A very busy spring

Before you get to the images from our week, here are some really important items to take note of in the next few weeks.  Good information to know.

Have you been putting off taking Fido or Fluffy to the vet?  Do you know of someone who may need vaccinations for their pet but simply can't afford it? Here's the chance to get that task checked off the list!   HP is hosting a low cost Affordable Pet Protection vaccination clinic on Saturday, April 27, 10-11:30. Your participation  helps a great cause that several other local schools also support and our local Girl Scouts will be pitching in to help as part of their community service.  HP will receive 10% of the proceeds, but most importantly, as we are a community of pet lovers, your support helps our furry friends as well.  See the flyer for details in The Informer!

Mark your calendars for McTeacher Night at McDonalds.  The McDonalds on Mopac and Balcones is hosting a special school recognition night on Tuesday, April 9 - yep, same night as The Kinder Spanish Program during our PTA general meeting.  Highland Park will receive  20% of the sales for any and all purchases, inside or drive-through during the hours between 4:30-7:30.  That's right.  20%.  And yes, you can eat healthy at McDonald's!  All local McDonalds restaurants are supporting their community schools, this is our night, so hope you are able to stop by before or after our Kinder performance.

There are a couple of district initiatives that deserve mention here as well.  As you know, AISD has an upcoming bond election in May so thought I'd share of few of the basic facts if you have not heard specifics.  In upcoming Informer blasts, be sure to check out details of the bond as it relates to Highland Park and our vertical team.

• Election Day is May 11th, with early voting starting April 29th. Information about polling places will be published as soon as it becomes available.
• Voters will be asked whether or not to authorize the district to issue up to $892.2 million in bonds. Four separate propositions will appear on the May ballot.
• Proposition No. 1 is for $140.5 million and would include upgrading technology to ensure all students have access, building new science and technology labs, adding new school buses and improving energy conservation.
• Proposition No. 2 is for $233.9 million and would include building new schools to address overcrowding, improvements in safety and security, and improving facilities for fine arts, physical education and athletics.
• Proposition No. 3 is for $349.1 million and would include repairs and renovations for aging schools, individual campus upgrades and school library renovations.
• Proposition No. 4 is for $168.5 million and would include facility improvements for career and technical education, fine arts, special education and physical education and athletics, and facility renovations at the Ridgeview campus (old Anderson High School) for the School for Young Men.
• The potential impact to a resident’s property tax bill would be approximately $70 dollars per year for a home valued at $200,000 and approximately $178 dollars annually to a business on a median property value of approximately $509,385.
• The board's decision to call for a May bond election was based on the recommendation by the Citizens' Bond Advisory Committee, which, over the past nine months, worked with every school community to identify critical needs in safety and security, technology, infrastructure, renovations and new construction.
• Bonds can only be used to fund capital improvements, repairs, new construction, technology and transportation needs. Bonds cannot pay for salaries or day-to-day operating expenses. Whenever a bond is approved by the voters, a citizen’s oversight advisory committee is created to ensure the district uses the bond proceeds as authorized by the voters.
• If you need additional information, please visit the district’s website at www.austinisd.org/bond or call the bond hotline at 414-BOND (2663).

 One more Item of Note.  The AISD Parent Cloud is here!  View Your child's:
• Assignments
• Attendance
• Test grades
• Bus stop locations
• Lunch money balance
• Class schedules
• Testing calendar
• And more!
With AISD’s Parent Cloud, parents can access all their students’ educational information in one place. It serves as the primary resource for all of the services provided online to our parents. This site gives you direct access into your child’s classroom information, registration to your child’s campus information, district-wide information and links to other often used services. Visit my.austinisd.org to find out more.  Your log-in information can be found in the bottom left hand corner of your child's report card. 

Finally, here are some images of student work I wanted to share.  There are some cool things happening in classrooms everywhere, here and throughout our district.  It's great to see authentic learning experiences and it's great to see HP teachers still rockin' along with all things Process and Product Displays.  Remember, the goal is one per teacher for the year, I don't show them all, but we have many, many completed.

Mrs. Williams' students did a first rate job on researching, writing, and creating artwork connected to symbols and the great state of Texas.  Loved the detail in the collages posted and loved the reflections when the learning was done.  Great job first graders!

A very honest student reflection on this TX symbol!

                                                                                                                                                                      

Mr. Gay's second graders, learning all about seeds, showed what they know by becoming seeds floating in the wind.  Solid writing connected to the learning as well.  One of those displays that honestly made my day and demonstrated a definite creative strategy that reinforces the learning.

Finally, some images of spring.  There was insect research conducted by Mrs. Goldsmith's first graders, including some very colorful 3D insects on display. 

Spring also brings the annual AISD Salute recognitions for deserving staff.   Our nominees, pictured below, bring many good things to our campus and their nominations are so very well deserved.  Left to right are classified staff member of the year nominee Sara Henslee Gordon, teacher of the year nominee Alyssa Absher, counselor of the year nominee Cari Land, and teacher of promise nominee Lauren Farmer.  You are all winners in our book!

And what would springtime be without a little poetry?  Anderson's springtime poem caught my eye outside Mrs. Gonzalez's room late Friday afternoon.  Spring is here, it means different things to all of us, but certainly serves as that time of renewal and looking ahead for most.  Enjoy the days as they pass all too quickly. 

Keeping the Fires Burning

Every day was a busy day on campus this week.  If folks think teachers ease back into their week right after spring break, the truth is that springtime is high gear time for schools everywhere.  Testing awaits in grades 3-5 and that last push to get it all in faces everyone else.  Good times, but busy times.  Here are just a few - and I do mean just a few - of the things that took place at HP this week.

The PTA annual Spring Fling is just around the corner.  Though the typical student auction artwork is no longer being made in the halls, trust me, it's being done behind the scenes, ie art classrooms.  Additionally, with some help from our student council, staff and students celebrated the Fling's 60th anniversary theme, with a very special dress up day today. 

Scottie Camp registrations are also coming in for our 3 week enrichment camp held each June.  Scottie Camp director Sara Gordon has done a wonderful job organizing all offerings and getting teachers what they need in order to have the best camp possible for campers.  Promises to be lots of fun!

Down in Jennifer Brunello's class students were in the throes of their life cycle unit related to hatched eggs.  This year, in addition to the traditional chick eggs, Ms. Brunello has added duck and goose eggs to the mix.  I must say the goose eggs looked quite large in comparison to the eggs I'm used to seeing; she tells me when she had one of these larger eggs accidentally included during a previous delivery a few years back, her kids at that time thought they just might be looking at a dinosaur egg. Hmmm...now that would be something to see!  Kids are marking the incubation days on their tally chart, so look for those hatchlings sometime next month.  

Thanks to Cathy McHorse for sending me this picture of parent Juli Berwald, aka marine biologist Juli Berwald, speaking to our FPS kids on the topic of Ocean Soup.  Cathy tells me Juli helped our kids prepare for the upcoming state bowl by giving them a deeper understanding of underlying ocean trends.  On to April!





And we had lots of teacher meetings and trainings this week.  Some related to tutoring and use of the CST system to document interventions and progress, one related to STAAR training, and another related to our creative classroom work.  Maria Satterwhite, Robin Maca, and I met one day to map out our second annual Fine Arts Open House.  Mark your calendars for Thursday, April 25, 6:15-8:00 pm, flyers will follow from our special area folks, and the night will showcase not only our stand alone arts offerings, but also give parents a small taste of what arts integration looks like in the classroom.  We'll also round out the event with a showcase of our community arts partners as well.

Even in and around testing, teachers try to keep the learning            authentic.  Sally Hunter invited me to visit when she hosted a student from UT's Drama for Schools one day this week.  Students were working with our UT guest on character analysis around the vocabulary word evolution, specifically how characters evolve given the action at the beginning, middle, and end of the story.  Connected to the work they are doing with the novel The Egypt Game, students then worked with a partner to demonstrate a character's emotions at those time markers.  Not only engaging, not only motivating, but it gave those students one more tool to make meaning of what they had read.

Leah Read finished her Product and Process Display this week as you can see - one more completed for the year!  Mrs. Read always does something cool with her novel studies, giving students "novel jobs", such as Discussion Director, Word Finder, Artful Artist (yep, a bit of painting completed too), and News Reporter. She added the DBI strategy of Hot Seat this year, telling me it went very well as students put the character on the hot seat and asked questions related to motivation, behavior, and more. The activity presented many opportunities for accountable talk, but also many opportunities for perspective taking for these young learners. 

Keeping the fire burning on all things creative classroom and arts integration is difficult at times.  Teachers have much on their plates, we all have much on our plates, but because we see how students benefit, we keep the fire lit. Sometimes a spark, sometimes full on, but thankfully, always lit.  Before teachers were able to leave their STAAR training Thursday afternoon, they completed a short exit pass for me related to DBI this semester.  Specifically, they answered questions related to their own DBI practice - what strategies they had used most recently, what content area(s) did they use those strategies in, and most importantly, what each person needed in order to move the work forward.  Though I haven't disaggregated the results yet, I was pleased with the discussion heard round the tables, as they sat thinking of what they had done related to drama based strategies within the last few weeks.  And the power of sharing, when a teacher described a strategy they had used in a class, but just couldn't remember the name of the strategy...and a team member went, "oh, that's called..." We're a long way from being at full implementation mode in every classroom, but we do have fires, tiny though some may be, in each one. 

And finally...Alyssa Absher popped into my office wanting to know if I recognized the activity in her room as I made my way down the hallway this morning.  When I indicated I was running and gunning with other things on my mind,  she went on to share that she "had forgotten the 3 ball toss strategy until someone reminded me about it during our work at yesterday's meeting.  So I was inspired to include it in my LA class this morning".  I'd say that fire is flaming just a little bit higher today.

Anticipation

Kids, staff, and parents are always in high anticipation mode before Spring Break, but we still had lots of learning taking place all over campus.  Here's a snapshot of our week...

Ms. Ferguson's Students are gearing up for St. Patrick's Day, with some cool creations, including writings, outside her door.  Pot o' Gold at the End of the Rainbow.

Ms. Farmer's Rock Unit P & P Display

Process and Product Displays are still happening up and down the halls, showcasing the all important processes behind those student final products.  Not to mention, detailing any and all creative teaching strategies that were implemented during the learning.  Thanks to Ms. Farmer and students for sharing the work  during their recent Rock Unit - she tells me her students were super motivated to keep learning about types of rocks - as well as to Ms. Snell for her P & P display connected to 4th grade social studies TEKS on Stephen F. Austin's colony.  Students researched the original letters of recommendation written to the Mexican government, paying special attention to the type of character traits the government deemed important for potential settlers.  Once researched, students then compiled a list of common character traits that seemed to be most in high regard, wrote their own letters of recommendation for applicants, and then tied all to their own lives.  The students had great discussion around those traits, specifically their continued importance to today's employers, and most relevant for them, their importance on all those middle school applications they'll write early next year.  Never too early to think ahead...

Thanks to Ms. Proffer for inviting me Wednesday to see book illustrator and parent Nate Jensen share his craft with her kinder students.  Seymour the snake from the book Rattlesnake Rules was in attendance and delighted students through his sharing of the story.  We were all fascinated to hear about  artist processes, from sketching with a pencil to the use of oils to computer generated prints to the actual book illustrations on display.  Mr. Jensen also stressed to students the discipline it took to hone his craft...he studied, practiced, and went to college to learn to be the best illustrator he could be...lots of hard work! Annie and others had some very good questions of our visitor - "where do you get your pictures?" - and we all agreed that rattlesnakes are best left alone if we ever see one while on a hiking adventure.  An awesome talent to have and a pretty cool way to spend your day. 

Cathy McHorse, our resident Future Problem Solvers teacher, shared last week that she is taking 3 teams to the upcoming FPS Bowl.  So glad they were invited to participate in the April 20 event, I hear the topic this year is Ocean Soup, and congrats to those who qualified for state.  Going in April are Ethan Ripp, Trevor Anderson, Allison Rauch, Jeannine Bradsby, Riley Pennell, Gabrielle Jabour, James Ray, Sarah Mines, Samantha Rauch, Alexis Altenbaugh, Benjamin Fern, and Sarah Murphy.  We have some alternates attending as well and big congrats to Ms. McHorse and all FPS kids.  The work you do with the 16 step problem solving model never ceases to amaze me.  

Thursday was a big day for HP as second grade students hosted parents for the annual Japanese Fair.  In addition to sharing their displays on all they had learned about Japan, the actual student choral play reading was well done.  Something new this year was the interpretive dance Dynamic Earth, tied to Science TEKS, performed to the book EarthDance.  Per the second grade team, "Dynamic Earth is a lesson written by Natalie Reed and choreographed by Emily Roe.  Ms. Reed is the current dance director at Lamar Middle School as well as the director of the pilot elementary school dance program.  Mrs. Roe is currently student teaching with Ms. Reed and has been assisting  with the instruction of the elementary programs this semester.  Dynamic Earth is inspired by the book EarthDance, written by Joanne Ryder, and performed to the song Tears which was composed and performed by Ai Otsuka.  Ai Otsuka is a Japanese pop-singer, songwriter, pianist and actress from Suminoe-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.  Students used this dance to reinforce their classroom instruction on landforms, rocks, natural v. man-made resources, and weathering."  It was simple, lovely, and moving, giving those second graders an arts based way to solidify their learning. 

Have to say a special thanks to Dr. Peter English, UT professor, for his staff development after school on Thursday as well.  Dr. English reached out to HP to help spread the word on all things science inaccuracies, we had a quick lesson on common misconceptions of photosynthesis, before touching briefly on genetics.  He has offered to be a resource for us as needed because he truly believes teacher foundational science knowledge at the elementary level is key for university level success.  Couldn't agree more.

And today it's all about Scottie Olympics.  Somehow Coach DeLine and Coach Supak pull it all together with a host of parent and student volunteers.  Always a fun way for Scotties to spend their Friday before a long spring break rest. 

Anticipation!

Finally, a little humorous picture I'll share as we look ahead to our break.  I saw it posted on Mrs. Golliher's classroom door and couldn't resist sharing.  What a fun and creative way to stress the importance of punctuation.  Loved it!

What is essential

This was a week of benchmark testing in grades 3-5.  We've just wrapped it up and and students are now reviewing their work with teachers, checking to see if they showed their work, and talking through how to tackle upcoming STAAR testing in the next few weeks.  I sat with grade 3 and 4 teachers yesterday after school, we revised our after school tutoring groups based on most current data, shared strategies, and have our motto ready to go for Prime Time when it comes to standardized testing.  TRUST: Tune in, Read carefully, Use strategies, Show work, Take your time, and most importantly, Trust in Yourself.  It was a good meeting with a good group of people who value keeping the learning real, the engagement and creativity high, while remediating where and when appropriate.  Thanks Teachers!

Mrs. Absher's 3rd graders were actively learning about idioms when I stopped by this morning.  She was reviewing several examples, students were sharing their examples of idioms related to food, with student created plates/placemats full of their own food idioms coming later in the learning.  Students were eagerly sharing what they hear their parents say all the time at home...with many (curiously) related to student behaviors.  Hmmmm...

The food idiom model

Finally, I was able to attend Wednesday's Paramount performance of The Little Prince with our third grade students and teachers.  Paramount always puts on a good show and our kids loved the sets, the puppetry, and had some great post-performance insights and questions related to the story's themes on love, reflection, the important things in life, and much more.  Of course, we each took away our own understandings of the story without one definitive meaning. Which is what it's all about and the true power of a theater experience. Plus one very good reason why all kids should have those experiences during the year. Right? Their learning may not be tangible to the naked eye, but it is real all the same. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. Good reminder Paramount.

A great morning with some awesome boys!