News and Notes for September 28

As this four-day week as come to an end, there have been a number of minor issues popping up and deadlines approaching. As generally tends to happen with this time of year, tension starts to rise, students tend to escalate, and people's patience may wane. Your vigilance in hallways and willingness to help resolve small problems before they become more major is appreciated.

Our agenda for the October 5 professional development day has been set, and we are looking forward to the many topics that will be discussed. Dr. Evans will be going through an overview of the Educator Evaluation process with the first session of the morning, followed by some self-assessment and self-evaluation based on the rubrics. Our sessions post-lunch will have a couple of options, each lasting an hour. All members of the high school staff will be required to attend a session on SMART goal setting for either one of the two afternoon hours. Please be prompt!

To that end, our Faculty Meeting on October 9 will tackle Common Core, which many of you had an opportunity to discuss at the last department meeting.

We are looking to continue to find ways to share ideas, particularly as people build SMART goals and look at ways to refine professional practice, in terms of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and communication. We hope that many of you have found some of the pieces in The Medway Weekly helpful; you can also find some interesting pieces by checking out Mike Rubin's Diigo profile, which provides a listing of online bookmarks. (Diigo is an online site designed for educators, that enables the user to bookmark links and access them regardless of the computer being used). The bookmarks in Mike's profile are also compiled and sorted into various lists, such as "curriculum," "teacher tools," or "commentary," to better held with organization.

Mike is also on Twitter; those of you on Twitter can follow via @MedwayHSDean or by following a link to Mike's public Twitter profile.

The goal of providing all these sources is not information overload, but for each of you to find the best way to gain access to potentially supportive information!  For us, it's about finding ways to get as much information that is relevant into your hands and minds. If you have questions about how to use any of these resources, want to subscribe, or have ideas for contribution, please let Mike know!

Speaking of communication: the message board in the main foyer is now functional. While we are working on gaining its full functionality, club and class advisors can have messages posted up there - just let Mike know, and we will work on getting that information up there as quickly as possible.

Please keep in mind the emails that have been coming with respect to special education protocols and requirements - if you have specific questions, feel free to ask Dot or Kim Condon, our TEAM chair. Kim is generally in the building on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but can also be reached via email.

Counselors have distributed PSAT information to students in grades 10 and 11; please refer students to Ms. Rockwood in guidance for registration.

Grade 9 students will be visited by guidance in the coming weeks; please be on the lookout for those dates and times.

1. The Senior Boat Cruise in Boston is coming next week. Again, remember to get in touch with Ms. Ryan or Ms. Aigler if you plan on chaperoning.

2.  Progress reports will be sent home on October 4, so please have your grades updated! We appreciate your prompt response to this.

3. Parent-teacher conferences will be on Thursday, October 25. We will have instructions for parents and staff coming out in the next couple of weeks.

4. For those who like to plan far in advance, homeroom will be extended on November 14 for the administration of the MetroWest survey.


Enjoy the weekend!