Hawk Highlights
October 16, 2024
Hello, Highlands Families!
Upcoming Events:
- 👥 Fall Conferences: October 17th (after school) & 18th
- 🚫 No School - Fall Conferences: October 18th
- 🎃 Halloween Class Parties: October 31st
- 2:15 All School Costume Parade: outside track (parents welcome)
- no weapons or gore
- Please show the above electronic event ticket at the playground gate to enter. This will fulfill our safety and security protocols in an efficient manner.
- 2:30 Class Parties (directly following the parade - parents welcome)
- *Please note: Winter & Valentine's Class Parties are reserved for students, teacher, and room parent + 2 helpers. Due to the safety protocols in place (more info to come) for the Halloween Parade, parties will be opened up for all parents to join the Halloween class party.
- 🚫 No School (Teacher Professional Learning): November 1st
- 🇺🇸 Veteran's Day Program: November 11th @ 8:30 (Veterans Invited)
- 👟 Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day: November 14th
- School community meets at Fairway Park before school and walks together as a community. Specific details to come.
- No School: Thanksgiving Break: November 25-29
It's great to be a Highlands Hawk!
Laura LaHue
Principal
Instagram: @HighlandsHawks512
Twitter: @512Hawks
A Night to Unite: Thank you for attending our first annual "A Night to Unite" last Thursday! It was a special experience and very enlightening for students to learn about the diverse cultures of our schools. A HUGE thank you to PTA for organizing and volunteering during the event!!
🥫 StuCo Canned Food Drive
⭐️ PTA News ⭐️
📌Save the Date: Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day on November 14th!
- Families and staff meet at Fairway Park before school and walk together down 62nd street to Highlands for donuts on the playground! More details to come.
📸 Yearbook Photos Needed!: Our goal is to feature as many students as possible in the yearbook and for that we need your help! Photos snapped of your student at school or a school sponsored event (ex back to school, Color Run) can be emailed to highlandsyearbook6200@gmail.com. We love to feature Hawks at their sports and extracurricular activities but please don't send photos with students from other schools.
🔗 Join the PTA!
- A PTA membership gives you access to classroom directories, updates on events, and helps support the PTA's impact on our school for the upcoming year.
The District Needs Your Feedback: Student Cell Phones
The district is looking for your feedback to help guide recommendations related to cell phones and technology use. This is an action item from the 2024-2029 strategic plan.
Thought Exchange on Action Item 4.1.3: The Shawnee Mission’s Strategic Plan Cycle II work is off and running. Action teams scheduled to begin meeting in quarter one of this year have started their work. One of the new strategy areas in this plan, adopted by the board in June, is technology. It has been a priority of the district for technology action team 4.1.3 to dig into their work immediately. This team’s work is focused on creating a developmental guide related to age-appropriate usage of technology (to include the use of personal devices) with consideration for students who may require individualized support.
This action team’s work is challenging, and they are working to thoroughly gather research and critically important feedback from our school district community.
To assist in the process, a ThoughtExchange is being launched to gather community feedback. The action team has developed a question prompt that will be shared through ThoughtExchange, which allows the district to receive input through comments from the community. Individuals are also able to rate thoughts that have been submitted to provide further insight. The topic of age-appropriate use of technology, including the use of personal devices, is of great interest and concern in our community, so the community engaging in this action step process is appreciated. “We are committed to bringing forward a thoughtful recommendation to the board as early as we are able,” Dr. Schumacher added.
Click here to participate in the ThoughtExchange related to age-appropriate use of technology.
🚸 Crossing Guard Needed!
🔴 🖤 Belonging at Highlands 🖤 🔴
⭐️ Highlands will continue the work of belonging and inclusion through the newly-adopted district Social-Emotional Resource Character Strong for grades K-12. We will kick off each theme from Character Strong at our monthly All-School Mindful Moments and continue throughout the month at Hawks Nests and daily social-emotional lessons.
⭐️ October Focus: RESPONSIBILITY.
- I can take responsbility for the impact of my actions.
☔️Inclement Weather Dismissal
⛈️ ☔️ We will continue with an alternate dismissal plan for inclement weather (heavy rain, sleet, extreme cold, thunder/lightning).
📌 A message will be sent to parents via email during the day (as time sensitive as possible) to provide notification when the alternate dismissal plan will be used.
🔔 This method is used sparingly and only when student/staff safety is compromised by weather. It will likely take a bit longer than normal, but we will get the hang of it. Your patience and understanding are very much appreciated ❤️.
Alternate Dismissal Plan:
- ❗️Please go through the carline to pick up your child.
- ❗️Do not park in the parking lot and cross the crosswalk as this delays dismissal for all students and creates confusion for both staff and kids.
- 🚶🏽♂️➡️If you do park and walk up to the circle drive, your student is considered a walker.
- 🚗 If you are in the carline, your student is considered a car rider.
- 🎙️Students will be dismissed from their classroom as they are called from the walkie in the carline (the walkie calls are transferred to a shared google doc on the projector of each classroom).
- 🚶🏽♂️➡️Walkers will be dismissed last.
🌱 ✨ Highlands Wildly Important Goals (WIGs)
HI WIG #1: Implement a system-wide monitoring process that utilizes collaborative instructional teams who meet regularly to review student data from screening, progress monitoring, and common formative assessments (CFAs) to identify next steps for instruction. (Intentional Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 instruction)
- ✅ Lead Measures (to get us there):
- Intentional Core Instruction: Students are doing the talking (thinking); teachers are asking questions to encourage students to think and generalize what they know to new situations.
- Intentional Core Instruction: Teacher teams will use information from CFAs and real-time observations during core instruction to strategically target skills that will accelerate achievement
- Educational Equity: How will we get EVERY student there? A collective responsibility to provide students with what they need, when they need it, and with an urgency to master essential outcomes.
- IXL: students will engage in personalized learning plans using the IXL app to master skills for each priority standard with an 80% proficiency in both ELA and Math.
HI WIG #2: Prioritize social/emotional personalized learning through explicit instruction, modeling, classroom norms, school rituals/routines, and caring attention.
- ✅ Lead Measures (to get us there):
- Character Strong SEL Curriculum: Tier 1 daily instruction.
Attendance Team: The office attendance team will monitor excessive absences by proactively sending out 7-day & 10-day absence letters and excessive tardy letters (10+ tardies) each week.
Chronic Absenteeism rate will be communicated each month via school parent newsletter, as well as grade-specific rates through individual classroom newsletters.
Mindful Mornings: 8:00-8:30 daily, building-wide. Students know they can softly enter the school day through friendship and connection. Device-free.
Schoolwide System of Mentorship: all-school monthly Mindful Moments, Class Buddies, Hawks Nests, StuCo
BIST + PBIS: building-wide system of grace, accountability, and positive reinforcement
Weekly student SOAR tickets
SOAR student store
Quarterly PBIS assemblies + Highlighted Hawks
BIST continuum: Implement buddy pass system and monitor usage/efficacy of buddy intervention