punishing them for their poverty,” says Vatterott) what should schools do? Neason summarizes some possible policy tweaks:
• Beef up the rigor and engagement of in-school lessons so that missing homework takes less of a toll on achievement. One district made a point of including music and sensory objects in heavily scaffolded lessons.
• Give students opportunities to complete homework in school with a conducive study environment and good computer access.
• Use homework to reinforce already-mastered skills or complete assignments that were launched in class rather than introducing new material. “Homework should reinforce students’ confidence in their abilities, not shatter it,” says Neason.
• Don’t assign busywork. Each homework assignment should have a clear rationale and add value.
• Don’t assign homework that requires students to buy special materials like poster board.
• Don’t portray homework as a test of responsibility. Students may be ashamed to tell teachers about out-of-school struggles that make homework difficult for them to complete.
• Rethink the weight of homework on grades. Students might be graded on what they learn rather than on process pieces such as homework assignments. One approach is to make homework optional and check for understanding with a quick quiz the next day.
• Rethink zero-to-100 grading scales, which have a devastating effect when a student gets a zero for missed homework. A 6-5-4-3-2-1 scale mitigates this effect.
• A variation on this is limiting homework to 10 percent of students’ grades or giving a grade of incomplete with time to complete it, perhaps during lunch or recess.
• At the elementary level, eliminate homework entirely. Some elementary schools have stopped assigning homework and encourage students to play and read after school.
“Does Homework Help?” by Alexandria Neason in Education Update, January 2017 (Vol. 59, #1, p. 1, 4-5), ASCD member log-in access at http://bit.ly/2k4lvyc
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Calendar dates that have been revised- National Counselor Week & Random Acts of Kindness week, Free Dress Days, Spring Book Fair, Trailblazer Meetings & Training (Feb), Teacher Failure Intervention Plan Due dates added (March & May), Content Leads PD training (May)
Weekly Events January 30-February 3, 2017
Trailblazer meeting 9:00-10:45 a.m. - conference room
Tuesday, January 31
3 WK IAMath/SS
Magnet Application Due
Wednesday, February 1
3 WK IA ELAR/Science
Thursday, February 2
Friday, February 3
$1 Jean Day
Core Meeting @ 9:30 Conference Room
Monday, February 6
IA#5 Created
Tuesday, February 7
NAEP 8th Grade
Last day to decorate your door for Black History month
Wednesday, February8
Trailblazer Meeting 9:00-10:45 - Conference room
Teaching Trust Y2 @ 11:00 - conference room
Thursday, February 9
Zero Tardies Free Dress
Testing meeting during POD time
Empower Meeting @ 7:45 a.m. - conference room
Friday, February 10
Core Meeting @ 9:30-10:55 - Conference room
Valentine's Day Dance - 6:00 p.m.
Monday, February 13
6 wk IA #4 6-8 Math/Algebra
Tuesday, February 14
Valentine's Day
6 wk IA #4 6-8 ELAR
Wednesday, February 15
6 wk IA #4 Science/Writing
Coffee with Principal @ 8:45 a.m.
Parent Workshop @ 9:30 a.m.
Staff Meeting @ 4:30 p.m. - Library
Thursday, February 16
6 wk IA #4 6-8 Social Studies
Staff Breakfast - Office
Friday, February 17
Love Inspired Bake Off during lunches - teacher's lounge
Core Meeting @ 9:30-10:55 - conference room
Monday, February 20
ARMS Institute - Gap Analysis/Telpas
African American Potluch Luncheon
Tuesday, February 21
Wednesday, February 22
Trailblazer Data Meeting
STAAR Family Night
IA#5 Viewing #1
Thursday, February 23
IA#5 Revision #2
ARMS 360 Leader Dinner & Dialogue @ 4:30 Room 209
Friday, February 24
4th Six Wks ends
Core Meetings @ 9:30 -10:55 - Conference Room
Trailblazer - Alignment Training
Monday, February 27
5th Six Weeks begin
Tuesday, February 28
African American History Program
ARMS Sees a Rise in Spring Parent Conference Attendees!
Celebrating Ms. Martinez Coming Soon Newest Ranger!
Staff Sgt. Salter Fostering Tradition & Respect @ ARMS
8th Grade On Track Brunch - Tradition of Excellence Begins!
RANGERS In the Spirit!
Rangers Creative Side Explored during Library Lunch Time!
Ranger Celebrates her Student Athlete!
Mr. George has a captive audience during his After School Tutoring
Spot Rotation Schedule (Updated 1.21.17)
Coming Soon Technology Support Doc
ARMS Facility Request Google Doc
This is how all facility requests are to be made moving forward.
ARMS Safety Drill Staff One Pager
The Most Important Work of our Time! Always remember YOUR IMPACT!
Ann Richards Middle School
At Ann Richards MS, our vision is to be a flagship middle school at the hub of the community, nurturing diverse leaders, and empowering intelligent trailblazers.
Email: frataylor@dallasisd.org
Website: www.dallasisd.org/annrichards
Location: Ann Richards Middle School, North Prairie Creek Road, Dallas, TX, United States
Phone: 972 -892-5400