HTHS Heritage Panel

The HTHS Heritage Panel is a group of students who, under the guidance of School Nurse Dana DePew, has made a commitment to discourage bullying, harassment and discrimination at HTHS. Over the course of intensive training, the students discuss important issues that affect their school experience, like cliques, race, gender, cultural backgrounds and exclusion. 

Heritage Panel empowers students to be leaders in making their school a more welcoming, inclusive place. Following the training, Heritage Panelists share what they have learned through Heritage Panel presentations given to their classmates. Presentations consist of Heritage Panelists sharing their personal experiences followed by a teacher-moderated discussion with the audience. Students are challenged to think about how their actions affect school culture, and what steps they can take to change their school for the better. 

On Friday, HTHS Heritage Panelists shared their experiences and solicited information throughout the day from students in Mrs. Herring's classes.  When asked how they might stop bullying or prevent others from feeling excluded, the students said they would mingle with others, try to include new people in conversations, stand up for others if they were ridiculed, talk to everyone, and show love and acceptance to all.  The conversations were meaningful and heartfelt.  Students' ideas were profound.  One student said, "Never pass up an opportunity to speak to someone."

Training for Registrars and School Office Personnel

Representatives from all TCS schools met for training today at the Board office.  Kathy Burgin and Mandi Logan shared information about residency requirements, enrollment and withdrawal procedures, immunization requirements, student data maintenance, attendance procedures, grades, transcripts, scheduling, and end of year procedures.  Many thanks to Mrs. Burgin and Mrs. Logan for providing this information that will standardize and clarify processes throughout the district.

 

Sixth Grade Curriculum Night at HTMS

Upcoming sixth graders and their families had the opportunity to visit HTMS tonight and meet their prospective teachers.  Teachers of electives set up displays in the gym, and core teachers opened their classrooms for the students to get a glimpse of next year.  Mrs. Berry, Mr. Posey, and Mrs. Edwards introduced the staff and gave a welcome and overview of the middle school schedule and opportunities that await the students.

Robotics at Paine Primary

At Paine Primary, students are getting the opportunity to explore and work with robots.  Librarian Rachel Brockman and Technology Integration Specialist Charlene Hallman sponsor the school's robotics club.

At their initial meeting, excited and motivated students explored new BeeBots.  They had to figure out what each button would do, and come up with a bit of information about BeeBot’s operation and behavior that they wanted to share with the group.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to 4th grade teacher, Jana Walls, and Math Coach, Lisa Lothspeich.  Together, they wrote a proposal to present "Developing Multiplication Fact Fluency in the 21st Century" at the regional conference for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).  Their proposal was accepted and these two faculty members will represent Trussville City Schools in Nashville this November.

Trussville Police Department Active Shooter Awareness for Teachers

TRUSSVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT’S SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER UNIT

PRESENTS:     

ACTIVE SHOOTER AWARENESS FOR TEACHERS

JUNE 10^TH 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM OR 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

JUNE 17^TH 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM OR 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

HEWITT-TRUSSVILLE MIDDLE SCHOOL

5275 TRUSSVILLE CLAY ROAD

TRUSSVILLE, ALABAMA 35173

Course Objective:  To experience a simulation of law enforcement officials as they seek to rid an active shooter from a school environment.

The short history of school shootings in the United States has caused major changes in the school environment.  Learn what you as a teacher can do to protect yourself and your students from a potentially dangerous intruder.  Resource Officers from Trussville City Schools will lead you through our system’s crisis plan and an actual Intruder Drill.  This simulation will allow you to experience basic movement’s police officers take while seeking an active shooter in a school building.         

Please email Sgt. Posey at todd.posey@trussvillecityschools.com with the date and time that is most convenient for you. Each class session will be limited to 25 students.  Be sure to register early and reserve your slot for this course.  Casual clothing (jeans) with a long sleeve shirt is recommended.

Preparing for Accreditation Process

Trussville City Schools will host an AdvancED External Review in November 2015.  AdvancED is an organization that conducts rigorous, on-site external reviews of PreK-12 schools and school systems to ensure that all learners realize their full potential. Their goal is to help schools improve.

The TCS Accreditation Team consists of

Dr. Neill

Phyllis Faust

Jim Kirkland

Beth Bruno

Mandi Logan

April Chamberlain

School Administrators

Representatives from each school

The team met Tuesday to begin the self-assessment process.  Staff, students, and parents will be surveyed this spring.  An AdvancED External Review Team will visit our schools in November. Look for more information regarding the process and the November external review on the C&I blog. 

TCS Diversity Committee Meets

The Trussville City Schools Diversity Committee met today during a lunch meeting for the purpose of discussing diversity factors in the workplace, to learn more about the infrastructure of diversity, and to begin the process of crafting a diversity statement for the district.

PI Teachers Study at Teachers College at Columbia University

Principal Autumm Jeter, Reading Coach Kelly McGough, and teachers, Amy Kuhn, Marianna Waits, Allie Aldrich, Jana Feild, Dee Dee Brasher, and Carrie Almon, have studied at the Teachers College at Columbia University in New York for the last four days.  They have focused on developing the curriculum and methods necessary to help students reach the rigorous standards for content area literacy embedded in the Common Core.

Discussions and demonstrations included how to ramp up the level of rigor and engagement in the content areas. The participants learned about small group work, collaborative inquiry and multi-media centers, which allow students to research in the company of others.

The teachers worked to develop a repertoire of skills for helping students think and read nonfiction texts analytically, including reading for central ideas, synthesizing, and comparing and contrasting. They studied methods for involving whole classes in close reading of grade-level complex texts and nonfiction read-alouds.

Participants also learned concrete methods to support and hone students’ note-taking skills, including observing, sketching, sorting and categorizing notes. The institute focused on nonfiction content and reading with an emphasis in grades 3-8 on quick content area essays. The teachers learned about ways to help students write fluently across the curriculum, using writing as a tool for analytical thinking.

Additionally, the group learned about using performance assessments to track students’ progress in some of the higher-level comprehension skills inherent in the CCRS. As a culminating activity, the teachers developed action plans aimed at revising curriculum in social studies and language arts.

Kelly McGough and Lucy Calkins

Allie Aldrich and Lucy Calkins

Increasing Rigor and the Reading of Historical Fiction

Fourth graders at Paine Intermediate are reading Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule for reading and social studies.  The book is the Winner of the 1999 Scott O'Dell Award and A Notable Children's Book in the Field of Social Studies.

The main characters are ex-slaves, Pascal and his older brother Gideon.  They have been promised forty acres and maybe a mule. With the family of friends they have built along the way, they claim a place of their own. Green Gloryland is the most wonderful place on earth, their own family farm with a healthy cotton crop and plenty to eat. But the notorious night riders have plans to take it away, threatening to tear the beautiful freedom that the two boys are enjoying for the first time in their young lives. Coming alive in plain, vibrant language is this story of the Reconstruction, after the Civil War.

Understanding this challenging, rigorous content requires fourth grade readers to use new skills  for determining theme, summarizing, explaining differences in casts of characters, setting, descriptions, and dialogue, referring to details and drawing inferences from the text, and explaining events, ideas, and concepts in a historical text.  Take a look at the charts teachers use to help guide students through the reading of historical fiction.

State Board Work Session Update

The State Board of Education met in a work session today, February 12,  in Montgomery with all Board members in attendance with the exception of Betty Peters and Jeff Newman.  Items on the agenda included the following:

Mathematics Standards Review – Mrs. Sherrill Parris, Dr. Julie Hannah, Mr. Steve Ricks, and Ms. Andrea Von Herrman, Jefferson County Schools, Mathematics Course of Study Member, shared an overview of the review process.

After careful review there was unanimous agreement by the Mathematics committee that no actions were needed on any of the comments from the public review.  No action by this committee affirms the quality of the current COS for Mathematics.  Additionally, the committee believes the COS is well written and standards are appropriately placed to ensure students become college and career ready. We would recommend that many of the concerns expressed in the comments be addressed by teacher and community education.

English Language Arts Standards Review – Mrs. Sherrill Parris, Dr. Julie Hannah, Ms. Judy Stone, and Ms. Lindsey Kissic, Sylacauga City Schools, English Language Arts Course of Study Member, shared an overview of the review process.

The committee considered and discussed each comment individually and agreed on whether to recommend action or no action.  There was unanimous agreement that no action should be taken on the majority of the comments from the public review.  There were 2 recommendations from 128 disagreeing comments.  The comments fell into three main categories of concern related to the standards.
o Grade-level placements of the standards: There were many suggestions for moving standards to a higher grade level. The committee felt this is an indication of a lack of understanding about the increased rigor which leads to college and career readiness and about how the standards build from one grade level to the next. 
o Local implementation of the standards: There were several comments about instruction (how the standards are being taught, materials, etc.) and about assessments. The standards state the expectations for what students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade level.  Both instruction and assessment are local decisions.
o Lack of understanding regarding the meaning of the standards: Some comments did not address the content of the standard. Some questioned the value of certain literacy standards which the committee felt are critical skills (e.g., naming characters, setting, main idea, supporting details, retelling the story, naming the author and illustrator)
Two minor edits were recommended for clarity.  
o The first recommendation is for Kindergarten Language Standard #37.  Add “begin to” to the standard. – Begin to – demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
o The second recommendation is to add a clarifying example to First Grade Standard #17 for Reading Informational Text. - (e.g., eating a balanced meal, obeying safety rules, engaging in recycling projects).
Recommendations other than edits for the COS:
o Consider the implications for on-going professional development and support (e.g., parent meetings, CCRS Quarterly Meetings, local differentiated PD and support). Clarify that the standards call for increased rigor at all grade levels with knowledge and skills now appearing in earlier grades than in the past. Emphasize how the standards build from one grade level to the next. Clarify that standards are expectations for what students should know and be able to do. They do not specify curriculum nor assessments.  These are local decisions.

HTMS Hosts First EdCamp

Teachers at HTMS designed and participated in their very first, mini-EdCamp.  An Edcamp is a form of unconference designed specifically for teachers and their needs.

Unlike traditional conferences which have schedules set months in advance by the people running the conference, Edcamp has an agenda that’s created by the participants at the start of the event. Instead of one person standing in front of the room talking for an hour, people are encouraged to have discussions and hands-on sessions. 

Built on principles of connected and participatory learning, Edcamp strives to bring teachers together to talk about the things that matter most to them: their interests, passions, and questions. Teachers who attend Edcamp can choose to lead sessions on those things that matter, with an expectation that the people in the room will work together to build understanding by sharing their own knowledge and questions.

Edcamps are:

• free
• made up of sessions that are determined on the day of the event
• events where anyone who attends can be a presenter
• reliant on the “law of two feet” that encourages participants to find a session that meets their needs.

At the conclusion of the EdCamp, Mrs. Berry called all the presenters into the library to participate in a drawing for prizes.  Congratulations to HTMS for stepping out and trying a new way to bring teachers together to learn from each other.  

NCTM Principles to Actions Conference

Teachers and math coaches from Paine Primary and Paine Intermediate are attending a National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Effective Teaching with Principles to Actions: Implementing College-and-Career Readiness Standards conference in Charleston, South Carolina.

During the conference, teachers will:

• Learn the significance of understanding the progressions above and below grade levels
• Learn from leading experts in the profession  
• Understand the 8 essential, research-based teaching practices   
• Share productive beliefs illuminated with real-world examples  
• Identify and eliminate obstacles that compromise progress   
• Collaborate with peers and engage in thoughtful discussions 

                      High Level versus Low Level Tasks

Collaboration at Paine Primary

Technology teacher Charlene Hallman often collaborates with classroom teachers to assist students with using digital tools to access information or to develop shared writing projects.  Second grade teacher Catherine Finkley and Mrs. Hallman are collaborating to help students research famous African Americans.  This project combines reading, writing, thinking, problem solving, determining fact versus opinion, and learning social studies content.

Extraordinary Art by First Graders

First graders at Paine Primary used pastels to create beautiful images of Arctic animals.  The Alabama Visual Arts Standards say that students will apply a variety of procedures, methods, and subject matter in the production of two dimensional works of art, including landscapes, still lifes, and relief prints. Jenni Scott is the talented visual arts teacher at Paine Primary.

HTHS Heritage Panel

Students at HTHS completed Heritage Panel training last Friday and Saturday.  These trained students will provide presentations to other students at HTHS about times when they experienced social injustice or saw others experiencing social injustice.  The students hope to provide this type of presentation bi-weekly or at least once a month.

HTMS Students Selected for District and All-State Bands

Hewitt-Trussville Middle School students auditioned on Saturday in Gardendale and Muscle Shoals for the Alabama All-State Band and the ABA District IV Honor Band.

Emily Warren  (8th grade – Flute) was selected as the top flute player in Jefferson and Shelby counties! She will represent HTMS in the Alabama All-State Band in April.

The following students were selected for the District IV Honor Band:
Merrill Bettis – 8th grade – Clarinet (2nd Year Honor Band Member)
Brennan Boeker – 8th grade – Trumpet
Reagan Bonner – 8th grade – Alto Saxophone
Kathleen Caraway – 8th grade – Percussion (2nd Year Honor Band Member)
Maggie Glidewell  - 8th grade – Flute
Abbigail Golding – 8th grade – Trumpet
Becca Hasenbein – 8th grade – Trumpet
Benson Hoggan – 8th grade – Baritone
Jack Self – 7th grade – Percussion
Sydney Stoehr – 8th grade – Clarinet
Grace Ward – 8h grade – Clarinet (2nd Year Honor Band Member)
Emily Warren – 8th grade – Flute (2nd Year Honor Band Member)

The District Honor Band will be held in Homewood in March.

The state is divided into 8 districts which each hold their own honor bands and then send representatives to the All-State Band in April. Each district has a certain quota from each instrument in the band to send. The students will go to Mobile in April to attend and at that time will re-audition for chair placement. The students will study under some of the best conductors in the profession, and perform with peers who have a love of music just like they do!

HTMS had the third highest number of students selected for the District Honor Band from schools in Jefferson and Shelby counties.

We are proud of Brandon Peters, Corinth Lewis, and the students for continuing to make the HTMS band program great!