Good morning,
I hope you are all having a good week, and if you are observing Yom Kippur, I hope you have an easy fast. This has been another good week at RJ Grey. On Monday, our students were released at 1 pm to allow for staff professional learning. We ran about 10 technology sessions (taught by our teachers) and allowed the rest of our staff to choose which session to attend based on their own proficiency level and interest. Our hope is that our staff was able to find ways to increase their own technology prowess so as to create some engaging learning experiences for their students. We also spent quite a bit of time unpacking the draft of our school improvement plan. More on that in the next few weeks!
I wanted to highlight a few things going on here and appeal for some help from you, too.
--School Picture Day is coming up next week. 8th graders will be photographed on Monday, September 20th and 7th graders will be photographed on Tuesday, September 21st. School picture day is a fun thing for us to observe - students who usually wear a hat or come to school with not completely styled hair look just a bit more spiffy on this day! We welcome these changes and encourage you to remind your student about the picture day. I shared my own 8th grade picture with our students at the start of the year as a reminder that we’ve all been in 7th or 8th grade once! I pulled down my mask during that assembly to show them that I still have big cheeks, the same smile, and a rather large forehead that in this pic is covered by my then-stylish bowl cut
--This is an appeal to anyone who might be interested in becoming a more active part of our school community. We are in need of adding some daily substitutes to our pool! If you are interested in coming to work with us on a temporary basis, we’d welcome you to fill out an application to become a substitute teacher at RJ Grey or any of the other AB schools. Our staff has a very good attendance record, so this is not to say we’re in dire straits. However, we can always beef up our pool of adults who are willing to come in and sub throughout the year. If I can answer any specifics about being a sub, please let me know - we are a pretty great place to work! We are also looking for a teaching assistant in our Academic Support Center. If you or someone you know is interested in working up to 19 hours in our ASC, please reach out to me!
--And finally, I wanted to highlight a pop culture trend that I fear has made its way to RJ Grey, at least for a day! Yesterday I got several texts and emails from teachers who were alerting me to a tiktok trend where students were purposely stealing items from bathrooms in their schools. I normally think we’re above the tiktok national trends, but this does fit with our experience yesterday where in about 6 (boys) bathrooms, one or more individuals had removed the bag of soap from the soap dispensers and put them in the toilets. Lots of things are wrong with this situation. While we’re in the middle of a pandemic, removing soap from the bathroom is a problem on its own. It was quickly replaced! And it’s a problem for our custodians who have to respond and fix the situation. And it’s a stand-alone problem that affects our community here at RJ Grey. We’re in the middle of tracking down yesterday’s responsible parties by use of our hallway video cameras. So while we’ll certainly work with our students on their understanding of what’s appropriate here at school, I thank you for talking with your own kids about the disruptive nature of these behaviors and how they damage the community that we’re attempting to build here at RJ Grey! I’ll get off my soapbox for now, but thank you for your help!
Here’s a preview of some upcoming dates:
--Monday, September 20: School Picture Day for 8th graders
--Tuesday, September 21: School Picture Day for 7th graders
--Monday, September 27: Early Release at 1 pm
--Thursday, October 7: Virtual Back to School Night resources shared with families
That’s it for this week’s version of Eye on the Junior High. I hope you have a good weekend,
Jim