September 19th, 2014
Waggoner’s Word
Dear Parents,
We will have our first Stinger Team Pep Rally next Wednesday to celebrate the good choices our students have been making at school the past several weeks. What a great way to begin the school year by recognizing appropriate behavior. I am witnessing exceptional behavior that our students are displaying both in classes, in the halls and in the cafeteria during lunches. Good communication is certainly a key to the success of any school or organization. Mr. Meave and Mrs. Fleischmann our two Assistant Principals met with all Hopewell students Thursday to review our expectations so that the students, teachers, and administrators are all on the same page. Some expectations covered in the grade level assemblies on Thursday included: dress code, hall/class/cafeteria/common area behavior, attendance and tardies, bus riding, among others. Please help us by reinforcing these appropriate respectful behaviors at home – it makes all the difference and helps our children grow up to be successful and productive citizens.
Reminder: Early release on Wednesday, September 24th at 1:30PM. The RRISD buses will be running their routes accordingly. Wednesday will be an afternoon of professional learning time for our staff. The teachers will work in their Professional Learning Communities collaborating to design engaging lessons for your children.
If you have not yet had the opportunity to join our Parent Teacher Association please do so as soon as you can. The dues are only $8.00 for the school year no matter how many Hornets you have at Hopewell! Great deal – Great cause. Our PTA president, Amy Hinds and her parent board are second to none in Round Rock ISD. They volunteer many, many hours to help us deliver an extraordinary school life experience for all our students. These dues will be used to provide enriching educational experiences and help ensure that Hopewell stays a very special school. There is a flyer attachment with more PTA information on this newsletter. Thanks
If you have some volunteer time to give to Hopewell it would be greatly appreciated. Our WATCH DOGS organization helps to keep a safe learning environment for all our students and staff. Their vigilance and support are extraordinary and gives great peace of mind to everyone at Hopewell. They truly MAKE A DIFFERENCE at Hopewell. If you can shake away for a few hours a week and help us out, please get in touch with Herb Cowan @ 512-705-9200. Thank you!
I mentioned last week in my initial Waggoner’s Word that as a staff, our mission will be to provide a learning environment that will focus on Rigor, Relevance and Relationships. For the next several weeks I will briefly target one of those attributes to keep you in the loop. When I speak about academic rigor, I mean that we as teachers want the learning and instruction to be appropriately challenging for our students. It’s crucial that we provide a strong foundation of the basic knowledge skills in each subject area and that we ensure that our students can recall and demonstrate that basic knowledge of facts. Understanding the steps to solving a multi-step math problem and being able to arrive at the correct answer for example is an important step in their journey to learning math. However, we are seeking a deeper understanding and comprehension of the material for our students. We want our students to be able to apply their learning and demonstrate a deeper knowledge of the meaning to a particular math problem. An example of rigor is the inclusion of more critical thinking activities throughout the instruction process. Warm-ups, daily work, home work, quizzes, projects, will all include more application aspects as well as challenges to synthesize what they have learned. In other words, shifting concrete learning and moving it to a different more abstract level to achieve that deeper understanding goal. We can never abandon the basic skill / fundamental learning experience- that’s a crucial element and is the foundation to which a more comprehensive understanding of the learning is allowed to occur. Learning is not always easy and certainly takes engagement on our student’s part. Our teachers are tasked with providing engaging, collaborative and interactive lessons to ensure that our students are motivated and engaged in the learning process.
One way you as parents can help at home with rigor is to provide an “Accountable Hour” of study where students are required to do school work or read for at least a hour. Have a quiet place for your child to do their school work and remove any distractions such as the cell phone and TV. If they are done with their homework, have them read a good book or a magazine for the balance of that hour. Getting your child in the habit of doing their work for at least an hour every night Monday – Thursday will help them establish a deeper understanding of the topics covered in their classes. It’s also important that students have ample “down time” each evening after a rigorous day at school. Just like us as adults, they too need to rest their brains. They need time to be a kid. Lastly, students in middle school require at least 8 hours of sleep a night. Please make sure that when lights are out – their phone and computer are off too!
The Hopewell MS counseling program is led by Michael Mohr and Maricela Galindo. They work to improve student skills through guidance lessons as well as through individual and small group counseling education. You and your children can help us establish program priorities for the school year by completing the parent needs assessment survey and the student needs assessment survey. You can find the Parent and Student surveys under the Counselor’s Corner tab on the Hopewell MS website. Next week is also Education Go Get It week here at Hopewell; our students and counselors have planned many exciting activities throughout the week. For more information on EGGI week please visit the Counselor’s Corner link on our website.
This is from Coach Cacciatore: our Hopewell Cross Country team will be running this Saturday at the Vern’s 5K in Georgetown. It’s an open event so all are welcome to run. Go Hornets!
We are making announcements this week to our students that they are not to cut across the parking lot between Hopewell and Union Hill before or after school. Parents and staff both park in that middle lot and combining students and cars in that area is a real safety issue. Please help us by telling your child to use the sidewalk and walk around when moving between schools or to get to and from school. Also, remember that the speed limit along the perimeter road off Gulf Way is 10MPH. Please make sure that you are observing that speed limit and that you are not using your cell phones in our school zone. Just a gentle reminder to help keep our students safe at Hopewell and Union Hill. Thanks!
Also attached to Waggoner’s Word is an informational flyer on how you can subscribe as a parent to Remind101 text message service. Whenever I may need to inform you as parents of an event or a weather related situation, I will send you a text message on your phone. I promise I will not blow up your phone with texts on a regular basis but only when there is a situation that requires that you are all notified in a timely manner. Thanks!
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Stay dry!
Karl
