R.L. Turner: PawPrints

October 27, 2009

2009-10-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Turner Lions--we have finished our first quarter!

Professional Development

Ms. Cherney and I spent this past Sunday and Monday at the Texas ASCD Conference in Frisco. We were able to hear James Popham, Deborah Pickering, Ken Kay, and others speak about current educational issues including the need to reform grading, the need for formative assessment, and the need for 21st Century skills.

Quote from Ken Kay..."In our schools, we tell students 100 times what to do. On the 101st time, we ask them if they remember what we told them 100 times. The real skill set is the student taking new information and knowing what to do with it."

"The amount of technical information doubles every 24 months; by 2020, it will double every 72 hours. What are the implications for our work?"

Update on AYP/SPA

GLAD Training has been scheduled for December 3rd and 4th for Core Departments.

GLAD Workshop Training will be the last week of January (2 days for ELA and 2 days for Math) and the last week of February (2 days for Social Studies and 2 days for Science).

Two consultants will teach strategy and research regarding English Language Learners (good strategies for all students) in December. They will return in January/February to teach our kids while we observe and learn. Then, they will plan with us. It should be a great learning experience for us!

Wide Reading: We will begin Wide Reading in January; more information to follow at our November SPA. To alleviate some concerns: we are providing a bookshelf for each 3rd period classroom, along with reading materials. We will work through details with you at the November session.

Counseling Corner

With the economic struggles our nation has faced, we are seeing the impacts here at home. Our counselors reminded us yesterday that we have families without electricity, struggling with hunger, and needing clothes. Please be mindful that we have students struggling to meet basic needs.

It is a great time to clean out the closet! Please bring any clothes you can donate (infant to adult) to D107 for our PTSA Clothes Closet. They are running short on supply, especially for socks and underwear.

Administrative Reminders

An email from a teacher...

"This past weekend we had an activity--so many of the kids say that 5th period teachers do not play the announcements so they didn't know."
Please turn on the announcements in 5th period.

Turn in summatives one week in advance in your folder on the S drive. You should have 3 summatives submitted this 9 weeks.

Wednesday, October 7th

2009-10-07T07:11:00.001-07:00

That's SMART

Look for great ways to use our 5 new words: length, per, difference, following, and represents!

You will receive a word cloud and words for a word wall in your box or in PD today.

Idea from Brandon Waterman: "clock words"--put words up around the clock in your room or other places where kids often look.

Idea from PD Period 1: include these words on your test, asking kids to explain them for bonus points.

Faces Behind the Data

For those of you who teach sophomores--every AYP committee member is selecting some ELL sophomores to learn about in order to write their biography. We will be sharing these with the staff so that we all know the stories of the kids behind our numbers. Look for emails and some kids being pulled out for a short interview.

Instructional Quick Tip

Remember to challenge students to explain their thinking every chance you get. Never accept "because" as a reason. Doing this is as simple as asking "Why." This week callenge yourself to ask students "why" two more times than you would on an average week.

Spirit Days

Wear jeans with spirit wear (or flashback decades wear) on Thursday!

Wear jeans with spirit wear or College shirts on Friday!

Thursday Night Game

Reminder that our game is on Thursday night this week. That means a late night and possibly a tough Friday AM for our student athletes, trainers, cheerleaders, drill team, and fans.

Upcoming Survey

I will be sending out a survey at the end of this week for feedback on the first 6 weeks of school. Thanks for your time in doing this.

September 27, 2009

2009-09-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

CONGRATULATIONS!

Big congratulations to the R.L. Turner Band! The Lion Band finished first in their class at the BOA Tournament of Champions and participated in the showcase. Congratulate your band kids on an OUTSTANDING performance!

Congratulations to Jeff Froehlich who just received his Eagle Scout!

Congratulations to JaRod Hall who will advance to Area for the TMEA All-State Band competition!

R.L. Turner received word of National Merit Commended Students on Friday afternoon. We had 5 Commended Students--what a celebration! As soon as we tell the students, we'll send information out to the staff and community.

UDPATES:

Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, is discussing the reauthorization of NCLB. Read the full text of his latest speech at http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/09/09242009.html.

This Friday, October 2nd, we play Newman Smith High School at Standridge Stadium. We are collecting books, magazines, VHS, and DVDs for the Gently Used Book Sale. This event is very important as it helps raise funds that benefit RLT teachers and students through grants and scholarships. Please BRING IN YOUR BOOKS! We will have boxes in the front office and they will be collecting at the game on Friday night. We are having a "book war" with Newman Smith--let's win!

Please tell your students about the 2009 DFW Youth Symposium on Saturday, October 3 from 10:30 to 3:00 at UTD. This opportunity allows students to be up close and personal with college professors and admissions officials to discuss the professional and collegiate world in the areas of Medicine and Dentistry, Media and Journalism, Social Sciences, and Engineering. Information and registration at www.dfwaacc.org/dfwaacc/contact-us/youth-symposium-register/
If you have students attending, let me know; we will arrange bus transportation from RLT.

Monday, October 19th will be the Lionette Golf Tournament beginning at 1:30 PM. Let me know if you are planning to participate.

Theresa Buntain, Deborah Dillon, Mary Gesino, and I will be in Austin for the School Improvement Conference this week. We look to seek out great ideas from our colleagues across the state and return with even more strategies to increase student achievement.

Sunday, September 21st

2009-09-20T17:51:00.000-07:00

What a week for R.L. Turner High School!

We celebrate our National Merit Semi-Finalists:

Congratulations to Roman Stolyarov and Amanda Werneke!

At our Meet the Teacher Night, parents told me:

"This is the first time my son has been excited about school."

"My child has always been picked on--here, he just feels accepted."

"We are so, so glad we chose R.L. Turner for our child."

I received an e-mail from a fan at the volleyball game that read:

"I must share with you how impressed we were with the number of and behavior of the students and parents. We were also proud of our coaches, team and cheerleaders!
P.S. The gym floor is awesome!!!!"

The RLT Lady Lions won their first district game in 5 years! What a celebration--and the best is yet to come!

At our AYP Committee Meeting, we had over 30 staff members to share GREAT feedback and ideas for moving our work forward.

After our SMART PD, Karen Forte and Amy Rasmussen developed a "word cloud" from wordle with our Mathematics TAKS test so that we know our high frequency academic words--great creativity!

Our 9th Grade Team selected students for support for REEL Team. The 9th Grade teachers are working hard and pushing for student success. The mentoring initiative is underway!

Administrative Information:

1. Make sure to turn in Beginning of the Year Checklist.

2. Please join PTSA if you have not already! This organization needs our support.

3. Please save books for the Gently Used Booksale. We will be having a "book war" with Newman Smith on October 2nd, and we want to win! Boxes will be outside the main office for collection.

4. Student aides should have orange badges. If you have a student aide, please make sure they wear the badge during the period and turn in their badge at the end of the period.

September 3, 2009

2009-09-03T15:53:00.000-07:00

Another great week for the Turner Lions! Thank you for your continued help in maintaining consistency with our expectations. Showing the video of expectations and discussing expectations with students, along with building relationships will allow us to have a great year!

Professional Development Update:
The core teachers read the first two chapters of Influencer this week and discussed our thinking about the text. Our framing question is--what are high leverage student and/or teacher behaviors for us to target as a staff to evoke change on our campus? We will continue to discuss at faculty meetings, department meetings, and in PD. We invite the enrichment teachers to join in the discussion in these venues. This will be a guiding book for us this year.

We had our first Instructional Improvement Process overview and Focused WalkThroughs this week--we saw great instructional strategies in Science today!

College Tutorials:
College tutorials are tutoring sessions with our AVID tutors (college students). They are here from 3 to 5 PM every Tuesday and Thursday in the library. They use a structured tutorial system. Please target one child you believe could benefit from this type of tutoring and help them commit to come on Tuesday or Thursday afternoons.

SMART Update:
Our SMART Leadership Team met on Thursday to review SMART goals for this year. We will have our first SMART PD on 9/14/09. Please make sure to turn in your T-shirt size to your department manager--we are having a SMART branding campaign on our campus. Our SMART goal: 85% of RLT students will meet or exceed the state standards on TAKS by 2011.
More info to follow...

Campus Improvement Committee:
Our CIC met today for the first time. The CIC reviewed the summary statements from the Summer Planning Academy and looked for trends so that we can develop a working campus improvement plan. Great ideas from this summer! We are on the right track. Look for more information in your department meeting next week. We need your feedback.

9th Grade Update:
Our first ZAP is on Friday, September 4, 2009. We are asking all 9th grade teachers to deliver their 7th period "zappees" to the Library at the end of 7th period and to help get them started on their work. Thanks to Ms. Cherney, Ms. Smith, the 9th grade teachers, and NHS for their work on ZAP!

Administrative Information:
If you have not already, please join PTSA. This is a worthwhile organization that supports us--please help support them. 100% staff membership is a goal for PTSA, and they receive state recognition if they reach that goal.

The Beginning of the Year check list is due on September 11, 2009.

Meet the Teacher Night will be on Monday, September 14, 2009 from 6-8 PM. If you have a conflict, please let me know.

Ms. Cherney will send out a "TEAMS Proficiency" checklist. Please use this self-assessment tool to decide if you need to come for optional help on Thursday, September 10th.

Have a great weekend!
Georgeanne

August 29, 2009

2009-08-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

What a great week, Turner Lions! Thanks for your flexibility as we have settled into a new schedule, new system, and new year with new leadership!

Welcome to PawPrints--our RLT blog. I will update the blog weekly and send out with administrative information, celebrations, accolades, and instructional tips.

Administrative Info:
If you are interested in the ESL endorsement class, let me know. If we have 30 interested, they will conduct the class on campus. See e-mail sent previously from Warnock regarding the class. I also have a binder in my office with prep materials available for check-out.

Remember to show our Expectations Video next week on Tuesday from the S drive folder RLT Video Expectations. Show Part 1 in 4th period, Part 2 in 5th period, and Part 3 in 6th period. See email from Kevin Loeffler to make sure you are able to show the clip. Contact him if you are having difficulty. We all must reinforce the expectations to have the consistency we have discussed as a staff.

If you are interested in a 10-AAAA Athletic pass that will allow you and immediate family into home and away games (CFB card allows only the card holder into home games), please see Sandy. We have a few extra--first come, first served.

Remember 3rd period teachers to collect 2 required signature sheets: Code of Conduct receipt and Ethnicity Survey. Due to Ms. McMurrey by Friday.

Sign up next Monday with Mr. Wisener for Fingerprinting! Remember to check e-mails from Itsbatch to verify if you need fingerprinting and to print fast pass.

The central office cabinet will be here at our faculty meeting next Wednesday at 2:45 in the cafeteria. They will visit with us and address questions from the faculty.

We have a pep rally tomorrow and will be on a special schedule. Please sit with your students in the gym to cheer on the Lions to victory. Come out to support our football team, band, Lionettes, Cheerleaders and Lion Keepers, and NJROTC Color Guard on Saturday night at 7:00 at Standridge Stadium!

Check out this link--a good reminder of the types of jobs we are preparing students for in the 21st century...this will take you to a menu with several great commercials, but be sure to look at "Wrench"...http://www.ge.com/company/advertising/index.html

Have a great weekend--get some rest--you have earned it!

Georgeanne