Weekly News & Notes

It has been a few weeks since the Weekly News came out. First we had the week of vacation, and then I unfortunately wasn't here for a couple days. But I'd like to get back in the swing of keeping people in the proverbial loop though some weekly notices, which hopefully have some purpose in terms of letting you know what's happening!

Senior Exams and Class Elections

During the week of May 27, we will have a different period schedule due to senior exams and class elections. The schedule was posted to the conference some weeks ago and will be re-posted; also, the schedule for class elections will be that week.

• Current Freshman class (upcoming Sophomores) will be held on May 28th- A period
• Current Sophomore class (upcoming Juniors) will be held on May 28th- G period
• Current Junior class (upcoming Seniors) will be held on May 29th- E period
• The speeches for Student Government positions will run concurrent with each class’s speeches, however, voting will occur from 7:30-12:35 on May 30th.

The goal will be to have the speeches done within a half hour to allow class time. Keep in mind that the rising seniors will also have a presentation regarding Lifetouch.

For senior exams, we hope that grades will be posted quickly to allow us to intervene in places where students need additional support, summer classes, etc. For those of you teaching AP classes, if you could have the grades posted before exams start, it would make our identifying of graduation and Class Day speakers much easier!

Senior Week

Senior Week will be busy, to say the least.The science MCAS is Monday and Tuesday, a schedule to which also appears here. There will be graduation rehearsal on June 4, Class Day on June 6, and nightly events for the seniors. Your presence at any and all events, and the support and visibility of the staff at graduation on June 8, are all appreciated.

Thanks to those who participated in the graduation poll. No changes - though the request of many people to present the faculty in ceremonial cap and gown, which the school would have to fund/coordinate, is a great thought and something we will think about into next year.

We hope to have as many senior obligations collected as possible before Class Day; again, if you know of them, please start taking a log down so we can help. To that end, we will allow seniors some time on Wednesday and Thursday of this week to clean out lockers before/during the first few minutes of the day.


Two MCAS Down!

Thanks to all the proctors, teachers who moved, teachers who adjusted, and teachers who prepped students (you know, all of you) on the days of MCAS. They are hectic and scattered, but they went off mostly seamlessly.

Similarly, the coordination of all the AP tests, and the preparation of the students, was palpable in speaking with them. Regardless of the results, it was obvious that you all worked tireless to prepare them and put students in a good position to perform on test day.


Scheduling

Schedules have been turned to guidance for review, so counselors are looking at fixing student schedules, making adjustments to levels for rising eighth graders, and looking at places where some tweaks need to be made. That said, our hope is to give staff their teaching assignments (what classes, not necessarily what schedule) sometime in the next two weeks.

Where things have been in terms of the schedule so far:

1. Number of sections for each course have been identified.
2. What courses will or will not run based on staffing have been identified.
3. Where co-taught and support sections fall in the schedule.
4. Common planning periods, with some hope that those can be frozen.

What still needs to happen:

1. Some hiring. It could impact some sections here and there based on the staff.
2. Grade 8 level confirmations.
3. Students adding Elective course based on total credits.
4. Adjustments based on pass/fail for this year.
5. Finalizing co-taught section rosters.

Again, once we have the green light, which should be soon, teacher sections will be distributed, after which people can start the process of planning for next year in June of this year. I know, not the best way to spend June, but at least it's a start!


"The Binders"

Finally, for those of you who were taking the time this year to construct binders, finalize their SMART goal work, share their practices, and provide the massive quantity of information in support of the great things you have all done - wow. Sifting through the lessons, samples of student work, feedback to students, collaboration, PLC logs, outreach to parents, connections to peers, evidence of lessons - there have been so many great things that so many have done this year. We hope that the binders serve as some sense of validation for many of you, because it is clear how hard we are working... both to compile and to read them. Hopefully, with each year, the process will become less nebulous and easier to navigate.

Weekly News & Notes

Finally, spring has sprung.

I had a great video clip from Robin Williams about spring ("it's nature's way of saying, 'let's party'"), but the language was a little salty, so I left it off. You can find it on YouTube from his "Robin Williams: Live at the Met" routine. Trust me - it's funny.

As we prepare for the next few weeks - including the build-up to April vacation, there will be a great deal of activity, with the end of third quarter upon us and the final push in our many AP classes.

Here's a look at the calendar of what's happening for the next few weeks:

April 5:  Ring Dance
April 8:  Faculty meeting
mid-April: Evaluation evidence due
April 18: No School
April 21-25: Spring Vacation

AP Exam Dates:

Week 1

Test Date	Morning (8 AM)	Afternoon (12 PM)
Monday May 5	AP Chemistry	AP Psychology
Tuesday May 6	AP Spanish Language and Culture	AP Art History
Wednesday May 7	AP Calculus AB                 AP Calculus BC
Thursday May 8	AP English Literature and                                  Composition
Friday May 9	AP English Language and                            Composition	AP Statistics

Monday May 12	AP Biology	AP Physics B
Tuesday May 13	AP United States Government and Politics	AP French Language and Culture
Wednesday May 14	AP United States History	AP European History
Thursday May 15	AP Macroeconomics	AP Microeconomics

MCAS Dates:

May 13-14                MCAS Math Tests

We have been explicit with seniors that they are still required to attend class after the AP exams. Their last full day of classes is scheduled to be May 23, with exams following the week after.

You may have also heard a lot about PARCC testing. The good news for the high school is that we are done with the pilot - and have been since early last week.

Senior Week Calendar

Seniors will inevitably start asking about their requirements in classes. After third quarter grades close, we will be able to publish the exam exemption list. Students with a grade higher than 87 are exempt from taking the final exam.

Senior exams are scheduled to be administered May 27-30. Senior week will begin on June 2.

Instructions as to Senior obligations and collection of those materials will be forthcoming

The senior week calendar, and other information, can be seen here.

Scheduling Update

We are hoping to know what the budget situation looks like for next year, as well as the grade 8 selections, which will enable us to plan more thoughtfully around staffing and courses. We are closer to identifying the classes that are and are not running, and trying to plan thoughtfully around preps, period sequences, and common planning.

Special Olympics at Medway!

Many, many kudos to our many student volunteers who made the Special Olympics event at Medway Middle School this week. Speaking to many of them after the event, they indicated how exciting, rewarding, and exhausting the event was. It was truly spectacular to see so many participants, their proud families and teachers, and our students supporting the effort.

More than one person came to me to say, "The high school kids were awesome." We already know that about them, but if you see a student who was on the list forwarded by Ms. Brown, please let them know how much their energy meant to the successful and smooth running of the event.


Some resources:

This is for students, but with AP testing coming, a piece about test anxiety seemed fitting. This was sent by the College Board this week. 

And because we all need to laugh, and as a special thanks for those of you who this far in the notes, enjoy this one: http://happyplace.someecards.com/30182/teachers-lounge-full-of-memes-that-express-teacher-feelings





 

Weekly News & Notes

What a week!

First, many, many thanks to all who participated in MCAS, had their rooms moved by MCAS, had to make quick changes because of additional spacing needs, who prepared and reinforced concepts for our students in advance of MCAS, proctored MCAS, or welcomed staff into their spaces because of classroom changes... so, basically, everyone.

We had an incredibly smooth testing week. There were a couple of hiccups which were fixed quickly, and we had one reported security incident that was determined by the state to be minor and did not result in a voided result.

Overall, great job. We have nine MCAS makeups for next week, after which we can turn our attention to the math test in May.

PARCC Pilot

The PARCC pilot will be given to about 80 students on Monday and Tuesday. The full roster was published on the high school conference. The only rooms impacted are on the main floor of the math wing, and the test is timed - so after 90 minutes we know it is over!

Assemblies

We rarely have full-school assemblies, so the respect and focus shown by our students today as our Student Government and Peer Buddies co-sponsored our speaker as part of the "Spread the Word to End the Word" campaign. We are hoping that this discussion opens up a bigger conversation about some other words that are used insensitively by our students.

At any rate, many thanks to Ms. Ryan, Ms. Brown, and Ms. Tighe for spearheading the effort!

Looking Ahead

The coming weeks will hopefully bring some more details in terms of scheduling - we are still waiting on final decisions in terms of budget, which remains in discussion at the School Committee level. Hopefully, we'll have some answers within the next couple of weeks - but we are starting to run some different scenarios that will give us a sense of what courses can and will run - and where.

If you have questions about evaluation portfolios, please see your evaluator. If you handed in a formative last year, and have questions about what your summative should include (if you are year two), feel free to ask. By the same token, teachers who are non-professional status should similarly confirm what is needed for the summative, as those deadlines are rapidly approaching.

If you haven't already done so, and you have an iPad or iPhone, download the Medway sports app. It is awesome! Many kudos to Mr. Pearl for making it happen.