April 24, 2015
Dear Parents,
Calendar of Events for the Week of April 27th-May 2st
Thursday, April 30th: Boys and Girls Soccer @ Deerpark MS 5PM
Thursday, April 30th: Theater Performance 7-8PM in the Hopewell Cafeteria
Friday, May 1st: Spring Pictures
Friday, May 2nd: Theater Performance 7-8PM in the Hopewell Cafeteria
Saturday, May 2nd: Band Solo Ensemble @ Deerpark MS 8:00AM – 3:30PM
FOLLOW MR. WAGGONER ON TWITTER:
Please follow me on Twitter@KarlWaggoner where I will be posting summaries and pictures of Hopewell school events as well as some personal things. It’s easy, just do a Twitter search and type in KarlWaggoner and click to follow me.
GIFT CARD DONATON THANK YOU:
I want to thank the pastor, Linda McWhorter and her congregation of Round Rock Christian Church for donating many gift cards to our school to use as incentives and rewards for student accomplishments and behavior. Round Rock Christian Church is providing a way for us to do that and I thank them for their gifts on behalf of our staff.
AWARDS ASSEMBLY RE-CAP:
Parents, we held our 4th and 5th six weeks reporting period awards assembly for our students during advisory prior to all three lunches. The A and AB Honor Roll list is posted at the end of each 6 weeks reporting period in the upper commons for everyone to review. Congratulations to those students that earned teacher and honor roll awards. Well done Hornets!
We had three amazing young ladies, Maritza Lugo, Autumn Logston, and Olivia Sailor who were recognized and honored for their amazing performances at the Austin area Harp Ensemble Festival last Saturday, April 18th. Our students have so much talent in so many areas-very impressive kids!
AMERICAN HEROES MILITARY WEEKEND FOR OUR JUNIOR HISTORIANS:
Our Hopewell Junior Historians volunteered once again at this year’s American Heroes Weekend this past April 18th and 19th. This was quite an honor as our club is a member of the Texas Military Youth Forces Program. It was a memorable two days with lots of student volunteering, working with the public/patrons and with the dependents and their families of our military veterans, as well as getting involved in the many offered festivities. The students spent time at the traveling Vietnam Wall Memorial and attending one of the best WW2 battle re-enactments in the United States! Thanks to sponsors Ron Goins, Charles Nugent and Heather Byrd for all their time, love and energy with our kids and for providing this memorable experience for them.
SIGNIFICANT MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH TEK CHANGES THIS SCHOOL YEAR:
Here are some stats for each grade level’s new 2014-2015 Math TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge Skills) as designed by the TEA. (Texas Education Agency) These are the state standards that our curriculum is based and built on for our students. They are then tested (STAAR) on these TEKS and our schools are measured and rated by the results. I believe that it’s important for our parents to understand exactly what each grade level’s TEKS contain which in all three grades levels grades 6-8, is now a more accelerated curriculum than last year. It is very important to keep in mind when deciding with their math teachers to be in accelerated math or not. More and more of the TEKS contain more abstract, Algebraic or Pre-Algebraic objectives and accentuate critical thinking at the application levels and beyond. Below is a breakdown of the new TEKS that our teachers have been working hard to stay on top of!
6th Grade:
Of the 38 TEKS
23 are current regular 6th grade TEKS
7 are last year’s 7th grade TEKS
5 are last year’s 8th grade TEKS
3 are last year’s Algebra TEKS
55% of the TEKS this year are BRAND NEW content to 6th grade
7th Grade:
Of the 34 TEKS
1 is last year’s regular 6th grade TEKS
25 are current regular 7th grade TEKS
8 are last year’s 8th grade TEKS
39% of the TEKS this year are BRAND NEW content to 7th grade
8th Grade:
Of the 41 TEKS
1 is last year’s regular 7th grade TEKS
27 are current regular 8th grade TEKS
8 are last year’s Algebra One TEKS
5 are last year’s Geometry One TEKS
39% of the TEKS this year are BRAND NEW content to 8th grade
As you can see, the rigor is ramped up big time and accelerated at least one year over the past couple of years. 6th graders had the most profound changes this year and the overall number of TEKS per grade level has significantly increased. Sixth graders must now learn all four operations (+, -, x, and divide) of fractions, decimals, and integers. Sixth grade is the foundation year and it’s crucial that our students solidly learn those fundamentals and concepts to be successful in the upper middle school grades and into high school. Any support you can give your children at home with these new TEKS and concepts would help them immensely!
RRISD TEACHER JOB FAIR THIS SATURDAY:
I will be at the Round Rock ISD Teacher Job Fair at Stony Point HS this weekend seeking teachers to fill some positions that I have open for next school year. We are going back to TEAMING next school year and I firmly believe that is the best middle school structure for our kids. We will break up our 325+ students per grade level into three smaller learning communities. Those four core teachers will truly get to know their students, will meet weekly to discuss student issues and concerns, and develop strategies to help them be more successful. I will need new teachers to fill core academic teaching positions so that I have three Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies teachers per grade level. This will also decrease our class sizes so that more teacher attention can be given to each student in those core academic classes. This year, we have many core classes over 30. Next year my goal is to have zero core classes over 30.
Karl
