Hornet Friday Message 10-31-14

Hornets, Happy Halloween Friday!

Perspective. Many times over the past week or so I have found myself reflecting on this concept. As you know, we have had several members of our Hornet family (staff and students) who have experienced loss in the past couple of weeks. These such events allow for each of us to ponder our own perspective regarding what is really important. As it is customary, most of us are comfortable with reaching out during the initial phase of the grieving process. I encourage  you to routinely "check in" with these family members as each will "hit the wall" at different stages and need our continued support. 

Resource. I recently received an excellent resource from the Texas Education Agency via ESC 6. The document, State of Texas Assessments Readiness (STAAR) Summary of Performance Level Indicators describes the specific knowledge and skills necessary at each performance level. Embedded in the document are links to specific Performance Level Descriptors for each STAAR grade level and each EOC tested subject. I encourage you to review documents that are pertinent to your teaching assignment(s). In order for us to improve performance on the STAAR/EOC we must change our mindset from just passing the test to mastering the test. This mindset will greatly improve the chance for all students to meet their required growth measure. 

Congratulations! Great job to Coach Debbie Hightower, Coach Margaret Bohannon, Coach Sabrina McLain, Coach Gabrielle Beaty and the 2014 Lady Hornet Volleyball team on capturing the District 18-5A District Championship! Best of luck in the playoffs!!!!

Strong Fathers/Strong Families. Huntsville Elementary School hosted our first Strong Fathers event and it was a great success. We had approximately 180 dads or positive male & female role models attend the morning program this past Wednesday. Each dad ate breakfast and attended class with their student.The morning concluded with dads sharing what they witnessed in the classrooms and dialoguing how the process of schooling has changed. I am confident this is a program that can greatly assist us with making meaningful connection with our parent and students. 

Hornets in Action. Best of luck to our Hornet Football team as they travel to Livingston this evening to take o the Livingston Loins! Lady Hornet Volleyball will be in playoff mode against Elgin High School next Tuesday, 7:00 pm at A&M Consolidated High School. Sting'Em Hornets!!!!

Hornet Pride & Spirit! A picture is worth a thousand words!



Corny Jokes for Halloween (Scroll down for the answers)

1. What do Italian ghosts eat on Halloween?
2. What do ghosts eat for breakfast?
3. Why doesn't anybody like Dracula?
4. When does a ghost eat breakfast?
5. What did the bird say on Halloween?
6. What do you call three witches living together?
7. What tops off a ghost's ice cream sundae?
8. What happens when a ghost gets lost in the fog?
9. What is a Mummy's favorite type of music?
10. What is a Vampire's least favorite song?

1. Fettucinni Afaid-o!
2. Boo-Berries!
3. He has a bat temper!
4. In the moaning!
5. Trick or tweet!
6. Broommates!
7. Whipped scream!
8. He is mist!
9. Wrap!
10. Another one bites the dust!

I hope you have an awesome weekend!

Hornet Friday Message 10-24-14- Making Parent Contacts

HAPPY HOMECOMING FRIDAY!

Making contact with parents and guardians....When? How? My best advice would be to make contact early and often. Making contact does not necessarily mean calling to share concerns. It can be by effectively using your teacher website, a group Facebook page, twitter, email, etc. Reaching out in a multifaceted manner creates the environment of openness  and desire to work in partnership for student success. As you know, Parent/Teacher Conference Day is scheduled for October 31, 2014. If you have not already done so, I encourage you make contact with our parents/guardians so they are aware of this opportunity. 

BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Huntsville Hornet Military Marching Band for earning a rating of 1 from all three judges at the UIL Region 9 contest under the direction of first year Director of Bands, John Green. He, Robby Yarber, David Holland with the support of Pamela Ryan Rathke and the HMB Boosters provide an environment and system that allows our students to thrive and experience success. 

Kudos to all who have played a roll in the Hornet Homecoming and Hornet Spirit activities this week. The parade last night was very well attended with people packed all the way down Sam Houston Avenue and 11th Street...indicating the community is feeling the Hornet spirit, too!

Good luck to our Hornets in action today...Lady Hornet Volleyball and Hornet Football at home vs Bryan Rudder. The varsity volleyball team will begin early at 5 pm in the Paul Bohan Gym due to the Homecoming festivities at Bowers Stadium staring at 7:30 pm. Hornet Golf will be in action at Elkins Lake today and at Ravens Nest on Saturday.

Next week is Red Ribbon Week and our theme is "Hornets Mustache You to Say NO to Bullying & Drugs." Join us in wearing RED on Wednesday to show your commitment to being Drug & Bully Free. 

Civic Reminder....VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!
Tuesday, November 4th is election day. The importance of this election for educators cannot be over-emphasized. At times, educators are criticized for not voting , and when they do, some criticize them for voting uninformed. Now is the time for all educators in our schools to begin studying the candidates for statewide offices and their positions on public education. A candidate for an office may declare, "I am the education candidate, " but that does not mean the person favors public education! Wise educators will dig below campaign rhetoric and discover candidates' positions on issues that matter to them. It is important to vote, but it is more important to vote WISELY!! I encourage you to VOTE FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION!

Polls will be open from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm across our state on November 4th to accommodate voters, but early voting began this past Monday. For those of you wanting to vote early, you have trough October 31st. I encourage you to take the time to vote during your conference periods or during breaks.

Corny Joke of the Day:

What did the mayonnaise say when someone opened the refrigerator door?



Close the door I am dressing!

Hornet Friday Message 10-17-14 MAKING OUR BELIEFS OUR REALITY

HAPPY FRIDAY HORNETS!

This week members of our district design team had the opportunity to revisit the Huntsville ISD Beliefs and to discuss the role groups play within a learning organization. Our district beliefs state: 

WE BELIEVE:

• Every student can and will learn when provided with valuable and meaningful opportunities.
• We must cultivate life long learners who are prepared to adapt to future challenges. 
• A highly effective and innovative staff is essential to students.
• Teachers are leaders and designers of engaging work for students.
• Education is shared responsibility of students, parents, staff and community.
• Students must have access to technological resources , flexible learning environments and safe, quality facilities. 

For sometime I have been wanting to create a top ten lists for the district, perhaps you may want to assist me with the task. The first top ten list I would like to create is the TOP TEN THINGS WE CAN DO TO MAKE THESE BELIEFS A REALITY. Please email me your thoughts on this subject. 

I do not know if you are aware but two weeks ago on a Friday evening there was a fire in a local assisted living complex that required emergency response and the creation of a temporary shelter for several elderly and handicapped citizens. Obviously, the normal first responders sprang into action to protect life and property but you may not know that one of the first calls made by the Walker County Emergency Management Coordinator, Butch Davis, was to our Transportation Director, Tim Hooks. That phone led to multiple regular and handicapped equipped buses being deployed to safely transport those in need to Walker County Storm Shelter. Additionally, Mr. Hooks and HHS Assistant Principal Jennifer Graves quickly assembled a team to staff the shelter. The following people helped with the Red Cross Shelter when opened two Fridays ago: Tim Hooks, Jennifer Graves, David Baker, Sally Dowis, Shelley Petkovsek, Rosa Martinez, Stacy Godby, Sherry Odom, Jan Moore, Anthony Griffin, Bobby Davison, Patty Lolley, Leroy Bryant, Clarence Griffin, Ethel James, and Joe Godby (HISD Student). Our district and community are fortunate to have people such as these that are willing to quickly respond to a call for help.

Best wishes for our Hornets in action: HHS Theater-Tom Jones performances on Friday & Saturday, Lady Hornet Volleyball and Hornet Football at College Station on Friday, HHS Choir Regional Auditions on Saturday. This next week is big for the Huntsville Military March Band as they will be competing in the UIL Marching Contest on Tuesday. Our HHS Cross Country team will be competing at the District Meet in Willis on Wednesday morning.

I hope each have a blessed weekend!

CORNY JOKE OF THE DAY:

What do you call out of control photographer? (Scroll Down For The Answer)

A loose Canon!

Hornet Friday Message 10-10-14

Happy Friday Hornets!

Please join me in congratulating our Employee and Educator of the Month from Huntsville High School.  Jessica Ballard is our Educator of the Month and Marsha Pugh is our Employee of the Month.  They will be honored at the regular Board meeting scheduled for Thursday, October 16, 2014!

Also, congratulations are in order for our Director of District Initiatives & Staff Development , Amy Mayer, and iTech, Melissa Thorton, for being verbally notified by the Texas Education Agency that Huntsville ISD is a winner for the comptetive Technology Lending Program (TLP) Grant.  The grant targeting grade 6-12 science and math students, will provide $100,000 of Chromebook and MiFi devices to check out as needed to students for their use outside the school day.  HISD has been checking these types of devices out to students for two years, but there are never enough to go around.  Many parents realize their students need technology to do their homework, but are unable to provide it themselves.  The TLP Grant helps students who would otherwise not have access to the equipment they need to do their schoolwork.  The grant was written to support the classes of up to twenty grade 6-12 science and math teachers.  If you are interested in being part of this new grant, please check out the Key Components document here: http://bit.ly/TLPKeyComponents. Then fill out the application from here: http://goo.gl/701cUC. 

Cool things you may want to share with our parents/guardians and community members are the video daily announcements being produced by our HHS and MPMS students.  The high school video announcements via Stingem Studios are known as The Hive Daily Announcements and can be viewed on YouTube at http://goo.gl/k2JvZq.  The Mance Park TV morning announcements can be viewed on YouTube at http://goo.gl/0l9qMW.  HHS teacher, Mandy Stewart, and MPMS teacher, Laura Campbell, are both doing an excellent job with our students on these programs!

I enjoy providing "shout outs" to our various Hornet groups that have upcoming events and/or competitions.  Please make sure that all of our events are being listed on the district online calendar, so that I do not leave any group out of the "shout out".  The online calendar is located on the main page of the district website.  You can also view it from the link http://goo.gl/5SU0ma.  

Best of luck to our Hornets in action today -- Cross Country at Clear Lake, Lady Hornet Volleyball at home vs Caney Creek and Hornet Football at home vs Caney Creek!!!

I hope each of you have an awesome weekend! 

Corny Joke of the Day:

Where's the cows favorite place to go on a date? scroll down for answer




To the MOOOVIES!

Hornet Friday Message 10-3-14

Happy Friday Hornets!

Six weeks into the 2014-2015 school year and many positive things are happening! I encourage you to share the good news and to take the opportunity to proactively reach out to our students and parent/guardians to let them know when great things  are happening.  An unexpected positive email, phone call or note home may be just the thing that makes a difference in their relationship with Huntsville ISD!  Your principal was provided with Hornet Positive Post Cards and encouraged to send at least one out each week.  He/She has plenty of the post cards to share with you if you would be inclined to participate.

In the coming weeks, we will launch the Strong Fathers/Strong Families program at Gibbs PK, Huntsville Elementary, Samuel W. Houston Elementary, Scott Johnson Elementary and Stewart Elementary.  Please see your principal and strongfathers.com for more information.

On the horizon is an exciting project that will be highlighting the many successful graduates from Huntsville.  This week I had the pleasure of meeting with a group of high school teachers to brainstorm the possibilities!  Additionally, I reached out to Mickey Evans from the Huntsville High School Ex Student Association, Lawanna Glaze from the National Alumni Association of Samuel Walker Houston High School and Tom Waddill from the Huntsville Item to partner with the district on this endeavor. A press release will be forth coming announcing a date for a meeting inviting alumni to attend a meeting and to consider serving to help select the many deserving former student to be honored.

Other positive ways to connect and share information:

Facebook Pages- Follow and Like the following pages. I'm sure I missed some of our Facebook sites, but here is a list to get you started.

• Huntsville Independent School District
• High Fives from the High School Hive- Huntsville, TX
• Mance Park Middle School
• Huntsville Lady Hornet Volleyball Booster
• The Huntsville Hornet Military Marching Band
• Huntsville Hornets
• Huntsville Swimming Hornets
• Lady Hornet Soccer
• Scott Johnson PTO
• Huntsville Intermediate School
• Huntsville Intermediate Band
• Huntsville Intermediate PTO

Subscribe to and forward The H Factor Blog.  It is an awesome blog managed by one of our iTechs, Matthew Lahey.

Good luck to our Lady Hornet Volleyball and Hornet Football teams as they compete tonight against the Bryan Vikings in Bryan.  Also good luck to our Hornet Swim team as they compete in Tomball on Saturday.

Wishing you all a blessed weekend!!!

Corny Joke of the Day!

What did the magician say when he lost his rabbit?