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September 7, 2021

Good morning-

I hope you all enjoyed the long weekend. Happy Rosh Hashanah/Shana Tova to all who celebrate. 

This video was shared with me last week and it REALLY rang true last week: The NOISE of School. 
I loved every minute of the noise last week. Watching you all engage with classes of students and hearing your stories of meeting new students was inspiring. Seeing the students running the building on Thursday enjoying the scavenger hunt while asking questions about where to find core values posted, which "teacher did xyz", and where to find important offices was FANTASTIC. And the emails from members of the senior class, grateful for the experience of their convocation, really capped off an exceptional first week of school. THANK YOU!

A very big thank you to the PBIS team for pulling off a wonderful all school event and to Janet Twomey as the Class of 2022 advisor for her creativity and flexibility. It was a day our students will remember and treasure. 

Thursday, September 9 is our first faculty meeting at 3:05pm in the library. We will have a training on the FlexTime Manager software and answer other questions regarding X-block as we prepare for the full roll out of the schedule in October. Please come to the meeting with two ideas of what you would like to offer during X-block (ex.- quiet study, open gym, study group for US History, essay assistance, etc.).

Picture day is Monday, September 13. Please plan to have your picture taken for both updated ID’s as well as for yearbook purposes. 

Back to School Night is scheduled for Wednesday, September 22nd from 6-8pm. We will share a schedule next week. This is scheduled to be in person and parents will only attend classroom presentations. 

Mid-terms & finals:
We will discuss the mid-term/finals schedule at our first department liaison meeting this year. For those who have asked about the exams, you are welcome to give exams and structure your grading with a 10% exam weight. We did halt this grading structure during COVID but you are welcome to resume these average. Prior to COVID we had a combination of teachers who graded exams at 10% and those who did not give exams. Make your expectations clear for the coming year and I will expect departments to work this year, as part of our working groups (which will be coming back) on grading and assessment consistency. That being said, for this school year, we will have a mid-term schedule/calendar similar to a typical year (4 days of 90 minute test sessions). The last days of school will not a typical exam schedule. 

Have a wonderful week!


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