Weekly Teacher Download for the week of Jan. 9, 2017

ALL TEACHERS

• Changes to Early Notification Program: In previous years, HISD’s Early Notification Program offered a financial incentive to teachers and school-based administrators to submit early notification of their plans to voluntarily resign or retire at the end of their duty schedules. However, due to decreasing participation, a declining return on the investment, and uncertainty with school district funding, the Early Notification Program will not be offered for the 2016-2017 school year. Any employee that plans to voluntarily resign or retiring at the end of their duty schedule is encouraged to provide as much advanced notice as possible to their campus leader for planning purposes. If you have any questions please reach out to your school principal or call HISD Employee Services at 713-556-7400.
• Protect yourself, the district from malicious email attacks: HISD’s IT Department has many advanced filters that protect the district’s network and computers from most cyber-attacks. However, it cannot stop all fraudulent emails. One way to help HISD prevent future problems is looking for signs of potential hacking attempts. For example, if an email includes an address from another organization, many times this is the sign of a fraudulent message. Other ways to spot possible malicious emails include:

  Check the domain name from the sender. Many fraudulent emails use an address that looks similar yet is not a valid website.

  The email calls for “urgent action” in order to prevent an account from being suspended. Do not enter or reply with any personal information.

  The email or sender wants you to click on a link or open an attachment. Hover the mouse cursor over any links embedded in the body of the email. If the link address seems suspicious, do not click on it.

  Also, watch this video below to learn more about phishing scams and what you can do to protect yourself and the district.

• Teach Like a Champion session to focus on Checking for Understanding: Enhance your instructional strategy toolbox and join our TLaC Teacher Leader Specialist at one of five locations near you. This session, titled 2.0 Effective Checking For Understanding, supports gathering data constantly and being able to act on it immediately. Attendees will practice Reject Self-Reporting, Targeting Questioning, and Standardize the Format. The session is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at all locations, which are outlined in OneSource. Register using Course Number 147001.

ELEMENTARY TEACHERS

• Books Between Kids campus participation interest survey: Books Between Kids is a non-profit organization founded in 2012 whose mission is to serve Houston’s at-risk children by providing them with books to build their own home libraries. Books Between Kids collects gently used books from the community and distributes them to children in need. The donated books are sorted, inventoried, and boxed by hundreds of volunteers throughout the school year — all in preparation for our book celebrations at HISD elementary campuses in May. At these book celebrations, every child in the school is able to browse through thousands of books and each take six books home to keep. Last year, 59 Houston ISD elementary and early childhood campuses participated in book celebrations, and about 260,000 books were distributed to more than 36,000 children across the city. This year, Books Between Kids is returning to these campuses and preparing even more books to go to more campuses in May 2017. To apply to be a part of the 2017 program, click here.

SECONDARY TEACHERS

• Identify, support student with AP potential: AP Potential is a free, Web-based tool that helps teachers increase access to Advanced Placement courses by using the SAT Suite of Assessments score data to identify students with the potential to succeed in AP classes. AP Potential is available to all schools which offer the redesigned SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10, or PSAT 8/9. AP Potential helps schools ensure that no student is overlooked. Schools can use it to identify students likely to succeed on AP exams and determine which AP courses to offer. Schools can generate a roster of students likely to score a 3 or higher on a given AP exam by selecting specific criteria, such as grade level and AP subject area. Schools can also generate customized letters to send to parents/guardians to inform them of their child’s AP potential. If you have additional questions, contact Christopher Bowser, Curriculum Specialist, in the Advanced Academics at cbowser@houstonisd.org or 713-556-6954.
• Register for Literacy in the Middle seminar and/or online modules: On Jan. 26 the Literacy in the Middle team will host sessions for all core teachers at both Ortiz MS and Chavez HS. In addition, Kylene Beers will speak at the Ryan Professional Development Center for two sessions. Beers is an awared-winning author whose titles include Note and Note and Reading Nonfiction. Sessions are scheduled from 9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m, which allows teachers to share a substitute teacher with a campus colleague. Register in OneSource using Course Number 104005. Not a teacher of one of the core classes? No worries! Use the ELA course as your guide. You can access online modules using OneSource Course Numbers 108001 (ELA), 108005 (Mathematics), 108004 (Science) and 108002 (Social Studies). We will continue to offer discipline and Literacy in the Middle-focused professional development on early release days. Contact mrozas@houstonisd.org if you need additional information.

NEW TEACHERS

• New Teacher Workshop & Focus Group: This workshop will include TLAC 2.0 strategies for Checking for Understanding, address blended instruction (technology integration), and help you to recalibrate your classroom organization to facilitate small group instruction. There will be time for a brief TADS Talk with Desiree Sabari-Lancaster, and the workshop will close with some focus group time. The course is scheduled for 4-7:30 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Ryan Professional Development Center. Register in OneSource using Course Number 319002 or 296002. Day-of registration also will be allowed.

READ OF THE WEEK

• Seven accomplishable New Year’s Resolutions for teachers

TEACHER DEAL OF THE WEEK

• A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts: Teachers receive 15% off entire purchase