Weekly Forecast for January 15th-19th

Monday the 15th

No School-MLK

Tuesday the 16th

Virtual Conferences 4:30-7:30

Gallery Reception 4:00-6:00 

Wednesday the 17th

8th Grade Kid Chat @ 8:20

PTA Sponsored Dinner 3:45-4:25

Conferences 4:30-7:30

Thursday the 18th

Culture Book Study 8:00-9:00 (rescheduled)

HMH District Walk Through 9:00-11:00 

Friday the 19th

ILT Meeting 8:00-9:00 (rescheduled)

Safety Meeting 11:00 (time change)

I hope this update finds you safe and warm. I know many people were without power over the weekend. Fortunately we only lost power for about 45 minutes. I did drive around Harrison Park on Saturday and checked on the neighborhoods many of our students live in. There were some areas without power. I know this will be hard for many of our students.   I am closely watching the forecast and trying to determine what will happen for tomorrow. Dr.Franco let us know they will be meeting later this afternoon and we may have some updates. Please be sure to check your emails later this evening and in the morning. 

• As of right now I am supposed to be at Instructional Rounds tomorrow morning until around noon. We shall see. If they hold I will be in around 12:30.

• Your PAT reps met with Regina and I on Friday. We discussed the potential to maintain online conferences Tuesday night even in the event there is no school. That was our plan moving forward. I checked with Margaret and Chris about this and was told if there is no school we will not be able to move forward with conferences either. Darn it. 

• Dr. Martin Lutheran King holiday is Monday, January 15th. We hope to honor Dr. King here at Harrison Park Middle School Tuesday through Friday for our students and staff. There will be two opportunities to do some interactive types of activities during advisory next week.

1. Tuesday, each period and at the beginning of the period a WEB student will read a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. throughout the day on the PA system.If you cannot hear the PA system and want the quotes so you can read to your class we are happy to provide them.

2. During advisory on Tuesday, we would like for teachers to show a short 10 minute video on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1. https://youtu.be/PyurjhRNOmw?si=IvINM5M1RpQmx4Ge

2. Then complete a short class discussion on key points about MLK and his contributions to advocacy for civil rights

3. On Friday during advisory teachers can do a circle OR hand out coloring sheets of Dr. king and encourage students to color, read the life event on the coloring sheet and share with other classmates.

1. Copies will be provided by WEB Leaders before Friday.

4. WEB will have an interactive mural in the lobby all week and hope students and teachers can stop by the mural, read a few facts about Dr. King and write their Hopes and Dreams to honor Dr. King’s I Have a Dream Speech. This will be left up all of next week.

5. Mr Cardwell has helped put together some MLK speech videos, We will have a large display TV in the lobby next to the mural and would encourage students to stop and listen for a few minutes. This will be left up and running all day, every day next week.

• In the event NOTHING happens and we have conferences tomorrow please note they are virtual. Spencer will send out specific information about accessing/timing of conferences etc. All links are located in the conference spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UTq4_qBKkld-TUjtVGPEwEEMyescSfJHzGg25A3V1js/edit?usp=sharing. We ask that all PAT members are available during virtual conferences. We will utilize the HP Chat, texts and cell phones to potentially ask people to check in with families if there is a request. All staff should look at who is scheduled for a conference and log in to the meet at some point to check in with students/families they serve. Please note I was just told staff is to remain in the building for virtual conferences. I had understood that it was the opposite and you were welcome to conduct conferences from home. That being said, I will stand by my original "proclamation" and you are welcome to go home but need to be at the ready virtually from 4:30-7:30. 

• Looking over MAP testing completers we will likely need to run another day on a special schedule.  We are thinking one more day of the testing schedule should suffice and then we will do make up testing sessions. We realize 6th grade is largely complete. Colin had the idea of showing a movie on ancient Rome in several classrooms (aligned to the curriculum of course) and one room would be identified for testing. We may look into consolidating 7th grade as well. We will clearly need to make some last minute decisions based on the impending weather.