December 9, 2019

Big THANK YOU to all of our participating Teachers and Students. Your creations are amazing!

December Faculty Meeting: Objectives

• Teachers were given data on student achievement, discipline and use it to identify ways to improve the 2020 - 2021 master schedule to address student needs as evidenced in the data.
• Teachers were given data on student achievement and use it to identify ways to improve practice in order to immediately address student needs as evidenced in the data.
• Teachers will understand to embed in every lesson an opportunity for students to participate in a structured academic conversation with peer.

December Department Chair Meeting: Objectives

• Use Dept. chair meeting to collaboratively plan to implement Academic Conversations
• Create/Review a rubric that will track progress and work to continually improve performance with Academic Conversations
• Design a notetaker for learning walks on Academic Conversations
• Review departmental SMART Goals
• Share department’s high quality, aligned common interim assessments 
• Discuss academic intervention plan for students with F’s 
• Prepare for the Learning Walks on 12/19/19

Next Steps for Students with F’s

Last week, we saw our grading breakdown through the second marking period. We know our job is to ensure student success with quality first instruction, many opportunities for success, then interventions if necessary.

One piece that we need to ensure is INFORMING PARENTS - At the end of last week, only 100 out of 700 families had checked Parent Portal since the second marking period. That means that 600 families have no idea what their child’s grades are!

This week, we will be contacting parents of every student with an F to educate parents on how to check grades and ensure they know exactly how their child is performing. As a result, teachers should be ready for lots of inquiries from students and parents on how to get grades up!

Sharing Best Practices: Addressing Student Performance in the Classroom

Mrs. Spinelli has a great strategy to share called, “How Are You Doing In This Class?”. She runs this about every two weeks as an activity for students to know exactly where they stand in her class and as an opportunity for students to share with the teacher personal information that may help her form a connection. Take a look at Mrs. Spinelli’s example HERE. Thank you for sharing Tara!!

Prepare for the December Department Meeting on 12/17/19

In addition to the work around achievement and departmental matters, teachers, please use your time as a department this month to consider students that may need a schedule change at the semester either in or out of intervention, an SST, or social emotional supports added or removed based on their performance and data. 

What After School Interventions Do We Offer to Students?

• Crystal Middle is building a consistent and reliable after school program to support struggling students. For students already identified as struggling readers, we are going to offer extended time for students to continue Read 180 to accelerate their progress in the program they are working on during the school day. 
• We are also finalizing the details on a program that will have Armijo High School students coming to Crystal on a regular basis to provide tutoring through our College and Career Center after school… More information on these programs will be shared with staff. Our goal is to have them both up and running as soon as we are back from Winter Break.

Committees on Campus

Thank you to our Safety Committee members - Katie, Bryce, Kayla, Heather, Joe Guillory and Sue Oliveros for providing feedback on the Safe School Plan. The comments on this document were shared in order to improve our plan before going to the SSC and to improve our school’s overall safety. The document, with comments, can be found HERE.

Cougar Code Lesson/Focus for the Month: Safety
Mrs. Nashir has created a lesson for ALL 4th Period Teachers to deliver this week. The goal of the lesson is for students to identify and describe desired student behavior in various school settings and discuss safe and unsafe behaviors in scenarios presented.

• Please access the lesson HERE and let Mrs. Nashir know if you have any questions. Thank you!!

Parent Engagement Committee 

Thank you to our Parent Engagement Committee members - Alex, Vince, Clement, Tara, David. They are working to guide the PTA and ensure that our school has at least 4 community engagement events that go beyond things like Back to School Night.

Attendance Committee

So far, we do not have any staff that has signed up to be on the committee to improve student attendance. Planning assemblies, incentives, rewards for students that improve or keep up good attendance is waiting. Please tell admin if you are interested in being on this committee!

Staff and Student Attendance Rates Last Week

Staff attendance last week was 94% present and 6% absent

Student attendance last week was (still calculating...)

CHKS Survey Plan

7th Grade students need one class period to take the survey. The average student can complete the online Core Module in 15 minutes or less. Ninety-five percent of students complete the online Core Module in 30 minutes or less.

All staff should complete the survey. Classified employees should set aside a moment of their duty day to complete the survey (see admin if you need help accessing the online survey). Teachers will get one hour of adjunct for completing it. All staff survey results need to be completed by 12/20. The survey can be accessed HERE.

Upcoming events

All Week: Toys for Tots, CHKS for Staff, “10 Days of Christmas”, 4th period teachers deliver lesson on Safety

Monday: Principal Coffee Chat in the Library at 9:15

Tuesday: Department Chair Meeting in the Library at 3:30

Wednesday: Winter Concert at 7 in the Gym (Parent Show)

Thursday: Winter Concert 1st Period in the Gym (Grade 6 Only)

11:30 am, Basketball Game vs. MCCA at Crystal

10 Days of Christmas Starts Monday, December 9!