1. Faculty Focus October, 2017
--Cindy Richardson
Sunrise at MCHS

2. Dear MCHS Faculty and Staff, As many of you know, this is one of my most favorite times of the year, and I always take time during the holidays to reflect on both my personal and professional blessings. I can, without doubt, say: “My cup overflows.” I am thankful for you, for all you do, and for all of the times you put yourself aside and our students first. Thank you for treating each other like family, for supporting each other through life’s triumphs and struggles, and for making MCHS a great place to be. I am truly blessed to be the principal here. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Find time to curl-up by the fire, sip hot cocoa, watch an old movie, take a walk in the woods, laugh at old stories, and make new memories. Life is too short to forget to enjoy the small things, and break is too short to forget to take time for YOU! Once an Indian… Mrs. Linder

3. AWARENESS and REMINDERS
#MurrayCares—our system has started a new hashtag to show our community the great things we are doing with our students on building character.
A. Please text Jennifer Plemons pictures with a brief explanation of anything you do with your students that helps promote positive character: community service, PRIDE Model, Medal of Honor activities, The Harbor videos/discussions, etc.
B. If you use your own Twitter, Facebook, Instagram to post great things your students are doing toward developing character, use the #MurrayCares!
C. Mrs. Plemons’ Cell phone number is:

4. Canned Food Drive
A. Please promote the food drive with your 5th period students by offering incentives. Remember that you can’t give students actual grades for bringing in cans, but you can give them things like a free homework pass or free daily grade.
B. 1st place wins choice of Pizza or The Crave
C. 2nd place wins what the 1st place winner doesn’t choose.
D. Deadline to bring in cans: December 1, 2017
E. If students bring money instead of cans, please have those students—during class change—turn their money in to Mrs. Jack in the front office. She will handle the receipts and crediting each 5th period with the food. $1 = 1 Can.

5. 3. Observation Timeline Goals:. A. FLEX Plan Teachers. a
3. Observation Timeline Goals: A. FLEX Plan Teachers a. Walk-through #1: COMPLETED b. Formative #1: Completed by January 19th. Administrators will begin these after Thanksgiving break. B. FULL Plan Teachers a. Walk-through #1: COMPLETED b. Formative #1: Completed before we leave for Thanksgiving break c. Walk-through #2: Dec. 15th d. Walk-through #3: Feb. 15th e. Formative #2: March 16th f. Walk-through #4: April 13th

6. FOCUS AREA: Improve Literacy
1. Lexile Target List—be sure you are using the target list Mrs. Ford ed as a guide to support your students.
Daily, Weekly, and Quarterly Writing—WOW!!!! There are some great things taking place in all areas of the building with the writing initiative. Keep up the great work, and PLEASE SHARE in your PLCs what you are doing!
We will be doing some Professional Development with you after Thanksgiving for some additional strategies for improving literacy. We will also offer “refresher” PDs on PALS and Text Annotation for teachers who might need them.

7. SRI Data % Proficient and Advanced—no new data this month.

8. FOCUS AREA: Increase Rigor
Students monitoring their own progress and setting goals for learning is a great way to increase rigor. This goes back to the students doing most of the talking and explaining instead of the teacher doing all of the “work.”
Productive struggle is a good thing.
Don’t get “caught” in that “Whole Group Questioning” trap. Use random, pointed, and reflective questioning techniques to help students think critically. Remember—an answer that is not supported with a rationale or reason is always going to be a Level I or II. Your goal should be for our students to be at Level III and IV at least 80% of the time.

9. FOCUS AREA: Faculty Attendance Certified Absences Goal: < 400 (The Sept. data last month was incorrect. We had 52 absences instead of 29. The counts include FMLA.)

10. Discipline—Student Referrals Goal: < 300

11. Don’t forget to post a comment on the weebly!