I am amazed at what I have already seen going on in classrooms this year.  Students and teachers hit the ground running on what is going to be the best year ever.  Tell me about what you have already learned this year.  Can’t wait to read your responses!

In the April newsletter, I mentioned some stories I heard from parents about times when their children got upset when they had to miss school because they were sick or times when kids got into the car after school and couldn’t wait to tell you about their day. 

If you are a student, you can write about a time when you got very excited about something in school.

Yesterday was Stop Cyberbullying Day.  I encourage each student to really think about how they treat each other in cyberspace.  You may think that words written on your computer won’t hurt someone, but they really do.

Here are some hints. 

• When you are angry or hurt, don’t write an email, send an IM, post to MySpace, etc.  Step away from your computer and give yourself some time before responding to something.
• Write as if the person you are talking about, their parents, or your parents are sitting beside you reading what you are writing.  If you don’t think any of these people would like what you are writing, don’t.
• Remember, you can’t take back words that you have written. 
• Don’t write something that you might be sorry for writing in the future.
• Respect!  Always be respectful of others.  This doesn’t mean that you have to like everyone, but you should always be respectful of others.

We live in a time of great access to tools (Internet, blogs, MySpace, etc) that expand our world beyond Trussville.   There is a great deal of positive information and opportunities because of these tools, but we all must learn how to use them appropriately and for good.

As we all leave for break, I want to take the chance to reiterate the wonderful things going on daily at HTMS.  Laura Reddick’s students have entered art work into a contest sponsored by the National Middle School Association.  I helped cover her class earlier in the week so she could co-teach an activity with Niki Lincoln for social studies.  Her students applied mathematical concepts as they drew tessellations.  I was able to listen to Brenda Graffeo’s students share poems as beatniks in a coffee house.  I sat in on a discussion in Darrell Stovall’s class.  Students read the article from Time and participated in a discussion about it.  Over the past few weeks, all of the 6th graders went to Birmingham Southern to participate in a variety of ecological activities.  Kids came back very excited about what they learned.  Jamey Curlee is kicking off his body systems unit using the movie Supersize Me.  Erin McGuyer’s students taught me some new tricks in PowerPoint as I walked around her classroom.  Sandy Hoffman’s students rotated through different stations during class.  They had choice in working with a partner or alone and to solve a variety of problems. Check the stairwells going upstairs to see great examples of Jan Sterling’s students illustrating solutions to a problem using different strategies.  Go up the stairs in front of the counselors’ offices.  Emily Walsh had students brainstorm using different strategies (drawing a picture, creating a web, using other graphic organizers, or free write.)  Haley Nichols allowed her students to select from a variety of high interest articles.  Students with the same article formed groups and wrote persuasive essays based on their articles.  Anita Dobb’s students celebrated Pi Day (3/14) by doing a variety of math activities that required students to utilize Pi in their solving of problems.  Joy Young’s students used Excel to recreate and fill in their tournament brackets.  They then utilized the program to calculate the winning percentages based on their brackets.  Very high interest way of teaching students the Excel. Ann House’s students created board games to demonstrate their learning.  Tracy Gulledge’s students dissected hearts; I never was able to dissect anything beyond a frog.  Larry Jones’ students had rocket launches to test different principles in physics.  Did you see the article in the Birmingham News the other morning about the cafeteria’s 100 score on the latest health rating? 

High quality teachers are very important in your school experience and to HTMS becoming a GREAT school.  By the time you enter middle school, you have had multiple teachers who were all different from each other.  I am already starting to get applications and phone calls from teachers interested in teaching at HTMS.  As I interview teachers for next school year, what qualities do you think I should look for?

I recently read an article in Time about what students need in the 21st century. Recommendations about the skills and disciplines needed included technology and exposure to world cultures. The term “portable skills” was a new term to me. Portable skills are critical think, making connections, and the ability to continuously learn. The article also discussed the importance of teaching students how to assess the accuracy of information read on websites. Did you know that in a recent study of 6,200 high school seniors and college freshman only 50 percent could accurately judge the quality of content on websites?
I would be very interested in hearing from you what you think you need to be well educated in the 21st century. I would also like to hear how you learn when you are away from school. Do you see similarities or differences between HOW you learn at school and away from school?

Amazing things went on at HTMS today!  The 8^th grade science students were spread out over campus discovering things about velocity and speed.  Some were out on the mall shooting rockets made from soft drink bottles.  Others were in the halls building roller coasters.  Mrs. Hambey’s students dissected squids—man does that smell bring back memories of my days in science class.  Mr. Brown’s class participated in a simulation designed to help students learn the workings of the ancient city-states in Greece.  I loved watching each individual “city state” go from claiming all of the land possible alone to forming alliances with other city- states.  We took pictures of the 8^th grade students voted as this year’s who’s who for the yearbook.  The focus of this year’s who’s who was the character education words we study throughout the year. 

Mr. Jones, Mr. Posey, and I are still hard at work with homework remediation.  We appreciate the teachers’ continued efforts to work with students who are not performing as well as we would like.  Unfortunately, there are still too many students not completing work on time, but we are working to help students make better decisions.  We have moved into the next phase of homework remediation.  Students who have been referred before for not having homework automatically go to detention.   Eventually, students will grow tired of sitting in the cafeteria on the hard round seats for two hours after school.  Remember, the media center is open every morning for students who need extra time or extra help to complete homework.  We are here to help each student be successful!