Weekly News and Notes

We're back!

Thanks for your patience and attention today; we got through a lot in our brief time together, and with the students due to arrive on Tuesday, there are always the usual crop of concerns that pop up. Some of them may be:


1. Not enough desks/too many desks in the room

We have provided Pat Cole with a list of the classrooms, including enrollments, and he was in the process of double-checking those today. If you have an urgent need, send an email, and we'll address it ASAP.

2. Difficulty logging into MMS

Send Mike Conway an email. It may be a situation where your password needs to be reset.

3. Confusion about some of the times/people with whom I'm working in non-instructional time
See below. There's a listing of all the files we've published.

1. Attendance FAQ
This provides some questions and responses for those taking attendance at the onset of the school day, as well as how to handle students arriving tardy.

2. Non-instructional Time FAQ:
The non-instructional period has been reshaped for this coming year to allow for some opportunities for collaboration amongst the staff.

3. Non-instructional time Schedule:
This provides the schedule of who is assigned on a given period to the non-instructional time periods.

4. Non-instructional time Log:
This provides a log which people can use to track the activities they complete during non-instructional time, both for feedback to admin, department leaders, and evaluation binder purposes.

5. Fire Drill/Evacuation Plan:
This provides the information for any fire drills or evacuations, as well as the assembly spots by grade at the tennis courts.

6. Emergency Procedures: 
This was the document Dr. Pires referenced at our faculty meeting of August 29.

7. Student Handbook:
Our 2013-14 Student handbook


Faculty Handbook:

Over the summer we started working on a faculty guidebook. While incomplete, there may be some things in it that you find helpful. If you have ideas for material to add to it - particularly nuts and bolts of working here - send them my way, and I'll get the information into it.

The guidebook can be found here.


Student Leadership Senate

For those of you who are advisers to a club or class, our first student leadership senate meeting will be Friday, September 13 at 7:20 a.m.


This blog

I'm hoping to include some of the information/highlights from common planning on this, especially as people complete the log, scan and upload, and give us some ideas. I would love to see some virtual collaboration - but haven't quite figured out how that will happen. I'd like to think about guest contributions, questions, commentary, etc. - ideas that will help us grow, a place to offer questions and solutions, etc. Above all else, I am hoping that people will get some information on what's happening around the building, some of the administrivia, and some thoughts from what is going on in our field.

On that note...

Weekly Resources can be found here; there are two cool, quick reads on "ten tips for engaging underperforming students" - many of which are just great strategies many of us use on a daily basis -  and "26 questions every student should be able to answer." (I found the 26 questions pretty thought-provoking and wasn't sure how I would answer them all). Happy reading!

Finally, welcome back. We trust that you had great, refreshing, and relaxing summers and that you are ready for the challenges and excitement of a new school year. After many, many interviews, lots of hours on MMS, manipulating schedules and courses, and a busy couple of months getting the year prepped, it will be great seeing people in the building again. If there is anything that requires assistance as we get going, please let us know!

Certainly hope Tuesday is not like this for us! (by the way, love the blanket!)

Enjoy the long weekend!

Summer News

Hope this finds everyone doing well and getting ready for the start of another year. We have had a busy but productive summer filling all of our openings, doing the usual updates, and polishing up for a new year.

First Days

Our first day together will be Thursday, August 29. A full agenda will be forthcoming as to times we will spend as a district, school, and department, as well as individually for setup as needed.

Because some people have been asking - and we will review this on August 29 - we will have homeroom on September 3 and 4 for the purpose of distributing and collecting some paperwork. Homeroom will also be the go-to for the emergency procedure on the tennis courts, should we evacuate, and we may convene homerooms periodically should they be needed.

September 3 will follow a Day 1 schedule with homeroom extended and the periods shortened so all seven classes meet (day 1 plus G block from Day 2). September 4 will follow a Day 1 schedule with a brief homeroom for the collection of paperwork; that said, the periods are all about the same amount of time. There is no school on September 5, and on September 6 we will follow a Day 2 schedule, with no homeroom, and the students reporting directly to their B block class.


Student Handbook

The Student-Handbook link for 2013-14 is not yet active on the school website, which is being reconfigured. To access the Handbook, as well as some other resources that we will include with it, you can click here.  If you have ideas for other materials to include for students, feel free to email them. Also, there is a tab in that binder where you can see only the updates for this year.

New Staff

We have a number of new faces in the building this year, so we hope you will make them all feel welcome. They will all bring Medway some fresh ideas and will contribute to what is already a terrific faculty. They are, in alphabetical order:

Chris Borden, social studies
Stephanie Feinberg, Spanish
Tracy Isman, Math
Steven Janczura, TV/video
Erin Kim, Long term sub science
Lisa LaPlante, English
David Lark, Long-term sub History
Gui LaRoche, French
Brandon Lemos, social studies
Kendra Nutting, Music
Dominique Ross, Guidance
Shayla Rothman, Social Worker/LINKS

We also welcome Luis Torres, who has transferred from the middle school, to our foreign language department; Ann Jacobs, who has transferred from the elementary school, to our counseling staff; Ellen Hester, who will be here as a speech and language pathologist; and Christine Babicz, who will be our school nurse, moving here from Memorial School.




Schedules

You will be hearing more about this next week, but we will have some changes to some of the non-instructional/duty periods, most of which have been made to accommodate the need for common planning time. We are fortunate that, on average, we have 150 fewer students in study each day! In fact, despite a 3% decrease in the population of our students, we have a reduction of 27% in our total number of study halls. All in all, the master schedule does provide for some opportunities for both staff and students that everyone will hear more about next week.

If you have any questions, let us know, but with only an exception or two - which have been communicated to those teachers - the schedule as it stood when we had our departmental meetings in June remains intact.

Many thanks to our counselors who have done an exemplary job of satisfying the few glitches that remained after scheduling concluded last June.

Academic Success Center

The Academic Success Center will be piloted this year as an opportunity for some targeted interventions for students, utilizing National Honor Society tutors, teaching staff, and community volunteers.

It  will provide opportunity for students to proactively maintain or improve their academic performance.  While it is recommended that students seek out their academic teachers first for assistance and for questions, the Academic Success Center provides an additional layer  of support. 

Students will be encouraged to seek assistance on their own but may be referred for service by counselors and  teachers. The Instructional  Support Team, upon review of student performance, may also arrange for students to receive assistance.

To arrange to go to the Academic Success Center:

• Students may ask for a pass from  study halls
• Students may request a regular pass for ongoing tutorial sessions
• Students are responsible for reporting for scheduled sessions.
• Students may drop in with a pass from study for assistance, but should be aware  that tutoring in every subject may not  be available every period.  
• Students seeking help in a specific subject  may be asked to schedule a specific time/day for tutoring.
• Drop in for occasional academic assistance
• Receive regular tutorial assistance  during study hall or during after school sessions
• Study with a group
• Get assistance with organization, study skills or with a specific paper or assignment

If a teacher wishes to request covering the Academic Success Center as a duty, please email Mike and Dot and that coverage will be arranged. Teachers covering may provide directed support on their content area, but the support may be on organizational, study, research, writing, or planning skills - all things we all do for students. Teachers may also triage the Center to direct the incoming student to the appropriate NHS tutor. We imagine this duty being similar to Computer Lab in that some periods may be more active than others, particularly after the year begins.

Again, if interested in participating or having this period as a duty, email Mike and Dot, and we will make sure that people who want this duty have it.

See you all next week - if you have specific questions, just ask!