February 28, 2018
Hi Hixson Families,
I hope this note finds you doing well and enjoying the warmer temperatures. Today's note is a bit long so I thank you for your patience as you read through it. For our current 7th grade parents, I want to let you know that they are coming home with a course descriptions and program planning packet for the 2018-2019 school year. Today, the students had a visit from a counselor or administrator explaining how to fill out the course registration form and given a hard copy to take home. Questions were answered and students were told they needed to return the course registration form back to the main office by March 9th. I've included some more information toward the end of today's notes about next year's schedule.
PTO
The PTO is looking for new co-presidents (or president) and a treasurer. As the school year comes to an end, some of our officers are moving on to the high school. If you are interested, please send me an email and I will let our PTO know.
Hixson JETS Pizza Fundraiser
Our next monthly JETS pizza fundraiser is next Thursday, March 8th. Just place your order and let them know you are supporting Hixson Middle School. 20% of sales that day comes back to us for student activities. Thank you in advance for your support!
Parent Teacher Conferences
Our parent teacher conferences are coming up and will be held on March 13th and March 15th from 4:00-8:00pm. Teams have sent out the link for families to sign up. We are looking forward to seeing you soon.
From the District
"Let's Talk: with School board members on March 4th - Do you have questions or comments for the Board of Education? Make plans to attend the "Let's Talk" session from 12:30-2:30pm this Sunday at the St. Louis Bread Co in Webster Groves. We hope to see you there.
Changes for the 2018-2019 School Year
Our schedule is changing. Why is the schedule changing?
The schedule is changing to provide more flexibility when creating student schedules. In its current design, students are limited to when they take certain courses because of the time limitations. The schedule will still have 7 periods, with 2 of the periods as electives and each class will remain at 48 minutes. The start and end times for school will also remain the same with classes starting at 8:35am and the school day ending at 3:15pm.
What’s different?
- What’s different in the new
schedule is that content area teachers will now teach 5 sections of their
subject versus 4. This will reduce the number of students in each
class from 25-28 to 20-22. Content teachers will no longer offer
Discovery.
- Content area teachers will
also have common plan time that will allow them to meet and work together
as a collaborative learning team (CLT).
- Students will also have
PE/Health every day.
- There are new elective
options for students that include Introduction to Orchestra, Technology
Education, Algebra and Study Hall. Descriptions for these new
courses can be found in the Course Selection Guide. A hard copy has
been sent home with each child but you can also find an electronic version
on the Hixson website.
- Wait-Algebra as an elective?
Yes, based on the district assessments, if your child did not meet
the requirements to take Algebra as their math course, he/she may still
take the course alongside the math course recommended as an
elective. This will create two math classes on the student’s
schedule and take the place of one election choice.
- The new Course Selection
Guide will be an IMPORTANT factor in determining how we
build our schedule. Students need to talk over all the elective options
with parents to determine what will be the best choices. On the new
form, there are 3 options in which a student can design their elective
schedule. Please pick ONE option. We will do
our best to honor all first choices but please list alternates. Once
elective choices are made, the schedule will be finalized. The
elective options are listed below and students are asked to pick one
option to create their elective choices:
- Option 1: TWO
full-year classes
- Option 2: FOUR
semester classes
- Option 3: ONE
full-year class and TWO semester classes
- When schedules go live next
August, the student schedule will be complete and set for the year.
Unlike in the past, there will not be any blank classes and last minute
scheduling to try and find space in an elective class.
- If you have any concerns
about scheduling for your child, please reach out to your grade level
principal and counselor before the end of the school year.
- Students will now have
PE/Health every day and will be able to explore the PE Units in more depth
without being rushed to get through the content. Ultimately, the
goal of PE/Health is to foster a love of physical activity for kids.
Students will rotate between PE and Health class. Once the rotation
schedule is created, it will be communicated with parents in the next
school year.
- Students will still be
required to dress out each day for hygienic reasons. There will be a
change to the dress code and students will be permitted to wear
leggings/yoga pants as part of the gym uniform.
- Next year, teams will be made
up of an English Language Arts, Science and Social Studies teacher.
The Math teacher will no longer be on team and instead will be part of a
department.
- Math teachers are no longer
on team because of the multiple math journeys possible for a
student. Students in both 7th and 8th grade
have three possible math journeys (please see course selection guide),
making it difficult to keep a math teacher connected to just one
team. Instead, math teachers will be able to have teaming time with
their respective grades to allow them to collaborate with all the teams.
- There will be 3 teams in each
grade and we will be working with the teachers to finalize each team
name. In each grade level, there will be two teams of three teachers
and one team of five teachers. This change was made to accommodate
the changes made to the overall schedule. The class sizes on all three
teams will be the same. Once the new teams are solidified, the names
of the teams and teachers on the teams will be shared.
- GEMS will continue to be
offered through Social Studies classes. GEMS students will not lose an
elective choice and all incoming 7th grade GEMS students will
be in GEMS Social Studies.
- Current GEMS students going
into 8th grade next year who opted out of GEMS Social Studies
will continue to receive their GEMS programming as they are now.
- The Gifted program is
beginning its 2 year district level review and parents are invited to be a
part of the review.
- GFA students will no longer
miss blocks of their classes one day a week; instead, they will have GFA
alternate with PE/Health, every other day.
Hixson Middle will continue the one to one access to Chromebooks in the 2018-2019 school year. However, the Chromebooks will no longer be issued individually to go home. Students will have one to one access to technology in each class. Families will no longer need to pay for the insurance option and students may also bring their own device from home to school. Students will still sign the Acceptable Use Procedure (AUP) agreement for the district.
Why are you moving away from the 1 to 1 Chromebook program?
Chromebooks will no longer go home because of the increase in damage to the devices outside of school. The quality of Chromebooks has been impacted by the increase in damage, compromising the machines and access for all our students.
I hope you have a great weekend reconnecting with each other.
With gratitude,
Grace