Weekly Update 3/13/14

SOUTHEAST MIDDLE SCHOOL
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2014

1. Please keep Sheree Raya and her family in your thoughts and prayers. Her grandmother is very, very ill in the hospital.  She is with her at this time. 

2. We plan to have the lockdown drill and our monthly fire drill during the week of March 17. These required drills must be completed before we begin quarter testing.

3. Upcoming Spirit Days:
Friday, March 14 - College Colors Day! 
Monday, March 17 - Luck of the Irish Day! Staff can dress casual if you dress in green. 
Friday, March 21 - Blue Out! Wear blue in honor of S.W. for March Madness.

4. Many events and activities continue to be rescheduled due to the weather. Please take a look at the dates below as well as the master calendar. Where is the master calendar? It is accessible through your email system - click on the Calendar link and select the SEMS-Stephanie Gentry calendar.

5. In order to help get our students back in their school routines, it is imperative that we all come together and step up our CHAMPs expectations for hallways, lunchroom, as well as in your classrooms. We are experiencing lots of issues recently especially in the hallways, so please review all expectations with your students.  With testing right around the corner, it is so important that students understand the potential impact of their behaviors in the hallways.  The most frequent issues observed are taking place during lunch transition and in between encore class periods.

6. If you have any activity bus questions or if you need to request a bus, please contact Gentry in writing.

7. On Tuesday night, the School Board voted to keep the make-up schedule that currently exists on the calendar.  This means that the last day for students will be Monday, June 16.  Our understanding is that the last teacher workday is scheduled for Friday, June 27. However, all staff members have either already worked the two optional workdays or have taken annual days on those optional workdays.  Therefore, the last teacher workday for staff would be Wednesday, June 25.  I have inquired with the district and asked for confirmation on the workdays. If there are any updates, I will forward them to you. 

The teacher workdays scheduled at the end of the school year will be a combination of RC and RS days. The difference is that RC days are required workdays and RS days are eligible for annual leave. Typically the district designates RC days earlier than RS in the calendar (meaning that if there are RC days, they will fall earlier in the string of workdays rather than later).  Again, I will forward any updates that I receive. 

8. Attention beginning teachers: You should be working with your STAY coach on completing your Common Core online moodle. If you need assistance with this, please contact your STAY coach. The online moodle is part of your STAY requirement.

9. Since your last progress reports were very minimal in number of tasks, I highly recommend that teachers send out another paper progress report in March. This will help to ensure that all parents and students are aware of where they stand academically.

10. Please remember to turn in your teacher laptops to John Downs by March 21.  You can refer back to his staff email for details. 

11. The March Madness event will take place on Friday, March 21, from 2-4pm. During this event, staff will play against students in a basketball game. If you are interested in participating in this event as a basketball player, cheerleader, or assist with supervision, please see Mr. Pizzino. In order for students to attend, they must turn in their money and permission slip by March 21.  

12. We are in the process of putting copy codes in the copiers by group. I will let you know when this process is completing and we are ready to start using them.

13. Soon all teachers will receive their online letters of intent information from Human Resources. You will need to take the time to review all options thoroughly and make the best decision for you. I will send a separate email with details on completing the letter of intent. 

14. Quarter testing is still set for March 24 and 25 in Reading and Math. We will have a shutdown schedule for both days. The 8th grade Math I benchmark will take place March    12-14, and the 8th grade Science benchmark will be on March 26. We will send out the altered schedule very soon. Please know that EC teachers will be testing our Extend 2 EC students from March 19-21, so they may be pulled for these test sessions. 

15. The end of the quarter is scheduled for Friday, March 28. The principals have requested that the report card distribution date be pushed back at least one more week (right now it is April 9) to allow for plenty of time for teachers to complete their quarter grades. I have not yet received confirmation of this. But as of now, grades will NOT be due on March 28. Stay tuned for updated information on this topic.

16. It is time for staff to complete the Teacher Working Conditions survey. We will have a brief staff meeting on Monday, March 24, for approximately 10 minutes. Nancy Holmes will instruct the staff on how to complete the online survey. It is the expectation that all staff members complete the survey before the end of the week of March 24. This is an opportunity for all of you to voice your opinions on school and district processes. We use these results to assist us in improving the processes, etc. with our School Improvement Team.

17. All 8th grade online surveys are due by March 28. A big thank you to the 8th grade Science department for taking this on.

18. The last 10 school days are designated as our official testing window. We are now working with the district to draft our potential testing plans.  During this window, we must accomplish quite a few testing sessions - Reading and Math EOG, EOC Math I, Science and SS Final Exams, 8th Science EOG, Extend 2 test for EC students, CTE tests, and all make-up tests.  There will be many details to share with all of you, but here are a few tidbits...

- There may be multiple tests given in one day, both in the morning and afternoon sessions.
- Some students may end up taking more than one test during the day.
- The chances are very good that we will have altered schedules for most/all test days.
More information coming soon.

19. The legislature has made the decision to split EOG test scores into five achievement levels as opposed to the current four-level system. This will go into effect for this year's tests. We are not sure what impact this will have on our students (i.e. What is proficient now?), but we will continue to keep you updated on this topic.


UPCOMING DATES
March 12-14 - 8th grade Math I benchmark period
March 14 - Students@Work CTE Field Trip #2
March 14 - Spring Pictures!
March 14 - College Colors Day!
March 17 - Luck of the Irish Day!
March 17 - Differentiated Instruction PLC (2:20pm, MC)
March 18 - Girls soccer vs. Jefferson (Ivey Redmon, 3pm)
March 19 - 8th Grade Field Trip to Chamber Theatre
March 20 - All A's Celebrations
March 20 - Girls Soccer @ Flat Rock (FRMS, 3pm)
March 21 - Blue Out! Wear blue in honor of S.W.
March 21 - March Madness Event - Staff vs. Students (2-4pm)
March 22 - GYRLS Community Yard Sale (SEMS)
March 24-25 - Reading and Math Quarter Testing (Shutdown schedule)
March 24 - Teacher Working Conditions Survey (2:20pm, MP Room)
March 24 - SIT Meeting (following the TWC survey)
March 25 - Girls Soccer vs. East Forsyth (Ivey Redmon, 3pm)
March 26 - 8th Science Quarter Testing
March 27 - Track meet (Glenn HS, 3pm)
March 28 - Hoops for Heart Competitions
March 28 - Student Snow Make-Up Day! End of 3rd Quarter!