Staff News and Announcements

Need to Know (Sunday, September 22nd)

Building Collaboration for the week:

  • Monday, September 23rd: Building Collaboration meetings (7:05 AM)
  • Wednesday, September 25th: Building Collaboration meetings (7:05 AM)
  • Friday, September 27th: Building Collaboration meetings (7:05 AM)
  • Friday, September 27th: Building Big Rock Focus Team meetings (7:05 AM - Learning Commons)

Tuesday, September 24th: Building Fusion Team Meeting (2:35 PM - 3:05 PM - KIVA)

"Start with Hello" week and HOPE Squad will be having events this week to recognize September as "Suicide Prevention Month."

MHS Collaboration Time Calendar for October

Interested in getting a grant to make something great happen? The Innovative Catalyst Grant workshop will be held on September 24th . Participants can complete the entire grant during the workshop. We’ll also have opportunities to generate ideas. Register today

Wondering what to focus your Building Goals or Personalized Goals on this year for your Professional Growth Plan? Here are the MHS OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) for the 2019-2020 school year which may provide some assistance. Here are the OKRs the district is working on this semester 2019-20 MCS OKRS for Quarter 1 and Quarter 2

Improve Your Instruction

  • Do you want to push yourself to grow and improve? The Never-Ending Conference is a great way to follow your own professional growth trail. You are able to present an area of expertise or attend a session. The opportunity is yours. Don't miss out!
  • Teacher Collaboration Time -Are you looking for colleagues to collaborate with during Tuesday/Thursday Collaboration time? Wanting to share ideas, brainstorm, develop lessons, have meaningful discussions and connect with colleagues? Feel free to add to the wall if you have something that you would like to open up to others for collaboration. Just click on the plus sign under the date in which you are wanting to collaborate, and add the brief description and location.
  • The Big List of Classroom Discussion Strategies - 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging.
  • Retrieval Practice - Look at these awesome, free downloadable guides for educators on retrieval practice, a key learning strategy supported by cognitive science.
  • Create free games, activities, quizzes, and diagrams using ClassTools.net

Safety First

Video from the State of Ohio on lesson learned from prior school shootings. Some good information to review on the events before, during, and after a school shootings in Ohio.

Big Rock Connection

Culture Team: The High School Team is in the process of planning a student R-factor kick-off event for Oct. 28th. We will begin the process of training students directly by Tim Knight on this day. We will share more information when everything is finalized.

Congratulations to September's Rock Star award recipients: Missy Courts (Guidance Department), Cody Kreager (Science Department), George Elias (Applied Tech. Department)

Don't forget to give a Comet Shout Out to a collegue for being awesome! Shout outs will be sent via email on Fridays and posted in "In the Know"!

Inclusive Excellence Team:

Personalized Learning Team:

Clearly defined goals set the environment for personalized learning to flourish. Goals are- first and foremost- defined by our academic standards. Alongside these are goals from other bodies: researched best practices, writing skills, literacy skills, our Habits of Mind, and digital citizenship.

Once goals are clearly defined, we recognize that every goal can be addressed through a multitude of methods and activities. Those activities can be co-created with students in a way that offers them voice and choice in their learning.

Michelle Bruewer is reading The Crucible with her literature class inside of a unit on rhetoric. Before beginning Act 2, she spent time considering the standards, the unit topic, and the text. Through the brainstorm, she identified what students should be able to do- “Critique the flaws and victories of one character’s persuasion.”

In Action:

Last Friday, Ms. Bruewer gave students ownership of the goal by writing it on the board and asking her students to list synonyms for critique. The result- the learning goal is challenging, clear, and includes student voice.

Students are now set up to co-create the learning path in an attempt to answer the question, “How are we going to reach our goal?” Rather than giving a predetermined worksheet to use throughout the rest of the play, Ms. Bruewer gave students a voice in the conversation.

Take a look at this video to see an example of how co-creation of the learning path is a natural result of posing challenging learning goals.

Wellness Moment

For any staff member who is looking for information regarding counseling agencies, mental health resources, the employee assistance program and more check out the Staff Wellness Resources.

Have you tried to incorporate meditation into your daily school routine? Use the time to meditate with your students! Meditation has benefits that are backed by research, including helping to control pain, improving sleep, and reducing stress. This article lists additional benefits and the research that supports it!


Counselor's Corner

September 11 and 18: School Counselors are meeting with sophomores to help with the stress of high school and future planning during connect time.

Freshman counselors will be visiting World History classes to assist in all things high school.

Starting September 11 through October 2: counselors will use connect time to help seniors with applications questions. If you know of a struggling or stressed out senior, send them our way.

September 24: FAFSA Meeting to help parents with financial aid concerns at 7:00 pm in auditorium.

September 26: Senior Parent Coffee 8:00 am in Kiva