Finish the Year Strong and Positively

Ideas in Education: A Simple and Powerful Message

On Friday night, I was working the lacrosse game with our boys basketball coach, Gary Spry. During a lull in play, he showed me a text message from the mother of one of his players. The message was a picture of a hand-written note from Ms. McDonald to one of her students, a varsity basketball player. Coach Spry was proud of his student-athlete. The student's mother was probably even more ecstatic, and for the student-athlete to share this two or three sentence note with his mother, you know he was proud too. 

When I told Coach Spry that I believed Ms. McDonald wrote notes to all of her students, it only temporary dulled the moment. It didn't matter that everyone received a note; only that the student-athlete was proud and thankful. 

This is a hectic time. SOLs. AP Exams. The final push to raise grades. Sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees, but I hope that you take a second to reflect on the relationships you've built with your students. It's not about scores and grades. It's about making a difference in each student's life; reaching their hearts and souls before we reach their minds. 

Please take a step back. Reflect on your successes. Take advantage of the last couple of weeks to re-charge and inspire your students. Like Ms. McDonald, give them something to remember you by. You've invested in their lives, ensuring that each student matures and succeeds. Finish strong and proud.

Some ideas:

1. Celebrate your students and the relationships that your students built. Create an award for each student and have your own awards assembly in your class. One of my favorite activities was to have my students sit in a circle with an envelope and strips of paper. Have students put their names on the envelope and pass the envelope to the left. When students receive an envelope they write a compliment on a paper strip and place it in the envelope before passing it on. After everyone has had an opportunity to write about all of their classmates, return the envelope to the correct student. Students can then read a statement aloud to their classmates and try to guess who wrote it. You may want to establish a rule or two about what they can or cannot write. 
2. Communicate with families. For even your most challenging student, you have something positive to say about him/her. Provide parents with some suggestions of things that they can do over the summer so their child can continue to grow. An phone call or a hand-written note shows how much you care and goes a long way to building the Monticello family.
3. Have a year-end conference with each student. You can use last week's I used to think...Now I think... as a starting point to the conversation. You can also reference Zaretta Hammond's book on conferencing. 
4. Allow PDA--Public Display of Acknowledgement. Give each student the opportunity to say thank you to another student in your class for something. 
5. Give students ownership of the class walls. Challenge the students to create a bulletin board or decorate the walls with all of the great things that they did this year. Reserve a section for students to share positives about other students. One idea is to have each student's name posted and have others add positive attributes or comments about each. 

What are some year end ideas that you use? 

In less than a month, school will be over. Value this final time and opportunity you have with your students. Finish strong. 

Important Dates and Information and AP/SOLs 

Exam Policy: All students are expected to take final exams unless they are exempt. A student earns an exemption if they have a 90% for the spring term (T4). If you have indicated that you are providing students with a culminating assessment project, students who complete the culminating assessment do not have to attend your exam period. The culminating assessment is entered as the Exam Grade (20% of the semester grade). When giving a culminating assessment, ALL students are required to complete the culminating assessment; there are no exemptions.

Additionally, we no longer have a school policy on grade adjustments/bumps on final grades based on a student’s SOL score.  Also, I left this off on Friday: A student who was suspended (ISS or OSS) cannot be exempt from an exam.

Sign-up for summer PD. All teachers are required to complete at least 6 hours of PD (3 hours are for Schoology and 3 hours are for community conversation. Here’s the link  https://www3.k12albemarle.org/dept/instruction/arc/PD/pd2019/Pages/default.aspx

Student Summer Computer Use If you know of a student who is in need of his/her school computer over the summer, we may be able to help. If needed for an academic purpose (summer school, Governor’s School, playwriting workshop, etc.) please complete this form.. This will enable us to update your current computer so it will be ready to go for you next year. 


Testing Calendar

	AP AM	AP PM	SOL AM	SOL PM
Monday, May 6	Government	Environmental Science/Chinese Language	Reading (English 11 Honors)
Tuesday, May 7	Spanish Lang	Physics I	Reading (English 11)
Wednesday, May 8	Lit and Comp	Euro History and French Language	Biology (non-honors)	Biology (honors)
Thursday, May 9	Chemistry	German Lang and Psych	World Geography (Inman, Waidelich, Schafer)	World Geography (Skelton)
Friday, May 10	US History	Comp Sci	Chemistry
Monday, May 13	Biology	Physics C	Earth Sci (ST and AA)	Earth Science (Honors)
Tuesday, May 14	Calculus AB, BC	Human Geo	Alg 2 (DiBattista)
Wednesday, May 15	English Lang		Alg 2
Thursday, May 16	World History	Stats	WH2	Biology (HMSA)
Friday, May 17	Microecon	Latin	Algebra I
Monday, May 20			Geometry (Fisher, Bendall)
Tuesday, May 21			Geometry (Lipscomb, Ritchie)
Wednesday, May 22			US History	W History (Mann)
Thursday, May 23			Reading (AP)	World History (AP), Geography (AP)

 

Field Trips, Performances

Birthdays

May 13: Adam Southall
May 18: Lisa Bendall
May 19: Diane Clark

Useful Information

Bell Schedules : http://bit.ly/MOHSbells

FAC Form

To add to Monticello-Outlook, School Calendar, PowerSchool Daily Bulletin

Morning Announcement Stream: http://streaming.k12albemarle.org/ACPS/links.htm

Announcement Request 

Athletic team schedules, rosters, etc. 

Teacher Handbook  

Want something included on the Monticello Outlook Calendar, the Monticello website, in the PowerSchool Daily Bulletin, or the student newsletter (viewed by parents, students and staff)? Please use this link https://goo.gl/forms/bIjfJLKokWPcEHx33  

Student, Staff, Student of the Month Form

Worth Your Time

Why memorizing stuff can be good for you. 

Zoning in on change

How mindfulness can teach surface, deep and transfer learning

Year-end schedules 

End of Year Bell Schedule NO Mustang Morning May 28-June 4 Mondays & Wednesdays: A-Days Tuesdays & Thursdays: B-Days

Zero Period: 7:40 – 8:40

1st Period: 8:55-10:30 (95 minutes)

2nd Period: 10:35-12:40 Lunch Class 1st: 11:10-11:35 10:35-11:10 and 11:40-12:40 (95) 2nd: 11:45-12:10 10:35-11:45 and 12:15-12:40 (95) 3rd: 12:15-12:40 10:40-12:15 (95)

3rd Period: 12:45-2:15 (90)

4th Period: 2:20-3:50 (90)

AM CATEC Students:  Normal Departure and return from CATEC by 12:15 (at CATEC from 9:10-11:55)

PM CATEC Students: Depart Monticello at 12:45

Final Exam Bell Schedule June 5: A-Day Exams June 6: B-Day Exams
8:55-10:25	1st Period
10:30-12:40	2nd Period Lunch Class Who 1st Lunch 10:25-11:05 11:10-12:40 Green, Blue, PE/Health 2nd Lunch 12:05-12:40 10:30-12:00 Red, Purple, Other, CATEC
12:45-2:15	3rd Period
2:20-3:50	4th Period

AM CATEC Students: Normal Departure and return to Monticello High School by 12:05

PM CATEC Students: 12:45pm bus departure

Make-Up Exam Bell Schedule June 7

Session 1: 8:55-10:30

Lunch: 10:35-11:05

Session 2: 11:10-12:50

AM CATEC Students: Normal Departure and return to Monticello High School by 10:35

PM CATEC Students: Depart at 11:05 and return to Monticello High School by 12:50